Althouse: At the Sunrise Café...

July 15, 2020

At the Sunrise Café...

... go ahead and write about anything you want.

45 comments:

Birkel said...: https://newschannel9.com/news/local/vandals-behead-statue-at-chattanooga-catholic-church-before-saturday-mass-services

Freeman Hunt has thoughts?; 7/15/20, 8:03 PM
Rory said...: How about we get a constitutional amendment saying something along these lines:

"The government of the United States, and all governments of the states, and all subordinate government entities, shall take no notice of the race, sex, gender identity, gender preference, color, ethnicity, religion, philosophy or national origin of any citizen of the United States."; 7/15/20, 8:22 PM
madAsHell said...: So, like so many men, I wander the aisles of Home Depot looking for answers to problems that I don't have!!

I'm sure we all share the same love/hate relationship with pressure washers. I'm the senior male in my food chain, and I have the privilege of buying the latest incarnation of pressure washer. I am then responsible for sharing, and maintaining the pressure washer with the women closest to me.....Mother, daughter, wife. Typically, the pressure washer lasts about 3 years, or maybe 50 wash cycles, and then the motor/electric fails. The marketing of pressure washers seems to be based on a subscription model.

Recently, my wandering at Home Depot has found replacement wands for the pressure washers. I've always thought a replacement wand was like a cheese slicer on the back of a Subaru. Who the fuck does that!?!?!? The electric motor will fail long before the wand.

DIY lesson. Make sure the pressure washer nozzle is clear before you pressurize the system.

Somewhere, I acquired a rotating pressure washer nozzle that promised to clean more in less time. Well, fuck ya! I'm all about that. I proceeded to assemble the system with the rotating nozzle, and pressurize the nozzle.

The motor hummed, and hoses bulged with Pascals, but nothing came forth from the nozzle.

Oh, my!! This is effectively a 2000PSI pipe bomb.

I put on a leather welder's jacket, gloves, and a set of safety glasses over my safety glasses. I dis-assembled the nozzle, and it did blow apart in my hands.

.....and now I know why they sell replacement pressure washer wands!!; 7/15/20, 8:55 PM
Jon Ericson said...: "Murals"; 7/15/20, 8:55 PM
narciso said...: I wondered about that

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2020/07/08/574728.htm; 7/15/20, 8:56 PM
Inga said...: Why is Birkel now singling out Freeman Hunt to harass?; 7/15/20, 8:58 PM
Drago said...: Story on one of Howard's "Normandy-Invader-Hero-Like" antifa types who whacked an 8 year old.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/atlanta-police-suspect-shooting-death-8-year-old-girl-wendys; 7/15/20, 8:59 PM
Big Mike said...: An easy prediction. Sometime in late August or September Joe Biden will have a staged “Sister Souljah moment” where he appears to take a firm stand against the hard left, bringing enough comfort to the gullible suburban soccer moms frightened by the BLM riots and looting, and apprehensive about demands to defund the police. It will all be for show, of course, because the hard left owns the Democrat Party as Biden knows very well, but enough voters will fall for the gambit to turn the election into a nail-biter.; 7/15/20, 9:03 PM
Drago said...: Inga: "Why is Birkel now singling out Freeman Hunt to harass?"

Why are your antifa heroes beheading statues of the Virgin Mary?

Are you idiot lefties under the impression the Virgin Mary served in the Confederate army? Or maybe you think Steve Bannon is running around cutting the heads of Christian statues and burning churches?

Crank up that self-proclaimed mindreading insight of yours and let us know what's going on here.; 7/15/20, 9:06 PM
Michael McNeil said...: Carried forward from a thread yesterday.

Name the other one that said “All Men Are Created Equal.”

That would be Ancient Rome. The legal and moral concept that “All Men are [fundamentally] Equal” was invented — not by Christianity, nor the (17th-18th century) Enlightenment — as folks commonly suppose today — but by Stoicism-steeped jurists of ancient, classical Rome (which was, as the Sparticus episode reminds us, one of the major slave-owning states of history).

The “created” part — as in “All men are created equal” — was tacked onto the text later as providing further explanation of what it means.

Those Roman jurists, one might note, did not proclaim this universal principle with anything like the flourish of the American Declaration of Independence — nor did anybody (even people with the power to do something, such as Stoic Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius) apparently hit on the idea of (gasp!) abolishing slavery as a consequence.

Roman jurists sought, rather, to apply this principle to ameliorate people's conditions in cases where its application was clear — such as among slaves, where rights to marriage, freedom for offspring when the mother was freed, etc., etc., gradually became more generous in Roman law.

Historian R. H. Barrow of Oxford University discusses this (originally Stoic) principle that “All Men are Equal” in his interesting history Slavery in the Roman Empire, then explores its consequences in Roman law, specifically with regard to the institution of slavery.

