Will anything come of it?

Maybe not, but we can hope: "Lawmakers Make Criminal Referral on Clinton, Comey, Lynch to DOJ on Steele Dossier".

Meanwhile, James Comey seems to be oblivious to how he and his book are coming across. He sees himself as Batman, everybody else pretty much sees him like this...



(Via 90 Miles From Tyranny).

Assortment

"The invisible victims of gun control".

Current FBI employees unimpressed by James Comey's interview with George Stefanscrofulous.

Is James Comey a slimeball? Yes, next question.

Kurt Schlichter, as usual, hits the nail on the head: "Republicans, get it together. Defy our expectations. Get smart and fight."

I am right-handed, but left-eye dominant. Sometimes this can affect your shooting. Read about it here.

What is this, a reprise of Lord of the Flies? First, there's young David "Camera" Hogg attempting to set himself up as the chief of the gun control movement, and now we've got young idiots in Florida suing Gov. Rick Scott for his alleged negligence in dealing with climate change?

Jake Tapper, whose previous episodes of journalistic honesty appear, in retrospect, to have been mere spasms of conscience that he has since learned to repress (if he has not, indeed, eradicated them altogether), is still floating the lie that Scooter Libby outed super-secret agent CIA desk jockey Valerie Plame.

Haw! Via J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades...



I'll keep my fingers crossed: ""Not only is Flynn not going to jail, his plea is going to be reversed."

The increasing threat to freedom of speech represented by Silicon Valley's political monocultures.

Via Moonbattery...

R. Lee Ermey, RIP

Very sad news: Marine D.I., actor and television personality R. Lee Ermey has died at age 74.

I am embedding a video of a hilarious GEICO commercial in which Ermey plays a shrink in D.I. mode.



God rest his soul.

Update: Sorry, the original link to the obit went bad; I have replaced it with another article.

Not so fast

Tough break: "D-Backs lose home run thanks to baserunning blunder and obscure rule".

In other baseball news (I wonder if this is a reference to a submarine pitch)...

Sunday funnies

This is why eyewitness testimony is taken with a grain of salt: New Yorkers mistake raccoon for tiger.

In other news from the animal kingdom, Florida Man seems to have lost his pet African warthog.

Two (involving dogs) from Powerline's "The Week in Pictures".





Mayweather vs. McGregor: bad lip reading (I wonder how far off from the real thing this dialogue was)...



Mom always said there'd be days like this.

Jon Gabriel hilariously spoofs James Comey's book.

James Comey, American Hero (written by and starring James Comey)

What a total prima donna and sanctimonious twit. Not to mention liar.

I think the guy actually sees himself like this (first 29 seconds of the video clip)...



I, on the other hand, rather fancy seeing him this way...

Never mind the alligators

What if one of these things is out there? (H/T: David Thompson)

Like a rotten mackerel in the moonlight....

...Robert Mueller both shines and stinks* : "What did Bob Mueller know about the FBI’s framing of four innocent men for a murder they didn’t commit, and when did he know it?"

*With acknowledgement to John Randolph.

Happy Feet Friday

Roy Rogers and those masters of harmony, the Sons of the Pioneers, sing a tribute to Texas.

Time to split?

Jesse Kelly makes the argument for a national divorce.

I hope it won't be necessary. But, increasingly, the only alternative is starting to look like national suicide.

Small world

We opened an account with a small community bank today, and it turns out that the banker we were dealing with is from Siler City, North Carolina. Fans of the Andy Griffith show will recollect that Siler City was occasionally mentioned on the TV program. Turns out that the actress who played Aunt Bea, Frances Bavier, retired to Siler City and her hairdresser was the mother of our banker.

Maybe next we'll find out that Otis bought his liquor from the local ABC store (although that seems unlikely; Otis liked his booze untaxed).

