A beer drought is on the horizon just as the summer holidays and barbecue season kick in after more brewery strikes were announced.
Union chiefs announced further industrial action by brewery workers at Budweiser’s plant in Samlesbury, Lancashire, which brews summertime favourites including Bud, Stella Artois and Becks.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
The city of Orlando has released an apology after controversy arose following a statement on an upcoming Fourth of July event.
In their original statement, the city of Orlando said:
"A lot of people probably don't want to celebrate our nation right now, and we can't blame them. When there is so much division, hate and unrest, why on earth would you want to have a party celebrating any of it?
The huge Somali community in the Twin Cities is celebrating Somali Week (presented by Amazon, with UnitedHealthCare designated the week’s official healthcare partner). The week runs from July 2 through July 17 (I can’t explain). The highlight of yesterday’s kickoff was to be the first North American appearance of global sensation Suldaan Seeraar at Target Center in a show also featuring DJ Flavio and DJ Challo (I can’t explain).
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The ONT Musical Interlude & Charcoal Briquette Emporium
On this day: July 3, 1969 - Brian Jones
Brian Jones drowned while under the influence of drugs and alcohol after taking a midnight swim in his pool, aged 27. His body was found at the bottom of the pool by his Swedish girlfriend Anna Wohlin. The coroner's report stated "Death by misadventure", and noted his liver and heart were heavily enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse. Jones was one of the founding members of The Rolling Stones and in the early 60s used the name "Elmo Lewis. via thisdayinmusic.com
&&&
On this day: July 3, 2001 - Johnny Russell
American singer, songwriter Johnny Russell died aged 61. Wrote 'Act Naturally' covered by The Beatles and Buck Owens. Jim Reeves, Jerry Garcia, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt all covered his songs. via thisdayinmusic.com
Woman brought baby, stash of drugs to Florida prison visit
ARCADIA, Fla. (AP) — A 44-year-old Florida woman brought her infant grandchild along with a stash of cocaine and heroin to a recent prison visit, officials said.
Texas police destroy home, then try to leave without paying
Police took no chances when an armed intruder barricaded himself in the home of an innocent bystander in McKinney, Texas. Following a seven-hour standoff, officers launched a shock-and-awe raid that ended with the suspect’s suicide. Then they closed the case without paying for property damage.
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Weekly commenter stats for week of 7-3-2022
Top 10 commenters:
1 [523 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, learning the value of horror with Wes Craven' [73.38 posts/day]
2 [475 comments] 'Christopher R Taylor'
3 [474 comments] 'Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)'
4 [453 comments] 'Miklos is a devious little bastard if provoked and inclined'
5 [420 comments] 'SMH at what's coming'
6 [398 comments] 'Ciampino'
7 [352 comments] 'Axeman'
8 [342 comments] 'FenelonSpoke'
9 [342 comments] 'Comrade flounder, wrecker, hoarder, saboteur'
10 [332 comments] 'rhennigantx'
Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [444 names] 'Miklos is a devious little bastard if provoked and inclined' [62.30 unique names/day]
2 [355 names] 'Ciampino'
3 [70 names] 'Helena Handbasket'
4 [61 names] 'OrangeEnt'
5 [60 names] 'I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper'
6 [56 names] 'Count de Monet'
7 [54 names] 'Duncanthrax'
8 [34 names] '18-1'
9 [33 names] 'pookysgirl, under a pile of sleeping cats'
10 [32 names] 'Adirondack Patriot'
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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Untold Stories.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire, AceCorp, LLC & the guests here at Casa Misanthrope.
Gun Thread: Happy Independence Day Weekend Edition!
—Weasel
Suck it, King George!
Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
I liked this intro from last year so I'm using it again.
Two hundred and forty-six years ago we told King George to kiss our colonial asses and declared our independence from Great Britain. We were then 13 colonies with a precarious toe-hold on a largely unexplored continent, and had just told the world's largest military and economic power to bite the big one. With hostile indians (woo-woo) on one side, and the British Navy on the other, we drafted our Declaration of Independence and took care of bidness. Thirteen years later we had a shiny new Constitution and Bill of Rights and were on our way...
To having Joe Biden as President.
OK. So perhaps we haven't been the best stewards of the incredibly precious gift of freedom fought for, and then entrusted to us, by our forefathers. Perhaps it's time to stiffen our resolve and revisit some of the basic concepts which compelled our revolution in the first place. The idea of America isn't dead, but our management of the enterprise has certainly left much to be desired. I still think it's good and proper to loudly celebrate our independence, not only as a celebration itself but also as a warning to tyrants, both foreign and domestic. What was done once can be done again.
Happy Independence Day everyone. Yes, I know it's not technically celebrated until tomorrow, but 'round these parts it's a multi-day holiday.
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
Feature Gun(s)
Last week we had a short discussion of the .380 ACP as a carry gun. Maybe not a suitable candidate for going into heavy combat, but something to grab when you run to 7-11 for late nite snacks, or as a backup weapon. Here is one that I use for that very purpose and carry in my man-satchel next to my laptop on my way back and forth to the office, the Sig Sauer P238. It's 5.5 inches long and weighs 15.2 oz.
This Sig is a very sturdy all stainless-steel pistol and is small enough to carry in a front pocket in a DeSantis Nemesis holster, in size P6 which is also bigly recommended.
15 ounces too hefty for you? Want to go even smaller and lighter? Well allow me to introduce you to the Ruger LCP. Made from space age glass-filled nylon, this scrappy little fella is is 5.2 inches long, tips the scales at 9.6 ounces, and also fits perfectly into the DeSantis Nemesis holster.
Q: Weasel, are the .380s snappy? I read on the internet .380s are snappy.
A: Why yes, yes they are snappy.
But let me ask you something, do you really think you're going to notice that in a life-or-death situation? Both have a six round capacity and are definitely better than throwing your Slim-Jims and Prune Fizz at an attacker.
If you need more convincing, here is another video on the .380 as a self-defense weapon.
As concealed carry of weapons by law abiding citizens becomes more widely available, you need to think about options, and for many a small and highly concealable pocket gun will be an excellent choice. The point is to become proficient with and carry the weapon when you are out and about. Not only when you are walking through the bad side of town at midnight with twenty-dollar bills hanging out of your pockets, but whenever you go out.
As society becomes more and more unhinged, and I am afraid that's going to continue to be the case going forward, you need to be prepared to defend yourself. That means being a gun owner, buying ammunition, and training periodically. Think of gun ownership as insurance against the unknown and unforeseeable.
Thoughts? Am I full of poo?
******
Range Reports
First up, our most excellent pal and delightful 'ette Screaming in Digital sends a report on a recent trip to the range.
I went to the range Tuesday in honor of Jesse's birthday. This was only my second time going to the range alone. The first time didn't go well. I took my 1911, the P365, and Jesse's S&W Model 28-3.
Earlier range trip
Current range trip
20 rounds in the 1911. The top photo is from my previous outing a few weeks ago for comparison. The second photo is from today. I started at 5 yards and moved out to 7 yards. I shot 5 rounds 1 hand lefty (I pushed 3 of those to the right) and a couple rounds 2 hand righty, but with the left eye. Practicing with snap caps seems to be helping!
Next were 12 rounds in the P365. This target is too shameful to share, BUT my last 4 rounds were better than the first 8. I decided to stop there and work with snap caps at home. Or sell it. Whatever. Not gonna let it bother me tonight.
Holy Shitballs! Will you look at this target!
12 rounds of .38 Special in the S&W. This is possibly my best target ever, except for that crazy one high & right. I love this revolver. It's the first gun that Jesse bought new, in 1986, which I believe is the year this model was discontinued. I think it was his favorite handgun and it's certainly my favorite.
It will never be as good without Jesse in the next lane with one of his rifles, but I was happy with this outing.
Very nicely done, SiD!! Glad to see you're going to the range. You are really improving quickly, and your shooting would definitely make Jesse proud.
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Next up, our pal Nevada Dave really brings the fancy sauce with his 1,000-yard shot video.
As you were talking about windage, elevation and ballistic calculators I thought I'd pass along a video of some thousand-yard shots with my 300 PRC. I was shooting 225 grain ELD bullet traveling at 2993 fps, time of flight is 1.245 seconds, drop is 261.53 inches. On those two shots I dialed 5.9 mil elevation and held 0.4R mil for wind, spin drift is 0.15L. It hits with 1877 ft lbs of energy at 1000 yds. The jugs are 2.7 qt so about 6"x6" at the widest point. I use a Kestrel 5700 with applied ballistics. I zero at 100 yards and chrono with a lab radar, but this gun was also trued at 1000 yards.
The video was shot with a Nikon p950.
P.S. My daughter (now sixteen) built her first long range rifle! She's been hammering the 2 MOA target at a mile with it! Crazy proud dad!
Nevada Dave
Bigly excellent video and nice shooting Nevada Dave! Thank you!
Guys and Gals - watch the video for two things; the bullet trace on its way to the target, which is really the shock wave on the tip of a supersonic projectile as the bullet itself is too small to see, and the mirage effect in the air which is used to determine wind speed and direction. See them? Do you see the bullet trace and mirage? Based on the video, what do you think the wind is doing?
Finally, an extra bigly Gun Thread congratulations to your daughter! Great job, Dad!
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Next our pal Javems gives us the 9-1-1 on his 30-40 Krag.
This is my 30-40 Krag. It is the first smokeless powder rifle adopted by the U.S. Army and was developed in the early 1890s. It was patterned after the Norwegian Krag-Jorgensen bolt action rifle. There is also a carbine version. The case is rimmed, and the round is .30 caliber (.308 ). It originally was charged 40 grains of smokeless powder. There is a magazine on the right side of the receiver that hinges open and accepts five rounds. It's easy to load, you can just dump the rounds in, pointy end forward, and when you close the cover, the rounds align properly. One neat feature is that using a lever on the left side of the receiver, forward of the safety, you can isolate the magazine and load one round at a time into the receiver. It was used basically from the mid 1900s up until it was replaced by the 1903 and 1917 rifles.
The sights vary. My receiver was made in 1903 but my rear sight in an 1896 model. It is a blade sight and can be adjusted for range from 100 yards to, a wildly optimistic, 1800 yards. The blade slides forward to 600 yards and then a dual rail carries another rear blade that can be raised for additional range. There is no windage adjustment with this sight. I haven't read any pre-WWI infantry tactics. Perhaps they used it for area fire at the longer ranges.
I haven't used that many bolt-action rifles, but the Krag has a remarkably smooth action. I haven't shot it in decades but have the ability to load some rounds now, so when the weather cools down, I'll take it out to the range.
Very nice, Javems! Thank you! One of the things I really love about these old guns, besides the guns themselves, is learning a little bit about the development and production histories. Very cool!
******
So You Bought a Handgun
Recently we have learned of several new gun owners among the commenters here, and I want to again offer my congratulations to them. You have taken the first steps in what I've found to be a remarkably fun hobby. I have made countless friends all around the world as a result of my association with the shooting sports, and learned a lot of things about guns, shooting and even myself in the process. By carrying a firearm, I am also taking steps to prevent myself, my loved ones, and my property from danger at the hands of predators. As you move along and gain confidence as gun owners, I hope you will do the same.
One item that isn't really covered is safety and proficiency. I strongly recommend finding a more experienced gun owner to help on the first range trip(s) to make sure everything goes smoothly. Later you might consider lessons or other training. Questions? Ask them here. We have lots of experienced gun owners waiting to help!
******
P22 Part Dos
Last week we looked at the Walther P22, a small semi-automatic pistol in .22LR. I mentioned that mine has always behaved itself by reliably feeding and ejecting virtually any ammunition I used, since these pistols have something of a reputation for being finicky. I guess a lot of it has to do with quality control at the ammo factory, and sometimes with the weapon and ammunition design compatibility. Yes, they are all supposed to work together, but sometimes that doesn't happen reliably. Our pal PMRich sends in a photo comparing a couple of popular .22 LR ammo types.
Pic showing how slight the difference is in shape of rim, and you really have to zoom in to see the difference, that's how subtle it is. CCI on left Federal (Value Pack) on right
Do you see it? Do you see the difference PMRich is talking about? It is virtually unnoticeable unless you're really looking for it. That is enough to make a difference in some guns. If it happens to you, don't feel special. It's fairly common and most shooters adapt by finding what works in their guns and sticking with it. I will mention that I typically have more trouble with the Federal Value Pack ammo than the CCI line in a variety of guns.
Thanks PMRich! I appreciate your sending this in. How about you all, are you shooting CCI, Federal, or something else? Have you found one which performs better across multiple platforms?
******
Gun Basics 101
Here is the She Equips Herself gal on choosing a concealed carry weapon.
This is worth your time to watch. In the video SEH gal discusses her selection process and what steered her to certain weapons initially and what she did and did not like about them later. If you are considering a purchase, these are some of the things you should be considering. Remember, it's you that has to live with the choices later, not a salesman or a well-intentioned friend.
******
Cigar of the Week
This week Cigar Vixen returns with a review of the Punch Signature.
This week's mailbag entry is from our pal WTM who made this one his own bad self!
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Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
It's time to be plagued by my mediocre food photos from a recent trip. At least I haven't set up a slide projector in the living room!
Yup...some things are universal, and peanut butter and chocolate is one of those things. Even in the middle of Paris at a fancy grocery!
My guess is that this store (Le Bon Marché ) is catering to Americans living in Paris who crave a taste of home, but I suspect that the French buy them also. They have a sweet tooth just like most people. The number of chocolate stores in Paris and even in the boonies is amazing.
The trip was half Paris and half small country towns. We enjoyed the neighborhood restaurants so much that we cancelled our reservations at two upscale places. Why bother with that sort of food when the casual places we tried were so damned good and friendly.
Yes. That is an entire refrigerated display case with nothing but butter. All shapes and sizes and flavors...it was amazing. French butter tends to be cultured (bacterial, not social), so there are regional varieties that are radically different. Even the standard stuff has a subtle tang that is quite nice.
***
Now we get to the good stuff. This is the second night's appetizer (the Frogs call them "entrées"), and it was a doozy!
Yup, that is confit of chicken gizzards with slices of smoked duck breast. And some other stuff that sure did go well with the rich meat. It was delicious. So good that I had the same dish a few days later.
Many people are less than enthusiastic about organ meats, but when made well they can be absolutely wonderful. I guess it seems sort of disgusting at first thought (I don't know...I grew up with the stuff so it seemed normal to me), but I think it is worth trying at least once.
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Speaking of organ meats...
This is a dish called ris de veau, which is the thymus gland (sweetbreads) from veal. I have never seen it served as a chunk in the United States; it is usually cut up into small pieces.
This dish was spectacular, and my favorite meal of the visit. I spoke with the chef, and she told me how she cooked it. Go ahead...guess!
Yup. Sous Vide! That way the large chunk was cooked evenly, because overdone sweetbreads is dry and crumbly and not much fun at all.
******
I had no idea how this was going to be presented when I ordered it. I just liked the idea of eggs and truffles. It's really a simple dish: an egg, some cream, a bit of shaved truffle, and salt and pepper. But the presentation was great! Sure, it was a bit of a shtick, but it cooked perfectly and was fun to watch. And better to eat. Creamy and eggy and altogether delicious.
******
That's an amuse-bouche we were served one night. I looked at it and thought, "Hmmm...the waitress screwed up and gave us someone's dessert order: Crème Brûlée."
Well, I was half right and half wrong. It was Brûlée all right, but underneath wasn't a sweet custard; it was a creamy duck pâté. Weird but good. I think I will try that at home!
******
We spent part of the time on the French coast, mostly in Normandy. And when on a sea coast, my thoughts turn to oysters. Lots and lots of oysters! Say what you will about the French, but they appreciate a good oyster, and these were wonderful.