As Barrow writes: [quoting…]

[W]hen the Roman lawyer asserts that “all men are equal,” he means, in [historian Henry James Sumner] Maine's words, “that under the hypothetical law of Nature and in so far as positive law approximates to it, the arbitrary distinctions which the Roman civil law maintained between classes of persons cease to have a legal existence.” […]

The old law remained, however, in essentials; the slave was still a res [thing]; but whenever new law had to be made, or old law revised, the humane spirit of Stoicism crept in.

[/unQuote]

It took America millennia later to bring the real meaning of “All men are equal” to legal fruition — at the cost, among other things, of over half a million dead in bloody civil war.

The ancient Romans — who had plenty of familiarity with civil war themselves — would have probably thought it was stupid to have a ferocious civil war over that.

____
(R. H. Barrow [Senior Scholar of Exeter College, Oxford; Classical Sixth Master at Sedergh School], Slavery in the Roman Empire, 1928, Barnes & Noble, New York, 1996; pp. 152-156); 7/15/20, 9:14 PM
Narr said...: So, there was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, John Bannon, in St. Louis in 1860 IIRC, who cast his lot with the CSA and served both as a battlefield and hospital chaplain, and also in Europe as an emissary of the Confederate government to any prince or potentate who would receive him.

He tried to discourage Irishmen and other Catholics from emigrating to or serving the North, without much success. His diplomatic and religious status and activities are gray areas.

Narr
CS SecNav Mallory was RC, as was the raider admiral Raphael Semmes; 7/15/20, 9:37 PM
Narayanan said...: madAsHell said...
.....and now I know why they sell replacement pressure washer wands!!
-----------============
and scientists are working on replacement hands for pressure washer-ers hands!!; 7/15/20, 9:46 PM
Ken B said...: Massive Twitter hack! Proof Twitter has been lying! Very cool.; 7/15/20, 9:49 PM
n.n said...: "Murals"

Protection racket.; 7/15/20, 9:49 PM
PubliusFlavius said...: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/twitter-hiding-screenshot-its-trending-and-search-blacklist-tools

Anyone got a complete list of the hacks...er....hacked?; 7/15/20, 9:51 PM
Ken B said...: Inga: “Why is Birkel now singling out Freeman Hunt to harass?”

Might as well ask why protesters tore down statues of abolitionists. You get almost exactly the same answer. Minus the courage to actually protest.; 7/15/20, 9:52 PM
Ken B said...: My prediction is bolder than Big Mike's (which is plausible). In every jurisdiction controlled by Democrats there will be quotas.; 7/15/20, 9:55 PM
narciso said...: Actually they called it the social war, it was slaves as well; 7/15/20, 10:03 PM
Chuck said...: I think I heard a Death Star explode tonight.; 7/15/20, 10:05 PM
Ken B said...: The Babylon Bee@TheBabylonBee
Since @CNN is currently unable to tweet, you'll just have to follow us for your fake news.; 7/15/20, 10:51 PM
Joe Smith said...: Looks like you could play badminton with those flowers : ); 7/15/20, 11:26 PM
Birkel said...: An honest Ken B would admit that no 'singling' has taken place.
I have the capacity to remind idiots of their idiocy on multiple fronts.

Ken B, for example, is a liar and a dim witted cvnt.
Freeman Hunt believes giving just a little bit to the braying mob is reasonable.
And let's not forget J Farmer who makes decent points more often than not but whose style is overly abrasive and Smug.
Royal ass Inga is too stupid to be useful except as the butt of jokes.

No 'singling' to be found.; 7/15/20, 11:29 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: Francesco Toscano's interview is now available as a full English version. SpyGate, EyePyramid, the role of Italy, the connections between Italian and American law enforcement and intelligence agencies

https://youtu.be/fZwBg483Mos; 7/16/20, 12:26 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: who's Ghislaine's 'secret spouse'

...could it be.............Sayyyy tannnnn??; 7/16/20, 1:01 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: The Lincoln Project (who is extremely anti-Trump) was founded by a Russian asset.
Not only did Lincoln Project's founder register as a Russian foreign asset last year, he was recruited by Russia to work for Rosatom. per @JackPosobiec

What does Rosatom own?

Uranium One
https://rosatom.ru/en/rosatom-group/uranium-mining/; 7/16/20, 1:04 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “.....and now I know why they sell replacement pressure washer wands!!”

Bought a 3100 PSI gas powered power washer at one of the discount clubs. Think that it was Costco, but could have been Sams Club. Had it less than six months when the wand blew up. Found out at that point why they are cheaper than Home Depot - service. After a bit of work, I got a promise that a new wand was in the way. Nope. Ultimately I picked one up at HD, and have been expecting the replacement from the manufacturer for better than three years now. Replacement works just great.

