Sarah Palin's image already appears on the newer nickels.
Thursday - March 07, 2024
Once Again, The One And Only Post
March 7, 2024
She was taken to the hospital an hour ago. Do not know what they can do, cannot get clear take from my brother’s texts. She cannot come back to the house at this point, he cannot care for her. Apparently her condition has deteriorated significantly since I was there Monday, and it was pretty bad then; much worse than when I was there 2 weeks before that. And it wasn’t good then either.
But he still isn’t willing to say that a home health aide won’t be enough. So what can I do?
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March 5, 2024
End of her road approaching, one exit left
My mother is dying. This is a terrible thing to say, and a difficult and painful thing to accept. But it’s true nonetheless. While her physical health is pretty good, her mental health gets worse almost every day, and her body follows along with it. As of this week she can hardly walk. She doesn’t have the strength to stand up from a chair or the couch even with the assistance of a walker to hold on to. She can’t dress herself, or undress herself, or do much of any personal hygiene. She’s pretty much lost all bladder control. Sometimes she can talk and sometimes she can’t, as the dementia ravages her mind. And she’s barely eating. She can’t manage a knife, fork, or spoon; she can barely manage a small cup. Even though the doctor got her appetite stimulant pills, she continues to lose weight. I took her to her doctor yesterday. She’s lost another 5 pounds since 2 weeks ago. There really isn’t anything that can be done. He’s putting us in touch with county hospice, who can do some kind of at-home assessment and give her some palliative care in the time she has left.
She’s lost the will to live, she’s lost the will to eat. Her mind is deteriorating at an alarming rate. 3 months ago she could walk around inside the house and follow most conversations; 5 months ago she could walk around out in the yard. She could carry on conversations and even do some light cooking and housework, and was at least a bit aware of the news and the outside world. 4 years ago she was driving, and was as sharp as she ever was. 3 weeks ago she could control her feet and legs enough to get in and out of my car, although she hasn’t been able to figure the seat belt for some time now. Yesterday getting her out the door, in and then out of the car, and up the elevator to her doctor was nearly impossible.
She will be 89 on April 7. I really don’t have much faith she’ll make it that long.
I cried and cried for hours when we got home last night. But there’s nothing that can be done. My brother lives with her, and will try to get her to eat and stay reasonably clean and fresh. And that’s it.
I can’t write anymore.
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February 29, 2024
Happy Leap Day !!
Once upon a time, long long ago, I think today was known as the calends. Because it’s the end of the calendar. A free extra day. Because the “modern” calendar the West has been using since the Roman Empire is slow by around 6 hours a year, so every 4 years we add an entire day to mostly square things up again. And in general, that’s accurate enough. Ok sure, some bloodthirsty seriously anal Central American culture figured out a truly accurate system hundreds of years ago, but moving great big stone rings around was a pain, not to mention the constant upkeep on all those weird-ass looking carvings. And the buckets of blood. The lakes of blood. Um, no, I’ll keep my Timex, and we’ll add a day every once in a while. Much easier
Personally I think the entire world should just take today off. No work, no wars, no shopping. Have a drink or 3 and go back to bed. I dare say we could all use a day like that far more often than once every 4 years.
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February 22, 2024
Ok, this works. Scale it up if you want more dough. Once well rested and matured, this is a super extensible dough that can stretch out to “windowpane” thinness, and will bake nicely in a 500-500 oven in just a few minutes.
Autolysed Poolish NY Style Pizza Dough
Autolyse, or autolysis, is the term applied to the way flour breaks down when wet. Without any yeast or any heat, damp flour will soften up and start to form glutens. This is a good thing. About an hour is long enough.
A poolish is a “pre ferment”, in which a little bit of commercial yeast is added to a good amount of some very wet flour and left alone for half a day or so. Not only does it use less yeast, it creates lots of flavor, as the little flour bacteria start to breed. It’s kind of halfway to being sourdough, but with supplied yeasts, instead of what occurs naturally on the wheat in the field. A poolish is very wet, often 100% hydration.
Hydratian level is the amount of liquid in a dough, expressed as a mass percentage of the total amount of flour in a recipe. So 100% hydration would have a certain weight of flour, and the same weight of water. 50% hydration means the water weight is half that of the flour weight. Another kind of preferment, called a “biga” often uses 50% hydration. Bigas can be harder to work with because they are very stiff, but they are also rather forgiving time-wise to their peak yeastiness, whereas poolish is pretty close to flour soup but the yeast peak is a more narrow time window.
A New York style pizza dough needs to be a bit firmer than a Neopolitan dough, but also not brittle; a NYC street slice is a long thing, and everyone folds it in half lengthwise so the toppings don’t drip off.
Makes a bit under 800 grams of dough, which is enough for 2 15” pies
Mix together
323 grams King Arthur Bread Flour
139 grams King Arthur All Purpose Flour
then put 300 grams of the mixed flour in your mixer bowl. Set the remaining 162gm mixed flour aside.
To the mixing bowl add 270 grams of warm water. 270/300 = 90% hydration, so this will be pretty soft. You don’t knead here, just mix it up. Rough mix is ok; you can do this with bare hands or a wooden spoon or the beater in your stand mixer.
Cover the bowl and let it sit for an hour. It’s just flour and water.
Next, dissolve 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast in 30ml of water, which is 1 fluid ounce. A good excuse to get out your cocktail jigger! Add this to the autolysed wet flour, then use the mixer to thoroughly mix in the yeast water. Cover, and leave it in the bowl on the counter for about 12-14 hours. When the poolish is ripe you will see plenty of little moon crater bubbles on top.
To the remaining flour, add an mix in 12 grams of salt, 1 teaspoon of instant yeast, 2 teaspoons of white sugar. Pour this onto the poolish along with 2 teaspoons of Extra Virgin Olive oil. Mix on low speed for a minute or two, then knead on speed 2 for only 3 minutes. This slack dough will not require much kneading at all!
Now cover it up, leave it on the counter for 90 minutes, then into the fridge for at least 8 hours ... 2 or 3 days is fine; the longer it’s in there the better the flavors you’ll get.
When it’s time to make some pizza, dip both hands in plain all purpose flour, and carve off about half the dough, and work it. The flour on your hands will dry things out just a bit (it might take 2 dips in the flour) and leave you with a very soft dough you can play Pizza Guy with to your heart’s content. You can stretch this stuff out and out and out, to the point where you can easily see light through it. Windowpane!
and it tastes good too.
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February 20, 2024
Maybe, maybe I might be starting to get well. Or less sicker?
I have been very sick for 3 weeks now. A few days into the huge doses of Augmentin and the Prednisone, along with a ton of vitamins and some Mucinex tablets, and I might be turning a corner. Might. Not quite as much coughing, nose running much less.
The initial positive reaction was just initial; it’s still a fight and it doesn’t always go my way. but I’m doing everything I know how to do.
Sorry, that’s about all I have.
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Ok, I tried making pizza dough yesterday. And then found out later that there is a tremendous difference between a Neopolitian dough that’s designed to bake up in a minute in a 1000 degree oven, and the more or less New York style dough that will do well in a typical home oven which tops at at perhaps 550 degrees.
And all that other baker stuff ... use a biga, use a poolish, do an autolyse, do a chilled 72 hour ferment ... oh gak, a bit more than I could handle. But that was yesterday. Today I feel up to experimenting with a small amount of flour and water, enough to make one decent sized pizza when all is said and done.
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I might do some kind of beef and bean burrito thing for dinner. Keep it fairly small. Not sure what kind of cheese we have or how much. Beans and chiles, no problem there!
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February 17, 2024
Another week of light posting. Another week of being sick. Ok, I finally broke down and went to the local clinic. The extremely young woman PA set me up with some strong antibiotic and a heft 12 day dose of prednisone. Both prescriptions together cost me $2.26. Got home, took the first dose of each, and within an hour my nose is not running and I am not coughing and my chest is not congested. Son. of a. Gun.
[ sorry, snipping off old posts as needed ]
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Bowled over average all 3 games Wednesday night and Friday Night. We got smeared all 3 on Wed, and we cruised to an easy win all 3 on Friday. Go figure.
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February 12, 2024
Superbowl leftovers ... we had too many wings ... so ...
Halfway To Hell chipotle wing sauce
Chipotle chilis are dried mature jalapeno peppers, smoked. The morita chipotles are leathery and moderately smoky. The meco chipotles are bone dry and super smoky. Arbol chilis have a lighter smoky flavor and a good kick of heat. This is not a murder_death_kill hot sauce, but it is pretty zippy. And it’s quite smoky. Sure, you could just throw in a few tablespoons of chipotle powder and some smoky hot paprika. Seriously? The flavor is many many times richer when you use fresh chilis. Even dried ones.
In a small pot, boil 1 1/2 cup water
add
8 arbol chilis
4 chipotle meco chilis
4 chipotle morita chilis
You may need to use a small bowl or saucer to weigh the chilis down to keep them under the water.
Simmer for 10 minutes then remove the arbols. Simmer for 5 more minutes and remove the moritas. Turn off the heat. Remove the mecos when you are finished processing the others; they should be rehydrated enough at this point. Throw away the water, even though it smells like a campfire.
To process: lay the chilis out on a cutting board by the sink. Using a sharp pair or scissors or a very sharp pointy little knife, cut the stem ends off then cut open one long side of each pepper. Rinse the seeds and the pith out under gently running water. Use the scissors to cut each pepper in strips, then cut a pile of strips into small chunks. Put these in a Magic Bullet or other small blender and pulse into mash. Set aside. Now wash your hands with dish detergent. Twice. At least.
