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June 30, 2016
Beach Treasures
Jeffrey T. Larson was born in 1962 in Two Harbors, Minnesota and grew up in the Twin Cities. Jeffrey has been trained in the manner of the Old Masters at the prestigious Atelier Lack, a studio /school whose traditions and training methods reach back through impressionism and the 19th centuries French academies. -- Jeffrey T. Larson - Fine Artist
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:59 PM | Your Say (4)
Of Mere Being by Wallace Stevens
The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze decor,
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:58 PM | Your Say (2)
WON'T YOU PLEASE HELP? We Must All Join Together to Find a Cure For Sudden Islamic Combustion Syndrome (SICS)
killing individuals around them, often with oddly shaped pieces of metal that resemble nails and shrapnel," said Klein. "It's imperative that we find a root cause, because there's no discernible pattern to SICS. There's no particular ideology, faith, or military cult packaged as a religion that we can tie back to the disease." In the mean time, The New York Times and Vox have teamed up to create a charitable foundation and slush fund that a spokesman said will devote a "significant percentage" of its revenue to finding a cure for SICS. Doug Ross @ Journal:
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:17 PM | Your Say (0)
The Discovery of “Urinator montanus."
After simply scanning the ground for fossil fragments, bathroom breaks are appear to be the most effective way of finding new fossil sites.That’s because looking for just enough cover to take care of business often leads paleontologists and volunteers to isolated spots that might not otherwise be searched. In 1999, for example, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University paleontologist Jason Poole was wandering the 150-million-year-old rock of Montana when he had to stop for a pee break out in the desert. And it was at that spot that he noticed an interesting bone poking out of the gray Jurassic stone. Digging in, Poole and his team found even more of what turned out to be an Allosaurus, but, before the bones even came out of the ground, he gave the dinosaur a nickname for how it was found. Informally, at least, this carnivore is called “Urinator montanus.” - - | Smithsonian
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:13 PM | Your Say (0)
How is it that so many people in the West these days refuse to accept reality?
They see it — they hear the threats Muslims make — but they tell themselves it isn’t true. Muslims do not really mean what they are saying. How often have we seen this in history? Hitler told people what he was going to do, and no one believed him. Obama told America he was going to “fundamentally change the nation,” and no one believed him. Well, both of them did exactly what they promised, and the world suffered, still suffers for having ignored them. And these are only two such examples of people who told us what they were going to do and yet, we ignored them. What level of insanity does it take to do that now, when Islam is telling us it will kill the entire world unless the entire world converts? - - The Rio Norte Line
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:04 PM | Your Say (2)
It's probably nothing...
Cold War 2.0: The US military is beefing up its presence in the former Soviet Bloc - -
The 2nd Cavalry — whose regimental motto is toujours prêt, French for "always ready" — plays a key role in projecting American power eastward. At the beginning of June, the unit was present in 10 countries, according to regimental commander Colonel John Meyer. Dragoon Ride, as the road march through the Suwalki Gap was dubbed, passed through three overlapping military exercises conducted in Poland and the Baltic states. "It's defensive," Meyer said in an interview. "We're really doing tactical tasks that demonstrate operational capability with strategic effect."
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:11 AM | Your Say (1)
It's probably nothing....
Russian Commandos Carry Suppressed Rifles That Can Shoot Through Body Armor —
With more and more NATO troops wearing body armor, Russian special forces teams wanted a silent weapon that was also capable of penetrating armor — and could lay down enough fire for fast, violent raids targeting NATO command-and-control centers. The resulting Val, with its integral suppressor, spurred the development of a whole family of suppressed weapons, including the VSS. The Soviets also designed two new nine-by-39-millimeter armor-piercing rounds — the SP-6 for suppressed assault rifles and the more-accurate SP-5 for suppressed sniper rifles such as the VSS.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:09 AM | Your Say (2)
Some people make an insane amount of stuff.
who created more than 13,000 paintings and drawings, plus thousands upon thousands of prints, sculptures, engravings, and book illustrations. Isaac Asimov authored and edited some 500 books in his lifetime. Frank Zappa churned out more than 60 albums. Yet science is only starting to understand what makes the hyperprolific different from the merely productive. A Guide to Entertainment’s Busiest Creators
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:17 AM | Your Say (0)
You’re going to have to spare more than a square:
Toilet paper is shrinking - - Toilet paper squares, the individual sheets that connect to make each roll, were once 4.5 inches wide and 4.5 inches long. That standard, however, has shifted, or at the very least loosened its grip on the industry, to a point where companies are selling sheets that are a half-inch shorter or thinner, or both.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:09 AM | Your Say (1)
June 28, 2016
Far from being irrelevant, a million tiny slights and arbitrary acts, a hundred thousand fibs,
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:58 PM | Your Say (0)
And they shall be as though they had not been.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:18 PM | Your Say (2)
They Self-Identified as Female
And the end of the festival was this. The multitude being assembled, the priests solemnly incensed the girl who personated the goddess; then they threw her on her back on the heap of corn and seeds, cut off her head, caught the gushing blood in a tub, and sprinkled the blood on the wooden image of the goddess, the walls of the chamber, and the offerings of corn, peppers, pumpkins, seeds, and vegetables which cumbered the floor. After that they flayed the headless trunk, and one of the priests made shift to squeeze himself into the bloody skin. Having done so they clad him in all the robes which the girl had worn; they put the mitre on his head, the necklace of golden maize-cobs about his neck, the maize-cobs of feathers and gold in his hands; and thus arrayed they led him forth in public, all of them dancing to the tuck of drum, while he acted as fugleman, skipping and posturing at the head of the procession as briskly as he could be expected to do, incommoded as he was by the tight and clammy skin of the girl and by her clothes, which must have been much too small for a grown man. -- Frazer, Sir James George. 1922. The Golden Bough
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:54 AM | Your Say (2)
Time again for Ol' Remus to take you out to the Woodpile
The weekly digest on what's worth your while on the world wide web is at The Woodpile ReportPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:12 AM | Your Say (0)
“We take pensioners’ driving licences away… why not their right to vote?”
Media Calls For "Ban" On Old People Voting After Brexit Vote GQ Magazine went all out, producing: “WE SHOULD BAN OLD PEOPLE FROM VOTING”.Writing about “them” as if the older generations are some foreign species, the reasons given by the author included: “The EU referendum result will have less effect on older people”; “Over 65s read the Daily Mail”; “There was no ‘golden age’ of Britain”; and “We take pensioners’ driving licences away… why not their right to vote?”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:01 AM | Your Say (3)
June 27, 2016
You guys (the left) really want to stop pushing quite so hard.
The political pendulum has never, in the history of humanity, stayed on one side of a swing.The back lash from over reach has always been proportionate to how far off center it went before coming back. (Hint, that’s what started the whole prohibition thing, and it’s also what started the 60s, was backlashes) Well right now we’re staring at a whole hell of a lot of the country (about 80-90% of the land mass, as well as about 50% of the population) that is FED UP. You really don’t want those guys to decide that the only way to fix it is to burn it down and start over… REALLY! Most of these folks are vets, and the children of vets, they’ve had guns in their hands since middle school or before, or they’re still serving either in the regulars, the reserves, or the NG. If it goes to armed insurrection, even if the left wins, (highly damn unlikely) it will be a mess worse than reconstruction, worse than the Balkans. For the love of the country that I’ve served for over three decades, start seeking peace now. Thoughts on the road. – William Lehman
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:20 PM | Your Say (4)
COLD ANGER – Entire Institutional Systems Will Be Dispatched Like a Feather In a Hurricane…
Cold Anger absorbs betrayal silently, often prudently.
Cold Anger is not hatred, it is far more purposeful.
Cold Anger takes notice of the liars, even from a great distance – seemingly invisible to the mob.
Cold Anger will still hold open the door for the riot goer. Mannerly.
Cold Anger when evidenced is more severe because it is more strategic.
Cold Anger does not gloat; it absorbs consistent vilification and ridicule as fuel.
Cold Anger is not driven to act in spite of itself; it drives a reckoning.
- - COLD ANGER | The Last Refuge
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:49 PM | Your Say (1)
There’s no real ideological difference between most journalists and SJW activists, they just put different labels on themselves.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:53 PM | Your Say (1)
YOU and YOUR PEOPLE didn't write the Constitution,
so how do you get to claim civil rights?YOU and YOUR PEOPLE didn't conquer the natives but you live on conquered land you ain't giving up. Neither the Germans, Koreans, Viet Cong, Taliban or AQ said, oh wait those are African Americans, let's not shoot. You're an American and you don't get to choose. You inherit all America. When you renounce it all, like Assata Shakur, then all of your rebellion can get taken seriously. Otherwise, get over yourself and your ethnic consumer boycotts. Shoot a cop or shut up. - - Dear Occupant - Cobb
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:53 PM | Your Say (0)
Fifty Shades of Moby-Dick
“Sexy beyond measure,” Morewood is “one of the great unsung figures in literary history,” a woman who “didn’t like to take no for an answer.” Shelden describes her as Melville’s “goddess in his Berkshire paradise,” the “powerful key to unlocking his secrets,” an “untamed spirit” whose “seductive powers worked their wonders on more than a few men.” Her supposed years-long affair with Melville was “so intimate and revealing that it colored every aspect of his life.” Shelden’s panting, cliché-choked style soon has you reaching for the light switch and candle, then the cigarette and bonbons. | New Republic
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:38 AM | Your Say (2)
They are blaming it on old people.
We see this in the States after every Democratic loss. When they win, it is young people who carried them to victory. When they lose it is those grubby old racists, who were driven by fear and hatred that defeated them. Mass movements make a fetish of the youth. At least a dozen times since the vote in Britain I have heard a liberal say “the delusions and fears of an aging population have thrown away the future of the young in Britain.” What’s going on here is the process of turning contrary evidence into proof that their cause is righteous. Further, they are turning the loss into a reason for hope. After all, those horrible, racist old people will be dead soon. The Nature of the Cult | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:17 AM | Your Say (0)
June 26, 2016
The true believer seeks out movements to join.
By immersing themselves in the movement, they obliterate their sense of self and assume the identity of the group. It’s why within five minutes of meeting a vegan, they tell you they are a vegan, because it is, literally, their identity. It’s also why cult members ferociously defend the group. It’s self-defense. - - The Nature of the Cult
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:54 PM | Your Say (3)
George Will has thrown down his pacifier and stomped off in a huff....
