Overnight Open Thread (1-13-2016)

Quote of the Day I

Today, 6 plus billion people will arise in the morning and go about their day, a day that is everywhere eased and enriched by the discoveries  of scientists as made concrete by engineers. And while a considerable minority of those worthy scientists and engineers profess islam as a faith, every one whose work makes life better for the human race is working outside of the Islamic world. Not one of the labor-saving, wealth-creating, suffering-destroying, and life-enriching technologies you will use today, whoever you are, was conceived and brought to market in that part of the world under any of the flags of mohammedanism.

It's not so much that they're opposed to modern civilization; increasingly, they're irrelevant to it. Like a bad-seed child, they have no positive accomplishments and no attainments to point to; they are reduced to vandalism and crime to seek attention.

-- WeaponsMan in Hadji Needs Weapons Men, Too

Quote of the Day II

Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

-- Teddy Roosevelt in The Strenuous Life (1900)

Welcome to the Humiliation Phase of Carter II

There is a dispute about what happened - one of their boats was disabled, and they say they were in international waters, the Iranians said they weren't.

The question could be answered by the several GPS devices on the boats. The Iranians, however, chose to retain them with the US State Department's blessings, when it returned the crewmen. It's unknown whether the Iranians returned the small arms and the cryptographic and communications equipment on the boats.

That the Iranians kept the GPS units suggests that our boats were in international waters. That no US ship or aircraft responded to defend them suggests that maybe they were not - or resources are just too thin in the region, after a decade of dismantling the Navy.

The two boats went together into Iranian captivity.  The boats appear to be riverine support craft, not Special Operations Combatant Craft. But we're not experts in boat details. that's the Navy's department, the Frogs and the Boat Guys would know.

...The Navy and the nation should both hide their faces - neither covered themselves with glory here today.

Here on the left is an IRGC boat and on the right is one of the captured USN boats.

Best comment from the article: "They surrendered to a bass boat?! WTF?"

More on the incident from CDR Salamander.

USC Students Required to Detail Sexual History Before Registering for Classes

A mandatory online course at the University of Southern California (USC) asks students to disclose the number of sexual encounters they have had over the past three months and teaches students to ask for consent by saying "how far would you be comfortable going?" and "would you like to try this with me?"

The university has since removed the requirement but you have to ask what were they even thinking. Of course up to the 1970s Ivy League universities used to take nude photos of all incoming freshmen. For science or something. (thanks to The Political Hat)

Bookworm on the Ugly Reality of Islam and Rape

Even if people had previously been disinclined to doubt these figures, after Germany's Syrian-refugee rapefest on New Year's Eve, the truth is coming home and its coming home hard:  Muslim men rape.  It's their culture.  Norway's polite little "do not rape" talks will not change this culture.  It is bred into the religion and the culture flowing from that religion.  More than that, Mohammed made it quite clear that rape is an instrument of conquest and it is, indeed, a part of jihad.  Consider it a Muslim man's moral obligation to rape non-Muslim women (or, if he can get away with it, to rape Muslim women too, since the fact that he can rape them by definition means they must be bad Muslims).  If you want a rape culture, don't go to an American campus; go to any Muslim majority community that has contact with Western women.

It was in the context of Western sexual harassment (which we never stop talking about) and Muslim rape culture (which we're only starting to talk about) that I thought of my own experiences living in America, traveling through Europe, and spending a bit of time in two strongly Muslim regions.

While traveling in the West (either America or the tourist enclaves of Europe), I've never been on the receiving end of sexual abuse, sexual assault, or even sexually suggestive behavior. (Actually, there was one exception to that last, and I'll tell it to you in a minute.)  In East Jerusalem and Tangier, however, both of which are Muslim areas, the male attention frightened me.

My immunity to being accosted in the West could be because I have all the charm of an old Latin teacher, but I'd like to think that's not true. I prefer to think that, at least for the last 30 years or so, it's because I read Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence. In the first or second chapter, de Becker wrote that interviews with men who assaulted women all told the same story: The women they assaulted looked like victims. These women had poor posture; a flat, dragging way of walking; and appeared unaware of their surroundings.

I decided then and there never to do any of that - which wasn't hard because, as a short person, I've always made sure to have excellent posture, I'm too impatient to have anything but a purposeful walk, and I'm too paranoid to ignore my surroundings.

I also believe (and there's no way to prove this, but I do believe) that, because my old-fashioned mother raised me to be a "lady" in the old-fashioned sense of the word, the male of the species acts like a gentleman in my presence.

Nowadays it helps too that I'm comfortable with martial arts, something else I feel affects my behavior.

None of those things helped in the Muslim world. My power walk, my dignity, even my martial arts chops, were irrelevant when dozens of men were blatantly giving me the once over in an aggressive way I've never experienced anywhere else.

An End to "Peak Nonsense"?

Wisconsin High School Students Banned from Negative Chants

Lest their opponents' fragile egos be damaged by the mere suggestion of lacking athletic prowess.

In an email sent out to students in December, which was obtained by the Post-Crescent, the WIAA banned "chants by student sections directed at opponents and/or opponents' supporters that are clearly intended to disrespect."

The following words were reportedly included as examples:

. "Fundamentals"
. "Sieve"
. "We can't hear you"
. "Air ball"
. "You can't do that"
. "There's a net there"
. "Scoreboard"
. "Season's over" (during tournament play)

Leading some to come up with mock 'safe' WI chants:

(thanks to Molly's Page)

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so does John Edwards to class action suits

Can Armed Citizens Defeat Active Shooters?

The results of this test show that while defeating them may be hard, having anyone shooting back restricts the shooters movements and slows them down which gives other people the chance to escape. It turns out that even suicidal mass killers don't actually want to get shot this very second.

NYT: Why Powerball Winners Should Take The 30 year Annuity Instead of the Lump-Sum payout

I always assumed that the lump-sum was the clear winner but the tax benefits combined with different levels of investment risk-averseness can make the annuity a better option for some people. On the other hand keep in mind the IL lottery IOUs being issued.

What Makes Star Wars Star Wars?

The 2016 Yellow Pages Are Here

Russian Stewardess Tries To Land an A320

With a pilot talking her through the process over the radio. Does she succeed? Well watch and find out...

PornHub Comments on Stock Photos

The Group knows your sins but doesn't care.

Tonight's post brought to you by Goddard, Lamour, and Lake:

Notice: Posted by implicit permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to el gran Ace who shall ignore them with flair and elegance.

posted by Maetenloch at 10:32 PM

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