Overnight Open Thread (8-11-2015)

Quote of the Day I

"Marxism in this country had even been an eccentric and quixotic passion. One oppressed class after another had seemed finally to miss the point. The have-nots, it turned out, aspired mainly to having. The minorities seemed to promise more, but finally disappointed: it developed that they actually cared about the issues, that they tended to see the integration of the luncheonette and the seat in the front of the bus as real goals, and only rarely as ploys, counters in a larger game. They resisted that essential inductive leap from the immediate reform to the social ideal, and, just as disappointingly, they failed to perceive their common cause with other minorities, continued to exhibit a self-interest disconcerting in the extreme to organizers steeped in the rhetoric of 'brotherhood.' And then, at that exact dispirited moment when there seemed no one at all willing to play the proletariat, along came the women's movement, and the invention of women as a 'class.'."

-- Joan Didion in 1971

Well to be fair good, pliable proletariats are always hard to find.

Quote  of the Day II

So they're not going out to night clubs, they're not driving, and they're staying home watching TV. Congratulations, millennials - you're already leading the sedentary lifestyle my parents led in their 70s and 80s; and have we got an exciting, wild and crazy candidate whose lifestyle matches yours!

-- Ed Driscoll

Quote of the Day III

"It appears that we may have to start culling elephants in Africa's Kruger Park, to the utter horror of the bambiists. Elephants are wonderful creatures, but they must be managed with care lest they eat themselves out of house and home. Game management usually involves killing in controlled fashion, and the very idea horrifies certain kinds of people. This was vividly impressed upon me as a youth on Catalina Island. When we acquired a summer home there the place was lavishly populated with mule deer. Mrs. Wrigley, who owned the island, would not think of allowing hunting. So the beasts did themselves in. I remember distinctly that one year there were so many deer back in those hills that you almost had to shoo them out of the way on a hike - and next year there were none.

Game management is best understood in Africa today, where controlled hunting has kept things in balance for all to see. Once the wrong people get into the legislative act, however, disaster follows. Most of the anti-hunting people are uninterested in wildlife, but they are terribly concerned lest somebody enjoys shooting it. These are the polypragmatoi, the busybodies, one of the curses of popular government.

-- Col. Jeff Cooper, Commentaries Vol. 11, No. 10, 2003

Quote of the Day IV

Inigo Montoya: My father was slaughtered by a six-fingered man. He was a great swordmaker, my father. When the six-fingered man appeared and requested a special sword, my father took the job. He slaved a year before it was done.

[Shows the Man in Black the sword]

Man in Black: I've never seen its equal.

Inigo Montoya: The six-fingered man returned and demanded it, but at one tenth his promised price. My father refused. Without a word, the six-fingered man slashed him through the heart. I loved my father. So naturally, I challenged his murderer to a duel. I failed. The six-fingered man left me alive, but he gave me these.

[strokes the scars on his cheeks]

Man in Black: How old were you?

Inigo Montoya: I was eleven years old. And when I was strong enough, I dedicated my life to the study of fencing. So the next time we meet, I will not fail. I will go up to the six-fingered man and say, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Newsweek: The POW-MIA Flag Is Totally Racist

So says Newsweek writer Rick Perlstein who doesn't like the flag one bit (or POWs either it seems). Because according to him it made people support POWs and MIAs rather than hating the war or that damn Nixon.

You know that racist flag? The one that supposedly honors history but actually spreads a pernicious myth? And is useful only to venal right-wing politicians who wish to exploit hatred by calling it heritage? It's past time to pull it down.

Oh, wait. You thought I was referring to the Confederate flag. Actually, I'm talking about the POW/MIA flag.

I told the story in the first chapter of my 2014 book The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan: how Richard Nixon invented the cult of the "POW/MIA" in order to justify the carnage in Vietnam in a way that rendered the United States as its sole victim.

Note that he never actually gets around to explaining why it's racist. I guess it falls under the catchall clause that anything the Left hates must in fact be racist because it's bad and bad things are always SIX HIRB.

Really at this point the best thing for Newsweek and all concerned is to quietly euthanize it and then find clean, loving forever-homes for the remaining writers and staff.

Meanwhile David French at NRO explains what's really going on with the POW/MIA flag hate:

It's not a battle flag, nor is it a flag of conquest. It's a flag of remembrance.

But that's the entire point. Perlstein hates that people don't remember the Vietnam War the way he wants it remembered, as a racist, unlawful enterprise. The POW/MIA flag is merely a pretext for him to repeat the tired arguments of the 1970s, arguments that lost their sting when the NVA finally triumphed, and the world watched a Communist dictatorship work its vengeance on the South Vietnamese population. He won't bring down the flag, but he apparently does want to re-start a historical battle that the Left has largely and rightly lost since the Fall of Saigon. His piece is further evidence that the defense of history - like the defense of liberty - requires constant vigilance.

Cecil Updates

Zimbabwe Lifts Ban on Big Game Hunting Near Hwange National Park

American, United and Delta Air Lines Ban Hunting Trophy Shipments on Aircraft

Note that this is just a bit of opportunistic virtue on the cheap on the part of the airlines that achieves nothing and may actually hurt African conservation efforts.

In South Africa alone, the government is estimating that there will be a loss of $500 million from this decision which would have been used to fund conservation efforts and aided in preserving the various endangered animals. Namibia says that there are 80 wildlife conservatories in the country that depend entirely on the revenue generated from hunters to survive, and without that income they will be forced to close.

What Palmer, the PH, and the Landowner Were Actually Charged With by the Zimbabwean Government

Basically not having their hunting paperwork in order, They didn't have a permit for bowhunting or a permit to hunt a lion on the land where Cecil was killed which meant they were poaching. You can read the referenced Sections 66, 123, and 59 of the amended Zimbabwean Parks and Wildlife Act here.

