I like coffee because it gives me the illusion that I might be awake. -Lewis Black
Quote II
I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.-Ronald Reagan
Quote III
We want to do a lot of stuff; we're not in great shape. We didn't get a good night's sleep. We're a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup.- Jerry Seinfeld
NEW DELHI: (Daily Dunya) – India has on Tuesday made a shocking claim saying that Pakistan secret agency was sending ‘suicide dogs’ to their country, reported Daily Dunya.
Indian media claimed it had learned from security sources that Pakistan was sending suicide dogs to India for operations in India.
Why the Religion of Pieces (TM) uses innocent children and doggehs for their horrendous acts of cowardice are beyond me.
U.S. prosecutors have filed a memorandum detailing the lengthy criminal career of recently extradited Mexico drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, a unique look at the case the U.S. government is preparing against the man dubbed “the most notorious drug trafficker in the world.”
Following El Chapo’s long-awaited extradition to the United States on Jan. 19, 2017, prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York released a memorandum documenting his stunning transformation from the child of poor Mexican farmers to a drug trafficker with enough money and power to crack Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people.
1961, The Shirelles became the first girl group to have the number one song on the US chart when 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow?' reached the top. The song peaked at No.4 in the UK.
That excitement swirled because by squeezing hydrogen to pressures well beyond those in the center of Earth, Silvera and his postdoc Ranga Dias had seen a hint that it had morphed into a solid metal, capable of conducting electricity. "If it's true it would be fantastic," says Reinhard Boehler, a physicist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. "This is something we as a community have been pushing to see for decades."
The feat, reported online this week in Science, is more than an oddity. Solid metallic hydrogen is thought to be a superconductor, able to conduct electricity without resistance. It may even be metastable, meaning that like diamond, also formed at high pressures, the metallic hydrogen would maintain its state—and even its superconductivity—once brought back to room temperatures and pressures.
Basically, narcissism is the new herpes. It’s not like you got it on purpose, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now everyone’s pointing fingers and trying to pretend they don’t have it, too. Hence the blame game. You’re so self-involved. Can you think of anything but your self? What’s that horrible smell? It’s you.
Obviously no one wants to think of himself as a ‘social type’, let alone a narcissist. It would be injurious to our narcissistic desire for uniqueness. ‘You’re so typical’, I say to my husband, which should be uncontroversial, since who isn’t typical? Trust him to find something to get peeved about in that, too. His entire being feels constantly under siege: he’s a warrior defending valuable territory and I’m the opposing forces marching up the hill.
Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. Shelvey, Ltd. Individual Results may vary, and testimonials are not claimed to represent typical results.
Acting AG -- an Obama Holdover -- Orders Her DoJ Not to Put Up a Defense Against Lawsuits Alleging Trump's Travel Ban is Illegal Update: "You're Fired"
Apparently Obama didn't trouble himself to get ballistic missile tests included in his deal to give Iran $140 billion and nuclear bombs in exchange for nothing at all.
Senator Jeff Merkin of Oregon came up with the catchy hashtag meme-- this is a "stolen seat," and therefore, the Democrats will not allow it to be filled until there's a Democrat president.
Orin Hatch is one of the ringleaders of the "conservative" Senators who refuses to use the nuclear option.
1, will he change his mind if the Democrats do filibuster anyone (except a provable liberal)?
I doubt it. Many of these fuckers are a lot more liberal than they pretend in the nine months before an election and rely on Democrats having the power of the filibuster precisely to frustrate their actually-conservative fellow Senate members. That way they can make noise about conservative agenda points, while actually blocking those agenda points. They get the best of both worlds -- they can pretend to be conservatives while acting as the handmaidens of the Progressive Transnational Superstate.
2, when can we primary this old fool, and can we finally stop electing or re-electing soft squishy RINOs (and actual liberals) from red states like Utah and South Carolina?
Also, open thread on the Sean Spicer press conference. I'm just catching up with it (I had the DVR on delay).
Apologies again. I think this is going to be a half day. Maybe a quarter day.
I'm putting together a (very small) home gym and I had to get rid of bookcases to fit it all in my very small apartment. And then, to store those books, I had to put in a bunch of (high) wall shelves.
I honestly don't know how you people who work manual labor jobs do it. Pretty much every muscle in my body hurts, especially the back from the constant bending over and stooping.
And standing on ladders with my forehead pressed firmly against a shelf to hold it in place while I use my one hand to hold a screw and the other to hold the screwdriver.
By the way, I thought I had a drill that could drill (and drive screws) through studs. I did not. What I had was two pieces of shit which, combined together, made up a collection of shit that took up more space in my tool drawer than a single piece of shit would.
The things could not even push past the first eighth inch of drywall. The easiest part.
It's like, "Hey, thanks Tool. Thanks for getting me past that first easy eighth inch. I'll take it the rest of the way, now that you've gotten me off to such a swell start. You take a well-earned break, and get back to napping in that drawer. I'll power through the rest of this with my forearms and my dinky little ratchet."
I literally was just pushing on the drill to make a small starter hole for the screw, like it was a poorly-balanced nail with a pistol grip.
It's a poor workman who blames his tools, but I think you can all agree I am a poor workman in the first place, and these really are shitty, shitty tools.
I ordered a drill/driver that I hope will be better even though I'm done with the shelves (for now). I just don't ever want to have to touch these two pieces of shit again. I actually want to have a ceremony where I turn their backs on them and then push them past my back in a Walk of Shame, out to the garbage.
I might piss on them too. Really. I might take them into the bathroom, piss on them (into the toilet), wrap them in a garbage bag and just let them smell their failure.
By the way, now that I've put up six shelves, I want to put up shelves everywhere. Everywhere I look I see walls that could be filled with shelves, high as the eye can see.
Anyway, I'm physically and mentally drained. Yes, I'm a pussy. This is not really a question. But being on step-ladders all day and hand-screwing into studs is tough for someone who, as you know, is rapidly approaching 29 years old.
On the plus side, it turned into a genuine workout day.
I'll put up crap here and there and do a GAINZZZ thread. But mostly I'm going to put up headlines, open threads, whining about my shoulders, and bragging about my Put Shelves On Everything design aesthetic.
BTW, if anyone wants to call me Shelvey, I'd like that just fine.
Regulations costing businesses and citizens $5.7 billion -- rushed into action as Obama was leaving for his post-presidential golf tour -- will be eliminated today.
His order also demanded that for every new regulation put into effect, two regulations would have to be rescinded, and that the net cost of further regulations must be $0.
"The Obama administration was busy during its 'midnight' period for regulation, breaking records for December regulatory output, and publishing $157 billion in regulations," according to a new report from the regulatory watchdog American Action Forum.
...
"With votes this week in the U.S. House, repeals could save more than $5.7 billion in regulatory costs and 2.6 million paperwork burden hours," added the report provided to Secrets.
...
And if Trump gets very aggressive, a total of $85 billion in regulations could be repealed this spring.
One of my favorite biblical stories, and one that was told and read many times to the fidgety youngsters in class.
It is an unfortunate byproduct of activist courts, and more (thank you ACLU) -- exaggerated fear of all things religious -- that the Bible is not taught as literature. ignoring the religious still leaves a vast and marvelous story, full of battles and sword play and veiled sex and travels through deserts and....
