December 10, 2024

The vantage point at 6:53 — 25 minutes before sunrise.

IMG_0136

The clouds were heavy so I thought I'd better get out there early, because that's when it was likely to be interesting, if it was going to be interesting. And that's how I ended up with such a dark "sunrise" picture today. There was no sense waiting out the 25 minutes until the "official" sunrise time. It was 24°. I ran back to the car and that was that.

***

Talk about whatever you want in the comments. And support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

61 comments:

BudBrown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rehajm said...

Ingot called up to the show! Will still be lurking- thanks y’all!’

Original Mike said...

America's open for business

Avatar
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!

Jaq said...

These are the kinds of things that come on the market when a regime falls. When Gaddafi fell in Libya, Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi buying up weapons to send to Syria to arm the "moderate rebels" there. Remember "We came! We saw! He died!"

https://x.com/Osint613/status/1866477093892100127

Anyway, it's only a matter of time before the slave auctions show up in Syria, like they did in Libya after we overthrew the government there, because, you know, NATO is a "defensive alliance."

Original Mike said...

"Anyway, it's only a matter of time before the slave auctions show up in Syria,…"

That's unfortunate. Good thing it's not our fault, huh?

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

NBC News: “N.Y. attorney general refuses to drop $486 million judgment against Trump”
“A lawyer for the president-elect had urged Letitia James' office to "completely dismiss" its civil fraud case against Trump and his company.”

Scott Patton said...

..."he's lying out of his teeth"
I knew a guy that spoke English as a second language. When he couldn't think of a word, or maybe someone's name, he would say: "It's.. it's.. right between my tongue!"

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Speaking of the vantage point: “A zero shadow day is when the Sun does not cast a shadow of an object at solar noon. It happens twice a year for locations in the tropics.”

Reddit video: This is in Pune, India, May 13.

tcrosse said...

It won't be long before the Luigi Mangione merch hits the streets (if it hasn't already). The film rights are up for grabs, and the cover of the Rolling Stone awaits.

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

Per CNN, Amazon has already pulled a bunch of it that was being offered by third party sellers.

Eva Marie said...

Someone at Instapundit commented: “Soon he’ll be teaching GED classes in prison.”
Dr. Laura used to say that young girls get pregnant, not because they want to be adults but because they’re afraid of becoming adults. Too many choices and a baby narrows their possibilities. Maybe that was one of the motives for this guys terrible act.

Deep State Reformer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deep State Reformer said...

I found a pretty good article by former Michigan congressman Thaddeus McCotter posted up at The Chronicles website. McCotter deftly deconstructs what he calls the "Democratic-media complex''. It's short read but very informative.

https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/word-tricks-of-the-democrat-media-complex/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=word-tricks-of-the-democrat-media-complex

Gospace said...

A headline at RealClearScience today: "We Now Have a Way to Test the Anthropic Principle " Didn't bother reading it. There is no way to test it.

But the weak anthropic principle is undoubtedly true, as it answers, insufficient, why are all the properties of the universe the way they are? The answer- Because if they weren't, we wouldn't be here to ask the question... They have to be the way they are for us to exist.

The Ultimate Anthropic Principle is a little deeper. A universe cannot exist unless there is an intelligence to observe it, and one, and only one, is both necessary and sufficient for it to exist. Others may exist, but there is no necessity for them to exist. Fully compatible with And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light...

Familiar with the Fermi Question? Where Are They? A rather profound question in that if intelligences are common, not only would there be widespread evidence they exist, but we would be them. IMHO, only two universal explanation for the lack of evidence. First, God created only us- compatible with the Ultimate Anthropic Principle. Second- Berserkers are real, on their way here, and we need to prepare for them... Berserkers from Fred Saberhagen's books, not Viking sagas.

And then we get into- free will vs. predestination? Which is true? IMHO- free will. No such thing as moral behavior if predestination is our path. That would mean all the people manning Saddam's dungeons had no choice in what they were doing... Do you even want to believe that?

Caroline said...

Heavy clouds. Some days are like that.

Dr Weevil said...

Does 'Jaq' not know that there have already been slave markets in Syria, run by ISIS aka ISIL aka Daesh, which controlled a third of Syria and 40% of Iraq less than 10 years ago, when Obama was president? That these markets in Raqqa and other cities sold hundreds women as sex slaves, mostly Kurds and Yazidis, but at least one American, whom the top mullah kept for himself? That these slave markets were shut down in 2017-18 when the Kurdish SDF, with support from various allied nations, including 2,000 US troops sent by Trump, totally crushed ISIS, killing thousands and capturing thousands more, with the few dozen survivors hiding out in caves along the Turkish border? (Unfortunately, ISIS killed the American sex slave before she could be rescued.)

