"Wear first a condom on your tongue in order contain the orgasm of your ignorance."
That's how a Michelin-starred chef replied to a blogger's review of his restaurant and cuisine.
It'll probably appear in an Obama attack ad by, say...tomorrow?
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Yer Wince-Inducing Headline of the Day
"Man wakes to find his girlfriend biting through his scrotum after falling asleep in the middle of an argument."
Damn, at least Loreena Bobbitt used a knife.
Damn, at least Loreena Bobbitt used a knife.
Richard III's Body Found?
Under a parking lot in Leicester, UK:
Richard III is finally to receive a burial fit for a king – more than 500 years after he was killed in battle.
Remains that archaeologists believe are those of the king are to be buried in Leicester Cathedral if DNA tests prove that the bones are his.
The skeleton was uncovered last month in what is now the car park of Leicester City Council’s social services department.
The site was formerly a chapel.
The body in the car park has an arrow in its back – matching Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
It also has scoliosis – severe curvature of the spine – tying in with the famous description by Shakespeare and others of the monarch as a hunchback.
I remember reading Richard III in my senior year of high school, in Advanced Placement English.
And somewhere in my possessions is a set of "War of the Roses" playing cards, with Richard III as a hunchbacked King of Clubs.
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York...
Richard III is finally to receive a burial fit for a king – more than 500 years after he was killed in battle.
Remains that archaeologists believe are those of the king are to be buried in Leicester Cathedral if DNA tests prove that the bones are his.
The skeleton was uncovered last month in what is now the car park of Leicester City Council’s social services department.
The site was formerly a chapel.
The body in the car park has an arrow in its back – matching Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
It also has scoliosis – severe curvature of the spine – tying in with the famous description by Shakespeare and others of the monarch as a hunchback.
I remember reading Richard III in my senior year of high school, in Advanced Placement English.
And somewhere in my possessions is a set of "War of the Roses" playing cards, with Richard III as a hunchbacked King of Clubs.
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York...
NOT Yer Usual Suspect
Down in Rock Hill, SC, a restaurant had its door smashed in, but it wasn't by the Usual Suspects®:
A deer smashed through the door of a Rock Hill restaurant early Saturday morning, according to Rock Hill police.
Officers responded to the Dragon Express restaurant – located on Cherry Road directly across the street from Winthrop University – after 2 a.m. to find the deer running around the dining room, said Lt. Marc Kitts of the Rock Hill Police Department.
Officers attempted to catch the deer but it escaped, Kitts said.
The deer is on the lam. Or should I type that on the lamb?
A deer smashed through the door of a Rock Hill restaurant early Saturday morning, according to Rock Hill police.
Officers responded to the Dragon Express restaurant – located on Cherry Road directly across the street from Winthrop University – after 2 a.m. to find the deer running around the dining room, said Lt. Marc Kitts of the Rock Hill Police Department.
Officers attempted to catch the deer but it escaped, Kitts said.
The deer is on the lam. Or should I type that on the lamb?
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Yer Green Grocery Bags Are Making Us Sick
Researchers at the University of Arizona sampled 84 reusable bags from shoppers in Los Angeles, the most recent major municipality to ban plastic bags, and two additional bag-outlawed cities. The findings were stunning: just over half were contaminated with some form of harmful bacteria while at least twelve percent contained traces of fecal matter. When the contaminated bags were housed in car trunks for two hours, scientists found the number of bacteria was boosted ten-fold.
So the next time that you're sitting on the toilet with a bucket in your hands, simultaneously squirting and puking, you can blame it on a hippie.
So the next time that you're sitting on the toilet with a bucket in your hands, simultaneously squirting and puking, you can blame it on a hippie.
Shooter Probably Thought They Were Coyotes
Dead red wolves in Beaufort County, NC.
The endangered Red Wolf and the Coyote have a superficial resemblance that would make it easy for the uninformed hunter to mistake one for the other.
Red Wolf:
Coyote:
Although it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the shooter knew exactly what (s)he was shooting, and just did it out of pure meanness.
The endangered Red Wolf and the Coyote have a superficial resemblance that would make it easy for the uninformed hunter to mistake one for the other.
Red Wolf:
Coyote:
Although it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the shooter knew exactly what (s)he was shooting, and just did it out of pure meanness.
I'll Have One Can of the "Special" Tanning Powder, Thanks
*Wink, wink.*
A Caldwell County tanning salon owner and her boyfriend were arrested Thursday in connection with cocaine trafficking.
The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office drug unit arrested Jennifer Denise Robinson, 32, and Aaron Lateff Pearson, also known as “Toog,” 38, without incident at the Granite Falls salon, called JennaDollzz Tanning.
They lived in the same home in Lenoir and were charged with trafficking cocaine and maintaining a dwelling to keep drugs, according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Click the link to check out the eyebrows on the chick. Mr. Spock or Dr. McCoy couldn't get an eyebrow higher than that girl has hers painted on.
A Caldwell County tanning salon owner and her boyfriend were arrested Thursday in connection with cocaine trafficking.
The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office drug unit arrested Jennifer Denise Robinson, 32, and Aaron Lateff Pearson, also known as “Toog,” 38, without incident at the Granite Falls salon, called JennaDollzz Tanning.
They lived in the same home in Lenoir and were charged with trafficking cocaine and maintaining a dwelling to keep drugs, according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Click the link to check out the eyebrows on the chick. Mr. Spock or Dr. McCoy couldn't get an eyebrow higher than that girl has hers painted on.
Mama's Got Yo Back
Mother-and-son bank robbers here in Charlotte.
Police arrested a mother and son in connection with a bank robbery in University City Friday night.
Officers responded to a robbery call at the First Citizens Bank in the 6700 block of N. Tryon Street about 6 p.m., according to a release from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
En route, officers saw Carlos Lamonte Simpson, 21, and Pamela Simpson, 48, at a bus stop near the bank, the release said. One officer noticed the two had dye on their clothing, which was from an exploded dye pack.
Police arrested a mother and son in connection with a bank robbery in University City Friday night.
Officers responded to a robbery call at the First Citizens Bank in the 6700 block of N. Tryon Street about 6 p.m., according to a release from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
En route, officers saw Carlos Lamonte Simpson, 21, and Pamela Simpson, 48, at a bus stop near the bank, the release said. One officer noticed the two had dye on their clothing, which was from an exploded dye pack.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Animal War Heroes
The latest is Theo, who died in Afghanistan after his human partner was killed by insurgents in a firefight.
British soldiers and military dogs gathered at a London army barracks Thursday to honor a fallen hero with selfless courage, nerves of steel - and four legs.
Theo, a bomb-sniffing springer spaniel who died in Afghanistan on the day his soldier partner was killed, was posthumously honored with the Dickin Medal, Britain's highest award for bravery by animals.
Theo worked alongside Lance Cpl. Liam Tasker, searching for roadside bombs in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.
Tasker, 26, died in a firefight with insurgents in March 2011, and Theo suffered a fatal seizure hours later. Tasker's mother, Jane Duffy, says the pair were inseparable. She's convinced Theo died of a broken heart.
The Dickin Medal has been given to dogs, pigeons, horses - - and a cat. Click the link to read the whole story.
British soldiers and military dogs gathered at a London army barracks Thursday to honor a fallen hero with selfless courage, nerves of steel - and four legs.
Theo, a bomb-sniffing springer spaniel who died in Afghanistan on the day his soldier partner was killed, was posthumously honored with the Dickin Medal, Britain's highest award for bravery by animals.
Theo worked alongside Lance Cpl. Liam Tasker, searching for roadside bombs in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold.
Tasker, 26, died in a firefight with insurgents in March 2011, and Theo suffered a fatal seizure hours later. Tasker's mother, Jane Duffy, says the pair were inseparable. She's convinced Theo died of a broken heart.
The Dickin Medal has been given to dogs, pigeons, horses - - and a cat. Click the link to read the whole story.
US Navy "CNO Reading List."
Story here.
It's a list of books recommended for Navy personnel of all ranks. Let's let CNO himself explain it:
There's some familiar names on the list, such as Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander, among others. It's meant for leisure time and there is no requirement to read any of them, but...
While nonreaders face no consequence, Jackson encourages leaders to praise those who do participate in their next evaluations.
So you know where that will probably lead.
For myself, it's no big deal; I've always been a reader, even read the tomes put out by the Naval Institute regularly during my active duty years. There's probably more than a few sailors who'd rather not have to deal with being "encouraged" to tackle the "essential 18" books on the list.
It's similar to what Muslims like to say: There is no compulsion in Islam.
Or the Navy.
It's a list of books recommended for Navy personnel of all ranks. Let's let CNO himself explain it:
There's some familiar names on the list, such as Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander, among others. It's meant for leisure time and there is no requirement to read any of them, but...
While nonreaders face no consequence, Jackson encourages leaders to praise those who do participate in their next evaluations.
So you know where that will probably lead.
For myself, it's no big deal; I've always been a reader, even read the tomes put out by the Naval Institute regularly during my active duty years. There's probably more than a few sailors who'd rather not have to deal with being "encouraged" to tackle the "essential 18" books on the list.
It's similar to what Muslims like to say: There is no compulsion in Islam.
Or the Navy.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Lord of the Rings Random Musing
Do you think that when Treebeard the Ent gets sexually excited he refers to it as getting a woody?
Likewise, when Treebeard has sexual relations with one of the Entwives, does he have to worry about splinters? Does she? If they go at it hot and heavy enough, would the friction cause them to catch fire?
Just random musings from my afternoon walk...
Hoom, Hom!
Likewise, when Treebeard has sexual relations with one of the Entwives, does he have to worry about splinters? Does she? If they go at it hot and heavy enough, would the friction cause them to catch fire?
Just random musings from my afternoon walk...
Meanwhile, Over At Reason Magazine...
...Damon Root discusses how the next President will affect the Supreme Court with the opportunity to nominate one or more Justices.
He mainly discusses it in terms of Citizens United, but mentions Roe v. Wade in passing, also, and points up Anthony Kennedy's libertarian tendencies as likely to be missed. No mention at all of gun rights post-Heller.
He mainly discusses it in terms of Citizens United, but mentions Roe v. Wade in passing, also, and points up Anthony Kennedy's libertarian tendencies as likely to be missed. No mention at all of gun rights post-Heller.
Another Headline of the Day
"Police: Teen Mug Chucker Jailed."
A 14-year-old New Hanover High student was arrested Wednesday morning after throwing an aluminum mug out a third story window of the Market Street school, hitting another student on the head, according to an official.
New Hanover County Sheriff Sgt. Jerry Brewer said the mug struck a student on the ground level, causing a gash that needed six staples to close.
(New Hanover High School is in Wilmington, NC).
A 14-year-old New Hanover High student was arrested Wednesday morning after throwing an aluminum mug out a third story window of the Market Street school, hitting another student on the head, according to an official.
New Hanover County Sheriff Sgt. Jerry Brewer said the mug struck a student on the ground level, causing a gash that needed six staples to close.
(New Hanover High School is in Wilmington, NC).
Headline of the Day
"How KSM got an orange beard at Gitmo."
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The Pentagon has given a partial explanation to a Guantanamo mystery: How the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks managed to dye his beard.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's bushy grey beard has been colored a rusty orange during court appearances. Spectators had assumed he used henna, which is used by some Muslims as a hair dye.
A Pentagon spokesman says Mohammed used "natural means," such as juice from berries that he receives in his meals. Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said Tuesday that Mohammed did not receive any "outside" means to color his beard.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The Pentagon has given a partial explanation to a Guantanamo mystery: How the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks managed to dye his beard.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's bushy grey beard has been colored a rusty orange during court appearances. Spectators had assumed he used henna, which is used by some Muslims as a hair dye.
A Pentagon spokesman says Mohammed used "natural means," such as juice from berries that he receives in his meals. Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said Tuesday that Mohammed did not receive any "outside" means to color his beard.
