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October 31, 2015
Gatherings Where You Can Include Me Out
- An estimated 20 to 25 million pilgrims gathered in Karbala, Iraq for the Arba'een in December 2014.
- An estimated 25 million people over twelve days bathed in the Godavari River for the Godavari Maha Pushkaram, held in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India in July 2015.
- An estimated 21 million people bathed at the Triveni Sangam in Allahabad for the Maha Kumbh Mela on 10th Feb, 2013.
- An estimated 22 million people visited the shrine of Husayn ibn Ali in Karbala, Iraq during Arba'een in January 2013.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:21 PM | Your Say (3)
People are stunned and repulsed by the way college campuses have become lately.
Every boy is considered a rapist, every girl a fragile princess.Every statement that is not exactly according to the approved (ever-changing) party line is declared a "microaggression." Every person that dares to question the top-down imposed dogma is considered a monster, drummed out of the public arena, their papers torn down, clubs closed or denied application, speeches canceled. Word Around the Net: THE BOY IN THE BUBBLE GROWS UP
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:51 PM | Your Say (2)
A server will never say this to your face but we all know your gluten allergy is fake.
Your gluten allergy is fake because it ‘comes and goes.’ Your gluten allergy is fake because you will eat at an Italian restaurant but walk away fine because you ordered the gluten free pasta. Your gluten allergy is fake because after reminding your server ten times that you’re highly allergic, you complain to a manager that you were never brought a basket of bread. Your gluten allergy is fake because you asked your server for gluten free biscuits, but extra gravy, please. Your gluten allergy is fake because you didn’t spend months or years in crippling pain and constant digestive distress before cutting gluten from your diet. Your gluten allergy is fake because you only realized you had the allergy after spending a day sick watching daytime television and hearing about the allergy on The View, shrieked at you by a dozen airheaded harpies who have latched on to gluten as the current ‘Number One Threat to Americans and Their Children.’ Your gluten allergy is fake and I hate you : TalesFromYourServer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:49 PM | Your Say (6)
Gluten-Free My Ass: Why food allergy fakers need to stop
So grab a dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free snack and sit back to learn how we got so off-track and what we need to do to regain control.ONE WINTER NIGHT IN 1986, a Brown University freshman joined her friends for dinner at Montana, a popular restaurant at the edge of campus. - The Boston Globe
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:44 PM | Your Say (1)
The Funky Little Football Phone That Sold a Million Magazines
Shampaine raced back to the office and found an in-house designer named John Plunkett. He asked if it might be possible for Plunkett to sketch out a little football sitting on a tee, split it lengthwise and give it a hinge so it could open it like a phone. After several revisions, Plunkett took his drawings to a model-maker he knew in lower Manhattan and had him create a prototype that had no electronic guts inside. Using that unit and a hand model, Shampaine was able to put together a direct-mail test that was sent to 35,000 random people identified as potential SI subscribers. Their response was overwhelming: Americans wanted the football phone and they wanted it now, more than any other premium SI was offering. - - | Rolling Stone
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:37 PM | Your Say (1)
I’M SICK OF THIS S***: Time for Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to Moderate a GOP Debate
..The Republican National Committee offered sanctioned debates to left-leaning networks such as NBC and CNN,yet offered nothing to actual conservative opinion leaders such as ... Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity ... and Mark Levin, who together influence more Republican primary voters than all the television networks combined. As a result, the past three debates have come across as reality television instead of a serious debate on the issues. Doug Ross @ Journal
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:48 AM | Your Say (5)
Winner of "Best Halloween Costume in the Known Universe" Declared Early
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:49 AM | Your Say (2)
"Diversity is our strength:"As in "Cancer is a strength!" "Pollution is our greatest asset!"
"skin in the game," "blood and treasure," "jumped the shark," "boots on the ground," "horrific" (whatever happened to the perfectly good word "horrible"?), "not so much," "I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here," and "that went well," as America’s most irritating cliche. At the End of the Day, Diversity Has Jumped the Shark
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:26 AM | Your Say (1)
Hillary: "Because Vagina!"
Can't remember passwords or how to get around a paywall, but wants the nuclear codes. pic.twitter.com/VoQeUdQvfM
— Countermoonbat (@CounterMoonbat) October 30, 2015Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:59 AM | Your Say (1)
Trump’s Selfish Motives (Please explain them to me)
I have been trying to imagine a scenario in which Donald Trump could act in his own self-interest as president, at the expense of the country at large, and expect things to turn out well for him.What would be a potential example of that? Correct me if I am wrong, but a president Trump would have every incentive to do the very best job, both for the country and for the Trump brand. To do otherwise would be breaking with his lifetime pattern of at least trying to excel at whatever he does. And it would be odd for him to throw the Trump brand under the bus. - - Scott Adams
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:33 AM | Your Say (7)
Woof!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:32 AM | Your Say (1)
I’m often asked why I live where I live, but the fact is I’m living in the future.
If you are a young person today thinking you will live your parent’s life in a white suburb, you’re going to be very disappointed. Your world will be one where you are just another minority in a polyglot, fractured culture that largely depends on a coercive custodial state to maintain order. - - BabelPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:27 AM | Your Say (1)
October 30, 2015
Bird Dog's Got My Number & Sells Me On Fitness
Nature, indeed, wants to kill us after we have bred and ultimately will, but nobody wants to live life with the fitness of the gal behind the desk at the DMV - or of your accountant. Physically lazy is shameful and un-American. Sloth is one of the deadly sins. It seems to me that most people want to be in good, fit shape but do not really aspire to greater strength and power if it takes blood, sweat, and tears. They want what is called "functional" fitness and endurance. That's basically what I wish to maintain or to improve, too but I need a bit more strength and power to get there. Just a few more months, I think. I do not want to get nutty about it but I would like to inspire others.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:22 PM | Your Say (4)
Ben Carson has become the Great White Hope of cuckservatives.
One could argue that he’s even more authentically African-American than Barack Obama, given that Obama’s mother was white and he was raised in part by his white grandparents. In his autobiography, Obama writes at length about how he grew up outside the traditional African-American experience — in Hawaii and Indonesia — and how he consciously chose to adopt a black identity when he was in college.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:01 PM | Your Say (8)
Michael Jackson Has Been Reborn Into His Dream at Shutterfly!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:49 PM | Your Say (5)
Every “Pride” campaign is a cry of self-loathing
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:29 PM | Your Say (2)
Great emotional and financial capital resides in a carrier-battle group, one of the most impressive achievements of the human race.
This assures reluctance to question the fleet’s effectiveness in the face of changing conditions.Such as high-Mach, stealthed, maneuvering, sea-skimming cruise missiles. Or terminally guided anti-ship ballistic missiles. America is accustomed to fighting enemies who can’t fight back. This may not include the Chínese.... If it were discovered that China could disable the Navy, many other countries might conclude that they could do it too. They most certainly would think of this. Washington could not accept the discovery: Fear of the carriers is a large element in Washington’s intimidation of the world. China Sea Blues: A Thing Not to Do
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:05 PM | Your Say (4)
Why all these PC "Rules" for Halloween Costumes? The short answer is: black failure white guilt.