Being a Republican in Washington DC is an entirely symbolic act.It’s also in keeping with Will’s long-time role as a conservative on television. The bow-tie, the wig, the round spectacles and the elaborate speaking style were all in furtherance of his job as a domesticated conservative, who would not scare the horses. All of it was a pose, a gesture, carefully choreographed so he could set the right tone for conservatives at home, by endorsing the terms of the debate as set forth by the Left. He was the candy coating for the liberal nut inside every ABC chat show. Will to Irrelevance | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:12 AM | Your Say (2)
June 25, 2016
The Snow Man
BY WALLACE STEVENS
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:59 PM | Your Say (1)
A million dots on one page
And yes I counted them all. Twice.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:38 PM | Your Say (2)
Pedal car history goes back to the 1890s When the car made its appearance, the pedal car soon followed
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:08 PM | Your Say (2)
In another age, the elites would not have to fear these populist parties as the people would have hung the elites before it got to this point.
In addition to the ruling class Hitler fantasies, Americans and Germans now appear to have two things in common.One is that the political classes in both countries have displayed a staggering disregard for public welfare in their pursuit of personal salvation. Merkel out posing for selfies with refugees is as tone deaf as Republicans demanding open borders and amnesty for tens of millions of illegals. Cui bono?The responsibility of the people put in charge, their chief responsibility, is to maintain public order. You cannot have a civilized and prosperous society with civil unrest. Deliberately inviting in these problems, as we see with Merkel in German and the open borders lobbies in America, is a betrayal of the public trust. In another age, the elites would not have to fear these populist parties as the people would have hung the elites before it got to this point. - - Alternative für Deutschland
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:36 PM | Your Say (0)
Bill O'Reilly has revealed himself many times for the contemptible weasel he is
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:25 PM | Your Say (0)
Martha's Vineyard is ever so liberal. This is Massachusetts, after all,
and the markers of lifestyle enlightenment are all around you:Foods that are organic. Clothing that is tasteful. A conspicuous absence of cigarette butts. Here it is not enough to have a surgically precise garden of roses and topiary in the three-foot strip between your carefully whitewashed house and the picket fence out front; the garden must be accessorized with a sign letting passersby know that “this is a chemical-free Vineyard lawn, safe for children, pets, and ponds.” - - Withering on the Vine
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:00 AM | Your Say (0)
"He was always a man in search of his next illusion."
He extolled Tito shortly before that great man embarked on killing hundreds of thousands of his countrymen. He then saw an immensely bright future for China just before the Great Leap Forward and its consequent famine, which was probably the worst, in numbers of victims, in the whole of human history. Perhaps his greatest feat of clairvoyance was in seeing a brilliant future for Guinea-Bissau as beacon and teacher of justice and equality to the world. Neither age nor experience could wither his enthusiasm: He was always a man in search of his next illusion. In a way it was admirable, though if I were a poor peasant somewhere in the world that Basil Davidson was visiting in preparation of a book extolling a guerrilla movement, I would tremble for my own future. - - Evil Men and Their Champions
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:47 AM | Your Say (0)
Who’s The Guy With The Big Head On 77th Street?
His fans included Jefferson, Bolivar, Goethe, Darwin, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe. The composer Berlioz called his writing “dazzling.” And then, having reached the peak, a world-wide celebrity, you can almost hear a long, deep ‘pffffffffftttt’ as his fame began to leak away, until many, many decades later, the deflation complete, we find him on a street corner, a quiet hunk of bronze next to a weekend hot dog stand. – Phenomena: Curiously Krulwich
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:28 AM | Your Say (0)
O. J. Simpson Endorses Hillary Clinton
AL SHARPTON: Mr. Juice, what made you decide to campaign for Hillary Clinton? OJ:When I heard that Virginia was allowing 200,000 convicted felons to vote I decided it was my duty to serve my country. | The DAILY RASHPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:05 AM | Your Say (0)
Everything Is Broken
The dominant and disorienting attribute of America in 2016 is that nothing is what it seems or, more accurately, what it actually is. On the campuses, intolerance is tolerance and censorship is free speech. In our public bathrooms, boys are girls and men are women. In our cities, the forces of protection are the forces of aggression. Stagnation is recovery; poverty is prosperity; war is peace. | City JournalPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:05 AM | Your Say (0)
Weimar culture -or - "What comes before fascism, daddy?"
The police identified 62 organized criminal gangs in Berlin, called Ringvereine. The German public also became fascinated with reports of homicides, especially "lust murders" or Lustmord. Publishers met this demand with inexpensive criminal novels called Krimi, which like the film noir of the era (such as the classic M), explored methods of scientific detection and psychosexual analysis.
Apart from the new tolerance for behaviour that was technically still illegal, and viewed by a large part of society as immoral, there were other developments in Berlin culture that shocked many visitors to the city. Thrill-seekers came to the city in search of adventure, and booksellers sold many editions of guide books to Berlin's erotic night entertainment venues. There were an estimated 500 such establishments, that included a large number of homosexual venues for men and for lesbians; sometimes transvestites of one or both genders were admitted, otherwise there were at least 5 known establishments that were exclusively for a transvestite clientele. There were also several nudist venues. Berlin also had a museum of sexuality during the Weimar period, at Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexology. These were nearly all closed when the Nazi regime became a dictatorship in 1933. - - La Wik
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:49 AM | Your Say (1)
It's a fair bet that there'll always be an England.
Less certain is whether there will always be an EU,a fact of which the public will be reminded when Putin's adventures, rising bond rates and refugee flows creep back into the news. As soon as the focus returns to why the UK bailed in the first place the proper sympathy will shift from the poor Britons in a flimsy rowboat to Europeans still trapped on the Titanic. Forget the Lifeboat, It's the Iceberg that Counts | PJ Media
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:14 AM | Your Say (0)
June 24, 2016
There are thousands of Americans alive today who will be killed by Jihadis
who will be killed by Jihadis in the future because our government has neither the will or ability to stop them. Free Range InternationalPosted by gerardvanderleun at 3:05 PM | Your Say (1)
Moab: The Last Bastion of Outdoor Outlaws
The scene around it looked like a spring-break campout at a desert lake. Only instead of the water, people had positioned themselves near the gut-churning abyss. On the walls of the bay-shaped chasm are traditional rock-climbing routes. Around its edges are exit points for BASE jumpers. And across its empty center, slackliners had bolted taut at least a dozen lengths of flat webbing that they’d spent the previous two days walking back and forth across, Man On Wire style but without a pole. The shortest, officially called the Cherry, was only 20 feet. The longest, the Lucky Horse Factory, spanned 730 feet. Out in the middle was the centerpiece: a connected pair of giant hammocks hand-woven out of neon parachute cord and climbing rope. The smaller of these “space nets” was in the shape of a four-pointed star and 15 feet across. The larger was a 60-foot-wide pentagon with a circular moon door at its center for BASE jumpers to leap through. | Outside Online
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:21 PM | Your Say (1)
The world's oldest paycheck was cashed in beer
Perhaps it’s no surprise that one of the earliest known examples of writing features two basic human concerns: alcohol and work. About 5000 years ago, the people living in the city of Uruk, in modern day Iraq, wrote in a picture language called cuneiform. On one tablet excavated from the area we can see a human head eating from a bowl, meaning “ration”, and a conical vessel, meaning “beer”. Scattered around are scratches recording the amount of beer for a particular worker. It’s the world’s oldest known payslip, implying that the concept of worker and employer was familiar five millennia ago. New Scientist
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:45 AM | Your Say (0)
June 23, 2016
The Bad News is "The Galactic Habitable Zone" is Pretty Darned Thin. The Good News is...You live in it.
We've often taken issue with the science fiction blatherati who claim that life, intelligent or otherwise, is everywhere in the universe.This is the "Infinite number of monkeys screwing around with an infinite number of stars for eternity" argument. It has never seemed all that convincing to us. It's like the "Coca Cola Chinese Marketing agrument ("There are billions of people in China and if we can ony sell one six pack a month to each of them....). We've always felt that life was either very rare, very special, or very much a fluke. The New America - Dispatches
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:23 PM | Your Say (0)
Ol' Remus has a few words for you: "Long time readers know my opinion of national politics.
To vote in elections for national office is to be an accomplice to a criminal enterprise by way of personal and actionable consent. Even aside from principle there is no practical reason to vote, outcomes have been "arranged" for some long time with carve-outs in the nominating procedure, with illegal aliens and captives of—oops, clients of—DC voting by tens of millions, with open and beyond shame media complicity, and fraud at the polls. National elections are blatantly illegitimate, contemptible theatre, one long enabling act, same as any other third world pest-hole. There is no reforming DC so why involve yourself in their palace intrigues about seating arrangements and perks? Reform yourself instead, it's tough enough. If your passion is justice for the little guy, who's smaller than you? You have no congressional caucus devoted to your every whim and grievance. You have no super-pac or platoon of lobbyists to steer favors and funds your way. You have no "foundation" with eager millionaires standing in line to donate. DC pays no attention to you because you are of no consequence to them. Return the favor. Next."Woodpile Report
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:15 PM | Your Say (5)
Dr. Seuss' Collection of Unorthodox Taxidermy.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:00 AM | Your Say (0)
Follow the Money
According to Open Secrets, Hillary spent $225,173,676 to defeat a 73-year-old communist no one ever heard of.Trump spent$64,729,675 to vanquish 16 opponents who spent a combined $701,293,230. Don Surber: Trump Hillary's money
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:56 AM | Your Say (0)
What You Never Knew About Ringo
Starr was grievously ill twice in childhood—the first time with post-appendectomy peritonitis that put him in a coma, the second with tuberculosis which he contracted at 13, a scourge one would have thought had practically disappeared from the developed world at that time. But I guess Starkey’s world as a youngster wasn’t all that developed. As a result, he missed a lot of school, and ended up an early school dropout. He was placed in a TB sanitorium at the age of 13 and stayed for two years, and after he had emerged he never attended school again. More at neo-neocon Ringo Starr, ordinary lad
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:42 AM | Your Say (1)
June 22, 2016
Bottom line: I don't care if the victims were or were not gay.
