Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Feel free to talk about anything you think is newsworthy or might interest readers.
I’ll start:
Demonstrating feigned and craven ignorance to the fact that abortion is politics, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttiegieg (and mayor of South Bend, Ind.) says he doesn’t want the issue politicized in light of the ghastly news that more than 2,000 fetal remains were discovered at the home of a notorious, now-deceased Indiana abortionist. This as he politicizes it himself:
Law-enforcement officials announced Friday that they had found 2,246 “medically preserved” aborted fetuses in the Illinois home of the late abortionist Ulrich “George” Klopfer, who ran a number of abortion clinics in Indiana and Illinois and died September 3.
“Like everyone, I find that news out of Illinois extremely disturbing, and I think it’s important that that be fully investigated,” Buttigieg said after several days of silence on the matter. “I also hope it doesn’t get caught up in politics at a time when women need access to health care. There’s no question that what happened is disturbing. It’s unacceptable. And it needs to be looked into fully.”
Second news item: Trump pounces:
This is the real and only story! pic.twitter.com/4z8eOcm6PA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2019
Third news item: Claiming it’s a defensive move is the administration’s justification for sending US troops to Saudi America after the attacks on oil sites:
The United States is deploying military forces to the Middle East after Saturday’s drone attacks on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia that the administration of President Donald Trump has blamed on Iran…”The president has approved the deployment of U.S. forces which will be defensive in nature and primarily focused on air and missile defense,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said at a news conference Friday…Answering reporters’ questions about the deployment, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the troop deployment as “modest” and “not thousands.”…Esper said troops would be primarily focused on air and missile defenses…The United States will also accelerate shipment of military hardware to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, he said.
Iran warns, don’t even think about it:
“Our readiness to respond to any aggression is definitive,” Maj-Gen Hossein Salami told state media on Saturday. “We will never allow a war to enter our land.”
“We will pursue any aggressor,” he continued. “We will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor.”
Fourth news item: California dreaming turns into a nightmare as San Francisco alone has an estimated 4,000 people who are mentally ill and addicted to drugs, and innocent residents continue to pay the price for the failures of their elected officials:
Teresa Man was walking from her apartment near Fourth and Brannan streets to an 8 a.m. coffee meeting in the Financial District on the morning of Friday, Sept. 13. Like on every workday, she strolled up Third Street past the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. But this particular commute turned frightening.
She first saw the disheveled man wearing mismatched shoes — a black Adidas sneaker on his left foot and a black sandal on his right foot — pressing his face into the glass of the museum gift shop.
He, too, noticed her attire: a black sundress with white flowers in preparation for the stifling heat that would reach 94 degrees that afternoon. He asked Man what kind of flowers were on her dress and whether she had smelled them. She thought his questions were weird, and she rushed along.
Then, Man said, he told her, “I just want to smell your flowers,” grabbed her, pressed his nose and mouth into her breasts and attempted to remove her dress and bra.
“I screamed and said, ‘Get the f— off me!’” recounted the 28-year-old designer at a startup. She ran north on Third Street, and the man followed her. She told him she’d call the police if he didn’t leave her alone. He laughed and said, “The cops aren’t going to do nothing,” she recalled.
It’s one more terrifying encounter — seemingly fueled by drugs or untreated mental illness — in a city struggling to respond to these twin crises in any comprehensive, coherent way.
There are too few mental health beds. Too few drug treatment beds. A clogged psychiatric emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital that quickly releases people back to the streets. A criminal justice system that seems more intent on shifting blame than ensuring the public is safe. A mayor and board adding some new beds here and creating a task force there, but not making big change.
And finally, let’s end on a thankful note, shall we? After all, how blessed are Americans that we have such an abundance of free time that individuals can dream up and participate in some extraordinary creative mental gymnastics just to ensure that democracy doesn’t dies in darkness:
The two are separated by race, gender and more than 100 years of history that forged an America that would probably be unrecognizable to Douglass. Still, experts say, their use of photography collapses the distance: Douglass sat for scores of pictures to normalize the idea of black excellence and equality, and Warren’s thousands of selfies with supporters could do the same for a female president.
Have a great weekend.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (05f22b) — 9/21/2019 @ 11:47 amKudos to the Trump team for a very effective ad.
