I know what a splitting headache is, but what's a splitting maul?Rugged Lumberjack Pete sits at authentic rustic diner awaiting a heaping breakfast plate of carburetors, while Annie Leibovitz captures him in a moment of deep reflection https://t.co/52OgDhd5we pic.twitter.com/Unz6GxyyQQ
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 3, 2026
Marso 4, 2026
Pete Buttigieg has a splitting maul.
Instapundit reports on what's in The Atlantic.
And then there's this:
Mga Post
118 komento:
You'll find the splitting maul on the shelf right next to the felling wedge.
Larper is so on-brand for Buttigieg.
The article itself is classic--we don't like Buttigieg because he's perfect, but we do like Newsom because he's dumb, just like us.
Wielding a splitting maul when it's -10 degrees so that the your wife and kids don't half freeze is a right of passage for any husband in Montana
Now that Buttaplug owns a maul, all needs is a chorus of Mounties to sing, He's a lumberjack, and he's okay!
To paraphrase Dickens: There's more of mall than of maul about you, whatever you are!
Sure, he’s got a splitting maul but does he have a peavey? Every lumberjack loves his peavey and I’m getting Buttigieg loves his peavey too. He seems like a peavey-lover.
Doesn't matter if he has axe or maul- he’s splitting wood for some reason, the percentages say that reason is firewood, carbon combustion, destroying the planet. That rotten sob needs to wear that like a burning tire…
And a side of french-fried piston rings.
It immediately brings to mind his coming campaign song:
"He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps
He likes to press wild flowers
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around in bars...?"
Yes, there's nothing more satisfying than yanking on your Peavey to move a giant log.
"...Can he convince America he’s a man of the people?..."
Can he convince America he's a man? What're the pronouns these days?
They should have chosen some other manly meme. Does nobody in his circle know Monty Python?
And what problem does the country face that would require a lumberjack in the White House?
Think of it this way ....
Seriously, I question the competence of Annie Leibowitz. Her job is making silk purses from sow's ears. How could she pose Buttigieg in that working-class diner without a Caterpillar gimme cap and a Pendleton shirt?
Stop payment on that check, Pete!
Holy Hell- the story brings up The West Wing in the first paragraph. Each new generation of crappy lefties stumbles on to that stupid show and thinks they found the secret script to political immortality. How long before Bootie tries the President Bartlett candid comment in an open mic trick and thinks he’s the first?
He’s waiting on an order of toast.
Everybody assumes I'm biased, and that's fine, but considering the problems our country faces, I think the kind or expertise, experience and talent we need in the White House is there right now. Maybe some adjustment to personal style is in order, but we could do a lot worse. Trumpism in the style of Vance or Rubio would be ideal.
Pete’s a wimp. I used a monster maul in my younger days for splitting wood.
The doofus forgot the “placement” of the 12 gauge pump shotgun in the corner of the booth for the photo op.
I wondered if Annie was still shadowing him. The Atlantic appears to give photo credit to someone else. I think Burge was speaking metaphors…
The maul isn’t about chopping wood, it’s about image construction.
Warning
Men Working
The photo certainly has a creepy vibe to it.
He is sitting in the corner, back to the wall, hunched over.
It's like a shot from Twin Peaks, where David Lynch's camera observes the meek molester eyeing the exuberant girls at the jukebox.
That gum I like WILL come back in style.
I am Laslo.
Pete looks to be trying to beat Hillary!’s record of number of times introducing herself to the American people. He’s young and given the shallow pool may just succeed before the money runs out..:
It's a retred of Abraham Lincoln's thing: Raised in a log cabin, as a politician he would hold an axe flat at arms length to show he still had a working man's strength.
That was back in the day when people had strong board-flat backs because of daily manual labor. Modern S-shaped chairs with lumbar support wouldn't be comfortable, as those support weaker couch potato backs.
Dare we check in out Buttigieg's soft or firm...bed...?
BILT HARD
https://www.amazon.com/BILT-HARD-Hydraulic-Horizontal-Splitting/dp/B09B75R66Q/
Splitting maul is what Obi-Wan Kenobi did to Darth Maul at the end of The Phantom Menace.
If you are really splitting knotty wood you need the splitting maul and you need a sledge hammer or another splitting maul.
