Ace of Spades Pet Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Grab a beverage and take a peek at the world of animals.

Usually our opening is a silly photo. How about a moving photo today?

*****

A Little of This. A Little of That.

I think there are some 'Ettes and 'Rons who would qualify for this job. Vet seeks a cat cuddler.

Service dogs, they are everywhere, including a high school year book.

I'm a misanthrope, I would have deep fried it.

Lighten up Francis.

1 down, 8 to go. Fortunate little kitteh.

7 adorable animals.

The wisdom of animals.

Meet The PetMorons

I don't see any mischief in those eyes.

Been fans of Ace for years, love the pet thread, thought we'd send some pics in.

This is Magnum (the smaller one with the insanely cute, smug smile) and Samson. Pure bred Rough Collies.

We've always rescued animals (dozens over the years) but we had a rescue collie (Rowan) for many years and upon his passing decided that the breed was just perfect for us, so we went in search of another rescue. When we couldn't find one, we decided to go to one of the best collie breeders in the U.S. (Holmhaven) and get one - Magnum came to us at 9 weeks of age, and Samson followed about 6 months later - he was a return due to the owners having financial and health issues. They are actually cousins, and are best friends. What an incredible breed. -Eric

Bed hog Dobies? Ha, they don't look it.

Mina, standing, and Geddy, sitting. Rescued Geddy as a puppy from a meth head needing money. Mina just wants to be touched. They love swimming in the irrigation canal, hunting mice and gophers on our acreage and love being bed hogs in the morning. S.Lynn

What a handsome pair of K-9s.

Carly & Eddie (monster)-V J

You're welcome Jim and Rowan.

Hi, this is my dog named Rowan. Australian Cattle Dog with a lot of energy. He's surveying the back yard two years ago in the winter. I'm a lurker who spends most of my time at The Hostages where I typically post on Thursdays.

Thanks for running one of my favorite threads at the mothership - Jim

Last but not least are these cute cats.

Say Hello to Tammy and Tig. Tammy showed up on our doorstep quite thoroughly pregnant; Tig is the only survivor of his litter. When he was born we put a berm of towels up around their nesting place to keep the kittens from crawling out of their nest. First day he was born tig crawled straight to the berm and up on top and took station on guard. Figgered he had some Tig in him. He'g going on 7 weeks now, over 27 ounces, will fight anything, and REALLY lets you know his opinion of veterinarian anal probes. -richard mcenroe

*****

That's a wrap for another week. Thank you for all your submissions. If you want to submit something try us at petmorons at gmail dot com.

Hope you and your pets have a great weekend!

Close it up

Saturday Gardening Thread: The Horde before summer [KT]

—Open Blogger

Welcome to this week's AoSHQ Gardening Thread! Some great photos from The Horde are featured today, without much information on plants unless it comes from the photographers.

In a recent comment thread, Don included a link to a close-up of a Desert Bluebell, Phacelia campanularia, that he grew last year. "It did fairly well here in Kansas, blooming until midsummer, and it was very, very blue." Check out some of his flower photos in their original size. Inspiring. Go ahead. You won't regret it.

My thinker is moving at about sloth speed after faraway anonymous committees of experts deigned that my previously acceptable migraine medication regimen is no longer acceptable. Time will tell how well my brain adjusts to the change in meds. I will just say that I have not been at my best this week. So I have turned to The Horde for help.

KT's mind chasing an obvious point this week

Here is some superfluous, but interesting, information about sloths. In case you were thinking of going on an all-leaf diet.

To start out, here is one of Kindltot's beautiful nature photos from Oregon. "A fine reminder of why I love spring".

I love the color contrast and composition in Naughty Pine's photo, especially if it was accidental:

This is from my front yard aka The Garden Of Misfit Plants. This was a spindly tulip from an Easter arrangement a year ago and the crawling flowers come from a 75-cent leftovers at Lowe's. The violets are volunteers. The hosta? I moved it last year but must have missed some roots!

Budman wrote about the following two photos:

This is what I have to put up with every day from my office on the back patio.

Wish the view from my office were that nice. I could stand to spend part of the Memorial Day Weekend there. How about you?

Lantana was a trooper during our drought, I will have more to say about the plants featured in Budman's garden later.

JQ Flyover included some links to photos of her Clematis vines. Here is her "nearly feral" C. montana along with some Dr. Ruppel. See more at the link. Wow.

This is what my garden produce looked like about this time of year a few years ago. But somebody stole most of our apricots this year under the cover of darkness. Stripped two trees. Well, one (a true apricot) didn't have much fruit. The Aprium did. And the fruits were lush this year because of the cooler weather. Drat.

On the other hand, the Arctic Star Nectarines are still hard this year, probably also due to the cooler weather. Didn't get around to planting squash, green beans or turnips this year. Life got in the way. We have harvested a few really good cherry tomatoes, though. The pomegranates are blooming on schedule.

We're still thinning nectarines. Hard to thin enough the first time around. Looks like we didn't thin enough the year that photo was taken, either.

On the theme of contributions from The Horde, remember that you can check back to see late contributions to the comment threads here. There were some great late comments last week.

Anything going on in your garden?

California Girl (not CaliGirl) sent in the following Mystery Flower from a recent retreat in the California foothills. Care to take a stab at identifying it? The plants are about 3 inches high.

To be continued next week if all goes according to plan.

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at g mail dot com

Include your nic unless you want to be a lurker.

Close it up

Thread below the Gardening Thread: Cows and the Alamo [KT]

—Open Blogger

Here's a little history for a Saturday: Many Americans today may not know that Elsie the Cow was both the face of the Borden Company and one of the most popular celebrities in America during her heyday. She's no Hedy Lamarr, but she has had quite a list of accomplishments for a cow who started out with the name "You'll do, Lobelia".

Back a little further in time, there were quite a few nameless cows at the Alamo, presumably lost to the Mexicans. Now this is some history I really didn't know anything about: The Borden Brothers whom Elsie eventually came to represent were running one of two Texas newspapers when the Texas revolution started. After his brother joined the army, Gail Borden, a former schoolteacher, carried on as editor with another brother and a partner.

On March 30th, the Borden brothers and their partner disassembled their press and evacuated San Felipe with the Texian rear guard, a short distance ahead of the advancing Mexican Army. They set up the press in Harrisburg two weeks later, and just as they were about to go to press with new issue - the Mexican Army caught up to them. The soldiers threw the press and type into the nearest bayou and arrested the publishers. Fortunately, the Bordens did not remain long in durance vile, for in another week, Sam Houston's rag-tag army finally prevailed.

Gail Borden was still raring to go in the newspaper business, and mortgaged his Texas lands to buy a replacement press. The Telegraph resumed publication in late 1836. . .

When the brothers sold their interest in the newspaper, Gail Borden tried out careers in politics and real estate before developing an interest in food preservation. His first product, a long-lasting dehydrated "meat biscuit", won a prize at the London World's Fair and was popular with Arctic explorers, but did not win him a contract with the U.S. Army.

Yet he persisted.

It took Gail Borden three years of experimenting, developing a vacuum process to condense fresh milk so that it could be canned and preserved. . . . By the time that he died, in 1874 - back in Texas and in a town named Borden, after him - no one could deny that he had not been wildly successful as an inventor and innovator.

So, if Sam Houston's army had not prevailed after The Alamo, there likely would never have been an Elsie the Cow.

No Eagle Brand Condensed Milk? No Pastel de Tres Leches?

