July 10, 2020

At the Friday Night Café...

IMG_7912

... you can choose your own topics.

69 comments:

Jon Ericson said...

If you're woke, don't bother to read these, everything is copacetic.

Sad Trombone.

Faculty Letter

Guts

Yancey Ward said...

My spreadsheets for the US as a whole and about half the states individually.

US COVID Data
Individual States COVID Data.

Overall, deaths are on the rise again in the 7 Day Average, but no state is within a magnitude of the death rates of Northeast at the same point of confirmed/active cases, and not likely to get there either since it might be the case that new cases are starting to top out (see the graph of the change in new cases in the tabs at the bottom of US Data sheet), but that could be that the tests run are plateauing once again- need another week of data to have a firm prediction

John henry said...

Missed a couple weeks but howzabout a boo-kaffe?

Let me start with a Netflix series: "Secret City"

It's a sort of spy thriller set in Canberra Australia. A bit funky in parts but overall quite good. I started watching it on the plane Wednesday and finished the sixth episode of season last night. About halfway through Ep1 Season 2.

The series is based on a series of books by Chris Uhlmann. The Marmelade files, the Mandarin Code and another.

As good as the TV series is, I figured I'd like to read the books. Not available on Kindle. Not available on paper.

Unless I am willing to pay $38.47 new plus $1,022.80 for shipping.

The show was popular on the Oz Telly, apparently popular on Netflix,and the books are not available? One would think it was an obvious tie-in.

This seems as bizarre as the plot of the series.

I'd still like to take a look at the books if they ever come out on Kindle.

John Henry

Guildofcannonballs said...

Trump needs people to redo what he failed at: A non-racists football conglomeration called a League to end this simply racist association of talent currently labeled "NFL."

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"People will do what they do."

"Some people did something"


Que Sirhan Sirhan

John henry said...

So what did I read?

Well, I finished What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Schulberg. I really liked it. I don't think I liked it for the reasons Schulberg might have wanted but I liked it.

I think I am supposed to believe that Sammy Glick is a terrible person.

Story starts with the narrator, Al, as a writer at a newspaper and Sammy as a copyboy schlepping stuff around the office. Only Sammy runs around the office leading Al to wonder "What makes Sammy run?

At one point Al asks Sammy "Do you like your job, Sammy." It was kind of a crappy job job paying $12/week.

Sammy's reply is what endeared him to me. "It's a damn good job, Al. This year"

Al asks what he means and Sammy says "If I still have it next year, it'll stink."

Sammy cuts some corners, exaggerates his importance and talks himself into a screenwriter job in Holly wood making a couple hundred a week (Remember, up from $12)

The rest is about Sammy's rise from writer, to ever increasingly important and higher paying studio jobs. He eventually becomes a producer and studio head by the end of the book.

Schulberg wants us to hate him, or perhaps pity him, I think. I don't like some of his behavior, I don't like the way he treated some people but it was nothing illegal, perhaps not even anything immoral. Just not as nice to some people as he could have been.

I just have a bias toward people who get things done and make things happen, I guess.

In any event, the book is a great look at the Hollywood of the 20s and 30s told by someone who was there. Schulberg's father founded a couple of studios including Paramount and was one of THE big names in Hollywood.

Great read.

John Henry

Michael K said...

Roger Stone was a fool but did not deserve what was done to him. Trump commuted his sentence which is appropriate.

John henry said...

So what's everyone reading this week?

I liked Sammy so much that I am reading "Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince" by Budd Schulberg. About halfway through. It starts in NYC where his father got in on the ground floor of movies in a small way then parlayed that into a studio which he grew into one of the majors. Still kind of a small time industry in NY.

Then they move to Hollywood and create a whole world for themselves and for all of us.

Budd grew up on movie lots and has lots of interesting stories to tell.

Fascinating book and I am enjoying it a lot.

John Henry

West Texas Intermediate Crude said...

"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago and a racist today."

Thomas Sowell published that.
In 1998.

stevew said...

