... it's time to break the ice.
(And buy some stuff for yourself at Amazon — using The Althouse Amazon Portal. You know you deserve it — and so do I.)
February 22, 2017
At the Crack-Up Café...
... it's time to break the ice.
(And buy some stuff for yourself at Amazon — using The Althouse Amazon Portal. You know you deserve it — and so do I.)
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Perhaps you think it disgusting to even suggest lowering the age of consent. The present age is just right! Imagine a politician you loathe had raises the age of consent. Would it be monstrous for Milo Takei to then suggest it should be lowered, back to that previously impeccable limit?
By the way, is the age of consent the same everywhere? Is it depraved to suggest Georgia should be like California?
It was lowered not so long ago in Canada. How worried should I be that the country is overrun by monsters?
How many vile, monstrous, disgusting *suggestions* are there out there?
I consider this to be Good News:
"Oscars Poll: 60 Percent of Americans Can't Name One Best Picture Nominee"
Never play cards with software named "Doc" ... or "Libratus":
"AI beats human champs in Texas Hold'em "
Is it truly break-up time on Lake Mendota? How does one know for sure that break-up has happened? It's not like a river, where things just rush off downstream: so what does it look like, and who decides?
I propose a thought experiment.
#1 Imagine that you are some lake other than Mendota on which the ice is breaking. How would the media treat you?
#2 Imagine that you are lake Mendota, but the ice has not yet begun to break. What would people say about you then?
It's almost like summer today in SE Wisconsin. The reality of February will hit again this weekend but until then - enjoy!
Confuscious say:
"Girl who do handstand have crack-up" Red Foxx.
Hey! You guys were right, they are going to take your guns away!
I've been amused today by the "news" that John Podesta is claiming that "some" in the FBI did not want Hillary to win the election.
If two or more FBI employees voted for someone other than Hillary, is that proof of a conspiracy within the FBI?
We had a rainy cold front come through in Florida today. It was only 65 at noon, although it has warmed up to 74. Meanwhile, it's 80 degrees in Kansas City where my brother lives. Unnatural for KC to be warmer than Florida on Washington's Birthday!
Another current peeve: migrants and immigrants are not synonymous words.
Is cognitive dissonance the right term for this?
Mexico's minister of foreign affairs says Mexico will not accept non-Mexicans returned to Mexico from the U.S. The U.S. has no right to do this, he says.
How about the same right as Mexico had to dump them on us in the first place?
Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra have some fun with Ravel
T man said: "Hey! You guys were right, they are going to take your guns away!"
The AR-15 (ArmaLite Rifle 15, not Assault Rifle 15) is now the most popular weapon in the US. The seeds for the popularity can be traced to WJC's "assault weapons" ban in 1994. The law expired due to it's sunset provision 2004. There are now millions in circulation, the 4th circuit's ruling notwithstanding.
Go to any gun show and you will see more AR's than any type of weapon. It is not close.
What we need now is for Trump and R's to pass nationwide reciprocity (Concealed Carry).
... so what does it look like, and who decides?
Climatologists on campus with a 13th-floor view decide. It's very scientific.
"Perhaps you think it disgusting to even suggest lowering the age of consent."
You all should consider raising the age of consent to 30.
That should, at least, keep all the lawyers busy and away from other matters, and boost the Mexican economy, making up for the loss of remittances.
"they are going to take your guns away!"
"Put simply, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war," Judge Robert King wrote for the court
I thought that the whole point of the Second Amendment was to permit the possession of weapons of war. Why bother otherwise?
The logic of the 4th circuit is ludicrous. Take the standard leftist view of the 2nd Amendment: it only protects the right to bear arms of militias.
What is a militia? A military unit composed of people who bring their own gun, to wage war.
Ergo, the 2nd Amendment is specifically permitting weapons of war.
The left and its judges are simply parodies now.
--Vance
Other fun with Ravel -
An oldie, but if you haven't seen it yet -
Zbigniew Rybczynski - Stairway to Lenin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Vc2ZfVhf0
"You all should consider raising the age of consent to 30"
The other advantage of this - imagine the return of romance, given the illicit nature of, well, everything. Nothing will be casual. Nothing will be routine. Passion will require (or risk) sacrifice. Drama for everyone.