JVW (54fd0b) — 9/21/2019 @ 12:08 pmit’s almost sad to see skippy, fumble so badly, almost:
https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/20/beto-o-rourkes-criticized-reddit-ama/
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 12:39 pmrip ben ali, first toppled arab spring leader,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 12:48 pmDon’t we have enough people in the middle east already? It’s been almost 20 years and we are adding more? Yeah, it seems like a great idea to get unnecessarily involved in an issue between Saudi Arabia (who raised most of the 9/11 terrorists, is full of Wahabists, oppresses it’s women, and murders journalist) and Iran (another bad-guy theocracy).
Nic (896fdf) — 9/21/2019 @ 12:51 pmI tacked this on to the debate thread, (what a dumpsterfire)
http://www.journal14.com/2019/09/20/what-was-the-purpose/
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 12:56 pmsince her career was launched on a similar sliming, it doesn’t surprise me,
https://nypost.com/2019/09/18/jill-abramsons-pathetic-defense-for-the-times-brett-kavanaugh-bungle/
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:22 pmNo way should we be sending more troops to a useless continent. Bring them all home unless they start paying billions for our protecting your sorry behinds. F the Saudis Trump.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:24 pmThank you DRJ for starting the open thread and Dana for continuing as well as Patterico.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:26 pmwe were lucky the damage was not as extensive, and we’ve taken ‘drill baby drill’ as a policy, as much as the Hawaiian judges can allow, but this was a wakeup call,
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSB2N24901A
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:36 pm“Saudi America”?
LOL
Dave (c83234) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:42 pmEven comparing Warren to the fabulous Sunset Boulevard is ridiculous. I know that you’re making a selfie joke, but Warren is so outclassed by Norma Desmond that it isn’t funny.
And the gap between Warren and Douglass is cosmic. About like Trump and Lincoln.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:46 pmNo way should we be sending more troops to a useless continent. Bring them all home unless they start paying billions for our protecting your sorry behinds. F the Saudis Trump.
There is no such thing as “far away” any more. Hasn’t been for 100 years. Kill them there, or fight them here.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:49 pmI wonder if the WaPo will use the closer comparison: Kamala Harris vs Debbie of Dallas.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:50 pmor properly since September 11th, now we had a local crime story with an Iraqi air craft mechanic, with a whole basket of Islamic state videos, at Miami international airport,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:58 pmSpeaking of Fauxcahontas:
Elizabeth Warren Hires Lobbyist One Day After Releasing Plan Calling Lobbying ‘Legalized Bribery’
https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/19/elizabeth-warren-hires-lobbyist/
harkin (dc1411) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:00 pmAnd a few more items that caught my eye recently:
Bankrupt Illinois Cities Forced To Cut Services To Fund Pensions
“Back when Harvey was first intercepted last year, Wirepoints reported that comptroller confiscations could wreak havoc on hundreds of Illinois communities, potentially creating a domino effect. Hundreds of Illinois’ 650 pension funds have not received their statutorily required contributions from their respective cities in recent years, meaning the intercept law could go into wide usage under a broader crisis scenario. In the most recent analysis of Illinois Department of Revenue data, nearly half of the 650 funds were not properly funded in 2017 (see details below).
That domino effect could be exacerbated given that municipalities have virtually no control over their own pension funds. State law sets all the rules and pensions are protected by the Illinois Constitution, meaning that in a market downturn, the pension funds may have little choice but to demand more intercepts.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bankrupt-illinois-cities-forced-cut-services-fund-pensions
harkin (dc1411) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:04 pm_
“And the gap between Warren and Douglass is cosmic.”
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 1:46 pm
But not as wide as the gap between Warren and Sacagawea.
Munroe (732181) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:05 pmI think it was part of the deal when they gave him that fancy necklace for bowing to their king.
Dave (c83234) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:06 pm@13 So we should go over and defend a country full of people who already have made multiple terrorist attacks in our country against people who seem most interested in dangerously mucking around in their own neighborhood? Both countries are lousy and no realpolitik is going to make the Saudis actually like us. They are using us and we are letting ourselves be used.
