Comments or suggestions: Gerard Van der Leun
The Epidemic of Gold Digging Whores
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 30, 2013 10:46 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"Steam. It's how we roll...." The Stanley Brothers in Their Steamer [BUMPED AND UPDATED]

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The 1890s prototype:

"In 1899, Freelan and his wife Flora drove one of their cars to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire,[2] the highest peak in the northeastern United States. The ascent took more than two hours and was notable as being the first time a car had climbed the 7.6 miles (12.2km) long Mount Washington Carriage Road; the descent was accomplished by putting the engine in low gear and braking extensively.[2] The twins later sold the rights to this early design to Locomobile, and in 1902 they formed the Stanley Motor Carriage Company. -- La Wik"

"The identical twins Francis Edgar and Freelan Oscar Stanley both had teaching careers before beginning to experiment with photographic formulas for their younger sister Chansonetta, an accomplished photographer.

They perfected their emulsion, invented a plate-coating machine and formed the Stanley Dry Plate Co. in 1894. Their plates were good enough that George Eastman bought the company for a reported one millon USD in 1904. The brothers had rather wide-ranging enthusiams and dabbled in not only photographic plates but air brushes, drafting equiptment, steam engines and musical instruments. With their windfall from the Eastman sale they pursued their next interest and formed the Stanley Motor Carriage Co. to manufacture a stream-powered automobile nicknamed, appropriately enough, the Stanley Steamer. It became one of the first successful automobile companies and by 1907 they were building more than 750 cars a year." Codex 99

And it just keeps rolling along.....

UPDATED with this comment from American Digest reader Jimmy J.:

I actually met F. O. Stanley in Estes Park, Colorado in 1938. He built the Stanley Hotel (of "The Shining" fame) there in the early 1900s. My grandfather, W. E. Baldridge, was hired to do the electric wiring. After the hotel was completed, F.O. kept my grandfather in his employ to maintain the hydro-electric plant, which he built by damming Fall River just east of Horseshoe Park in Rocky Mountain National Park.

When I met him it was at his home, a stately Georgian style manor house, which was about a mile from the hotel and had a magnificent view of the Front Range. He was engaged in playing chess blindfolded. A pastime that he considered stimulating. (The man was a genius.) He had snow-white hair, a full beard, and was quite old. (I think he was 89 at the time.) He seemed very cheerful and encouraged me to "get a good education." He was also kind to my grandfather. He offered to pay for a college education for his three daughters. Only one, my Aunt Doris, took him up on it. But he paid for all her expenses through Wellesley College. At the time, in the small village of Estes Park, that seemed a very remote and grand place.

My grandfather told me many stories about Mr. Stanley and their relationship. Mr. Stanley was a large figure in my heritage. I would not have had the good fortune to be born and raised in Estes Park if my grandfather hadn't gone there to work for him.

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 30, 2013 9:37 PM | Comments (15)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: "So you want to be a writer?"

by Charles Bukowski

"if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.


if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was."


PS: Don't try.

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In October 1963, Bukowski recounted in a letter to John William Corrington how someone once asked him, “What do you do? How do you write, create?” To which, he replied: “You don’t try. That’s very important: ‘not’ to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It’s like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it.”

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 29, 2013 3:13 PM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Amplituhedron: Physicists Discover Geometry Underlying Particle Physics

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Artist’s rendering of the amplituhedron, a newly discovered mathematical object resembling a multifaceted jewel in higher dimensions. Encoded in its volume are the most basic features of reality that can be calculated — the probabilities of outcomes of particle interactions.

"Beyond making calculations easier or possibly leading the way to quantum gravity,

the discovery of the amplituhedron could cause an even more profound shift, Arkani-Hamed said. That is, giving up space and time as fundamental constituents of nature and figuring out how the Big Bang and cosmological evolution of the universe arose out of pure geometry...." - - | Simons Foundation

In the place of flux we find new forms,
And our flux-formed spaces fold
The charms of magnet's fever
Which conduct the core from pole to pole.

II.

The whiteness of Earth's silence
Is an eye that stares on space.
Orbits chart it ceaselessly,
Etching paradigms of lace.

The inner of Earth's outer
Is a torus twisted twice.
Balloons ascend within it
Claiming shadows are the room.