Humperdink suggests: What we need now is for Trump and R's to pass nationwide reciprocity (Concealed Carry).
Amen to that! Of course, we can't expect California to participate but I avoid California nowadays for a lot of other reasons.
I am permitted in 37 states, but can't carry into NYS, which is 12 minutes north of my abode.
I hear that Ice breakers are schemes by Putin. Don't accept their help, or John McCain will call you a tyrant. But that sounds better than being called a Bloggress.
I would like an Italian title better, like Bloggresso, or
Meadafex Maximus.
Once upon a time, a ban on sawed-off shotguns was upheld because such a weapon was deemed to be of no military use. Now judges want to ban some weapons because they are militarily useful.
The Constitution gives Congress the power to issue letters of marque and reprisal. Which means the Constitution contemplated private ownership and operation of privateering vessels -- warships. (Which is a far cry from creating a right to own such vessels, but . . .)
Nothing to see here;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/22/british-former-guantanamo-bay-detainee-received-share-20m-payout
The left and its judges are simply parodies now.
Yes and there is no prospect of a return to common sense.
"I hear that Ice breakers are schemes by Putin. "
Yes, I thought we would be well past the need for ships like that, what with the Arctic being ice free and all.
narciso, I posted a link to that story in another thread where Unknown was boasting about how peaceful Muslims are.
This is awkward
http://dailysignal.com/2017/02/22/congressional-aides-in-criminal-probe-owed-money-to-hezbollah-connected-fugitive
It's pretty clear from the last couple of days that the Democrats have surrendered somewhat on illegal immigration the way they did on the Second Amendment. Every democrat pundit on TV the last few days have all been eager to agree that rounding up criminal illegal aliens is something that is right and proper. Their objections now center on cost and fear in the shadows. I expect that sanctuary cities will collapse in the next couple of months.
And one thing I wish I would hear from the "right" is that the main problem with illegal aliens and a host of other problems is that when government fails to do their primary duty, safety, the citizens begin to think that their government is not worth a damn. Therefore, not worth having. Crimes by illegal aliens is a symptom, not the problem. Wars in 7 countries is a symptom, not the problem. Etc.
I'm always a little melancholy when the ice becomes honeycombed and begins to break up. It marks the end of a friend, albeit an often harsh and dangerous friend.
The sandhill cranes are back in SE Minnesota. March Madness and basketball tournament spring snow storms will be here soon.
Taxpayers Payout to Jiadis
WTF??? Am I the only one who didn't hear about the payout?
Should read 'Jihadis'
Oh, this is cool: "Binyam Mohamed al-Habashi, who was freed in 2009, paid £250,000 in cash for a three-bedroom terrace house in Norbury, south London, in 2011."
buwaya said...
Other fun with Ravel -
An oldie, but if you haven't seen it yet
Excellent, very witty if it wasn't a tragedy!
It happened in the UK,Poland has had to shell out also to nashiri and al zubeydah
narciso, I think those Democrat staffers might have been who blew the SEAL mission to Yemen. The accounts I read said the ISIS soldiers were ready with firing positions set up and quickly manned. Some by women.
I would think that more likely if they were fighting houthi, who add the local couterpattd to hezbollah and the sadr brigade
There's too many comments to the latest Milo post to wade in on at this point, so I'll take advantage of this less encumbered space. But it looks like now more than ever needs a reinstating of my central point:
Milo never discussed pedophilia. He was talking about sex with people who are post-pubescent but under the legal age of consent. That may seem like a semantic point, but it is actually very important and has been systematically distorted since this whole brouhaha began.
Here is our gracious blogress, Professor Althouse, responding to a commenter on 2/20/17 at 4:29pm:
Commenter: "I have never heard Wilde denounced as or even described as being a "pedophile."
Ann Althouse: "I sure have. Try reading a recent biography."
My response to Ann on 2/20/17 at 4:45pm:
"Do you have a particular one in mind? I read Ellman's biography (granted it's not recent), and I read The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde by Neil McKenna, which focused almost exclusively on Wilde's sexuality, and I don't recall him ever being referred to as a pedophile."
