March 6, 2020

At the Western Sunrise Café...

82A63407-5838-4594-BACD-51DF94A2BD85_1_201_a

... you can talk about whatever you like.

(The sunrise this morning was plain gray in the east. The western view was more detailed and interesting. This is a good metaphor. Sometimes you go out to see something — or someone — specific, but what you went out for is not there or is nowhere near what you had in mind. Look around. You are out. You might see something else.)

154 comments:

Mark said...

Spock just lied.

Interesting that the Organians had such power as to compel a peace throughout the galaxy, but they were essentially a one-off in Trekdom.

Mark said...

Over three million ballots still to count in California.

tim in vermont said...

Hillary is running the Democrat Party

https://reason.com/2020/03/06/dnc-changes-debate-qualifications-excluding-tulsi-gabbard/

You Democrats have been given your orders. I suggest to fall in and toe the line.

Iman said...

The usual great eye for a good photo!

We, as Americans, are about to find out just how much we’ve been undermined.

Mark said...

Baltar, that lackey for the Cylons, is playing a Klingon.

narciso said...

He also played a half egyptian terrorist on last summers blood and sand, hes of greek background.

narciso said...

Blood and treasure.

Tommy Duncan said...

I will miss winter and its busy basketball gyms, crowded supper clubs, clusters of ice fishing shanties and hardy pine trees laden with wet snow. Fortunately, it is March and the high school basketball tournament almost always brings us one of our last snow storms.

If the Badgers win at Indiana tomorrow they will hold at least a share of the Big Ten basketball championship. A Hoosier is no match for an tough Badger still grumpy from hibernation, right?

FullMoon said...

Young cashier at local grocery store says she has Twitter. News is North Korea wanted to attack USA, so they sent some virus infected people into South Korea to infect people who then innocently went to USA.

Mission accomplished.

And, there was actually some toilet paper on the mostly bare TP shelves.

John henry said...

Sniff, sniff

Smells like books in here!

So what's everyone reading this week?

Narciso screwed up my reading yet again. I may need to put him on the payroll as my book taster.

I think I'd mentioned that I was reading Frank DiKotter's "the tragedy of liberation" about Mao's takeover of China in 1949.

Then Narciso mentioned Ghost Fleet. Since I already had it in my pile, I figured a little peek couldn't hurt.

Turned out I couldn't take just a little peek. Once I got started, I couldn't stop.

It reminded me of some of tom clancey's early books. One of the things I liked about Clancy was how he would have a bunch of separate story threads, seemingly not related going at the same time then gradually weaving them all together.

I also like the level of technical detail.

Terrific read.

John Henry

John henry said...

Thanks, Narciso

John Henry

narciso said...

Youre welcome

A friend mentioned it to me, referencing pee epidemic events. In the pacific.

narciso said...




a bracing read

narciso said...

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/democrats-and-anti-democrats/

narciso said...

woah

narciso said...

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/missouri-case-felled-gop-governor-boomerangs-george-soros-backed

Iman said...

A book that I remember reading over 20 years ago that seems relatable to current events is called “The Hot Zone“, written by Richard Preston. All about filoviruses... that was one I couldn’t put down.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

You Democrats have been given your orders. I suggest to fall in and toe the line.

The Dems did fall in and toe the line. I've never seen anything like Super Tuesday (or Thursday as the case may be). The orders were given and the candidates dropped out and all the good Dem automatons voted for the chosen mascot.

How embarrassing

David Begley said...

From Wicked.

So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
As someone told me lately:
"Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly!"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me
Tell them how I am
Defying gravity
I'm flying high
Defying gravity

Andrew said...

It is great fun to read liberal Democrats on Twitter right now. I highly recommend it. It's all out civil war, mixed with despair. There's tremendous bad blood between followers of Warren and Sanders. Many Dems are openly panicking over Biden's cognitive decline, even using the word "dementia." People are furious at the party establishment for rigging yet another election, They are accusing each other of sexism, or betrayal, or selling out. Some Bernie supporters are refusing to vote for Biden, provoking ugly reactions. And you can see it suddenly dawning on them all that Trump is going to win reelection. Already the recriminations are beginning. It's quite the meltdown.

Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying the Biden campaign. It's Jeb 2.0. Look at this video, for example. https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1236002607946067968?s=20

I've never been happier as a political junkie. Trump's presidency is a miracle. I've said it before, that it reminds me of the Book of Esther. All the traps that have been laid for him are now destroying his enemies.

stevew said...

My Democrat friends are uniformly disappointed and discouraged by the state of the campaign for the nomination.

stevew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Just ordered Ghost Fleet from the list library. I figure I'll need something to read during my quarantine.

Thanks!

mockturtle said...

Just finished reading Cloud of Sparrows, which was complex and well written. Now reading Ivanhoe which, unbelievably, I've never read. It's nice and long, which I appreciate in a book. And classics are cheap for kindle on Amazon.

David Begley said...

Althouse blog book club.

Bigger than Oprah’s!

Mark said...

I'll break my rule just this once --

But it looks like Joe is going to follow the Hillary strategy of disappearing for stretches of time.

Ken B said...

Re watched Dunkirk. Best movie in years.

Mark said...

I'm going to tackle Uncle Tom's Cabin this spring/summer.

I don't have lots of time for reading, so it may take a while.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Anyone else think Narciso should be the next Drudge? The links are almost always interesting and from a wide variety of sources I've never seen before.

mockturtle said...

Althouse blog book club.

Yes, and these book recommendations I can usually trust [unless they are Sci-Fi, a genre I just can't appreciate].

mockturtle said...

Anyone else think Narciso should be the next Drudge? The links are almost always interesting and from a wide variety of sources I've never seen before.

Yes! Never have I read such interesting links and I only am able to read a small portion of them most days.

Etienne said...

When Jack Palance was on his deathbed, he admitted the story about his face being burned and disfigured in WW2, was a bunch of "hogwash"!

