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May 31, 2015

Old Carbine Tequila at Costco

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"You can have my Tequila when you pry it from my dead drunk hands."

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 PM | Your Say (10)

Headliners

HILLARY CLINTON: Such a Big Train Wreck That She Should Run on The Amtrak Ticket

Liberal Teachers and the Curse of Being Born in America

pseudery n. intellectual or social pretension or affectation; pseudo-intellectual speech, writing, debate, etc.
literose adj. pretentiously or affectedly literary
morosoph n. a learned fool

Russian aggression over the last year and more has created a very unstable environment in Eastern Europe.

Scholastic Publishing Novel on Transgender Eight-Year-Old By Self-Described 'Fat Queer Activist'

And there is a great plop of fossilized ground-sloth dung in the American Museum of Natural History, with the memorable caption: “Deposited by Theodore Roosevelt.”

Police are actually more willing to shoot white than black suspects.

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:12 PM | Your Say (7)

Another Reason to Despise the Anti-Vaccination Movement

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Would you like to be vaccinated against Lyme Disease?
Sure you would; why would anyone want to put up with the complications that might arise from having a Lyme tick bite you–complications that “can lead to arthritis, neurologic problems like meningitis or nerve inflammation, and sometimes even heart problems”? Yes, a vaccine against Lyme Disease would be wonderful. But there is a snag, you see: You can’t get a vaccine against Lyme Disease, because the anti-vaccination movement won’t let you have one.... -– Pejman Yousefzadeh

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:15 PM | Your Say (3)

Cankles is the candidate of the aging boomer crazies.

These are the folks who cut their teeth in the late sixties and early seventies.
Butch O’Malley will be going for the younger moonbats. I’m on the mailing list and it is already clear he plans to be the white Obama. The difference is O’Malley is probably more authentically black than Obama, given their backgrounds, but O’Malley will have to run as a pale penis person. Sanders-nistas | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:31 AM | Your Say (0)

Newt Gingrich. The first time I laid eyes on him I detested him with the intensity of a thousand suns.

My hunch is that in the case of Gingrich, I was picking up on the minor deceptions in his demeanor.
His carefully cultivated presentation lacked authenticity and that’s what triggered my dislike. This was a smart guy really good at lying to people. That makes him very dangerous. Ann Coulter, in contrast, was just a TV phony, not dangerous or threatening, just annoying. As I said, I’ve softened on Coulter. She can still dine out on her looks, but that’s not the sale these days. She can say what she wants as she has her own money so she is more relaxed and honest. Her fake laugh still bugs me, but that’s more than balanced by her ability and willingness to punch a hippie. Ruminations on People I Hate | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:56 AM | Your Say (1)

John Stark, live free or die

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"There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!"
After the war, he retired to his farm never to engage in politics again. He was a true Cincinnatus, who had come to the aid of his fellow countrymen twice in war, never indulging in the fame that ordinarily accompanies such heroism. Indeed, like General Morgan, he was an uneducated, unrefined and uncouth man who never wrote a memoir. The love of his men -- his band of brothers -- never diminished. Indeed, when many of them re-settled in northern Ohio, they named their county in his honor -- Stark County -- whose county seat is Canton. -- Don Surber

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:27 AM | Your Say (0)

The rewards for being sane may not be very many but knowing what’s funny is one of them.

“All schizophrenia patients are mad, and none are sane.
Their behaviour is incomprehensible. It tells us nothing about what they do in the rest of their lives, gives no insight into the human condition and has no lesson for sane people except how sane they are. There’s nothing profound about it. Schizophrenics aren’t clever or wise or witty—they may make some very odd remarks but that’s because they’re mad, and there’s nothing to be got out of what they say. When they laugh at things the rest of us don’t think are funny, like the death of a parent, they’re not being penetrating, and on other occasions they’re not wryly amused at the simplicity and stupidity of the psychiatrist, however well justified that might be in many cases. They’re laughing because they’re mad, too mad to be able to tell what’s funny any more. The rewards for being sane may not be very many but knowing what’s funny is one of them.” -- Kingsley Amis, Stanley and the Women

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:14 AM | Your Say (0)

May 30, 2015

"No death is an island"

No death is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the narrative,
A part of a tweet.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Darwin is served.
As well as if a plain man died
Of a heart attack in a frame house of his own
Or if thy friend were.
Each man’s death varies from the other,
As set out in the talking points.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls as told.

The Assassin’s Creed | Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:22 AM | Your Say (0)

Elon Musk: The P.T. Barnum and Charles Ponzi of Retarded Nerds and Millennials everywhere.

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I am Elon Musk, CEO/CTO of a rocket company, AMA! : IAmA "Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity. Started off doing software engineering and now do aerospace & automotive. Falcon 9 launch webcast live at 6am EST tomorrow at SpaceX.com Looking forward to your questions."

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:34 AM | Your Say (8)

The Mystery of the Margate Shell Grotto

In 1835 a labourer was digging a field just outside the English seaside town of Margate.
His work was interrupted when he thrust his spade in to the soil and it simply vanished in to the ground. The master of the nearby Dane House School, James Newlove, was made aware of this strange disappearance. He volunteered his young son, Joshua, for the task of being lowered, candle in hand, into the void via a length of rope....
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~ ~ Kuriositas

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

May 29, 2015

Breakfast of Champions

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Pig brains wait on platters in a fridge at He Wang Shi Chuan Chuan Xiang Huo Guo, a skewer-style hotpot restaurant. - There Will Be Spice Roads & Kingdoms

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:01 PM | Your Say (6)

Cherry King

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Not too far away from Fort Defiance in Red Hook sat a competing manufacturer to Luxardo, Dell’s Maraschino Cherries.
I didn’t like their saccharine brand of garnish—a cheap, neon bulb topped by a simulated stem, but it turns out the cherries weren’t the finest product to be churned out of the family-owned factory. Dell’s would later be revealed as the front for a secret basement pot farm yielding ten million dollars in profit every year, according to one estimate. The so-called “cherry king” Arthur Mondella killed himself in a bathroom before police could bring him in for questioning but by that point many in the neighborhood knew the truth. Mondella’s casket was carried to the church with Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” blasting on the loudspeakers. The Manhattan Project - Roads & Kingdoms
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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:01 PM | Your Say (0)

This just in from the marching feminist morons at Wikipedia.

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HappyAcres

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:38 PM | Your Say (0)

Carly Fiorina is winning the Most Reagan Like contest. That's huge.

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Politics is a field dominated by those who excel at communicating, and Fiorina is proving herself a powerful and effective communicator.
She does more than turn a nice phrase. (“Nothing makes me angrier than when people’s livelihoods are sacrificed on the altar of ideology.”) She packs more substance into fewer words than anyone else in the 2016 field. With this ability, Fiorina is selling herself as a competent manager and bold leader. She charmingly calls the administrative apparatus in Washington a “vast, bloated, incompetent bureaucracy.” To fix it, she would implement zero-based budgeting and pay for performance; tackle fraud, waste and abuse; and eliminate jobs of federal employees who retire. Don Surber: Carly goes Reagan

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:22 PM | Your Say (5)

“And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, / For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods?”

Secularists vs. Suicide Bombers Tribe and faith.
Those are the causes for which Middle Eastern men will fight. Sunni and Shiite fundamentalists will die for the faith. Persians and Arabs will fight to defend their lands, as will Kurds and Turks. But who among the tribes of the Middle East will fight and die for the secular American values of democracy, diversity, pluralism, sexual freedom and marriage equality? “Expel the Crusaders from our lands!”—there is a cause to die for.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:47 PM | Your Say (2)

The Stranger by Kipling

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Via HappyAcres

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:34 AM | Your Say (1)

Hot Enough for Ya? "It’s So Hot in India the Streets are Melting"

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There’s a deadly heatwave currently striking India with temperatures reaching 47.6°C (117.7°F). In Delhi, where temperatures reached 45°C (113°F), photographer Sanjeev Verma of the Hindustan Times captured parts of the road melting away as the heatwave continued its onslaught. -- TwistedSifter

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:08 AM | Your Say (2)

May 28, 2015

Here is another example of pizza in Japan.

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Okonomiyaki is sometimes translated into English as "As-you-like-it Pancake". However, this may be misleading.
Okonomiyaki is usually made from flour, water, eggs and cabbage. The cabbage is chopped and mixed with the eggs, water and flour. To this is added pretty much anything you want. Common things to add would be thinly sliced chopped pork, thinly sliced chopped beef, chopped onions, octopus, squid, mushrooms. Note, like pizza you’d usually pick one or two things to add. You mix it together to make a batter and then you pour it on a grill and let it cook like a pancake. When one side is done you flip it over and cook the other side. When it’s finished you turn off the heat or put it on a plate then you put okonomiyaki sauce on top and usually katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) and mayonnaise. The katsuobushi is so thin that it waves in the heat coming off the freshly cooked okonomiyaki and so it looks like the top of your meal is crawling. Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pizza) ォ Greggman.com

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:22 PM | Your Say (0)

Headline of the Day: "30 ejected from motel after kerfuffle over waffle"

"It sounded like one lady walked up and asked the other lady if she was in line for the waffle maker," Cole said. "She didn't answer, so this lady started to make her waffle. The other confronted her and said, 'That was my waffle' and the other lady said, 'No, it's mine' and then it went downhill from there." - - Chicago Tribune

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:53 PM | Your Say (4)

How To: Burner Phone

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Commonly known as a burner phone, a backup, essentially disposable phone isn't only useful for secret agents and criminals.
There are a long list of reasons why having a spare phone with a different phone number might come in handy -- lose/break your primary cell phone, selling something via Craig's List, traveling and don't want to risk your $900 smart phone, and so on. TEOTWAWKI Blog:

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:03 PM | Your Say (4)

Armed Bikers Plan to Draw Cartoons of Mohammed Outside a Mosque in Arizona

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Here’s the Facebook post in full, verbatim:
ROUND 2!!!!!!! This will be a PEACEFUL protest in front of the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix AZ. This is in response to the recent attack in Texas where 2 armed terrorist, with ties to ISIS, attempted Jihad. Everyone is encouraged to bring American Flags and any message that you would like to send to the known acquaintances of the 2 gunmen. This Islamic Community Center is a known place that the 2 terrorist frequented. | Foreign Policy

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:52 PM | Your Say (12)

“Absolutely Everything That Is Wrong With The Modern World.”