The short answer is: black failure white guilt. This albatross around our necks is what drives most of the narrative. It’s the same reason the media is playing a loop of an angry cop dragging a black girl out of her desk when we’d never see that clip if the races or genders were any other combination. The dogma is: Blacks aren’t doing well in today’s society ergo slavery and white privilege are to blame and we all need to be constantly checking ourselves before we wreck ourselves. -- The Bitching Hour
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:43 AM | Your Say (6)
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:17 AM | Your Say (2)
Buster Keaton's Cure
though rough traces of his youthful beauty remained. His job became making quick appearances in unexpected places. Always, in these later performances, he arrives from and returns to a becalmed region of the past. He appeared in Sunset Boulevard as one of “the waxworks” playing in Gloria Swanson’s bridge game. CABINET //
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:32 AM | Your Say (0)
Landscapes Painted on the Surfaces of Cut Logs
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:11 AM | Your Say (3)
October 29, 2015
During this time, Greer is said to have had trysts with Warren Beatty, Federico Fellini, Martin Amis,
She was popular in every sense of the word. Described by her biographer as having “the youth, the charisma, the chutzpah and the media savvy” to lead the movement, Greer had managed to both radicalize and glamorize women’s liberation. In her wake, more and more women were self-identifying as feminists and organizing consciousness-raising groups within their local communities. The revolution was finally being substantiated through the kind of collective ownership she had so vehemently fought for. And then, just as suddenly, Greer wasn’t relevant. CABINET // The Meaningful Disappearance of Germaine Greer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:36 PM | Your Say (4)
It seemed like a good idea at the time....
In Chennai, India, a man adopted a couple of parakeets after the two were displaced by a tragic tsunami. Ten years later, his green feathered family has gotten bigger. How big exactly? Oh, just about 4,000 members. Lost at E Minor
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:20 PM | Your Say (1)
The underground spring inlet to the Canal Street sewer.
the Canal Street sewer was bookended by the Hudson River, with its saline water and its four-and-a-half-foot tides, and a deep pond fed by underground springs. The overflow from the spring-fed pond flowed slowly westward into the Hudson along this route, forming a wetland that extended deep into what is now SoHo and TriBeCa. When the tide was high in the Hudson, the waterway was deep enough to float a canoe. The Forgotten Streams of New York
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:39 PM | Your Say (0)
Media bias (and the moral narcissism from which it stems) can be so strong that it is akin to a brain disease.
It literally renders you stupid or makes you disbelieve what you know to be true. Bias has hallucinogenic properties. Who knew? It remains to be seen what CNBC will do with John Harwood. Given the history of NBC, they’ll probably make him their new president. Roger Simon: CNBC and Jeb Bush Commit Suicide in BoulderPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:44 AM | Your Say (1)
Universal Repair Kit
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:36 AM | Your Say (4)
The liberal MSM (much like their hero, President Obama) fully believe themselves to be the smartest people in the room
and in many instances have, not just feigned contempt for Republicans, but true and heartfelt contempt for Republicans.So they believe they will win any exchange with a Republican, even if they themselves are lying and the Republican is telling the truth. Maybe even especially if they are lying and the Republican is telling the truth. They believe in their own role as omniscient narrators, and believe that the public sees them that way as well. Can the omniscient make mistakes? Of course not. neo-neocon: Harwood and media lies
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (3)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:13 AM | Your Say (0)
Quote of the day, week, month, year....
Ted Cruz on the CNBC Moderators:This is not a cage match. And, you look at the questions — "Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?" "Ben Carson, can you do math?" "John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?" "Marco Rubio, why don't you resign?" "Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?" How about talking about the substantive issues the people care about?Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:12 AM | Your Say (1)
Never Forget That "In the midst of life...."
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:51 AM | Your Say (0)
October 28, 2015
Noting how progressives seem to imagine no alternative but to rely on the coercive agency of government,
Lippmann writes that they can’t even“remember how much of what they cherish as progressive has come by emancipation from political dominion, by the limitation of power, by the release of personal energy from authority and collective coercion. For virtually all that now passes for progressivism in the United States calls for increasing ascendancy of the state: always the cry is for more officials with more power over more and more of the activities of men.” The Days Of American Despotism | Politically Short
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:38 PM | Your Say (3)
3 Breaking Stories from The Rumford Meteor
Bangor Zombie Walk Gives Comic Book Devotees a Refreshing One-Day Break From Dressing Up Like Star Wars Characters - The Rumford Meteor Insane Catastrophic Killer Hurricane of Deadly Global Warming Death Causes Several Birdbaths to Overflow in Mexico - The Rumford Meteor Tubby Girl Planning on Dressing Sexy for Halloween - The Rumford MeteorPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:26 AM | Your Say (0)
The Charybdis usually turns to the Gospel to justify the surrender to evil,
With much hand-wringing Charybdis warns the warriors not to adopt the monstrous tactics of the enemy, lest we become monsters ourselves. Of course, what makes Charybdis a monster is not this counsel of pacifism and preemptive surrender: it is that in public debate and public policy the Charybdis-type idealist will side with the enemy and direct fire against friends allegedly marching under the same banner. So while the false idealist talks about peace at any price and turning the other cheek, when their fellow soldiers offend them by fighting too hard, they never turn the other cheek, and they are never silent. Instead they side with the foe and blame their own. A Time for Peace, a Time for War | John C. Wright's Journal
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:25 AM | Your Say (2)
Yup. Those girls got that Russian shaking in his boots.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:59 AM | Your Say (6)
Say What, Senor Bambang?
Thomas Jefferson read a number of different languages.In a letter to Philadelphia publisher Joseph Delaplaine on April 12, 1817, Jefferson claimed to read and write six languages: Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and English. After his death, a number of other books, dictionaries, and grammar manuals in various languages were found in Jefferson’s library, suggesting that he studied additional languages beyond those he spoke and wrote well. Among these were books in Arabic, Gaelic, and Welsh.
Barack Obama himself claims to speak no foreign languages. However, according to the President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during a telephone conversation Obama was able to deliver a basic four-word question in “fluent Indonesian”, as well as mention the names for a few Indonesian food items. He also knows some Spanish, but admits to only knowing “15 words” and having a poor knowledge of the language. Reactionary Philosophy In An Enormous, Planet-Sized Nutshell | Slate Star Codex
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:05 AM | Your Say (1)
October 27, 2015
Putin sends fighter jets, Iran sends troops and weapons, Obama sends John Kerry. So no surprise who's calling the shots in Syria & Iraq now.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 27, 2015Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:47 PM | Your Say (0)
Something he said will “haunt his dreams forever.”
He then announced he was entering. What he found behind the door of the unlocked stall is something he said will “haunt his dreams forever.” The security guard reports when he entered the stall, Johnson was inappropriately pleasing herself with a Jimmy Dean package of sausage. He said that when he entered “She didn’t even stop. She just stared at me and kept going.” Shocked, and also frightened for his safety due to the fact that Johnson is a “big girl,” the 140 pound security guard said he ran out until police arrived. When they did, female officers entered the restroom with Johnson still “putting in work with the sausage.” All in all, it took 7 police officers to restrain Johnson and pry the victimized sausage out of the woman’s hands. - - Woman Arrested For Masturbating With Jimmy Dean Sausage In Walmart Bathroom
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:37 PM | Your Say (10)
The Miss Navajo Beauty Pageant, which requires contestants to butcher a sheep and speak navajo
One of the talent competitions is butchering sheep, and speaking Navajo is a must. They must answer impromptu questions in Navajo, like, “What are you supposed to do with the sheep’s head?” --Messy Nessy Chic
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:32 PM | Your Say (3)
It seemed like a good idea at the time....
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:11 PM | Your Say (3)
“People say: ‘What good does it do to point out the obvious?’