Mueller's war on democracy continues

And I mean exactly that - Mueller's investigation into so-called Russian collusion very quickly turned into a far-reaching fishing expedition designed to entrap President Trump and members of his staff in legal technicalities for the purpose of destroying or crippling his presidency and reversing the results of the election. The raid on the home of Trump's personal attorney is the latest sortie by the Mueller junta against the administration, the pretext, this time, being that there were campaign donation infractions. Compare and contrast with how a similar matter - far more egregious, by most appearances so far - were treated during the Obama regime.

And, as Rand Paul points out, if they can do this to Trump, they can do this to anybody.


Congratulations, Comrade Mueller! You have passed the Beria School of Investigations Basic Correspondence Course with flying colors! We look forward to your pursuit of post-graduate work in Show Trials and Liquidations.

Update: Naturally, just as the Deep State Machine starts to give signs of overheating and coming apart at the seams, along comes the Republican establishment to make sure it keeps on rollin'.

Ominous

These signs are appearing with alarming frequency:



When I saw the words, "To an alligator, if it moves, it's food!", I stood stock still - until some older, slower folks drew near.

Sunday funnies

So, is there a manure shortage in Alabama or what?

Takes more manual dexterity than I've got (H/T: David Thompson for the foregoing two items).

One panda per branch, please.

From Powerline's "The Week in Pictures":



Ok, sport, hand in your dog card:



Crabs have a very strong survival instinct.

Pics

And the lion shall lie down with the ham.



Yesterday, Mrs. Paco, Maggie and I took the ferryboat from Southport across the Cape Fear River over to Pleasure Island, the home of several popular beach towns. The main point of the trip, aside from the boat ride, was to visit the Fort Fisher Aquarium, which I highly recommend. In addition to many and diverse specimens of aquatic life, there is an outstanding exhibit of robotic dinosaurs.

Plus, you don't see one of these every day: an albino alligator.



Today we took a walk down to the neighborhood marina, a nice feature for the nautical types in the area.




And, especially for Bruce and Skeeter, here's a photo of the little channel leading from the marina to the Intracoastal Waterway (gateway to the pleasure of safe sailing!)

Piers Morgan gets pantsed

Piers Morgan, who has probably scored more own-goals than just about any other talking head, thoughtlessly issued this Tweet:

It was really good of America to join WW2 two years late, after millions had died. Many thanks. https://t.co/xRGcQsr34X
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 3, 2018

He might as well have hung a giant "Kick Me" sign on his back.

This is pretty much how socialism always works out

"Flipping burgers in Argentina is preferable to and more profitable than practicing medicine in Venezuela."

While conservatives were watching out for Big Brother...

...Big CEO slipped in to fill the role of Speech Policeman.

The truth will out

Glad to see that the execrable Ted Kennedy and his criminal actions at Chappaquiddick are finally getting the exposure they deserve.

Happy Feet Friday

Some s-m-o-o-t-h blues from Jack Teagarden and his band from 1941.

Running free

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

A different sort of gun controversy

Did Wyatt Earp use a custom Colt single-action or a Smith & Wesson top-break revolver in the shootout at the OK Corral?

David Hogg: I used to couldn't spell "spokesman"

Now I are one.

That's why we should eat them all up

I assure you, I'm doing my bit: "Study Claims Chocolate Easter Bunnies, Eggs ‘Bad for the Environment’".

At Dutchman Creek Park

Maggie's visiting with us for a week or so, and we took her to a local park today, the kind of pretty, peaceful place in which the Southport area abounds. There were several boats out on the lake (as usual, click to enlarge)...




...but I didn't notice any activity on deck. Later, I saw this...




I hope the alligators didn't get the boaters. I assume I'd have heard something on the news, unless alligator attacks are daily occurrences.


Maggie struck a pose (looks like she's got her curtsy down pat).



Here she is, not worrying overmuch about alligators.