Good morning, kids. First off, and still developing, is the mosque shooting up in Quebec City. As of this writing, the names of the captured perps have not been released. So, local crime story and workplace violence memes are no doubt being hashed out by the propagandists right about now. But of course the big story that caps off a big week is the President's temporary ban on immigration from countries awash in terrorism. Besides the shit-storm raised from the usual quarters, GOP-e collaborators are in full attack mode. One of the commenters posted this gem last week and it's up there with Home Sweet Home as sampler-worthy:
Bipartisanship means Dems get to be "partisan" and the GOP gets to be "bi."
So far, Trump has not only not caved but has slashed back. Don't go wobbly, Donald. They are testing you. Have a better one and remain blessed.
Sunday Overnight Open Thread (1/29/17) Earlier Than Normal Edition
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
Quotes of The Day
Quote I
“I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.” –- Ronald Reagan
Quote II
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” –-Thomas Jefferson
Quote III
"The message that President Obama delivered in his speech at Notre Dame was: morality is immoral. Pro-life is the extremist position, not a moral position. Yet we should compromise and work to reduce abortions. Where's the compromise between life and death - and why work to reduce the number of them occurring if there's nothing wrong with them? "-Rush Limbaugh
Quote IV
I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.-Alexander Hamilton.
Maybe the NeverTrump crowd could brush up on some early American history.
Apart from the pleasures and displeasures of cannabis (for cannabis can cause both) what, according to the report, are its principal harms and benefits? The report finds good evidence for the following benefits: cannabis or cannabinoids can reduce pain in cancer patients, reduce the vomiting caused by chemotherapy for cancer, and reduce self-reported spasticity in patients with multiple sclerosis. Similarly, the report says that there is good evidence for the following harms: cannabis or cannabinoids can increase the risk of motor accidents and the development of schizophrenia or other psychoses. Rather fatuously, it seems to me, the report says that those who take cannabis are at greater risk of developing cannabis-dependency. This is a bit like saying that if you never drink alcohol you will never become an alcoholic
My father suffered Parkinson's Disease, I wish he had this. The benefits of medical marijuana.
Tired of your local radio stations? Bored with Pandora? Not satisfied with Spotify? You can listen to radio around the globe. Rock 'n Roll from the U.K. is entertaining.
Here’s a fun piece called Radio Garden. It’s exactly what the title says. Pan the globe and listen to live radio at all the green dots.
Which got me thinking: How can Meredith and other women use this insight to their dating advantage? We’re all tired of hearing complaints about how everyday life is now supposedly intolerable since Donald Trump is president. How might conservative single women of America counter this hyperbole? I suggested Meredith alter her online dating profile to clearly set herself apart from the women on strike, and being a good sport, she immediately agreed. She wrote:
“Unlike others, I’m not on strike this weekend. Still smiling, dealing with emotional labor like a grownup, and living my life. I laugh at jokes, bake delicious things, make a mean cocktail, and don’t believe in that patriarchy thing.
Let’s meet.”
To those of you who are single, good luck with your search of finding your equal or better half.
.....I was prepping for a cleaning fee, trying to drive and pull a vomit bag out of the glove box, but no, she just did that airplane thing with one hand out the backseat window. She asked me if I had ever thought about dying, to which I replied, yeah - I guess so.
That's when she told me..............
Well The ONT's favorite science guy is back with a new video. How to solve your power issues if you have experience an electrical blackout, not the Valu-Rite blackout.
One suggestion your humble Cob would make is to use a deep cycle battery. The ONT is sure there are some Morons out there with some experience and ideas about powering your home during a power outage. Or even ideas for living off the grid.
Let's keep Adam Wardle away from our science friend guy, The Electroboom.
Science really can accomplish anything. Using skin on his arm and bionic system of tubes, doctors were able to design a new penis — one that had the potential to be fully functional.
Finally, after a year of anticipation, Wardle's penis has been constructed and attached. He and his girlfriend spoke with ITV's This Morning to answer all of your burning questions.
Let's hope he didn't attend the Pussy March in Washington, D.C.
Some people are Above the Law. No, not the Clintons. Meet Dew the Roaming Dog. We don't need no stinkin' leash laws.
Wilson was relieved to see the doggie had an ID tag, but he would never had guessed what it read: “My name is Dew. I am not lost. I like to roam. Tell me to go home.”
“Once I saw it, we both looked at each other and I knew he was OK,” says Wilson. “It was so cute.” But Wilson didn’t tell the pooch to go home just yet. “I pet him and even hugged him,” Wilson says. “He got me a little wet from the rain, but it was worth it.”
It turned out Dew is a bit of local celebrity, known for strolling around on his own and greeting people. After his adventures, he always returns to a nearby farm where he lives with his family. “Dew loves to make new friends,” his owners told The Dodo. “Fortunately, Dew is chipped and wears a GPS tracker so when his sneaky little self gets out and about, we always know where he is! He just likes to spread the love.”
When you go to work tomorrow, celebrate National Bubble Wrap. Don't let your boss catch you bursting bubbles all day long.
Food Thread: Lemon Meringue Pie: A Gloppy Mess, Or Something Better?
—CBD
A few weeks ago a carrier pigeon dropped an urgent message on my doorstep. Arlene M, intrepid AoSHQ reader and pie-maker extraordinaire was having a pie crisis. Specifically, her lemon meringue pie filling was insufficiently firm (or totally soupy).
Unfortunately,the recipe she was using is exactly the same one used by both people I asked! So I couldn't swoop in and save the day with a different recipe, although most of them seem to be quite straightforward.
The trick seems to be cooking the sugar, cornstarch and egg at a high enough temperature to allow it to set, obviously without making sweet scrambled eggs. The empiricist in me (or is that just obsessive-compulsive?) would like a specific temperature and length of time to shoot for, but I haven't found one yet. Here's a fun looking one, or maybe it's appealing because it has lots of pictures....
Well, the yearly football freak-out is almost upon us, and while I really don't care too much, this year I will be rooting for New England, simply because I want that smarmy sleazebag Goodell to have to swallow his pride and hand the trophy to Robert Kraft. And....Brady and Belichick are Trump supporters, so that will stick in the craw of the SJWs....
Oh, there is some fun food to be had as well, and this looks pretty damned good. Spicy Sriracha Chicken Wings. I like wings. I like Sriracha. What's not to like about this recipe? Well....the frying is a mess, but what the hell, it's worth it.
******
It's probably not for everyone, but the froth on a cocktail from shaken egg whites is a festive and fun treat. Here is Robert Hess making a Ramos Gin Fizz (a really, really good drink). He uses a technique called "dry shaking," (get your minds out of the sewer!) which I guess works well, but is probably not necessary if you are only making a few of these drinks. There are simpler recipes out there, so if you are interested, but don't want to make Hess's fussy version, spend a few seconds and find a simple one.
Regardless, it's a drink worth trying at least once....
******
There is absolutely nothing bad about a dessert called a "Chocolate Dutch Baby." Well actually, it's a profoundly stupid name, but damn! The picture looks great! It's from Smitten Kitchen, which is a fun place to go if you don't take cooking and baking so seriously that you are existentially miserable if your soufflé falls.