We have son and DIL kids, grandkids, with us this weekend at our temporary southern Maine coastal rental. The girls are 8 and almost 6. Reason: tenth wedding anniversary for son and DIL. A bit more than 24 hours in and it's been great. We wear our masks when out and about, not because I am suddenly a believer but because doing so is a no burden accommodation to their parents wishes.

I've begun watching Britannia on Prime. Historical fantasy it is called. I've read a bit about Druids and early Roman exploration into the islands. So far it is entertaining.

Having sold our house and now renting we have only internet. No more landline, no more cable/fiber television. With Netflix, Prime, and Hulu we've got everything we want to watch, at a much lower price. I've also been able to watch other shows I like such as The Five in my browser. The only thing "missing" is sports, but they aren't playing so don't miss it.

Monthly work travel expenses, which range from $10,000 - $15,000, are down to $0. Big assist to the corporate bottom line. Personal expenses are down too. Good for me, not for the local businesses.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

hey 23andMe-- what are your plans for the Trans ??

...chromosomes are a social construct?
how 'bout a "We can only determine sex, not gender" dodge??

...Boy George!! I think he's got it!


"Jonathan Yaniv, of WAX MY BALLS!! infamy, will be ARRESTED momentarily, and Crown Prosecutors are moving forward with a "strong case" criminally convict the violent predator. This is Yaniv's 3rd criminal charge and it is the expectation he is indicted and sent to men's prison.
Mr. Yaniv has used the insane "gender" laws in Canada to:

-Take pictures of young girls in bathrooms
-Ask if they would want his help inserting tampons
-Sued women to make them handle his scrotum, pretending it is labia

Yaniv, after all, is a "woman" according to Canadian law and SJW "logic." Why wouldn't he want his "labia" [read: scrotum] waxed like the "other 'women?'"

Browndog said...

Trump caved to Kushner. DACA amnesty next week.

The republic is lost.

Fuck Trump.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Visit the great melody.

narciso said...

The last one, secret city is available but not the firsr

narciso said...


Odd isnt it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1460751256?tag=harpercollinsus-20

wild chicken said...

I'm reading the Master and His Emmissary. I'm only 9% in but def think I'm a right brainer. I know what I know but can't argue it well.

Also I'm reading a book in the history of accordions. Basically it's all Lawrence Welk's fault that it fell from favor. Oh also the commie collectors who fobbed up "folk music" for the masses thought they were not Authentic. Pffft.

That whole 50s folk music scene was fake as hell anyway.





John henry said...

Blogger narciso said...

The last one, secret city is available but not the firsr

But only used, not new.

A more paranoid man than me might think that the books revealed some state secrets or something.

Most countries have much more strict laws and it is much easier to keep books off the market that are claimed to violate them.

Anyway, not in Kindle and I don't think I can ever struggle through a paper book again.

John Henry

John henry said...

Very disappointing if true about DACA.

OTOH, has PDJT actually said what he was doing with DACA or is this from "sources"?

And do we know what he is actually planning?

I've got mixed feelings on DACA. On the one hand, they are illegally here so send them home. OTOH, not their fault so I feel some sympathy to the DACA kids. Deport the parents, though.

It might just be a leak that he will deny to be a smokescreen for the Stone commutation.

I fully support the Stone commutation, JFTR.

John Henry

narciso said...

From the excerpt catriona bailey is a thinly disguised gillen (the aussie lefty prime minister

WestVirginiaRebel said...

Maybe he was "evolving":
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/07/10/nbc-science-contributor-who-reported-about-having-coronavirus-admits-he-never-had-it/

They already control everything else, why not elections?
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/10/dead-cat-receives-voter-registration-form-by-mail-would-have-voted-democat-owner-says/

Guildofcannonballs said...

Trump learned how to win by watching ALthouse.

Fernandinande said...

Faculty Letter

Saw that the other day, yeah, Princeton is a hotbed of racism /snort.

That nonsense would be funnier if Biden and his ilk (e.g. Sen. Sanders) weren't talking about implementing a bunch of racist federal programs, including a federal credit-worthiness database, weighted by race.

+

Mass Shooting Database: Shootings of 4+ Were Up 105% in June 2020

Almost all committed by blacks. 90 mass shootings (4+ people shot) in June 2020; how many have you heard about?