I think this little excerpt from the link at the top of the post is an interesting window into America of Yesteryear:

Elsie traveled to Hollywood in 1940 in a private railroad car to play Buttercup in the film, Little Men. Her calf, Beulah, was born during this time, and Elsie and Beulah returned together for the final summer of the New York World's Fair.

Special provisions were made for the birth of Beulah's little brother. Elsie was making a guest appearance at Macy's around the time she was due, so Macy's put up some temporary drapes in the store window where Elsie was the main attraction. The baby was born quite discretely without having to be in public view.

Then a contest was held to name the baby bull. One million entries were received and ultimately the judges picked "Beauregard" in honor of the Civil War Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard at the Battle of Bull Run. (They clearly disregarded the fact that Elsie would have been a Union cow.)

Hope you have a great weekend. Planning something memorable?

Close it up

Saturday Morning Weird News Dump

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Good morning Morons. Where the hell has this past week gone? I'm not sure either. Glad you stopped by.

EMT 05/27/2017

—krakatoa

I'd give you content, but I pulled a Hillary last night.

Fat, drunk and old is working pretty good for her, so I figured I'd give it a try too.

Overnight Open Thread (26 May 2017)

—CDR M

You'd think this would be a ginormous story but sadly it isn't. Explosive revelation of Obama Administration illegal surveillance of Americans. Given the tsunami of leaks not just related to Trump but also other areas, it wouldn't surprise me that information illegally obtained on political opponents has been used for quite some time and would partially explain some behavior of certain judges and politicians that have left their supporters scratching their heads. We have a huge problem with the quality of employees at these agencies and their oversight. Folks need to be held accountable for these leaks.

Blame Obama

Seems only fitting. Bush still gets blamed for stuff. How Obama's 'smart power' helped seed the Manchester attack.

Sexism & Racism

Pretty stupid. Alamo Drafthouse launches a 'women only' screening of 'Wonder Woman', sparks outrage. If I was in Austin and wanted to see the movie, I'd just show up and say I self-identify as a woman and livestream the response. Does this mean the Boy Scouts can go back to being just boys then?

Students harass white professor for refusing to leave campus on anti-white 'Day of Absence'. WTF is this shit?

Evergreen State practices explicit and institutional racial segregation once a year. Typically nonwhite students and faculty leave campus (to show how valuable they are) and the whites stay on campus (to be indoctrinated in "anti-racism workshops and seminars"), but this year it was reversed, and Weinstein told the director of a campus multicultural office that he was staying put.

I wonder how much the director of a campus multicultural office makes.

Clanadonia

Hypocrisy

So the party that wraps itself up in standing up for women decriminalizes domestic violence in order to protect criminal immigrants. Always a pecking order for who the Democrats want to support the most. Looks like illegals rate higher than a female.

Men's Health

Why you should ejaculate at least 21 times this month. Finally a counter to the "I've got a headache" excuse. Just say do it for my prostate. Of course, if your significant other read the article, she could just say, go solo.

360 Video Of Mosul Battle

Pretty sweet video with a VR headset on.

JLTV

Meet the Humvee's successor, the JLTV.

Bull Shiite

Yeah, this article helps explain why Newsweek is garbage. Trump effect inspires radical Christians in military. I've been in almost 25 years and have yet to see this kind of behavior.

Star Wars

Stormtrooper behind infamous helmet blooper breaks his silence.

New Guinea Highland Wild Dog

After having been thought to be extinct, earlier this year the world's rarest and most ancient dog has been re-discovered in the wild.

Dog Video

Tonight's ONT brought to you by Lloyd Thomas Koritz - The Human Guinea Pig:

Top image via.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to player to be named later or CDR M. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Close it up

Hillary Clinton: Still Drinking, Still Coughing, Still Raging About the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

—Ace

"A little chardonay," which in some languages translates to a shitload of vodka, helped get her through her massive, humiliating failure.

She also had prolonged coughing fits, which are probably just the after-effects of the walking, non-transmittable pneumonia that makes you have seizures that she had last year, a thing which totally exists.

Then she began ranting like a lunatic about the Vast Right Conspiracy her political Gollum Sidney Blumenthal invented for her to fantasize about, in order to spare her the humiliation of her husband getting a rimjob on the job.

In other words, just another day in this sad bitter Harridan Nixon's drunk and unfulfilling life.

Night. Have a great weekend.

Former Politico Reporter, Now With the NY Times, Apparently Steals Photo of Gianforte Complaint from Local Reporter; Won't Admit He Stole Without Attribution, Despite "His" Picture Having the Same Shadows on It as the Local Reporter's

—Ace

But we should trust reporters, because they are the High Priests of Truth.

Bermes [a local reporter in Bozeman, MT] herself reached out to say that
[NYT re-reporter Jonathan Martin had] "obtained" the photo from her Twitter feed without attribution to her. Instead of simply apologizing and owning up to what he did, JMart, who is the second husband of DC socialite and former Meet the Press executive producer Betsy Fischer Martin, doubled down with a denial.

The Montana-based court reporter pointed out how the two pictures are the exact same image. "Same piece of paper redacting my personal information, same shadow. That’s my photo," wrote Bermes.

See images at the link. A guy intervened in the dispute to say that after comparing them, they were identical, except for resizing and compression. i don't know if that guy's an expert or who he is, really, but they do look similar, and Jonathan Martin did not say where he "obtained" it from.

Wonderful: Our Judicial Overlords Overturn Sentence on Younger Member of the Beltway Sniper Duo

—Ace

He was sentenced to life without parole at age 17 -- but a judge has vacated that sentence, claiming that a 17 year old can't be exposed to our harshest penalties, as they have the greatest chances of reform.

Malvo appealed to the court saying he should not have been sentenced to life without parole because he was 17 years old at the time of the murders and he based his appeal on the Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama.

The decision in the Supreme Court case ruled juveniles are constitutionally different from adults for the purposes of sentencing "because juveniles have diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform," which makes them "less deserving of the most severe punishments." Judge Raymond Jackson agreed and made his ruling to vacate Malvo's sentence.

Even though this guy committed serial acts of terrorist murders, shooting random people over a several-week period.

And he did it for Allah.

There's a lot of real terrific Reform Stories about Islamist murderers, right?

And yesterday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the national injunction against the travel ban. I guess they want more Manchesters.

Every week I'm shocked to see how the nation has chosen to completely forget 9/11, and now it's begun the hard work of forgetting all the terrorism that happened in the year following 9/11.

In two years, Djokhar Tsarnaev will be The Bachelor.

It's a Long Weekend to Get Your GAINZZZ Up to Speed

—Ace

Last time, I promised I would either GET GAINZZZin' or I'd make up a lie about GAINZZz GOTTEN.

Well, I lied on both counts. I did not gain a damn thing -- still stuck at the same weight, still same bodyfat. I have gotten back to hard exercise after giving my ailing knees and lower back a break (they seem healed up), but I have no GAINZZZ regarding the overweight.

Again, I stayed low carb but still have not gotten back on IF (like I vowed I would), and this suggests to me that IF is the missing ingredient for GAINZZZ.

I've been off IF long enough that I'm now in the same position that anyone who never tried it is in: Saying "But it's really hard to not eat for 14 or 16 hours."

Sure is! But your body adapts to that and then it feels normal. Unfortunately, your body also adapts to being fed for 14 hours of the day, and then that feels normal, and deviation from that feels hard.

Below, some links about health I've saved.

Political Violence From the Left Continues Garnering Zero Condemnation in Leftist Media

—Ace

You can find my condemnation of Greg Gianforte's bodyslam right next to CNN's condemnation of the professor charged with three accounts of attacking peaceful Trump supporters -- with a bike lock. Which is a heavy metal improvised weapon.