Nic (896fdf) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:06 pmThis definitely isn’t for everyone (it’s not brief) but I liked it:
A Philosopher’s Reflection On AGW Denial
https://judithcurry.com/2019/09/11/a-philosphers-reflections-on-agw-denial/
harkin (dc1411) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:11 pmIts terrible how mann and co, have poisoned tge mhe well.
Narciso (181de5) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:13 pm@20 Just as in Afghanistan, the choice isn’t between the present, extremely flawed, regime and the Rotary Club.
The choice is between the present regime and the even worse one that will replace them if the militant Islamofascists drive them from power.
Things can always get worse, and they will if we let them.
Dave (c83234) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:20 pmSHOT
“After the recent CNN “Climate Change Townhall,” one gets the impression that the candidates are no longer running against Trump but instead running against beef.
Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang both called for either cutting back meat consumption dramatically or even nudging most of the world to go vegetarian completely. Beto O’Rourke says people who eat meat are part of the problem—and Cory Booker went full veggie a long time ago.”
_
CHASER
harkin (dc1411) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:20 pmJosh Perry🤘
@MrJoshPerry
There’s some great irony to be had in Democratic candidates all pouring into a steak fry the day after a climate march and a week after lecturing us about the beef industry and its carbon emissions.
_
It looks like the folks who wrote that WaPo ad for Warren were too busy fawning over her to realize their piece calls slavery a myth.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1175492412564738048
harkin (dc1411) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:29 pm@23 Who do you think is in power in Saudi Arabia?
Nic (896fdf) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:30 pmSo Elizabeth Warren is smashing stereotypes like Frederick Douglass? I thought Jim Thorpe had already smashed those stereotypes.
Jerryskids (702a61) — 9/21/2019 @ 2:48 pmmg and Paul Montagu can agree on one thing this afternoon – the Washinton Huskies defeating BYU who actually has a receiver named G. ROMNEY.
urbanleftbehind (13f7b5) — 9/21/2019 @ 3:11 pmI think it was late last year that it first occurred to me that what really bothered me about the Kermit Gosnell horror show was that, since it never occurred to the Pro-Choice establishment in PA that they HAD to address the Gosnell situation before somebody else exposed it, it seemed likely that Gosnell wasn’t the only ghoul they were protecting.
I’m in favor of legal abortion, for reasons that I don’t expect to convince anyone on either side. But I expect to see abortion banned in many states in my lifetime. Why? Because Pro-Choice advocates have the political sense of baby ducks.
Hey, morons! You HAVE to be the ones to bring this stuff to light, because if somebody else does, the Pro-Life side is going to beat you like a gong with it.
C. S. P. Schofield (9eb8bc) — 9/21/2019 @ 3:15 pmwell 1) their excuse is klopfer and tiller and Gosnell, are what happens if abortion is outlawed, and they cite Romania, in the last case ridge was very deferential, 2) they know the press will keep the story under wraps, as much as their able to 3) just another defeat for breeder deplorable,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 3:20 pmthe coverage does miss one big angle,
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/291550/team-iran
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 3:23 pm27… “Jim Thorpe, All American” was on TCM yesterday evening. As high schoolers, we always enjoyed it even more, as one of our football and track coaches made his debut as Little Boy Who Walks Like Bear, coach Jack Big Head.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/21/2019 @ 3:26 pmI’m surprised the Cal Bears were allowed to travel to Mississippi.
Munroe (732181) — 9/21/2019 @ 3:39 pmMichigan getting walloped by Wisconsin? 21 points,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 3:54 pmAin’t this God’s honest truth… https://static.pjmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-20-at-8.44.23-PM.png
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/21/2019 @ 4:11 pmthe crazy years, coronello, I don’t think even Heinlein saw how crazy it would become, well the ‘the year of the jackpot’ suggests some of this,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 4:14 pmpostscript from 1985:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7489275/Greek-police-arrest-man-suspected-1985-TWA-hijacking.html
narciso (d1f714) — 9/21/2019 @ 4:18 pm35 – Col.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/21/2019 @ 4:36 pmUnbelievable. It is a perverted way to bastardize athletics.
@colonal Haiku
Good evening, sir, and good points.