Today's Poll: O Mighty Killer of Snakes!
Over at Robert Langham's blog he mentions an encounter with a copperhead, which he let live, and I got to wondering: What's the attitude of my readership toward snakes, particularly venomous snakes? My own attitude is like Langham's, with the possible exception of encountering a venomous snake by surprise in close quarters, e.g., accidentally stepping on one and having it bite in self-defense.
So here's today's poll. I think I've covered most of the choices, with the exception of killing a snake to protect one's spouse/children; I think that choice would outweigh every other one on the poll, so I didn't include it by design. You can, of course, offer detailed reasons for/against in comments.
So here's today's poll. I think I've covered most of the choices, with the exception of killing a snake to protect one's spouse/children; I think that choice would outweigh every other one on the poll, so I didn't include it by design. You can, of course, offer detailed reasons for/against in comments.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Quote of the Day
"A Sociopath Would Sell a Snuff Film; a Psychopath Would *Make* One." - - Andrew Vachss.
A good explanation of the fundamental difference between the two pathologies.
A good explanation of the fundamental difference between the two pathologies.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Who You Gonna Believe, the Satnav Or Yo' Lyin' Eyes?
In Hampshire, UK, villagers got tired of strangers drowning themselves in a nearby river ford by blindly following satnav instructions.
So the villagers put up a sign:
Folks, as sophisticated as computers and computer-connected devices have gotten, the old rule still applies: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Sometimes the data isn't to be trusted.
So the villagers put up a sign:
Folks, as sophisticated as computers and computer-connected devices have gotten, the old rule still applies: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Sometimes the data isn't to be trusted.
News Source Recommendation
If you're not following Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, you probably should be. Quality conservative news and views; and, if you look at the top of the main page, you'll see a heading titled Guns and Gear. That's right, The Daily Caller prominently features gun reviews and stories. For just one example, here is a review of the Savage Rascal, a .22 bolt-action youth rifle.
I'm at the point where I check the feed for The Daily Caller regularly. It's worth adding to your newsfeed or blogroll.
I'm at the point where I check the feed for The Daily Caller regularly. It's worth adding to your newsfeed or blogroll.
Today's Word is Desultory
Desultory: adjective. Disappointing in progress, performance, or quality.
Frankly, my blogging has been desultory for the last few days. I apologize, and will try to get motivated again.
Frankly, my blogging has been desultory for the last few days. I apologize, and will try to get motivated again.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Way Down Upon De Cape Fear Ribber...
Did you know that police in Wilmington, North Carolina, can arrest you for swimming in the Cape Fear River?
'struth!
That’s when Mercer ran onto the dock at the foot of Market Street, Smith said. As a New Hanover County deputy approached him, Mercer jumped into the river.
When he reached the other side he surrendered to officers in the marsh near the Battleship North Carolina.
“Mercer, lucky to be alive, was taken into custody without further incident,” Smith said in a release.
Mercer was booked on charges of obtain/attempt to obtain alcohol with a drivers license of another, obstructing police, consuming alcohol under 21 and swimming in the river.
Dumbass. He worked himself from a simple ticket to a night in jail.
'struth!
That’s when Mercer ran onto the dock at the foot of Market Street, Smith said. As a New Hanover County deputy approached him, Mercer jumped into the river.
When he reached the other side he surrendered to officers in the marsh near the Battleship North Carolina.
“Mercer, lucky to be alive, was taken into custody without further incident,” Smith said in a release.
Mercer was booked on charges of obtain/attempt to obtain alcohol with a drivers license of another, obstructing police, consuming alcohol under 21 and swimming in the river.
Dumbass. He worked himself from a simple ticket to a night in jail.
Yer Redneck Feature of the Day
Dan DeBlasio's haunted house in Leland, NC:
Some residents of Olde Towne Wynd in Leland enjoy sprucing up for the holidays with dazzling light displays, decorations and mood-setting music.
So does Dan DeBlasio.
The difference is that DeBlasio's favorite holiday comes in October, not December.
For DeBlasio, Halloween is his chance to outshine the neighbors.
As a visitor pauses to read the "Enter at Your Own Risk!" sign, DeBlasio or his cohort, Tom Nugent, rattles him with a hidden noisemaker. Even on an early October day, this year's plan is taking shape.
The gated graveyard is nearly finished, featuring a half-buried corpse among the graves of singer Bob Denver, pitchman Billy Mays and pop legend Michael Jackson. The young boy's underwear on Jackson's gravestone smacks of poor taste, but DeBlasio takes ridicule as easily as he shovels it – imagine his hesitation at asking a neighbor for a pair of his son's underwear.
Among all the famous names in the graveyard is one unfamiliar name: "Georgia Peters, 1940-2001." That's DeBlasio's mother-in-law, and it's not a tribute – she's actually still alive. There's also an undug grave with a shovel next to it – its headstone reads "YOU!!!"
Pic:
And, me being the priggish grammar Nazi that I am, I noticed that the sign in the pic has the word you're misspelled as your. Don't know if it's intentional or not, but this is North Carolina, so I'll say it's unintentional. (Later: he spelled too as to, also.)
Click the link to read the rest of the story.
Some residents of Olde Towne Wynd in Leland enjoy sprucing up for the holidays with dazzling light displays, decorations and mood-setting music.
So does Dan DeBlasio.
The difference is that DeBlasio's favorite holiday comes in October, not December.
For DeBlasio, Halloween is his chance to outshine the neighbors.
As a visitor pauses to read the "Enter at Your Own Risk!" sign, DeBlasio or his cohort, Tom Nugent, rattles him with a hidden noisemaker. Even on an early October day, this year's plan is taking shape.
The gated graveyard is nearly finished, featuring a half-buried corpse among the graves of singer Bob Denver, pitchman Billy Mays and pop legend Michael Jackson. The young boy's underwear on Jackson's gravestone smacks of poor taste, but DeBlasio takes ridicule as easily as he shovels it – imagine his hesitation at asking a neighbor for a pair of his son's underwear.
Among all the famous names in the graveyard is one unfamiliar name: "Georgia Peters, 1940-2001." That's DeBlasio's mother-in-law, and it's not a tribute – she's actually still alive. There's also an undug grave with a shovel next to it – its headstone reads "YOU!!!"
Pic:
And, me being the priggish grammar Nazi that I am, I noticed that the sign in the pic has the word you're misspelled as your. Don't know if it's intentional or not, but this is North Carolina, so I'll say it's unintentional. (Later: he spelled too as to, also.)
Click the link to read the rest of the story.
Mitt Romney's Al Smith Dinner Appearance
Mr. Stiff was funny as hell. And not inclined to pull punches, which indicates to me how frustrated he's been over the course of the campaign. His comments on the media are priceless:
h/t Michael Graham.
h/t Michael Graham.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Headline of the Day
"DNC host committee tallies the price they cannot pay."
The cost of the recent DNC convention here in Charlotte is deeply in the hole:
How do you pay the bills when the party’s over and the guests have gone?
Democratic National Convention organizers are about to find out.
After struggling for more than a year to raise money – and ultimately coming up short – they face $10 million in debts and unpaid obligations, according to reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission.
“This is a difficult debt to retire,” said Viveca Novak, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “If (President) Obama loses on Nov. 6, then very few people are going to want to give to this lingering debt from the convention.”
It brings to mind Groucho Marx's comment on alimony: It's like feeding hay to a dead horse.
The cost of the recent DNC convention here in Charlotte is deeply in the hole:
How do you pay the bills when the party’s over and the guests have gone?
Democratic National Convention organizers are about to find out.
After struggling for more than a year to raise money – and ultimately coming up short – they face $10 million in debts and unpaid obligations, according to reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission.
“This is a difficult debt to retire,” said Viveca Novak, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “If (President) Obama loses on Nov. 6, then very few people are going to want to give to this lingering debt from the convention.”
It brings to mind Groucho Marx's comment on alimony: It's like feeding hay to a dead horse.
Not To Put Too Fine a Point On It...
...but when Democrats go on The View, the resident hags wear kneepads; when Republicans go on, the hags switch to boxing gloves.
And Mitt Romney should just come right out and say it on the record, but he's too much of a gentleman to do so.
And Mitt Romney should just come right out and say it on the record, but he's too much of a gentleman to do so.
The Dedication of the True Fanatic
A man in UK spent ten years building a scale model of Admiral Nelson's flagship HMS Victory:
More photos of this magnificent work at the link.
I got to visit Victory in the early 1980's when I was in the US Navy, on a port visit to Portsmouth. I had photos of the ship with the US flag flying at the mainmast as a courtesy; those didn't follow me here to the US when my marriage broke up and property was divided. Wonderful old ship.
More photos of this magnificent work at the link.
I got to visit Victory in the early 1980's when I was in the US Navy, on a port visit to Portsmouth. I had photos of the ship with the US flag flying at the mainmast as a courtesy; those didn't follow me here to the US when my marriage broke up and property was divided. Wonderful old ship.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Treasure Blog: Roman Gold Coins, Hartfordshire, UK
Worth up to £100,000.
They're lovely; gold, unlike silver or bronze, doesn't tarnish or oxidize with the passage of time:
They're lovely; gold, unlike silver or bronze, doesn't tarnish or oxidize with the passage of time:
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
WWII Monopoly?
Story here.
GULFPORT -- Kevin Boone wanted to take his ninth-grade students from Salmen High in Slidell to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans last spring, but he realized they didn't know much about the war.
Boone, who lives in Gulfport, decided the students would get more out of the field trip if they knew what happened in World War II and the history behind it.
"I hated to bring the students there without them having any background," Boone said. "It was spring, and they were tired of testing, so we did a fun learning game, and they researched most of the events of the war."
He decided a board game, such as Monopoly with a WWII theme, would be the best way to get the students interested and help them remember the facts.
Boone searched the Internet for such a game but couldn't find one, so he and his students created their own. He had five classes, and each created a version. The classes played each other's games rather than taking a written test.
The field trip was a success, Boone said, and he felt his students got more out of the experience than if they hadn't studied WWII.
Now, six months later, Boone and his students will go to the museum for the unveiling of Monopoly: America's WWII: We're All in This Together.
Game available here.
Just in time for Christmas. Play a game with your WWII veteran friends or relatives, maybe learn something you didn't know.
GULFPORT -- Kevin Boone wanted to take his ninth-grade students from Salmen High in Slidell to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans last spring, but he realized they didn't know much about the war.
Boone, who lives in Gulfport, decided the students would get more out of the field trip if they knew what happened in World War II and the history behind it.
"I hated to bring the students there without them having any background," Boone said. "It was spring, and they were tired of testing, so we did a fun learning game, and they researched most of the events of the war."
He decided a board game, such as Monopoly with a WWII theme, would be the best way to get the students interested and help them remember the facts.
Boone searched the Internet for such a game but couldn't find one, so he and his students created their own. He had five classes, and each created a version. The classes played each other's games rather than taking a written test.
The field trip was a success, Boone said, and he felt his students got more out of the experience than if they hadn't studied WWII.
Now, six months later, Boone and his students will go to the museum for the unveiling of Monopoly: America's WWII: We're All in This Together.
Game available here.
Just in time for Christmas. Play a game with your WWII veteran friends or relatives, maybe learn something you didn't know.
How Tonight's Debate Could Be Rigged
Aside from having a liberal moderator, of course.
Tonight's Presidential debate is a "town hall"-style debate, with "normal Americans" asking questions of Obama and Romney. How were the "normal Americans" picked? That's the first way you could rig the debate.
The second way that the debate could be rigged is that, although the "normal Americans" get to ask the questions, the questions are pre-screened and the moderator (Candy Crowley, Liberal Journalist) gets to choose which questions get asked. Thus it's likely that there will be plenty of questions that embarrass Governor Romney (or try to) and few that embarrass President Obama.