Guildofcannonballs said...

Befkore QAlthouse: ntRUMP Never could have won. But...

narciso said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PluralThumb said...

Watched 2 dental implant youtube videos and made it through a brain tumor removal video. I have a weak stomach for the such, but had breakfast soon after. Always wondered about doctors at such extremes. The saying, do not bring work home or vice-versa is quite foreign to me at that level of life. Mentally soon after, I usually stray towards a story by Oliver Sacks in Anthropologist on Mars. Specifically, about a surgeon with tourettes.
I know of one movie made from the same book about a different individual and case, called Awakenings. I stopped reading Dr. Sacks up to his Musicaphelia book in 2007. At a similar time Steve Jobs dominated with the iPhone. That edge network was similar to dial up modem internet. His father was a cook. Nice picture.

narciso said...

Well its about chinese infiltration into the aussie political system.

I agree about stone, they were going to send him to a prison where there have been 29 covid cases.

So my novella is chugging along past 160 pages from the sands of aden to a secret prison in morocco to a twist.

n.n said...

Almost all committed by blacks. 90 mass shootings (4+ people shot) in June 2020

Some, select, Black Lives Matter is a profitable racket. Unfortunately, people's lives don't matter. #BabyLivesMatter

Matthew Heintz said...

My kitty, Uhoh, is having her first kittens w/in a day or two.She's a barn cat, Papa is an all-white feral Tom.Wish us luck!

steve uhr said...

Why does trump keep lying about imposing the China travel restrictions over the objections of almost everyone? In fact the career scientists at HHS including Fauci without dissent recommended the restrictions and trump signed off on the recommendation.

I do think he believes many of his lies. He is a pitiful creature The MSM needs to do a better job fact checking the big things.

Drago said...

John henry: "Very disappointing if true about DACA.

OTOH, has PDJT actually said what he was doing with DACA or is this from "sources"?"

Always wait to see the details.

Always.

We've seen this movie before. Trump offers something very reasonable that he suspects the democraticals will reject.....and voila! They always do.

Narayanan said...

John henry said...
Let me start with a Netflix series: "Secret City"
--------===========
did you check Thriftbooks

John henry said...

One of the things I found funky about Secret City is the warning "Contains sex, language, nudity and smoking"

So there are some people so triggered by others smoking that they need a movie warning now? Good to know. If I can identify them, I'll avoid them.

I'm a former smoker (quit in '71) and don't give a damn if anyone else smokes as long as they don't do it around me.

The other thing that was REALLY funky is the principal character's husband, played by Damon Harriman who also played played Dewey Crowe in Justified.

They are now divorced because he decided he was a woman. But she still loves him of course.

He's not had his dick chopped as we are told in this line of dialog Husband's boyfriend/lover "He was all woman" Former wife "But not everywhere."

So he gets strip searched and has to take his blouse and bra off. He has women's breasts, look fairly realistic but I assume it is just good makeup artistry.

So if a character, who is a man in real life, but claims to have become a woman exposes fake breasts, is that "Nudity" for legal purposes?

It's a puzzler.

I am assuming that this is the reason for the warning as it is the closest thing to nudity in 7 episodes so far.

John Henry

walter said...

Must watch:
SJW promo

Narayanan said...

Browndog said...
DACA amnesty next week.
------------===========
a cruel yoke will be lifted off these children's necks - they can breathe free now if it comes to pass.

Ken B said...

A biker was murdered in Wisconsin because, the killer believes, all bikers are racists.

wildswan said...

I read That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis which I had always regarded as over the top. A riot instigated so as to be able to call for abolition of the police! - absurd. Abolition of the police so as to be able to sentence people indefinitely for non-criminal acts - so far fetched. Well, I still don't think Merlin will come back and save us. But crazed "scientific" centralizers looking for a way to seize power- that is upon us. Then I read the Secret Agent by Conrad which is about anarchists and nihilists in London more than a hundred years ago. But the same language. Then I read "The Cuckoo's Calling" again which is a book by JK Rowling in a series she has which fascinates and repels me. It was about a section of the elite in London and as social description is just unbeatable. When you see the upper level of that "society," you see that it is going to collapse. It simply cannot mobilize any coherence. It's like the South in the last days of the Confederacy. Maybe, part of Trump's strength is that he was able to reach beyond a similarly disintegrating upper level in the US and mobilize existing social groups and forces with which the upper levels of Manhattan had completely lost touch. If you read JK Rowling you don't think we are heading for a civil war. You think the upper level is imploding and destroying everything near it.