- - Pure Science @ AMERICAN DIGEST



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 29, 2013 1:22 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Earliest Rockwell

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This charcoal drawing, done when Rockwell was a student of 17, is his earliest surviving work and has never been reproduced until now. (Permanent Collection, The Art Students League of New York)

"Revealingly, his earliest known work portrays an elderly man ministering to a bedridden boy.

The charcoal drawing has never been reproduced until now. Rockwell was 17 years old when he made it, and for years it languished in storage at the Art Students League, which had purchased it from the artist when he was a student there. Consequently, the drawing was spared the fate of innumerable early Rockwells that were lost over the years or destroyed in a disastrous fire that consumed one of his barn-studios in later life.
"Not long ago, I contacted the League to ask if it still owned the drawing and how I could see it; it was arranged that the work would be driven into Manhattan from a New Jersey warehouse. It was incredible to see­—a marvel of precocious draftsmanship and a shockingly macabre work for an artist known for his folksy humor. Rockwell undertook it as a class assignment. Technically, it’s an illustration of a scene from “The Deserted Village,” the 18th-century pastoral poem by Oliver Goldsmith. It takes you into a small, tenebrous, candlelit room where a sick boy lies supine in bed, a sheet pulled up to his chin. A village preacher, shown from the back in his long coat and white wig, kneels at the boy’s side. A grandfather clock looms dramatically in the center of the composition, infusing the scene with a time-is-ticking ominousness. Perhaps taking his cue from Rembrandt, Rockwell is able to extract great pictorial drama from the play of candlelight on the back wall of the room, a glimpse of radiance in the unreachable distance." Inside America'€™s Great Romance With Norman Rockwell | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 28, 2013 8:48 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Contemporary American Classics: "My Back Pages"


Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roger McGuinn...

A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now...

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

"And they talk about Negroes, and they talk about black and white.

And they talk about colors of red and blue and yellow. Man, I just don't see any colors at all when I look out. I don't see any colors at all and if people have taught through the years to look at colors - I've read history books, I've never seen one history book that tells how anybody feels. I've found facts about our history, I've found out what people know about what goes on but I never found anything about anybody feels about anything happens. It's all just plain facts. And it don't help me one little bit to look back." - - Bob Dylan accepting the Tom Paine Award from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in 1963

Bob Dylan wrote "My Back Pages" nearly 50 years ago in 1964

as one of the last songs — perhaps the last song—that he composed for his Another Side of Bob Dylan album.[1] It was recorded on June 9, 1964, under the working title of "Ancient Memories", and was the last song to be committed to tape for the album.
Dylan's disenchantment with the protest movement had previously surfaced in a speech he had given in December 1963 when accepting an award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (ECLC) in New York.[9] Author Mike Marqusee has commented that "No song on Another Side distressed Dylan's friends in the movement more than 'My Back Pages' in which he transmutes the rude incoherence of his ECLC rant into the organized density of art. The lilting refrain ... must be one of the most lyrical expressions of political apostasy ever penned. It is a recantation, in every sense of the word." .... Dylan did not play "My Back Pages" in concert until June 11, 1988. - - La Wik

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 28, 2013 9:06 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
How Stupid is Real Estate in New York City? This Stupid.

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From 6 Castles That Cost Less Than An Apartment In NYC



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 26, 2013 7:55 PM | Comments (17)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"We have a Democrat hate montage here, calling Republicans arsonists, terrorists, rapists, hostage takers. You talk about who hates? Listen to this."

Sound Bites: Unbridled Hatred for Ted Cruz - The Rush Limbaugh Show

CHUCK SCHUMER: You can't have someone put a gun to your head.

MARK ZANDI: You can only put the gun to your head so many times.

HARRY REID: (whispering) We're not going to bow to Tea Party anarchists, Republican fanatics.

NANCY PELOSI: I call them "legislative arsonists."

KIRSTEN POWERS: The fringe of their party.

TAMARA HOLDER: They are raping the American people.

STENY HOYER: It is a blatant act of hostage taking.

PETER KING: Holding the entire Congress hostage.

MIKE VIQUEIRA: (background noise) Republicans hold the Affordable Care Act hostage!

BARBARA LEE: The Affordable Care Act would be held hostage.

ROBERT GIBBS: ...hold the running of government hostage

BILL PASCRELL: (rotunda noise) We are not going to be held hostage by Mr. Cruz.

