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November 30, 2013
"Portrait of a Maltese Knight", 1608, Caravaggio.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:10 PM | Your Say (2)
"Hello Negroes"
the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on the National Mall in August, but also showed up at Arlington Cemetery in June to honor Medgar Evers on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. In May, Mr. Clinton was the commencement speaker at Howard University in Washington
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:37 PM | Your Say (7)
"Manufacturers of intolerance,"
whether they're tenured academics like Ward Churchill, professional politicians like Barack Obama or angry waitresses like Dayna Morales, respond to tolerance with provocations.Their goal is to elicit evidence of intolerance to sustain their political identity. The more tolerance they encounter, the more they escalate their provocations. Their goal is not a tolerant society. It's not a multiracial society or a post-racial society. It is a society perpetually at war over identity politics. That conflict is what gives them power. - - Sultan Knish: Manufacturing Intolerance
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:34 PM | Your Say (0)
Where modern architecture fails to dissuade, we have modern fashion.
Gone are the mens' suit, leather boots, fine tailored hats and coats, detailed dresses for women, or sartorial standards of any kind. The youth are half naked and in a perpetual cycle of hippy revolution against an unseen sexually conservative oppressor that does not exist. Prevailing cyclical modern themes are garish colours, sweat pants, t-shirts, oft inspired by an endlessly repeating phenomenon of slutty pop stars based upon the model of the careless, free-wheeling whore perpetually giving the finger to a patriarchal history. Modern Art: An Artful Swindle
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:56 PM | Your Say (9)
The myth of the noble, objective scientist
Scientists are just as susceptible to human foibles as the rest of us— perhaps more so for most of them, because of the perennial insecurity of their positions and reputations. Science is every bit as much a human activity as politics, religion, and business, and just as subject to the same deadly sins: pride, envy, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, and sloth. -- And Still I Persist…
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:02 PM | Your Say (2)
Wanted - Crazy Roommate!
with a bandana around your neck and wearing a shirt that says "Thug 4 Life" You must be able to fail a criminal background check, preferably with at last one felony and be at least a level three sex offender. Unemployed is preferable but not required. References from previous evictions a plus. - - best of craigslist: Seattle
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:04 AM | Your Say (1)
"The beautiful untamable eagle doesn’t quite work as our national symbol anymore."
perhaps America should consider adopting the dodo bird as our symbol: he’s extinct and so is the way of life we enjoyed in America from its founding to the election of Barack Hussein Obama. And so is the glorious image of a nation that stood for what was good in mankind and for opportunity and for freedom. - - “Updating America’s Symbols”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:29 AM | Your Say (2)
There is no pleasure to be had in looking at anybody.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:26 AM | Your Say (7)
Now the wintertime is coming / The windows are filled with frost / I went to tell everybody / But I could not get across
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:07 AM | Your Say (1)
November 29, 2013
I flee from those “good times” in the “having” of which they are prepared to spend so lavishly of their energy and cash.”
I find nowadays that I simply don’t want to be up-to-date. I have lost all desire to see and do the things, the seeing and doing of which entitle a man to regard himself as superiorly knowing, sophisticated, unprovincial; I have lost all desire to frequent the places and people that a man simply must frequent, if he is not to be regarded as a poor creature hopelessly out of the swim. “Be up-to-date!” is the categorical imperative of those who scramble for the last bus. - - Aldous Huxley, Silence Is GoldenPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:04 PM | Your Say (1)
"I don't think it's an exaggeration to call journalism the last real remnant of American democracy. "
The job is about two things: minting clicks for slave wages, and feeling important. (You might say that journalists are paid both in money and in power.) Anything that can produce a good Two Minutes' Hate punches both buttons. If one Mr. Jones misses it, the next won't. I've seen the future of journalism in America. Unqualified Reservations: Mr. Jones is rather concerned
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:14 PM | Your Say (1)
See how far freedom of speech gets you.
Mention that you think we should undo something that’s been done over the past century or two.Maybe reverse women’s right to vote. Go back to sterilizing the disabled and feeble-minded. If you really need convincing, suggest re-implementing segregation, or how about slavery? See how far freedom of speech gets you.In America, it will get you fired from your job and ostracized by nearly everyone.
Depending on how loudly you do it, people may picket your house, or throw things at you, or commit violence against you which is then excused by the judiciary because obviously they were provoked. Despite the iconic image of the dissident sent to Siberia, this is how the Soviets dealt with most of their iconoclasts too. - - Reactionary Philosophy
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:01 PM | Your Say (1)
Our president: sensitive to criticism but immune to irony.
Along with such titans as Donald Trump and Alec Baldwin, he is the possessor of an epic sense of self, a Jörmungandr of ego reaching around the world to embrace — what else? — himself. The man is mired in self, positively suffocating in self: self-importance, self-regard, self-aggrandizement. Though one wonders how much substance there is within the balloon of the presidential ego: This is a man who has, after all, conscientiously reduced himself to a logo and a slogan, not a man for all seasons but a man for a single season ending in early November. The Barack Obama made available for public consumption is, like those Shepard Fairey “hope” posters seen around election time, a millimeter deep but ubiquitous. The Problem of Selfishness By Kevin D. Williamson
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:08 PM | Your Say (3)
"Get Whitey" [Not]
But.... of course... Duke Rape Accuser Got 160 TV News Stories on Accusation, 3 on Murder Conviction When Crystal Mangum falsely accusedseveral Duke lacrosse players of rape in 2006, there were 160 major television news stories in the first five days after the players were arrested, but in 2013, when Mangum was convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison, there were only 3 major television news stories, a difference in coverage of 5,233%. [HT: Surber]
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:44 PM | Your Say (0)
Too Late for Black Friday Doorbusters Again!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:57 PM | Your Say (0)
Though language policing is a liberal disease
the right also talks a lot about how we should talk.When everyone thought Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a slut, many conservatives were angry at him. “He shouldn’t have stooped to that level” they said, “it cheapens the whole discussion.” Fuck that. She went to a Catholic school and wanted to have sex before marriage. In that context, that’s exactly what she is (and he never even said that). “How you should talk” is the root of political correctness. “Oh, it’s not ‘African American’” they say with their pinky in the air, “It’s ‘person of color’.” Actually, it’s “black” you patronizing prick. STREET CARNAGE » THE CASE FOR VULGARITY
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:27 AM | Your Say (6)
And the jokes just write themselves....
Meet the 11 condoms of the future selected by Bill Gates
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:48 AM | Your Say (7)
November 28, 2013
In the course of evolution
nature has gone to endless trouble to see that every individual is unlike every other individual....Physically and mentally, each one of us is unique. Any culture which, in the interests of efficiency or in the name of some political or religious dogma, seeks to standardize the human individual, commits an outrage against man’s biological nature. - - Aldous HuxleyPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:09 PM | Your Say (1)
President Obama Awards Himself the Presidential Medal of Freedom
“My fellow Americans, I am humbled by this award. I’m humbled because it’s an acknowledgment of how hard I’ve worked.An official recognition of my sacrifices, my diligence and my unwavering commitment to be the best that I can be so that others may flourish. In recent months some have said the age of American exceptionalism is over. But I say, look at me, for I am the personification of American exceptionalism! “I’ve stoically stood my ground as the unremitting winds of incompetency, insubordination and ingratitude howl around me. This past year alone my vice president spoke at a mosque dressed in a burqa, my former secretary of state performed an insensitive impersonation of a stroke victim at the U.N. and my wife proposed slaughtering obese children. When I’m not being blamed for the mistakes of my predecessor or the missteps of those in my administration, I’m being held responsible for the indolence of a republican controlled House” - - Daily Rash
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:34 PM | Your Say (1)
Why Canned Cranberry Is — And Always Will Be — Better Than Fresh [Bumped]
There is no joy quite like jiggling a perfectly intact cylinder of ribbed red gelatin onto a plate and then slicing it into individual rounds. (Mushed jelly, on the other hand, is for heathens. Totally defeats the purpose.) - -Foodbeast
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:01 AM | Your Say (7)
"Everyone's carrying the same things."
I'd pour coffee and they would start to talk about anything—the boss, the family, politics.I learned from them what a TSA agent told me many years later: "Everyone's carrying the same things." I had asked the agent what she'd learned about people from years of opening people's bags and seeing what was inside. She meant her answer literally: Everybody's carrying the same change of clothes, the same toiletries. But at the moment she said it we both understood that she was speaking metaphorically too: Everyone's carrying the same burdens, the same woes one way or another. We have more in common than we know. - - Stay Home, America
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:40 AM | Your Say (2)
Persimmon in Autumn by Kazuyuki Ohtsu
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:58 AM | Your Say (1)
The Not-So-Secret Ingredient
They opened to reveal what looked for all the world like a highly refined plastic explosive, a shining snow-white gel, as tasteless and odorless as it was opaque. Plopped in a massive iron skillet, it melted away instantly into fluid clear as glass, gaining heat until it was hot enough to melt tin. Once at the smoking point, this formidable vegetable shortening could transform flour, corn, shellfish, and fowl into some of America’s crowning culinary achievements. Weapon of Mass Infarction
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:35 AM | Your Say (2)
Psalm 100:4-5
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:29 AM | Your Say (1)
Is this trip really necessary?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:15 AM | Your Say (4)
"Leave this turkey out of your dinner."
Ten Obamacare Talking Points To Ruin Your Thanksgiving 8) The Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which only neo-Confederates oppose, is giving millions of people access to affordable health care.No, it won’t – it will give them a card promising access, which isn’t the same thing. Medicaid really is a well-intentioned ghetto of lousy health care, with terrible outcomes and access problems galore in many states, particularly for kids and for those with serious illnesses. We have hard evidence from the experience in Oregon that Medicaid doesn’t lead to better health outcomes.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:53 AM | Your Say (0)
November 27, 2013
Nike debuts new uniforms for the Army-Navy game
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:08 PM | Your Say (3)
President B.O.R.I.N.G.
(40 immigration activists and media + 20 downhill gawkers + 12 uphill gawkers + 100 Keystone protesters + 15 drone protesters + 4 dudes discussing ticket prices + 2 people on Pacific + 2 people at Jackson + 3 construction workers + me) that exactly 199 people greeted Obama in San Francisco (not counting the paid attendees at the fundraisers, of course). Which means that aside from the hardcore Democratic Party donors and progressive activists, Obama’s visit to San Francisco went almost completely unnoticed. Zombie - SF Protesters to Obama: Please Be a Dictator!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:15 PM | Your Say (1)
Leviticus 19 : 28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:44 PM | Your Say (4)
Sarah Connor:
“The future, always so clear to me, has become like a black highway at night. We were in uncharted territory now… making up history as we went along. ” Belmont ClubPosted by gerardvanderleun at 3:54 PM | Your Say (0)
Happy Thanksgivukkah
Hanukkah and Thanksgiving collide for a once-in-a-lifetime event: Thanksgivukkah!! Two. two, two hates in one!! We in the West wanted to help Islam out … they have so much hate, and so little time to accomplish their mission. So, here’s a gift from us Apes and Pigs: Happy Thanksgivukkah! You should be thankful that our God even loves perniciously misguided souls like y’all …and didn’t ask us to destroy you, for not believing! Shalom through strength…
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:08 PM | Your Say (0)
Non-Thanksgiving Food Item of the Week and Clarifying Factoid of the Year
Barfing pizza thrower jailed in Port St. Lucie dustup
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:14 AM | Your Say (5)
"It's always been a wonder to me that they didn't all catch the next flight from Logan back to Leyden."
The First Thanksgiving Menu - - "Deer and wildfowl." What else? We don't know.I don't think they had the grain to brew their beloved beer until the next year. What we do know is that these folks had been through a nasty voyage in a rotten, leaky boat, landed at the wrong place - remember, they were headed to the Dutch New Amsterdam area - which was better idea. They managed to scrape out a living, thanks to the Indian's education (these folks weren't farmers, anyway) as they watched their family members die.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:07 AM | Your Say (0)
"Modern Native American Cuisine and the Myth of Thanksgiving"
Celebrating nothing the unsurprising article is A large load of blah-blah found at Modern Farmer What can one say? As we all know, whenever a traditional day approaches there is now no limit to the number of critters that slither out of the privy to compete for a-hole of the day. Native Americans and other official victim groups always lead this parade but it is nice to see scribblers like Sam Brasch putting together "food" and "political act" as their own tiny effort to snag a bit of the prize. In general this sort of scribble is just a variation of "Stuck in his thumb, pulled out a plum, and said 'What a good boy am I.' " Noted. Next.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:57 AM | Your Say (0)
Medi-Voter
RIGGING THE FUTURE: Since the passage of Obamacare, all fifty state Medicaid agencieshave been forced to create a new standalone database that contains nothing besides the contact information of Medicaid applicants who used Healthcare.gov. Some of these new databases mail out voter registration forms automatically. You cannot refuse them. No worthwhile verification occurs before the forms are mailed. Apply for Medicaid and the form will be mailed to you, be you a verifiable citizen or Ayman al-Zawahiri on a computer in Pakistan.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:19 AM | Your Say (0)
November 26, 2013
Judge blocks use of state bond money for California bullet train
How to fund this boondoggle? Commenter Move On suggests:Liberal "Progressives" need to start thinking outside the box if they expect this boondogle to succeed: 1) Live sex, Tranny entertainment, and Donkey shows in the caboose 2) Free booze to homeless riders 3) Free healthcare clinic for all illegals stuffed like sardines into the boxcars 4) Krockodil, Molly, and lots of other favs in the Silk Road Emporium car 5) Free Coca-Cola and Crack cocaine in the passenger cabins 6) Porn theatre car 7) Medical marijuana Hooka Lounge adjacent to the Free Buffet car 8) And last but not least, Free internet with home pages for Covered California signup (get on board healthy, leave nearly dead, but you're O.k. cuz you're covered CA. Get a'crackin' Liberals and start up some hipster marketing ads and I'm sure you'll be profitable in no time. -- LA Times
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:45 PM | Your Say (3)
Alec Baldwin: 'Guilty (but with an explantion!)'