I don't recall anybody fretting about the sexual orientation of those killed at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
I don't remember commentary about the sexual orientation of those murdered September 11, 2001, or of those blown apart by a bomb in London July 7, 2005. The people killed in Orlando were killed on American soil by a jihadi terrorist inspired to do that killing by Islam. I don't care that he was born in New York. He grew up in an alien culture (read up on his lunatic Afghan father) that calls for loyalty to forces outside of the USA, to forces wildly hostile to the USA. He was full of hate for the very freedom that allowed that murdering thug to live a good life here. - -The DiploMad
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:21 PM | Your Say (3)
First Miss America Margaret Gorman posing with her dog named Long Goodie
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:24 AM | Your Say (0)
4 Reasons Why Collapse Will Be The Best Thing To Happen For Men
No more taxes, no more surveillance, no more PC policing, no more divorce courts, no more forced multiculturalism, and so on. You alone will be responsible for your life with no one to bail you out and no one to blame. That, my friends, is true freedom. -- Return of Kings
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:07 AM | Your Say (2)
“Truth doth never prosper: what’s the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
The boot in the face may or may not come. If this god-awful contrivance sticks around long enough, it definitely will come sooner or later. For, make no mistake about it, since the state being created on the European continent bears every hallmark of fascism, sooner or later it’ll have to protect itself with violence. – Alexander BootPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:34 AM | Your Say (0)
World's Oldest Twinkie Turns 40, Still Refuses to Decompose
but as the famous Twinkie of George Stevens Academy clearly shows, it's really a lot longer than that. It has been sitting in a glass case for four decades now, and even though it might not be safe to eat, it is looking fantastic for its age. Its shape hasn't change a bit, and if mould hasn't grown on it so far, chances are it never will. - - | Oddity Central
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:13 AM | Your Say (0)
The Black Farm
Most People Think You Go To Either Heaven Or Hell, What I Experienced Was Much, Much WorseDanny snorted, “That’s always what you people ask.” He began to pace back and forth in front of me, “No. This is not Hell. It’s not Heaven either. This is the Black Farm. And no, I didn’t name it that. This is where God sends the souls who have ended their own life. Suicidals. You see, he doesn’t really know what to do with you…and neither does the Devil. There are genuinely good people who kill themselves. Seems cruel to banish them to Hell for all eternity for a moment of weakness right? Personally, I think God and the Devil were just tired of arguing about it. And so, they send them here, to the Black Farm.”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:10 AM | Your Say (1)
What's the difference between Venezuela and the United States?
Ten years. Venezuelans Ransack Stores as Hunger Grips the Nations CUMANÁ, Venezuela — With delivery trucks under constant attack, the nation’s food is now transported under armed guard. Soldiers stand watch over bakeries. The police fire rubber bullets at desperate mobs storming grocery stores, pharmacies and butcher shops. A 4-year-old girl was shot to death as street gangs fought over food.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:02 AM | Your Say (1)
All these anti-gun arguments are easy to refute and arguing about it has actually gotten incredibly boring.
Look at John Lott, who’s been pounding this drum for decades—in every interview he seems bored out of his mind. Pundits bring him on as the wacky gun guy, like they’re blown away that someone could have such support for something as bad as scary guns that go bang. “John, a lot of people are asking why anyone would need to own an assault weapon like an AR-15.” Then he has to educate them like kindergarteners on caliber size and how fucking guns work before he can even get into his research that makes them look stupid. Fucking lazy questions with no responsible prep research— if you’re going to ask a question about a particular gun in an interview, maybe do a google search beforehand on what that particular gun actually is so you don’t look like more of a dumbass. But fortunately we don’t have to make these arguments anymore.= - STREET CARNAGE
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:49 AM | Your Say (0)
June 21, 2016
The Democrats, 2016
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:51 PM | Your Say (1)
From time to time it may slip your mind, but never, ever forget....
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:51 PM | Your Say (0)
I Am A Cyclist, And I Am Here To Fuck You Up
You have seen the rise of the city grow larger and larger in your windshield as you crawled through sixteen miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic. You foolishly believed that, now that you are in the city, your hellish morning drive is coming to an end. Just then! I emerge from nowhere to whirr past you at twenty-two fucking miles per hour, passing twelve carlengths to the stoplight that has kept you prisoner for three cycles of green-yellow-red. The second the light says go, I am GOING, flying, leaving your sensible, American, normal vehicle in my dust. You seethe in anger that is righteous and right and patriotic. I am a cyclist. I am here to fuck you up. - - | Thought Catalog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:42 PM | Your Say (5)
The LGBT Movement Will Self-Destruct
Within my lifetime, the LGBT movement will die. It will be remembered not as a Selma moment, but as a Salem moment: a period of collective insanity. - - FederalistPosted by gerardvanderleun at 6:37 PM | Your Say (1)
In the newly mestizoed cities of Southern California, I see blacks still on bottom,
riding bicycles while mestizos drive lowriders. The same brutal IQ hierarchy. | HappyAcresPosted by gerardvanderleun at 6:16 PM | Your Say (0)
What is not a sandwich?
- A hot dog is not a sandwich.
- A burrito is not a sandwich.
- A wrap is not a sandwich.
- A cheeseburger on a roll is not a sandwich. Sliced bread only.
- A lobster roll is not a sandwich.
- A hoagie is not a sandwich.
- An ice cream sandwich is not a sandwich.
- A hot turkey sandwich is not a sandwich.
- An open-faced sandwich is not a sandwich.
- If you make a sandwich using one end of the bread and one proper slice, it's kind of a sandwich still, but not really. See also folding over a single slice of bread for a half-sandwich.
- If you make a sandwich using both ends of the bread, it is no longer a sandwich at all.
- A peanut butter or grilled cheese sandwich is a sandwich.
- A mayonnaise, butter, or ketchup sandwich is probably a sandwich -- I'm not sure whether those fillings are solid enough -- just not a very good one.
- A sandwich made with crackers instead of bread is not a sandwich, but an imitation of a sandwich.
- A sandwich made with crackers between two slices of bread is a sandwich, but not a very good one.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:03 PM | Your Say (2)
If U.S. bombs and missiles rain down on Damascus, to the cheers of the C-Street Pattons,
what do we do if Bashar Assad’s allies Iran and Hezbollah retaliatewith Benghazi-type attacks on U.S. diplomats across the Middle East? What do we do if Syrian missiles and Russian planes starting shooting down U.S. planes? Go to war with Hezbollah, Iran and Russia? Trolling for War with Russia
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:47 PM | Your Say (4)
Your media company gets in serious trouble through alienating your audience, roll left, die.
The roll left didn’t save the institutions.
Maybe management was so stupid as to think it would save them. But I doubt it. If they got any statistics — it’s iffy. Most fields that have fallen to the left treat statistics like magic incantations, and look at them as though they were thing that can augur success if treated right.... What the roll left did, though, was make sure all the managers and everyone with fiduciary capacity was on record as being “one of the good people” i.e. a member in good standing of the left wing. Which meant that when their institutions died, they got other jobs. I’ve followed a particularly lefty magazine editor through four magazines killed, and always falling upward into bigger jobs.I Can Feel It Coming | According To Hoyt
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:46 PM | Your Say (1)
When I started counting all of the mainstream media reporters I respect I didn’t run out of fingers.
Most of them are just what Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds memorably labeled “Democrats with Bylines.”And that’s literally true – something like 90% of them are, in fact, Democrats. And they act like it. So when Trump refuses to play nice with them, or I hear about another round of lay-offs, the best I can summon up, if I’m in a generous mood, is a half-hearted “Meh.” - - Kurt Schlichter
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:36 AM | Your Say (0)
This is it. I’m fucking done. Video killed the radio star. I’m killing the mommy blog.
I made thousands of dollars during months I was focusing and working hard to dig through box after box of shitty as-seen-on-tv like productsand share my '100% honest opinion' about them, that weren't at all influenced by the page after page of 'key messages' the brand requested that I include in my review. You won't find most of those posts on this blog today. They aren't gone forever, and I do plan to revive some of them. But for the most part, they are dead and I want them to stay buried forever. Because, like 90% of the fake nonsense I used to share on the internet as a mommy blogger writing about my fake life and oh-so-happy marriage, they are pure bullshit. Dear Mommy Blogger · Josi Denise
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:24 AM | Your Say (0)
Inside a cult, the only people who matter are Us,
and your identity as one of Us requires you to buy into whatever ideology defines the cult.If you are not willing to constantly prove your loyalty to Us, you might be exiled and ostracized from the cult, becoming one of Them — and this, to the cult member, is a fate worse than death. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg chose the death penalty rather than to cooperate with the FBI and expose their Communist spy network. This is an extreme analogy, but the basic psychology is the same. - - The Other McCain
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:22 AM | Your Say (0)
June 20, 2016
Only the Beginning, Folks. Only the Beginning
Man grabbed policeman's gun at Las Vegas rally and said he wanted to kill Donald Trump A British man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas told authorities he tried to grab an officer's gun so he could kill the billionaire Republican presidential candidate. Anti-Trump protester Michael Steven Sandford, 19, even went to a gun range on Friday so he could learn how to shoot. The British national had lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, for around 18 months and had driven to San Bernardino in California before travelling to Las Vegas on Thursday. The teenager told police he visited the Battlefield Vegas shooting range on Friday where he fired off 20 rounds from a 9mm Glock pistol to learn how to use it.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:48 PM | Your Say (8)
American immigration policy is not so much “broken” as increasingly neo-Confederate and illogical
300 state and municipal jurisdictions have declared themselves, in good 1850s fashion, immune from federal law as sanctuary cities,while over 1 million illegal aliens have at some point been arrested, and make up nearly 30 percent of the federal inmate population. In Orwellian terms, illegal immigration largely from Latin America and Mexico, is called “diversity,” nullification of federal laws is known as “sanctuary cities,” and foreign nationals residing illegally are referred to as “undocumented migrants.” America In Free Fall
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:11 PM | Your Say (1)
June 19, 2016
10 Power Tools That Could Kill You
but remember that these tools put thousands of people in the ER each year. This is mostly due to people backing over other people or driving in situations they shouldn't be, such as at an angle up a steep incline. Keep in mind a large metal blade is turning at a high rate just below you. 10 Power Tools That Could Kill You
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 PM | Your Say (4)
Dear "Authorities," I beg your pardon. I beg your fucking pardon!
Authorities are still investigating what motivated Omar Mateen to kill 49 people at the popular gay nightclub Pulse in the early hours of last Sunday.... -- ReutersPosted by gerardvanderleun at 1:00 PM | Your Say (7)
How to capture a herd of wild pigs.
You build a single fence next to the [free] corn spot. The pigs notice the fence but ignore it - after all, their free corn is still there.Once they have gotten used to the fence, you build another to the side, connecting both fences at the end at right angles. Pour more corn. The pigs will learn to ignore that fence too. The free corn is still coming, so what's another fence? Then the fence on the opposite side goes up. More free corn. Then the final fence, but you leave the gate open. This will confuse the pigs, but only momentarily. They'll smell the free corn and that will be all that matters. So they'll go in to eat the corn. You shut the gate. Sense of Events: How democracies perish
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:02 PM | Your Say (0)
The Ultimate "Bitch Had It Coming" Excuse
Gilbert claims Simpson made his confession. 'He shook his head and he said: "Yeah." And he said: " If she wouldn't have opened the door with a knife she'd probably still be alive."'