BILL MAHER: The House Republicans are holding hostage...

CYNTHIA TUCKER: A bunch of terrorists, who will have taken the country hostage.

BARACK OBAMA: (godlike echo) They窶决e holding the whole country hostage.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 26, 2013 12:53 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
"And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And you will atone."

You have meddled with the primary forces of nature, Mr Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?

You think you merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tide and gravity. It is ecological balance.

You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples.

There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no Third Worlds. There is no West.

There is only one holistic system of systems. One vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-varied, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rands, rubles, pounds and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic, and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today.

And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And you will atone.

Am I getting through to you, Mr Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

What do you think the Russians talk about in their Councils of State? Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, mini-max solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bye-laws of of business. The world is a business, Mr Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime.

And our children will live, Mr Beale, to see that ... perfect ... world in which there is no war nor famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company for whom all men will work to serve a common profit. In which all men will hold a share of stock.

All necessities provided. All anxieties tranquilized. All boredom amused.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 26, 2013 1:30 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: "Tonight You Belong to Me - Me and my 4 y.o. "

"She thought she kept hearing fireworks and couldn't sleep, so we sang to keep her mind preoccupied. In the end, nothing competes with fireworks. "



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 26, 2013 12:30 AM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Difference Between Google Fiber vs. Broadband

Yes, I know they're evil but still.....



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 25, 2013 3:12 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Worst Inflight Movie Ever!

But don't take my word for it. Return your tray to the full upright and locked position. Fasten your seat belt and

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 25, 2013 7:57 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Servitude of the Quiet and Gentle Kind

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"Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild.

"It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing.

"For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

"Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things;it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community.

"It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd.

"The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

"I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind which I have just described might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Book I Chapter 1
Thus endeth the lesson.

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 25, 2013 7:16 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: It’s Done With Robots

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An amazing film from the ever astute davidthompson: who notes: A live performance featuring one human, several robots, two moving surfaces and a lot of nifty projection mapping.

[After the jump to hold the startling scale.]

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 24, 2013 12:39 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
At Last: An Affirmative Action Hitler

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Well, now, isn't that Precious?



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 23, 2013 11:16 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Coffee shop Baltimore, Maryland 1930

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A big menu, "Tables for Ladies," and the prices are right. From History in Pictures



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 23, 2013 7:31 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Smallest World: "I have always liked little things."

Episode #14 of The Amerikans Who Lives There Filmed on location in Wellington, Ohio, Episode 14 shares the vision of Dawn Reese, miniature artist, dollhouse builder, and owner of Dolls and Minis: a store with over 20,000 miniatures.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 23, 2013 7:07 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
This Just In: Fact-Free News Reporting



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 22, 2013 11:12 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Pope Francis: They cannot be discarded, as the "culture of waste" proposes!

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"Each one of us is invited to recognize in the fragile human being the face of the Lord, who, in his human flesh, experienced the indifference and loneliness to which we often condemn the poorest, either in the developing nations, or in the developed societies. Each child who is unborn, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who, even before he was born, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world. And also each old person and - I spoke of the child, let us also speak of the elderly, another point! And each old person, even if infirm or at the end of his days, bears the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded, as the "culture of waste" proposes! They cannot be discarded!" - - Franciscus: HEARING TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE CATHOLIC GYNAECOLOGISTS, 20.09.2013



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 21, 2013 1:57 AM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Clinton Vineyards Victory White

Here's hoping that this puffed-up vinegar from this withered crone keeps that closet alcoholic Hillary so drunk she can't haul herself out of the closet and onto the campaign trail.

Update:

"So what we would have here, then, would be a “buttery soft,” angry white wine. Suitable for sipping with with a surfeit of spoiled seafood, plump fat chicken thighs, and beltway pork. Through clenched teeth. Afterward, you can do some yelling and shatter the glass." House of Eratosthenes



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 20, 2013 2:22 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Great and God Awful Trends of New York Fashion Week: "Is everyone secretly way sluttier than we thought?"