And not expensive at all. I had many dozens, and they all cost a little more than half of what they cost in the United States. And I wasn't chasing oyster happy hours!
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Duck confit. What can I say? It's delicious stuff, and I will eat it whenever I can. It's simply a duck leg that is poached in duck fat, some garlic, and probably fresh thyme. Then seared in a pan to crisp the skin. It is a straightforward preparation, and something that we home cooks can do easily. In fact, it works pretty well with chicken legs!
By the way, those potatoes were excellent; firm and tender and buttery. Which brings me to the only dud...French Fries! They were just okay. Nothing terrible, but I will take the UK version or the American version any day.
******
Did I mention that I like oysters, and that the oysters in Normandy were great?
******
I hadn't been to France in more than a dozen years, and I was curious how we would be treated, since 1) we are American and don't hide it, and B. the French are often notoriously smug, dismissive and rude with foreigners. But I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly most people were. I imagine that a difficult few years has focused the minds of the French and helped them realize that alienating foreigners who want to spend money in France probably isn't a good idea. And clearly English is much more popular as a second language than even a few years ago. We also tried to speak French whenever possible. That might have helped, even though my French is horrible.
And a last and serious note. We visited the Normandy invasion sites, including The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer. I did not know what to expect...part of me assumed that it would be diminished and disrespected. But I was very pleased to discover that not only was it physically in even better shape than the last time I visited; the other visitors were respectful and focused.
We saw a large group of teenagers, all of whom were carrying small bouquets of flowers and a slip of paper on which was obviously the location of a particular grave. I did not probe, but the idea that a bunch of kids were going to honor some of the men who gave their lives in the summer of 1944...65 years before they were born...gave me pause. Is it possible that there is hope?
******
Romaine lettuce that is green, instead of the white crap they sell that has never seen a photon, pork rib roasts from the front end of the pig where all the good and fatty meat lives, carrots that don't taste like stalky chalk, spare bottles of Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year Old Bourbon, an herb garden that actually produces herbs (but no basil!), well-marbled NY strip steaks and elk backstrap to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
And don't think that you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: I'm watching you...all of you! And I am watching you perverts who shake Manhattans and keeping a list for the Burning Times.
Woe is me! There are two crises that are overwhelming the normally even-tempered and staid denizens of Chez Dildo.
Yeah; that is one of the string of sort-of-Edison-bulbs hanging over the patio. But this one is directly above the grill, and it's dirty! What the hell? It's nine feet off the ground. Will I need supplemental oxygen to get up there and clean it?
And look what I found after pondering the unimaginable complexities of a dirty bulb! Yes, that is a broken hinge. But it is riveted into the frame and the door so it is not easily replaced. It still works, but for how long?
I have to go lie down...the pressures of these existential problems are too much for me.
The Boot-Licking Lackeys In The Media Are Finally Realizing That They Are Pawns!
—CBD
Not really, because they are 100% behind the anti-freedom, economy-crushing policies of the Biden junta. They just want to be respected; they want the Kalorama Kidz to continue the charade that the media have autonomy and aren't simply lickspittle servants of the current progressive regime.
President Joe Biden is trying to manipulate the news media through the administration’s selective access rules for White House events, according to a protest letter made public.
The letter to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was signed by 68 journalists — many of whom are at odds with each other on a daily basis — including Kaitlan Collins of CNN, Ed O’Keefe of CBS and Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News, according to the New York Post.
During his time in the White House, Biden has often left news conferences while reporters were trying to ask questions, and he has indicated from his comments that he is given a list of people to call on to ask questions, as noted by Fox News.
These sub-literate, childish-thinking drones are too stupid to see that they are being manipulated? Wow. Most of us have the appropriate amount of contempt for our Fourth Estate, but maybe we are giving them too much credit! Their protestations that the drooling fool masquerading as the legitimate president has avoided them are simply ridiculous. They opened the door to this sort of behavior by accepting 99% of the leftist narrative, certainly beginning with the Obama administration. Before Barack's reign of terror they were much more evenhanded...accepting only 95% of the progressive cant.
So forgive me if I have no sympathy for a bunch of overpaid, under-worked J-School graduates without an iota of experience in the real world, or any sense of what a truly free press should do. In fact, I will be making popcorn so I can sit back with a good snack and observe the impotent flailing of these running-dog lackeys. They play the tired game of pretending that they are independent, and only when the scum in the West Wing stop giving lip service to the nonsensical idea that they are anything other than whores being paid with the occasional privilege of asking a pre-planned question of a talking turnip, and running victory laps because they were called upon, do they stand up in unison, strutting around as if they matter.
Here's the truth: they don't matter. Those press conferences could just as easily be a single page hand-out to the junior interns from the major news outlets. It's regurgitated propaganda, and more and more Americans are (belatedly) realizing it! "Putin's Gas Tax?" "The border is closed?" "9mm will blow your lungs out?" The stupidity is out of control, and all these hacks can see is some imagined disrespect to their vaunted positions as the protectors of our republic.
Maybe if more than a few of them would actually do their jobs their complaints would be taken more seriously, but that will never happen, so sit back and enjoy the temper tantrums!
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-03-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
(click on the image above to see more of the inside - ht: Nemo)
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (don't blame me if your results transcend the fourth dimension--ht: All Hail Eris). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than the economic predictions of Paul Ehrlich. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants (ht: Weird Dave)...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, fire up the grill for morning brats (with bacon), and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
Something that may interest you and our fellow bibliophiles: Renaissance Books is a classic used-book store that's located in Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport. To my knowledge, it's the only used-book store in an airport, anywhere. Anyone who's looking for a good read to take on a flight will finds lots of good used books, not just the usual bestsellers. The sci-fi/fantasy section is especially well stocked (I found a copy of Heinlein's "Magic, Inc." there, which I'd been seeking for quite a while).
BTW, my nom-de-ace is "Nemo".
Regards ...
I think a used bookstore at an airport is a fine idea. Or maybe a "library" of sorts where travelers can swap out books for different reading materials. Not sure how that would work in practice, though. It's been a while since I've been in an airport, but from what I can remember, airport bookstores are very similar to the one depicted below:
THE DEATH OF LITERATURE (ht: Captain Hate)
Is literature a dying form? If so, what will replace it, if anything? Captain Hate sent me this article: The deracination of literature by Mary Gaitskill.
It's a very long-winded article, but the author makes several interesting points along the way. She compares stories to the human body. We see the exterior plainly enough, but we do not really see the underlying mechanisms that make us live and breathe. However, we know they are there. Encountering a dead body triggers a very different emotional response than interacting with a living person because we know that the animating force is missing. Stories, as well, have an "inner" force that triggers our emotional responses, even if we are not fully conscious of the reasons *why* we respond to stories in a particular way. Authors are often ignorant of the "inner" force within their own stories. They may not fully realize just how much impact their stories have on readers until they become major bestsellers. Who could have predicted Harry Potter would become the billion-dollar franchise it is today?
Gaitskill also talks about teaching literature to students today. Her students struggled with reading John Updike for a couple of different reasons. First, "he was sexist and backward in his racial attitudes." We tend to see this a lot these days in literature with authors being "cancelled" for having the wrong views. There was a major campaign against science fiction author Orson Scott Card several years ago because he dared espouse traditional views about homosexuality. Now, I've read quite a few of his books and I don't recall homosexuality being any sort of major plot point where he inserts his own views about the subject. It just isn't relevant to his stories. His personal opinions were just that--his own opinions.
Secondly, her students didn't like Updike because his descriptions of the worlds were very, very dense. The prose interfered with students' understanding of the story. I've never read Updike, so I can't speak to that, but it's possible that the students were woefully unprepared for dense prose because they had never encountered it before. We know a sizable fraction of students are graduating high school with subpar reading abilities. A huge number of minority students in particular are functionally illiterate. Worse, the are culturally illiterate because they do not know all of the great stories that came before them.
The last point Gaitskill makes is that people are being trained to be ignorant of their surroundings. They simply do not see or hear the amazing world around them, nor the people that inhabit it. When was the last time you went outside at night and just looked up at the stars? Think about how small our planet really is in the grand scope of the cosmos. Each one of those stars is vast in comparison to our tiny blue planet. Most of them have planets of their own, with weird and bizarre configurations that we are still struggling to understand with our rudimentary knowledge of physics. Who knows? Maybe an alien is looking up at the stars on its planet, contemplating the same ideas...
Is literature dead? No, probably not. As Books by Morons proves, we as a species have an infinite capacity to generate stories. Good stories with captivating characters, intriguing plots, and underlying themes exploring all aspects of the human condition. As long as there is one human being on Earth who can read, literature will remain alive and well.
Put the book you are reading right now up to your ear. Still your mind and listen...Can you hear its heartbeat?
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(Who won? SPOILER: Not George R.R. Martin!)
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BOOKS BY MORONS
Comment: No Books by Morons this week... However, about 250 years ago a group of men came together and drafted a superb document that is always worth reading this time of year. You may have heard of it...
How many of us could sign our name to such a document, knowing that we really are risking our freedom, our fortune, and our very lives?
MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
Thanks to everyone who recommended short stories or author of short stories last week! Lots of great recommendations. As usual, there's not enough space to list them all below, but I have captured your short story recommendations in another document HERE
I know the Horde tends more to SF and fantasy, which are not my genres, but I will put PG Wodehouse forward as a master of short stories - not just the Bertie Woosters, but the Psmiths, as well. IMO, the longer-form novels, with rare exceptions, just don't work as well.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 26, 2022 09:26 AM (2JVJo)
Comment: Hmmm. I don't actually know if the Horde tends towards science fiction and fantasy literature. Sure, a lot of us read it, including myself. But one of the things I enjoy most about the Sunday Morning Book Thread is all of the great literature you have read that's outside my comfort zone. I've heard of the P.G. Wodehouse stories, of course, but have never bothered to read them. I shall have to put them on my TBR list... MP4 makes an interesting point about the difference between the short stories and longer novels. Not all short story authors are well-suited to writing novels. Asimov, for instance, writes fantastic short stories, but his novels just don't have the same impact. Very few authors are able to maintain the same quality in both short stories and novels.
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I like Larry Niven's Flatlander (The Collected Tales of Gil "The Arm" Hamilton). It's a collection of S/F detective stories based on an idea that as he says is "is terrifyingly and uncomfortably real." That idea being: There is a shortage of transplantable organs; people disappear, capital crimes are increased to solve that problem. His term for that is "organlegging."
The stories have all the pleasures of the detective story combined with a psychokinetic element thrown in for fun, all in a future with too many people and asteroid mining.
I liked this book enough that when my paperback version disappeared (or fell into my french drain; can't remember which) and I switched over to the Kindle, I bought a copy.
Posted by: yara at June 26, 2022 09:42 AM (hBsVD)
Comment: Another group of short stories that are foreign to me, though I've read a few of Niven's novels. Last week, Wolfus Aurelius mentioned one of Niven's short stories published in a pulp magazine in the '60s. Thanks to the power of the internet, I was able to find it and read it. Not bad at all. Niven is able to take an interesting idea and then "game it out" to see what the potential ramifications might be. I suspect that's what he does in this collection as well. And of course, thanks to the power of the internet, if we lose a book or it becomes too damaged to read anymore, we can find an electronic copy on demand for a modest fee.
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I read Summer of Night and A Winter Haunting both by Dan Simmons. Summer of Night is about a group of kids in Illinois in 1960. It's like a Stephen King story (but way better). I would recommend it just for the descriptions of what it's like to be an 11 year old boy in summer. A Winter Haunting takes place in the same town in Illinois but 30 years later. It was okay, but Summer of Night was way better.
Posted by: prophet of the group W bench at June 26, 2022 10:48 AM (s37kI)
Comment: The only book I've read by Dan Simmons is Hyperion, which is essentially The Canterbury Tales in space. But I do enjoy stories about life as a kid in rural areas where there may be a supernatural or science fiction element that takes a group of kids on a grand adventure. Ray Bradbury was an absolute master of this, as was Clifford D. Simak.
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Just finished Christopher DiGrazia's second Theda Bara book, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. Enjoyed the first book a lot and this one as well, she's filming Cleopatra and a deadly mystery follows Theda and her sidekick Toby. Very well written dialogue and characters, enjoy traveling back in time to the filming of silent movies. There is a hint at the end the series might continue, which I would welcome.
Posted by: waelse1 at June 26, 2022 10:35 AM (pNeon)
Comment: As I mentioned last week, I always like to see Moron Recommendations of Books by Morons. Your feedback and encouragement is much appreciated, I'm sure! I'm also sure he'd appreciate an Amazon review, if possible! I just ordered me a copy of this book...
More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (255 Moron-recommended books so far!)
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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:
The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton -- Book 3 in The Void Trilogy. Finally finished it! It took me a while to get through it (650+ pages). Life gets in the way of good reading, sometimes.
Star Wars: The Hutt Gambit (Han Solo Trilogy Book 2) by A.C. Crispin -- I'm going to start working my way through my unread pile of Star Wars novels...PRE-DISNEY, of course (most of them). They are good fluff material and generally entertaining.
The Stuff that Dreams are Made of by Christopher DiGrazia -- A very interesting look at Hollywood during the Silent Era of movie-making.
Dragonlance: The Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak -- A classic tale of chivalry and adventure. This is one of the most important histories in the entire Dragonlance Saga. It's also very good.
Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) edited by Susan D. Blum -- This is for my day job. We're hosting a summer book reading program with several of our faculty. We will be discussing this book, which looks at alternative forms of assessing students instead of assigning them a grade.
That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!
If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...
One of the things I want to do fairly soon is replace my four Synology boxes with one new one. They're from 2012 and 2013 and so are the drives - I rescued them when work was going to throw them out.
I was planning on a new DS1821+ but when I looked there were none to be had anywhere. That was going to give me a nice topic for a rant but when I looked again they were available so now I'm just confused.
It's not a perfect device - the default network configuration is 4 x 1Gb interfaces which is just irritating - but filled with 12TB drives it would give me the same capacity as the existing four units without the drive failures and performance limitations of decade-old hardware.
This was a technically promising crypto project backed by over a dozen industry leaders that withered and died because (a) all the industry leaders hate each other and (b) absolutely everyone hates Facebook.
As much as 60%, which is more than I would have expected. They've increased clock speeds a bit and added eight more Efficiency cores, but the main Performance cores stay at eight.
I'm a bit dubious about having mixed speed cores like this but at some point I might build a system to see how it really behaves. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded performance numbers are good, and while it doesn't support ECC (which Ryzen chips do, unofficially) DDR5 RAM at least has on-chip ECC.
Also it will still support DDR4, which AMD has dropped. On the other hand, DDR5 now costs only 50% more than DDR4 rather than double, so that's gradually becoming a less compelling feature.
A school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, an ancient wooden device called a "slide-rule," as well as a code device called an "abacus" that he claimed was a calculator.
At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.
"Al-Gebra is a problem for us," the Attorney General said. "Al-Gebra has terrorized many young people for years. They derive solutions by means and extremes and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values”.
"They use secret code names like 'X' and 'Y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns,' but we've determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.”
"As the Greek philosopher Isosceles once said, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle.’ "
When asked to comment on the arrest, President Biden said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes."
White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by a President at any time in all of history. ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC proclaimed Biden has solved yet another problem created by Trump. (H/T Captain Josepha Sabin)
IN 2020, UNUSUAL PUBLIC TOILETS were installed in two parks in the ever-popular Yoyogi district of Tokyo and quickly, although for a brief period, became an internet sensation.
