August 12, 2017

At the Silver Door Café...

P1140232

... come on in and talk about whatever you like.

Let me also encourage you to use The Althouse Amazon Portal. Here are some things I bought recently: a new hydropack (that's nicely lightweight and roomy enough for me), a muddler (which we used to squish fresh basil in the bottom of a glass to which we add ice and lemonade), a set of pin-striped cutting boards.

81 comments:

Ralph L said...

I've never seen rusticated aluminum before. Too bad they put it up sideways.

rcocean said...

BTW, Trump just said "he wouldn't rule out the military option" regrading Valenzuela. That's it. So what are the MSM saying?

Well first we get Unelected POTUS Sasse saying "NO". What unelected Co-Presidents' McCain and Graham have stated is unclear.

Then we get "Slate" saying: "President Donald Trump shocked the world Friday when he seemed to offhandedly escalate the U.S. response"

While Right Scoop says: "Wow, Poor Nikki Haley’s Face Says It All As Trump Floats Venezuela Invasion Idea"

And Axios gives us "Trump on the Brink".

This kind of hysterical, misrepresentation of Trump's words has been going on for 2 fucking years!

Gahrie said...

Panama has been a remarkably peaceful and a very prosperous nation ever since the U.S. removed Manuel Noriega with a military invasion in 1989.

rhhardin said...

Listen to Richard Epstein on google.

Like all podcasts when Epstein is on his game, it merits repeated listening. Scythe the lawn or something and listen.

The most superb historical Epstein podcast, for being on game and multiple listening, is rule of law

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/06/epstein_on_the.html

just to help define the rare genre.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Going to Nebraska for the solar eclipse with that hydration pack?

madAsHell said...

I always thought piss was an onomatopoeia.

It turns out that pissour is the German word for urinal. Judging by the spelling, I'll guess pissour is a French word. Of course, this could come full circle, and the Normans adopted the word from the English onomatopoeia.

Ralph L said...

onomatopoeia is Greek
Pissing is universal

Narayanan said...

Game this for me ...
We put nukes in Taiwan to present the Chinese with a Cuban missile crisis. To be removed when they straighten out the norks for us.
Works or not?

Bob Ellison said...

Dodge Charger in Charlottesville. Interesting choice. It looks quite late-model, too. I always buy a new car to plow into protesters.

bleh said...

Trumps condemns the violence and hate in Charlottesville. MSM reaction is, of course, [i]what took him so long?[/i]

There's no winning. But what's really disgusted me the last few days has been the anti-Trump response to the North Korean situation. It's really stunning how, no matter what he says or does, he's "unprecedented" and putting us in existential danger. On NPR they were assuring me that he is doing exactly what North Korea wants him to do, because Trump is easily hoodwinked, but he's also making nuclear annihilation more likely. Hard to harmonize those two talking points, but who expects intellectual consistency anymore.

Bob Ellison said...

Narayanan Subramanian, interesting hypothetical.

We suppose, stupidly, that pure diplomacy (words, no strength or deeds) works.

We also suppose, smartly, that real shows and acts of strength (deeds, not words) work.

We went through this with backing down on anti-missile defense in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, and with decades of real nuclear threats through the cold war.

At this point in North Korea, I don't see a down side to your proposal.

bleh said...

Narayanan Subramanian, what effect would nuclear weapons in Taiwan actually have given we can already destroy China using ICBM's?

Bob Ellison said...

I think, though, that western eggheads think too much of China's command of North Korea.

* North Korea is a net coal exporter-- to China.

* North Korea's dictatorship does not depend even slightly upon the legitimacy of populism. That is, Kim kills whomever he wants, when he wants, and the flattened populace has no voice.

* Kim's best bet for viability as a going concern is his nuclear threat. He has no real economy, no loving populace, no legitimacy anywhere. He can only threaten, like a thug on a street corner.

In the 80s, eggheads everywhere overestimated the Soviet hegemony. Today, eggheads are probably overestimating China's control of NoKo. It fits their desires: they want diplomacy to rule, and to destroy western military hegemony. Also makes them lots of money.

Otto said...

Rough week for feminists and Ann in trying explain the fact that men dominate the Hard science and engineering fields. Went from unfair labor laws -> Science not justice -> men in these field are not concerned with humanity. Try as they may they really can't explain why dominate these fields. Now comes the result of the Google Code Jam. This from a commenter at Brooks NYTs article:

"Observation: Google has run a coding competition (Code Jam) since 2003. It attracts tens of thousands of applicants now, Including thousands of woman to compete in a multiple round contest leading up to a field of 20 finalists. This is a “hard” advance competition – no bonus points awarded for, say, for lacking a penis. Google has used it to identify their best and brightest job prospects.