However, as we have already seen, exposure of abattoirs like Gosnell’s can be used to pass restrictive regulation, such as requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges to a hospital. When that came up in, I believe, Texas, the Pro-Choice advocates whined and moaned that this would close down almost all existing abortion providers. Yes. That was the point. But the horror of Gosnell’s Grand Guignol clinic and the callous way he treated women who should have been hospitalized combined with the way Pro-Choice authorities in PA ignored the problem for a decade, made for great Pro-Life theatre.
Yes, this is EXACTLY the kind of operation that legal abortion was supposed tp stop. And since it apparently didn’t, and since the Choice advocates apparently don’t care, one has to ask if making abortion more restricted is a politically defensible strategy.
Seriously, people, if you want abortion to be legal, and you know of a clinic that should be on AMERICAN HORROR STORY, you need to get that clinic either cleaned up or closed down.
The next disaster I expect to hear about will be some self-righteous idiots smuggling a minor across State lines to evade Parental Notification law…and the girl dying. Abortion is not safe. There can be complications, sometimes deadly ones. And WHEN this hopefully theoretical girl dies, so will any chance of defeating Parental Notification…and that won’t be the only loss.
In a representative political system, being right and righteous simply isn’t enough. You also have to be persuasive. And turning a blind eye to operations that WILL be exposed and WILL cost you dearly when they are, is pinheaded.
C. S. P. Schofield (9eb8bc) — 9/21/2019 @ 4:40 pmStephen Miller
@redsteeze
INT. Wash Post Editorial
“Guys, Elizabeth Warren has a photo line. What’s a good angle on this?”
“She’s just like Fredrick Douglas?”
“Perfect. Run with that.”
harkin (58d012) — 9/21/2019 @ 4:43 pmhttps://twitter.com/nypost/status/1175192333589106688/photo/1
mg (8cbc69) — 9/21/2019 @ 4:50 pmha
Reminds me a bit of the classic SNL skit with the All-Drug Olympics.
Dave (1bb933) — 9/21/2019 @ 6:02 pmNote- don’t forget, for that performance, Swanson got herself a nomination; Warren could very well get a nomination, too. But Liz best remember Gloria was denied the win.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/21/2019 @ 7:20 pmGloria had personality
Narciso (181de5) — 9/21/2019 @ 7:43 pmhttps://medium.com/the-hairpin/scandals-of-classic-hollywood-the-gloria-swanson-saga-part-one-e2d29b36eac2
Justin Trudeau’s new Twitter pic is himself talking to a black person.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ComfortablySmug/status/1175616121245962241
harkin (58d012) — 9/21/2019 @ 10:33 pm_
pensions are protected by the Illinois Constitution, meaning that in a market downturn, the pension funds may have little choice but to demand more intercepts.”
And this will last exactly so long as voters tolerate it and no longer.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 11:24 pmThe choice is between the present regime and the even worse one that will replace them if the militant Islamofascists drive them from power.
We should have backed the Shah in ’78. Instead, Jimmy Carter went to Iran and stabbed him in the back. Was the Shah a nice guy? Not by our standards, no, but he
1) shipped us oil during the Arab Oil Boycott, making many enemies in the region
2) was committed to secular education and society, making many enemies among the clergy
3) was committed to women’s rights and equality before the law, making many enemies here too
But he also had a secret police and was autocratic — just like everyone else in the region who did none of the above.
So, when Jimmy stabbed him in the back it sent a message: don’t trust the United States. And we’ve been pretty consistent in sending it over the years.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 11:33 pmWarren is so outclassed by Norma Desmond that it isn’t funny
Norma Desmond also had a better grasp of reality.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 11:34 pmFall of heaven, says the revolution could have been forestalled even by that date, of course the shah was gravely ill at that point,
Narciso (181de5) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:32 amMonster MashImpossibleThey were working in the lab, late one eve
Just Jules and Bruce and a guy named Steve
Their vile concoction began to rise
And suddenly to their surprise
Impossible… did the impossible
Made it from plants, called it impossible
Not fit for ants, eminently tossable
Burger from plants, called it impossible
From the laboratory to the Burger King
In the boardrooms it became a thing
The news guy said you can’t tell the diff
He’s smokin’ crack, I took a sniff
Impossible… did the impossible
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/22/2019 @ 6:14 amMade it from plants, called it impossible
Not fit for ants, eminently tossable
Burger from plants, called it impossible
Giulina was just on Fox News Sunday talking about what he did. He gets in that Hunter Biden (along with people connected to Kerry and the nephew of Whitey Bulger too money and Hunter Biden got even more money out of China than Ukraine. Biden took his son along with him on a trip to China. Giuliani is skeptical that Hunter Biden didn’t discuss with his father what he’d accomplished.