The stalls, in particular, are quite easy to find, encased by transparent glass walls of a variety of vibrant colors, looking immaculate—and yes, you read it right: the restroom’s walls are transparent, totally see-through. You can see everything inside, from the flush toilet to the hand wash sink. Now the question is, how does one use it?
Drones will start responding to police calls in this South Florida city
Coral Gables police plan to use drone technology to respond to calls.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Officers in squad cars may not be the only thing showing up at police incidents in Coral Gables anymore. Instead, a drone could arrive first.
The department is using the city’s Fourth of July celebration at the Biltmore Hotel as a test run for its new drone program. Organizers expected the event to draw more than 40,000 spectators and police said they will use the drone to monitor crowds, traffic and any incidents that could occur.
After the Fourth, the two drones will be dispatched from strategic points throughout the city to specific incidents, meaning they won’t be patrolling the streets, police Chief Ed Hudak said.
A 93-year-old man has shot and critically injured a would-be burglar after a gang tried to break into his home in California.
Retired plumber Joe Howard Teague repeatedly warned the attempted robbers that he had a shotgun, but they continued to approach and throw things at him.
Teague told reporters outside his Moreno Valley home yesterday: 'I approached them to put them under citizen's arrest.
This South African Climber Just Made The First Legal Paraglide Flight Off Mount Everest
Instead of several days, it took Pierre Carter just 20 minutes to descend Mount Everest on his paraglider.
As dozens of climbers slowly made their way down Mount Everest last month, one mountaineer soared above them all. At noon on May 15, 55-year-old Pierre Carter took off from the South Col of Everest in a paraglider and flew to the ground, landing in just 20 minutes.
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The ONT Musical Interlude & Groovy Vibes Emporium
On July 1, 1981 - Rushton Moreve
Rushton Moreve bassist with Steppenwolf, was killed in motorcycle accident in Santa Barbara, California, aged 32. He co-wrote their hit 'Magic Carpet Ride' with lead singer John Kay; Steppenwolf also had the 1968 US No.2 single 'Born To Be Wild'. Moreve left the band in late 1968 when he refused to fly back to California at that time, fearing it would sink into the Pacific Ocean after an imminent earthquake. via thisdayinmusic.com
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On July 1, 1995 - DJ Wolfman Jack
DJ Wolfman Jack died of a heart attack. He was the master of ceremonies for the rock 'n' roll generation of the '60s on radio, and later on television during the '70s. via thisdayinmusic.com
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Born on July 1, 1945 - Deborah Harry
Deborah Harry, American singer, songwriter, and actress with Blondie who scored five UK No.1 singles including the 1979 UK & US No.1 single 'Heart Of Glass' and the 1978 world-wide No.1 album Parallel Lines. As a solo artists she scored the 1986 UK No. 8 single 'French Kissing In The USA'. A former Playboy Bunny, her acting career spans over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances. via thisdayinmusic.com
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On this day: 2 Jul 1979
Sony introduced the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 30 years they sold over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, and were the market leaders until the arrival of Apple's iPod and other new digital devices. via thisdayinmusic.com
JUNE 25--An Alabama man wearing a t-shirt proclaiming “I’m Too Good for drugs!” was arrested for possessing methamphetamine and narcotics paraphernalia, police report.
Allen Burnett, 60, was collared Thursday night near his home in Ashville, a small city about 45 miles from Birmingham.
Burnett, seen at right, was charged with a pair of drug counts and booked into the St. Clair County jail. He was released early yesterday morning after posting $3500 bond.
At the time of his arrest, Burnett was wearing a purple t-shirt that declared, “I’m Too Good for drugs!”
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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by My Outlook On Life At The Moment.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire's office space occupants. And my visitors.
Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 7/02/2022 [TheJamesMadison]
—Open Blogger
Mortal Engines
I don't normally focus on just a single film in these posts, but I got Christian Rivers' hilariously bad box office bomb of a film Mortal Engines as a rental just to check it out, and I was kind of flabbergasted at the awfulness on display. Adapted from the first in a series of young adult novels by Philip Reeve, using a screenplay by the writing team that gave us The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and directed by one of the key visual effects personnel from those films with Peter Jackson acting as producer, Mortal Engines is one of the most incomprehensible things I've ever seen. Overstuffed, obvious to the point of obtuseness, overbearing in tone, and overproduced, it is one of the nadirs of bad decisions that pissed away hundreds of millions of dollars in Hollywood with nothing in return.
Several years after its release, it seemed like a fascinating case study in how to not adapt a work, but before I could make that assertion I decided to actually read the book. And then I watched the movie again. Twice. The second time was with the director's commentary on to see if he offered any insight into the adaptation process.
So, let's start with the book by Phillip Reeve. I have literally no idea how this thing made it to publishing, much less spawned several sequels. It is, quite possibly, the worst book I have ever read.
Written in a way that precludes any kind of serious investment in anything that goes on, it's a thin adventure story with characters that could barely called characters who have the bare minimum of interaction with other characters to establish spare character traits that define them while, at the same time, being completely mutable to change their opinions on everything with the introduction of small pieces of information while also, at the same time, refusing to learn from any lesson.
While the characters are frustrating, it's the "shocking" reveals and the terrible world building that irritated me most. A character, Thaddeus Valentine, is introduced in one of the early chapters in such glowing and effusively positive terms that his turn to evil...within the same chapter...is both obvious and not shocking at all, and so much of the film hinges on the main character, Tom, and his near religious-like devotion to Valentine, a man he met once...in that scene. We also end up with a glut of characters introduced throughout the film (the final fifty pages still introduces new characters) like Reeve had no idea how to actually tell a human based story where characters had motivations.
The largest failing is probably the world building. The only reason to really pick up the book is the idea of a world where cities are mobile and consume each other in a concept called Municipal Darwinism is interesting on its face, but the book makes no effort to really dig into it. Aside from a couple of lines about how, literally, a thousand years before there was an age of heavy volcanic activity that forced static settlements to move to survive. Okay, that kind of makes sense in a "don't think too hard about it fantasy" sort of way, but what about the ensuing thousand years? In a time when there aren't massive volcanic eruptions anymore, why would anyone consider the energy consumption to move millions of tons around be preferrable to sitting in one place and growing food? It's thin, at best, and Reeve doesn't seem to understand the limitations of his own ideas. Nothing is really considered in any real depth, and everything about the book falls apart with the least amount of thought.
Also, it's filled with massive coincidences just to keep the story going, my favorite being when Tom and Hester Shaw end up in the middle of nowhere, a bog where no city would dare to tread because of the softness of the ground, only to have two cities drive past them moments later, the first of which crushes someone who's chasing them. It's ridiculous to the point of parody, but it's played straight.
The Adaptation
So, I went into reading the book, having seen the movie first, with the assumption that Peter Jackson, Phillipa Boyens, and Fran Walsh, the writers, had mangled the book. That they had brought in a bunch of material from other books in the series, squashed a bunch of stuff into a limited narrative space, and taken what was surely a halfway decent source and completely bungled the job. Well, this isn't much of a defense of the writing trio, but I have to say that after having read the book, they did a bang up job of adapting the book to the screen. It's pretty damn accurate and reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the book really well. In fact, I'd say that they actually improved on the book in a couple of small and insignificant ways.
That scene where Valentine is unnaturally good to the point of obviousness that he's definitely the bad guy? It's in the movie, not word for word (the conversation now revolves around a toaster instead of vagaries like in the book), but the change of focus onto something tangible and there makes the interactions between Tom and Thaddeus more grounded in something like a real conversation than the book. It's still a dumb and bad scene, but the dialogue works a bit better.
One of the things in the movie that I was positive had been drawn in from later books in the series was the character of Shrike, a sort of immortal robot soldier that had been built from a real man hundreds of years before and raised the character of Hester Shaw from the time her mother was killed by Valentine. His contributions in the film were so little and so unimportant to the actual movement of the plot and story that I was convinced that it had been awkwardly inserted where it didn't belong. Well, the writing trio on the film didn't do that. Shrike's entire story is in the book, but they cleaned it up a bit (there's a bit about the mayor of London having captured Shrike to create new immortal soldiers that's replaced by Thaddeus freeing Shrike from a prison). In both he's largely unimportant to actually getting characters around except to operate as a handful of arbitrary obstacles that just keep Tom and Hester from getting back to London too quickly, but the movie just makes his little sliver of the story a bit cleaner. It's still dumb, but it's cleaner. So, the essence of the book is preserved for the film, just polished slightly.
The film is pretty much the book in movie form. All of the basic narrative deficiencies are preserved to appeal to the fans of the book with no intention on actively digging into the work to find out what worked and what didn't, giving it a full adaptation to film. It's more of a translation than an adaptation. I imagine the fans of the books were reasonably happy with the end result.
Why?
I had a lot of why questions when I finished up my little exercise. Why did Peter Jackson decide to throw not only his producing weight but also the entire efforts of his dedicated writing team (including himself) to adapting it? He apparently acquired the rights back in 2008 with an eye to directing it himself, but why? What was in this story that excited him. He refused to direct it himself after The Hobbit because he was so tired, but why did Christian Rivers decide that Mortal Engines was going to be his feature film debut?
I honestly don't see the appeal beyond the world building. If I had gotten the assignment or felt the need to bring the world to cinemas, I'd tear out the story almost completely and rebuild it from the barest of narrative bones, approaching more like how Stanley Kubrick treated adaptations rather than how Jackson had treated The Lord of the Rings.
I think it highlights the problem in adaptation, especially of works that simply aren't that good. Why preserve the less than quality elements?
This is far from scientific, but I compared the number of ratings at Goodreads of the first books in the Mortal Engines, Hunger Games, The Maze Runner and Divergent book series, all books that got at least one mid to large scale cinematic adaptations. Organized from most to least number of ratings it is:
The Hunger Games: 7.4 million Divergent: 3.4 million The Maze Runner: 1.2 million Mortal Engines: 58,000
The fan base for this book seems to be really, really small. Who were they expecting to come to the theaters on the power of the book's popularity? Who invests this kind of money (at least $100 million) on a special effects laden spectacle with a fan base this tiny? So, who are you going to enrage by tearing out the broken narrative innards (completely rewriting characters, changing the plot, and providing focus that the book never had)? Do they matter when you're trying to appeal to a broader audience?
Financially, I'd say that it's obvious. It was a massive write off for the studio, making only $87 million total across the world while Variety estimated that, combined with marketing costs and theatrical takes, the studio lost $100 million on the project. The movie was poorly received upon its release, and it's gained no levels of love in the ensuing few years. It certainly has its fans, and they're going to be pretty much the only ones to gravitate towards it in the future, artificially inflating the perceived opinion of the film in certain quarters.
I have no answers, though. The movie is a mess. The book was a mess. I have no idea how the thing got published in the first place, much less ignited Peter Jackson's imagination enough for him to invest so much money (don't feel so bad for him, though, he became a billionaire earlier this year).
Elvis (Rating 2/4) Full Review "Overall, though, meh. Bloated, aimless, and thin, it has little to nothing to say about Elvis while just trying to hit the high points, but I do love that Baz Luhrmann paint job." [Theater]
The Last House on the Left (Rating 1.5/4) Full Review "I can see a certain, very rough promise in store for Wes Craven in his first film, but it cannot rise above its exploitation roots. He's trying, but he's not yet in a place where he can make it work yet." [Library]
Swamp Thing (Rating 1/4) Full Review "It's not very fun, not very involving, and not very good." [Library]
Invitation to Hell (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "Still, that ending is something else. I kind of loved it. It really wasn't enough to save the whole film, it's simply too dull up to that point to save, but I think it comes reasonably close. If you can make it through the first hour, there's something special towards the end." [YouTube]
A Nightmare on Elm Street (Rating 3/4) Full Review "I really do like this film. I think it's a good slasher with real imagination that takes horror seriously instead of just an excuse for gore, but I also feel like it could have really used another rewrite." [Library]
The Hills Have Eyes: Part II (Rating 0/4) Full Review "There is nothing to this film. From a basic narrative point of view, it's dead on arrival. From a visceral, just enjoy the gore, point of view, there's literally nothing to enjoy. There's barely even any T&A. This is probably the worst movie of Craven's career, and I can see why he would disown it." [Library]
Deadly Friend (Rating 2/4) Full Review "Without the bloody violence, this might have been a weird but passable entertainment. With the bloody violence, it gains the dimension of the guffaw which neither elevates nor degrades the rest of the film. It's an odd duck in this final form, though I would be somewhat curious in the original (which seems to have been lost)." [Library]
The Serpent and the Rainbow (Rating 3/4) Full Review "Still, overall, the descent into madness and terror that the film represents as a whole is something that I really did quite enjoy." [Library]
Contact
Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.
Greetings all and happy Independence Day weekend. If BBQs and fireworks aren't your bag, then let's head to the basement, garage, workshop, studio or wherever it is you can make a mess, get creative and lose yourself for a few hours.
Let's start off with a relaxing watercolor demo. My dad was an accomplished painter and studied under one of the most renown watercolorists, Edgar Whitney, for many years. He'd have liked this one.
For those into jewelry making, here's a demo on making a bracelet out of copper wire.
Between the quality of today's kits as well as after-market parts, 3D printing and laser cutting, there's almost nothing you can't make and make look really good. But look what this guy did with a flattened PVC pipe, minimal tools and wicked skills.
Here's a good tutorial for making a basic mug out of coils of clay.
Woodcarving is one of those primal pastimes that have been around probably for thousands of years. Doesn't require a lot of expensive tools; just practice, patience and learning to work with the wood.
I've showcased this Estonian furniture restorer before. Here he tackles a really abused art deco coffee table. Who knew that dried PVA (Elmer's) glue was that good a contact cement?
The talented Dave Meek returns with a tutorial about how to put your ideas for a model railroad layout down on paper as a complete track plan.
Finally, the guys from Flite Test cap off a series on building a 20-foot span B-!7 with an amazing paint job (and some good painting tips/hacks). The next episode is supposed to feature in-flight video and laser tag gear for simulated combat.
Happy Independence Day Weekend! Welcome to this weekly respite from most of the outside "civilized" world -- the Ace of Spades Pet Thread.
Thanks for stopping by. Beg politely for a treat, kick back and enjoy the world of animals.
Reminder: For current events and politics, the Thread before the Gardening Thread (a couple of threads below) is almost always an Open Thread.
Hrothgar sends an entertaining, narrated compilation of pets (and wildlife) learning to enjoy water in the backyard, sometimes with some difficulty. Or learning to temporarily tolerate the water (in the case of a certain cat).
Fireworks are more likely to cause anxiety in pets than water at this time of year, however. Here are some tips for helping them cope with the noise. Keep those cats corralled, too!
Blaster is about 14 years old (he's a rescue, so we are not sure. Mellowest cat EVER. He's He'll on our local lizards and frogs.
A true PetMoron!
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Okay, we have some kitties this week, so how about some different pets from a lurker? Pick a nic for him: El Guapo, El Jefe, or Captain Covfefe
Should we vote?
He has cats, too, but we'll save them for later.
Here's a pic of my daughter's rabbit, Cookie. Cute bunny and she has fur as soft as a cloud.
Finally is our dog, Fred. I'm not a dog fan, and prefer cats, but since he's family, here's his picture. Yeah, I know he looks cute, but no, not a dog fan.
Awww. I bet he gets love at home!
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From Marty: Sunny with a chance of chainsaw!
This is Sunny. I've been petless for 14 years after so many years of cats, dogs, horses and birds. Slavyanka arm-twisted me into getting this guy from a local farmer.
Typical kitten - cuddly with deep purrs and Velcro-like claws that stick to everything, especially skin and drapes.
His favourite toy is a potato about the size of a clementine. He also loves YouTube videos of birds.