A great deal of good; for we sometimes know facts without paying attention to them.Advice is not teaching; it merely engages the attention and rouses us, and concentrates the memory, and keeps it from losing grip. We miss much that is set before our very eyes. Advice is, in fact, a sort of exhortation. The mind often tries not to notice even that which lies before our eyes; we must therefore force upon it the knowledge of things that are perfectly well known.” –Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:48 PM | Your Say (0)
Weary Nation Says One Or Two More Divisive Issues Should Finish It Off
WASHINGTON—Saying it was “probably just a matter of months now,” weary citizens across the U.S. confirmed Mondaythat it should only take one or two more divisive issues to finally finish it off. “Given the way things are now, all we need is some controversial trade policy or maybe a local police abuse case to blow up on the national level and that’ll be it,” said Stowe, VT resident Ellen Hueber. -- The Source
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:31 PM | Your Say (0)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:15 PM | Your Say (1)
Christ goes where He is wanted, and under present circumstances that is far, far away, “to the peripheries”
— or rather, let us cut the cheap sociological blather and say, “to the ends of the Earth.”He is in love with the bright-eyed peoples of Africa; and with those suffering under murderous tyrannies in Asia and the Middle East. By contrast in Europe, and here in the Americas, in our life of fat and consumption, we now have little use for Him; and so He leaves us to find our own way, progressively, downward. Hae nobis propriae sedes : Essays in Idleness
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:59 AM | Your Say (0)
The twilight of democracy is showing as it violates its basic principles in order to keep the franchise afloat.
When do we admit that democracy itself is a failure?Mob rule is mob rule. People in herds behave like panicked, selfish, bigoted animals. Since their bigotry must flatter themselves, it usually takes the form of anti-bigotry or universal acceptance of all people, which destroys any standards, culture, values, heritage, religion, and even behavior codes. Democracy converts societies into sloppy, piggish, egotistical mobs. Twilight for democracy
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:54 AM | Your Say (1)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:31 AM | Your Say (1)
We pay a tax for our computer servants.
Every day, it seems to be something — update this program, change that password, fix a broken link, shop for a plugin, research a new tool. I’ve always had a nagging feeling that this is a bigger time sink than I quite realize. Let me try to quantify it… The hidden personal cost of your computer ecosystem
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:08 AM | Your Say (2)
October 26, 2015
Why Snoopy Is Such a Controversial Figure to ‘Peanuts’ Fans
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:50 PM | Your Say (1)
It's important to share....
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:30 AM | Your Say (3)
The two items directly below feature two different visions of "feminity."
Which one do you prefer?Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:47 AM | Your Say (7)
A Brief History of the Flower Crown
It is typically worn in festive occasions and on holy days and has a long history and association with ancient pageants and ceremonies. Outside of occasional use, the wreath can also be used as a crown. To get the full scoop on the flower crown, you have to go all the way back to ancient Greece. Let the history lesson begin. From | Blossom via HappyAcres
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:43 AM | Your Say (0)
Female Rangers: An Insider Speaks on the Record
He thought, and still thinks, female Ranger students should have gone through a pipeline before Ranger School: infantry basic, infantry Advanced Individual Training, and then Ranger. He didn’t think it made sense to send females without prior infantry training, and unlike others, he wasn’t sure a female would even make it through RAP Week (Ranger Assessment Phase, a difficult week of physical events at the beginning of the school). But the two female graduates made it through the entire course, upholding the same standards as every other graduate. ｫ breachbangclear.com
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:29 AM | Your Say (17)
Home of the free?
America is controlled, watched, and regulated to a degree unimaginable in 1960.Speakers on subways admonish us to watch other passengers for suspicious behavior. We dance barefoot in airports. Cameras read our license plates and mail us tickets. Freedom of speech? Say anything interpretable as a âracial slurâ and you lose your job. Truth has nothing to do with it. You are a reporter? Criticize Israel and you lose your job. Offend the proliferating sexual curiosities and you lose your job. Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Freedom of religion? Overt Christianity is almost illegal. Wimp Nation: Poised to Fall
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:22 AM | Your Say (5)
October 25, 2015
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:53 AM | Your Say (2)
Men as an organization are getting more women than anyother group working in the world today!
Wherever women are, we have men looking into the situation.We explored the earth looking for women. We even went to the moon just to see if there were any women there!! Thats why we've brought the car. Why would you bring a car [to the moon], unless there is a chance of getting out on a date!! -- Seinfeld
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:52 AM | Your Say (0)
Conservatives do not acknowledge enough that modern life is hell and all sane people should feel perfectly normal for hating it and wanting it destroyed.
Most people have submitted to the order and accepted that this is just the way things are,which in turn corrupts them by removing their internal gauge of what is good. Jobs: 90% of what we do is unnecessary pro forma busy work to feel important. Behavior: shove the costs of your self-interest onto the group, hiding it with public acts of altruism. Living: food, water and activities are dumbed-down, semi-toxic and expensive varieties of the real thing, and all people are insincere. Cities: cram too many people into a space and force them to “tolerate” each other, making all of them give up on life. It is slow spirit-death every day. Stranded in Hell
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:34 AM | Your Say (2)
People have no idea how easy it would be to put the car into reverse and zoom straight back out of Hell.
It would start with someone saying loudly, in public and for all to hear— and as if forbidden by Devils this never happens — that our problem is the reign of the Ego. That no, we cannot make choices as individuals; we have to decide as a civilization, for the sake of past, future, nature and everyone together, not as special interest groups. The instant that happens, the bad people among us — and they are there, like mosquitoes at a campsite — will start panicking because they know their era is over. Stranded in Hell
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:33 AM | Your Say (0)
Superyacht Getaway Subs And Luxury Bomb Shelters: The Elite Are The Most Paranoid Preppers Of All
They’re so Noughties. If you want bragging rights these days, you need your own submarine, which floats out of a sub-sea compartment in your superyacht. ‘It’s a toy, but if the worst happened, it could also be an escape route,’ says one prominent London tycoon with a weakness for Monaco-berthed superyachts — provided they have military-grade radar jammers and missile and torpedo defences. | Zero Hedge
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:24 AM | Your Say (1)
More Notes on the Progress of the Disease from the Freak Show
it continues, “ball-busting butches, and never-married, happy-as-hell spinsters. Get down on riot ghouls and radical vampiric grannies while channeling your inner consciousness hell-raiser. Each evening of nightmarishly non-assimilated lesbian mayhem will include multiple live performances from a spirited group of international and local weirdos.”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:59 AM | Your Say (4)
October 24, 2015
"The fall of Trantor," said Seldon, "cannot be stopped by any conceivable effort.
The tale of my interrupted trial will spread through the Galaxy. Frustration of my plans to lighten the disaster will convince people that the future holds no promise to them. Already they recall the lives of their grandfathers with envy. They will see that political revolutions and trade stagnations will increase. The feeling will pervade the Galaxy that only what a man can grasp for himself at that moment will be of any account. Ambitious men will not wait and unscrupulous men will not hang back. By their every action they will hasten the decay of the worlds. Have me killed and Trantor will fall not within three centuries but within fifty years and you, yourself, within a single year." [Isaac Asimov, Foundation, emphasis added.] Liberty's Torch: Why Bother?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:54 PM | Your Say (3)
Same people who profess the virtue of "Free Range" Chicken are also those who say humans should live in high density cities
Cities: cram too many people into a space and force them to “tolerate” each other, making all of them give up on life. It is slow spirit-death every day. - - Stranded in HellPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:06 PM | Your Say (5)
The man who got Dillinger -- and Pretty Boy Floyd -- and Baby Face Nelson
He spoke little, but when he did, it was with a mellifluous Southern drawl, befitting a graduate of the Citadel and the University of South Carolina's law school, Melvin Horace Purvis II would within four months in 1934 end the violent criminal careers of John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson --- the original Public Enemies No. 1. Don Surber:
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:45 AM | Your Say (1)
Then Donald Trump turns up.
He has an issue, but it's the one the consultant class advise you to go nowhere near with a ten-foot pole, so he snaffles it up all to himself.