In this real world, an army of beheading, crucifying, rapist terrorists who slaughter women and children and chuck gay men off high buildings has taken control of another major Iraqi city and of one of the world’s greatest ancient sites (which it will soon no doubt strive to erase from the earth);
the global economy succumbs to ever more burdensome regulatory capture by a self-serving cabal of lawyers, technocrats, corporatists and politicians over whom we have less and less democratic control; a mendacious, aggressive and supremely well-funded and well-connected green movement is trying to destroy free markets, drive up energy prices and impose on us one world government in the guise of a nebulous concept called “sustainability”; uncontrolled immigration is rendering many of our countries increasingly unrecognisable; the elderly (and not-so-elderly) are dying, parched, and neglected in their own blood and faeces in a healthcare system no longer fit for purpose; Muslim rape gangs continue to prey on vulnerable white girls with near impunity in towns all over Britain; the Mediterranean is fast reverting to the era of Barbary piracy; Putin is hotting up the Cold War; China doesn’t give a damn; across most of the “free West” defence spending is being cut to the bone is if there were no longer any more causes worth fighting for; in the wake of Prince Charles’s visit to Ireland we learn the happy news that the people who blew up his godfather may have been granted permanent immunity from prosecution. Oh, and the same is almost certainly true of the senior IRA commander who ordered the killing of Jean McConville (the mother of ten mentioned at the beginning) and who – if we are to believe this investigation by the New Yorker - may not be unconnected with the beaming grey-bearded fellow who posed for selfies with Panti Bliss and others at the recent “Ireland goes gay” bullying smug-fest.

From IRA Murders To ISIS Atrocities: Why Gay Marriage Makes It All OK

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:51 AM | Your Say (2)

"The only solution for the Muslim threat is to kill every last one of them."

I personally believe that whenever our country goes to war we should do whatever it takes to win.

Whatever. It. Takes.

While all is being said, not much is being done.

To address a scourge such as Islam we must think in terms of extermination.

Think: Dresden;

Think: Hiroshima and Nagasaki;

Collateral damage? Every time some unfortunate guy gets beheaded and the video goes viral? Really, collateral damage? You're worried some kids or old people are gonna get killed?

When they kill one of ours, we kill one hundred of theirs as Kipling wrote in The Grave of the Hundred Head.

It has been seen and experienced in most every other country in the world, from the "super-powers" to the Third World yocky-dock countries: Islam is not a good thing. It benefits nobody, apparently not even the adherents.

We are all listening to rumors that something bad is gonna happen. Instead of cowering and hoping that it won't happen near us we should be fire-bombing Baghdad and other concentrations of Muslim terrorists.

Can't find 'em? Enlarge the target area.

Folks, as unpleasant as it may appear, going against spiritual principles that I and many others espouse in Christianity, the only solution for the Muslim threat is to kill every last one of them: their families, their friends, their neighbors; to lay waste to their crop lands and salt their wells, to destroy their buildings such that no two stones lay atop one another.

The justification, if one is needed, is that the Muslims are Evil.

The remedy to the damage and destruction, the murder most foul and the barbaric actions of Muslims can only be met with a force strong enough to overcome once and for all that which threatens all others.

Death sudden, overwhelming, final, no hesitation, and thorough by whatever means will accomplish the end result — the elimination of the Evil.

Posted by chasmatic Comment on The "Droneiacs" Way of War [Bumped]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:53 AM | Your Say (6)

The "Droneiacs" Way of War [Bumped]

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The drone attacks which the high-tech-idolizing idiots around the White House now favour.
These latter depend on the sort of algorithms that have resulted in the annihilation of many wedding parties, and other defenceless people who happen by ill-luck to fit the current programming criteria. It is a monstrous, an unambiguously evil way to conduct war, which is nevertheless attractive in the post-modern West because, for the perpetrators, it is sanitized and casualty-free — and thus compatible with the smug self-satisfaction of our liberal and progressive elites. Against bombing : Essays in Idleness

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:50 AM | Your Say (23)

Climate NonChange

The "WeGotNothing" Climate Change NonStory: NOAA: Below-normal Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:03 AM | Your Say (0)

Just Say "No" to Saying "No" to Thongs

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Young Women Say No to Thongs Ms. Javitch, back in 2010, founded Ten Undies,
a line with a cult following that sells cotton full-bottom bikinis, boy shorts and high-waist briefs not unlike the kind immortalized in "Bridget Jones's Diary." ("Hello, mommy.") Ten's wares are comfortable and practical, to be sure, but that's hardly the only draw. "Within millennial and Generation Y consumer groups, it's considered cool to be wearing full-bottom underwear," said Bernadette Kissane, an apparel analyst at the market intelligence firm Euromonitor. "Thongs have had their moment."

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:53 AM | Your Say (1)

Immortal But Damned to Hell on Earth

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So let us imagine inconceivably durable hardware that holds a human consciousness.
This computer is attached to a generator that runs off of nuclear waste as it decays. Thus it is deep in a vault in the earth, but attached to the rest of humanity via cables. For 100 years, the disembodied mind revels in all she can explore: the sum of human knowledge; every other uploaded consciousness; and this universe of diverting data just keeps expanding with every day.
Then a super-volcano explodes.
All embodied human life is extinguished. Most disembodied life is destroyed too. But not the computer deep in the bunker of nuclear waste. - The Atlantic

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:36 AM | Your Say (5)

Details

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:24 AM | Your Say (2)

"We still have whistles in the night"

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A Gorgeous Photographic Elegy to the Last Great Steam Train- - Steam engines, Reevy wrote to me, were "highly reflected in our music, our folklore, and our art.
Perhaps due to its animate appearance (seeming to breathe, with an air pump that sounds like a heartbeat and so on), the steam locomotive added a richness to the American cultural scene that the diesel locomotive does not." In losing steam power, America lost that particular artistic inspiration, that icon. "At least," Reevy reflected, "even with diesel locomotives, we still have whistles in the night."

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:22 AM | Your Say (1)

Recycling

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:27 AM | Your Say (0)

May 27, 2015

I damn sure didn’t go to war for this country twice

to come home and be told by a bunch of homely chicks with daddy issues, effete literary fops scandalized by the notion of resistance to Third World pathologies, and nimrod sons of politicians playing at journalism what I can and can’t say.
And I don’t think most Americans are ready to have everything they speak, write, or think perused for possible hate criminality by these same goose-stepping creeps. We’d rather die than “live” on our knees, begging permission to exercise the right God gave us to say whatever we damn well please, whenever we damn well please, and in the manner we damn well please. And those who want to shut us up better be equally committed if they want to succeed. Speak Free or Die - Kurt Schlichter

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:03 PM | Your Say (3)

Venezuelan Bolivar now worth more as toilet paper than as money.

“I am convinced that the path to a new, better and possible world is not capitalism, the path is socialism.” -Hugo Chávez

“I have said it already, I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell.” -Hugo Chávez

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:02 AM | Your Say (5)

Good Riddance to Letterman

Dave’s media pals forgave his many sins. The biggest of these may have been that he wasn’t funny.
No matter how much the media tried to prop him up as the thinking man’s late show host, audiences knew better. A decade in, Letterman had fallen into the bad habit of many successful comedians of beating a routine into the ground. But his awkward fumbling comedy had never been funny to begin with. Beating it into the ground only made it worse. - - Sultan Knish

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:36 AM | Your Say (7)

Michael Savage is right and liberalism a mental disease.

Bernie Sanders is now running for president.

First he tied an onion to his belt because that’s what they did back when his ideas sounded fresh and original. Soda pop cost a nickel and you could get a good haircut and a shave for two bits. Back then, the Party stood up for the working man against the syndicates, dadgummit! Listening to clips from his announcement, I could not help but think that Michael Savage is right and liberalism a mental disease. Bernie Sanders is an old man, 73 to be exact. That means he has seen every idea of the American Left tried multiple times, all of which failed exactly as predicted. Yet, he’s still demanding we spend more money on roads and bridges, the poor and the environment.Sanders-nistas | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:26 AM | Your Say (3)

Scientific American, let me say it has not always been a tranch of worthless, unreliable, often mendacious pulp.

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An important exception should be noted. The front article — in the position where a short story or other fictional item would be placed in the traditional magazine format — was even then, almost invariably, a spray of liberal-sociological hogwash.
But after passing over that, one would generally find, decades later, two or three articles of enduring interest, routinely presenting historical background that does not date. In the 1980s, the publishers realized that there was no longer an intelligent general audience for science, and that the editorial focus would have to be redirected to caressing half-educated, smartass twits. That is now a highly competitive market. Losing the appearances : Essays in Idleness

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:17 AM | Your Say (3)

By being born in 1749, he may very well be the earliest born human being ever photographed.

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The fine gentleman above is Conrad Heyer, this picture was taken circa 1852.
He was approximately 103 when photographed, having been born in 1749. He was reportedly the first white child born in Waldoboro, Maine, then a German immigrant community. He served in the Continental Army under George Washington during the Revolutionary War, crossing the Delaware with him and fighting in other major battles. He eventually bought a farm and retired to Waldoboro, where he happily regaled visitors with tales of his Revolutionary War exploits until his dying day. The World’s First Eyewitness? | Doug's Darkworld

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

The theology of the great climate god has taken hold of minds, like a virus in a cell.

‘Climate change,’ say the authors, ‘is the largest global health threat of the 21st century and, despite limited empirical evidence,
it is expected directly and indirectly to harm communities’ psychosocial well-being.’ This is not so much science as it is religion, in which the god worshipped is the bringer-bout of future catastrophe, a kind of Kali, whose destructiveness must be appeased by word, puja and sacrifice. The Theology of Climate Change

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:06 AM | Your Say (1)

Faster Please: “It appears as if the car in this video is not equipped with Pedestrian detection,” Volvo spokesperson said. “This is sold as a separate package.”

A video showing a car attempting to park but actually plowing into journalists
might have resulted from the Volvo’s owner not paying an extra fee to have the car avoid pedestrians. The video, taken in the Dominican Republic, shows a Volvo XC60 reversing itself, waiting, and then driving back into pedestrians at speed. The horrifying pictures went viral and were presumed to have resulted from a malfunction with the car — but the car might not have had the ability to recognise a human at all. - - The Independent

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:12 AM | Your Say (5)

May 26, 2015

Sparking the Diapause: Zookeepers Jedi Mind Tricked This Adorable Baby Tortoise to Get It to Hatch

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Favorable conditions are when it’s warm enough that the hatchling won’t freeze and will have access to plenty of vegetation for food and camouflage, she told me.
"So you need to kind of spark the egg out of this diapause," Augustine said. To do this, the zoo takes the egg and puts it in an incubator to keep it warm. If they don’t see any signs of development, they’ll slowly cool the egg down to simulate a cold snap. Then, after a few weeks, they bring the temperature back up. Every zoo does this process slightly differently. | Motherboard

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:15 PM | Your Say (1)

The Sexual Interests of 4 Million People Are Now on Sale for $17,000

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You can now buy the private data of almost 4 million users of the hacked hook up website AdultFriendFinder for a little less than $17,000—in Bitcoin, naturally.
AdultFriendFinder, a dating site for online and real life hookups, admitted that it had been breached last week. The attack was allegedly carried out earlier this year by a hacker that goes by the name of ROR[RG] -- | Motherboard

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:08 PM | Your Say (1)

And a lovely stamp it is.