Berkeley police have arrested a former Diablo Valley College professor for committing an assault during the protests that took place this April. During the protest, violence broke out between supporters of President Trump and far-left anarchists who brand themselves "Antifa," many of whom were clad in black and wore full face masks to conceal their identities.

East Bay Times reports that 28-year-old Eric Clanton was arrested Wednesday evening in Oakland and is currently being held on a $200,000 bail in Berkeley City Jail. He was arrested on suspicion of three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, including a U-lock bike lock, a weapon he is alleged to have used to seriously injure three people at the protest.

Note the three attacks hit the victim in the neck or head -- which is the target point which could kill someone with a steel bludgeon -- and also note that it does not appear to be the cops or the media which ferreted out this guy's identity, but 4chan.

Apparently the media couldn't give any fucks about it, and still doesn't.

You can also find my scathing rebuke of violence by the right next to CNN's denunciations of the mob attackers at Middlebury College, at least one of whom participated in an attack on a woman causing her enough injury to need a neck brace.

Oh, and you can also find my denunciation in the same common repository in which CNN scolds Middlebury for promising to punish the violent felons, but then not really punishing them at all.

Many are on temporary probation, with notation of that probably expunged from their record if they don't re-offend for the rest of the semester (that is, until like last week), and others have a notation in their file. This, too, I imagine will never be disclosed to anyone, due to privacy concerns -- so what's the point of a notation?

If students know they won’t be punished for violent and childish behavior, why would they stop?

One wonders if conservative students disrupting, say, a Linda Sarsour or Bill Ayers speech in similar fashion would receive such light sentencing. They certainly wouldn’t receive such a muted response from the mainstream media.

No one can identify the person who caused the injury to the female prof's neck -- but perhaps they're not looking all that hard, as they didn't seem to look very hard into the bike lock attacks in Berkley.

Maybe a job for 4chan again, to do the investigatory work the police and media aren't interested in.

Sting Video Features Abortionists Describing Some of Their Most Gruesome Practices

—Ace

Preview video and transcripts of their horror stories here -- very difficult reading.

There's another issue here, too: The group who made this video is currently being hounded by California prosecutors for conducting Journalism Against the Progressive Interest.

How can anyone claim this is not news important to the national discussion?

Wow: Aide to NYC Mayor DiBlasio Charged With Possession of Child Pornography, Some Featuring Images of Babies as Young as Six Months Old

—Ace

Via JWF, and the NYPost.

Jacob Schwartz, 29, was busted for allegedly keeping more than 3,000 disgusting images and 89 videos on a laptop after downloading the filth from the internet.

The illegal smut shows "young nude females between the approximate ages of 6 months and 16, engaging in sexual conduct...on an adult male," court papers say.

If Greg Gianforte's attempt to keep his Safe Space free of Harm is rooted in core conservative personality flaws, what does Jacob Schwatz say about progressive Democrats?

Answer: Nothing, of course. If it's a Democrat, it's always just One Lone Man's Failing, having no larger lessons about anything, and therefore should be forgotten as quickly as possible.

Declassified Memos Show FBI Illegally Shared Spy Data With Third Parties Who Had No Legal Right to Have It

—Ace

Isn't this unexpected.

The FBI has illegally shared raw intelligence about Americans with unauthorized third parties and violated other constitutional privacy protections, according to newly declassified government documents that undercut the bureau's public assurances about how carefully it handles warrantless spy data to avoid abuses or leaks.

In his final congressional testimony before he was fired by President Trump this month, then-FBI Director James Comey unequivocally told lawmakers his agency used sensitive espionage data gathered about Americans without a warrant only when it was "lawfully collected, carefully overseen and checked."

Once-top secret U.S. intelligence community memos reviewed by Circa tell a different story, citing instances of "disregard" for rules, inadequate training and "deficient" oversight and even one case of deliberately sharing spy data with a forbidden party.

...

The court also opined aloud that it fears the violations are more extensive than already disclosed....

The court isn't the only oversight body to disclose recent concerns that the FBI's voluntary system for policing its behavior and self-disclosing mistakes hasn't been working.

...

The FBI's very first compliance report in 2009 declared it had not found any instances in which agents accessed NSA intercepts supposedly gathered overseas about an American who in fact was on U.S. soil.

But the IG said it reviewed the same data and easily found evidence that the FBI accessed NSA data gathered on a person who likely was in the United States, making it illegal to review without a warrant....

Lawmakers in both parties and both chambers of Congress are writing reforms behind closed door, leaving the intelligence community anxious it might lose some of the spy powers it considers essential to fighting terrorism, cyber attacks and unlawful foreign influence.

See also this piece by Andy McCarthy -- usually on the pro-law-enforcement side of controversies -- explaining why these are serious breaches.

Here Is Why We Shouldn't Care That Greg Gianforte Won The Special Election In Montana

—CBD

Remember Congressman Etheridge? Probably not, because the Democrat Party protects its own.

Check the video below the fold for Etheridge's violent reaction to some students asking him questions.

But the Dems were cool with that behavior, because they allowed him to run for the governorship in the Democratic primary, and then after he lost gave him a job in government! He is the executive director of the North Carolina branch of the U.S. Farm Service Agency, whatever the hell that is.

So lets us not get too exercised by Gianforte's behavior. Holding Republicans to a different standard than Democrats is exactly the game plan of the Democrat Party, and it works very, very well.

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

This is a self-portrait with his first wife, Isabella Brant. I love this work. Their faces are marvelous, he's rocking that sword, and she has a bit of the devil in her....

Apparently they went clubbing after the last sitting for this portrait, and got a bit frisky on the dance floor and were asked to leave by the Burghermeister of Antwerp, who was scandalized by the Rubens' behavior. This may or may not be true, but really, history is only what I make of it...

The Morning Report 5/26/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. Well, it looks like Greg Gianforte's alleged "body slam" against Guardian propagandist Ben Jacobs had no ill effects on his campaign as he handily defeated Rob Quist for Ryan Zinke's Montana House Seat. Of note, this was another special election where the Democrats swore up and down on a stack of "Rules for Radicals" that it's a bellwether indicator that Trump's presidency was over. Also, early voting, which always aids Democrats, this time may have bit them in the ass. Insert Nelson Muntz laugh here. The 4th Circuit-Bottoms have overstepped their authority and defied the President and the Constitution. Daniel Horowitz over at Conservative Review urges PDT to now ignore their ruling. I concur. No links but Mark Levin went on a tear in defense of what is obviously tortious interference against Sean Hannity. He advises him to sue the shit out of Media Matters. Lastly, a bipedal cockroach by the name of Kendall Fells who claims to be in "the Fight for $15" on moral grounds has been exposed as a very well paid SEIU operative. He doesn't like the attention so let's douse him with the figurative can of Raid, shall we? Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• Gianforte Beats MFM (Allegedly) and Dem Perv Tax Cheat (BIRM) for MT House Seat
  
• 4th Circuit Commits Judicial Overreach, Strikes Down PDT's Legal Travel Ban EO
  
• Why President Trump Has a Responsibility to Ignore the 4th Circuit
  
• Black Bloc Berkeley Berserker "Professor" Arrested for Assaulting Bystander at Protest
  
• Anti-Trump Witch Hunt Now Has Jared Kushner Targeted by FBI For Eating Borscht, Or Something
  
• Grieving Brits Furious at NY Times for Publishing Leaked Images of Manchester Massacre
  
• Taqqiya Takes a Holiday: Aussie Imam Openly Declares Koran Commands Beheadings and Massacres of Infidels
  
• Rush: Jealous Obama Goes Back to Berlin to Protect His Legacy
  
• "Fight for $15" Leader Who Claims He's Unpaid Gets $146Gs a Year from the SEIU
  
• Trump Effect: US Navy Warship on Maneuvers Near Chi-Com Claimed Reef
  
• Good Roger Simon: Leakers and Journalists Are Destroying Our Republic
  
• Arafat Duped Clinton; Will Abbas Dupe Trump?
  