"...they'd have given me a better face if I had."

Anyway, the old lady and me laughed watching City Slickers again after dinner.

"Billy Crystal... I crap bigger than him."

Chuck said...

Mulvaney out at the White House per NPR.

Mark Meadows to be installed as the final sacrific- er, Acting Chief if Staff.

It’s a finely-tuned machine, this Administration.

Charlie Currie said...

Still waiting for Elizabeth Warren to endorse Tulsi Gabbard, the only woman and poc still in the race. Looking for that women of color solidarity.

Of course the club that is dying for a woman President, changes it's rules to keep the last woman from participating in the next debate.

Losers

narciso said...

Thanks i look for interesting things to read, there is so much dross out there.

Yancey Ward said...

Mark,

Then why has California been assigning delegates? If there really are that many uncounted ballots, there should be zero delegates assigned at this point since that is more votes than were actually counted on Tuesday and Wednesday. For all anyone knows, Biden won the state with that large an amount uncounted.

narciso said...

when youre finished there

Etienne said...

I ride my bike to the library. It's full of books. They even let you take them home to read...

Is that a socialist concept? Hmmm...

narciso said...

Its kind of a spy thriller told in retrospect referring to other thrillers

Yancey Ward said...

Colorado and Utah seem to be in a similar circumstance- 3 days after the polls close, and still no final tally of delegates assigned.

Hilarious that in 2020, it is getting harder and harder for certain states to actually count ballots.

My question is this- why has California stopped counting while waiting for the last day they can legally arrive (today, according to the law)? Why let 3 million pile up for 3 days when you could have been counting them the entire time? Something about this process stinks to high heaven.

Yancey Ward said...

"Is that a socialist concept? Hmmm...

As long as they make you bring them back, no. If they let you keep them, then, yes.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

The Double Game ordered!

narciso said...

And its a long wait, gabbard is along with most of the prog agenda but at least shows a little deference, honestly after all the appearances on joe rogans show and he endorses sander!

traditionalguy said...

Predestination. God chooses a more interesting life for us than our plans, like sunrises in the wester sky.

narciso said...

But there is something wromg with the democrats the way they froze her out

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Milwaukee police have determined that the Molson Coors shooting wasn't racially motivated. They investigated the shooting victims for thoughtcrime and cleared them.

That's funny, I thought police usually looked for the motive of the perp, not the victims. Silly me!

Of course, there couldn't possibly have been a racial motivation for Anthony Ferrill to murder four wypipo and one latino, because Blacks don't have racial motivation, or racism, or motivation of any kind, or human agency. Meanwhile, the usual shitstains commenting at WaPo are blaming the victims and their whiteness. Ferrill is the REAL victim!

Etienne said...

I once read the story about the guys who started A&W restaurant.

Roy Allen and his partner Frank Wright "A" and "W", were searching a spot for his first restaurant in Sacramento.

Allen picked out a couple of places, and then over the next few days he took a hand counter, and clicked away as the cars drove by. He found a spot with the highest count, and built a drive-in restaurant.

Counting technology has suffered ever since.

chuck said...

there is so much dross out there.

True, and I read tons of it for relaxation. The main criteria is that the plot should be reasonable and the preaching minimal, but the style can range all the way from total crap on up. None of it is "literary". If I wanted literary I could read John (boring) Updike.

What is difficult to find among the piles of dross are books written for adults rather than young adults. Even in drossland there is a difference. If I could bear to read romance reading life would be easier :)

Now reading Ivanhoe

I'm on team Rebecca.

Mark said...

My question is this- why has California stopped counting while waiting for the last day they can legally arrive (today, according to the law)?

It's good practice for November when they will do the same thing. Why do it then? Well, they have to first determine how many votes will be needed for a disfavored candidate/issue to lose and the favored one to win.

Lewis said...

Obviously, one looks at them with a kind of post-futurian envy. Like looking back, askance, over ones shoulder. One assumes 'you' were 'happy' then. Like asuming rain is wet. It is. You were. Case closed. But to assume? Rediculous.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Given the pretense I had thought.

David Begley said...

Ken B

Ford v Ferrari is the best.

And this is coming from the guy who wrote, “Frankenstein, Part II.”

Iman said...

Anyone else think Narciso should be the next Drudge? The links are almost always interesting and from a wide variety of sources I've never seen before.

Yes!!! Narciso was one of the main reasons I frequented Patterico’s Bloviations (until I couldn’t stomach any more), narciso could ALWAYS be counted on to make things interesting and for what you’ve mentioned.

Mark said...

Mick Mulvaney will become the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Given the pretense I had thought.

I've Trumply oh boy oh boy oh boy Trumped it in extremis.

narciso said...

I used to think i could contribute over there, but then i realized too late its like trying to steer the ss cain.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I'm almost finished with "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" by E.B. Sledge. Sledge was 20 years old when he joined the Marines in 1943 and his memoir of the war in the Pacific is harrowing. At one point he writes of being pinned down in a tent on Okinawa for days, while it was raining non-stop and the blasted landscape around him looked like the moon - except it was littered with the bodies of dead young men. He was so exhausted and hungry that he began hallucinating. He saw his dead friends get up and walk around and heard them talk to him. I had to put the book down for a while and go do something else.

Lewis said...

My poetry is like opening doors with a broken head. And I see there'yre 'secret' and only I can see they're 'secret' - still, I want to bust them open with my broken head. Why?

Drago said...

LLR-lefty and Sudden-Onset-Socialist Chuck: "It’s a finely-tuned machine, this Administration."

OMG!! Mulvaney moves from Chief of Staff to Special Envoy!

Can the Republic survive?

Tune in tonite for a very Special Edition of Nightline....

LOL

Guildofcannonballs said...

You pay me $330,000,000,000 and I will defy Doyle Brunson.

The very instant I get paid I will defy, no lag time. None. Whatsoever.

narciso said...

Much appreciated lewis,

My skill in very rococco narrative prose.