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J. Mendel, Brandon Sun, Sophie Theallet, Michael Kors, Jeremy Laing, Philosophy, Milly, Lacoste

"Of all the trends we saw for next year,

the “sheer fabric/no bra/I actually paid money for this shirt so you can see my titties trend” is by far our #1 favorite. This isn’t necessarily a new thing, nearly every season someone tries to pull off this look and normally it goes unnoticed. But the number of labels that decided to go this route for spring is a little overwhelming. In fact, I didn’t even include all of them in our post because we kept getting everyone’s shows mixed up and got sick and tired of having to re-make our stupid little collage every time we found someone else made exactly the same barely-there item. Boobs are great and all, but we can’t help but be a little concerned about this—like, why is everyone suddenly making items that leave nothing to the imagination? Is everyone secretly way sluttier than we thought? Are we so wasteful as a society that we’re now OK with spending tons of money on clothing that technically isn’t really clothing? Is global warming worsening at such a rapid rate that by next season we won’t even be able to survive unless our asses are hanging out? Are we about to die? ARE WE DYING IN 2014?!" Spring 2014 | VICE United States



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 20, 2013 12:25 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Nobamacare? Maybe. In the Meantime Let's Review: Take 10 Pills and You're Fine

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House passes spending bill to defund Obamacare - Washington Times



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 20, 2013 10:44 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
What John Adams Knew [Emphasis Added]

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1787: "Suppose a nation, rich and poor, high and low, ten millions in number, all assembled together; not more than one or two millions will have lands, houses, or any personal property; if we take into the account the women and children, or even if we leave them out of the question, a great majority of every nation is wholly destitute of property, except a small quantity of clothes, and a few trifles of other movables.

Would Mr. Nedham be responsible that, if all were to be decided by a vote of the majority, the eight or nine millions who have no property, would not think of usurping over the rights of the one or two millions who have?

Property is surely a right of mankind as really as liberty. Perhaps, at first, prejudice, habit, shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors.

Debts would be abolished first; taxes laid heavy on the rich, and not at all on the others; and at last a downright equal division of every thing be demanded, and voted. What would be the consequence of this? The idle, the vicious, the intemperate, would rush into the utmost extravagance of debauchery, sell and spend all their share, and then demand a new division of those who purchased from them. The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free. - - On Property: John Adams, Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 20, 2013 9:37 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Want to make any killer rock song better? Lay some brass behind it and then slap a sax solo into the middle.

"You can't stop us on the road to freedom.
You can't stop us cause our eyes can see.
Men with insight, men in granite,
Knights in armor bent on chivalry."

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the great Pee Wee Ellis who is causing the top of your head to explode. What else has he done? Well, for starters:

"Ellis played with the James Brown Revue from 1965 to 1969. While with Brown he arranged and co-wrote hits like "Cold Sweat" and "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". In 1969 he returned to New York City. He worked as an arranger and musical director for CTI Records' Kudu label, collaborating with artists like George Benson, Hank Crawford and Esther Phillips. In the late 1970s he moved to San Francisco and formed a band with former Miles Davis sideman David Liebman. Between 1979 and 1986 he worked with Van Morrison's band as an arranger and musical director and then again from 1995 through 1999."
And.... and.... well, it's seven in the evening and I've got an appointment with Hemingway's Hamburgers that I've got to get moving on. Lovely late summer twilight's coming on. I'm going out for turn around the park and the trees with this tune fading. See you in the morning.... same time, same place.

"You can't stop us on the road to freedom...
You can't stop us cause our eyes can see ...."



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 19, 2013 6:33 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Geena Davis Archery Tricks

She bends her bow. Ready for the arrow of truth. I'm in love.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 19, 2013 8:39 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Lost in the Shuffle: How bad people happen to good people

"An arrest is not a charge; a charge is not a conviction.

"All of those lesser things are a blurry flurry of paperwork that may be retained or not; that may be accessible or not. And then you come to the vast piles of files that have to be processed, and unless a red flag sticks out, the file is processed.

"The surveillance state may be here, but someone has to sift through all of that stuff and say 'Hold'. Even if the computers filter, someone has to make the final call and those people are as overloaded with info and and cramped with time as are the people processing the VA's paperwork.

"George Orwell meets bureaucratic inertia; Winston Smith fathers four children with Julia before O'Brien (just before his retirement party) actually hears about Smith and then tosses the file because it would ruin his record with the Party and jeopardize his retirement pension and benefits. Big Brother continues babbling on the telescreens as things are swept away to keep everything looking good and all reports continue to be filed in proper form and on time - content be damned." -- Side-Lines: Background Checks? Check and Double Check. Comment by: Mikey NTH



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 19, 2013 7:00 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
What the Eagle Sees

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Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 18, 2013 8:04 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"So sick and tired of Apple products" First World Problems on Twitter

It's mourning in America, Canada, England when....