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In a medium pot, gently melt a stick of butter
Then add:
1/2 cup Crystal hot sauce
1/2 cup Frank’s hot sauce
6 - 8 shakes of Tabasco
1-2 Tbl Worchestershire sauce
all of the chili mash
a nice squirt of ketchup, about 2Tb
Stir and simmer this for 10 minutes until it reduces somewhat. Taste test, add more Frank’s, more Tabasco as needed. You might want to add a squirt of lime juice or two, and maybe a nice dollop of honey. A splash of soy sauce if you must make it salty.
There is enough here to coat about 3 dozen wings, given that most wings these days are smaller than you expected.
Naturally, you dedicated fire eaters can amp this up as hot as you want it. As made, this is plenty hot enough for “normal” people who like it plenty hot and spicy.
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Chiefs Win Superbowl In Overtime
I got my annual football game in last night. I like football but I’m not a huge fan of either conference or any particular team, and the annual changes in the rules annoys me.
That said, yesterday’s Big Game was kind of odd. The first two quarters were rather lackluster, and error filled. At one point, after yet another “oops, forgot to hang onto the ball” moment, I texted a friend that the game was a comedy of errors. So the first half was more angst than excitement. Things got better in the next THREE quarters; the 4th was pretty good and the semi-sorta-sudden-death overtime quarter was definitely worth watching.
There were an awful lot of injuries too, about 8 players left the game I think. And this is from playing in a nice warm roofed stadium on real grass.
Way too many camera moments of Taylor Swift, although her curvy buddy in the white tank top and the curly blonde hair was totally nice to look at. Gee, really? That was actress Blake Lively.
I think the refs did a good job. They flagged the obvious fouls, but generally stayed out of the way, and didn’t try to “balance” the game with questionable calls. Well done.
Kudos to the kickers! Two longest field goal records were made last night, the first a very impressive 55 yards from the Niners’ Moody, only to be broken a while later with a 57 yarder by KC’s Butker. Moody had another good one of 53 yards too. The thing is, in the dead air of the Las Vegas closed stadium these guys put the ball easily 20 feet over the goal posts. Which makes me think that a 70 yard field goal is not impossible.
In the end, the nail biting final end, with just 13 seconds left on the OT clock, the Chiefs pulled ahead by getting an actual touchdown, which ended the game under this year’s new sorta-sudden-death overtime rule.
So the Chiefs earned back to back Superbowl titles, and got 3 wins in 5 years. The first of those wins was when they beat the 49ers in 2020. And if they get rid of fumble fingers Pacheco maybe they take the Bowl again next year too.
Most of the ads were pretty stupid. The worst one was the campaign ad for Kennedy, trying desperately to make itself look like an early 1960s spot for his more famous progenitor. It looked like it had a $99.99 budget. The Budweiser ad seemed almost phoned in, but at least they got the Clydesdales out again. Because tradition. Was I the only one who resented the Pfizer ad and sponsorship? Go the hell away, you evil murderers.
A link to a decent re-cap.
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February 10, 2024
I’ve been sick. Got the cold going around. But I’m getting better. I think.
We lost all 7 in Friday bowling league. We were simply outrolled by the team that almost always wins the league. I rolled 2 good games, a 215 and a 186, but died in game 2 with a 124.
Ok, time to go grocery shopping, get beer, get gas. then back to bed? No, I have to make bread. Crap.
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February 5, 2024
The beast is in the house!
Kneading multiple loaves of heavy bread dough is more than my KitchenAid 5 quart Artisan can handle. And I’m tired of replacing parts. So I found a factory refurbished Professional 600 6 quart model and bought it. It’s much sturdier and heavier, has a larger bowl and a motor nearly twice as powerful. It weighs about 10lbs more too, on a wider base. KA’s refurb price was 1/3 less than a new one costs retail, same warranty. This baby ain’t gonna rock and roll and throw the bowl like little “Arty” does. Somehow the thing looks like some droid or war machine from Star Wars to us, so she instantly named our new mixer “C 3 P Dough”.
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February 3, 2024
Bowling Blogging Friday Night Edition
I was Mr. Consistency Friday night. I have a 176 average there, and rolled 183, 183, 176 to come out slightly over average for the night. Considering I’m wearing 2 or 3 sets of braces, and that my thumb is insanely painful and not reliable, I consider that a success. We only got one game, losing 2-5, but not really my fault. OTOH, they were bowling pretty well. Yeah, but most of my team was well under average in at least 2 games of the 3.
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I got a phone call from Vilmar today. First time I’ve ever actually talked to him. He’s still recovering from his surgery but there was more damage than anticipated. Or should I say that the non-cancerous brain tumor was bigger than they thought. So he’s getting by, but it is not easy. Pretty much house bound, can’t type, hard to read, hard to do just about anything. He has plenty of food and the guy is super organized, with 30 days of pre-cooked meals in the freezer/fridge in individual portions, and another 60 days worth in the freezer out in the garage.
Pray for Vilmar, he needs whatever help he can get.
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February 1, 2024
And around we go again ... another young attractive female teacher doing the frisky with students hardly 10 years younger than herself, before and after marrying her babyfaced boyfriend. A marriage that lasted about a month.
A newlywed Iowa school teacher has admitted sexually abusing students as young as 13 — leaving her facing up to 33 years in prison after already losing her job and short-lived marriage.
Cassidy Kraus, 24, a teacher at IKM Manning School, got hitched in July — just for new husband Zachary to file for divorce on August 28 when the abuse against at least three boys first emerged, according to Fox News.
Three days before the divorce filing, the teacher tendered her resignation to avoid getting fired, school officials said.
She pleaded guilty Monday to one count of third-degree sexual abuse, two counts of lascivious acts with a child and three counts of dissemination and exhibition of obscene materials to minors, KTIV reported.
The charges were for sexually abusing and sending obscene Snapchat messages to at least three boys between the ages of 13 and 14.
Kraus “knowingly disseminat[ed] obscene material” via Snapchat to one boy between January and May 2022, and to the two others between January and June 2023 — the latter just before her marriage, Law&Crime reported, citing a Carroll County criminal complaint.
More links here and here.
Ok, so she’s 24 now. And she was sending naughty pics to her students 18 months ago. Which means she was probably 22 then. Which means she was straight out of college, ink still wet on the diploma, was given a job teaching kids barely 10 years younger than herself, and almost instantly got into some raunchy flirtatious photo swapping on social media. With boys who were just hitting puberty. I keep hearing that the schools are desperate for teachers, but in my day there was no way such a young woman would be assigned any students beyond 3rd grade for the first 5 or 7 years of her teaching career.
I do not understand this kind of thing. Is there some kind of sexual allure in dorky boys trying to deal with their first erections? Does the “coltish” thing work for women too, the way that some guys find a certain degree of charm in 11-14 year old girls who hit that pubescent growth spurt. And by charm I do not mean sexual allure or desire. Just awareness of the beauty of a flower beginning to bloom. Was she driven to teach them more than what was in the syllabus? Where is this coming from, and it’s pretty damn common these days. I couldn’t get dates with 20 year old girls when I was 18 because I was so much younger and they were so worldly and mature. Yeah right. And like every female 14 and older, they were only interested in older guys, especially if they were tall, had good hair, some kind of job and a reliable and possibly cool car. But these days it’s like a certain kind of female is out there collecting “V cards” as fast as she can, and reveling in it. And they’re all married already.
I can sort of understand the comments at the news sites; the kind of aura that an attractive 22 year old woman exudes would have been utterly hypnotic to a 13 year old boy. Slack jawed unblinking mindless confusing desire. And the comments reflect that; nobody believes these boys are damaged or victims in the slightest. No, they have a mind blowing memory that will become their favorite fantasy for the rest of their lives. And yet as a society we continue to swallow the canard that girls the same age are fragile little innocent flowers so easily damaged ... yeah sure. Have you seen what tweener girls look like these days? 13 going on 24, can’t get there fast enough, and frantically eager to get busy getting busy. They’re walking hormone bombs ready to explode, just like the boys are.
And you know what’s going to happen too ... she’ll get the “too pretty for jail” treatment, maybe get 2 years at county, out in 6 months with 5 years probation, probably not have to register as a offender, change her name and hair color, and start her life all over again.
The ex husband? For the next year or two he’s going to be a laughingstock, but that too will pass. Especially if he moves cross country, changes his look, and never comes back.
Instapundit is always running this kind of news under the “Teach Women Not To Rape” banner ... and nobody wants to admit that maybe this kind of predatory female thing has been going on a damn long time, half a century or longer than the “where did this new thing come from?” narrative the media runs with.
I just don’t have the answers, and I’m not even sure of the questions. Just like a 13 year old boy I guess.
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Back in the 60s the leftists had a good time poking fun at patriotic Americans who pointed out that many new social trends were “commie plots”. Oh those silly stiffnecked fuddy duddies. Turns out ... no kidding ... they were pretty much right. Duh.
You want to read this; an excerpt from a well researched book that’s about to hit the market. It’s a long read, but connects dots you forgot even existed from way back then to all the degenerate lunacy going on now.
Front Page Magazine’s post on White Privilege
On December 26, 1969, in Flint Michigan, roughly 300 college students – almost exclusively white – gathered in a run-down dance hall called the Giant Ballroom. The ballroom was located in the heart of one of Flint’s black neighborhoods, and also one of its most violent. A bullet hole in the front door marked the spot where, the night before, a disgruntled patron had fired a shotgun into the hall inadvertently killing a black customer who was there to celebrate Christmas, and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.[1]
The attendees were members or alumni of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the largest radical movement on university campuses during the 1960s. They had come to attend the last “National Council” meeting of SDS.
The organization’s recently elected leaders, who called themselves the “Weathermen” were billing the event as a “National War Council.” The name was not rhetorical. Their intention was to transform SDS into an underground terrorist army whose mission was to be an “enemy within,” taking up arms against America, in behalf of the non-white peoples of the world whom America allegedly oppressed. They intended to play a key role in the struggle to defeat the global empire of U.S. imperialism, and replace it with a communist state.