There was also this thing. It is oddly suggestive of a gallows, but I suspect that its purpose is to support a swing (although, if so, where the swing is, I don't know). There is a memorial plaque at the top that reads, "In loving memory - Bubba Tucker - In our hearts forever". I actually found an obit, and he seems to have been a genuine "good old boy", the sort of fellow I'd have taken a liking to. God bless your soul, Bubba.

Happy Easter!

From Clan Paco, a very blessed Easter to you and yours.

Sunday funnies

Lunchroom who-done-it.

Martial arts competition - airborne category (via David Thompson).



Also via David Thompson, the Stealth SUV (the big question: is it invisible to cops?)

Probably should have asked that question a little earlier...



Moses: a man ahead of his time (via Powerline's "The Week in Pictures")...



Excellent gifts for April Fool's Day!

Does Tom Steyer not remember how that turned out?

"Billionaire left-wing environmental activist Tom Steyer has reportedly built what some have described as a 'political death star' through his multi-million dollar campaign to have President Donald Trump impeached — laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run by Steyer himself."

Good luck with that, Tom!

Misunderstanding the 2nd Amendment

Good satirical image that illustrates one aspect of the ignorance that prevails on the Left concerning the purpose of the 2nd Amendment:

Happy Feet Friday

Last week, a video featuring Betty Grable surprised a couple of commenters, who said they didn't know she could dance. Herewith, further evidence of Betty's terpsichorean skills, as she hoofs it up with the definitely non-mythological Hermes Pan in a number from Footlight Serenade.

Joe Biden in the news

Oh...wait. Sorry, I jumped to the wrong conclusion. But it was a natural mistake.

Well, let's just say this, Mr. Candidate for Sheriff...

...you'll have a hard time pulling it off:

And what would he do if gun owners don’t comply with the laws he’d like to see enacted? He advocated killing anyone who refuses to surrender their guns. “You’ve heard people say you have to pry my gun from my cold dead hands.” He then shrugged his shoulders, shook his head back and forth, and then continued: “Okay…”

I'm embarrassed to say that this jerk is a candidate for sheriff - albeit, on the Democrat side - in North Carolina. Buncombe County, it turns out. Asheville. College town. Maybe that explains it.

Amazing

No, it's not amazing that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is calling for background checks on purchases of ammo, it's amazing she's still got a job as an elected office holder.

Well, ok, maybe that's not so amazing in these shabby times. Still pretty disgusting, though.

Update: And here's somebody who, fortunately, is no longer employed by the government.

Yeah, I know

Nobody cares what Jimmy Carter thinks, but news items about him almost always generate hilarious comments. In response to his latest maunderings on John Bolton, one wag comments "I really miss 13% inflation and home loans at 18%".

Assortment

What's the opposite of collusion? "Trump expels Russians, closes consulate in response to poison attack in Great Britain".

Let a million Barack Obamas bloom. Now there's a scary thought. Seriously, this guy's self-infatuation is nauseating, particularly considering the actual results of his maladministration. He could easily be the poster child for the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Sad: "Gun maker Remington files for bankruptcy".

Kurt Schlichter urges calm after Trump signs the omnibus bill: "We are going to have more days like Omnibust Friday in the future, lots of them. That’s how it goes. But also remember that we will have days like November 8, 2016, where liberals are spread out before us, sobbing as their hideous libfascist dreams die before their eyes."

Via MOTUS:



Yeah, well, I'm still waiting for Blisternacht: "Global Warming Death Toll Will Be ‘On The Scale Of 25 Holocausts’".

The story behind the terrifying headline:

Sunday funnies

Man gets stuck on roundabout (alcohol involved).

Hey, I know exactly how the kid felt. Have you ever tried to operate one of those arcade claw machines? Nearly impossible.

Moving the herd to market - one steer at a time.

From Powerline's "The Week in Pictures".



And here's another...



The real reason dinosaurs went extinct? Spontaneous combustion.

If the engine of your scooter lacks "oomph!", try this.

Somehow, a guy with a "DORK" tattoo on his neck and what looks like a tattoo of a fence on his forehead has managed to prove "elusive" to the FBI.