Good to know that three years is about what to expect from them. When this one dies, I am going to salvage what I can for the new one, including the replacement wand, and all the stupid nozzles. It was actually quite comic. When this power washer was new, I lost a couple nozzles. I was used to about half the pressure with the electric unit we have in PHX. And I inserted a new nozzle on the 3100 PSI gas unit, start it up, squeeze the trigger, and the nozzle would fly off somewhere. Everyone has nicely Xeriscaped front yards in PHX, with a restrictive HOA. In MT, thick grass, a foot or so tall, grows up to the edge of the driveway, except for when I mow it back a couple times a year, and then I have thick woods w/I about 20 feet to the East, and 50 feet (across the road) to the north. It was really fairly spectacular. If you don’t have the nozzles connected properly with the quick connect, when you hit it with water at 3100 PSI, the nozzle flies fast enough that you can’t follow it. Pretty sure that at least one is in the woods across the street. Yesterday, a technician for Blackfoot Telephone was marking (Orange) their cable runs under the street. We were talking right in that area, across the street, and he commented that it was so thick that he walked off into a foot deep hole without knowing it. And that is probably where I lost a couple of those nozzles.

Which reminds me. Owning a subdivision is turning out to be a pain. The Realtor who is supposed to be listing some of the lots (I left that up to her) told me yesterday that we probably shouldn’t put the lots on the market until we have new pins put in, for the lot corners, and that requires a surveyor. Moreover, there is a cul-de-sac without any houses, and the grass has crept out to cover maybe half of it. I will probably mow it this weekend, which won’t be fun. I think that I am going to need a riding mower so I can cut the foot high grass back along the roads in the subdivision. Except that there is someone I should have told about buying the subdivision, and haven’t yet, and there is no room in the garage for such a toy, which is part of why I am planning on building a garage in the lot next door. Maybe. Supposed to be w/I a month. Maybe. They say that there are four seasons there: hunting season, winter, mud season, and construction season. We are in construction season right now, which means that everyone is working like crazy. (And the supply of semi skilled labor has been dried up for several years now).; 7/16/20, 2:13 AM
Jaq said...: Every time I see a brave soul in the supermarket smugly marching around without a mask I say “There goes the common clay of the noble American experiment in democracy, a moron.” I especially like the ones who leave their nose out, nose peekers. It makes it easier for them to pick their nose while still wearing the mask. It’s genius.

Fair or not, I usually assume that these people are Trump supporters. Probably because Trump supporters are so vocal about how it’s not their job to keep others safe. If a 70 year old man needs to go to the supermarket to buy necessities, he can eat shit and die before I will inconvenience myself to protect him. Besides, half the people who get COVID don’t even know they have it, not just that, quarantines and masks are only for sick people! Think about that last one. It’s like a koan.; 7/16/20, 4:22 AM
Jaq said...: "I have the capacity to remind idiots of their idiocy on multiple fronts.”

I guess if you define “idiocy” as coming to a different conclusion than you do, but if you do possess such a God-like intellect as to know for certain that all who disagree with you are wrong, you haven’t shown it here. It seems like you would be better at expressing your ideas if you were that smart. What you are good at is identifying heretics from your one idiosyncratic "true faith," for whatever that is worth.; 7/16/20, 4:27 AM
Jaq said...: BTW, people will actually die when people are careless about herd hygiene. And it’s looking more and more like “herd immunity” is a pipe dream. That immunity fades quickly. For example Tom Hanks doesn’t have the antibodies anymore. If that’s true, a vaccine is a pipe dream too. It’s possible that China has unleashed a virus on us that is going to be with us for a very long time, and that we are going to have to learn to live with it and we are going to have to look out for each other.

Oh, I forgot, looking out for each other is wrong. It’s a logical error to suggest that we should.; 7/16/20, 4:38 AM
Howard said...: Just Shut Up Tim. This is all a hoax so Bill Gates can inject trackers in us because the smart phone spying isn't good enough for Soros. Watch, if Biden is elected, the democrats will say WuFlu is the common cold, just like all the other Corona viruses.; 7/16/20, 4:52 AM
n.n said...: it’s not their job to keep others safe

You don't understand the transmission modes.; 7/16/20, 5:08 AM
tim maguire said...: tim in vermont said...Fair or not, I usually assume that these people are Trump supporters.