Ann's response to me on 2/21/07 at 7:20am:
"I read a lot about Oscar Wilde about 25 years ago, when my lawprof research was about evidence and rape. I don't have time right now to track down the books I read, but I remember quite a bit of attention to the poor boys who were called to testify against him and his use of these children as prostitutes and assumptions that they would not be heard because they were poor and disreputable. The usual story that Wilde was persecuted because he was gay was entirely flipped when these vulnerable children were brought into the story. I won't try to state the facts without rereading things. I am only saying that I certainly remember Wilde being accused of things that gay-friendly people today would condemn."
Now remember Ann's answer earlier: "I sure have. Try reading a recent biography" [emphasis added]
The next morning she was not quite so sure.
"I remember quite a bit of attention to the poor boys who were called to testify..."
Poor boys? How old were they? 8? 10? 13? 15? It matters. And calling all minor males "boys" (while it is a gay affectation) tends to muddy the waters.
"I am only saying that I certainly remember Wilde being accused of things that gay-friendly people today would condemn."
So what? That is not the same thing as being a pedophile.
At 7:28am, eight minutes after her first post, Ann posted a copy of a WaPo review:
"When they did become lovers, Oscar and Bosie flaunted their desire for working-class boys, entertaining them everywhere from the Savoy Hotel to the Cafe Royal. Even in Victorian England, they might have gotten away with their brazen displays of public affection, although most of their contemporaries considered inter-class sex at least as shocking as homosexual unions."
Emphasis were originals. Ann copied that segment and bolded those phrases, presumably because she believed they bolstered her case. But of course "boys" does not mean pre-pubescent, and inter-class sex is much different than sex with children.
So just to recap: (1) no evidence Oscar Wilde was ever a pedophile; (2) In the late 19th century, Oscar Wilde was a man of about 50 who preferred sex with much younger men, many in their mid to late-teens. (3) Milo is in trouble for admitting that many gay men enjoy sexual liaisons with adolescent males.
Ann, I come by here often and occasionally comment. I check in on Twitter pretty often, as well, to catch breaking news. I've noticed your tweets announcing new posts recently and that's helpful and usually brings me back over here for a look. Just wanted to let you know.
Hope you are doing well, MLL. Pray for you daily.
Don't put your long johns away yet, Matilda. Winter is due back in a couple of days. All those geese that headed north this week will be straggling back south to open water. It was nice to get a jump on some spring chores while the weather was mild.
Hey buwaya
Mille grazia for that link!
My husband and I saw that on late night TV in'91 and have been looking for it since. We found it once for $60 from Poland, but passed.
Great performance that captures the road to serfdom in ballet.
Farmer, I agree with you. Wilde was a sort of 19th century Milo character.
He paid dearly for his transgressions of Victorian. morality. After all. Queen Victoria's son had her probably lover, Mr Brown, whipped and driven away.
Milo has powerful enemies but they might not be as powerful as they think.
Remember, Althouse transcript-blogging the infamous Trump speech at CIA-Langley on the morning after his inauguration? In real time, watching it, I had gone off about how wildly inappropriate and reckless the whole thing was. Althouse observed, and waited for a transcript, and then analyzed it from a meta-communications standpoint.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2017/01/i-live-blog-my-reading-of-transcript-of.html
I liked the job that Atlhouse did, although I remained distressed by the original speech and the content.
Turns out I was not the only one.
First, there was career CIA analyst and former NSC Spokesman Edward Price, who resigned last week and who has since stated that the Trump CIA speech was the moment that broke his trust with the President and the agency.
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/22/516695407/career-cia-analyst-ned-price-quits-rather-than-serve-trump-administration
And tonight, on the FNC Tucker Carlson program, former CIA agent Bryan Dean Wright was interviewed for the ostensible purpose of supplying evidence that there are CIA personnel who are playing a dangerous game of leaking and otherwise being disloyal to President Trump. Wright made a nuanced case in that regard and fortunately this was one of the select interviews when Carlson gave his guest room to talk.