Columbia graduate, Mark Rudd, the National Secretary of SDS, described the venue of the gathering in his memoir Underground: My Life With SDS and the Weathermen. “The Detroit collective had decorated the ballroom unlike any other dance hall I’d ever seen. A six-foot cardboard machine gun suspended over the stage set the tone, as did psychedelic portraits of our heroes Fidel, Che, Ho Chi Minh, Lenin, Mao, Malcolm X, and Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers.”[2] Cleaver had earned his spot by breaking with the Panther leadership over his call for a shooting war against America starting immediately.
The evening’s speeches began with Weatherman’s queen bee, Bernardine Dohrn issuing a signature call to arms. Dohrn mounted the platform wearing a brown mini-jumpsuit and thigh-high Italian leather boots causing a stir among the tie-dyed, blue jeaned Weather army sitting at her feet. Referring to the date on which the Weathermen had staged a three-day riot in Chicago billed as the “Days of Rage” specifically targeting police, she said “Since October 11th we’ve been wimpy….
So the commies have been at their game for over 50 years ... and today the top Democrats use those 1960s talking points nearly word for word.
I did post on the Indivisible organization didn’t I? They’re everywhere, they have huge amounts of dark funding, they own loads of politicians and media figures, they set the talking points, and every connected D parrots them back immediately. And it’s all one great big commie plot.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Indivisible+organization#ip=1
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Some almost local news. Manville is about 30 miles away, down Rt287 to the Somerset area.
Nothing more to say; the post title does it all: Manville home vandalized with pepperoni. Man, is that Joisey, or what? Eh!!
(my Italian neighbor reminds me that pepperoni isn’t Italian, it’s an American sausage, so this could be a counter-racist act of revenge. )
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Not sure how it happened, but I had one day earlier this week that was pain free. No, I didn’t go for a run or do any high impact aerobics. I just moved around pretty much normally. It was really nice.
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BowlingBlogging!
My average in the Wednesday night league took a huge hit when my knees went south. Not so much my Friday league, as I was a little smarter and took more time off. So on Fridays I carry a 176 average, and was running a 156 in the Wednesday league. I’ve done pretty well in both the past few weeks, so my Wednesday numbers are up to 160. I threw a 526 there this week, which is a 175 average. So pretty much normal. Sadly, we were playing a pretty hot team, and my series was the low one, by 37 pins. Most of the rest of the guys rolled in the mid 600s to mid 700s. And this isn’t really a hard core league. We did win all 7 points though, which brings the team stats back almost to 50% wins. Mid pack. Tough crowd but we have fun.
I have no idea where we are in the standings for Friday league. I never look. We might be doing pretty well.
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January 27, 2024
Fox News Online Sinking Into Pathetic Obscurity Faster Than Their TV Channel
Figured I’d check the news this morning. Went over to my old standby FoxNews. Lead story is that leftist garbage “fact checker” site Snopes has been forced to change it’s opinion about Biden wearing a hardhat backwards. Seriously? There’s a picture. And anyone who has ever worn, or even seen a real hardhat, knows that the strap goes across the back. Duh. But Fox goes downhill from there. Yes, it’s possible! Next story up is about the big debate online at Reddit over whether customers checking out at Costco should put their membership card on the divider between the orders, or hold it up for the cashier to scan. THIS IS NEWS.
Goodbye Fox, game over. It was fun while it lasted, but it’s been over for several years now. Gutfield is the only thing on their channel worth watching, barely. And they haven’t covered much in the way of regular news in a very long time anyway.
Sad.
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January 27, 2024
Crap, has it been a week since my last anemic post? Sorry. My sorry ass life continues, a daily constant battle with pain. It saps my will to do anything. Sometimes I hope that I go to sleep and just don’t wake up. I spend most of my time alone anyway, and there is very little I can do at this point. What am I living for? And yet I plod on.
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I want to get excited about Texas Governor Abbot’s stand against FJB’s treasonous border policy and the turncoat commie pussy Supreme Court’s inept judgements.
At this point 25 state governors, all Republicans, have signed letters of support ... that’s probably all of them. But is this just more bullshit empty virtue signalling? I fear that it is.
The time to close the border was when Reagan was President. He cut that amnesty deal and the left wing Congress stabbed him in the back. The only right response would have been to immediately build a wall along the Mexican border, from the Pacific to the Gulf, and execute another Operation Wetback like Eisenhower did, along with shutting down all immigration and asylum for the next 25 years. But that didn’t happen.
And now this incontinent mumbling moron sock puppet pedophile is occupying the White House.
There are probably 50 or 60 millions illegals in our country. We don’t owe them shit. All benefits should be cut off immediately, including healthcare and education. And then march them out of the country at the point of a bayonet. Oh the libs will scream and cry and protest!! And when a couple hundred of them get shot down in the streets and their bodies left there to rot, they’ll STFU in a flash. We are in a period of lawlessness, at the end of our civilization. So laws no longer apply. Which means anyone with power and organization can do anything. Great, let’s clean house. Revoke all the visas while we’re at it. Dismantle 99% of the government. Flush the entire education system down the toilet and start over, with not a lib, commie, trans, or leftist in the system. Sure, we’ll suffer for a while. But look at all the job openings created for all the deadbeats and former government workers ... if they can toe the American line. If not, well, too bad. No work means no food and they can all go to hell and starve as well.
Yeah, I’m evil today. I’m just beyond fed up with everything, top to bottom.
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January 20, 2024
It’s cold as all get out, temps hovering just over 10°F and the wind is blowing, giving a wind chill of about ... nothing. Zero. So naturally, in an attempt to survive, it’s time to bake something good.
I made Brownies Embers from scratch
It was pretty easy, and I did it entirely by hand. No mixer, no whisk, just a spoon. Ok I weighed out the flour, but I don’t even think about baking without my sweet little Oxo digital kitchen scale. So I looked around the kitchen and found a bit of this and a bit of that, and had my little AhA! moment. Time to make brownies.
Get all the ingredients out ahead of time an hour or two in advance. This gives the butter a chance to soften and the eggs to come up to room temperature.
1 stick of butter
1 4oz block of baker’s chocolate. Ignore the date code if it’s within a couple years and the package is unopened. The stuff lasts forever if kept somewhere cool and dark, like in a kitchen cabinet
2 cups of white sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 cup of crushed walnuts or pecans (smell them to make sure they haven’t gone rancid. I only had 1/3 cup, so use what you’ve got)
Start the oven, set to 350°F. Take a 9x13 glass baking dish and really big piece of tin foil, and make a liner with the foil that sticks out a couple inches over the baking dish. Give it a good spray with Pam, or go to town with some Crisco. Set aside for now.
Put the block of baker’s chocolate - 4oz is the whole package - in a plastic bag, seal it, and whack it on the counter a few times to break the bar into a couple dozen chunks.
In a medium double boiler ( I used a DRY 2 quart steel mixing bowl over a 4 quart pot with perhaps a quart of water simmering in it) put the butter in and let it start melting. After a minute or two, dump in the chocolate. Stir things around constantly until the chocolate has melted and combined with the melted butter. Set this aside to cool for a bit. Don’t put it outside to freeze, or even put it in the fridge. Just set it aside. In 5 or 10 minutes it will be room temperature.
Stir in the vanilla. I use the spendy double strength Bourbon vanilla, so don’t be cheap with the 2 teaspoonsful.
Add the 4 eggs. I suggest cracking them all in a cereal bowl first, just in case any shell bits get in and need removing. Take a fork and whisk them up. Pour this into the cooled mixing bowl, and mix until it’s all combined smoothly.
Dump in the sugar, and stir until smooth. You get something a bit more liquid than toothpaste, but not runny.
Dump in the nuts, stir, then dump in the flour. Stir until smooth, making sure to get any flour stuck to the side of the bowl.
Pour the batter into the foil lined baking dish. Use a spatula to get every last bit of batter. You might need to spread the batter around the baking dish with the spatula.
Ok, into the oven, for 25-28 minutes. Do the classic toothpick test to check doneness; you want the toothpick to come out clean in each of the 8 or so places you stick it in, with just a little darkness on the end. That’s done. If you want crispier brownies, let it cook perhaps 3 more minutes.
Put the dish on a cooling rack and walk away ... all the way to the dishpan, and start cleaning everything.
And that was that, and it came out great, and now the kitchen is nice and warm and the whole house smells great.
Ok, why are you calling these embers? You didn’t burn the heck out of them, did you?
Nope, they came out just right. And the reason for the big chunk of foil is so that the whole thing can be lifted out, put on a plate or cutting board, and sliced into pieces.
(this recipe is from the Joy of Cooking cookbook, where they tell you that they’ve been running this recipe since 1939. )
Ok already, WHY ARE THEY EMBERS????
Because brownies are not just little chocolate fudge bars. They’re also the name of the entry level group of Girl Scouts. Little girls in 2nd or 3rd grade I think. They have their little brown uniform dresses, their brown knee socks, and their little brown beanies. I have no idea what they do, but most of them like it enough to graduate to regular Girl Scouts, where they learn new skills, earn badges, get outdoors and so forth. The uniform changes to green if I remember right.
EMBERS, m’kay??
Up in Canada, the Girl Scouts organization is called Girl Guides. Like the rest of Canada they have gone woke Socialist with a vengeance. So they’re changing the name from Brownies to Embers. Perhaps because embers are even browner than brownies? Or because they’re so much hotter, and that’s an important and necessary way to look at some 8 year old little girls? Maybe, maybe not. But they’re claiming it’s more inclusive, for “racialized” little girls. What. The. Fudge Brownies? Everything the Leftists get their hands on, they destroy. I can’t begin to imagine what new skills (ahem) they’ll be teaching these children now. Team arson to push climate change? Emergency gender reassignment in the forest with just basic kitchen tools and duct tape? Sexual deviance and self-doubts? Self hatred for not being brown yourself under the brown uniform? Ok, I can imagine, and I’m certain they’ll screw it up the same way that Boy Scouts was destroyed here in the USA.
