Is This Something?

—Ace

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"Stupid news infobabe complains about having to 'quadruple-check' her news copy so she doesn't get labelled fake news. To which I say: tough shit, sugar tits. Your complaint would have more credibility if you and the rest of the media hadn't basically been Obama's fluffer for the last 8 years. Her whiny piece is just full of sanctimonious 'why doesn't everyone see our awesome wonderfulness?' gasbaggery. As the man says, nobody is impressed with the press quite like the press."

NY Times Correction Of The Year:

Who Said This?

“Most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing...The nature of political correctness is that gay people are allowed to say straight sex is gross but the reverse is considered to be patently homophobic.”

a. Glenn Beck
b. Michael Savage
c. Rush Limbaugh
d. Joy Reid

Ha ha, you've probably guessed that the answer is (d) Joy Reid.

Now the woke Joy Reid is under attack by her erstwhile, but more woke, friends. And her pathetic excuse, "somebody must have hacked my account and inserted those homophobic posts into my blog and then ran away without leaving a trace" isn't helping.

But the dirty secret here is that her observation is correct, and furthermore, it is every bit as true now as it was back when she originally said it. Male homosexuality and female homosexuality are not completely symmetrical. People don't mind lesbian kissing and fooling around all that much. In fact, as every Moron knows, lesbian pr0n geared toward a straight male audience has been around for decades. In contrast, the only ones who like to watch men kissing are male homosexuals. It is inherently repellent in a way that lesbian sex isn't. I'm not sure why this is, but nevertheless, there it is.

I don't particularly care that Reid is being savaged for this. She has sown the wind, let her reap the whirlwind. That is, she has made it abundantly clear that she has been very much on board with the New Rules, the "New Rules" being, in this case, that it's OK to crucify someone for observing a phenomenon that is obvious to anyone with a functioning brain. Her problem is just that she didn't think the New Rules would ever be used against her.

Question: Has Kanye West Taken the Red Pill?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Who's Kanye West?

Where Can I Get One of These?

Compare & Contrast:

AoSHQ Weekly Prayer List

For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact FenelonSpoke, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at

fenelon direction 18 circle 'a' gmail dot com

(All one word, no spaces)

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Dennis- (3/21/18 ) 79 Y.O. Dad fell again and couldn't walk for several days (too many beers) after a trip to the ER. Now back in hospital again with low oxygen levels and some pneumonia. Too many years smoking. So pray for my mother who has to put up with her stubborn husband and that hopefully she will be able to care for him when he gets home.

joeindc44- (3/21/18 ) My father is undergoing a severe COPD episode, including pneumonia and and lung embolism, after breaking his hip. He could use some prayer time so that he stays strong and pulls through this.

Detroit Pete- (3/21/18 ) How can I add my wife Sandy to the prayer list? She has pancreatic cancer.

ChuckR- (3/22/18 ) My business partner's wife has had a recurrence of bone cancer and on 3/22 is having surgery on both hips. She is a wonderful person, kind and caring. Prayers please for her recovery.

Josephistan (4/15/18 ) -needs a new job and strength to deal with impending downsizing at current job.

LindaFell (4/15/18 ) asked for prayer for her husband who had been out of work for a year and has developed a phone application for Apple that has been approved. She asks for prayers for success for this venture.

TonyPete- (4/17/2018 ) Wife needs healing from an auto immune disorders.

Josephistan- (4/17/2018 ) needs a new job and strength to deal with impending downsizing at current job.

Miley- (4/17/2018 ) Prayers for Evan,a young man who needs healing from brain damage after something fell on him.

Big V- (4/17/2018 ) asked for prayers for the family and friends of his friend "Battleship Sailor" who died in a accident while preparing a birthday dinner for his wife.

Jane D'oh- (4/17/2018 ) Family and friends of a church friend of hers and his family. He died after being in hospice with liver failure.

LindaFell- (4/17/2018 ) asked for prayer for her husband who had been out of work for a year and has developed a phone application for Apple that has been approved. She asks for prayers for success for this venture.

Sulla- (4/17/2018 ) Needs prayers for blessing and healing for his dad who is waiting for results from a medical test, after having gone through cancer before..

ibguy- (4/17/18 ) My Baby Sister Joyce has an inoperable glioblastoma (brain tumor). Although we've been remarkably blessed by an extra year with her, it appears that her fight for life has taken a downturn. She seems to be failing more rapidly now, and the oncologist is recommending hospice. Would appreciate Horde prayers that her journey be as pain-free and dignified as possible.

Some Guy In Texas- (4/17/18 ) I thought I'd send you a follow-up to my prayer request from 2 months ago. The little girl in question has an inoperable brain tumor. It always hits little kids, and it is 100% of fatal within 12 to 18 months of diagnosis. The tumor effects physical functioning and so the child loses the ability to walk and communicate by speech. It's terrible to watch her decline. But she has been accepted as a test subject for an experimental therapy that looks promising. And so she and her family have and much brighter outlook and hope than they had before. So, to that extent, prayers have definitely been answered. Thanks for the prayers, horde.

An anonymous poster (4/17/18 ): A friend from high school lost his daughter to cancer. She was diagnosed three weeks after getting married, and died 6 months later. Parents should not outlive their children. Pray, please, for consolation and peace of mind for her parents and widower, and the repose of the soul of dear Adeline.

Mr Feverhead (4/18/18 ) - Had a hard, hard battle with rectal cancer, had a large part of his intestines removed, as well as his rectum. Has to have a ostomy bag, Found out in hospital he is also a diabetic. He and his wife owe $10,000 is taxes to the IRS and his wife has said that she doesn't want to continue with the marriage of 28 years and moved out taking their son with her "I have one request of the horde. If you have a religious bent please say a prayer for me. I could really, really use it."

Moki (4/21/18 ) Has a saughter who is affected by several physical complaints needs healing and strength. She has chronic Lyme is working hard at her studies despite walking with a cane.

ibguy (4/23/18 ) Joyce is contining to fail. Home Hospice starts tomorrow (only an hour a day, to start). My better half flew back down there again yesterday to spend more time with her while she can; I said my final goodbyes when we were there last week.My prayer is that Joyce continue to be free of physical pain, and that her transition be as peaceful as possible. Thanks for your prayers, horde

Hobbitopoly (04/24/18 ) Father had eye surgery on the 23rd for a detached retina. Recovery will be difficult. Thoughts and prayers are welcome

OregonMuse (04/24/18 ) His physical therapy has hit a 'plateau' where there hasn't been much improvement for a while. He will be meeting with the surgeon on Friday 4/27 to see what can be done. Certain rotator cuff muscles are quite weak and the physical therapist doesn't know why. Pray that God would give wisdom to OM's medical caregivers and that a way forward could be found

Tim in Illinois (04/24/18 ) (via Slapweasel) He is so tired and can't sleep; wants to "give up." Slapweasel feels he needs a relationship with God so that he might know peace and comfort.

I apologize for any errors. Please send corrections or updates to FenelonDirection18 at sign gmail.com as I cannot be on all the threads. Keep on praying!

Please remember the Prayer of St. Francis:

http://www.prayerguide.org.uk/stfrancis.htm

Close it up

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

A Young Woman With a Macaw
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

The Morning Report 4/25/18

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Here we are again with your midweek news aggravation and in the lead, I'd thought I'd highlight a story that has been completely embargoed by the Democrat-Leftist-Media complex. FEC records show that the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign and the DNC conspired to launder $84 million in campaign funds in order to purposely hide donations far in excess of the legal limits for individual donors. The stunning thing about this whole thing is just the brazen way in which they (the Clintons, Democrats and Media) just pull this crap like it's just another day at the office. And then they have the utterly unmitigated temerity to file a RICO lawsuit against the Trump campaign and Russia in order to quadruple down on the patently risible fantasy that they somehow stole the 2016 election. Meh, I guess what's surprising is that they are so utterly full of themselves and think themselves so completely insulated from accountability that they may have just exposed themselves to one hell of an "enlightening" discovery process. I suppose it's tiring to keep on saying that there isn't a punishment severe enough for Hillary Clinton and everyone and everything associated with her. More importantly, America dodged a coup de grace by electing Donald Trump.

Beyond that, in the Mueller witch hunt category, the esteemed Jeffrey Lord has rather a novel idea vis a vis the chutz-pocrisy of the Media dragging Sean Hannity's name through the mud.

On the immigration front, yet another rogue jurist has decreed from on high that President Trump must restart Obama's illegal DACA program, PDT's own executive order ending it be damned. Break up the friggin' judiciary; it's just one more tiny time pill in the slow release poison capsule that is breaking the nation apart. That is a shout-out to the boss' excellent essay from last night about the growing likelihood of a national divorce, so go read it if you have not already. And in related news, see the latest link about the green-lighting of a California secession petition.

On the international scene, while PDT and Emmanuel Macron seem to be hitting it off, one area of tension is the Iran Nuke Deal Sellout. Macron is lobbying hard for America to keep it despite all indications that PDT is going to scrap it when it comes up for review in the next few weeks. And as reported yesterday, the Farsis have threatened PDT if he pulls out while the President countered with a threat of serious consequences should they ramp up their nuke program. And linked below, administration officials and other political leaders are outraged that there is a loophole allowing Iran to continue developing ballistic missiles. Deep State's gonna Deep, but that has got to be stopped.

Also, Mutti Merkel is headed our way and that meeting is not going to be as pleasant as with Macron. In any case, the President's nominee to be ambassador to Deutschland is finally coming to a vote thanks to Mitch McKochbrother breaking through the filibuster (more on this later), and that was a source of tension, minor all other things considered, between the Yanks and the Krauts. And as reported yesterday here and expanded on by Ace, Luap the Lesser is suddenly PDT's pal on foreign policy. I think his shift on Pompeo was grandstanding/backtracking/face-saving all in one, but whatever it takes I guess to move things along.

On to politics where the Democrats were hoping to continue their winning streak in GOP districts, but they were stopped cold yesterday in AZ-8. The media is strangely silent. Suddenly. Daniel Greenfield brings some insights into the Dem's Joo-hate problem although with their sister Working Families Party, it's a feature, not a bug. And as Bernardo Sandersnista goes all in for universal work as an item on the party's agenda, Finland has finally come to its senses (read: licked its wounds) and scrapped their experiment with it. Now Lefties, remember: Scandinavia is the ideal by which America should aspire to! /sarc.

And as that insanity plays out, Nancy Palsi is sputtering on about how when the Dems take over Congress, they will immediately push for Amnesty and Gun Control. If you make that into a TV ad, along with Howard "the lipless wonder" Dean's "swastika-burning" deplorable schtick, there's no way the GOP can lose in November even if they ran an entire slate of Todd Akins and Christine O'Donnells. That said, it would be kind of nice if the GOP started shouting from the rooftops about the economy, stupid. Even the totally partisan "nonpartisan" CBO just released that GDP is at a 15-year high, and, to counter Nancy Schmancy's tired old lie about the 1%, it turns out that "the rich" are going to pay quite a bit in taxes even with the PDT tax plan. In fact, one student at Georgetown U confronted the shambling, stuttering bag o'botox about her "crumbs" smear and she stammered her "1 percenter" lie. Too bad the kid didn't counter with the truth that the top 1% pay about 12-15% of all Federal taxes and IIRC the top 25% pay well over half. I have to look up that figure and tattoo it on my brain because the bottom 50% pay ZERO federal taxes. But I digress...

On the terrorism front, the Slimes issued a retraction and was forced to admit that families of terrorists do in fact get paid by the Palestinian Authority. And there is some disturbing news coming to light about the Toronto fiend who mowed down 10 people with a truck.

From hither and yon, the bloated, evil blivit from Fresno State ain't going nowhere, Joy Reid's (who?) defense that her social media account was hacked is falling apart, Memories Pizza has quietly closed its doors thanks to the SJW smear campaign, police have arrested the gunman who shot and wounded two Dallas cops (no word on if the shooter is a citizen or not) and take a look at this filthy bastard teaching our children in Arizona. Aside from the fact that he bears an uncanny resemblance to Camera Hogg, it underscores where the real fight for the future of this nation is - in the classroom, for the hearts and minds of our children. All the marbles, baby.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

CLINTON SCANDALS
• Bombshell: FEC Records Indicate Clinton Campaign Illegally Laundered $84 Million (can you legally launder money?)