He spends nothing on ads, because he's sucking up all the free airtime in the 15 minutes between the stupid irritating soft-focus commercials. His biggest expense is hats and T-shirts. He has no endorsements from former senators and former congressmen and former this and former that, because they're losers and nobody remembers who they are. Not being a career politician, he feels no need to pretend to be an average working stiff, because he's not. And the consultants' response to all this is to complain that Trump's not doing it right. Then Ben Carson comes along.... -- Mark Steyn
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:41 AM | Your Say (3)
The Storm of the Century..... As Usual
The Strongest Hurricane Ever Recorded Hit Mexico Last Night | In a stroke of good fortune for the residents of Cuixmala and Puerto Vallarta, the storm decreased in intensity over the night and has since been downgraded from a powerful Category 5 hurricane to a tropical storm.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:47 AM | Your Say (1)
October 23, 2015
Louis L'Amour's book The Man from Skibbereen
Someday with luck he would walk into such a house,strike a match, lift the chimney and touch the flame to the wick of his own lamp, sit down in his own house. He would smell the fire smells, the warm cooking smells, and he would stretch out his legs under his table with a faint sigh. He would rest then... he would dream, and he would rise from time to time to add a log or to stir the coals of his own fire. - -Word Around the Net
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:39 PM | Your Say (3)
Who betrays these circles of loyalty is sick to their soul. You can count on that.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:21 PM | Your Say (3)
European social democracy reduces society to a giant insurance plan in which money is pooled together.
European social democracy expects him to bail it out, but to Mohammed, European values are a crime against Islam. Mohammed’s Imam will tell him to work off the books because paying into the system is gambling. However taking money out of the system is just Jizya; the money non-Muslims are obligated to pay to Muslims. Under Islamic law, it’s better for Mohammed to sell drugs than to pay taxes. Sultan Knish: The Death of Europe
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:10 PM | Your Say (1)
One of the biggest problems nerds have is they rely too heavily on words.
You’d think they’d realize how ineffective verbal abuse was, considering they use the line “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” over and over again. Yet words continue to be their weapon of choice, despite the fact nothing ever gets accomplished and they all end up sounding like a Real Housewives of Orange County re-union. - - STREET CARNAGEPosted by gerardvanderleun at 1:53 PM | Your Say (1)
Precision
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:55 AM | Your Say (1)
"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather."
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:06 AM | Your Say (3)
3 of the Top 10 Reasons to Vote for Trump
3. Walking around Seattle (or other SJW infested area) on November 9, 2016 wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat and a shit-eating grin 2. Tax cuts! 1. To see what he does next -- UnorthodoxyPosted by gerardvanderleun at 7:57 AM | Your Say (0)
The latest poll out of Iowa shows Carson ahead of Trump. And you know what that means?
It means Iowa is about to become irrelevant. The Case for a Trump Landslide (Part 1)Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:54 AM | Your Say (0)
Inside the Secret World of Russia's Cold War Mapmakers
got a tiny taste of the 007 lifestyle. He and other dealers who brought the maps to the West still have vivid memories of clandestine meetings in dark Moscow bars, being trailed by KGB agents (who else could it be?), and worrying about who was listening in on their phone calls. | WIRED
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:39 AM | Your Say (0)
October 22, 2015
Animal House
LONDON — A former meerkat expert at London Zoo has been ordered to pay compensation to a monkey handler she attacked with a wine glass in a love spat over a llama-keeper. -- Washington PostPosted by gerardvanderleun at 7:57 PM | Your Say (3)
Good Scientists & Mad Scientists
The good ones tread with great care where God’s magnificent creation is concerned;the mad ones would cut down the Tree of Life to find out how many rings it has. The mad ones are also those who, at the cost of billions of taxpayers’ dollars, have invented a gigantic machine of unbelievable complexity and superhuman sophistication that produces nothing at all—not even a fart. - Taki's Magazine
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:41 AM | Your Say (3)
If things get out of control in America, a whole lot of bank managers are going to turn up with their throats cut.
I have my revenge fantasies like any other normal man, but those are for my own entertainment. It just seems to me that our betters are in a hurry to heap as many slights and humiliations upon as they can. It’s as if they think they are at war with us. At some point, the other side of that war is going to wake up and decide to join the fight. I would not want to be a SunTrust Bank manager when that happens. - - Burn, baby! Burn!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:06 AM | Your Say (4)
October 21, 2015
How dare those Jews strike back, when all we were doing was knifing them?
What interests me, as a “sign of the times,” is that the needling is, in every case, both rude and open.It is like the rocks thrown at the Jamarat, in Mecca. It seems not odd, when everyone is doing it. The malice is like that of the Palestinians, directed towards the Jews. It happens every day; everyone expects it. Only when the Jews defend themselves, does outrage suddenly boil over. How dare they respond in such a “disproportionate” way? How dare those Jews strike back, when all we were doing was knifing them? Drinking note : Essays in Idleness
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:00 PM | Your Say (0)
Mexico is the most obese country on earth and they are allegedly waddling north in search of more stuff, like grazing animals.
Everything in the West is based on the assumption that the economy will grow forever.That’s not irrational. For most of human history, scarcity has been the great challenge. The great minds were all put to the task of figuring out how society can allocate scare resources to support the maximum number of people. In a world with shortages of food, water, housing, shelter and safety, growing the supply of those stocks is paramount. It trumps everything. The trouble is, everything in the West is based on the assumption that the economy will grow forever.That’s not irrational. For most of human history, scarcity has been the great challenge. The great minds were all put to the task of figuring out how society can allocate scare resources to support the maximum number of people. In a world with shortages of food, water, housing, shelter and safety, growing the supply of those stocks is paramount. It trumps everything. That’s not the modern West. It’s barely the case in the savage areas. The population explosion in Africa is due to more food, medicine, shelter and security. We live in an age where poor people are obese because they sit around all day eating massive calories, taking massive amounts of intoxicants while watching television. Mexico is the most obese country on earth and they are allegedly waddling north in search of more stuff, like grazing animals.The Myth of Growth | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:31 PM | Your Say (4)
Defunded Planned Parenthood Reassures Supporters It Has Enough Fetus Cash To Keep Going
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards assured supporters Tuesday that it has plenty of fetus cash to keep going for a while.“While the decision by Texas to eliminate taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood is unfortunate, I want everyone to know that we have an ample supply of sweet baby-organ cabbage to continue providing our services,” said Richards, adding that the reproductive and maternal health organization had enough fetal-tissue scratch to keep the doors open for the foreseeable future. “Lawmakers remain determined to deny reproductive health care to women in need, and if not for our golden baby-parts goose, they well may have succeeded. But rest assured that with our mad stacks of aborted-fetus bucks, the future of Planned Parenthood is as secure as ever.” -- The Source
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:20 PM | Your Say (5)
"The John Frum movement has endured, based on the worship of an American god no sober man has ever seen."
They prayed for ships and planes to once again come out of nowhere, bearing all kinds of treasures: jeeps and washing machines, radios and motorcycles, canned meat and candy. But the venerated Americans never came back, except as a dribble of tourists and veterans eager to revisit the faraway islands where they went to war in their youth. And although almost all the cargo cults have disappeared over the decades, the John Frum movement has endured, based on the worship of an American god no sober man has ever seen.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:19 PM | Your Say (1)
Who owns Chicken Tikka Masala?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:15 AM | Your Say (1)
The racist is a boogeyman that’s popular to hate.