But Wright also pointed to the Trump speech at Langley as one of the significant events in turning staff against him. Wright called it a "mistake."
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/22/former-cia-agent-tucker-intelligence-community-withholding-information-trump
J Farmer, excellent post.
This kind of muddying is often deliberate. Andrew Sullivan did it quite deliberately about the abusive priests in his precious church. He wanted at all costs to deflect the idea that they were gay priests. But he did that with priests fellating 15 year old to orgasm.
When I was 13 there were 13 year old girls I had the hots for. Some who had the hots for me. That was not pedophilia, two 13 year olds being attracted to each other. But a 13 year old boy having the hots for a 9 year old girl would be pretty disturbing, wouldn't it? That would be pedophilia.
A grown man (or woman) having sex with a sexually physically mature 13 year old (of either sex) is creepy because of the emotional, social, and psychological exploitation it is almost certain to involve. But it isn't creepy because of the nature of the body being sought. With a 7 year old body it is.
The ice is often broken up around the shore when it is still perfectly fine for fishing. I think it's because the water level has risen a little, lifting the ice. As mentioned above, it becomes unsafe when it gets all honeycombed. This happens more from the sun beating down on it, at 1000 watts per square meter (probably less in Wisc, but you get the idea).
One day, it is so weak that when a wind comes up, it all drifts in a single direction and piles up on the shore in little snowbanks to melt in the sun and never return, known as "ice out."
Sometimes in Lake Champlain, currents run underneath in certain spots, like narrows under bridges, etc, and the ice gives way without warning, except for the fact that locals all know where this is likely to happen. I assume this is because the deep water is the warmest, 39 degrees, which is when water is the densest, and when this deep water gets moving through shallow areas, it undermines the ice.
Anyway, I will stop now, but I could go on about water temps in lakes for some time, seasonal evolution of the thermoclines, what depths different kinds of fish like, etc, etc, but I will stop mansplaining.
BTW, I suspended myself as a commenter for a few days for being overly nasty to ARM. If he reads this, I hereby apologize. For the tone, not the facts of the matter, but my tone and debate tactics were not acceptable.
Laid off: Swedish workers could be given paid 'sex breaks' to improve well-being
Workers in Sweden could soon be allowed to take paid "sex breaks" during the day – in a bid to improve low birth rates and promote healthy relationships.
A councillor in the northern town of Overtornea presented a motion asking that the area's workers be given an hour during the day to go home and be intimate with their partners.
"There are studies that show sex is healthy," Per-Erik Muskos, a 42-year-old city councillor, told AFP after presenting the motion to the council on Monday (20 February).
He said couples were not spending enough time with each other in today's society, adding: "It's about having better relationships."
Muskos admitted there was no way to check whether workers would actually use the hour for its intended purpose.
"You can't guarantee that a worker doesn't go out for a walk instead," he said, adding that employers needed to trust their employees.
But Muskos said he saw no reason why the motion wouldn't pass. On top of the health benefits, he said the sex breaks would also solve the area's low birth rate.
Surprisingly, not The Onion!
@Mid-Life Lawyer
Thanks.
I've normally found that people do not click through from Twitter, that it sends very little traffic to the blog. But it may be worth making tweets. Thanks for the data point.
Hitler finds out people are screaming support for Obamacare at Republican town hall meetings.
"Everyone who voted for Hillary, leave the room."
First, there was career CIA analyst and former NSC Spokesman Edward Price, who resigned last week and who has since stated that the Trump CIA speech was the moment that broke his trust with the President and the agency.
How can we get 10,000 more of these left wing assholes to resign ?
These people spent years reading foreign language newspapers then get their panties twisted about the election of a Republican and leak stuff that may get a real agent killed in some foreign shithole that the "Analyst" would never go near.
Read "Jawbreaker" or Bob Baer's book, "See No Evil" about when he was due to retire, he requested a CIA agent to replace him who spoke the language of Uzbekistan where he was. Instead, they sent him an expert on sexual harassment.
The CIA was systematically destroyed by political correctness, by petty Beltway wars, by careerism, and much more. At a time when terrorist threats were compounding globally, the agency that should have been monitoring them was being scrubbed clean instead.