Sammy Finkelman (9a15c6) — 9/22/2019 @ 7:33 amIt;s not that they should have backed teh Shah. It’s that they shouldn’t have told the military not to do acoup.
And the same thing George W. Bush in Venezuela in 2002.
Sammy Finkelman (9a15c6) — 9/22/2019 @ 7:35 am46. Kevin M (19357e) — 9/21/2019 @ 11:24 pm
What can they legally do?
I think maybe they could dissolve the city government and have its duties taken over by the county, or vice versa.
Sammy Finkelman (9a15c6) — 9/22/2019 @ 7:36 amAnd that was foolish he should have recognized the coup, now they shouldnt have let chavez go, disnt they learn anything from panama in 89?
Narciso (5a21f8) — 9/22/2019 @ 9:41 amWhat can they legally do?
They can, directly or indirectly, replace judges until courts read the Constitution differently.
They can replace elected officials until they change the Constitution.
They can, should government become destructive of their rights, alter or to abolish it, and institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/22/2019 @ 12:10 pmFiveThirtyEight
@FiveThirtyEight
Here’s the best place to move if you’re worried about climate change.
__ _
Stand up and give me a Hug Big Boy
@theuncommonfan
Don’t click. Read this, realize they don’t really believe it, and move on:
“Matthew Kahn has dreamed about buying a climate change retreat. If anybody would know where to go, you’d think it would be an environmental economist who literally wrote the book on which cities will adapt to a warming world and how they’ll do it. But rather than investing in land that’s safe from the risks of coastal flooding, midwestern downpours and crippling drought — Kahn was thinking Bozeman, Mont. — he’s instead settling into a new job in Baltimore, a city that’s expected to be flooding daily by the end of the century.”
__ _
2100, now that’s what I call planning ahead.
harkin (58d012) — 9/22/2019 @ 2:49 pm_
That seems kind of silly. I’m relatively certain I’ll be dead by the end of the century and won’t care what happens to my house. Probably no one should try to figure out what I do or don’t really believe will be happening in 2100 by where I live now.
Nic (896fdf) — 9/22/2019 @ 4:46 pmI live near Albuquerque, elevation 5400 ft. I’m not worried. You could hit the Pacific with a comet and it would not splash here. Might get cold though.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:05 pmThinning the herd. https://news.yahoo.com/us-man-drowns-while-proposing-underwater-tanzania-150021616.html
nk (dbc370) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:08 pmWoohoo! Emmy night!
BEST BRIBERY:
[ ] Felicity Huffman
[ ] William H. Macy
[ ] Lori Laughlin
[ ] Cher
And the Emmy goes to…
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:14 pmWhat did posterity ever do for me? When the whiny little sh!ts contribute something to the world, they can demand to have that preserved. Right now, it’s the grownups’ world and we’ll do what we want with it, and if there’s anything left over for the little gender-fluids they can discover a practicable alternative to fossil fuels for it themselves. Until then, they should just shut up and be grateful that we keep them around for anything more than an emergency food supply.
nk (dbc370) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:16 pm59 -should have had Mike Nelson of Sea Hunt propose for him.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:19 pmWhen harriet tubman who had been physically restrained from joining john brown’s direct action against slavery asked frederick douglas hey bro why weren’t you with john brown at harpers ferry? Douglas replied “I was always better at running then I was at fighting and I will say no more in my defense.”
lany (ffeb76) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:31 pm55. Kevin M (19357e) — 9/22/2019 @ 12:10 pm
Rhode Island did that, or maybe trued to do that, in 1842. It failed but it succeeded.
I think chanigng the Illinois constitution is a long drawn out process, and coudn’t solve an emergency. If they have to do anything, they’d dissolve all the local governments that owe too muxh money.