  SECOND AMENDMENT, GUN CONTROL
  

• Zionist Organization of America Says Camera Hogg's "Never Again" Trivializes the Holocaust, Urges Renaming It
  
• NRA PAC Breaks Fundraising Record Amid Push for New Gun Control
  
• Eight Races Where Gun Control is Front and Center
  
  MUELLER WITCH HUNT
  
• Ex-Obama Lawyer Who Worked with Manafort on Ukraine Project Abruptly Ankles Law Firm
  
• Lord: The Hannity Rule
  
  IMMIGRATION, AMNESTY
  
• Rogue Federal Jurist Orders Complete Restart of DACA
  
  POLITICS, 2018 MIDTERMS
  
• Finally! GOP Starts Push for Senate Rules Change to Speed Up PDT's Nominees
  
• Confident Nancy Palsi: Dems Ready to Push Amnesty, Gun Control "When We Win" in November
  
• Georgetown Student Confronts Palsi Over "Crumbs" Comment: Tax Cuts "Helped Put Me Through College"
  
• Dem's Hopes for Another Upset in Red Territory Dashed as Debbie Lesko Wins in AZ-8
  
• Another GOP House Seat Imperiled as CO Supreme Court Removes Lamborn from Primary Ballot
  
• Secessionists Win Approval to Launch Petition Campaign for Cal-Exit
  
• Isn't That Special: How NY's Special Elections Skirt (small "d") Democratic Choice
  
• Greenfield: The Working Families Party Has an Anti-Semitism Problem
  
• Democrats' Universal Job Plan Would Be a Socialist Disaster (BIRM)
  
  FOREIGN POLICY, INTERNATIONAL
  
• Administration Poised to Allow Farsis Missiles That Can Destroy Israel; Some Officials Outraged
  
• Macron Lobbies PDT Hard to Preserve Nuke Deal Sellout
  
• Merkel's Mission for Her Visit to PDT this Week
  
• Senators Want More Military Cooperation with Taiwan
  
• Luap the Lesser Now Regards PDT as "Fellow Soulmate" on Foreign Policy
  
• Finland Ends its Experiment with Universal Basic Income; No Reaction from Bernardo Sandersnista
  
  ISLAM, TERRORISM, SHARIA
  
• "Inclusive" Toronto Under Attack
  
• Troubling Details Emerge About Toronto Attack Suspect's Private Life
  
• Slim's Slimes Issues Correction, Admitting Paleostinian Government Pays Terrorist Families
  
  THE ECONOMY, STUPID
  
• Trump Effect: CBO Projects GDP Headed to 15-Year High
  
• Sorry Nancy: Turns Out "the Rich" Will Pay a Bigger Share of Income Taxes Under GOP Tax Cuts
  
• Wayfair-ing Stranger: Pro-Business PDT Inexplicably Supporting States' Efforts to Tax Distant Firms
  
  DOMESTIC POLICY
  
• Transparency Watchdog Requesting Investigation into Rogue CFPB Lawsuit
  
• SCOTUS Comes Down Hard Against Inventors in Oil States Case; Gorsuch Dissents
  
• Seven Crazy Court Rulings in Just One Week
  
• VA Nominee Allegedly Got Drunk, Handed Out Pills "Like Candy" on Overseas Trip
  
  HEALTHCARE
  
• State-Mandated Death: Baby Alfie's Dad Giving Him Mouth-to-Mouth in Hospital "To Keep Him Alive"
  
• China and India's Population Control Atrocities Have Sown a Gale-Force Wind
  
• Amazon Primed for Healthcare Push (Putsch)?
  
  EDUCATION, INDOCTRINATION
  
• So-Called "Teacher" Leading Arizona Strike: "Teaching is Political"
  
• Obama Effect: 1,049,200 "Serious Offenses" Reported in Nation's Public Schools in 2015-2016
  
  CULTURE WARS, HITHER and YON
  
• Was the Starbucks Incident a Setup?
  
• Two-Face(d)book: Claiming Neutrality While Punishing the Right
  
• Backlash Builds Against MSLSD's Joy Reid Over Anti-Homosexual Blog Posts
  
• Fresno State Refuses to Punish Vile, Oleaginous Blob of Hate Who Trashed Barbara Bush
  
• Suspect Arrested in Shooting of Two Dallas Cops
  
• The Terrorists Win: Memories Pizza Now a Memory
  
• TX Man Sentenced to 50 Years for Stealing More Than $1.2 Million... in Fajitas?

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (4/24/18 )

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quote I

No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. Mark Twain

Quote II

People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist? H. L. Mencken

Quote III

We know they have nothing to do with Islam because our politicians keep telling us that, and they are all Islamic scholars. (They are, aren't they?) Yes, the violence is coming exclusively from Muslims, but only because their religion (the one that has nothing to do with Islam) tells them to kill unbelievers, meaning people who don't follow the religion with a knife to our throat that has nothing to do with Islam. Pat Condell

*****

"They" laughed at Sarah Palin. Death panels? There's no such thing as death panels. h/t to ibguy and Political Hat

A special court hearing this afternoon was held to decide whether Alfie should be allowed to be flown to Italy, who granted him citizenship yesterday, for additional care.

The judge in the case again rejected the appeal to transfer the child to Rome, but left the door open for moving him from Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

Delivering his decision, Mr Justice Hayden described 23-month-old Alfie as "courageous" and a "warrior".
He said: "This represents the final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy."

Mr Justice Hayden urged doctors at Alder Hey to “explore creatively, ambitiously, even though it may be a forlorn hope, the options, may it be palliative care".

*****

They might deliver mail through rain and snow. They also don't check "change of address requests" either apparently. United Parcel Service (UPS) corporate mail forwarded to a one bedroom apartment.

CHICAGO (CBS) — UPS headquarters might be in Atlanta, but for almost three months, hundreds if not thousands of pieces of its corporate mail were delivered to a small unassuming garden apartment in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago.

That corporate mail included tens of thousands of dollars in business checks. According to court documents, it began with a simple unauthorized change of address form filled out by a Chicago man. Now, it’s the focus of a federal investigation.

Apartment 2 at 6750 N. Ashland Av. became the address for UPS corporate headquarters in October, after the man who lives inside filled out a change of address form at a post office, according to a federal affidavit. UPS corporate mail then was redirected and delivered to the apartment.

*****

There is some good news and some bad news. The bad news? The Second Amendment is still under attack. The good news? The NRA broke a 15 year fund-raising record.

The National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund raised $2.4 million from March 1 to March 31, the group's first full month of political fundraising since the nation's deadliest high school shooting on Valentine's Day, according to filings submitted to the Federal Elections Commission. The total is $1.5 million more than the organization raised during the same time period in 2017, when it took in $884,000 in donations, and $1.6 million more than it raised in February 2018.

*****

There are Surgeon General warnings for Valu-Rite and cigs if you're a pregnant woman. Looks like it might be time to put out warnings for The Pot as well.

Prenatal cannabis use associated with low birth weights. The study, led by Colorado School of Public Health, shows a 50 percent increase in low birth weights among women who use cannabis during pregnancy.

*****

1 in 4 millennials rely on their parents for financial help.

In its latest Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse said the millennial generation has faced "a run of bad luck", much of which was centered around the financial crisis.

"The “Millennials” – people who came of age after the turn of the century – have had a run of bad luck, most clearly in developed markets. Capital losses in the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and high subsequent unemployment have dealt serious blows to young workers and savers. Add rising student debt in several developed countries, tighter mortgage rules after 2008, higher house prices, increased income inequality, less access to pensions and lower income mobility and you have a “perfect storm” holding back wealth accumulation by the Millennials in many countries."

*****

Falling into the "You can't make this shit up category". Minority college golf team on verge of championship with whites.

Nonetheless, real Americans continue to ignore racial and ethnic barriers, no matter what the politically correct classes instruct them. The results can be almost comic, on occasion, such as this from The Sentinel:

On May 11, the male golf team of Lincoln University, an historically black college in Jefferson City, will compete in this year's PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship. The tournament begins May 11 in Port Lucie, Florida.

The goal of the tournament founders was "to provide a national stage for players from minority colleges and universities to compete in NCAA collegiate golf events." That said, not all of the golfers at Lincoln are black. Truth be told, none of them are.

*****

Sears, once upon a time a retail giant. Has a major stockholder calling for its breakup.

Sears Holdings Corp. is considering a proposal from its largest shareholder to buy some of the troubled retailer's most lucrative businesses, which the investor says are worth more than stock markets believe.

The value of the Kenmore appliance brand, Sears Home Improvement business, and its Parts Direct division aren't reflected in the company's stock price, ESL Investments head Eddie Lampert, who's also the retailer's CEO, said in a letter to the company's board. ESL holds 19 percent of the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company's stock.

*****

The ONT Musical Interlude

April 24, 1961, Del Shannon started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Runaway', also a No.1 in the UK. Del was the first person to have a hit with a Beatles song in the US with his version of 'From Me To You.' via thisdayinmusic.com

***

April 24, 1947, Born on this day, Glenn Cornick, bass guitarist with Jethro Tull from 1967 to late 1970. He played in the three first studio albums of the band, This Was, Stand Up and Benefit. Cornick died on 28th Aug 2014 due to congestive heart failure via thisdayinmusic.com

***

April 24, 1968, Louis Armstrong was at No.1 in the UK with the single 'What A Wonderful World / Cabaret.' At 69 years of age, it made Armstrong the oldest act ever to score a UK No.1 via thisdayinmusic.com

*****

Are we on a course for a civil war? 7 forces driving America towards civil war.

I was interviewed by a mainstream media reporter yesterday. I thought he wanted to talk tech issues, but we actually spent almost the entire conversation discussing the feeling that many conservatives have that America has gone off the tracks and is headed toward dissolution or alternately, a civil war one day. Obviously, this would be a terrible thing and ironically, twenty years ago, it would have been laughable. Today, the joke isn’t so funny because we are a deeply unhealthy society with a dysfunctional government and for all our money, success and storied history, we seem to be on an increasingly dangerous trajectory.

*****

So is walking enough exercise for you?

We humans need to exercise in order to stay healthy. Exercise protects against disease and early death, and keeps us mobile and able to perform daily tasks.

Walking is an easy, free and enjoyable form of exercise. But is a nice stroll enough to confer the life-saving benefits we know come from exercise?

We posed this question to five specialists in the field.

*****

A funny thing happened on the way to being green. Canada's oilsands have a mineral used in battery manufacturing.

Vanadium is a largely obscure metal often used in making steel. It retains its hardness at high temperatures, so it’s ideal for making drill bits, engine turbines and other parts that generate heat.

In the oilsands, Vanadium is one of the metals that comes out of the ground with bitumen. The concentration is quite low: a barrel of bitumen would contain just 30 milliliters of vanadium, on average, experts says. But multiplied by the millions of barrels of production from the oilsands every day would be about 33,000 liters of vanadium. Vanadium has a density of 3.36 grams per cc. So a million barrels of oil would be about 100,000 kilograms (100 tons). One year of production would be about 36500 tonnes.

*****

22 popular products that were designed by idiots.

Product designers have more access to consumers than ever, and vice versa. Because of the constant flow of communication, you'd think everything for sale would be amazing and perfectly suited to consumers' needs. You'd be thinking wrong.

*****

No way an Apple store would be low-tech. Genius Award Winners.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Police are looking for the suspects in a robbery at the Apple store on the Plaza caught on camera.

The incident happened Sunday afternoon at the Apple store at 227 Nichols Rd.

Three male suspects walked through the store snatching up electronics before running to a car.

*****

A wounded warrior undergoes intensive surgery. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

BALTIMORE — In a 14-hour operation, a young military veteran whose genitals were blown off by a bomb received an extraordinary transplant: a penis, scrotum and portion of the abdominal wall, taken from a deceased organ donor.

The surgery, performed last month at Johns Hopkins Hospital, was the most complex and extensive penis transplant to date, and the first performed on a combat veteran maimed by a blast.

*****

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Parking Lot Etiquette.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. Tables are for paying customers. Rest rooms as well.

Close it up

Sara Carter: Sources Say the Inspector General Is Investigating Andrew McCabe's Alleged "Stand-Down Order" on the Clinton Foundation Investigation -- As Well as the Clinton Email Investigation

—Ace of Spades

Hmm.

The Wall Street Journal story McCabe leaked in order to rebut alleged he was slow-playing the Clinton Foundation investigation.

Sara Carter's new reporting suggests he issued a similar stand-down order on the Clinton email investigation as well.

After The New York Times publication, the FBI Washington Field Office began investigating Clinton’s use of private emails and whether she was using her personal email account to transmit classified information. According to sources, McCabe was overseas when he became aware of the investigation and sent electronic communications voicing his displeasure with the agents.

"McCabe tried to steer people off the private email investigation and that appears to be obstruction and should be investigated," said one former FBI official with knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the investigation. "Now if the information on the 'stand-down' order is obtained by the IG that could bring a whole lot of other troubles to McCabe."

"If" is a very big little word, but it does bear watching.

Meanwhile -- guess who James Comey has retained as a lawyer?

Given the State of Near-Hostilities in Our Political Culture, Is It Unthinkable That the Country May Split?

—Ace of Spades

Before quoting National Review let me point out that a failure of imagination is not the same thing as a counter-argument or rational theory. All during Trump's run through the primaries, people kept saying that he couldn't win the nomination. It just couldn't happen.

I wasn't pro-Trump at that point (though I did see him as useful blocker to clear out #FakeConservatives like Mario Rubo), but I kept asking these people who said it couldn't happen: What's stopping it from happening, apart from your desire that it not happen, and your lack of imagination of imagining it as a possibility?

Things that could stop Trump at that time included, for example, a candidate rising up to steal Trump's issues, other candidates dropping out and throwing their weight behind the candidate best positioned to steal (or blunt) Trump's issue-portfolio appeal -- Ted Cruz being the obvious choice, except to the Establishment #FakeCons, etc.

