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April 30, 2013

"One of the great deceptions

is that dreams and prayers are as powerful as scheme and plans.

They are not, nor will they ever be, because power is always in the hands of men, and never in the hands of chance. Not even in orbit above the planet are tons of equipment held aloft by chance. Don't imagine that your earthly fate is either, my friend. Whomever is speaking, however close or distant from the truth, they will offer dreams or schemes. They will present players or prayers. Plans are the affairs of man from which we can annex action to actor - the rest is the working of wishful thinking, fantasy and the dreams of romantic poets, the seductions of youthful lips whispering wanted whims. And this is now as it has ever been." -- Dreams, Schemes, Prayers, Players & Man's Plans - Cobb

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:14 PM | Your Say (8)

"Ours is a world of demons.

"We’ve created all sorts of devices to impose greater order on society,

to curb the chaos of human beings running around at different speeds like crazed molecules. Think of traffic lights. What are they but demons that regulate the flow of vehicles through intersections and other tight spots?" -- The mixed reality setup | ROUGH TYPE

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:04 PM | Your Say (0)

Contrary to what they tell you (and tell you and tell you),

progressives don’t have principles. Rather, they have faddish opinions that are highly unstable and often contradictory. --Kathy Shaidle

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:55 PM | Your Say (2)

"If this alarming trend continues, the planet will be completely covered with Antarctic ice in 1,000 years."

Antarctic Ice: Growing So Fast That It Will One Day Cover Earth?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:12 PM | Your Say (2)

Kill Fascists First: Churchill

'Mr. Chamberlain can't seem to understand that we live in a very wicked world.

English people want to be left alone, and I daresay a great many other people want to be left alone too. But the world is like a tired old horse plodding down a long road. Every time it strays off and tries to graze peacefully in some nice green pasture, along comes a new master to flog it a bit further along.' "WINSTON CHURCHILL THE ERA AND THE MAN"

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:09 AM | Your Say (2)

The United States is broke — fiscally, morally, intellectually —

and the Fed has incited a global currency war (Japan just signed up, the Brazilians and Chinese are angry, and the German-dominated euro zone is crumbling) that will soon overwhelm it. When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse. If this sounds like advice to get out of the markets and hide out in cash, it is. Sundown in America - NYTimes.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:28 AM | Your Say (5)

While the Fed fiddles, Congress burns.

Self-titled fiscal hawks like Paul D. Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, are terrified of telling the truth:

that the 10-year deficit is actually $15 trillion to $20 trillion, far larger than the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of $7 trillion. Its latest forecast, which imagines 16.4 million new jobs in the next decade, compared with only 2.5 million in the last 10 years, is only one of the more extreme examples of Washington’s delusions. -- Sundown in America - NYTimes.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:24 AM | Your Say (2)

A lot of modern life

is about rubbing people's noses in stuff that they find disgusting, repellent, sickening

- this sometimes seem like the main activity and underlying purpose of the mass media, backed by the highbrow artistic establishment. The idea is, of course, to desensitize us so that nothing can shock us because then we will accept evil. Bruce Charlton's Miscellany: Can you handle it?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:58 AM | Your Say (3)

April 27, 2013

"I'm tired of manifestos everywhere."

"You can read any innocuous news story on Yahoo and there are 3000 comments after it and 2500 of them are manifestos

and the other 500 are plain screeds. Every gathering, real or virtual, is a pretext to launch into a description of the New World Order everyone's going to install right after they're made God-Emperor by acclamation, by virtue of the excellent manifesto they left in the comments after a story on The Frisky about this year's bikini styles. [ The Sippican, he posts for me in his screed titled, We Are Not All Howard Beale Now]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:13 PM | Your Say (1)

More good news for drunken, overweight co-dependent lesbians

Feds Spending $880,000 to Study Benefits of Snail Sex

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:01 AM | Your Say (7)

April 26, 2013

"In the end it all began with an idea."

Once the idea had been conceived, it was worked and reworked, tweaked and retweaked until it finally succeeded.

And then an immaterial notion became actual. It became as real as hundreds of tons of aluminum and fuel hurtling at jet speeds toward skyscrapers in New York City. If anything information has become more influential since. Belmont Club サ The Power of Bad Information

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:26 PM | Your Say (1)

Smoke 'em if you got 'em

More Tasty Sweatshirts For Stoners | Incredible Things

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:21 PM | Your Say (0)

They told you gay marriage wouldn't be the end of it

Researchers Discover Amphibian Species that Peel and Eat their Mother's Skin

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:56 AM | Your Say (2)

April 25, 2013

If Jesse Jackson bleating sonorously about the time someone stole his sandwich bores you, try gay rights.

Sultan Knish: Inequality for All Put an equal sign on your Facebook profile and you're a civil rights hero.

And if old gay men stage-kissing for the front page of your soon-to-be-out-of-business local weekly bores you, try trannies. Men who pretend to be women persecuted by refusing to take their pretense seriously. It's just like Selma, if Martin Luther King had been more like J. Edgar Hoover.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:26 PM | Your Say (2)

Bed

The Bed: Reencountering the Metropolitan Museum and E. L. Konigsburg : The New Yorker This all began—like some other exciting things, I bet—with an extremely fancy bed.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:08 PM | Your Say (0)

Instead of moderation, what’s at hand is a Great Deformation,

The way out would be so radical it can’t happen. It would necessitate a sweeping divorce of the state and the market economy.

It would require a renunciation of crony capitalism and its first cousin: Keynesian economics in all its forms. The state would need to get out of the business of imperial hubris, economic uplift and social insurance and shift its focus to managing and financing an effective, affordable, means-tested safety net. All this would require drastic deflation of the realm of politics and the abolition of incumbency itself, because the machinery of the state and the machinery of re-election have become conterminous. Sundown in America - NYTimes.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:27 AM | Your Say (0)

"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? Tocqueville: Book I Chapter 1

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:00 AM | Your Say (1)

April 24, 2013

"How I Evolved on Guns During the #BostonPoliceScanner Manhunt"

I realized at that moment that the police cannot protect me from the Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs of the world..... There are not enough police and they cannot come to my rescue quickly enough. They carry guns to protect themselves, not me. -- PJ Lifestyle

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:54 PM | Your Say (11)

THIS WILL BE A BIG HIT IN THE FOOD COURT

72,000 Ladybugs Released Inside Mall of America On Earth Day In Place Of Pesticides -- Dave Barry's Blog:

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:24 AM | Your Say (2)

Too Many Holes in the Dike

Underwater: The Netherlands Falls Prey to Economic Crisis

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:17 AM | Your Say (7)

"I don’t want this day to end"

I see some of them spinning their wheels. I can feel it. “I'm young. This is a good moment in my career. How can I capitalize on this? How can I turn this into something else? How can I make the most of it?” And that's how I thought all the time as a kid. And I'm now 60. And I sit there in that room. And it's a 14-16 hour day, and I don't want the day to end. I don't think for one second, “How can I make more of this. How can I make this get me something.” I could care less. I don't want this day to end. I just love it. I know it will end. The one thing I know no matter how successful this is, it's just a split second on the timeline of history. -- Mandy Patinkin Via ninjasandrobots.com | Nathan Kontny

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:15 AM | Your Say (3)

"Don’t you wish, just once, an American public official would react like a man?"

A man, say, like this guy, who said this about the Chechens after they attacked a school back in 2004:

"€œYou find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child killers?  €œNo one has a moral right to tell us to talk to child killers. Correct me if I'€™m wrong, but Margaret Thatcher, whom I'€™ve met more than once said: 'A man who comes out into the street to kill other people must himself be killed'€™." Now, that'€™s some real straight talk about murdering, child-killing bastards. -- Unexamined Premises » The Memory of Beslan, the Shame of Boston

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:26 AM | Your Say (10)

Surprise, surprise!

$3 Million Retirement Cap in Obama's Budget Would Not Apply to Him

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:09 AM | Your Say (3)

Chechens Coming Here to Roost: "The world’s six billion or so nonwhites are now told to be as conservative as possible."

I’m using “conservative” in the sense of being naturally ethnocentric,

of having loyalties emanating in a concentric pattern, radiating outward from self and nuclear family to extended family, clan, tribe, nation, religion, or race. Thus, in the 21st century, practically nobody thinks that there is anything wrong with blacks voting almost universally for Barack Obama because he’s black. Those blacks are merely expressing their admirable racial solidarity. Chechens Coming Here to Roost - Steve Sailer

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:40 AM | Your Say (1)

April 23, 2013

"So did we provoke Islamism? Perhaps “we” did. But who is the we?"

Fewer still notice that Islamists focus their attacks on the cultural flagships of the Left.

New York, Boston, London, women's schools in Afghanistan, gay politicians in the Netherlands, apostate black women in Europe, and even pacifists who make their pilgrimage to the Middle East to bear witness to their own invincible idealism. The Tsarnaev's were showered with a huge amount of things. And did they like it? No they hated it. Hated the whole idea of the dirty, degenerate, corrupt West. They hated the idea and took the goodies without a thought. Despite this the mainstream culture is set to respond to their attack with more things. -- Belmont Club = The Power of Bad Information

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:28 PM | Your Say (4)

And now doth we daintily juxtapose!

