March 2, 2017

At the Water Rock Café...



... let your mind flow.

(And here's the place where I remind you to use The Althouse Amazon Portal.)

90 comments:

YoungHegelian said...

Okay, I got into a conversation with a friend the other day about the summer's Invasion of the Hillary Trolls here chez Althouse. You know, where all these Hillary trolls started posting oodles & oodles of links bad-mouthing DT? I just couldn't remember when it started, & when it ended. Does anyone know dates, approximately?

I tried doing some google searches on key phrases & didn't get any hits. Did the MeadeHouse gang clean up the postings after the fact?

madAsHell said...

... let your mind flow.

I'm pissing my brains out right now!!

Richard Dillman said...

OK, a lake is "The Earth's eye, looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature." (Walden). Albeit, this a puddle, probably in Utah.

Hagar said...

I think the best way to stop this "Russian interference with our elections" nonsense would be to find the disgruntled person from the DNC who handed the CD to Wikileaks nd put him on camera - unless the Democrats have already found him and he is sleeping with the fishes, that is.

For the record, I do believe "the Russians" read both Hillary's and the DNC's e-mails along with everybody else who took the trouble to look, but I have not heard any evidence whatever that they were the ones to release any of it, even by proxy.

Pawtampa said...

Lovely photo! One of your best.

Njall said...

I have read Althouse blog for years and years and rarely comment.

But I must speak out: I have reasearched the matter thoroughly, and have concluded that all of you who are constantly hacking on "lifelong Republican" Chuck have every reason to do so.

Hagar said...

I hope I live to see another New York Times headline:
TRUMP TO CALIFORNIA: DROP DEAD!

Richard Dillman said...

A good metaphor for all this Russia fever is the old phrase from Soviet Studies -- Potemkin villages. It's all "Potemkin villages," all the way down.

Hagar said...

Sweden has announced the reintroduction of conscription as a result of the increased Russian aggression in the Baltic region

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4274026/Sweden-set-reintroduce-conscription-broadcaster-SR.html#ixzz4aEAWdvDQ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Unknown said...

Hagar: considering that Wikileaks offered a decent reward to find the killer of some DNC staffer in August last year, your opinion of said crook sleeping with the fishes is, sadly, very likely to be accurate.

Just one of those very common occurrences of people who Hillary Clinton disliked coming down with a sudden case of Grim Reaperits and joining the choir invisible. Amazing how convenient for Hillary their sudden demise always is.

--Vance

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

YH,

If memory serves it ramped up after the DNC and died away, except for Inga and Chuck, about a week before the election. The Democrats either ran out of dough, figured they had it locked, or realized they were wasting their money in Althouseville.

wildswan said...

Would a college in Santa Fe known for studying Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Euclid, Ptolemy, Leibniz, Newton, Kant, Hume, The Founding Fathers - in the original - organize a White Male Depravity study circle?

Junior Prank?

buwaya said...

Re Sweden, I suspect this has less to do with Russians than with the need to round up all those "refugees" by drafting them. A sneaky way to get them under control.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Cracker, YH,

I know! The troll invasion was the Clinton camp's plan to win Wisconsin!

And they'd have done it too, if it wasn't for us meddling kids, adults, and geezers.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Buwaya,

Sneakier yet to have a lot of top secret training accidents...

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Buwaya,

That sounds like a typical European We've Got To Do Something! Short-sighted answer.

Just wait until those immigrants end their conscription and return with training in the use of deadly weapons and tactics.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Sweden is the only Scandanavian country that doesn't have conscription. Maybe they're instituting it in the hope that it will make Sweden less attractive to young Muzzies. Alternatively, it's not a bad way to accelerate assimilation. On the other hand putting an Ak 5 in the hands of Muzzie conscripts might not be the greatest idea. No live ammo for Mo!

Kathryn51 said...

The Cracker Emcee said:
. . except for Inga and Chuck,

Which one is Inga? Unknown or PB&J? I lost track.

Curious George said...

Oven t-stat failed. My loss, your portal gain.

Mark Nielsen said...


On behalf of the NYT and the rest of the MSM, I remind you all to keep this in mind: "RUSSIA!!! Ooga Booga! PUTIN!!! AAAAHHHH!"

sojerofgod said...

Well the Swedish government may be either extremely smart or extremely stupid. Personally I bet on stupid most times, but consider this:
Draft all those young able muslim males.
Pick a fight in the ME, say be part of a UN mission to Syria or Dontgivafuckistan
Ship them all out.
Discharge them at the end of the rail line.
Problem Solved!

Mark Nielsen said...