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Flannery O'Connor to Grace New U.S. Postage Stamp
Since 1979, the US Postal Service has made a practice of issuing postage stamps honoring “skillful wordsmiths” who have “spun our favorite tales — and American history along with them.” Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Wright, Julia De Burgos, Mark Twain, O. Henry, and Ralph Ellison have all been fêted since 2009. And soon we can add the Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor to the list. Her stamp will make its debut on June 5th.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:58 PM | Your Say (1)

Right after Penn Jillette went bonkers and took up atheism as his cause,

he was on Red Eye making the case for his new religion.
Like all converts, he was proselytizing because he was full of doubt. Logically, the reason people try to recruit is for confirmation. If scads of other sensible people are signing up for the cause, the cause must be a good thing. So, he was trying to get the others on the panel with him to go along with his new cause. He also employed a little trick I suppose has become popular with the atheist movement. It works like this. If you cannot or will not fully embrace the belief in a living god, then you are an atheist. This is an attempt to widen the pool and normalize atheism by declaring it the default position. Dennett, Dawkins and other Atheist Crackpots | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:35 AM | Your Say (8)

There are no job opportunities for genderqueer bloggers who want “full communism.”

On the train this morning, I saw a twenty-something decked out in a movie-quality Captain America costume.
I asked him what he was doing because I knew I’d be writing this and he said, “I’m going to a photo shoot.” I asked him why and he said, “It’s just a photo shoot. A bunch of us are doing it. Spider-Man is going to be there.” Assuming he meant another man in a costume and not the real Spider-Man, I walked off the train horrified (as the train pulled out, I saw a man in the next car wearing Despicable Me pajamas). Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out - Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:13 AM | Your Say (3)

Mistaeks Wur Maid: Updated NASA Data: Global Warming Not Causing Any Polar Ice Retreat

Updated data from NASA satellite instruments reveal the Earth’s polar ice caps have not receded at all since the satellite instruments began measuring the ice caps in 1979.
Since the end of 2012, moreover, total polar ice extent has largely remained above the post-1979 average. The updated data contradict one of the most frequently asserted global warming claims – that global warming is causing the polar ice caps to recede. - - Forbes

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:01 AM | Your Say (4)

May 25, 2015

"Imagine what we could do to someone we actually have a personal problem with, perhaps someone who betrayed us."

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We are not the “peaceful” generation; we won’t just watch.
We are not the “greatest” generation; we don’t need a cause. We are a different kind of generation. We are the Heroes of Lost Fucking Causes. Did you see what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan? Did you see the carnage we spread? According to the News … we did that … because it was Tuesday. Imagine what we could do to someone we actually have a personal problem with, perhaps someone who betrayed us. The Heroes Of Lost Causes | Western Rifle Shooters Association

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:23 PM | Your Say (4)

ISIS is not a reaction. It’s the underlying pathology in the Muslim world.

Everything planted on top of that, from democracy to dictatorships, from smartphones to soft drinks, suppresses the disease. But the disease is always there. The left insists that Western colonialism is the problem. But the true regional alternative to Western colonialism is slavery, genocide and the tyranny of Jihadist bandit armies. Sultan Knish: De-Islamization is the Only Way to Fight ISIS

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:16 PM | Your Say (4)

Apparently we are supposed to be worried about fracking depleting water in California.

ThinkProgress reports that Despite Historic Drought, California Used 70 Million Gallons Of Water For Fracking Last Year.
Similar concerns are raised by RT, Huffington Post, and even The New York Times. But 70 million gallons equals 214 acre-feet. Remember, alfalfa production uses 5.3 million acre feet. In our family-of-four analogy above, all the fracking in California costs them about a quarter. Worrying over fracking is like seeing an upper middle class family who are $6,000 in debt, and freaking out because one of their kids bought a gumball from a machine. California, Water You Doing? | Slate Star Codex

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:22 PM | Your Say (8)

“Let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.”

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The truck’s windshield explodes into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tear into the body of the son of a bitch trying to get past them to kill their brothers
– American and Iraqi – bedded down in the barracks, totally unaware that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder-width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could. They had only one second left to live, and I think they knew. The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty. Never Yet Melted » "Six Seconds"€

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:57 PM | Your Say (1)

The apparent randomness of history should remind us, on Memorial Day,

of how great an act of faith our forefathers made in carrying us to this point.
The men who crossed Omaha Beach or took Mount Surabachi with Bibles in their pockets and simple belief that they could make the world right didn’t know that America would win the war, just as the men who took Ramadi didn’t know that politicians would give the city back. They only knew they had to try, armed with a wisdom the Great rarely learned: that neither the future nor heaven can be treated like a business proposition. Faith of Our Fathers | Belmont Club

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

May 24, 2015

White Woodland Privilege

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Albino redwood
An 'albino' redwood is a redwood tree which is unable to produce chlorophyll, and so has white needles instead of the normal green. In order to survive it must join its roots to the roots of a normal redwood, usually the parent tree from whose base it has sprouted, from which it obtains nutrition as a parasite.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:47 PM | Your Say (1)

Hell's Alarm Clock

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Once it goes off, to stop it you must get out of bed, go into the kitchen or bathroom, and punch the day's date into a telephone-style keypad. That's the only way to stop the loud 'ding-ding,' designed to sound like a customer angrily banging on a concierge bell at a hotel. -- | Stuff.co.nz

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:39 PM | Your Say (3)

Hate speech is the most protected speech. We're at liberty to spew hate-speech at anyone or anything.

Except the Muslims? ...because they are threatening to murder us because we object to their murdering us?
You are kidding me! We are free to object to whatever we wish and to hate whomever we wish. Because some primitives are holding a knife to our throats we should just throw it in and say, "Aw, shucks, guys, we never really meant free-free? -- Why I love 'hate speech'

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:33 PM | Your Say (4)

How to Keep Down Sky-High Hospital Bills: Don’t Pay

The bill was $600,000, Hartter said... The administrator looked at the bill and said, “‘Don’t worry. By the time we apply the discounts and everything else, it’ll be down to about $300,000,’” Hartter recalled.
“I said, ‘What’s the difference? That doesn’t make me feel any better.’” Instead, he had ELAP analyze the bill. The firm estimated costs for the treatment based on the hospital’s financial reports filed with Medicare. Then it added a cushion so the hospital could make a modest profit. “We wrote a check to the hospital for $28,900 and we never heard from them again,” Hartter said. -- Newsweek

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:29 AM | Your Say (4)

Who Says There's No Good News?

Democrats' Vanishing Future One of the most underappreciated stories in recent years is the deterioration of the Democratic bench under President Obama's tenure in office.
The party has become much more ideologically homogenous, losing most of its moderate wing as a result of the last two disastrous midterm elections. By one new catch-all measure, a party-strength index introduced by RealClearPolitics analysts Sean Trende and David Byler, Democrats are in their worst position since 1928. That dynamic has manifested itself in the Democratic presidential contest, where the bench is so barren that a flawed Hillary Clinton is barreling to an uncontested nomination.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:17 AM | Your Say (7)

May 23, 2015

Food for thought

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:19 PM | Your Say (4)

The mental model that people tend to have about leftists tends to be fundamentally rationalistic and utilitarian

It’s perhaps more useful to conceive of them like one of the many species of animal with an instinctive urge towards self-destruction and mass death.
That’s what they shoot for, and how they ought to be understood as political opponents. They have to be contained rather than bargained with. Leftists Work For the Total State - Henry Dampier

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

May 22, 2015

This is a chorus ever-repeating in the musical that is Marxist insanity:

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“This thing is absolutely inevitable and unstoppable, so we must sacrifice everything to make it happen.”
It is the sort of mental slippage consequential to reading the future, with all the certainty attendant to recollection of the past. Then again, if lefties had some useful comprehension of time, they wouldn’t be asserting in 2008 that this is “the moment our planet began to heal,” and then seven years later that the planet’s sickness was worse than ever before, with not a hint of backpedaling, or “sorry I was wrong,” or “seemed like a good idea at the time” — or even, “key change!” Such reflections on the elementary human experience of time, reveal brutally that if this ideological movement retains so much as a semblance of sanity, it’s not any brand of sanity that’s useful to anyone else. House of Eratosthenes

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:36 PM | Your Say (2)

It's lonely at the top...

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World's oldest person to turn 116 Jeralean Talley was born in Montrose, Ga., on May 23, 1899.
She's been in Michigan since 1935. Relatives say she remains active and aware of what's going on around her. Talley was named world's oldest person in April after the death of Gertrude Weaver,who passed away at the age of 116. Weaver died just five days after 117-year-old Misao Okawa died in Japan.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:22 PM | Your Say (6)

Choosing intellectual output based on who produced it is no way to achieve excellence.

We are in an era when many of the left seek wholesale rejection our intellectual heritage,

that is, what we have found to be true, based on who produced it. Plain old truth is considered white male truth and the left, like the Germans behind Deutsche Physik, actually embraces things that are not true in contraposition to what came before. That this project cannot succeed is obvious. That the left is degrading itself by carving out an embarrassing place in history is becoming more so. -- John C. Wright's Journal

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:54 PM | Your Say (2)

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints

8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. Revelation 20:8-9

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:12 AM | Your Say (0)

Today in Wall Street Journal Land

The Horror of Boko Haram - The West should increase its help for Nigeria’s military.

Beijing Won’t Back Down - The Communist Party’s major aspirations have set it on a collision course with China’s neighbors.

Planets, Priests and a Persistent Myth - The Catholic Church and scientific discovery are utterly incompatible, right? History disagrees.

The Trigger-Happy Generation - If reading great literature traumatizes you, wait until you get a taste of adult life.

Me, Myself and Iran - Trust him, he wants a legacy.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:01 AM | Your Say (1)

I got 99 problems but wa'sup wit the bogus bitches at The View ain't even in the first 999.

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The View Drama: After Barbara Walters' Departure, Battles Have Ensued During a commercial break, O’Donnell took the microphone and began complaining that Goldberg had cut her off and “hurt my feelings.”
Goldberg explained that they’d run out of time, but O’Donnell did not know it because she refused to wear an earpiece on air. O’Donnell persisted. “This isn’t the time for this, Rosie,” replied Goldberg, according to the Daily Mail. But O’Donnell continued to vent, and Goldberg snapped. “Fuck it, I told you to leave it alone and you just don’t want to listen,” she shouted, as the audience sat in stunned silence. “If you want to go there, Rosie, I will, dammit. I’m really sick of your shit.”

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:59 AM | Your Say (7)

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Fluffer Boy!!