-- Best of the Web Today: To Serve Woman - WSJ.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:11 PM | Your Say (1)

The Solution by Bertolt Brecht

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After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writer's Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts.
Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

As delivered by Commenter Fat Man to Side-Lines: The Unslakable Thirst

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:58 PM | Your Say (1)

Bullets

A Lesson On Guns - A Public Service Announcement Do not think that just because you do not see sparks flying, that there are not bullets, even hundreds of bullets, flying around you.

(Caveat: If you are caught in a military conflict, you may see red and green lines streaking through the air. Avoid these. These are called "tracers." For every one of those you see, there are usually 3-4 ones in between them that you are not seeing. Again, bad ju-ju. Avoid.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:01 PM | Your Say (5)

This Just In

Obama Chastises First Lady Over Unsightly Panty Lines

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:28 PM | Your Say (1)

'Cept for Me & My Monkey

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Justin Bieber and his monkey, in better times.
The daily gossip: Justin Bieber abandons his pet monkey, and more: Mally is probably bound for a rescue center, where he'll be free to monkey around in peace.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:12 PM | Your Say (4)

The affidavit and what it reveals

They had to have known that the Boston marathon is one of the most photographed events on earth, and yet acted as though they'd never be caught (or didn't care if they were caught) neo-neocon

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:40 PM | Your Say (1)

The Unslakable Thirst

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You don't say? Immigration reform could be bonanza for Democrats - POLITICO.com The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more
— pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:42 AM | Your Say (15)

This Just In

Taylor Swift Now Dating Watertown Boat

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:40 AM | Your Say (2)

Twitter as a Dangerous News Source

False rumors of an explosion at the White House causes Dow to drop 150 points. AP says its twitter account was hacked!

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:26 AM | Your Say (5)

Why Reynolds Rules

Instapundit: YOU THINK IT'S UP NOW, JUST WAIT UNTIL THE END OF OBAMA'S SECOND TERM . . . . As Bush library opening puts his presidency back in the spotlight, his approval rating is up.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:14 AM | Your Say (0)

"We on the left (again I put my old cap on) do not 'disagree' with you."

We despise you. The more spirited among us even hate you. Those can mostly be found among the lowest echelons of the movement, the ones who were just given their party badge and feel that they have something to prove so they can move up in the system. Higher up, it’s mostly just contempt. Which Is What His Imperial Majesty Has Been Trying to Tell Everybody For Years Now | Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:29 AM | Your Say (0)

Women who are now, or very soon will be, single mothers

When Jada Shapiro decided to raise her daughter from birth without diapers, for the most part, not everyone was amused. Ms. Shapiro scattered little bowls around the house to catch her daughter’s offerings... Baby’s Latest - Going Diaperless, at Home or Even in the Park - NYTimes.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:00 AM | Your Say (2)

April 22, 2013

Inside Sophia Loren's Roman Villa, 1964

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Loren and husband, Carlo Ponti
Sophia Loren stayed married from the age of 22 to her husband, Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, until his death 50 years later. When asked if she would ever marry again, like a true romantic she replied, ”No, never again. It would be impossible to love anyone else”. | Messy Nessy Chic Messy Nessy Chic

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:33 PM | Your Say (7)

Every Single Person In The World On One Chart

7 Billion World - 7 billion people on 1 page: You're in here somewhere.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:19 PM | Your Say (2)

Swan feather on Hatchet Pond

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This feather floating on the surface of Hatchet Pond came from a preening swan - one of a pair of swans that are often seen at the pond. OS grid SU3601 :: Geograph

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:26 PM | Your Say (0)

Nork Nukes? Ramp It Out Five Years

There are a lot of sick, angry people out there.

What will the world be like in five years when North Korea had infinitely more nuclear warheads and better rockets? It will be a horror show. What will it be like when Iran has nuclear weapons and ICBMs? Please don't tell me that whopper about how Obama is going to stop them. He never will and the mullahs know it. -- The American Spectator : No End to This Cruelty

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:23 PM | Your Say (6)

"You don't have to go to Pakistan or Afghanistan or Iraq to be radicalized against America. "

You can be radicalized against America right here in America.

You can be radicalized against America in American schools. You can be radicalized in America against America by watching American television and movies and websites. You can be radicalized by professors, many of them former bombers themselves, many of them with grievances against this country. You don't need to go outside this country to be radicalized against it." -- Rush Limbaugh

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:46 PM | Your Say (0)

The Wages of Sin

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$3,126  "From now on when people ask me why I'm a stripper, I'm just going to show them this picture (one day of work- 1130am to 3am)" - Imgur)

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:07 PM | Your Say (11)

There are two standards on being terrorized.

When a mentally ill man shoots up a school, then everyone is obligated to be terrorized all the time.

Children can be seized for chewing a pop tart the wrong way and the leading leaders tow around selected parents of victims to demand that the pesky Bill of Rights take a back seat to a special moral superiority vote from a former Democratic member of congress whose great achievement in life was getting shot in the head by another mental patient. -- Sultan Knish: Refusing to be Terrorized

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:28 AM | Your Say (0)

13 Worst Predictions Made on Earth Day, 1970

13. "The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age." — Kenneth Watt | FreedomWorks

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:31 AM | Your Say (3)

USA needs refuge from refugees

Uncle Sam lets another bunch of leeching future terrorists

into the country who have absolutely no business being here, gives them “asylum,” making them immediately eligible for welfare, and this is the thanks we get? They turn into mass murderers. We bring in thousands of Muslims from a primitive society that has been battling Christians for centuries, and put them into a peaceful Christian society — what could possible go wrong? Howie Carr @ Boston Herald

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:19 AM | Your Say (1)

Who Says There's No Good News? "Barack Obama is a lame-duck president."

Nobody listens to what he says anymore, nobody is interested in winning his approval and nobody much cares if he thinks they have “let the country down”. This is typical for a second-term president who has lost all their leverage because they’re no longer running for office and everybody is patiently waiting for the day when he quits the White House. But Obama's difficult personality has doubled the size of the challenge. Gloating in victory, adolescent in defeat – the Prez doesn’t make it easy to work with him. Barack Obama can't pass gun control despite 90 per cent support. Truly, he is a lame-duck president [But not, alas, gone from the planet just yet.]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:53 AM | Your Say (2)

Now they tell us:

"Luckily, our science writers of the 1990s were wrong about almost everything." -- WIRED Magazine's 20th Anniversary [Under "Science"]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:45 AM | Your Say (0)

Obama Fizzles Out

The CPA spin is looney and their own spin has unraveled.

For the MSM, Obama might as well be Humpty Dumpty. All the MSM horses and the MSM men can't put the spin back together again. The MSM is locked into a position where Obama is neither demon nor savior. There is no story there. They are stuck with their Beau Brummell in the White House looking more and more like just another hackneyed leftist politician of the Carter-Mondale variety who never really had anything new to offer. -- Articles AmThinker

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:21 AM | Your Say (0)

We have to ask ourselves: What did we do wrong?

Steve Sailer : "How did American intolerance alienate the Tsarnaev Brothers? Perhaps the political climate was not welcoming enough, too conservative and xenophobic."

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:19 AM | Your Say (4)

Headline with a Variation

Headline: "Let’s Hope the Next Bomber is a Liberal Journalist" Variation: "Let’s Hope the Next Bomber Targets a Liberal Journalist"

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:59 AM | Your Say (5)

April 21, 2013

And a new online icon is born

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Found at II Amendment T-Shirt Anthem Studios

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:47 PM | Your Say (5)

“The Century War,” said the Time Traveler.

“In [2014], you’ll be ripping and tearing at yourselves so fiercely that your nation – the only one on Earth actually fighting against resurgent caliphate Islam in this long struggle over the very future of civilization –

will become so preoccupied with criticizing yourselves and trying to gain short-term political advantage, that you’ll all forget that there’s actually a war for your survival going on. Twenty-five years from now, every man or woman in America who wishes to vote will be required to read Thucydides on this matter. And others as well. And there are tests. If you don’t know some history, you don’t vote . . . much less run for office. America’s vacation from knowing history ends very soon now . . . for you, I mean. And for those few others left alive in the world who are allowed to vote.” -- Dan Simmons

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:29 PM | Your Say (2)

"Shocked! Shocked!" Mass. police: Bomb suspects didn't have gun permit

Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas [aka "Mouthbreathing Moron of the Yard"] tells The Associated Press in an interview Sunday that neither Tamerlan Tsarnaev (tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) nor his brother Dzhokhar had permission to carry firearms.-- AP

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:27 PM | Your Say (6)

Typecast, But Who's Profiling?

A certain American (or for that matter Westernized) resident or citizen

€”at some moment channels his own sense of failure into radical Islam. He seeks some sort of cosmic resonance and redemption for his own personal inadequacies. Presto, a pathetic loser becomes a wannabe bin Laden jihadist, as murder becomes cause for publicity. -- Works and Days » The Paradoxes of the Boston Bombings

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:31 PM | Your Say (1)

"The real purpose of abortion is to make it impossible, once we have acceded to it, to object to anything else."