In other words: real things. Not just postulating that the Keepers of Universal Order would get together to conspire to arrange circumstances so that he just wouldn't win.

So let me repeat: Someone's failure of imagination to contemplate a possibility as possible is no argument at all against its possibility, just as the religious faith that Trump can't win, I don't know why, but he just can't was no talisman of protection against that very event.

The fact that some people are rather dull in terms of imagination and unschooled in terms of history -- yes, countries do divide as well as combine; both happen with some frequency -- is not any kind of magic protection against the unexpected or even unprecedented happening.

The unexpected happens literally all the time. The unprecedented happens almost as much. Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book, The Black Swan, pointed out that, as a simple statistical matter, not only were near-impossible events possible, but were guaranteed to occur lots of times over any period of a decade or longer, given enough trials

People very wrongly assume that very improbable things -- those chances way down at the skinny end of a bell curve -- just can't happen.

Of course they can. If you tell me the odds are 1,000,000 to one against something -- well, as any idiot can tell you, so you're saying there's a chance.

And not just a hypothetical chance that we can pretend isn't a chance at all. The odds are hugely against anyone winning any particular Powerball lottery, and yet, every month or so, we hear of someone hitting the jackpot.

The thing is, if you just let history run a single time for each one in a million incident, you'd probably be right, most of the time, in predicting that one in a million possibilities wouldn't happen.

The trouble is, history is always running, 24/7/365.24, and it's running many, many, many Monte Carlo non-simulations of various possibility scenarios at all times, which means that the world is going to see a bunch of one-in-a-million events happening.

After an "unprecedented," "no-experts-could-have-predicted-such-a-thing" event actually happens, all the experts gather round for a chin-rub and then announce: We could have, and indeed should have, predicted this was at least a live possibility.

And yet, the day after that, they go back to insisting extremely unlikely events cannot happen and are not worth thinking about.

Taleb used some simple math to illustrate this. I forget his exact numbers, but they went something like this:

1. Assume an "impossible" event is one which we'd say are one-in-a-million events.

2. Assume that someone who consumes media will be exposed to -- in the sense of hearing about, reading about, knowing about -- one thousand or so bits of news about events happening each month.

Given those two assumptions, Taleb figured (again, I'm just guessing at his estimate) the average news-watching human being would witness (indirectly, through media reports) something like thirty "impossible" events in his lifetime.

Those who say that the United States cannot break up only because it hasn't happened before used the same logic to unsuccessfully predict the election of Trump being an impossibility.

Bear in mind, this almost happened once before. One would think that something almost happening once before, and only not happening due to a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, would be proof against people dismissing this as "impossible" and thus not even worth thinking about.

Ben Shapiro has a saying: Facts don't care about your feelings.

Let me propose another rule: The iron law of probability -- that, given enough trials, near-impossible events are not only possible but almost guaranteed to occur -- don't care about your failure of imagination. Or your innumeracy in statistics and probability theory.

So here's Geraghty allowing his imagination to imagine "the impossible:"

Some people gave my friend Kurt Schlichter some grief about his speculative fiction novels that imagined the United States splitting into two countries, a traditional United States and a breakaway "People’s Republic of North America" that attempts to enact the progressive idealist dream and encounters quite a few problems along the way. Some contend that Kurt is rooting for this scenario or attempting to encourage some sort of secessionist fantasy. I don’t think that's a fair reading of a man who says his military service in the Balkans shaped his view of this issue, but I suppose some might think that depicting a formally divided America might inadvertently encourage people to think more about a formally divided America.

But to those who feel so horrified at the thought of the United States no longer being so united, it feels fair to ask . . . just what road do you think we're on? Did we see a lot of soul-searching after the attempted mass shooting on the Republican baseball team, or the attempt to run Representative David Kustoff off the road, or the assault on Congressman Rand Paul? Was there anything like the aftermath of the Gabby Giffords shooting, when President Obama spoke of the need to debate our differences "in a way that heals, not a way that wounds"?

If we no longer even go through the motions of calling for a debate that doesn’t demonize and dehumanize our opponents -- "Deplorables!" "Soulless!" -- just how wild and unthinkable does more political violence seem? And if more political violence doesn’t seem so unthinkable . . . why would a future formal national division be unthinkable as well?

If a People (capitalization intended) no longer act in fact like a People, how long will they remain, formally, officially, a People? At what point will the formal arrangement change to reflect the actual on-the-ground reality?

Generally formal on-paper-only fictions do not last very long. Marriages-on-paper-only do not last too much longer after one party begins strongly questioning why a fictitious marriage should be maintained as a polite fiction.

Victor Davis Hanson notes that we're living in "revolutionary times."

Insidiously and incrementally, we are in the process of normalizing violence against the elected president of the United States. If all this fails to delegitimize Trump, fails to destroy his health, or fails to lead to a 2018 midterm Democratic sweep and subsequent impeachment, expect even greater threats of violence. The Resistance and rabid anti-Trumpers have lost confidence in the constitutional framework of elections, and they've flouted the tradition by which the opposition allows the in-power party to present its case to the court of public opinion.

Instead, like the French revolutionaries’ Committee on Public Safety, the unhinged anti-Trumpists assume that they have lost public opinion, given their venom and crudity, and are growing desperate as every legal and paralegal means of removing Trump is nearing exhaustion. Robert Mueller is the last chance, a sort of Watergate or Abu Ghraib that could gin up enough furor to drive down Trump’s poll favorability to the twenties and thereby reduce his person to a demonic force deserving of whatever it gets....

The danger to the country this time around is that the Left has so destroyed the old protocols of the opposition party that it will be hard to resurrect them when progressives return to power.

We are entering revolutionary times. The law is no longer equally applied. The media are the ministry of truth. The Democratic party is a revolutionary force. And it is all getting scary.

I think most people can agree that "Political norms are being tossed by the wayside." Progressives and virulent anti-Trumpers will say that Trump's responsible for most of this. They then use that as an excuse to themselves toss political norms by the wayside -- does anyone still maintain the fiction that the media is not an overt political agitator any more?

Well, if almost all political norms are being discarded, why keep the main one that keeps everyone trapped in this unhealthy, unhappy toxic failed marriage-on-paper-only?

One last point: Just imagining these things and contemplating them is no grounds for the inevitable shrieking about Badthought.

In the sixties and seventies, there were a group of scientists called the "Nuclear Use Theorists." It was their job to game out what would happen in an actual nuclear war.

They had to plot out expected casualties and such. Best counter-measures, risk of nonaction over a believed but not absolutely known Russian first strike versus risk of acting without absolute knowledge, etc.

Whether it was best to deploy nukes counter-force (against Soviet nukes and troops) or if terror of using them counter-value -- that is, against population centers -- would be, terrible as that idea is, the best way to dissuade nuclear aggression in the first place.

All sorts of things too awful to contemplate -- except that someone did have to contemplate them.

The fact that they were actually thinking about what would happen in a nuclear war -- and what our best response to a Soviet missile attack would be -- was hardly evidence that they actively sought a nuclear holocaust.

As bad as all possible outcomes might be in a nuclear war, there were scenarios which were less bad than others, and the nuclear use theorists (who I think were just branded that so that wags could call them "NUTs") were the people charged with thinking about the unthinkable.

I'm not even talking about war here -- but I do think it's useful to start thinking about the unthinkable, and considering the possibility of the "impossible," that a peaceful national divorce might be in everyone's best interests -- especially the children's.

I'm open, of course, to explanations as to why it wouldn't be.

But I'd like to get past the part where people just start jumping up and down screaming "But that's unthinkable! Why that's impossible!"

People who claim that everything they don't like is unthinkable are really just saying they don't like thinking very much, and would prefer straight-line projections involving nigh-unchanging circumstances so that they aren't forced into that whole bother of thinking at all.

These things aren't "unthinkable." They're being thought about. That right there is all the evidence any non-idiot should need to dismiss the claim that they're "unthinkable."

Whether a national divorce is advisable is of course open to debate -- but the claim that it's "unthinkable" is just something thick-witted people say to impose their own defect of imagination on people smarter than they are.

Fourteen States Hit Record-Low Employment Rates, Media Shrieks
Whoops, I Meant Record Unemployment, and the Media Is Silent

—Ace of Spades

In the media, their opinions are facts and your facts are but opinions.

The states hitting new unemployment lows run the ideological gamut, from conservative Texas to liberal California, suggesting a recovery stronger than any particular political persuasion. In March, eight states saw new record lows, including Hawaii (2.1 percent), Idaho (2.9 percent), Kentucky (4 percent ), Maine (2.7 percent), Mississippi (4.5 percent), Oregon (4.1 percent) and Wisconsin (2.9 percent).

California also set a new record last month. The Golden State’s unemployment rate stands at 4.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s the lowest rate recorded since BLS began keeping track of state-level unemployment figures in 1976, and it’s a third of the 12.3 percent unemployment rate California notched at the height of the recession in December 2010.

Colorado’s unemployment rate is just 2.6 percent, among the lowest in the nation, and a third of the 8.9 percent peak it hit in 2010.

Now, it's true that this article appears in The Hill, which is the media. But for such truly historic economic news, you'd think it would be the lead story on many if not most outlets, or one of the top lead stories.

But no, of course not. The media spent eight years under Obama ignoring the bad economy, now it'll spend all of Trump's years ignoring the good economy.

BTW: I never had allergies before but began getting them about two years ago. I have been made pretty miserable the last three weeks from pollen. I don't know what to do about this. My eyes are always burning and my vision is actually distorted.

Any suggestions? Remedies? I've contacted my doctor to get a referral for an allergist but I have a feeling that'll take like two weeks.

Rand Paul Votes in Favor of Pompeo, Advancing His Nomination Out of Committee and to the Floor; Joe Manchin Says He'll Vote For Him for SecState

—Ace of Spades

I missed this yesterday:

Manchin's claim of intent is mentioned in the second item at PJ Media's Morning Briefing-- with Paul switching his vote from "no" to "yes," Pompeo will be voted forward out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That would probably be enough to secure his confirmation as Secretary of State, but, for added cushion, Joe Manchin, who is up for re-election and has to put on his Conservative Halloween Costume for a little while, says he'll vote for him too.

Regarding that "present" vote: It's actually kind of nice.

Why did Rand Paul change his vote? Well, he says it's because Pompeo told him he's changed his mind about Iraq and Afganhistan to agree with Trump (and, therefore, Rand Paul).

Was this just a faked-up agreement to let Paul vote for Pompeo without seeming like he was just giving up? By that I mean -- was this an arranged exit to permit Paul to gracefully step down from his position?

Maybe. But also, on the other hand...

A fellow commentator said privately that this might have been of a fake in the other direction -- it allows one influential pro-Iraq-War voice to change his opinion, apparently under duress and only in order to advance to becoming Secretary of State.

But who knows -- maybe Pompeo also needed an excuse, an "out," to declare the Iraq War was a bad decision in hindsight. Maybe this also served as a graceful exit from the pro-Iraq-War position for Pompeo, and arranged step-down for him as well.

New York Times Publishes (and Then Retracts) The Left-Wing Conspiracy Theory That Palestinian Government Payment to Terrorists' Families is Just a Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory

—Ace of Spades

Really.

They corrected this, allowing that the Palestinian Authority really does pay the families of murderous terrorists.

How did it see print in the first place?

Parkland Survivor Kyle Kashuv Interrogated by Broward Police for Non-Crime of Safely Shooting a Legal Gun Inside a Licensed Gun Range; "Treated Like a Criminal"

—Ace of Spades

The Broward Cowards don't like confronting criminals with guns. They make up for it by getting tough with law-abiding citizens with guns.

Although Kashuv was a 2nd Amendment supporter, he'd never actually fired a gun before. So this past weekend he went to the range with his dad.

He posted about it on social media:

When a parent of a slain student objected to Kashuv's tweet, he responded in this sensible, polite way:

Despite making it clear that he was not following the path of Nikolas Cruz, this tweet allegedly "traumatized" some fellow students.

So the Broward Cowards decided to treat the non-threat Kaschuv much differently from the actual live, multiply-reported threat Cruz.

Probably because they knew he wasn't a threat.

Near the end of third period, my teacher got a call from the office saying I need to go down and see a Mr. Greenleaf. I didn't know Mr. Greenleaf, but it turned out that he was an armed school resource officer.

How did you find him, given that he was certainly hiding in a stairwell?

I went down and found him, and he escorted me to his office. Then a second security officer walked in and sat behind me. Both began questioning me intensely. First, they began berating my tweet, although neither of them had read it; then they began aggressively asking questions about who I went to the range with, whose gun we used, about my father, etc. They were incredibly condescending and rude.

Then a third officer from the Broward County Sheriff's Office walked in, and began asking me the same questions again. At that point, I asked whether I could record the interview. They said no. I asked if I had done anything wrong. Again, they answered no. I asked why I was there. One said, "Don't get snappy with me, do you not remember what happened here a few months ago?"

They continued to question me aggressively, though they could cite nothing I had done wrong. They kept calling me "the pro-Second Amendment kid." I was shocked and honestly, scared. It definitely felt like they were attempting to intimidate me.