"Martin Bashir's on the air, and he made his comment on the air! I dispute half the comment I made... if I called him 'cocksucking maggot' or a 'cocksucking motherfucker'... 'faggot' is not the word that came out of my mouth. That I know. But you've got the fundamentalist wing of gay advocacy—Rich Ferraro and Andrew Sullivan—they're out there, they've got you. Rich Ferraro, this is probably one of his greatest triumphs. They killed my show. And I have to take some responsibility for that myself." - - Gothamist
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:13 PM | Your Say (10)
"This is hard to explain with our current models"
This one was much closer. And while typical long-duration bursts last from a few seconds to a few minutes, GRB 130427A put on its display for 20 hours. - CSMonitor.com
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:39 PM | Your Say (5)
Robotic Liberals Who Get Their Health Care Cancelled Because of Obamacare Will NEVER Turn on Obama
No matter what happens to their health care, they're gonna stay loyal to The Messiah, which goes back and forth from a tree to Obama.When Obama's not president, the messiah for them is a tree or some part of nature. When Obama's the top dog, then he's the messiah. And it's blind faith. It's total blind faith. Just like whatever you in your religion is, because faith is all you got. Nobody can prove their religion. Faith is it. That's what's so important about faith. And these people, that's why they rip into Christianity so much, it's why they hate it. It's a threat. - - Rush Limbaugh
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:55 PM | Your Say (2)
Obamacare and the Bursting Dam
but because the root causes of IT project failure are well-known and well-documented, and Healthcare.gov exhibits all of them. Again, note that “failure” doesn’t mean the website doesn’t work at all; it means that it is not achieving the quality attributes I spoke about back on October 23rd: Reliability, Performance, Functionality, Compatibility, Lifespan, Deployment, Support, and Cost. : And Still I Persist
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:15 AM | Your Say (2)
I’m no fan of Alec Baldwin
The paps surrounded his wife and child as they always do so he lost his temper and called one a “cocksucking faggot.” I’m pretty sure it’s legal in Texas to pull out a shotgun when your family is perceived to be in imminent danger. I don’t know about you but I’d rather be accused of blowing someone than have my head blown off. Alas, we live in the Northeast where everyone is expected to act like aristocrats even when they’re being attacked by savages. - - The Case for Vulgarity
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:45 AM | Your Say (11)
"No one seems as certain that they know what the Republicans need to do to win presidential elections"
as those Republicans who have lost presidential elections,such as Mitt Romney, John McCain and Bob Dole. Moreover, people take them seriously, and seem not to notice that what the losers advocate is the opposite of what won Ronald Reagan two landslide election victories. -- Thomas Sowell
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:37 AM | Your Say (7)
Obama Does Not Identify with American Culture
He deeply identifies with the fragile, unraveling cultures of the Third World against the depredations of the globalizing Metropole.So, I suspect, does his mentor and chief advisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, and most of his inner circle. This goes beyond the famous declaration of Jimmy Carter’s advisor Hamilton Jordan—“the Palestinians are the n****ers o the Middle East”—and Carter’s own mainline-Protestant reverence for the “holy men” of Iran’s 1979 Iranian revolution. It goes beyond the post-colonial theory of liberal academia. For Obama, it is matter of personal experience. His father and stepfather were Third World Muslims, his mother was an anthropologist who dedicated her life to protecting the traditional culture of Indonesia against the scourge of globalization, and four years of his childhood were spent at an Indonesian school. The same point has been made by Dinesh d’Souza, among others. - - Spengler » The Dead's Envy for the Living
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:30 AM | Your Say (5)
The Democrats are winning the culture war because they’re fighting dirty.
Let’s punch them in the fucking face. I’m not saying you come into a debate calling everyone a bunch of cocksuckers but if four professors are smirking and guffawing at your points and calling your references, “fantasy studies,” come back with, “fucking idiot.” STREET CARNAGE » THE CASE FOR VULGARITYWilliam F Buckley had many great moments but the scene he is most lionized for is the 1968 TV appearance when, after Gore Vidal bitchily called him a Nazi many times, Bill bounced back with, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face, and you’ll stay plastered.”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:27 AM | Your Say (2)
"The Place of Excrement"
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:07 AM | Your Say (3)
"When the culture no longer provides adventure,"
"then the only adventure is to destroy the culture." -- Via Bill Whittle (beginning at 27 minutes)Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:00 AM | Your Say (3)
"Obama's public image is tethered to some illusion of genius entirely divorced from real world results. "
his horribly scarred mutant biographers would still explain in detail why he was much too smart to be president. And they're probably right. Dot coms are likewise full of CEOs who are too smart to run companies, but enjoy solving abstract puzzles, buying other companies, waterskiing in Samurai costumes and giving interviews full of buzzwords to business magazines. Another word for them is idiots. Sultan Knish: The Future That Never Comes
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:56 AM | Your Say (1)
November 25, 2013
Detective Tom Polhaus: [picks up the falcon] Heavy. What is it? Sam Spade: The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.
The Maltese Falcon sells for $4,085,000Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:53 PM | Your Say (5)
There's only one legitimate schematic for national government and that is the Constitution.
Vote all we want, when the plumbing of power is fraudulent there's no way to safely exercise our liberties.Until constitutional governance is restored the people are no more free than those of any other third-world peasantry living in any other strongman's pest-hole. Until constitutional governance is restored, everybody who participates is participating in a criminal enterprise; office holders, permanent government and voters alike. So, here we are again. Or still. There's no picking up this turd by the clean end. We vote and vote and vote, yet totalitarian slugs can and do suspend constitutional guarantees due to the emergency du jour or to satisfy their current recipe for kozmik justice. And instead of having to get out of Dodge for their own protection, it sticks. Short version: they do these things because they can, and they can because we consent, and we consent because we vote. - - ol remus
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:35 PM | Your Say (0)
Stagnant Social Media
Here's the secret behind all these sites. None of them do anything.All they do is sit there and wait for people to provide content. Google+ is pretty empty because nobody's there, its one of those Yogi Berra bits. In order for a social media site to have any notice, people have to use it a lot. And for people to use it a lot, it has to have people on it. Its the Internet Paradox: you can't be popular unless people are already there and tell others about it. Word Around the Net: THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:32 PM | Your Say (2)
When all become supplicants, we are all losers.
The Real Beneficiaries and Victims of Obamacare The promises explicitly made by Obama and the Democrats:everyone would save money, no one would lose doctors or hospitals or health plans, the sick and unemployed would be covered, and it would save us all money — except for the very, very, very rich, whose taxes would be raised. Well, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. The old system had winners and losers, and so does the new one. But they are a very different set of winners and losers. You might say that Obamacare turns the old system on its head, and it’s not just the very rich who are penalized, it’s the solidly middle class and upper middle class. Not only did those groups not bargain for this, they were explicitly promised it would not happen.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:01 PM | Your Say (1)
What if China Attacks?
“Well, I’ve become an octogenarian and if I have acquired any wisdom at all,it consists of taking at face value the threats of one’s enemies. There’s a kind of pathology at work in the world that refuses to believe. Somebody says “I want to kill you,” you say, well, you can’t possibly mean that.” — Norman Podhoretz â Quadrant Online
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:31 PM | Your Say (0)
“Black Sheep”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:13 PM | Your Say (0)
Sound Advice
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:41 PM | Your Say (1)
Limbo Lower Now. How Low Can You Go?
CNN poll shows Obama personal qualities sliding underwater:Obama’s approval decline involves more than just his performance.The Americans public is souring on Obama as a person and as a brand, and that spells real trouble for his agenda: Only four out of 10 Americans believe President Barack Obama can manage the federal government effectively, according to a new national poll. And a CNN/ORC International survey released Monday morning also indicates that 53% of Americans now believe that Obama is not honest and trustworthy, the first time that a clear majority in CNN polling has felt that way.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:48 PM | Your Say (5)
Store up the firewood: 1774, 1859, 1913, 1928, 1938 ...
What was it like to live in those years? Looking back, we wonder if the subsequent catastrophes were by that point inevitable. Indeed, some foresaw the coming horrors. Yet not enough did. Even those who did were powerless to stop the onrushing violence. - -Downgrade DiaryPosted by gerardvanderleun at 12:39 PM | Your Say (2)
The Deepest Shithole in the US Continues to Be Washington D.C.
New D.C. traffic cameras monitor stop signs, intersections: Sixteen cameras trained on crosswalks will record drivers as pedestrians step into the crosswalks, and violations will be issued for drivers who fail to stop for the pedestrians when they have the right of way.Twenty gridlock cameras will also capture the license plates of vehicles that fail to clear crosswalks or intersections before a traffic signal changes and block traffic. Another 32 cameras will be placed at stop signs to ticket drivers who do not come to a complete stop, and 24 speed cameras will be placed at intersections.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:02 PM | Your Say (5)
Awww, Nuts
but anyone stealing that many nuts has to have connections with the black market — most likely overseas. Several thefts have involved social engineering: a truck arrives to pick up a load, with the driver purporting to be working for the expected shipping company and bearing real-looking paperwork that sometimes even includes the correct purchase-order number. Witnesses to several apparently related thefts last year in Tehama County, north of Sacramento, reported that a large man with a “thick Russian accent” showed up in a truck and had paperwork that appeared to be legit.Meanwhile in India.... Sullia : Areca Nut Thieves Tied to Pole and Thrashed at Dodderi Finally, the residents of the area managed to catch hold of three thieves
– Jayarama of Adpangaya, Chandrashekhar of Dodderi and Vasu Naik of Konagundi – red-handed while stealing on Sunday, Dec 9 night. Arecanut bunches were found with them. They did a bit of policing themselves, before reportng the matter to the police. They residents bound the trio to a pole and let them taste the ‘fruit’ of their labour. They thoroughly thrashed them so that they could remember it forever and avoid venturing into the Dodderi territory.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:01 AM | Your Say (0)
What’s so great about being civil?
It doesn’t work. Many lament the prominence of cutthroat campaigns and attack ads
but they’re the best way to get the dirt on both party’s candidates. Brawling is the American way. You can still wear a suit and feel strongly about family values. You can still be a God-fearing, pro-life traditionalist, but stop being so fucking polite to assholes. STREET CARNAGE ｻ THE CASE FOR VULGARITY
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:28 AM | Your Say (3)
Leaving Iraq
Because American liberals who know no history and no war, and who think that they “ended” the Vietnam war, think that the way to end a war is for America to leave.
Mark my words, we’ll be back again. We’ll be back again when we lose an American city. We’ll be back again when the region is in flames. Unless G-d really has made the United States his particular pet, and protects us beyond what we have any right to expect, we’ll be back again. Tribal Morality | According To Hoyt
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:17 AM | Your Say (2)
Nobody — except the tame media and toadies on the progressive Left —
believes in Barack Obama any more, aka President Error 404. Foreign enemies have taken his measure and found nothing but a hollow man.Hillary Clinton may choose to blame anyone but herself and the administration for the debacles that are unreeling, not just domestically, but overseas. While her explanations might be swallowed hook, line and sinker by the compliant media they will cut no ice where it really counts: in the power centers and capitals of the world. Belmont Club ｻ The ADIZ of November
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:26 AM | Your Say (0)
November 24, 2013
And the losers are... Barack Obama, Dennis Rodman, Paula Deen... GQ's List of Least Influential Celebrities for 2013
GQ least influential list: Dennis Rodman, Barack Obama make the list - - While Weiner was the highest-rated politician on the list, he wasn’t the only politician. Leader of the free world, President Barack Obama made the list at number 17 – simply because, claims the magazine, nothing gets done with him in command.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:12 PM | Your Say (3)
"Blood Avocados": The Dark Side of Your Guacamole
10 cents for every kilogram of avocado they produce, $115 for every hectare of land they own. Those who export the fruit have to pay up to $250 per hectare. The Templarios collect the money—cash placed in a bag at an agreed upon drop off—once a year, usually in January. The extortion fees are non-negotiable, says one farmer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “It’s no use trying to convince them to demand less,” he says. “They know exactly how much you own. If you lie to them, they’ll kill you or one of your family members.” - - | Vocativ
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:48 PM | Your Say (2)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:31 PM | Your Say (5)
“How do you account for the ghosts’ clothes —
“What an idea, indeed! All the socks that never came home from the wash, all the boots and shoes which we left behind us worn out at watering-places, all the old hats which we gave to crossing-sweepers … What a notion of heaven — an illimitable old clothes-shop, peopled by bores, and not a little infested with knaves!” Haunting Attire – Futility Closet
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:24 AM | Your Say (0)
“Gubbinal” by Wallace Stevens
That strange flower, the sun,
Is just what you say.