Kathryn51 said: Which one is Inga? Unknown or PB&J? I lost track.

Inga is definitely one of the Unknowns. She was posting here under er original name many years ago when I started reading the blog. The tone is unmistakable. PBJ is quite different, and much more reasonable.

Ken B said...

I know, in an online music forum, a lifelong republican. He was a llr until the party just went too far this time! But every now and then he slips up, and it's clear he was last a llr when his life was measured in hours, not days, weeks, or year. Kinda a fraud IMO. Glad we don't have anyone like that here, fake llr.

Mark Nielsen said...

Lovely photo, Althouse. I don't know how long you plan to stay there in Zion (maybe you're on the road already), but if you travel north from there on I-15, the short side trip to drive the road into the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park (exit 40 north of Toquerville) is spectacular. Very different scenery from the main Zion Canyon.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Mark is correct. PB is delusional but semi-literate. Unknown has Inga's unmistakeable brand of clueless ad hominem-dependent Leftism. Inga made garage look eloquent.

Kathryn51 said...

Inga made garage look eloquent.

Where is garage Mahal? Still in shock after the election? He is far-left, but articulate and could defend his opinions (even if defense made little sense to a libertarian-minded individual).

Ken B said...

He blew it. http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/01/dem-rep-says-kellyanne-conway-looks-familiar-with-being-on-her-knees/

Mark Nielsen said...

Yeah, I remember Garage also. Not sure if I miss him, though it often made for good entertainment when he would post a link without actually reading its content. Half the time he'd be linking to something that made a great argument *against* his thesis.

Mark Nielsen said...


One that I definitely do *not* miss is the original Crack MC (not the current "Cracker MC" who seems pretty great). Crack went over the edge during the 2012 election if I remember correctly.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Maybe garage awoke to the reality that he's the kind of white, working-class dude whom the Democrats have been bending over for the last 20 years. Unable to reconcile that reality with the Mooreian delusions he has harbored for so long, he has retreated into the escapist comforts of nature photography and kyudo.

Mom's away on vacation. I'm going hard on the personal attacks. Want to smoke some bud? Put Look Into the Future on the turntable, dude.

Mark Nielsen said...


Cracker Emcee: "Maybe garage awoke to the reality that he's the kind of white, working-class dude whom the Democrats have been bending over for the last 20 years."

Could GM have been depolorabilized? Nah...

FullMoon said...

Whoppi Goldberg:
"She was just looking for attention. These military widows love their fifteen minutes in the spotlight"

Big Mike said...

I think the best way to stop this "Russian interference with our elections" nonsense would be to find the disgruntled person from the DNC who handed the CD to Wikileaks nd put him on camera - unless the Democrats have already found him and he is sleeping with the fishes, that is.

@Hagar, there was a disgruntled young Bernie supporter working for the DNC named Seth Rich who was murdered in Washington, DC, last July 10th. The DC police ruled it an attempted armed robbery gone wrong, however neither his wallet nor his wristwatch nor even his cell phone were taken. Julian Assange offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Rich's murderer, something he has not been known to do for any other DC murder victim, however Assange will "neither confirm nor deny" that he got the leaked DNC Emails from Rich. Is there proof that it really was Rich? He had the computer skills to have quietly hacked the DNC servers -- which weren't all that well protected, or so I understand. Assange is a very bright person so the reward he offered could easily be a smoke screen to protect the real culprit.

Why do I believe that it was an insider at the DNC? First, because the Russians had absolutely nothing to gain from hacking the DNC and giving the information they collected to WikiLeaks. Nothing at all, unless they were perhaps concerned that Hillary Clinton was an unstable personality likely to propel the US and Russia into an unnecessary war. Did the Russian hacking lead them to believe that of her? Who knows?

Second, why wasn't the RNC hacked? The two excuses most commonly given are that the RNC had better defenses, able to block out the Russians. Uh-huh. Better than the DNC is easy to believe. Good enough to hold off the Russians. That's a bit harder to believe. The second excuse is that the Russians found lots of good stuff, but didn't want to hurt Trump. That's also a bit hard to swallow.

Third, the insider threat is in many ways more dangerous than the outsider. The insider has knowledge of where the data is stored, and probably has access rights to it. The outsider has to poke around to figure out which files have the most interesting data, and the "poking around" can sometimes be detected and blocked. Secondly the fact that they got in doesn't automatically mean that they had access rights to critical data.

Fourth, I spent most of the final years of my career working on countering the insider threat at my old employer, and the WikiLeaks dump looks to my expert eyes more like an insider job than an outsider hack.