Why does 'Jaq' always pretend that the US always makes things worse? And why does he assume that whoever rules Syria in place of Assad - HTS is too small to rule alone, and is already making coalitions - will open slave markets? Way too many commenters here pretend to predict the future, and way too many of them are Eeyores, always predicting the worst. For instance, anyone here who assured us as fact that Trump couldn't possibly win, because the Democrats would undoubtedly steal the election, should probably think twice about posting predictions.

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Saint Croix said...

Trump interview where he explains why the FBI might want to investigate Liz Cheney.

Saint Croix said...

That's a classic Trump interview. And it's a reminder that he's not an attorney, and he may or may not be 100% serious about what he's threatening.

At one point he says it was "such a mistake" for Cheney to be campaigning with Harris. If I was her defense attorney at her criminal trial, I would subpoena Trump and use this interview as evidence that Cheney was targeted for criminal prosecution because of her politics. It's illegal when Democrats do it, and it's illegal when Republicans do it.

Saint Croix said...

About the allegations of destruction of evidence. Did she destroy the evidence? She wasn't the head of the committee, and it wouldn't have been her call.

Clearly, if you're going to go after anybody for the kangaroo court that went on in Congress for over a year, it would be Pelosi. And the process for that is impeachment. I doubt they have the votes for that. Nonetheless, I'm in favor of Biden giving Pelosi a pardon, just to embarrass the shit out of her. And she should be embarrassed. That circus was a joke. (She's not a lawyer, either).

In general, I'm fucking sick of impeachments and you're not likely to convince me that this isn't a political hack-job. If you could go some DINOs on board, then maybe we would go that route. I don't think DINO is a thing, though, I just made that acronym up. And I don't believe in targeting ex-officials just because it's easier to target people out of power.

Saint Croix said...

What I like about this interview is Trump saying that he's hands off, it's not up to him, whatever the FBI (under Batman) wants to do, he's "drill, baby, drill," and suggesting that maybe Biden should pardon her. But the best part is when he tells the reporter that she has "so much potential." That made me laugh out loud. And he nails her for her bias and partisanship. That's an excellent point. If political prosecutions are bad and something we want to avoid, hack propaganda is also something that is bad and we want to avoid.

Big Mike said...

I see someone, who self-identified as an advocate for transgender rights, assaulted Republican Representative Nancy Mace on Capitol grounds tonight. The lady is not among my favorites, however I strongly urge you "tolerant" leftist to get a grip. Nothing about violence implies to anyone sane that your cause is righteous. Quite the contrary. (Previous iteration of this comment left out the word “not.”)

Saint Croix said...

Y'all be nice to Inga!

Losing happens to everybody, sooner or later.

Eva Marie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

Inga was dancing in anticipation of coming here and rubbing Trump's loss in our faces. Something about big, wet Trumpist tears.

wendybar said...



Physics Geek
@physicsgeek

Follow
Replying to @CBSNews
Huh. Did something happen about 15 years ago that caused health insurance to become way more expensive? Well, I guess the world will never know. Just one of life's great mysteries amirite?
7:48 AM · Dec 10, 2024

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-insurance-costs-inflation-denials-luigi-mangione-united-healthcare/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=683975064

wendybar said...

"One of his officers saw 50 drones come off of the ocean." New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwNyrzZusxQ

Money Manger said...

Basically a solar eclipse between the sun, your head, and your feet.

Big Mike said...

While the Biden administration is busy spending its last six weeks shoveling money out the door to Ukraine and Africa, the people of Western North Carolina hig by Hurricane Helene last September are living in tents. True to their Democrat roots FEMA tried to call that “misinformation,” but the most effective support for the people has been Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse and they lambasted the lying FEMA bureaucrats — the JD Vance went down to Western North Carolina in person, forcing the media to cover the story. You Democrats, who’s about if you stop lying and start working for a change? You Democrats spend a lot of time hating on Christians (and now Jews, too) but at least Christian charities are out in the field doing all they can to alleviate the suffering of people forced by their own government to shelter in canvas tents while overnight temperatures are in the teens.*

Anyone looking to give end of year donations to Samaritan’s Purse can find them at www.samaritanspurse,org (be sure to go to dot-org and not dot-com), For the record I am an atheist and have no affiliation, beyond my personal donations, with Samaritan’s Purse organization.
_________
* It has not escaped my notice that our blog hostess ran for her car at a comparatively balmy 24 degrees.

Enigma said...