The third way the debate could be rigged is that Liberal CNN Journalist Candy Crowley gets to ask the follow-up questions to those made by the "normal Americans." Thus, if one of the questions inadvertently embarrasses President Obama, Crowley will be able to rescue him by asking a penetrating follow-up to Governor Romney.
Bear all this in mind as you watch the debate tonight.
Tonight's Presidential debate is a "town hall"-style debate, with "normal Americans" asking questions of Obama and Romney. How were the "normal Americans" picked? That's the first way you could rig the debate.
The second way that the debate could be rigged is that, although the "normal Americans" get to ask the questions, the questions are pre-screened and the moderator (Candy Crowley, Liberal Journalist) gets to choose which questions get asked. Thus it's likely that there will be plenty of questions that embarrass Governor Romney (or try to) and few that embarrass President Obama.
The third way the debate could be rigged is that Liberal CNN Journalist Candy Crowley gets to ask the follow-up questions to those made by the "normal Americans." Thus, if one of the questions inadvertently embarrasses President Obama, Crowley will be able to rescue him by asking a penetrating follow-up to Governor Romney.
Bear all this in mind as you watch the debate tonight.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Walking Dead AAR: Seed
Sunday's season premiere of The Walking Dead apparently picks up Rick & Co. several weeks (or perhaps even longer) after the Season 2 finale. Hershel has grown a beard, the entire group are now zombie-killing machines, and have even acquired suppressors for several of their guns. But apparently, even with several road-worthy vehicles, they couldn't find their way out of the general area that they were in at the end of Season 2 (all the roads are choked off/blocked?)
Meanwhile, we see Michonne (who still hasn't been formally introduced to the audience) caring for Andrea, who apparently has pneumonia. Lots of unanswered questions there: where did Michonne learn to use that sword so efficiently? What's with the two armless zombies? It's as if we missed an episode in which all this stuff was explained.
And Rick is damn sure determined to keep Hershel around to deliver Lorie's baby, no matter what it takes, huh?
Meanwhile, we see Michonne (who still hasn't been formally introduced to the audience) caring for Andrea, who apparently has pneumonia. Lots of unanswered questions there: where did Michonne learn to use that sword so efficiently? What's with the two armless zombies? It's as if we missed an episode in which all this stuff was explained.
And Rick is damn sure determined to keep Hershel around to deliver Lorie's baby, no matter what it takes, huh?
The Closing Argument
Victor Davis Hanson brilliantly sums up the case against re-electing Barack Obama as President.
The election is not over, but it is starting to resemble October 29 or November 1 in 1980, when, after just one debate, the nation at last decided that it really did not like Jimmy Carter very much or what he had done, and discovered that Ronald Reagan was not the mad Dr. Strangelove/Jefferson Davis of the Carter summer television ads. Like Carter, Obama both has no wish to defend his record (who would?) and is just as petulant. In the next three weeks, he has only three hours left to save his presidency.
There are lots or reasons why various groups are tiring of Obama. It is not just the economy, but also all the untruths about the economy over the last four years that sounded like daily communiqués from the Ministry of Truth. Do we even remember the brilliant Obama economic A-team, chomping at the bit in December 2008 to get started to pull us into the good times — a Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner (remember, he was the “genius” who almost alone knew how high finance on Wall Street worked and so had to be exempted from cheating on his tax deductions), Christina Romer, Peter Orszag, and, later, Austan Goolsbee, who have now all come and gone.
Read the whole thing, as the saying goes.
The election is not over, but it is starting to resemble October 29 or November 1 in 1980, when, after just one debate, the nation at last decided that it really did not like Jimmy Carter very much or what he had done, and discovered that Ronald Reagan was not the mad Dr. Strangelove/Jefferson Davis of the Carter summer television ads. Like Carter, Obama both has no wish to defend his record (who would?) and is just as petulant. In the next three weeks, he has only three hours left to save his presidency.
There are lots or reasons why various groups are tiring of Obama. It is not just the economy, but also all the untruths about the economy over the last four years that sounded like daily communiqués from the Ministry of Truth. Do we even remember the brilliant Obama economic A-team, chomping at the bit in December 2008 to get started to pull us into the good times — a Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner (remember, he was the “genius” who almost alone knew how high finance on Wall Street worked and so had to be exempted from cheating on his tax deductions), Christina Romer, Peter Orszag, and, later, Austan Goolsbee, who have now all come and gone.
Read the whole thing, as the saying goes.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
What We've Got Here...Is Failure To Communicate
And so, as a public service, I provide this handy-dandy translation service from Liberal to Conservative:
You Say: Journalist…I Hear: Propagandist
You Say: Social Justice…I Hear: Stand and Deliver
You Say: Shari’a Law…I Hear: Hang gays, stone women, marry children, own slaves
You Say: Progressive…I Hear: Socialist
You Say: Trial Lawyer…I Hear: Pirate
You Say: Racist…I Hear: Shut Up
You Say: Islamophobia…I Hear: Shut Up
Plenty more at the link. And, of course, the title reference comes from this classic movie moment:
You Say: Journalist…I Hear: Propagandist
You Say: Social Justice…I Hear: Stand and Deliver
You Say: Shari’a Law…I Hear: Hang gays, stone women, marry children, own slaves
You Say: Progressive…I Hear: Socialist
You Say: Trial Lawyer…I Hear: Pirate
You Say: Racist…I Hear: Shut Up
You Say: Islamophobia…I Hear: Shut Up
Plenty more at the link. And, of course, the title reference comes from this classic movie moment:
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Musical Interlude
I'm feeling nostalgic for the late 1970's, thanks to Borepatch posting an old country favorite. So I'll offer another song from the same era, from a very similar singer, the late Johnny Duncan. This one features Janie Fricke, a legend in her own right, who got her start as a session singer and had several hits with Duncan. Here's one of their best, Stranger:
Ain't Nothin' Wrong With a Slim Jim
"DoD developing a better dehydrated meat."
The Defense Department is developing a shelf-stable meat that tastes less like a Slim Jim and more like chicken, beef or pork.
DoD’s Combat Feeding Directorate and the Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center have teamed with an Augusta, Ga.,-based company to produce meat that can sit on a shelf for two or three years and still remain soft and juicy, with a consistency similar to deli cold cuts.
The process involves grinding up a base meat such as chicken, pork or beef (vegetables are being tested as well) and passing it slowly through a continuous osmotic dehydration processor, removing water from the meat by osmosis, drawing it out with a solution of sugar and salt.
The result is a product that presses out of the dehydration machine looking like a giant Fruit Roll Up.
There! You see? Which would you rather have, a Slim Jim or a Fruit Roll-Up? I know what I prefer.
The Defense Department is developing a shelf-stable meat that tastes less like a Slim Jim and more like chicken, beef or pork.
DoD’s Combat Feeding Directorate and the Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center have teamed with an Augusta, Ga.,-based company to produce meat that can sit on a shelf for two or three years and still remain soft and juicy, with a consistency similar to deli cold cuts.
The process involves grinding up a base meat such as chicken, pork or beef (vegetables are being tested as well) and passing it slowly through a continuous osmotic dehydration processor, removing water from the meat by osmosis, drawing it out with a solution of sugar and salt.
The result is a product that presses out of the dehydration machine looking like a giant Fruit Roll Up.
There! You see? Which would you rather have, a Slim Jim or a Fruit Roll-Up? I know what I prefer.
Sounds Like a Third-Rate Stephen King Plot
"Worker cooked to death at California tuna plant."
Now, see there? The headline writer missed his opportunity. I'd have titled it:
BOILED AT BUMBLEBEE!
Now, see there? The headline writer missed his opportunity. I'd have titled it:
BOILED AT BUMBLEBEE!
They Call Him Everything But "Usual Suspect."
Could The Charlotte Observer staff be reading my blog? Nah.
The linked article is racially insensitive enough to have been written by...me.
ROCK HILL A Lancaster man repeatedly threatened a police officer’s life after he was arrested for allegedly harassing his “baby mamma,” according to a Rock Hill police report.
The 41-year-old woman told police the man called her and threatened to come to her Rock Hill home and “bust out her windows” following an incident earlier in the evening.
When officers found the man walking down Anderson Road, the report states, he had “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his person. He was arrested and charged with public disorderly conduct.
On the way to jail, the report states, the man repeated yelled and threatened one of the officers, using numerous expletives. “Wait ‘til...you take these handcuffs off of me...” the man said, according to the report. “Done it before, I’ll do it again...You can hit me with your Taser, I don’t give a ... about that. I’m gonna get you before it hit me, though.
“You gonna feel the wrath!”
The linked article is racially insensitive enough to have been written by...me.
ROCK HILL A Lancaster man repeatedly threatened a police officer’s life after he was arrested for allegedly harassing his “baby mamma,” according to a Rock Hill police report.
The 41-year-old woman told police the man called her and threatened to come to her Rock Hill home and “bust out her windows” following an incident earlier in the evening.
When officers found the man walking down Anderson Road, the report states, he had “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his person. He was arrested and charged with public disorderly conduct.
On the way to jail, the report states, the man repeated yelled and threatened one of the officers, using numerous expletives. “Wait ‘til...you take these handcuffs off of me...” the man said, according to the report. “Done it before, I’ll do it again...You can hit me with your Taser, I don’t give a ... about that. I’m gonna get you before it hit me, though.
“You gonna feel the wrath!”
Friday, October 12, 2012
Less Blow For Eurotrash, More Nanners For the Monkeys
Cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas was seized in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, and the bananas given to a local zoo.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands A major cocaine seizure in Europe turned out to be good news for the animals at Rotterdam's zoo.
The drugs were hidden among boxes of bananas, and the fruit went to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands A major cocaine seizure in Europe turned out to be good news for the animals at Rotterdam's zoo.
The drugs were hidden among boxes of bananas, and the fruit went to the monkeys and other creatures at the Blijdorp zoo.
The One-Man Crime Wave
He got out of prison 11 months ago and immediately went back to stealing.
[Suspect] faces 37 felony violations related to 23 breaking-and-entering cases, according to police. The burglaries started March 19, about four months after [suspect] got out of a state prison, and continued through Sept. 15, according to authorities.
Stealing. It's all he knows, all he's good at, apparently. And one of his previous busts apparently recognized this, as he was charged with being a habitual felon. Unfortunately, the sentence he received didn't reflect that fact.
[Suspect] faces 37 felony violations related to 23 breaking-and-entering cases, according to police. The burglaries started March 19, about four months after [suspect] got out of a state prison, and continued through Sept. 15, according to authorities.
Stealing. It's all he knows, all he's good at, apparently. And one of his previous busts apparently recognized this, as he was charged with being a habitual felon. Unfortunately, the sentence he received didn't reflect that fact.
If Your Notion Of Cooking Squirrels...
...involved burning the squirrel's hair off with a propane torch, you're very likely doing it wrong.
Mich. Authorities say a blaze that displaced dozens of people from a southwest Michigan apartment complex may have been sparked by a resident trying to cook a squirrel with a propane torch.
Fire Chief Jim Kohsel tells MLive.com that the resident apparently planned to eat the animal and was burning off its fur on a third-floor deck at the building in Ottawa County's Holland Township when the fire broke out Wednesday. Flames spread to the roof. Kohsel says eight apartments are destroyed and others damaged.
Since this took place at an apartment complex and involved bizarre technique, I'm inclined to think that alcohol was probably involved, as well as a large dose of male stupidity.
Mich. Authorities say a blaze that displaced dozens of people from a southwest Michigan apartment complex may have been sparked by a resident trying to cook a squirrel with a propane torch.
Fire Chief Jim Kohsel tells MLive.com that the resident apparently planned to eat the animal and was burning off its fur on a third-floor deck at the building in Ottawa County's Holland Township when the fire broke out Wednesday. Flames spread to the roof. Kohsel says eight apartments are destroyed and others damaged.
Since this took place at an apartment complex and involved bizarre technique, I'm inclined to think that alcohol was probably involved, as well as a large dose of male stupidity.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Wouldn't Mind Having One Myself
A Citroën 2CV, to be specific.