A potato-loving kitten!
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A new cat chez Wolfus!
Very recent photo of Stirling the kitten, aka His Highness, Prince of Baby Panthers, Dammit, and No, Dammit.
His story I've told before: I spotted him on Petfinder and found his sturdy, confident look appealing. On 6/11 we drove some 4 hours to see him. Of course the shelter knew I would hardly turn him down after that, and they were right. Besides, he was, and is, good-natured and quiet, went right into his carrier purring, was quiet during the entire return trip, and loves our company. According to what we were told, his mother passed from an infection soon after he and his littermates were born. The shelter hand-reared them, which explains why he is so happy and confident around humans. (Since I feed him, he thinks I'm his mother -- he wants to suckle and nuzzle me from time to time, and I'm gently trying to discourage that!) He seems bright, though he's not really responding yet to his name. With luck he'll develop into a good-sized medium-hair.
He's 3.5 months old, about 5 lbs., eats enthusiastically and plays with the usual crazed abandon of healthy kittens everywhere.
As you might have guessed, I love him already.
We can tell.
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Love those PetMorons! Thank you for sharing your pets with us. We have a few couple left for next week.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Until next Saturday, have a great week!
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If you start feeling nostalgic, here a link to last week's Pet Thread, June 25. Guide dog video and great pet photos and stories, including a tortoise! The comments are closed now so you won't accidentally ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread, but don't try it anyway.
Last year I discovered that we have hummingbird moths. I'm not sure if they were new arrivals or if I just had not noticed them before. This year I got ready with my slomo camera & got some cool video. You can get a good idea of their size from the clips of them feeding on dandelion flowers.
And the wings have panels - like a clear stained glass window.
Amazing what you miss when things go so fast.
They do look an awfully lot like hummingbirds in the garden. Love the music.
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And here's an even smaller critter:
Hi KT--
This little fellow dropped on my glasses when I was out walking. I wonder if anyone knows what kind it is?
An image search shows that it looks a lot like a "Green Jumping Spider." But there are two problems with that.
1. They're supposed to be kind of large, and this chap was very small, about the size of an ant.
2. They're supposed to be exclusive to Australia. Now, I haven't been keeping up with the news, but I think if East Tennessee became part of Australia, I'd have heard about it somewhere.
I'd be curious to know what kind. Even if you don't like spiders, it's quite beautiful.
Thank you for the Gardening, Pet and other weekend threads!
BeckoningChasm
A lovely color. Can anybody identify this species?
Edible Gardening
For the last couple of weeks, we have had photos of berry plants, then of berries, in the Gardens of the Horde. Well, here's a recipe! Blueberry Kuchen. But you can substitute other berries, or sprinkle some raspberries on this one for a red, white and blue presentation with whipped cream or ice cream.
One day I opened the refrigerator to get lunch, and there was a half-eaten blueberry dessert with a note that said, "Kristen, please help yourself and share with the kids." I cut a slice, took a bite, and swooned.
This is the simple recipe from that summer. Sometimes I make it with blueberries and peaches or top it with fresh raspberries instead of blueberries. It is delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or dollop of whipped cream, in fact, its quite delightful in the morning with a cup of coffee.
Today's Adventure
One year ago, July 5th 2021 a group of older scouts from the NASA area of Houston went on a backpacking trek in New Mexico at a scout ranch called Philmont. We were supposed to go in June 2019 but the trip got cancelled due to a forest fire. The trip was rescheduled for June 2020 and then the apocalypse happened. Third time's the charm and we went in July 2021! Philmont is a scout ranch but it's also a place for living history.
We were 10 days on the trail carrying everything we needed on our backs and filtering our drinking water from streams. We had to hang our food in trees every night so that bears couldn't get to it. Some locations we passed through were an old gold mining operation from the 1910s, a farm that was in operation in the 1890s, Waite Phillips (Phillips 66) hunting lodge from the 1940s, an old fur trapping camp, and a WWII training airplane crash from 1942. Our crew climbed 3 mountains including one called The Tooth of Time which was named because when wagon trains were heading west they knew when they saw that mountain they had two weeks until they would arrive at Santa Fe.
Our crew had two medical issues, neither of which was due to a panic educing virus (surprise!) . We made some spectacularly stupid decisions, one of which led to one of the medical issues. Our sister crew was a crew from Illinois that helped us out of one of our stupid messes we got ourselves into, but they didn't know it at the time. Another crew from Pennsylvania also helped us out when our clean water supply fell off a pack and went tumbling down the side of a mountain we were climbing. We gave up on it but they hauled it up and gave it back to us, much to our surprise. We were very grateful we didn't have to rely on rainwater for drinking that night.
My favorite part of the whole trip was when two of my sons who were on the trek with us met up with my third son who was on staff there for a family picture. All my kids got to go to a place I went to as a teenager and they got to have an adventure there too. It was one of my lifelong goals.
I hope this is the type of adventure you had in mind for this thread and you'll consider using it.
Rihar
arriving at fur trapping camp
black powder shooting
ground squirrels
WWII plane crash
Norman Rockwell "Tooth Of Time" re creation
tooth of time: Norman Rockwell painting referenced
hiking to the Tooth of Time
Well, that was an adventure, for sure! There's a lot of history in this country. Good to see the kids exposed to some of it. The Rockwell re-creation is fun!
Gardens of The Horde
Hello KT,
I thought I would send you an updated photo from the one I sent in March. From daylily awakening to putting on a show! I hope everyone is enjoying the Summer!
Jeff L
They look great!
Hope everyone has a nice Independence Day Weekend. If you didn't see your photos here today, check again next week.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Week in Review
What has changed since last week's thread? June 25, featuring apple blossoms, several kinds of berries, adventures with seedlings, a family-friendly hiking adventure and peonies. We have a recipe for some of those berries today.
Any thoughts or questions?
The comments here are closed so you won't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.
Happy Independence Day Weekend! Are you more happy than usual that the Founders maintained the idea of federalism when they set up the Constitution?
Federalism
Periodically, John Hayward does a meaty Twitter thread that puts ideas together from recent events in a useful way. This one focuses on federalism.
A lot of the ideas here are pretty basic. And a lot of people in our country really don't understand them. Why? I've broken it down into sections for discussion:
1
There are many reasons why power should be devolved to the states, as Dobbs did with abortion. The obvious one is that individual voters have more influence over state legislatures. Your voice rings much louder in state capitols than in Washington.
Of course, the left-wing / globalist project for decades has been to centralize power, and then internationalize it, moving it utterly beyond the reach of voters. This was very much by design - they know federalism gives YOU more control, and they don't like it one little bit.
Cause after cause beloved to the Left is portrayed as a "consensus" of "experts" that must be imposed on the people against their will, with no input from voters and no means for individuals to resist. They're increasingly less shy about saying their agenda is beyond democracy.
2
Another positive feature of moving issues to state legislators is that they tend to gain clarity. D.C. is much worse about stuffing issues into titanic trillion-dollar spending bills. Rarely does the national Congress vote clearly on one thing.
The needs of individual states and their populations can be different. The consensus of their voters can be very different. A free republic of sovereign individuals shouldn't have many one-size-fits-all, no-dissent-allowed solutions.
When power returns to the states, the people also gain the option of moving to different areas if they have severe issues with how a state is being run. They can merely travel to other states that allow what their home state has prohibited.
This is crucial, even if the number of people who actually decide to relocate is fairly small, because it is a manifestation of the one TRUE freedom, the only one that really matters in the end: the Power of No. The ability to say no, to refuse, is the fountain of all liberty.
4
Advocates of federalism talk about the states becoming "laboratories" where ideas can be tested. This is indeed valuable and should be encouraged by all reasonable people, but also it's good that legislators remember that people can just leave if displeased with governance.
When the monopoly of power is broken, competition flows. It is very, very good for political elites to see themselves as competitors, eternally striving for citizens the way companies strive to attract customers for their products. This nourishes an atmosphere of persuasion.
Persuasion is far better than command, and far more fitting to the republic laid out by our Founders. It is essential to human dignity that politicians must persuade you for your support, rather than you begging them for little crumbs of liberty and prosperity.
5
It's not good enough, nowhere NEAR enough, that politicians have to cajole your votes once every two or four years to remain in power. They have too much leverage, too much money to spend, too many indulgences to distribute, too many loyal blocs of organized supporters.
Far better, under federalism, that politicians are constantly thinking about persuading voters to support them on countless issues, one after the other, every week, every month. The people are more like citizens than serfs that way. We matter more, and more OFTEN.
6
Corruption is the horror plaguing the entire world. The corruption and waste in our federal system is absolutely sickening, and it's permanent. There is no way to fix it without shifting power and money to the states, which can be monitored more closely and held more accountable.
You cannot "reform" a system that has trillions of dollars and millions of footsoldiers to protect every one of its corrupt fiefdoms, every nickel of its bloated agenda. There are no clean, big governments, and there never will be. The Leviathan has too many fangs and claws.
You cannot audit a system as titanic and broken as the federal government. It will never, ever be "transparent." Among other things, it simply has too many people working for it, and far too many of them are utterly beyond the reach of voters. In no sense do they answer to YOU.
Lord knows state governments can have plenty of scandals, and some of them are Leviathans in their own right by any objective standard, but at least the people have a better chance of securing accountability - and if they give up on reforming a corrupt state, they can just leave.
7
One other great feature of federalism, perhaps its most subtle advantage: there are no tyrannical "settled issues." Nothing is every really settled forever. The future is not held hostage to the past. Voters can change their minds, and change the law.
That is a HUGE advantage to the cause of freedom, a key aspect of sustaining that climate of persuasion that is so far superior to the corrupt business of demands and commands. Voters must be persuaded in perpetuity. Today's law must be nourished and sustained tomorrow.
This will soon become clear in the matter of abortion, as states may tighten or loosen their restrictions as voters demand. No more phony "census" of ersatz "experts" chiseled in stone and used as a cudgel against generation after generation. Bad arguments will take a beating.
In a free republic, most of the laws should be written on paper, not carved in stone. The Constitution can be changed, but it's not easy. That means not many issues should be "settled forever" with the permanence of the Bill of Rights. Permanence is power, to be used sparingly.
8
Everything I have said in this thread is the antithesis of leftist, statist, authoritarian ideology. They would howl that every single point I've raised is an offense against their sacred agenda, which must be imposed for the good of whatever they claim to care about.
"How can a government of wise experts be subjected to scrutiny by the proletariat? Why should brilliant social engineers have to explain themselves to the rubes over and over again? People moving to other states, saying no to our judgments - that's absurd! THE EARTH IS ON FIRE!"
There is no better way to illuminate tyranny than to enumerate the virtues of a system that would make it impossible, and let the would-be tyrants tell you why that's unthinkable. /end
You know, celebrating America's independence should be a week-long celebration because it starts on July 1, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to debate independence from Great Britain.
Delaware only had two of its three delegates at Independence Hall. Caesar Rodney was back in Dover. As Brigadier General he needed to be with the militia to combat Loyalists.
John Adams knew it should be unanimous. However, Delaware's delegates could not agree. One said yes. One said no. . .
There are a couple of videos you might like to share over the weekend at the link. With more details and explanatory notes.
* * * * *
Mel Brooks turned 96. Which of his works do you like best?
Thanks for all the birthday greetings! To tell the truth, I dont feel like 96 at allI feel a lot more like 95.
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo atsign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
2/12 – D asked for prayers for John Rogers and his family. John was diagnosed with liver cancer last week and is at stage 3. He is not doing well and any prayers for him and his family would be appreciated. His daughters are 8, 11, and 14. A “GoFundMe” has been established if anyone wishes to contribute: https://gofund.me/1fe7aabb
6/17 Update – The treatments were not effective, so for now, chemotherapy has been stopped. He has been meeting with the doctors to see where to go from here, if new cancer treatments available would work for him. Please keep up the prayers for John and his family, as they are helping them get through this time.
6/30 Update – John has not been able to eat and is having other issues related to the cancer. Please pray for strength and comfort for him and for his family.
5/2 – creeper sends a request that a fellow blogger needs our prayers. MOTUS is fighting two brain tumors, metastasized from esophageal cancer.
http://www.michellesmirror.com/2022/05/a-motus-health-update.html#.Ym_kIExOn1I
6/17 Update – MOTUS has been on oral chemo for several weeks, and started IV chemo and immunotherapy last Thursday (all day long, 7 am – 3:30 pm). The good news is, one of the biomarkers found indicates that MOTUS’ cancer could respond well to monoclonal antibodies. She is fatigued and has some side effects, but so far it’s tolerable. Thank you for the prayers and good wishes; they are greatly appreciated.
5/31 – Prayers are needed for Fenelon Spoke, who had surgery this week for cancer. She is recovering at home.
6/8 Update – The good news is that they seem to have caught all her cancer. It was stage one, so she is thanking God and is grateful for all the prayers of the horde.
6/1 – Prayers are requested for a 3-year-old named Eli, who just had 2 brain surgeries for a rare vascular condition. Please pray for Eli’s recovery.
6/4 Update – Eli has woken up after surgery and is starting to show hopeful signs. The family is grateful for the prayers and asks them to continue.
6/11 Update – Eli is sitting up and eating real food. They are optimistic for his full recovery.
6/2 – Prayers are needed for Squid, whose life has imploded over the last twelve hours, and any prayers for peace would be greatly appreciated.
6/3 Update – Squid says thanks for the prayers - it will get better.
6/4 – vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion asks for prayers for her hubby, whose recent PSA blood test showed higher PSA levels than before. Please pray that it’s not something bad.
6/11 Update – Hubby is a-ok, per the doctor.
6/4 – Anti doesn’t matter asks for comfort for her mother. Her mother is now hospitalized and is now on a ventilator, positive for Covid, after 2 at-home negative Covid tests. Her mother also has congestive heart failure, and with the Covid protocols, there is concern that her heart condition might not be treated properly.
6/10 Update – Anti doesn’t matter’s mother passed away.
6/6 – Fox2! requests prayers for his niece-in-law, Courtney, who is expecting a son in August, but has been in preterm labor for the last 3 weeks.
6/7 – Fenelon Spoke asks for prayers for her son to (God willing) get a job for the summer, before he transfers (again, God willing) to finish up his four-year degree in agricultural studies.
6/7 – Teresa in Fort Worth asks for prayers for Natasha and her family. Teresa was at the airport, waiting for a flight, when Natasha received a phone call that her son had just died. Natasha was on her way to visit her hospitalized son, and he died of Sickle Cell before she could get there. Natasha was extremely upset, so Teresa in Fort Worth stayed with her until Natasha’s husband could get there. Please pray for the son’s family, too, as he and his wife have a 1 year old daughter, Gigi.
6/9 – Robert requests that everyone pray that he develops common sense – maybe sometime before he hits 50?
6/10 – Notsothoreau asks for prayers for whig, who is getting monoclonal antibody treatment to try to restart whig’s immune system.
6/13 – USNtaim asks for prayers for his brother, who burned his feet (3rd degree burns). He has no feeling in his feet, so didn’t know he was burning them on hot concrete, or how bad the burns were. He was sent to ER, and put on IV antibiotics to treat the infection creeping up his legs. On top of this, he’s in the middle of a divorce.
6/14 Update – He is headed home, since the antibiotics are working and his feet will heal.
6/16 – Dave in Fla asks for prayers for Mark, who just passed away. It appears he died from heart failure. He was a lurker here and a commentor at Stoaty’s site. He was gay, a passionate conservative, and a heck of a nice guy. He was from WI and lived in London.
6/17 – Prayers are needed for Sponge and his family, at the passing of his mother.