Read Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker (1937) if you haven't yet. This novel deals with a bunch of related philosophical questions, and it is the root source or inspiration for many other 20th century SciFi publications and productions (e.g., half the Star Trek plots).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Maker
https://ia600707.us.archive.org/34/items/VariousWorks/StarMaker-OlafStapledon.pdf

Breezy said...

FEMA has been atrocious, and so has the NC Governor. If only NC had a governor like DeSantis….

Enigma said...

The west is in a lawfare era, and one where female politicians have configured political combat to match female methods and preferences. When men fully control politics, differences tend to be settled with swords, firing squads, nooses, and guillotines. Impeachment you say? What about execution for treason? See the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953.

With lawfare, media coverage of hypocrisy and the (deep female) fear of shunning is what keeps things in check. We have a bunch of cautious people full of bitterness who desire to destroy others with every fiber of their being. Yet they dance around with low risk strategies and point fingers but never take decisive action. It's not sexual tension, rather, it's violence tension.

Money Manger said...

The NYT this morning has an urgent front-page scoop that 2mm/year illegal immigrants have flooded over the border and Biden's policies are the cause. I hope this wasn't too much of a shock to their readers.

One can only hope that as their internal censorship finally fades, tomorrow they will run a story on hoe awful a candidate Harris was.

Tina Trent said...

Interesting reply, Dr. Weevil. I thought Kamala would win not because of fraud but because of demographic change (massive in my state), the daily race shame slashed into young voters brains and hearts in academia (a perverse sadomasochistic place that would make a British mid-century boarding school look like paradise), other institutional capture terrorizing all ages, and the perfidy of the media.

However, it’s also just emotional, based on previous examples of Middle Eastern coups, to be optimistic that the coup will have positive long-term results, especially for women. Jaq is right about the one point he chose to make. No reason to load your shotgun with salt.

lonejustice said...

An interesting short video on the rise and fall of Syria.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D23L4XsCpbg

Jaq said...

"The US would never do an evil thing in pursuit of global domination" is not an argument, it's a talking point. Here is actual evidence:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange today said the CIA was responsible for paving the way for ISIS as the whistle blowing organisation released more than half a million formerly confidential US diplomatic cables dating back to 1979.

https://redice.tv/news/cia-created-isis-says-julian-assange-as-wikileaks-releases-500k-us-cables

We know that ISIS only attacks enemies of the US and Israel, in fact ISIS at one point apologized to Israel for killing one of its soldiers, per a former Israeli defense minister.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-israel-defence-force-apology-attack-unit-golan-heights-defense-minister-moshe-ya-alon-a7700616.html

Objectively, the fall of Syria benefits Israel, and as Israel has rolled tanks into Syrian territory, ISIS has not made a squeak.

So yeah, I don't have a high opinion of US foreign policy adventurism. I think that we used the same kinds of techniques to split Ukraine and politically capture it, and we are trying to do the same with Georgia, by claiming that their internationally monitored and approved elections were somehow "rigged" because we didn't like the outcome. There was nothing wrong with Romanian elections, but the EU had them nullified because the wrong side won.

There is a common thread in these two elections that explains them without the claimed "Putin puppet master" theories, it is that the populations of those countries do not want to be dragged into a war just because Ukraine is losing. It's perfectly rational.

Jaq said...

As someone who learned a foreign language late in life, prepositions are possibly the hardest thing.

Jaq said...

Sorry, but not even a recreational fishing boat can be off the coast of the US without us knowing about it. So if this is true, then we know exactly what is going on. Could be a kind of war game.

Tina Trent said...

It’s fascinating that the NYT, which completely fabricated the now-discredited story that imaginary passive “onlookers” were the real cause of Kitty Genovese’s murder and rape (in that order), now opposes the 99.5 of its own subscribers (based on comments/math) celebrating Daniel Perry’s acquittal and non-passive-onlooker action. Just when you thought the Times couldn’t be more pro-offender, they prove us wrong.

This consistent deceit started as policy with that lying scumbag NYTimes editor A.M. Rosenthal, who spent 30 years defending Genovese’s black murderer-rapist while hunting for white people to blame. He erased the killer/rapist’s previous victims (likely mostly black women, as far as we know). He hid the killer’s explanation that he wanted to know what it felt like to kill and rape a white woman (though a previous victim was a 15-year old white girl). He lobbied for laws to let people like Winston Mosley free despite killing and torturing unknown numbers of women. AFTER Mosley escaped prison and raped and kidnapped and tortured again before he was re-caught, Rosenthal gave him a full-page editorial to plead for his release on the grounds that he was rehabilitated, and life sentences limited personal growth. Moseley and other killers had their life sentences overturned, and he was up for parole 18 times. His victims’ families were sentenced to a lifetime of keeping him in prison.