The only way, let me repeat that, the only way Liberalism can advance is through the tireless work of the Enslaved Press which promotes the Liberal agenda, gives a patina of mainstream to the kookiest of Liberal ideas, acts as human shield to even the most corrupt Liberal politicians, and serves as hit squad to any Liberal opposition.

When I saw the headlines about Stephanopoulos, I wasn’t in the least bit taken aback. Of course he donated to his favorite politician’s foundation. Of course he used his position at ABC News’ This Week to try and discredit Peter Schweizer and his book Clinton Cash Stephanopoulos have never been a journalist. He is the personal fluffer and human shield of the Clintons. He was in the nineties. He is today. Fluffer Boy - Patriot Retort

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:54 AM | Your Say (1)

Nemesis takes no prisoners, shows no Mercy, grants No Quarter.

The song remains the same and it is horribly out-of-tune with Reality.

The needed lessons were not learned and this time, given that our Enemies are much more savage then even the Nazis and the Japs [or our Communist ‘allies’] were, we will find ourselves in a Conflagration where the Enemy will not hesitate to use nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. -- The Budding Flower Of Savagery

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:32 AM | Your Say (1)

Cannabis: A Journey Through the Ages

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The first recorded use of marijuana as a medicinal drug occurred in 2737 BC by the Chinese emperor Shen Nung.
He documented the drug’s effectiveness in treating the pains of rheumatism and gout. Both hemp and psychoactive marijuana were widely used in ancient China. The ancient Chinese used virtually every part of the Cannabis plant: the root for medicine; the stem for textiles, rope and paper making; the leaves and flowers for intoxication and medicine; and the seeds for food and oil. | Ancient Origins

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:37 AM | Your Say (2)

May 21, 2015

Seems Fair to Me

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:49 PM | Your Say (9)

Want to Work on Hillary’s Campaign?

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- - Never Yet Melted

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:39 AM | Your Say (1)

SnapShots

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Lenin's lover? Picture of woman described as his true love uncovered
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Ghostly Voices From Thomas Edison’s Dolls Can Now Be Heard - NYTimes.com
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The Vanishing of America’s Historic Mental Asylums
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Lost Mark Twain stories recovered by UC Berkeley scholars - LA Times
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New Evidence May Solve Mystery of America's Huge Ancient City
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“Louisa May Alcott reportedly mentioned to Emerson that Thoreau’s neckbeard ‘ will most assuredly deflect amorous advances and preserve the man’s virtue in perpetuity’…

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:04 AM | Your Say (1)

May 21st- The Long Island Lolita

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By spring of 1992, AMY FISHER was pressuring Joey to leave his wife, Mary Jo. Joey had no intentions of breaking up his marriage, and flatly refused to entertain the idea.
Consumed with rage, Amy headed over to the Buttafuoco home. When Mary Jo came to the door, after a very brief conversation, Amy shot her in the head at close range. Miraculously, as mentioned, Mrs. Buttafuoco lived to tell the tale but was left with a bullet in her head and her face partially paralyzed. - - This Day in History

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:49 AM | Your Say (9)

Mao's Mango

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The workers at the factory held a huge ceremony, rich in the recitation of Mao’s words, to welcome the arrival of the mango, then sealed the fruit in wax, hoping to preserve it for prosperity.
The wax-covered fruit was placed on an altar in the factory auditorium, and workers lined up to file past it, solemnly bowing as they walked by. No one had thought to sterilize the mango before sealing it, however, and after a few days on display, it began to show signs of rot. The revolutionary committee of the factory retrieved the rotting mango, peeled it, then boiled the flesh in a huge pot of water. Another ceremony was held, equally solemn. Mao again was greatly venerated, and the gift of the mango was lauded as evidence of the Chairman's deep concern for the workers. Then everyone in the factory filed by and each worker drank a spoonful of the water in which the sacred mango had been boiled. Mango Madness

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:03 AM | Your Say (1)

May 20, 2015

COULTER: Knowing What We Know Now, Would You Say Jeb Bush is Retarded?

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Was Jeb Bush too busy watching telenovelas during his brother's presidency to remember the Iraq War?
We went to war at such breakneck speed after 9/11, that, before the invasion, I was able to write approximately 30 columns about it, give five dozen speeches on it, discuss it on TV a hundred times and read 1,089 New York Times editorials denouncing the "rush to war." | Truth Revolt

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:02 PM | Your Say (8)

Noted in Passing Lane

Signatories of the agreement were Acre, Brazil; Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Baja California, Mexico; Catalonia, Spain; Jalisco, Mexico; Ontario, Canada, British Columbia, Canada; Wales, and the U.S. states of Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:53 PM | Your Say (7)

Personal ads from the New York Herald in the 1860s:

A YEAR AGO LAST SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER TWO ladies with a child were travelling on the Hudson River cars,
one of whom offered a seat to a middle aged gentleman, with light whiskers or goatee, slightly gray, who kindly pointed out to her the red leaved trees, and said he had a number of them on his place, and made himself otherwise agreeable; and when she was leaving him (ten miles this side of where he stopped) gave her a parting embrace, which she has never been able to forget. If the gentleman has any recollection of the circumstance he will greatly oblige by addressing a note to Lena Bigelow, Madison square Post office, giving some description of the lady, also name of the paper he gave her. (Jan. 25, 1862) Love Walks In - Futility ClosetFutility Closet

Posted by gvanderleun at 9:15 AM | Your Say (3)

Where are the gulags when you need them?

Where is the movement of truely true communists who truly eschew the entirety of capitalism?
They would by necessity have no clothing, food, housing, or anything of value that wasn't somehow government -or self-made, correct? They could do it today if they liked, with identical jump suits and slippers, and government food kitchens to feed them, and government housing to keep them warm. Otherwise known as jail. They are wishing for jail, the suicidal bastards. And yet, we find them with Phillip Morris products hanging from their mouths, greenbacks in their pockets, oil in their tanks, and corporate logos all over their clothing. Spillers of Soup: SHRED THE WORLD

Posted by gvanderleun at 9:06 AM | Your Say (3)

If you become indignant, this elevates you to the plane of "intellectual."

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When he denounced the war in Vietnam, Chomsky put on the requisite display of utter ignorance and thereby became a leading American intellectual.
One of the things that I find really makes it worth watching all the Academy Awards, all the Emmys, all those awards ceremonies, is to see how today's actors and television performers have discovered the formula. If you become indignant, this elevates you to the plane of "intellectual." No mental activity is required. It is a rule, to which there has never been an exception, that when an actor or a television performer rises up to the microphone at one of these awards ceremonies and expresses moral indignation over something, he illustrates Marshall McLuhan's dictum that "moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Tom Wolfe Commencement Address

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:05 AM | Your Say (3)

May 19, 2015

The Mysterious Disappearance of the Thomas Hume and its Dramatic Rediscovery

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When the Thomas Hume did not make it back to Muskegon, Charles Hackley and Thomas Hume dispatched a mariner, Captain Seth Lee, to search for the vessel.
Not a single piece of wreckage was found. The seven crew members were presumed dead, and the company had to write off the disappearance as a $6000 loss as the ship was uninsured. Nevertheless, Hackley and Hume persisted in their search, even offering a large reward to anyone who could providing reliable information as to the whereabouts of the missing ship. The reward was never claimed. - -| Ancient Origins

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:59 PM | Your Say (3)

The Other White Meat

When I was younger and more easily manipulated by propaganda,

I was naïve enough to think that being against "€œracism"€ meant that everyone should be required to lay down their tribal spears and join one big happy drum circle. I never expected that the more that white people willingly discarded their group identity, the more that other groups would double down on their own. I didn’t think every concession would only bring demands for more concessions. But over time I wised up and realized it was all a sly game of ethnic musical chairs that ultimately had white people falling on their ass. - - Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:51 PM | Your Say (1)

Do not become like the hacks and celebrities of liberalism who prance across our screens. They are the past. Leave them there.

Things are not hopeless, nor even gloomy.
Not in the historical sense, anyway. Be any of these three things: politically involved, a monk or a frontiersman and have some assurance that you are contributing to your children’s survival. Do any of these things and you will help build a civilization that can out-evolve ISIS or failing that, quit this sad old earth and head for the stars. Fighting Entropy Part 2 | Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:26 PM | Your Say (0)

"U Tr?": A Glossary of Abbreviations Used by Early-20th-Century Telegraph Operators

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Their morning greeting to a friend in a distant city is usually “g. m.,” and the farewell for the evening, “g. n.,”
the letters of course standing for good morning and good night. The salutation may be accompanied by an inquiry by one as to the health of the other, which would be expressed thus: “Hw r u ts mng?” And the answer would be: “I’m pty wl; hw r u?” or “I’m nt flg vy wl; fraid I’ve gt t mlaria.” History of telegraph operators: Abbreviations used by telegraphers.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:13 PM | Your Say (2)

Question of the decade (so far): "What happens when you give eels cocaine?"

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Personally, I can’t think of a sea creature more horrific than the eel.
It has all the negative qualities of a fish (might touch you while swimming, incapable of feeling love), plus all the negative qualities of a snake (has no limbs at all yet somehow manages to move around)—plus, in some cases, all the negative qualities of a poorly-grounded home appliance. In fact, if I were choosing something to encounter in open water, I’d rank only one fish lower than an eel: an eel that’s been marinating in cocaine. Unfortunately for me, a team of Italian scientists has been exposing European eels to low doses of cocaine to monitor the effect of the drug. Dr. Eelgood | Hakai Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:53 PM | Your Say (3)

The Sonnets were published late in Shakespeare’s career (1609) — by a clever and unscrupulous man.

His name was Thomas Thorpe. He ran what was for the times a unique publishing business,
playing games with “copyright” that were often unconscionable but, usually, this side of the law. He owned neither a printing press, nor a bookstall — two things that defined contemporary booksellers — subcontracting everything in his slippery way. Indeed, I would go beyond other observers, and describe him as a blackguard; and I think Will Shakespeare would agree with me. Though Shakespeare would add, “A witty and diverting blackguard.” Dark gentleman of the Sonnets : Essays in Idleness

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:16 PM | Your Say (0)

Summer of Darkness: Gentlemen, Start Your Tivos

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Coming in June and July on TCM over 100 classic examples of film noirTCM Summer of Darkness
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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:49 PM | Your Say (2)

"Social Justice" is a religion. It has saints, dogma, and sacraments.

