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Swimming Laps in the Labyrinth

“Beware the autumn people… For some, autumn comes early, stays late through life…For these beings, fall is the ever normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir in their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eyes? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles- breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.” — Ray Bradbury

Medical Hypotheses: Clever Sillies – Why the high IQ lack common sense When it comes to solving social problems, the most intelligent people are more likely than those of average intelligence to have novel but silly ideas, and therefore to believe and behave maladaptively. I further suggest that this random silliness of the most intelligent people may be amplified to generate systematic wrongness when intellectuals are in addition ‘advertising’ their own high intelligence in the evolutionarily novel context of a modern IQ meritocracy.

Last of the Hippie Filmmakers – Gunnar Hansen, the Icelandic giant who played the actual chain-saw killer in Texas Chain Saw Massacre, was the editor of the Austin poetry journal Lucille at the time he got the part.

How to Run the Economy on the Weather – Many a village has at times gone short of wheaten bread because the local mill was becalmed in a waterless district before the invention of the steam engine; and barley-meal bread or even potato bread had to suffice in the crisis of a windless autumn.

The King of the Islands of Refreshment— The four humans and several dozen animals of the Islands of Refreshment went through around 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of oil-laden elephant seal meat and blubber per week.

Tomahawks rule: The ability to launch beyond 1,000 miles provides a sanctuary against antiaccess land and sea based threats while delivering a mission reach beyond other air or ship delivered weapons. Armed with a 1,000-pound warhead, the missile packs the offensive punch to take down key air defense elements and other hardened targets.

Hubble Spotted a Strange New Object in Our Solar System – – As the asteroid neared the sun last September, Hubble saw that 288P is not one but two asteroids, roughly the same size, that orbit each other about 62 miles apart.

Persisting for seven decades, the cold-case questions of “the Black Dahlia” in Los Angeles Elizabeth Short was a beautiful dark-haired woman, and her death would acquire a strangely iconic status over the years. It sparked numerous media outputs, books that focused on the case, films, and, absurdly, even video games; a Black Dahlia cocktail is served at the Biltmore Hotel, where Short was last seen alive by witnesses, a couple of days before she was made the victim of the gruesome killing.

The Language of the Dark Web – A significant subset of the hidden Web is the online equivalent of caves, lairs, and dungeons where hackers, criminals, and trolls gather. I speak now of the aforementioned dark Web, the collection of websites where miscreants and malefactors go to buy or sell narcotics, weapons, and stolen goods (these are known as dark markets), where the desperate and the desperadoes hire hitmen and arsonists, and where trolls and dark-side hackers gather covertly in forums and chat rooms.

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  • Casey Klahn September 23, 2017, 10:40 AM

    Scott Adams for Secretary of Anything! I love his comics, and also his blog. “Who hired the climate denier?” In his zeal to be centrist, which I think is aimed at communicating with a broad audience, he left out one salient thing. The whole climate model thing springs from a political basis and radical supposition. That’s the reason I try to never let any *climate science* enter my attention bubble. Homey don’t play the game of letting the Marxist ask the questions.

  • Rob De Witt September 23, 2017, 12:29 PM

    Homey don’t play the game of letting the Marxist ask the questions.

    Do Homey be imitating a Negro?

  • pbird September 23, 2017, 1:00 PM

    The first rule of dark web is…………..

  • indyjonesouthere September 23, 2017, 1:26 PM

    AGW is only the latest derivative of the neo-Malthusian cult. For previous divisions see Rachel Carson and silent spring or ZPG or Paul Ehrlich and his associated clown posse.

  • Casey Klahn September 23, 2017, 8:17 PM

    Rob DeWitt: you don’t know what race I am.

  • Rob De Witt September 24, 2017, 6:02 AM

    CK: Spoken like a, you should pardon the expression, liberal.

    You’re right, I don’t. I was basing my assumption on your photograph, your utube vids, your name (I’ve known, worked with, worked for, lived with, and slept with some dozens of black folks in my life, and I’ve never known one called “Casey”) and your history of posts here. Silly me.