A man in UK is making a tidy sum with a factory to refurbish junk 2CV's and re-sell them, often back to France, their country of origin. A junked 2CV purchased from a junkyard for £300 can, when refurbished, sell for £11,000 or higher.
Good profit for a car that was often thought of as an ugly duckling. They were easy to maintain and cheap, though, making them the French equivalent of the Volkswagen Beetle, and popular for the same reason.
Here's a pic, if you're not familiar with them:
Click the link for more pics. They were easy to turn into small trucks, and I saw a lot of them in Spain when I lived there in the mid-1980's.
A man in UK is making a tidy sum with a factory to refurbish junk 2CV's and re-sell them, often back to France, their country of origin. A junked 2CV purchased from a junkyard for £300 can, when refurbished, sell for £11,000 or higher.
Good profit for a car that was often thought of as an ugly duckling. They were easy to maintain and cheap, though, making them the French equivalent of the Volkswagen Beetle, and popular for the same reason.
Here's a pic, if you're not familiar with them:
Click the link for more pics. They were easy to turn into small trucks, and I saw a lot of them in Spain when I lived there in the mid-1980's.
It's Not As If It's In the Ladies' Room, After All
Down in Sydney, Australia, some woman has her panties in a twist because a bar has had urinals shaped like a woman's lips in the men's room.
After the woman got all butthurt over an object she's never even likely to see, out went the baby with the...um...urinal water, and the "offensive" urinals were taken out.
Pic? Of course there's a pic:
Ironically, the lip-shaped urinals were designed by a woman artist.
Might as well have a poll about the urinals. You male readers, would you own one if you had the opportunity?
After the woman got all butthurt over an object she's never even likely to see, out went the baby with the...um...urinal water, and the "offensive" urinals were taken out.
Pic? Of course there's a pic:
Ironically, the lip-shaped urinals were designed by a woman artist.
Might as well have a poll about the urinals. You male readers, would you own one if you had the opportunity?
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The Passing of a Classic
No more Coca-Cola in the iconic 6.5oz. glass bottles.
You know when those were at their best? In the summer, out of a cooler, on a dock or boat as you fished with friends and family.
When I lived in Spain during the mid-1980's, a favorite souvenir from trips to Morocco was the glass Coca-Cola bottle, labeled in Arabic. Everyone brought one home.
I'm guessing that Coca-Cola will probably still manufacture the glass bottles outside the USA; this "end of an era" might just refer to domestic sales.
You know when those were at their best? In the summer, out of a cooler, on a dock or boat as you fished with friends and family.
When I lived in Spain during the mid-1980's, a favorite souvenir from trips to Morocco was the glass Coca-Cola bottle, labeled in Arabic. Everyone brought one home.
I'm guessing that Coca-Cola will probably still manufacture the glass bottles outside the USA; this "end of an era" might just refer to domestic sales.
Forgotten By Most, Studied Intently By One
Bigham gravestones, that is, studied by University of North Carolina folklorist Daniel Patterson, who has written a scholarly work on the distinctive stones.
Here's an example, the gravestone of Andrew Bigham himself:
Patterson has spent a good portion of his life studying the gravestones and writing his book. Scholarship in the best sense of the word.
Accompanying slideshow can be found here.
Here's an example, the gravestone of Andrew Bigham himself:
Patterson has spent a good portion of his life studying the gravestones and writing his book. Scholarship in the best sense of the word.
Accompanying slideshow can be found here.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Let's Just Blatantly Manipulate That Town Hall Debate
Coming home from work a few minutes ago, I heard a great offer on WBT radio from Pizza Hut: if you are in the audience at the Town Hall Debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama, and are called on, if you ask them "What topping to you prefer on your pizza: pepperoni or sausage?" Pizza Hut will give you free pizza for life.
Isn't that brilliant, in a manipulative American way? Instead of asking a substantive question, you whore yourself out for free stuff. And I'm sure that other companies will follow Pizza Hut's lead and try to horn in on the debate, also. You might not get a substantive question all night. It might go like this:
Mr. President? Coke or Pepsi?
Governor Romney? Are your Magic Mormon Underwear boxers or briefs?
President Obama? Windows or Mac?
Governor Romney? What's your favorite brand of peanut butter?
And so on. You get the idea.
Isn't that brilliant, in a manipulative American way? Instead of asking a substantive question, you whore yourself out for free stuff. And I'm sure that other companies will follow Pizza Hut's lead and try to horn in on the debate, also. You might not get a substantive question all night. It might go like this:
Mr. President? Coke or Pepsi?
Governor Romney? Are your Magic Mormon Underwear boxers or briefs?
President Obama? Windows or Mac?
Governor Romney? What's your favorite brand of peanut butter?
And so on. You get the idea.
Headline of the Day
"Man dies after live roach-eating contest in Fla."
MIAMI -- The winner of a roach-eating contest in South Florida died shortly after downing dozens of the live bugs as well as worms, authorities said Monday.
About 30 contestants ate the insects during Friday night's contest at Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach about 40 miles north of Miami. The grand prize was a python.
Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach became ill shortly after the contest ended and collapsed in front of the store, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office statement released Monday. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Authorities were waiting for results of an autopsy to determine a cause of death.
"Unless the roaches were contaminated with some bacteria or other pathogens, I don't think that cockroaches would be unsafe to eat," said Michael Adams, professor of entomology at the University of California at Riverside, who added that he has never heard of someone dying after consuming roaches. "Some people do have allergies to roaches," he said, "but there are no toxins in roaches or related insects."
Me? I think he died of shame after debasing himself in such a manner. I know I would.
MIAMI -- The winner of a roach-eating contest in South Florida died shortly after downing dozens of the live bugs as well as worms, authorities said Monday.
About 30 contestants ate the insects during Friday night's contest at Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach about 40 miles north of Miami. The grand prize was a python.
Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach became ill shortly after the contest ended and collapsed in front of the store, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office statement released Monday. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Authorities were waiting for results of an autopsy to determine a cause of death.
"Unless the roaches were contaminated with some bacteria or other pathogens, I don't think that cockroaches would be unsafe to eat," said Michael Adams, professor of entomology at the University of California at Riverside, who added that he has never heard of someone dying after consuming roaches. "Some people do have allergies to roaches," he said, "but there are no toxins in roaches or related insects."
Me? I think he died of shame after debasing himself in such a manner. I know I would.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Oh, That's Why No School Today
It's National White Guilt Over Exposing American Aborigines To Death and Slavery Day, formerly known as Columbus Day.
$20,000
That was all it cost to purchase the Diamond Shoals Light Tower off the coast of North Carolina near Cape Hatteras.
A Minnesota man who has never seen the Diamond Shoals Light Tower – 13 miles off Cape Hatteras in the Atlantic Ocean – has bought the abandoned, rusting tower for $20,000 at federal auction.
Dave Schneider, 56, of Richfield, Minn., said he plans to restore the corroded, 46-year-old tower and turn it into a research, development and product-testing facility off the Outer Banks.
Supposedly it'll cost $2.3M to renovate the old tower.
Here's a pic:
Murph, you missed your chance. I think your plane cost more than that, didn't it?
A Minnesota man who has never seen the Diamond Shoals Light Tower – 13 miles off Cape Hatteras in the Atlantic Ocean – has bought the abandoned, rusting tower for $20,000 at federal auction.
Dave Schneider, 56, of Richfield, Minn., said he plans to restore the corroded, 46-year-old tower and turn it into a research, development and product-testing facility off the Outer Banks.
Supposedly it'll cost $2.3M to renovate the old tower.
Here's a pic:
Murph, you missed your chance. I think your plane cost more than that, didn't it?
I Can't Say "Only In North Carolina..."
...because I think that Pig Butt On a Stick is a state fair taste treat that could take off and be successful in other parts of the country, too.
It just seems like such a natural for North Carolina. And maybe Mississippi.
It just seems like such a natural for North Carolina. And maybe Mississippi.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
For You Older Readers...
...whose memories stretch back to the 60's and 70's, Time-Warner has announced that 50 full episodes of The Carol Burnett Show, along with numerous extras, are now available as a DVD boxed set.
That show would have been just a run-of-the-mill variety show were it not, frankly, for the presence of two people: Harvey Korman, who could not keep a straight face when he found something funny, and Tim Conway, the man who was the most skilled at making Harvey Korman (and, very often, the rest of the cast) break into uncontrollable laughter. This propensity of Conway's is best exemplified by his "elephant story," in which he breaks up Carol, Vicki Lawrence, Dick Van Dyke (and himself) before being topped by Vicki Lawrence in a brilliant riposte:
When you see the modern internet term "ROFL" (Rolling On Floor Laughing), this is a perfect example of what is meant.
That show would have been just a run-of-the-mill variety show were it not, frankly, for the presence of two people: Harvey Korman, who could not keep a straight face when he found something funny, and Tim Conway, the man who was the most skilled at making Harvey Korman (and, very often, the rest of the cast) break into uncontrollable laughter. This propensity of Conway's is best exemplified by his "elephant story," in which he breaks up Carol, Vicki Lawrence, Dick Van Dyke (and himself) before being topped by Vicki Lawrence in a brilliant riposte:
When you see the modern internet term "ROFL" (Rolling On Floor Laughing), this is a perfect example of what is meant.
Friday, October 05, 2012
He Said "Whip" To a Black President!
He's a raaaaaaacist!
Piers Morgan, that is; who, after Wednesday's disastrous debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, offered to have the President on his show for debate prep:
"C'mon, Mr. President. I can promise you a lively exchange of views, a fair crack of the whip, and, perhaps, even the odd moment of much-needed levity. I'm available any time, any place."
Crack the whip? Who was whipped? Slaves, that's who! Black slaves! And President Obama is black! Piers Morgan, you're a raaaaaacist!
Well, that's the sort of crap they're always inflicting on Republicans/conservatives, so it's only right to turn it around on them, right?
Update: Apologies for the auto-play on the video. I've un-embedded it, you can see it at the Breitbart link. The relevent text is still here, though.
Piers Morgan, that is; who, after Wednesday's disastrous debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, offered to have the President on his show for debate prep:
"C'mon, Mr. President. I can promise you a lively exchange of views, a fair crack of the whip, and, perhaps, even the odd moment of much-needed levity. I'm available any time, any place."
Crack the whip? Who was whipped? Slaves, that's who! Black slaves! And President Obama is black! Piers Morgan, you're a raaaaaacist!
Well, that's the sort of crap they're always inflicting on Republicans/conservatives, so it's only right to turn it around on them, right?
Update: Apologies for the auto-play on the video. I've un-embedded it, you can see it at the Breitbart link. The relevent text is still here, though.
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Sold By Weight. Some Settling May Occur
But just five potato chips in a bag is a bit stingy, if you ask me.
What's that, you say? Michelle Obama must have packed them?
What's that, you say? Michelle Obama must have packed them?
Guys Do It, Gals Do It, Dogs Do It
The Chinese are doing the splits:
Girls:
Dogs:
And guys (although this guy might just be constipated):
Girls:
Dogs:
And guys (although this guy might just be constipated):
For Those of You Who Miss John Derbyshire...
...and his writings at National Review, the Derb is now writing regularly for Taki's Magazine, the outlet where he wrote the piece that got him fired from NR. You can read his six-month-out reflections on his notoriety here.
My Impression of the First Debate
That's Robert Shaw as President Obama, Roy Scheider as Jim Lehrer, and Mitt Romney as the shark.
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
At the NC Fair This Year...
...the hot-oil taste treat is deep-fried Girl Scout Cookies:
Scott Strother with S2 Concessions has partnered with the North Carolina Coastal Pines chapter of the Girl Scouts to offer the deep-fried Caramel deLites, or the cookie formerly known as Samoas. (The partnership marks the girl scouts' 100th anniversary.)