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Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 18, 2013 6:03 AM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
A Journalist's Guide to Identifying Firearms [Updated]

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Doug Ross @ Journal: @MikeKMorrison:

Update:

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 17, 2013 10:37 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Our Far-Flung Correspondents Ask...

"BTW, how can you have possibly missed this? It's the greatest thing in the history of ever:"

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Lapse corrected. Horsey ride by BKeyser_

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"Friends forever / Forever Friends"



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 17, 2013 11:48 AM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Modern Trailer



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 17, 2013 9:10 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Blue Pill or Red Pill

"Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 17, 2013 1:46 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Boomers: They Threw It All Away

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 16, 2013 12:01 PM | Comments (17)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Banned iPhone 5S Promo



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 16, 2013 11:19 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Boulder Colorado Flood Cleanup

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and hope to improve on:

Say, shouldn't you people be out looting or something? Waiting for a morbidly obese governor to hand you a check? Getting your stories straight for your fraudulent insurance claim? Shouldn't you be waiting outside for FEMA to do that? Waiting for Brownie to come and do a heckuva job? Asphyxiating yourselves by running a generator indoors? Guarding your stash of non-perishable food by brandishing semi-automatic weapons at everyone that passes by? What the hell's wrong with these people?



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 16, 2013 10:04 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"The Serengeti Lion: Life on the Plains with the Vumbi Pride" @ National Geographic

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Lions. And living with lions. Up very close and very personal.

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"And gets jumped by a lion.... Took him 36 hours to get medical attention..... What does it mean to live with lions? It means to live in terror. It means fear. There's no reverence for the animal. There's only fear. They don't have the luxury of that reverence. That's a western phenomenon."

Click over to The Serengeti Lion | National Geographic Magazine and explore this feature. Extraordinary.

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 14, 2013 1:58 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Funny Now But Sooner or Later It Will All End in Guns

Dilbert's Mom, a Tale from the [Near] Future :
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HT: Claire Wolfe @ Living Freedom who is famous for saying, "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 14, 2013 12:43 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
TIME MAGAZINE: Sanitized For Your Protection

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As observed by Doug Ross @ Journal where he notes:

Here's a suggestion for Time: how about different covers for red states and blue states? You could have Obama or Michelle's guns on every cover in the blues and the latest diversion (e.g., Miley Cyrus) in the reds.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 14, 2013 11:55 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Dishwasher Lasagna - Epic Meal Time

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This meal is dishwasher safe. Changing the game with this clean food.

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 13, 2013 12:31 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Well, there goes the neighborhood....

Sewer turns into geyser after flooding in Colorado and then....

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 13, 2013 11:54 AM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Jeffrey Alan Wagner for Mayor.... is mad as hell and, with your vote, he's not going to take it any more!

Bonus promise: He's not "even going to the strip clubs any more!"



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 13, 2013 9:48 AM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Lightning Storm at Grand Canyon

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Photography Sedona



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 12, 2013 5:36 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Contemporary American Classics: Muddy Waters - "Champagne & Reefer" and "Got My Mojo Working"

Yeah bring me champagne when I'm thirsty.
Bring me reefer when I want to get high.
Yeah bring me champagne when I'm thirsty.
Bring me reefer when I want to get high.

Well you know when I'm lonely
Bring my woman set her right down here by my side.
Well you know there should be no law
on people that want to smoke a little dope.

Well you know there should be no law
on people that want to smoke a little dope.
Well you know it's good for your head
And it relax your body don't you know.

Everytime I get high
I lay my head down on my baby's breast.
Well you know I lay down be quiet
Tryin' to take my rest.
Well you know she done hug and kiss me
Says Muddy your one man that I love the best.

I'm gonna get high
Gonna get high just as sure as you know my name.
Y'know I'm gonna get so high this morning
It's going to be a cryin' shame.

Well you know I'm gonna stick with my reefer
Ain't gonna be messin' round with no cocaine.

Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you
Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you
I wanna love you so bad till I don't know what to do

I'm going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand
I'm going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand
I'm gonna have all you women right here at my command

Got my mojo working
Got my mojo working
Got my mojo working
Got my mojo working
Got my mojo working, but it just won't work on you

Play on!