• The Democrats Second Secession and America's New Civil War

And Now, a Long Distance Dedication to Rob Quist, Ben Jacobs and the Democrat Party:

Thursday Night's ONT Sucks

—WeirdDave

(Note: Montana election thread below)

I'm really in an IDGAF mood tonight because of a lot of things, so don't expect a lot out of the ONT, I just don't feel up to coming up with a theme or giving a lot of commentary. Lets start out with a language lesson:

I don't know about y'all, but I find that kind of neat.

Cosmo Sucks

After the terrorist attack in Manchester this week, many people rose to the occasion magnificently, as people always do. Of particular note was how the Sikh community responded. Like this fellow:

Of course, none of this is surprising, as the Sikh community has a long history of dealing with Muslim violence. Cosmo asks to use the photo in reporting the story stateside. Oh, that's nice, you might think, it's a good story, be some nice publicity for the Sikhs.

So Cosmo runs the story:

This isn't an accident, the driver was correctly identified in the source material. This is a deliberate LIE to feed a narrative. Fuck you Cosmo.

Democrats Suck

An inconvenient truth indeed, one that's real this time.

The Media Sucks

ABC Stabbed Tim Allen In The Back

Tim Allen's show was cancelled despite its being the second highest rated comedy on ABC. Why? Because it features generally conservative values. Now they are so determined to quash anything that doesn't go along with the narrative that they are willing to lose money to do it.

Silver lining:

See the update, it looks like Fox is going to pick up Last Man Standing, so score one for the good guys (and for serendipitous show titles).

Postmodernism Sucks

How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained

Hey, look, a theme seems to be developing! Is this another example of spontaneous order?

Washington Sucks

Why Everything You Think You Know About Foreign Policy Is Wrong: How Gladwellian Internet ‘hot takes’ fueled the new echo-chamber press that enabled Obama’s foreign policy—and still rules Washington

The ONT's Theme Sucks

It certainly does. Enough with this already. What doesn't suck? Well, people suck, but dogs certainly don't, so here's a story that starts out sucky but has a happy ending:

This guy was on a road trip when he found 2 abandoned puppies in the desert pic.twitter.com/pHQy6yoeqi

— Mindblowing (@MindBlowing) May 22, 2017

Actually, People Don't Suck, People Are Amazing If They Get The Chance To Be

Why the human brain is our most precious commodity

Between 1960 and 2015, world population increased by 142 per cent, rising from 3.035 billion to 7.35 billion. During that time, average income per capita adjusted for inflation increased by 177 per cent, rising from $3,680 to $10,194. Moreover, after 56 years of human use and exploration, the vast majority of the commodities tracked by the World Bank are cheaper than they used to be – either absolutely or relative to income. That was not supposed to have happened.

According to conventional wisdom, population growth was to be a harbinger of poverty and famine. Yet, human beings, unlike other animals, innovate their way out of scarcity by increasing the supply of natural resources or developing substitutes for overused resources. Human ingenuity, in other words, is “the ultimate resource” that makes all other resources more plentiful.

Related:

The inconvenient truth about food banks: The rich are getting richer - and so are the poor

Seems to me there's a pithy saying in there somewhere. I dunno, maybe something about a rising tide....Hmmm, I'll think on it

Children Don't Suck

Football ��pic.twitter.com/mVY99yyOhV

— Football Fights (@footbalIfights) May 7, 2017

Watch until the end. Love the kid's reaction to the cheer.

Pecan Pie Doesn't Suck

And in Texas, they sell it in vending machines!

God bless Texas

North Korean Architecture Doesn't Suck

Actually, I bet that it does. Would you go up in a skyscraper built by slave labor? I wouldn't. Still, it is imposing in a Soviet kind of way.

North Korea's obsession with huge, weird buildings

Mothers Don't Suck

Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them

It takes a long time before we can become comfortable with our parents as other adults, and even longer before they do the same to us. I don't know if the relationship ever equalizes completely, but when it does it is extremely rewarding. Still, it's weird looking through old photographs of my parents before I came on the scene. I have a picture of my dad as a young man riding a camel in Egypt as he traveled around the world. I can get intellectually that the young man in the picture is the same man, he certainly exhibits the essential himness that I know from him as a human being, but in that picture, he's not DAD, a figure that has filled (I want to say dominated, but without the negative connotation) such a large part of my life. I can't connect, there's no common frame of reference. Parents are people too. Weird, huh?

Fandom Doesn't Suck

It can be weird though. Man flushes his friend’s ashes down ballpark toilets across the land

Speaking of fandom, this weekend is the lacrosse final four in Foxboro. My beloved Towson Tigers will be putting the spurs to Ohio State Saturday, and then (hopefully) crushing either Maryland or Denver on Monday. I'll be up there all weekend, if any Boston area Morons want to meet up drop me a line, my nic at gee, mail!, and we'll see what we can arrange.

Puns Don't Suck

The World’s Punniest Humans Are Heading to Texas

This guy. Wow. I bow to the master.

Invective Doesn't Suck

It fuckin' blows!

The Very First Written Use of the F Word in English ( 1528 )

Not so fast, Luke, there is another. My sister? Your mother! AND the horse she rode in on!

Historian understood to have found first use of word f*** in 1310 English court case

We started with language, so lets end there with language. Tonight's ONT brought to you by frosting:

No, CHOCOLATE frosting:

The Yahoo Group doesn't suck.

Close it up

Montana Election Post

—JohnE.

Cosmic, Man: Scientists Speculate That the Great "Cold Spot" in the Universe Might Be the Impact Zone of Another Universe Colliding With Our Own

—Ace

See Wikipedia for background on the cosmic background microwave "Cold Spot." It is, as the name suggests, notably colder than other parts of the universe.

Which is interesting, at least to people interested by such things, as the Universe tends to have a lot of "isotropy," a word meaning that it appears pretty much the same (in terms of distribution of matter, background radiation, heat, etc.) no matter which way you look.

"Anisotropies," areas which are outliers as far as this generally-roughly-equivalent-dispersion rule, interest scientists -- Why?

(One example of an interesting anisotropy is the Shapely Supercluster, an area of space which is overly dense with galaxies compared to everywhere else, and which is itself being pulled towards a gargantuan pit of supergravity called the Great Attractor, which itself must be an even more superdense region.)

But back to the Cold Spot. Scientists are speculating that the Cold Spot is cold because it might be the impact zone of another universe colliding with our own, which I'm going to analogize is like a meteor pushing away molten rock to its periphery, forming a crater outside it, and a void where it actually hit.

Some scientists are speculating that the normal levels of background radiation were "shunted" away from the impact zone, and that the Cold Spot is therefore maybe physical evidence of universes beyond our own.

Matter seems to have been shunted out of the Cold Spot too, or at least that's what I would guess based on this description of the area as a "supervoid," a curiously large expanse containing far less stuff than other parts of the universe.