Tim Wright said...

Clematis! Jackmanii! I have a 15 year old clump outside my front porch, reaching to the eaves, and it’s glorious.

Yancey Ward said...

The first season of Secret City was outstanding, the second season was a bit of a disappointment to me, but I am willing to watch Anna Torv do just about anything.

Rt41Rebel said...

Re DACA. My nephew worked directly for Paul Ryan and still works for another Senator I will not name. According to nephew, Ryan offered Pelosi full DACA amnesty with perks if she would agree to pittance funding for the border wall. Pelosi made it clear to him that DACA was more useful as a political grievance and that she had no interest at all in resolving it.

narciso said...


Interesting

https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2020/07/10/will-president-trumps-new-executive-order-on-immigration-create-a-dreamer-path-to-citizenship/

Yancey Ward said...

Trump did the honorable thing today by commuting Stone's sentence. The politically expedient thing to do was to wait until after the election to do the right thing.

Stone was an idiot that made his situation far worse than it had to be, but absent the Russia Collusion Hoax, he never would have been in trouble. A fake investigation really needs to bear zero fruit in ancilliary cases just to make them less probable in the future.

Guildofcannonballs said...

It don't take no dang done darn PhD.

narciso said...

My parents waited 8 years for a visa out of communist cuba, my grandfather a similar interval my father 11 years so ask me how i feel about illegal immigration

PubliusFlavius said...


The Sound of Silence
Jessica Livingston 20

I recently heard one of the more interesting insights about Silicon Valley I'd heard in a while. It explained something I’d wondered about for years.

But I can't tell you what it was.

There's too much downside in sharing any opinion that could easily be misinterpreted online. Even facts are dangerous to share if they don’t align with what people want to believe.

...

I’m horrified at the prospect of the most insightful people in their fields thinking, "That's something I should comment on. Nah, what's the point? Too much downside."

That's what happens now, and we don't even know how much, because how do you measure the sound of silence?

https://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-sound-of-silence

William said...

I just finished Ten Years of Exile by Madame de Stael. In the book, she recounts her flight from Napoleon. She passes through Galicia on her way to Russia. Galicia was, at that time, a Polish province in the Austrian Empire. As she tells it, the Poles were ignorant and indolent and ruthlessly exploited by the Jewish traders. Both the Poles and the Jews were subject to harsh, rude treatment by the German (i.e. Austrian) administrators of the province. The Polish nobility lived in opulence far from these sordid dealings. She claimed the Germans were obsequious to their superiors and overbearing with their inferiors....I guess her treatment of the Poles and Jews would nowadays get her cancelled, but her observations on the Germans would be considered shrewd. Germans are the last ethnic group you can safely dump on. I don't think there are any Polish aristocrats still extant so, as it turns out, they were the most vulnerable group.

William said...

Madame de Stael's friend, the Duchess of Devonshire, got the full Keira Knightley treatment, but Madame de Stael, despite having a celebrated and storied life, has never caught on with feminists. She was never quite a victim and although she behaved heroically on occasion, she was never quite a heroine in the right way and for the right cause. She had a number of lovers. Those who were above her in the pecking order treated her badly. One of her earliest lovers was the illegitimate son of Louis XV. She gave him an an allowance which he used to pay off his mistress and gambling debts. Some of her other lovers were not of such breeding, and she kept them at her beck and call. At the age of 46, she married a man twenty years her junior. He was definitely a himbo, a cavalry officer of no intellectual distinction as her intellectual friends were swift to point out. She kept news of this marriage secret for many years so as not to interfere with marrying off her children.....She was on the right side of many causes, but she had a distinctly privileged life. Her father doted on her and left her a fortune. She had no problems with the patriarchy. She used to go to her father's tomb to say her prayers. She felt closer to God there.....Not much fodder for the feminists to feed on.

heyboom said...