It also has backsliders and apostates.
As any religion knows, apostates must be dealt with lest they lead the rest of the flock astray. So any expression that shows them to be in any way rejecting the creeds of Social Justice must be met with a inquisitorial zeal. They must be made to recant...not just for the safety of the flock but for the good of their own souls. If they, like the proverbial village in Vietnam, have to be destroyed in order to be saved...well...so be it. Vox Popoli: SJWs eat their own

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:35 PM | Your Say (2)

I've said it before and I'll say it over and over until the end of time:

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It’s high time—in fact, way past the time—Republicans learned
that making nice to the MSM will get them noting but grief, and that it isn’t even necessary. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have successfully thumbed their noses at the media and it has paid off for them. I realize the Republicans are in a position that is the polar opposite because the MSM is on the other side. But that doesn’t change the fact that the MSM has become more openly biased and more and more unnecessary, so why bother? - - Why have Republican "debates" at all?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:33 AM | Your Say (4)

"Obama’s threats are pointless, because no one believes them."

Bush Dubya had, I think to start with, the right idea.
One says, “If you do this, we will do that.” And then, if one is not obeyed, one does that, unfailingly. (Obama’s threats are pointless, because no one believes them.) This was easier when we had at least de facto governments in all capitals except Mogadishu. The instruction was: that they would suppress their terrorists, and conduct a government responsive to occasional Western requests. Or, we would do it for them. In superpowering terms, this was a modest instruction. Ramadi : Essays in Idleness

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:24 AM | Your Say (0)

Time for North and South Korea to test their artillery targeting solutions in the DMZ.

Gloria Steinem to lead women's march in North Korea Gloria Steinem is among 30 women activists marching from Beijing through the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea in a call for peace next Sunday. The event marks the International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. The 81-year-old activist told Reuters that “it seems to me that the past of no contact has not worked,” invoking former President Ronald Reagan’s call to tear down the Berlin Wall. “We are saying: ‘Take down this isolation,’” she said.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:44 AM | Your Say (4)

May 18, 2015

Comfortably Mum

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There is no gain, you are receding; A distant pantsuit on the horizon. -- Hope n' Change Cartoons:

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:05 PM | Your Say (2)

The problem with today’s progressives.

From the blog of Fredrik deBoer, an academic in rhetoric and composition, May 13:

Criticism of today’s progressives tends to use words like toxic, aggressive, sanctimonious, and hypocritical. I would not choose any of those. I would choose lazy. We are lazy as political thinkers and we are lazy as culture writers and we are lazy as movement builders. We ward off criticism of our own bad work by acting like that criticism is inherently anti-feminist or anti-progressive. We seem spoiled, which seems insane because everything is messed up and so many things are getting worse. I guess having a Democratic president just makes people feel complacent. Well, look: as a political movement we are in pathetic shape right now. We not only have no capacity to move people who don’t already share our worldview, we seem to have no interest in doing so. Our stock arguments are lazy stacks of cliches. We seem to want to confirm everything conservatives say about our inability to argue without calling other people racist. We can’t articulate why our vision of the future is better than the other side’s, and in fact many of us will tell you that it’s offensive to think that we have an obligation to educate others on that vision at all. We celebrate grassroots activist movements like Black Lives Matter, but we insult them by treating them as the same thing as hashtag campaigns, and we don’t build a broader left-wing political movement that could increase their likelihood of success. We spend all day, every day, luxuriating in how much better we are than other people, having convinced ourselves that the work of politics is always external, never internal. We have made politics synonymous with social competition. We’re a mess. Notable & Quotable - WSJ

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:58 PM | Your Say (5)

Land of 1000 Microaggressions

In fact, a recently released study about racial microaggressions seems to blame these invisible,
unintentional acts of racism for the relatively high dropout rates and low academic performance among a certain racial group who shall not be named but you can probably guess anyway which is why I don’t feel the need to name them, which I suspect may be my unconscious way of racially microaggressing upon them, which is kinda interesting if you’re able to stop and think about it all without your head exploding. -- Jim Goad

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:50 PM | Your Say (4)

Cheating with Gold Math: The customer’s ring is worth $280 in real gold value. But you just offered $120, with a seemingly sound mathematical justification.

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Let’s say you have a fourteen-karat gold ring that weighs fifteen grams, or about half an ounce, and gold is at one thousand dollars an ounce. First you weigh it and show the customer that it’s fifteen grams. Then you take the price of an ounce of gold and divide it by thirty-one to get a gram price for pure.
“Now we multiply that by fourteen for fourteen karat and divide it by twenty-four for twenty-four karat, which is what it would be if it were 100 percent gold,” you explain to the seller. “That gives us the price for your fourteen-karat gold. Multiply that by fifteen, for fifteen grams. Now, fourteen karat is 56 percent gold and 44 percent base metal, which burns off at the smelter, so we multiply that by 0.56. Finally, we deduct 10 percent for the smelter, and 15 percent for my profit. Most gold buyers will charge you 20 or 25 percent, which is a reasonable profit margin, but we do such high quantity of gold-buying here that we can afford very low margins. That gives us a final figure of…” We Buy Broken Gold | Lapham’s Quarterly

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:02 PM | Your Say (2)

Mistaeks Wur Maid

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When my brother and I built and flew the first man-carrying flying machine,
we thought that we were introducing into the world an invention which would make further wars practically impossible. That we were not alone in this thought is evidenced by the fact that the French Peace Society presented us with medals on account of our invention. We thought governments would realize the impossibility of winning by surprise attacks, and that no country would enter into war with another of equal size when it knew that it would have to win by simply wearing out its enemy.

— Orville Wright to C.M. Hitchcock, June 21, 1917 Forward and Back - Futility ClosetFutility Closet

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:28 PM | Your Say (1)

Who Says There's No Good News? We're Running Out of Internet!

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally going to run out of internet.
Back in 2011, we warned that this web reckoning was upon us, and now we have a more substantial timeframe. According to The Wall Street Journal, we’ll be fresh out of IP addresses in the next few months. Back in the 1980s, the engineers who created the internet and the IPv4 specification made 4.3 billion addresses. Pretty big number, right? Wrong. -- Gizmodo

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:41 AM | Your Say (3)

Because I like teeny-tiny things. Don't you?

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Miniature Hand Blown Glass Vessels and Scientific Instruments Glass artist Kiva Ford draws from his vast experience in scientific glassblowing to create perfect miniatures of wine glasses, beakers, and ribbon-striped vases, some scarcely an inch tall. A member of the American Scientific Glassblowers Society, Kiva creates instruments for scientists who require one-of-a-kind designs for various experiments.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:22 AM | Your Say (1)

May 17, 2015

The classic leftist defense mechanism against a threat is to morph into fascism.

It is highly probable that that as the West comes under pressure in Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East the status quo ideology will become increasingly repressive. This is probably unavoidable. But it is what comes after the eventual collapse of liberal fascism that will either save the world or drown under the surging tide of barbarism. The phase after the collapse of Western fascism will either tend toward a new “dark age” or lead to a new era in prosperity and creativity.

Therefore the solution set consists of those actions that will maximize the exit from the fascist phase on the best possible terms.Fighting Entropy Part 2 | Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:21 PM | Your Say (3)

17 May 1945: Okinawa: the bloody occupation of Ishimmi Ridge

By 0700 both of our light machine guns had been knocked out, one being completely buried.
The few remaining crewmen became riflemen and stayed right there throughout the day. During the morning a few Japanese had managed to crawl up from the deep ravine to a line just slightly beneath our position and began hurling grenades upwards at us. Grenades were tossed back and soon the infiltrators were killed or driven backward, but we had suffered too. - - WWII Today

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:50 AM | Your Say (4)

Schrödinger's Jihad

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Every Muslim is and isn’t a terrorist.
He is both a peaceful spiritual person who is eager to embrace our way of life and a violent killer who can be set off by the slightest offense. Like the cat in the box that is neither dead nor alive, he is both violent and peaceful, moderate and extremist, a solid citizen and a terrorist. He does not choose which of these to be or to become; we decide what he will be. - - Sultan Knish

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:21 AM | Your Say (2)

The jihadis are so fat on fuel they can hardly masticate the feast.

One can only imagine what will happen when the Jihad ingests a major regional country, the oil-rich Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia.

It will look like Libya, only much bigger. When the jihad eats Saudi Arabia it will glow like a nova on the nutrients of a collapsing House of Saud. And then it will be on to Europe. .... It’s in the cards because Europe is where the loot will be after MENA is sucked dry. The key to understanding Islamic extremism’s invulnerability to ordinary Westphalian bullets is to grasp that it is something like a living life form, which exists not at the level of the state, but in small groups and clans. It is self-organizing, “triggered by random fluctuations that are amplified by positive feedback. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized or distributed over all the components of the system. As such it is typically very robust and able to survive and self-repair substantial damage or perturbations.” Fighting Entropy | Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:16 AM | Your Say (1)

May 16, 2015

iMessage from Madison to Olivia

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| Diary of a Mad Voter

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:57 PM | Your Say (1)

Rule 21: The Colt 1911 is the finest weapon known to man and can provide a solid night of rest like nothing else in the world

Twenty Rules To Live By as America Goes to Hell

1: Be as self sufficient as possible without endangering folks or making life unnecessarily miserable.
2: Avoid crowds. Crowds are magnets for all manner of trouble.
3: Build a cushion – then one can choose when and where to interact with others.
4: Plan first, consider carefully, adjust and only then do.
5: Have a contingency plan.
6: Create a backup for the contingency plan.
7: Always have reserves in a different venue. Always.
8: Practice regularly with everything you might one day depend on.
9: A person can know a lot – but can’t master everything. They’ll need tribe to cover the gaps.
10: Do not bring a knife to a gun fight.
11: Never shoot a threat in the face when you can shoot it in the back. From 500 yards away.
12: In a life or death struggle, never employ half measures.
13: There is no shame in fleeing danger.
14: Even in the worst of times, humans covet trinkets, toiletries, cosmetics and entertainment.
15: The constabulary is not your friend. Never involve them in a situation willingly.
16: Always have a reasonable lie and supporting evidence for anything you’re getting up to.
17: Pay attention to your surroundings. Notice the little details.
18: When in Rome, look, smell and act like the locals. Don’t stand out. Don’t gawk.
19: Nothing you own is worth dying for. Get it back later, on your terms.
20: One only calls the end of the world right once. Everything else costs credibility needed when the balloon really does go up.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:27 PM | Your Say (4)

Don't tell me you don't remember it. Because it sure as heckfire remembers you.

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House from Groundhog Day Up for Sale: The B and B?
From Groundhog Day? Bing. The house that weatherman Phil Connors keeps waking up in without hot water, to his consternation? Bing again. The house is on the market. Yes, you too can sleep in the master suite and set your clock radio to déjà vu for the price of $785,000.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:13 AM | Your Say (3)

May 15, 2015

Now this is something I would buy

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The Shirk Report

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:12 PM | Your Say (0)

Young people should be peacocking, not wearing pajamas.

Dress like Johnny Cash and get in a fight.
Throw out those Uggs and put some high heels on. Make us old people jealous of you. Make us shake our fists in the air and tell you to turn it down. I don’t resent young people because they’re having so much fun. I resent them because they aren’t having enough.