Also note, though, that that article notes that these areas of overdensity and underdensity are rare but not singularly so, and I've heard physicists suggest that this can be explained pretty simply -- sure, the universe will tend to be mostly isotropic, but there is no such thing as perfect isotropy, and so it would sort of be odder to see a near-perfectly isotropic universe than a not-so-isotropic one. I think the idea is like if you flip a coin 1000 times -- you'd expect the most likely outcome to be 500 heads, 500 tails, but if you actually got that perfect distribution, you'd be kind of surprised. (And in fact stuff like that -- where experimental results come out too close to the expected -- are often taken as possible evidence of fraud in the experiment, because things just don't work out neatly like that very often.)

Even if you assume nearly perfect distribution of energy in the first bloom of the Big Bang, random fluctuations and Heisenberg-type effects guarantee you're not going to get an actually perfect distribution, and once the distribution isn't perfect, stuff starts happening, like some blobs of matter being drawn towards others by gravity, and voids beginning to form simply because that area's matter got pulled into some other area.

Anyway, cool stuff. Not sure if it proves the existence of other universes, but I'd like to think so, because I think we need another one, stat.

Never Mind? This article from last month says the Cold Spot doesn't even exist, but is just an artifact of the technique of data collection used to produce the WMAP.

Woman Arrested In Connection With Manchester Arena Massacre

—Ace

Deb Heine asks the question that occurred to me -- is this the same strangely-behaving woman with a backpack some concert-goers alerted security about, only to be told "Shut Up, Racist"?

If so, obviously she didn't detonate her bomb. Lost nerve, maybe it failed.

Still, I'd be mighty curious to see if the woman who reported seeing a girl acting "figity" with her backpack recognizes this woman.

Good News For Women: Men Are Now Having Breast Implants Installed On Their Biceps and Traps

—Ace

I sure think they look like the most ludicrous kinds of breast implants -- the ones that don't even bother trying to look plausible.

So, apparently, guys are now injecting some kind of oil into muscle locations. Does this build muscle, or something that looks like it? No, it looks like you have a big, misshapen saline breast bag sewn on to your bicep.

It's as ridiculous as it sounds -- no, it's more ridiculous. Because you have to see the pictures.

Hellllo, Ladies. Wanna feel my arm-tits?

The guy on the left is like the woman who gets breast implants slightly implausibly big, but at least they could, maybe, be real.

And then you see the guys who went Kayla Kleavage on themselves.

It's pretty silly. I mean, what is the point here? These are not muscles. They do not look like muscles. They look like goiters.

"Mattress Girl's" New Art Exhibit Is Powerful Garden of Sculptures Showing a Genuine Artistic Talent

—Ace

Nah just fucken wit ya, it's her in a bra, panties, and high heels being tied up and belt-whipped by a dominatrix in order to show how art itself is being raped in Trump's America, or something.

As the performance started, this man in a suit, named Master Avery, started to berate Sulkowicz. "Your boobs are too small," he spat. "You can't even stand up straight."

Sulkowicz is focused on combating the problems of violent rape, and also Negative Body Image You Guys.

He pulled a long, gnarled rope out of a black leather bag and started tying intricate knots around her upper thigh. Once the knots covered both of Sulkowicz's legs, Master Avery started around her waist, moving her body as he worked quickly. At one point, the rope almost hit Sulkowicz's eye. After a few shocked blinks, she looked up at the audience and laughed.

"We're acting out this sadistic-masochistic relationship between the institution with all of its financial power, and this program that wants to be political but can't be really because it's being tied up by this institution," Sulkowicz explained.

She means the institution charitably funding her lame ass.

After what seemed like days--but was was really about 45 minutes==Master Avery had completely tied Sulkowicz up to a large wooden beam. Using a pulley system attached to the ceiling, he used his whole body to lift her from the ground, and after a few tries, Sulkowicz was suspended with her arms and legs wrapped around the beam, rendering her immobile. The rope visibly cut into her skin as Master Avery took off his belt and started hitting her with it.

Sulkowicz continued to smile at the audience.

Later, she's taken down from the ceiling but hung back up. The second time around, Master Avery's beatings became more intense. At one point, he called out to the crowd, asking if anyone else wanted to partake. To everyone's surprise, one man in the audience volunteered, walking up to Sulkowicz and slapping her hard across the face.

"Everyone in the audience was shocked," she told me after the performance.

Um, did the audience not see her student film of a simulated rape featuring real (pornographic) sex?

So apparently this is Sulky's job, forever.

Content warning for the pictures, unless you are Lena Dunham's personal assistant and think that every self-exposure of a very average-looking girl is "So Braaaave."

British Security Services Were Warned Five Times About Salman Abedi Talking Up Suicide Bombing

—Ace

Maybe it's time we focused less on "Muslims need to report their misbehaving members" and more on "Security services need to actually do something when citizens report likely terrorists."

I don't know that all of the people reporting Abedi were Muslim, but given that they were "friends" and I can't see Abedi trying too hard to integrate into broader British society, I imagine at least some were.

The Manchester suicide bomber was repeatedly flagged to the authorities over his extremist views, but was not stopped by officers, it emerged Wednesday night.

Counter Terrorism agencies were facing questions after it emerged Salman Abedi told friends that "being a suicide bomber was okay", prompting them to call the Government's anti-terrorism hotline.

Sources suggest that authorities were informed of the danger posed by Abedi on at least five separate occasions in the five years prior to the attack on Monday night.

...

Two friends of Abedi also became so worried they separately telephoned the police counter-terrorism hotline five years ago and again last year.

“They had been worried that ‘he was supporting terrorism’ and had expressed the view that ‘being a suicide bomber was ok’,” a source told the BBC.

Akram Ramadan, 49, part of the close-knit Libyan community in south Manchester, said Abedi had been banned from Didsbury Mosque after he had confronted the Imam who was delivering an anti-extremist sermon.

...

Mr Ramadan said he understood that Abedi had been placed on a "watch list" because the mosque reported him to the authorities for his extremist views.

A well-placed source at Didsbury Mosque confirmed it had contacted the Home Office's Prevent anti-radicalisation programme as a result.

A US official also briefed that members of Abedi's own family had contacted British police saying that he was "dangerous", but again the information does not appear to have been acted upon.

I'm not sure all of these claims are true -- it could be pro-Islamist agitators making claims to exonerate the Libyan community in Manchester.

But I gotta tell you, based on the past record, with so many "Known Wolves" being at perfect liberty to murder and maim, and the FBI seemingly intentionally permitting the Garland shooter to begin his attempt to assassinate people for putting on Free Speech demonstration, I am seriously beginning to wonder if our security services are actually in the business of protecting us rather than "community feelings."

And meanwhile, the feds allowed known MS-13 members to enter the United States as "unaccompanied minor" border crossers, and they're now lost in the country.

A number of Central American youths who were positively identified by border agents as MS-13 and Sureno 18 gang members were allowed to enter the country in July 2014 under Obama administration border surge policies, according to documents released today by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.). Johnson is seeking information from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the status of these cases and, most importantly, whether they were released from the HHS facilities to communities in the United States. The youths were initially held by the Border Patrol in Nogales, Ariz., and were later transferred to HHS-run facilities in Virginia, Washington, Texas, New York, and Oklahoma.

The gang members were identified on July 5, 2014, after staff members at the Border Patrol facility saw MS-13 graffiti in the bathrooms. Officers documented 16 juveniles who admitted to gang membership...

Despite the positive identification as gang members, the youths were transferred to low-security facilities around the country....

A week later, on July 11, Border Patrol agents apprehended two more UACs who were heard in their cells boasting about their gang affiliation and crimes to each other...