That saves the step of pulling the maul out of the round and starting a wedge.
I've forgotten. Does Buttgieg have a wife or a husband?
He's the biggest fake of all time. And he has zero support from Blacks. He'll never be President.
I want to know what he is doing for money these days. Where's he getting his income?
Its not so bad, being a Mckinsey guy.
He should be presented in his natural environment of huge monitors with mongo spreadsheets. That was his trade after all. Would make him look smarter at least, as being smart is his only selling point. He really is smarter than his likely Dem primary competition. Much, much smarter, in some cases.
He’s bringing a splitting maul to a chainsaw fight.
How much wood would Buttigieg maul
if Buttigieg could maul wood at all?
He’s polling at ten behind Sparkle Beach Ken
Perhaps he’s saving it all for the Fall?
Wasn't he the one who would ostentatiously ride his bike to work, followed by a line of his security detail in black SUVs?
Nerdy gay child of college professors doesnt have a natural claim to working class masculinity. He is what he is.
Splitting elm requires a Michigan axe, maul, sledge, and 2 or 3 wedges. But the stuff gives off heat and burns like hell.
Laslo Spatula said...
The photo certainly has a creepy vibe to it.
He is sitting in the corner, back to the wall, hunched over.
It's like a shot from Twin Peaks, where David Lynch's camera observes the meek molester eyeing the exuberant girls at the jukebox.
Nah, he just looks like he's worried he's going to end up having to use the toilet at that diner.
Buttigieg has a wife/husband (trans/homos are bigendered), and a womb farm where fetuses/babies are harvested for sociopolitical equity and congruence.
Pete taking some time off of breastfeeding his kids to flex some bi’s and split some hairs.
One of those taranto questions
My question for him in Iowa will be a simple and direct one, "You have zero support from Blacks. How do you think you are going to be elected President with that fact?"
Cosplay will not cure an authenticity deficit.
Crappy smalltown mayor. Shitty job for four years as SecTrans. That's a healthy resume for a leftist.
He’s waiting on an order of toast.
avocado toast
On the subject of splitting wedges, you really want, as R C said:
axe, maul, sledge, and 2 or 3 wedges
I'd also recommend gloves and steel capped boots or at least heavy boots
Holy Hell- the story brings up The West Wing in the first paragraph.
The Democrats are reminding me a little more of the East Wing these days.
I have a maul and have been known to wield it under dire circumstances. A must have in the tool shed. I also have an ABC Rental one mile from my house that rents a log splitter for $80 a day but no extra day charge for Sunday when rented on a Saturday. Preparedness is a better alternative rather than hoping those Red Oak rounds carried up from my farm are aged enough to split when the racks get low. Even better? Buying a half cord from a guy a couple miles from my farm at 1/3 the price of what it cost in Dallas. And the best option is by far getting my 18 yo Eagle Scout son to deal with any options required at the time. You go Pete!
Annie L: Making liberals look like normal people for decades on end. You can't put lipstick on a pig, ya know.
She’s bad with money, so needs the gig…
"He's waiting on an order of AVOCADO toast." FIFY
Over the last couple years, I've had to dispatch fifteen 40' tall Afghan pines on my property due to boring insects. I do all my own lumberjacking, so I can tell you from experience that the best tool for getting it done is a credit card. With one hand I can take down any tree with zero chance of injury. Unfortunately, I'm just to cheap to follow my own advice.
buwaya said...
"Nerdy gay child of college professors doesnt have a natural claim to working class masculinity. He is what he is."
Not just any college professor. Dad was a Gramscian scholar/acolyte, and Pete helped dad with some his fawning work. Gramsci was a Communist who popularized the idea of Communism spreading through the "Long March through Institutions." If the extreme left can capture academia, journalism, media, entertainment, libraries, etc. the rest of society will follow. Mission ALMOST accomplished, and then Musk bought Twitter.
Wow I guess the Atlantic is not so hot on Newsom. They just looking for options? A moderate D, if there are any left is not on the list?
Pete spoke recently at an event I attended. It was a good speech and he was very attentive and responsive to questions from the audience. He wore a well-tailored suit. He wears a beard better than J.D. Vance.