Read "Legacy pf Ashes" although you might get depressed reading about 40 years of failure.
it is mainly a reservoir of incompetence and delusions that serves no one's interests well. Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times correspondent Weiner musters extensive archival research and interviews with top-ranking insiders, including former CIA chiefs Richard Helms and Stansfield Turner, to present the agency's saga as an exercise in trying to change the world without bothering to understand it.
Chuck, your hatred of Trump makes all his enemies heroes to you.
The new Soros supported Sheriff in Phoenix is releasing 400 criminal illegals every 10 days now from custody.
An average of 400 “criminal illegal immigrants” are being released every 10 days by the newly elected sheriff in Arizona’s most populous county, federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch, many of them violent offenders. It’s part of Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone’s new policy to protect illegal aliens, even those who have committed serious state crimes, from deportation.
George Soros spent several million to elect him. "Sheriff Joe" Arpaio was the previous Sheriff and was a target for left wingers.
How did this guy get elected, Mike? Wasn't there any serious competition for the position? Was anyone aware of his plan? I know you are in Tucson, not Phoenix, but this is certainly worth knowing about. Maricopa County is a 'red' county.
The US could become an associate member of the British Commonwealth. Telegraph
Soros spent several million on his campaign and Sheriff Joe had gotten too controversial. He's in his 80s and should have retired.
George Soros has contributed $2 million to a group working to defeat Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona, the latest target of Soros’ big spending in local law enforcement campaigns over the past year.
The Soros-funded PAC, Maricopa Strong, will file campaign finance documents Friday showing Soros’ multimillion dollar investment against Arpaio, along with $500,000 from Texas energy billionaires Laura and John Arnold and $250,000 from Laurene Powell Jobs (widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs). The group had previously reported a $300,000 donation from Soros, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors.
I doubt it will last but plenty of mischief until the next election.
Downtown Phoenix, where I work a day or two a week, is pretty sketchy. Everybody lives in suburbs. The people I work with all love Tucson and wish they lived there,.
I demand that everyone conform to my worldview! Common sense be dammed.
The Commonwealth idea is just more of the "Anglosphere" concept, which I support.
Triangle Man said...
I propose a thought experiment.
#1 Imagine that you are some lake other than Mendota on which the ice is breaking. How would the media treat you?
As the enemy, of course. They would, 24/7, muckrake my phosphorus levels, repeatedly file FOIA requests to expose my blue-green algae to the harsh disinfectant of sunlight, print sensationalist and crudely exaggerated headlines claiming limnology science settled and it's all my fault for allowing carbon-spewing motorboats to cruise my surface.
#2 Imagine that you are lake Mendota, but the ice has not yet begun to break. What would people say about you then?
They would call me cold, narcissistic, and authoritarian. They would try to imbeach me.
Ann - do you have any way of keeping track of the number of comments on a particular post?
I'd be very curious to know what 5 posts over the past 14 (?) years have generated the most comments, and how many comments those posts generated!
The people I work with all love Tucson and wish they lived there,.
Tucson has the higher crime rate, though. Although that might change now.
"Tucson has the higher crime rate"
There are some areas, like south Tucson, that are sketchy. My wife went into a Fry's market on Oracle down near Fort Lowell and said the people were scary looking. We are north and west, mostly to be closer to the I 10 so I can go to Phoenix.
Tucson is about 500,000 people which is similar to San Diego before the growth took off 20 years ago.
Central Phoenix is not anywhere I would want to live. Before I moved, I was working as a traveler and stayed in a small hotel downtown. I walked over to a IHOP next to the hotel and was panhandled by a freaky looking guy. The scary types in Tucson are out on the periphery or south. In Phoenix, they are downtown.
There are some areas, like south Tucson, that are sketchy. My wife went into a Fry's market on Oracle down near Fort Lowell and said the people were scary looking. We are north and west, mostly to be closer to the I 10 so I can go to Phoenix.
A close friend of mine lives in NE Tucson in a very nice area. I've never been in Phoenix other than driving through but we used to go to Scottsdale and it is lovely. Just as with any metro area, there are good and bad neighborhoods. South Tucson isn't the best.
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