Sammy Finkelman (9a15c6) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:35 pmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorr_Rebellion
Sammy Finkelman (9a15c6) — 9/22/2019 @ 5:49 pmWe used to do a college football discussion so I offer this NSFW Ole Miss fan giving his opinion of the players from UC Berkeley: https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/22/fan-fk-you-you-communist-motherfkers-cal-ole-miss/
steveg (354706) — 9/22/2019 @ 6:54 pmNo word on how many beers were involved in this loss of composure
steveg (354706) — 9/22/2019 @ 6:56 pm“Scoreboard, cracka.”
Dave (1bb933) — 9/22/2019 @ 7:06 pmI guess the Cal players had to pay for their own travel and expenses, Mississippi being on the boycott list.
Munroe (732181) — 9/22/2019 @ 7:24 pmIf an NFL player, let’s say a wide receiver, decides to go back to college and become a brain surgeon, or a rocket scientist, or just pursue an Art major with a French minor, does he recover his amateur status?
nk (dbc370) — 9/22/2019 @ 7:47 pmIt all depends on him making sure he keeps the French minor at arm’s length.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/22/2019 @ 7:50 pmMore thinning of the herd: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/22/763194831/3-are-dead-and-4-hospitalized-from-drug-overdoses-pittsburgh-police-say
nk (dbc370) — 9/22/2019 @ 8:09 pmI don’t think calling him “cracka”… which is racist, because he pointed out his version of a perceived political ideology, makes much sense.
steveg (354706) — 9/22/2019 @ 8:12 pmThat said, I doubt the final scoreboard has anything to say about communism, or not.
“Cracka” is racist and has a lot to say about the user
Pittsburgh police just received a text from Darwin… “shut up and let me do my work.”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/22/2019 @ 8:13 pmConfluence of topics
Kishnevi (f2c02a) — 9/22/2019 @ 8:20 pmEx Wikipedia
And (as you all know) the n word is a corruption of the spanish word for black. of course I condemn all spaniards, not out of principle, but because I’m not one and they make an easy target.
steveg (354706) — 9/22/2019 @ 10:27 pmI found it informative that because a guy from the south yelled “communist” at a football game, the response “cracka” seemed appropriate. Last time I looked, aversion to particular political ideology did not rise to the order of a “racist” response.
If you want more Trump keep it up…. not because of the dreaded “whitelash” but because they are sick of being misdiagnosed by the self righteous…
nk
steveg (354706) — 9/22/2019 @ 10:38 pmGo back and take business courses, make contacts with the most successful of the classmates. Pro move.
Then pursue the art major, french minor. Pro move. (Hell, finish your degree in Queer Studies) just don’t quit football at 25 with less than $2m in the bank to put on that Queer studies sheepskin
Even Mediaite concludes that Trump’s “this is the real and only story” tweet is FakeNews.
Paul Montagu (f2c051) — 9/22/2019 @ 10:58 pmThe allegation that Joe Biden had Shokin fired to protect Hunter Biden is FakeNews.
I’m not sure what put in my comment into moderation. The words “fake” and “news” put together, perhaps?
Paul Montagu (f2c051) — 9/22/2019 @ 11:09 pmI guess Patterico U. runs on the quarters system (mid-Sept to early June in most cases) – #77 might be the first week’s assignment in S%!t-Posting 101.
In that vein, that’s probably only way to juice up UCLA’s abysmal home attendance numbers – book a really unwoke SEC/ACC/C-USA program (or one with “New England Patriot” style roster construction) or a school like Liberty U. and let the crazies have at it.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 9/23/2019 @ 3:50 amhttps://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/09/23/this-will-totally-destroy-trump-volume-mcxxxvii-n2553455
mg (8cbc69) — 9/23/2019 @ 4:00 amLaughing at the never trump flock.
Meh! If we don’t get Trump for this, we’ll get him because Melania’s dress at the Australian state dinner did not make a statement.
Nope. I only wish I was kidding, it is for real. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/style/melania-trump-dress-state-dinner.html
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2019 @ 5:33 amOn the other hand, the Kardashians were ditz-shamed at the Emmys, so there’s still some spark of something (I’m not sure what, though) still left even among those people.
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2019 @ 5:39 amThis is probably of no interest to anyone other than me, but this is an open thread.