Etienne said...

I was never a Special Envoy, but my wife let me operate the oven once.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The thing is nobody's got $27 but some imagination. Imagination can and often is good/decent.

But if, what matters, you keep only a small amount exposed, like insurance companies for instance may know a little thing or too about, well than the extra dollar, again conforms to the Manly "hey penny wise pound foolish Aspie" and such it goes and went.

Keep on keepin' on you. You're American as far as I know.

Lewis said...

The ' hig-bosun' blues! That's me!

Nic Cave and the bad seeds

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Char Char @ 8:27

what a disgrace.

Narayanan said...

Blogger Yancey Ward said

Why let 3 million pile up for 3 days when you could have been counting them the entire time? Something about this process stinks to high heaven.
____&&&&&
How do they know how many still to count when there could be a lot more to be found?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I made my first plague-bread in my new breadmaker. Reasonably successful outcome. The bread itself was good, just not a big fan of white sandwich bread. Need to find a more interesting recipe. Unfortunately it seems like you can't make ciabatta in a breadmaker. Will give it a try just the same.

BudBrown said...

Serendipity in the comments. But then, watch out
What you wish for.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The real lesson is there are $1 and $5 and $10 and $20 and $50 and $100 bills with images but gangs superceded, with enrichment by e.g. Chicago Bloods or e.g. Chicago Crips. E.G. Valerie Jarrit.

Lewis said...

What he means is - what? - the only human, sensible, 'thing' is to 'feel' like he does! Well, good luck to him ( who's dead).

reader said...

IBTWWW
IBTWWW
IBTWWW

ARM I have a pretty good recipe for no knead focaccia bread. If you are interested I’ll post the recipe.

Marc in Eugene said...

I gave Audible a try in the early 00s. It didn't take too long before I decided that I prefer to read rather than listen to books. But maybe I'll give Audm a go, although I can already guess that the likelihood is low that I'm going to be interested in listening to anything from five of the twelve periodicals listed on their website; perhaps the twelve are a representative sample only.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Reader said...
I have a pretty good recipe for no knead focaccia bread.


I am interested. Although, kneading is not a problem now that I have a breadmaker. Not sure exactly why you can't make ciabatta in a breadmaker, maybe just the lack of an appropriate program.

Narr said...

Good reads by a friend of mine, Hampton Sides-- Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, In the Kingdom of Ice, and Hellhound on his Trail (I get a mention in the acknowledgements). I haven't read his Korean War book yet, but will get to it.

E.B. Sledge is a classic war memoir; for the ACWABAWS one of the best is Philip D. Stephenson's, edited by Nat Hughes, who also wrote a great unit study of PDS's 5th Company of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans (CS).

Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, and How We Got to Now are worth a few hours.

Narr
And that's just non-fiction

Lewis said...

I have to tell you - everything I touch dies - you're safe as long you don't reply - by the way this virus hysteria - put all the 'vulnerable' in quarrantine - the rest of just have a flu party!

Bay Area Guy said...

1. I like narciso's links

2. I'm reading "The OSS in Italy" by Max Corso. Very good under reported stuff in WW2.

3. I thought Dunkirk was a good flick too, but "The Miracle of Dunkirk" should be re-characterized as "The British Retreat of Dunkirk".

4. Mark Meadows is a good dude.

5. Steph Curry is back.

6. Baseball season is near.

That's about all I got.

Etienne said...

Hopefully Mick Mulvaney will do to the UK, what Trump did to the Democrats.

Get Northern Ireland independence from Prince William.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

This sounds curmudgeonly, but good dross used to be a lot easier to come by. When I was a lad, you could buy ten random (well, no romances, natch) paperbacks at a thrift store for a buck, and most would be entertaining, two or three genuinely good, and maybe, occasionally, there’d be one touched by unsung excellence. I think the embrace of the formulaic has greatly reduced the chances of just happening upon good reading. When I see something that says An Inspector Bumfuck Mystery or whatever, I give it a pass. Also anything written by a women who isn’t Pat Barker or, regrettably but necessarily, anything by a Black guy. Lectures, I don’t need.

narciso said...

The corso memoir rings a bell, a lesson on regime change, they replaced mussolini with the chriatian democrats but the sen partner was the mafia.

reader said...

This will make two loafs.

1.5 cups room temp water
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar

3 1/4 cups plus 2 tbs AP flour
1 tsp salt

Combine sugar and water. Sprinkle yeast on top of water and let sit for 5 minutes to bloom. (If you use bread machine yeast you can skip this step and just add the yeast to the flour.) After yeast blooms add four and salt, mix until shaggy. Pull it out of the bowl and do one or two slap and folds. Drizzle bowl with a little olive oil and put dough back in. Cover with plastic wrap. Let sit 30 minutes.

Remove plastic wrap and grab edge of dough and stretch it across to the other side of the bowl. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and do that again three more times. Re-cover and let sit 20 minutes.

Remove cover and do 4 stretch and folds. Re-cover and let sit 20 minutes. Re-cover. Let sit 20 minutes. Heat oven to 475 degrees.

Drizzle 1tbs olive oil each onto two cookie sheets. Divide the dough in two. Stretch each piece of dough into 12 x 15 rectangle on its own oiled cookie sheet. Leave it that shape for focaccia, if you want closer to ciabatta fold it like a letter (into thirds) along 12” length. Let sit 30 minutes.

Dimple the top of the dough with your fingers and drizzle each loaf with 1tbs olive oil. Sprinkle with 1/8 tsp sea salt.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes.

mockturtle said...

New development in the Epstein 'suicide' case: Fox News

Lewis said...

Whi is it men, as performers, bore me? This is ironic - so now it's Desolation Row - rrrow! I was gonna give you Joni - oh well!

reader said...

You don’t have to do this but I do.

Slap and fold technique:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBO4XyL3iM

narciso said...