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 12, 2013 1:17 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
George W. Bush The Night of 9-11-01: "Disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger."
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 11, 2013 8:24 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Bang, bang.... after 107 years... you're dead!

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"To all the naysayers.... what is the point of having all these wonderful SWAT teams now if they can't be used.

They need their practice. If it isn't 107 year olds it might be you they practice on. I vote for the 107 year olds. Plenty of targets of opportunity in our old folk's homes." -- 107-year-old Arkansas man, Monroe Isadore, killed in shootout with S.W.A.T.
Negotiations continued for some time and when S.W.A.T arrived, negotiations still continued. S.W.A.T. was able to insert a camera into the room, where Isadore was, and confirmed he was armed with a handgun. S.W.A.T. inserted gas into the room, after it was evident negotiations were unsuccessful, in hopes Isadore would surrender peacefully. When the gas was inserted into the room, Isadore fired rounds at the S.W.A.T. officers that had inserted the gas from outside a bedroom window.
Shortly afterwards, a S.W.A.T. entry team, inside the residence, breached the door to the bedroom and threw a distraction device into the bedroom. Isadore then began to fire on the entry team and the entry team engaged Isadore, killing him.

For quite some time now one of my standing "jokes" has been that when I died I wanted to go as "a very old man who was respected in my community who shoots it out in the woods with the Federal Agents." This little bit of slight -- very slight -- humor was first minted during the era when such a thing happening to a law-abiding American citizen of the Caucasian persuasion was less likely than a meteor strike on my forehead. Now, however, as we see the startling and increasing transmogrification of some SWAT teams from law-enforcement operations into brown-shirted tools of local and national bureaucracies and governments, I may have to reconsider my "wish." Lest it be granted free of charge by officers of a less than trustworthy stock.

I'm not at all sure what was kicking through the nervous system of a 107-year-old-man, but I'm pretty sure that just holding the situation steady for a couple of hours would have resulted in a shooting but a nap.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 11, 2013 11:38 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
On Forgetfulness

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Via EarthCam - New York Skyline Cam

"Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe.

"They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

"They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

"The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours."

from Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 11, 2013 9:32 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink

▶ Drone's eye view of Burning Man 2013 - YouTube


Some daytime scenes from around the playa at Burning Man 2013. Be sure to watch in HD at full screen for maximum awesomeness!

Major art include BELIEVE, The Man, French CORE: Stairway to Heaven, Minnesota CORE: The Year the Playa Stood Still, New Orleans CORE: Altar of the Wetlands: Recreating Nature in a Post-Industrial Society, Fractal Planet, The Janky Barge, Truth is Beauty, Coyote, East Bay CORE : First Home, NYC CORE: Star of the City, Like4Real, The Temple of Whollyness, Photo Chapel.

Soundtrack: Elixir by Fingers in the Noise.
https://soundcloud.com/fitn



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 10, 2013 6:14 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Help Kickstart World War III!

Why? Because Obama....

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 10, 2013 11:14 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
How the hell did it happen?

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The Fred Reed this time uncannily writes for me in Surrender in the Culture Wars @ Fred On Everything:


I lived, 1951 to 1956, aged six to eleven, in the Arlington suburbs of Washington and, ´56 to´57, in smalltown Athens, Alabama, and eighth grade through high school in rural King George County, Virginia, graduating in 1964. Another country. Another world. What happened?

The Arlington of then was entirely white, peopled largely by men several years back from World War Two, enjoying the fantastic surge in prosperity following the war. The dominant culture, the only culture, was that of Reader´s Digest, clean cut, honest, and confident. We watched the Mousketeers, all soap and good manners. We joined the Boy Scouts, and were told to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. We were, at least sorta, most of those. Pornography meant monitoring the advance of Annette Funicello´s bustline.

At age eight I walked every morning the perhaps six blocks to Robert E. Lee Elementary School, alone. Why not? There was nothing to be afraid of. My friends and I rode to Westover, the shopping center on Washington Boulevard, and left our bikes on the sidewalk for hours while we read comic books in the drug store. Why not? Nobody stole bikes. My family never locked the doors of the house. Why should we? There weren´t any burglars.