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
That tuft of jungle feathers,
That animal eye,
Is just what you say.
That savage of fire,
That seed,
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:04 AM | Your Say (1)
November 23, 2013
Faces by Russian make-up artist Valeriya Kutsan
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:58 PM | Your Say (3)
Washington State is Obamacare’s biggest success story so far.
But it has only about 3,000 people actually enrolledin the private exchange plans. Nearly 90 percent of enrollees so far are going to Medicaid instead. Although it isn’t completely clear from their confusing presentation of the numbers, it appears they have as many as 25,000 exchange applicants in all, if you include people who have applied but haven’t paid. Even so, that’s half the number people have been bragging about from Washington. So even the best success story is perhaps less exciting than believed. - - Bloomberg
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:51 PM | Your Say (0)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:27 PM | Your Say (0)
The Remarkable Persistance of Morons [Bumped & Updated]
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:19 PM | Your Say (23)
The administration, amid lingering problems with the main ObamaCare website, is now pushing that deadline to Dec. 23.
The next day, the in-box gets attacked by workers… until noon or so, because it’s Tuesday, December 24th. You know. Christmas Eve. So there’s the in-box, waiting. Waiting December 24th, and then waiting Wednesday, December 25th, which is Christmas Day. Let us assume – to be sporting about it – that the person who owns the in-box will be, like Bob Cratchett, in all the earlier the next day. That gives the in-box opportunities to get emptied for the 26th (Thursday) and 27th (Friday)… and then it’s the weekend. So anything that doesn’t get done by then will have to wait until December 30th (Monday). Anything that doesn’t get done then? Well. December 31st is New Year’s Eve. - - Moe Lane
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:47 AM | Your Say (3)
I tip. I almost always tip well.
Twenty percent is the baseline minimum.But, where some customers complain about how they “can’t find good service,” I am usually quite pleased with the wait staff I encounter at most establishments. Where non-tippers constantly find excuses to punitively withhold tips, I generally find reasons to add an additional 5 or 10 percent to the pot. This isn’t because I’m lucky or generous, it’s because I’m not a pompous, picky, spoiled brat; constantly looking for the smallest reason to feel slighted by customer service workers. - - Matt Walsh
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:57 AM | Your Say (9)
"Brave New World is a behind-the-scenes view of our lives today. "
A people seduced out of liberty by comfort, ease, and order.The use of chemicals, social engineering, and manipulation through education and entertainment to create a passive, obedient society run by all-powerful statists. 1984 has a single, all-powerful leader, a figure that everyone is commanded to love and obey. But Brave New World has no face at all to its tyranny, only the population giving up everything to gain comfort, ease, and safety. -- Word Around Net
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:16 AM | Your Say (2)
“We the people” are on a wild bus ride.
“Democracy” is so inclusive a concept, that we are all trapped aboard. We elect the driver, though with a warning that he may soon be replaced. The passengers bicker among themselves about how he is driving, and which way he should turn. To the degree he listens, he is distracted from his driving. Occasionally some of the passengers scream that the bus will go into a swamp, off a bridge, over a cliff, into the trees. When the next vote is taken, we decide whether the screamers should be resisted or appeased. David Warren
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:57 AM | Your Say (0)
November 22, 2013
Sippican Cottage's Handy Guide To Engineering Your House
They're called "Dead Weight," or more precisely, "Dead Load." You and your fourteen cats and furniture that smells like you and fourteen cats is called "Live Load." It's not all that important to sort them out, and you can add it all together, Live and Dead load, and enter it all under HEAVY THING and not worry about calculating it to the last avoirdupois, unless you're running a Zumba class on pogo sticks for the clinically obese in your living room or something equally exotic. Sippican Cottage
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:39 PM | Your Say (2)
The Sheeple
Sheeple: Why You Should Feel Sorry For Them:Sheeple are members of a culture or society who are not necessarily oblivious to the reality of their surroundings; they may have been exposed to valuable truths on numerous occasions. However, when confronted with facts contrary to their conditioned viewpoint, they become aggressive and antagonistic in their behavior, seeking to dismiss and attack the truth by attacking the messenger and denying reason. Sheeple exist on both sides of America's false political paradigm, and they exist in all social "classes". In fact, the "professional class" and the hierarchy of academia are rampant breeding grounds for sheeple; who I sometimes refer to as "intellectual idiots". Doctors and lawyers, scientists and politicians are all just as prone to the sheeple plague as anyone else; the only difference is that they have a bureaucratic apparatus behind them which gives them a false sense of importance. All they have to do is tow the establishment line, and promote the establishment view.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:10 PM | Your Say (3)
A three step cure for the “knockout game”
At a certain point we — the pool of potential victims — must refuse to fulfill that destiny. Forget the prisons, the schools, family dynamics, the cultural ills; when a predator picks you out of the crowd, none of that matters. It’s too late for the system, or parents, or the government to help you. In that moment, you’ve either got the tools to defend yourself, or you don’t. These cowards hedge their bets and put all their coins on you being unarmed. It’s a glorious occasion every time they lose that gamble. -- Matt Walsh
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:36 AM | Your Say (6)
Nobody Said Goodbye
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:25 AM | Your Say (4)
Half a century is a long time to be strung out on psychotropic drugs.
Maybe the best way to commemorate JFK’s fifty-year…uh…killversary?…would be to finally grow up, as a baby-boomer-infested nation.
This generation has come to think highly of something called “self esteem,” and it can’t be doing self-esteem very much good for the boomer class to be so often caught thinking like infants, when they have age spots. Especially when they’ve been so busy telling the rest of us how & what to think. Creation is creation. Preservation is preservation. Destruction is destruction. Post-JFK, the biggest thing busted is that actually fixing something has gone out of style. We just hatched a new plan to get uninsured people insured; with the dust all settled, the situation is, people who were covered before, no longer are, and our miracle workers can’t answer any questions about it because they’re busy frantically fixing a busted web site. - - Morgan @ House of Eratosthenes
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:23 AM | Your Say (0)
If you meet them in the rubble, use a hatchet.
Present at the meeting: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and Lawrence O’Donnell, Washington Post economics blogger Ezra Klein, Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn, Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall, ThinkProgress editor-in-chief Judd Legum, Atlantic senior editor Garance Franke-Ruta, Salon political writer Brian Beutler and Fox News contributor Juan Williams… neo-neocon President Obama gives Pravda… its talking points:Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:16 AM | Your Say (3)
Putin's Potemkin Villages of Russia: The Tradition Lives!
who was supposed to arrive on November 7-8 to participate get-together at the All-Russian heads of local self-government. However, the king's father did not deign to Suzdal and the heads of some kind of "self-government" to its occurrence ...Potemkin village - - Grigory Potemkin erected fake settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. The phrase is now used, typically in politics and economics, to describe any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that some situation is better than it really is.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:50 AM | Your Say (1)
November 21, 2013
Knockout Backfire, Thug Shot. Trending.
The victim was attacked by 17-year-old Marvell Weaver. But Weaver did more than try to knock his victim out, he tried to do it with a taser.Luckily for the victim, the taser didn't work and he was able to protect himself with his concealed-carry .40 caliber pistol. "He shoved something into my side. I wasn't sure what it was. It had some force to it. I wasn't sure if it was a knife or a gun," said the victim. Weaver was shot twice, in the leg and an inch away from his spine. He's been sentenced to a year in jail for the attack, but he admits he's getting off easy. Dangerous Games - "Point 'em Out, Knock 'em Out"
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:54 PM | Your Say (7)
Why is this man laughing?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:38 PM | Your Say (9)
The Ancient of Days
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:53 AM | Your Say (3)
So, what exactly is a Freedom Outlaw?
Does a Freedom Outlaw really have to be a criminal? Well … yes and no. If the thought of being a criminal offends you, I can only say, “Get over it.” As Kent McManigal states so well, every, single one of us is already a criminal. We violate obscure laws from the time we open our eyes in the morning till the moment we fall exhausted into bed.The Agitator … well, he makes noise. But not just the polite noise of letters to the editor or participation in rallies. The Agitator may be a trickster. Or a monkeywrencher. Or a leader of factions. Or a Julian Heicklen-style crusader. But in any case, he’s someone who puts his (or her, of course) own life and health on the line to commit direct action for freedom. - - Living Freedom
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:42 AM | Your Say (2)
We could have just called it “Hillarycare.”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:33 AM | Your Say (1)
Whoever Exalts
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:19 AM | Your Say (2)
Manny Pacquiao may be broke, but is he broken, too?
the first warning every aspiring fighter hears long before they've ever entered a ring, is that the most dangerous punch, the one to fear most, is the one you never see coming. While the cliché is certainly true at the start of a career, it rarely holds up toward the end. This is because almost none of the great fighters in history ever stopped after that punch -- and the history of the sport suggests that few can ever escape it.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:00 AM | Your Say (1)
A Nuclear Blast at 30,000 Feet, 1962
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:05 AM | Your Say (0)
November 20, 2013
Our long night just may teach traditionalists the central truth about political power.
It isn't something that's given, it's something that's taken.The socialist-progressives have always known that. They didn't earn power over the courts and schools for instance, they took it. Affirmative action and other judicial activism, confiscatory taxes, bank bailouts, draconian gun laws, free everything for illegals, career welfare and all the rest came about by simply finding a way. -- ol remus and the woodpile report
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:13 PM | Your Say (2)
"Not a lot of questions about wood on that test."
He was right. Dead right, and I mean that every which way.He knew, by instinct, and training, and custom, and experience, intergenerationally, exactly how to build a single-family house in the State of his birth. And that knowledge, experience, and desire was worthless to him, because there's not a lot of questions about wood on that test... Sippican Cottage: I'm Fixing A Hole Where The Rain Gets In
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:06 PM | Your Say (2)
Obamacare and the 90% solution
As a former career Software Development Project Manager who once upon a time was responsible for the development of software accounting systems and payment systems, I’m stunned. That’s the hard part. You can’t get the money wrong. : And Still I Persist…
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:50 PM | Your Say (8)
The GOP's "Just Get to 270" Electoral Strategy Needs An Overhaul
the Republican Party must expand the map if it ever wishes to win another presidential election. Instead of just hoping that Virginia will magically turn red again, the GOP needs to focus on other traditionally Democratic states that have nonetheless moved rightward since 2000. - - Federalist
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:07 AM | Your Say (4)
BatCare
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:10 AM | Your Say (0)
Big Hair
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:35 AM | Your Say (3)
Wisconsin's Weapon for Icy Roads: Cheese Brine!
And in the first year alone, tiny Polk County saved $40,000 in rock salt costs. Conversely, F&A Dairy saved on brine disposal costs — to the tune of nearly $30,000. “Everybody wins,” says Chuck Engdahl, F&A’s wastewater manager. Of course, there is an odor to consider. “What better to put on your roads than the scent of mozzarella?” - - Modern Farmer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:25 AM | Your Say (3)
Getting His Move On
Michelle Obama: Husband 'in the Bathroom All the Time Just Singing' "I always say my husband has got swag," said Mrs. Obama.The audience applauded. Mrs. Obama also said that the president of the United States "sings all the time." She continued, "Oh, yes, he’s in the bathroom all the time just singing." [Please check the heel for TP on exit.]Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:09 AM | Your Say (7)
An Artful Swindle
Under the shadow of cheaply made buildings of cyclopean drabness. Unnatural, uninspiring. If in our hearts we come close to the realization that modernism at it’s core is a trick or a joke, we are pushed back into complacency by the all-powerful tyranny of the modern art definition, which hides behind a supposed inclusiveness, where everything is potentially art and every one an artist. Except, again, real art or artists. Modern Art — Alternative Right
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:55 AM | Your Say (3)
The truth about government
All their grandiose central plans and legislation for the betterment of mankind are the desperate ploys of the runts of the litter to convince themselves they are not as helpless as they seem. Vault-Co: Another Breakthrough In Solar Paint!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:44 AM | Your Say (1)
November 19, 2013
‘Because’ has become a preposition, because grammar
The new usage – older than 3–4 years, mind – is what Laura Bailey and Mark Liberman, respectively, have referred to as “because noun” and “because NOUN”.Liberman says the idiom usually seems to imply “that the referenced line of reasoning is weak”. Sometimes, yes, but it’s also commonly used just for convenience, or effect: No work tomorrow because holidays! | Sentence first HT English Has a New Preposition Because Internet - Neatorama
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:08 PM | Your Say (9)
Of course this slunktrader did
Obama Removes 'God' From Gettysburg Address
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:06 PM | Your Say (12)
New Wine from Old Bottles: USAF planning to develop new means of nuclear deterrence
hence the old weapons (as B61-7, B61-11 and B83-1 gliding bombs) have to undergo refurbishment and maitenance, and the new weapons will have to use old type of warhead. The same thing applies to any new missile – it has to use a warhead based on old technology. The proposed new missile is called LRSO – Long Range Stand-Off. It is to replace the ALCM and ACM weapons that are currently the basic strategic weapon in the USAF arsenal. The Aviationist ｻ
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:58 AM | Your Say (5)
The Conspiracy Theory is the Conspiracy
The JFK assassination became a liberal martyrdom in search of a conservative inquisitioner.Oliver Stone's JFK was a laborious effort to connect the martyrdom of a liberal icon to the despicable conservative villains that the narrative of this political theology demanded. The gnostic elements of martyrdom usually involve the revelation of spirituality in the mortal flesh. But JFK, like Obama, had always been more than mortal, a creature of flashbulbs and film, a messiah of a new generation and a new age. Sultan Knish
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:04 AM | Your Say (0)
Barack Obama is not scheduled to be present at Gettysburg on Tuesday
to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the address. Maybe he figured that the world would little note, nor long remember, what he said there. Maybe he thought the comparisons with the original were bound to be invidious, and rightly so. Bret Stephens: From 'Four Score' to 'Yes We Can!'Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:03 AM | Your Say (9)
Victimhood is where it's at.