Mysteries well camillieri, theres an irisg analog called conor fitzgerald who is an american expat in italy.

narciso said...

But he didnt shoot himself did he.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

thanks, will give a try

reader said...

That’s flour not four.
In third paragraph ignore “Re-cover. Let sit 20 minutes.”

Sorry, I’m using my phone and can’t see the whole comment box.

narciso said...

The epstein case wouldnt work as a stuart woods or william caunitz or even lawrence block, because fiction has to make sense!

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

no problem

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Epstein didn't shoot himself!

Etienne said...

Amy Lee Solomon's father died in 2017. In 2018 while cleaning up, she took a pile of papers and blueprints and threw them in a dumpster.

Jake Haas was dumpster diving, and saw what he thought were antique maps. What he found was over 500 blueprints of the World Trade Center.

Architect Joseph Solomon took them home with him in the 70's as a keepsake of his career.

The blueprints are expected to garner six figures at the auction which lasts through Sunday.

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum said it does not have a full set of blueprints, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it's unsure if it has even one drawing.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Harambe didn't shoot himself.

narciso said...

I might have heard something if he did
, but the fact the cameras were down and the officers were off shift, the blacklist would turn down a submission like that.

Etienne said...

"Epstein didn't shoot himself!"

Everyone knows Mr. Kotter killed him.

Lewis said...

When Bob Dylan is happy he rhymes - throw in a word and that'll rhyime - corresene or ts eliot! - an artist is one who makes accidents inevitable.

n.n said...

New development in the Epstein 'suicide' case

Socially-assisted self-abortion.

Mark said...

So caught the last five minutes --

Curzon Dax's widowed wife comes to the station and meets Jadzia. Dax is still in love with the wife.

Problem with the wife is that her husband Dax is now in a female body. And she just doesn't swing that way.

Don't know that Jadzia would swing that way either, but Dax within her is strong. So maybe she would play for the other team for a while.

narciso said...

I wasnt keen on that episode, but i prefered ds 9 to voyager.

Guildofcannonballs said...

bitch-cunt Drago will bitch-cunt bitch-cuntly eonly. It makes him feel good.

Fair enough, everyone knew from the start you couldn't possibly ever in any way spend your time productively; duh look how dumb Inga is today. Or chuck. It really doesn't matter, Dragos the Joe Biden of the Althouse blog and nobody has the heart to tell him how old and stale picking on the retard gets.

Hey, what does Inga think about Drago???

What does Drago think about Inga???

Minds of melted mesh want to inquire.

THIS IS OUR INTERNET

Churchy LaFemme: said...

"Epstein didn't shoot himself!"

Everyone knows Mr. Kotter killed him.


Up your nose with a rubber hose!

Mark Evanier wrote for WBK. Years later the "'Horshack' Means 'The cattle are dying'" joke surfaced in Groo The Wanderer.

FullMoon said...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said... [hush]​[hide comment]

I made my first plague-bread in my new breadmaker.


One down...

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Of Dubious Intent: A Dark Artifice Novel (Volume 1)
by J A Sutherland

Hmm. I don't know what happened here. I got the Kindle edition of this book from pre-order as expected, but when I went back on Amazon to look up a few things for this review, the Kindle edition is completely gone, and the only reference (in the link above) is to an out of print paperback edition. Given that the book had only been "in print" for a few weeks, that is kind of odd. So, I don't know if you can get this book or not, but if you can, you should.

However, you should not expect the tone from the author's other series, "Alexis Carew" when you dive in here. The series title is "Dark Artifice" and sometimes the dark is "very".

Years ago, Haley's Comet came back early and rammed into the Moon, opening a visible crevasse of some unknown material that somehow effects "electrics" on Earth an renders electricity incredibly dangerous several days of the month. Does it have an advancing effect on steam tech? Perhaps. From what little we see, steam is more capable than on our world, and develops earlier. Not that it has made the world a better place.

Orphan Cat has grown up in the hard streets of Georgian London. (We aren't sure of that at first, she thinks of the place only as "the city", and it's not until we are well into the book that a mention of Bow's Bells clarifies things a little). Hard streets breed hard people, and Cat survives as a member of street gang making a living, what there is of it, thieving, though most of the take goes to the gang leader and those above him. It's all she knows, but she won't be able to keep doing it much longer. Even malnourished as she is, puberty is upon her, and she won't be able to keep of the pretense of being a small boy for much longer and a woman's lot on those mean streets is even worse than a child's.

She has her eye on one score, a fat purse attached to a man of very predictable habits, that will enable her to slip the gang and strike out on her own. Unfortunately what she doesn't know is that stealing it is not her own idea, and the man whose idea it is has many other ideas, none of them "good".

Sutherland has said that to some extent this book is his "nature vs nurture" book in which he creates a protagonist with the same drive as Alexis Carew, but without her family support system, or even the hard but not evil Navy she turns to. Nothing in Cat's life has primed her to make good choices or to be a good person (in fact there is really only one good person in her life) and the turns she takes are sometimes heartbreaking especially after we are invested in her. Personally, I view her more as a dark Modesty Blaise than a dark Alexis Carew though. You can even see "dark Willie Garvin" in one character.

There are some very brutal scenes here, especially a sequence set in Bethlem (Bedlam) and I would say the book is not for those who want a happy tale, but I found it compelling.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

If Epstein's mother shot Epstein, does that mean Epstein shot himself?

Epstein didn't shoot himself!

Arashi said...

So someone asked about books one is currently reading. For me, I downloaded a few Mark Twain tomes from a free eBook site and am engaged with them. Innocents Abroad and Roughing It.

So it appears that Italy has found their patient zero. Seems a Pakistani immigrant that worked for a Chinese restaurant delivering food to customers was found positive for the virus and told to self-isolate. Of course he knew better than that, so he continued working, infecting dog knows how many. He now faces at least 3 months in jail, maybe more. Rod Serling material right there.

narciso said...

A pakustani delivering chinese in italy

Lewis said...