There has never been a female finalist. Ever. Unless you count “Code Jam for Women”, rolled out in 2014.

Probability alone would say that if only 5-10% of entrants were woman, and they were as likely to to have the same skill sets and ability as men, that we should have seen a female finalist by now. The numbers actually match nicely with the list of top Chess players, only which only 1 woman can really say she could/can compete at the highest level. None of this say anything about any individual male or female, other than that testing and real world competition have shown that in (at least) certain mathematical and spatial cognition tasks, there are far more men than women who are above average to the tune of multiple standard deviations. No doubt there are other tasks where men are more likely to appear on the low end. But that is not a useful and employable skill set at google."

Another nail in the coffin of feminism.

Molly said...

Three things (two stories and an argument) I am surprised haven't gotten more attention.

1. The quote from BIll Clinton (first brought to my attention in an Althouse post last week): North Korea will cease to exist if they use a nuclear weapon.

2. The article in the Nation providing pretty conclusive evidence that there was never a Russian hacking of the DNC.

3. The argument from the anti-JamesDamore crowd (their best and best informed argument in my opinion) that although there may be reasons in addition to discrimination that might explain numerical discrepancies in hiring and promotion, it is wrong to consider or discuss those reasons because such a discussion distracts from the essential effort to combat discrimination.

Craig said...

Otto,

Ahahahshahahahahaha. Nice try. That was a sophomoric attempt at understanding the dialectic.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, according to the picture you posted yesterday, the cafe is not behind this silver (stamped tin, I think) door. It is two doors down.

Hagar said...

These "Nazis" in Charlottesville have a flag on the Nazi pattern, but with a "left-around" swastika. Is this deliberate or due to ignorance? Anyone know?

Clyde said...

Bob Ellison said...
Dodge Charger in Charlottesville. Interesting choice. It looks quite late-model, too. I always buy a new car to plow into protesters.


Article I read on Zero Hedge IDed it as a 2010 model, so not so recent. Also, just from my own personal observation of drivers and their driving style, there is a high AQ (Asshole Quotient) among Dodge/Chrysler drivers.

Jason said...

Wasn't the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard a Dodge Charger?

#YouCannotWinDarth

Etienne said...

Senator Schumer said that Trump should condemn the violence immediately. As if Trump were his bitch.

Look, Trump is busy right now hurling tweets at the Koreans. He doesn't have time for white trash.

He said the white trash were peasants, what more can you say about them?

sunsong said...

Yes, this is racism (and now terrorism):


>>>”…What we’re watching unfold in Charlottesville, with hundreds of white people bearing torches and chanting about the value of white lives and shouting slurs, is not a “far Right.” protest. When you move that far right, past humanity, past decency, past goodness—you’re something else.
You’re not a supremacist, you’re not a nationalist, and you’re not alt-Right.

This is racism.
This is domestic terrorism.
This is religious extremism.
This is bigotry.
It is blind hatred of the most vile kind.
It doesn’t represent America.
It doesn’t represent Jesus.
It doesn’t speak for the majority of white Americans.
It’s a cancerous, terrible, putrid sickness that represents the absolute worst of who we are.

“No, naming it won’t change it, but naming it is necessary nonetheless.It’s necessary for us to say it—especially when the media won’t, when our elected leaders won’t, when our President won’t. It’s necessary to condemn it so that we do not become complicit in it…

“…White people especially need to name racism in this hour, because somewhere in that crowd of sweaty, dead-eyed, raw throated white men—are our brothers and cousins and husbands and fathers and children; those we go to church with and see at Little League and in our neighborhoods. They need to be made accountable by those they deem their “own kind.” They need to know that this is not who we are, that we don’t bless or support or respect this. They need white faces speaking directly into their white faces, loudly on behalf of love….”
<<<


pastor Lovitz

Bob Ellison said...

sunsong, ever in defense of identity politics, even not on her side.

Bob Ellison said...

I have begun resting my left leg on my right leg. It hurts, but I think it will help.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
While everyone else gets nice presents, I solicited a love card from my wife, and Present Mirth gave me a no-occasion card, which she teased might become an all occasion card, depending on me, on which was written:

“You may be
an undigested bit of beef,
a blot of mustard,
a crumb of cheese,
a fragment of underdone potato.
There's more of gravy
than of grave about you,
whatever you are!”

Big Mike said...

@Etienne, let me know when Schumer or Warren or even Manchin call for the antifa to cease and desist from their own violent tactics.

rhhardin said...