Strother admits he was inspired by a vendor at the Texas State Fair, who also introduced deep-fried Caramel deLites this year although Strother says his method is a different. Strother says he freezes the cookies for 24 hours, dips them in batter and briefly deep fries them. "It melts in your mouth," Strother reports.
Scott Strother with S2 Concessions has partnered with the North Carolina Coastal Pines chapter of the Girl Scouts to offer the deep-fried Caramel deLites, or the cookie formerly known as Samoas. (The partnership marks the girl scouts' 100th anniversary.)
Strother admits he was inspired by a vendor at the Texas State Fair, who also introduced deep-fried Caramel deLites this year although Strother says his method is a different. Strother says he freezes the cookies for 24 hours, dips them in batter and briefly deep fries them. "It melts in your mouth," Strother reports.
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
So, You Suspect the Polls Are Biased: What Do You Do?
Why, you take a poll, of course.
Sometimes this stuff just writes itself, folks.
h/t Weasel Zippers.
Sometimes this stuff just writes itself, folks.
h/t Weasel Zippers.
The Truth Few Wish To Face
The plague of gun violence in the U.S., it turns out, is not as widespread or as random as many gun control advocates would have us believe. Indeed, gun violence in America largely consists of black and Hispanic males shooting other black and Hispanic males. According to a study by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, based on data collected by the Center for Disease Control, 1.5 white Americans in 100,000 were shot and killed in 2007 — still higher than the Canadian rate of 0.6, but, given the population densities of the two nations, at least in the same ballpark. On the other hand, the rate for Hispanic Americans was an alarming 5.2 per 100,000 — more than three times the rate among whites Americans. The rate for African Americans was a grotesque 18.1 per 100,000, or roughly 12 times the rate among whites Americans. The rate for African-American males was an obscene 37.59 per 100,000.
Those are the victim rates. The ethnic disparities among gun homicide offenders mirror the disparities among victims. Though blacks make up less than 13% of the U.S. population, year after year they commit more than half of all gun homicides. The numbers for Hispanic offenders are harder to pin down since law enforcement agencies tend to group them with white offenders — perhaps to make the black-white contrast seem less stark. But given the high rate of Hispanic victimization, and the fact that more than half of all homicide victims in the U.S. are acquainted with their killers, it seems safe to conclude that Hispanic offenders also commit gun homicides at substantially elevated rates.
Recognizing the centrality of ethnicity to the problem of gun violence is just another way of saying, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” But it also underscores the gnarly politics of dealing with the issue. You likely could significantly reduce incidents of gun violence in the U.S., and save many black and Hispanic lives in the process, with mandatory sentencing. So, for example, if you’re convicted of using a gun to commit a crime, we could tack an extra five years onto the end of your sentence. If you discharge a gun while committing a crime, make it 15. If you shoot someone, make it 25. No exceptions. No plea bargains. No mercy.
If states began to adopt such sentencing guidelines, you likely would have a drastic reduction in gun homicides — not because violent criminals would necessarily be deterred, but because, once they’re caught and convicted, they’d be incarcerated for much longer periods. It would therefore be a boon to the overwhelming majority of blacks and Hispanics, who are law-abiding citizens. But it would also require building many more prisons and filling them with mostly black and Hispanic males — which means that most blacks and Hispanics would oppose the effort. So too would every left-of-center advocacy group that fancies itself a guardian of minority interests.
Those are the victim rates. The ethnic disparities among gun homicide offenders mirror the disparities among victims. Though blacks make up less than 13% of the U.S. population, year after year they commit more than half of all gun homicides. The numbers for Hispanic offenders are harder to pin down since law enforcement agencies tend to group them with white offenders — perhaps to make the black-white contrast seem less stark. But given the high rate of Hispanic victimization, and the fact that more than half of all homicide victims in the U.S. are acquainted with their killers, it seems safe to conclude that Hispanic offenders also commit gun homicides at substantially elevated rates.
Recognizing the centrality of ethnicity to the problem of gun violence is just another way of saying, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” But it also underscores the gnarly politics of dealing with the issue. You likely could significantly reduce incidents of gun violence in the U.S., and save many black and Hispanic lives in the process, with mandatory sentencing. So, for example, if you’re convicted of using a gun to commit a crime, we could tack an extra five years onto the end of your sentence. If you discharge a gun while committing a crime, make it 15. If you shoot someone, make it 25. No exceptions. No plea bargains. No mercy.
If states began to adopt such sentencing guidelines, you likely would have a drastic reduction in gun homicides — not because violent criminals would necessarily be deterred, but because, once they’re caught and convicted, they’d be incarcerated for much longer periods. It would therefore be a boon to the overwhelming majority of blacks and Hispanics, who are law-abiding citizens. But it would also require building many more prisons and filling them with mostly black and Hispanic males — which means that most blacks and Hispanics would oppose the effort. So too would every left-of-center advocacy group that fancies itself a guardian of minority interests.
Be Sure To Catch...
...the new Walking Dead Webisodes.
There's four of them, each about 5 minutes long. Pretty powerful viewing; lots of action. I won't describe them more than that, so as not to spoil them for you.
There's four of them, each about 5 minutes long. Pretty powerful viewing; lots of action. I won't describe them more than that, so as not to spoil them for you.
In Oregon...
pork eats you!
Oregon authorities know only two things for sure about the death of 70-year-old farmer Terry Vance Garner: He died Wednesday and his hogs ate most of him, according to news reports.
A relative found Garner's dentures and pieces of his body in the hog enclosure after Garner didn't return from feeding his 700-pound animals that morning on his farm in Riverton, near the coast, the Associated Press says.
Oregon authorities know only two things for sure about the death of 70-year-old farmer Terry Vance Garner: He died Wednesday and his hogs ate most of him, according to news reports.
A relative found Garner's dentures and pieces of his body in the hog enclosure after Garner didn't return from feeding his 700-pound animals that morning on his farm in Riverton, near the coast, the Associated Press says.
The Quietist Californians
Victor Davis Hanson's latest.
How does a sane person, without great wealth that might provide exemption from all this cope? They tune out. They psychologically drop out, in the manner of ancient quietists in fourth-century BC at Athens (the apragmones in search of hysuchia), who learned that one cannot fight the mob, but only seek to escape it. I bump into and talk with these latter-day quietists quite often. They are generally happy folk but have developed a certain psychological protocol by which to survive. The quietist trusts more the ancient wisdom in hallowed texts that warns democracy implodes when the masses finally assume absolute control and vote themselves entitlements that even the shrinking rich can no longer sustain. So they don’t get in the way between the mob and their entitlements.
If the state idles farm land, puts drilling off limits, drives out business, the quietist accepts that those who do such things do them because they never affect the authors directly, and when in the future they do, they will cease and desist — and it will be mostly too late. He assumes that the whiners at the $4 a gallon gas pump never make the equation that there may be 30 billion barrels in untapped oil 150 miles away, right off the California shore. (Instead “they” rigged the prices). The quietist assumes that few connect the horrific highways with an incompetent state whose highest gasoline taxes in the nation have translated into some of the country’s worse roads, and to the drivers who customarily lose brush, limbs, and mattresses from their trucks, shutting down lanes for hours.
No matter – the quietist adjusts and drives at weird hours, as if he were some owl or nocturnal beast; it is not that hard to live a life pretty much opposite of what the majority does. There are plenty of quietists who can advise you. They are experts on how to navigate in a beautiful but otherwise insane state. Ask a tree-cutter, small garage owner, custom tractor driver, or self-employed tile-setter; they have all sorts of advice on how to survive: usually, however, they end with something like, “Of course, my kids should get a state job.” In 1960, rare state employees were noble folk, who were willing to make less for job security and a sense of public service; today they are lotto winners who hit the jackpot.
The quiet Californian assumes that each year a new regulation, a new tax, a new something will seek him out. I read the “state franchise tax board” print as I do the hate letters or emails I receive — incoherent, threatening. This year I got a letter from the state explaining that based on my income they “estimated” that I must have used the Internet to buy x-amount of things and therefore did not pay state sales taxes and therefore suggested that I should pay them around, say, $600.
So quietist Californians expect about every six months a new fee, dreamed up a government employee who is paranoid that the state retirement system is broke, and with it his pension. The state employee is now entrepreneurial: without x-traffic tickets written, without y-new fees dreamed up, salaries and benefits dry up. I touch my rural mailbox as if I do metal after skidding on a new carpet — a sort of static feeling of anxiety about what new state directive is inside.
Read the whole thing, as they say.
How does a sane person, without great wealth that might provide exemption from all this cope? They tune out. They psychologically drop out, in the manner of ancient quietists in fourth-century BC at Athens (the apragmones in search of hysuchia), who learned that one cannot fight the mob, but only seek to escape it. I bump into and talk with these latter-day quietists quite often. They are generally happy folk but have developed a certain psychological protocol by which to survive. The quietist trusts more the ancient wisdom in hallowed texts that warns democracy implodes when the masses finally assume absolute control and vote themselves entitlements that even the shrinking rich can no longer sustain. So they don’t get in the way between the mob and their entitlements.
If the state idles farm land, puts drilling off limits, drives out business, the quietist accepts that those who do such things do them because they never affect the authors directly, and when in the future they do, they will cease and desist — and it will be mostly too late. He assumes that the whiners at the $4 a gallon gas pump never make the equation that there may be 30 billion barrels in untapped oil 150 miles away, right off the California shore. (Instead “they” rigged the prices). The quietist assumes that few connect the horrific highways with an incompetent state whose highest gasoline taxes in the nation have translated into some of the country’s worse roads, and to the drivers who customarily lose brush, limbs, and mattresses from their trucks, shutting down lanes for hours.
No matter – the quietist adjusts and drives at weird hours, as if he were some owl or nocturnal beast; it is not that hard to live a life pretty much opposite of what the majority does. There are plenty of quietists who can advise you. They are experts on how to navigate in a beautiful but otherwise insane state. Ask a tree-cutter, small garage owner, custom tractor driver, or self-employed tile-setter; they have all sorts of advice on how to survive: usually, however, they end with something like, “Of course, my kids should get a state job.” In 1960, rare state employees were noble folk, who were willing to make less for job security and a sense of public service; today they are lotto winners who hit the jackpot.
The quiet Californian assumes that each year a new regulation, a new tax, a new something will seek him out. I read the “state franchise tax board” print as I do the hate letters or emails I receive — incoherent, threatening. This year I got a letter from the state explaining that based on my income they “estimated” that I must have used the Internet to buy x-amount of things and therefore did not pay state sales taxes and therefore suggested that I should pay them around, say, $600.
So quietist Californians expect about every six months a new fee, dreamed up a government employee who is paranoid that the state retirement system is broke, and with it his pension. The state employee is now entrepreneurial: without x-traffic tickets written, without y-new fees dreamed up, salaries and benefits dry up. I touch my rural mailbox as if I do metal after skidding on a new carpet — a sort of static feeling of anxiety about what new state directive is inside.
Read the whole thing, as they say.
Monday, October 01, 2012
Photo of the Day
At the annual Hampstead, NC, "Spot" Festival, two women demonstrate lesbian sexual positions common in Saudi Arabia (iffen ya don't get caught! ;-) ):
More photos from the Spot Festival here.
For those of you unfamiliar with Spot, here is the Wikipedia entry.
More photos from the Spot Festival here.
For those of you unfamiliar with Spot, here is the Wikipedia entry.
The Brain Cells That Died First...
...were, apparently, the ones that reminded me to zip my trousers after urinating.
Because, more often than not these days, I forget to do so until I sit down somewhere, and notice the gape in my trousers.
*sigh*
And at age 50. Not encouraging.
Because, more often than not these days, I forget to do so until I sit down somewhere, and notice the gape in my trousers.
*sigh*
And at age 50. Not encouraging.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The Result of Life Without Parole
"Inmates Over 50 Fastest Growing Prison Population."
