Jun 252020
 

Cats know more than they tend to let on. Part of that is that they ignore you when they feel like it; often they make you think that they don;t know their own names. But sometimes the facade slips. There is one word in this house that reliably brings the cats running, from rooms away and from deep sleep: “treats.” More so even than “food,” “treats” is a word that the cats have come to know and lose their little minds over.

Banshee learned it quickly, and will always put in an appearance if the word is uttered. Below is a photo of her popping out of a deep sleep after an utterance of “treats.” But even though she’s excited for the treats, she still looks judgey as hell.

 Posted by at 11:05 pm
Jun 252020
 

Ugh.

Why I Threw Away My Copy of Gone with the Wind

I threw away my copy of Gone with the Wind.

It wasn’t easy. The book spent a couple of weeks sitting recycling-adjacent before I came up with the will to toss it into the bin. I held it in my hands one last time, and I kissed the title page where my father had inscribed: “To Beth. Christmas 1975.” And then I dropped it into the garbage.

Your father must be so, so proud. “Look at me! Look at how woke I am! Look at how performatively offended I am on your behalf! Bestow upon me your adulation and diversity points!”

Bah.

Look, I *hated* “Gone With The Wind” the one time I watched it, probably around 20 years ago. I despise all those Confederate ᛗᚩᛏᚻᛖᚱᚠᚪᛣᚳᛖᚱᛋ who got themselves statues. But these vapid yahoos who are so proudly tearing down statues of Confederates – and Columbus, and Ulysses S. Grant, and Thomas Jefferson, and Francis Scott Key, and George Washington and soon enough Lincoln and the Wright Brothers and Neil Armstrong and Edison and Einstein – are all human garbage. I would be happy to see Confederate statues removed by the cities that own them… removed from their plinths and hauled off to a museum somewhere, or melted down, whatever… so long as it was the cities and counties and states that are actually responsible for them doing so in a legally approved manner. But what we’re dealing with here *isn’t* local governments deciding that idealizing traitors is not such a good idea; no, what we have here are Marxists and SJWs and idiots (but then, I repeat myself) deciding to flush as much of history as they can down the can in the hopes that in the vacuum that follows they’ll be able to build a shiny new utopia upon fluff and lies.

So if you want to toss out your copy of “Gone With The Wind,” by all means do so; it’s yours. But you are aligned with people who would gladly throw out *every* copy if they could. And in aligning yourself with the worst humans the United States has to offer, you’re proudly tossing out mementos from your father. Nice.

Bah.

I personally do not own a copy of “Gone With The Wind.” No interest in it. But I *do* own quite a number of books that actually offend me. I’ve got a first edition of “Chariots of the Gods.” I’ve got a first edition of “Plain Facts” by Kellogg. “Worlds in Collision” by Velikovsky, “Magick in Theory and Practice” by Crowley, the Maleus Malificarum, “Fingerprints of the Gods” by Hancock, a first edition of “Flying Saucers have Landed” by Adamski, the Koran and a WWII-era “Mein Kampf.” I thought I had cheap paperbacks of “Communist Manifesto” and “Das Kapital,” but I do not recall seeing them since the move from Utah. But on the other hand I’ve got a whole shelf of “Skeptic” magazine back issues, books by Randi and Penn & Teller and Sagan and Shermer and Gardner; sci-fi by L. Neill Smith and Heinlein and Brin and Clarke and Lovecraft and Anvil and van Vogt and Anderson and Niven and Pournelle and Steele and Leinster and Piper. I  suspect Ms. “Drink In My Glory For I Threw Away One Book” may not have the same sort of diversity of thought on her bookshelf. Certainly less so now that she’s learned to love trashing literature.

If such things were real, if I could I’d probably have me a copy of the “Necronomicon.” I’d never *open* the damned thing, and I’d keep it wrapped in plastic, wrapped in aluminum foil, wrapped in asbestos, locked in an iron box and stuck in a safe deposit box somewhere. I’ve often found it quite useful to read that which I fundamentally disagree with:Creationist claptrap, flat Earth nonsense, leftist yammerings. One of these days I’ll probably get around to reading whatever literature has been cranked out by the Black Hebrew Israelites. It’s good to not only expand ones horizons, but also to know what those who would harm you have to say.