I was treated like a criminal for no reason other than having gone to the gun range and posted on social media about it.

Motherf***ers.

We're All One Big Happy Uniparty, Cyberflirting and Making the Ha-Ha's

—Ace of Spades

We're all TwitterFriendz here.

This is the Rule 34 of Cocktail Circuit punditry.

Meanwhile, Max Boot writes another Washington Post piece asking why Republicans can't just be Democrats.

You know-- getting down to the questions that Real Republicans are always asking.

I didn't read his article due to the paywall. Okay, that's a lie. I didn't read his article because he's Max Boot.

But @Molratty did. Here's her reaction:

Absent from this piece is any explanation of how Trump threatens the rule of law any more than some of his predecessors did. Kind of an important part of the argument, isn't it?

I'm one of those persuadable Trump skeptics. I'd prefer he wasn't the president. I'm not a fan of most of his behavior. I am open to the possibility that he's doing irreparable damage to presidential norms and expectations of conduct.

But it would take an extraordinary case to convince me he poses such a unique danger that I should generically vote for politicians with whom I vehemently disagree just to restore order. This piece comes nowhere near making that case.

Boot doesn't even try to make it. He just assumes you agree with him and then complains that people aren't doing enough. And, he doesn't bother addressing the problems with Democrats and their policies or why his concern about Trump should override those problems.

This is a recurring theme with anti-Trump Republicans. It's nothing but a rant. It's not persuasive and makes the person making the argument seem unserious.

...

I honestly think a lot of these guys are subconsciously driven by not wanting to be associated with "those yucky people." It's disappointing to see presumably rational and thoughtful writers sink to this depth.

The Morning Rant: J.V. Edition

—CBD

The great exodus out of America's blue cities

With between up to 50 percent of their paycheck going to a combination of federal, local and city taxes, not including other consumer taxes baked into every aspect of their consumer practices, residents don't even have the comfort of knowing that their tax expenditures are going to the improvement of their lives in the city. New York infamously misuses the hard-earned tax revenues of its citizens in ways that scarcely benefit them.

Eventually, city and state taxes, fees, and regulations become so burdensome that people and corporations jump ship. More people are currently fleeing New York than any other metropolitan area in the nation. More than 1 million people have moved out of New York City since 2010 in search of greener pastures, which amounts to a negative net migration rate of 4.4 percent.

Go to any busy midtown Manhattan intersection during rush hour. Count the number of traffic officers compared to the number of parking enforcement clerks (because that's really what they are). The city is more interested in its revenue stream than in smoothing traffic flow.

Then check a street with those awful "No Parking from 9:00am to 11:00am" signs. That is so the street is clear for sweeping. But the sweepers never come...just the parking ticket people.

And how to get from midtown to a more residential neighborhood? Take a subway. But don't bother buying a ticket, because jumping the turnstiles will not get you arrested!

I saw the first iteration of New York City's descent into madness, and I have no desire to see it repeated. But De Blasio and his crooked cronies simply don't care about the middle class, who make up most of the city's population. They cater to the ultra-rich and to the rabid leftists who keep them in power.

It is a sad time, mostly because the normals enjoyed years of a vibrant, clean and safe city, so we have a stark comparison to make.

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

Ivan The Terrible And His Nurse
Karl Wenig

The Morning Report 4/24/18

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Here's your news aggregation aggravation for Tuesday. Before we get into the trending stories there were two items that jumped out at me that I think deserve attention in the lead. Separately, and even together, they neither surprise nor shock me (and in a way that in and of itself is kind of shocking). We all know that barring some sort of miracle or the SMOD (and that to many around here may be one and the same thing) England, as is most if not all of Western Europe is sinking beneath the waves of the toxic Socialism and Sharia-creep/surge. But considering what we are dealing with in the schools, in the media and in our daily interactions with people, these articles paint a frightening picture of where this country is headed if we both a) lose another major election, despite not having a political party that fully represents and believes in what we believe in and b) do not take control of the source of the poison, to wit our schools and other things poisoning the minds of our children, because everything flows from there.

To be fair, the man who was jailed had some sort of laser jammer in his car, which was not in use at the time. But the fact that he flipped the bird to the camera is what got him in trouble for "perverting the course of justice." No comment from the scores of women and girls raped in Rotherhithe and probably all over the UK by men whose ethnicity/culture/religion shall not be mentioned.

And then there is the continuing horror show that is England's National Health Service. Fresh off of a story I had yesterday where the NHS has denied a UK couple the right to take their ailing child to Italy for palliative care not allowed them at home, we have this gothic horror story where doctors pulled the ventilator off of toddler against the wishes of his parents because his parents hope against hope for a miracle just isn't worth the money. And they mocked Sarah Palin for using the phrase "death panels." Remember that despite the hideous Cromnibus passed a month or so ago, the GOP did put in the abolishing of the Obamacare death panel into it. Thank goodness for small miracles. For now, future elections notwithstanding.

So there you have it. A nation that is all but completely rotted from within and by its own hand. As George Bernard Shaw once quipped, "the English and Americans are two peoples separated by a common language." The question is, are we to be two peoples united by a common fate? The world wonders...

Moving along, and sort of echoing the above, Parkland survivor and pro-Second Amendment spokes-student Kyle Kashuv got persecuted by his school security because his dad took him to a gun range. Is this the same school security that did such an outstanding job of deserting their post and hiding from the shooter? And then we have the CDC that hid a report which basically explodes the leftist narrative about self-defensive gun use.

On to the Mueller madness, while there are now questions as to whether PDT is being forthcoming about a trip to Moscow, evidently John Brennan, who many believe to be the leader of the insurrection actually did make a trip there in March of 2016 for purposes still unknown. If I were to venture a guess it would be to tell them that they were going to manufacture a phony dossier implicating Trump and Russia so as to smear him and swing the election to Hillary. But not to worry - she'd have a lot more flexibility to complete Obama's decapitation of America as founded once the election was over.

Meanwhile, Max-Scene Waters' latest exhibition of cray-cray and idiocy perfectly crystallizes the Democrat-Leftist-Media complex's mindset. Comey may be a liar (since he no longer represents the Steiner to their Hitler) but on Trump he's 100% correct! Couple this with Howard Dean opening his lipless cake-hole calling the PDT base swastika-burning Nazis and perhaps maybe the GOP running on Hillary's record may not be such a bad strategery after all.

The big news in foreign policy is the visit of French PM Macron to confer with PDT. Despite the latter's support of Marine LePen in the last French election, the two are evidently getting along just fine. Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo's nomination has cleared the Senate committee as Luap the Lesser caved and several vulnerable Dems voted "present" to avoid a potential political backlash. He should be confirmed in the full Senate I should think.

Meanwhile, the knives really are out for Scott Pruitt and it looks as if some in the GOP may also go wobbly on him. Supposedly he spent excessive money on travel and security, to which I call bullshit (mostly because I have followed the case and it is bullshit). If you consider the completely unnecessary and insane profligacy of the one-time-proud-to-be-an-American ex-FLOTUS, then it really is a joke. Pruitt is utterly ripping apart Obama's economy-killing regulations and is turning into one of the President's outstanding picks. Ergo, he must be destroyed.

From hither and yon, the Democrats have a sure-fire winning policy item: guaranteed jobs for all! How appropriate since concentration camps and gulags also had/have jobs for all. You want some "arbeit" with those "freis?" Also, are the scales dropping from Kanye West's eyes? I would love to arrange a meeting with him, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele an Clarence Thomas. Nice to be able to have someone to counter the crack-dealing, sibling shooting, America-hating propagandist known as Sean Carter. That is, if the Leftist-Entertainment-Agitprop Complex doesn't destroy West beforehand.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

IN THE LEAD

• Driver Flips the Bird at UK Traffic Cam... Gets 8 Months in Prison
  
• UK Toddler Fights for Life After Hospital Removes Life Support Against Parents' Wishes
  
  SECOND AMENDMENT, GUN CONTROL
  
• Pro-2nd Amendment Parkland Survivor Questioned by School Security... For Visiting Gun Range with His Dad
  
• CDC Never Published Defensive Gun Use Report; Would Completely Destroy Gun-Grabber Narrative
  
• Dem Jabbing Opponent on Pro-Concealed Carry Was Chief-of-Staff for NRA-Backed Congressman
  
  MUELLER WITCH HUNT
  
• John Brennan's Secret Trip to Moscow
  
• Max-Scene Takes a Splunge: Mueller Has No Credibility - But I Believe Him About Trump
  
• Obama's DoJ's Attempts to Rig Investigations Exposed in McCabe Probe
  
• Flight Records Dispute PDT's Claim He Didn't Stay in Russia
  
• Rush: The Swamp Has PDT Outnumbered - But He's Still Standing
  
  IMMIGRATION, AMNESTY
  
• Slim's Slimes: Illegal Aliens Use Other Peoples' Children to Trigger "Catch and Release"
  
  FOREIGN POLICY, INTERNATIONAL
  
• PDT, Macron to Focus on Trade, Military Issues Including Iran Nuke Sellout Deal
  
• Emmanuel Macron and French Anti-Semitism
  
• Luap the Lesser Caves, Now Supports Pompeo After Getting Ego Stroked
  
• Democrats: No Politics Here, We Oppose Mike Pompeo on Substance (he's pro-American)
  
• Deputy Press Sec Gidley: PDT Dropped "Obama Apology Tour," Regained Respect for USA
  
• NorK Denuclearization Offers Hope, But Won't End the Peninsula's Conflicts
  
• "Genocide?" Armenian-Americans Await PDT's Wording on Early 20th Century Turk Mass Murder
  
  POLITICS, 2018 MIDTERMS
  
• The GOP Ad Writes Itself: Howard Dean Compares Trump Voters to Neo-Nazis Burning Swastikas
  
• Trump's Below-the-Surface Strength
  
• Levin: The Democrats are "Prepared to Drag This Country Down"
  
• Democrats Midterm Weapon: Veteran Candidates (from whose army?)
  
• Mass Senate Candidate, and Real Indian, Fights City Order to Remove Anti-Warren "Fake Indian" Signs
  
• GOP's Top Midterm Strategy Centers Around Making Dems Own Hillary
  
• Dick-Less Nixon Gains Ground on Andrew Cuomo in NY Governor's Race
  
• The Harris Poll: Kamala-Toe a Shoo-In for 2020, But What About Her Controversial Past?
  
  ISLAM, TERRORISM, SHARIA
  
• Carter Center Sued for Providing Support to Terrorists, Defrauding Taxpayers
  
• Countering Political Islam's Economic Warfare
  
• Emerging Islamist Political Clout Accelerates Europe's Self-Islamization
  
  DOMESTIC POLICY
  
• Democrats' Latest Big Government Idea: Guaranteed Jobs For Everyone! (just like the ones in North Korea, right?)
  
  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE, ETC.
  
• Knives Out for Pruitt: White House Staffers Encouraging Republicans Not to Defend Him
  
• Sources Say Most of What EPA Leaker Told Dems is False
  
  CULTURE WARS, HITHER and YON
  
• Hardly a Stir When Starbucks Denied a Cop
  
• CUNY National Lawyers Guild Actually Issues Statement on "What We Mean When We Say F**k the Law"
  
• Boston Globe's News Fabrication Scandal is Nothing New for Journalism
  
• Kanye Tweets Right: Hip-Hop Icon Dares to Question the Leftist Narrative
  
• 13 Years Later, Movie Captures Drama Disgust of Kelo Decision

Monday Overnight Open Thread (4/23/18 )

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quote I

“In the face of all of those demands, keeping every detail straight is impossible,” he writes. “I have myself been to meetings after which I could not remember what agency or Department most of the people worked for, or even why they were there. With classified information, it was frequently hard to know who was cleared to see what or what could be discussed with whom. If there is anyone who fully understands our ‘system’ for protecting classified information, I have yet to meet him.” John Bolton

Quote II

“In terms of what happens in 2020, we’re going to wait and see who runs. If I had to make that decision today, I’d be missing the opportunity to find out what they’re going to do for Utah.” Mitt Romney

Quote III

"We have a very difficult — well, our defense is our deterrent capability. We don't have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us, so our response would be our deterrent force, which would be the triad and the nuclear capabilities that we have to respond to such a threat," U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force Gen. John Hyten

Quote IV

“As far as racism goes, the modern loony left seem to forget that Hitler was leftwing,”Morrissey

*****

Sometimes lying on your back pays off. Poontronage.

She is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough,” said the president of the United States in 2013. “She also happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country.”

That would be former California Attorney General Kamala Harris, daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, and now the state’s junior U.S. senator. As it happens, Barack Obama was not the first prominent Democrat to be dazzled by the UC Berkeley beauty.

As speaker of the California State Assembly from 1980 to 1995, Willie Brown was by far the Golden State’s most powerful shot-caller. In 1994 Brown, 60, met Kamala Harris, a full 30 years his junior, and she became “the Speaker’s new steady,” Brown’s “girlfriend” and “frequent companion.” The two-year relationship worked out well for Harris.

Actually The ONT doesn't consider her any smarter than any other congress critter. And her public commentary reveals an individual who doesn't study the issues. More than likely a 2020 Dem candidate.