  • Nori September 24, 2017, 7:05 AM

    Ah, Homey D. Clown, aka Damon Wayans. His portrayal of a work-release prisoner in a clown suit was the first time I ever found a clown to be funny. The 1990’s tv show “In Living Color” was genuinely entertaining. They poked fun at everyone, including themselves. Who can forget the gay film critics, “Men On Film”? No way could that show get green-lighted in today’s stifling, humorless P/C TV Land sad sack of banality.

  • Casey Klahn September 24, 2017, 7:11 AM

    I was trying that comeback out. Maybe better used on the street, since the internet is so transparent (particularly me, because I make my living on the internet). The set up is supposed to be: guy on the street calls me a racist. My retort is as above. Gee. It worked better when I had the fro, which I wore almost my whole life.

    Nori: did you read where Mel Brooks said this week that political correctness has destroyed comedy? How true, and he’s the dean of comedians right now. We were better off when we just said whatever we wanted to say, good or bad.

  • ghostsniper September 24, 2017, 10:05 AM

    “We were better off when we just said whatever we wanted to say, good or bad.”
    ==============================

    You were doing just perfect, til your conscience got the better of you and you felt compelled to enter that comma and last 3 words.

    Your comment, though, made me pause and reflect.
    Perhaps my *tribe* (or potential tribe) is larger than I previously thought.
    Here in the hinters there seems to be very little PC, everybody says what they want.
    But then, everybody out here is of the same *flavor*.

    Maybe diversity causes friction?
    (friction causes heat, heat causes fires, fires can lead to explosions)
    Maybe multiculturalism causes everybody to pretend to be somebody they ain’t?

    I remember 4 decades ago working in concrete construction with negro workers and everybody had to change their speaking when the negro’s were in the immediate area and it was always uncomfortable, unnatural even. Was the same way when I was in the army. About 1/2 the time when I lived in society, and hardly ever out here in ruralville. Ruralville seems much more natural than all the others. Think I’ll stay here, and hope others stay away. They won’t like it out here. We’re *offensive*.

  • Casey Klahn September 24, 2017, 12:27 PM

    Ghost: you must watch the new Kid Rock videos. Po Dunk. He takes apart the whole fucking mess, re: Americans and race.

    I just got a message from my old army buddy from the mid Eighties. He’s retired from public service, and wants to get back in touch. A black man. I got out of the very last army school I attended (IOAC), Ft Benning, GA, came home, and thought about my handful of buddies there. Every last one of them was black. I never realized it until I got home! Me: white guy. Never mattered.

    But, my first experiences as an enlisted infantryman did give me pause when I ran into a few dozen inner-city non-whites. It was the Seventies. Most feral bunch of people I think I’ve ever come across, and that includes jungle-dwellers from Central America, Laplanders, and Russkies.

  • Casey Klahn September 24, 2017, 12:28 PM

    Can’t get comment through filter?

  • Casey Klahn September 24, 2017, 12:28 PM

    Ghost: you must watch the new Kid Rock videos. Po Dunk. He takes apart the whole f-cking mess, re: Americans and race.

    I just got a message from my old army buddy from the mid Eighties. He’s retired from public service, and wants to get back in touch. A black man. I got out of the very last army school I attended (IOAC), Ft Benning, GA, came home, and thought about my handful of buddies there. Every last one of them was black. I never realized it until I got home! Me: white guy. Never mattered.

    But, my first experiences as an enlisted infantryman did give me pause when I ran into a few dozen inner-city non-whites. It was the Seventies. Most feral bunch of people I think I’ve ever come across, and that includes jungle-dwellers from Central America, Laplanders, and Russkies.

  • Casey Klahn September 24, 2017, 12:28 PM

    It was the “fucking” word the filter didn’t like.

  • Casey Klahn September 24, 2017, 12:29 PM

    It was the “f” word that got filtered. Tried several times. f me.

  • Vanderleun September 24, 2017, 1:52 PM

    I WENT INto the background software and think, THINK, I fixed that fucking thing.

  • Vanderleun September 24, 2017, 1:53 PM

    Seems I did.