That's the result you get when you discontinue the use of the death penalty and substitute "life without parole." You then have to accept that you'll be funding the care of those felons for the rest of their natural lives. Prediction: you'll see both liberals and conservatives clamoring for these senior citizen felons to be released; the liberals will demand it on "humanitarian" grounds, claiming the felons are now too old to harm anyone; the conservatives will demand it on economic grounds, not wanting the taxpayers burdened with their care.
That's the result you get when you discontinue the use of the death penalty and substitute "life without parole." You then have to accept that you'll be funding the care of those felons for the rest of their natural lives. Prediction: you'll see both liberals and conservatives clamoring for these senior citizen felons to be released; the liberals will demand it on "humanitarian" grounds, claiming the felons are now too old to harm anyone; the conservatives will demand it on economic grounds, not wanting the taxpayers burdened with their care.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Nothing But Tragedy And Anguish To This One
A man shoots a masked, knife-wielding intruder to death...only to discover it is his own son.
A popular fifth-grade teacher fatally shot a masked, knife-wielding prowler outside his house during what appeared to be a late-night burglary attempt, only to discover he had killed his 15-year-old son, police say.
"It's something out of a Hollywood script," said John Hodge, the first selectman, or top elected official, in the town of about 14,000 people. He said he couldn't recall another killing in his eight years on the job.
No immediate charges were brought against the father, Jeffrey Giuliano, in the shooting of his son, Tyler, around 1 a.m. Thursday. Police said they were investigating whether the father's handgun was registered.
State police said Jeffrey Giuliano got a call from his sister next door saying that someone might be trying to break into her home. Giuliano grabbed a gun and went outside to investigate, troopers said.
,br> He confronted someone in a black ski mask and black clothing and opened fire when the person came at him with a knife, police said.
When officers arrived, the teen was lying in the driveway of his aunt's home with gunshot wounds and the father was sitting on the grass. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene. A state trooper pulled back the ski mask to reveal that the victim was Tyler Giuliano. It was unclear if his father had already realized it by then.
A popular fifth-grade teacher fatally shot a masked, knife-wielding prowler outside his house during what appeared to be a late-night burglary attempt, only to discover he had killed his 15-year-old son, police say.
"It's something out of a Hollywood script," said John Hodge, the first selectman, or top elected official, in the town of about 14,000 people. He said he couldn't recall another killing in his eight years on the job.
No immediate charges were brought against the father, Jeffrey Giuliano, in the shooting of his son, Tyler, around 1 a.m. Thursday. Police said they were investigating whether the father's handgun was registered.
State police said Jeffrey Giuliano got a call from his sister next door saying that someone might be trying to break into her home. Giuliano grabbed a gun and went outside to investigate, troopers said.
,br> He confronted someone in a black ski mask and black clothing and opened fire when the person came at him with a knife, police said.
When officers arrived, the teen was lying in the driveway of his aunt's home with gunshot wounds and the father was sitting on the grass. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene. A state trooper pulled back the ski mask to reveal that the victim was Tyler Giuliano. It was unclear if his father had already realized it by then.
He Smiled As He Jabbed His Stinger In Her
Well, that's my story. Yours may vary. But here's the pictorial proof:
Say "Buttsex!"
And tell me you wouldn't scream like a girl yourself if that thing jumped out of the water and onto your back.
And tell me you wouldn't scream like a girl yourself if that thing jumped out of the water and onto your back.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Try This Shooting Drill?
The Modified Navy Qualification Drill.
Developed by former Navy SEAL Jeff Gonzales, the MNQ Drill is based on a portion of a course of fire previously used by the U.S. Navy when conducting rifle qualification. As such, it is intended to be shot with an AR or other semi-automatic. The MNQ Drill incorporates three firing positions, magazine changes, some movement and a timer to add a bit of stress. There’s a lot going on in this drill, but you’ll need only 15 rounds to shoot it.
Place a target with an 8-inch center zone at 50 yards. (A paper plate stapled to the chest area of a silhouette target works great.) Load three magazines with five rounds each. At the firing line, assume a low-ready position with the rifle loaded. When the buzzer sounds, fire five rounds from the standing position. Reload, and fire five rounds from the kneeling position. Reload again, and fire your last five rounds from the prone position. The clock stops when you fire your final shot from prone.
The par time for the MNQ Drill is 25 seconds, and only hits in the 8-inch target zone count. You start with a score of 0, and are penalized for misses and time over par. The goal is to keep your score as low as possible. Add 5 points for every miss and 2 points for every second over par. Subtract 1 point for every second under par. For example, if you shoot the drill in 35 seconds with two misses, your score would be 30—20 points for the 10 seconds over par and 10 points for the pair of misses. If you shoot the drill clean in 22 seconds, your score would be -3.
Sounds like a good test of marksmanship and motor skills, doesn't it?
Developed by former Navy SEAL Jeff Gonzales, the MNQ Drill is based on a portion of a course of fire previously used by the U.S. Navy when conducting rifle qualification. As such, it is intended to be shot with an AR or other semi-automatic. The MNQ Drill incorporates three firing positions, magazine changes, some movement and a timer to add a bit of stress. There’s a lot going on in this drill, but you’ll need only 15 rounds to shoot it.
Place a target with an 8-inch center zone at 50 yards. (A paper plate stapled to the chest area of a silhouette target works great.) Load three magazines with five rounds each. At the firing line, assume a low-ready position with the rifle loaded. When the buzzer sounds, fire five rounds from the standing position. Reload, and fire five rounds from the kneeling position. Reload again, and fire your last five rounds from the prone position. The clock stops when you fire your final shot from prone.
The par time for the MNQ Drill is 25 seconds, and only hits in the 8-inch target zone count. You start with a score of 0, and are penalized for misses and time over par. The goal is to keep your score as low as possible. Add 5 points for every miss and 2 points for every second over par. Subtract 1 point for every second under par. For example, if you shoot the drill in 35 seconds with two misses, your score would be 30—20 points for the 10 seconds over par and 10 points for the pair of misses. If you shoot the drill clean in 22 seconds, your score would be -3.
Sounds like a good test of marksmanship and motor skills, doesn't it?
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Researchers seem to think that if you curse a lot on Twitter, or Tweet the words "die," "kill," or "buy" often, you're probably a psychopath.
No, really. That's what they think:
Wald and Taghi Khoshgoftaar, a professor of engineering and computer science, used an already existing psychological formula to determine how likely someone is to be psychopathic by their writing. Using a process called data mining, they developed an algorithm that would scan the tweets of nearly 3,000 volunteers. It found that about 1.4 percent of users showed psychopathic tendencies, similar to the population as a whole, based on their Tweets and a questionnaire.
The results have limitations, the researchers said. For example, the computer program didn't recognize abbreviated versions of words, which are common on Twitter due to the 140-character limits. It also can't recognize the difference between someone using a word such as "kill" in an angry way or an off-handed joking way, such as "I could kill him for this."
Of course, that reminded me of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's restaurant:
So we were all jumping up and down, yelling "Kill! Kill!" and the sergeant came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said "You're our boy!"
No, really. That's what they think:
Wald and Taghi Khoshgoftaar, a professor of engineering and computer science, used an already existing psychological formula to determine how likely someone is to be psychopathic by their writing. Using a process called data mining, they developed an algorithm that would scan the tweets of nearly 3,000 volunteers. It found that about 1.4 percent of users showed psychopathic tendencies, similar to the population as a whole, based on their Tweets and a questionnaire.
The results have limitations, the researchers said. For example, the computer program didn't recognize abbreviated versions of words, which are common on Twitter due to the 140-character limits. It also can't recognize the difference between someone using a word such as "kill" in an angry way or an off-handed joking way, such as "I could kill him for this."
Of course, that reminded me of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's restaurant:
So we were all jumping up and down, yelling "Kill! Kill!" and the sergeant came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said "You're our boy!"
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
True Love IS the Greatest Thing In the World...
...except for a nice RLT - - Rat, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich, when the rat is nice and lean, and the tomatoes are SO ripe, they're so perky, I love that...
A woman in UK eats a sandwich with rodent in it, and is only offered £10 in compensation.
Of course, you know where I found inspiration in this story:
One of the truly great films, yet it only did so-so at the box office.
A woman in UK eats a sandwich with rodent in it, and is only offered £10 in compensation.
Of course, you know where I found inspiration in this story:
One of the truly great films, yet it only did so-so at the box office.
Meanwhile, In Carolina Beach, NC...
...a burglar was caught after he was identified by tattoos that showed up on a surveillance video.
This Is Called An "Identifying Mark or Tattoo."
Meanwhile, In Penny Lane...
Well, not really Penny Lane, but those two words popped out at me in the following article from the Wilmington, NC, newspaper:
Surf City | A Camp Lejeune Marine wanted in an assault on a cab driver earlier this month has been charged.
Gunnery Sgt. Adam John Kinosh, 31, of Penny Lane in Holly Ridge, was charged Tuesday by the Surf City Police Department with assault inflicting serious bodily injury. Bond was set at $20,000.
He is accused of assaulting Charles Hawkesworth, shattering his left cheek bone and nasal passage, both of which required reconstructive surgery, according to warrants.
Excuse this parody:
In Penny Lane there is a jarhead in a taxicab,
And he's beating the poor driver like a rug;
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say, Oh, No!
PTSD defense in 3...2...1...
Surf City | A Camp Lejeune Marine wanted in an assault on a cab driver earlier this month has been charged.
Gunnery Sgt. Adam John Kinosh, 31, of Penny Lane in Holly Ridge, was charged Tuesday by the Surf City Police Department with assault inflicting serious bodily injury. Bond was set at $20,000.
He is accused of assaulting Charles Hawkesworth, shattering his left cheek bone and nasal passage, both of which required reconstructive surgery, according to warrants.
Excuse this parody:
In Penny Lane there is a jarhead in a taxicab,
And he's beating the poor driver like a rug;
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say, Oh, No!
PTSD defense in 3...2...1...
Hey, You Targets! You Suck!
Over at the Daily Caller, a slight faux pas in shooting terminology:
There is a specific reason for analyzing the grip before I even talk about pulling the trigger. Most experienced shooters can pick up a gun, and even before firing know the gun is not right for them. To put it simply, the grip can affect recoil, rate of fire and target accusation. All of those elements impact the overall performance of the gun, and how well it will work for you.
Not to be confused with target acquisition.
But hey, I like the fact that The Daily Caller even features firearms and shooting articles. You ain't going to find that at Newsweek.
There is a specific reason for analyzing the grip before I even talk about pulling the trigger. Most experienced shooters can pick up a gun, and even before firing know the gun is not right for them. To put it simply, the grip can affect recoil, rate of fire and target accusation. All of those elements impact the overall performance of the gun, and how well it will work for you.
Not to be confused with target acquisition.
But hey, I like the fact that The Daily Caller even features firearms and shooting articles. You ain't going to find that at Newsweek.
AM HERE ABE SLANEY
A real-life crime in Idaho brings back memories of one of the great Sherlock Holmes stories:
A woman who was about to be released from an Idaho prison will stay behind bars a while longer because federal prosecutors say she mailed a threatening stick figure drawing to a relative.
Prosecutors say that in 2010, Lakes mailed a drawing that apparently depicted a battered stick figure alongside threatening phrases such as "No tears," "No hiding," and "No more you."
Kyle Wright, an FBI agent in Pocatello who investigated the case, described the drawing in a court document.
"One stick figure appeared to be lying down with his face smashed. The baseball bat was lying nearby with damage that appeared to be consistent with its use on the first stick figure. The second stick figure appeared to be walking away with a smile," Wright wrote.
Wright also said in his affidavit that Lakes sent a letter with the drawing that indicated her prison sentence was coming to an end and that the recipient should be prepared for his final moments.
The Holmes story is, of course, The Adventure of the Dancing Men. For anyone interested in cryptography, it is one of the giants of the literature, along with Edgar Allan Poe's story The Gold-Bug.