Violence is entertainment. Ratings.

Also it drives Googlegate off the news pages.

rhhardin said...

We need a deploring violence contest.

Roses are red

rhhardin said...

Violence worked at Hiroshima.

rhhardin said...

If you google violence quotes you get a very one-sided picture.

rhhardin said...

I'd find my Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig "The Blessings of Violence" but I remember he had only long examples.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
... deploring violence contest ...

And the War of Roses

“To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit ...”

... and humour'd thus, comes at the last ...

MayBee said...

I am watching CNN and I can't tell what happened. They are too busy talking about Trump.

Who fought what? Who were all these people?

rhhardin said...

Blocking passage counts as fighting words in Ohio, as I recall.

rhhardin said...

If there's kneecapping it's union people.

rhhardin said...

If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you might be a Muslim.

rhhardin said...

Somebody who knows who's involved read the Radio Derb and figure out what they are.

White dominationists perhaps.

Item 05 in
http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2016-12-02.html

rhhardin said...

What it's supposed to achieve is getting on the news. Two groups at least, maybe three, want that.

No violence in Central Ohio. The yogurt lady at Kroger was cordial, as well as the U-Scan checkout attendant.

Fabi said...

sunsong needs a hug!

rehajm said...

Presidents playing golf while things happen elsewhere has become no longer in fashion. Fashion trends come and go, but repeat.

rhhardin said...

The new checkout system at Kroger gets very angry if your reusable bag weighs too much, say if you triple bag with insulated bags to keep the milk cool on a bike ride home.

But you can put the bag on the scale along with the fill-it-yourself water and it only thinks maybe the water is a little heavy, remarks on it and then resets itself after seven seconds, a cooling off period for machines that are only a little irritated.

I'd go with the seven-second rule in life.

rhhardin said...

The real test is whether the site is cleaner after everybody leaves or there are candy wrappers all over.

rhhardin said...

Chants don't do the trick anymore.

Hey Hey Ho Ho
your enemy here
Has got to go.

rhhardin said...

Hey Hey Ho Ho,
Regina Caeli
Has got to go.

- Gregorian

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
Curious that “Violence and Metaphysics” introduced, but did not develop “Rogues” (2003), where law is not self enforcing, existing in the constant possibility of suspension, with the United States as the most roguish state of all, those nasty French, making it hard to know whether to start the blame with de Tocqueville or with Jefferson’s time in France, all long gone, save that through the generous sponsorship of the Kochs, the violence of the first violent Tea Party endures, indefinitely suspending the President’s hollow crown of law, dying to be legislated ...

rhhardin said...

Trump says it's egregious, omitting jejune and puerile.

rhhardin said...

It's TV news. Script and everything.

rhhardin said...

It's too bad somebody died but it's ratings.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
Regina Caeli
Queen enwombing,
Regina Coeli,
Tomb excluding,
and all between,
is in our tooling,
lest Risen Lord,
if Risen, suffers not our fooling.

AllenS said...

Some of my best friends at work were white trash. What's the problem?

rhhardin said...

Trump is refusing to insult the people the media want him to insult.

But Trump needs better zingers. Holding to the tut tut adult politician line won't work.

Just say TV loves it. It's for TV. It's a media event. They're the bad guys.

rhhardin said...

Lots of good video of air show crashes too.

Ralph L said...

It was a Dodge Challenger, a retro 2 door that's been around longer than the new generation Charger, a 4 door but on the same platform (1990's Mercedes suspension). It hit a 2000-5 Cadillac Deville with a hideous fake convertible roof. Hope someone got the license number.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

A side of our hostess' hero she may never have heard

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
... not sure what Mel Gibson drove (Ford?) ... but that Dodge Challenger Hellcat will make Mad Max drivers of all boys ... zero to 60 mph @ 3.6 ... poor old, southern Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane ... will never catch ‘em ... but, this may revitalize the Dukes of Hazzard, and just in time ...

rhhardin said...

The important thing for a coming confrontation is that you get everybody really mad.

Then get out the cameras.

rhhardin said...

This never happened when things only played out in shadows on cave walls.

rhhardin said...

TV news.