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:51 AM | Your Say (2)
Translation: "Bomb"
"It is extremely rare for a black box to be destroyed," says Hamilton. "Black boxes have traditionally outperformed their design." Hamilton says he cannot think of a single case in which both devices have been damaged to the point of there being no useful data. "It would take a concentrated fire beyond its design strength, or an impact so high that it would be beyond what it could withstand."That or a country like Egypt pulling heavily on the strings of "Hide it! Hide it!" to keep their tourist industry on life support and their Muslims beyond reproach.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:37 AM | Your Say (2)
I have caught more then one errant fish hook in my day ...
those crazy brothers competing on who could make the farthest cast ... so I know exactly what it felt like to have Daddy "unhook" me.He'd take some pliers out of his tackle box, cut the hook, and slide it on through. Then he'd nudge my trembling lower lip with a knuckle, wipe away a tear with the backside of his hand (presumably cleaner) brushing it back with my bangs, and he'd say something like "All better". My tetanus shots were always current. I like the way he didn't make a big deal out of me getting unhooked. He'd just stop what he was doing and help me out of my predicament. He never said I shoulda been more careful to stay out of the way. True North: the pain of becoming unhooked
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:09 AM | Your Say (1)
The last men of the American Revolutionary War
Samuel enlisted in July of 1780 in Hailstown, New Hampshire at the age 16. Served in the Battle of Saratoga in which British General Burgoyne was defeated. Died February 19, 1867. Discussing his service in the Continental Army…..” we were stationed in the Mohawk Valley. Arnold was our fighting general, and a bloody fellow he was. He didn’t care for nothing; he’d ride right in. It was ‘Come on, boys!’ ’twasn’t ‘Go boys!’ He was as brave a man as ever lived. He was dark-skinned, with black hair, of middling height. There wasn’t any waste timber in him. He was a stern looking man, but kind to his soldiers. They didn’t treat him right: he ought to have had Burgoyne’s sword. But he ought to have been true. We had true men then; ’twasn’t as it is now. Everybody was true; the Tories we’d killed or driven to Canada…….The men that caught Andre were true. He wanted to get away, offered them everything. Washington hated to hang him; he cried, they said.” - - Vintage News
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:53 AM | Your Say (5)
The Contract with America promised to eliminate 95 specific government programs.
None of those programs were eliminated.
Welfare reform was passed and offered the first substantive alterations of these programs in a generation. Even so, the budget for these 95 programs during Gingrich’s time as Speaker grew by 13%. That’s the story of post-Cold War conservatism. Lots of Five Year Plans and artfully labeled agendas, but the result has been a 25 year run of expanding government and retreating liberty.Who Killed Conservatism? | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:57 AM | Your Say (0)
June 18, 2016
The reasons that government checks and benefits were doled out monthly was no different than the reason I feed the pigs only once a day in large quantities.
They grow dependent upon it, it is just large enough to make them feel for the moment like they have something substantialand to be excited about it and so remain close to the source of that disbursement, but it is not enough for them to ever be able to put away for the future so they might have the chance to escape that perpetual bondage, and by the end of their waiting there is only the hunger for the next allotment. No one would choose to live that way voluntarily and so they are led there, like the farmer with his bucket of slops, tapping the edge with a stick as he walks back to the enclosure, every head tilted in his direction, every eye glued to the pail. HOGS TO SLAUGHTER ｫ The Burning Platform
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:35 PM | Your Say (2)
In America there are men who wrench their own automobiles,
who know the fields from which came the cotton in their shirts. There are those who understand that their shoes are leather and are not swayed by narratives against the use of animals or the consumption of wheat. There are men who wear single function devices on their off hands, recognizing that time is precious and not to be divided amongst the multiple distractions of multitasking apps. Such men keep precious thoughts born by hard won experience in their heads. They will never compete with the cacophony of the Cathedral. Theknowledge and force of such men cannot be integrated into the power structures of democracy. It requires, as does all decentralized authority, its own rites of initiation and channels of communication. The farmer must mind his own hedgerows. So let him be a hedgehog. Let him know what he knows best and let his heart and his family and his virtues stand on their own with his select interdependencies. He will turn off the broadcastsof his own accord. He has better things to do with his time.And when the Islamicist comes to these islands in America, he will be met with unblinking eyes, but only if our Judiciary has not abdicated its responsibility to Constitutional justice. Obligatory Seriousness on Islamic Terrorism in America - Cobb
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:05 PM | Your Say (1)
By the time of their destruction, Canaanite culture was, in fact, debauched and cruel,
The Canaanites are to be destroyed “that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God” (Deut. 20.18). God had morally sufficient reasons for His judgement upon Canaan, and Israel was merely the instrument of His justice, just as centuries later God would use the pagan nations of Assyria and Babylon to judge Israel. Slaughter of the Canaanites | Reasonable Faith
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:14 PM | Your Say (3)
A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail
According to Lynch, Baby James was just shy of the 11-pound weight limit for packages sent via Parcel Post, and his “delivery” cost his parents only 15 cents in postage (although they did insure him for $50). The quirky story soon made newspapers, and for the next several years, similar stories would occasionally surface as other parents followed suit. -- | Smart News | Smithsonian
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:06 PM | Your Say (0)
False Flags: The Kremlin’s Hidden Cyber Hand
is anything but shocking to anybody informed about longstanding Russian espionage tradecraft, what they tellingly refer to as konspiratsiya (yes, “conspiracy”). The only innovation here is the online aspect. Everything else reflects a century of “lessons learned” in Kremlin spy work. These are the sorts of clandestine things Putin was trained in and actually did as a KGB officer. And “there are no ‘former’ intelligence officers,” as the Russian president has stated. | Observer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:25 PM | Your Say (1)
Lufthansa Leaves Venezula: The Last Flight
A sign of honor and gratitude from the departing – those never to return – grateful for so many years of connections. Of weekends spent in the lavish hotels. Of trips to the beach, smelling the salt seas; the mountains, the plains, the great savanna with its traditions steeped in the history of an indomitable people. I knew the old Venezuela – the one that Lufthansa remembered, flew to – served. The one of beer, and beach, and the beauty of great open places that knew no masters; that were safe and comfortable for so many – rich and poor alike. Old places – predating the commies (damn their resentment, those who only destroy, who think only in envy, greed and violence). Who deny the comforting equalizer of trade – because they would not compete; because they cannot compete. - - | Joel D. Hirst's Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:34 PM | Your Say (0)
The Choice
A vote for Trump or Hillary is a vote against the extinction-level impact your species so thoroughly deserves. pic.twitter.com/7ypyeaqB3r
— Sweet Meteor O'Death (@smod2016) June 18, 2016
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:15 AM | Your Say (0)
Clinton has worked on her delivery and it shows.
She seems to be learning to keep her irritating screeches under control,and has developed a smooth, well-paced even mellifluous delivery. She reads a teleprompter well. She still has irritating mannerisms, such as nodding slowly, smug expression frozen on her face, after saying something she considers incredibly clever. As somebody who during his career wrote or gave hundreds of speeches, I can appreciate her mastery of the standard boiler-plate American political speech. She delivers empty platitudes well. The DiploMad 2.0: A Tale of Two Visions: Clinton and Trump After Orlando
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:17 AM | Your Say (0)
We must redirect our attention to the real cause of this unspeakable tragedy.
The stabber was apparently armed with a knife. This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for people to get their hands on a weapon that lets them stab human beingsin a school, or in a house of worship, or a cinema, or in a nightclub – or indeed in their home. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want France to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well. A woefully wrong decision. This morning I went to my local department store, finding to my horror that hundreds of deadly weapons can be purchased by anyone with a few euros in his or her or their or its pocket. Chopping knives, serrated knives, fish knives, steak knives, vegetable knives, fruit knives, bread knives, boning knives, kitchen knives, carving knives, paring knives, chef’s knives, utility knives and just knives. Add to this hatchets, heavy frying pans or variously sized nails and bottles of lighter fuel, which could easily be brought together to make bombs, and you’ll realise that our department stores are veritable depositories of lethal weapons positively inviting murder. The only appropriate reaction to Paris murders – Alexander Boot
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:06 AM | Your Say (0)
Modern armament is exciting, in the sense that cavalry charges once were.
You have to feel it to understand it. On a flight line at night, jet engines howling, hot jet-wash smelling of burned kerosene blowing about,confident and competent men working together, fighters taking off with a thudding roar that you feel in your lungs. It is very hard to imagine such loud, virile machines being defeated by those most dangerous weapons of our times, the AK, the RPG, and the IED, wielded by a tough little peasant pissed off because you are invading his country and have killed his mother and sister. Reviving Napoleon’s Army - The Unz Review
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:48 AM | Your Say (1)
"Chasmatic" Has Passed Away [Bumped]
I will not lay on the couch whimpering or behave with a negative attitude. The following passage of scripture tells of Jesus entering the garden of Gethsemane to talk with His father, God. It reveals Jesus' thoughts and feelings of what is to become of Him the next day -- the Crucifixion -- and how Jesus accepts God's will for him. "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it." Then, a little while later, He said, "If this cup cannot pass by, but I must drink it, your will be done!" (Matthew 26:42). -- Spillers of Soup: THE BITTER CUPFarewell, Chas, I'll miss your remarks and our email and see you a little further down the road.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:26 AM | Your Say (35)
Our country is in the midst of the first sustained violent crime spike in two decades.
We have been here before. In the 1960s and early 1970s, black and white radicals directed hatred and occasional violence against the police. The difference today is that anti-cop ideology is embraced at the highest reaches of the establishment: by the President, by his Attorney General, by college presidents, by foundation heads, and by the press. Woodpile ReportPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:07 AM | Your Say (3)
June 17, 2016
"Biological sexual differentiation must yield to voluntary gender identity,"
and yet, homosexuality is genetically determined;"the demonstrable failure of socialism wherever it has been tried is proof that it has not been properly implemented"; "democratic Israel is an apartheid state"; "Islam with its record of unstinting bloodshed is a religion of peace"; "a child in the womb is a mass of insensible protoplasm" (unless the mother decides otherwise); "there is no such thing as truth, an axiom regarded as true"; etc. Inspiracy and Conspiration on the Left
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:20 PM | Your Say (4)
I don't write the headlines, I just report them.
Wife Tries to Poison Husband Through His UnderwearPosted by gerardvanderleun at 5:45 PM | Your Say (0)
Regency’s pocket radio
A post-WWII innovation developed by Texas Instruments (which had been making devices for the Navy) and Industrial Development Engineering Associates (which previously put out television antennas for Sears), the $49.95, 3-by-5-inch, battery-powered portable was built on technology developed by Bell Labs. From the transistors that amplified the radio signal to the use of printed circuit boards that connected the components to the eye-catching design, many factors conspired to make the TR-1 a holiday must-buy after its November 1954 launch. And as revolutionary as all this tech was, it only scratches the surface of how the Regency — by ushering in truly portable communications — changed the world overnight. The 50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time | TIME
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:24 PM | Your Say (4)
"We could call it a border! And we could have, like, a border security!"