A woman who was about to be released from an Idaho prison will stay behind bars a while longer because federal prosecutors say she mailed a threatening stick figure drawing to a relative.
Prosecutors say that in 2010, Lakes mailed a drawing that apparently depicted a battered stick figure alongside threatening phrases such as "No tears," "No hiding," and "No more you."
Kyle Wright, an FBI agent in Pocatello who investigated the case, described the drawing in a court document.
"One stick figure appeared to be lying down with his face smashed. The baseball bat was lying nearby with damage that appeared to be consistent with its use on the first stick figure. The second stick figure appeared to be walking away with a smile," Wright wrote.
Wright also said in his affidavit that Lakes sent a letter with the drawing that indicated her prison sentence was coming to an end and that the recipient should be prepared for his final moments.
The Holmes story is, of course, The Adventure of the Dancing Men. For anyone interested in cryptography, it is one of the giants of the literature, along with Edgar Allan Poe's story The Gold-Bug.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Blogging Comment
Sometime last week Google forced the new Blogger interface on me; I had tried it out about 6 months ago, but reverted to the old interface back then because the new one is less user-friendly to me. It's Google's call, they pay for the service and the bandwidth, so I can't justly complain, since it falls under that Scottish proverb He who pays the piper calls the tune.
I can work with it. I tried "Compose" mode at first, but had problems with my links, so switched to "HTML" mode. That is close to the traditional Blogger interface, with the exception of having to include break tags (the letters "br" enclosed by < and >), which I'm not accustomed to doing...yet. I guess I'll get used to it. So if you see one of my posts all in a single mass of words, instead of broken properly into paragraphs separated by a blank line, that's the reason.
I can work with it. I tried "Compose" mode at first, but had problems with my links, so switched to "HTML" mode. That is close to the traditional Blogger interface, with the exception of having to include break tags (the letters "br" enclosed by < and >), which I'm not accustomed to doing...yet. I guess I'll get used to it. So if you see one of my posts all in a single mass of words, instead of broken properly into paragraphs separated by a blank line, that's the reason.
Meanwhile, In Brasstown, North Carolina...
...residents are fighting PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) over their customary New Year's Eve "Possum Drop."
For 20 years, the jubilant citizens of Brasstown have welcomed the new year by catching a wild opossum, placing it in a Plexiglass cage and slowly lowering it over a cheering crowd as fireworks explode in the night sky.
But in December, this mountain-town tradition caught the eye of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who have since fought to stop Brasstown’s annual Opossum Drop for the sake of the tree-dwelling, nocturnal marsupials and animal lovers who cherish them.
“’Possums are very shy,” said Martina Bernstein, director of litigation for PETA. “They don’t run up to people. They run away. They have no way to hide. They are wild animals. You can’t explain to them that you just want to have fun.”
A reasonable alternative would be to get a professionally-mounted taxidermy possum (from a road-killed sample, say, so as not to get PETA's panties any more wadded up than they already are) to use in the Possum Drop. Such a mounted possum could be used year after year, and kept in a prominent place of honor on the other 364 days of the year. A taxidermist could pose such a possum in any of a number of imaginative poses, and the stuffed possum could even be posed in special clothing or accessory items. Think about the possibilities, here.
For 20 years, the jubilant citizens of Brasstown have welcomed the new year by catching a wild opossum, placing it in a Plexiglass cage and slowly lowering it over a cheering crowd as fireworks explode in the night sky.
But in December, this mountain-town tradition caught the eye of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who have since fought to stop Brasstown’s annual Opossum Drop for the sake of the tree-dwelling, nocturnal marsupials and animal lovers who cherish them.
“’Possums are very shy,” said Martina Bernstein, director of litigation for PETA. “They don’t run up to people. They run away. They have no way to hide. They are wild animals. You can’t explain to them that you just want to have fun.”
A reasonable alternative would be to get a professionally-mounted taxidermy possum (from a road-killed sample, say, so as not to get PETA's panties any more wadded up than they already are) to use in the Possum Drop. Such a mounted possum could be used year after year, and kept in a prominent place of honor on the other 364 days of the year. A taxidermist could pose such a possum in any of a number of imaginative poses, and the stuffed possum could even be posed in special clothing or accessory items. Think about the possibilities, here.
Monday, September 24, 2012
The Buck Stops Here...To Some Degree
Barack Obama, in his 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft, channels his inner Harry Truman...to some degree.
You know, that would make a good meme á la the add the words "in bed" to what you find written on a fortune cookie" meme.
So, just add the words "to some degree" to a declarative statement; for example:
Barack Obama is a lying sack of shit - - to some degree.
Kanye West is banging Kim Kardashian - - to some degree.
Kids can get involved, too:
The dog ate my homework - - to some degree.
Think of your own. Feel free to share them in comments.
You know, that would make a good meme á la the add the words "in bed" to what you find written on a fortune cookie" meme.
So, just add the words "to some degree" to a declarative statement; for example:
Barack Obama is a lying sack of shit - - to some degree.
Kanye West is banging Kim Kardashian - - to some degree.
Kids can get involved, too:
The dog ate my homework - - to some degree.
Think of your own. Feel free to share them in comments.
The Return To Charlotte...
...of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
I'm conflicted on them. I've eaten them since boyhood; the Catholic school I attended from 4th-8th grade in Gainesville, Florida (St. Patrick's) didn't have a proper cafeteria, just an "activity center" that had a kitchen in one corner that sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a few hot items made in a microwave. Or maybe it was a small broiler, since microwaves were a novelty back then (early 1970's). So I ate them often during those years.
They're good hot and fresh, which everyone acknowledges and which is a part of the company's drawing power; they're much less so once cold. Too light and airy for me, I like a doughnut that is heavier and doughy. Truth be told I prefer cinnamon twists to all other doughnut styles, but they aren't as easy to find as they used to be.
And how did they come up with that name? Doughnuts ain't "krispy." Even the glaze, although it breaks into glass-like fragments, ain't "krispy."
I'm conflicted on them. I've eaten them since boyhood; the Catholic school I attended from 4th-8th grade in Gainesville, Florida (St. Patrick's) didn't have a proper cafeteria, just an "activity center" that had a kitchen in one corner that sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a few hot items made in a microwave. Or maybe it was a small broiler, since microwaves were a novelty back then (early 1970's). So I ate them often during those years.
They're good hot and fresh, which everyone acknowledges and which is a part of the company's drawing power; they're much less so once cold. Too light and airy for me, I like a doughnut that is heavier and doughy. Truth be told I prefer cinnamon twists to all other doughnut styles, but they aren't as easy to find as they used to be.
And how did they come up with that name? Doughnuts ain't "krispy." Even the glaze, although it breaks into glass-like fragments, ain't "krispy."
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Weird Dream...
...in which I was involved in a "caper" of some sort with a diminutive Irishman named Tullamore Dew. Most of the details are gone now, of course, but I remember us swapping yarns and telling tales as we tried to acquire lodgings in some town. During the wait we were treated with "leprechaun whisky" which we were told was made by the Little People. The stuff was incredibly smooth, and I was able to match Tullamore drink for drink, with no apparent effect of drunkenness. When the caper ended and we presented ourselves to collect our reward, we were told that after expenses were deducted (why would we sign a contract where WE were responsible for expenses?) WE owed THEM $100.
Talk about a company store...
Saturday, September 22, 2012
23 Years Ago...
Hurricane Hugo came ashore in South Carolina.
Well, I was living here in Charlotte, NORTH Carolina at the time, which is pretty far inland. Still, the hurricane powered ashore and when it reached Charlotte it was still very close to hurricane strength. I was working that night at a La Quinta Inn. In the lobby we actually had working wooden shutters on the windows, hinged and closed from inside, for God only knows what reason. Presumably part of standard La Quinta architectural practice. Anyway, I shut them.
I had my car parked behind a pylon of the carport, which sheltered it from flying debris. And flying debris there was throughout that night. The storm blew clay tiles off of the roof, to smash into bits in the parking lot; A sign from the convenience store across the street was blown out of its frame and sailed across the road, striking a few cars and coming to rest in our parking lot.
At the height of the storm blue flashes announced power transformers shorting out, and early in the wee hours of the morning the power went out, along with the switchboard for phone calls; cell phones were in their infancy back then, few people had them. I turned on the AM radio that the managers had purchased, using it to keep track of weather reports throughout the night. Guests came down to wait in the lobby with me. No way to make coffee, of course, or provide any breakfast except packaged pastries.
La Quinta had a corporate policy back then (don't know if they still do) of hiring "management couples" to run their hotels. These were husband-and-wife teams who were given, as a perquisite, an "apartment" at the hotel, usually two guest rooms joined together and remodeled with kitchen, etc. So with managers on property I didn't have to worry about being relieved in the morning (I wasn't, either, the managers took the desk when my shift was over and the 1st shift worker failed to appear).
At 7 in the morning I departed for home. Down at the bottom of the first hill raged a river of rainwater, so I had to turn around and take a different road. Trees and power poles were down all over the city; luckily few cars, as everyone had heeded the warnings to stay home. Power was out all over the city. Everyone was fine when I got home. As I recall we got power back at home before the weekend was over, and so did the hotel, late on Sunday. I went in to work early Sunday to get all the paperwork organized and fed into the computer. During the next month the hotel hosted a rowdy crew of opportunist workers who drove around the city with trucks and chainsaws, offering their services at fallen tree removal. They made money hand over fist.
23 years ago. Seems like yesterday.
Well, I was living here in Charlotte, NORTH Carolina at the time, which is pretty far inland. Still, the hurricane powered ashore and when it reached Charlotte it was still very close to hurricane strength. I was working that night at a La Quinta Inn. In the lobby we actually had working wooden shutters on the windows, hinged and closed from inside, for God only knows what reason. Presumably part of standard La Quinta architectural practice. Anyway, I shut them.
I had my car parked behind a pylon of the carport, which sheltered it from flying debris. And flying debris there was throughout that night. The storm blew clay tiles off of the roof, to smash into bits in the parking lot; A sign from the convenience store across the street was blown out of its frame and sailed across the road, striking a few cars and coming to rest in our parking lot.
At the height of the storm blue flashes announced power transformers shorting out, and early in the wee hours of the morning the power went out, along with the switchboard for phone calls; cell phones were in their infancy back then, few people had them. I turned on the AM radio that the managers had purchased, using it to keep track of weather reports throughout the night. Guests came down to wait in the lobby with me. No way to make coffee, of course, or provide any breakfast except packaged pastries.
La Quinta had a corporate policy back then (don't know if they still do) of hiring "management couples" to run their hotels. These were husband-and-wife teams who were given, as a perquisite, an "apartment" at the hotel, usually two guest rooms joined together and remodeled with kitchen, etc. So with managers on property I didn't have to worry about being relieved in the morning (I wasn't, either, the managers took the desk when my shift was over and the 1st shift worker failed to appear).
At 7 in the morning I departed for home. Down at the bottom of the first hill raged a river of rainwater, so I had to turn around and take a different road. Trees and power poles were down all over the city; luckily few cars, as everyone had heeded the warnings to stay home. Power was out all over the city. Everyone was fine when I got home. As I recall we got power back at home before the weekend was over, and so did the hotel, late on Sunday. I went in to work early Sunday to get all the paperwork organized and fed into the computer. During the next month the hotel hosted a rowdy crew of opportunist workers who drove around the city with trucks and chainsaws, offering their services at fallen tree removal. They made money hand over fist.
23 years ago. Seems like yesterday.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Not To Say "Stoned"
Saw this headline in my hometown newspaper, The Gainesville Sun: "Melrose Residents Protect Their Laid-Back Lifestyle."
Melrose, Florida, is where I spent my teen years, from 10-17. Life there centers around Lake Santa Fe, which has a small cove on its SE corner called Melrose Bay. It's a great lake for fishing and water skiing. You can even sail on it. Melrose, when I lived there, was a rural area, with only a single traffic signal, and that one was only a flasher. Back then there was only a single grocery store, a couple of gas stations, a convenience store and two restaurants. No schools back then; students bused to either Hawthorne or Interlachen.