Canada Girl Guides drops ‘Brownies’ name after it’s deemed offensive
The Girl Guides of Canada has renamed the “Brownies” branch - who are now called the “Embers” - after the old name was deemed too racially divisive.
“Embers are full of potential and when they work together, they can ignite a powerful flame!” the Girl Guides of Canada (GGC) tweeted on Wednesday.
The group said in November that the old name had caused “harm” to some minority members, and kept girls from joining.
CEO Jill Zelmanovits says the girls have been very open to the name change.
“After hearing from our girl, youth and adult members, it was resoundingly clear that this was the preferred choice,” Mrs Zelmanovits said in a news release.
“We can’t wait to keep bringing the magic of Girl Guides to girls ages seven and eight, now with the name Embers.”
The decision came after input from current and former members, who said that the previous name “caused harm and was a barrier to belonging for racialised girls and women”.
The release added that applications have increased since November, after the group’s decision to become “more inclusive for their daughters”.
The GGC says that the new name should be used immediately, but it will take until September for it to be fully adopted in merchandise and gear.
The Embers join the other GGC branches, including the Sparks (ages five to six), Guides (ages nine to 11), Pathfinders (ages 12 to 14) and Rangers (ages 15 to 17).
The Brownies were formed in England in 1914 as girls sought their own version of the Scouts.
They were originally called the Rosebuds - a name that did not survive long - and today members earn badges for activities like crime prevention and science investigation.
“This wasn’t just about a name or its origin,” Mrs Zelmanovits added. “This was about the fact that girls experienced racism and felt that they weren’t welcome in Girl Guides.”
Complete and total Bull Shit. Some Canuck Twit Karen must have decided that wearing a brown uniform was cultural appropriation, so it had to go. Or at least the name did.
Sparks and Embers? I think these little kids are going to get burned.
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January 19, 2024
Not a whole lot to say. It’s Winter here, cold and snowy. My knees still hurt. I have to call the body shop who repaired my car, as I think the hatchback hatch has come a little loose. It isn’t falling off, but there’s just too much humidity inside the car, like the seal isn’t making enough contact. And after this last snow there was snow in the channel between the back of the roof and under the lip of the top of the hatch. That’s never happened before. And it turns out that the hatch is at least a little bit adjustable. Ok,Mazda calls that part the liftgate. Same same.
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I was thinking of writing up an essay on chili. Yeah, I made another batch, this one a bit hotter. And I added some chipotles, which are smoked matured jalapeno peppers. One kind is leathery soft and a bit smoky, the other kind is dry as a bone and smells like a campfire. Both need to be rehydrated, then away you go. And what is chili at heart, other than pepper stew? So lots of peppers of lots of different kinds, finding a balance between red and green, bright and deep, zing and zoom. Plus meat and onions and bacon and other stuff.
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We managed to win just one game in Wednesday night bowling. We played a team that was a bit low average, and suddenly they remembered how to bowl. Beat us the first game by 151 pins. Our guy threw a 289 in the second game, and we lost that one by 4. We did win the third game, but we didn’t take wood. I was over average in all 3 games, getting better as the night wore on. It’s our two guys in the middle who didn’t do so good. But the other team was running really hot, so what can you do?
I’ve got my ball in the ball oven, getting it warm and clean for tonight’s league. And I’m doing wash, as I’m tired of wearing the same oversize fleece lined jeans for yet another day. They sure are warm, and the relaxed carpenter cut gives me plenty of room for my knee braces. But it’s getting a bit eeeww, 4 days on the same pair of paints. ‘
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Here is a very nice essay about Robert E Lee. Plenty of references to his writings, his views, his background, and what other people had to say about him, North and South. It goes without saying that the modern drive to cancel him because reasons is totally ass backwards. He was a patriot, a hero, a man of honor and distinction, and perhaps the best general in all of American history. Oh, and he freed the slaves he was in charge of, even though he wasn’t their actual owner. So there.
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January 15, 2024
Hello old blog, I’m back again. Life plods along. Still having the knee issues. Go for an MRI next week, and back to the hand orthopedist as well.
Made another batch of red & green chili which has 6 kinds of chilis in it; I want to find some chipotle meco, which is the smokier version of a dried and smoked mature red jalapeño. And I should find some better smokier bacon for the next batch. Love the smoky flavor. This batch had more reconstituted chilis in it, a dozen each of anchos and guajillos, turned into a paste in the old Magic Bullet mini blender. Gives you a seriously rich flavor, and the chili is so dark red it’s pretty much brown. Heat level is enough for me, spicy without being a spoonful of fire. A pot full makes at least a dozen bowls, so we eat on it for several days.
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Float copper? Unless you’re from northern Michigan you’ve never heard of this, but it’s about the purest naturally occurring copper on earth. And it looks really cool too.
Same topic: Saving the big one.
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Gee whiz, guess those primitive natives and those crazy crystal sniffing moonbeam naturopaths knew a thing or two after all. Willow bark tea, sort of a liquid aspirin, has significant antiviral properties.
In Finland, researchers have recently discovered that willow bark extract, a plant known for yielding various medicinal compounds including the basis for contemporary aspirin, exhibits a wide-ranging antiviral effect in laboratory cell studies.
The extract worked both on enveloped coronaviruses, which cause colds as well as COVID-19, and non-enveloped enteroviruses, which cause infections such as flu and meningitis. There are no clinically approved drugs that work against enteroviruses directly, so this extract could be a future game-changer.
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Gain of Function Bioweapons progress in China: psycho military scientists modify pangolin COVID brain virus to make it infect people. 100% lethal on 4 out of 4 “humanized” mice.
Do they have lampposts and rope in China? Or pikes?
So far (or at least as far as we know...) it’s only been tested on “humanized mice” which have been scientifically altered to have human genes so they can be tortured without having the ability to file lawsuits. And the new virus has killed every last one of those little humanized cheese nibblers, presumably when their brains turn into an inflamed slurry and ooze out through their perfectly circular ears. Which is likely what would happen to 100% of infected humans if the virus escaped, so isn’t it good that Chinese virus labs are so very, very secure except for their open windows, screen doors, and tendency to sell dead animal specimens to wet markets for soup stock?
There’s pretty much no reason that researchers would want to create such a thing unless it could A) be used as an apocalyptic bioweapon, B) make a lot of money for companies coincidentally selling pangolin brain virus vaccines, or C) beat AI to the punch of killing us all, giving humans quite literally the last laugh.
Which is why we should immediately be taking common sense safety measures including, but not limited to, calling together the world’s leading gain-of-function researchers and, after careful deliberation, displaying their heads on pikes.
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January 7, 2024
A new thing in our area. We didn’t know about it, but we heard lots of people talking about it up in Warren County. A good time was had by all. Maybe we’ll get there next year.
First Annual New Year’s Eve Lentil Drop
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ (Warren County) – Thousands of people decided to ring in the new year in Hackettstown, where a huge crowd enjoyed the first New Year’s Eve Celebration with an M&M’S lentil drop.
The New Year’s Eve celebration included beats from DJ SC3 Entertainment, free giveaways from Atlantic Health System/Hackettstown Medical Center, Centenary University, WRNJ Radio, and Mars Wrigley, TSA Cheerleaders performed from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., the Centenary Cyclones mascot, an M&M’S character, and activities from participating businesses.
The red M&M’S® lentil is 40″ in diameter and had more than 1,000 LED lights.
Mars Wrigley has been producing iconic M&M’S in Hackettstown since 1958, making it the perfect community partner to help ring in the new year for the town.
“Millions of M&M’S are produced right here in Hackettstown every day,” said Courtney McHugh, Vice President Marketing, M&M’S, Mars Wrigley. “We’re proud to inspire moments of everyday happiness for the Hackettstown community and are thrilled M&M’S can help ring in 2024.”
“It’s very exciting to be able to have our residents and visitors come together to witness the largest M&M ever falling from the sky to ring in the new year,” said Mayor Jerry DiMaio.
Hackettstown is about 10 miles NNE of us, and about 10 miles NE of the bowling alley. It’s the “big city” in our podunk red corner of blue NJ. M&M Mars is a major employer around here, running a massive factory and having corporate operations there. So we know plenty of people who work there. They used to give out sample boxes to the employees, or sell them for cost. I hope they still do. The candy in that colorful box is fresh off the line from that day’s production, unlike the product you buy in your store which may have been warehoused for a couple of years. The fresh chocolate is really very good, much smoother and richer than the age matured stuff.
So a huge crowd went to the event, everyone got their picture taken with Red, there was music and bands and fun all around. Beats freezing to death in NYC after a 2 hour drive, $50 for parking, and getting mugged and thrown up on.
PS: Why is it called a lentil? Because an M&M is actually formed by two molded hemispheres of chocolate, each about a drop’s worth. The two halves are put together, and the uncoated result looks like a lentil bean. So it’s a lentil.
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Bowling Blogging!!
I’m trying to do my leagues again. I went Wednesday night, and threw ok, well over average in the first two games and just a couple under in the third game. We won all 3, so that moves us up a bit in the standings.
I bowled Friday night too, and I finally brought the soft pretzels I’ve been promising people for a while now. We played the team that our former teammate is on, so we were worked up ... and slaughtered them, even though we had to give them 104 pins handicap.
We won all 3 games, each one by more pins than the handicap. Which means our scratch was always more than 210 pins better than theirs. Sweet. I threw great: 212, 198, 211 for a 621 series, which is my best night so far this season in either league. Wore my shorts and my robo-braces and rolled carefully. Lane conditions were a bit slow with no intense back-end action, but they were pretty consistent as well. So it wasn’t the typical “I need a new line and a new ball every 5 frames” we’ve become accustomed to. Thank goodness.