If there are not enough real victims, then fictitious victims must be created-- as with the claim that there is "a war on women." Why anyone would have an incentive or a motivation to create awar on women in the first place is just one of the questions that should be asked of those who promote this political slogan, obviously designed for the gullible. The real war -- which is being waged in our schools, in the media and amongthe intelligentsia -- is the war on achievement. - - Thomas Sowell
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:02 AM | Your Say (4)
Dear American commenters at HotAir: Bragging about how stupid you are is not attractive
Canada — our taxes are lower. Our unemployment rate is too.Fewer business-killing regulations. Because we have “loser pays” — you are the only nation that doesn’t — we have FAR fewer zillion dollar crazy lawsuits over trivialities. We ingeniously decided not to give free mortgages to welfare bums, so our housing and banking systems are relatively sound. And luckily, Canada is too cold for cotton.... by Kathy Shaidle @ Five Feet of Fury
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:45 AM | Your Say (6)
Old Hickory
So as the two faced off along the banks of the Red River in Kentucky, Jackson purposely allowed Dickinson to shoot him first. He hardly quivered as the bullet lodged in his ribs. Jackson then calmly leveled his pistol, took aim, and knocked Dickinson off. It was only then that he took heed of the fact that blood was dripping into his boot. Dickinson’s musket ball was too close to his heart to be removed and forever remained lodged in Jackson’s chest. Lessons in Manliness from Andrew Jackson | The Art of Manliness
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:06 AM | Your Say (7)
November 18, 2013
The underclass is hooked on electronic dope.
They are not fracking or building houses. And they are not in idle evenings scanning the Internet to discover what Venice looks likeor to learn the etymology of democracy or even to learn how to tile or do wiring, at least not normally. Instead it is a sort of addiction to images, graphics, and the sheer speed of communicating. How can you advise a youth that improving his computing skills, his language, his demeanor, and his work ethic is essential to social mobility and the general collective tranquility and stability of society, when you are competing against Grand Theft Auto and Tweets, or, for that matter, the therapeutic industry reassuring the unemployed that someone somewhere did this to him? Works and Days ｻ The World of the Coliseum
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:39 PM | Your Say (1)
Sometimes....
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:05 PM | Your Say (0)
"Here I leave my pain"
‘His hands were so soft. And his smile was so clear and open. But the thing that struck me most is that there has not been thinking about whether or not to hug me. I'm not contagious, but he did not know. But he just did it: he caressed me all over my face, and as he did I felt only love. First I kissed his hand while he, with the other hand, caressed my head and wounds. Then he drew me to him in a strong embrace, kissing my face. My head was against his chest his arms were wrapped around me. It lasted just over a minute, but to me it seemed like an eternity.'
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:46 PM | Your Say (5)
Semi-retarded ebony squawkbox,
pogrom agitator, and serial hate-crime-hoax enabler Al Sharpton leaped into the fray, claiming that the national debt “has been reduced every year for the last five years under this president.” In truth, the national debt has increased over $6.5 trillion during Obama’s reign—in effect, enslaving every man, woman, child, and race hustler in America to over $20,000 in new debt apiece. - - The Week That Perished - Taki's MagazinePosted by gerardvanderleun at 2:27 PM | Your Say (6)
“I wonder if he has the legal authority to do this?”.
That is the wrong question. The real problem is whether any future Republican president will be allowed to do the same thing, such as droning people without a due process, canceling contracts at press conferences, change the rules of whole industries at the stroke of a pen, or engage in harmless well meaningsecurities fraud, etc. Belmont Club ｻ The Dinosaurs Who Came To DinnerPosted by gerardvanderleun at 1:52 PM | Your Say (6)
Just Buy It
That’s our entire economic system: buy things. Everybody buy. It doesn’t matter what you buy. Just buy. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have money. Just buy.Our entire civilization now rests on the assumption that, no matter what else happens, we will all continue to buy lots and lots of things. Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy. And then buy a little more. Don’t create, or produce, or discover — just buy. Never save, never invest, never cut back — just buy. Buy what you don’t need with money you don’t have. Buy when you’re happy. Buy when you’re sad. Buy when you’re hungry. Buy when you want to lose weight. Buy an iPhone. Six months have passed, here, buy another iPhone. - - If you shop on Thanksgiving, you are part of the problem | The Matt Walsh Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:44 PM | Your Say (4)
If I were a foreigner visiting for the first time, I’d think Space Available was the hot new retailer in the country.
Thousands of Space Available signs dot the bleak landscape, as office buildings, strip malls, and industrial complexes wither and die.Gas stations are shuttered on a daily basis as the ongoing depression results in less miles being driven by unemployed and underemployed suburbanites. At least the Chinese “Space Available” sign manufacturers are doing well. The only buildings doing brisk business are the food banks and homeless shelters. - - Take It To The Bank | Zero Hedge
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:07 PM | Your Say (1)
The Science is Settled
"Sometimes, science requires test tubes and Petri dishes. And other times, it involves stroking men wearing only their underpants." - - LiveSciencePosted by gerardvanderleun at 11:34 AM | Your Say (0)
Obama is going to be hard to toss overboard. So Hillary and Bill will do it one piece at a time.
First up. Obamacare. This millstone around the Obama Administration is weighing her down.So Bill Clinton comes out and publicly states that Barack Obama needs to fix the problem of people losing their insurance. The philandering, disbarred, impeached liar is calling on Obama to “honor his commitment.” This isn’t just distancing Hillary from Obamacare, it is creating the myth that the Clintons care about what happens to Americans. No they don’t. All The Right Snark
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:27 AM | Your Say (1)
Even if you idolize and worship John Fitzgerald Kennedy
you are going to be sick to death of him by the time this week is over.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:24 AM | Your Say (6)
TV Since JFK
The main impression one gets from skimming the 1963 TV lineup is that the United States was still an empire in the exuberant process of expanding rather than apologizing. Compare the average man in any 1963 TV show—whether clad in rawhide or a tight black suit—with the geeks on The Big Bang Theory, and you’ll realize the men of this nation have largely lost their ball. - - Taki's MagazinePosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:55 AM | Your Say (1)
Noted While Passing in the Breakdown Lane
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:50 AM | Your Say (0)
56 seconds - Champion Bohemian Kick boxer meets U.S. Marine
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:13 AM | Your Say (20)
The Japanese. Nuked too much or not enough?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:38 AM | Your Say (3)
November 17, 2013
The fact is clear and obvious, all national and most state elections are bogus.
The corruption has congealed and hardened in place, there is no viable way to significantly influence governance at those levels much less change it.
Their elections are their elections, not ours. Nothing of consequence can be changed this way. Elections are a roadblock, not a road. Congressional districting and other election rigging ensures fewer seats are actually contested than were in the Politburo of their late and lamented USSR. Their federal judges routinely set aside state referendums that offend their personal sensibilities, one more avenue of redress criminally denied. Nobody should expect criminals to change their ways when they can prevent having to do it. It's their ball, their ballpark, their rules, their umpires, and they bat last. ol remus and the woodpile report
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:37 PM | Your Say (9)
The Archer
dangling from his waist from the weaponry of yestercentury. In your dismay, you wrap your finger around the trigger and… It’s too late. You’re dead. The last image your drowsy eyes could focus on was the arrow plunge into your heart. This was the fate of many Nazi’s in WWII who died by the hands of Lt. Col. John “Mad Jack” Churchill. Huckberry | Unconventional Methods Of War:
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:08 PM | Your Say (2)
"What's most impressive now is how much Obama will sacrifice for so little."
Any law, any policy, any constitutional principle, any constituency, and any national interest can be thrown under the bus for short-term political distraction, on the order of months or even weeks or days.Red line comment got him on a box on Syria? Just bomb them, without any popular or political support. Waffling on that fails? Then instead of bombing them, guarantee them in power and overturn our decades of Middle East policy, without even consulting anyone. That doesn't look so hot? Let Iran have nukes as long as they tell us they don't. Obamacare doesn't work? Throw out almost four years of preparations and any pretense of constitutional government, and throw all insurance regulators and insurance companies under the bus, just because approval ratings hit 40%. It profits a man nothing to sell his soul for the whole world. But for the remote possibility of a 2 point uptick on Gallup this week? Watch him just get more and more reckless and erratic as his popularity continues to plummet. I can't predict what insanity he will try when he hits 30%, but we should all fear a cornered president who recognizes no limits on his power and no duty to uphold his oath. -- Obamacare's Creative, Or Illegal, Rule-Making - Bloomberg
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:56 PM | Your Say (4)
The West is trending toward feminine societies
which are also incapable of addressing their internal contradictions without the balance of the masculine.Masculine societies compel through force, feminine societies compel through conformity. The West attempts to persuade and reassure the Muslim world that it can be part of a global club, while the Muslim world attempts to kill the West, while denying that it's doing any such thing. The outcome is a classic abusive relationship in which the woman attempts to civilize the man and the man attempts to savage the woman. Sultan Knish: The Destruction of Contradiction
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:52 PM | Your Say (1)
I Just Realized Something:
My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Doctor once a year for his checkup and again during the year, if any medical needs arise. For this he pays nothing, Nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than he needs, but he is not required to do any upkeep. If he makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He is living like a king and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who earn a living. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks ~ MY dog is Barack Obama!Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:12 AM | Your Say (19)
The high cost of coastal homes in New York and Los Angeles
is on its own a market signal that the alleged threat of global warming is well overdone.Even worse for those who buy into the theory of global warming that says a planetary crack-up is inevitable absent a substantial human response, is that Malibu, Manhattan and the Hamptons are filled with the very people who, when asked if they believe in the global warming theory, would most likely say yes. Ok, so Ted Danson owns in Martha’s Vineyard, noted environmental activist Laurie David does too, and then Al Gore is known to have purchased a coastal palazzo in Montecito, CA. What this tells us is that even global warming’s most famous advocates don’t believe very deeply in their own activism. The Markets Think Al Gore's 'Settled' Global Warming Science Is Bunk - Forbes
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:05 AM | Your Say (0)
Colbert vs House
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:52 AM | Your Say (2)
"Alec Baldwin Is A Homophobic Bigot," but...
There will be no consequences. With liberal homophobes, there never are.
If you’re a conservative and are caught yelling these slurs at random people, you’d be fired pronto or buried in an avalanche of gay protest. If you’re a self-entitled liberal, you’re fine. What, I wonder, will MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Thomas Roberts and Jonathan Capehart say about this? Nothing, I’ll bet you. Alec Baldwin Is A Homophobic Bigot. Or maybe I should call him a cock-sucking fag. It’s not homophobic, I swear! — Andrew Sullivan [who should know.] ViaRant Of The Day | Black & Right
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:43 AM | Your Say (1)
What Is It Like To Grow Up Country?
I have seen and done it all – driving around remote roads slinging back Bud Light as foolish youths, watching some depressed and poor farmer torch his barn and lighting off highly illegal fireworks with absolutely no worry about police action. In the country, a man can truly exist as he wishes. Sure, it isn’t pure independence from society and its ridiculous expectations, but the leash is so much longer. Return of KingsPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:41 AM | Your Say (1)
Jordan the Butcher
You just hand him the trusty family machete and let him go at it. However limited your skills at pumpkin carving, but I bet you know that the machete in question is far too large for the job at hand. No surprise that the tyke ends up butchering himself. It’s no problem: what really matters is that you do not have to pay for the ER visit.From Had Enough Therapy? which is also deconstructing a festschriff of other dubious ads this morning.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:17 AM | Your Say (2)
Hands Up, MOTUS! This is TREASON!
And now this very disturbing image and commentary from Michelle Obama's Mirror: Hold My Hand. ‘Cause I want to love you the best that I can.
It's sweet when two hearts and hands entwine: Obama, Biden Hold Hands in Immigration Prayer - Fox Nation White House photographer Pete Souza tweets this picture of President Obama and Vice President Biden holding hands "during a prayer at end of mtg w faith leaders on immigration reform." [And afterwards it was back to the residence for a tickle fight!]I was prepared to let that slide until I saw the first comment, from from Gagdad Bob: “Probably nice to be caressed by a feminine hand after all those years with Michelle.” What??? Like, is he sayin’ my FLOTUS isn’t…feminine???