Killing your own child -- just as acquiescing to killing the Jews was to the German public -- was a form of enlistment by complicity. It is the last and most decisive step in the extinction of freedom. Though apparently practiced upon the child the real target of abasement is the mother. And by extension it is all of us. That is the shame the conservative pundits felt. Not the shame of sexual guilt. It is the shame of having gone along. -- Belmont Club » The House on the Corner

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:11 PM | Your Say (6)

A Nation Mourns

IRS to Close for 5 Days Due to Furloughs

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:38 AM | Your Say (2)

Security theater

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What choice did the people of Watertown really have? The government has disarmed them
(and I’d bet that nearly 45% of MA residents disagree with the state’s anti-gun policies); the government controls the public transportation; and evidently, we’ve militarized our metropolitan police forces to the point where your best bet is to stay inside, because we have (rightly) nervous law enforcement officers patrolling in areas that might be booby-trapped, armed with “assault weapons,” ready to fire on perceived threats. -- | protein wisdom

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:12 AM | Your Say (2)

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"

Canadians, Mexicans, and fish: The United States is the only great power in the history of the world that has had the luxury of having nonpredatory neighbors to its north and south, and fish to its east and west. The two oceans to either side of the country are what historian Thomas Bailey brilliantly described as its liquid assets. -- How Geography Explains the United States - By Aaron David Miller | Foreign Policy

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:58 AM | Your Say (0)

A Moment of Silence, Please

We will now pause while the same group of people that thought that George W Bush

should be held responsible for every hang-nail, paper cut, and unsatisfying bowel movement in Central Asia now explain to us why Barack Obama should not be blamed for a lapse of judgement that helped lead to Boston being bombed, shut down, and subject to a running firefight through the streets. Moe Lane, feds warned by Russia about Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011.

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:24 AM | Your Say (1)

I know you’re not supposed to paint with a broad brush, unless you’re a liberal,

in which case you are not only permitted, but expected to make Adam Lanza the poster boy for 100 million law-abiding legal gun owners. Howie Carr

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:22 AM | Your Say (1)

Like, You Know

HT: The All Knowing Morgan

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:30 AM | Your Say (1)

All the Answers At Last

Sense of Events: Answer to "20 Questions Liberals Can't Answer" 8) How can liberal economists like Paul Krugman be right when they claim that our economy isn't doing well because we aren't spending enough money when we're already running massive, unsustainable deficits and spending is going up every year? Deficits don't matter. Federal spending is the primary engine of the economy. These are the main tenet of liberal economic theory. Why didn't you know that?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:57 AM | Your Say (0)

April 20, 2013

The "culture" that must ALWAYS win

The individual must be reduced to something weak.

Sexually vague. A mere parasite upon the host, utterly dependent on it for its daily sustenance, providing nothing in return. Except, in the case of government, perhaps some useful information. But the culture strips the individual of independence, oftentimes for no good reason that can be discerned, save for discouraging foresight. -- House of Eratosthenes

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:15 PM | Your Say (0)

Doing the Real Math

The same goes for any discussion of late-term abortions.

If you don’t see the Gosnell carnage as an irrelevant local news story, you’re against women’s rights. The general consensus seems to be that partial-birth abortions are incredibly rare and used only for emergencies. I had a Hispanic med student tell me to “Take this one in a million abortion clinic example and shove it up your ginger ass.” By my calculations, this clinic is closer to 27,000 in a million. -- Pulling Our Hearts out of Our Brains

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:20 PM | Your Say (0)

Pulling Our Hearts out of Our Brains

While everyone blames the recent shooting sprees on access to weapons, few writers noticed how many shooters were on psych meds.

The American pharmaceutical industry makes over $300 billion a year—compared to only $12 billion for America’s allegedly “powerful” and “well financed” gun industry—so there’s a real economic disadvantage to questioning the efficacy of prescription drugs. I think celebrities avoid this topic because they are so high on their own pills, the hypocrisy would give them a bad trip. -- Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:19 PM | Your Say (3)

Worst Getaway Vehicle of the Decade So Far

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:36 PM | Your Say (1)

The tyranny of one man or that of many?

If I have only one despot, I am quit of him by drawing myself up against a wall when I see him pass,

or by bowing low, or by striking the ground with my forehead, according to the custom of the country; but if there is a company of a hundred despots, I am exposed to repeating this ceremony a hundred times a day, which in the long run is very annoying if one's hocks are not supple. If I have a farm in the neighbourhood of one of our lords, I am crushed; if I plead against a relation of the relations of one of our lords, I am ruined. What is to be done? I fear that in this world one is reduced to being either hammer or anvil; lucky the man who escapes these alternatives! -- Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:09 PM | Your Say (1)

The April 14 World

The day before the Marathon Massacre, the New York Times had scored plaudits for running an op-ed by one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards complaining about his hard life in Guantanamo Bay. On April 14th, the paper of broken record paid 150 bucks to an Al Qaeda member for the opportunity to complain about being force fed during his hunger strike. On April 15th the bombs went off. -- Sultan Knish

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:34 PM | Your Say (1)

Predator Drone Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Details at The Duffel Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:29 PM | Your Say (0)

The ‘Co-exist’ Bombers

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It’s very weird to live in a society where mass death is important insofar as it serves the political needs of the dominant ideology. A white male loner killing white kindergartners in Connecticut is news; a black doctor butchering black babies in Pennsylvania is not. -- Mark Steyn | National Review Online

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:29 AM | Your Say (0)

Why one cop carries 145 rounds of ammo on the job

Before the call that changed Sergeant Timothy Gramins’ life forever, he typically carried 47 rounds of handgun ammunition on his person while on duty . Life on the Line [HT: Morgan]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:49 AM | Your Say (1)

"Progressive:" The truth is incorrect

Pat Condell on the vermin among us.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:37 AM | Your Say (0)

Shopping for Weed in the U.S.

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What surprised Shopper wasn't the variety and novelty of the dispensaries. It was how, across three states, they were mostly all the same.
All located in places you'd expect to find either a tax preparer or a defunct porn store. Did they have exactly the same names? It sure seemed like it. The Little Green Pharmacy, Green Cure, Mile High Green Cross, the Green Door, Green House. And inside, high-end or low-end, they hewed to the same blueprint. The waiting room. The Plexiglas portal. The portraits of Bob Marley. The giant supercrisp-picture flat-screen TV tuned either to ESPN or to one of the channels that do crime re-creations. The bud room with one case of pipes and bongs, a cooler for drinks, a display of edibles and "concentrates," and, dominating the room, the flower bar, which usually featured canisters of buds arranged in rows from top (highest end) to bottom (best value), with your bud tenders standing nearby, manning the tweezers. Who were usually women and usually attractive. That's not an accident. -- This Bud's For You!

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:20 AM | Your Say (2)

Saturday's Stack of Visual Scraps

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Sophia Loren’s Benz
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Dark times — Photography Mikko Lagerstedt
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Stunning Landscapes Illuminated by Faraway Galaxies
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I like creating stupid animal species. -- Reddit editor
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MEET THE WINNERS OF THE CESAR PET FOOD “I LOOK LIKE MY DOG” COMPETITION.
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15 of the Most Fascinating Looking Fungi in the World ォTwistedSifter
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Beautiful Century Flower-shop, Brussels, designed by Paul Hankar, XIX century

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:44 AM | Your Say (1)

April 19, 2013

Coexist

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"Coexist" sticker featured on car hijacked by Muslim bomber:Sultan Knish: Friday Afternoon Roundup - Coexist

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:18 PM | Your Say (10)

We need to WAKE UP!

We want to feel other people's pain. We want to demonstrate how enlightened, tolerant and progressive we are. We want to do everything except face the facts.
And that's why we won't ever stop having to drone people all over the map and hunt them down house to house. Belmont Club サ The Attics of Our Mind

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:09 PM | Your Say (0)

On Not Getting It

One site explaining the Tsarnaev brother'€™s homicidal motivations offered this helpful comparison: "al-Qaeda is a form of right-wing Islam."
It's a phrase almost as good as "€œdark skinned white American"€ and together with it exemplies the danger of trying to understand the unknown in terms of familiar tropes. It is like attempting to speak a foreign language by yelling slowly in English.  We think we'€™re getting it, but we’re not. -- Belmont Club » The Attics of Our Mind

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:04 PM | Your Say (2)

I hate to admit it too, but....

"I hate to admit it, but in the case of obesity v. gun deaths, Michelle Obama’s pet cause is about ten times more germane than her husband’s." -- Pulling Our Hearts out of Our Brains - Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:24 PM | Your Say (0)

No Hempfest in Boston Tomorrow? Bummer!

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Dear @Stoddarddd, We're so sorry that trying to catch the guy who has killed children and blown the legs off your fellow Americans is harshing your buzz. 22 People Who Are Worried The Terrorists Ruined Their 4/20

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:08 PM | Your Say (1)

Timing is Everything

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:36 PM | Your Say (2)

Boston Bomber's Tweet at 5:04PM April 15

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:55 AM | Your Say (2)

Boston Bomber in "Will Box For Passport"

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Tamerlan Tsarnaev practices boxing at the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center.

Originally from Chechnya, but living in the United States since five years, Tamerlan says: "I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them." Will Box For Passport - Images | Johannes Hirn

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:01 AM | Your Say (5)

Heavy Hangs the Head That Wears the Crown

Dem: Past Four Years 'Physically And Mentally Very Difficult' For Hillary "She's worn out mentally-n-physically and with nothing to show for it but a jacked-up middle east, dead diplomats, World-wide hatred for America, and that most wonderful bit of fallout, total lack of respect."

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:49 AM | Your Say (6)

A funny thing happens when you dissent from Roe v. Wade:

You come to see that there's not much else by way of intellectual content to the case for abortion on demand.