‘Racism’ tends to be portrayed as a universal evil that has been overcome by the march of rational philosophy, much like how the development of sewer systems and indoor plumbing made it so that people no longer dump feces on the streets (except in contemporary, high-tech San Francisco). The Logic of Civil Rights - Social MatterPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:00 AM | Your Say (3)
Tell me about the rabbits, Barack.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:42 AM | Your Say (2)
October 20, 2015
The Crossing Story
It was as if a bomb exploded between the rear wheels of the bus. The blunt nose of the locomotive tore into the last few feet of the school bus, shearing off the back end. The impact hurled the front section of the bus into a barrel roll. The bus tore down the crossing sign as it tumbled to a stop on its side, landing 192 feet away. Its jumbled frame rails protruded next to a gaping hole where, an instant before, there had been children. -- Worst Traffic Accident in the History of Colorado
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:05 PM | Your Say (2)
The Best Selling Car In America
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:56 PM | Your Say (4)
Vivos Indiana Underground Survival Shelter
Like a very comfortable 4-Star hotel, this massive shelter is tastefully and comfortably furnished and decorated, completely outfitted, fully stocked with food, toiletries, linens, medical supplies, a one year supply of fuel, a deep water well, NBC filtration systems, geothermal heating and cooling, bedroom suites, full size showers and bathrooms, a theater area, dining area, lounge area, exercise equipment, kennels, a garden area for fresh vegetables, laundry area, abundant storage areas, ATV's, bicycles, tools, a workshop, security devices; and, just about everything else that may be needed to ride out virtually any catastrophic event. You only need to bring your personal clothing and medications. -- TerraVivos
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:51 PM | Your Say (4)
"I've been sleepwalking, been wandering all night Trying to take what's lost and broke and make it right."
Ah, well,don't we all, really?Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:31 PM | Your Say (3)
Dad
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:05 AM | Your Say (1)
I don’t expect any professional journalists to say my Master Wizard Hypothesis is credible.
To do so would not be a good career move for them.And it would also require accepting the painful idea that Trump is smarter than the people who have been publicly calling him an idiot. So this is the perfect set-up for cognitive dissonance. I predict you will see some new explanations for Trump’s success that are truly bizarre. Look for some sort of weird conspiracy theory to emerge. -- Scott Adams
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:02 AM | Your Say (7)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:55 AM | Your Say (0)
The weird thing about the Reagan years is they may as well have never happened.
All the good that was done in those years has been rolled backand some of it so quickly it is hard remember that was ever done. What’s crazier, is immediately after Reagan, his party went right back to believing what they believed before he won two landslide elections. That is, they had to be Democrat-lite in order to win elections. Oh Canada | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:49 AM | Your Say (3)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:09 AM | Your Say (1)
October 19, 2015
"Sparkle” wasn’t focused on the desert outside her window.
It was 2009 and President Obama was sending troops in a surge to Afghanistan.Sparkle’s mind was on a desert 7,000 miles away. Over the next 24 hours she would track an insurgent, watch as he was killed by a Hellfire missile, and spy on his funeral before ending her night with a breakfast beer and a trip to the dog park. She Kills People From 7,850 Miles Away
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:54 PM | Your Say (9)
Ebola hangs out in testicles? Another reason to just admit African refugees willy-nilly into your country.
Two new research papers found that the virus can live in a male survivor's semen for up to nine months, and that one man passed it to his sexual partner months after he was released from the Ebola ward.
"It's an explosive virus. It replicates like crazy ... and it destroys everything in its path," says Messaoudi, a viral immunologist and professor of biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside, who is studying how the virus works in the human body. "So, how is it just hanging out in the testes for like nine months?" -- NPR
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:38 PM | Your Say (1)
STEEM is caffeinated peanut butter. What else do we need to say?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:37 PM | Your Say (0)
We might think of the left as the Good Intentions Paving Company,
and we all know where their shining paths lead. For the left, unanticipated consequences always swamp the anticipated. - - One CʘsmosPosted by gerardvanderleun at 1:35 PM | Your Say (2)
Jerry Parr: The Man Who Saved Reagan's Life
Code of the Secret Service (1939) starring Ronald Reagan as agent “Brass” Bancroft.... Parr came to believe that God had directed his life to save Reagan, and became a pastor after leaving the Secret Service. neo-neocon » Blog Archive » Now, this is odd
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:12 PM | Your Say (0)
Dustbin of History: The Pager
The same forces that created the pager boom sent it into a tailspin just a few years later, when steadily dropping prices and ever-expanding features of cell phones caused pager owners to trade up by the millions.
By 2000, the number of pager owners in the United States was down to 37 million, a decline of nearly 40 percent in just two years. In 2002, even Motorola, which invented the modern pager business and controlled 85 percent of the American market at its peak, stopped manufacturing and servicing pagers. By 2008, there were only 6 million pager subscribers in the U.S., a nearly 90-percent drop since 1999. That year 255 million Americans owned cell phones. - - TIFO
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:52 AM | Your Say (3)
William Wrigley Jr. and His Freebies
Wrigley moved on from specializing in soap to baking powder, but still continued to offer freebies. This time around, it was baking powder with free chewing gum thrown in. Soon, the chewing gum was eclipsing the baking powder in popularity. From Scouring Soap to Chewing Gum-
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:44 AM | Your Say (0)
The big story of 1915 is that it has been a disaster for the Russians.
The Tsar has made the fateful decision to assume direct command of the Russian Army. It is a fateful decision – at least, people say it’s fateful – for two reasons. Firstly it means that any Russian military failures are his personal failures. Secondly, it means he is not in Petrograd to keep an eye on the domestic situation. At least, that’s the theory. There’s every chance he would have been every bit as useless in Petrograd as at the front. 1915: the story so far « Samizdata
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:17 AM | Your Say (0)
The Sioux Guide to Situational Awareness
We examined the slightest sign of life; and if a bird had scratched the leaves off the ground, or a bear dragged up a root for his morning meal, we stopped to speculate on the time it was done. If we saw a large old tree with some scratches on its bark, we concluded that a bear or some raccoons must be living there. -- Art of Manliness
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:19 AM | Your Say (3)
October 18, 2015
Americans, probably like everyone in the West, just assume that the shape of our countries will remain the same forever.
Conquest is something you read about, but that’s all in the past so the map will stay the same forever. Similarly, we tend to think that revolution is no longer a part of civilized life. The savages have revolts maybe, but the civilized countries have elections to sort out problems. - -The Break UpPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:46 PM | Your Say (2)
You’ve Got Mail Bombs: Tracking Down the Most Dangerous Letters in the World
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:17 PM | Your Say (2)
Robert Crumb: "The hippie culture of Haight-Ashbury, where it all started for me, was full of men doing nothing all day and expecting women to bring them food.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:02 AM | Your Say (4)
October 17, 2015
Kissinger: A Path Out of the Middle East Collapse
The current crisis is taking place in a world of nontraditional nuclear and cyber technology.As competing regional powers strive for comparable threshold capacity, the nonproliferation regime in the Middle East may crumble. If nuclear weapons become established, a catastrophic outcome is nearly inevitable. - WSJ
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:22 PM | Your Say (3)
Man Desperately Trying To Wring Every Last Ounce Of Relaxation From Final Day Of Vacation
“I already made the mistake of opening a work email, and I can’t get sidetracked like that again.I’m going to read a book—better yet, read it outside so I don’t have to do a separate activity to get some sun—then move straight to video games.” -- Source
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:58 PM | Your Say (2)
How Bad Will It Get for American Express?