Now here is my theory of what happened - and mind you this is just speculation on my part - but I suspect that Bronkhorst and Ndlovu (the PH and landowner) did have a lion quota but it was for a different piece of land further away from the park and when they scouted it, there were no lions. So rather than give up the possible hunting and trophy fees they had the idea of pulling a switcheroo where they would hunt a lion on land near the park where they are easier to find and then declare it using the permit for the other land. This would explain the last minute switching of hunting areas (and their claims that they did in fact have a lion permit). Since Palmer was hunting with a bow, there wouldn't be any gunfire and no one would likely even be aware that a lion was taken there. Except when they finally tracked down and killed the wounded lion, they found the tracking collar and knew that they were screwed which is why they cut it off and hid it in a tree. It's unlikely that Palmer was even aware of what Bronkhorst and Ndlovu were up to but he's still on the hook legally since he did in fact kill a lion without a proper permit. All of this is just speculation of course but it does fit with the actual details of the case that have managed to get reported so far.

Goodwell Nzou: In Zimbabwe, We Don't Cry for Lions

Cecil who? I wondered. When I turned on the news and discovered that the messages were about a lion killed by an American dentist, the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine.

My excitement was doused when I realized that the lion killer was being painted as the villain. I faced the starkest cultural contradiction I'd experienced during my five years studying in the United States.

Did all those Americans signing petitions understand that lions actually kill people? That all the talk about Cecil being "beloved" or a "local favorite" was media hype? Did Jimmy Kimmel choke up because Cecil was murdered or because he confused him with Simba from "The Lion King"?

In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror.

...The American tendency to romanticize animals that have been given actual names and to jump onto a hashtag train has turned an ordinary situation - there were 800 lions legally killed over a decade by well-heeled foreigners who shelled out serious money to prove their prowess - into what seems to my Zimbabwean eyes an absurdist circus.

PETA is calling for the hunter to be hanged. Zimbabwean politicians are accusing the United States of staging Cecil's killing as a "ploy" to make our country look bad. And Americans who can't find Zimbabwe on a map are applauding the nation's demand for the extradition of the dentist, unaware that a baby elephant was reportedly slaughtered for our president's most recent birthday banquet.

We Zimbabweans are left shaking our heads, wondering why Americans care more about African animals than about African people.

Rick Perry On The Way Out, Rand Paul May Be Following Soon

Neo-neocon on Polling, Pauline Kael, And Why No One You Know Is Supporting Jeb

Renowned Genetic Scientist Dr. Gwyneth Paltrow To Speak to Congress on GMOs

Expert on everything Gwyneth Paltrow is appearing before congress to talk about GMOs. Because, you know, having starred in Shakespeare in Love makes you a fucking scientist.

Well she is an expert on everything and generally a better person than you in all ways, great and small. Exhibit A: Gwyneth Paltrow Thinks You're Doing Yawning Wrong

Which leads to the question: Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?

Short answer: Yes.

JB: So is Gwyneth actually wrong about everything?

TC: It's incredible how much she is wrong about. Even when she is right about stuff -- like telling people to eat more fruits and vegetables -- there is always a bit of a tinge of wrongness. She'll say, "It has to be organic," for example. She is still distracting us with these untrue details, as opposed to just pushing the honest truth.

The Rise Of Artisanal Cash

Locally created boutique hipster currency designed to get you to shop at non-chain stores that will accept it. Eh, not the worst thing in the world but still why make money harder than it has to be.

These are small-batch currencies designed by locals and lovingly handled by millennials, who came of age during the rise of the Internet, the meltdown of the stock market and Edward Snowden's National Security Agency revelations, and would be forgiven for becoming more wary of credit and debit cards. Many are already opting for standard paper money over plastic (when not resorting to freeganism or bartering, that is).

Once a marker of a business with suspicious tax practices, the phrase "cash only" has come to signify hipster entrepreneurialism at places like Stumptown Coffee at the Ace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan or the Emerson Bar in Brooklyn. The term even arrived as a motto on a 3.1 Phillip Lim tank top sold by the boutique Blue & Cream (and now that it's been marked down 50 percent to $97.50, you won't need a suitcase of bills to pay for it).

Many of the new alternative currencies have the look and feel of the regular legal tender accepted at such places. Most include anticounterfeiting measures like holograms and serial numbers. But they are more eye-catching.

What's Next For Movie Theaters After All the Recent Attacks

Well if they put in metal detectors and security lines, my theater-going days are over. I can wait until the DVD/on-demand version comes out.

MS Couple Plan Honeymoon Trip to All-Inclusive Middle Eastern Adventure Resort, Get Arrested

Ice Capades, 1978

I remember the Ice Capades being kind of a big deal when they came to town back in the day. And back in 1978 disco, space stuff, and Dorothy Hamill were in. Magical times indeed.

Come with us aboard the Space Ship "Star Struck One." At Ice Station Zero we are welcomed by The Space Traveller, known on earth as David Kirby, and Miss Galaxy - our own dazzling and lovely Kathy Fahlgren. The Spacetra-nauts and other Celestial Beings join in the Astral festivities. So let's blast off to star-spangled fun ...

The 10 Unhealthiest Chain Restaurant Meals You Can Order in America

Well they're really only unhealthy if you're eating them regularly.

The Yahoo group is for closers only.

Teh Tweet!

Tonight's post brought to you by but it's true:

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Void where prohibited except where not prohibited - but you never really know so let's just assume it's implicitly prohibited to be safe. No photogenic animals were harmed during the making of this ONT.

posted by Maetenloch at 10:56 PM

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