You should have a moped at that age and you should crash it. You should also know how to fix it. The guy who invented the Leatherman created it because he was sick of lugging around tools to fix his $300 Fiat. I have my problems with the boomers but at least they enjoyed their youth. They hopped trains and worked shitty jobs and told lippy broads to “shut up.” Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out - Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:01 PM | Your Say (4)

What happens when Arab foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria go home?

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Foreign fighters who gain combat experience in Iraq and Syria pose a double danger.
Many of those who go to war will come back as hardened veterans, steady in the face of danger and skilled in the use of weapons and explosives—ideal terrorist recruiting material. More important, their worldview may change. While in the conflict zone, they will form networks with other radicals, embrace techniques like suicide bombings and beheadings, and establish ties to jihadists around the world, making them prone to further radicalization and giving them access to training and weapons they might otherwise lack. Brookings Institution

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:19 PM | Your Say (10)

Drive him fast to his tomb.

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Ask not for whom the bird is flipped.
It is flipped for thee, Islamic scum.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death Friday for his role in detonating two powerful backpack bombs in a festive crowd near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds more in a terrorist attack intended to strike a blow at the United States. The Boston Globe

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:21 PM | Your Say (6)

Checklist #48

Unlikely: Does the Drive-By Media Know People Are Still Getting Shot in Baltimore? - The Rush Limbaugh Show

"Me? I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest one's you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly stupid." Michelle Obama's Mirror

After All the Posturing, They’re Nothing But Petty Crooks

How to Cook Bugs: Tarantulas | MUNCHIES

John Price ended his life as a free man because he was willing to defy laws that said he was nothing but the property of other people, to be disposed of as they wished. He got a nice helping hand in maintaining his freedom from other people who were willing to not only defy laws that would compel them to collaborate in Price's bondage, but to beat the hell out of government agents charged with enforcing those laws. Why I'm Teaching My Son To Break the Law

TEOTWAWKI: Spiders fall from the sky in Australia leaving what enthusiasts call 'Angel Hair'

Tree Climbing Goats of Morocco avoid Islamic orgies.

What are those floaty things in your eye?

Consciousness-Lowering on Campus Continues | Power Line

"Fear, Craft, and Avarice
Cannot rear a State."
-- Emerson

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:50 AM | Your Say (3)

Giving Them the Slip

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Sexier Than Silk: The Irresistible Allure of the Nylon Slip
Quite often slips were worn as a nightgown. They were worn as lounging attire. When you were shopping, fitting clerks brought you things, whether it was a suit or a bra, so you would be in a semi-public place, dressing and undressing. The slip was a modest layer you’d be wearing when you opened the door. At home, a lady might get out of her two-piece lovely New Look fashion ensemble to scrub the floor. What do you think she was wearing? Vintage-fashion discussions tend to focus on the shirt-dress as housekeeping wear. But if you were in your own home, it made as much sense to strip down to your slip and do your chores.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:06 AM | Your Say (3)

The Wedding Sting

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By 9:00 p.m. the party was in full swing, but behind the scenes was pure tension:
Sweaty hands gripped weapons. Synchronized watches were checked. The band knew it was time to give the signal and began to play the song: “I Fought The Law (and the Law Won).” Williams reached into her garter and felt for her revolver. Shooter jumped onto the stage, and grabbed the mic. “Let’s have some fun,” he shouted. “Everybody here that’s a cop, stand up!” A dozen undercover officers rose to their feet as uniformed detectives burst through the door. “Okay!” Shooter yelled. “All the rest of you motherfuckers put your hands on the table, because you’re under arrest! This is a bust!” - The Atlantic

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

May 14, 2015

Montage 28

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:35 PM | Your Say (1)

“Into this life of cruel wonder sent,

Without a word to tell us what it meant,
Sent back again without a reason why -
Birth, life, and death - 'twas all astonishment.”
-- -- Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:34 PM | Your Say (0)

"The technification of the world blunts one’s sensibility and does not refine one’s senses."

"Adapting to the modern world demands the hardening of one’s sensibility and the debasing of one’s character." Nicolás Gómez Dávila aka Don Colacho

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

[Bumped] What would be a good, fairly accurate and easy-to-maintain rifle I could buy without breaking the bank?

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Buy a Mosin.
Pay around $200 for a run-of-the-mill 91-30, and you buy a ticket into an all inclusive club of Soviet conscripts, Tsarist soldiers, Finnish and Russian super snipers, Chinese phesants, Vietcong Guerrilas, Olympians, Ukranian Rebels, Bubba, and now, you. -- - Quora
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More at Never Yet Melted サ The Paradox of the Mosin-Nagant

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:25 AM | Your Say (18)

Dumb deep down in the DNA: Demonstrators protest obviously justified shooting in Madison

There can be no serious claim that the DA, Ismael Ozanne,
made his decision not to prosecute Kenny, who is white (Robinson was part black), based on race. Not only is the decision fully supported by the facts, but Ozanne is biracial and identifies himself as black. Nonetheless, protesters are out in force doing their “black lives matter” thing. John described yesterday’s demonstration as half-hearted, but today’s, though non-violent, seem to have been serious. | Power Line

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

PIDGE’S RULES Lt. T.C.“Pidge” Robinson, Texas Ranger

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3) Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

2) In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.

1) The only thing you EVER say afterwards is, "He said he was going to kill me. I believed him. I'm sorry, Officer, but I'm very upset now. I can't say anything more. Please speak with my attorney." Spillers of Soup: PIDGE'S RULES

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:10 AM | Your Say (1)

So What? The End of the Era of Compassion

“They’re civilians! They’re fishermen! They are people of color!”
In the past, such an objection would be unanswerable. Today the answer is probably, “so what?” Many years ago I wrote a post called the Three Conjectures in which I argued that the whole point of the War on Terror was to nip it in the bud, because once things got bad, once things got out of hand, the liberal Western populations would be begging their leaders to commit any atrocity — any atrocity at all — to keep them safe and fed.
| Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:50 AM | Your Say (2)

If Antarctic ice continues to grow, the trickle of refugees may become a stampede,

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as Antarctic climate scientists, some of whom have been there for years, are forced to leave their traditional habitats.
Who will help these bewildered unfortunates make the adjustment? Big cities might be traumatic and confusing, for climate scientists who have for many years experienced the tight knit traditions and community of the Antarctic base camps. Let us hope the governments responsible for this awful situation step up to their responsibilities. Perhaps we can find displaced climate researchers new homes, on some remote mountain top, habitats which are similar enough to their traditional Antarctic villages, that they can wait out the ice – somewhere they can settle, until global warming melts enough of the Antarctic, so they can be re-homed back in their research stations. We Were Wrong About Climate Refugees - Breitbart

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:48 AM | Your Say (4)

How to Walk the Streets of Barranquilla and Not Die

#7 After you have assessed both curbs fully, listen for honks.
Honks will signify one of two things: WATCH OUT or DO YOU WANT A RIDE? After being in the streets of Colombia for more than one day you will begin to distinguish which honk means which, and you will know that a WATCH OUT honk means the taxi is flying by at speeds of the out of control variety. | Breaking Trail

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:16 AM | Your Say (0)

May 13, 2015

Erguotou was useless with cocktails

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—you couldn’t any more mask its vomit-y bouquet than you could geld a bull with a spoon.
And gulping it was preferable to sipping it, of course. It was so hard to drink, and it was so hard to drink just a little, that nights tended to dissolve. In Beijing, a surprisingly unregulated city for expats, Erguotou was a convenient justification for the mistakes I made as an adult-child. Prancing around the street through the cars, obliviously. The women, especially those whom I never wanted to talk to sober. The callousness. Dressed as a Chinese waitress one Halloween, I debated the nature of violence for hours, then slapped a stranger. Soon after that, I knew it was time to leave. Thirst for Destruction - Roads & Kingdoms

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:08 PM | Your Say (0)

2 of The 22 Inconvenient Truths

1. The Mean Global Temperature has been stable since 1997, despite a continuous increase of the CO2 content of the air: how could one say that the increase of the CO2 content of the air is the cause of the increase of the temperature?

2. 57% of the cumulative anthropic emissions since the beginning of the Industrial revolution have been emitted since 1997, but the temperature has been stable. How to uphold that anthropic CO2 emissions (or anthropic cumulative emissions) cause an increase of the Mean Global Temperature?
22 Very Inconvenient Climate Truths | Watts Up With That?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:14 AM | Your Say (3)

To the Most Terrible goes the allegiance of the crowd.

ISIS knows this, according to some analysts, and is therefore pursuing “strategy of social control … designed to frighten an audience into submission”.

Just how well it works is demonstrated by the reluctance of Western intellectuals to say anything that might provoke or anger Islamic radicals even to the point of not drawing cartoons. While they explain their delicacy away as the consequence of high-minded enlightenment, were they more candid they would admit the real reason was fear. The more frightful ISIS is, the more “tolerant” Western intellectuals become. The Quality of Mercy | Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:34 AM | Your Say (1)

May 12, 2015

TAMIYA – 1980s Buggy Box Art

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Following on from The Grasshopper came the legendary Hornet with it’s unmistakable black and gold livery Hornet, as you can see above. With it’s high performance, durability and ease of maintenance The Hornet quickly became one Tamiya’s most popular ever models. Any of you anxious to get there hands on this slice of pure 80’s Nostalgia, will be pleased to learn it’s still available from Tamiya priced at $170 upwards. -- | Sci-fi-o-rama

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:22 PM | Your Say (3)

“Ultimately, the product any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is,”

Mr. Zinsser wrote in “On Writing Well.” He added: “I often find myself reading with interest about a topic I never thought would interest me — some scientific quest, perhaps. What holds me is the enthusiasm of the writer for his field.”
In 2012, Mr. Zinsser sent a written invitation to friends and former students “to attend the next stage of my life.” He said glaucoma had caused “further rapid decline in my already hazy vision,” forcing him to end his 70-year career as a writer. But he announced his availability “for help with writing problems and stalled editorial projects and memoirs and family history; for singalongs and piano lessons and vocal coaching; for readings and salons and whatever pastimes you may devise that will keep both of us interested and amused.”
“I’m eager to hear from you,” he wrote. “No project too weird.” William Zinsser, Author of ‘On Writing Well,’ Dies at 92 - NYTimes.com
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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:12 PM | Your Say (2)

This Picasso Just Became the Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold

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An anonymous buyer has just paid an astounding $179.36 million for Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting Les femmes d’Alger (Version “O”), putting it in top position in the world of very expensive artworks. The painting last sold in 1997 for a paltry $31.9 million. -- Visual News

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:33 PM | Your Say (11)

People on the left like to characterize conservatives as power-hungry fascists [sic] who are out to control and limit us.