The Amex people, most of whom had MBAs, sometimes found it amusing to deal with Costco veteranswho spoke about starting out stocking warehouse shelves. Less endearing was the habit Costco executives had of referring to Amex as a “vendor.” That made the Amex people seethe. After all, they represented one of America’s oldest corporations. But they smiled and said nothing, and the corporate marriage endured for 16 years. -- Bloomberg
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:53 PM | Your Say (7)
The "Palestinian" Subhuman Animals
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (2)
The Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) is all around us. Yet he is invisible.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:10 AM | Your Say (1)
Gynecological Gymnastics from Outer Space (1895)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:04 AM | Your Say (2)
The Iraq of Latin America
A few years ago, goons from one of the cartels in Acapulco demanded elementary school teacherscough up fifty percent of their salaries or the schools would be attacked. They left a sack of five severed heads out front on the sidewalk to show they weren’t screwing around. The Mexican Drug War has killed more than 100,000 people in the last eight years. Think about that. That’s twice as many as the number of American killed during the Vietnam War. The conflict even occasionally spills over the border into the United States. -- Michael Totten | World Affairs Journal
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:26 AM | Your Say (2)
Because you're not enough of an infant already....
Remember that Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car with the yellow roof that you wanted for Christmas but never got, and now have to attempt to fit into one when you go into Walmart drunk? Well, no more of that because a real, adult-sized Cozy Coupe has been created for all of us who refuse to stop blaming our mom for not getting us one when we were young.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:13 AM | Your Say (2)
October 16, 2015
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:49 PM | Your Say (2)
The Russians will kill everything that moves in eastern Syria, for example, in order to subdue ISIS.
From an American perspective, handing the Middle East over to the Russians is not a terrible thing. Americans are far too moralistic to run a proper empire. The Russians are too incompetent to remain a big player in the region in the long run, but in the short run they will be the whip hand that is needed to keep the peace. == Z BlogPosted by gerardvanderleun at 7:51 PM | Your Say (2)
We’re Revolting
Their [cuckservative's] response to the revolt has been a hissy fit that confirms, in the minds of the revolting, that they are right to replace these men of no action.It’s not that the replacement is better or more likely to win. The first step in every revolution is to exact revenge on those responsible for the current conditions.That’s why we are revolting. | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:46 PM | Your Say (3)
Yet another bogus Russian "miracle discovery."
Russian scientists make progress on secret of eternal life'The bacteria gives out biologically active substances throughout its life, which activates the immune status of experimental animals.' As a result, 'mice grannies not only began to dance, but also produced offspring'. If the same substance were to be given to people, it could cause a significant improvement in their health, leading to the discovery of an 'elixir of life', said Dr Chernyavsky.
A number of claims are now being made for the potential of three different strains of bacteria found in the permafrost, among them the rejuvenating of the life of living beings. Another is the potential development of organisms capable of destroying petroleum molecules, turning them into water, with the potential one day to create a new system for cleaning up oil spills. A third strain of ancient bacteria is capable of eliminating cellulose molecules.Russians have dealt in this bogus crap since before the ays of Lysenkoism.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:31 PM | Your Say (0)
"I awoke this morning from a very disturbing dream.
I dreamt that I was trying to do my job as a baker, and was overwhelmed by the number of cakes I had to decorate.Suddenly, Whoopie Goldberg showed up in a white pant suit with red stripes, and she threw all my cakes on the floor. I screamed, "Get your filthy, black c*nt outta here!" And right at that moment, Glenn Beck showed up and gave her a New Testament. Autographed. It was at that point I laughed myself awake." Posted by: Mother Effingby
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:26 PM | Your Say (0)
No, you shouldn’t be playing superhero at 31.
Hey, sad little kid with his underwear yanked up his ass, if you’re too scared to punch a bully in the nose, here’s a story about a nerd like you named Clark Kent. He has to hide the fact that he could easily kick the ass of every bully in the world. It’s a fantasy for preadolescent bookworms. No Kids Allowed
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:11 AM | Your Say (2)
October 15, 2015
By Their Fruits Shall Ye Know Them: Hillary Campaign Announces Premium 'UNT' Mugs for Donations of $20 or More
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:48 PM | Your Say (6)
Department of Obvious and Ignored Truths
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:48 PM | Your Say (1)
From Civilization and Its Enemies by Lee Harris
"Our first task is therefore to try to grasp what the concept of the enemy really means. The enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the enemy always hates us for a reason, it is his reason, and not ours."Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:03 AM | Your Say (11)
In no decade in history did the Moslems live in peace with their neighbors, except a brief respite when they were conquered by European powers.
So history teachesthat the Mohammedans are relentless, and merciless,and that they have tortured, enslaved, defeated and humiliated Christians again and again and again, with only a brief respite between Lepanto and the Cold War. With the Fall of the Soviet Union, they emerge again. Help for the History Impaired: On Mohammedanism | EveryJoe
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:46 AM | Your Say (3)
Noah’s pink cashmere shirt, also available in more discreet navy and camel. At a tidy $798,
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:07 AM | Your Say (2)
October 14, 2015
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:48 PM | Your Say (0)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:48 PM | Your Say (2)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:48 PM | Your Say (5)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:48 PM | Your Say (0)
When Book Lovers Guarded Their Prized Possessions With Tiny Artworks
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:25 PM | Your Say (0)
Democrats Are Godless Heathen Tyrant Maniacs Because That’s What Voters Want
These are mainstream, popular, beloved Democrat politicians participating in a presidential election on national TV, yet from what they’re saying, you’d be excused for assuming they were just a handful of fringe crazies campaigning to be the next leader of some hippy commune in upstate Oregon. | TheBlaze.com
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:10 PM | Your Say (0)
World War III may be our only hope,
because it will force us to get our heads out of the cloud of illusion created by liberalism and focus on the actual real world instead of the shadows projected onto a cave wall formed by democracy, altruism, social morality and other proxies for reality. World War III? Let’s hope so.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:11 PM | Your Say (0)
The phrase “Not The Onion” effortlessly entered the language, and deservedly so:
At its best, the Onion hit that satirical sweet spot where realism and absurdity—and sometimes even tenderness—meet, giving its best offerings an umami piquancy: “Rest Of U2 Perfectly Fine With Africans Starving”; “Alzheimer’s Sufferers Demand Cure For Pancakes.” Shaidle @ Taki'sPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:06 PM | Your Say (0)
What if what you saw of the Democratic leadership was actually what there was?
Suppose the top tier of the Obama administration really consisted of mediocrities who could function only in coddled and scripted situations? -- Belmont ClubPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:46 AM | Your Say (4)
Another Stealth Brigade of a National Federal Police Force
Iowa park rangers now armed with M-16 rifles "The rangers said the guns will help them assist other departments."Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:12 AM | Your Say (7)
October 13, 2015
Can Philosophy Be Justified in a Time of Crisis?
First, in Part I(A), I make the case that there is a large crisis of suffering in the world today (Part I does not take me very long.). - - Nathan J RobinsonPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:56 AM | Your Say (7)
[Bumped] "'Oh,” you say, "But there's no way even the United States could kill the entire Muslim population of the planet."
I guarantee you that right now, right this very minute, that there exists somewhere in the Pentagon a detailed, step-by-step plan for the destruction of Islam by means of military force, from the Ka'aba right down to the shabbiest plywood shawarma stand in Karachi. -- The Pearl Harbor SwitchPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:20 AM | Your Say (60)
I spent $12K on suits out of some guy’s trunk
Over the summer, Burekhovich plunked down more than $12,000 on a couple of $500 summer blazers, eight regular blazers, two tuxes, a couple of suits, 10 shirts and a $1,200 winter coat, from a stranger parked on the side of the road. | New York PostPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:50 AM | Your Say (2)
Shared sacrifice.
The [Open the Books] report [on the EPA] also reveals that seven of 10 EPA employees make more than $100,000 a year and more than 12,000 of its 16,000 employees were given bonuses last year despite budget cuts. - - Liberty's TorchPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:01 AM | Your Say (4)
October 12, 2015
The greatest Christmas movie of all time?