From the Earthly Delights blog comes a fun recipe that is modifiable for those who can't get morel cheese or don't like truffle oil. It's the basic recipe that can be tarted up in pretty much any way you feel like....Truffled Morel Mini Mac 'n Jacks. Yup....bite-sized macaroni and cheese.
******
Most roast chicken recipes call for high heat until the bird is cooked and browned. So being a rebel and an iconoclast, I tried moderate heat (350° ) for about 45 minutes, then removing the bird, heating the oven to 450° and returning the chicken to the oven until it was nice and brown.
Did it work? Sure. Was it good? Sure. Was it better? No.
• 1 to 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
• 6 large Idaho baker potatoes, washed and peeled
• Kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and bring it to a gentle simmer. Shut off the heat and allow it to sit a minute on the stove. The milk solids should start to sink to the bottom. Slowly pour the butter into a bowl, keeping as much of the white milky liquid as possible in the saucepan. Discard the milk solids; these are prone to burning and by clarifying the butter, the potato cake will be less likely to overbrown. Keep the butter warm on the stove.
Using a mandolin slicer or a sharp knife, cut all of the potatoes into thin (1/8-inch thick) slices. Transfer them to a bowl and cover them with 3/4 of the melted butter. Season with a little salt and the dried thyme and toss to coat the potatoes with the butter. Pour the remaining butter in the bottom of the cast iron skillet and swirl it around to coat the bottom and sides.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Remember that the bottom layer with be the top when you unmold this cake so it should be done with extra care. Layer the potatoes, following the edge of the skillet, so they overlap. Start the second circle, closer to the center, of overlapping potato rounds. Continue to make circles with the potatoes until the entire bottom of the skillet is filled with potato rounds in smaller and smaller circles. Fill the skillet with another level layer of potatoes. Sprinkle a touch of salt and make 3 more layers. Press down gently on the potatoes to make sure they are starting to stick together and form a cake.
Place the skillet on high heat and cook until the water starts to emerge from the potatoes and you can see the edges browning, 5 to 8 minutes. Place the skillet in the oven and cook, undisturbed, until the potatoes feel tender in the center when pierced with the tip of a knife, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the skillet and carefully pour off any excess butter or liquid into a bowl. Place the skillet on a flat surface and cover it with a platter larger than the skillet. Carefully turn the platter over in one deft motion. Lift off the skillet and use a large metal spatula to place it back in the skillet so it can brown on the second side. Pour the butter back in and cook in the oven for an additional 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven. Pour off any liquid. Season with salt. Cut into wedges like a pie. Serve immediately in the skillet. Alternatively, lift it out of the skillet and serve on a platter or in slices on individual plates.
******
Have a food emergency? Or just have some extra fresh morels and antelope backstrap that need a good home? cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com
Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are hotties, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like natural disasters, Russians hacking, "Mad Dog" Mattis, and special snowflakes do not get respect, but instead, a big load of guffaws. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which are a powerful disincentive to take up the game of golf.
"Beware the man of one book." --St. Thomas Aquinas
The Outrageous Conservative
I remember back in the old days, public conversations between liberals and conservatives usually went something like this:
1. liberal: says something
2. conservative: responds
3. liberal: you're a racist | sexist | bigot | pejorative du jour
4a. conservative: I am not a racist | sexist | bigot | pejorative du jour
4b. conservative attempts to give evidence for statement 4a.
5. liberal: not good enough
6. Goto step 3
PUSS-I-FI-CA-TION*: The act, or process, of a man being shamed, taught, led, pastored, drugged or otherwise coerced or cajoled into throwing out his brain, handing over his balls and formally abandoning the rarefied air of the testosterone-leader-fog that God and nature hardwired him to dwell in, and instead become a weak, effeminate, mangina-sporting, shriveled up little pussy.
* From The Doug Giles 2016 Dictionary of Grow the Hell Up, You Pussy!
Doug Giles, best-selling author of Raising Righteous And Rowdy Girls and Editor-In-Chief of the mega-blog, ClashDaily.com, has just penned a book he guarantees will kick hipster males into the rarefied air of masculinity.
That is, if the man-child will put down his frappuccino; shut the hell up and listen and obey everything he instructs them to do in his timely and tornadic tome.
There is a lot of hype here and I don't advise going to Giles' ClashDaily.com site without first strapping on an extra-strength ad blocker. Anyway, he is obviously being deliberately provocative -- he's all but mooning feminists and progressives. This would not be possible 30 years ago. But it's been a long time coming.
Progressives aren't interested in what we have to say, or in having a "reasonable dialog" with us. It's nothing but "shut up or we'll shut you up!". This is what their shouty, dialed-up-to-11 rhetoric is designed to do. And this generally works, or at least, that's how it has worked in the past. But what has happened over time is a process very much like how we produced antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Like a dose of penicillin, the shouty rhetoric takes out "nice" conservatives or conservatives who decide they have better things to do than to get shouted at by shouty progressives. But some conservatives manage to survive, so the dosage is upped: the shouts get even louder and the attacks get more vicious and are extended beyond the political arena into personal lives. This creates a very hostile environment. But even it drives out or silences many conservatives, it also creates a new strain of tough conservatives who don't mind fighting, who like to fight, and can throw 2 punches for every one they take. I'm thinking of Ann Coulter, Andrew Breitbart, and Milo Yiannapoulos. To this we can add the guy who wrote this book, Doug Giles, and Townhall.com columnist Kurt Schlichter. There are probably others I've missed. And of course, what is now the most imperviously resistant conservative ever, Donald Trump, who is so impervious that nobody really knew for sure until a couple of months ago that he even was conservative. Oh sure, there were indications, but there were indications the other way, too, so it was kind of a guessing game as to how he would actually govern until he started naming individuals to fill the various open cabinet positions.
Nothing in the progressives' conservative eradication toolkit has worked against Trump. They keep upping the dosage, the shouting gets more shouty, but it all just bounces right off. They've actually got a new drug they've been trying to use, they've left off calling Trump a "racist" because the word has lost its effectiveness due to overuse, like the little boy who cried 'wolf', after awhile, people stop responding. This new drug they've rolled out is "white supremacist", which I guess is supposed to a more potent version of "racist." They first tried it out on Trump aide Steve Bannon. But even though it didn't work, the specialists haven't figured out that it didn't work, and is not working on Trump, either. Another "next-gen" drug they're using is "literally Hitler." They tell us that Donald Trump is "literally Hitler." Now, at this point, the progressives have pretty much shot their wad. What could possibly be worse than being "literally Hitler"? Literally Hitler's mom? Literally double-secret Hitler?
There have been downstream consequences of the progressive failure. Many conservatives simply don't care anymore. Warden's excellent piece earlier this week makes this clear. The new, Trump-era "honey badger conservative" playbook appears to be this:
1. conservative: says something
2. liberal: you're a racist | sexist | bigot | pejorative du jour
3. conservative: fcuk you.
And as mentioned in an earlier book thread, progressives are running around with their hair on fire because Simon & Schuster thinks it can make money by selling Milo's new book, Dangerous, which has just driven up sales and made it an Amazon best seller. There's no blurb, so I can't tell you what it's about, but there is a blurb for a book Milo wrote the forward to, Forbidden Thoughts, a collection of science fiction short stories:
You are not supposed to read this book. You are not supposed to think about reading this book. In fact, just plain thinking at all is unacceptable. You have been warned....