@Browndog:

I live in the hotbed of illegal immigration, and a sanctuary state to boot. I think what Trump is doing is taking this issue away from the Dems for the election cycle. He really doesn't have much choice after the SCOTUS ruling anyway. There's no stuffing that mess back in the box.

I hope you won't sit out this election for that single issue. There is way more at stake for the future of this country. We just can't let that happen.

steve uhr said...

How about some Biden derangement syndrome. Hannity’s fill-in claims that Biden’s “buy American” economic plan plagiarizes a trump executive order of the same name. Nuts

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

the Left has even ruined Lust

Transgender model 'Valentina' Sampaio makes Sports Illustrated Swimsuit history

Next up, conversion therapy: The new left says you’re a bigot unless you have sex with EVERY gender

https://rightedition.com/2020/07/10/next-up-conversion-therapy-the-new-left-says-youre-a-bigot-unless-you-have-sex-with-every-gender/

how fucked up will it be when you get sued for discrimination for not having sex with/rejecting a tranny?

...from "bake the damn cake!" to bang the damn fake!

Crazy World said...

Party on Mr. Stone

Crazy World said...

Oh and those flowers are just gorgeous.

Tina Trent said...

Faculty Letter is funny. If you add up the demands, they want many more tenure track positions than are already set aside for them, an extra semester of leave on top of the already-generous one in seven handed out to the tenure-track mandarins, then another full year of leave to participate in special hiring committees to hire more minorities who will also presumably get that special 4 off/3 on treatment.

So they want to be hired and get paid and promoted but not do any work. Sounds about right.

JPS said...

I've said it before, and I wasn't the first, but all the woke on Twitter insisting that cancel culture doesn't exist, and that it only happens to people who deserve it anyway - and if you stick up for them, you're probably a white supremacist or an enabler - have finally convinced me: They have absolutely no objection to McCarthyism except its choice of targets.

Mr. Forward said...

Maybe there is hope. The statue dragging temper tantrum seems to have embarrassed the participants enough that the nonsense ended.

Jersey Fled said...

The MSM needs to do a better job fact checking the big things.

They might start by fact checking themselves.

Michael K said...

steve uhr said...
How about some Biden derangement syndrome.


He already has a bad case. Ease up on the poor guy. He doesn't know what day it is.

Michael K said...

I do think he believes many of his lies. He is a pitiful creature The MSM needs to do a better job fact checking the big things.

Poor steve uhr. He really thinks Biden has a brain that still works and Trump lies.

Steve come out into the real world. It's OK. No need to be frightened.

Anthony said...


"The reason for this apparent failure of the mask was a subject for speculation among epidemiologists, for it had long been the belief of many of us that droplet borne infections should be easily controlled in this manner. The failure of the mask was a source of disappointment, for the first experiment in San Francisco was watched with interest with the expectation that if it proved feasible to enforce the regulation the desired result would be achieved. The reverse proved true. The masks, contrary to expectation, were worn cheerfully and universally, and also, contrary to expectation of what should follow under such circumstances, no effect on the epidemic curve was to be seen. Something was plainly wrong with our
hypotheses." (Kellogg and MacMillan 1920, https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.10.1.34)

Bruce Hayden said...

I am waiting for the next shoe to drop. We are living in unsettling times, and the Dems keep giving us more and more reasons to vote for Trump. We had a global pandemic. Trump addressed it vigorously, while Dem leaders were still screaming racism When he shut down travel from the source of the virus, and inviting us to celebrate their Chinese New Year. He then went on and created public/private partnerships that ramped up PPE, testing, and prophylactics production in record time. The national economy cratered, but is coming back quickly in Red Staes. Blue States, run by corrupt, brain dead, Democrats, are lagging far behind, while some are far in the lead in COVD-19 death rates. Then, when things seemed to be settling down, the Dems unleashed their crazy wing to riot, loot, and burn across the country.