Roe predates our own political consciousness, so we have to assume there were once stronger arguments. But these days the appeal to the authority of Roe is pretty much all there is apart from sloganeering, name-calling, appeals to self-interest and an emphasis on difficult and unusual cases such as pregnancy due to rape. From Roe to Gosnell - WSJ.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:33 AM | Your Say (2)

Republicans: The Party of Surrender

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Accommodationists seem to believe that immigration amnesty and "marriage equality" are the last towels they'll ever have to throw in.
But in the liberal bathhouse there'll always be a new towel-snapper along in a minute. Free contraceptives . . . Abandonment of religious liberty . . . Single-payer health care . . . --- :: Mark SteynOnline

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:36 AM | Your Say (2)

"SpiritHoods" More bad fashion news for men without chests

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Blue Jay: The intrinsic characteristics of the Blue Jay make them a formidable adversary in any situation.
Blue Jays are curious beings that love to communicate and learn about the ways of the world. Those with this spirit possess a fearless nature and a determination that goes unrivaled. $109 -- Spirit hood SPRING 2013-MEN'S :: Blue Jay

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:29 AM | Your Say (4)

Shameful

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238 years ago today, citizens near Boston took on the most powerful military in the world and won. Today, they cower from one man. -- State of a nation ォ Bob Owens

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:17 AM | Your Say (3)

Friday's Stack O' Snacks

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:32 AM | Your Say (1)

April 18, 2013

Dear Obamatron Francine, Fuck You. Strong Letter to Follow

Listen up, you incompetent and defective sack of meat -- your son is dead because you are unfit to be parents.

You sat silently by while your state and our nation erected signs telling people who are criminally insane where they can find the maximum number of defenseless people to murder. You are personally, jointly and severably responsible for the consequences. -- Obama And Francine Wheeler's New Low in [Market-Ticker]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:10 PM | Your Say (3)

One of the nastiest intellectual habits of the intellectual Left

is that it prescribes set political agendas or menus which must be followed by rote or diktat, and in full.

If the first course is the emancipation and equal treatment of women, the main course must be a smorgasbord of left of centre, politically correct social attitudes. Any deviation from this norm, and from this prescribed package of values and policies provokes a “moral” outrage which requires the vilification of the “deviant” who has strayed from orthodoxy. That vilification can often be carried out with all the zeal of a medieval religious fanatic confronting a so called “heretic”, that is someone who had the temerity not to follow God’s will as revealed to the zealot. -- The Hatred of Maggie — Anna Raccoon

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:41 PM | Your Say (1)

"When you wish upon a star, bombers don't turn white by far...."

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Marathon bombing suspects sure don't look like 'white Americans' UPDATED
On Tuesday, the Leftist Salon web site published a blog that created a stir. The blog, by David Sirota, hoped that the Boston Marathon bomber is a 'white American.'
On the other hand, David Sirota is as white as an albino loaf of Wonderbread spread with lard. Maybe he can offer himself up as a martyr in the bombers' place. That, I think, would be mighty white of him.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:53 PM | Your Say (7)

'TITTOING'

"Women desperate for perfect nipples are having them TATTOOED on "Via Dave Barry's Blog Seems to be a perfect case of "tit for tat" to me, Dave.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:08 PM | Your Say (2)

"Raaaaacsim" is About Getting Laid

Anti-racism is a mating display. It says: “Look at me! I have such earning power I can live where I like! I don’t have to worry about feral underclass blacks or Salvadoran gangbangers! I can strike a pose of lofty indifference to matters of race! Drop your knickers right now!” Why Isn’t Racism Cool? - Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:18 PM | Your Say (0)

Batman Boxer Briefs With A Cape

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Also doubles as a Chastity Belt. | Incredible Things

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:50 AM | Your Say (0)

"If you were the guy who invented the Maglite,"

you started off with a dream to have a really good flashlight and then one day everybody in law enforcement wanted one.

Four years later, you're a regular old guy with time and millions to burn in Carmel. You go to all the Red Sox games. You buy the wife a new Benz. Yeah the watch costs 6 thousand, but whatever. You just buy stuff that works, not all that flash. You can find things out if you really want to know. You have time. You have money. You have patience. You're not under pressure to make a whole lot of mistakes. You appreciate a good meal. You realize you have been blessed, and you take your freedom seriously. By my reckoning, a reasonable man, once rich, will get over the hump and mellow out or wreck his life within 5 years. -- Sir - Cobb

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:26 AM | Your Say (3)

"We need even more POWER!"

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I was just noticing this while listening to the President’s speech on the radio:
If the democrats get their butts beat a hundred times in a row, we can predict they’re going to say some variation of exactly the same thing, a hundred times in a row, and that thing will be: This just goes to show that you voters have to give us more of a lock on power. House of Eratosthenes

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:06 AM | Your Say (4)

Do Not Blame Caesar

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Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome’s, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:33 AM | Your Say (2)

Weiner Up. Dong Down.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:24 AM | Your Say (3)

Stephen Hawking lays out case for Big Bang without God

AKA "Man with Obvious Grudge Speaks Out" At one point, he quipped, “What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:54 AM | Your Say (16)

Racquel Welch lays out case for Big Bang with God

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:10 AM | Your Say (8)

Thursday Packs A Stack of Slack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:48 AM | Your Say (1)

April 17, 2013

FBI to CNN: "Sorry but this morning's suspect wasn't white enough. Hold on while we go back to the pool for a new one."

Shortage of white terrorists to be rectified soon.

"We identified a suspect based on video evidence," clarified Special Agent Olaf Mills of the FBI's Suspect Description Division. "We arrested him and his physical features and clothing matched the video evidence closely. But because of suspect-profiling directives from the office of the attorney general, we shortly released him and he is no longer considered a suspect." Sense of Events: Bombing suspect arrested, released

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:54 PM | Your Say (3)

Oh really? [Bumped]

"Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American" - David Sirota @ Salon.com

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Lil' Raaaacist David

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:21 PM | Your Say (16)

Headline of the Day

Weiner’s poll rising: Trails only Quinn among mayoral Dems -- NY Post [Of course]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:36 PM | Your Say (2)

Please Note and Obey

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:11 PM | Your Say (2)

Claire Smedley: Woman with Britain's biggest boobs says she's terrified they'll kill her relationship

Mum-of-three Claire Smedley, 30, has to be on her guard during sex in case her 40MMM boobs suffocate new boyfriend Chris. -- Mirror Online

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:37 AM | Your Say (9)

Wednesday's Stack is Off the Rack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:40 AM | Your Say (1)

April 16, 2013

Severe Binocular Shortage Plagues North Korean War Prep

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North Korean soldier keeps watch as nation issues new threats A North Korean soldier looks out of the window of a guard tower, on the banks of Yalu River, about 62 miles from the North Korean town of Sinuiju

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:20 PM | Your Say (4)

Good Career Move

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:12 AM | Your Say (7)

Yada, Yada, Yada....

Well, another obvious terror incident and I don’t dare turn on the TV lest I loose what little is left of my mind as I listen to the brain-trust giving minute by minute analysis based entirely on hearsay and surmise. Boston Bombing Boogaloo - Blur Brain

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:57 AM | Your Say (3)

“When I got this sword, it was completely covered in blood rust.”

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“You can tell it’s blood,” he says matter-of-factly, “because ordinary rust turns the grinding water brown. If it’s blood rust it bleeds,
it looks like blood in the water. Even 2,000 years old, it bleeds. And it smells like a steak cooking, like cooked meat. I’ve encountered this before with Japanese swords from World War II. If there’s blood on the sword and you start polishing it, the sword bleeds. It comes with the territory.” -- Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:07 AM | Your Say (1)

"For many on the left, abortion remains the greatest of the secular sacraments,"

murder as a positive good. I've met many young women in our business who tell me that they don't mind my conservative politics,

but the one thing that they absolutely cannot compromise on, or even discuss, is Roe v. Wade. How the maternal instinct was extirpated in a generation or two of women is something for behavioral scientists and theologians to debate; the modern left's transformation into a suicide cult will give historians and artists grist for decades to come. Dr. Mengele, I Presume

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:35 AM | Your Say (2)

Tuesday's Stack's Like Skin-Popped Smack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:16 AM | Your Say (3)

April 15, 2013

"Weren't They Funny?"

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Life Magazine Dec. 10, 1914 Artist: Otho Cushing

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:16 PM | Your Say (2)

Boston Bomber a Saudi? This Just In... But Who Really Knows at This Point?

Authorities ID suspect as Saudi national in marathon bombings, under guard at Boston hospital - NYPOST.com

UPDATE: "CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reports that a Saudi national is being questioned by authorities.

He was seen "acting suspiciously" running from the explosion and a civilian chased him down and tackled him. He was turned over to Boston Police and is being questioned by FBI. He is being cooperative and denies any involvement. "This could mean a lot, or this could mean very little," Miller said. "It's too soon to call him a suspect."