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:54 AM | Your Say (1)
November 16, 2013
Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:32 PM | Your Say (8)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:04 PM | Your Say (3)
Supergirl: The Early Years
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:04 PM | Your Say (0)
Those Magic Moments
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:03 PM | Your Say (3)
Copy and Search on Google
exp((-(((x-4)^2+(y-4)^2)^2))/1000)+exp((-(((x+4)^2+(y+4)^2)^2))/1000)+0.15*exp(-(((x+4)^2+(y+4)^2)^2))+0.15*exp(-(((x-4)^2+(y-4)^2)^2))Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:39 AM | Your Say (13)
First 2016 Bumper Sticker Appears
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:08 AM | Your Say (2)
Deflation at the Fed
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:30 AM | Your Say (7)
"I'm accused of a lot of things, but I don't think I'm stupid enough to go around saying this is gonna be like shopping on Amazon..."
My point is, for the president of the United States to stand up in a nationally televised press conference and say,as though it's a new discovery for him, they didn't know how complicated it was to buy insurance. This guy constantly reaches out to the lowest common denominator in our society and connects with them. The low-information voter hears that, "Yeah, man, he's one of us, man, yeah, it is complicated. I'm glad he found out. He knows, Mabel, he knows how hard it is. What's the latest on Kimmy and Kanye?" This is the Smartest Guy in the World? - The Rush Limbaugh Show
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:00 AM | Your Say (3)
Napoleon's Advice to the GOP
Forget the Upton plan, or Mary Landrieu’s Hail Mary pass in the Senate. In the wake of President Obama’s Wizard of Oz press conference yesterday, at the end of which he pulled aside the curtain on himself: Don’t do something, just stand there. You didn’t vote for it, not once, not a single time, ever. - - Michael Walsh
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:56 AM | Your Say (8)
BTW: Where's Michelle ?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:07 AM | Your Say (3)
November 15, 2013
And Good Night from the Western Hemisphere
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:32 PM | Your Say (2)
Conservatives read. Liberals tell themselves how smart they are.
From Matt Drudge:"BOOK SALES RACE... WEEK OF NOV 10 2013: RUSH LIMBAUGH 'BRAVE' TOPS ALL WITH 61,673 SCANNED, 222,375 SINCE RELEASE... ... MORE... O'REILLY TAKES PLACE WITH 'JESUS' AFTER 54,445 SOLD [596,907 TOTAL]... KRAUTHAMMER AT SHOW FROM 52,974 [91,115]" Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:00 PM | Your Say (0)
Mum was not the word when it came to Mark Twain
He gave famous after-dinner toasts and tossed off witty one-liners that made great copy for the next day’s papers. He could talk all night, preferably with a plentiful supply of cigars and Scotch on hand. He was always bursting with opinions on topics large and small and humming with ideas for new books and new business ventures. He often had trouble sleeping, and drank to numb his nerves. But he never had trouble talking.
He kept talking until the end. In the last years of his life, when he began writing his autobiography, Twain decided to do it mostly by dictation. He sat in bed, with his head propped up on pillows, and riffed and reminisced for hours at a time, while his stenographer took down everything in shorthand. When he was done, he had more than five thousand pages of typescript. -- The New Yorker
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:52 PM | Your Say (1)
BOOHOO! Obama’s sad face plastered on hundreds of newspaper front pages across the country
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:23 PM | Your Say (5)
“Order, counter-order, disorder.”
What happens when one sixth of the US Economy goes from Full Ahead for three years to all astern emergency? A Napoleonic era military maxim gives a hint. “Order, counter-order, disorder.”Kliff’s essential argument is that the insurance companies, having spent three years scrambling an egg, must now unscramble said egg. They will have to revive contracts they canceled, pursuant to a law which required their cancellation, yet without any legal leg to undo the do. Hence the lawsuits that will arise, the confusion which will ensue, the absolute chaos which will reign can only but be dimly imagined. It will probably be a humdinger, the Chinese Fire Drill to end all Chinese Fire Drills, the Goat Rope Maximus, the Mother of all Snafus. And that’s only for openers. Belmont Club “It’s On Me”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:20 PM | Your Say (4)
Oops!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:48 AM | Your Say (5)
A partial list of evocative book titles
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:25 AM | Your Say (1)
Once Seen Never Unseen
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:47 AM | Your Say (8)
November 14, 2013
The secret environmental cost of US ethanol policy
As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn,
they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found. Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama's watch. Big Story
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:42 PM | Your Say (10)
It is critical to keep people perpetually in debt.
Why allow them to buy a new $6,000 car outright – or pay it off in two or three years
(as was common once – and within living memory of any person older than 40) when you can effectively force them to buy a $30,000 car (the average price paid for a new vehicle as of last year) and sign them up for 5 or 6 years of payments? And force them to spend $1,000 annually to insure it, too? That’s the truth of the thing. It’s not about “safety” – or any other such altruistic palaver. It is about power – control. And, of course, money. Why Not? » Eric Peters Autos
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:48 PM | Your Say (23)
Those Magic Moments
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:53 PM | Your Say (7)
The Beclowning of Barack Obama
his administration, its enablers, and, to no small degree, liberalism itself, then you need to ask yourself why you’re following politics in the first place. Because, frankly, this has been one of the most enjoyable political moments of my lifetime. I wake up in the morning and rush to find my just-delivered newspaper with a joyful expectation of worsening news so intense, I feel like Morgan Freeman should be narrating my trek to the front lawn. Indeed, not since Dan Rather handcuffed himself to a fraudulent typewriter, hurled it into the abyss, and saw his career plummet like Ted Kennedy was behind the wheel have I enjoyed a story more.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:21 PM | Your Say (6)
IRVING PENN Three Tulips (Red Shine, Black Parrot, Gudoshnik), 1967
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:45 PM | Your Say (1)
Praying For Anti-Freeze
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:30 PM | Your Say (1)
The Public Defender
became so popular that Federal Ammunition starting loading .410 self-defense rounds specifically for handgun applications. These rounds contain nine big pellets in each shell. In a self-defense situation where a carjacker is holding his own gun and trying to pull your car door open, a Public Defender loaded with this ammo turns the tables quickly. - - Carjacker's Worst Nightmare
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:16 PM | Your Say (11)
Sisters Under the Skin
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:11 PM | Your Say (1)
Not without a slight shudder at the danger
Thoreau on Media and Information Consumption: "I often perceive how near I had cometo admitting into my mind the details of some trivial affair, — the news of the street; and I am astonished to observe how willing men are to lumber their minds with such rubbish, — to permit idle rumors and incidents of the most insignificant kind to intrude on ground which should be sacred to thought. Shall the mind be a public arena, where the affairs of the street and the gossip of the tea-table chiefly are discussed? Or shall it be a quarter of heaven itself, — an hypæthral temple, consecrated to the service of the gods? I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant, that I hesitate to burden my attention with those which are insignificant, which only a divine mind could illustrate. Such is, for the most part, the news in newspapers and conversation.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:19 PM | Your Say (0)
Always so humble about his innate abilities
"You know, I'm accused of a lot of things, but I don't think I'm stupid enough to go around saying, 'This is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity,' a week before the website opens, if I thought that it wasn't going to work," Obama said. "So, clearly, we and I did not have enough awareness about the problems in the website." - - WSJ.com
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:05 PM | Your Say (8)
Is it just me or does Valerie Jarrett, more and more, look like a transexual North Korean dictator?
survey service
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:16 AM | Your Say (17)
Those who pretend to live by universalism will still fall to the law of steel.
Rhetoric is no defense against fire and lead, and international codes have no defense against those who will break them.The talk may go on, but it is the warriors who will end it. It is still the warrior's tale to tell, even if all others have forgotten it. The warrior's tale is no happy thing. It is bitter as bile and dark as death. But it is also a grand and glorious thing. For even in its full naked truth, it is the story of perseverance in the face of every agony and betrayal. It is the tale of how we live and why we die. Sultan Knish: The Warrior's Tale
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:15 AM | Your Say (2)
Politically where are we right now, at this moment?
It’s as if it’s 1964 and the administration has just passed landmark civil rights legislationand the bill goes into effect, and everyone looks—only immediately it is apparent that it makes everyone’s life worse! It doesn’t help minority groups – it makes their lives harder and less free! And it does real, present and intimate damage to the majority.It’s as if it’s 1937 and they launched Social Security,
only rich coupon-clippers on Park Avenue immediately started getting small monthly checks, and 67-year-old dust bowlers in tarpaper shacks started getting monthly bills. -- Peggy Noonan's Opinion Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:14 AM | Your Say (0)
Is it just me or does Jay Carney, more and more, look like somebody who has just come from a Hemorrhoid Banding session?
panel management
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:06 AM | Your Say (5)
These gluten people are like a plague.
Taking over the internet and food joints with their hog wash.
Gluten free menu, gluten free recipes, fuck that shit. Here we are, the year 2013, talkin about “I can’t eat gluten because it makes me groggy and makes my little head all fuzzy.” I got some news for ya…thats what food is supposed to fuckin do to you . When’s the last time you ate food with someone and they were like “shit…I could go for some burpees and a few tire flips after that meal”
Gluten free. | The Vulgar Chef
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:54 AM | Your Say (4)
He's outspoken but he's not wrong.
China sharply criticized an American talk-show host on Monday for a remark made by a child on his program which has set off protests by Chinese-Americans in the United States.The controversy blew up when a six-year-old replied "kill everyone in China" after the host, Jimmy Kimmel, asked him how the United States should pay back the $1.3 trillion it owes to the world's second-largest economy. China criticizes 'kill everyone' remark on U.S. talk show | Reuters
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:54 AM | Your Say (0)
When the science is both settled and lethal
World's oldest creature is revealed to be 507-year-old shellfish called Ming – until scientists KILLED it by opening it up to check its age.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:51 AM | Your Say (0)
If these are not the neurotic fears of women and capons, please tell me what they are. Such run the schools. They make policy.
Don´t run on the playground because you might fall.Don't roughhouse because you might get a bruise. Don’t go outside at high noon because you might get skin cancer. Don’t swim after eating, because you might get a cramp. If a child draws a soldier, call a SWAT team because he is a murderous psychopath. Don’t ride a bicycle without a helmet. Fill in the deep end of the pool because someone might drown. Supervise everything. Control everything. Fear everything. Fred On Everything
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:48 AM | Your Say (2)
Scripture for Our Time
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:42 AM | Your Say (0)
'How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?'
Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said. 'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? George Orwell - 1984 - Part 3, Chapter 3Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:56 AM | Your Say (1)
Machines that never die and can’t be killed!
I’ve seen giant, laser-disc-like hard drive plates that fit in a stack in something that looks like a washing machine but holds slightly more data than an old floppy disk. I’ve seen billion dollar weapon-launching platforms just recently upgraded to Windows NT. There are space-control systems running on PDP-8′s or some original-generation but immortal Unix box surrounded by lead-acid-batteries, forgotten in a locked closet with a painted-over door and a random custodian who wonders where that fan noise is coming from and why a few random cables seem to be going directly into the wall. That abandoned, lonely box permanently buried alive behind the drywall, remains prepared to play its microscopic role is unleashing annihilation and is what keeps you safe at night. - - Who Knew? | Handle's Haus
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:53 AM | Your Say (2)
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake."
We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. George Orwell - 1984 - Part 3, Chapter 3HT: Poretto
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:53 AM | Your Say (0)
TO SPEAK TO A NIGERIAN PRINCE ABOUT YOUR HEALTH CARE, PRESS '1' NOW
Maybe it's a blessing that the Obamacare website has crashed more often than the Soviet Union's commercial air fleet did.In addition to convicted felons, navigators are drawn from labor unions, community organizers, former ACORN staffers and front-groups for the Democratic National Committee. Call right up and give all your private financial and medical information to those guys! What could go wrong? - - Ann Coulter
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:47 AM | Your Say (0)
November 13, 2013
"Obamaphone," "Obamacare...." And now.... "Obamawhores"
targeting young and healthy women who are now set to pay higher health insurance premiums under the recently launched Affordable Care Act. The new law is projected to increase insurance prices by an average of 41 percent next year, the website states. They want to offer women a “sweeter” plan. Seeking Arrangement suggests that women use their service to connect with a “sugar daddy” who can offset some of the new healthcare related costs. The website has earned a reputation for urging female college students and single mothers to meet men who are willing to offer money and expensive gifts for companionship.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:19 PM | Your Say (0)
And so we are told once again that Obama is smart.