If Pete were to occasionally dress up like a lumberjack, that would be OK. But, a splitting maul is not a lumberjack’s tool. Sorry, David Burge, you’ve exposed yourself as a poser.
Sorry, Drill Sgt, I should have read through the whole comment section before doing that FIFY. Credit belongs to the originator
Marcus Bressler said...
"He's waiting on an order of AVOCADO toast." FIFY
Milquetoast. FIF YOU
Why is he eating carburetors? Is that a typo or a joke?
I suppose that in a few years Presidential hopefuls will get masculine cred by being shown kicking ass at some computer game like Fortnite or Grand Theft Auto.
Not impressed.
I have a 5 lb petit maul and an 8 lb gran maul, but after getting a log splitter, don't use either one.
Pete wants to be a surly, manly man, but he's just not. He doesn't seem like a bad guy, but being mayor of South Bend, Indiana was peak Pete.
That's pretty good. A lot of people in South Bend never get to be mayor.
I'd vote for the guy that explained what a splitting maul is. Seems sensible.
If the Dems ever want to win again they need to hire less women and gay men as consultants
Buttigieg had his shot to prove what he could do when he was Biden's Secretary of Transportation. He was so inept at the job that the joke was he was the reason why Americans knew who the Secretary of Transportation was. Failure isn't grounds for promotion in my world, but I'm not a Democrat.
Quite a contrast to last Pete Butagig picture I remember. Pete, beaming with pride in a hospital bed, holding "his" new babies along side his Husband.
To me he will always be the guy posing like he just gave birth.
Also a fake photo of Pete, but still my favorite:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2961993400611826
Splitter!
Will the era of leftist love of crappy, yucky sex ever end?
I have a maul and an axe, and know the difference between them. Also have skillets and frying pans and know the difference between them. And an assortment of hand tools some of which I've bought for one job and have subsequently used only a few times in the ensuing years.
I'm a big fan of having the proper tool for the job.
I just tried to look up a study during the Roosevelt era on shovels. Some commission or other decided that there were too many different kinds of shovels being produced, and wanted to standardize them. So, of course, a study was done. And to everyone's surprise- except for the people using shovels- there was a reason behind the huge varieties of shovels. I forget the exact weight, let's say 30 lbs. A coal shovel to feed a hungry boiler shoved into a coal pile would have about 30 lbs. of coal on it. A grain shovel shoved into a pile of grain would have about 30 lbs. of grain on it. And all the specialty shovels yielded about the same results. Couldn't use one for the other- the weight would change. Carrying too little load would be a waste, and require many more shovel loads. Too much load- and the average worker wouldn't be able to lift the shovel. No one had ever scientifically designed shovels, they had evolved that way. The proper tool for the job.
Mayor Pete--emulating Senator Jean Fraud Kerry --went to the axe regulators in Indiana and asked, "Where kin I get me one of them there maul licenses". Looking at Petey the regulators said, "You don't need a license to shop at the mall."
He was a failure as a Mayor, and as Secretary of Transportation, so yea, lets make him President. He may run with Newsom, and the duo will have bragging rights for the most failures of any Presidential ticket in history. This is how Democrats do politics - failing up.
Hey! I've got one of those!
The maul, not a gay guy.
For a communist, Gramsci was a useful guy. His concept of "hegemony" is a good way to see some extra dimensions of political science in the modern world, and it applies to all sorts of situations whether there are communists involved or not. The institutional high ground really is a thing.
The "long march" line though wasnt his.
And he certainly didnt create "the plan" for the communist takeover. For one it took forever to publish his stuff postwar, and by the time it was "the plan" was already in full swing. He ended up being descriptive, not prescriptive. Around about 1980 one would have read Gramsci to figure out what was happening, not to figure what to do.
And then Limbaugh got hold of Gramsci, and told us how to use it to counterattack. I swear I was riding a transmission techs truck on I5 when I heard that.
Imagine voting for someone because of looks or what kind of sex they prefer. Seems pretty weird, even mentally compromised. I would have no problem voting for a gay President, if everything else made sense.
If Trump announced that he was gay in early 2024, he still would have garnered my vote, but I wonder how that would have changed his demographics. It would have been fascinating to watch. I guess we could soon just ask AI to make that movie for us.
The short answer is "doubtful."
We used a maul to clear some of the ice after the big winter storm here in DC.