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:10 PM | Your Say (14)

Monday Stack Slackdown

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Kafka

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:41 AM | Your Say (4)

April 14, 2013

Gosnell: "A Colonel Jessup abortion clinic"

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Gloria Steinem
The issue isn't as simple as Pro-Choice. Abortion is just the conclusion of the sordid package of social liberalism.
The package begins with sex ed, complete with the obligatory LGBT mentions, runs through national STD infestations, hookup culture, single parenthood and packs of young men and women recreating the mistakes of the parents they never had and then flushing those mistakes down the toilet before settling down with three kids, by different fathers who are never around, and a package of subsidies from the welfare state administered by social workers who have seen it all. -- Sultan Knish: Violence On Their Behalf

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:59 AM | Your Say (16)

"When will the movie be produced starring Morgan Freeman and Meryl Streep? " This should be front page news. [Bumped]

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Photo of the Day: Media Row at the Gosnell trial
HT: Czar of Defenestration

"When Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke, there was non-stop media hysteria. The venerable NBC Nightly News' Brian Williams intoned, "A firestorm of outrage from women after a crude tirade from Rush Limbaugh," as he teased a segment on the brouhaha. Yet, accusations of babies having their heads severed — a major human rights story if there ever was one — doesn't make the cut." -- Philadelphia abortion clinic horror

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:57 AM | Your Say (23)

Because

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:36 AM | Your Say (1)

"Words are forever in flux. "

Both “liberal” and “progressive” now mean almost the opposite

of what they did a century ago. Such semantic squabbling also leads to absurdities such as how the phrase “colored person” was deemed hateful and replaced with the far more sensitive “person of color.” Terms such as “racist” are almost never applied to nonwhites, and if you dare tell a militant feminist that she’s “sexist,” she may scratch out your eyeballs. Language as an Assault Weapon

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:39 AM | Your Say (2)

April 13, 2013

The Exploding Toilet

He turns and looks at the toilet. But it has, for all practical purposes, disappeared.

Where it once rested he now finds what can best be described only as a vision. In place of the commode roars a fluorescent blue waterfall — a huge, heaving cascade of toilet fluid thrust waist-high into the air and splashing into all four corners of the lavatory.... More explosive mid-air details @ Ask The Pilot

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:43 PM | Your Say (1)

The Oxford Cloth Button Down Shirt

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There is something uniquely special about these “Golden Era” oxfords.

Their particular proportions and collar constructions seem to give them an enviable roll – something like two angel wings - when the collar points are secured. They were particularly comfortable and carefree, but still allowed the wearer to look educated, well-mannered, and professional. It’s a bit hard to tell that just from photographs of shirts hung on hangers, but it’s rather evident whenever you see a photograph of someone wearing a Brooks button down during the early- to mid-century. -- The "Golden Era" Oxfords

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:13 PM | Your Say (8)

Benjamin Franklin on Choosing A Mistress: "In all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones."

Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part:
The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement. -- The Craziest Advice From Famous People – Flavorwire

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:04 AM | Your Say (3)

Why nobody's hunting PETA yet is beyond me. But I'm patient.

PETA eyes drones to watch hunters, farmers - CNN.com -- and gun owners are setting their sights in anticipation.

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:02 AM | Your Say (6)

Saturday's Fracked Stack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:45 AM | Your Say (1)

April 12, 2013

Today’s blue meritocracy,

the degenerate descendant of the upper middle class Progressives of the early 20th century, has a problem:

it is formally committed to ideas like equality, social justice and an open society, but what it really wants to do is to protect its own power and privilege. The Ivy League system of elite colleges is a key element in the system of exclusion and privilege that helps perpetuate both the power of the American elite and its comforting delusion that because elite status is based on ‘merit’ it is therefore legitimate. Elites Close Ranks Around Ivy League Intermarriage | Via Meadia

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:10 PM | Your Say (1)

Move Along. Nothing to See Here.

Gay couple accused of molesting two of their 9 adopted children withdraw guilty plea and decide to go on trial to fight allegations Married fathers Harasz and Wirth, who say they consider caring for hard-to-place children a personal challenge, adopted three sets of siblings, all boys, since 2000.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:57 AM | Your Say (2)

Position Open Near Rome Maine

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After 27 years of burglaries, Maine's 'North Pond Hermit' is arrested: He built a hut on a slope in the woods, where he spent his days reading books and meditating. There he lived, re-entering civilization only to steal supplies from camps under the cover of darkness. During those nearly three decades, he spoke just once to another person – until he was arrested during a burglary last week.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:32 AM | Your Say (1)

FrackWhacks Sad There's No Shake, Rattle and Roll

Fracking causes as much seismic activity as 'jumping off a ladder', study concludes

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:17 AM | Your Say (0)

Oh horseshit!

Enzymes from horse feces could hold secrets to streamlining biofuel production

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:01 AM | Your Say (1)

Dennis M. Hope Has Owned the Moon Since 1980 Because He Says So

"We’ve sold 611 million acres of land on the moon, 325 million acres on Mars, and a combined 125 million acres on Venus, Io, and Mercury." -- VICE United States

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:45 AM | Your Say (1)

Terrapin

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terrapin by *kenglye on deviantART It's acrylic on clear resin. Paint the feet on the first layer then the body on the second layer...

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:35 AM | Your Say (0)

When someone uses the term “authentic community” without explication

you know you’re reading an issue of Bubble! The Magazine for Groupthinkers. An "authentic community" is an organization whose precepts the scholars approve; an "inauthentic community" - and there must be such a thing, right? - is one whose binding ideas the scholars find problematic, which is itself a mask over their inability to understand it. -- LILEKS (James) The Bleat

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:34 AM | Your Say (0)

This Is The First Bear To Get Brain Surgery

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.... and he's not happy about it!

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:30 AM | Your Say (2)

The Maniac (Mathematical Analyzer, Numerator, Integrator, and Computer)

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John Von Neumann with MANIAC
The Maniac was first tested in the summer of 1951, “with a thermonuclear calculation that ran for 60 days nonstop.”
About 6 by 2 by 8 feet and weighing a trim half-ton, the computer was much smaller than the room-size Eniac. But it inherited some of its predecessor’s reliability issues. Dyson quotes engineers’ exasperated entries from the Princeton machine’s logbook. May 7, 1953: “What’s the use? good night.” June 14, 1953: “Damnit — I can be just as stubborn as this thing.” June 17, 1956: “the hell with it.” -- ‘Turing’s Cathedral,’ by George Dyson

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:07 AM | Your Say (0)

Friday Sez, "Just the Stacks, Mam. Just the Stacks."

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:13 AM | Your Say (0)

April 11, 2013

[Not] Talking About Terrorism

The new low-intensity conflict is big on things we don't talk about.

We don't talk about the drones and we don't talk about the terrorists we are fighting. Instead we talk about how great Islam is. Talking about how great Islam is and not talking about terrorism is an old hobby for America. We've been at it since September 11 and no matter how many interfaith meetings have been held and how often we talk about how much we have in common, the bombs still keeping showing up. -- Sultan Knish

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:54 PM | Your Say (0)

Not an if but a when

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Update: Hillary Advised Huma to Hold onto Weiner - The Rush Limbaugh Show

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:34 PM | Your Say (5)

Beyond Mere George Costanza Genius: A man who outsourced his own job

After getting permission to study Bob's computer habits, Verizon investigators found that he had

hired a software consultancy in Shenyang to do his programming work for him, and had FedExed them his two-factor authentication token so they could log into his account. He was paying them a fifth of his six-figure salary to do the work and spent the rest of his time on other activities. TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee")

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:30 PM | Your Say (1)

Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee: A Pair of Bald Eagles Share a Meal

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High Rez Photo by Don Holland HERE

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:23 PM | Your Say (0)

In 2012, tribal politics became national politics.

The country was divided and conquered. A campaign run on convincing a dozen separate groups to be afraid of each other and of the majority made all the difference, not in some urban slum, but from sea to shining sea. The country had at last become the city. And considering the state of the city... the state of the union does not look good. -- Sultan Knish: The Chicagoization of America

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:57 PM | Your Say (1)

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:16 PM | Your Say (1)

Whatever Happened to Tom Lehrer?

While he encourages rumors that he’s dead, Lehrer is in fact readily available, listed in the Santa Cruz, California, phone directory. When people call he is usually polite and obliging. He lives half a year in Santa Cruz and half a year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, symbolic of his bipolar career in music and mathematics. Lehrer has lived a quiet, happy life on hold. He falls into a tiny category of celebrities who packed it in at the peak of their careers. As he points out, “There’s me, Garbo, Salinger, and Deanna Durbin.” -- The American Spectator

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:54 AM | Your Say (2)

The world had a choice of two security models.

In the first only the cops could carry the guns; the "€œScotland Yard Model". In the second, the cops refuse to come out of the precinct house.

With the Scotland Yard model dead everyone is forced  to carry. This can be called the "Tombstone Territory"€ model where your "future's just as good as your draw."€ Perhaps the Obama administration meant well by declaring a World Without Nuclear Weapons and starting by melting down it's shootin'€™ irons. But instead of Scotland Yard,  we are now on the way to Tombstone Territory. Belmont Club » Bootleggers and Fleets-in-Being

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:31 AM | Your Say (1)

Stack O'Thursday

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:03 AM | Your Say (0)

April 10, 2013

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:23 PM | Your Say (4)

"They have already convinced us that to kill the lives inside women is A-Okay because these lives are inside and not outside.

Well, sometimes outside. As long as nobody’s looking. Anyway, the tenured asked, “Why not use this killing more systematically, more scientifically?” Instead of just killing to free up a woman’s time for more shopping, we could kill those lives inside women who were judged suboptimal. Brilliant!" -- The Return Of Eugenics | William M. Briggs

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:43 PM | Your Say (0)

"If the news media hadn’t told you how brilliant Barack Obama was every day for the last six years, you might have your doubts. [Bumped]

"Ours is a government of thieving hedonists. And the leader of that government is invoking shame over the fact that only 41 laws prohibited Adam Lanza from shooting up an elementary school?