Really, really smart. Despite this fearsome intelligence, there isn't one thing they can point to abroad or at home that he did well on his own. And that very uselessness shows how smart he is. Any idiot can fix a car, build a website or make a foreign policy work. It takes a real genius to come up with the ideas and sigh in disappointment as everyone else screws them up. Sultan Knish: Apologies from UtopiaPosted by gerardvanderleun at 2:32 PM | Your Say (1)
We kept driving, following signs to one strange place after another,
We stopped and stood on the Queen Anne porch, and peered in the windows. The house looked like it had been picked up six inches and dropped. It had been decorated by someone that didn't like their customer, or human beings in general, very much. There was ice -- not frost; ice -- on the inside of the windows. We were looking as best we could into a triptych of windows in a bay, under a sort of turret, and my wife said, "That's where our Christmas tree will go." The rest was conversation. - - Sippican Cottage: I'm Fixing A Hole Where The Intertunnel Gets In
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:38 PM | Your Say (2)
Anchorbaby Mama as the "Face of Obamacare"
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:44 AM | Your Say (20)
Farm Confessional: I Haul Manure
We tell people to give us whatever they’ve got.We’ll take soiled bedding, veggie scraps, even leaves from your yard. We’ll take other kinds of manure too — chicken, cows, anything besides dog or cat. Chicken manure has lots of nitrogen — it composts real hot. Not sure if we could deal with waste from a large-scale chicken farm; most of our clients don’t have more than a dozen chickens.... Myself, I tell people, ‘I spent 23 years dealing with government BS, I can handle a little horse manure.’ - - Modern Farmer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:37 AM | Your Say (0)
"The first rule of parent club is that you don’t let the baby shave itself"
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:44 AM | Your Say (2)
Too Late to Shop
"When their property was threatened by an aggressive rival, they would either wake up to the reality or be wiped out. The Benbili rebels were waking up to reality now: they were finding freedom is not good if you have no guns to back it up." — ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The DispossessedPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:36 AM | Your Say (0)
Predation
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:20 AM | Your Say (1)
"A gun show for urban fashionistas"
Designer shoes represent the slow but steady triumph of the crafts over the fine arts during the past century. They are streamlined works of modern sculpture, wasteful and frivolous yet elegantly expressive of pure form, a geometric reshaping of soft and yielding nature. An upscale shoe department is a gun show for urban fashionistas, a site of ritual display where danger lurks beneath the mask of beauty.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:05 AM | Your Say (2)
Misteakz Wur Maid: How War with China Would Start
Nationalism and perceived core interests in the South China Sea and Taiwan could not outweigh the continued economic success upon which the vitality of the Chinese communist party survives.Unlike the U.S. and China, the U.S. and Soviet Union had no strong economic ties. However, no number of parades in Red Square ever started a shooting war. War, though unlikely, would begin much like it would with my former professor: not where strategic interests bring parties into conflict, but where tactical and operational level controls are accidentally engaged and rational escalatory responses are executed. 99 Red Balloons: War on the Rocks
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:00 AM | Your Say (0)
November 12, 2013
Sean Conway: How hard is it to swim the length of Britain?
In the end it took more than twice that. It would have been easy to think after two months that he'd done his bit, says Lane. He could have found plausible excuses and felt satisfied with his efforts. But that's not how endurance athletes can think. BBC News -
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:39 PM | Your Say (1)
This house has been a nice place for us to live,
you can end up sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber with a pet monkey and the Elephant Man's bones, breathing through a gelded nose, so we don't mind the privations as much as others might. They haven't done us any harm. My children sleep quietly and contentedly in their beds. There are four rooms on my ground floor that are sixteen feet square each, with nine foot ceilings. My office is big, has faceted walls filled with giant windows that look out on a greensward. Many of the windows in the house look out upon things a normal human would want to see, and let in sunshine and fresh air where I want it. Sippican Cottage: Real Estate, Red In Tooth And Claw
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:11 PM | Your Say (0)
A Christmas Gift for That Special Someone
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:37 AM | Your Say (18)
‘I guess that would speak to her level of intoxication,’ he said
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:01 AM | Your Say (12)
Pumpkin flavored shit to hate this year
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:33 AM | Your Say (3)
First Bro
Nicholson is this cool slacker, a 6'-8" white guy from Vancouver Island, who drifted around in low-level sports jobs, mixed with a little bartending. He was discovered by John Kerry working at a wind surfing shop. Kerry thought he was so brotastic that he wanted to hire him as an aide, but Nicholson instead chose to go caddy at Augusta National Golf Club for a year. Finally, Senator Kerry won him over. Obama inherited Nicholson from Kerry. - - Steve Sailer: iSteve: I told you so
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:59 AM | Your Say (5)
Barbie Is Getting a Makeover to Make Her Appealing to Chinese Moms
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:37 AM | Your Say (2)
November 11, 2013
The Light
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:50 PM | Your Say (5)
For Dorothy
There are the bottles and pills and blankets to be attended to.
Then I sit next to the worst of them, mummies still alive, lost to sight and sound. There is nothing to do but put my hand on their arm. It is the hand of every mother and wife and daughter and girlfriend and nurse and stranger I wield. Of every human woman that ever walked and talked. I know their face is just a smear on the back of the bandages, and it's a long way to Okinawa. Let them feel our hand one more time. Sippican Cottage: Veterans Day
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:43 AM | Your Say (2)
Stupid Christians.
Stupid Christians and their “truth.” You know what they do, don’t you?They all meet in dark rooms around small tables and plot their continued peaceful takeover of the planet. That’s why they prowl all over the Earth, trying to spread their “message” to the disaffected masses. These people – they’re everywhere. You can’t find a single corner, crevice, desert, or third world wasteland that isn’t infested by Christians and their “charities”, and their “hospitals”, and their “ministries”. Believe me, I’ve tried. Sure, it’s getting better here in this country. Christians did the work of settling, building and establishing our nation, but then, in the 1960s, us anti-theists chimed in and said, “thanks, but we’ll take it from here.” There just wasn’t nearly enough nudity, drug usage, and nihilistic apathy, and we knew there never would be if Christians kept running the show. Oh, AND we led the Civil Rights Movement. Well, the icon of Civil Rights was a reverend, but still. Why do you Christians always throw the Bible in my face? | The Matt Walsh Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:05 AM | Your Say (3)
Australia Leads the Way
FEDERAL cabinet has ruled that Australia will not sign up to any new contributions, taxes or charges at this week's global summit on climate change, in a significant toughening of its stance as it plans to move within days to repeal the carbon tax.
Cabinet ministers have decided to reject any measures of "socialism masquerading as environmentalism" after meeting last week to consider a submission on the position the government would take to the Warsaw conference. Climate tax, aid and fees off table as cabinet toughens stance | The Australian
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:56 AM | Your Say (1)
Warning Signs That Someone Might Be In A Cult:
Thinking in black and white terms? Check. Obama Cultists literally see everything as a racial black and white issue (which is why they’ll leave comments under this post accusing me of racism). Using new jargon? Triple check. In a recent example, an Obama supporter told me that all of the people who are getting their insurance canceled aren’t “losing” it — they’re being “transitioned.” All of that stuff about alienating family members? Check, but it’s worse than that. The modern progressive wishes to alienate not just his own family, but the very institution itself. Euphoric, yet tired and worn? Check. Can you think of any better description of the “hope and change” routine from 2008? Humorless? Checkcheckcheckcheckcheck. Huge, massive, gigantic check..... More at A message of hope to Obama cultists | The Matt Walsh Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:55 AM | Your Say (0)
President Obama’s declaration that ‘you can keep your doctor’ and that you ‘can keep your health plan’ is a perfect example of “2+2=5″.
Liberalism is the steganograph of the Left.It’s the pattern that conceals the underlying pattern. But Horowitz may be too late to warn us of its dangers. The real significance of Barack Obama’s 2+2=5 healthcare declaration is that he now feels safe to brazenly utter it; emboldened to the point where he doesn’t care who knows. Because perhaps the serried ranks of those leftist faithful who ‘never existed’ can now impose his will by sheer main force; through direct coercion. Belmont Club » The Three Deceits
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:15 AM | Your Say (2)
Venezuelan military seizes major retail chain / Venezuela to toughen price controls, set profits
Thousands of Venezuelans lined up outside the country's equivalent of Best Buy, a chain of electronics stores known as Daka,hoping for a bargain after the socialist government forced the company to charge customers "fair" prices. President Nicolo Maduro ordered a military "occupation" of the company's five stores as he continues the government's crackdown on an "economic war" it says is being waged against the country, with the help of Washington. USA TodayVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is extending price controls and will place limits on profits
as he extends attempts to curb the galloping inflation that is eroding support for his rule. "We can't just close the businesses; the owners have to go to jail," Maduro said in an impassioned speech in which he cited Jewish, Muslim and Christian texts to harangue businessmen he accuses of usury. - - New York News1. Use up ALL of "other people's" money. 2. Steal ALL of "other people's" stuff. 3. Stop "other people" from getting more stuff and money. 4. First jail and then summary executions of "other people" for the entertainment of your people. 5. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:54 AM | Your Say (0)
I'd like to thank all the little people..... oh, wait, that would be me.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:42 AM | Your Say (12)
I love the smell of Schadenfreude in the morning....
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:40 AM | Your Say (7)
Dear Readers, In answer to some insecure emails, please rest assured that....
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:05 AM | Your Say (1)
November 10, 2013
The Affordable Sustainable Housing Act (or “ObamaHut” as it came to be known)
The bill, whose preamble asserted the right of every citizen to an energy efficient home at no cost(memorialized on “Green For No Green” bumper-stickers everywhere) won wide bipartisan support when Republican consultants reminded their employers of the importance of the green vote, to say nothing of the growing constituency of individuals not inclined to pay their bills or honor their debts. ObamaHut -- A Future History of Housing in America (Part 1)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:00 PM | Your Say (3)
Low Information Voters Choose!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (4)
The List
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:12 AM | Your Say (6)
"Somewhere off in the distance, I hear Madame DeFarge's knitting needles clicking away."
Those who confer the "good guy / protector" presumption upon the armed agents of the State seldom have reasons for doing so grounded in personal experience. Mainly they've been conditioned into it by an enabler or enablers. Those who "teach" our children are perhaps the most important of the enablers. Liberty's Torch: Not Enough Part 2: Enablers
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:10 AM | Your Say (0)
The path to recovery seems to be:
1. Locate Ted Cruzes. 2. Elect them. 3. ??? 4. Profit - -The Other McCainPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:42 AM | Your Say (0)
$100K Government Outhouse: “Almost half of it is for the cost of the toilet.”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:33 AM | Your Say (6)
November 9, 2013
Liberalism is the steganograph of the Left. It’s the pattern that conceals the underlying pattern.
The real significance of Barack Obama’s 2+2=5 healthcare declaration is that he now feels safe to brazenly utter it;emboldened to the point where he doesn’t care who knows. Because perhaps the serried ranks of those leftist faithful who ‘never existed’ can now impose his will by sheer main force; through direct coercion.Nor will the leftist faithful balk at their orders.
They’ll elect Blasio; they’ll elect anyone who they anoint. Horowitz confirms what I have long maintained: they exist and they are unthinking zealots. They warn about religion to hide the existence of their cult. Thus, you can never convince a liberal by logical argument; one can only convert them by religious counter-experience. -- Belmont Club » The Three Deceits
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:13 PM | Your Say (7)
History's Ironies
If Roe V. Wade had been decided in 1960, Hillary Clinton would have already been president.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:45 PM | Your Say (8)
A Book the Size of a Ladybug
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:44 AM | Your Say (4)
Power
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?' George Orwell - 1984 - Part 3, Chapter 3
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:54 AM | Your Say (3)
November 8, 2013
Habemus papam [Bumped]
"We have no idea... until that unconditional acceptance of our own leprous soul is demonstrated to us with the healing touch of Love." -- Joan of Arggh (in comments)
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:40 PM | Your Say (36)
They Finally Got Him!
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:03 PM | Your Say (2)
A message of hope to Obama cultists: Wait. Stop. Don’t run. This, my friends, is an intervention.
For over five years you’ve danced on the sidelines and cheeredas the most dishonest, manipulative, destructive, narcissistic, incompetent, corrupt, liberty-hating, anti-constitutional president in US history ran roughshod over the American people and the American way of life. For over five years, my fellow countrymen, you’ve waved your pompoms for a tyrant. Your Leader is not a good man. He can be redeemed, as we can all be redeemed, but his actions have been truly heinous. Remember: I don’t say that because I’m a Republican. I do not say it because I’m a Bush fan. I say it because it’s true; and it’s a truth that is entirely unavoidable. - - The Matt Walsh Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:44 AM | Your Say (4)
Bay Bridge's mysterious protector out of hiding
on a quickly fabricated section of bridge deck that replaced the pieces that collapsed in the Loma Prieta earthquake. He remained out of sight - only bridge workers and boaters could see him on the north side of the span - and cast his magic to protect the bridge and its users. In early September, when the new eastern span opened, the troll was spirited away by ironworkers, who wanted to make sure he was free before demolition of the old span began. - - SFGate
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:36 AM | Your Say (1)
The Sabotage Republicans
One of the real problems here — as exemplified by the Cuccinelli defeat — is that moderate Republicans not only refuse to pull together.They go out of their way to sabotage the conservative. Say it again? That word is sabotage. Betrayal. The Establishment GOP goes out…of…its…way to sabotage. Spelled s-a-b-o-t-a-g-e. Let’s name some names here, shall we? Present and past to illustrate the point..... - - The American Spectator :
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:33 AM | Your Say (5)
"Old and Busted: Extreme couponing. New Hotness: Extreme shoplifting (where you just roll the entire damn rack out of the store)"
Shoplifters Make Effective Use Of Their Time, Dash Out Of Store With Rolling Racks – Consumerist Shoplifting is now a fast-paced extreme sport.