What is an idol?
An idol is a useless sacrifice, said Isaiah.
But how do you know which ones are useless? asked the nation in its genius.
Isaiah pondered the various ways he could answer this.
Immense chunks of natural reality fell out of a blue sky and showers of light upon his mind.
Isaiah chose the way of metaphor.
Our life is a camera obscura, said Isaiah, do you know what that is?
Never heard of it, said the nation.
Imagine yourself in a darkened room, Isaiah instructed.
Okay, said the nation.
The doors are closed, there is a pinhole in the back wall.
A pinhole, the nation repeated.
Light shoots through the pinhole and strikes the opposite wall.
The nation was watching Isaiah, bored and fascinated at once.
You can hold up anything you like in front of that pinhole, said Isaiah,
and worship it on the opposite wall.
Why worship an image? asked the nation.
Exactly, said Isaiah.

Anne Carson

Narayanan said...

Thanks for gaming with me.

BDNYC ... For Chinese it is a matter of face.
I would go as far as giving Taiwan full control for the duration.

For those not in the know ... Many of the nukes in Pakistan are under joint Saudi control.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
It’s worse now. Outside the caves. Things move even without peyote.

Hellen Mirren was a perfect Virgin Queen. Jeremy Irons abreast, too obviously enjoying foreplay.

Yet no amount of media, sorry, could make Queen Mirren a convincing virgin.

Memo to Mirren: please don't take the screen adaptation Hillary’s book 'What Happened.' Save your triple crown virginity, let Lady Gaga take the part, or that skinny-ass chick a-groping for new roles ...

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

"Were Paleolithic Cave Painters High on Psychedelic Drugs? Scientists Propose Ingenious Theory for Why They Might Have Been."

Narayanan said...

And we are giving the Chinese Nobel worthy face saving option.
Only fools in the West believe North Korea got this far on their own.
It may not be politesse to admit otherwise. Foundation grants you know. Do you think they are not ideological echo chambers?

Guildofcannonballs said...

I've been thinking about a rhetorical gambit.

"So you don't believe ... even though ... ?"

"What would it take for you to believe, today, before you leave the showroom today? Bro/Babe we got incentives yo. You holding out on me?"

MAJOR INCENTIVES!

Guildofcannonballs said...

I always thought the lyric was "Just another man named Monday. (Whoa oh). I wish it were Sunday, (Whoa oh) 'cause that's my fun day. (Whoa oh.)"

Turns out it was manic all along.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Brandon, I can't believe you got fired!"

"I don't know how it happened. Chad asked if I could run home to get the bean bag game for his party, and you had the car, so I figured I'd jog over since it's only half a mile, but the mosquitoes were bad, so I asked Chad if I could take one of his torches with me. Then the weirdest thing happened. I ran into this crowd of dudes, and they all had citronella torches too! They were yelling, but I couldn't understand them. Something like, 'Bites make madder!' and I was like, 'Yeah, screw mosquitoes! Mosquitoes suck!' I thought it was pretty cool to be out there raging about mosquitoes, and it felt like destiny what with the torches, so I stayed for a bit. I knew Chad was waiting, so I left after about five minutes. Then I got to work today, and all my stuff was in a box, and the box had a picture on it of me with Chad's torch."

Bob Ellison said...

It's OK, Guildofcannonballs. There's a bathroom on the right.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is a patterned use of a drug in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others, and is a form of substance-related disorder."

Chemical abuse is about the same I suppose, right?

"chem·i·cal a·buse
noun
another term for substance abuse."

Okay I guess not: identicism. So I cannot use my "hey slave-root bona fidelity's O and H (doubled or squared as 'twere) combined even are a chemical, you worried and fretting and enriching yourself off of that pain? Okay then, best keep your morals consumed by society's ethics then, you warrior you!"

Bob Ellison said...

Narayanan Subramanian said, "Thanks for gaming with me."

Yeah, that's kinda the John Kerry thing. I studied this, and it's post-modernism or something!

We have all of these no-touch things in Western diplomacy:

* Asian face-saving

* North-African tribalism

* Israeli exclusionism

OK, if you've read this far, then you deserve a punch line: people are people.

The Asian face-saving thing is a crock of s___. Let them learn it.

Hagar said...

In 1962 Khrushchev was assumed to be in full command of the Soviet Union.

Narayanan said...

Bob Ellison

All I am saying is Chinese leadership needs face.
People wielding power over subject population always do. No need to drag in 'Asian'.

Are you saying we should respect the Chinese leadership?

I also believe people in China may appreciate Trump tweaking the high panjandrums which they clearly are not in a position to do with US tech providing means and support for oppression.

Whose side are you on anyway?

Buwaya may want to pitch in. Thanks in advance.

Guildofcannonballs said...

This "TMI" or "tmi" herewith representing some concept undefined within current probitive* parameters but known to mean "you embarrass yourself when you talk, dummy, so shut up or else face the punishing cognition that your words, as such or merely dumbassly implied, are crappy shit. Tough guy."