And in summer evenings thirty kids, girls and boys, played hide-and-seek across several blocks, and parents didn´t give it a thought. Why should they? It was safe. We were the dominant culture, the only culture, and we didn´t do pederasty, engage in gang attacks, or muggings, or drive fast on kid-littered streets. It wasn´t our way. If we had suffered a natural disaster, no one would have looted. It wasn´t what we did.

I´m not sure what would have happened if a gang of high-schoolers had robbed a candy store. It was impossible, because we didn´t do such things. A child molester? I don´t know. It would have one way or another been a case of God help him and he never would have been seen again. The culture didn´t tolerate child molesters.

And now, and now….


Pretty much my childhood as well with the names of the cities and towns and locations changed.... Buy the ticket, take the ride. Read all....



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 9, 2013 12:40 PM | Comments (22)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Where Are They Now? Who Has Seen the Broken Wind?

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Principled Anti-War Celebrities We Fear May Have Been Kidnapped

Obama: Wrecked our Economy! But at Least He's Fouled Up Foreign Policy

The President’s proposed Syrian missile strike is destined to fail worse than a White House official’s urinalysis. Not to mention a domestic healthcare law that has even AFL-CIO officials scrambling to figure out where they went wrong in life. The only option for libs: further propagandize the base into believing that these policies are good ones, and hope it all goes away until after the next election.
As professional anti-Bush-war protesters scramble to justify a military strike on Syria into simple libtardian picket-sign slogans, they can’t help but find themselves in a state of confusion and moral dilemma — a very familiar state to find themselves in.
Less than enthusiastic wandering picket-liners can be heard muddling disheartened laments, “But, like, wasn’t it like bad, when like Bush went to war, man?” Don’t ask questions! Just “X” out the “NO” on your “NO WAR” signs and do what you are told!

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 9, 2013 4:47 AM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
What are These Giant Concrete Arrows Across the American Landscape?

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"In the 1920s, America began coast-to-coast Airmail service, but the pioneer pilots had trouble navigating the route, since navigation charts of the day were fugazi and you couldn't exactly pull over to ask a farmer for directions.

And traveling at night, when it would have been most efficient, or in bad weather was impossible. To solve this Congress then funded these gi-normous arrow-shaped Airmail Beacons, some up to 70 feet long, to trace a route across the country.... The arrows were painted bright yellow and each was accompanied by a tower up to 50 feet in height. At the top of each tower was a powerful gas-powered light, and at the bottom of the tower, a shed to hold the gas." More at - Core77 [HT: Doc Mercury]



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 8, 2013 10:23 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Hank Bought A Bus

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"As the economy recovers uncertainly and the real estate market remains tenuous, many Americans

are looking at novel, alternative ways to live and save money. (In fact, we are moving to the suburbs in lower numbers than ever before). Hank Buttita saw this trend, took the ante, raised it, and went all in. He doesn't pay a mortgage or rent an overpriced apartment or succumb to the soul-withering blackhole of the post-graduate job market. No, sir. Hank bought a bus. Huckberry |

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Hank Bought A Bus | Sometimes the best plan is to not have one… MAIN SITE IS HERE



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 7, 2013 11:04 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Our Story So Far

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I've been away but so far, as I understand it, here's the plan. DC bombs Syria into pudding for using the WMD it inherited from Saddam. Iran bombs DC into pudding with WMD that it got from Syria's stockpile of WMDs it got from Saddam and passed on to Syria. The United States, now without Washington DC, bombs Iran into pudding. Except for excess pudding where's the downside?



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 6, 2013 1:03 PM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Hobo Nickels

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"Many talented coin engravers, as well as newcomers, started creating hobo nickels in 1913, when the Buffalo nickel entered circulation. This accounts for the quality and variety of engraving styles found on carved 1913 nickels. More classic old hobo nickels were made from 1913-dated nickels than any other pre-1930s date.
Many artists made hobo nickels in the 1910s and 1920s, with new artists joining in as the years went by. The 1930s saw many talented artists adopting the medium. Bertram Wiegand, known almost exclusively as Bert, began carving nickels in the teens, and his student George Washington Hughes, known as Bo, began carving in the late teens (and up to 1980). During this period, Buffalo nickels were the most common nickels in circulation." -- La Wik



Posted by gerardvanderleun Sep 3, 2013 10:24 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
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