Whether Republican leaders realize it or not, Barack Obama just pulled his goalie. He opened a door to Republican victory and a conservative resurgence that could define the next 10 election cycles. By invoking shame, Obama started a conversation that he never intended to start. Obama the Shameless | The Daily Caller

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:42 PM | Your Say (17)

"A headline you'll never see in the American press: "

" 'Fetuses and blood all over the place': Medic's graphic account of 'be-heading live babies' at abortion 'House of Horrors' in Philadelphia" Via Pundit & Pundette

"[Stephen Massof] also claimed he saw about 100 babies born alive and then 'snipped' with surgical scissors in the back of the neck, to ensure their 'demise'." -- Kermit Gosnell trial Mail Online

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:02 PM | Your Say (2)

Yet another chicken shit prog idea.

The Governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley (D), has endorsed a plan to burn chicken feces to produce electricity.... -- Batshit Crazy News

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:09 AM | Your Say (3)

There's bad news and then there's worse news....

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:36 AM | Your Say (0)

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:23 AM | Your Say (2)

"Once there was a man who could not stand it."

First he lost the power to read and then the headlines did not bother him any longer.

Then he lost the power to understand speech and then the radio could not bother him. He became quite happy and the wrinkles smoothed out of his face and he quit being tense and he painted and modelled in clay and danced and listened to music and enjoyed life. Then a clever psychiatrist penetrated his fugue and made him sane again.... Letters of Note: The Robert Heinlein Maneuver

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:59 AM | Your Say (1)

Wednesday's Slick Stack Hack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:17 AM | Your Say (0)

April 9, 2013

Are you better off than you were twenty years ago or forty years ago?

The old order must die, says the left, for a better world to be born.

Sooner or later we must all mount the altar of change and let our blood drip beneath the shaman's knife, so that the green world may renew itself. Some must be euthanized, others aborted, we must pay more and give more, we must volunteer and donate our times, our lives and our minds to the new order. Our beliefs, our nations and our children, these too we must offer up to the fire. Sultan Knish: Better or Worse?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:04 PM | Your Say (1)

"Le vin est tiré: il faut le boire."

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"Hence it is to be remarked that, in seizing a state,
the usurper ought to examine closely into all those injuries which it is necessary for him to inflict, and to do them all at one stroke so as not to have to repeat them daily; and thus by not unsettling men he will be able to reassure them, and win them to himself by benefits. He who does otherwise, either from timidity or evil advice, is always compelled to keep the knife in his hand; neither can he rely on his subjects, nor can they attach themselves to him, owing to their continued and repeated wrongs. For injuries ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits ought to be given little by little, so that the flavour of them may last longer." -- Machiavelli, The Prince

"Le vin est tiré: il faut le boire." ["When the wine is drawn, we must drink. "]
Once you embark on a plan for the transformation of a society you must carry it through no matter at what cost: to fumble, to retreat, to be overcome by scruples is to betray your chosen cause. To be a physician is to be a professional, ready to burn, to cauterize, to amputate; if that is what the disease requires, then to stop halfway because of personal qualms, or some rule unrelated to your art and its technique, is a sign of muddle and weakness, and will always give you the worst of both worlds. And there are at least two worlds: each of them has much, indeed everything, to be said for it; but they are two and not one. One must learn to choose between them and, having chosen, not look back." -- Isiah Berlin: The Question of Machiavelli - The New York Review of Books

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:33 PM | TrackBack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:23 AM | Your Say (4)

Her $14 Million Lie Book: Just What Were Mrs.Clinton's Foreign Policy Successes?

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"What in the world is there that's remarkable about her tenure as secretary of state? Benghazi? North Korea? Iran? Where is the success? Where is anything in a book that anybody would want to read about Mrs. Clinton's tenure as secretary of state? What are her monuments? North Korea, Iran, Benghazi, Latin America. Somebody give me a foreign policy success story." --- Rush Limbaugh

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:19 AM | Your Say (8)

Tar, Feather, Ignite and Pitchfork These Geezers. Seriously.

Gang Of 8 To America: 'It's None Of Your Business How We'll Grant Amnesty To Criminals Invading Your Country'

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:49 AM | Your Say (0)

How Thatcher The Chemist Helped Make Thatcher The Politician

"It was precisely because Thatcher knew what scientific research was like

that made her impervious to claims that science was a special case, with special features and incapable of being understood by outsiders, and therefore that science policy should be left in the hands of scientists. Such a strategy of persuasion and protection might have considerable purchase on a science minister with no direct experience of the working life of a scientist, but not Thatcher." -- Popular Science

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:34 AM | Your Say (1)

Tuesday's Mail Stack

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"This could be the last time, I don't know:" The Rolling Stones 'announce second Hyde Park gig' after selling out first concert in five minutes | Mail Online

Dry Goods: Velour tracksuit empire Juicy Couture up for sale after years of declining revenues | Mail Online

Toe Job: Daniel Anaya: Man arrested for trying to bite ex-girlfriend's toe off attacks her again, this time with a cigar cutter | Mail Online

Lost in Space-Out: How did teen hikers get so lost in the wilderness while still being able to see Los Angeles skyline? | Mail Online

'I don't hate people, I just don't like living with them':Utah's 'Mountain Man' tells the REAL story of how he spent six years on the run from police in the wilderness | Mail Online

Polly want a hooker?: Raised by monkeys: How I was rescued from my jungle home but then sold to a brothel for a parrot | Mail Online

Stairway to Heaven: Secret walkways and attic rooms open in roof of Siena Cathedral for the first time in 900 years Mail Online

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:12 AM | Your Say (3)

April 8, 2013

And the "human, all too human" site of the day is....

Reasons My Son Is Crying


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"I wouldn’t let him drown in this pond."

HT: Moe Lane / This is not funny.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:56 PM | Your Say (6)

"If the working and laboring classes

were more verbally articulate we’d be hearing a lot more about them. As it is they wither and suffer in silence, unless a journalist takes an interest in them and speaks up for them." -- Pursuing the life of the mind : Gene Expression

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:58 PM | Your Say (1)

"Constitutions have to be written

on hearts, not just paper." -- Margaret Thatcher

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:45 PM | Your Say (0)

Futuristic Aircraft Update

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The Manned Cloud is a concept design for a flying hotel
(proposed by French designer Jean-Marie Massaud), containing a restaurant, fitness facility, library and sun deck. Cruising at 80 mph with a top speed of 105 mph, the Manned Cloud could take 40 guests and 15 staff around the world in three days. -- Dark Roasted Blend:

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:33 PM | Your Say (7)

Yes. Yes. YES!

Should Michael Mann be given the electric chair for having concocted arguably the most risibly inept, misleading, cherry-picking, worthless and mendacious graph – the Hockey Stick – in the history of junk science? An English class for trolls, professional offence-takers and climate activists – Telegraph Blogs

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:55 AM | Your Say (4)

Adieu, Annette

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Annette Funicello Dies: ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ Icon Was 70

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:13 AM | Your Say (3)

"The great achievement of Reagan, Thatcher and the Pope lay in remembering that Communism was an evil thing."

Thatcher ends her long life, the last of the three, at a moment when everyone is out of credit, or rather living on it.

She passes in an uncertain hour, the story of her life and times a pointed reminder of how far we have fallen from those days. Yet if we understand her life aright the principal lesson is that the ordinary is extraordinary. The world is not made by the Great and the Good. Rather it is made by ordinary folk striving to be better.  Therefore the greatest aspiration of a statesman was to represent what we were — and still could be. -- Belmont Club » Margaret Thatcher

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:26 AM | Your Say (1)

Russia is a gangster state.

So now the average person can fight with his fists in the street over slights with another average person, and a kind of rumble of vibrancy is demonstrated.

It's not a fair fight top to bottom, of course, but the crooks that run the place are more discerning gangsters than before, and don't trifle themselves with the affairs of little people so much. And the little people make everything go, if you will but let them. That's why the lights are on, and the cars buzz here and there, and the boats full of people that don't look like beaten dogs when the newspaper boy makes his delivery go to and fro. -- Sippican Cottage: Marvelous Mockba

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:52 AM | Your Say (1)

Thatcher

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Margaret Thatcher Dies After Stroke "With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer's daughter who rose to become Britain's first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can't be shattered. As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best."

True, they are not at rest yet,
but now that they are indeed
apart, winnowed from failures,
they withdraw to an orbit
and turn with disinterested
hard energy, like the stars.

-- My Sad Captains by Thom Gunn

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:58 AM | Your Say (3)

"Well, it seems like killing the economy went hand in hand with CO2 reductions, imagine that."

USA meets Kyoto protocol goal – without ever embracing it | Watts Up With That?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:38 AM | Your Say (1)

Just Another Manic Monday Stack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:57 AM | Your Say (2)

April 7, 2013

Let's review....

IF YOU HAVE A CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT, CARRY DAMMIT! When it comes to carrying, you have to look at it this way.

There may be only one time in your entire life when you will need your gun. It may be 37 years from today….you never know. But when that day comes, you don’t want it to be on your nightstand because you were wearing shorts....

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:08 PM | Your Say (2)

What do you do when you disappear?