But as with so many of the restrictions on liberty, those on free speech are being driven almost wholly by the left.
Whether the campaign is against Pamela Geller’s right to repeat the hateful statements of jihadis without being accused of hate herself for condemning them, or whether it’s about remarks defined as sexist or bigoted in general, or whether it’s about the Obama administration’s efforts to condemn the reporting of Fox News or intimidate and investigate reporters it doesn’t like, we need understand that it’s part of a much larger movement described here by Peter Berkowitz, and that much of the press is allied with it rather than against it.... neo-neocon Free speech is threatened—but of course, you already knew that

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:30 PM | Your Say (1)

"Just as every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners, saints"

But the latest trend is to act like cops are all horrible thugs and racist monsters, waiting for a chance to beat and kill blacks and that's idiotic and utterly false. And if Baltimore is wracked with racism, its certainly going to be a tough case to make that it was due to white people and Republicans. At least, honestly and factually. Word Around the Net: A BIT OF CLARIFICATION

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:09 PM | Your Say (4)

"Sex was free, and worth just exactly what you paid for it."

In the '50s when I was in public school, girls like that were everywhere, and made it really natural to approach women with respect and near-reverence.
Mysterious, clean, chaste and self-respecting, they made of adolescent lust a properly fragile thing. When the hippies came along, or the Communists seduced the Baby Boomers with license, or whatever you call that mess, the erosion of the institutions of romance and reverence for women was a short march indeed. Sex was free, and worth just exactly what you paid for it. Posted by: Rob De Witt The Top 40: Sonnet 129

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

Rare photo of Barack Obama suffering racial profiling while fearing for his life.

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Carmine Zozzora

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:51 PM | Your Say (0)

Everything You Know About Corsets Is False

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Men did not force women into corsets.
Steele says women wore corsets quite on their own volition. Men, in fact, regularly protested corsets, claiming they caused hysteria and the other health problems mentioned above. Women wore the corset because it made them feel attractive and properly dressed, she says, two important indicators of status. However, they were intended to reshape the natural body to what women perceived as the most ideal figure—meaning the most youthful and sexually desirable. Men might not have oppressed women by demanding they wear corsets, but women certainly wore them to impress men and assert their rank among other women. | Collectors Weekly

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:19 AM | Your Say (4)

When they realized women were using sacks to make clothes for their kids, flour mills started using flowered fabric

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Vintage Feedsack and Flour Sack Fabric -
By the late 1800s, textile mills were producing strong, inexpensive cotton, which quickly usurped canvas as the preferred material for feedsacks. Farmer’s wives took advantage of this new source of essentially free fabric by turning the empty cotton sacks into everything from dishrags to dresses. Some feed companies, alerted to this reuse of their bags, began to print their sacks in gaily colored patterns—since it usually took more than one bag to make a dress, the idea was to give the farmer an incentive to keep buying their products.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:13 AM | Your Say (2)

May 11, 2015

Sonnet 129

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"Then"

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action: and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

--Shakespeare's Sonnets

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:39 PM | Your Say (2)

Larry The Cable Guy

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Today: "15 years later I bring you western Nebraska reminding us today the IPCC is full of fear mongering and political BS.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:28 PM | Your Say (0)

When Did African-Americans Become Living Fossils?

When I was a kid in the 1960s, blacks were constantly portrayed in the media as confidently innovating, moving forward, inventing new styles, trying out new roles.
Today, the media portrays blacks as timid, fearful, weighed down by the burdens of centuries, under the control of past ages’ injustices, living museum relics unable to move under their own volition, a race caught hopelessly in a malign web spun hundreds (but not thousands!) of years ago. Steve Sailer / The Unz Review

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:56 PM | Your Say (4)

Anthony Bourdain: "Scottish jiu jitsu is tough.

But stalking deer in the Scottish Highland is the hardest, most physically demanding single activity I’ve ever done on camera.
It doesn't look like much. A nice walk up some hills, across the moors, in traditional Scottish kit, carrying nothing more cumbersome than a walking stick. You don’t even have to carry your rifle. The gamekeeper does that for you. The hills and peaks, the mountains of the Highlands are incredibly beautiful—the footing alternately firm and hard against flinty rock and hard packed soil—then soft and spongy among the heather and scrub of the moors, then steep, near vertical inclines. The idea is to walk up, at a reasonable pace, higher and higher, the incline gradual, legs fine, then not so fine, then burning with exertion. After a few miles, by which time, you’re congratulating yourself on having made it so far, the gamekeeper might spot a suitable animal through his binoculars—about a mile away. “If we sneak around the back that way—behind that mountain—and make our way quietly across that ridge—pop out over there-” he suggests, pointing at a harrowingly steep range of what sure as hell look like mountains to me, “we might just surprise him.” Anthony Bourdain / Scotland
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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:42 PM | Your Say (1)

Gripes My Ass

I don't know about you but I've had it with dogs and cats and pigs trotted out as the fraudulent "service animals" of the progressively mentally ill on day release from hell. If you're blind you get a seeing-eye dog. Other than that, suck it up buttercup.
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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:14 PM | Your Say (1)

"Stay Quiet and You'll Be Okay"

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A final cartoon from Bosch Fawstin::: SteynOnline

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

It Takes a Good Guy with a Gun to Defend Freedom of Speech

He could have pulled back and let the terrorists have a clear path.
No doubt he had a family and plenty of reasons to live. Like so much of the media, he could have disguised this cowardice by blaming the cartoonists for bringing the attack on themselves. Instead he held the line. The traffic cop with a pistol took on two terrorists in body armor, armed with assault rifles and extra ammo. And when it was over, two Muslim terrorists were dead and freedom of speech was alive. "He had two people shooting at him, plus he's trying to take out two targets. And if he had to make headshots," Mark Sligar, a firearms instructor, said, "That's awesome shooting. And look at the people's lives he saved, just because he was able to take care of that." Sultan Knish: It Takes a Good Guy with a Gun to Defend Freedom of Speech

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:04 AM | Your Say (0)

May 10, 2015

BRIT HUME:

'Baltimore's Problem Isn't Cops It's Crime Infested Black Communities'

In announcing that she’s calling in the Justice Department to investigate her own police department. Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that despite major progress already made, quote, Baltimore continues to have a fractured relationship between the police and the community. By community she means the mostly black, crime and drug infested areas of the inner city. Her entire emphasis, like that of the Obama administration is on reforming the police. The idea that the people in the community need to do any reforming is never mentioned

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:59 PM | Your Say (6)

Salon Shocker: 'The Left Has Islam All Wrong'

Jeffrey Tayler's piece there today, entitled "The left has Islam all wrong: Bill Maher, Pamela Geller and the reality progressives must face," takes a surprisingly courageous, clear-eyed stand.
Pamela Geller is right about one thing," he begins. "Last week’s Islamist assault on the 'Draw Muhammad' cartoon contest she hosted in Texas proves the jihad against freedom of expression has opened a front in the United States." Truth Revolt

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:50 PM | Your Say (0)

It’s diplomatic cream pie in the face.

America, the country Madeleine Albright once called the “indispensable nation”,

is suddenly nakedly and humiliatingly dispensable. Two of the most important Gulf rulers have decided not to attend the summit on Iran president Obama scheduled in Washington. It’s a vital meeting on which the president has staked the future of his so-called historic initiatives. But “the only two monarchs from the six countries confirmed to attend the summit at the White House and the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., were the emirs of Qatar and Kuwait.” Saudi Arabia’s monarch pulled out of a summit to be hosted by President Barack Obama on Thursday, in a blow to the White House’s efforts to build Arab support for a nuclear accord with Iran.The Fool On The Hill | Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:47 PM | Your Say (2)

Geller: "We smoked out a terror network,

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and much to my surprise, we smoked out the impostors on the right. Rush, Sean Hannity, David French, Mark Levin, Rich Lowry, and Megan Kelly have been brilliant and brave in the defense of freedom against sharia restrictions on speech. They are the rare, principled voices of freedom in a sea of cowards and quislings. In Praise of Gerard Vanderleun @Van_der_Leun | Pamela Geller

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:12 PM | Your Say (1)

For some reason, we have allowed the malcontent to assume moral prestige.

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We praise as "ideals" what are nothing more than fantasies--a world of perpetual peace, brotherhood, justice, or any other will-o'-the-wisp that has lured men toward the Gulag.
The malcontent can be spotted in his little habits of speech: He calls language and nationality "barriers" when the conservative, more appreciatively, recognizes them as cohesives that make social life possible. He damns as "apathy" an ordinary indifference to politics that may really be a healthy contentment. He praises as "compassion" what the conservative earthily sees as a program of collectivization. He may even assert as "rights" what tradition has regarded as wrongs. Pensees - Notes for the Reactionary of Tomorrow

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:21 AM | Your Say (4)

It's probably nothing....

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A Google map of Miyako and Ishigaki islands, part of the Okinawa Prefecture. In March – June 1945 they were forward bases for Kamikazes attacking the US Navy. Today they are become the site of Japanese Self-Defense Force Type 88 Surface-to-Ship Missile Batteries, as well as Japanese ground troops to secure them. -- China’s “Days of Future Past” Come Closer

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:14 AM | Your Say (1)

May 9, 2015

Stupid is pretty much the best it gets these days.

Why do I have to attend an Urdu gossip session?
Telling the driver to stop talking on the phone is needless conflict that makes your ride unpleasant. Experienced riders will say, “Pardon me?” To which the driver always responds, “Oh, no, I was speaking with my friend.” Then you go, “Oh, I’m sorry. That’s confusing. Here in America it is only homosexuals and thirteen-year-old girls who chat on the phone that much. Different cultures, I guess.” This usually gets him fired up and when he barks that he is “not the gay!” You can say, “It’s okay if you are. We are very tolerant in this country.” A Road Test for Multiculturalism - Taki's Magazine

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:01 AM | Your Say (2)

“It is necessary to repeat the truth over and over again,

because the falsehoods around us are also being constantly repeated, not by individuals but by the masses, in newspapers and encyclopedias, in the schools and at the universities. Everywhere, falsehood is on top, comfortable and secure in the knowledge that the majority is on its side.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [Via HappyAcres]

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:51 AM | Your Say (0)

The ultimate guide to pinball

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1942 In January of 1942, New York City’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia took a sledgehammer to seized pinball machines in a theatrical press event. He told reporters that pinball machine pushers were "slimy crews of tinhorns, well dressed and living in luxury on penny thievery," and the game was part of a broader 'craze' for gambling. Hopes&Fears — flow "Pop Stuff"

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:23 AM | Your Say (6)

Milk. It Does A Body Good

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€˜Splash Heroes€™ Who Wear Costumes Made of Milk -- and Nothing Else

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:06 AM | Your Say (4)

GREENS BECLOWN THEMSELVES: 25 Years Of Predicting The Global Warming ‘Tipping Point’

For decades now, those concerned about global warming have been predicting the so-called “tipping point”
— the point beyond which it’ll be too late to stave off catastrophic global warming. It seems like every year the “tipping point” is close to being reached, and that the world must get rid of fossil fuels to save the planet. That is, until we’ve passed that deadline and the next such “tipping point” is predicted. The Daily Caller

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:05 AM | Your Say (4)

May 8, 2015

The thing with the Clintons, in addition to their love of lying, is their Chechen morality.