These two were separated from the general population in the Border Patrol holding facility until "being placed". There is no further information available about the disposition of their cases, whether they were eventually placed in an HHS contract facility somewhere, whether they were released, whether they have completed their deportation proceedings, or what has happened to them.

One thing to keep in mind about security services leaving known wolves to kill:

I spoke to a source with close knowledge of terrorist surveillance practices, and she told me that even serious terrorist threats -- serious, like they know this guy is definitely a terrorist -- are followed something like three 8-hour shifts a week.

When I heard this, I tried to clarify: "No, I don't mean the low-level threats, I mean the high level threats."

"I mean the high level threats too," she said. "The low-level threats get much less surveillance."

The problem, which surprised me, is just that there are so many high-level terrorist threats that there just aren't enough counter-terrorism surveillance personnel to follow them any more than a fraction of the time.

So part of the problem is simple: We just have too many high-level terrorism threats living in America. (And Britain, of course.) They overwhelm security services with their sheer numbers.

Maybe it's time to focus on that, the real problem, rather than lying to the public that we can "manage" terrorist threats in-country.

We can't. I was flat-out told how thinly spread surveillance personnel are and how they have to do triage surveillance even on the highest level threats.

Like, just an idea, maybe we could not admit known MS-13 gang members into our country when they illegally cross the border.

Cowbell? New Jobless Claims Rise At Lowest Rate In 44 Years

—Ace

"New" jobless claims, contrasted to continuing jobless status, and it's the rate of increase not the absolute level that's particularly tiny but still, that's a nice mark: Only 1000 new applicants in May.

Thursday's report beat forecasters' expectations, which were for new jobless claims, adjusted for seasonal variations, to rise to 237,000.

And it provided a good sign for the economy. Few claims indicate that layoffs are rare, and that, in turn, net job creation is strong.

Economists believe the real growth sector in the economy is Internet Trolls paid by Russian Spymasters to Hack the Election.

It begins again...?

Good Job, PDT

—OregonMuse

Another good column by Kurt Schlichter, with one of the best openings I've read in a while:

Looking at it objectively, as a guy who opposed Trump until he dispatched Ted Cruz, I have to consider all the facts and ponder the evidence carefully before awarding Donald Trump the grade of A+. He has done an incredible job of doing exactly what I had hoped he would do in the off chance he defeated that naggy harridan and her corps of gender indeterminate hipsters, coastal snobs, race hustlers, aspiring libfascists, media scum, and wussy pseudo-conservatives terrified that a Hillary loss would mean people might expect them to do more than wear bow ties and go on NPR to prattle about Burke in their high-pitched, nasal voices.

Open thread until ace shows up.

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The truth is, Munch did not title this painting "Vampire." He called it "Love and Pain" and it was only later that it picked up the name and interpretation of a man locked in a vampire's embrace. Munch maintained it was nothing more than a woman kissing a man on the neck. The Nazis declared it morally 'degenerate.' In the painting, we see a man in anguish, arms around his love, while she tries to comfort him. Perhaps she is laying her face on his shoulder even. Some thought it was about his visits to prostitutes, yet others saw it as some sort of macabre fantasy about the death of his favorite sister. Evidently Munch remained ambiguous about the deeper meaning behind it.

It was considered shocking when it was unveiled, somehow people saw sado-masochism in it. Maybe it's her loose red hair and red dress that mark her as a siren. The darkness surrounding them, and the man's own black clothing make her stand out all the more. But is it really shocking today?

The Morning Report 5/25/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. I'll be light on the blathering commentary this morning but there are a few stories of note. First up, evidently the GOP candidate for Ryan Zinke's House seat body slammed a reporter for the UK Guardian. I can understand the frustration and loathing of media types but a Todd Akin moment like this is uncalled for. That said, I am a pacifist by nature and abhor violence, but my loathing of the Left is such that I still hope the guy wins. Secondly, there was some sort of heated confrontation between Debbie Wasserman Schultz Test and the Capitol Police over a stolen laptop of hers that they refused to give back to her. Could it have anything to do with the Democrat IT specialists who hacked everyone and now are on the lam in Pock-EE-ston? I wonder what's on that laptop she wants back so desperately. Hmm. Aside from that, the President's poll numbers have rebounded considerably during by all accounts a successful first trip abroad. Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

UPDATE: GnuBreed informs me that the Pakistani DNC IT guys are still in the country.

• Manchester Bomber Merely a Tool; Bomb-Making Mastermind Still On the Loose
  
• Whistleblower: Obama Knowingly Allowed MS-13 Thugs Into the Country
  
• The Real Question: Did Brennan Collude with Foreign Spies to Help Hillary?
  
• My Akin Back Dept.: GOP House Candidate Allegedly "Body Slams" MFM Reporter
  
• Rush: Despicable Republicans Joining Democrats to Bash PDT's Budget
  
• Trent Franks: Mueller Meeting with Comey Before Russia Testimony is "Collusion"
  
• NY Times "Bombshell" About PDT Essentially Exonerates Him. . . 5 Full Paragraphs Into the Story
  
• Vidal Sassoon Hair Model Threatens Capitol Police Officer
  
• Oh SNAP! PDT's Budget Requires Able-Bodied Food Stamp Recipients to (Gasp!) Work
  
• Bipartisanship: Dems and GOP's Dodging Memorial Day Town Hall Meetings
  
• Sanity Alert: Dem Senator Blasts Anti-Trump Resistance as "Not Persuasive," "Waste of My Time"
  
• Jackie Speier (D)-himmi: Reason for Jihad is Muslims "Feel Isolated" Around the World

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (5/24/17)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quote I

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. Winston Churchill

Quote II

Islam is something we can't afford any more in the Netherlands. I want the fascist Koran banned. We need to stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands. That means no more mosques, no more Islamic schools, no more imams... Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims.Geert Wilders

Quote III

’m tired of being told how bad America is by leftwing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women’s rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won’t multiculturalism be beautiful? Robert A. Hall

*****

Dangerous woman meets dangerous man. Mark Steyn's take on the Manchester terrorist attack.

A few weeks ago the BBC reported that "approximately 850 people" from the United Kingdom have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for Isis and the like. That's more volunteers than the IRA were able to recruit in thirty years of the "Troubles", when MI5 estimated that they never had more than a hundred active terrorists out in the field. This time maybe it's the exotic appeal of foreign travel, as opposed to a month holed up in a barn in Newry.

Carrying on in Germany, Angela Merkel pronounced the attack "incomprehensible". But she can't be that uncomprehending, can she?

Yes, yes she can. It seems almost all elected officials are that uncomprehending.

*****

Manchester, Westminster, Paris, Brussels, it's all the same isn't it?

*****

Tomorrow marks a monumental cinema anniversary. May 25, 1977 Star Wars opens.

On this day in 1977, Memorial Day weekend opens with an intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas’ blockbuster Star Wars movies hits American theaters.

The incredible success of Star Wars–it received seven Oscars, and earned $461 million in U.S. ticket sales and a gross of close to $800 million worldwide–began with an extensive, coordinated marketing push by Lucas and his studio, 20th Century Fox, months before the movie’s release date.

*****

Not into Star Wars? Perhaps you can celebrate National Whine Wine Day tomorrow.

*****

How to make it as a left-wing polemicist.

Do you seek validation? Are you hungry for permanent and hip confrontational posturing? Still having dreams about the glory of radical nonconformity? Eager to purge your upper-middle class and white guilt? Want to do something new with your life, but want to rely on the skills you already have instead of learning new ones?