Why does it matter if Pete Buttigieg owns a splitting maul or not? It's like Melania's bar jacket.
Reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon from mid-80’s, just when Smith&Hawkins and Martha Stewart Living were peak chic. Husband to wife, standing in their Connecticut kitchen: “If anyone calls, tell them he’s in the backyard with his English spade.”
Huh. Never knew i, a native Silicon Valley nerd, was so manly. I own a hatchet, axe, sledge, four splitting wedges, a six foot breaking bar, and two chainsaws. Where's MY photo spread? Where's MY retired politician pension?
I recall that a pundit, perhaps Instapundit, nailed this guy's hide to the wall with one quip. Buttegieig was so bad that people actually knew he was the Secretary of Transportation. "Good to know he now has facial hair, that is very trendy," I say, stroking my own rather vilainous goatee.
And who doesn't have a splitting maul? I, for one, follow the lesbian lumberjack, Nicole Maple Coenen (@nicole_coenen)
who has a wide variety of mauls, axes, hatchets, and even a very nice dog. Does Pete have a very nice dog?
Gospace, a big fan of having the proper tool...
You need to be aware of Drinkwater's Law (discovered during a particularly fiasco-ridden repair afternoon): You're never done until you've used every tool in the garage.
And its First Corollary: Buying new tools makes things worse, not better.
Yep, have and use a maul, sledgehammer, and two wedges to do the splitting work, two chainsaws and two felling wedges to do the cutting work, and a log jack (peavey) to roll the downed trees into a proper cutting position. Hatchet for splitting small splits into kindling. Don't have or use an axe. Do have flannel shirts. Dont get picture taken by fancy New York people whilst sitting in a rustic up north diner or supper club.
He’s a lumberjack and he’s not okay
He sleeps all night and chest feeds all day
Funny stuff, Fred!
“It ain’t the maul it’s teh motion…”
“ Why is he eating carburetors? Is that a typo or a joke?”
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run, but he's got a gun
And he shoots you dead, and he eats your head
And then you're in the man from Mars
You go out at night, eatin' cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns, too
Mercurys and Subaru
And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars
Then, when there's no more cars, you go out at night
And eat up bars where the people meet
Face to face, dance cheek to cheek
I believe the eating carburetors is a riff on that ridiculous "Dudes for Harris" ad: Man Enough "I eat carberators for breakfast"
Did they forget that "ticket puncher" is a pejorative?
Isnt that remf
This attempt at manliness is being called “beardfishing”.
I like that carbohydrates carburetors transplant.
If lumberjack Pete were ever in charge, he'd slap a classification scheme on splitting mauls, petit mauls, grande mauls, so forth, and then he'd regulate the crap out of them. If you were caught without a permit, well, that would be grounds for a grande maul seizure.
I know what a splitting headache is, but what's a splitting maul?
It's what you call a sledgehammer when you're a loser trying to pretend to not be a loser
Justabill said...
Cosplay will not cure an authenticity deficit.
Justabill wins the thread
JD, The Hillbilly and sometimes Catholic, wears hair on his face as well, but Insta has nothing to say about that fact. Fairness is in th eyes of the beholder because Vance is a fucking liar every day.
Or one could switch to a gas log fireplace and not need a splitting maul, wedges, axes, chain saws, etc. One could also avoid getting termites infesting the wood pile that spread to the house (ask me how I know about that one).
I read the article, and if one wasn’t better acquainted with Mayor Pete’s career one might ask why the people who lived in South Bend’s black neighborhoods utterly despise the man. They called him “Pothole Pete” for a reason, or so I suppose. The Atlantic’s author, Graeme Wood, characterizes South Bend as a “declining Rudy Brlt city,” and it is that, but it is also the home of Notre Dame University, so it had assets besides an empty Studebaker plant.
Graeme Wood also avoids looking too closely at Buttegieg’s term as Secretary of Transportation. Buttigieg had numerous “opportunities to excel,” and muffed them all. He had to be shamed into visiting East Palestine by then-candidate Donald Trump, and he could have starred in hearings asking why a train with so many cars containing hazardous materials in its consist was allowed to travel under normal rules and not the special hazardous materials rules, but that would have required some small amount of real work.
So yes, he has a great IOP resume — if one doesn’t look too closely.