Faulkner described the Snopes clan in his novels as having a vermin-like rapacity. That’s the Clinton way of life. Nothing is ever on the level and they are devoid of anything resembling a moral framework. They are moral nullities. That means they will do anything they need to do to win. Rapacious Vermin | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:09 AM | Your Say (4)

May 6, 2015

On a street not far from here lives a man.

I do not know him, but I have waved and said hello.
He is salubrious in a way I admire. He has lived here forever and a day, I imagine, and watched his town disintegrate. He refuses to go along. His house is conspicuous. It is so yellow that Van Gogh would throw in the towel and go back to the store and start shopping for raw umber. He crawls up and down it, and all around it, and it is as neat as a pin. He does everything himself. He put up a big fence around his yard, an enormous undertaking, and never flagged until he was done. Every surface is clean and bright and in good repair, everywhere you can see. It is the only structure in this town I can describe in that way. Sippican Cottage: Rumford Delenda Est

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:09 PM | Your Say (2)

Meathead is learning that Archie was mostly right.

Put another way, the organic ways in which society managed the unproductive classes
were blasted to bits by a bunch of people convinced they knew better than the dozens of generations that came before them. The proposed replacement for those ways have utterly failed, meaning everything guys like Brooks grew up believing was nonsense after all. Meathead is learning that Archie was mostly right. The Messiah and David Brooks | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:47 AM | Your Say (2)

May 5, 2015

“If both sides agree then it must be the truth!”

This is a favorite tactic of Progressive types.
“If both sides agree then it must be the truth!” This is a logical fallacy as there’s nothing in the premise to even suggest that both sides can only agree when they are right. Both sides are habitually wrong about all sorts of things so it’s just as likely that they are wrong now. Of course, the point of this bit of rhetorical jujitsu is to cut-off debate. Just accept it and shut up. Ross Douthat and Changing the Subject | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:09 PM | Your Say (1)

And the jokes and parodies just write themselves.....

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:11 PM | Your Say (9)

There might be a Paris, Texas, but let’s get one thing straight: Texas ain’t Paris.

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Second Amendment Defending the First | Shall Not Be Questioned

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:40 AM | Your Say (11)

Ludwig von Mises…seven decades ago, no lie.

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The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau.
House of Eratosthenes

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:07 AM | Your Say (3)

As the Boomers begin falling into the abyss,

they have to look around and wonder if it was worth it. If you were born in 1950, for example, you grew up in America that is vastly different than today. It’s one your grandchildren will never enjoy. The trillions spent knocking down what you inherited could maybe have been spent more wisely. The Messiah and David Brooks | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:45 AM | Your Say (7)

Like most inner cities, Baltimore has been governed by moral exhibitionists for generations, now.

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Prosecutor proclaims backed by last four white people in Baltimore
One may watch the city’s current progressive lords performing for the television cameras,
delivering their scapegoats for prosecution and trial. It isn’t really necessary to name names, when one is referring to a whole political class, of progressive Democrats (and the occasional progressive Republican for variety) who create and keep the underclass in their places, cultivating their envies and resentments, and then directing them for use as voting fodder. Marketplace of ideas : Essays in Idleness

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:32 AM | Your Say (0)

The Huckabee ("I declare I am now the 1st Loser in the GOP Sweepstakes") Candidacy!

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HappyAcres

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:25 AM | Your Say (0)

Islamic Terrorists Attack; Muslims Hardest Hit

“Oh my Allah, you guys.
I am so totally triggered by Pamela Geller, that kafir bitch!!!” Oh no, did somebody look at you askance, child? Did somebody draw a cartoon you didn’t like? Are you a victim of microaggressions? You poor thing. After every Islamic terror attack, we’re warned about the backlash against innocent Muslims. Just because it never happens, that doesn’t mean they’re not victims. | The Daily Caller

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:00 AM | Your Say (4)

May 3, 2015

The last photos from Messenger before it crashes into the surface of Mercury.

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MESSENGER: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:31 AM | Your Say (2)

Lee Miller in Hitler'€™s bathtub

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How they set it up. She cannot be shown nude (this is LIFE, not Man Ray); a figurine on the table does the trick.
In front of the bath, her combat boots, -€œthe dust of Dachau still on them-€ according to Scherman. And at the back on the left, the portrait. It is a voodoo gesture, the sort her Surrealist friends would approve of, an all-American blend of sass, violence and sex. Nuts to you, Führer! I am naked in your bath with my Jewish lover, we are taking your picture's picture, we are stealing your life-force. The date is April 30th, 1945. In a bunker under Berlin, Hitler places a gun to his head. 70 years ago today: | The Economist

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:29 AM | Your Say (3)

For the Woman Who Has Everything: A 19th-century beaded seal-fur g-string

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Object of Intrigue Atlas Obscura

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:05 AM | Your Say (8)

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

Although he has U.S. citizenship, there is virtually nothing about Barack Obama which is authentically American in the traditional sense of the word.

In other words, we can state that, de jure, Obama is an American – but de facto, he is not. The carefully-sculpted public relations narrative and political propaganda which propelled him into office mentioned neither Obama’s radical roots nor those of his associates – but they are unquestionably there, as figures such as Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky and Frank Marshall Davis prove. In the same vein, the tactics of the administration – i.e., using racial grievances as a weapon of mass destruction – are straight out of the playbook of communist agitation and propaganda. The New Roots ォ The Thinking Housewife

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:43 AM | Your Say (1)

All journalism is a kind of fiction.

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The writer gets to choose what to put in and what to leave out,
shaping the story in different ways than another writer would, even after witnessing the same events. The transaction between the writer and reader consists of an implicit trust that the writer will deliver a reasonable facsimile of people and events as they appeared when the reporter saw them. Mitchell, it turns out, did not always think of nonfiction that way, particularly when it came to his character’s actual existence. 'I wish this guy hadn't written this book' - Columbia Journalism Review

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:30 AM | Your Say (1)

May 2, 2015

Present-day blacks are angry about injustices committed not against them, but acts which may (or may not) have been committed against their ancestors.

Whites and others who aren’t black are expected to feel guilt for acts they did not even commit.

Inherited anger and/or guilt for acts in which one did not even participate is obviously a logical fallacy, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the race-hustlers and their enablers. Over the last half-century, the nation has spent billions in taxpayer funds on redressing racial grievances and blacks – as a demographic cohort – have been the beneficiaries of a vast menu of privileges and special programs available to no one else. None of this seems to have mattered – race-relations are at an very low ebb, and militant blacks are angrier than ever. The New Roots « The Thinking Housewife

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:40 AM | Your Say (9)

May 1, 2015

The political task is a bit difficult, but not all that dire, necessarily.

A good first step is to call the slaves what they are,
and to treat them as free men treat slaves of a foreign empire with an alien religion, which is with contempt and pity, rather than with awe, respect, and fear. The absurdslaves of a dying empire, eager to flagellate themselves and their fellows for public entertainment, can do nothing independently worth fearing. They ask to be broken, they ask to leave no traces to history, so work to break them and then erase them. About the Corporate Slave Class - Henry Dampier

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:12 PM | Your Say (0)

It’s not just latter-day incarnations of Booker T. Washington that captivate the Republican soul during primary season.

In the past, Republicans have coalesced around such obvious joke candidates as businessman Herman Cain,

whose main achievements involved management stints at two of the nation’s most grotesque fast-food chains (Burger King and Godfather’s Pizza), and Alan Keyes, whose resume includes a brief stint as a Reagan appointee to the reviled-by-conservatives United Nations, hosting an ironically titled MSNBC show (Alan Keyes Is Making Sense), and a historic loss to one Barack Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate race. That Cain and Keyes are black is no accident. While the GOP struggles to crack double digits in terms of votes from African Americans, the party’s overwhelmingly white membership seems to have an unending appetite for high-profile, successful black men whose very presence on a debate stage softens charges of hostility and indifference to issues about race. The GOP’s Long Love Affair With Schmucks - The Daily Beast

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:27 PM | Your Say (10)

What Lenin didn’t realize was that prayerful piety is the ultimate stage of Leftism.

It’s when you are in a line praying there is still toilet paper, or bread or a job left for you at the end;

it is when you are on your knees before al-Qaeda begging them to reduce the ransom from $2 to $1.85 million because that’s all your house, car, jewelry and life savings are worth. It is when your arms are raised in rapturous hope at the coming of Obama, Warren, Sanders — or Hillary. That’s the last vision of heaven you will see as you rush to one side of the boat. Chesterton was right. When people stopped believing in God they didn’t believe in nothing, they started believing in anything. Run To the Left | Belmont Club

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:18 PM | Your Say (2)

Baltimore has decided to hang six cops today.

The Soros Army rampaging through America right now is not all that different from pirates in the age of sail or swords-for-hire in the medieval period. Eventually, civilized men will have to crush them, but for now cities and towns will have to make due. Baltimore has decided to hang six cops today. The Soros Army Gets a Human Sacrifice | The Z Blog

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:36 AM | Your Say (4)

How does one put the following data points together?

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:00 AM | Your Say (6)

The British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta Estimate $10,000,000 — $20,000,000. SOLD. $9,480,000

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After Vaughan accepted his offer of six shillings ($1.44), McKinnon is supposed to have given him this observation with the money, “Now look here, my lad, I am taking a great risk in paying so much for this stamp and I hope you will appreciate my generosity.”
1980–2014: John du Pont After just a decade’s absence from the sales room, the One-Cent Magenta again appeared at a Siegel auction, 5 April 1980. As an investment, the stamp proved successful: it was sold to an anonymous bidder for $935,000. The buyer was in the room, but had left bidding instructions with the auctioneer prior to the sale, so he was able to watch the auction without drawing attention to himself.
Although the owner of the stamp was there identified by the pseudonym Rae Mader, it was shortly revealed the owner was actually John du Pont, heir to the eponymous chemical company fortune, eccentric amateur sportsman, and omnivorous collector. Du Pont exhibited the stamp for the last time at CUP-PEX 87 in Perth. The One-Cent was returned from Australia on a Sunday, when there was no access to the bank vault that usually housed the stamp. And on that night—but only that one night— du Pont slept with the stamp under his pillow.The British Guiana 1-Cent Magenta Stamp | Sotheby's

Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:03 AM | Your Say (1)