Seth, if it really was him, does not "sleep with the fishes." He is buried in Beth El cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska.

roesch/voltaire said...

Those who travel so little seem to know so much; I do not know a person faculty, or student who has returned from visiting Russia who does not have a deep appreciation for the corruption of the police( a few have been detained until they paid the "fine"), and the control over its citizens that Putin has with its nationalistic fever, jail and death to those who cross him. My friends in the Baltic states remind me of Putin's comment hat it was a mistake to let them leave and worry about his future plans ( why do you think that NATO is holding more troops in Poland?)

Quayle said...

What do you think of the starry night sky out there?

Also, don't know if you remember I wrote this earlier, but my old uncle told me that his old uncles (from the late 1800s) told him that the Indians wouldn't go near Zion because they thought it was inhabited with bad spirits.

Jon Ericson said...

Good bud, eh, roesch?

Jupiter said...

It is fairly amusing to see how concerned the Left is about Russia, now that it is no longer the primary Socialist Republic. Time was Ted Kennedy approached the Russians and asked them to interfere in an American Presidential election. Of course, it is understandable that the Left Fascists seeking to destroy the United States would be deeply suspicious of a non-Socialist white Christian nation, particularly one with a clear-eyed view of Islam.

Jupiter said...

It almost makes me wish I was religious, just so I could believe Ted Kennedy is in Hell. Of all the horrible things that have come out of the rotten pit they call Massachusetts, he is easily the worst. And that's saying a lot.

Jon Ericson said...

Daily mail strikes again!

linky

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

r/v

Ergo ipso facto, they exposed the corruption of the DNC.

Got it. Makes perfect sense. Cut Logic and bought the answers to the final from an Asian TA, didn't you?

Quayle said...

And regarding Russia, can someone tell me an election since WWII where the Russians didn't want to or try to somehow influence and/or intervene in some way?

We have on tape, in an apparently unguarded moment, President Obama telling Putin's puppet to tell Vladdie to wait until after the 2012 election because he'll have more flexibility then.


U.S. Media and their democrat party overlords: Yawn!

Trump's people appear to have made a few phone calls or held a meeting in the U.S.?


U.S. Media and their democrat party overlords: High crimes and misdemeanors and treason and Watergate and Boss Tweed and puppy killers and everything and anything else damning that will stick.

Hillary Clinton runs State Department emails on her own private unsecured server and when caught repeatedly lies about it.

U.S. Media and their democrat party overlords: Yawn!

[Even assuming, which is not in any way proven] the Russians hack the DNC server?

U.S. Media and their democrat party overlords: the full Joe McCarthy. A Russian under every bed. Are you now or have you ever been a sympathizer.....

Jon Ericson said...

Soon, unfortunately, Pedro will return from Rio,
and starfish will reign supreme,
as Pedros cannot be brought up to speed.

Welcome back, Pedro.

Hope your crotch itches!

Big Mike said...

Sweden might draft the refugees. Ought to be easy to train -- just show them how the Swedish Ak-5 differs from the AK-47 and teach them how to use the Pskott m/86 instead of the RPG and they're all good to go.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I remember Churchill made the telling point in his history of WWI that a big problem for the Austro-Hungarian army was the fact that perhaps half of its conscripts were against the existence of the state they were fighting for..

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

At least my posts had links to music videos.

rehajm said...

PGA to allow players to wear shorts!

tim in vermont said...

If Congress declares war on Russia, I promise, I will be on America's side. Until that time, I hope that Democrats understand that it is not treasonous to advocate for peaceful coexistence and mutual respect.

Stop banging the war drums already. Nothing out of Wikileaks was untrue, and your argument that Americans had no right to the truth is, well, as Donnie Trump would put it, #sad.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Lem said...
At least my posts had links to music videos.


Plus the added attraction of a crazy fat fascist who called everyone an anti-semite if they didn't tow the line on Israel.

Paco Wové said...

"the summer's Invasion of the Hillary Trolls"

There was a trickle of posts starting around July 15, but the real explosion came around July 25. The intensity remained high through the conventions, but decreased over time afterwards.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Most leftists hate Israel and Jews. Therefore they are Anti-Semites.

Most leftists adore the death cult and the female subjugating religion that is Islam. Lots of common core hate between progs and angry Islamic men.

BudBrown said...

I like the photo. Is that the mountain that's on the USPS stamp?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

April rules the internet.

tim in vermont said...

The lack of curiosity by Snopes concerning issues that reflect badly on Democrats proves that they should be the go to site for Google to determine what we get to see on line. They can be trusted.

Hagar said...