I’m currently reading Harold Bloom’s The Visionary Company: A Reading of the English Romantics. As a scholar, Bloom’s knowledge of mythology, literature, poetry, philosophy, and history is encyclopedic, and I admire his work, although I disagree with him on some of the finer points of literary criticism. (He’s a bit to psychoanalytical, and unlike Freud, he gets Shakespeare wrong. That the true poet/playwright was Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, thus Bloom’s reading of Hamlet is misguided, as the play is autobiographical.)
I majored in the Romantics in graduate school and wrote my thesis on Blake. I chose Southwest Texas State for my master’s degree, planning to return to the University of Texas, where I got my bachelor’s degree, to pursue a PhD. UT houses the most extensive collection of letters, manuscripts, and first editions by the Romantics in the world. One would think that those would be kept at Oxford or Cambridge or the British Library, some place like that, but in the early eighties H. Ross Perot bought a library collection from England for $11 million and donated it to UT. The collection is kept at the fourth floor of the Humanities Research Center, under incredibly tight security. (The reason for that is because back in seventies, the son of legendary football coach Daryl Royal had stolen handwritten notes by Einstein and got busted trying to hock them at a pawn shop; it was a huge scandal, and after that the HRC clamped down on security.)
Because I was an alumnus and had recommendations from my professors at SWT, I was allowed access to the collection, even got to study Copy O of Blake’s Songs of Innocence. That’s kept in a vault. I had to walk through a metal detector, get scanned, and could only take a legal pad, a pencil, and a magnifying glass with me into the room. The HRC makes the TSA look like amateurs. It was worth it though, because to actually hold a Blake in my hands and study it for two hours was life-changing. The lines so sharp, the colors so bright, it inspired me like no other work of art, except for maybe Van Gogh’s Starry Nights or Mozart’s 40th symphony. The experience was so extraordinary that it took months to process, but after much research ultimately led to my thesis: Blake’s illuminating book is the direct contrary to Leibniz’s calculating machine–the four-fold arts of poetry, painting, music, and architecture vs. the four-fold acts of mathematics, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. To which belongs the greater power? I’ll take art over math every time.
I got to survey the entire collection, though not as closely. Among it is Byron’s manuscript of Don Juan. I’ve always favored Blake, Coleridge, and Keats; Shelley to a lesser extent, Wordsworth even less; but I never much cared for Byron. Now I know why.
I came across this review of a new book his private life.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7488191/The-secret-appetite-drove-Byron-addiction-sex.html
Anorexia, binging a purging, adultery, incest, promiscuity, bisexuality, pederasty, this guy was seriously perverted.
It just goes to show that long before Weinstein and Epstein, there was Byron. And Casanova. And so many others. King James was getting down and dirty with the Duke of Buckingham, while his version of the Bible was being translated to appease the Puritans.
Sexual perversion is unique among humans in the Animal Kingdom. This is true. In Nature, sexual perversion only occurs under circumstances of extreme environmental distress. It’s aberrant behavior brought about by stressful conditions. Among humans, it’s casual behavior in stress-free conditions.
Something to think about.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 9/23/2019 @ 7:14 amIts about sin, that three letter word, we dont acknowledge, of course byron was a romantic, which in keeping with a disdain for limits or rules, in politics its the popular will view of riusseau which almost always ends in blood.
Narciso (ff6b13) — 9/23/2019 @ 7:20 amSome party changing is going on in North Georgia. I am not sure you GOP folk are all that happy to see this lot of former Democrats joining the party.
https://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/facebook-post-triggers-democratic-revolt-northwest-georgia-county/vZzsNBz7vWIxRZZ7ZC2UtN/
Appalled (d07ae6) — 9/23/2019 @ 7:47 amI am not sure you GOP folk are all that happy to see this lot of former Democrats joining the party.
Why? Their complaints (being against having their families threatened for not liking Antifa) seem reasonable.
Kevin M (19357e) — 9/23/2019 @ 10:54 am@83 That sounds like a really cool experience! Personally I’ve also always liked Blake and Coleridge while not being fond of Byron. He was a user and I’ve never had a thing for the mad, bad, or dangerous to know.
As are a human aberrations, we aren’t that different than animals in a lot of our behaviors if you put animals under similarly stressors with access to similar resources, even if we do tend to be more, um, creative.