For the no mask people, probably 50-50 between Trump voters and non-voters. For the pulled down onto the chin people, in my experience, you’re being unfair. There is no pattern to this group other than stupidity.; 7/16/20, 5:25 AM
alanc709 said...: tim in vermont: ever consider that the maskless man had a medical waiver, like I do? Wearing a mask can cause bacterial pneumonia. Someone like me, who has COPD, is much more at risk for wearing a mask than not wearing one. The insufferable idiocy of people pontificating about masks seems endless. Maybe if you actually knew anything, you talk less about masks, and more about the effort to destroy democracy in America by requiring masks without regard the medical necessity.; 7/16/20, 5:29 AM
John said...: You've probably already seen this but I found it interesting. https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1283719835420172294?s=20; 7/16/20, 6:23 AM
Michael McNeil said...: The “social war” — or War of the Allies (91-87 BC) — was not about slavery. It was a war launched by the Roman Republic's long-time allies in Italy, in an attempt to force Rome to grant those allies — not independence, oh no! — quite the opposite: they wanted full membership in the Roman State. The allies ultimately lost the war; Rome won — but afterward basically granted them what they wanted: full Roman citizenship, while retaining the right to administer themselves autonomously.; 7/16/20, 8:25 AM
Birkel said...: And here arrives another who is not 'singled' who has been wrong.
My pointing out the wrongness doesn't make me bad.
The fact remains that those with infirmities should be protected.
Collective punishment of the vast majority well to appease the small number of higher risk - while crushing businesses - is a bad idea.; 7/16/20, 8:35 AM
Birkel said...: The lawyers are driving the mask wearing.
The lawsuits are prepared and are only waiting for a client whose name they will insert.
It's risk aversion driven by non-scientists.
Ambulance chasers want people like tim in vermont.; 7/16/20, 8:37 AM
Birkel said...: Imagine being tim in vermont.
He sees a disease that has no cure, no antibody protection.
And it kills some people.

The answer must be to restrict humans for all times.
That is the strategy.

But that cannot work if the worst fears about the disease are true.

Meanwhile, lots of older people on oxygen are having a smoke in a wheel chair outside a hospital right now.
Put it together.; 7/16/20, 8:41 AM
Birkel said...: Good idea for public health: encourage hand washing.
It protects the person whose hands are clean, primarily.
And it has the benefit of helping others.

Positive externalities.; 7/16/20, 8:43 AM
Birkel said...: From another thread:
tim in vermont said...
"If you subscribe to these values, you will succeed regardless of skin color” is white supremacism. So we are going to create a culture that will be as successful without depending on hard work, punctuality, the intellectualization of challenges, etc. Just watch.

The worst one is “individuality” Only in a collective where our betters do the thinking for us and we just shut up and do as we are told can we find true happiness. But it’s not slavery because we won’t call it that. Some people think that slavery is the complete denial of the individual will. “Whatever you may want to do today, and with your life, doesn’t matter, today and for the rest of your life you will pick cotton” Sure, that’s slavery, but “Whatever you want to do today, and with your life doesn’t matter, you must submit to the will of the collective as expressed through the latest maximum leader” is clearly not even remotely related to slavery. Because we will have commissars, not overseers.

Anybody ever seen a documentary on ChiCom cotton fields? I haven’t. I bet they are a shining exemplar of the higher order of life that is planned for us all. The best part is that the artists are all behind this, and when it succeeds, they are hoping that they might be one of the lucky ones with a government license to make art! As long as all content is approved by representatives of the maximum leader, of course.

Now do public health officials giving ever local government the power to order behavior.

I like that guy I quoted from the other thread.; 7/16/20, 8:47 AM
Ken B said...: Birkel
To be consistent you should call him “Tim in Uermont”; 7/16/20, 9:43 AM
Nichevo said...: For the no mask people, probably 50-50 between Trump voters and non-voters. For the pulled down onto the chin people, in my experience, you’re being unfair. There is no pattern to this group other than stupidity.

Lotta blacks. Hispanics not so much, they seem to have the fear like you. A few whites, not many, usually Karen or soy looking types. Asians seem to know the drill.; 7/16/20, 10:07 AM
Nichevo said...: Tim,

if you do possess such a God-like intellect as to know for certain that all who disagree with you are wrong, you haven’t shown it here

Back atcha. You seek to persuade with force. As the old people say to Amazon Silver, "I don't know 'bout that."; 7/16/20, 10:09 AM
Birkel said...: Well, since it means Green Mountain, I don't think I will change the spelling.; 7/16/20, 10:39 AM
Jim at said...: Recently, my wandering at Home Depot has found replacement wands for the pressure washers. I've always thought a replacement wand was like a cheese slicer on the back of a Subaru. Who the fuck does that!?!?!? The electric motor will fail long before the wand.

Hmm. Maybe I got lucky. One pressure washer for 22 years now. Used constantly. Same motor. Three wands.; 7/16/20, 2:32 PM