Swedish jet fighters are built by SAAB (Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolagen).
Husqvarna made an excellent machine pistol in WWII days, also a 11.65 mm. M1911, and I expect still do their small arms.
Bofors used to be a major exporter of cannon and anti-aircraft guns.

The new draft ordinance could have many purposes. "Universal" military training. Hoping some will stay to fill out the standing military. Assimilate by bringing the young together in common misery (this worked quite well in the U.S. too when we had the draft).
And of course they could really be worried about "the Russians."

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Lem said...
April rules the internet
of stupid ratbags who know nothing and project their hatred onto others. That internet she rules.

AllenS said...

Hearing about Sweden to be using conscription for their Armed Forces, I think that they are going to finally do something about their immigration "problem". Good planning is to have 10, 20 times more men than you need.

AllenS said...

Hagar said...
Assimilate by bringing the young together in common misery (this worked quite well in the U.S. too when we had the draft)

As a 1960s draftee, I remember the Black Power Movement, and believe me, there were a lot of racial problems in the Army. Besides, back then most blacks were enlistees, and not draftees.

Anonymous said...

roesch/Voltaire: Those who travel so little seem to know so much;[...]

To whom and what is this (and the rest of your meandering comment) responding?

Do try to make more sense r/V. (That is, sense beyond the reiteration of commonplaces used as a vehicle for vulgar swpl status-signaling.)

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Lem - lol.
I'm not even on twitter or facebook.

Poor Arm.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

...musta struck a moderate nerve of truth.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

How's that relationship with all your liberal female friends going? Do you call them anti-semites to their face?

Fernandinande said...

Kathryn51 said...
Which one is Inga? Unknown or PB&J? I lost track.


Fake News at 10: PB&J sandwiches: are they racist?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

ARM is freaking out because he's getting called out about his anti-semitism? You'd think a viciously racist White Liberal would have a thicker skin. Keep those Black folks down and Democrat, ARM!

Jupiter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hagar said...

As a 1950's draftee, though a very squareheaded Norski born and raised and so somewhat ignorant and oblivious of my surroundings, I did not notice any racial problems in basic training at Ft. Ord nor in my first year overseas stationed in Augsburg. Truman had de-segregated the armed forces; that was that, and we were all in the same soup together. This began to change somewhere somehow.
For my last 8 months I was stationed in Frankfurt. One day with some friends I was returning to our barracks and met one of the black guys from our company in Augsburg coming out with some other black guys. I said "Hi Jim," and he turned around, grabbed me by the throat, and jammed me up against the wall and sputtered some gibberish at me (he obviusly had been drinking), then let me go and left with his friends. I was quite taken aback and asked my friends "What the hell was that about? What got into Jim?" But they just laughed and told me to forget it; Jim just had had to show off for his "new friends."

Jupiter said...

AReasonableMan said...

"April rules the internet of stupid ratbags who know nothing and project their hatred onto others. That internet she rules."

Was it her accurate assessment of the Left's hatred for Israel that pissed you off, or her accurate assessment of Islam as a female-hating death cult, or her accurate observation that your fellow progs can't seem to find anything to criticize about Islam, despite their self-professed feminism? Or maybe all three?

And what's with "projecting her hatred onto others"? April hasn't flown any airliners into skyscrapers, or hacked anyone's head off with a machete. The Muzzies are proud of their hatred, ARM. They don't deny it. It's you Lefties who your evident hatred.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

The Cracker Emcee said...
ARM is freaking out because he's getting called out about his anti-semitism?


Point to one anti-Semitic thing I have said. If you can't do this you have exposed yourself as a liar.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

LOL ARM - If I need to - yes. I'm not friends with any anti-semites. Thankfully not every prog is a Jew hating a-hole.

Jupiter said...

And really, ARM. "stupid ratbags who know nothing". That's the extent of your objection? April is terse, but clearly not stupid. Nor ignorant. "ratbag" also seems unlikely, albeit vague. So your criticism boils down to "I hate April!". Which may seem important to you, but isn't likely to have much impact on any reasonable human being.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

AprilApple said...
If I need to - yes.


You are lying, desperately trying to save face. You are a classic coward, screeching your hate-filled contentless rhetoric on the internet to make yourself feel better about your empty soul.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Jupiter said...
Nor ignorant


Point to one thing that unequivocally demonstrates that April is capable of something other than empty groupthink leavened with her regular two minutes of hate.

Anonymous said...

Jupiter: And what's with "projecting her hatred onto others"? April hasn't flown any airliners into skyscrapers, or hacked anyone's head off with a machete.