From hilarious to horrifying to dangerously insightful, a selection of stories that must not be told, for they slaughter the sacred cows of our age.
Do you dare read them?
Stories by Nick Cole, John C. Wright, Sarah A. Hoyt, Brad R. Torgersen, Vox Day and more…
Non-fiction articles by Tom Kratman and Larry Corriea
I may have to buy this one. The Kindle edition is only $4.99.
Water Bored
So the MSM is running around with their hair on fire because Trump (and I should just end the sentence there). Actually, the MSM is running around with their hair on fire because Trump said "torture works" and that's BadThink. Factcheck.org says it's wrong because SCIENCE, i.e. some Irish guy wrote a paper about it.
...craft an interrogation program designed to elicit intelligence from just-captured top al-Qa'ida leaders and terror suspects. A civilian contractor who had spent years training U.S. military members to resist interrogation should they be captured, Mitchell, aware of the urgent need to prevent impending catastrophic attacks, worked with the CIA to implement "enhanced interrogation techniques"--which included waterboarding.
Mitchell would undoubtedly dispute the belief that the enhanced interrogations yielded no useful information:
Mitchell personally questioned thirteen of the most senior high-value detainees in U.S. custody, including Abu Zubaydah; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the amir or "commander" of the USS Cole bombing; and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terror attacks--obtaining information that he maintains remains essential to winning the war against al-Qa'ida and informing our strategy to defeat ISIS and all of radical Islam.
I remember some years ago when thr British journalist Christopher Hitchens wrote an article on waterboarding, wherein he concluded it was undeniably torture. But as part of his research, he worked with US intelligence and they waterboarded him. Just so he could write about it. When I read that, that's when I called BS. I thought, if it really was torture, you would NOT WANT to have it done to you, for any reason. So I thought what he did completely undermined his own argument.
(h/t Mis. Hum. from an earlier ONT)
Books By Morons
Moron author David Dubrow has just released a new Kindle Single titled, Beneath the Ziggurat. It's a 5,000 word horror tale, inspired by Lovecraft and set in pre-Columbian Mexico which
...takes the reader on a Lovecraftian journey through pre-Columbian Mexico, where dread lurks behind every step of rainforest and the old gods still hold terrible sway.
This is an interesting idea. Those old Aztec gods were pretty horrific, what their priests ripping out still beating hearts out of the chests of sacrificial victims and all, which appears to be a perfect fit for a Lovecraftian universe. Those two go together like chocolate and peanut butter.
Trigger warnings for brutal Spanish conquistadors, bizarre aboriginal tribes, and unspeakable alien horrors. You know, the usual.
Dave tells me he's happy to send free copies to anyone who wants to review it on Amazon; even a sentence or two is welcome, whether they liked it or not. Interested readers can email him at davedauthor circle-a gmail and then a period followed by com.
Comments repeatedly mention how refreshing it is to see the US military portrayed as heroes instead of villains. Liberals leave negative comments about the viewpoint to draw down the ratings, which despite that are still 4.5 on Amazon.
The Amazon blurb says this:
Lt. General Nick Angriff has spent his adult life protecting family and country from a world of terrorism spinning out of control. On the battlefield, off the grid, in clandestine special task forces and outright black ops, Angriff never wavers from duty. But when a terror attack on Lake Tahoe kills his family, he’s left with only the corrosive acid of revenge… that is, until a hated superior officer reveals the deepest of all secret operations. Against the day of national collapse, a heavily-armed military unit rests in cryogenic storage, to be awakened when needed, and Angriff is named its commander.
The sequel, Standing in the Storm, is scheduled to be released in April. Both are available for $2.99 on Kindle.
___________
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.
31 years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger (OV-099) broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral. All seven crew members were killed.
The engineering and management failures that led to the catastrophe are well known, in part because of the work of The Rogers Commission, which was formed by President Reagan to examine the causes and suggest solutions to the issues that caused the mechanical failure.
One of my heroes was on the commission that examined the accident (incident?). Richard Feynman was quite the physicist, but also quite the rigorous thinker, and he brought that to bear on the commission, to the point that he began to irritate the establishment members.
Yeah...ignore the title of this video. "The Most Interesting Plays In MLB" it ain't. I would call it a bunch of amusing plays. An interesting baseball play, at least for me, has to include some athleticism, some good or bad baseball sense, and if you toss in a weird rule it makes it that much better.
What? Is your intrepid host pining for baseball. Is he sick of the drivel and dreck that passes for entertainment when God's game isn't being played?
Bacteria that are resistant to a particular antibiotic are common. But for many reasons -- agricultural use, overuse in the clinical setting, etc -- the number of multi-drug resistant bacteria is increasing. Multi-drug resistant bacteria in China is a harbinger of very bad things to come, because this particular bacteria is resistant to some very powerful drugs. Without huge investment in drug research, we may very well be in for some bad times. And that's why I never get particularly exercised by the "obscene profits" of drug companies. I want them to be awash in money. I want them to spend that money on drug research that will save our asses when we get sick.
******
Some of you may have noticed that the cataclysmic financial meltdown after a Trump victory predicted by our betters in the media wasn't quite as bad as they suggested. Here is an interesting interview with a man who is arguably America's top CEO (suck it GE!). Jamie Dimon on Trump, Taxes, and a U.S. Renaissance. The article is from December, but still; good stuff.
Dr Diana Fleischman, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth, says that orgasm and intense sexual pleasure are such strong forms of positive reinforcement and reward that they can motivate and change our behaviour. Evolution, she says, has trained us into using orgasm and high sexual arousal as currencies.
People will modify their own behavior in pursuit of satisfying sexual experiences? Amazing! Who knew?
******
A thank You letter for a sizable donation to the Jack Lemmon Burn Center, written by Jack Lemmon to his friend Burt Reynolds ....
******
Free association is part of the bedrock of a truly free society, and it has been systematically undermined for the last 100 years (at least). Silencing The Opposition, from a Moron no less, discusses the issue. I don't agree completely, but it's worth a read.
I would also argue that all Americans of every group should be entitled under our laws regarding free association, to exclude from their company anyone they desire, and for any reason they desire it.
Black groups should be entitled to exclude whites and vice versa. Businesses should be allowed to do the same if they're willing to pay the price for it. If a black owned business wants to exclude whites and cater to just 11% of the population with their business, I believe that is their right. White groups and businesses should be allowed to do the same.
The only exception to this rule should be government, which should be required to provide the same service to all citizens regardless of what groups they belong to. But government should not be required to provide equal service to non-citizens. They didn't legally buy it; they shouldn't get to use it. If you want to go crazy and offer government service to legal residents, I'll probably quibble on which services, but I'm open to discussion on it.
Mike Hammer came up with this and I added a few touches to it:
Them Dem Kickers
How 'bout Them Dem Kickers,
Ain't they fun?
Kickin' them Dems,
Right in they buns.
Kickin' them snowflakes,
Kickin' them sluts,
Kickin' them feminists,
In they butts
Look at Them Dem Kickers,
Ain't they cute?
Some use a shower-shoe,
Some use a boot.
Kickin' them yuuge
Kickin' them tiny
Kickin' them hipsters
In they hiney
Them dadgum Dem Kickers,
Ain't they a scream?