"I listen to people say 'oh, we're now going to have to have metal detectors in night clubs, security in nightclubs.'Ok, so what happens next? They blow up a bakery, they blow up a little pastry shop, so then you're gonna have to have metal detectors to get into the pastry shop? "Instead of having all these individual perimeters around every Dunkin Donuts franchise or every gas station, or every J.C. Penny, why not have just one big perimeter around the country?" Steyn concluded. "We could call it a border! And we could have, like, a border security!" The Party at the End of the World :: SteynOnline
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:10 PM | Your Say (0)
"I have seen the future, it is murder."
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:50 AM | Your Say (0)
ISIS has found a way to pierce US counter-terrorism defenses
This is accomplished by: 1) turning the effort required plan, prepare, and execute a terrorist act into a ritual of initiation. Initiates are expected to undertake this effort on their own, without support.2) turning the act itself into a forum for a public, online declaration of fealty -- an extremely potent medieval loyalty pledge made by knights to their lords -- to the Caliph of ISIS. This pledge is made public (both attackers used Facebook to publicly pledge fealty to al Baghdadi) at the moment of the attack to maximize the meaning to the attacker and the audience. Think of it as social media performance art. - Global Guerrillas
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:54 AM | Your Say (1)
Many, many Americans will not be disarmed 'for their own good'.
Be glad that some of us say so for consistent, universal, ethical reasons. I'd hate to have to join a well-disciplined militia. But I will. The Blip vs The Right - CobbPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:50 AM | Your Say (0)
The people in charge increasingly talk to us like we are pets, barely able to understand them.
Paul Ryan laughs at so-called conservatives as he helps Obama push through his agenda in the remaining months of his rule. Angela Merkel is indifferent to public sentiment because, well, what are they going to do about it? How many divisions do they have? At some point, maybe sooner than we realize, the pols in Washington will decide they have had enough with the voters. It’s simply too much of a hassle. Some excuse will be trotted out so they can pretend to one another that it is necessary or temporary, but voting will come to an end. The people will protest, but the state will have men in body armor pouring out of APC’s holding MP-5’s. In the name of public safety, the protests will be broken up and the people put back in their enclosures. The Custodial State | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:31 AM | Your Say (10)
I think I found the alpha woodpecker
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:50 AM | Your Say (0)
Not sure precisely where you draw the line on self-identification these days, butt apparently somewhere around “ISIS”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:49 AM | Your Say (1)
RIP Margaret Vinci Heldt: Designer of The Beehive Hairdo
She maintained her Chicago salon, Margaret Vinci Coiffures, from shortly after her graduation from beauty school through her retirement at the age of 80. Mrs. Heldt died this week at 98. She is survived by two children and six decades of posh, odd and literally over the top hairstyles. - - Core77
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:49 AM | Your Say (2)
Every time Barack Obama says the word "guns," a gun shop owner buys another vacation house. #kaCHING
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 16, 2016
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:22 AM | Your Say (0)
A corduroy jacket must be olive green.
A velvet one, for instance, must be black. A blazer must be navy blue. A summer flannel jacket must be white. Tweed must be Harris. Motorcyclists must wear leather bomber jackets. My whole philosophy of jacket-wearing was forged under the pressure of events. Tuxedoes require silk lapels, and James Bond set the sartorial pattern. There is black tie, or white tie, by occasion. Should a man, however young, turn up at, say, a wedding feast, sans cummerbund, or wearing a polkadot tie, he should be told to leave. Especially if he is the groom. - - Essays in Idleness
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:51 AM | Your Say (3)
June 16, 2016
True Colors of Ancient Greek and Roman Statues
Back in the day, slaves wore roughcloth, like undyed and unbleached icky tan colors. The well-to-do wore ‘inexpensive’ colours, and the extremely wealthy wore ‘royal’ colours. There were even laws about it, a very wealthy merchant without a noble title might be able to afford purples and blues, but could be put to death for wearing them. Same goes for statues, only the very rich could waste colours on statuary and decour. It was a status symbol. Dyes, pigments, and paints have become so inexpensive that we’ve become a bit jaded. - - | moco-choco
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:19 PM | Your Say (2)
The Left will not let us lock up our loons.
In 1972 Geraldo Rivera exposed Willowbrook State School (an asylum) for terrible living conditions and abuse of patients
—since then the entire idea of locking up crazy people was deemed “abusive.” The ACLU has fought to make sure that the insane can’t be involuntarily put away. Civil Liberties—they have a point, but the result is a lot of homeless people wandering our inner cities who really should be institutionally cared for. GUNS DO KILL PEOPLE - THAT'S THE POINT - STREET CARNAGE
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:09 AM | Your Say (4)
Countries deserve what they tolerate. They even more deserve what they encourage.
Why the surprise? We know Muslims kill Christians. We know they stone adulteresses to death.We know they drive airplanes into buildings. We know they mutilate women. We know they bomb airliners. We know they destroy historic monuments. We know they kill their daughters for losing their virginity. We know they kill homosexuals. We know they make coordinated mass attacks on cities. We know they are incompatible with societies of the First World. We know they have to respect for our laws. We know they hate us.Knowing all of this, what do we do? Why…of course! What else? We import more of them. Nothing could make more sense. Ten thousand Syrians, coming to your neighborhood. Thank you, Obama. Thank you in advance, Hillary.
It seems that gays have to be killed on the authority of some Fourth Century towel rack. It is because the Religion of Peace says so. If a televangelist in Kansas said that homosexuals had to be killed for Jesus, the entire zoo of talking heads would be on him like lice on a leper and the FBI would gin up fraudulent charges. Watch the media for the outrage that won’t exist as they cover up. You can bet that Hussein Obama will say nothing against his own people. Hussein Obama, 50; America, 0:More Adventures in Multiculturalism | Fred On Everything
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:18 AM | Your Say (4)
June 15, 2016
Grass needs watering and tending to keep out pests. Rabbits forget that.
All they know is that the grass is there, let’s eat, and why not invite others to join in the feast.Well the grass is retreating, and the rabbits are being gunned down. This won’t change things; common sense and a preservation instinct are missing in the rabbit genes. Millions more Americans — even shitlib Americans — could die at the hands of Diversity and the Effete Elite would not surrender their open borders globalist race-mongrelizing agenda. The solution will be, as always, a forceful taking of power by the K-selected wolves, to save the rabbits from themselves. Rabbit Holocaust | Chateau Heartiste
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:58 PM | Your Say (0)
“Reality just is.” -E.M.Smith
There is an objective reality. It is full of bad actors. The best way we have found to date to deal with it is to be armed and dangerous ourselves. I’d love to see a better way, but one does not exist at this time. (The world still has police and armies…for a reason.)
Part of that reality is that “Islam is NOT your friend”. Read your Koran. It states, several times, “Do not take Christians to be your friends” and “Do not take the infidel to be your friends”. So I am not insulting Islam or Muslims by stating to act in accordance with their Koran. Islam is apart from all Christianity and all Jews and all of everyone else, by their own rules. Do not, ever, expect “assimilation” to western culture. It is just not going to happen. The only allowed assimilation is you, to Islam. Orlando, Ideologies, Guns & Weapons | Musings from the Chiefio
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:50 AM | Your Say (5)
June 14, 2016
Deep Cover
Orlando shooting: Break-in of Omar Mateen's home investigated | Inside the condominium where Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen lived shows an apparently normal family home, with a young child’s presence. The carpeted living room has a Minions balloon, plants, dumbell weights and what appears to be drawings by a child hanging on the wall. A child’s room has baseball hats, Captain America gear, an Olaf doll and a Spiderman bicycle.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:39 PM | Your Say (1)
Apparently, dozens of Americans must be massacred every so often
so that the rest of us can avoid the politically incorrect charge of being “Islamophobic.”At some point, intelligence authorities will have to take seriously American-born Muslims who consume ISIS propaganda and espouse radical Islamic hatred. Same Old, Same Old Horror | City Journal
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:47 PM | Your Say (5)
With the aid of our media and Internet, we greet each new act of Islamic murder with a show of lies and anger.
The Left is in charge of the lies. They tell us, in Hillary Clinton’s absurd words, that “Muslims . . . have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.”The Right takes care of the anger, spewing useless rhetoric about carpet-bombing Arabia until the sand glows in the dark. The Great Question | City Journal
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:45 PM | Your Say (1)
London by William Blake
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:26 PM | Your Say (0)
The Stages of Grief at the Frontier
Second, after the reassuring presence of imperial might has vanished,the next stage does not include calls for defense or balancing or stronger walls. No. It is the stage of disbelief and self-delusion. As Roman power waned, the locals comforted themselves with the delusion that the threats did not exist or, if they did, that the menace was not great. Perhaps the enemies would seek other targets. Perhaps the walls would suffice. Perhaps the barbarians liked peace and commerce as much as they did. Perhaps they would just go away. Perhaps they would peacefully blend in. The list of possible justifications for this delusion is as long as it is wrong. - The American Interest
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:20 PM | Your Say (1)
World War III The run up
Tracked weekly at the always fascinating Woodpile ReportRT - North Korea reactivates nuclear weapons plant
Daily Mail - Putin deploys troops to Ukrainian border in response to NATO exercises in Poland
Daily Mail - Baltic on war footing: Nato is to send four multi-national battalions to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in a bid to face down Russians
War Is Boring - The British Royal Navy Is Down to 17 Frigates and Destroyers
CNN - Britain's warships are losing power in the Persian Gulf because they cannot cope with the warm waters
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:56 AM | Your Say (0)
“Refugees” from the Syrian war have been found abetting Islamist atrocities in Paris.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:22 AM | Your Say (3)
Call them mommy. Now. He's coming. I'm gonna die.
The actual reason is simpler, captured in the final tweet of someone trapped in the Pulse nightclub.Call them mommy Now He's coming I'm gonna die"I'm gonna die" very probably sums up the last thoughts of Ambassador Stevens as he waited for the end in Benghazi, but "now" sums it up even better. Rainbow's End | PJ Media
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:54 AM | Your Say (0)
I’m not talking about radical Islam. I’m talking about mainstream Muslim culture.
“I’m not talking about Islamists. I’m not talking about terrorists. I’m not talking about radical Islam.
I’m talking about mainstream Muslim culture. There are eleven Muslim countries in which I could be killed for being a homosexual. The state penalty is death. One hundred million people live in country where the penalty for homosexuality is death. This is not radical Islam. This is mainstream Muslim society. Look what’s happening in Sweden. Look what’s happening anywhere in Germany, anywhere there are large influxes of a Muslim population. Things don’t end well for women and gays. The left has got to make a decision. Either they want female emancipation and it wants gay rights or it wants Islam. It’s got to pick.”Milo Yiannopoulos: Muslim Culture Is Violent « CBS Philly
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:33 AM | Your Say (2)
June 13, 2016
The Great pyramid of Giza has 8 sides not 4
That is to say, that its four sides are hollowed in or indented along their central lines, from base to peak. This concavity divides each of the apparent four sides in half, creating a very special and unusual eight-sided pyramid; and it is executed to such an extraordinary degree of precision as to enter the realm of the uncanny. For, viewed from any ground position or distance, this concavity is quite invisible to the naked eye. The hollowing-in can be noticed only from the air, and only at certain times of the day. This explains why virtually every available photograph of the Great Pyramid does not show the hollowing-in phenomenon, and why the concavity was never discovered until the age of aviation. It was discovered quite by accident in 1940, when a British Air Force pilot, P. Groves, was flying over the pyramid. He happened to notice the concavity and captured it in the now-famous photograph. - - Quora
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:22 PM | Your Say (6)
Historically it is state failure which drives civilian armament and not the other way around.