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"I get in contact with a friend who contacts another friend and then show up in a car, I get into the car, change my appearance slightly, get in another car and then disappear off into the woods. I play drums and guitar. I head down to the beach and surf. I skateboard off hills into the countryside, and I walk around in the forest and identify new plants." --- New plants? --- "Well, new to me anyway. I actually practice herbology in terms of medicine and stuff. I don't have health insurance or a social security card or a birth certificate or a passport or anything. Which is the thing about being home free, when you submit to the authority of pieces of paper you lose your personal identity and the identity you find through nature." -- Catching Up with Kai, the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:59 PM | Your Say (8)

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? No!

All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with the treasures of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is this approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide." -- Abraham Lincoln

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Illo HT via Rodger R. King

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:12 PM | Your Say (7)

The Three-Point Plan

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We are being ruled, not governed.
Abusive laws continue to stream out of state and federal capitals that serve one and only one purpose: to subjugate the most responsible amongst us to the stupid, lazy, irresponsible and lawless on one end, and to our rulers on the other. -- Angry White Dude

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:44 AM | Your Say (3)

"Liar Choopan, where is our promised 5 tons ice cream?"

Riot in Tehran after dairy firm fails to distribute ice cream from giant tub

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:44 AM | Your Say (0)

Sunday's Stack's SWAK

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:36 AM | Your Say (3)

April 6, 2013

The Tama Electric EV made by Nissan's 1947

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[Video] The birth more than 60 years ago how! Japanese Autoblog Cruising range of 60 miles, (96.3km, 35.2km / h respectively in HP official in Japan)
was developed by the predecessor of the car taking the same car Prince, airplanes Tachikawa, 22mph top speed record on a single charge. But the body is a simple wooden structure, covered with a steel plate on top of that, there was the foresight of the era, such as the world's first practical hood "alligator (Alligator) Type" seen in only now take for granted. Traveling can be the full restoration in accordance with the announcement of the reef in 2010, once in a while, in 2011, seems to have done even test drive. Immediately, please see the video of the freshly arrived then.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:29 PM | Your Say (1)

"Regrets? I've had a few. But, then again, too few to mention...."

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:45 AM | Your Say (3)

Chin cheek muscle slack band

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Sports Bodymaker Face Control Jaw Tightener Give yourself the chiseled macho face you've always wanted
with this BB Sports Bodymaker Face Control. This band is worn around your jaw line, helping mold tighter cheek and chin muscles while you go about your everyday chores. A simple way to help train and tighten up your face.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:43 AM | Your Say (8)

"I'm surprised Mainers haven't discovered how to set the bricks on fire."

Yet. Everything burns to the ground in Maine, and burns again while the ashes are still warm, too.

People here seem to be capable of setting anything afire, except firewood. They can't figure out how trees are operated, I think. Everyone buys a Bean coat and a woodstove and attempts to light it with gasoline or kerosene or lighter fluid or oily rags or dead cats soaked in acetone or whatever they have handy. Sippican Cottage: It's Portlandish

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:08 AM | Your Say (2)

At last we have proof of what they've been smoking

Scientists: Marijuana causes global warming

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:37 AM | Your Say (1)

"We need to create jobs."

There aren't any to create. Robots and chinamen, that's the future of unskilled labor.

Sorry, I meant chinawomen. College won't help either, you went to Barnard and you can't find a job, what hope is there for the majority on SSI? Zero, not the way we're doing it. TV tells them how to want, no one else is around to tell them otherwise. Here's the advice you need to give your kid: either you find a knowledge based productive skill, from plumber to quantum programmer, or you will be living off the state, regardless of what company you think you're working for. The Last Psychiatrist: The Terrible, Awful Truth About SSDI

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:17 AM | Your Say (5)

Saturday's Stack Cracks Back for a Living

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:03 AM | Your Say (1)

April 5, 2013

Roger Ebert Hails Human Existence As 'A Triumph'

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“At times brutally sad, yet surprisingly funny, and always completely honest, I wholeheartedly recommend existence. If you haven’t experienced it yet, then what are you waiting for? It is not to be missed.” -- O.N.S>

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:47 PM | Your Say (5)

John Kerry Lost Somewhere In Gobi Desert

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“Hello! Hello, is there anybody out there who can hear me?” the exhausted five-term senator reportedly said while stumbling across the vast desert expanse.
“My name is John Forbes Kerry! I am the United States Secretary of State, and I am lost! Oh, God, almost out of water. Gotta make it back somehow...gotta make it back.” ONN NEWS NETWORK

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:43 PM | Your Say (5)

The Great DHS Ammunition Stockpile Myth

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MYTH: The government is purchasing 1.6 billion rounds to cause shortages on the civilian market.
FACT: Actually, the total number of rounds purchased from late 2011 to 2013 is less than 800 million rounds over five years. Conspiracy theorists have overestimated the round counts by at least 800 million rounds. -- BREITBART

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:37 PM | Your Say (3)

The Washington Post has a two part mission statement:

1. get you a higher SAT score or your money back; 2. make sure nothing is Obama's fault. I'm not saying anything is Obama's fault, I'm saying that in 2008 they switched from "It's Bush's Fault" offense to "It's Not Obama's Fault" defense in hopes of keeping their last ten readers. -- The Last Psychiatrist: The Terrible, Awful Truth About SSDI

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:16 PM | Your Say (3)

Kim Jong Un, Dennis Rodman & Barack Hussein Obama

What better distraction than a nuke threat from a tele-tubbie with an awful haircut? -- Blur Brain

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:18 PM | Your Say (1)

Meet Ali, the World's Most Dapper 83-Year-Old

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Meet Ali. An 83-year-old from Turkey that has been living in Berlin, Germany, for the last 44 years. Ali used to be a doctor but now works as a tailor. He has 18 children and a fantastic wardrobe. -- All at TwistedSifter
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Update: All Ali's outfits are on view @ What Ali Wore

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:50 PM | Your Say (1)

Waxwings

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I was the shadow of the waxwing slain

By the false azure in the windowpane

I was the smudge of ashen fluff--and I

Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky,

And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate

Myself, my lamp, an apple on a plate...

-- Nabokov, Pale Fire

Via 12 Beautiful Photos of Waxwing Birds @ TwistedSifter

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:33 PM | Your Say (2)

Doing the Math

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Ninety million Americans are no longer in the workforce. Ninety million. People not in the labor force grew by 663,000, and now 90 million. -- Limbaugh Show

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:15 PM | Your Say (0)

‘Notes on the War’

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The air was muggy, stinky and oppressive; it reeked of flatulent refugees engorged with bread and beans.
It was terribly filthy, and worst of all, there were lice everywhere. An old man in my compartment was infested with at least a million fat, shiny parasites, but it didn’t matter how much we begged him to move away into the corner, he only grunted and did nothing at all. Polina Aronson – A Russian Jew in Germany

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:57 AM | Your Say (2)

Lileks' Good Dog Jasper Is Getting Old

But here’s the final thing. He’s old. He’s very old. Life has pleasures but life hurts, too.

You can’t say that without flipping it around in your head right away - life hurts, but it has pleasures. You have no idea what the balance is for him, how much he simply accepts as the daily ration, the ever-now normal. You just wait for the moment, the expression, the admission. The request. And I’m telling you this: I look for it every day. I’m not seeing it. -- LILEKS (James) The Bleat

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:46 AM | Your Say (3)

The Last Friday Stack

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:25 AM | Your Say (9)

April 4, 2013

"I'm from your government and I'm here to fuck you."

Stimulus Fail: $423,500 To Study How To Use A Condom - Blur Brain The recipient of the award was designated to be in zip code 47405-1101. Here's a picture of zip code 47405-1101:

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:35 PM | Your Say (7)

Counting the Human Cost

In the 104 years between 1864 and 1968, an estimated 4,946 blacks were lynched in the United States.

Meanwhile, in the 38 years since Roe vs Wade was ruled on in 1973 and 2011, an estimated 17,653,000 black babies were aborted. That's a ratio of 3,569:1. The lynchings were horrible, but this mass slaughter of babies is inconceivable. -- An important look back at the chilling numbers @ Word Around the Net: THE HUMAN COST

Sheriff John Brown always hated me
For what I don't know
Ev'ry time I plant a seed
He said, "Kill it before it grows."
He said, "Kill them before they grow."
-- I Shot The Sheriff, Bob Marley

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:48 PM | Your Say (2)

This is What Barbie Looks Like Without Makeup

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-- | Incredible Things

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:14 PM | Your Say (1)

President Obama Signs Executive Order Outlawing The Taliban

“It’s a simple and straightforward approach that’ll solve the insurgency problem overnight,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney. “Frankly, it’s so profoundly obvious that we’re surprised the previous administration didn’t think of it.” -- The Duffel Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:24 AM | Your Say (0)

Inverted Nipple Suction Dream Charm Adjuster

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For obvious reasons, inverted nipples is a condition which makes sufferers worry or feel inadequate. (And it can happen to men too!) Well, here is one way to help "correct" your body. -- Japan Trend Shop

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:35 AM | Your Say (4)

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:45 AM | Your Say (1)

TIME FOR STRICT FEDERAL CONTROLS

Fight involving machete, frying pan land Flagler mom and son in jail. Dave Barry's Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:44 AM | Your Say (0)

Thursday's Stack is Texting Back

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:16 AM | Your Say (1)

April 3, 2013

Depleted Uranium Shotgun Shells

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Years of research and development have gone into these highly effective 12 gauge shells that can turn even Joe Biden’s double barrel shotgun into an instant anti-aircraft platform. -- Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:35 PM | Your Say (9)

Weapons of Mass Distraction

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:36 PM | Your Say (0)

Islam Be Gay

Imam Says Muslims Must Grow Beards to Avoid Gay Feelings Khalid Yassin’s fabulous beard is the only thing standing between him and raging homosexuality.