*****

Big boys and girls no longer allowed to go on nature trip. OMG there is no cell service.

After logging enough miles to hike around the world more than four times, Penn State has decided it's too risky for the campus Outing Club to go on student-led outings.

A risk assessment by the university led to the decision, says a statement on the Outing Club's web page.

The club's outings were deemed to be "above the University's threshold of acceptable risk for recognized student organizations," said the statement.

Nice move Penn Pussy State.

*****

Spectacular Winners Of The World Press Photo Award 2018 Awesome photos, however some are graphic and may be NSFW.

*****

I've been to cafes which didn't accept plastic. But now there are cashless restaurants.

If you're craving the Serrano Grilled Shrimp Bowl at the Tender Greens salad chain, don't bother bringing cash.

Tender Greens, with28 restaurants on the East and West coasts, is one of a growing number of eateries that are either shunning cash and only accepting credit and debit cards and contactless payment systems, like Apple Pay, or experimenting with the strategy.

While no one has kept a running count of restaurants adopting the cashless policy, interest is clearly rising. A 2016 Federal Reserve study found the number of non-cash payments — including credit and debit cards — totaled 144 billion in 2015, having grown 5.3% annually between 2012 and 2015

*****

Police continue to "literally" shoot themselves in the foot.

Largo, Florida police detectives entered a funeral home in Clearwater and attempted to unlock the phone of a man killed in March by another officer at a traffic stop using the deceased man’s hands, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Victoria Armstrong, the fiance of late Linus F. Phillip, told the paper she felt “so disrespected and violated” after police entered the funeral home she was present at and attempted to use Phillip’s corpse to unlock the device. While the police may not have been violating the law by doing so, Phillip’s family certainly felt the move was disrespectful

*****

The ONT Musical Interlude

April 23, 1936, Born on this day, American singer-songwriter Roy Orbison "the Big O" who had a 1964 UK & US No.1 single with ‘Pretty Woman’ plus over 20 US & 30 UK Top 40 singles including 'Only the Lonely' (1960), 'Running Scared' (1961) and 'Crying'. With the Traveling Wilburys he had a 1988 UK hit single ‘Handle With Care’. Orbison died of a heart attack on 6 December 1988. via thisdayinmusic.com

***

April 23, 1971, The Rolling Stones released their classic album Sticky Fingers in the UK. The band's first release on their own label via Atlantic Records, the cover was designed by Andy Warhol, who was paid $15,000 for his efforts. The LP sleeve featured a close-up of a pair of jeans with a working zip. Widely assumed to be that of Mick Jagger, the crotch photographed for the cover was actually that of actor Joe Dallesandro. via thisdayinmusic.com

I still have my copy.

*****

The ONT has covered Universal Basic Income (UBI) before. The Horde being the top notch economists that they are said, "It isn't going to work, what are you f*cking nuts? Of course the Horde was right.

Business Insider Nordic reports that this is such a bad idea that when Finland actually tried it, the failure was obvious so quickly that the experiment was terminated.

It's all fun and games until you run out of other people's money.

*****

Falling into the category of This day in history. h/t Isophorone

*****

Outsourcing your sexual needs to a different town is our Genius Award Winner.

State police have arrested Bloomsburg’s mayor on charges of soliciting and patronizing a prostitute.

Police allege that 36-year-old Eric Bower had sex with a confidential informant for money several times, most recently in early April. They allege the two agreed to meet at a Hampton Inn just outside town, and Bower showed up Friday with $200 in cash plus condoms.

Bower was arraigned Friday night by video on misdemeanor charges, including criminal solicitation and patronizing prostitutes.

*****

Homeless vet runs across a group of people who really helped him out. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

U.S. Air Force veteran Michael Malone inherited his childhood home from his mother after she died, but the house was in desperate need of repairs. He didn't have a way to pay for them and wound up living in a facility for homeless veterans.

*****

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by The Club.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. Not responsible for under-cooked products. Beaver is not on the menu.

Close it up

Gee, What Changed? Left-Wing Offers "Thoughts and Prayers" to Victims of Toronto Terrorism

—Ace of Spades

I thought that "thoughts and prayers" were a meaningless sentiment tossed out in lieu of actually confronting the problem.

The left keeps telling us that, right?

So what are we to make of DiBlasion offering "thoughts and prayers" after a terrorist attack?

Guess he's not really interested in doing anything tangible.

Shaun King -- who hews to the racist belief that a pasty White Caucasian can do a better job of being a black guy than an actual black guy -- was also caught offering empty sentiments instead of demands for tangible action.

Jonah Goldberg: I Don't Love Rock n Roll

—Ace of Spades

First, George Will told us that jeans were The Devil.

Now, Jonah Goldberg tells us rock n roll is a tool of the pagan gnostic neo-Marxist conspiracy, and he cites lyrics from up-and-coming indie band Jethro Tull to prove this.

Like Ben Shapiro, Goldberg argues that part of the trouble with modern life is the elevation of feelings over facts. This is tied to Romanticism, which Goldberg describes as an "emphasis on emotion and the irrational, the significance of that which cannot be seen or explained through science but can be felt intuitively, is the tribal mind's way of fighting its way back into the centrality of our lives."

Isn't religious feeling felt intuitively and not rationally? Is he an atheist?

Does he not concede that "moral sentiments" are in fact sentiments? Does he think strict utilitarian analysis explains the value we place on a human life?

Is he not aware that strict utilitarian analysis is sometimes used to suggest that human life is subordinate to other interests, such as other people's pleasure?

Is he not aware how silly and naive this all is? We reason first from emotional feeling. Intuition is the first step of thinking -- then reason is used to, well, reason backwards and come up with a plausible explanation for that intuition.

If attempts to construct a logical defense of emotions and intuitions fail, we might reject those initial feelings as erroneous. Then again, we might not.

His idea that reason is our primary mode of thinking, and that it is separate from emotion or intuition, is, how do I put this, flatly contradicted by the latest scientific thought about how the brain works. The rational brain is the tip of the iceberg -- 90% of thinking is invisible or at least very hard to see, beneath the surface, a mix of emotion, instinct, and some occasional random neuron walks.

Reason is most useful to help figure out how to get more of something you've decided is valuable and good, or less of something you've decided is wortheless and bad. But the initial assignment of value to things or ideals is famously non-rational -- not exactly arbitrary, but extremely hard to explain by recourse to reason alone. Most moral arguments about the rationality of a particular moral value generally involve a lot of ipse dixit, appeal to authority, question-begging (sentences which start with "It cannot be argued that..." and then claim something that a whole lot of people have been arguing about for eons) and, ultimately, hand-waving.

If he's gonna yammer about reason, maybe he could pick up a pop science book on the science of cognition.

Instead of attempting to explain it all with his feelings and intuitions.

Goldberg adds that "popular culture gives us the clearest window into the romantic dimension that we all live in." The most powerful expression of this is rock and roll. "Rock and roll is romanticism," Goldberg writes, with emphasis in the original.

"What are the key themes of rock and roll and these other genres?" Goldberg continues. "Any list would include: defy authority and throw off the chains of 'the Man,'...

Rejecting unjustified authority used to be a rational conservative position.

Once upon a time King George was "the man." But then, later, David Frum, Jonah Goldberg, Tom Nichols, Bill Kristol and a raft of would-be thought-leaders got deposed and began trying to rehabilitate the image of the authoritarian Obey Your Betters regime. You know, back in the Good Old Days when they claimed the right of prima noctae with your hierarchy of values.

I'm also very amused by very emotional people who are clearly on tilt about Trump's election, and who piously recite received wisdom as if they were mullahs, telling the rest of us we should be more rational.

"... true love, damn the consequences, nostalgia for an imagined better past, the superiority of youth, contempt for selling out, alienation, the superiority of authenticity, paganism and pantheism, and, like an umbrella over it all: the supremacy of personal feelings above all else."

Nostalgia for an imagined better past? This is a progressive-type jibe. While there's some truth to the jibe, there has never been less truth to it right now: The "better past," which was just five or eight years ago, is not an imagined one, and we actually all were freer then.

We now live under a suffocating regime of thoughtcrime and mob rule.

Also, as far as personal feelings: A foundational document of our civilization does state that the natural rights of all men include "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Sounding like a 1950s preacher, he goes on: "Rock and roll is the primitive's drumbeat hooked up to killer amps. It ties together meanings we are taught to keep separate; it ratifies the instincts we are instructed to keep at bay. It tells us, in the words of Jethro Tull, 'Let's bungle in the jungle,' because 'that's alright with me.'"

I don't even know what to say.

I wonder if Jonah Goldberg was driven over the edge on the Great Rock N Roll Debate by this (mild content warning for profanity) song.

BTW, genuine rock music hasn't been particularly culturally significant for about 15 years now. What's the last big true rock hit you can think of?

I suppose if you count rock descendants like hip-hop as "rock" then it's still culturally relevant -- but in that case, why not quote Jay-Z instead of Jethro Tull?

Google Bans Advertisements From Publishing Arm of Large Conservative Lutheran Denomination; Won't Say Why

—Ace of Spades

Of course.

I look forward to being lectured by the TruCons how we must not boycott Google or begin applying political pressure because Corporations Are Holy Bodies Like the Body of Christ Himself and that if we just surrender our right to speak and think freely in the current age with barely a whimper of protest, we will be judged, after we are dead, to have acted properly and like good little subjects.

At any point are the TruCons going to start proposing actual action points to begin rolling back the Censorship Regime now so that we currently living can enjoy the birthrights of American citizens, or are we just waiting to die silently so that we may be praised in posterity for #MuhPrinciples?

I don't know about you, but cowardly surrender and craven obedience to a corrupt and unrelentingly hostile system isn't one of #MuhPrinciples.

I'd rather be rudely alive than a polite and respected-in-retrospect corpse.

NeverTrumpers Now Resorting to Hillary Clinton's "It Wasn't Marked Classified" Defense to Defend Comey's Leaks of Classified Documents

—Ace of Spades

#MuhPrinciples is the funniest fucking thing in the world.

What principles, you deranged hacks?

Does this mean Rob George now agrees with Hillary that she committed no crime because the documents she negligently exposed to foreign hackers weren't "marked classified"? (Even if she was the one who ordered those markings stripped off?)

My, does it seem that many people are changing their principles left and right in order to remain eternally loyal to #MuhPrinciples!!!

Meanwhile:

Terror in Toronto: Nine Dead, Sixteen Injured In Another Van Attack

—Ace of Spades

Video -- with Sheppy Smith, of course -- here.

The motive is officially unknown, which I take to mean the motive is known by officials but they don't want to tell the public about it.

Known Wolf? Terrorism, Bill Bratton's contacts say.

Mueller-Inspired Fed Raid on Trump's Personal Lawyer Results in Leak About Sean Hannity's Real Estate Holdings

—Ace of Spades

There is no suggestion that these real estate holdings are illegal, though it is hinted at with the word "secret." (Other terms for "secret:" "private," "none of your business," "Get fucked, nark.")

The criminal investigation against President Trump's lawyer has revealed that Fox News host Sean Hannity owns millions of dollars worth of real estate across several states.

According to the Guardian, documents obtained from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen show Hannity has links to several shell companies that bought $90 million on 877 residential properties across seven states.

"Hannity is the hidden owner behind some of the shell companies and his attorney did not dispute that he owns all of them," the Guardian reported.

This is just a naked attempt by the Deep State's police arms to intimidate and humiliate political opponents using the law -- or, at this point, I should say "the law" -- as a weapon.

I eagerly await David French's column on this. "Two Cheers for the Deep State" or something like that, I imagine.

Gawker Government. Get used to it.

Oh

—Ace of Spades

New Anti-Gay Posts from Joy Reid's Blog Discovered;
Joy Reid Claims These Posts Were "Fabricated"

—Ace of Spades

#Hacked. Toaster still loyal at least.

While the amateur sleuth provided Mediaite with legitimate links to all of the posts they tweeted screenshots of, neither the actual defunct site nor its archived pages are currently accessible, as their Wayback Machine links mysteriously disappeared in December after Mediaite's initial story on Reid’s homophobic comments about Florida Congressman Charlie Crist was published. The Wayback Machine did not respond to an inquiry regarding the removal of Reid's blog.

Reid’s statement to Mediaite claims that these allegedly hacked posts do "not represent the original entries" on her site...

In December I learned that an unknown, external party accessed and manipulated material from my now-defunct blog, The Reid Report, to include offensive and hateful references that are fabricated and run counter to my personal beliefs and ideology.

I began working with a cyber-security expert who first identified the unauthorized activity, and we notified federal law enforcement officials of the breach. The manipulated material seems to be part of an effort to taint my character with false information by distorting a blog that ended a decade ago.

Now that the site has been compromised I can state unequivocally that it does not represent the original entries. I hope that whoever corrupted the site recognizes the pain they have caused, not just to me, but to my family and communities that I care deeply about: LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color and other marginalized groups.

It is worth noting, however, that Reid does admit these posts came from her blog -- rather than alleging they are doctored images posted to Twitter -- with the caveat that they were added by nefarious hackers after she had the site shut down. It's unclear when the nefarious hackers would have hacked her site and added the controversial content, since it has been defunct for years and still is. More importantly, NBC could or would not specify exactly which posts Reid is claiming were doctored.