Runnin' 'round kickin',
Ever Dem what's seen.
How to be a Dem Kicker?
Don't need a ticket.
Find a dirty old hippie,
Haul off and kick it!
(OK now, be honest: how many of you could have been in this photo?)
Good afternoon morons and moronettes, and welcome to the Saturday Afternoon Chess/Open Thread, the only AoSHQ thread with content specifically for all of us chess nerds who pay homage in the temple of Caïssa, goddess of the chessboard. And, for those of you who aren't nerdly enough for chess, you can use this thread to talk about checkers, or other games, or politics, or whatever you wish, only please try to keep it civil. Nobody wants to get into a pie fight on a Saturday afternoon. Unless you've been on a diet.
“The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature and the player on the other side is hidden from us” --Thomas Huxley
Problem 1 - White To Play (385)
Can White do anything about Black's two connected pawns that are on the verge of queening?
I stole today's pic of nerds in their natural habitat from W1XT's qrz.com page. For you ham radio nerds, he's got great pics of his vintage radios, including a sweet, sweet 'S' Line, fully operational, and looking like it's in mint condition.
I think what he's using in the photo is a Heathkit AT-1 transmitter and some sort of Hallicrafters receiver.
Me, I used to play chess a lot over ham radio, back in the day, so yeah, I could've been in the photo. In fact, I played what I considered to be my first "serious" game over the radio. In 1972. Not using cw, though, we were on 40m ssb. It lasted over 2 hours. I won in 61 moves, but I was very lucky. Multiple mistakes were made by both of us, but he made the last one.
There was an big-time, multi-player chess match that was conducted entirely over the radio. I'm referring, of course, to the 1945 U.S vs. U.S.S.R. Wireless match, that paired the 10 top U.S. players against U.S.S.R's ten best (excepting Paul Keres). Due to Cold War travel restrictions, the moves for each game were relayed back and forth by radio. Each pair of masters played 2 games, and, not to put too fine a point on it, we got our asses handed to us. The final score was 15.5-4.5, but if you look at the results closely, it was actually worse. Our two top boards, Arnold Denker and Sammy Reshevsky, were shut out, 2-0. And on third board, Reuben Fine only managed half a point. The American team only actually won 2 games, the rest of the points coming from draws.
Prior to this point, the USA had won four straight Chess Olympiads from 1931 to 1937 (the USSR did not participate), and was considered a chess powerhouse. In the 1930s, our top grandmasters Denker, Fine, and Reshevsky could go toe-to-toe with the world's best and it was thought that the next world champion might be one of the Americans. But then World War II intervened and brought everything to a screeching, grinding halt. But the Soviets had been quietly building their chess program and this wireless match marked the start of their half-century of world domination. Meanwhile, chess in the USA pretty much went into a marked decline, accelerated by Reuben Fine's decision to give up chess at the height of his career because he couldn't make a living at it.
And speaking of antique radios, a friend of mine likes to collect them. Here is one of them, an Atwater Kent Model 10C from the 1920s.
Problem 3 - White To Play (3)
Hint: White can win a big material advantage.
Anash Giri
6k1/2R5/2n1r3/5R1B/7P/6P1/7K/4q3 w - - 0 56
Magnus Carlsen After 55...Kg8
Here is a game played by the world champion at a recent tournament. Carlsen played 56.Bf7+ and the game was eventually drawn -- after 123(!) moves. But there is clearly a better move here. See if you can best the world champion by finding the line he missed.
Ornate Chess Set
Thanks to AlexTheChick for sending a link to a page of ornate chess sets. Here's one, made by the East India Company in India c. 1830:
(click to embiggen)
This is one of those sets you just set up on a table in the corner and look at. I can't imagine actually playing a game with it. Looks like those pieces (ivory?) might chip or shatter on impact, if you dropped one. I think I like the board better than the pieces.
Endgame of the Week (Endgame 512)
Can White win? Show your work.
6k1/7p/5P1K/8/8/8/7P/8 w - - 0 1
___________
Solutions Update
Problem 1 - White To Play
6QK/8/8/8/8/p7/1p6/1k6 w - - 0 1
When there's advanced pawns and your king is far away, you can often win by making strategic attacks on the enemy king and bringing your own king up when he is forced to block the advanced pawn. Moron rickl's explanation of the technique is so good that I can just copy and paste it:
The first move is Qb3, and if Black moves Ka1 or Kc1, White can pick off the a-pawn and force Black's king back to b1. Then White moves his king. Black moves, the White queen checks, and forces him back to b1. The White king then moves another square closer. Eventually the White king will be close enough for the queen to take the pawn on b2 with mate.
Posted by: rickl at January 28, 2017 05:46 PM(sdi6R)
Apparently 1.Kh5 fails because of 1...Kf7 2.Kg5 Ke6 3.h3 Kf7 4.Kf5 Kg8 5.Ke4 Kf7 6.Ke5 Ke8 7.Kf5 Kf7 and White can make no progress.
1...Kf7 (or 1...Kf8 is also possible: 2.Kf5 Kf7 3.Ke5 h5 4.h4 Kf8 5.Kf5 Kf7 6.Kg5 Ke6 7.Kg6 wins)
2.Kf5 Kf8 (2...Ke8 3. Ke6 Kf8 4. f7 h5 (4... h6 5. h3 h5 6. h4) 5. h4)
3.Ke6 Ke8
4.f7+ Kf8
5.Kf6! (5.h4? h5 and now there's no good move for White) (5.h3 h6 and again, the timing is wrong and Black can force a draw)
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.
If a chewing treat or rubber toy isn’t getting the job done when it comes to exciting your pooch, turning on the radio just might do the trick. Just be careful as to which station you put on, as a new study finds dogs can be particular when it comes to the type of music they prefer.
Researchers out of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, along with folks at the Scottish SPCA, found that reggae and soft rock topped the canine charts, though certain dogs do seem to have various tastes.
Perhaps an insensitive topic. What do you do when your pets pass on? Burial? Cremation? Taxidermy and drones.
h/t Tucker Steele
Over the years I've never had a digger dog, until the latest addition to the Mis. Hum. home. My dog isn't this clever. h/t IrishEi
Our first critter is commenter Miley's cat, here's the story.
"This is how Maire and I bonded - long before we adopted her, she would come up to the deck and allow me to scratch her with my toe (she wasn't keen on hands at first - I guess she figured toes were safer)."
Glad you have some toes left.
Our next submission is from gmlgmlgml, meet Max & Murphy.
"Boys are dreaming of lots of squeaky toys under the tree Christmas morning."
We hope that they received copious amounts.
Here is what svitelli had to say about this photo submitted to us.
"Jawa, Leonard & Penny meet Santa for the first time."
Sweet photo. Great job in getting all 3 to pose.
Buzzion submitted this photo of his 2 side kicks. Let's here about them.
"Here are my dogs who are impossible to get together long enough to take a picture. Watson is my 8 year old beagle, named because he is my sidekick so he couldn't be Sherlock. Tali is my new puppy mutt, named after Tali'Zorah of Mass Effect"
Nice looking dogs.
Here is what Robert had to say about this "Big Sweetie"
"Our 90lb boxer/pit/dane mix (we think), Duke. We think he's trying to fool potential burglars into thinking he's just a sweet baby. It's a clever ploy so he can sample some burglar rawhide."