We had a house right on the lake that my father inherited from his parents. I spent those ten years out on the dock bass fishing, and later on exploring the lake on the boat we acquired. I knew many of the secrets of the lake: the old canal leading to Lake Alto, the semi-secret (and forbidding) Black Lake, which seemed like the Black Lagoon to me; and the gar-infested Bonnet Pond, which was a sort of grassy marsh.
We didn't see many waterfowl in the lake, save for the diving grebes that we called "coots." Much of the wildlife had local names; black crappie we called "speckled perch," bluegills were "bream," (pronounced "brim"), red-eared sunfish were called "shellcrackers," pickerel were called "jacks," bowfins were called "mudfish," and anhingas (a type of long-necked diving, swimming bird) were called "water turkeys." Water turtles were called "cooters," usually with a snicker by teenage boys (a popular t-shirt of the period was from The Yearling Restaurant at nearby Cross Creek, which read "Eat More Cooter At The Yearling Restaurant!)
That was the 70's, and everyone was a pothead back then, it seemed (I never even tried it; too much of a prig). The small cottage next door to our house was owned by people from Jacksonville, and they rented it out to a succession of hippies who never seemed to stay long, the rent payments being unreasonably high for the tiny one room that the cottage was. We knew by the care they gave to the lawn how long each pair of hippies would stay; when the St. Augustine grass became untended and long, we knew that they hippies had outstayed their welcome. One pair of them actually grew pot in large quantities behind a wooden fance they built beside the cottage; after they were evicted marijuana seeds would sprout for the next year or so on their property. My dad, amused, took one of the young plants and grew it himself, just for entertainment, since he smoked only unfiltered Camels and nothing else.
Halcyon days, as they say.
Melrose, Florida, is where I spent my teen years, from 10-17. Life there centers around Lake Santa Fe, which has a small cove on its SE corner called Melrose Bay. It's a great lake for fishing and water skiing. You can even sail on it. Melrose, when I lived there, was a rural area, with only a single traffic signal, and that one was only a flasher. Back then there was only a single grocery store, a couple of gas stations, a convenience store and two restaurants. No schools back then; students bused to either Hawthorne or Interlachen.
We had a house right on the lake that my father inherited from his parents. I spent those ten years out on the dock bass fishing, and later on exploring the lake on the boat we acquired. I knew many of the secrets of the lake: the old canal leading to Lake Alto, the semi-secret (and forbidding) Black Lake, which seemed like the Black Lagoon to me; and the gar-infested Bonnet Pond, which was a sort of grassy marsh.
We didn't see many waterfowl in the lake, save for the diving grebes that we called "coots." Much of the wildlife had local names; black crappie we called "speckled perch," bluegills were "bream," (pronounced "brim"), red-eared sunfish were called "shellcrackers," pickerel were called "jacks," bowfins were called "mudfish," and anhingas (a type of long-necked diving, swimming bird) were called "water turkeys." Water turtles were called "cooters," usually with a snicker by teenage boys (a popular t-shirt of the period was from The Yearling Restaurant at nearby Cross Creek, which read "Eat More Cooter At The Yearling Restaurant!)
That was the 70's, and everyone was a pothead back then, it seemed (I never even tried it; too much of a prig). The small cottage next door to our house was owned by people from Jacksonville, and they rented it out to a succession of hippies who never seemed to stay long, the rent payments being unreasonably high for the tiny one room that the cottage was. We knew by the care they gave to the lawn how long each pair of hippies would stay; when the St. Augustine grass became untended and long, we knew that they hippies had outstayed their welcome. One pair of them actually grew pot in large quantities behind a wooden fance they built beside the cottage; after they were evicted marijuana seeds would sprout for the next year or so on their property. My dad, amused, took one of the young plants and grew it himself, just for entertainment, since he smoked only unfiltered Camels and nothing else.
Halcyon days, as they say.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Pluck It Out
Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit links to a story about an Iranian cleric who messed with the wrong woman:
An Iranian cleric said he was beaten by a woman in the northern province of Semnan after giving her a warning for being “badly covered,” the state-run Mehr news agency reported.
Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he encountered the woman in the street while on his way to the mosque in the town of Shahmirzad, and asked her to cover herself up, to which she replied “you, cover your eyes,” according to Mehr. The cleric repeated his warning, which he said prompted her to insult and push him.
“I fell on my back on the floor,” Beheshti said in the report. “I don’t know what happened after that, all I could feel was the kicks of this woman who was insulting me and attacking me.”
You know, if more Muslim women had that sort of courage, maybe Islam would be a more reasonable religion.
It also reminds me of one of the stories of the Desert Fathers, related in Thomas Merton's The Wisdom of the Desert:
A monk ran into a part of handmaids of the Lord [Nuns - -Ed.] on a certain journey. Seeing them he left the road and gave them a wide berth. But the Abbess said to him: If you were a perfect monk, you would not even have looked close enough to see that we were women.
Or, as Matthew put it: And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
An Iranian cleric said he was beaten by a woman in the northern province of Semnan after giving her a warning for being “badly covered,” the state-run Mehr news agency reported.
Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he encountered the woman in the street while on his way to the mosque in the town of Shahmirzad, and asked her to cover herself up, to which she replied “you, cover your eyes,” according to Mehr. The cleric repeated his warning, which he said prompted her to insult and push him.
“I fell on my back on the floor,” Beheshti said in the report. “I don’t know what happened after that, all I could feel was the kicks of this woman who was insulting me and attacking me.”
You know, if more Muslim women had that sort of courage, maybe Islam would be a more reasonable religion.
It also reminds me of one of the stories of the Desert Fathers, related in Thomas Merton's The Wisdom of the Desert:
A monk ran into a part of handmaids of the Lord [Nuns - -Ed.] on a certain journey. Seeing them he left the road and gave them a wide berth. But the Abbess said to him: If you were a perfect monk, you would not even have looked close enough to see that we were women.
Or, as Matthew put it: And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
"Stick Control" Laws To Be Proposed In 3...2...1...
"Long Stick Is Robbery Weapon In Bronx."
Weapon of choice. Got to use that trademarked gun control language. And don't call it a long stick, call it an assault stick. It's even more dangerous if the robber drives a couple of cop-killer nails through the end of the assault stick. And maybe we just ought to regulate those nails, too. No one other than a licensed carpenter needs to be walking around with 10-penny nails.
Of course if we're going to have stick control we're going to have to change the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which allows anyone to carry a short stick (cane) with no questions asked. Cane owners should have to be registered with a federal agency and prove their need for carrying a stick. In the states of Massachusetts and California, special cane laws will be written so that senior citizens who need canes will only be able to buy special canes made specifically for those states, and bringing in canes from other states will be a felony. Throw those gimpy geezers in prison!
Weapon of choice. Got to use that trademarked gun control language. And don't call it a long stick, call it an assault stick. It's even more dangerous if the robber drives a couple of cop-killer nails through the end of the assault stick. And maybe we just ought to regulate those nails, too. No one other than a licensed carpenter needs to be walking around with 10-penny nails.
Of course if we're going to have stick control we're going to have to change the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which allows anyone to carry a short stick (cane) with no questions asked. Cane owners should have to be registered with a federal agency and prove their need for carrying a stick. In the states of Massachusetts and California, special cane laws will be written so that senior citizens who need canes will only be able to buy special canes made specifically for those states, and bringing in canes from other states will be a felony. Throw those gimpy geezers in prison!
US Justice Dept. Inspector General Issues Fast & Furious Report
Spread plenty of blame around both the ATF and the Justice Department, but made sure to fix no blame at all on Eric Holder. Imagine that.
The inspector general’s report recommended that the Justice Department take disciplinary action against 14 current and former officials from the department and ATF. Among them were Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and former acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson.
“The inspector general did not find persuasive evidence that any supervisor in Phoenix at either the U.S. attorney’s office or ATF raised serious questions or concerns about the risk to public safety posed by the continuing firearms purchases or by the delay in arresting individuals who were engaging in the trafficking,” Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, wrote in the 471-page report. “This failure reflects a significant lack of oversight and urgency by both ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office.”
The inspector general’s report recommended that the Justice Department take disciplinary action against 14 current and former officials from the department and ATF. Among them were Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and former acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson.
“The inspector general did not find persuasive evidence that any supervisor in Phoenix at either the U.S. attorney’s office or ATF raised serious questions or concerns about the risk to public safety posed by the continuing firearms purchases or by the delay in arresting individuals who were engaging in the trafficking,” Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, wrote in the 471-page report. “This failure reflects a significant lack of oversight and urgency by both ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office.”
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Ancient Papyrus Mentions Jesus' Wife
Story.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”
The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”
Wonder if it's surfacing now to gin up support for women priests in Roman Catholicism?
Where Have All the Bobwhites Gone?
In Texas, anyway, and I have to guess throughout the rest of the USA.
Robert Ruark and his grandfather, the Old Man of Ruark's classic coming-of-age book The Old Man and the Boy would be heartbroken, but they even predicted it back then.
Quail hunting is dying as a sport because of how much time and effort you have to devote to it. You have to train dogs, spend time in the field that most people devote to jobs these days, make and maintain friendships with rural landowners who have the type of old-fashioned mixed-use land that quail prefer. It's easier to play a video game.
Robert Ruark and his grandfather, the Old Man of Ruark's classic coming-of-age book The Old Man and the Boy would be heartbroken, but they even predicted it back then.
Quail hunting is dying as a sport because of how much time and effort you have to devote to it. You have to train dogs, spend time in the field that most people devote to jobs these days, make and maintain friendships with rural landowners who have the type of old-fashioned mixed-use land that quail prefer. It's easier to play a video game.
You Could Always Feed Him a Poodle Pie, I Suppose
A man on death row in Ohio claims he is too fat to execute at 480 pounds.
The article tends to support him (oof!), noting difficulties in other executions of obese individuals, both by lethal injection and by hanging. Not that hanging was presented as offering any difficulties, but it was successfully argued as violating the Eighth Amendment protection against "cruel and unusual punishments."
And, of course, as soon as I read the headline I though: Poodle Pie!
From the Vincent Price camp classic Theater of Blood (1973).
The article tends to support him (oof!), noting difficulties in other executions of obese individuals, both by lethal injection and by hanging. Not that hanging was presented as offering any difficulties, but it was successfully argued as violating the Eighth Amendment protection against "cruel and unusual punishments."
And, of course, as soon as I read the headline I though: Poodle Pie!
From the Vincent Price camp classic Theater of Blood (1973).
"The Voice" Thinks You're a Retard
Down in my old hometown of Gainesville, Florida, one of two men who robbed a Domino's Pizza store claimed that he was off his medication and that "a voice" told him to take the money from Domino's to buy crack cocaine.
Well, I guess he's had encounters with the criminal justice system before, if he's working on his insanity plea before he's even consulted his attorney.
Well, I guess he's had encounters with the criminal justice system before, if he's working on his insanity plea before he's even consulted his attorney.
The Crowds All Think He's Dandy
A rodeo clown in California has lost his job after making a racially insensitive comment about First Lady Michelle Obama.
And you want to hear the joke, right? I'm nothing if not obliging:
The joke, as told by Hayhurst, went like this: Playboy is offering Ann Romney $250,000 to pose in the magazine, and the White House is upset about it because National Geographic only offered Michelle Obama $50 to pose for them.
We'll send this old hit from 1975 out to Mr. Hayhurst:
And you want to hear the joke, right? I'm nothing if not obliging:
The joke, as told by Hayhurst, went like this: Playboy is offering Ann Romney $250,000 to pose in the magazine, and the White House is upset about it because National Geographic only offered Michelle Obama $50 to pose for them.
We'll send this old hit from 1975 out to Mr. Hayhurst:
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