Rosenthal wrote a book justifying his own reporting, mostly by condemning white victims and imaginary onlookers of black offenders (forget the black ones — he couldn’t care less about them). He spawned a fake academic theory that ironically led to terror of intervening in black-on-white crime. Then, as time revealed his lies and grotesquely inaccurate claims about non-existent witnesses, he amended the book three times, compounding the lies.

It’s all about deifying black offenders for these people. Genovese and Moseley’s other victims, black and white, are dug up and re-abused by people like Rosenthal again and again. If anyone powerful is directly responsible for the many victims of crime since the 1960’s to today, it is A.M. Rosenthal and the other serial liars and criminal fetishists at the Times. Daniel Perry won against incredible odds.

Enigma said...

This may be the origin of, or contributed to, the "Magical Negro" concept. See Whoopi Goldberg's "Guinan" character on Star Trek; see Barack Obama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro

Tina Trent said...

Jaq, do you know the definition of a troll. Maybe look that up. Basically, it’s lying about what people actually said to you and then refusing to engage their points.

Have another sad, pathetic, lonely, anonymous day, you sorry excuse for an pseudo-intellect.

Jaq said...

"Why does 'Jaq' always pretend that the US always makes things worse?"

I was responding to this sentence, and my response addresses it. It also addressed the "it's not our fault" comment.

But whatever. America is all about "truth, justice, and the American way," just like Weevil believes, and like in the beginning of the old black and white Superman episodes we watched as kids. Sure, you believe that. Just make sure you don't try to understand European and American history of the past two centuries at any deeper level than names and dates.

Europeans and certain Americans are trying to drag us into a war that we never should have started. It's important work to undermine the consensus that they are trying to create to send our children and grandchildren to fight it.

Tina Trent said...

I trace it back to the NYTimes incredibly biased reporting of the Mary Phagan murder. I ultimately don’t think Leo Frank was alone guilty, but his black employee was, or was in conjunction with him, after many years of careful academic research. I just think it set the cultural tone (movies, novels, Broadway plays, poorly researched history) for blaming fictional white female victims for crimes they actually never experienced, while ignoring the ones who did experience black on white violence. Remember, in the book, Atticus Finch didn’t think it was a crime worth pursuing that Mayella Ewell was a victim of rape — by her father.

Meanwhile, ignoring black on white crime is the American ur-story and industry and academic obsession since before I was born. Victims, white and black, of this sick narrative have, in my extensive experience, no problem distinguishing their offenders from the vast majority of decent and kind people who are black or white. It’s a powerful, obsessive, destructive narrative embraced by academic and journalistic thugs far above our pay grade.

BUMBLE BEE said...

In English, prepositions are easy to use if you follow the golden rule...
"Never use a preposition to end a sentence with."

Dr Weevil said...

I wrote "Why does 'Jaq' always pretend that the US always makes things worse?" and gave a specific example of Trump's US making things better by crushing ISIS and shutting down the slave market (sex-slave market!) in Raqqa.

'Jaq' could have replied with an example or two of times when he himself thinks the US made things better, maybe even agreeing with my specific example. Instead, he accuses me of saying that "The US would never do an evil thing in pursuit of global domination". Is he 12 years old? Has he ever heard of a false dichotomy? Of course, I never said any such thing. I'd be a moron (like him) if I had, and it's obvious that the US has made things worse in the world many times! What Hillary did to Libya is an obvious example. What kind of Manichaean reductionist demands that the US either be seen as a perfect angel or a perfect devil in its relations with the rest of the world?

And what kind of conspiracy theorist thinks that everything that happens in (e.g.) Ukraine and Georgia happens because the CIA is pulling the strings? The idea that the people of Ukraine were perfectly happy with Yanukovych, and the people of Georgia with Kobakhidze, until evil outsiders paid them to protest, is typical Americocentric stupidity, treating foreigners as NPCs.

One more time, "we" didn't start the war in Ukraine, Putin did. We (Obama and Biden, especially, and maybe Trump, too) could have done a lot more to deter him, and could still do a lot more to defeat him, but the war was his idea. All the 'separatist' stuff was bullshit, admitted to be such by the man who actually performed the coups in Crimea and Donbas, Igor Girkin.

JES said...

Social media has stories about NC, people freezing, hungry, no place to live. If true, why is the legacy media not all over it every day?

Tina Trent said...

Yikes Jaq, my bad, I thought I was still talking to Weevil. Multitasking this morning. Lifetime name dysphasia. Or creeping dementia, though I do really well at quordle.

Tina Trent said...