UK: terrorist sieve

Paul Joseph Watson tells the scary truth.

Forget it, guys

I tried that with my mortgage; it didn't work: "Venezuela hopes to tackle the world’s worst inflation by deleting zeros from its currency".

Happy Feet Friday

Betty Grable swings out with North Carolina-born band leader Skinnay Ennis and his boys in "College Swing".

What a difference a change in administrations makes

Leftists once howled for John Brennan's head, but he has acquired a Strange New Respect from this crowd now that he's vociferously anti-Trump.

And how about former FBI guy Andrew McCabe's instigation of a criminal investigation into AG Jeff Sessions' supposed collusion with Russia?


"C'mon, guys, even I never thought Sessions was a Russian stooge."

Now, this guy's truly been having conversations about racism

Musician Daryl Davis hasn't just been sitting back saying "hooray for our side"; he's actually been reaching out to members of the KKK and other white supremacist groups and winning converts.

Update: Compare and contrast with this ignoramus.

Good luck with those midterm elections, Republicans

The house has approved a huge spending bill, with slop overflowing the trough.


Congressman Ryan shepherds another omnibus bill through Congress

Housekeeping

A marketing bot managed to break into the comments section of several posts. I deleted the comments (none of you were interested in Pakistani escorts, were you?)

Also, I noticed that comments from Steve Skubina and Veeshir had got caught up in the spam filter. Both of these gentlemen are highly valued commenters, and I have attempted to "de-spam" them.

Wait...what?

Joe Biden said that, in high school, he'd have "beat the hell" out of somebody like Trump who disrespected women.

Big talk from Creepy Joe, whose actions around women of all ages famously reeks of disrespect - or maybe something worse.

Carolinians

Mrs. Paco and I went down to the DMV to get our North Carolina drivers' licenses today, so we are now officially Carolinians again.

Best DMV experience, ever, incidentally. In and out in 20 minutes. Although, naturally, our pictures are horrible. I'm not very photogenic to begin with, but the camera somehow made me look like a corpse that had been in a canal for a week.

After the DMV we went and had a couple of excellent burgers at Eric's Diner, which is almost like a movie set of a small-town eatery (lots of automobile memorabilia, including a gigantic Packard hubcap hanging next to the condiment stand). I am liking this town.

Oh, yeah: 70 degrees today in Southport. There's a winter weather advisory in Fairfax, VA, with up to eight inches of snow expected tomorrow. Not that I'm rubbing it in, mind you; just a random observation (Haw!)

Speaking of weather, don't miss Mark Steyn's priceless take on the "Jewnami Tsunami" identified by an extraordinarily brilliant DC councilman.

The Peter Mueller Principle

Daniel Ashman at The Federalist discusses Robert Mueller's huge cluster f*** of an investigation into the anthrax mailings that commenced in 2001.

It happens in all walks of life, in all professions, but it seems to be particularly pronounced in government that unscrupulous morons have a chance of rising to the top, of turning calamities of their own making into stepping stones to success. Robert Mueller is not, self-evidently, an honest investigator. He is a dog with a bone that was thrown to him by the Clinton camp, and as is the case with any dog, any bone will do.

Bit of luck for Australia

Actor Matt Damon reportedly was going to move to Australia to escape the Trumpian dystopia; however, turns out the rumor's not true.

Sorry, folks. I know all you blokes and sheilas were probably excited by the news, but it just wasn't meant to be. Does this mean you'll be wanting this little fellow back?

No sooner do I move to North Carolina...

...than I find that these things are running amok: "Coyote Attacks Young Girl Outside of Her House".

Truth to tell, there have been a significant number of incidents reported in Virginia, too. Coyotes are like cockroaches: they can survive practically anything, and thrive practically anywhere.

Sunday funnies

What's the password?



Romanian having a considerable amount of trouble proving that he's not dead.

Out of the frying pan into the fire.