Thanks long time Lurker.
Not much info given about this photo. Here is what we were provided.
"I am a fan of ACE and enjoy the pet moron posts.
Here is a photo my son took last week, that I have permission to share
and that is also posted on my blog site posted today 1-1-17.
http://www.youmeandtheafter.com/
I hope you find this worthy of sharing on Pet Morons this week.
youmeandtheafter"
Quite the photo. Thank you for the submission.
Weasel submitted this photo of Weasel Cat. "Soft white underbelly near a warm vent on a cold day!"
Tiem
Copper
We received these two photos from jrg dds.
Here is the story, "We lost our 16 year old Pomeranian, Tiem, late last year.
For Christmas we got a new Pomeranian puppy, Copper."
Sorry to hear of your loss, but congrats on your new addition.
Last but not least is this cutie.
"Miley adopted (mostly lurkers / occasional commenters) "Chas C-Q" and "elaine" seven years ago. She's half longhair, half wirehair, all dachshund, and nearly ten years old.
At fourteen pounds, she's about 30% larger than either of her mini dachshund parents. ("Hybrid vigor.") Her mother looked like a tiny Irish Setter (with very short legs); her father looked like a tiny blond schnauzer (with very short legs).
Like most dachshunds, she's smart, funny, snuggly, . . . and a tad bossy at times. Also very sweet."
*****
What a great bunch of animals and wonderful photos. Thank you all for submitting your photos and sharing your pets with us. As ever we appreciate your patience in getting to your pets.
Have something animal related, you know where to send it, petmorons at gmail.
Itoh intersectional peonies are a hybrid cross between a bush peony and a tree peony. They are often referred to as Itoh peonies, after the first successful breeder of these magnificent peonies, Mr. Toichi Itoh.
Does that peony make you dream of a Japanese garden? Our hot, dry climate with little winter chill is not particularly well-suited for regular bush peonies. Sunset rates this type for the same climates, including ours, where both types are said to need part shade. I don't know anyone who grows them around here. At least until the price comes down, I'm not gonna try planting them. I'll probably settle for dreaming about seeing them in a Japanese garden. Somewhere. Anybody got suggestions?
Not all dreams are pleasant. And not everyone has the same image of a dream destination. I think the plant below, and its native habitat, might rank as nightmares for some people I know.
I've only been to the edge of the Badlands National Park. I thought there was a good reason for its name. It's not Manhattan.
But I think it is fascinating. Even some lefties like it. Apparently, not all of the federal employees at the park are wild about Trump, though. Twitter dust-up. Heh.
Anyway, the Trumpian grass shown above, Prairie Dropseed, is also profiled by the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is a clump-forming, drought-tolerant and decorative. If you like clumps of grass in your garden.
Foliage turns golden with orange hues in fall, fading to light bronze in winter. Open, branching flower panicles appear on slender stems which rise well above the foliage clump in late summer to 30-36" tall. Flowers have pink and brown tints, but are perhaps most noted for their unique fragrance (hints of coriander). Tiny rounded mature seeds drop to the ground from their hulls in autumn giving rise to the descriptive common name.
Sound like good food for quails. Or maybe even for some larger animals. It is shown below with the tall flower/seed stalks that rise above the foliage clumps in summer.
Native Prairie Dropseed with Decorative Foreign Mammal
Gardens of The Horde
I got nothin' new. We're cutting and digging weeds. Eating a few greens. I still have some wildflower photos from Kindltot, which we will be seeing soon if all goes according to plan. Anyone else want to send in garden photos?
Oranges have been excellent the last few weeks in the supermarket. Haven't seen a big jump in veggie prices due to flooding at CaliGirl's ranch. Have you?
Still battling the effects of weather in your yard or garden?
Back to Peonies
Do you grow peonies? I'm ready to visit some peony gardens. Well, maybe not right now, but soon. Herbaceous peonies are very hardy, even in Alaska. This time of year, they are buried under piles of snow along the sides of many driveways across the country. But Festiva Maxima is an old cultivar that is known for doing better where winters are warmer than most others. I think it does fine in cold-winter climates, too. There are a few others like this. Mainly early varieties. Plants can last up to 50 years in the garden.
Intersectional Peonies bloom a little earlier than regular herbaceous peonies, and may be less prone to botrytis. They come in a wider color range than herbaceous peonies. They are quite a recent development. The first ones were apparently bred in the 1960s.
Tree Peonies include one of the parent species of Lemon Dream at the top of the post. They will grow closer to mild-weather coasts than herbaceous peonies. The flowers on some cultivars are YUUGE. They grow some knock-out specimens in Australia and New Zealand. Take a look.
Tree peonies bloom earlier than herbaceous peonies. The ones in the video below are in an actual Japanese garden, wearing little straw hats for the winter. They are blooming in late January. There are some other beautiful winter/early spring flowers in the video, too. Enjoy. Have a great week.
Thread below the Gardening Thread: Intersectionality [KT]
—Open Blogger
Serving your mid-day open thread needs
I have discovered that I am totally behind the curve when it comes to understanding intersectionality. In 2015, a piece entitled Why Intersectionality Can't Wait ran in WaPo. Just in time for Donald Trump. The piece was written by the "leading scholar of critical race theory" who coined the term in 1989.
"We did a poor job of communicating intersectionality," one candidate said. "I'm a walking intersectionality," said another. Millions of Americans have dropped out of the workforce, families struggle with addiction, crime is rising, and how do the men and women and non-binaries running for DNC chair respond? "Let them eat intersectionality!"
We are all walking intersectionalities now. Right along with Ashley Judd and David Brock. Do you feel better now that they have decided to learn how to talk to you?
You know how granola sciencytists such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson like to go on about the multiverse? One of the more fanciful postulations is that in the multiverse, all things are possible, and the laws of physics are infinitely malleable.
To wit: there are universes where pigs fly, where apples levitate, and where Hillary is President.
So, and don't blame me if upon reading this you cease to exist, it stands to reason within this school of thought that there is a universe out there whose laws of physics absolutely prohibits the existence of any other universe.
The regularly scheduled ONT is bulging up faster than Megyn Kelly's sense of self-importance, so here is an emergency ONT which I hope will tide us over until morning. Open thread, of course, and I've managed to scare up a wee bit of content.
-------------
There's actually two kinds of #FakeNews. The first occurs when CNN reports stuff that isn't true. The second is when CNN doesn't report stuff that should be reported, stuff that really is kind of noteworthy, stuff that they'd report if circumstances were different. Such as this article from Investors Business Daily, Here's One Poll The Press Doesn't Want You To See:
Gallup report that came out last Friday, which took a final look at the President Obama's popularity over his eight years in office.
That poll found that Obama's overall average approval rating was a dismal 47.9%.
Only three presidents scored worse than Obama since Gallup started doing these surveys in 1945: never-elected Gerald Ford (47.2%), one-termer Jimmy Carter (45.4%), and Harry Truman (45.4%).
But, but... How could this be? Hasn't CNN been continually assailing us with poll numbers for Obama that make him sound like he's right up with Kim Jong Un? Didn't CNN highlight these high numbers for 8 years, just as they highlighted the low numbers for George Bush during the 8 previous 8 years?