The president has addressed the nation in the aftermath of terror attacks far too often.
His assurances that America can absorb such attacks because he's smarter than the terrorists and tougher than they are fall somewhat flat in the wake of announcements that the government all too often had the suspects in their grasp before letting them go. The Brain Surgeon and the Cleaning Lady
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:05 AM | Your Say (1)
Then you go to the Ferrari factory. You’ll notice that they’re making things.
They don’t fill an airplane hangar’s-worth of undifferentiated desk space and Lego tables with people who labor for years to get a bird to flap a bit on a phone, all paid for by angel investor money that will never be paid back. They’re making Ferraris, baby. Yeah, It’s a Ferrari Factory. Yeah, You Want to Work There – BSBFBPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:32 AM | Your Say (0)
The Hyping of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) Required Weather Myths
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:02 AM | Your Say (0)
Imagine what the world would be like if Islam simply did not exist.
Imagine Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan. Imagine Europe. Imagine Lower Manhattan. Imagine London, Brussels, Paris, Marseille. Imagine this page not existing. Imagine your airport. Imagine your daily paper. Imagine the Pulse nightclub. - - Worlds In CollisionPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:17 AM | Your Say (2)
Islam is the world's largest hate group.
Islam is about submission, conquest, intolerance, and violence, driven by a powerfulhatred of anything or any person non-Islamic. Islam is the enemy and the motive for the horror in Orlando. Bring on the "Syrian refugees"! - - The DiploMad 2.0Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:12 AM | Your Say (0)
June 12, 2016
Candlelight vigils, weeping, tearful pleas for mercy, and plaintive versions of John Lennon’s Imagine
will begin directly.“Resolute” vows to “bring the terrorists to justice” from pRetend pResident Oshitstain to follow, including a condescending lecture about the paramount importance of not even thinking the word “Islam” to oneself. Then will come the self-righteous demands that Americans disarm themselves and submit to further government intrusion on their freedom in the name of security theater. Cold Fury » Yawn
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:21 PM | Your Say (0)
Central Valley, Mexifornia
Yesterday I drove 3 hours south to a formerly quaint little farming community.The buildings, streets, schools & parks were still familiarly American - artifacts from a previous age - but like in a Twilight Zone episode all the inhabitants had been replaced. The cars were low riders, the language was Spanish, the colors pastel, the graffiti omnipresent, the pace of life "mañana." And the money to pay for this more civilized Mexico comes from govât service storefronts on every block - health services, naturalization services, education services, welfare services - funded by the dwindling white taxpaying hosts. Central Valley, Mexifornia | HappyAcres
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:07 AM | Your Say (2)
Arabs could be swung on an idea as on a cord; for the unpledged allegiance of their minds made them obedient servants.
They were incorrigibly children of the idea, feckless and colour-blind, to whom body and spirit were for ever and inevitably opposed.Their mind was strange and dark, full of depressions and exaltations, lacking in rule, but with more of ardour and more fertile in belief than any other in the world. They were a people of starts, for whom the abstract was the strongest motive, the process of infinite courage and variety, and the end nothing. They were as unstable as water, and like water would perhaps finally prevail. Since the dawn of life, in successive waves they had been dashing themselves against the coasts of flesh. Each wave was broken, but, like the sea, wore away ever so little of the granite on which it failed, and some day, ages yet, might roll unchecked over the place where the material world had been, and God would move upon the face of those waters. One such wave (and not the least) I raised and rolled before the breath of an idea, till it reached its crest, and toppled over and fell at Damascus. The wash of that wave, thrown back by the resistance of vested things, will provide the matter of the following wave, when in fullness of time the sea shall be raised once more. Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:49 AM | Your Say (0)
June 11, 2016
How to Have a Healthy Summer, 1656
The shepheards in summer been clothed with light gowns and single, their shirts and sheets that they ly in be linnen, for of all cloath it is the coldest... and they eat light meats, as Chickens with veriuyce, young Hares, Rabbets, Lettise, Purselain, Melons, Gowrds, Cucumbers, Peares, Plumbs... They drink oft fresh water when they be thirsty, save only at dinner and supper time, and then they do drink feebl green Wine, single Beer, or small Ale. Also they keep them from over great travell, or over forcing themselves, for in this time is nothing grievouser than chafing. In this season they eschue the company of women, and they bathe them oft in cold water to asswage the heat of their bodies enforced by labours. Alway they have with them sugarcandy or other Sugar whereof they take little and often." -- Shepheards Kalender Ask the Past:
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:58 PM | Your Say (0)
Mission Accomplished: You're Supposed to Forget About Them
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:57 AM | Your Say (5)
Google Translate Is Not Always Your Friend: "How to reduce your ass outside"
The most common question that I get asked Omsk:"That you're so smart - write that we complete ass, but how can we change something? What should I do? " Good question. Let's think about what to do to become an ass through the window a little smaller, but it is better to gone. This is true not only of Omsk, this applies to all of the city. At the moment I do not see any constructive non-political ways something fundamentally change the window. If your window of Omsk, the time for negotiation and compromise is over. The current system is designed so that all the flirting with the officials, all attempts to establish a dialogue with them - a waste of time. Of course, you can pretend that you have with the mayor of your city found a common language, and it is now will listen to you, but it should be clearly understood that this is nothing more than a game. It's like thinking that a prostitute that you removed, loves you and is glad meetings. All illusions destroy Service when your time is up. All of these round tables, where the government listens to your opinion, all these working groups - it is a waste of resources and time. Normal political maneuver designed to swing and you shift the responsibility to the people. - Varlamov.ru
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:53 AM | Your Say (0)
June 10, 2016
Controlling them would require martial law in cities in insurrection and the shooting of arsonists and looters.
There is no nice way to do it. The scum will ignore niceness. The police would have to beat the living dog-snot out of rioters, charge them with assault, and put them in slam for the maximum. Controlling them would require martial law in cities in insurrection and the shooting of arsonists and looters. Universities would have to expel without recourse of misbehaving college children. These would take stomach, which we do not have. Whither the Shards of America?: It's Us, or Them | Fred On EverythingPosted by gerardvanderleun at 3:30 PM | Your Say (5)
You know you're in trouble when you face a "wrath of litigation."
Gawker Media Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - "Gawker is currently facing a wrath of litigation that's been connected to Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. Besides the Hogan suit, there are claims from a journalist and the alleged inventor of e-mail who both say they were defamed. Gawker is also facing off against the parent company of Daily Mail in court and was hit with a copyright lawsuit this week over a photograph of an Uber car."
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:20 AM | Your Say (5)
Networks of Evil
First, they comprise hundreds and sometimes thousands of individuals and subgroups. The result is a resilient criminal infrastructure that doesn’t break down when a criminal leader is imprisoned or killed. No single criminal mastermind makes all the decisions and mobilizes all the resources across these criminal structures. Second, those hundreds and thousands of people interacting include not only “full-time” criminals but also “legal” players—politicians, bankers, lawyers, public servants, and investors—operating inside formal institutions and manipulating legal functions and procedures. | City Journal
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:49 AM | Your Say (1)
[Bumped] If tomorrow a war were to break out between the US and Russia, it is guaranteed that the US would be obliterated.
Financial centers would lie in ruins. Government at every level would cease to function. US armed forces, stationed all around the globe, would no longer be resupplied. At a maximum, the entire landmass of the US would be covered by a layer of radioactive ash. We tell you this not to be alarmist, but because, based on everything we know, we are ourselves alarmed. If attacked, Russia will not back down; she will retaliate, and she will utterly annihilate the United States. A Russian warning | The Vineyard of the Saker
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:25 AM | Your Say (17)
June 9, 2016
I don't write the headlines, I just report them.
Chinese Man Shocked to Learn His Pregnant Bride Was Actually a Guy
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:57 PM | Your Say (2)
It is one thing to say, "Don't vote for that guy, he's an asshole."
It is a completely different thing to say, "Don't vote for that guy, you asshole."I speak for many when I say that the unforgivable assaults on the decency, integrity, intelligence (and even the right to exist), of Trump's working class supporters only served to further breed an already-exploding resentment against the Republican Establishment, and by extension their preferred candidates. In my 35 years of watching politics, I have never seen a political party's elites attack and demean millions of their own voters. 8 Reasons Why #NeverTrump Failed
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:06 PM | Your Say (4)
Who speaks for these guys among today's presidential candidates? You have one guess.
And, coming from another culture coming apart under the assault of globalization,it breaks my heart to speak to them and listen to their stories. I am of course, generalizing , but many really feel left behind : it seems in a multicultural America, bent on integrating the latest fashionable minority, and catering through main media channels, fashion, movies, art and politics to larger urban centers and their dwellers - there is little place left for the God-abiding, law-respecting, family-loving, hard-working individual that used to be called the common man and it's now called a bigot, gun-toting, racist, homophobic troglodyte. (9) Dan Dragan -- Who is Donald Trump's base?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:20 PM | Your Say (0)
Elsewhere on Planet Earth .... Russia does have the means to close her borders.
It is estimated that the Border Guard Service currently includes 10 regional offices, 80 border units, 950 outposts, 400 checkpoints. Every day the service conducts 11,000 patrols. In total, the task of preservation and protection of borders of the Russian Federation carried out by about 200’000 border guards. This service has its own air force, coastal navy, UAV, intelligence directorate, armored units and even its own Spetsnaz forces. The reality is that the Russian Border Guard Service is more powerful than most EU armies. And now it will have the full power of the National Guard to back it. Make no mistake, Russia can, and will, if needed, lock and protect her borders. The EU’s “suicide by reality denial” | The Vineyard of the Saker
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:11 AM | Your Say (4)
It's getting ever more obvious who the real extremists are.
"I don’t think they need that big flag on the back of the truck. That’s not America to me. Those are a bunch of terrorists. So, I’m going to ask you to take the flag off that truck" said Coventry, Rhode Island Fire District Chairman Fred Gralinski at a board meeting . He's talking about firemen who put an American flag on their fire truck. Woodpile ReportPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:58 AM | Your Say (6)
Silicon Valley Darling Elizabeth Holmes Goes From A Net Worth Of $4.5 Billion To Zero
Elizabeth Holmes, whose name has been associated with all manner of feminist attempts to claim that women are inherently awesome at business, founded the blood-testing company Theranos. Yet Theranos has been involved in scandal after scandal recently, largely based on the company’s obsession with secrecy and claiming without verification that its Edison blood-testing device is “revolutionary.” - - - ROK
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:19 AM | Your Say (4)
June 8, 2016
While you were out having a series of primaries...