Sweeping entire shelves into bags! Steering entire racks out the door at a high rate of speed! News outlets keep calling this a “flash mob robbery,” but that term implies something that’s fun. Here, the robbers enter the store, pretend to browse a bit, and then each grab hold of a rack of clothing and run for the door.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:32 AM | Your Say (3)
Because the left is a religious movement that engages an individual identity at the deepest levels,
there can never be a separation between the personal and the political.Members of the faith know very well the implications of doubt: to leave the progressive faith is to invite expulsion from its utopia and the fellowship of its community, and forever after to be shunned as a person morally unfit for decent company. This is a daunting prospect that discourages challenges to its orthodoxy and keeps its adherents in line. This reality makes the narrative of one who departed its ranks not only a deeply personal document but also a political text. The Black Book of the American Left | Power Line
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:16 AM | Your Say (2)
November 7, 2013
A whole new answer to the question, 'Just what is Victoria's Secret anyway?'
Meet the Beauty Who Could Become Victoria's Secret's First Transgender Model: Carmen Carrera is having her moment. Ever since twirling onto the pop-culture stage as a scantily clad contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in 2011, the New Jersey native, born a boy named Christopher, has been enjoying a fast ascension as a model.Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:12 PM | Your Say (7)
Your Tax Maulers at Work
IRS refunded $4B to identity thieves: The Internal Revenue Service issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds
last year to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to a Treasury report released Thursday. The IRS sent a total of 655 tax refunds to a single address in Lithuania, and 343 refunds went to a lone address in Shanghai.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:30 PM | Your Say (3)
Oy Vey! Cocktails & Carnage: 4,000 Singing Rabbis
More than 4,000 men, almost all in black and bearded and topped off with black hats or yarmulkesbouncing up and down in a gigantic conga line that swirls around table after table after hundreds of tables in the gigantic warehouse-like space of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which is lit like a prom-dance-disco, complete with crystal chandeliers and a revolving center stage. And all the rabbis are singing in unison. | Roads & KingdomsFile under: "That which is seen cannot be unseen!"
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:12 PM | Your Say (1)
It’s not easy to get a lie into a presidential speech
Every draft address is circulated to the White House senior staff and key Cabinet officials in something called the “staffing process.”Every line is reviewed by dozens of senior officials, who offer comments and factual corrections. During this process, it turns out, some of Obama’s policy advisers objected to the “you can keep your plan” pledge, pointing out that it was untrue. But it stayed in the speech. That does not happen by accident. It requires a willful intent to deceive. Marc Thiessen: Obama’s dishonest presidency - The Washington Post
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:06 PM | Your Say (5)
Case Closed
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:20 PM | Your Say (13)
The following statement is false: The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System requires that one mile in every five must be straight
In a 1943 presentation to the American Association of State Highway Officials, Commissioner of Public Roads Thomas H. MacDonald explained how it worked. "A flight strip consists of one runway, laid down in the direction of the prevailing wind, and a shelter with telephone for the custodians at the site and for itinerant flyers in an emergency. Fuel storage facilities are not provided unless airplanes are based there permanently. Instead, oil companies will keep stocks of aviation gasoline at gas stations along the highway and truck it to the flight strip as it is needed." One Mile in Five - - Public Roads
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:13 PM | Your Say (0)
America is being divided between the workers and the dwellers in the government cloud.
The $110,729 families are independent while the $4,955 families are living in the cloud.Their cloud is "Social Capital". Social Capital is their support system within their extended families and the government. Instead of using real capital, they use the collective Social Capital of family resources and government aid.The $110,729 family pays for everything. The $4,955 family pays for very little.
The $110,729 family earns and saves money because that is its medium of exchange which it uses to obtain food, shelter and clothing. The $4,955 family uses money for luxury goods like televisions or sneakers. It doesn't need to save money because cash is just bonus points. Its necessities like food, medicine and shelter are covered by the social capital of the government. Sultan Knish: The Cloud Dwellers
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:51 PM | Your Say (4)
The average job now is done by someone who is stationary in front of some kind of screen.
Someone who has just one overriding interest is tunnel-visioned, a bore, but also a specialist, an expert.Welcome to the monopathic world, a place where only the single-minded can thrive. Of course, the rest of us are very adept at pretending to be specialists. We doctor our CVs to make it look as if all we ever wanted to do was sell mobile homes or Nespresso machines. It’s common sense, isn’t it, to try to create the impression that we are entirely focused on the job we want? And wasn’t it ever thus? In fact, it wasn’t. Anyone can learn to be a polymath – Robert Twigger – Aeon
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:49 PM | Your Say (2)
Such is the daily news.
Its facts appear to float in the atmosphere, insignificant as the sporules of fungi, and impinge on some neglected thallus,or surface of our minds, which affords a basis for them, and hence a parasitic growth. We should wash ourselves clean of such news. Of what consequence, though our planet explode, if there is no character involved in the explosion? In health we have not the least curiosity about such events. We do not live for idle amusement. I would not run round a corner to see the world blow up. -- Thoreau on Media and Information Consumption
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:17 PM | Your Say (0)
Cash4ClunkerCare
“Around the country, dealers had put off the laborious task of applying for the rebates . . .
which requires entering the 17-character identification numbers of each vehicle to be scrapped, scanning images of proof of insurance and filling out other paperwork. The computer system was overloaded, according to the dealers. They said they would finish one page in the application, hit enter and nothing would happen. Eventually a message would appear notifying the dealer that the page had ‘timed out.’ Tom Frew, the business manager at Galpin Motors in Los Angeles, said that he needed 35 tries to register just one of the company’s 11 dealerships on the day that the program opened because of problems with the government Web site. On Friday, he spent an hour processing just one rebate application, he said.” George Will: Clunker progressivism - The Washington Post
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:15 PM | Your Say (5)
November 6, 2013
Your Moment of Zen Rhinochimera
A Rhinochimera swims 10 meters above the seafloor in Hydrographer Canyon during Dive 05, July 13, of the Okeanos Explorer Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:24 PM | Your Say (4)
THE REVENGE: SAD ETSY BOYFRIENDS
Dedicated to the wretched creatures abused for economic gains by their Etsy girlfriends. AND THEN …
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:48 AM | Your Say (6)
It's De Blasio Time
De Blasio New York is a place where the mayor gives constant press conferences about gang violence and announces new rape prevention programs. Every news story about the city now begins with, "Four people were shot in New York over the weekend" and "A fire swept out of control through Brooklyn destroying four city blocks. Police suspect arson." But that's cool. Who needs those stupid corporations anyway when Occupy Wall Street has a dozen encampments. A lot of those encampments are really homeless tent cities. But that's a good thing. - - Sultan Knish: It's De Blasio Time
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:24 AM | Your Say (8)
Why "Kill It With Fire" Is a Terrible, Terrible Idea
Chris Welding chased the spider into their bathroom in Clacton, Essex. Wielding a flammable aerosol can, he sprayed the spider as it cowered behind the toilet pan – then lit a cigarette lighter to see if he had killed it.... - - Wired SciencePosted by gerardvanderleun at 7:14 AM | Your Say (3)
November 5, 2013
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:43 PM | Your Say (2)
[Don't] Say Yes to the Dress
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:39 PM | Your Say (13)
Another Lifeless Planet Found
A representative from the team described the new planet as “startlingly similar to Earth in appearance, with a “deep blue” color and similar orbital pattern. “But,” he added, “the daytime temperatures on RS-47 generally reach 2500 degrees Fahrenheit, and every night it rains glass, sideways, in vast, shrieking storms that tear up the surface of the planet.” - - The ToastPosted by gerardvanderleun at 10:21 AM | Your Say (1)
“No, you just have to get them away from their friends.”
After finding a base at San Clemente that day, Randy Kraft simply went to the beach to unwind.He found me there, a target of opportunity away from my friends—a 5-foot-9, 160-pound, sandy-haired, peach fuzz-faced, and mulishly unreconstructed straight Marine. With my motorcycle and the beach as a backdrop, I was a Randy Kraft pinup boy. Bagging me was an opportunity too good to let pass. So, there beside the beach, I enjoyed an hours-long command performance from a world-class sociopath, its sole object being that I would unthinkingly follow him up the hill and deliver myself to that room. Orange Coast Magazine
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:48 AM | Your Say (6)
How to Sell Pipe Wrenches to Men Who Already Have Pipe Wrenches
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:26 AM | Your Say (5)
Willie Gillis Jr.
Conceived by Norman Rockwell in 1941, as a recurring character during Rockwell’s turn as cover artist for The Saturday Evening Post, Willie Gillis Jr.’s story spanned eleven covers (with one rejected cover depicting Gillis nearing actual combat) and five years.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:16 AM | Your Say (3)
November 4, 2013
Best Halloween costume of 2013 goes to Supermodel, Heidi Klum
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:27 PM | Your Say (5)
Neener, neener, neener!
which will make it a lot easier for me to accept the benefits you will be paying for. We warned you that liberalism was a scam designed to take the fruits of your labor and transfer it to us, the older, established generation. Oh, and also to the couch-dwelling, Democrat-voting losers who live off of food stamps and order junk from QVC with their Obamaphones. You didn’t listen to us. Maybe you’ll listen to pain. There’s no sugar-coating it – your votes for Democrats have ensured that you are the first generation in American history that will fail to exceed what their parents attained. Embracing liberalism was a stupid thing to do, done for the stupidest of reasons, and I will now let you subsidize my affluent lifestyle without a shred of guilt.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:02 PM | Your Say (15)
"Who killed the electric car? Reality."
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:46 PM | Your Say (3)
Al Sharpton's New Books Sells Over a Dozen Copies in Less Than 30 Days
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:25 PM | Your Say (7)
“ Some people turn to God in their hour of need, I turned to Adolf Hitler.”
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:36 PM | Your Say (13)
The United States is no longer a middle class country.
It is a country whose political establishment answers to the operatives of the very rich and the very poor, the donor class and the welfare class.Politicians have a vested interest in catering to very rich donors or welfare voters because they have the time, money and organizations to get their way. And what they want is wealth redistribution upward and downward from the middle class. The middle class is being looted by crony capitalists and welfare clans. The liberal Robin Hoods who direct billions in stolen money to Green Energy companies and ghetto voters do their best to convince the middle class that it should vote for them because it's actually poor. Sultan Knish: The Cloud Dwellers
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:58 AM | Your Say (2)
If Y'All Won't Hate Me, I'll Just Hate Myself
Minister Sentenced to 2 Years for Staging Fake ‘Hate Crime’ at His Home An African-American Baptist minister from Chesterfield County, Virginia was sentenced to two years in prison this week after admitting he staged a “hate crime” at his own home because he could no longer afford to pay rent. 41-year-old Olander D. Cuthrell confessed to spray-painting racial slurs on the side of his house and setting his porch on fire. HT: Kathy Shaidle -- Death to extremists!Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:36 AM | Your Say (10)
Meet the American Nomads of Walmart's Plentiful Parking Lots
They started in Bisbee, AZ. They were kept awake by a street cleaner driving in circles through the parking lot the night before. Stephen says, "I think he's a subliminal irritant - keeping us up, instead of asking us to leave." | Raw File | Wired.com
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:28 AM | Your Say (1)
The first spam email in history.
Sent in May of 1978DIGITAL WILL BE GIVING A PRODUCT PRESENTATION OF THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY; THE DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T. THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY OF COMPUTERS HAS EVOLVED FROM THE TENEX OPERATING SYSTEM AND THE DECSYSTEM-10 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE… WE INVITE YOU TO COME SEE THE 2020 AND HEAR ABOUT THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AT THE TWO PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS WE WILL BE GIVING IN CALIFORNIA THIS MONTH. The Deep History of Email Scams
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 10:04 AM | Your Say (2)
Scent of a Printer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:21 AM | Your Say (3)
The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit;
and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government,that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests, or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it. He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might chuse to impress upon it. If those two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously, and is very likely to be happy and successful. If they are opposite or different, the game will go on miserably, and the society must be at all times in the highest degree of disorder. -- Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:09 AM | Your Say (1)
The Gift They Kept On Giving
Kunkel hid the Moleskin pants inside one of 15 identical concrete-filled canisters, which he loaded into a 17.5-foot rocket ship filled with concrete and weighing 6 tons [and gave them to Collette ]. Collette put them in a 4-ton Rubik’s cube fashioned from kiln-baked concrete and covered with 2,000 board-feet of lumber. The Christmas War – Futility ClosetPosted by gerardvanderleun at 8:10 AM | Your Say (0)
November 3, 2013
Then you suddenly screamed, “NO ketchup! I said NO ketchup!”
I replay this back to you because I realize you probably scream profanitiesat minimum wage customer service representatives every time you run an errand or grab a bite to eat, so you might not recall the specifics of this one incident. And that brings us to the possible answer to that query you posed in the midst of your ketchup rant. You asked: “Why can’t I ever f*cking get good customer service?” Well, ma’am, that might have something to do with you being a vulgar, miserable, malicious person. - - Maybe you get bad customer service because you’re a bad customer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:42 PM | Your Say (5)
Who Says There's No Good News?