Also above our pay grade, I suppose.

wendybar said...


Stephen L. Miller
@redsteeze
·
Follow
"Free the violent murderers" they explained while wondering why they just suffered a generational election defeat.
End Wokeness
@EndWokeness
BREAKING: Democrats in Congress urge Biden to commute sentences for every convict on death row, citing racism

https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1866597739892707729

Jaq said...

That's one rule "up with which, I will not put." - Winston Churchill

Jaq said...

Sorry, Tina. I probably was a little trigger happy there.

As for Weevil, well, you do know that pressuring the other side to start a war is an old tactic, right? Did you know that in Homer's Iliad, the first combat that breaks a truce is started by the gods in a false flag? That was composed around 650 BC, and is one of our oldest accounts of war, and already false flags are appearing in such accounts. The reality is that Biden well knew that bringing Ukraine into NATO would provoke a war. There is video of him saying it decades ago. That's why he promised it. The ultranationalists also knew it. This was a deliberate provocation of Russia because we thought that the war would lead to the collapse of the Russian economy, and the end of Putin's political career. That's why Biden said after the direct intervention in the Ukrainian civil war by Russia started, both sides had been intervening indirectly for years, Biden said that "Putin had already lost" because he was confident that the trap he set would work.

And before you tell me about Ukraine's sovereign right to join any alliance it chooses, hostile to Russia or not, please explain the US position in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

DINKY DAU 45 said...

You always accuse others of doing what you are already doing. You wont read this anywhere, all you need to do is read what is being said to accuse and know that is already being done by the the accuser. "I know you are but what am I' You aint seen nothing yet..
GOP House intel committee chair slams Trump DOJ for ‘grave constitutional violation’ spying on lawmakers
Mike Turner, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called the Trump administration DOJ spying on members of Congress a ‘grave constitutional violation’
Mike Turner, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called the Trump administration DOJ spying on members of Congress a ‘grave constitutional violation’
Republican Representative Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said the Department of Justice under the first Trump administration committed a “grave constitutional violation” when it secretly obtained phone records and emails belonging to Congressional members and staffers.
“That weaponization goes right to the heart of really what we expect of the oversight processes,” Turner added.
But Turner emphasized the impact of the spying probe, and recommended lawmakers take action to pass legislation that would require approval by a court and the attorney general for subpoenas like those used during the Trump administration.
“This affects, as the report says by Inspector General Horwitz, the constitutional authorities and the individual constitutional rights of the individuals that were impacted,” Turner noted.
Horowitz’s report did not recommend formal charges be brought forward because it did not find evidence that the prosecutors were politically motivated or retaliated.
Among those targeted by the spying probe was Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel who, at the time, served as a congressional staffer for the House Intelligence Committee.
Patel has previously stated he wants to go after reporters.





Dr Weevil said...

Here's Wikipedia on Ukraine and NATO: "In 2010, during the premiership of Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian parliament voted to abandon the goal of NATO membership and re-affirm Ukraine's neutral status, while continuing its co-operation with NATO. In the February 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, Ukraine's parliament voted to remove Yanukovych, but the new government did not seek to change its neutral status." That continuing neutral status did not prevent Russia from invading Crimea in March and Donbas in April. Those invasions convinced the Ukrainians they did after all need to join NATO, as Russia's continuing aggression and war crimes later convinced Sweden and Finland to join.

The simple fact is that the desire of Ukraine - like Sweden and Finland - to join NATO is entirely a result of unprovoked Russian aggression, not the cause of it.

Of course, an honest man would admit that I never suggested in any way that the the US was perfect, and withdraw the stupid accusation, instead of trying to change the subject. As proven dozens of times before, 'Jaq' is not an honest man.

Iman said...

Cop: Come on, we're headin' downtown.
Sugar Bear: Where your warrant at?
Cop: Behind that preposition.
Sugar Bear: What?
Cop: Didn't you go to school? You can't end a sentence with a preposition.
Sugar Bear: Oh. Then, uh, where your warrant at, motherfucker?

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

That’s a good way of putting it.

Jim at said...

Social media has stories about NC, people freezing, hungry, no place to live. If true, why is the legacy media not all over it every day?

Because it's the 'wrong' people who are suffering and would make the current administration look bad.

wendybar said...

Now do Obama.

Tina Trent said...

Yes, I’ve taught the Iliad.

Pretty much everything we need to know about war is embedded in the Iliad and the Odyssey. That’s why studying the Classics has been purged from academia.

Tina Trent said...

Ha.

Narr said...

"Pretty much everything we need to know about war is embedded in the Iliad and the Odyssey."

I'll take history, thanks.