You're gonna love the new ru--

Oh, who am I kidding. She's a black woman. There are no rules.

Rules are for the allegedly "privileged" people. See, it's the privileged people who are restrained by rules at every turn, and the "marginalized" people who are free to live life to the full.

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"Look, I shouldn't have to spell this out, but sometimes kids are born with 6 fingers and toes, or maybe even no arms or legs. Heck, I once knew a guy who had, like, 10 or 12 nipples. No lie. They were all over his back, and some of them were obviously malformed. Big deal. These things happen. But these genetic anomalies are just that: anomalies. It doesn't mean there's some sort of "spectrum" of digitalism, and they're all normal. And it's certainly no reason to organize the Nipple Liberation Front and agitate for special privileges such as you get to take cuts in line and also help yourself to other people's money."

h/t Cherry Austin

Tom Arnold, Racist:

Couple three things:

1. Candace Owens is black. I'm pretty sure that if a conservative ever told a black woman to "suck racist d*ck", he'd be denounced by the left as a big bad racist.

2. Tom Arnold is so demented that not only does he go around insulting black women, but he thinks Shaun "Talcum X" King is an "actual hero".

3. What has Shaun King ever done that makes him an "actual hero"?

4. Doesn't Tom Arnold know that Shaun King is a white guy pretending to be a black guy?

5. Does Tom Arnold even work any more? Only time I hear about him is when he's yelling at someone on Twitter.

And Speaking of Earf Day:

Who is really responsible for saving the whales?

a) GreenPeace
b) a random assortment of smelly hippie protestors.
c) international "law"
d) John D. Rockefeller

The answer is, of course, (d) John D. Rockefeller:

Whale oil provided the lighting to read the breakthrough novel of 1870, the story of Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. That was also the year of the foundation of Standard Oil. The result of that foundation is that we didn’t hunt the whales to extinction, but instead turned to kerosene to light the latter part of the 19th century, moving to electricity only in the 20th.

It really isn’t hyperbole to insist that John D. Rockefeller saved the whales by his making mineral oil products so much cheaper than the cetacean-derived equivalent.

The lesson is obvious:

We need to be as viciously capitalist and free market as we can to save the planet.

Close it up

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

On Walkin Pond, New Hampshire
Alfred Thompson Bricher

The Morning Report 4/23/18

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. In the wake of last week's horrific double ambush murder of two police officers, we begin the new one with a shooting at a Waffle House restaurant early Sunday morning in Tennessee. Four are dead, but an incredibly brave customer was able to wrest the weapon out of the shooter's hands and toss it away, causing him to flee. He's still at large but has been identified. The Democrat-Left-Media complex of course is jumping all over the dead bodies, and shrieking for more gun confiscation. The loudest among them is Shaved Guevara who appears to have a bright future as a professor at Fresno State. The little Commie stooge is demanding confiscation of all semi-automatic weapons. Come and take them, sweetheart.

In the coup against President Trump, now that Russian collusion and the phony Steele/Clinton/Obama dossier has been debunked as a fraud, we have an interesting analysis from William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection; to wit, the effort to now go after PDT's personal business via the Michael Cohen investigation at the Southern District of NY has been ginned up by, you guessed it, Fusion GPS. So, even if Mueller packs it in and slinks off somewhere, and Rod Rosensteinpenis is fired and Snoozy McSnoozerson resigns as a result because muh principlez, a new and improved sham investigation out of NY will still continue to gin up dirt and rumors to taint the President or trump up charges against him via intimidated witnesses. My thoughts; just like the collusion angle, this too will blow up in the Democrat-Left-Media complex's and Renfield-esque NeverTrumper's faces.

In fact, Mark Levin points out that the Democrats might have just royally screwed themselves with the phony stunt of suing Russia, Trump campaign officials and WikiLeaks for stealing the 2016 election. The discovery process is going to be a sight to behold so go long on Orville Reddenbacher futures. Even if they now realize what they did, if they withdraw the lawsuit, their base will go ape. Along with that, PDT has countersued the DNC - and rightly so - over their servers, Clinton e-mails and "the Pakistani mystery man." As usual, the great Daniel Greenfield's take on this is spot on:

Before and after the last election, the Democrats conspired to rig their primaries, plotted to tamper with the general election, and then sought to reverse its outcome and tamper with the next election. In the typical manner of the left, they justified their crimes by attributing them to their victims. Extensive coordination between political operatives, elements in the justice system, law enforcement, the State Department and the media manufactured crimes and built investigations around them. Some call this network, a "Deep State." But that shifts responsibility from the Democrats to an amorphous conspiracy that encompasses everything. And that lets the Democrats off the hook. The investigations of Trump aren't tainted because everyone in the FBI is bad. They're tainted because Democrats tried to use them to rig one election and are trying to use them to rig another one.

Moving along to the international scene, evidently there have been violent riots in the socialist paradise of Nicaragua over their own version of social security reform; that is the corruptocrats have all but run out of other peoples' money and are allegedly staging the riots to strong-arm private businesses, such as they are there, to fork over more money. Meh. Just do like South Africa, the country whose Constitution Ruth Baader-Meinhoff thinks we should replace ours with, and take it away.

Despite the seeming breakthrough with North Korea, the President seems to be taking a pragmatic and cautious view of their announced commitment to scrapping nukes and ending the almost 68-year-long Korean War. And over in Persia, the Farsis are threatening the President if he withdraws from the Obama/GOP-e illegal nuke deal sellout. And directly related is an interesting piece on just what Iran is teeing up in Syria vis a vis Israel.

Closer to home, on the political front, despite the GOP-e doing all it can to sabotage the midterms, Ace reported late Friday that Mitt Romney will now have to face off against a conservative primary challenger for the Utah senate seat. Meanwhile, Tom Steyer's mutt-million dollar effort to impeach PDT has fallen flat, while the "progressive" freak show convened in Atlanta to plot their next moves in taking down the republic as founded. Lastly, former New Black Panther Party leader Malik Shabazz went on an extended tirade, demanding that Florida be given to black people as reparations. And speaking of which, guess what's going to be front and center in the Democrat Party platform in the next few years? It is so goddam infuriating that we do not have a political party that actually represents us because we would be wiping the floor with these freaks, politically speaking. Sigh.

In any case, Scott Pruitt is declaring the war on coal dead while Mick Mulvaney is gumming up the works at the CFPB - or is that the BCFP? Yes, a name change may not seem like all that big a deal, but some on the left are noticing it and are pissed. Read the link. Also of note, SCOTUS will be taking up the President's travel ban case. Considering almost everything from the 9th Circus gets overturned, I'm hoping sanity prevails as in that kind of world, this is an open and shut case. Then again, Chief Just Julia Roberts will rule it to be a tax.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

IN THE LEAD

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (4/22/18 )

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

******

Happy Earth Day

*****

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by The Beaver.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. No rodents were injured in the production of this ONT.

Weekly commenter stats for week of 4-22-2018

Top 10 commenters:
1 [519 comments] 'Insomniac ' [72.91 posts/day]
2 [465 comments] 'Christopher R Taylor'
3 [426 comments] 'votermom certified russian matryoshka bot'
4 [388 comments] 'Mike Hammer, etc., etc.'
5 [371 comments] 'Deplorable Jay Guevara'
6 [365 comments] 'hogmartin'
7 [344 comments] 'Lizzy'
8 [344 comments] 'Mr. Peebles'
9 [339 comments] 'yankeefifth'
10 [328 comments] 'Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [67 names] 'mindful webworker - javascript is not your friend' [9.41 unique names/day]
2 [47 names] 'Duncanthrax'
3 [41 names] 'Under Fire'
4 [41 names] 'f'd'
5 [36 names] 'Rick in SK'
6 [33 names] 'Surfperch'
7 [29 names] 'REDACTED'
8 [29 names] 'andycanuck'
9 [29 names] 'Jukin the Deplorable and Profoundly Unserious'
10 [28 names] 'Steve and Cold Bear'

Close it up

Weekend Gun Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

I came across this sign the other day in my travels. Nice little "Mom & Pop" gun store. Where do you do your shopping? Online? Small biz owners? Big box stores?

I'll be honest with you, I haven't purchased a firearm from a private party in years. Hopefully the paperwork of buying new from a FFL will not come back to bite me in the ass sometime down the road.

So Horde, tell us about your shopping habits.

*****

Former NFL player Jay Feely has my support and shows that the left doesn't have a sense of humor. Get a life off of your computer.

***

(*Good, Gooder, Goodest)

***

In my travels I visit places where there are armed people. They are both in uniform and plain-clothing. I often am waned or walk through a metal detector. Other than my damn knee everything is good. I don't feel insecure, it is just a way of life.

Do you want to make schools safer? Spend more money on security and allow teachers and staff to carry. The debate: Is arming school staff a good idea?

In the wake of the horrific mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which a lone gunman killed seventeen people, the debate over gun control has erupted with renewed fury not experienced since the tragic Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012. When a mass murder is committed with a firearm, the political debate over guns predictably takes center stage, as the factions that seek further civilian disarmament renew their calls for change in policy while Second Amendment defenders dig in to resist. In this argument over legislation governing inanimate objects, the opportunity is lost to take measures that may truly work towards thwarting the next mass killer. One such notion that garners particular controversy is the proposal to arm teachers and other school staff.

Just a couple of thoughts. Why does the left think that good guys can't hit their target yet bad guys can?

If people are safe in "gun free zones" why are there so many shootings there?

***

What does Chicago and the JEF have in common with the murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, FL?

While the media continues to focus on gun control in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, one area student has dug into his school’s policies and found them wanting.

Kenneth Preston, a 19-year-old student journalist who attends high school in Broward County, Florida, has done an in-depth investigation of the superintendent and school board.

Preston’s thorough report, released on Tuesday, says that Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie and the school district failed to spend over $100 million of federal money intended for school safety upgrades.

Runcie once worked under former Obama Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in the Chicago Public Schools system.

By my math at least 4 governmental agencies failed those 17 dead at the high school in question. Yet politicians and some zit faced puke want to take my AR away from me. As Charlton Heston once said...............

***

Many of us are NRA members and supporters are you prepared for this shit? The NRA's Chris Cox and his wife find their home and business under protest and attack.

HEY’RE NOT GOING TO LIKE THE NEW RULES: Far Left Protesters Target NRA Lobbyists’ Home. “Mr. and Mrs. Cox have been targeted over the past few months by repeated acts of criminal and unlawful conduct, including having their home vandalized on two occasions and Mrs. Cox’s business on another occasion.”

Plus:

“I don’t think the Cox family is getting enough social pressure,” said [Amanda] Gailey, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Nobody from their kids’ school or their yoga class sees [a protest] happening” at the NRA headquarters…

“If I made him uncomfortable at his house, too bad, he deserves it,” [Catherine] Koebel said in an interview. “I felt unsafe in my home because of his product.”…

“It is aggressive,” Gailey acknowledged. “I wouldn’t do that unless we were protesting someone who I believe is a truly indefensible human being.”

Yeah, I’ve got a little list of that kind of people myself. And you’re on it. And if this is the standard, a lot of lefties better watch out. They have an awful lot of indefensible human beings in their ranks.

***

The NRA is having a membership drive.

***

Hopefully, Rolling Stone Magazine knows how to roll a joint better than they know how to destroy an AR-15 rifle.

As gun owners, we can always count on the editors at Rolling Stone magazine to keep us in compliance with the myriad laws pertaining to firearms. So with the news that Dick’s Sporting Goods will be destroying their inventory of AR-pattern rifles that they’re now too responsible and virtuous to sell, the Rolling Stoners did a little research to find out how to do it legally.

It’s no small question. As you may remember, a few days after the Parkland shooting, one know-nothing educator who’s running for Congress in Virginia displayed her lack of knowledge for all the world to see when she converted her husband’s AR into an illegal short-barrel rifle.

***

The Feel Good Story of The Week.

How about them 30 round magazines?

*****

How to sight in a rifle the correct way.

Sighting in a rifle is an important thing to do if you want your rifle to be dead on when taking a shot.
Which brings us to the Carlos Hathcock way of sighting in a rifle.
For those that don’t know who Carlos Hathcock is, he was a United States Marine Corps (USMC) sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills.
Hathcock’s record and the extraordinary details of the missions he undertook made him a legend in the U.S. Marine Corps.
He was a serious threat to the NVA (North Vietnamese Army), which they placed a bounty of U.S. $30,000 on Hathcock’s head.
The following is a story by Gus Fisher a retired MGySgt USMC who talks of the time he met Carlos.
What was unique was the way Carlos had taught Gus to sight in a rifle. Here’s the excerpt from M14Forum:
As mentioned before, I was a very young Marine Sergeant when I came up to THE Marine Corps Rifle Team the first time as the junior Armorer.

***

You can send your firearm related tips, stories, photos and unused ammo to petmorons at gmail. We do not publish canoe trip advertising.

***

*Enjoy the goof*

H/T Hank Curmudgeon for the Daily Signal link.

Close it up

Food Thread: Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Meat In A Dish?