These troubled times seem tailor made for a strong, decisive, leader with a strong vision to step out and take charge. We have two candidates. One hurdles in his basement bunker, periodically emerging to utter some vague, demented, nonsense. The other acted decisively fighting the pandemic, then the domestic terrorism. The question then becomes why support the craven candidate representing the craven, unpatriotic party that rewards, and doesn’t condemn its Marxist, anarchistic, violent elements. What is their attractive view off the future? I sure don’t see one. The strong horse is the one who usually triumphs in unsettled times like these. If it looked like the Dem party leadership could control their violent elements then maybe they could make an argument that the only way to reduce the violence is to vote for them. But it is the other way around. The Dem leadership appear very much the ones being controlled. Instead of appearing to be the strong horse, they come across as very much the weak one. Right now, the surest way to further embolden the violent Marxist and anarchist elements of the Dem party seems to be to vote for the Democrats in thrall to those elements. And the best way to fight then is to re-elect Trump.

Keep this in mind too. A lot of polls show Biden with a huge, seemingly insurmountable, lead in the polls. But gun sales and U Haul rentals say just the opposite. The market for more expensive housing in big Blue cities is crashing, while it is exploding in places like N ID (esp in the Coeur d’Alene to Sandpoint corridor). Met with a Realtor yesterday, for selling lots in my subdivision, and she can’t remember this much interest. She is currently going from 6 am to 8 pm 7 days a week right now.

This is why I ask about the other shoe dropping. Petty much everything that the Dems have done for the last six months has seemingly helped Trump cement his image of being a strong, decisive leader. It is very hard for me to believe that the Dems haven’t had a hole card all along. At least an August surprise, if not an October one too.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Angelo Codevilla nails it... https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/10/fauci-is-a-deep-state-fraud/
Hat Tip to Michael K. This writer is a treasure!

Nichevo said...

So they want to be hired and get paid and promoted but not do any work. Sounds about right.

7/11/20, 3:59 AM


Talk about playing to stereotype! Why not demand free fried chicken and watermelon? Why not "loose shoes, tight pussy, and a warm place to shit?" Where did the so-called thinkers of this movement go to school? Big Rock Candy Mountain University?

madAsHell said...

I had to go for a procedure at the hospital. I was born in this same hospital, and I been there several times. My wife works for this same organization.

They manned the front door....the only door that was open.....with an infra-red thermometer, hand sanitizer, and face masks. They asked why I was at the hospital, and gave me a badge explaining my presence, and destination. This I understood.

As I moved into the hospital, all the familiar directory signs had been removed from all the elevators, and hallways. Furthermore, some floors accessed by the elevator are now locked. You can step-out onto the 5th floor, but all you find are locked doors.

My clinic could only be reached by going to the 6th floor, and then returning to the 5th by a second set of elevators. Exiting the clinic was the same circuitous path.

I really fail to understand how removing the directory signs, locking floors, and then have people wandering the building lost while trying to find their appointments accomplishes ANYTHING!!!

Bruce Hayden said...

I mentioned gun sales in my previous posts. This run on guns and ammunition is worse than anyone can remember, and one of the guys in the store I bought some guns fro this week said: just wait until November. Two days before the last Presidential election, I bought another handgun fearing the election of Crooked Hillary. Popular caliber ammunition flies off the shelves. Some of the bulk ammunition web sites are showing being out of stock on 3/4 of their usual product lines, at least for the stuff I am looking for. Sites that sell AR-15 build kits, that had proct a month ago are completely wiped out.

I had been planning on building a .300 AAC AR pistol this summer. But most of the build kits have dried up and the upper kit I did buy is running late. So, I bought one with a 7.5” barrel last week at one of the local gun stores. It makes a great truck gun, but the ammunition, so far, is pretty spotty. Already have it tricked out pretty good. Also, was looking for a Glock 19. I already have G17 and a G20, so I am just more used to them. And these guys had two of them out. I had been trying to find G19s online, and the supply is pretty tight right now. Except for this store.

The owner of the store noted that while throughout much of the country, semiautomatic handguns and AR-15s were flying off the shelves, for him, it was revolvers and lever action rifles. And thence why he had the two firearms I bought for hi available.