Nobody Dies after Two Planes Full of Skydivers Crash in the Air
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:37 PM | Your Say (2)
It’s time to end the stigma of infanticide
Make infanticide legal. Do you know why? Because we don’t deserve to prohibit it.We can’t sit here, ignoring the silent screams of millions of murdered children, and pretend that we have ethical standards. We can’t do that. We don’t get to do that. We can’t celebrate the genocide of 50 million human infants and then pretend to be horrified because a girl stashes her dead baby in her handbag, or a psychotic sociopath drowns all of her kids in the bathtub. And Gosnell? What in the hell is he doing in a prison cell? He did exactly what every other abortionist does, he just didn’t dress it up and try to make it look pretty. He murdered children in a drab, run down building, and put the corpses in the fridge. Non-jailed abortionist murder children in nicer buildings, and throw the bodies in the hazardous waste dumpster out back. So one is in prison, and the others aren’t due to, what, aesthetic differences? | The Matt Walsh Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 12:50 PM | Your Say (11)
The end of the Waffle House
The A&W drive-in across the street, the bus station one lot over, the pizza shop next door — one by one, all of them had been knocked down to make way for more apartments for college students. Within a year, the new five-story apartment building would rise right where he was sitting now. -- JESSICA CONTRERA Indiana Daily Student
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (2)
This week was very bad for writing.
One of the things that annoys me about “not quite sick/not quite well” is not being sick enough to justify not working, and yet being unable to work, anyway. For the last seven days I found myself struggling from word to word. - - According To Hoyt [And so say we all.]Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:39 AM | Your Say (0)
Isaiah 1
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. 22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.From today's Lectionary: "I cannot endure solemn assemblies..." - Maggie's Farm
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:05 AM | Your Say (0)
Which Goat Is Right for You?
But before you rush out to the goat store, know this: These mischievous animals are escape artists who like to climb. Can’t find your goat? Check on top of the minivan. - Modern Farmer
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:15 AM | Your Say (9)
November 2, 2013
[Bumped] Is America Forked? On the Other Hand, Maybe Not So Done
Chasmatic comments on Side-Lines: America: Fork. Stick. Done.:This whole train of thought vibes: fear. People tend to forget that Americans are the most resourceful, resilient, capable citizens in still the smartest and strongest country on the planet.
We have been through tough times before - wars, depressions, civil and natural catastrophes. Maybe there will be violence and bloodshed (brother against brother comes to mind) and maybe some will starve or be packed off to gulags. So what? I don't know about you, folks, but I am a winner. I put my trust in God and do the best I can every day to look after me and mine. I am willing - and not afraid - to die for my beliefs.
There's a whole lot in life I don't worry about; I am pretty well centered in my own spirituality and the older I get I allow that there's probably about 23 different ways to get into Heaven. "Everybody's got their own way to butter their bread" as my father would say, "don't trust the priests, son, all they got a key to is the shithouse". And besides, as I get older, I pay more attention to the evidence and less to the arguments.
It's like being in Caligula's Rome. A half breed faggot of dubious provenance on the throne and toadying grifters running the place. You think I will let them get the better of me? When I see some of these folks running their game I want to say “Kid, I ran with bikers, shot junk, robbed banks; my hands have taken lives and saved lives; I worked with the Billy Graham Crusade; I got a million miles of highway under my ass, slept with dogs, danced with angels, I got screwdrivers older than you … what ya gonna show me, uh?”
But I don’t. Nowadays I just kinda watch it all going down. - - Posted by: chasmatic at October 30, 2013 7:21 PM
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:02 PM | Your Say (12)
[Bumped] America: Fork. Stick. Done.
That this president is, or wants to be seen as, out of the loop means nothing. All the talking heads start proclaiming that Obama's credibility is shot. The people won't stand for it! It will damage his legacy! It diminishes America's standing in the world!
All of which may be true and all of which is utterly irrelevant. Maintaining those things is far from the top of Obama's agenda.
This president has only one goal in his second term: to eliminate political and economic competition to himself first and the Democrat party second. There is no other Obama agenda. Not jobs, not economic growth, not anything. Emplacing permanent one-party rule in this country is the sole goal for term two.
So chatter away with all the non-relevant issues that are dominating the headlines. While we do, Obama simply tightens his grip on the organs of government and funnels more taxpayer money to favored Democrat constituencies.
The Republican party is wholly irrelevant. The Tea party is, too. The Democrat party is never going to relinquish power. It is never going to lose the White House: it will win the election honestly if it can, dishonestly if it must (count on the latter).
My prediction: the Democrats will control Congress from 2014 on, even if they do not gain a numerical majority in the House next year, because enough McCain Republicans will be co-opted as to make it unnecessary. The Democrats will gain seats in the Senate. As for 2016, the name of Democrat nominee will be irrelevant. No matter who they nominate, that person will take the oath of office 20 days into 2017.
If you think I am pessimistic, I can only reply damn right. I wrote in 2003 that, ... When my children are my age, they will not be free in any recognizably traditional American meaning of the word. I’d tell them to emigrate, but there’s nowhere left to go. I am left with nauseating near-conviction that I am a member of the last generation in the history of the world that is minimally truly free.
But even then I did not imagine that it would happen so fast. America: Fork. Stick. Done.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:49 PM | Your Say (31)
Where Are the Attack Submarines When We Really Need Them?
will feature luxury showrooms and a party deck for the tech giant to market Google Glass and other gadgets to invitation-only clients.... The first three floors are designed to serve as “dazzling showrooms” that can be outfitted with chrome features and floor lighting. There is an upper “party deck” meant to feature bars, lanais and other comforts so Google can fete its upscale customers.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:55 PM
New Cannonball Run Record
He commissioned a radar jammer, but it wasn't finished in time for the trek. There was also a police scanner, two GPS units and various chargers for smartphones and tablets -- not to mention snacks, iced coffee and a bedpan. - - Neatorama
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 7:53 PM | Your Say (9)
Dies irae
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:44 PM | Your Say (4)
For Some Reason It's Beard Month
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:15 PM | Your Say (0)
Yet Another Credit to MSNBC
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:15 PM | Your Say (5)
"I know there is a hardcore segment of our population that is still gaga over Barack Obama, but is anyone actually buying this swill?"
I can’t believe Barack Obama and His inner circle meet behind closed doors,go through all their shrewd calculations about what spin will & won’t work, and with all their P.R. talents come to the conclusion that the most winning strategy available to them is: Obama goes out and says “I had no idea this was going on…”…again…for the fifty-seven billionth time or whatever. It must be something far more primitive. Like a gag reflex. House of Eratosthenes
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 2:02 PM | Your Say (5)
You'll Hate the Question from Your Grandchildren's Children
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 1:15 PM | Your Say (4)
Who is Jimmy Carter to indict anyone on grounds of incompetence. And yet the more I reflect on it, the more I think Mr. Carter may be on to something.
What exactly are the impressive achievements of President Obama?The revival of the American economy? Surging job growth? The success of the stimulus package and the number of “shovel ready jobs”? Moving us toward energy independence? Reducing the debt? Reducing poverty and the number of Americans on food stamps? His oversight of agencies like the IRS? The Fast and Furious program? Ending America’s political divisions and unifying his countrymen? Perhaps his skillful handling before, during, and after the terrorist assault on the American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi? His successes in Syria? Egypt? Iraq? Iran? Peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis? And don’t forget his signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, which may rank among the worst major government programs in modern American history, a failure in both conception and implementation.So it may be
that Jimmy Carter has a right to sit in judgment of Barack Obama. Which is among the worst things that could be said about America’s 44th president. A Truly Wicked Blow: Jimmy Carter Hammers Obama for Ineptness « Commentary Magazine
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:12 AM | Your Say (1)
November 1, 2013
As America’s leader the old Obama handed Syria, Russia and Iran and huge victory.
Gave it to them on a platter with his vaunting, invincible stupidity.In the process, not only has he shot America in the foot on the world stage but he will have emboldened the Ayatollahs to forge ahead with their nuclear ambitions. He will have encouraged Russia to make a comeback in the region. We will shortly feel these effects in Egypt, Iran and even in Europe. He has also destroyed himself. It was painful to watch, even to those who had no particular fondness for him. There is always something inexpressibly sad about seeing a great thing die, whether it is a ship, a whale, an enfeebled giant, or a puffed up fantasy. Belmont Club ｻ Surrender
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 8:06 PM | Your Say (4)
Confessions of an American Drone Operator
The box was kept cold —precisely sixty-eight degrees— and the only light inside came from the glow of monitors.The air smelled spectrally of stale sweat and cigarette smoke. On his console, the image showed the midwinter landscape of eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar Province—a palette of browns and grays, fields cut to stubble, dark forests climbing the rocky foothills of the Hindu Kush..... As he watched the men walk, the one who had fallen behind seemed to hear something and broke into a run to catch up with the other two. Then, bright and silent as a camera flash, the screen lit up with white flame. - - - G.Q.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 6:56 PM | Your Say (4)
In Passing
"Listening to MSNBC to learn about politics is like listening to farts to learn about cooking." Comment @ CNN Falls To Lowest Primetime In Over A Year; Fox's Megyn Kelly Returns To Cable News Ratings Top SpotPosted by gerardvanderleun at 6:43 PM | Your Say (2)
Why Asian women are attractive:
“The Asians, without exception, are sleek, well-groomed, and dressed with an understated sexiness that never pushes trashy. . . . Further, the Asians are what were once called ‘ladies,’ a thought repellant to feminists but so very refreshing to men.” On American women: “As best I can tell, they don’t like being women. Here is the entire problem in five words.” Review of “Nekkid in Austin” by Fred Reed | FosetiPosted by gerardvanderleun at 6:42 PM | Your Say (2)
All Things Must Pass - or - Why is there never any video of "the events" of the day after these food "triumphs?"
Joey Chestnut eats 121 Twinkies in 6 minutes [AKA 10.2 pounds of Twinkies]Chestnut came in first during the weekend at the Major League Eating-sanctioned inaugural World Twinkie-Eating Championship at Bally's Casino in Tunica. His closest competitor, Matt "The Megatoad" Stonie, downed 111 of the cream-filled cakes in the time allowed, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Tuesday.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 5:05 PM | Your Say (0)
Bravest Man on the Internet
Redheads are my favorite, next is Brunettes, and next is Blondes, in that order. I like all 3, but I’m just saying if I had to choose, that’s my order of preference. I will not date a Black girl. I don’t care if she looks like Halle Berry, I will not ever date a Black girl. However, I will date any other race, Hispanic, Mexican, Spanish, Russian, Italian, French, European, White, whatever, anything except Black.I wonder how things are working out for Romeo Rose. I wonder what his email inbox is like. Did I mention that this has been picked up, naturally, by the shrieking banshees at Jezabel and the dubious "men" at Gawker?
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:55 PM | Your Say (4)
There Is No Bad, Bad Kitty After All
First, Dell told them to try cleaning it with a soft cloth. That didn’t work. Then they suggested compressed air, but as the complaints of laptops with keyboards and track pads that smelled exactly like cat urine piled up, Dell was forced to admit there was a problem. Yes, you read that correctly: Dell Latitude E6430u laptops manufactured before October smell strongly of cat urine.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 4:26 PM | Your Say (0)
File Under: Unfortunate Names for Fundamentalist Churches
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:41 PM | Your Say (6)
The answer is simple. There are two Obamas.
The public Obama and the private Obama. There is the Obama who pretended to be morally superior to Bush and Cheney and there is the Obama who figured he could go one better if he interrogated prisoners in secret. There are probably also two sets of books, two sets of employment figures, and two of everything, as in some Manichaen Noah’s Ark — if you will pardon the mixture of metaphors. There’s the Obama who knows that you kill the enemy in war. And then there’s his twin who promises never to hurt a fly. There’s the Obama who promises to slash the deficit and the Obama who fights tooth and nail to raise the debt limit. There’s the Obama who promises a world without nuclear weapons. And then there’s the one who has let the nuclear arms race in the Middle East and Asia race to unprecedented speeds. - - The Universal ObamaphonePosted by gerardvanderleun at 3:41 PM | Your Say (1)
10 Years of Unnecessary Hoop Jumping
The military is about the ONLY place that will take an 18 year old kid and give them the opportunity to achieve their best.And since most employers are too sadistic and inefficient, this makes the military the BEST option for kids nowadays. Free food, clothing, shelter, health care and education. You oughta kiss your drill sergeant on the lips for how kind and generous the military is compared to corporate America. Captain Capitalism:
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 3:20 PM | Your Say (6)
"No problem. I've done this thousands of times...."
An engineer who blew up a whale carcass in Oregon using some 20 cases of dynamite has died, but the biggest bang of his career will live forever in YouTube infamy.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:25 AM | Your Say (7)
A Proud Tradition Threatened with Change
At this point, all three of the "Big Three Lies:""I love you." "The check is in the mail." "Honestly, dear, it's only a cold sore." ...are in danger of losing their pre-eminence to this one: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan." Liberty's Torch: Assorted
Posted by gerardvanderleun at 9:11 AM | Your Say (1)