Althouse: At the Friday Night Café...

February 3, 2023

At the Friday Night Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

38 comments:

Dave Begley said...: China spy balloon seen over Sabeths, Kansas this AM. It did fly over Nebraska.; 2/3/23, 7:46 PM
farmgirl said...: It’s -19 w/a windchill feeling like -41… it’s sooo cold!; 2/3/23, 8:37 PM
Lance said...: Not wanting to pollute the analytics thread with a loosely related opinion, I'll post here.

Google is losing it. Maps, Drive, Docs, Mail: they make changes occasionally, but never improvements. Maps in particular is a mess.

Search has gotten worse as well. Lots of new SEO features, and ever more ads cluttering the result screen.

Meanwhile they kill really useful apps and devices like Chromecast Audio. Probably because they think it will compete with Nest. (Would that be so bad?)

They're ripe for disruption. I'm seeing chatter that maybe ChatGPT will replace Google Search. Maybe so, but something needs to happen.; 2/3/23, 8:46 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: NYT - Metal Detector Hobbyist Finds a 500-Year-Old Pendant Linked to Henry VIII

Cool!; 2/3/23, 8:52 PM
Rusty said...: That balloon has been here since Tuesday. If some civilian in an airplane hadn't spotted it we'd never know it was here, The administration would have never told us.
81 million, huh? Jesus.; 2/3/23, 8:59 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: Instead of blowing the balloon out of the sky, wouldn't it be better to bring it down so we can see what it really is? Pop the balloon to see what's in it so to speak.; 2/3/23, 9:02 PM
Drago said...: In defense of the democraticals and General Milley Vanilli's incompetent woke staff, it really would be inappropriate to shoot down the balloon without knowing the balloon's preferred pronouns.; 2/3/23, 9:04 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Did somebody blow up the balloon?

Biden: I got 99 problems but a balloon ain't one; 2/3/23, 9:11 PM
Narr said...: "Chinese spy balloon . . . . did fly over Nebraska."

Globalization: even the Chinese think it's flyover country.

Another deadly police encounter yesterday in Memphis--a shootout in the branch library (Poplar-White Station) I grew up with, and still use once in a while. One policeman wounded badly, the perp--longtime offender--dead.

The library was just the place the guy tried to hide after being pursued out of a nearby office tower, and there doesn't seem to be a racial or political angle to exploit.

Thank the fates.; 2/3/23, 9:17 PM
rcocean said...: Amazing how dumb American political discouse is. Yesterday, it was endless conservative high fives over 1 Democrat congresswomen being kept from a meaningless seat on the foreign affairs committee.

Now, its a Chinese weather balloon, that's wandered into Montana. OMG, how could Biden not shoot it down?

Does anyone not know Biden is a senile old fool who hates America? Assuming he even considers himself American? Or even remembers he lives in America. Or gives a damn about anyone except his own family.

But nothing "Good Ol' Joe" can do or say, can keep the Dumbo's from thinking he's a good guy.; 2/3/23, 9:17 PM
wildswan said...: The balloons preferred pronoun is Xi.; 2/3/23, 9:19 PM
Meade said...: What if this time there really is a boy in the balloon? Maybe even a trans boy. If Biden shoots them down, that could be very damaging to his poll numbers.; 2/3/23, 9:24 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Biden doesn't hate America. He isn't paid to hate America. He's paid to obey his masters in Moscow (not ID), Kyiv and Beijing. Hating America would just get in the way of fulfilling his obligations.

After all, he's an honest politician. Once he's been bought, he stays bought.; 2/3/23, 9:33 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Thailand princess is in a comma after receiving a booster shot.

Could be nothing, just a coincidence.; 2/3/23, 9:34 PM
effinayright said...: The thread about excess deaths today leads me to share this:

I'm a geezer in the cohort must susceptible for covid death. So I got two Pfizer shots early in 2021 had not come down with the illness.

But then I did, earlier this week. Luckily I've come through OK, with no need for medication (which can have side effects actually prolonging recovery.)

OK, it sucked. But waking up this morning, my voice was hoarse, and I confirmed with my wife that I sounded exactly like Jordan Peterson.

So I sent a voicemail to my son: "Hello, Mike, this is Jordan Peterson. I want you to listen carefully: Make your bed. Just make your damn bed."

Mike's a JP fan. He "got it".; 2/3/23, 9:35 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: What's in the balloon?; 2/3/23, 9:39 PM
effinayright said...: IF it is a weather balloon, it is subject to random wind currents. IF not, that's a helluva poor method for capturing intelligence data.

We should have shot it down. From 60 thousand feet its descent could have been tracked with radar. Captured what ever tech i was using.

If it hit a house, tough shit. Your split-level rancho isn't important vs. national security.; 2/3/23, 9:43 PM
effinayright said...: Lem Former Twitter Aficionado said...
Thailand princess is in a comma after receiving a booster shot.

Could be nothing, just a coincidence.
**************

Thank goodness it wasn't a dreaded semi-comma!; 2/3/23, 9:44 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: LOL.; 2/3/23, 10:01 PM
Big Mike said...: Today I saw Rashida Tlaib's hysterics over Ilhan Omar's being thrown off the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Hey, feminists! You are not keeping up your side of the bargain. We treat women as being every bit as competent as men and women lay off the hysterics.; 2/3/23, 10:29 PM
planetgeo said...: There is now a second Chinese balloon, over Latin America. This is no coincidence. Something wicked this way comes.; 2/3/23, 10:33 PM
chickelit said...: “Thank goodness it wasn't a dreaded semi-comma!”

