Well, this is weird:
Not the sort of headline you tend to expect out of Canada.
Sep 042022
Sep 032022
Lots of folks don’t like the show. They are not wrong to do so.
I’m seeing people arguing back and forth on whether or not to “hate watch” the show. Shrug. I can see both sides: give up and sigh in vague, fatigued defeatism, which is where I am with this; or rage against the dying of the light. I will never not hate on bad Star Trek; I’ve got forty years of fandom invested there. But LotR is *only* thirty or so years deep with me. And my house ain’t exactly littered with die cast and plastic toy spaceships from Middle Earth…
Anyway, this guy takes another view, and he ain’t wrong to do so:
Sep 032022
stochastic terrorism
[ stuh–kas-tik ter–uh-riz-uhm ]
noun
the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted: The lone-wolf attack was apparently influenced by the rhetoric of stochastic terrorism.
Examples:
Of course, this is not new. Violence has been occurring for several years, egged on by politicians and activists. Antifa and their culture-destroying depredations may not be in the news as much as they were a few years ago when they were the shock troops of the Left, but they’re still out there carrying out acts of violence upon the regular citizenry.
Portland street mob shoots at elderly driver, accidentally kills one of their own
Sep 012022
I’ve heard this speech before. Last time, it was in German.
Anyone who disagrees with him and his senile policies is evil and stupid. Even better: burning down businesses and killing people in the streets for political purposes? Not worth mentioning. Milling about the halls of power? Oooh, that there threatens the very bedrock of democracy.
This was not a campaign speech. This was a call for violence.
Sep 012022
Something people should keep in mind when they think of Putin as anything other than a Soviet thug:
Putin: Soviet collapse a ‘genuine tragedy’
In a speech way back in 2005, he said:
“First and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Putin said. “As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory”
Yeah, the well-deserved and long overdue end of the Soviet Union caused chaos for the Russian people. But to declare it as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century is really saying something. He’s saying that the loss of power and prestige of the USSR was worse than:
1) The Russian loss in WWI
2) The Bolshevik Revolution
3) The extermination of the Kulaks
4) The Holodomor
5) the gulag system
6) Dozens of millions of Russians/Soviets getting wiped out in WWII
7) The Russian mess in Afghanistan
8) Chernobyl
9) Friggen’ *Communism*
All of those are less “catastrophic” than, say, Latvia and Ukraine and Estonia getting to live out from under the Kremlins thumb in Putin’s view. Any wonder he’s launched a world-threatening genocidal war?
And in ironic claims that did not age well:
In an apparent response to foreign allegations that Russia has been backtracking on democracy, Putin said Russia’s main political task was to develop as a free, democratic nation with European ideals. He stressed that individual freedoms would not be compromised by strengthening the state.
Aug 312022
Some progress on the story of the assistant principal who screwed himself by explaining how he screwed others:
There is a brief snippet of an interview with James O’Keefe. The biggest irony here is that the reporter goes to some effort to point out that the videos that PV released were edited… and yet, the news station released only a tiny fraction of their interview with O’Keefe. You know… some edited bits. Here’s the full thing, released by PV:
Aug 312022
Spectacular. Lies *and* threats.
"Do you realize the bullet out of an AR-15 travels 5 times as rapidly as a bullet shot out of any other gun."
— Rob Doar (@robdoar) August 30, 2022
NOW – Biden: "For those brave right-wing Americans… if you want to fight against the country, you need an F-15. You need something little more than a gun." pic.twitter.com/ce3BJEEo7G
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 30, 2022
Relevant memes to follow.
Aug 312022
Huh.
Utica Sculpture Residency Vandals Are Under the Age of 11, Police Say
Five Mostly Peaceful Vandals aged 8 to 11 pretty effectively trashed an upstate New York art… place. Workship. Studio. Collective. Whatever. The photos in that and an earlier article make it clear these little monsters were on a mission of destruction. The artists have set up a “gofundme” type thing to help rebuild, with a goal of $75,000. Seems to me the kids families should be the immediate go-to for reimbursement. According to the funding campaign, damage includes:
- All windows, interior and exterior, have been smashed
- The entire office along with accompanying communication and computer equipment, important archival documents and information, and furniture have been severely damaged and destroyed
- The entire kitchen, kitchenware, and equipment were smashed and spread throughout the studio area
- The bathrooms and hallway were flooded and damaged
- Several donated art pieces for CHAIRity have been partially damaged or completely destroyed
- Furniture and storage units throughout were destroyed or rendered useless
- Camera and video technologies have been smashed and destroyed
- Lighting was busted or smashed
- Multiple bicycles for use by artists-in-residence were stolen
Kids these days. I look forward to the exciting and innovative excuses that will be made for them.
I know a lot of modern art sucks and often resembles actual garbage more than art, but come on.
Aug 312022
Get ready for less:
US life expectancy lowest in decades after dropping nearly a full year in 2021
Biden gives an update:
Aug 312022
In “Jaws,” the Sheriff takes out the shark by shooting a SCUBA tank with an M-1 Garand. The tank, clenched in the sharks jaws, kerplodes and shreds the Shark. Many years later Mythbusters tried to do the same thing, with the result that nothing much happened: holes were poked in the tank and it quickly blew down, but didn’t explode. Myth busted.
But then… GunTuber Edwin Sarkissian put an oxygen tank in a safe and shot through them with a .50 BMG rifle. The results were energetic and nearly Kentucky Ballistics in their effect. “Put a thumb in it” would not have been sufficient.
Not entirely relevant: restoration of a Pakistani home-made Kalashnikov 12-gauge shotgun, left in a wall for a number of years and rusted badly. Back when I lived in a free state I had a 12-gauge AK, and it was fun as hell to shoot… but you couldn’t pay me enough to pull the trigger on this thing.