I’ve got just the thing for you: become a left-wing critic of the mainstream American Left. It’s easy, really, and no matter what, your Twitter following will increase at least five-fold

*****

The ONT feels better, hope you do to. Arctic ice won't disappear until 2040.

The last piece of summer sea-ice in the Arctic is expected to melt away in just 23 years, three decades earlier than previously expected.

Scientists now believe that the summer of 2040 will see the end of the frozen north pole after a rapid shrinking of the ice coverage in recent years, according to a report from the Arctic Council.

*****

Fauxoahontas Elizabeth Warren's Indian ancestry challenged.

A candidate for the 2018 U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts tweeted out a video on Sunday challenging Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) to prove her claims of having American Indian heritage.

V.A. Shiva, who is seeking the Republican nomination in 2018 and has claimed he invented email, filmed himself holding a "23andMe" DNA testing kit, which he claims requires only his saliva and a "few short days" to prove if he was a real Indian. Shiva was born in Bombay, India, while Warren's claim is about having American Indian, or Native American, heritage.

*****

Dumb Bitch Nancy Pelosi opens mouth, shit flows forth.

At the end of her mumble jumble, she made a shocking statement. According to Pelosi, the National Rifle Association is now a part of the intelligence community.

Yes, you read that right. The intelligence community…like the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

*****

Previously covered in The ONT: If it fits, you must acquit.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A man claiming his girlfriend accidentally died by choking on his penis during oral sex two years ago has been found not guilty of murder, CNN reports Tuesday.

Richard Patterson, 65, was charged with second-degree murder in the October 2015 death of his girlfriend, Francisca Marquinez, 60. He was found not guilty by a Florida jury on Monday.

*****

With friends like this who needs Democrats? RINOs push for carbon tax.
A group of old-guard, “swamp” Republicans calling themselves the Climate Leadership Council (CLC) has joined climate alarmists, including failed Democratic Party presidential candidate Al Gore, in calling for a tax on carbon-dioxide emissions. The group claims increasing CO2 emissions pose a threat for Earth’s people, animals, and plants

*****

What type of music do you listen to? Do you find new music via streaming services?
Or do you think that streaming services devalue the find?

"The problem with streaming [music], in my opinion, is when a fan has access to millions and millions of songs, it essentially devalues the music. As a music fan growing up in the 70s, as a teenager, I would take the train into Chicago ... tracking down one or two singles. I would have invested an entire day tracking down a song, so I have a deeper relationship with that song. I think the problem right now is that fans take music for granted, so it has less value.

Your humble Cob disagrees. What are your thoughts?

*****

The ONT Musical Interlude

May 24, 1941, Born on this day, Robert Zimmerman, (Bob Dylan) US folk singer, songwriter. Released over 40 albums since 1964, major influence on The Beatles and The Rolling Stones during the 60's. Biggest hit is 1965 US No.2 single 'Like A Rolling Stone', 1969 UK No.5 single 'Lay Lady Lay', 1964 UK No.1 album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'. 2006 album 'Modern Times' entered the US chart at No.1. Also a member of The Traveling Wilburys.

May 24, 1968, The Rolling Stones released the single 'Jumpin Jack Flash' in the UK, the track gave them their seventh UK No.1 hit. Keith Richards has stated that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards' country house, where they were awoken one morning by the sound of gardener Jack Dyer walking past the window. When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded: "Oh, that's Jack – that's jumpin' Jack."

*****

The nice thing about government workers. They know everything.

What is this?

“Do you need to know or do you want to know?” said Cohn.

I’m curious, she replied.

“It’s a 3-D print-out of an adult mouse penis.”

A what?

“A 3-D print-out of an adult mouse penis.”

Oh no it isn’t.

“It is.”

The officer called over three of her colleagues and asked them to guess what it is. No one said anything, so Cohn told them. They fell apart laughing.

My first memories of James Bond movies were with Roger Moore and not Sean Connery. James Bond and his memorable gadgets.

*****

Will draining the Swamp increase the Federal Prison System population?

Yingst also says the possibility of criminal prosecution is on the table. If true, that’s good news.

Leaking that Trump screamed at the television when he saw a report on James Comey’s investigation is not a crime. However, leaking classified information without authorization is.

I'm not holding my breath, but I can wish, can't I?

*****

“In the middle of the day. In broad daylight. In front of God and everybody.” 3 Genius Award Winners

There is more to life than games. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

*****

The ONT has been brought to you by The Obvious.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. Shelving is not included with the platinum subscription. Don't even ask.

Close it up

Today in the Social Justice War on Civilization

—Ace

A couple of white girls became fascinated by tortillas during a trip to Mexico. They researched the techniques of making them, including "picking the brain" of every "tortilla lady." They also admitted to occasionally looking into kitchen windows to see techniques.

Their dream was to open a burrito food truck.

That dream ended one day after the Social Justice Warriors screamed they were "culturally appropriating" the Mexican heritage.

And at the University of Michigan, once believed to be a real school, the meltiest little snowflake in the upper northwest has decided that wood paneling is sexist and racist.

Anna Wibbelman, former president of Building a Better Michigan, an organization that voices student concerns about university development, stated at a student government meeting in late March that "minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling" found throughout the 100-year-old building, the meeting’s minutes state.

The little melty snowflake just said something pretty racist -- minority students don't like "quiet" settings.

But I'm sure Anna Wibbleman knows many minorities through their brief guest appearances on Girls.

Another snowflake attempted to defend her, but also stating that minorities are loud and feel oppressed by quiet rooms.

Current president of Building a Better Michigan, Jazz Teste, stated that Wibbelman’s comment wasn’t necessarily about the wood paneling.

“I believe it was an off-hand comment about how many students felt marginalized by the quiet nature of the building when they entered,” she told The College Fix via email.

Wibbelman could not be contacted for further detail despite repeated requests.

If anyone who isn't a snowflake SJW claimed that minorities liked being loud, do you think they'd get away with it, with no one demanding a Viral Firing for such a problematic assertion?

But obvious, 1950s era stereotypes and racism are permitted to the SJWs. Just so long as they couch it in the right lingo.

Oh, here's the good news: Mizzou, site of the most frenetic Social Justice Warrior conniptions then seen in 2015, is still paying the price for now being regarded as a joke: It will welcome its smallest entering freshman class in almost 20 years.

No one's happy about any deaths in Manchester. This is too ironic not to notice, however:

I don't know where people get this idea that "terrorists only kill the bad people." But that seems to be the unstated premise at work.

Wrong.

Revealed: Obama's NSA Absused Data-Collection To Spy on Americans for Years

—Ace

In this article, "upstream collection" refers to collecting data from the infrastructures of communication -- phone signals and the backbone of the Internet itself. So a sort of global collection, I guess. Vacuuming up all signals from their sources.

I suppose "downstream collection" would be targeted at individuals, intercepting, for example, signals on a specific phone line or from a specific computer.

Sara Carter reveals that Obama's NSA ignored its own "rules" on this for years.

The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community.

More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSA’s so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa....

The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an "institutional lack of candor" and that the improper searches constituted a "very serious Fourth Amendment issue," according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017....

Officials like former National Security Adviser Susan Rice have argued their activities were legal under the so-called minimization rule changes Obama made, and that the intelligence agencies were strictly monitored to avoid abuses.

The intelligence court and the NSA's own internal watchdog found that not to be true.