Worse yet, a full stop.; 2/3/23, 10:43 PM
ngtrains said...: semicolon?; 2/3/23, 11:00 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: I suppose it’s possible to be in a comma, if you imagine you’re like Temple Grandin… illiterately. (If it sounds like I’m insulting Temple Grandin, I take that comment back); 2/4/23, 12:06 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Darkhorse responds to Scott Adams ‘antivaxxers were right and I was wrong’ video and tweets.

Worth watching.; 2/4/23, 12:09 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Sam Harris is Positively 4th st.

Sam just want to be on the side that's winnin'; 2/4/23, 12:16 AM
Mr Wibble said...: Have they checked her colon?; 2/4/23, 12:44 AM
Gospace said...: Rumor has it the Thai King is currently recruiting for assassins... I saw it at Voxday and called my former MI son. Who has seen it in two other places, one that he says he knows who runs it, and it's sort of " heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend...", but the story is going around.

Your guess as to why.

As for the "weather" balloon, it entered our airspace without prior permission. Legally, we can shoot it down without warning. We do have high powered lasers in our inventory that could reach out and touch it. That I'm certain of. Maybe the ChiComs aren't- and they're testing that... We may have other directed energy weapons. Hard to say. If the other side isn't sure we have them or their capability- using them on a balloon would be silly. AFAIK, under international treaties, we own the air up to 100 miles. Anything above that has free passage. Anything below that requires our permission to be there.

Outside is at -6°F right now in CNY where I live. Coldest temp this winter. Doesn't get below zero very often here, but it does happen. Coldest I can recall seeing since moving here is -16°F.This winter most of the days have had highs above freezing. That's very unusual, According to the 10 day forecast we'll be back above freezing for a high by Sunday, and a day or two later, above freezing for a low. I suspect we're going to pay for this with a whopping big lake effect snow in March. Or maybe even another Mother's Day snowfall that paralyzes the whole state. One of the reasons I prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius. 0°F, really cold. 0°C sort of cold. 100°F really warm (or hot if heat bothers you...). 100°C- dead.; 2/4/23, 12:53 AM
Dave Begley said...: Remember the outcry when:

Bush 43 vomited at a dinner in Japan?

Bush 45 held hands with the King of Saudi Arabia?

Obama bowed to the same King?

Biden needs to be impeached for letting that ChiCom spy balloon float over the country. Open borders. Open skies. We are owned by China.; 2/4/23, 4:54 AM
Che Dolf said...: "If it’s the passive nature of online content consumption that causes atrophy of mental faculties, then TikTok, as the most passively used platform, will naturally cause the most atrophy. Indeed many habitual TikTokers can already be found complaining on websites like Reddit about their loss of mental ability, a phenomenon that’s come to be known as 'TikTok brain.'"; 2/4/23, 5:01 AM
wendybar said...: Did they shoot it down??? Enquiring minds want to know!! https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/paula-bolyard/2023/02/03/breaking-explosion-reported-in-skies-over-montana-video-n1667806; 2/4/23, 5:11 AM
wendybar said...: Meade said...
What if this time there really is a boy in the balloon? Maybe even a trans boy. If Biden shoots them down, that could be very damaging to his poll numbers.

2/3/23, 9:24 PM

Haha!! Meade!! My laugh for the day!! Thanks!; 2/4/23, 5:15 AM
wendybar said...: Nope. Don't believe your lying eyes. Nothing fell from the sky in these pictures. You are just imagining things. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/massive-explosion-billings-montana/; 2/4/23, 5:28 AM
wendybar said...: Nope. Don't believe your lying eyes. Nothing fell from the sky in these pictures. You are just imagining things. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/massive-explosion-billings-montana/; 2/4/23, 5:28 AM
wendybar said...: IF she were a Democrat, we would be hearing 24/7, how some MAGA came out of the bushes and attacked her because she is black.
BUT, because she is a Republican, the media is ignoring this story.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/as_democrats_rant_about_death_threats_a_gop_political_leader_is_gunned_down_in_new_jersey.html; 2/4/23, 5:38 AM
MadTownGuy said...: I just came off a ten-day COVID vacation in our local hospital. The Missus and I both got it on Jan. 6 and were fine for a week with minor symptoms. But the following Saturday my O2 crashed and I r I dithering about going to ER. Did go the following Tuesday and was admitted. Great, aggressive care with everything the medical establishment will allow them to throw at it, and I'm progressing steadily if a bit slower than I'd like. Triple vaxxed, skipped the bivalent booster as it's known to be ineffective against contagion or transmission.

While in hospital I asked lots of questions and advocated for my care as I've been taking zinc, D3 and calcium all along through since this all started. I noticed improvement in how I felt after that was added back to my daily regimen.

My wife never had her O2 levels drop - thank the Lord - and we both had followup visits with our primary doctor thus week. My lungs sound clear though they have me on oxygen for a while. My wife had no residual effects from her case. Lots to celebrate, for sure.; 2/4/23, 5:41 AM
farmgirl said...: MadTownGuy: so glad you and your Missus are on the mend!! Covid kicks whether vaccinated or not, it seems.; 2/4/23, 6:23 AM
farmgirl said...: Effinayright: thank you so much for sharing that!!!
&a fist bump from me to your son- JP is a fave of mine, as well.
Glad you’re doing well.; 2/4/23, 6:28 AM