Ain't No ONTs In The Apocalypse

Hello Horde! Welcome to Thursday's ONT. I know we tend to focus on the issues facing us here in the US, but we are not the only country with a crime problem.

Now I'll admit, that seems a bit excessive for a $.50 coffee hack. On the other hand, as a society, you get what you tolerate. It's one of the biggest problems we have here. So where's the line?

”Compassion”

Drugs 1 - Oregon 0

With the nightly riots in Portland entering their seventh month and the air ringing with chants of “DEFUND THE POLICE!,” citizens were asked that November to vote on Ballot Measure 110, the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act. Offering addicts a soft landing rather than jail time - those possessing and using hard drugs in public would face no penalty other than a possible $100 citation, waived should the user voluntarily enter drug treatment - was in step with the year's anti-carceral mood. Its passage would also give Oregonians the distinction of being the first state in the nation to fully decriminalize drugs.

Dozens of organizations supported Measure 110, from the editorial board of The Oregonian to the Oregon ACLU. Harm reduction advocates saw Measure 110 as a “humane, effective approach that will save lives” and a positive step toward granting bodily autonomy to those who chose to do drugs. Portland’s newly elected progressive district attorney Mike Schmidt said Measure 110 “sends a clear message of strong public support that drug use should be treated as a public health matter rather than a criminal justice matter.”

Measure 110 passed with 59 percent of the vote. 

“For us, it's like this dream happened,” said the executive director of the New York-based nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, which had pumped an estimated $5 million into getting Measure 110 passed.

Meanwhile those living the dream saw an effort meant to help addicts act instead as an accelerant. Fatal opioid overdoses skyrocketed, especially from fentanyl. The number of homeless in Portland swelled to 6300. Violent crime spiked before dipping in 2023. People stopped going downtown, both because of the perception of danger and because it was too sad, seeing hundreds of people dope-sick, smoking fentanyl under blankets, shooting up in the park, stepping over used syringes and the foil and straws distributed free by advocates of harm reduction. Oregonians started having second thoughts, started wondering if their impetus to help was making things worse.

Self inflicted wounds.

Sorry About That. Wanna Kill Yourself?

Canadian Doctors Admit Covid ‘Booster’ Shot Paralyzed Woman, Offer to Euthanize Her to ‘Make Up for It’

Canadian doctors have admitted that a Covid “booster” shot from Moderna is responsible for a young Ontario woman now being paralyzed for the rest of her life.
37-year-old mother Kayla Pollock is now paralyzed from the neck down after receiving the mRNA injection and says her life has become a “living hell.”
According to a report from The Liberty Daily, however, doctors have offered to “make up for it” by euthanizing the young mom.
The doctors suggested that Pollock should apply for Canada’s controversial Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program and said they would help her application get accepted.

One of my wife's friends lost her husband yesterday. He just up and died at 42. She administered CPR, but to no avail. Now here's a sad commentary on today's world: What do you think my first question was?

Answer: Was he vaccinated?

How?

Alabama station in disbelief after 200-foot radio tower stolen

A radio station in Alabama was forced to go silent after thieves stole its 200-foot radio tower and other equipment from a building.

The station, WJLX, sent a landscaping crew to the site Friday morning for spring cleaning, only to find the 200-foot radio tower gone. When a crew member called the station’s general manager to break the news, he was in disbelief.

“What do you mean the tower is gone? Are you sure you’re in the right place? I actually used more colorful words than that,” Brett Elmore recounted to NBC News. “He said there’s wires all over the ground and the tower is gone.”

How on Earth do you steal a 200 ft radio tower? I mean, I'm sure they chopped it up and carted it off, but still... Anyone have any idea what the scrap value of a tower like that would be?

Respect

Nessun dorma

Back story: Pavarotti was supposed to perform the aria at the 1998 Grammy Awards. As the time came for him to go on, he told the producers that he couldn't do it. He was sick and unable to sing. In stepped the Queen of Soul.

Something needed to be done to fill that time. With a full orchestra and choir on hand, ideally, someone should sing “Nessun dorma.” One version of the story alleges that Sting was suggested to take Pavarotti’s place. He vehemently declined. The next thought was to ask Aretha to perform “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Then, someone remembered that Aretha performed the song just two days earlier, and Ehrlich decided to take a shot in the dark and ask Aretha to perform the aria.

Ken Ehrlich has said that he can count on one hand the number of times he left his post during his decades-long tenure producing the Grammys. This was one of those times. He has often recalled running up the stairs to Aretha’s dressing room and making the request. After agreeing to the task at hand, Aretha recalled sitting quietly while surrounded by bedlam. A boombox was located so she could sit and listen to the recording of the rehearsal and hear the score. She met with the conductor and exchanged notes. Before she knew it, Ken was holding her hand and escorting her down the stairs and to the stage. During a post-show interview on the Grammys red carpet, Aretha revealed that she received the request to perform “about eight minutes” before she took the stage. EIGHT.

When they arrived, Aretha marveled at the staging. Ken has said that it’s one of the largest groups of musicians he ever had on a Grammy stage at once. As she prepared to take the stage, she squeezed his hand and said “Oooo. This is gonna be fun.”

You can see the performance at the link. It's not perfect, but on eight minutes warning, with an orchestra and chorus she had never even practiced with? Astonishing.

They Want WWIII So Bad

With Friends Like the GOP Establishment, Ukraine Doesn’t Need Enemies

It's always nice to have the useless likes of dopey Thom Tillis, smarmy Mitt Romney, and lib-symp John Cornyn lecturing us about how we need to spend endless unaccountable money on Ukraine with no articulated strategic objective, as opposed to defending our own border, and how if we don't agree we must love Vladimir Putin and blah blah blah blah blah. These guys are totally hard-core opponents of the Russians, which is really butch. I and a lot of the people they are insulting actually served in the Cold War, but somehow we are expected to defer to these guys on Russia? They're taking a hard line against Vladimir Putin even as they take no line on the border, and they are surprised and offended that their party is rejecting them.

Another fine rant by Kurt Schlichter. And speaking of WWIII, I want to recommend the books Mongol Moon and A Dance of Devils. They were written by Mark Sibley, who is a friend of mine (who is remarkably good-natured about being teased because it took him 3 years to write the sequel), and it's the WWIII scenario that scares the juices out of me: EMP. Suddenly we're back in the 18th century with 330 million people and no food producing or distributing system in place. Hell, I could survive for a good long time on what I've got in my freezers, but after an EMP attack? No freezers. Ooops. Frighteningly good books, I recommend them highly, almost as good as what Clancy wrote, albeit a lot shorter. Remember, ain't no tacos in the Apocalypse.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by John Deere:

That kid is going to be exactly the same in 50 years

posted by WeirdDave at 10:00 PM

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