My thumb timing needs some work. I’m coming late out of the ball and not getting enough finger on the ball, so my axis tilt is back to being almost horizontal. I had it perfectly vertical before my joints went on vacation to Hellena Handbasket.
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January 4, 2024
I bowled Tuesday afternoon, just to see if I could. Wore my braces and shorts. Did pretty well. Pain was manageable and not that bad. Went to league Wednesday night, bowled well over average in G1 and G2 and just 7 under in G3. We won all 7.
Had my last visit with the podiatrist today. Ankle looking good, keep doing the foot brace as needed.
Went to the hand orthopedist yesterday, got Xrays ... you have pretty severe arthritis in your thumbs. Yeah, I know. Got the cortical steroid injections, which helped immediately. They probably won’t last long. Go back in 3 weeks.
I’m bowling Friday night too. Making a double batch of pretzels for everyone, because I’ve been promising them a long time and just haven’t been up to making them. It’s a 2 or 3 day recipe, but they come out awesome every time. After 7 years I’m just about out of lye powder, so I ordered a new one. To my amazement, the price hadn’t gone up a cent since the last jug I bought. Wow.
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January 1, 2024
15 Years Late And Chickenshit Anyway
[ Yes, I’ve gone down this road before. And it’s a straight and narrow highway. It just hit me as odd that a conservative leaning website would make this point about a Republican. That’s honest, I’ll grant you that. ]
The American Greatness site put up an essay today saying how Nikki Haley absolutely could not be President or Vice President, as she does not meet the qualifications as written in our Constitution. And they are utterly correct.
Article II, Section 1, stipulates that “No person except a natural born citizen or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
Back in the Age of Reason, The Enlightenment, in 1758 actually, a book based on Natural Law was written by Emmerich de Vattel. It was title The Law Of Nations. Within 2 years it had been translated into English from the original French. Like the writings of John Locke two or three generations earlier, Vattel’s writings had tremendous impact on the political world, and lit a fire in the minds of our Founding Fathers.
Vattel defined citizenship. He modified the existing English concept of Natural Born Subject and thus defined the term Natural Born Citizen. Our Constitution requires the President to be one. Later on the 12th Amendment added that qualification to the Vice President. No other federal office holder or officer has to be an NBC. Problem is, our Constitution assumed that people would understand the concept. Ok, there are 2 to 4 other little problems with that document, but this is the one under discussion.
Under Emmerich de Vattel’s Law of Nations, Citizenship is determined by the father, the mother and the nation. Section 212 of Law Of Nations, defines Natural Born Citizen:
“The Citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they participate equally in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are Citizens”.
A primary concern among Emmerich de Vattel, and the Framers of the United States Constitution, was that the President be completely free of foreign influences. Emmerich de Vattel wrote:
“The Constitution and the laws of a State are rarely attacked from the front. It is against gradual attacks that a nation must stand guard”.
For Emmerich de Vattel, it was of paramount importance that the President be a person whose primary allegiance is to the Sovereign nation. The independence of the nation, and the President, from foreign influence, according to Emmerich de Vattel’s formulation, was key to its proper performance. Emmerich de Vattel maintained that “each sovereign State claims, and actually possesses an absolute independence on all the others”. He continues, “Nations are free and independent of each other, in the same manner as men are naturally free and independent”. Emmerich de Vattel argued as it is important that each Sovereign maintain its independence, “No foreign power has a right to interfere in the internal affairs of other States” (with rare exceptions).
So to be a Natural Born Citizen, you have to be born here (or in other territories or areas owned or controlled by the USA, our embassies, military bases, and probably military ships and airplanes in transit across the oceans), AND your parents have to be citizens AT THE TIME OF YOUR BIRTH.
Ok, over to the essay -
The question of presidential eligibility under the Constitution has been a hot button one, especially in recent years with the controversial campaigns of John McCain, Barack Obama, Ted Cruz, and most recently, Kamala Harris. The controversy arises from the text of the Constitution itself. Article II, Section 1, stipulates that “No person except a natural born citizen or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.” The core issue centers on the meaning of the phrase “natural born citizen.” The Constitution explicitly lays out three requirements to run for president: (i) be at least 35 years old; (ii) have been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years; and (iii) be a natural-born citizen of the United States.
The question of natural born citizenship is crystal clear, though it often gets confused with the more controversial debate surrounding birthright citizenship. From the outset, it should be stressed that the two are entirely different constitutional issues. The question of natural-born citizenship as an eligibility requirement for president is well settled, whereas the issue of birthright citizenship is still up in the air.
There is a reason the Founding Fathers attached the requirement of being a “natural born citizen” to the President (and, with the passage of the Twelfth Amendment, the Vice President) only and no other federal offices. The idea was to elevate the threshold for the highest elected political office of the land; notably, that language is absent in Article I, which stipulates that lawmakers running for the House or Senate need only be “citizens” to qualify. The early debates surrounding the passage of the Constitution add support for the view that the Framers wanted to exclude “the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government,” as John Jay wrote to George Washington in July of 1787.
A central concern for the architects of the nascent American republic was that only the most qualified statesmen be eligible for the country’s highest office. In his Commentaries, Joseph Story elaborated that “it is indispensable… that the president should be a natural born citizen of the United States… [T]he general propriety of the exclusion of foreigners, in common cases, will scarcely be doubted by any sound statesman.” Joseph Story, who enjoyed over a thirty-year reign as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, famously elaborated the principles of the republicanism of Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall well into the mid-nineteenth century. His Commentaries specifically distinguished between natural born and naturalized citizens, the latter of whom were ineligible to run for president, despite qualifying for the privileges of citizenship. This view is supported by the best legal commentary of the day
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In Nikki Haley’s case, it is well documented that neither one of her parents were citizens, natural born or naturalized, at the time of her birth in 1972. It has been previously reported that a South Carolina-based newspaper included a quote from the Office of Nikki Haley, stating that “her parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of her birth in 1972 and did not become citizens until 1978 and 2003.” Thus, although the parents may have been lawful residents at the time of her birth on South Carolina soil, which may or may not confer her with the privileges of citizenship, it is important to note that she does not qualify for the Constitution’s higher requirement of natural-born citizenship.
And of course, since she does not meet the qualifications to become President, she is ineligible to be Vice President as well. And that’s what the Constitution says.
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John Eastman has also raised the issue of natural born citizenship in the related context of Kamala Harris’ eligibility to serve as Vice President. In a 2020 Newsweek article, Eastman argued that Harris would only qualify as a constitutionally eligible natural-born citizen if her parents were “lawful permanent residents at the time of her birth.” However, in the case of Harris, if her parents were “merely temporary visitors,” then she patently did not qualify as a natural-born citizen pursuant to Article II, Section 1. The logic of Eastman’s argument is straightforward, and I would maintain does not even need to implicate the Fourteenth Amendment or the outstanding question of birthright citizenship, which might otherwise detract from the fundamental soundness of the constitutional issue.
Kamala Harris was born October 20, 1964. It’s hard to find out when either of her parents became citizens, but they weren’t when she was born. Game over. Period. She is NOT a natural born citizen no matter how much blarney the media spews, and boy did they, in utter lockstep. Which is all you need to know to see that they were pulling the wool over the eyes of the sheep once again.
Funny thing is, Barack Obama is never mentioned in this essay.
You remember him, the guy who was born both in Kenya and Hawaii, the one with the dodgy “certificate of live birth”? The one whose mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, b 11/29/42, gave birth to Barack Hussein Obama II on 8/4/61, when she was 18 years old, and below the threshold of legal adulthood at that time. (which may have disabled her ability to pass on citizenship to her child, especially if not born in the USA). Her husband Barack Hussein Obama Sr, married her on 2/2/61 after she became pregnant and left school. It is entirely possible that she became pregnant at 17, which would have made Barry Sr guilty of statutory rape. He had a wife back in Kenya who he left pregnant. I don’t know if bigamy was legal in Kenya at the time; it certainly wasn’t legal in the USA. As a Kenyan national, the senior Obama also held British citizenship. He was not, and never was, an American citizen. Thus bathhouse Barry was also not a natural born citizen, and was completely ineligible to be President. Twice. And you’re a racist for even reading these words.
But let’s harp on Nikki Haley, instead of demanding the ouster of Kamala Harris and opening the big Obama can of worms. Because dark people are above the law these days. What a crock.
Oh, and just for “fun”, we have had 2 Presidents who were actually ineligible to hold the office, as they were not NBCs. Chester Arthur in 1881 and Barack Obama. As far as I know there has been only 1 Vice President who failed the test ... although Vice Presidents from way back when are usually less than footnotes to history.
Oddly enough, as the Information Age entered it’s full stride, we have had a large number of potential nominees who never passed the NBC test. Not to mention the 8 failed attempts (lead by the D party) to snip out the Natural Born requirement, in the years leading up to 1008..
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Forty five years ago I had a dog that looked a lot like this one. Katie was the best dog ever. True love for both of us from the moment we met. She’s been gone over 30 years. I still miss her.
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December 31, 2023
Happy New Year!!!
I am so glad 2023 is over. What an awful year for me.
Knees still not up to even trying to bowl. Will try again to try again on Tuesday. I hope.
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The comments area was nearly full so I erased them. Sorry. But I read the newest ones first. Start the new year with a fresh comment! And thank you all for sharing your thoughts and opinions. I do appreciate it.