Everything about us is, or should be, on display - I'm thinking about David Bowie, an 'actor' if there was ever one, but, undenoubtably, 'himself', whatever that 'self' was?

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Craig said...

Like the Democrats, who went out looking for a progressive candidate, a brilliant thinker, and/or a person of color. Instead they found Joe Biden.

Drago said...

Guildofcannonballs: "bitch-c*** Drago will bitch-c*** bitch-c***ly eonly. It makes him feel good.

Fair enough, everyone knew from the start you couldn't possibly ever in any way spend your time productively; duh look how dumb Inga is today. Or chuck. It really doesn't matter, Dragos the Joe Biden of the Althouse blog and nobody has the heart to tell him how old and stale picking on the retard gets."

Hmmmm.

This means something.....

Lewis said...

After Hours

.I.

Those noises in the blank hour
Between twelve and one,
The ingenuous girl singing a song
Perhaps borne from the late closed pub,
The car alarm that mischievously sputters
Its unfrightening sound off and on,
Drinkers warming themselves
Over the hollow sound
Of their chanted slogans
Ready to beat, in the unifying desire
Of oblivion, any fellow man;
And, in between, quiet and quiet,
This slow, singing, melancholy hour.

And, to distract, the thought of you asleep
Comes and goes like that crying alarm:
Dog barking desires of my frightful cellar.


.II.

If, in this sphere of solitude,
Egocentric and sentimental,
You could somehow intrude,
Could arrive with bags and face turned
To that obscure, private life we somehow share
What, in the broken paces of private habit,
What movement outside it and therefore hope,
Could bloom, stare its tired stare,
Bare from beaten limb (yes, that fellow)
The one, doubled, solitary flower?



.III.

Among the insomniac cars
My shattered face stares whitely
At the moon. The blown flowers
Of our common school die quietly
Aged gestures of a beaten face.
Conversation, left
In my struggling, conceiving days,
Bouncing back from that rough, gauged place,
Poses the question of our death.

Am I then, in this absurd posture,
Abstracted by the flying blue lights
Making those correct, forewarned waves?

Death is a sordid thing
Done by sordid men
Use to a sordid world:

This our modern way
We love but cannot have
The once promised life?


.IV.

My mind has not the peace that’s promised
But a rage, a rage at a limb and joints
Incomplete, broken desire,
The unforewarned abstraction of our death.

And yet if you were here like the nurse
You would find only words of blood
And the absurd indignity of this mans fall.
Death crying (sentimental) among
The blotted whiteness of a ward,
Silhouettes of urgent shadow
And the dark faces beaten beyond

Mark said...

They are always breaking quarantine in the movies.

If Ash had listened to Ripley instead of breaking quarantine on the Nostromo, it would have sucked for John Hurt, but the rest of the crew would have survived.

Arashi said...

Yeah, but this is real life. And we probably have many more like him all over Europe, the US, Canada, Japan, etc. as the authorities do not have the resolve to force quarantine at the moment.

A thought. If the WuhFlu is really, really deadly - then why have not all of the homeless camps on the west coast succumbed at this point? Why are ther not hundreds of dead bodies in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA, etc. by now? We are talking people that unfortunatley are not in good health, have terrible hygiene and most likley don't wash their hands every 5 minutes. So why are we not reading about the terrible decimation of these poor folks in the msm?

Bay Area Guy said...

What's the over-under on when Democrat's Buyers Remorse sets in over Figurehead Joe. 1 month? Two months?

I'm thinking by June 1.

Mark said...

What's the over-under on when Democrat's Buyers Remorse sets in over Figurehead Joe. 1 month? Two months?

For many of them, it was March 5, if not earlier.

Lewis said...

Dialectic.


.I.

You deal only with the hard present,
Something I envy: your record’s written
By another, no one cares at the time
To stop you, drink doesn’t kill you or,
If it does, it’s at the end, a full stop
To who you are. We die, some of us,
Still incomplete and some whose life is nothing
But the presence of failure. I write this
Like a man who sits in the comfort
Of possibilities, the cobalt
Of a gun eyeing his talk of sophistries,
Entertained passion, solitude,
A neat cushion to back me up, stinking fear.
I don’t register what’s there.

Unlike you: you have the gun, I think.
As an aspect of that script I haven’t grasped
You turn this B movie into something more:
Like Marriott in ‘Farewell, My Lovely’
I’m the patsy, the limbo of certain guilts
Whose weaknesses ditch me in the end;
A clobbered beauty, corrupted by such
Expectation my body is forced beyond
What feeble reach I had into those other lives,
A sub plot that’s their harder climb.



.II.

Offended by the wrong words and never
Catching your welcome I retell mostly
A monologue of what could be done
Given conditions, appropriate sun,
Five mile wind, compliant interlocutors,
The usual list, verbatim anaesthesia
Of the irrepressible ego. Can’t be done.

Everyone expects, seconds before
The end, some kind of recognition:
Just the usual mechanics of the gun.
Except: I knew you before, before
The days of ‘hard drinking’ and searching out
Other people’s lives: a time when you were
Merely possible, not always there,
Treated as a friend of what was future.

Mark said...

Meanwhile, I would be careful about taking any "medications" made in China.

Drago said...

An Haiku

Guildofcannonballs
tiptoes lightly, guidance here
Soft touch as always

Lewis said...