Didn't they? I feel so, so... cheated, I guess the word is. It makes we wonder what else is out there waiting to be reported, now that Obama out of the picture and CNN doesn't have to suck up to him anymore.
By the way, how did 'W' do, compared with Obama?
Obama even did worse overall than Richard Nixon, whose average approval was 49%, and was less popular overall than George W. Bush, who got an average 49.4%.
Alrighty then. So basically CNN has been lying to us all this time. Good to know.
Actually, we already did.
Theologians divide sin into two categories, sins of commission, wherein you do wrong things, and sins of omission, wherein you don't do right things. We could name them #FakeNews1 and #FakeNews2, which would give us a little more information about what form CNN's malfeasance is taking.
But kudos to IBD for covering this Gallup report. I'm sure it will be on CNN Real Soon Now.
Speaking of Ashley Judd -- personally I try to pay as little attention to her as possible. I have fond memories of her early roles, mostly based on hormones and a sock.
It's difficult to ignore though, like the first time you meet LauraW's hump. Both are pudgy, wild-eyed and bed-headed, flailing about with motion that's somewhere between human and animatronic jellyfish. Both smell of hobo sweat and bloody sheets. But only one of them can speak with correct grammar and a surprisingly beguiling voice, and the other is Ashley Judd.
Philip Bump -- of "What about your gaaaaffes?" infamy -- is actually forced into the position of being the voice of reason and debunking his fellow leftists.
The picture shown on ABC isn't even the picture on the White House wall. Rather than photographing the picture on the wall (taking a picture of the picture), they simply edited in the original photo into the broadcast, to illustrate the photo Trump was talking about.
Thus, the Internet Detectives are actually claiming Trump photoshopped a picture in ABCNews' possession.
Somehow.
Even putting that aside (and that's a lot to put aside), a Rathergate style GIF shows the picture shown on ABCNews is the same photo from the Getty Collection.
The hand size matches, like the Rathergate fonts.
And here you go: A GIF that I just made. Not aligned perfectly (my fault), but the hand is the same. pic.twitter.com/N7Zii1qRMY
At some point, the alcoholics will have to admit they have a problem with alcohol.
While the National Laughingstock does debunk this, note what they're not doing -- reading the woman who made up this ridiculous conspiracy theory out of polite society, along with the thousands who eagerly retweeted it. (Many of whom were in the media, I'll bet -- but I can't know for sure, as the original tweet is now deleted.)
Breathless Media Coverage of the Non-Story of Michael Flynn's Contact With the Russians; Not a Damn Word About Obama's Secret Meetings With Iran's Mullahs to Plot Propaganda Campaign In Favor of Giving Them the Nuke
And just so you know, as it wasn't much reported on: While the media blazed the story that there was an "investigation" into the phone call Flynn took from the Russians on the 29th of December (after he was already an incoming member of the soon-to-be government of the US), the media didn't seem quite so eager to publicize this NBC report that the investigation had found nothing at all illicit:
The FBI eavesdropped on telephone calls between President Donald Trump's national security adviser and the Russian ambassador but found nothing improper, a U.S. intelligence official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said late Monday that there was never a formal "investigation" of the calls in December between retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn and Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador in Washington.
According to the source, who was confirming a Washington Post report earlier Monday, intelligence officials merely listened in as part of routine eavesdropping on Kislyak.
...
The former official, who requested anonymity to speak about sensitive information, said it was not uncommon for diplomats or other U.S. officials to garner such attention to if they are recorded talking to foreign counterparts. Rarely anything comes of this, however, because U.S. officials have wide latitude in how they communicate as part of their jobs.
Make sure you read Steinberg's article to get the skinny on Obama huddling with Mullahs on what lies to tell to his Echo Chamber.
As incredibly impressive and schaden-bonery as President Trump's first week in office has been (and it has), when it gets down to enacting his agenda, he's going to find that being President is not the same as being a CEO with unilateral authority to do whatever you want (the eight years of Obama notwithstanding). As we all know by now, the forces arrayed against him want to preserve, protect and defend their own power, influence and lucre-generating capacity. And the GOP is part and parcel of it.
Rolling back the rules could involve more than just an FCC action, especially since any regulatory moves could be undone by the next administration.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) — chairmen of the Senate and House Commerce committees, respectively — have both said that they are open to a legislative compromise with Democrats that would preserve the underlying principles of net neutrality while getting rid of the reclassification provisions.
After Pai announced on Monday that he had been tapped by Trump to lead the FCC, Democrats responded with concern, vowing to stand up for net neutrality should he try to undermine it. Pai said in a letter last month that he and Michael O’Rielly, the other Republican on the commission, intended to act on reclassification “as soon as possible.”
Note to the GOP: this election was not only about stopping the insanity of the Left but of stopping those putatively on our side from going along with it. It is a rejection of the notion that our trajectory over the cliff is inevitable, but only the speed at which we travel is up for debate.
Is it too much to ask Messrs. Thune, Walden and the rest of the GOP to be as strident in our position as WINNERS as the Democrats are in their opposition on the losing side? Evidently it is. We did not vote for Trump and by extension you to compromise with the people who have caused the catastrophe. We voted for you to stop and reverse it. You're either with us or against us.
Never heard of the guy. Which means less than nothing. I have stopped being surprised by new and interesting artists. Of course the investment in learning about a previously unknown painter is trivial in comparison to an unknown writer, so the learning curve is pleasant. if it took three or four hours to slog through one painting like it would a book, you would be fed a steady diet of Caravaggio and Raphael and Rubens and Rockwell.
Good morning, kids. Lots of stuff to end a whirlwind week. Getting late so I won't bore you with my take on it all. Have a better one and remain blessed.
We are finishing up the first week of the Trump Administration. Attempting to find non-political Trump/Pence stuff has been a challenge. So a hodge-podge little potpourri for you Morons tonight.
Quotes of The Day
Quote I
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.-Groucho Marx
Quote II
Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.-Ogden Nash
Quote III
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou
Quote IV
“Having a dream is what keeps you alive. Overcoming the challenges makes life worth living.”-Mary Tyler Moore.
Quote V (From a Moron)
I didn't vote for Trump because I thought he was an avatar of conservative values; I voted for fucking revenge.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at January 26, 2017 06:26 AM (X6fMO)
We've listened to a litany of politicians spouting the greatness of government. Remember when a certain asshole told business owners, you didn't build that?
However, there is another way to think about touching off an industrial revival in America that brings back economic growth, opportunity, and decent jobs for blue-collar workers.
That approach would embrace the Maker Movement as a deeply American source of decentralized creativity for rebuilding America’s thinning manufacturing ecosystems.
Many scientists, myself included, lobbied the federal government to form a cabinet-level agency to address these problems. [1] In 1971, EPA was born. During the agency’s first 10 years, Congress passed seven legislative acts to protect the environment, including the Water Pollution Control Act (later renamed the Clean Water Act), Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Clean Air Act.
At first, these laws worked well, protecting the environment and the health of our citizens. Problems were identified, measured, exposed, and major investments were made to reduce dangerous emissions and protect the public from exposure to them. EPA and other government agencies regularly report the subsequent dramatic reduction in all the pollutants we originally targeted. By the 1980s, nothing more needed to be done beyond monitoring our continuing success in cleaning up the environment. It was time to declare victory and go home.