It took almost 3 years to fill up the comment buffer. Maybe if I have better things to post about, I’ll get more comments?
here’s one ... South America is going Evangelical. https://latinarabia.com/christianity/revival-in-latin-america/
and a bunch more that are all related ... our border crisis is largely caused by Venezuela’s commie tyrant Daniel Ortega. Yeah, he’s still the boss down there, still in power since the Reagan era.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/anybody_notice_how_nasty_nicaraguas_ortega_regime_has_gotten_since_the_migrant_remittances_started_flowing.html
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/blood_boiler_daniel_ortegas_role_in_organizing_the_us_migrant_crisis_is_bigger_than_thought.html
https://www.voanews.com/a/african-asian-migrants-seek-nicaragua-shortcut-to-us-/7418273.html
Ok, this young fella and his old knees are heading upstairs. If I want to watch the balls drop, I’ll take off my pants. Ewww.
See? I did get something done today. Granted, it was supposed to be done Friday afternoon, but whatever.
I had to up the lye concentration 50% as the 7 year old bottle is almost empty, and I swear the crystals lose potency after a while. And this was a long long while! So I ordered another one, and to my surprise, the price had not increased at all since I bought the previous bottle! Amazing.
The taste was just a little strong, but definitely what pretzels should taste like.
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December 27, 2023
My Christmas post seems to have gone missing. Oh well. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We did the Italian Christmas Eve party at the cousin’s, as always. Definitely felt the passing of the years, as one generation fades away, another generation hits middle age, and all the little kids are now young adults. So the food wasn’t as good or as fancy this time, several faces weren’t there due to medical issues, but there were a good number of really nice looking young women all done up fancy for the holiday. That was nice.
We made it home just before midnight, then went over to her dad’s Christmas afternoon for lunch. I baked pretzels at their place, and everyone was a bit frightened that the things are dipped in drain cleaner before baking. Ok, it’s lye. Sodium hydroxide. And it’s perfectly safe when cooked, as the sodium either evaporates or bonds with any nearby salt ions, and the hydroxide part, OH- just forms water. Hey, better living through chemistry, which none of these people know much about. Oh well.
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I turned on the TV news this morning, to take a look at the world. I managed to watch almost 5 whole seconds before getting annoyed. They’re going on and on about all those deranged radical right wing crazy people sending in death threats and calling for civil war over the gross overreach of the Colorado State Supreme Court, which has decided President Trump is guilty of fomenting revolution or some such garbage. Not a word that the court’s action is one of the most egregious and horrendous instances of judicial activism in our nation’s history, and in several ways. Oh no, it’s Trump, so EVIL, so no rules apply.
So I walked away from the TV and checked the weather on my cell phone. Chilly and rainy. Oh joy.
Ocean City and Cape May County officials have been among the most outspoken critics of Orsted’s plan to build 98 towering wind turbines as part of the controversial Ocean Wind 1 project, which some opponents believe will cause irreparable harm to the shore’s economy and environment.
“It is a terrible project, the worst I’ve ever seen. This project has no redeeming qualities at all,” Barr said.
No redeeming qualities? Well they are getting rid of all those pesky whales. But let’s blame Climate Change instead. ( PS whales have been around 50 million years, so they’ve managed to adapt to every previous climate change. And they have sonar, so they can tell how deep the water is).
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GET ME OUT OF HERE ...
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Drew458
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Monday - August 10, 2020
Still Here
No, nothing to blog about today, sorry.
But I’ve been to everybody else’s blog, leaving comments here and there.
Also, I’ve been looking, once again, at soundproofing materials. I don’t think I have a project here, and it would be very small one if I did. I just find the field interesting, how you can make a room or a machine much quieter through acoustic treatments. Sometimes it’s absorptive materials, sometimes it’s mass loading, plus all the research into shaped surfaces that break up reflections, and the multi-density viso-elastic materials. You can even get sound mitigating PAINT. Plus the usual quiet curtains, acoustic carpet pads, and stuffing the walls with fireproof rockwool insulation, and using thicker or decoupled wallboard. You can even get special wallboard with acoustic decoupling built right in.
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Drew458
on 08/10/2020 at 10:09 AM
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Friday - August 07, 2020
Ospreys are up, is Trump in town?
It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s ... A Frog? *
It’s kind of overcast today, low clouds. There still isn’t much air traffic around here, so when I heard the sound of something flying up there, I looked. It kind of sounded like a helicopter, and it kind of sounded like a jet. Except it wasn’t moving very fast.
And then I spotted a small dark spot moving through the clouds. It came out again, and yup, it was an Osprey, the unusual dual tailed tilt rotor boxy little aircraft that the Marines usually fly. Even far enough away so that it looked 1/4” long, I could still see the giant propellers spinning around. Pretty cool.
The only time I ever see or hear one of these things is when President Trump is visiting his place over in Bedminster, about 15 miles east of us.
Let’s check ...
BEDMINSTER, NJ — President Donald Trump is coming back to Bedminster for the second time in three weeks.
According to the President’s itinerary, he was set to arrive at Morristown Municipal Airport Thursday evening at around 9 p.m. after a day that was to include three separate stops in Ohio, including one at the Whirlpool Corp. manufacturing plant.
Trump was just in Bedminster the weekend of July 24-26. He was returning to Trump National Golf Club Thursday night, but it was not clear whether his stay would last the entire weekend, or whether it would include any tours of storm damage in the wake of the remnants of Tropical Storm Isaias.
Trump is expected in New Jersey this weekend. Temporary flight restrictions have been announced for Thursday through Sunday for Morristown, where Air Force One lands, and for Bedminster, which usually foreshadow a presidential visit.
Heh, this is more fun than bridge spotting. Easier too; all I have to do is listen.
* cultural reference if you’re too young to know this line. Scroll down a bit.
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Tuesday - August 04, 2020
TNB At Mansion Parties Across America
This kind of crap is why our NJ governor King Murphy is stepping back on his re-opening plan. The ferals mess up everything for everyone every time.
[ woo hoo, Firefox saved me! The power went off for a while right in the middle of this. But the post was still there when power was restored, so happy me. Life during a hurricane, no? ]
Commercial Party Houses Out Of Control, Killings, Robberies, And Neighborhood Mayhem
Wild pool party shut down by police at New Jersey mansion
A massive rager at a mansion in New Jersey’s richest zip code was shut down by cops over the weekend — and neighbors say wild Vegas-like blowouts have been regularly held there despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Hundreds of carefree revelers — most without masks — were spotted outside the home on Hemlock Drive in Alpine for what promoters called “The Lavish Experience Pool Party” Saturday night, NBC New York reported.
Cops eventually were called to break up the bash, which spilled out onto the street with zero regard for social distancing rules.
One person was seen taken away in an ambulance, while others were passed out drunk on the front lawn, the outlet reported.
A neighbor told The Post that the wild affairs have been a regular occurrence since May, at the height of the coronavirus crisis. She said she’s seen party buses dropping off people for the bashes — which are brazenly advertised on social media.
“A few months ago, new neighbors moved in, renters,” the neighbor said. “They started having parties one weekend after another. They were bringing in full party buses, at least 100 people or more.”
Another neighbor who didn’t want to be named told NBC New York the house is practically doubling as a “nightclub.”
Several lifetimes ago I worked in Closter NJ, the next town over. Plenty of money in Closter, but Alpine is the home of serious green. Quite a number of famous movie stars, sports figures, and music legends live there, along with the cream of the fiscal crop.
They must be beyond furious that this kind of thing is going on in their extremely exclusive area.
House parties have definitely been an issue in NJ lately, and have been used as a COVID excuse by the government more than once.
But it gets worse ... much worse ...
!!! ~~~~ !!! ~~~~ !!!
Gangsters storm NFL star’s house Beverly Hills party and start robbing everybody, 1 dead, 2 wounded
A SHOOTING at a flashy Los Angeles mansion party held for an NFL star has left one person dead and two fighting for their lives, reports say.
A terrified partygoer filming as multiple shots rang out at the plush Beverly Crest pad said “a bunch of gangsters came in and robbed everybody and started shooting”.
The shooting occurred hours after cops were called to a gated community in Mulholland Drive after complaints from neighbours.
Scores of people were attending the party - prompting the police callout at about 6.30pm because of the ban on large gatherings in Los Angeles County during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But officers attending did not have a warrant to enter the property so were unable to break it up. Hours later, gunshots rang out at around 12.47am, sparking panic as revellers ran for the exits.
Three people were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds, according to CBS. One person died from their injuries and two others are said to be in acritical but stable condition.
A man in his 30s and a woman in her 40s were among the victims.A fourth person suffered a non-firearm-related injury while fleeing, it’s reported.
Yet again, as always, this was a short term rental property in a really high end area, and the attendees were ... 100% non diverse. And ignoring every kind of anti-COVID rule in existence. And in two weeks they’ll all be sick. I’m really tired of this BS.
Plenty of pictures and much more to the story at the link.
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Just Mailing It In This Rainy Morning
I’m such a fan of the PO. Vilmar will understand.
Mail in ballots are flat out wrong, an opportunity rife for corruption. Ballot harvesting - an operative comes around your neighborhood to collect them all - is even worse. Guaranteed corruption.
Simple Solution?
Too afraid to vote in person? Hmmm ... I wonder if ... set up the polling place with one of those counters surrounded by plastic walls. Worker behind the desk all gowned gloved masked. Positive ventilation system blows air outwards. You walk in ... one at a time ... with your ballot envelope ... clerk checks the voter rolls, checks your ID / voter registration, you sign the digital screen with the just wiped wand/pen AFTER you’ve been verified and watched your ballot go into the locked and sealed collection bin. CCTV from 3 angles covers the entire event, cameras run all day, data saved to disk or chip.
Such an arrangement could be built in a couple hours for small expense. When the numbered collection box gets full, several people come in to seal up and evidence sign the old one, count the envelopes several times and sign to that, and put in a new box, identifying themselves on CCTV. GoPro vidcam wearing workers follow the box through the building to the evidence locker, past several locked doors and sign it in with a guard as witness.
The whole Deliver Your Vote process takes under a minute, and the collection box exchange and securing takes only a couple minutes.