6/19 – browndog asks for prayers for his boys, who has not heard from in 2.5 years. He would appreciate some divine intervention to motivate them to open their hears to a reconciliation.
6/20 – Nurse Ratched asks for prayers for her oldest son, who has Covid. He’s not as bad as he was initially, but is still pretty sick.
6/23 – Ann Wilson, aka Empire asked for prayers that all would go smoothly, as one of her sisters (T) has decided it’s time for her to go into assisted living due to her rapidly declining health. Ann and her other sister (R) are considerably relieved, as they have been trying to convince T of this for quite some time.
6/24 – San Franpsycho asks for prayers for poor Mrs. F. who has been coughing and emetic for the last 36 hours, and for Boy F. who, lacking the ability to understand the situation, is distraught with worry.
6/25 – jmel needs prayers for her cousin, whose husband was one of six killed in a helicopter crash in West Virginia this past Wednesday. They could only identify him be his dental records. She is now a widow at 48 with two teenage boys, one severely autistic.
6/26 – BifBewalski could use some prayers as he and his family deal with the passing of his father.
6/29 – Please pray for mpfs and his family, as his uncle is having health issues and complications from blood clots. It is not looking good.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
Romans 8:26-27
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
***
Good morning Moron Horde. I hope you are in the midst of a long Independence Day Weekend. Just a couple of housekeeping matters before commenting.
1) Open thread Opine and/or Bloviate to your hearts content.
2) The Limeys are fair game to make fun of.
3) No running with sharp objects.
4) Be nice to one another.
5) Enjoy French toast with 100% pure maple syrup.
6) Have a great weekend!
Well, work insanity is finally easing for at least a couple of days. Have a big project kicking off next week and October is likely to be another write-off, but at least I won't be working 18 hour days and moving house at the same time.
These posts will gradually return to their usual schedule and content.
It seems like I picked the right week to be on a big city salary with a small town mortgage: The GPU shortage is over. (The Verge)
Do I need a new GPU? There are games I want to play and applications I want to run that can benefit from teraflops of crunching power, but I already have two laptops with RTX 3060 graphics, which while far from high end are perfectly fine for Minecraft and... Also Minecraft.
In fact Chinese authorities announced and then deleted that they will pursue their disastrous Zero COVID policies for the next five years. (The Guardian)
That worked so well for New Zealand, and China is also a small remote island. There's no chance that anything could go wrong and I am totally not buying everything I need for the new house at the earliest possible opportunity.
1TB for $100 and transfer rates up to 5GB per second. It's DRAMless, so not suitable for servers (or developers who run local copies of applications, like me), but for most desktop use should do fine.
An employee at their email provider made off with their customer list. If you use OpenSea - which I do, for work - you will have already seen messages from OpenSea telling you not to trust messages from OpenSea.
We know that leftists don't live in the real world, but does anyone else think that some of these more rabid protesters seem a little too....creepily worked up by the imaginary things they are protesting?
You know how Indian trains are always overstuffed? Well check this out. The joke caption says, "After almost 2 years of house arrest, you can now enjoy life to the fullest again with the #9EuroTicket ."
Man flies dogs from shelters to their foster homes at his own expense. At the end, he mentions having flown a bat (a bat, Duncanthrax) to a foster home. No pictures, though.
Fun: Side by side comparison of Airplane! and the lame telemovie it was based on, Zero Hour. You may have seen these comparisons before; this one intercuts dialogue between the two movies to show that yes, they are basically the same script. One's just 25% sillier.
Earlier this week, I reported that that the Atlanta Fed GDP tracker had put the Q2 GDP "growth" at -1.0, meaning contraction. Which mean we're in two back to back quarters of negative "growth," which is the classic definition of recession.
The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP has collapsed in recent days, growth in the second quarter of 2022 has been cut to a contractionary -2.1%, down from -1.0% on June 30, down from 0.0% on June 15.
So, if confirmed, we had a quarter of -1.6% growth, and then a quarter of -2.1% growth -- not just a recession, but an intensifying one.
Thanks to Thomas Paine, who is aptly named for this tip.
Thanks, NeverTrump! Just want to say, I am really enjoying the Nice Tweets!
YOU propagandized for this.
YOU take a bow for the victory YOU achieved.
YOU take YOUR seat.
YOU join YOUR allies in the Democrat Party.
YOU never show your fat, well-stuffed faces around here again.
YOU will have to make do with lesser, cheaper Stallions for YOUR wives' twisted sexual appetites.
Well it is more gender-bender grooming directed at children, which is Disney's entire work product now, isn't it?
A friend points out that, despite the fact that it is the left that began this cycle of endless twitter outrages and cancellation attempts, the media never reports that "The Left is Outraged again" over this or that.
No, when the left is outraged, they claim that "Twitter" or "the Internet" is outraged. The left is never outraged -- all of society is outraged.
When the same 40 Trans Extremists are sending death threats to J.K. Rowling, the media does not report that. They just say, "J.K. Rowling posted another anti-trans screed, and The Internet is not having it!!!"
The Internet? Really?
The whole internet?
Or just the 40 leftwing propaganda accounts you agree with and promote?
What about all the death threats you always pretend to be so concerned about?
But when the right is outraged -- sometimes a bit trivially, but often justifiably -- it's their outrage alone.
Despite the fact that most parents, who are not very political, do not want Disney or any other Woke corporation proselytizing Trans Catechisms to their children in the guise of "children's entertainment."
This is of course a deliberate and conscious effort to marginalize and otherize the right while normalizing and universalizing the left.
Speaking of death threats:
Blue checkmark Jessica Kirson, who claims to be a comedian, twatted at Lauren Boebert, "Every time I watch you speak, I picture you in a guillotine and rub one out."
"I would not hit that. She's heinous." -- Sigmund the Sea-Monster
62 Jessica the comic definitely has a face made for radio.
and she has a body made for extraction from a bedroom by a crane.
Posted by: ace
Edward Snowden
@Snowden
The fact that is considered legal for a corporation to compile perfect records of your private life simply because you had to "click OK to continue" to make your phone work is a perfect expression of who holds the power in society and why they should be cast into the sea.
Wait, I'm a conservative, didn't I swear an Oath of Perpetual Fealty to my corporate overlords?
As spotted by Curtis Houck, Good Morning America pushed the Big Lie that Ketanji Brown Jackson is "the first Black Supreme Court Justice," except for, you know, Clarence Thomas.
And not even just Clarence Thomas, the one they might have possibly intended to slight.
These highly-educated, multiple-layers-of-fact-checking News Professionals also erased Thurgood Marshall from the record.
You know, the guy who successfully argued Brown vs. Board of Ed on his way to actually getting appointed to the Supreme Court.
He's kind of a big deal, especially for race-conscious lefties.
But for ignorant animal Millennials, history began during the disgusting years they were each shat out of their "birth-giving parents."
Spite and ignorance are rampant at Good Morning America -- completely different uneducated animals made the same mistake on their YouTube channel.
1, he did not say that, he quoted plaintiffs as saying that, and you know, in a court case, what plaintiffs allege is kinda-sorta important in the case, and
2, he did not say the vaccines "were made from aborted children," and neither did the plaintiffs; they said the vaccines were made from stem-cell lines cultivated from aborted children, which is, what's the word for this, "true."
As someone suggested in the replies, either Justice Clarence Thomas has changed his pronouns to "they/them" or he's just reading something presented by the plaintiffs, as Axios reports:
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested Thursday in a dissenting opinion that coronavirus vaccines were developed using "aborted children."
...
"They object on religious grounds to all available COVID-19 vaccines because they were developed using cell lines derived from aborted children," Thomas wrote in his dissent, referring to the plaintiffs that brought the lawsuit.
"No Name Today" says that's not quite true, and I'm wrong:
38 >>>they said the vaccines were made from stem-cell lines cultivated from aborted children, which is, what's the word for this, "true."
Not quite. The stem-cell lines being referenced were used for testing purposes during development. So, the vaccines were not "made" from that, but they were tested against them.
Still objectionable.
Posted by: No Name Today
Ah, okay, I was always a bit shaky on what exactly was being alleged in regard to the stem-cells. I shouldn't have assumed more without clarifying.
(Unlike the Fake News Propaganda Media, I admit errors!)
Always remember: The media claims what separates their falsehoods from "Fake News" that should be banned and censored by their tech media buddies is that the media "always admits their errors and corrects them."
Do they?
Where are the corrections?
If the media is not admitting and correcting its many, many partisan, propagandistic errors -- which they're demonstrably not -- then they are, by their own definition, the same as "Fake News" pushed by "Macedonian Content Farms" and they must deplatformed by social media monopolies.
Why am I the only person making this point?
Hey other bloggers, you are specifically granted permission to make this point, too. It's a good point. We really should press it.
And I don't just think that's pride of authorship.
Meanwhile, Rex Chapman, a minor NBA player who is a host on CNN+ -- wait a tic, is that still a going concern? -- says that Clarence Thomas ain't black because he doesn't go to NBA games and of course all blacks love the b-ball.
Rex Chapman
@RexChapman
Clarence Thomas would last 20-30 seconds in an NBA locker room.
I wonder how long you'd last in court.
Oh I don't mean as a lawyer, I mean as a drug-addict petty criminal defendant. We'll get to that.
Why have you never seen Clarence Thomas at an NBA game? As in -- ever?
An intellectual and scholar doesn't love watching basketball. I'm shocked.
@RexChapman
Bill Clinton used to come to our games in Landover with the Bullets. Clarence Thomas -- never.
Right, Bill Clinton, there's your real black guy. Not this sharecropper's son poseur.
By the way, Rex Chapman is pasty-white. But you probably could have guessed that.
'Just kept getting worse': How NBA cult hero blew $50 million
Cult hero?
I think you misspelled that.
I also dispute "hero."
Former NBA player turned social media star Rex Chapman has opened up about how the end of his professional career led to his addiction to prescription painkillers.
Chapman, now 53, was selected with the eighth pick in the 1988 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets and played for 12 years, with stints for Washington, Miami and Phoenix before his eventual retirement in 2000.
You can tell who the really good players are, because teams can't wait to trade them to other teams in exchange for forty-score basketball nets and six palettes of Gatorade Ice.
...
Emergency surgery to remove his appendix led to him developing an addiction to OxyContin, a highly potent painkiller Chapman described as 'synthetic heroin'.
...
Speaking on his new podcast, Charges with Rex Chapman, the now 53-year-old said using the drug had led to a swift descent into addiction.
...
Despite making more than $50 million (AUD) in career earnings from NBA contracts alone throughout his 12-year career, by 2014 that wealth was all but gone.
With his addiction spiralling out of control in the years after his NBA retirement, Chapman's lowest point finally came in 2014, when he was caught stealing more than $18,000 worth of products from an Apple store, with plans to pawn the goods to pay various debts.
Chapman was arrested over his ill-conceived shoplifting plan, which prompted his third attempt at rehab at a facility in Kentucky.
By this point Chapman weighed more than 120 kilograms and his marriage had broken down.
That's 265 pounds in Imperial units. In traditional British units, it's 19 stone. In Australian customary units, it's 46 woggeloos and in Irish Wee People fairy-measures it's se'enscore nonnybits.
What a big fat broke-ass criminal drug addict scumbag.
You know what else I've never seen Clarence Thomas doing? Stuffing a bunch of iPads into his Big Fatboy Pants to steal them.
Bring the pain, CT.
Bring the pain.
That was made by "..." who is sometimes called "ellipsis."
Kavanaugh Joins Roberts and the Liberals to Uphold Biden's Right to Cancel Trump's "Remain in Mexico" Policy, Throwing Open the Border Wide to All Illegal Comers
—Ace
Of course Kavanaugh defected. And of course Roberts was never on our side.
I now at least understand the basis of the lawsuit in the first place. There are two parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act in play. One states that illegal aliens "shall" be detained until they can be removed, or found to be in the country legally (granted asylum, etc.).
Another part states that, until their cases are disposed of, they "may" be removed to a "contiguous" territory -- that is, Mexico -- pending a determination of their status.
Now, in law, as in common usage, "shall" is non-discretionary. It's an order. You shall do this. Period.
"May" is discretionary. You are permitted to do this, but you are not required to.
The lower court found -- accurately -- that the US government was violating the "shall" be detained until removal part of the act -- as they simply released 90% of illegal aliens into the country -- which means that they were required to follow the "may" be removed to a contiguous foreign territory until their cases could be adjudicated part of the act.
Oh, there is a part of the statute that says that illegal aliens may be released into the country on "parole," on their own recognizance, but "only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit."
In other words: Not as a general "catch and release" policy which is applied to virtually all illegal aliens, with no case-by-case showing of a "significant public benefit."
This... makes sense, then. They're not detaining as they "shall" do, they're not allowed to just release every alien into the general population, therefore they are left only with the option of removing to a contiguous foreign territory.
This also means that the government has been violating the INA law for a long, long, time, but so what? The courts often discover the government has been acting illegally for a long time, as when they "discover" that people have always had a right to engage in sodomy and therefore 200 year old anti-sodomy laws are all illegal.
But apparently the idea that the Supreme Court could find that the government has been acting illegally for a long time was just too much of mind-blower for Kavanaugh and Roberts (as well as the open lefties), who therefore decided that the law couldn't possibly mean what it actually says.
They therefore found that the "may" verb in the "may be removed" part must also be the verb the statute means in the "shall be detained" part.
Here's some of the dissent:
In fiscal year 2021, the Border Patrol reported more than 1.7 million encounters with aliens along the Mexican border. When it appears that one of these aliens is not admissible, may the Government simply release the alien in this country and hope that the alien will show up for the hearing at which his or her entitlement to remain will be decided?
Congress has provided a clear answer to that question, and the answer is no. By law, if an alien is "not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted," the alien "shall be detained for a [removal] proceeding." 8 U. S. C. s.1225(b)(2)(A) (emphasis added). And if an alien asserts a credible fear of persecution, he or she "shall be detained for further consideration of the application for asylum," s.1225(b)(1)(B)(ii) (emphasis added). Those requirements, as we have held, are mandatory.
Congress offered the Executive two--and only two--alternatives to detention. First, if an alien is "arriving on land" from "a foreign territory contiguous to the United States," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "may return the alien to that territory pending a [removal] proceeding." s.1225(b)(2)(C). Second, DHS may release individual aliens on "parole," but "only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit." [My emphasis.]
Due to the huge numbers of aliens who attempt to enter illegally from Mexico, DHS does not have the capacity to detain all inadmissible aliens encountered at the border, and no one suggests that DHS must do the impossible. But rather than avail itself of Congress's clear statutory alternative to return inadmissible aliens to Mexico while they await proceedings in this country, DHS has concluded that it may forgo that option altogether and instead simply release into this country untold numbers of aliens who are very likely to be removed if they show up for their removal hearings. This practice violates the clear terms of the law, but the Court looks the other way. [My emphasis.]
There are other issues discussed, such as whether the lower court had jurisdiction to hear this case at all and whether Biden complied with the Administrative Procedures Act and whether Mayorkas' second order cancelling Remain in Mexico cured the deficiencies in his first order, but they don't seem very important to me. Or, at least, not politically juicy.
We really need to fix this part of the law and make it clear that Remain in Mexico is the law.
Biden and the Democrats celebrated the ruling as a big win, but they have also guaranteed that voters, particularly those who are worried about the immigration crisis at the border, will be told in nonstop ads that Biden fought all the way up to the Supreme Court for the crisis.
Rescinding this policy opens the already-thrown floodgates even wider, allowing for greater numbers to flood the border with very little in the way to stop them from overwhelming border patrol. The Biden administration has thus far been reluctant to give federal agents any support, detention facilities, or funding to maintain control at the border. The result has been a flood of immigrants and a crisis that remains unchecked.