Die Hard. -- Shaidle
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:08 PM | Your Say (4)
What It Takes to Be a Hotshot
At fire season's peak, we head out with California's firefighting elite to find out what it takes to run in their ranks. | HuckberryPosted by gerardvanderleun at 1:36 PM | Your Say (4)
"It’s over, it’s done The end is begunIf you listen to fools… The Mob Rules"
Put people together in a group and they end up with compromises because in the middle band of smarter people there are foolish but clever people who insist on being “unique” and representing their own interests at the expense of the group. World War III? Let’s hope so.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:03 PM | Your Say (3)
I am just completely blown-away by the lack of shame in those who seek to further restrict the American citizen’s ownership and responsible use of firearms.
It’s as if every active-shooter event makes them more ignorant than they were after the one that came before, and more brazen than they were after the one that came before. House of EratosthenesPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:53 PM | Your Say (4)
“No one owns life,
but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.” -- William BurroughsPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:40 AM | Your Say (2)
"If you must buy things, pay cash, and only buy things of value -- no trinkets, no gimmicks.
Everything you own must be able to fit inside one suitcase; then your mind might be free." (1970) Charles BukowskiPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:38 AM | Your Say (2)
“This book attempts to depict the strange transformation of the free human mind into an automatically responding machine
– a transformation which can be brought about by some of the cultural undercurrents in our present-day society as well as by deliberate experiments in the service of a political ideology.” “The Rape of the Mind: Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing” (1956).Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (1)
Modernism is no longer modern.
Eventually, intelligent people are bound to tire of a choice between a lowest-common-denominator international popular culture and a campus-based literary culture limited to realistic novels and chatty free verse poems. World Books | The Smart SetPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:05 AM | Your Say (1)
They say that people feared the midnight knock of the Gestapo,
while the modern SWAT team bursts in through the windows in the wee hours of the morning, throwing grenades into baby cribs, shooting dogs, throwing sleeping civilians to the floor, cursing at them, neglecting to show a warrant, and inflicting other vandalism and mayhem -- often only to discover that they are at the wrong address. The Police StatePosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:01 AM | Your Say (0)
Terror is actually fine, as long as it is the Red Terror, as described by Lenin.
The current police, which enforce capitalism through racist terror tactics, will be replaced with police who only terrorize capitalists, racists, sexists, homophobes, and other enemies of right thinking and virtue. The Police StatePosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:20 AM | Your Say (4)
October 10, 2015
Report: 15,000 People Vanish From ‘Fall Fest’ Hayride Wagons Each Year
“Our data shows that, each autumn, between 1 and 2 percent of all Fall Fest attendees who climb up onto the back of straw-covered wagons and embark on tractor-pulled hayrides never return,” said the report’s lead author, Simon Shaw, noting that on the average hayride, at least two or three passengers will unexpectedly go missing and be lost forever. -- NewsSourcePosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:36 PM | Your Say (1)
We know what we are no longer interested in paying for.
We are not interested in helping those who cannot help themselves, the great diversity experiment, or the radicals of feminist and other stripes who seem like self-parody. - - Everyone is a crypto-conservative nowPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:05 AM | Your Say (3)
October 9, 2015
Group Of Christie Campaign Deserters Found In Forest
SHAMONG, NJ—Huddling together around fires of burning yard signs while sipping small rations of soup from mugs adorned with the phrase “Telling It Like It Is,” a ragged encampment of advisers, pollsters, and volunteers who deserted Chris Christie’s presidential campaign was reportedly found living deep in a New Jersey forest Friday, authorities confirmed. - - News SourcePosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:55 PM | Your Say (2)
An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot;
it will succeed where diplomatic management would fall: it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the ocean that can arrest its progress: it will march on the horizon of the world, and it will conquer. - - Thomas PainePosted by gerardvanderleun at 5:56 PM | Your Say (6)
From Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe
Do the Panthers like little Roquefort cheese morsels rolled in crushed nuts this way, and asparagus tips in mayonnaise dabs, and meatballs petites au Coq Hardi, all of which are at this very moment being offered to them on gadrooned silver platters by maids in black uniforms with hand-ironed white aprons?” How Tom Wolfe Became … Tom Wolfe | Vanity FairPosted by gerardvanderleun at 5:44 PM | Your Say (6)
Letterman looks like someone who wants to sell you yak-wool sweaters for extreme weather, or a chapbook of his own apocalyptic poems.
The achievement beard—a marker of triumphant lassitude, the victory lap after a long job well done—has been gaining currency in recent years among men who might like to move through the world noticeably unnoticed. All Hail the Achievement Beard! - The New YorkerPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:10 AM | Your Say (3)
Donald Trump's polls, sometimes characterized as weakening, are in fact strong.
As Bloomberg’s John Heilemann said on “Morning Joe,” if Jeb Bush had Mr. Trump’s numbers everyone would declare the race over. - - WSJPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:52 AM | Your Say (2)
Three of the most revered women in the country right now, Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox, and Janet Mock, are men.
Any show or movie that even alludes to transanything is showered with presents and all you have to do to win any competition is grow a beard and put on a dress. - - Dear MartiansPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:39 AM | Your Say (2)
October 8, 2015
The Phantom Fame: ‘Space Ghost Coast to Coast,’ Secretly TV’s Most Influential Show
Now retired from the business of fighting intergalactic evil, Space Ghost (real name: Tad Ghostal) and a support staff consisting of his imprisoned enemies Zorak (anthropomorphic mantis/bandleader) and Moltar (gravel-voiced lava man/director) flies face-first into show business, interviewing pop-culture luminaries through a monitor screen lowered into the chair where a guest would normally sit. -- GrantlandPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:35 PM | Your Say (1)
I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal means.
If anybody can put on paper what our government and the American government and the Russian… Chinese… what they are actually trying to do, and what they think they’re doing, I’d be very pleased to know what they think they’re doing. - John LennonPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:04 PM | Your Say (1)
Green Shit Happens
Everyone is confused at how Burger King's Black Whopper made their poop greenPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:57 PM | Your Say (3)
Playgrounds for sheikhs and oligarchs: the secret world of London’s luxury hotels
The hotels of which the capital’s new cadre of foreign rich are so fond are now the places a middle-class Londoner is most likely to bump into an oil-state sheikh or a Russian steel tycoon – sitting across the lobby on a wedding anniversary tea or brushing shoulders at the restaurant. - -The GuardianPosted by gerardvanderleun at 3:45 PM | Your Say (3)
Ikea in Älmhult: behind the scenes at the retailer's top-secret furniture lab
The original Ikea building is still there, buried in six decades of accreted industrial structures and offices, and is in the process of being turned into a museum. - - (Wired UK)Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:39 PM | Your Say (0)
October 7, 2015
What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man;
Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? - - Thomas PainePosted by gerardvanderleun at 5:56 PM | Your Say (2)
“In a revolutionary epoch, sometimes men taste every novelty,
sicken of them all, and return to ancient principles so long disused that they seem refreshingly hearty when they are rediscovered.” — Russell KirkPosted by gerardvanderleun at 5:37 PM | Your Say (0)
From Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power, by Josef Pieper
"The general public is being reduced to a state where people are not only unable to find out about the truth but also become unable even to search for the truth because they are satisfied with deception and trickery that have determined their convictions, satisfied with a fictitious reality created by design through the abuse of language.--" The News Is Propaganda | Politically ShortPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:31 AM | Your Say (3)
October 6, 2015
We have replaced all ancient gods with a single one: equality.
To act in such a way as to offend equality causes people to retreat from you as if in fear of diseases or demonic possession; conversely, any activity can be justified in the name of upholding or expanding equality, regardless of its outcome. Egalitarianism is the god of our timePosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:59 PM | Your Say (9)
‘Close Your Eyes and Pretend to Be Dead’ What really happened two years ago in the bloody attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall.