*Wrong word but sounded, and even to this day, this very day, sounds apt enough for me or this locale here or just my, unlamented as well as non-latent, combo therewithinly.

** You don't believe me, but I hate having to do this, you know, this.

This.

I hate it.

So contact Althouse, have her forward your $80,000 earmarked for me and me alone, and let's get on with it. As Trump knows, you people aren't gonna let me down. No way.

Narayanan said...

Looks like Bob Ellison considers John Kerry is able to think outside the box. Even with Obama looking over him!!

Guildofcannonballs said...

Well, finding out you're Jimmy Hendrix, really the only guitar god of all, is, and I can say this for a fact, well by God it is humbling.

"In the government your entrenched now" is my racist hatred of Bob and the Marleys and Milli Vannilli too.

Bob wrote and sang "In the government yards of Trenchtown." My horribly ultra-genetic DNA WAY WAY WAY deeper than skin racism asserts, through terrible bigotful noticeables, though I can unwittingly-fogwise and ergo do pray and pray for my hateful bigotries to please please please ebb.

Too much flo yo.

I hope I can find help, for my human disorder. I hope I can trust the helpers saying they like helpful wrap-ups.

Doubt if this is continued, unless you Holden-out-on-me-holder-outers learn a thing or two about LIFE!.

Bob Ellison said...

Narayanan Subramanian said, "All I am saying is Chinese leadership needs face.
People wielding power over subject population always do. No need to drag in 'Asian'."

No. It's a cultural thing. We were taught that.

There are differences between cultures. Not all cultures have the "face" thing, and it's a pile of shit anyway.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Be not sad those lives were lived in a less optimal way than it makes you good to label (them) as in comparison to (you).

WHY AIN'T YOU EINSTEIN? You wanna judge, DO YOU?, then judge your food compared to Britton's Ramsey, Gordon.

Look if this is a Jew hatred thing it ain't new. It ain't original, Fresh, Dignity dignity downs wit it.

But, (ha, I can use 'then again' and not be presumptively illiterate) then again, maybe other live's lead reach other conclusions than my super-cucked ultra-poor ignorance-swarthed earthly being Jewcluded.

YOU GOTTA HAVE MERCY!

Guildofcannonballs said...

As with the Seinfeld charctoer, I anticipate accusations of my conversion to a Jewish sex doll-afficionato as a mere ruse to escape charges of anti-semitism.

The accusations are accurate: we are ALL racist genitalia. Semitism-fucked too. My hope is my repetition of this has in it's due course finally sunk in. I ain't treble-dumb.

PS The Rolling Shitpepples version of "Wild Horses" is disgusting.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Oh I get it. All y'all seen good people, GOOD PEOPLE, turn their heads to stay so satisfied.... Holy Christ are you on your (their) way?

Narayanan said...


@bobellison are you always this dense?

If face is important personally or in a culture you can use it whether or not it is bull shit to you.

You would be giving up an edge that you can tweak to your advantage.

Dealmaking is able to see the weakness in what your opponent believes is his strength.

In the west it may be called pride or dignity.
You are making it really hard to leave you with any of all the above. Good bye.

Guildofcannonballs said...

You, yeah you not some arrogant you not-you assume credulity in, go and research.

DO IT!

Research it.

"Blogger Hagar said...
In 1962 Khrushchev was assumed to be in full command of the Soviet Union.

8/12/17, 6:22 PM"

Trusted authoritie's I trust, at the time trusted as well as now trust, dude I was born after Vietnam started and technically "ended" per some short-cocked Leftist Proggie less-than-fucks, and nevertheless America has always known pleasurable sole-superpower status in my existence's concurrence, voiced assumptions not including "full" thoughtlessly removed.

The authority I conjure/imagine/create supersedes all you. The fact I can do this sans blasphemy would frighten Christian souls' mega-remiss (I ain't better than nobody dog) remissness if it were indeed mega.

Buddy.


Guildofcannonballs said...

I'll concede my want was momentarily focused around, in the physics sense of around, okay, and not enough within.

Yes, yes, I am intellectually aware these necessarily places, around/within/abstaining, by rightfully derivatives allocate any and all blame on you.

You Jesus? You Perfect Jesus?

Then shut it. Shut it all.

Guildofcannonballs said...

So I says to the guy, ya know, nice enough jerk or whatever, I says to him, I says, and mind you, this is literally the middle of the damn 6th Ave. The New York NewYorkees emblemish excursions they had to make up, so those damn Trump! emblemishedments can be excursioned.

You know.

?