Buttigieg is too short to be president. He’s another Dukakis
When I saw this today I knew it would be irresistibly bloggable for Prof. Althouse. Also Dave Burge is on fire! It's perfect tweet and blog fodder! Pete is so authentic LOL. He's like the gay JD Vance.
I have a beard and a splitting maul. Why not vote for me?
I went to the mall
to get a maul
but got into a maul
with a gun moll.
Sorry dear,
No sex tonight
I've got a splitting maul.
Pete to his husband.
Buttigieg has a leadership deficit, along with all his other negatives. Which is why he needs to push his only positive.
I'm 75% confident that "splitting" was added by an editor who told the writer: "No one is going to know what a maul is."
Calling something a "splitting maul" seems to me the equivalent of describing other tools as "a chopping axe" or "a nailing hammer" or "a digging shovel," but the Atlantic knows their readers' knowledge of tools better than I do.
The only thing faker than Buttigige the Wood-splitter is the picture of him and his husband together in a hospital bed with their baby. Why are they in a hospital bed? In sympathy for the anonymous woman who gave birth to the baby?
I believe Buttigieg splits logs for firewood like I believe Walz understands football.
Kirk's Amendment to Drinkwater's Law:
You're never done until you've used every tool in the garage AND you've made a trip to Urgent Care.
@Prof. Drout, the maul I used in a long ago summer as a strong, young high school summer hire was for driving railroad spikes. I was part of a gang replacing worn out railroad ties and the maul was like a light sledge hammer except that the head was elongated in both directions. We used very long pry bars to pull out the old spikes, dug away the old ballast with pickaxes and spades, pulled out the old tie, pushed and pulled the new one into position, forced ballast underneath it, replaced the tie plates if needed, used a special bar to make certain the gauge was still correct, and pounded new spikes through holes in the tie plate using our mauls. This would have been in the early or mid-1960s.
The fact they're trying to prop up this guy into something he's clearly not is laughable.
JD vs. Booty....that would be awesome.
Down with the splittists! CC, JSM
@Leland
or shotguns
@gadbotfly, JD is married, he isn't gonna date you.
Drinkwater's Assertion regarding Kirk's Amendment: "Three trips to the hardware store is equivalent to one trip to Urgent Care."
As someone who has cut hundreds of cords of firewood, and used a variety of mauls, axes, hatchets, sledgehammers with wedges, and other gadgets to split it, I can say that what you really need to do is get all your firewood for the year cut into rounds in a flurry of activity in the late winter/early spring while the sap is still down, then rent a hydraulic log splitter to get next winter's woodpile split in one afternoon. It is folly to split it by hand as you cut it.
I learned something today. I’ve been using my splitting axe incorrectly. Crap.
Fred Drinkwater said...
Drinkwater's Assertion regarding Kirk's Amendment: "Three trips to the hardware store is equivalent to one trip to Urgent Care."
:-)
You know what is really the worst time to split firewood with your [splitting] maul?
When you realize that your wood cribs are depleted and don't have enough to get you through the biggest storm of the past 10 years is arriving the next day, so you have to go stand on / in the 18" of ice-crusty refrozen snow that is on the ground and split the "emergency backup" logs in the woodpile behind the shed, which proceed to twist, fall over, and split unevenly so that it takes about 4 times as long to split the wood, and then you have to carry it to the wood cribs in armloads because the wheelbarrow is buried under a pile of refrozen snow and even if you dug it out there is no path to the backup woodpile, which you haven't had to use in 10 years.
That's the worst time to split firewood with your [splitting] maul.
(In defense of my insufficient prep: I had only been cleared for physical activity after neck surgery for 2 days when it became clear that the storm was NOT going to miss us out to sea and therefore I would need to tap the emergency backup woodpile).
The US has elected some "characters" as president over the years, but I can't believe they would elect a laughingstock.
Hassayamper is right. The question is, when you borrow your buddy’s splitter, do you pay in wood or booze?
Abraham Lincoln could have used a maul, but the doesn't make Buttigieg Abraham Lincoln.
The tools that woodsmen or lumbermen use over the years have changed and now we all think of them as lumberjacks. David Burge's not a faker unless he started walking around dressed like a lumberjack and pretending he was one.
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