The other interesting aspect here involved the guy who came over yesterday to talk about the concrete work I needed done for the garage I am building on the lot next door. At one point he mentioned guns. It could have been him seeing the partially filled gun case in The garage. In any case, by the end, we had shown each other our truck guns, he showed me a pocket .357 magnum, and I showed him my newly tricked out 10 mm G20. We each emptied the guns and handed them to the other to check out (which is why the WA law against borrowing guns is nonsense). Told him that his baby .357 was too much for me, which is why I carried the 10 mm as a bear gun. Etc. That’s how guys bond here, by talking, and more importantly, sharing, guns.

walter said...

narciso said...My parents waited 8 years for a visa out of communist cuba, my grandfather a similar interval my father 11 years so ask me how i feel about illegal immigration
--
Do tell. Funny how the "fair share" crowd doesn't give a damn about the many who waited and are waiting around the world to do it legally.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Agree with a couple of posters above: Those are some damn fine clematis.

wildswan:

I read That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis which I had always regarded as over the top. A riot instigated so as to be able to call for abolition of the police! - absurd. Abolition of the police so as to be able to sentence people indefinitely for non-criminal acts - so far fetched. Well, I still don't think Merlin will come back and save us. But crazed "scientific" centralizers looking for a way to seize power- that is upon us.

My first impression of That Hideous Strength was, on the contrary, that the opening academic chapters were all too depressingly real. The way Bragdon Wood is sold off in the first chapter is exactly how such a thing would be arranged today (allowing for the differing academic setups between the US and UK). You make sure everyone is tired and hungry, keep piling on reasons for the Fellows to want money very badly and reasons that the Wood is more an encumbrance than anything else, insult the one old guy who can't imagine losing the Wood, and then trot out the offer for sale.

As to the police: The thing that struck me wasn't that the police weren't wanted (they were wanted in the engineered riot, but found inadequate -- unsurprisingly so, as they could have no clue what was actually happening) so much as the replacement of "penal servitude" with "remedial treatment." The primary difference between the two seems to me to be that one has a fixed term, and the other an open-ended one, so that you emerge only when "cured." We have seen enough of that already that you'd think we were quit of the idea, but apparently not. Me, I say with Chesterton (who was quoting some medieval source), "Beat the man about with a great stick, and then let him go free for ever."

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks for the compliments on the clematis.

They were already well-established when I bought the house in 1986. Meade has taken care of them since 2009. But they seemed to do well also under my regime, which was a survival of the fittest system based on leaving everything alone and just thinking about how what is is good.

Michael K said...

Keep this in mind too. A lot of polls show Biden with a huge, seemingly insurmountable, lead in the polls. But gun sales and U Haul rentals say just the opposite. The market for more expensive housing in big Blue cities is crashing, while it is exploding in places like N ID (esp in the Coeur d’Alene to Sandpoint corridor). Met with a Realtor yesterday, for selling lots in my subdivision, and she can’t remember this much interest. She is currently going from 6 am to 8 pm 7 days a week right now.

My daughter will not get to her property this summer with a new baby and the hysteria in CA. Her husband is doing pretty well with his sculpture. He sells it online and has a 6 month order book for some. He could do that in Sand point. They are worried about Santa Monica and had some rioting a month ago. I wonder what rents are doing in Sand Point? They would have to build on her 5 acres. Probably a few years off, although her friends who have the next lot have built a house. They are there full time, no kids.

The newspapers are saying the exodus from cities is due to the virus. In the case of NYC, I agree as mass transit is a dead letter. However, cities like Minneapolis or Houston, are going to be victims of the black-driven race riots. Things like their celebration in Beverly Hills CA will get a lot of attention.

This has set race relations back 50 years. The white Antifa organizers don't care. That's not what it is about. I wonder what the explosion after Trump wins will look like ?

Bruce Gee said...

John Henry, I've just started reading ISTANBUL PASSAGE by Joseph Kanon, at the end of War ii when the Jews were still being hunted, and Mossad was still sending out small groups to rescue them. So far really good. Very reminiscent of Allen Furst's novels based in wartime Paris.

Josephbleau said...

we are here because we are not there.