Nic (896fdf) — 9/23/2019 @ 11:16 am(As far as…) I don’t even know what happened with that second line.
Nic (896fdf) — 9/23/2019 @ 11:17 amMost of white Southern Republicans are former Democrats.
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2019 @ 11:18 amJust the link is all you need to read: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/learning/lesson-of-the-day-protesting-climate-change-young-people-take-to-streets-in-a-global-strike.html
A strike? A strike is when you have a job you won’t go to. What’s the job the little mooches are striking against? Browsing the internet on their iPhones and playing with their gender bits?
nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2019 @ 11:29 amnk @90 nk (dbc370) — 9/23/2019 @ 11:29 am
School.
The strike took place last Friday.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 9/23/2019 @ 12:20 pmBilNew Yorlk Mayor Bill De Blasio dropped out of the presidential race on Friday. He didn’t even come close to meeting the croteria for the 4th debate (which is the same as for the 3rd debate, except maybe for the dates of some polls and the deadline to raise money for 130,000 unique donors.)
The New York Post and New York Daily News had semi-funny headlines.
The deadline for making the 4th debate is October 1 and the debate will be held I think oc October 14 or maybe split iif there are eleven.
For the fifth debate the croteria will be 165,000 unique donors, including a minimum of 600 donors per state in at least 20 states and 3 percent (up from 2 percent) in four or more qualifying polls or (new way to get in) 5 percent in two single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 9/23/2019 @ 12:25 pmhttps://beachgrit.com/video/watch-jack-robinson-in-my-twelve-hour-barrel-bender-the-wave-is-an-animal-its-wild/
mg (8cbc69) — 9/23/2019 @ 3:00 pmEnjoy!
Big Mo!
Tulsi Gabbard scores two percent in an Iowa poll and is now just one poll away from qualifying for the next Dem debate.
Keep hope alive, JVW!
Dave (1bb933) — 9/23/2019 @ 5:26 pm@88 Yes, it was a really cool experience. The rest of the collection I only got to observe in glass display cases, which was pretty cool, but to actually hold Songs of Innocence and be able to study it with a magnifying glass for two hours was mind-blowing. Honestly, I didn’t have any idea of what to expect. I mean, first I had to prove that I was a serious scholar doing legitimate research and get three letters of recommendation to that effect. Then, I had to go through security, which was extensive. Finally, I was allowed into the storage room where the rare books and other works are kept. It takes up about three-quarters of the back fourth floor of the HRC, with the front quarter used for displays. (You wouldn’t believe what’s in there.) The Blake is kept in a real vault, like one found at a bank. I introduced myself to the librarian, had to show identification and letters of recommendation, and she opened the vault, went in and came out with a box. She handed it to me and directed me to closed room, while instructing me on proper handling and procedure.
So, here I am alone in a room, with a legal pad, a pencil, and a magnifying glass. I opened the box, and inside was another box. And inside that box was another box. Box inside of box inside of box, until at last there was a little book, wrapped in paper. Blake had produced Copy O sometime around 1820, so this book was about 175 years old, and the cover was worn. But when I opened it, my God, it was magnificent.
I have the 6-volume Illuminated Books, as well as books on Blake’s paintings and illustrations to The Book of Job and Dante, in my library, but they’re all cheap copies. No facsimile or photograph can compare to the original. It was shocking, and I mean literally shocking. I almost jumped back, WOW!
I thought the painting in this old book would have faded by now, but it hadn’t and it was glorious. The colors were so bright, the lines were so sharp, I was holding true genius in my hands and staring at it mesmerized with a magnifying glass.
That experience changed my whole perspective of art. It was a transformative event in my life. I’ve always been a fan a Michelangelo and Van Gogh, but it’s one thing to view a work of art at a distance in a museum, and it’s another thing entirely to hold it in your hands and study it closely. Blake was genius beyond genius, as were Michelangelo, Mozart, Van Gogh, and a handful of others.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 9/24/2019 @ 1:57 amAnd she’s in…
There Will Now Be 12 Candidates In The October Democratic Primary Debate
Dave (1bb933) — 9/24/2019 @ 1:45 pmMahalo for the update, Dave. Hope she scalps lieawatha.
mg (8cbc69) — 9/24/2019 @ 3:51 pm