The death of 51 migrants in a truck trailer, a tragedy of human life we hadn't yet seen in this crisis, was a clear sign that we are failing not just to protect our border, but to protect human life.
By winning at the Supreme Court, Biden and his administration are taking ownership of the crisis. They are saying they want all of these people coming in from South and Central America, flooding our border and causing chaos among law enforcement in the region. They are laying claim to the resulting human and drug trafficking that happens in the region. They are saying this is all part of the plan.
Afghan finance and central bank officials from the Taliban-led government have departed for Qatar to meet with U.S. officials. The move comes after last week's deadly earthquake highlighted how critical relief efforts have stumbled under the weight of the country's spiraling economic woes....
The Washington Post first reported that Biden administration officials are considering ways to allow Afghanistan's government to use its frozen central bank reserves to tackle the humanitarian crises there.
Wait I thought NeverTrump told us that Biden would be a sure hand at the till? I thought his 40 years of Senatorial experience were going to fix all of the amateur Trump's blunders?!
Dr. Strangetweet, @lone_rides, had something to say to the NeverTrumpers:
Dr Strangetweet or How I Learned to Love the RT
@lone_rides
Jun 22
"I voted Biden but I didn't think he'd be this bad."
You were warned.
"Well, I'd still vote Biden over Trump."
Oh. In that case, shut up.
Imagine telling your fellow citizens "yeah your life sucks now after years of it not sucking, but I don't care."
"Well Trump was a danger to democracy!"
More of a danger than arresting political opponents like in Michigan? Because that's pretty damaging to democracy.
"I don't like Biden's policies but..."
There is no "but" to justify this.
None. Because anything you say either Biden has down and you ignored or Biden is doing and you're ignoring.
I remember the pseudo-Right saying we are voting for Biden but we will hold him accountable".
So when does that start? Because all I see is him curb stomping Americans and you bitching about the conservatives that want conservatism pushed.
Trump had a combative media on the Left and combative think-piecers on the Left and "Right".
What does Biden have? One reporter asking questions, everyone else ready to wipe his butt.
All you "just get rid of Trump and we'll fight Biden" fake conservatives are either cowards or liars.
Which is it?
"Voting Biden over Trump was the only logical choice."
High gas prices aren't logical. High food prices aren't logical. Spending millions on a proxy war isn't logical.
It's just that the alternative, a man you despised for succeeding where you failed, wasn't "your" guy.
You fought Trump more on a daily basis than you have Biden since he took office.
You're still fighting people who want the Right to be more than lap dogs.
So who's side are you really on?
Don't answer. We know.
Face it.
You were wrong about Trump.
You were wrong about Biden.
If you were fooled, you're not as smart as the people you look down on who told you about Biden.
If you weren't fooled, you're evil liars.
So which is it?
Are you stupid or are you evil?
Did you subject your fellow citizens to this because of your ego or because of your evil?
Personally, I think you get off on the suffering.
Cruelty is the point for you.
I keep saying this, but the pseudoright, the liberal Republican NeverTrumpers, the neocons-- liberals who became "conservative" only for purposes of supporting the policy of the Cold War against the Soviet Union -- have always hated, feared, and despised actual conservatives. And they have always feared a conservative takeover of America more than a leftwing progressive one.
They're 75% leftwing progressives themselves, so they don't fear that. They don't prefer it, you understand, but they also don't fear it.
They live in very leftwing Blue Cities in which ultraleft governance is the norm, in which ultraleft social norms are the norm, in which ultraleft political imperatives are the norm.
They are used to very leftwing government and have no visceral objection to it. They see it as merely a cost to pay for having easy access to the the-a-tre and tastefully ethnic restaurants.
On the other hand: they absolutely fear and despise conservatives, and would never agree to live in conservative-dominated regions.
They have remained "on the right" under one condition: The condition in which they control the actual conservatives and keep them out of actual power and keep conservatives from achieving the conservative priorities conservatives seek.
Oh, the neocons will agree to lead the conservatives -- as long as they can lead them away from actual conservatism, towards a more enlightened left-liberal Corporate Libertarianism.
The reason they hate Trump -- I mean, they hate him for other reasons, but the reason they H - A - T - E Trump -- is that he was the only man who could and would stand outside this Fake Politics the neocons had constructed with their openly liberal cousins in which conservatives had only two options, the Fake "Conservative"-branded version of neoliberalism, or the establishment liberal version of liberalism.
I'm really not a fan of Trump, and I would love it if he didn't run and just let DeSantis win 45 states in 2024, but let's give Trump credit: Literally no one was capable of standing completely apart from the Vast Fake Right Wing Conspiracy of grifter consultants, grifter fundraisers, grifter party leaders, and grifter politicians and saying "I'm going my own way, the fuck with all of you guys, I don't need your blessing and I won't repeat your mantras."
Again, I hate to say this, but give the man his due: Trump freed people's minds. He freed us from The Matrix of fake, forced "options" imposed on us by the Uniparty.
The "manufactured consent" that leftwing rabble-rouser Noam Chomsky wrote about? He didn't know the half of it. And he didn't know the real "manufactured consent" psyops operations were being directed not against the left but against the right.
This is why they are so determined to take out Trump. Part of it is backwards looking-- they want vengeance against the man who stole the power they had tricked conservatives into granting them.
But most of it is very forwards-looking: they think that if they can discredit and destroy Trump, then they can put us all back into the box, where we all accept that our choice is between Jeb! flavored Fake Conservatism, or Marco Rubio flavored Fake Conservatism, or Kristi Noem flavored Fake Conservatism.
If they can just rid themselves of this turbulent anti-priest, then the Rubes will calm down and accept reason and accept their place as The Ruled, not the Rulers, and finally start obeying the neocon branch of the neoliberal establishment Uniparty again.
I don't think they're right. I sure hope they're not right, because if a movement is to endure, it has to be capable of existing without its founder. It cannot die when the founder's lifespan ends.
The neocon NeverTrumpers are sure hoping that's all this is, and all there is to Trumpism is a bunch of Zombies mesmerized by Trump's Dark Charisma, and if they can just get rid of the Zombie Master, then the spell will be broken, and we'll all go back to being hypnotized by them.
They don't understand -- they can't understand -- they won't understand -- that this is much less about allegiance to Trump and much, much more about a declaration of war against them.
Trump was and is a rallying point. A figure to gather around. A flag to gather under.
But others can serve this function.
To be honest, I don't give a shit if they release Ted Kazynski from prison and he becomes the new MAGA standard bearer -- I'll rally around him to oppose the corrupt, smugly-toxic Ruling Party.
They all pretend they were "just fighting Trump."
That is the biggest lie of all.
They were attacking Trump. They weren't fighting Trump. They weren't denigrating and dehumanizing Trump.
They were doing all those things to us, and they know that.
In 2016, we got sick of complaining to the Establishment that our voices were being ignored and openly mocked -- "Hobbits!" After years and years of being ignored, you stop asking, and you start telling.
We told them. We voted for Trump.
We told them that we were going to pursue a different kind of politics than the one the Establishment corporate service officers of the GOP had been pursuing for fifty years.
And we won.
But we didn't.
Because instead of allowing us to enjoy the victory we'd lawfully, rightly, legally obtained, NeverTrump decided upon a scorched earth strategy to subvert, undermine, block, and discredit us and stop us from doing any of the things we had just won a popular mandate to do.
They were insistent that we should have the choice between two options: Establishment Neo-liberalism and Fake "Conservative"-Branded Establishment Neo-Liberalism, and we were simply not permitted to make any selection except for those on the menu made by the Ruling Class, and as we had acted above our station and mistaken ourselves for free men, we would have to be Taught a Lesson.
NeverTrump would now turn itself to ensuring that the policies we had lawfully, honestly won the right to put into practice would fail, so that Trump would fail, so that our movement would fail, so that we would realize that we were all Stupid Little Hobbits incapable of choosing for ourselves and go back to obeying Paul Singer and Bill Kristol and Mitch McConnell and AEI and its donors.
And NeverTrump really thinks that after all this, after making treasonous war on their former allies for six fucking years, we're going to support them when they try to force Kristi Fucking Noem on us?
Or -- Liz Cheney?
Are you kidding me?
You are dead to us. You are nothing but traitors, and no one trusts a traitor, not even the side they defected to.
But you would do better to follow Bill Kristol's lead and simply start attempting to create a Neocon Bubble inside the Democrat Party, because you will never be permitted any success in the GOP again.
I will vote for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before I vote for a NeverTrump candidate. I will vote for Bernie Sanders before I vote for a NeverTrump neocon.
I will affirmatively do what NeverTrump did -- I will work to destroy everything and burn it all down, in order to gain back power for my faction -- rather than submit to you, ever again.
Death to the NeverTrumpers.
Death to the Neocons.
Death to fake conservative charlatans and internal saboteurs.
Is it clear now, AllahPundit?
Taking down Trump is not the win you've been jerking yourself off about for six years.
.@RepLizCheney: "Let me also say this to the little girls and to the young women who are watching tonight these days, for the most part, men are running the world and it is really not going that well." pic.twitter.com/mmrboVkBZK
Totally apart from her GirlPower work with Pelosi running roughshod over due process protections in Congress, this sexist trope is such a stupid and lefty thing for Liz Cheney to say. It's Hillary Clinton-esque.
Well the NeverTrumpers did all support Hillary Clinton in 2016, so.
Oh wait, they claim they didn't -- they just used all of what influence they had to direct people away from voting for Trump, while encouraging people to vote for either Hillary Clinton or spoiler third-party candidates like the pothead from Arizona.
Totally different from "supporting Hillary Clinton!"
This session, let's expand school choice any way we can," declared Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in his State of the State address on Jan. 10, "Let's think big and find more ways to get kids into the school of their parents' choice. Send me the bills, and I'll sign them."
The Arizona Legislature on Friday night answered Ducey's call, passing a bill to expand eligibility for the state's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (also known as education savings accounts or ESAs) to all K-12 students.
Once signed into law, Arizona will reclaim its title as the state with the "most expansive ESA" policy in the nation.
Empowerment Scholarship Accounts empower families with the freedom and flexibility to customize their child's education. Arizona families can currently use ESAs to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, homeschool curriculums, online courses, educational therapy, and more.
The ESAs are funded with 90% of the state portion of Arizona's per-pupil funding, including the additional funds for students with special needs.
Currently, about a quarter of elementary and secondary students in Arizona are eligible for an ESA, including students with special needs, students assigned to low-performing district schools, the children of active-duty military personnel, and a few other categories of students.
The Arizona Senate passed HB 2853 on Friday night on a vote of 16 to 10. Earlier in the week, the Arizona House of Representatives passed it by a margin of 31 to 26.
Break the teachers unions.
Defund the government schools.
End government payments to the institutions and organs of the left.
Biden Refuses to Ask Saudi Arabia to Produce More Oil; Biden Advisor Declares We Will Pay $5 For Gas For As Long As It Takes to Defend "The Liberal World Order" (AKA Ukraine)
President Joe Biden refused Thursday to ask Saudi Arabia to produce more oil to bring down the cost of gasoline in the United States and around the world.
Biden was specifically asked during his press conference in Europe about what he would say to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about oil during their scheduled meeting in July.
"No, I'm not going to ask them," he said, noting that he already "indicated" to all the Gulf heads of state his desire for them to produce more oil.
"I hope we see them, in their own interest, concluding that makes sense to do," Biden said
...
During his presidential campaign, Biden vowed to treat Saudi Arabia as a "pariah" but ultimately agreed to a meeting with their leaders in July.
..
Biden and his administration continue to pursue anti-fossil fuel policies, putting the country more at the mercy of oil-rich foreign dictators.
When asked how long drivers would be paying for gas, Biden replied, "As long as it takes. So Russia cannot, in fact, defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine."
Continuing the lie that that high gas prices are just the "Putin Tax," ignoring the massive Biden Tax in gas prices.
Commenters point out that Macron delivered the statement that the Saudis had already refused to pump more oil, so that's why Biden isn't asking.
Good catch, but: That's not exactly what Macron said. Macron said the UAE couldn't pump more oil, and the Saudis could pump only 150,000 barrels per day, which isn't enough to really bring down oil prices.
Still, it's something, and they allow they could pump that much more.
But Biden isn't asking.
...
Biden's handlers aren't walking back this statement that you'll pay "as long as it takes" -- they're doubling down on it.
Oh, Biden then went on to tell his Current Favorite Lie, that other major democracies are seeing higher inflation than the US. If you remember, he told that lie while meeting with reporters from corrupt legacy media, and ABC "News" then helped him cover up that lie by substituting a staffer's spin for what the lie meant. ABC "News" claimed Biden's statement that all other major democracies have higher inflation than the US meant, ABC "News" "clarified," only that inflation was a widely-occurring phenomenon.
Except that's not what he meant, of course. He meant what he said, which is another absurd Biden Lie. Or, a "Stuttering of the Truth," I guess.
Biden went on to defend his administration's economic record, including by twice claiming incorrectly that inflation was lower in the US than in other developed countries.
"We have the strongest economy in the world. Our inflation rates are lower than other nations in the world," he said, adding later: "I can understand why the American people are frustrated because of inflation. But inflation is higher in almost every other country."
The 8.6% annual US inflation rate in May was the highest since 1981 and higher than the Eurozone's estimated monthly average of 8.1%, Canada's 7.7%, South Korea's 5.4% and Japan's 2.5%.
The UK's annual inflation rate of 9.1% was higher than the US rate in May, but the US rate exceeded Germany's 7.9%, France's 5.8% and Italy's 6.9%.
Oregon "BIPOC" Teachers Claim That Eye-Rolling at the Demands of a DIE-Obsessed SJW Principal Is "An Example of a Harmful Practice Rooted in White Supremacy"
—Ace
The "diversity" SJWs have -- get this -- turned a school away from its intended mission of educating children into a spa for never-ending Maoist struggle sessions to "dismantle" white supremacy.
I'm sure you're all shocked to hear that SJWs have diverted an institution from its intended, healthy, productive mission to their own unauthorized, mentally-deranged, destructive agenda.
Apparently some teachers who weren't fans of turning an elementary school into a Maoist Racial Reorientation Camp began rolling their eyes at the demands of the #woke principal, and her "BIPOC" supporters in the staff, empowered by her to act as her secret police, did what secret police do and began assembling secret dossiers about people's wrongthink.
Among the crimes? Eye-rolling at a WOC for whom only fervent worship and apologies must be directed, and even... going above the heads of BIPOC Woke teachers to bring their own grievances to the attention of the district president.
Oregon teachers at the Errol Hassell Elementary School sent school administrators an email claiming that eye-rolling directed at a principal, among other alleged actions they observed, is an example of a "harmful practice rooted in White supremacy" that is happening in the workplace.
The educators from the Beaverton School District said in an email on May 27 that they had become of aware of a "rumor" that Principal Cynthia Lam Moffett was on the chopping block.
"We believe that much of the resistance to Principal Moffett's work... is a result of bias and targeted aggression. As BIPOC educators we have observed, experienced,and witnessed similar micro and macro aggressions," the email said. BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
No, it stands for "Black and Indigenous People of Color." Black and indigenous, that is, Indians and Latinos of the Americas, who are partly descended from Indians.
What they really mean is, of course: "NOT ASIANS." It's a specifically racist racial category which attempts to exclude Asian from receiving any benefits of affirmative action and forced racial hiring.
The teachers included an extensive list of "micro and macro aggressions." Many of them were concerning the staff's responses to the principal. It said, "Staff members rolled their eyes during... meetings while Principal Moffett is speaking"
It continued, "Staff raised their voice and interrupted Principal Moffet during... meetings, and spoke in a disrespectful and aggressive manner."