The Jihad Goes On | City JournalWhile American air strikes and other operations had killed 25,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, incinerated hundreds of millions of dollars that ISIS had stolen from banks and seized from kidnappings and extortion, forced it to cut salaries by a third, and taken back some territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, the terror group now had roots in 15 countries and continued to expand its reach in Europe, North Africa, and Afghanistan.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:39 PM | Your Say (1)
Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars
The originators of barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars. So immediate and unhesitatingly severe measures must be undertaken against them.They are therefore, when captured either in battle or offering resistance, as a matter of routine to be dispatched by firearms. 6th June 1941: Hitler orders all Soviet Commissars to be shot
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:10 AM | Your Say (3)
The first and worst change was the philosophy that everybody, or much closer to everybody, should go to college.
Disaster followed. There descended on the schools huge numbers of adolescents without the brains,
preparation, or interest needed for college. They had little notion of what college was for. The very idea of cultivation seemed undemocratic to them, as of course it was. They set outto avoid it. And did. College Then and Now: Letter to a Bright Young Woman | Fred On Everything
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:14 AM | Your Say (3)
This quote from Theodore Dalrymple is popping up more frequently, as it deserves:
"In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to."Woodpile Report
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:43 AM | Your Say (3)
June 7, 2016
After the reassuring presence of imperial might has vanished, the next stage does not include calls for defense or balancing or stronger walls.
No. It is the stage of disbelief and self-delusion.As Roman power waned, the locals comforted themselves with the delusion that the threats did not exist or, if they did, that the menace was not great. Perhaps the enemies would seek other targets. Perhaps the walls would suffice. Perhaps the barbarians liked peace and commerce as much as they did. Perhaps they would just go away. Perhaps they would peacefully blend in. The list of possible justifications for this delusion is as long as it is wrong. The Stages of Grief at the Frontier - The American Interest
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:16 PM | Your Say (0)
"In mid-2012, Google announced that Google Maps had over a billion monthly active users. That’s 1 out of every 7 people on Earth. Three years later, that number is even larger."
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY, THE MAJORITY OF THE WORLD MIGHT SOON BE USING THE SAME MAP. Think of how deeply profound this is.I was struck by all this as I was reading about the recent refugee crisis in Europe. Refugees from some of poorest, most dysfunctional places on Earth are using the same map that San Franciscans use to navigate to Mountain View every day. And all the while, print maps have become artifacts hung on living room and boardroom walls, valued more for their aesthetics than their utility. The Universal Map — Justin O'Beirne
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:47 PM | Your Say (0)
What makes a memorable image? Q&A with Stuart Franklin of Magnum
Tiananmen Square is much the same in that, yes, it tells the story of a man in front of a tank. It became important because of television coverage. I think it was on 5 June 1989. It was seen by George Bush Snr, when he was in Kennebunkport in Maine, and he said: ‘Seeing the tank driver exercise restraint, I’m convinced that the forces of democracy are going to overcome these unfortunate events in Tiananmen Square.’ | Aeon Essays
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:42 PM | Your Say (2)
Cartography Comparison: Google Maps & Apple Maps
In many ways, this makes Google Maps & Apple Maps two of the most important maps ever made. Who will get there first? — Justin O'Beirne
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:53 AM | Your Say (4)
The arguments about global warming too often sound more like theology than science.
Oh, the word “science” gets thrown around a great deal, but it's cited as a sacred authority,not a fallible process that staggers only awkwardly and unevenly toward the truth, with frequent lurches in the wrong direction. I cannot count the number of times someone has told me that they believe in “the science,” as if that were the name of some omniscient god who had delivered us final answers written in stone. Global-Warming Alarmists, You're Doing It Wrong - Bloomberg View
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:29 AM | Your Say (2)
“The people are angry,” and the new class of politician will play to that anger.
It is a matter beyond any passing question of public policy.The people are angry about everything the “old politics” delivered, with their help. They want punishment, they want action. It is no elite rebellion: they want what is coming good and hard. The decline of requirements : Essays in Idleness
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:18 AM | Your Say (0)
For Pete’s Sake, Will Someone Find Something for Men to Do?
We bicycle along cliff edges and make homemade flamethrowers to kill the weeds in the cracks in the driveway because we have nothing worthy to occupy us. You won’t let us stand up to bad guys unless we’re wearing a leotard. A kilt I could see, but spandex? No dice. – - BSBFBPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:25 AM | Your Say (0)
June 6, 2016
Who says there's no good news?
The US has lost a quarter of a million jobs in journalismPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:10 PM | Your Say (4)
"We're going to need a bigger Nobel Prize."
Classic Sodastream gadget now turns water into beerPosted by gerardvanderleun at 3:35 PM | Your Say (0)
Everything everyone else does is Trump's fault. https://t.co/tpQdVQt3g4
— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) June 6, 2016
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:37 PM | Your Say (2)
"History shows that, when people aim at the realization of a particular ideal, they generally succeed in getting just the opposite of what they want.
Thus, conservatives try to conserve a given state of affairs; what they generally get is revolution. Revolutionaries try to obtain liberty, justice, and equality by violent means: tyranny and the enslavement of the masses are the usual consequence of their efforts. When the prevailing ideal is to get rich, the result, as we see to-day in Europe and America, is that most of the members of the wealth-loving society are reduced to poverty and an abject dependence on their plutocratic or bureaucratic rulers." - - Aldous Huxley, Introduction to Hopousia / 1940
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:38 PM | Your Say (0)
IT'S EITHER THAT OR A LARGE TURD
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:34 AM | Your Say (6)
Proof that the biggest collection of assholes on the planet works for the US Government
The chocolate eggs, which aren't available in America, come with a toy inside. Without thinking much of it, the duo picked up six of the eggs before heading home. "We packed it in the back of the car because we weren't going to eat them," Loo said. When they got to the border, the guards began searching the car and soon found the eggs. "He said, 'Are you aware Kinder Eggs are illegal in the United States and carry a $2,500 fine per egg?'
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:28 AM | Your Say (4)
Eating watermelon is great, but feeding watermelons to your hippo is even better.
Only a guy would feed watermelons to their hippo. It’s a guy thing. I don’t want any girls barging in and trying to horn in on our hippo feeding. You girls have drapes and Jane Austen novels and shoe shopping to amuse you. Give us something of our own. Let us feed watermelons to our hippos in peace.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:17 AM | Your Say (5)
Oh, Look. Real Men
There were no more asses to kick, so they went to work and made things. They bound steel together with hot rivets. That’s what men do. Stuff like that. One guy brings in his barbecue grill, another guy brings in a funnel used to change the oil on a 35-foot-long Buick two-door coupe, and the other guys bang away with hammers sissy Thor characters from today’s Disney movies couldn’t lift. At lunch time they ate balogna sandwiches on white bread and drank black coffee. These were men. Look on them, and be ashamed. – BSBFB From The Borderline Sociopathic Blog For Boys which is sporting a fine makeover. ]Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:51 AM | Your Say (1)
June 5, 2016
The Perversion of the Law
The law in America no longer confines itself to its proper functions as it has become the chief weapon of injustice acting in direct opposition to its own purpose. As the French classical economist Frederic Bastiat noted in his famous essay The Law, “It has been used to destroy its own objective. It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect.” Bastiat continues, “The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.” â Politically Short
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:57 PM | Your Say (2)
As Falstaff puts it, Alcohol
ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. On a High NotePosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:16 PM | Your Say (2)
The Secret Six
His family of four wives and at least 18 children lived lavishly across London, Paris, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. He commissioned life-sized bronze sculptures of couples having sex, just to offend his more-conservative brother Mohamed. He owned a 152-foot yacht named "Tits," and called the lifeboats "Nipple 1" and "Nipple 2." Court documents would reveal that Jefri ultimately spent some $78 million with Pininfarina alone. Some estimates pegged the total number of cars in his priceless collection at more than 2,500 — others, closer to 5,000. | The Verge
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:37 PM | Your Say (1)
Our managers are idiots, and our workers retards
Now we shuffle everyone into office jobs, where one person now does as a singular role what one worker did in the past.
This is a response to how dumb and neurotic everyone is, thus useless. Our managers are idiots, and our workers retards, so we dumb down the whole thing for them, which means that anyone with an IQ above that of a microwave hot pocket is in deep trouble because he or she will be bored, lonely and subtly enraged during their entire working tenure. Your Life Is Wasted
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:27 AM | Your Say (0)
June 4, 2016
For the last twenty years all anybody in Venezuela talked about was politics.
Over expensive meals, black label whiskey and cold beer on street corners the endless debate raged:revolution, popular democracy, participatory democracy. Conspiracies, the empire – planning; oh, the endless planning. The only thing people talk about these days is food. Where can you find milk? Has anybody seen eggs? Cheese, butter, chicken – these are the topics, on street corners in front of boarded up kiosks where the drunken debates used to rage. But the beer is now gone, and sobriety is a heartless companion. It’s humiliating, the hunger is – but hungry people don’t care. They don’t have the luxury of pride. Venezuela’s Discovery of Hunger | Joel D. Hirst's Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:26 PM | Your Say (4)
Now, 2016 you sits down with the 2005 you and says,
“In a decade, our black Muslim president, who may be bisexual (Google Reggie Love), will issue an edict forcing schools to let mentally ill men in dresses into restrooms, so they can watch your daughter pee. The Republican Party will sneak a provision into a mammoth budget bill legalizing this edict. When challenged, the President will claim the Christian Bible requires it.” Religion of Hate | The Z BlogPosted by gerardvanderleun at 7:20 PM | Your Say (1)
Glenn Beck is a Dangerous Nut-Job
Since religion always bumps up against politics,his religion led him into various causes that brought him into contact with politics. The familiar pattern started all over again. He threw himself into the topic, reading and studying everything he could about history and ideology. Being a religious guy, he naturally gravitated to causes and politics that were anti-Progressive. The gonzo party guy was now the gonzo political guy. His life was now politics and everything that came along with it. | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:30 PM | Your Say (2)
At One Time There Were Many Good Reasons to Fly
Glamour in the Sky: Vintage photos show how Flight Attendants used to wear the coolest uniforms EVER ...
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:56 PM | Your Say (4)
June 3, 2016
Funniest Labor Report Ever
Only a captured government drone could put out a report showing only 38,000 new jobs created,with the working age population rising by 205,000, and have the balls to report the unemployment rate plunged from 5.0% to 4.7%, the lowest since August 2007. If you ever needed proof these worthless bureaucrats are nothing more than propaganda peddlers for the establishment, this report is it. The two previous months were revised significantly downward in the fine print of the press release. Doug Ross @ Journal:
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:08 PM | Your Say (3)
I don't write the headlines. I just report them.