—CBD

I had some leftover tenderloin from the Seder, and decided to make a sort of hash out of it. Nothing fancy, just diced potatoes, onions, a bit of carrot and celery, and some fresh thyme to add something different.

it was great! So, as usual, I made it again, and screwed it up. I figured that if a little beef was good, then a lot was better! I found some prime shell steak that had been marked down for some odd reason. It looked great, so I guess the "sell by" date had been reached and some wonk slapped a discount tag on it.

Instead of using the beef as a counterpoint to the potatoes and other stuff, I used so much of it that I overwhelmed the other ingredients. Now, cubed shell steak sauteed in butter is not a bad thing, but it wasn't quite what I wanted, and it reminded me yet again that much of cooking is simply a sense of balance and proportion between ingredients.

Yeah....I'm slow.

******

Lurker "Josh" has graciously shared his technique for making bacon from the fat cap of the pork shoulder. What a great idea! That part of the pig is fantastic, and I even prefer rib chops from high up near the shoulder...the ones that include some of the different muscles and tons of fat that make the shoulder so damned good.

I would like to share my technique for making homemade bacon. I make it out of the top fat slab from a picnic should, the square cut that contains the scapula bone. I make it out of that because the cost of the shoulder is a fraction of the cost of pork belly, saving more money for Val-U-Rite!

I remove the top fat, with all of the meat slivers still contained, rub it with Kosher salt on both sides and allow it to sit uncovered in the fridge overnight. The flat slab thickness varies but is generally between 1/2 to 1 1/4 inches thick. Next day, I set up my smoker to smoke at around 180 degrees, and rinse all the salt off the fat/meat then pat dry with paper towels. I place the fat slab into the smoker and smoke for around 3-4 hours. I place it directly on a rack to allow smoke to reach the entire piece easier, and I flip once or twice to keep the amount of smoke even (as shown by coloration). I prefer using more mellow woods such as cherry or apple, I do NOT recommend mesquite as it is very strong for this application.

When the 'bacon' reaches the appropriate color I remove and cool before slicing. It keeps a good long time in the fridge but I have yet to have any in the fridge longer than 3 weeks as my wife and kids eat it up fast. It can of course be frozen for later consumption.

I know it is not 'Bacon' since that is belly fat/meat. But- it cooks the same, smells the same, tastes the same, and has beautiful fat left in the pan for other uses. Best part is that I buy the full shoulders for $1.35lb, and the defatted portion roasts nicely for main meals while giving me bacon for1/3 the cost of buying it pre-made, and the homemade freshness cannot be eat.

******

Remember those yeast biscuits from a few weeks ago? I made them, and while it was not worth the wait for the overnight rise, they were quite good. Tender and flaky and just a bit yeasty. But biscuits seem to be a quick, last-minute food. I am not sure that having to plan 12 hours in advance is in the spirit of biscuit making.

******

That is a pan-seared bratwurst from my favorite deli, and 1/4 of dinner that night. I was alone, with just baseball and lots of food. Unfortunately that mustard was crappy. It is a German brand called "Löwensenf," and it was bitter and bland without a hint of that great mustard punch that is required with a good sausage. Luckily I had other mustards, otherwise my night, and possibly my week would have been ruined.

And speaking of sausages...it is damned difficult to find good rolls for any shape and size other than the classic American hot dog. Which I absolutely love, but those rolls are just silly with a big thick bratwurst.

******

I love stuffed chicken dishes, but usually they specify the breast, which while it is easy to stuff, doesn't stand up to interesting stuffing ingredients. So when i find a recipe that uses thighs, I am happy!

Roast chicken thighs stuffed with gorgonzola piccante, chilli and herbs

I haven't made this dish yet, but come on...it has a great shot at being good. I would cheerfully swap out the broccoli for potatoes or simply leave them out and serve the dish with a green salad.

******
Food and cooking tips, good mustard, Oakland style BBQ sauce, gefilte fish replacements, thick and fluffy pita and other goodies with impressive girth: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com. Recipes for low-carb Pop-Tarts will be deleted with extreme prejudice.

Close it up

Gender Neutral Bathrooms > #MeToo Movement Concerns

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

When ordinary people wanted separate men's and women's bathrooms they were decried as homophobic/transphobic or just down right haters. A funny thing happened, a committed leftist for an instance saw things as a common sense individual.

MADISON, Wis. – Can a liberal move so far left that eventually she turns right?

That appears to be the case – kind of – in Madison, the Badger State’s bastion of anything-goes progressive ideas.

In January, Mary Jo Walters, far-left activist and independent candidate for U.S. Senate (because ultra-liberal Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, could use the competition), filed a discrimination complaint against the Rape Crisis Center in Madison.

It turns out that not all liberal feminists want to share their public restroom with any Tom, Dick or Harry.

“Let me get right to it. I was shocked after listening to story after story from women who were raped by men (at the #MeTooMadison event),” she stated in an email. “Then I had to use the bathroom. I found signs on both doors (she included photos). Confused, I opened the door hoping no men were inside. I peed as fast as I could further creating anxiety and trauma. This is a privacy issue for women and men: bathrooms.”

But as with all good liberals the next step is to litigate the matter. Where of course common sense didn't prevail.

In her original complaint, filed with Madison’s Department of Civil Rights and the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission, Walters wrote that having to use a gender-neutral bathroom was “upsetting emotionally, seeing it was at a rape event.”

Madison is still 77 square miles of complete idiocy. But Ms Mary Jo Walters may want to stay in Madison and forgo Anchorage, AK.

On Tuesday, the Anchorage City Clerk made it official: Voters rejected Proposition 1, the citizen-initiated ballot proposal that would have required government-run facilities to maintain single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms, while allowing private businesses the right to decide their own privacy policies. The city certified the final tally of the voting, which ended on April 3, 2018, with “no” votes garnering 41,115 or 52.6 percent, to the “yes” votes of 36,993 or 47.4 percent.

In heralding the victory, LGBT activists portray the first rejection by voters of a so-called bathroom bill as representative of a change in public opinion. The Chicago Tribune reported that transgender activist Lillian Lennon pronounced the defeat of Proposition 1 not just “a victory for Anchorage, but a victory nationally,” adding “[t]ransgender discrimination is popping up everywhere, and this victory means that as a nation we can stand together against discrimination.”

The fight over safe spaces restroom continues. Slowly but surely separate restrooms are becoming a thing of the past.

What's So Special About The Speech Of Academics, Other Than It Is Often Stupid?

—CBD

I get it. Academic freedom is important in the context of research into uncomfortable topics. But some fat-assed bitch shooting her mouth off about the former first lady is not by any stretch of the imagination related to academic freedom, especially since it was uttered on a public forum and not part of any academic endeavor. It is simply a function of free speech. And the aforementioned fat-assed bitch has every right to say what she said. Good for her! She lives in a free society, in which the jack-booted thugs of government are not breaking down her door and hauling her off to prison.

But that doesn't mean that her speech is or should be repercussion-free. We need to separate academic freedom from free speech, because our left-leaning academics (and that is most of them) hide behind tenure and say things that are deserving of repercussions in any reasonable workplace.

If she published a scholarly (hah!) paper making the charge that George Bush and Barbara Bush are responsible for the deaths of millions of people, and actually backed it up with some data and fact and other messy and difficult things like logical analysis, then I would grudgingly support the notion that her work is deserving of some protection.

But jabbering like a fool and looking like nothing so much as an angry sow in a barnyard is not the same thing.

[Although...Barbara Bush Foundation For Family Literacy is almost exactly like genocide]

Sunday Morning Book Thread 04-22-2018

—OregonMuse

Library of a Lurking Moron
(click to embiggen)

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Oh, and we've got a new category of readers, escaped oafs and oafettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, and publishing by people who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, and I'll bet you thought nothing could look more ridiculous than those stupid pussy hats, didn't you?

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

A CHILIAD is a group of 1,000.

Usage: Nobody really knows exactly how many carrots there are in a chiliad.

New, improved college library: all problematic books removed, all problematic students expelled.
Pure, silent, intersectional bliss: no knowledge, no learning, no debate, no growth. Utopia achievement unlocked.
Because heaven is a place where nothing ever happens. pic.twitter.com/7DunXjfBjI

— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) March 9, 2018

Moron Author Wins Award

From e-mail:

So last month moron author William Alan Webb, aka me, won the 2018 Darrell Award for a fantasy novella titled A Night At The Quay, which is part my book Sharp Steel>.

The Darrell Awards are fairly prestigious in the industry, having been around since 1996, and while they aren't the Hugo or Nebula they are in the next tier down from those.

Sharp Steel: Sharp Steel and High Adventure Volumes 1-3 is available on Kindle for $2.99.

Bill also tells me:

Still getting bashed by liberals for my post apocalyptic Last Brigade series, but sales of book one have passed 20k copies so I must be doing something right.

I've mentioned the Last Brigade series before, so here are quick links to the books in the seies:

Standing the Final Watch
Standing in the Storm
Standing at the Edge

Getting bashed by liberals is a good thing. It means you're on target.

Schadenfreude

A couple of you morons have asked whether I was going to do anything with James Coney's soon-to-be-released memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. There's not much I want to say about it. It's not a book that many of you are interested in, except to ridicule it. Which is fine.

I read the title and the first thought that came to mind was 'what a sanctimonious gasbag.'

Truth: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power was written by another sanctimonioua gasbag, Mary Mapes, the CBS producer who lost her job in the RatherGate scandal (along with Dan Rather) when the 'investigation' of George W. Bush getting special treatment in the Texas Air National Guard she was responsible for blew up in the network's face.

So this book is basically Mapes doubling down on stupid.

And speaking of doubling down on stupid, the funniest one of all has to be Trump is F*cking Crazy: (This is Not a Joke) by Keef Olbermann, not so much for the title, but for the cover that has a very silly photo of KO wrapped up in an American flag. He doesn't look so much like a brave patriot as much as a bum down at the homeless shelter trying to get out of the rain under a tarp he just grabbed. Other than that, it sounds like a calm, rational, balanced, honestly written book.

Moron Recommendations

294 I recommend Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society. I have memorized the first 200 pages.

Posted by: Jumbo Jim at April 15, 2018 11:32 AM (5gaNQ)

I had heard of this book, but did not know very much about it:

Moral Man and Immoral Society, first published in 1932, is Reinhold Niebuhr’s important study in ethics and politics. Forthright and realistic, it discussed the inevitability of social conflict, the brutal behaviour of human collectives of every sort, the inability of rationalists and social scientists to even imagine the realities of collective power, and, ultimately, how individual morality can overcome social immorality.

Sounds quite interesting. And a real bargain on Kindle for $3.82.

___________

'Ette votermom recommends The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon by Moira Greyland. Greyland is the only daughter of science fiction/fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley and convicted child molester Walter Breen. I have not read this book, but let me warn you: it is not for the squeamish. I mean, we're talking years of child sexual abuse here. So yeah, I guess this is a trigger warning.

Votermom's review can be read here.

Books By Morons

[Update]: This just in:

94 Hello Horde! Back at Christmas OM was kind enough to give some great exposure to my book Shagging, Shooting and Death on Amazon, and there was immediately a spike in sales. I thanked you all the next week for the sales. At the time some said $9.99 was too high a price for an unknown author's book. I've been after my publisher about it & finally they agreed. So my comic novel (no politics, just fun) is finally on sale for $4.99. Wanted you all to know, because you were the ones who suggested/inspired this, and sales have increased. It's only on sale right now through April 28, so if you thought about buying it but the price put you off, it's been cut in half for now. Thanks again to any that bought and read it. It's been a dream come true.

Posted by: Biblio at April 22, 2018 09:59 AM (iD3mK)

Here is the blurb for Shagging, Shooting & Death:

If Jane Austen & Charles Dickens had been writing at the same time, gotten really drunk and written a novel together, it may have started something like this...

In 1820 Lady Annabella Upton-Church was young, pretty and one of the richest women in England.

She was also one of the most despised.

Reputation destroyed, suspected of murder, with no friends or family at her side, Annabella flees London for the country, set on restoring her name and reputation away from the sneers, shouts and snubs of that great city.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

If Annabella had known it would all lead to shooting and death she might have made another plan.

On the other hand, there is the shagging...

___________

Moronette 'votermom' is putting together a list of moron authors over on the Goodreads site which is intended to be accessible to non-members. Here is the list she has compiled so far. Let her know if there's an author she's missing.

http://www.bookhorde.org/p/aoshq-authors.html

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Close it up

EMT 04/22/18

—krakatoa

EMT is for deplorables.

Saturday Overnight Open Thread (4/21/18 )

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Last Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C. an aide to Nancy Pelosi visited the Bishop of the Catholic Cathedral in D.C. He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day's Mass, and asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a saint.

The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the woman, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over some of Pelosi's views." Pelosi's aide then said, "Look, I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to you if you'll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a saint."

The Cardinal thought about it and said, "Well, the Church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon." As Pelosi's aide promised, Nancy Pelosi appeared for the Sunday worship and seated herself prominently at the forward left side of the center aisle. As promised, at the start of his sermon, the Cardinal pointed out that Ms. Pelosi was present.