You must defer, boy. Why are you looking me in the eyes like that? Lower your eyes, boy!
This is not anti-racist. This is racist as hell. This is just importing good old-fashioned 1840s racism into the present, just with a quick race swap of who the Master classes nd Slave classes will be.
The list also mentioned "aggressive" emails and "behaviors" over the school radio "towards BIPOC staff," and said that they were being "ignored and bothered."
Ignored and bothered? Oh no, BIPOCs must always be well-attended and obeyed, boy!
The teachers said that "racial slurs were directed at Principal Moffett by a staff member" and that "White staff called a group of BIPOC staff a 'gang.'"
Anyone want to bet that the "racial slur" was calling the BIPOC Ideology Enforcers a "gang"?
* "Some of the White staff members undermine the chain of command and go over BIPOC leaders and communicate directly to Patrick about issues that can be solved and are solved in-house"
* "Principal Moffett is held responsible for... solving situations of racism in which she is a victim"
Someone failed to position Principal Moffett for success.
* "Staff members protesting book club focused on dismantling... racial oppression"
* "BIPOC feels uncomfortable in our building to the point that some of use are experiencing extreme anxiety because we feel unsafe... at our worksite."
* "Our emotion and physical well-being has been impacted not only by these actions but also by the lack of response and support from district leadership."
* "BIPOC staff is being called divisive for bringing up these issues and asking for support"
Divisive? Naaah.
After listing out all their complaints, the teachers asked why they are being labeled "divisive" when they are trying to dismantle those "harmful practices rooted in White supremacy."
"The potential of losing an intentional culturally responsive leader is sending a chilling message to us as BIPOC staff [at] Erroll Hassel and across the district, that BIPOC educators and leaders that prioritize equitable practices will be tokenized, silenced, and pushed out. This situation is creating confusion and fear among us and it is leading us to question why we are not being heard and instead are being labeled as divisive when we are trying to dismantle harmful practices rooted in White supremacy," the email said.
"We're going make ourselves the the caporegimes of this school with authority never granted to us by the district, and we're going to to compile secret Race Dossiers against all of the staff and wage constant daily war against them in the name of "dismantling harmful practices." Why are you calling that divisive?
And why are you contacting Patrick, our actual boss, instead of just Submitting to Our Asserted Authority?
BTW, the NeverTrump liberal Republicans insisted we didn't have to worry about this kind of thing and that it was just pointless "Owning the Libs" to talk about the explicitly racial caste system of the Evergreen College Campus.
That was just a college thing, they insisted. That could never affect the rest of America.
Everything will remain as it it was in 2003, forever and ever.
These are the Smart People in the party -- the people who always, always insist that literally nothing can ever change.
Oh -- and it's dirty to fight the Culture War. Only Racists and Krazy Kristians are interested in doing that.
The Smart People, like Baseball Cuck, spend all day writing about what a Nice Hispanic College Boy Marco Rubio is and how we're just a couple of tweaks in the tax code away from Nirvana.
The Biden administration was widely mocked a year ago at the Fourth of July for trying to sell the notion that a holiday cookout was 16 cents cheaper in 2021 than in 2020. That same menu in 2022 now costs $10 more than in 2021.
Team Biden is obviously quiet about the significantly higher cost.
The most significant thing to me about “The July 4th Cookout Index” is that this menu of typical American food is up 17% year over year, yet our government keeps lying to us trying to persuade us that inflation is only 8.6%.
With the price of gasoline up 49% from a year ago, electricity up 11%, the cost of rent up 15.3%, and food up 17%, how in the world is overall inflation only 8.6%. What products that are part of a typical American’s monthly budget are experiencing negligible inflation (or deflation) such that it pulls the overall inflation rate under 9%.
The 8.6% official inflation rate is a lie. Consumers know it’s a lie. And consumers know it’s the Biden administration that is lying to them.
*****
So, What Is Congress Focusing on In The Midst of This Economic Crisis?
With runaway inflation, supply shortages, and parents not even able to buy formula for their babies, what is Congress focused on? They’re focused on Donald Trump, of course.
While consumers are trying to decide what spending to cut, Congress appears to be trying to impeach Donald Trump for the third or fourth time. I’ve lost count. Impeaching Trump is pretty much all they do anymore, even though Biden is President.
So how is Congress’ indifference to the economic crisis playing out with normal Americans who live beyond the Beltway? Not so good apparently.
Kimberly Berryman lives in the countryside outside Fredericksburg, Va., but drives 20 miles to the suburbs to do her shopping. For Berryman, it's worlds away from the hearings about the Jan. 6 insurrection going on at the U.S. Capitol. "I got other things to do," she said with a laugh.
Berryman, who works with special needs students, said she was shocked and scared by the attack at the Capitol. But she said she's more worried about price hikes and supply shortages than litigating Jan 6. "Just move on to something else," she said.
On the other hand, so long as Congress does nothing but hold hearings about January 6, and re-re-re-impeach Donald Trump, they are distracted from doing any more legislative harm to the country.
*****
Bed Bath & Beyond Gets Woke & Goes Broke
Remember when the cartel of woke retailers all simultaneously banished MyPillow from their shelves after the 2020 presidential election, because Mike Lindell didn’t effusively praise the integrity of the election as demanded by corporate America. Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the retailers that pulled MyPillow.
All over social media, conservatives responded by promising to boycott BB&B in response, but as it turned out, the boycott was…well…it was incredibly successful!
On Wednesday, Bed Bath & Beyond announced a loss of $224 million for its adjusted operating profits, and the company ended the quarter with a worrisome $107 million in cash.
"We are looking at a situation in which this company is probably not going to be around," Chukumba told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "It’s not going to take years. We could be talking about months at this point. We are in the end days. These results were a dumpster fire, there is no other way to put it."
Get woke go broke.
*****
Swinging In To The Holiday Weekend
How ‘bout we swing in to the long holiday weekend with something that’ll put a smile on your face and get your feet moving.
The Quebe Sisters have the entire package – voices, harmonies, charm, fiddling skills, and of course, an upright bass in the band.
Maybe it’s not as big a decision in the public mind as the SCOTUS decisions this term on Abortion and the 2nd Amendment. But it’s a big one, bigly and big league.
The United States Supreme Court, in a majority Opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, just ripped the heart out of the Green New Deal agenda which was being carried forward not by act of Congress, but by administrative fiat through the Environmental Protection Agency. Not being able to pass legislation to decarbonize the economy, Democrats relied on agency action.
The case is West Virginia v. EPA (Docket) where the Questions Presented were:
In 42 U.S.C. § 7411(d), an ancillary provision of the Clean Air Act, did Congress constitutionally authorize the Environmental Protection Agency to issue significant rules including those capable of reshaping the nation’s electricity grids and unilaterally decarbonizing virtually any sector of the economy-without any limits on what the agency can require so long as it considers cost, nonair impacts, and energy requirements?
That sounds dry, but it’s a big ****ing deal, as Politico noted it goes even beyond regulating carbon emissions and goes to the heart of the ever-expanding administrative state, How SCOTUS’ upcoming climate ruling could defang Washington:
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling this month hobbling the Biden administration’s efforts to rein in greenhouse gases — but its impact could weaken Washington’s power to oversee wide swaths of American life well beyond climate change.
The upcoming decision on the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate oversight offers the conservative justices an opportunity to undermine federal regulations on a host of issues, from drug pricing and financial regulations to net neutrality. Critics of the EPA have clamored for the high court to do just that, by declaring it unlawful for federal agencies to make “major” decisions without clear authorization from Congress.
. . . From the majority Opinion:
Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible “solution to the crisis of the day.” New York v. United States, 505 U. S. 144, 187 (1992). But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d). A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
What a fitting end to the term.
Understatement of the year from friend of the blog and legal eagle William Jacobson. And that majority opinion was from John Roberts. John freakin' Roberts. Go figure. Considering he fairly reeks of Swamp gas, insofar as a career as Chief Justice doing all he can to preserve, protect and defend the absolute power of the DC status quo, it wouldn't have surprised me in the least if he had voted the other way. His assertion that "Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible 'solution to the crisis of the day'" hints at that, but then again, referring to it in quotes as a "crisis of the day" read to me as a slap at the Left.
Recall in 2007 the horrendous SCOTUS decision that declared the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide as an atmospheric pollutant that contributes to "global warming." The chief perpetrator of that was John Paul Stevens, with henchmen Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer concurring. Roberts filed the dissent with Scalia, Thomas and Alito concurring. Aside from the fact that manmade global warming/climate change is a complete myth, labeling CO2 as a pollutant is an equally dangerous bromide. Along with oxygen, CO2 is essential for life on earth to exist and therefore is not, never was and never will be a pollutant given the biology of this world, and given the fact that every living thing on this planet is carbon based. That said, virtually every industrial process, every engine and indeed all forms of animal life on this planet emit CO2 to one degree or another. You can well imagine the consequences if it were to be regulated by individuals with the mindset of Scoldilocks Greta Thunberg and worse Gina McCarthy.
The equally crucial issue that the link discusses is the effect this ruling has on the power of the bureaucracy itself. The Politico headline says it all: "How SCOTUS’ upcoming climate ruling could defang Washington." Starting with the 16th Amendment and certainly with FDR's new deal — all the way up to the EPA itself (thanks, Tricky Dick) — the very foundations of American government, wherein political power was supposed to be vested primarily in the citizenry and then the states with certain very limited powers delegated to a federal government, was turned completely upside down. Since that time, and metastasizing like cancer, a giant unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy in Washington issues edicts and regulations that have the force of law behind them. No one voted for that. And yet, you defy a governmental agency in any way, shape or form and you'll wonder what fell on you. Funny, we fought a revolution and won our independence from a tyrannical monarchy on the very same grounds. "No taxation without representation" should ring a bell, unless your main textbook in school was Ibram X. Krement's Jive Kampf crackpot race nuttery.
Dig this line from Roberts: " . . . it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d). A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body."
Well duh! The legislative branch is where laws are supposed to originate. But Congress gradually abrogated that responsibility long ago because politicians are loathe to actually pass laws that might be damaging to one's political prospects. What better way to both advance the goals of big government statism as well as pass the buck for the ensuing failures and disasters of those goals on bureaucracies that will not only never be abolished but will grow in size, scope and funding with each new budget. Or should I say continuing resolution because the criminal scumbags in DC are too cowardly to even enact one.
Now you understand why owning SCOTUS is so absolutely vital to the anti-American Left. Any law or regulation that they manage to pass, or the bureaucracy advances, like national abortion or Obamacare or declaring CO2 a poisonous pollutant, that would never have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving real legal scrutiny will be declared kosher and Constitutional by hacks in black that are down for the struggle, as it were, to fundamentally transform America. And Politico is right to be shitting itself over what this means beyond the EPA.
All this is well and good except for one thing: America as founded no longer exists, the great rulings from SCOTUS and elections and all the rest of the illusion of regular order notwithstanding. There is no way in hell the Leftists are going to just say "Oh well, the courts and the people have spoken. Maybe we should listen to them or at best try to compromise." Whether its hate shakes, fists and Molotov cocktails from their sanctioned black-clad brownshirt street terrorists, 3:00AM FBI/CNN raids and imprisonment without due process in the Garland Archipelago, a sudden plague of Monkeypox that locks us down and steals the midterms or simple nullification by blue shit hole mayors and governors, these people are not only not going to concede, they are going to quadruple down until we are crushed.
Isn't it funny how for over 100 years, they've done everything they can to eradicate the Constitution and particularly the 9th and 10th Amendments but when things don't go their way, they hide behind both of them as justification to ignore the law?
I am overjoyed at all the huge decisions that came down this week, which you can thank Donald Trump for. But the reality is, as I have stated many times, I cannot see any form of reconciliation, rapprochement or even accommodation with the Left. They are too far gone in their hatred of us and of America as founded for the country to ever come together again as it was. In any case, I am relieved by all great news, despite the fact that as Steve Miller once crooned "you've got to go through hell before you get to Heaven" and we don't really know what constitutes the latter, in political/governmental/societal terms, let alone if we'll get there.
But there will be "fundamental transformation." Perhaps though, it may not be the way the dog-eating stoner degenerate thought it would be.
Have a safe, blessed and happy Fourth of July weekend.
Note: YUUUUGE thanks to all who hit the tip jar. New podcast episode coming late today or early Saturday so BOLO.
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
Richard Fernandez: "Even achieving stalemate in Ukraine would mean re-shoring industry and reducing dependence on China/Russia. That would mean the end of the global world, and for the moment at least, a halt to the dream of Davos and the Great Reset. . . It is possible to win Cold War II or be Woke, but not both. This is the fundamental choice Western politics must wrestle with in the coming years." In Ukraine, Cold War II Meets the "Great Reset"
Chief Justice Roberts for the 6-3 Majority – “Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible “solution to the crisis of the day.” …. But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme ….” Supreme Court Aborts the Green New Deal, Strikes Down EPA’s Carbon-Emission Power Grab
"On the last day of its term, the Supreme Court stops the Environmental Protection Agency from making policy without express congressional authorization." Reining In the Agencies
"Thanks to President Trump’s Supreme Court picks, American businesses and families have been uplifted and freed from the heavy hand of unaccountable government bureaucracy." A Win Over Green Tyranny
"The justices, in a 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, overturned a federal appeals court decision requiring Biden to restart Trump's 'remain in Mexico' policy after the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri sued to maintain the program." The Supreme Court Just Made It Easier For Illegal Immigrants To Stay In the US
"While the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden can end the 'Remain in Mexico' program, federal data reveals that just 1.6 percent of migrants enrolled in the program have had valid claims for asylum to remain in the U.S." Data: Only 1.6% of ‘Remain in Mexico’ Migrants Have Valid Asylum Claims
"These poll numbers come as [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden’s [junta] is in a legal dispute over the pandemic-era immigration policy. After Biden announced the program would end in May, 21 states sued the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), alleging Biden unlawfully terminated the program."Poll: Most Hispanic Voters Support Trump’s ‘Title 42’ Border Policy
“I am glad that the Florida Supreme Court has granted my petition to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate international human smuggling networks that operate on our southern border,” DeSantis tweeted. “We are united in fighting back against Biden’s border crisis and protecting Floridians.” Ron DeSantis Secures Win In Combatting Fallout From Democrat Joe Biden’s Border Crisis
ABORTION
"Democrats are [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden for agreeing to nominate an anti-abortion Republican to a lifetime federal judgeship in Kentucky, less than a week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. . . 'Why you would pick him to fill a federal vacancy when you're a Democratic [alleged] president is beyond me.'" (then again, what was McYertle's compromise? - jjs) "Deal With the Devil: Secret Biden-McConnell Deal on Anti-Abortion GOP Judge Enrages Democrats (note: link is to AOL/USA Today - jjs)
"An attempt by Republicans to include the Hyde amendment in the bill was voted down 31-26, with Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, the only pro-life Democrat in the House of representatives, joining Republicans in voting for it." Democrats Advance Budget To Inflate CDC, NIH Budgets With No Hyde Amendment
CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
Jack Posobiec: "The harassment of Clark and Eastman is part of a much wider DOJ investigation into what the media has now dubbed a 'fake electors scandal.' But these were not “fake electors” at all, these were alternate electors that would be ready in the event that legal challenges in certain states opened up the possibility of a GOP win. Nevertheless, the Justice Department has been serving subpoenas and search warrants to Republican Party officials all across the country in a wild witch hunt designed to intimidate local leaders and criminalize legal maneuvering." Biden Has Weaponized the FBI and DOJ Against His Political Opponents— The GOP Needs to End It
Daniel Greenfield: “While it’s still early, the progress of the case has already exposed how the city’s public defender’s office appears to operate as an outpost of leftist insurrectionists. And it points to larger connections between the rioters and the pro-crime legal movement that is enabling them.” Will the Antifa 11 Face Justice in San Diego?