A Winter Poem


i

My right hand in her left hand – so they say.
Those best word we had and yet neither
God nor man could join us. But this
Is pointless, to see one smile and break and be angry
Because you could never tell what it meant.
To want the resurrection, now – why disturb
The dead? We only joked because we enjoyed
The others pain. Or guilt


ii

If I see you again and every night
Am I then better? Will I become good?
Will I love their souls, even broken?
Or laugh in a new birth? I am a bitter, bitter man,
A hollow world that falls away, a sun
That has left me in darkness, the vision
Of even others happiness I must decry.
O god, O world, , O woman – if one smile
Could disturb these stone why not
Again and again and again?


iii

Ten thousand cuts, ten thousand blows, a beating
And then to stand all night, to stare at a corner,
To joke, maybe, with your friendly betrayers
And then watch them march into death, your left
With a word, like a photograph, which says “This face is harmless.”
I don’t wish to be in this world. You wish to be
Unhappy, don’t you? You have no right to that.


iv

Dirty and unshared and in a miserable room
Winter has written our desire upon this wall
Because I am what you, perhaps, must want,
This writer. A liar, true, a thief, also, a pornographer,
A self-hater, a wanter of mans destruction,
All these things and more.
Love which bringeth understanding.


v

The eloquence a persuasion of God –
To ‘believe’, I suppose, was what I meant.
Or not to believe but to know. Because an Angel
Pressed against me. I felt his lips.


vi

No joy talking to oneself, being alone,
No joy, again, in sex, no joy in delight
Over a face seen again, no morning
Waking because you had kissed me,
No love in tears or smiles or that said “I love you.”
No love for me or you or this morning,
Just damnation, the coldest fire that could ever burn.


vii

If the streets were colder, only colder,
I could force back a time when hand in hand
I caught something of your smile.
Extremes, they say, can produce illusion
Which I could grasp, never let go
Of your presence, however mad.


viii

Chalk on the pavement
Water is a sore destroyer
Whatever trace people leave
The city will illuminate
The very same world
Even on the last day
The pavement will be laid
Sorrow or joy do not counter
What is permanent
This the same rain
That rained before

Choose merely now, then,
Forget our yesterday,
The darling face, the nay
Against belief, remember
The street must return
Shouts that defy or plead
And you, before you sleep,
Must try to make room
For tomorrow
By listening to this rain,
Today.

Gahrie said...

SpaceX just launched a resupply mission to the ISS. It was the last time the original Dragon capsule will be used. From now on the cargo missions will be flown with modified Dragon2 (crew Dragon) capsules. During the launch they successfully landed the Falcon-9 first stage, making this the fiftieth time they have recovered a first stage. Later on this Spring they will launch the first crewed vehicle from American soil since the Shuttle.

As awesome as this all sounds, it's all going to be obsolete (along with every other rocket currently flying) when SpaceX's Starship system begins to fly.

NASA should immediately get out of the rocket building business, and simply start buying them from SpaceX and eventually Blue Origin.

Lewis said...

Lewis And Martina

L: A broken nose more expresses health
Than your ridiculous screams and cries.
I keep, at least, some human cowardice
At home. Making tea in the grubby room
but acknowledging this Angel. he will not,
For the moment, destroy me . That you wished
To deliver yourself to man was what disappointed.

M: There was no sense, speaking in the wrong language,
In any action. Neither theirs nor mine.
If I felt or smelt destruction don’t think of it
As intended. I have told people as, perhaps,
A piece of vanity, that I saw things.
Nothing was so crude. Only those who wished to love me.
They could not. Hate becomes, sometime, stronger than love.

L: And yet, for me, nothing was more ‘subtle’ than mine.
To you it was merely looks, a means of accommodating
Body to body and the dysfunction I must finally feel
When doubt had to sleep with both of us. I ached
And I ache everyday for what, well, I never wanted.
For I tried for merely a word that would say
You know me.

M: I know you but
You were not enough. Or never could be.
Listen, Lewis, I joy in those few months
When we really were discovering what it was
that always is so strange about each other:
Our mortality, our distant death, our always otherness.
Don’t you see – I have gone there,
I have lost you,
I have lost myself. And your child
Is the only human word I can now discover.
I hate you. You were not an Angel. I hate myself
For saying this. How could I demand this impossible?

L: No, you could not. And yet you, O beautiful you,
had a right to. You had a claim on an Angel.
But he did not come. Only me. I love you.

M: But you, my fool, my once-was-guest, remember:
Love cannot be there merely to please you.
We women are accused of eating hearts –
it is not us but God that burns your soul,
it is not I, it is never I, but these fragments,
These joys and sorrows, this ecstasy you refuse
To forget. Don’t forget. I may be mad
But I do not miss the compliment.
For in a glass I joy greatly at what memory can produce.
The happiness of a boy who cried “I love you!”
Because he had never loved before nor has since.

L: I had never loved before nor have since.

Ken B said...

I love book threads. Here are some books you've never heard of

Arguing About Slavery, William Lee Miller. My favorite book of American history. Long.

The Scorpion's Sting, Oakes. Great short book on slavery and the civil war.

The Order of Death, Fleetwood. Thin psychological thriller.

The Art of Genes, Enrico Coen. A brilliant book of the theory of embryology and genetics.

Yancey Ward said...

"What's the over-under on when Democrat's Buyers Remorse sets in over Figurehead Joe. 1 month? Two months?

I'm thinking by June 1."


Bay Area Guy, this reminds me that I need to get this out there right now:

Joe Biden didn't die of a stroke, or kill himself.

Yancey Ward said...

Oh, wait- I missed the perfect one!

Joe Biden didn't die from Coronavirus.

eddie willers said...

When I see something that says An Inspector Bumfuck Mystery or whatever, I give it a pass.

One that breaks that rule (series) is the Matthew Scudder series by Lawrence Block (a tremendous writer so the mystery part is simply a vehicle)

Of special interest is that Scudder ages in real time (first book in 1976) and is pushing 80 now. But what gets me (especially as an ex-drunk myself) is that the hard drinking PI really does hit the drinking so hard that he joins AA. And, believe it or not, the drinkless novel are the best.

And easy place to start is the volume he THOUGHT would be the last of the series, Eight Million Ways to Die (ending: "My name is Matt and I'm an alcoholic")

Then read the rest. They are really, really good.

PS. Then read Block's gentleman burglar series and also the surprising series that stars a stamp collecting gentleman who is also a professional hit man.

Lewis said...