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Elsewhere: Canadian Imam Arrested On Child Sex Charges - Blur Brain Just another beady eye’d disciple of the prophet with a scruffy beard and a taste for young-uns. Apparently he was an equal opportunity molester who preyed on both boys and girls.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:43 AM | Your Say (9)

1913—The Final Days of the Old Regime in the United States

The United States in 1913 had no federal income tax, no central bank, no social security taxes, no general sales taxes,

no Securities and Exchange Commission, no Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, no Department of Health and Human Services, no National Labor Relations Board, no federal this, that, and the other as far as the eye can see. -- The Beacon

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:54 AM | Your Say (5)

"We are now state-wrecked."

David Stockman on "Sundown in America" @ NYTimes.com: With only brief interruptions, we’ve had eight decades of increasingly frenetic fiscal and monetary policy activism

intended to counter the cyclical bumps and grinds of the free market and its purported tendency to underproduce jobs and economic output. The toll has been heavy. As the federal government and its central-bank sidekick, the Fed, have groped for one goal after another — smoothing out the business cycle, minimizing inflation and unemployment at the same time, rolling out a giant social insurance blanket, promoting homeownership, subsidizing medical care, propping up old industries (agriculture, automobiles) and fostering new ones (“clean” energy, biotechnology) and, above all, bailing out Wall Street — they have now succumbed to overload, overreach and outside capture by powerful interests.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:21 AM | Your Say (1)

The Sublime Genius of Dr. Paul R. Krugman

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Via Doug Ross @ Journal

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:16 AM | Your Say (2)

Wednesday's Stack is White on Black

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:18 AM | Your Say (4)

April 2, 2013

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE."

Last week, President Barack Obama signed a resolution passed by the House and Senate outlining government funding
for a range of science disciplines for the remainder of the fiscal year. On page 64, H. R. 933, says: “$75,000,000 shall be for pre-formulation and/or formulation activities for a mission that meets the science goals outlined for the Jupiter Europa mission in the most recent planetary science decadal survey.” -- Discovery News

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:40 PM | Your Say (2)

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:09 PM | Your Say (0)

"This Week in Epic Beta Male Faggotry "

Buzz Bissinger’s gut-curdling confession in GQ that he blew over a half-million of his Friday Night Lights money on clothes.

And by “clothes” he means, among many other items, a pair of $5,600 leather pants and some thigh-high boots with six-inch stiletto heels. --- Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:07 PM | Your Say (0)

Vermont's $3,800 single person tax

If you're a single Vermonter who voted for Obama AND decided that you were healthy enough not to need insurance AND you make 40 grand, congratulations! Your vote will cost you between $2,200 and $11,412 over the next three years. And at the lower end? You STILL won't have any insurance! -- Moe Lane サ .

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:04 PM | Your Say (2)

Obscure Objects of Desire: The Munro Streamliner

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Fully custom-built, the Spirit of Munro is an all-metal tribute to the racers and mechanics throughout history who have collectively built the legacy of record-breaking racing performance and strength that is Indian Motorcycle. The motorcycle is named in honor of Burt Munro’s “Munro Special,” the historic 1920 Indian Scout that broke the under-1000cc land-speed record in 1967 at the Bonneville Salt Flats, 2013 Indian Motorcycles : Photos

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:01 PM | Your Say (1)

A partial list of evocative book titles

The Persistence of the Old Regime. Autumn of the Middle Ages. The Beauty & the Sorrow. Impressions of Africa. In Praise of Shadows. Dark Spring. The Geography of the Imagination. The Melancholy of Resistance. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Black Sun. Landscape and Memory. The Rings of Saturn. A Short History of Decay. The Obscene Bird of Night. The Terrors of Ice and Darkness. The Midnight. Solitudes. The Ice Museum. Genoa: A Telling of Wonders. A History of Clouds. The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans. On the Natural History of Destruction. The Idea of North. The Fountains of Neptune. Arriere-pays. Journey to the End of the Night. Autobiography of Red. Bruges-la-Morte. The Time of the Assassins. Against Our Vanishing. Luminous Debris. At the Mountains of Madness. The Brittle Age. Eccentric Spaces. The Abyss. Because I Was Flesh. Inland. The Stones of Aran. Dreams in Antiquity. A Topology of Everyday Constellations. Invention of Solitude. The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light. Passing Strange and Wonderful. -- from Invisible Stories

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:05 AM | Your Say (1)

Tuesday's Stack is S.W.A.K.

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Polo Coat Guide @ Gentleman's Gazette

Common Reasons For Returned Purchases At The Dynamite Store

L Ron Hubbard Writes Descriptions for American Apparel The varied hues of her Stripe Tricot Scoop Back Tank Dress dress reminded Truk Mestro of the nutrient farms of Iskav.

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The Rolls-Royce Wraith Design Director Giles Taylor takes us through the car family's latest member.

Big Boards and the Rise of Massive Office Screens

THE WORLD'S GEOGRAPHY: 15 Spectacular Hidden Beaches

Surreal Photos of Seniors Communing with Nature

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:45 AM | Your Say (3)

April 1, 2013

“Make me a poster, of an old rodeo” – John Prine

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Rodeo via Red Clay Soul

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:42 PM | Your Say (0)

Women. Can't Live With 'Em. Can't Get 'Em to Put On a Skimpy Little Nazi Costume.

Man seeks to divorce wife for refusing to make love to a snake.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:14 PM | Your Say (0)

White Men Can't Jump

WATCH: President Obama bricks a lay-up - The Week The leader of the free world could not buy a bucket.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:43 PM | Your Say (9)

Bernanke Breaks Down: "This Whole Thing Is A Kleptocracy"

Asked a question about the wealth effect, Bernanke paused and said,

"The wealth effect. Ah, right." He then smiled faintly and shook his head. "You want to know about the wealth effect? Well, I'll be candid with you.This whole thing is a kleptocracy--the financial system, the political system, it's one big kleptocracy. That's the real wealth effect." -- Guest Post:| Zero Hedge

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:34 PM | Your Say (0)

Why Internet? Why You Did This?

Were my daymares not daymarish enough? - Blur Brain

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:30 PM | Your Say (1)

A People’s History of April Fools' Day

Benjamin Franklin attempted to popularize April 1 as Nay to Breeches Daye, on which “men and woman-folk of Gentle Breeding and Kind Manners shall go-about the towne and countrye verily clothed in Shoes and Coats only, exposing their Nether Regions to Passers-Bye in Celebration of the COMINGE OF SPRING.” -- | VICE United States

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:46 AM | Your Say (4)

A modest solution but not without merit

Illegal immigrants, on the other hand, will be alive and voting for years to come,

and and paying into the system without draining medical resources to the same extent (most die quickly from drive-by shootings or Hepatitis C). In addition, the man-caused climate farce holds the biggest prize of all for people like Democrats -- nullification of the Fifth Amendment takings clause, and with it absolute freedom to take whatever the state wants, when they want it. The Road to Serfdom's terminus. I know what your asking, "But Rodge, what can we do?" Kill everyone. Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:16 AM | Your Say (1)

When You're the New York Times Every Day is Pretty Much a Joke

Correction: April 1, 2013 An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the Christian holiday of Easter. It is the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, not his resurrection into heaven. -- Pope Francis Calls for ‘Peace in All the World,’ in First Easter Message - NYTimes.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:32 AM | Your Say (2)

Empathy is always held up as a great virtue,

but it’s remarkable how so few people have empathy with the total sum of the American experience beyond their own self-definition.

It’s possible that somewhere in their heart of hearts they think “I am a milky-pallor wisp-chested neutral with thick-framed glasses well aware that my grandfather was being shot at in Italy when he was my age, and I am writing posts about the 23 Sloth Babies That Will Make Your Day.” That can sting. LILEKS (James) The Bleat

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:13 AM | Your Say (2)

Obama Proclaims April the Month to Teach Young People ‘How to Budget Responsibly’

"Together, we can prepare young people to tackle financial challenges -- from learning how to budget responsibly to saving for college, starting a business, or opening a retirement account....

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2013 as National Financial Capability Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices." -- Presidential Proclamation -- National Financial Capability Month, 2013 | The White House

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:23 AM | Your Say (11)

"I've looked at life(and choice) from both sides now..."

Why Pro-Lifers And Pro-Choicers Both Think The Other Side Is Responsible For The Kermit Gosnell's 'House Of Horrors' - Business Insider

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:42 AM | Your Say (0)

"Mischievous Teens"

Teen Mob Action Takes Over Chicago'€™s Gold Coast The warmest day of the year so far brings hundreds of mischievous teens to Michigan Avenue. "€œYou had a group of teens, close to maybe 500. They assaulted a Chicago police officer that was on a mounted on a horse and all of a sudden they assaulted a citizen walking the streets, just a normal citizen shopping and enjoying the weather," said Holmes.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:49 AM | Your Say (4)

The Formula at Last!

Wonderbra unveils formula for the perfect cleavage:

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:26 AM | Your Say (0)

Monday's Stack is Springing Back

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:26 AM | Your Say (3)