No mailing, no lost envelopes, no boxes of votes that magically appear at the last second. This isn’t rocket science.
Of course this will be more difficult in the big cities. But any town or small city under ~~ 50K population should be able to do it. The whole idea is Chain of Evidence, just like the cops do. And CCTV and data chips are so cheap it’s just silly.
Yeah, some people really are not able to get out, and get over to the polling places. Prove it, and you can vote by mail. You “can’t” show up because it’s a minor inconvenience? TFB, then you’re not going to vote.
Naturally the voter rolls would be up to date, matched against the tax records, the credit card company and cell phone address lists, coroner data and the III criminal database etc. As I’ve said a hundred times before, registration closes at least 30 days prior, no exceptions.
!!! ~~~~ !!! ~~~~ !!!
Crivens, it is REALLY pouring out there today. Since long before dawn. Thankfully it’s cooler, and so far not a breath of wind. But if the big wind shows up later, after 8 -10 hours of ground saturating rainfall, we’re going to lose a lot of trees. Not cool.
The tropical storm winds were reaching the state by 8 a.m. Tuesday and were expected to increase quickly as Isaias was moving through at 33 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
Heavy rain and the potential for flash floods continues to be a significant threat, but that threat has shifted west as the aniticipated track of Isaias shifted west overnight.
The Jersey Shore is expected to be spared the heaviest rainfall though 1 to 2 inches are still possible. The north and western parts of the state, including Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex counties, are still forecast to receive more than 4 inches of rain.
...
The state got a taste of the storm Monday evening as a patch of thunderstorms moved through. A wind gust of 70 mph was recorded at the Robert J. Miller Airpark in Ocean County, and one of 59 mph was recorded at Neshanic Station, according to the weather service’s Mount Holly office.
Neshanic Station is just across the county line here in Somerset County. It’s a sleepy little crossroads semi-rural kind of place, off the beaten track but only a mile or so from a major highway. Situated on the banks of the South Branch of the Raritan River, just a mile or two of where both north and south branches join and flow down to Rutgers, it was a mill town and a produce shipping point back in the long ago day.
There is a rather rare double span lenticular bridge there in perfect condition, with a very old derelict 2 span Pratt through truss RR bridge on one side, and a high plate girder RR bridge, still used daily, a bit downstream on the other side.
There are only about 100 lenticular bridges in the whole country, many are derelict now, and most of them are single span. Binghamton NY has a 3 span one, and Middlesex County CT has a 5 span one. All of these were built 135 years ago by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company.
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Sunday - August 02, 2020
Nobody Says The “B” Word. Or The “J” Word.
AirBnB To Restrict Party House Rentals In NJ
Airbnb has cracked down on “party houses” throughout the state of New Jersey as the world continues to attempt to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We stand with Governor (Phil) Murphy, and we support his call to action to stop parties and promote behavior that respects the public’s health,” said Chris Lehane, SVP of Global Policy & Communications for Airbnb. “We ban party houses and will not tolerate irresponsible behavior on our platform. We know that there is still more work to be done, we ask that neighbors contact us as soon as possible through our Neighborhood Support Hotline, to directly communicate any concerns, which will help us continue to effectively enforce our party house ban.”
As part of this, 35 listings across New Jersey that have received complaints or otherwise violated policies on parties and events have been either suspended or removed from the Airbnb platform, officials said.
Additionally, Airbnb recently shared out restrictions on some U.S. guests under the age of 25 from booking entire home listings in their local area. As a practical example, if they identify a 20-year old guest who is located in Hoboken, the systems are set up to restrict that user from booking a house, apartment or other entire home listing in Hoboken for a 1-night reservation the following weekend unless they have a history of positive reviews on Airbnb.
However, if that same 20 year-old is booking a stay to visit family in Ocean City, the restriction would not apply.
This kind of thing has been in the news quite a bit lately. It seems some folks have figured out that they can rent a nice place in suburbia for a night, put out ads in da hood, charge people to attend, and make a pile of quick money.
The party animals descend, cause an all night ruckus, trash the house, mess up the whole neighborhood, and go away. Streets parked solid, cars up on folk’s lawns, all kinds of misbehavior, fireworks, and often as not “random” gunfire.
Far be it for me to mention how certain types were prominent at nearly all of these events. Although if you read the stories carefully and ignore the “representational” picture in the above story ...
http://newjersey.news12.com/story/42415924/police-called-to-break-up-massive-mansion-party-with-over-700-in-attendance
“The party was reportedly held as a celebration of Liberian Independence Day and featured free food and alcohol and a twerking contest.”
https://patch.com/new-jersey/brick/2-arrests-officer-hurt-after-400-show-house-party-brick
“Darius Edwards, 24, of Brooklyn, has been charged with two counts of assault by auto, eluding, obstruction and possession of marijuana”
https://patch.com/new-jersey/brick/3-charged-after-party-airbnb-rental-draws-700-jackson-police
“Yaakov Weiss, 40, of Jackson, who owns the home, and Patience Guanue, 23, and Alicia Hinneh, 22, both of Newark, were issued summonses for violating the governor’s executive order limiting gatherings to 500 people or fewer “
“The party was advertised on Instagram as a “mansion party,” and included free food and alcohol”
“It took all of Jackson’s on-duty police officers, along with help from the Freehold, Howell and Lakewood police departments, New Jersey State Police, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, to clear the crowd”
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Saturday - August 01, 2020
NHL Stands Together
Nobody Kneels. Nobody.
Players from the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Dallas Stars, and Nashville Predators all stood to honor the playing of the national anthem in recent games.
Not one single player kneeled.
On Tuesday, players for the Flyers and Penguins stood together in solidarity before their exhibition opener in Toronto.
The respective teams stood together on the blue lines to show solidarity — and the Penguins made sure the message was clear.
In a tweet, the beloved Pittsburgh team wrote, “The Penguins and Flyers, two of the fiercest rivals in sports, united in solidarity this afternoon, to stand up against social injustice, racism, and hate.”
On Tuesday, NBC Sports reported that the Boston Bruins and the Columbus Blue Jackets had the same plans for their game Thursday night. And the two teams did, indeed, gather — arms linked — in a circle.
“Over the past several months we have been trying to educate ourselves and learn more about racial injustice in our country and around the world. As a team we have decided to lock arms during the playing of the United States and Canadian Anthems as a sign of solidarity with the Black community,” a spokesperson for the Bruins told the outlet.
“This action is solely intended to be a positive sign of support for the Black community, and a way for us to use our platform to help end racism,” the statement concluded.
I think it’s very important to note that these men are standing up and speaking up, not being disrespectful. And they’re not saying they’re supporting BLM, they’re supporting eliminating racial injustice.
And I’m fine with that. Granted, it’s an empty gesture. Especially in empty stadiums. But it’s better than nothing. Let’s see if they actually do anything more than this.
As long as they don’t go all nutso Aunt Jemima Syrup and AOC on everything. And don’t forget that racism works both ways.
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Thursday - July 23, 2020
another downpour
It’s raining again, unbelievably hard. And it’s almost time to leave for bowling. Of course!
Honestly, it’s hard to believe it’s raining this hard. I can hardly see across the backyard. Total deluge. There will be flooding.
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Wednesday - July 22, 2020
Birthday booze
So it’s Stephanie’s birthday today. Yay Steph. She’s 65. OMG. We’re going up there to visit and celebrate on Sunday, so I’ll do my weekend cleaning Saturday night. I’ve shifted my Thursday cleaning to Wednesday so I can do mini-summer bowling league. I think I like Wednesday better anyway.
It’s my brother’s birthday too, woo hoo. He’s younger than she is by a few. But we were up there this past weekend and did b-day then. Chocolate cake, ice cream, fresh sourdough bread.
I have no idea what to get her for a gift, but I think it’s high time her birthday got prominence. Everyone else’s does, except hers and mine. We always go over there to visit, and she cooks, serves, and cleans up. I know she likes to do that, and she’s a really good cook, but I’d like to give her a bit of celebratory respite, nome sane?
I suggested we get take out lobster, as you still can’t sit down to eat in a restaurant in their state or in mine. Such BS. And late July is THE time to get Maine lobsters. A nice 2 - 2 1/4 pounder would be perfect. With a few dozen steamers, some corn on the cob, blueberry pie and some blueberry muffins. Lots of melted butter. A real Maine clambake, hot coals and stones in a pit on the beach, layers of seaweed, and an old chunk of plywood over the hole. Rinse it down with Schlitz beer. Pure heaven. But no, he’s got gout these days, so no lobster for anyone. Crivens.
I remember that she used to like chocotinis. That was ages ago, easily 15 years. I know that booze is a bit impersonal, but other than new tennis or golf balls, what does she need? She gave up curling years ago, just after I found out where to get the big stone things they use. And I don’t think she does the off road bicycle thing anymore. I don’t think they go fly fishing anymore either. And Frank has a closet full of his fancy scotches, but what’s in there for her? So I’m thinking a broad spectrum chocotini kit just for her. Quality chocolate chips, a bar of high end dark chocolate, some Godiva liqueur, some Baily’s, a decent Triple Sec, a good vodka, Kahlua, white or dark creme de cacoa. Chocolate or vanilla vodka, or is that overkill? Because it turns out that there are as many recipes for chocotinis as there are for chicken. Infinite. So cover the bases? Who makes a chocolate shaver?
Guess I’ll have to find some beer and make pretzels. It’s expected that I show up with some kind of bread product. But I’m getting tired of making my 4 flour sourdough. And I’m not sure if an Entemann’s knock-off is the right thing. I haven’t made one yet, even though I have what looks to be a great recipe, and I don’t want to bring a first time bake anywhere, just in case. The pretzels I could make in my sleep, I’ve done them so many times. And they are world class good, but you have to eat them within a few hours of baking. Don’t know if the “newlyweds” are coming or not. They’re both retired now, so they can’t use the “we have to go down the shore every weekend to our beach shack” excuse anymore.