Over the birdsong, car alarms, and ringing of the unanswered mobile phones of the dead and wounded, Simon could now hear gunshots, explosions, and screaming. | Foreign PolicyPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:46 PM | Your Say (3)
Victor Davis Hanson asks the wrong question: Calling Obama a nihilist lets him off the hook.
He has perfected his presentation of a certain persona, and he doesn’t care if non-supporters see through him; what’s important is that he reach enough other people to accomplish his goals. - - neo-neoconPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:53 AM | Your Say (3)
Christians Need Not Apply
In their 1990 book After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s, homosexual activists Hunter Madsen and Marshall Kirk called for the valuing of homosexuality, prescribing a desensitization of Americans to homosexuality via a “continuous flood of gay-related advertising,” a “conversion of the average American’s emotions, mind, and will, through a planned psychological attack, in the form of propaganda fed to the nation via the media.” -- The New AmericanPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:42 AM | Your Say (4)
October 5, 2015
In what can only be deemed a miracle, the peoples of earth have managed to pass through a fourth blood moon this year without the apocalyptic events.
Gog and Magog must have spent the entire duration of the blood moon saga playing Angry Birds on their iPhones and drinking their Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, thereby missing their cue to invade plucky Israel and initiate the Battle of Armageddon. Alternative RightPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:01 PM | Your Say (10)
Libertarians have built an entire philosophy around avoiding contact with the enemy.
In the culture wars that have roiled the nation over the last fifty years, libertarians have been hiding under their beds. | The Z BlogPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:41 AM | Your Say (7)
The Depravity Deepens / Child-Size Sex Toys:
TranZwear: For Parents Of FTM Children/teens We are able to adjust to your size or other requests as we make all the items all right here under one roof in our shop.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:55 AM | Your Say (0)
Most people also assume that recycling plastic bottles must be doing lots for the planet.
Here’s some perspective: To offset the greenhouse impact of one passenger’s round-trip flight between New York and London, you’d have to recycle roughly 40,000 plastic bottles, assuming you fly coach. The Reign of RecyclingPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:22 AM | Your Say (5)
October 4, 2015
Michigan soybean farmer digs up mammoth bones
They dug from 9:00 AM until sunset and were able to recover 20% of the mammoth’s bones: a dramatic skull with two large tusks still attached, the jaw, more teeth, the pelvis, parts of both shoulder blades, one kneecap and multiple ribs and vertebrae. The History BlogPosted by gerardvanderleun at 1:21 PM | Your Say (1)
All of the totalitarian monsters of the last century despised Christians, Jews, and America.
The Nazi war on Christianity and the Soviet war on Jews tend to be ignored by modern historians, but writers at the time had no doubt at all that the liquidation of all those who were part of the Great Faith, the various denominations of Christians and of Jews, was an absolute and inevitable purpose for these totalitarians. Hatred of the Great FaithPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:07 PM | Your Say (2)
Winnie-the-Pooh (Bear), nee Edward, age 90, passed away in his home on October 4.
Lifelong connoisseur of hunny, Winnie-the-Pooh was known to friends and family alike as a creature of habit, and his death came as no surprise to his husband, Piglet, who commented tearfully that “his diabetes just got out of control. I told him and told him to eat more healthfully, but he wouldn’t.” McSweeney’s.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:44 AM | Your Say (1)
Both the heroin addict and the joggers are thin, and both for the same reason. They want to feel good.
One is addicted to opiates, the other to public opinion. ReflectedPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:31 AM | Your Say (1)
Here’s a sad, crappy fact: laws don’t do anything by themselves.
If a lunatic has a gun today, and a law banning lunatics from having guns is passed tomorrow, the lunatic will still have the gun the day after tomorrow. Plain Truth About Mass ShootingsPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:18 AM | Your Say (3)
FaceTinder. UberDrones. Watching people play videogames. Selfies. LOLcats. Friending. Tube videos. Free porn. Pawnshop reality TV.
If all your life amounts to is the pursuit of the Perfect Selfie, the Greatest High Score, the Largest Number of Mega Awesome Totally Fake Friends , you’re a proud member of Generation Stupid. Generation StupidPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:17 AM | Your Say (2)
October 3, 2015
Soccer Cock-Up
Iran female soccer team accused of manning up Iranian soccer fans were left reeling earlier this week after eight members of the women’s national team were found to be men.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:49 PM | Your Say (3)
It is not actually “democracy” I oppose, in principle, but the power of the State.
The propaganda of the State relies on a selection of cant terms — “democracy,” “equality,” “freedom,” “human rights,” “reform,” “progress” — each an unqualified abstract conceptual designed to prey upon human credulity. -- David WarrenPosted by gerardvanderleun at 1:35 PM | Your Say (2)
October 2, 2015
27 Ways to be a Classic Man
25. The classic man will prepare himself morally and practically to make life and death decisions and will not shy from those areas of life which may ultimately demand it of him. - CobbPosted by gerardvanderleun at 4:25 PM | Your Say (4)
Chris Harper Mercer, martyred – that is the word – ten Christians yesterday for the crime – in his eyes- of their faith.
In the same way that we can hold Wahhabist doctrines to be the source of Islamic jihad, so we can now hold militant atheism/materialism to be responsible for this martyrdom of Christians. - Barrel StrengthPosted by gerardvanderleun at 4:08 PM | Your Say (4)
Gee, and they were doing such great work
Over the last 10 days, Obama’s top advisers on cyber-security, ISIS, and Russia have all resigned. - - Andrew StilesPosted by gerardvanderleun at 3:46 PM | Your Say (5)
The Suburban Lawn
A previous owner had landscaped with a heavy hand, and when we moved in thirty-seven years ago, when I was ten, a pair of monumental weeping willows cast the back of the house in deep shadow, three tall firs planted too closely together entwined their arms into messy knots, and a gnarled something blocked the living room view. -- The FabulistPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:59 AM | Your Say (4)
Last May the Northern Supply route was shut down.
As the Taliban rolls into the Warduj district after taking Kunduz, the fundamental limits to any US counterattack are imposed by the fact the Obama administration has already pulled the supply plug on the forces there. The Logic of LogisticsPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:42 AM | Your Say (1)
October 1, 2015
You already knew that Umpqua Community College was "gun-free," right?
“Possession, use, or threatened use of firearms (including but not limited to BB guns, air guns, water pistols, and paint guns) ammunition, explosives, dangerous chemicals, or any other objects as weapons on college property, except as expressly authorized by law or college regulations, is prohibited. -- AmmolandPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:02 PM | Your Say (12)
The Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland
"Neutrality is no guarantee against radioactivity."Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:19 AM | Your Say (0)
Bad Air: Pollution, Sin, and Science Fiction in The Doom of the Great City
For here, where on the previous night had throbbed hot and high the flood-tide of London’s evening gaiety, was now presented to my poor fevered sight, the worst, the most awful features of the whole terrific calamity. | The Public Domain ReviewPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:50 AM | Your Say (0)
Terroristine has been an ancient dream since 1973 or was it 1967.
It is a vision of a country where everyone is a murderer and children are taught from a very young age that their purpose in life is to die killing people who don't share their religion. -- Three Cheers for TerroristinePosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:58 AM | Your Say (0)
The internet will become controlled speech.
If the Right does not get a site or business into the upper echelon of internet content providers, it will face the same embargo on its views that persists in the mainstream media currently. -- AmerikaPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:35 AM | Your Say (2)
If you think Trump will lose, you are probably comparing him to an ideal you hold for what a president should be.
If you believe he will win, you probably have a background in economics, or law, or engineering, and you have learned how to make valid comparisons to alternatives. -- | Scott AdamsPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:11 AM | Your Say (4)