Which Is Better - To Be Ruled By One ONT Three Thousand Miles Away, Or Bt Three Thousand ONTs One Mile Away?

Welcome to Thursday night folks! How's everyone doing tonight? Anybody hungry? I can throw some dogs on the grill if you'd like.

Lies, Damn Lies, And Memes

First of all, the meme:

HAHA! Look, leftists are too stupid to spell “you're”, and they photo-shopped an empty cartridge instead of a bullet!

Well, no.

You're Dead: 5 Deadliest Military Rifles to Ever Fire a Shot

As you can see, they used the correct you're in the article, the meme maker screwed it up, and as for the picture...

"The M4 we were using had been ejecting brass forward (at about a 2-3 o'clock position) throughout the entire exercise," Sarver told Task & Purpose. "From what I've been told, the M4 can sometimes do that when there is too much gas pressure. I just had great timing with capturing the shell at the exact rotation and elevation with the barrel!"

As for the list itself, it's pretty pedestrian. The current weapons used by the US, UK, German, French and Russian armies. I'm not sure what's left. Does China have it's own rifle, or are they still using AK variants? India? Israel? I'm hard pressed to think of another country that might develop it's own unique rifle in any significant numbers. Also, what do they mean by “deadliest”? It's obviously not total number of people killed, I would guess that the AK-47 is far and away on the top of that list, but there would be other WWII rifles and maybe WWI rifles on it as well.

This Is Way Cool

Here's something I don't know, but I bet some of you do: What was the purpose of the articulated nose on the Concords?

Decision 2024

The Wild 2024 Race

By VDH. His main point is, it's way early.

In December 2003, the CBS poll headline blared, “Dean Pulls Away in Dem Race.” Howard Dean would eventually be clobbered by nominee John Kerry.

In the Gallup Poll of late June 2007, Hillary Clinton still continued to enjoy her wide lead in the Democratic primary over eventual nominee and elected president Barack Obama.

On the Republican side, Gallup noted of its summer 2007 polls that, “There has been little serious threat to the frontrunner, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani”—who bombed out early in the race.

About this time in 2015, Jeb Bush was leading Donald Trump in the Republican primary. Or as CNN characterized their summer poll, “He [Bush] holds a significant lead over the second-place candidate Trump.”

By January 2016, the favorite, can-do Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was leading all candidates by a substantial margin as they headed for the Iowa caucuses.

Here's the way I put it, in regard to the R nomination, in response to a bunch of people talking about the “collapse” of RDS' campaign (he trimmed down his staff, which shows me he's smart. Staff always grows like kudzu). “I dunno why you guys are writing RDS off. The race isn't DJT/RDS, it's DJT/field, and right now it's about a 50/40 split. "Field" is going to get winnowed down to one guy, likely RDS, maybe VR, and then we'll see. Nobody outside a social media bubble even cares right now.” Trump's people are working hard to present him as inevitable, which is exactly what they should be doing, but I stand by the last part. Outside of the self-licking ice cream cone that is political social media, in the real world, nobody is thinking about a primary that will happen NEXT YEAR. All of what's going on now is a) a fight for donor money and b) political media types jacking each other off for attention.

Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics

COVID booster edition

What if I told you that getting a COVID booster reduced your chance of death from COVID by 90%?

Sounds pretty good.

What if I told you that getting a COVID booster reduced your chance of death from any cause by 90%?

Sounds great!

Except, wait, wat? Is the COVID booster magic or something? How does it reduce the cause of death by 90%? Does it cure cancer? Liver disease? Heart attacks?

Dr. Vinay Prasad, one of the heroes who arose during the pandemic, asked this very question. Prasad is a professor at UC San Francisco (I know, right?), and he has been a bulldog on ensuring that the scientific conversation around COVID is, well, scientific. Prasad obviously was attacked viciously for his insistence that science be scientific. He is neither pro- nor anti-vax–he thinks some should get it and others shouldn’t, based upon various factors–and he has been relentless in sorting out the good science from the crap.

Judge Not

If you've heard about Israel's attempt to reform their judiciary, but don't know the details, here's a good primer.

Israel’s Judicial System Is The Dream Of The American Left

No constitution. No limiting principles of governance. Entrenched leftist judges who get to appoint their own successors in perpetuity. Courts that offer arbitrary, expedient, constantly evolving, sometimes contradictory rulings to block laws passed by duly-elected, center-right governments. An attorney general empowered to bar elected leaders from participating in national debates. Sounds like a progressive paradise.

This is the reality of the Israeli high court, which is likely imbued with more power than any other in the Western world. It is not always wrong. It is not always nakedly partisan. But it has power to act as a judicial dictatorship, and often does.

It's a testament to Israel that the judiciary hasn't gone further off the rails than it has, but I think reform is long overdue.

New Car Option: Bidet

People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars

My car is from 2018, and I think it's got just about the right amount of tech. I've seen some newer cars whose touchscreen has more menu options than a Cheesecake Factory.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by wisdom for those of you who said yes to the Dew Dogs:

posted by WeirdDave at 10:00 PM

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