* * * * *
"What leftist, on the verge of losing his power in Washington, and yet possessed of the means of retaining it through violence, would have walked away as Trump did?" Trump Is the Greatest Man Alive
Julie Kelly: "NeverTrump is up to its old tricks: bashing Trump, berating his supporters, and cheering his latest nemeses who almost always end up as farcical as NeverTrumpers themselves." NeverTrump Hearts Cassidy
"Biden was specifically asked during his press conference in Europe about what he would say to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about oil during their scheduled meeting in July." Joe Biden Insists He Will Not Beg Saudi Arabia to Produce More Oil
"The S&P 500 fell 0.9 percent, its fourth consecutive drop. The benchmark index is now down 21 percent since it hit an all-time high at the beginning of the year. It entered a bear market earlier in June." Stocks Tumble into the Worst First Half in Over 50 years
"Not only is the Fed raising its policy interest rate in 75 basis-point steps rather than the more normal 25. It is also on the path to withdrawing market liquidity by as much as $95 billion a month this fall by not rolling over its maturing bond holdings." The Fed's Hawkish Policies Risk Making the Economy's Doom Loop Worse
"The White House gleefully touted on July 1, 2021, that the 'cost of a 4th of July cookout in 2021 is down $0.16 from last year'. . . The average Fourth of July cookout is estimated to be 17% more expensive this year than 2021, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation." Tweet From White House Comes Back to Bite Them in the Ass One Year Later
SECOND AMENDMENT
“For one—and this might take you by surprise—the truth is that you simply cannot control the actions of people that are not subject to your respective jurisdictions. We understand that, for a time, New York City was the de-facto capital of this nation. We’re sure this is an immense point of pride, but that temporary honor ended in 1790.” Gun Rights Groups Sends Letter to NY Attorney General, NYC Mayor Over "Assault on the People"
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
"This pattern from Amazon fits the pattern of all of Jeff Bezos’ space-related projects: Big promises, little action, and when competitors get things done sue or demand the government play favorites. Sure does not seem to me to be a good long-term business plan." Amazon to FCC: Consider Limiting SpaceX's Starlink Constellation for Our Benefit
“The current method of allowing a limited number of reporters into these events is not only restrictive and antithetical to the concept of a free press, but it has been done without any transparent process into how reporters are selected to cover these events,” the letter said. “We are all left wondering who is making these decisions and what are the criteria on which they are based?” Nearly 70 Journalists Sign Letter Demanding White House Reopen To Press
"Victor Javier Rodriguez, a coordinator for DCPS Office of Equity, claimed in a tweet that his job is to force educators to comply with culturally responsive practices, many of which derive from the core tenets of critical race theory." DC Schools Equity Advisor: "My Job" is to "Drag the Fuck Out of School Leaders"
J. Christian Adams: "All of this is just a first taste at understanding the behind-the-curtain relationships developing between progressive deep pockets, leftist activists, vote fraud deniers, federal officials with prosecutorial power, and state and local election officials. This effort started after the 2016 election, and notably focused on many of the bluish swing states that Donald Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020. Whether that was the plan or just a side benefit of the Denver confab and Democracy Fund plans remains to be seen." FOIAs Reveal Progressive Money Fueling FBI, DOJ, Leftist Activist and Election Official Coordination
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY
"Social Ventures Inc., a charity run by Ben & Jerry’s board member Jeff Furman, raked in around $118,000 from the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation between 2016 and 2020, according to financial disclosure records." (that's a lot of gallon tubs of Rachel Corrie Crunch - jjs) Ben & Jerry’s Foundation President Steered Funds to His Own Charity
POLITICS
"A bipartisan majority of Americans had pessimistic views about the economy, with 67% of Democrats and 90% of Republicans saying the economy was in poor condition, according to the poll. Overall, 79% of respondents described the national economy as in poor condition." POLL: Even Democrats Think the Country Is Going in the Wrong Direction
"Although Ocasio-Cortez is a leading fundraiser in the Democratic Party, some of the party’s most vulnerable House members have declined donations from her Courage to Change Leadership PAC. . . Republicans have already begun noting the endorsements in political attacks." Rust Belt Democrats Silent on Titty Caca Ocasio-Cortez Endorsements
Robert Spencer: "Public service in the United States has become a lucrative exercise in mutual back-slapping, with numerous well-heeled lobbies eager to pay a cash-strapped Congressman outlandish speaker’s fees after he gets them what they want on the legislative floor. And once you’ve climbed aboard the gravy train, it’s hard to get off." Sen. Leahy Breaks a Hip
THE UKRAINIAN "FRONT"
"Were Russian troops forced into a humiliating retreat from Snake Island, or did Moscow order a withdrawal from the strategic island as a “goodwill” gesture to promote grain exports?" UKRAINE WAR: What Really Happened on Snake Island?
"Biden’s announcement in Madrid was warmly welcomed by Poland, which has been calling for a permanent presence of NATO forces since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and began supporting armed separatists in eastern Ukraine." Biden Announces Plans for "Permanent" US Army Base in Poland
"The Supreme Court’s momentous 2022 decisions mark an end of consequentialism on the Court and begin the restoration of constitutional government." (in a sane, moral and just world, this would be true, except we're not in that world - jjs) A Consequential End to Consequentialism On the Court
“It’s really hard to not look at the universe in a new light and not just have a moment that is deeply personal,” he said. “It’s an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly releasing some of its secrets. And I would like you to imagine and look forward to that.” NASA Webb Telescope’s "First Light" Images Nearly Bring Tears to Astronomers’ Eyes
". . . Then the Wuhan panic arrived and everything stopped. Today’s PSLV launch was only its fifth launch since 2019. With almost all launches canceled, India’s smallsat business moved to SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other rocket companies that did not panic and continued to launch." India's PSLV Rocket Completes Launch Putting Nine Satellites Into Orbit
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
"The monthlong spectacle is over, and the taste of glitter is like ashes in our mouths." Proud of What?
Michael Anton: "The last desperate refuge of the stupid is to accuse their opponents of being Nazis." When Everything is Hitler
"The point of this story is not to argue the pros or cons of abortion. That subject will now rightly be debated and determined by the elected representatives in the fifty state legislatures across the country. My point is to illustrate the authoritarian and oppressive mindset of the leftist pro-abortion crowd. They don’t wish to debate anyone. You disagree with them, and they demand the power to destroy you. Period." Today's Blacklisted American: Amazon Employees Demand Company Blackball Everyone Who Disagrees With Them
"The apotheosis of humiliation is what you do willingly to yourself. So don’t take it. Complain." Snap Back!
HITHER & YON
"Brilliant, restive, alternately depressed and exhilarated, Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa had second thoughts about everything." Plural Like the Universe
NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.
ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Dell has replaced the old New Inspiron 16 Plus, which I rather like, with a new New Inspiron 16 Plus which is also mostly good and sort of much cheaper.
The new model swaps the 11800H CPU for a 12700H - 20% faster on single-threaded tasks and 30% faster multi-threaded. It only has six full size cores (down from eight) but also has eight half-size cores, for a convincing win overall.
The 3072x1920 16" screen is still there, as are the Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics on the high-end model. RAM is now DDR5, but be careful - except on the high-end model, half the RAM on this new version is soldered in place and can't be upgraded.
The list price in Australia seems to be about the same as the old model when it was 40% off. Since I got both of mine at 40% off I'm not mad about that, but I wonder if the new model will also get discounted. It will be a bargain if it does.
The only other change is that the numeric keypad has bitten the dust.
This is the 8-core 5800X with a jetpack strapped to it in the form of an extra 64MB of L3 cache. This reduces the thermal efficiency of the cooler so it is clocked slightly lower than the regular version.
The results depend on whether you need fast memory access, fast cores, or lots of cores to win a particular benchmark. It's the fastest CPU around for Dwarf Fortress for small and medium worlds, but lags behind for large worlds.
Playing Factorio it is up to 60% faster than Intel's i9-12900K, a massive difference. But on many tests the extra cache doesn't help at all, and it's competing against chips with 16 or 20 cores, so those results aren't pretty.
When Time Shall Count From The Date That The ONT Began To Hate
—WeirdDave
Greetings, and welcome to Thursday. Can you believe that tomorrow is July? Man, this year is going by so quickly that this just went up down the street.
3 clips, each of a different officer involved. Austin Texas. Aside from the fact that the officers managed to maneuver themselves into what amounted to a half circle, shooting at the guy in the middle (not really the best idea for avoiding friendly fire), and the officer in the second clip dumps all 15 rounds into/at the suspect and then stands there covering him with his slide locked back for about 10 seconds (props for a quick mag change when the suspect got up and he needed to shoot him some more, but he should have reloaded much sooner), they did a pretty good job. Guy just did not want to stay down.
Cooking Corner
Not to step on CBD's toes, but here at the ONT we're all about delectable dishes that are fun and easy to make. Like so:
You know this is old because a “large” coke is 10 oz. Call me crazy, but I'm actually tempted to make this. I mean, someobody somewhere must have thought that it tasted good, right? It made it into a cookbook at one point, right? How bad could it be?
I don't know if the above recipe is there, but if you like this kind of stuff, check out James Lileks' Gallery of Regrettable Food. It's a hoot.
So, this list was composed by “142 historians, professors and professional observers of presidencies.“ WTF is a “ professional observer of presidencies”? Are there amateur observers of presidencies? What does it take to break into the high-paying League of Presidential Observers (LPO)? If you do so before graduating college do you forfeit any remaining years of eligibility?
Second, care to guess the political leanings of these “ historians, professors and professional observers of presidencies”? Go on, guess. C'mon, c'mon, take a shot. You'll never get it in a million years. What? You're kidding me, you got it first time. Amazing.
So, Lincoln is 1 and Washington 2. Well, that's wrong. Washington is #1. Coolidge is 2 (he placed 23rd) and then Lincoln. But #3 gives away the game: FDR. In a correct list, FDR only gets to the middle of the pack because of his wartime leadership, based on his first 2 terms he'd be rubbing elbows with James Buchanan (who is rightly listed dead last.) The rest of the top ten is fairly solid, although JFK is, as always on lists like these, ranked too high, and what Truman did to crack the top 10 is beyond me. Reagan gets surprisingly high on the list ( 8 ), but the SCOAMF is 9 and Fucking Wilson is 12. Wilson! You could argue that he was worse than Buchannan, and I wouldn't fight you on it. And yes, Trump is in the bottom five. What do you think of the list, and how would you re-rank it?
There have been many other moments of exposure since 2016, from the negative reactions to Comicsgate, feminist Ghostbusters, feminist Star Wars, woke Star Trek, woke Dr. Who, woke Batwoman, woke He-Man, woke Lord of the Rings, critical race theory in television, trans, LGBT and CRT propaganda in children's programming, etc. It's becoming endless. Around 95% of all popular entertainment contains multiple layers of leftist messaging. The market is utterly saturated with it.
This kind of overwhelming propaganda is familiar. It is a methodology used in communist regimes and authoritarian governments throughout the 20th century including the Soviet Union and Mao's China, and it almost slipped right under the noses of the majority of Americans and western nations. The goal is simple: Make EVERYTHING political.
Want to escape the real world for a couple of hours into a fantasy land? Want to see daring tales of classical heroes and villains? Want to experience history as it actually happened, or at least very close to the historical record? Are you looking for an archetypal experience, a mythological exploration of the human mind or the human heart – something that almost anyone could relate to? Sorry, you're not allowed to escape. You're not allowed to examine universal ideas and ideals. Every single story must be told within the narcissistic framework (or prison) of modern political ideology. Even in stories set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
The extreme political left wants you to think about their beliefs and viewpoints all day everyday. They want you to assume that their ideology is the ONLY ideology. They want you to assume that the “majority” of the population thinks as they think. It's called manufacturing consensus.
Link to Zero Hedge, so the comments section is probably a shit show. I didn't read the comments on this article, but I've never seen a comment section over there that wasn't.
They say that in times of stress, anger and anguish, you see who people really are. These moments are rare but special because you get to see how much of their rhetoric manifests in action and how much is lip service.
With overwhelming anger seeping through their pores, Democrats saw only one viable target who would satisfy their rage. There was only one person for whom they felt comfortable exposing themselves by lifting the veil of their true hatred and indifference for black people.
In a matter of hours, “Uncle Clarence” was trending on Twitter, a reference to the racist pejorative “Uncle Tom.” I witnessed multiple conversations between white progressives questioning if Clarence knows he’s black, chastising him for being married to a white woman and even going so far as to feel completely comfortable calling him a n—er.
I fucking hate the racism of the left with the heat of a thousand suns, mainly because I thought we'd beaten it. I came of age in the 80s, and by 1990 I really thought that we'd done it. My generation had internalized the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and race just wasn't a thing anymore. Oh, there were scattered individual racists, to be sure, but on the whole, nobody cared. And then the left spent the next 30 years reversing all of the progress we'd made in the previous 30 years, and here we are today. I'll never forgive them for it.
Link goes to the last tweet in the thread, the first one doesn't display the whole thread properly because one tweet was removed, but the last one shows the whole chain. A modern take on Kipling's The Beginnings.
Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by R. M. Huffman* (pretty sure he wrote this):
*Huff is a Moron, and an author. You should read his "Sweet Tooth" anthology, the omnibus is available on Kindle for something like $3-4, and it's a hoot.
CBD, J.J. Sefton and Joe Mannix discuss: The corruption of the GOP, our entire governmental system and what comes after the collapse of the global order as we had known it, The legend of "Madison Cornbread" is born!, Quick Hits - junk-tuckers, head-choppers, Ben & Jerry's Rachel Corrie Crunch, Useless libertarians, and more!
Forgotten Aughts Mystery Click Garrett emailed me to tell me this was his favorite song. He said he always loved it, from the first time he heard it while watching his favorite show, The Vampire Diaries. But to cop to it, I do like this song. I know I shouldn't, but I do.
Forgotten Aughts Mystery Click F*g of the year/Who could beat up your man BTW this is one of those songs written quickly as a toss-off. The story goes he "took four shots of Tequila and a Ritalin" and wrote this song and another ("Hash Pipe").
That video of Hunter and the prostitute. What a charmer. I can see what his dead brother's widow saw in him. Always with the sweet talk. "I didn't hurt you." "I didn't bruise you." "I'm offering you water. Who are you calling?" "I treat you better than other clients do."
What a prince.
Posted by: red speck
Me: Does Pride month ever really end?
@Cicero43: Traditionally, Pride endeth before the Fall.
"My body my choice.
"The choice was Twinkies."
Cruelty via not_steve_in_hb.
Picture originally from here. I think it's great that the media is now acting as a bulletin board telling people where the leftwing demonstrations will be held. Do they also do this for pro-life or other conservative demonstrations, I wonder? (I don't wonder -- they do not.)
Thanks to the strength of Top Gun: Maverick, and the weakness of its competition, the jet thriller is returning to IMAX this weekend. Which is what I was hoping for. I missed seeing it in IMAX but when I heard the dinosaur movie was bad, I thought: I might get a second chance. (Usually only one big movie will be playing in the IMAX theater.)
Stronk Empowered Women Watch:
Anita Sarkeesian
@anitasarkeesian
If you are a manager that cares about mental health understand that devastating news like today's means your team members might be struggling. Offer them the day off or half a day. They aren't going to be productive anyway. Give them space to process and grieve.
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