The Cardinal went on to explain to the congregation, "While Ms. Pelosi's presence is probably an honor to some, the woman is not numbered among my personal favorite personages. Some of her most egregious views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and she tends to flip-flop on many other issues. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit. Nancy Pelosi is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must say, Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed. She married for money and is using her wealth to lie to the American people. She also has a reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington and in California . The woman is simply not to be trusted."

The Cardinal concluded. “But, when compared with Hillary Clinton, Ms. Pelosi is a saint."

*****

Somebody is lucky that she was only arrested and not shot.

MONROE, La. (AP) — Police in Louisiana say a woman came home to discover a naked stranger in her tub, eating her Cheetos while taking a bath.

A Monroe police affidavit says 29-year-old Evelyn Washington was arrested on burglary and property damage charges.

*****

How do you spell bad ass in Finnish? Lauri Törni

In Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., amongst the thousands of rows of white granite headstones for American soldiers killed in action, stands a marker bearing the names of four servicemen killed in Vietnam. At first glance, there’s nothing remarkable about the stone, one so similar to the countless others at this hallowed ground.

Even the name at the top of the headstone – Maj. Larry Allan Thorne – is not unusual. It sounds quintessentially American, especially when compared to the names of the three South Vietnamese soldiers who are buried with him in this collective grave.

*****

If this doesn't make you smile and/or laugh. There is something wrong with you.

*****

Nearly every sportsman has one displayed in their home or office. Many bars, restaurants and lodges show them as well. What? Mounts. Hopefully, not mounts like these.

*****

Paul Joseph Watson Songs that couldn't be made today. NSFW-Language

*****

Women's self-defense, Legit or full of shit?

*****

Firefighters are called upon for many feats. It's all fun and games until somebody's raccoon gets high.

Fire department spokesman Michael Pruitt told the Washington Post that there wasn’t much firefighters could do to help the creature, who was a little early to celebrating 4/20.

“We typically love to help, especially when it comes to animals. We have a lot of animal lovers in the fire service,” Pruitt said. “But in this case, they just recommended, ‘Hey, the raccoon is going to have to sleep it off.’”

According to the Post, the woman said the raccoon had gotten into someone else’s weed stash—which is convenient since marijuana use isn’t legal in any form in Indiana. Pruitt joked that the animal had “moved from Colorado, and he didn’t know.”

*****

There are a number of us 29 year olds who grew up with a certain magazine. Mad Magazine is back.

Meanwhile, the magazine couldn’t up with the rapidly metastasizing appetite of the internet, where users demand their satire be as swift and severe as possible (in the early ‘00s, MAD was even lapped online by its long-time imitator Cracked. That’s like The Simpsons being canceled in favor of Fish Police!). A few years ago, the demise of MAD seemed inevitable—the sad end of an already drawn-out drama.

The new MAD—which will be published bimonthly, and goes for $5.99 an issue (kinda cheap!)—will never be able to compete with online comedic first-responders (though the magazine does have plans to launch a Twitch channel, as well as a new podcast). But to succeed in 2018, maybe it doesn’t have to. There’s so much pop culture now, and so much commentary about that culture, that a six-times-a-year spoof-filled digest almost feels like a relief: a safer, saner vantage point from which to view the world.

*****

Mrs. Mis. Hum. and I go on a date every payday. Our excitement is grabbing a burger and out to the local grocery store. As we don't have a Whole Foods in town we never got to break up with them.

Dear Whole Foods- We’re through. It’s not me. It’s you.

You know how it is, Whole. You know. And I know you know. We just can’t pretend it is what it was any longer.

Bad things have been happening between us whenever I’ve tried to get into your sack for quite some time. It’s time to face the fact that we just don’t have that old natural spark between us any longer. We’ve faded from organic to conventional. It’s time to move on to fresh fruits and vegetables new — elsewhere. Ditto your firm, moist, and alluring meats of many flavors. None of what you’re doing to me is doing it for me any more

*****

I love it when a plan comes together meets Karma.

*****

He was starting a new and exciting life. Perhaps he should have cleaned his history.Genius Award Winner.

A federal judge sentenced a 23-year-old man to more than 10 years in federal prison on Monday for his role in a bold string of armed robberies in Anchorage over one week in August 2016.

During the spree, in which he and a childhood friend held up liquor stores, a gas station and finally a downtown bank, Kaleem Tikori Fredericks searched "how to rob banks" and "how to sell diamonds for cash" on his phone, according to an indictment in the case.

*****

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Advice Columns.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. Tips, loose change and bus tokens to petmorons at gmail dot com. Or the Twitter thingy.

Close it up

Gotta-Post-It News: Mitt Romney Loses Utah Nomination Convention; As His Opponent Got More Than 50% But Not More Than the 60% Needed to Win Without Need of Primary, Contest Will Now Go to State Primary

—Ace of Spades

Well.

I don't know what this means but it seems like something.

(I'll knock this down under the ONT after a bit.)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread 04-21-2018 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]

—OregonMuse

Summer Movie Season

Yes, it's April, but that's not going to stop movie studios from getting the summer blockbusters in front of you as soon as possible.

Granted, the kind of movies that were released exclusively for summer in decades past are now being released all over the calendar. Hell, what may end up being the second biggest film of the year was released in February (Black Panther). Kids are still more able to go to the movies in summer, though, so for the foreseeable future, summer is still king.

Let the rush for children's dollars begin! Next week!

A Very Brief History

Summer movie season really began in 1975 with the release of Jaws. Steven Spielberg's superb monster movie exploded in the cultural consciousness in a way that a movie hadn't really done before. It was far from the first movie designed to scare and entertain an audience, but it was the first that had grabbed hold of the American psyche in a way that created the term: blockbuster.

News crews saw the lines of crowds waiting to get into the theater and experience the movie with the shark, and it looked like they were going to crack the sidewalk. Released in June of 1975, it was rated PG so anyone old enough to buy a ticket could go in, which meant a lot of teenagers free from school could spend a couple of bucks to get into the theater and get out from the heat while being massively entertained at the same time. It was a phenomenon, and like any phenomenon, it had it's pretenders and successors.

Summer became the time to release the types of movies that would appeal to younger audiences that couldn't go and see The Godfather on their own (the biggest movie of 1972, ahead of The Poseidon Adventure). Two years later came Star Wars, which combined the traditional hero journey with fantastic special effects and great editing to deliver an easy to digest adventure that anyone could love. With that huge success, the summer movie season was cemented as a cornerstone of American movie culture.

Personal Recollections

You people will rake me over the coals for this, but my chief memory of the summer movie season was 1999 when I saw The Phantom Menace nine times in theaters. I'll admit it, I liked it at the time (although revisiting it a decade later I discovered how inept the movie actually is), but that was how my mother got me out of the house throughout that summer.

"TJM!" my mother would call, using the abbreviation as we all do in my family, "Here's $10, go see Star Wars again. I don't care. Just get out."

And you know what? It was great. I spent hours and hours in the movie theater, cool from the hot Florida days and taking in sight and sound from celluloid. Sure, I was evidencing a hit on the head with my choice of entertainment, but the experience of going to the movies time and time again to watch things blow up was the kind of innocent fun that movie going can be.

This Year

So, do we have anything other than franchises coming out?

Probably nothing that will crack the top ten financially successful movies of the summer. We've got a new Star Wars movie, two Marvel movies, a new Mission Impossible sequel, another Purge, Jurassic Park, Incredibles, and Deadpool. Hell, we even have a second remake of Ocean's 11 (this time all girls).

For all people's caterwauling about a lack of originality in Hollywood, the stuff listed above is perfect fodder to get adolescents of all ages into the theater. I'll most likely go see a couple of these in the theater, confident that they will be at least competently made formula driven experiences that deliver their modest thrills effectively enough.

Summer movie season is the easy movie season, which is fine. Movies as a medium can accommodate many different types of stories, from tiny character pieces to giant effects laden extravaganzas to pompous virtue signaling nonsense.

So, bring on the new Jurassic Park. Sure, it looks dumb as a bag of rocks, but what else do you expect from a movie that has genetically engineered dinosaurs being stolen from an abandoned island and being put up for auction?

Back to You

What are your favorite summer movie experiences? What are you looking forward to this summer?

5 points to the first guy who says, "Movies suck," on a post about movies!

One Final Note

Milos Forman died last week. I don't normally make mention of recent deaths because I tend to write these posts far ahead of time, but I have to mention Mr. Forman.

He directed one of my top ten movies (Amadeus), and while he hadn't done much in recent years, it's still sad to see the man who made one of my favorite pieces of entertainment pass. He was smart and a wonderful filmmaker. I haven't felt the loss of a filmmaker this much since the passing of Robert Altman.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Forman.

Movies of Today

Opening in Theaters:
I Feel Pretty
Super Troopers 2
Traffik

Next in my Netflix Queue:
The Young Girls of Rochefort

Movies I Saw This Week:
Gods and Generals (Netflix Rating 3/5 | Quality Rating 2/4) Poster blurb: "The first two hours are unfocused, stilted, and simply bad. The last ninety minutes, though, is a surprisingly good film with one scene that stands out as something to really treasure." [Netflix DVD]
Ready Player One (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) "Classic Spielberg awash in CGI. Unchallenging and fun." [Theater]
Atomic Blonde (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) "Stylish, propulsive, and fun, if a bit over plotted." [HBO]
A Kid in King Arthur's Court (Netflix Rating 2/5 | Quality Rating 1/4) "The definition of 'Crap Actors did before They became Famous' for Daniel Craig and Kate Winslet." [HBO]
Get Out (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) "Quite effective horror film that I'll probably end up enjoying more with a second viewing." [HBO]
Everything Must Go (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) "Why do comedians end up playing sad sacks so well? Good, though probably a bit less than the sum of its parts." [HBO]
Martyrs (Netflix Rating 2/5 | Quality Rating 1/4) "Feels smarter than I think it is. I really don't think it rises above torture porn, which its fans insist that it does." ["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.

Close it up

Chess Thread 04-21-2018

—OregonMuse

The Polgars At Home

Pic Note

The photo is from The Polgar Variant, a documentary by Israeli filmmaker Yossi Aviram:

The extraordinary story of three Hungarian-Jewish sisters who were raised in Communist Budapest of the 1970s to be chess masters.

The Polgar sisters did not choose to become the heroines of this story. It was their father, who, driven by his educational vision, determined their destiny before they were even born. László Polgár believed that “Geniuses are made, not born,” and he set out to prove it. The canvas he chose was his three daughters. The medium he chose was chess.

No kindergarten, no school…. Three girls, isolated from the normal world of kids, studied and practiced chess...

I haven't been able to find this documentary (cough)bittorrent(cough) online but you can watch a trailer here.

Easier Problem - Black To Play (BWTC 241)

Hint: Pawns are meant to be pushed

r1q2bk1/ppp3r1/3p4/3Pp2p/1PP1Pp2/P1BNnnpP/1R2Q3/2N2BRK b - - 0 1

Continue reading

Chess GAINZZ

What about your chess GAINZZZ, brah?

More Challenging Problem - White To Play (139)

Here's a fun one. Without the pawn it's a win for White, albeit long and tricky. But Black still has one pawn left to push, and that makes all the difference. What is White's best course of action?

Hint: You can block the pawn with just the knight.

8/4K3/8/3k4/8/1N1B4/6p1/8 w - - 0 1

Dress Pr0n For the 'Ettes:

Finished writing a 5000 word paper...how lovely it was to write it in the garden with this beautiful weather today! Even more so when I stumbled across this 1829 floral/fern embroidered evening dress from the @V_and_A this afternoon. I love the Victorian fascination with nature. pic.twitter.com/Jiobaw1BWy

— whatgrandmawore (@whatgrandmawore) April 18, 2018

___________

Solutions Update

Easier Problem - Black To Play

r1q2bk1/ppp3r1/3p4/3Pp2p/1PP1Pp2/P1BNnnpP/1R2Q3/2N2BRK b - - 0 1

There are a couple of variations, all starting with

1...g2+!

#1:
2.Bxg2 Qxh3+
3.Bxh3 Rxg1#

#2:
2.Qxg2 Qxh3+
3.Qxh3 Rxg1# (or 3.Qh2 Rxg1#)

So it's a mate in 3

More Challenging Problem - White To Play

8/4K3/8/3k4/8/1N1B4/6p1/8 w - - 0 1

The key for White is to realize there is no way he will able to win with that pawn on the board, but he can secure a draw.

1. Bc4+! Kxc4

White doesn't need the bishop to draw

2.Nd2+ Kd3
3.Nf3 Ke3
4.Ng1 Kf2
5.Nh3+ Kg3
6.Ng1

And White can keep dancing thatnight around all day. Black will never be able to catch it.

If Black decides to not to take the knight:

1...Ke4
2.Bd5+ Kxd5
3.Nd2 Ke5
4.Nf3+ Kf4
5.Ng1 etc.

This technique of blocking a pawn with a knight may come in handy at some point. You may need it to salvage a draw from a seemingly lost endgame.

Hope to see you all next week!

___________

Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and past it into your chess app.

___________

So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.

Close it up

Posted by OregonMuse at 05:08 PM Comments