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on 07/22/2020 at 10:49 PM
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Monday - July 20, 2020
sap be gone
sometimes the internet is right about things. I had a bunch of sap drips on my car from parking under the pines. Rubbing alcohol took them off instantly. I used a clean microfiber towel, wet the end, and just rubbed them lightly. 99% gone. I’ve also read that a steam gun can do the job, but I haven’t tried that yet. And “claying” will get anything left. I don’t clay, so that’s out.
But the alcohol thing works pretty great, and it’s cheap. After I was done I went straight to the car wash around the corner, just in case alcohol wasn’t good to leave on the clearcoat for long.
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Saturday - July 18, 2020
still here, just busy
Not much to say, just got too many things to do. We started mini summer bowling league Thursday. It’s a no-tap league, which we weren’t aware of. Whatever, it’s still some practice time before winter league starts. It’s being done with social distancing, which makes things kind of strange. But we’ll manage, and as time goes by (fingers crossed) the restrictions will lessen. Yeah right.
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Thursday - July 16, 2020
Yesterday’s News Today!!
Been pretty busy around here lately, and I seem to get tired a lot faster than I used to, back in the day.
Bits And Pieces
Here ya go: Tall buildings are sexist. This is what passes as a college professor these days. Ignore the high cost of urban real estate, ignore the efficiency of multistory buildings. Nope, these things are built to celebrate erections. Whacko!!
You should have followed the process. UK removes illegally placed BLM statue after just 1 day. It’s a pretty good statue, although I don’t know if celebrating radicalism is a good thing. Actually, it turns out that Ms. Reid is just a person, one of the thousands who protested. But after the old statue of Edward Colston was torn down and drowned on June 7, she climbed the plinth and stood there looking all Black Power and had her picture taken. So it’s very symbolic. And, of course, by erecting the statue illegally, and having it taken down, more publicity is achieved, and the mantra of oppression and victimhood is enhanced.
I’m interested in how such a detailed and very lifelike statue was made so quickly. It’s resin, so my guess is it was either cast or created with one of those 3D printers, with data points collected by one of those 3D laser scanners. Or perhaps created by laser ablation of a solid block of material . Impressive technology, all of it.
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Another college professor spying for China, caught trying to run away with stolen data. China is asshoe. So is Song Guo Zheng.
Song Guo Zheng, 57, was arrested Friday, May 22, 2020 as he landed in Anchorage, Alaska. He was about to catch a flight to China when he was taken into custody.
According to the FBI, Zheng was involved in a scheme to use approximately $4.1 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to bolster China’s research in the areas of rheumatology and immunology. Zheng is also accused of making false statements to cover up his involvement with China while working at multiple universities, including Ohio State.
I didn’t know we had any flights going to China, not even from Alaska. I thought President Trump put a COVID stop to that a few months back.
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900 days running with no mishaps and NO CARBON EMISSIONS AT ALL . The Candu [ love the name. Can Do!! ] nuclear reactor works just fine. Wind power, solar power, tidal power just don’t cut it, and our nations have become too built up for any more hydroelectic dam projects. Nuke is the only way forward. We’ll just bury the spent fuel rods somewhere deep and stable, and let the radiation bacteria eat it up.
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George Floyd Officer’s Body Cam Footage Released (view by appointment only).. Transcripts of two of the involved officer’s cam footage were released the other day. Floyd was stoned out of his head, uncooperative, COVID positive, multiple co-morbidities, overdosing on fentanyl. Still, the cops should have found some better way to restrain him. Always consider the optics.
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Something to read, an essay of the obvious at American Greatness.
In a way never seen before, America has gone mad.
The Democratic Party, having left the likes of Henry Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan far behind, is being steered by the ideology of Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. It’s in thrall to a Maoist mob. It’s tacitly (and sometimes not so tacitly) accepting wholesale destructiveness. It’s in bed with the Black Lives Matter terrorist group, contributions to which end up in party coffers. While the party lets Bolshevik bullies get away with violence, it vilifies decent citizens who try to defend themselves and demonizes cops who simply want to do their job.
...
We can’t even be sure that the best president of modern times will win reelection over a doddering fool in thrall to our society’s most dangerous elements.
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I smell a push for more gun control coming. NJ Governor Alarmed By Increase In Shootings
Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday he’s concerned about a sharp increase in fatal shootings amid the coronavirus outbreak.
...
Col. Patrick J. Callahan, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said the state’s fatal shootings have increased 19 percent over last year’s year-to-date number, rising from 84 to 100 victims.
He said there were 39 shooting victims within the past week, with 13 succumbing to their injuries.
...
Murphy said New Jersey is “not immune to what we’re seeing around the country in terms of this lethal cocktail of being pent up,” with people coming to grips with closures and unemployment amid the hot summer.
Murphy said New Jersey, like the rest of the nation, is dealing with the fallout over the death of George Floyd, and the country is showing anger and frustration over the lingering “stain of racism.”
“The cocktail could not be more challenging,” Murphy said. “You’ve got gobs of people out of work. You’ve got small businesses that have been crushed.”
Murphy said many people also face numerous mental and physical health challenges as they deal with the consequences of the pandemic.
“That’s almost an unprecedented combination of factors,” he said.
Meanwhile, movie theaters in the state lost their bid to reopen, while more states have been added to NJ’s quarantine list. Also meanwhile, the state is investigating a fatal police shooting. Suicide by cop, the Morristown police had to shoot a guy who had sliced himself and was threatening his mother with a gun. OK, it was an Airsoft gun, but those things look totally real. Especially if you paint over the orange band.
The man fatally shot by police on Tuesday in Morris Township was brandishing an “airsoft” pistol that resembled a Beretta firearm, the state Attorney General’s Office said on Wednesday.
Timothy O’Shea, 24, died at 5:41 pm at Morristown Medical Center, according to a statement from authorities.
Police from Morris Township, Morris Plains and Morristown had responded to a 911 call at 4:14 pm reporting a domestic disturbance on Fairchild Avenue. The caller said a person at the residence had cut himself and had a gun.
“Uniformed officers of the three police departments responded to the residence on Fairchild Avenue where Timothy O’Shea lived. Upon arrival, officers encountered the 911 caller and took that person into safety.
“Shortly after, at approximately 4:19 p.m., officers encountered Timothy O’Shea, who was holding a pistol and bleeding. During the encounter, one officer fired his weapon, striking Mr. O’Shea,” the statement said.
Police rendered medical aid until EMS personnel arrived to transport him to the hospital. The pistol that was in O’Shea’s hand was a replica Beretta 9mm airsoft pistol, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Replica airsoft pistols resemble the real thing, but they fire plastic projectiles. Airsoft weapons use a gas propellant and are similar to BB guns, but their less-harmful ammunition has made them popular for target practice, war games, and police- and military training.
By federal law, imitations of real guns are required to have orange-colored plugs on their barrels to set them apart. It was not immediately clear if this weapon had such a marking.
There was no riot, no protest, and the story hardly made even the local news, because O’Shea was white. Tru dat!
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Meanwhile, way down the shore in Wildwood Nj, an obviously edited Rodney King style video is getting people upset. He dindu nuttin, as usual. But the end of the vid does look like police abuse.
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Monday - July 06, 2020
Fiat Lux
A Less Than Bright Idea?
I finally got around to changing the bulb in one of the recessed light fixtures in our bathroom. It’s been out for months. With all these 3rd generation LED bulbs, they last so long I don’t even remember where the spares are kept. So after looking through the closets and drawers, I remembered that I’d see a pack of them out in the gigantic mess we call our garage when I was looking for some tool or something last week. So I went out and got them. A little dusty, the generic package unlabeled and slightly water stained. Brought them in the house, took one out and screwed it in. And the instant I did that the lights went out.
Aw crooop, what have I done?
So I spent a few minutes using the flashlight from my cellphone to check all the breakers, and then realized that power was out to the whole place. Power was out to the whole condo park. It had happened at that exact instant.
We had a line squall moving in; the wind kicked up from nothing, clouds sprang up, the sky got dark, the temperature dropped 15° in a couple of minutes ... and then the downpour began. One of those short intense summer rains, it was over in a couple minutes. And then the power came back on. So I checked the bulb, and it was working just fine. Yay me.
But what is this, why is it so yellow? Reach up to check it, and the thing is hot! WTH? And then I figured it out: this was an actual lightbulb. Not an LED, not a CFL, not one of those halogens masquerading as a bulb, but an actual incandescent lightbulb. 60 watts, 770 lumens, Sylvania. How many years has that thing been around? They were dead and gone ages before we moved in here 8+ years ago the day before Hurricane Sandy. They went away under Bush 43, right? 2006 or before? Wow. It felt like a “hey let me take my other car” moment and finding an Egyptian chariot in the garage. Something from antiquity.
It’s a nice comforting light. Let’s see if it lasts. IIRC, those old bulbs had a life measured in hours, not in decades. And there’s only one left in the pack.
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Wednesday - July 01, 2020
Speed Blogging
Sorry, no time for this today. Here’s a few links to news stories
• Scientists cure lab mice with Parkinson’s by accident. This could be big, but it will take lots more R&D.
• Summer snow dumps 6-8” in high rockies. Must be global warming again.
• CHOP gets the chop in Seattle. Plenty arrests made. I’d treat them as invaders or traitors. Either way, here’s the gallows.
• Harvey Weinstein buys his way out. $19 million, cases dropped. Did you every really believe #MeToo was about anything other than money??
• China is asshoe. Hong Kong eaten up like Dim Sum. Life under communism: new “security” law is ex post facto. Bye bye freedom.
• And the arrests in Hong Kong begin. China reneges on agreement made 20 years ago. And this is a surprise to whom??
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
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GNU Terry Pratchett
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.