I believe in marriage, even though my mum was married five times and my dad twice - I forgive them, because their fathers were fighting Hitler and Hirohito - I forgive anyone, now. Do you know what is the behavoural difference between us and 'others' - the ability to keep promises. How much that means - you have to have a 'regular' 'world', espeicialy oneself, in order to ' promise' -only a man 'without' promise could understand.

Lewis said...

Epithalamium
(For Oliver and Barbara)

The rails of fate which run assuredly on
You think mechanical until, rusty turns
Of metal, they suddenly end, the grass
Stands tall, the flowers are indifferent
And what’s left of a forest creeps up:
But, no, you’re not alone, the main station
Ushered you to a seat and a stranger
Who became a friend. And now, as the driver
Has nothing to do and cannot turn back,
Beneath all your discomfort, you find

You’re holding her hand. A miracle!
Was it you who unconsciously fumbled for safety,
Unsure of direction and afraid of derailment
(yet you knew you would end here, were happy
And loved it) or was it an accident of grace,
Perhaps that bit of sunlight deifying
An ugly day, suddenly some word (which you later
Realise you misunderstood) made the Other not so far
Or you were just thinking of your mother?
Never mind how or why, it became

And now lasting for ever – and who knows whether
She be that especially designed one or is it
Only the forced meeting that makes us dear,
That all of us (not being lunatic or bad)
Could love all of us of which marriage is a token?
Such questions we leave to philosophers,
Analysts and other buffoons – for us the effort
And the pleasure of a good deed done, of a
Love and a fidelity that makes us happy,
Of that constant light we can steer by,
Turn to and call a home. And if scoffers

Insolently shout that fidelity and all good things
Are dead, that childhood is hell, that mother
Is always beating us and daddy always
Turning away, that the one you love always
Loves another and will leave you for him and that,
Anyway, life ‘ain’t perfect’, it would be silly
To disturb them by a reply. A happy smile,
Maybe, and, long after one has stopped listening,
The thought recurring of the love and the marriage,
Wholesome, good, that’s Barbara and Oliver

Yancey Ward said...

Seriously, though- there won't a time of regret over letting Biden win the nomination- they are already plans to replace Biden with someone who isn't Sanders, but they needed Biden to crush Sanders before the end of this month, and that plan worked brilliantly- I was awed by the DNC's operation here- it was a thing of beauty if you can overlook the stink of power politics of this kind.

At some point, Biden's deficiencies will be covered by the media in preparation for this switch- this will happen after he accumulates majority of the delegates, but a month before the convention, at least. Biden will be pressured to step aside and name the replacement himself, throwing his support to that candidate. Some here will claim it is Michele Obama, I don't think so, but it is possible.

Yancey Ward said...

I would put my money on Klobuchar being the choice, even though she is a non-entity as a candidate.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yancey Ward said...

The Democrats waited and waited for another candidate to rise to challenge Sanders after Iowa, but it became clear as South Carolina approached that only Biden could win the state and possibly run the table through the south on Super Tuesday, so they got Clyburn to endorse Biden forcefully, and the media were instructed to get behind Biden after Saturday's primary. Then they coerced/bribed Buttuvwxyz and Klobuchar to drop out and endorse Biden the day before Super Tuesday, but said nothing to Warren. This had exactly the desired effect- Biden won Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, and with Warren staying in the race, Biden also won Massachusetts, Maine, and even picked up 1/3 of the delegates from Vermont. It was a brilliant maneuver, and I think they will finish Sanders off next week- Sanders is likely to win Washington, but with a small margin compared to 2016, and Biden romps in Michigan and wins the state by 20 points. At that point, it will be over- Biden will deliver the final blow in Florida by taking all of the delegates- Sanders won't reach 15% in the state.

StephenFearby said...

And now for something completely different...

Genome. 2019 Nov;62(11):761-768.
Sex solves Haldane's dilemma.

"The cumulative reproductive cost of multi-locus selection has been considered to be a potentially limiting factor on the rate of adaptive evolution. In this paper, we show that Haldane's arguments for the accumulation of reproductive costs over multiple loci are valid only for a clonally reproducing population of asexual genotypes."

"...Specifically, Haldane's calculations illustrate the evolutionary disadvantage of asexuality; sexual reproduction frees the population from this disadvantage."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31437405

Glad that this has all been figgered out before the FBI clone squads take us into custody.

Gospace said...

Arashi said...
....
A thought. If the WuhFlu is really, really deadly - then why have not all of the homeless camps on the west coast succumbed at this point? Why are ther not hundreds of dead bodies in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA, etc. by now? We are talking people that unfortunately are not in good health, have terrible hygiene and most likley don't wash their hands every 5 minutes. So why are we not reading about the terrible decimation of these poor folks in the msm?


The homeless, most of the, are alcoholics, and live with a BAC that would render us occasional drinkers unconscious. (Had a co-worker DRIVE to work and blow a .32 at 8 AM.....) I have read that while alcoholics suffer many things, viral diseases aren't one of them. Because their BAC is too high for the average virus to survive.

I know more than one person, including me, who's deliberately gotten drunk, very drunk, while suffering from a bad cold, and woke up feeling better the next day. YMMV.

I don't believe this works for bacterial infections.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Is the Cali vote counting organization a Soros purchase?

Original Mike said...

"Curzon Dax's widowed wife comes to the station and meets Jadzia. Dax is still in love with the wife."

Fionnula Flanagan

Original Mike said...

No. Wrong episode.

Peter said...

As one living in the east (Hong Kong) I thought you might have meant a metaphor for The East vs The West…

stevew said...

Yancey, your analysis rings true to me. I'm struck by the notion that what the Democrat party has done on this year's candidate selection process is not terribly dissimilar from the old style choosing of the candidate by the party operatives and elite.

rhhardin said...

...[H]ere are the top scorers in the 2019 Putnam Mathematical Competition for undergraduates in the U.S.A. and Canada, held December 7th. Top five scorers, surname only, alphabetic order:

Sah, Sun, Yao, Zhang, Zhu.