 Posted by at 4:36 pm
Jun 252020
 

The diagrams of aircraft and spacecraft that I produce tend to have additional “scale references” to provide a sense of how big – or small – the vehicle in question is. For years I’ve been selecting human figures from a mess of ’em I’ve found or created… but I believe I need more. What I’m looking for are photos of soldiers, pilots, ground crew and the like shown in full-body and side or front view, sort of orthographic views. If anyone has or knows of such, I’d appreciate a heads-up.

Something I’ve considered from time to time is procuring  a large “GI Joe”-type figure and a bunch of accessories, then setting it in various poses and photographing it. But I’ve just never gotten around to that.

 Posted by at 3:29 pm
Jun 252020
 

People of color are exempt from Oregon county’s mandatory mask order

In short: Lincoln County issued a directive that white people are to wear masks when social distancing isn’t practical, but non-white people don’t need to because they are emotionally fragile and think that wearing masks will make white people attack them. This summary doesn’t quite use the language and tone of the original directive, but it does seem to accurately represent the message.

Now, at first glance a lot of people saw that directive as anti-white racism because whites are legally forced to do things other people aren’t. But on the other hand… people who don’t wear masks when out in public are putting not just themselves but those nearby at risk. So in a situation where it’s taken to extremes, where all white folks are masked up and all non-white folks are maskless, you’ll have white folk avoiding non-whites in public, and you’ll have non-whites getting infected and spreading infection at a substantially higher rate than whites. A legal requirement like this may put the onus on the white people, but it’s the non-white people whoa re going to do the dying.

Once the news of this hit a day or two ago, people started talking about it. And apparently the “leadership” of Lincoln County got an earful, enough so that they’ve issued a weaselly response.

And if somewhat related news: if you are running low on the sort of things that ran low in the hardest parts of the lockdowns… I’d recommend stockign up ASAP. Cuz it ain’t looking good:

The growth in new cases seems to be driven almost exclusively by California, Texas, Florida and Arizona, with Georgia and the Carolinas doing their part. The trends really started spiking upwards about a week ago, which means infections started spiking maybe a week before that. I wonder if there was anything newsworthy that involved large groups of people getting together two or so weeks ago…

 Posted by at 11:20 am
Jun 222020
 

OK, I’m four years behind the ball on this. Eh.

Behold, OK Go’s video for “Upside Down & Inside Out.” It was filmed on a Russian Vomit Comet and thanks to some pretty ingenious editing, it looks like a pretty seamless several minutes of freefall choreography.

Those “stewardesses” are *amazing.*

 

 Posted by at 8:00 pm
Jun 202020
 

If you’re tired of seeing Americans tear their own country down because their minds have been sucked into the muck and mire of “social justice,” then spend a few moments marveling at another front on the War On The West, Britain. Putin, the ChiComs and the Jihadis have got to be laughing their asses off.

Tea, Biscuits, and Empire: The Long Con of Britishness

What must it be like to be so filled with self-loathing, I wonder.

 

 Posted by at 9:26 am
Jun 202020
 

Late last year I saw “Ad Astra” in the theater and I was unimpressed. Blogged about it HERE. I watched it again tonight on HBO and, wow, does it still suck. All of my complaints remain in full effect.

I have a challenge for Hollywood: make a near-future Space Movie where:

1) The tone is hopeful and optimistic, not dismal

2) The science at least *tries* to replicate that of the real world, so that it doesn’t promptly yank you right out of the story

3) The characters aren’t miserable, horrible people.

You know, a “space movie” that people might actually want to see.

Ideas:

A) Someone making a bank full of cash with space tourism

B) Someone making a banking industry full of cash with space mining/industrialization.

C) Someone changing the world with space based solar power, either vast SPS or by paving the lunar surface with PV arrays

D) Someone fundamentally exploding the ecological paradigm by building kilometer-scale O’Neill space habitats in GEO and beyond

E) A manned exploration mission to Titan or Neptune or Pluto or some such.

F) The United States Space Force kicking ChiCom ass in GEO, on the Lunar surface, wherever

G) Musk 2.0 developing a FTL propulsion system

 

I have effectively non-existent hopes of seeing a major Hollywood movie along these lines. Even if a screenplay for a fundamentally optimistic story like these came along, I feel fairly confident that it would be tainted by turning the main characters either into complete friggen’ idiots, or by making everyone utterly miserable and screwed up… which seems to be the default for Hollywood, because the place seems to be infested with people who are fundamentally miserable and screwed up. The kind of people who celebrate rioting and looting, then retreat behind their gated communities.

Prove me wrong, Hollywood. I ᚠᚪᛣᚳᛁᚾᚷ dare you.

 Posted by at 1:39 am