  • Nori September 24, 2017, 3:11 PM

    I did read that BBC interview of Mel Brooks, Casey. Even at 91 yrs, his brain still fires on all cylinders. Quote : “Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering into the king’s ear, always telling the truth about human behavior.” Some twitterati nitwit took issue with that in a series of unfunny tweets, thus proving Brooks’ point. A good sense of humor makes us all more human. Those who can’t laugh at themselves are at the vanguard of the entire progressive p/c vinegar-drinking (h/t Z-man) POS army.
    You’re right about Kid Rock’s Po Dunk videos, great stuff. Reeeally hope he does run for the Senate.

    Ghost,you’re so right about the Ruralville/Urbanville divide. Two very different worlds. That POS army referenced above would wither & crumble into dried trash if they actually had to fend for themselves,minus the EBT cards.

    Mr Vanderleun: fuckin’ A, man. Good job.

  • Howard Nelson September 24, 2017, 4:34 PM

    For a good night’s sleep, speak as you please and be pleased with how and why you speak.
    In our PissCee time the emphasis in comedy will
    be biting, rabid satire. Let’s hope that that dis-easing will go pandemic.

  • ghostsniper September 24, 2017, 6:22 PM

    @Casey, about 4 years ago I got a phone call out of the blue from somebody I didn’t recognize. A colored guy that knew me when I was in but I had forgotten about him. I didn’t know him well back then but he seemed to have been impressed enough to contact me 40 years later. During our conversation I pulled a recent picture of him up on the web and though much older I recognized him. We talked about the different people we both had known and the stuff we all went through things we did. It was a good conversation. We both said we need to stay in touch, but we haven’t. Interestingly enough his name is not *black* but rather very white, and his voice was very white as well. In fact, during the conversation I didn’t even know he was a negro until I seen his picture online, then I remembered him.

    We all got along back then, in the army we had no choice, but there was a certain *feeling* when in their presence. Like always having to be on guard.

  • ghostsniper September 25, 2017, 4:56 AM

    @Casey again, I watched the Kid Rock video and indeed it is very much like that around here. A stark diff between where I lived for 40 years (suburban southwest Florida) and now (the Hills O’ Brown – upper midwest).

    Our neighbor across the road had the traditional broken down tractor in the front yard of his 10 acre property, several junk vehicles too, a chainlink kennel with 9 yappin’ hunting dogs of various breeds, mostly a variety of curs. He also has a sprint car (was rated third in the state) several horses, and is a top rated *coon hunter*, and has lived here all of his life. All of his immediate family live within 3 miles.

    This place is hillbilly land and about 2 miles from our house is the Blue Grass capital of the world and each summer there are fests there every weekend. We can hear the music from out front porch on warm summer nights.

    Everybody wears camo all year round and in the season everyone and everything turns *hunting*, an amazing phenom to witness. Long term gunner myself, I found out right away how gun friendly the state is – simply pay the money (I think $30), get fringerprinted, and 10 days later your concealed carry permit comes in the mail. The process was arduous in FL, lots of money, lots of proving (my so called *constitutional right*), and 6 months waiting. shwew

    Most people around here like they want and mind their own business and thats exactly like it should be. Part of the old suburban me wishes the neighbor to the south would clean up their act but the new rural me tries to stay focused on my own stuff and ignore the others. As I age that becomes easier. Not really interested in changing anybody as that can only come in time and individual desire and will.

    Did anyone else notice the hummingbirds left 2 days ago?
    The same day the blue jays showed up.
    Seasons – take the time to notice them, they are natures clock and calendar, and magnificent.

  • ghostsniper September 25, 2017, 4:59 AM

    Blue Grass capital – http://www.billmonroemusicpark.com/

    Yeah, it’s in Bean Blossom. You read that right. YEEEE–HAWWWWWWW

  • Casey Klahn September 25, 2017, 9:27 AM

    Hee Haw! We had, and this story is maybe getting old by 7 years or more, a local guy chase off the census worker with a shotgun. I was working in my studio, which is not attached to the house, and a census temp. knocked on my door to see who was living in that structure. I yelled at her. I recall the news was something @ Obama was going to use the census numbers for some bullshit, so I was up in arms.

    I pay a little less hommage to the news than I did then. Even on Drudge, the entries are only headlines from trash news like the NYTimes, Chicago Tribune, WaPo, etc. If it says: “Trump to…” enter anything he might do next 0 my interest shuts off like a steel door. If it says: “Trump did this or that,” then I file that for future fact checking.