Carlos and Calvin Battle grew up in the poorest neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where nearly two-thirds of children are living in poverty. In 2016, only 42 percent of students attending the local public high school graduated.
In an attempt to get her sons a better education, their mother, Pam Battle, enrolled Calvin and Carlos in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
The program provides low-income families vouchers to send their children to private schools, and has shown a promising ability to increase graduation rates. However, many—including teachers unions, the Obama administration, and the education establishment—have worked to shut down the program.
Always direct, usually funny. Steven Crowder's take on Feminists. Direct & funny.
*****
All kidding aside about fat, obnoxious and ugly to the core Progressives. Are we in the opening days of America's second civil war? Dennis Prager thinks so.
It is time for our society to acknowledge a sad truth: America is currently fighting its second Civil War.
In fact, with the obvious and enormous exception of attitudes toward slavery, Americans are more divided morally, ideologically and politically today than they were during the Civil War. For that reason, just as the Great War came to be known as World War I once there was World War II, the Civil War will become known as the First Civil War when more Americans come to regard the current battle as the Second Civil War.
Written in 1947, Thomas’s masterpiece was published for the first time in the Italian literary journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951 and soon included in his 1952 poetry collection In Country Sleep, And Other Poems. In the fall of the following year, Thomas — a self-described “roistering, drunken and doomed poet” — drank himself into a coma while on a reading and lecture tour in America organized by the American poet and literary critic John Brinnin, who would later become his biographer of sorts. That spring, Brinnin had famously asked his assistant, Liz Reitell — who had had a three-week romance with Thomas — to lock the poet into a room in order to meet a deadline for the completion of his radio drama turned stage play Under Milk Wood.
Hemingway describes it as a cocktail to be enjoyed from 11:00am on.
Take a tall thin water tumbler and fill it with finely cracked ice.
Lace this broken debris with 4 good purple splashes of Angostura, add the juice and crushed peel of 1 green lime, and fill glass almost full with Holland gin…
No sugar, no fancying. It’s strong, it’s bitter—but so is English ale strong and bitter, in many cases.
We don’t add sugar to ale, and we don’t need sugar in a “Death in the Gulf Stream”—or at least not more than 1 tsp. Its tartness and its bitterness are its chief charm.
If you're more offended that Donald Trump once said the word 'pussy' than BIll Clinton getting blow jobs in the Oval Office by a 21-year old intern...
If you can listen to Madonna, Miley Cyrus, and Lady Gaga complain about how Trump degrades women and not burst out laughing...
If you think a person's gender is fluid but sexual preference is permanently fixed...
If you're against the death penalty but are OK with abortion...
If you think the NY Times is biased in favor of conservatives...
If you believe Russians hacked the election, but there's no need to investigate the possibility of voter fraud...
If you believe Russians hacked the election, but have no problem with the Clintons making deals to sell American uranium to Russian oligarchs...
If you believe shouting down conservative speakers is 'free speech'...
If you believe throwing rocks at police officers and breaking windows is 'free speech'...
If you believe that the Palestinians are entitled to a homeland, but the Israelis aren't...
If you punch someone in the face while you're wearing a "Love Trumps Hate" T-shirt...
If you want the government out of your bedroom while demanding free birth control...
If you can voice your presidential assassination fantasies in public without fear of consequences...
If you demand to be taken seriously while dressed up in a twat costume...
...you might be a Democrat!
(h/t Jeff Foxworthy)
[Update:]
I'll put some of the good contributions here:
If you think Lena Dunham is attractive but Melania Trump is not...
(h/t SMFH)
if you want to ban tobacco and legalize marijuana
(h/t duncan)
...if you think requiring ID is racist, but thinking blacks are too stupid and incompetent to attain any ID is not.
...if you think dressing up as a ghost and disarming blacks to keep them from voting was done by Republicans
...if you think every man is a rapist, but if he puts on a dress your daughter is perfectly safe with him in a locker room
(h/t Chris Taylor)
If you are 100% comfortable taking away crazy peoples' firearms but not their right to vote.
If you still don't know how you get more Trump.
(h/t Moron Robbie)
If you think free healthcare is free.
(h/t Sebastian Melmoth)
if you believe your right is to have the govt steal from everyone around you to give You neat stuff for free.
(h/t willow)
If you believe Islam is a religion of peace, but Christians are intolerant hatey haters.
(h/t Jane D'oh)
If you think a college graduate with a BA degree and a major in Women's Studies should receive a starting salary of $100,000 a year
(h/t mrp)
If you believe your actual violence is protected free speech but my protected free speech is actual violence.
(h/t Flyboy)
If you think THIS TIME you have Trump.
If you think Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote means something.
If you think Hillary Clinton might someday still be president.
If you think the message of the future is Shut The Fuck Up Whitey.
(h/t JackStraw)
If you believe that cops are mostly corrupt and violent and racist, but you also believe that they're the only people who should be allowed to have guns...
If you love to gloat about how "dumb" Americans are, while insisting that our public school system is perfect and can't be improved (except by throwing more money at it)...
(h/t Prothonotary Warbler)
If you think "piss Christ" is an important artistic achievement, but "piss Mohamed" is a hate crime, you might be a Democrat.
(h/t Dave_in_fla)
If you voted for Ted Kennedy every time he ran, but wouldn't vote for Trump because he said pussy, you might just be a Democrat.
(h/t Tammy al-Thor)
If you think reading the Bible in school violates the First Amendement but not inviting imams to get school kids to recite the shahada.
(h/t Insomniac)
If you think kids can decide what gender they'll be, but won't let them decide what do eat for lunch
(h/t josephistan)
Glenn Beck Offers to Fund Charity MMA Match Between Deadspin Editor Who Invited all Comers to "UFC Octagon," and Actual MMA Fighter and Vet
—Ace
Someone's regretting his Early Onset Internet Muscles now.
After Deadspin editor and all-around super tough-guy Tim Womensmarchman invited "cucks" to the "UFC Octagon," several people offered to so meet him.
Among the more dangerous individuals to do so was vet and MMA fighter Tim Kennedy:
I'm your huckleberry. I also take note that you are a pathetic cyber bully. My email is tim@rangerup.com I'm available at your leisure. https://t.co/6AS3qAllXV
Do not be fooled. They are not real muscles. I know it feels like you just pulled eight plates when you dash off a Sick Burn, but here's the reality: You're a pussy and a tremendous disappointment to your father.
A GOP Regulatory Game Changer. A law passed by Congress back in 1996 gives it the power to reject regulations and guidances issued by the Executive Branch. There is a built in time limit to do so, but that doesn't start until a report on the regulation is sent to Congress. It appears many of the regulations issued by the Obama Administration were never formally reported to Congress. This means that -- assuming the GOP has the cojones, a bit of a dubious proposition -- there are regulations dating all the way back to 2009 that Congress could overturn. [Fritzwoeth]
“We’re all just passing time, and occupy our chair very briefly.” RIP, John Hurt.
Contrary to the Left's drumbeat, there have always been viable alternative plans to healthcare reform. They just didn't include making citizens wards of the state. Rand's Plan looks pretty good. Paging Mr.'s McConnell and Ryan. [krak/t]