Next eleven:

Ardeishar, Bhattacharya, Gu, Lin, Liu, Peng, Ren, Schildkraut, Singhal, Yao, Zhao.

Next twelve:

Gao, Kim, Kim, Lin, Liu, Liu, Nichani, Ren, Rong, Tang, Wang, Zhang.

- Derb notices.
Derb Diary

Rory said...

"Arguing About Slavery, William Lee Miller."

His "Lincoln's Virtues" is one of my favorite books.

Fernandinande said...

American socialism in action:

"EBay issued a notice to sellers Thursday telling them it's banning all listings for N95 and N100 masks, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes.

The decision comes after eBay's marketplace was hit with price gouging, with sellers offering some items at inflated prices.

The company said it was banning all new listings in these product categories in connection with regulatory restrictions across the U.S., including price gouging laws in some states."

++

Sorry! You can't buy something because it has recently become more valuable! FOAD, it's for your own protection.

Ralph L said...

Putnam Mathematical Competition

I got a congratulatory letter from my college president for getting a positive score. WEEE!

gilbar said...

The decision comes after eBay's marketplace was hit with price gouging, with sellers offering some items at inflated prices.
Sorry! You can't buy something because it has recently become more valuable! FOAD, it's for your own protection


It's the (new) american way! When there is a crisis, the VERY FIRST THING you want to do; is fill up your gas tank, 'cause Real Soon they'll run out of gas
The REASON they'll run out of gas, is because; they are Required, BY LAW, NOT to raise their prices
And Everybody KNOWS they're GOING TO RUN OUT SOON, so EVERYBODY fills up their tanks...
Which causes an massive increase in demand, with causes them to Run Out.
So, by day two, we have stories about nurses and doctors not being able to get to work

IF, on the OTHERHAND
We let the price float; people would say:
I don't REALLY need gas, so i'll wait
which would mean that there WOULDN'T BE a spike in demand, and they wouldn't run out

Which World would YOU rather live in?
a world were there IS NO GAS, but it would be reasonably priced; if it existed
or, a world were Gas was Really expensive?

rhhardin said...

Mike Munger on Prince Gouging
https://www.econtalk.org/munger-on-price-gouging/

amusing, one of the best podcasts around.

Francisco D said...

I would put my money on Klobuchar being the choice, even though she is a non-entity as a candidate.

As I stated in an earlier thread, the VP choice will be the actual POTUS candidate. Biden will drop out and the VP becomes the candidate. There is no way they can continue to hide his cognitive decline.

Klobuchar makes sense because she is from the Midwest and can pretend to be a moderate Minnesota nice candidate in contrast to the NYC rough Trump. That will keep the suburban women in line.

gilbar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gilbar said...

MockTurtle!
i'm so happy that you're (finally!) reading ivanho!

my blogger name is named after the Hero of Ivanho; Brian de Bois-Guilbert
In a more perfectly perfect world, Brian and Rebecca would have lived happily ever after

Paco Wové said...

"seems a Pakistani immigrant that worked for a Chinese restaurant delivering food to customers was found positive for the virus and told to self-isolate. Of course he knew better than that, so he continued working"

Immigrants: we get the job done!

wildswan said...

Lewis

I liked these lines

"This our modern way
We love but cannot have
The once promised life?"

"You had a claim on an Angel.
But he did not come. Only me."

Yancy Ward said
"... why has California been assigning delegates? ... For all anyone knows, Biden won the state with that large an amount uncounted."

I think they know - as they should since they counted them as they wrote them.

wildswan said...

Tulsi should issue a video of herself answering the debate questions and questioning answers, a video made during the debate and issued just after. You know - the moderators' questions, Tulsi's answers right off the cuff, at least to the more relevant ones. Not interested on mottoes, colors, most poignant moment, hello Mom and Dad.

The novel I'm reading.
The Dems have eliminated all the better candidates (some of whom never ran) and now they've got Hindenburg, Good Ol' Dementia Jon Hindenburg, as the Presidential candidate and they're going to put in their real candidate as vp - a dynamic young socialist who's ready to lead the Black Masks against the foul racist, sexist, homophobic, patriotic, Christian POS Americans led by their foul racist, sexist, homophobic, patriotic, Christian leader, Don John of America. The plan of the billionaires is that Hindenburg, (Good Ol' Dementia Jon) will hold Dynamic Young Socialist back from real excesses. But what about Hellarion? and Willy-Wag-Tail, her husband? Hellarion plans a sudden snatch and grab raid on the nomination at the convention when everyone's drunk, thus becoming The Hindenburg Candidate instead. But...
Haven't finished yet.

Mark said...

I've thought for a month or two now that it would be Klobuchar for VP.

And almost certain to be president if Biden is elected.

Jim at said...

"It’s a finely-tuned machine, this Administration."

Chuck obviously longs for the days when Valerie Jarrett ran the White House while President Bricklayer filled out his March Madness brackets.

Mark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gahrie said...

As I stated in an earlier thread, the VP choice will be the actual POTUS candidate. Biden will drop out and the VP becomes the candidate. There is no way they can continue to hide his cognitive decline.

Klobuchar makes sense because she is from the Midwest and can pretend to be a moderate Minnesota nice candidate in contrast to the NYC rough Trump. That will keep the suburban women in line.


If this happens, history will repeat itself and the only state she'll get is Minnesota. If the DNC cheats sanders out of the nomination (and they will) only to give it to Biden, and then have Biden give it to someone else will drive Bernie supporters bug fucking crazy. We're talking burning cities crazy. They definitely ain't voting for Amy.

Right now, the Democrats are in a can't win situation. They're down to someone who is clearly in the early stages of senility and a fucking Communist. The goal is to have a brokered convention where they can fix things. Which is when Cruella De Ville returns to "save the Party and the nation".

Lewis said...

wildswan, thanks