"Since 2011, NSA's minimization procedures have prohibited use of U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of upstream Internet collections under Section 702," the unsealed court ruling declared. "The Oct. 26, 2016 notice informed the court that NSA analysts had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had been previously disclosed to the Court."

I can't wait for CNN's wall-to-wall coverage of this.

Chelsea Clinton: We Have to Look at the Cosmic "Interconnectedness" of Forced Child Marriage and... Global Warming

—Ace

Nature abhors a vacuous nepot. The leftist media, on the other hand, can't get enough of it.

Chelsea Clinton continues batting 1.000 in peddling glibly sophomoric pablum that would choke Depak Chopra like an oversized penis engorged with PC Pieties.

Apparently Chelsea Clinton -- Scholar, Sage, Idiot -- has failed to notice that the countries accused most frequently of causing climate change have been the ones to elevate the age of consent, liberate women so that they're not chattel to be bargained off for a number of goats, and make family-arranged rape socially unacceptable.

But she's now the draw for her parents' continuing efforts at worldwide graft as charity, so we continue to see her pronouncements eagerly repeated by the media.

This is the woman whose pronouncements are so vapid -- silly-string and bubble-gum for the brain -- that even a liberal writer at the very liberal Variety called her out.

Also worth reading: Kyle Smith's take-down of this empty vessel that can be filled with her parents' dreams of easy cash.

She's not just a little girl anymore, you know, not just someone's daughter or campaign prop. Chelsea Clinton is a person, no, a citizen, no, a global citizen, and she is done being quiet.

Hear, world, as Chelsea speaks out.

She is speaking out about social media: "I've recognized, as a lot of people have, that Twitter is a vehicle for me to share my thoughts."

She’s speaking out on movies: "Of course I’m going to see Furious 8. I've already seen Logan. I love that Logan is being succeeded by a little girl."

She's speaking out on the Clinton Foundation: "At its most distilled level, we try to make a positive, impactful, empowering difference in whatever ways we can."

She's speaking out on speaking out: "This is not the time to be silent or stay on the sidelines."

With the exception of a few resentful Twitter pokes at the man responsible for rendering her mom an isolated forest monster -- Chappaquatch-- instead of the most powerful woman in the history of the planet, everything Chelsea says is pretty much like this. The positions she articulates on progress (pro), climate change (anti), and gauzy, inspirational, make-the-world-a-better-place-for-girls-and-women goodness (super-duper pro) are verbal fentanyl.

Everything she says is a platitude wrapped in a cliche washed down with a bromide. She's the dusty end of the greeting-card section, the lite FM of famous-person chatter, a human press release.

In short, Chelsea Clinton is becoming the champion dullard of our time. This didn’t happen by chance: We’re talking about the ever-calculating Clintonworld here. The dullness is a strategy, a demented post-last-ditch effort by the Clinton gals to finally power Hillary into the Oval Office. But I'll come back to that.

Better put some ice on that.

The National Laughinstock Now Praising Denver to Reduce Maximum Sentences for Domestic Violence -- Wife-Beating -- So as to Protect Illegals from Deportation

—Ace

This may sound familiar -- a Green Card holder struck a plea deal for his two bank robberies to be sentenced to just one day less than a year, because any sentence of a year or more exposes a Green Card holder to deportation.

The Boston prosecutors successfully kept this Solid Non-Citizen in the country, where he went off to an economically fruitful and diverse career of murdering two doctors engaged to one another.

Not to be outdone, sanctuary city Denver is now "fighting back" -
-- the National Laughinstock's words --
against the illegal immigration crackdown by reducing the maximum sentences for a wide variety of crimes, including wife-beating, which they used to be rather firmly against, but different circumstances have revealed their true priorities.

With a raft of allegedly "minor" crimes now capped in sentencing to no more than one day less than a year, Denver hopes to keep a lot of criminals contributing to the diverse quilt of murder and vehicular manslaughter that is the fabric of American greatness.

Allegedly these sentencing guidelines apply to anyone, but I have a feeling that they'll make an occasional exception for actual US citizens, and sentence them to longer stays in jail.

Man Who Choked Woman To Death With His Penis Gets Off

—Ace

And also, he's been acquitted of murder.

The Florida man who claimed his girlfriend choked to death during oral sex was found not guilty of second-degree murder Monday.

Richard Patterson, 65, of Margate, was acquitted of killing 60-year-old girlfriend Francisca Marquinez in 2015 after a week-long trial, according to the Sun Sentinel.

During the trial, his lawyers initially argued that Marquinez died accidentally while performing oral sex on him at her apartment.

To bolster their defense, Patterson’s lawyers filed a motion to show his penis to the jury.

I don't believe it's possible to not know you are killing someone during oral sex.

If you read the article, you'll find the judge did not actually permit the defendant to enter his penis into evidence. You'll also find that the dead woman was so decomposed when they examined her they found it difficult to establish the precise cause of death.

Which leads me to question why she was badly decomposed when found. Was her body... hidden?

In any event, medical experts said that it was "unlikely" one could inadvertently kill a woman during oral sex, and the defense actually changed its theory of the case to (and I really don't understand this) that this is how the defendant thought she died.

"That's not the way she died," defense lawyer Ken Padowitz said."“But that’s the way Richard Patterson thought she died."

What? What the hell does this mean? Either she was deliberately strangled or accidentally suffocated by penis. If the latter is impossible, and the defense is admitting that, that only leaves the former possibility, and the defendant's claim of what he "thought" happened seems... entirely self-serving and entirely irrelevant.

And also, preoposterous.

So this guy was acquitted of murder by virtue of having a big penis -- this is some serious Privilege we have to talk about.

But I'm sure all the male readers here will jump to his defense, as I'm certain the men of Ace of Spades are similarly-situated and deal with this heavy, veiney burden as well.

Brother, Father of Manchester Bomber "Detained" in Libya; Brother Said to Have Been Planning His Own Attack

—Ace

Tipped by ThunderB.

Manchester bomber's father Ramadan​ detained in Tripoli, Libya

Follows Tripoli arrest of bomber's younger brother Hashem

Security forces say brother was planning terror attack

Fifth suspect arrested in Wigan in connection with attack

Almost 1,000 British soldiers being deployed on streets today

More:

The father and a brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi have been arrested in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, authorities in the beleaguered African nation said Thursday.

Also Thursday, police in the Manchester area made four more arrests and said they were investigating a "network" as the probe intensified into the suicide bombing at a pop concert that killed 22 people and wounded scores more, many critically.

...

"I think it is very clear that this is a network we are investigating," [Manchester Police Chief Ian] Hopkins said. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but that assertion has not been verified.

Update: Andrew Cuomo is still "reviewing" whether or nor to march in a parade honoring Salman Abedi.

More: Deb Heine at PJMedia digests an interview with a concerned mom who saw a woman with a backpack sitting alone and nervously fidgeting with the backpack.

Waddy went on to tell the Sky News reporter that she didn't think Security took her seriously because of how they treated her daughter after she got up and complained about the creepy woman, too. "My daughter... had gotten upset about things and she went to Security and they basically told her, 'how would you like it if someone accused you of this?' She added, "Nothing was done about it."

It's possible that that was just a case of people picking up inputs and deriving a plausible but incorrect conclusion. Note, however, how official response is to dismiss such prudent reports by citizens, hushing them up as Racist.

How are you ever going to prevent such attacks when the official response is to insult people who believe the Official Lie "If you see something, say something"?

Patrick Poole points out that this is yet another "Known Wolf" terrorist attack-- the authorities were "aware" of Abedi, and yet he was free to murder and maim.

Thanks to Aetius451.