Well, we can be pretty sure she hasn't flown any airliners into skyscrapers, because that doesn't happen all that often and we already know who the perps are. (Or think we know! Let's withhold final judgment on AprilApple's involvement until all the secret docs are unsealed.)

As for hacking off people's heads with machetes, how can we be sure she hasn't? The hackers I've seen photos of have their faces covered. We do know she's a hater, because reasons. Reasonable, disinterested people want this investigated thoroughly. If she has nothing to hide, she should be happy to have the issue cleared up.

I also find it hard to believe that she has never spoken to an individual of the Russian persuasion. Is she willing to swear she hasn't? No?

What are you hiding, AprilApple? Patriots demand a thorough investigation.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

LOL Arm. Whatever you say, Israel hating prog.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Jupiter said...
So your criticism boils down to "I hate April!".


No I do not hate April. People who parade their hate-filled psychopathology so openly on the internet deserve pity not hate. My objection to April is that she, along with some others, makes it close to impossible to have the kind of sensible, relatively neutral discussion of issues that can occur on Althouse. I enjoy and have learnt much from these discussions.

I am intolerant of April in particular because her rantings convince sensible people that this is not a good forum for discussion. She and some others drive away people who have something valuable to say but get sick of being called names by lunatics.

Jupiter said...

Well, April, now you've done it. You have accused, not merely progs, but ARM himself of hating Israel.

ARM, how do you plead? Do you hate Israel? You realize that if you don't deny it, you'll be tried as an anti-semite, and almost certainly found guilty?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Lem's old blog is a perfect example of how people like April ruin sensible discussion. Lems blog started out as a quite interesting group of people with a lively discussion. Deborah, who was one of the better commenters over there, was driven out by hate-filled nuts repeatedly calling her an anti-semite simply because she didn't see eye to eye with them over Israel. She is a conservative. Most sensible people followed suit.

Lem's blog has emptied out because of nitwits like April. Having ruined their own thing they now come over here in an attempt to ruin Althouse's blog. For the life of me I cannot see why anyone would defend this.

Jupiter said...

ARM, you must be reading a different April than I am. "rantings"? I can't recall any comment of April's that went past the second line.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jupiter said...

AReasonableMan said...

"Lem's blog has emptied out because of nitwits like April."

Hmmm, "nitwit". A serious accusation! Well, actually, an unserious accusation.

Sorry, ARM, but while I am prepared to accept on faith that Lem has a blog, and it has emptied out, I can't really see how that makes AprilApple a nitwit, let alone a ratbag. Am I obtuse?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

ARM cannot fathom that I think his precious party is a corrupt pile of shit. How dare I say so!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

ARM trolls the interwebs all day and all night. He knows.

Jupiter said...

Angel-Dyne said...

"What are you hiding, AprilApple? Patriots demand a thorough investigation."

Whatever April is hiding, she hides it well. Tar-baby gots nuthin' on AprilApple!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I'm a non-prog, off with my head.

Jupiter said...

Here's my theory. Everyone knows that apples come in the Fall, and April is in the Spring. So what could be the meaning of an April Apple?

AprilApple is from the Southern hemisphere!

Pry it out of her, folks. I've got to get to work.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

oh no. oh no!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Palate cleanser

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, on the Russians under the bed front:

Just used my husband's car for an errand. Only time I listen in to NPR, as he has the radio tuned to local station. (Must think his blood pressure is too low, I guess.) And...

Man, they really have gone full Pravda. Hey, did you know that we know, for a fact, that the Russians hacked the election for the express purpose of getting Donald Trump elected? Fact, comrade. The only thing we haven't quite cleared up is whether, or to what extent, the Trump campaign was colluding with them. But, comrades, the evidence is certainly piling up in favor of "how much" not "whether"! Day after day, loyal servants of the Republic put out more and more evidence pointing to Trumpian wreckers. And I'm sure you, like us, are shocked at the revelations of this Russian infestation at the very summit of Our Noble Republic's government!

On the way back I caught a caller who started out with (I paraphrase), "I'm not one of those conspiracy theorists or anything, but it's hard not to believe, with all this evidence, that something very dark is going on with Trump's administration!"

I don't know, but from my vantage point the evidence is certainly piling up, comrades, that you've absolutely fucking lost it, and that the prognosis for your getting it back is not good.

mockturtle said...

Angel-Dyne, they keep doubling down, tripling down, digging themselves deeper and deeper. I, for one, won't mourn their self-interment.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The democrat party and their media are sad sad sad. Pathetic sore losers who lost touch with reality as they swill their own lies and koolaid.