Balls up: Are scrotal lifts the next trend in male grooming?Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:00 PM | Your Say (8)
Dear God, make me hard to kill.
There is no plan. There are only men and their ambitions against the winds of chance and the women who motivate. There is love and duty, always attempting at truth and beauty. There are those who fail and stagger back to standing. We, facing recklessly the indifference of mediocrity, push our little pushes and trim our little rose bushes. Dear God, make me hard to kill. Let me tend to this garden of life. Fifteenmore, thirty more, ninety-five years. Let me buy everyone whisky. So cheers. Fifty Five - CobbPosted by gerardvanderleun at 5:12 PM | Your Say (1)
Here’s the unfortunate truth — several billion people have a slot machine in their pocket:
- When we pull our phone out of our pocket, we’re playing a slot machine to see what notifications we got.
- When we pull to refresh our email, we’re playing a slot machine to see what new email we got.
- When we swipe down our finger to scroll the Instagram feed, we’re playing a slot machine to see what photo comes next.
- When we swipe faces left/right on dating apps like Tinder, we’re playing a slot machine to see if we got a match.
- When we tap the # of red notifications, we’re playing a slot machine to what’s underneath.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:03 PM | Your Say (6)
See the secret airplane bedrooms where flight attendants sleep on long-haul flights
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:03 PM | Your Say (2)
Part of our devolution can be attributed to the nice-guy trap.
in part because “common decency” has been redefined to include never uttering a sound that might offend or disturb someone else, however deranged he might be. Today’s youngsters are ruthlessly conditioned away from asserting themselves in the face of lunacy and thuggery. Against such feeble defenses, even a weak aggressor can score victory after victory. Liberty's Torch: The Fraying
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (4)
The ancients, even the prehistoric ancients, didn't know less than we do, they knew different things.
What has been lost is equal to what has been gained, how can it be otherwise? Or shall we also believe their days were less bright and their rain less wet, their lives less alive and their dead more dead? There never were simpler times. Ancient societies were no less convoluted, nor their protocols any less inviolable. Woodpile ReportPosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:01 AM | Your Say (0)
The End Of The House Of Saud
King Salman is dead, beheaded for apostasy. A cabal of military officers and Wahhabist clerics now claims to be heading the country, an image of a black flag flying over the Grand Mosque is shown while a Jihadi anthem plays. The claim is soon verified by the bloodied occupants of the crammed private jets now touching down in Cairo and Amman. Anyone with means is desperately trying to flee the country, the deluge of overloaded small and large planes and helicopters creates chaos, some crash trying to land on the busy highways. - Social Matter
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:57 AM | Your Say (4)
As this summer progresses and the economy continues to sink, the anger will continue to build.
The violence has already begun, as paid thugs are bused in to create havoc at every Trump rally.The establishment fears the unknown. They need to control the agenda. Trump scares them. The economy is clearly in recession for the average family. The stock, bond, and real estate markets are the most overvalued in history. A crash in any or all of these markets would unleash mayhem. The next five months could alter the future course of this country. Stay tuned. The Funniest BLS Report Ever | Zero Hedge
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:19 AM | Your Say (3)
Hi, I Am a Delegate — A Non-Superdelegate.
Supers not only have the right to choose who they vote for, they can ignore the will of an overwhelming majority of voters as well. Some see this as a flaw in the electoral system, but I see it as a raucous celebration of the human spirit. Oh, how I wish I were a Super. McSweeney’sPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:14 AM | Your Say (1)
Obama has consistently called for wealth redistribution. This is what it really looks like.
It’s men being hung from trees or lying in dirt dying of malaria.It’s death squads coming in the night. It’s a declaration that you are to be executed because you are the wrong class in a class war. It’s a man condemned to hard labor in a New Economic Zone and a family starving to death because the regime has commanded that they must be made an example of to other peasants. Sultan Knish: Obama's Ho Chi Minh Trail
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:56 AM | Your Say (2)
" If Trump wins, we will have a president that overwhelmingly rejects PC rhetoric. "
“For me personally, it's resistance against what San Francisco has been, and what I see the country becoming, in the form of ultra-PC culture. That’s where it's almost impossible to have polite or constructive political discussion. Disagreement gets you labeled fascist, racist, bigoted, etc. It can provoke a reaction so intense that you’re suddenly an unperson to an acquaintance or friend. ... This is a war over how dialogue in America will be shaped. If Hillary wins, we're going to see a further tightening of PC culture. But if Trump wins? If Trump wins, we will have a president that overwhelmingly rejects PC rhetoric. Even better, we will show that more than half the country rejects this insane PC regime.” Glenn Reynolds
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:34 AM | Your Say (2)
There should be no illusions about how this second generation of children raised by the free love generation is going to turn out.
Why did their kids turn to heroin? How did this happen? Who caused it? Well, it was the heroin, of course! Heroin showed up at 3am with a baseball bat and dragged their kids out of the house. Heroin flew a Chinook over the high school and abducted their kids in some kind of special forces raid. Heroin mustered a million-man army and marched into the town, occupied the government buildings, and declared a state of martial law with mandatory heroin injections for everybody born after 1975. Heroin took their kids to bad, bad places. Baby Boomers Fail Two Generations - Social Matter
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:21 AM | Your Say (2)
A Whole Foods Clerk’s All-Store Announcement for a Lost Husband
Then a woman offered him brownie samples that tasted like sunscreen
and since they were free he had twelve miniature cups of blackberry-hibiscus chia drink that looked like frogspawn while another woman offered him fermented cod liver oil pills that cost the same as a Playstation. Another nice lady in a white hat was offering small cups of toe-food curry which sounded gnarly, but he tried the toad-food anyway and liked it, but then he started to feel guilty realizing there is a whole subculture of freeloading snackers that no one is talking about and it’s a serious problem! - - McSweeney’s
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:16 AM | Your Say (1)
“[Y]ou just can’t be too safe.”
Guns, Gorillas, Moon Missions: Overprotection Makes Us Less SafeOnce upon a time, it was understood that a certain degree of skill was necessary to survive upon the Earth, and arole of society was to provide people with those skills. Today, the emphasis is on reducing every possible source of danger so that people with greatly reduced skills can safely live upon it. What may be unrecognized in the shift is the degree to which this supposed idiot-proofingmay contribute to actually increasing the total hazard.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:51 AM | Your Say (3)
June 2, 2016
I’ve been through this a hundred times and the PC mob is a very disorienting melee.
It’s like the first time you accidentally set off your home alarmand have to try to remember the code while a series of screaming sirens in various patterns shatters your eardrums. Hughes is likely backtracking because the entire band and everyone else who relies on them to pay their bills are being punished monetarily for straying from the narrative. Taking Back Our Country From the PC Police
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:38 PM | Your Say (1)
Chesterton's Big 3
“Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of people in this world.The first kind of people are People; they are the largest and probably the most valuable class. We owe to this class the chairs we sit down own, the clothes we wear, the houses we live in; and, indeed (when we come to think of it), we probably belong to this class ourselves. The second class may be called for convenience the Poets; they are often a nuisance to their families, but, generally speaking, a blessing to mankind. The third class is that of the Professors or Intellectuals; sometimes described as the thoughtful people; and these are a blight and a desolation both to their families and also to mankind.” - - Chesterton, “Three Kinds of Men”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:08 PM | Your Say (2)
How Winston Churchill Liked His Breakfast
he’d brace himself for the day to come with a substantial English breakfast of cold chicken, or partridge and grouse when in season—though he was very partial to a grilled sole, too. But he always had something hot with something cold—if breakfast was bacon and eggs, then he had to have a slice of ham accompanying it, racks of hot toast with lashings of butter and jams and jellies. All with a pot of hot tea and an outsize cup. - - Food 52
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:01 PM | Your Say (2)
Smash Your Burgers!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:59 PM | Your Say (6)
Intolerance is why stop and frisk worked so well in New York.
It took the status out of thug life. If you went out with your pants around your ankles and your hat on side ways, the cops would humiliate you on the street. No one looks hard when they have their hands against the wall and a cop has pulled their pants down, looking for weapons and drugs. Remove the status from thug life and you get less of it. - - Bodymore, MurdervillePosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:11 AM | Your Say (0)
Oh, the vapors, the vapors...
Donald Trump, while detailing his veteran donations at a news conference, thoroughly dissed the press and called a reporter "sleazy." (Hillary Clinton, it's worth noting, doesn't do that. She can't because, although running for president, she hasn't had a news conference in 2016.) -- Roger SimonPosted by gerardvanderleun at 9:16 AM | Your Say (1)
[Bumped] And after 8 years the teleprompter finally gave up the g-g-g-g-g-g-ghost....
Update: Here 14 hours before headlining The Drudge Report
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:50 AM | Your Say (7)
June 1, 2016
Intolerance is wildly underrated.
Much of what ails the West is due to the people in charge failing in their basic duties.Instead of enforcing the codes and customs that keep society on an even keel, they have found excuses to tolerate all sorts of bad behavior. It’s how we ended up with hip-hop music and talking hemorrhoids like Al Sharpton celebrated in popular culture. That may seem harmless, but it’s also how you end up with nutters like Beck and Thor encouraging people to shoot Donald Trump. Glenn Beck is a Dangerous Nut-Job | The Z Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:36 PM | Your Say (2)
What makes my skin crawl is the ethnomasochism of the West.
Muslims have a very condescending tone when it comes to their religion and usually approach the problem with instructions such as “educate yourself” and “get to know a Muslim.”I’d like to return the favor with a homework assignment for them and insist they look up how many Muslims think suicide bombing is “sometimes or often justified.” You can’t really fault the Muslims for pushing tolerance after an attack like this. Lying is a basic tenet of their religion. What makes my skin crawl is the ethnomasochism of the West. Taking Back Our Country From the PC Police
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:35 PM | Your Say (0)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:05 PM | Your Say (3)
In fairness, the gorilla will be missed. https://t.co/5Umo94507X
— Patrick Henrys Ghost (@Pissed_Pat) June 1, 2016
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:52 PM | Your Say (0)
We R Cute Shoplifters
One of Barbie’s recent hauls—a “quick” one, she wrote—included four perfume bottles from Victoria’s Secret and a Michael Kors purse from a Dillard’s department store.She estimated the value to be $510. She keeps a running tally, proudly displaying the values of stolen items at the top of her blog: “$6,077saved since ’15,” her profile boasts. She also says she’s “boosted” $435, money made by selling stolen goods. Unicorn-Lift has a similar counter set to $4,863 for lifted merchandise and $585 for boosts. - - | GOOD
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:25 PM | Your Say (2)