Our robot overlords are now laughing at us.

Well, that was a forlorn hope: "Driver tries to get out of offence by saying she’s Homer Simpson".

Is this one of Elon Musk's crazy ideas? "A team of sled dogs who were perhaps a little too dedicated to their sport were caught on camera running down an Alaska highway -- without their musher."

This dad turned his kid into a hilarious leprechaun.

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Learn all about the saint and his day here.

One down...

...and a lot more who ought to go: FBI’s Andrew McCabe Fired.

Update: I sure hope justice eventually catches up with this deep state scoundrel.

What rabid, right-wing white supremacist said this?

"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of the citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible."

Yeah, that's right. Hubert Freakin' Humphrey (discovered at The Feral Irishman, along with a host of other excellent observations on the right to bear arms, including the following image).

First day at the beach

The great thing about the beach hereabouts in March is that, even though it's too cold to go in the water, you've got plenty of privacy. Mrs. Paco, Daisy and I went to Oak Island yesterday and the nearest person must have been well over a quarter mile away (nonetheless, Daisy still saw fit to bark at the minuscule figure in the distance). Also saw a whacking big piece of driftwood; looked like an eight-foot long pine log.

Really digging the clean air, and Mrs. Paco seems to be benefiting from it.

Happy Feet Friday

Larry Clinton and his orchestra perform "The Campbells Are Swingin'".

Duh!

So much for the theory that Jeff Sessions is a "sly fox" incognito: "Attorney General Sessions’s Recusal Was Unnecessary".

Looks like Sessions cited the wrong regulation as the basis for his recusal, and did so on the "advice of career ethics experts at the Justice Department" (read "Obama-administration holdovers").

NeverTrumpLand

Ace is standing outside the saloon, boldly calling out the NeverTrumpers as they nervously sling back shots of red-eye and begin to assert, preposterously, that the "Washington Consensus" never included a component in which collusion between Trump (or his people) and Russia was seriously suspected (also see Mollie Hemingway for more details on the sudden denials by the conspiracy theorists that there was ever a conspiracy theory).

No doubt the NeverTrumpers will try to turn this story into an attempt by POTUS to assassinate Rex Tillerson: "Trump ordered Tillerson to eat salad during dinner in China".

Interesting discovery

My brother, Handsome Paco, was supervising the boxing up of Old Paco's belongings, and made a fascinating discovery. He came across an antique revolver, manufactured in France by Ferdinand Claudin sometime, I believe, in the mid-19th century. Here are some photos (click to enlarge):









There's very little information available on the internet about this gun-making firm, but here is a link to a site that has photos of a rifle, and a revolver that appears to be similar to the one my brother found (scroll down to see the revolver).

Old Paco frequently loaned money to friends and acquaintances, who, almost just as frequently, wound up not being able to pay him back in cash, so he often took payment in "stuff", including the occasional firearm (in fact, that's how I acquired a rare G98/40: a modified Mannlicher rifle manufactured in Hungary during the Nazi German alliance/occupation; it's a bolt-action rifle chambered in 8mm, and it's extraordinarily accurate). I think it's likely that he came by the French revolver in this way. It's pretty rough looking, and I doubt that it's worth very much, so I told my brother he ought to just keep it as a conversation piece.

Update - R-man, in the comments: "I can just picture the 18th century French Gendarme, Dirty Henri, pointing that at a bad guy: Vous sentez-vous chanceux, punk?"

Assortment

Totally inexplicable: "Susan Rice Told NSC Officials To ‘Stand Down’ In Response To Russian Meddling Attempts".

Could've fooled me, but I'll reserve judgment for now: "Here’s Why Jeff Sessions May Be Washington’s Slyest Fox".

Because, as you know, it's never been tried before: "Millennial Columnist Says It's Time to Give Socialism a Try".

The end of the Castro era. Will it bring real change or more of the same?

Mark Steyn takes us on a walk down memory lane with a column he wrote on Louis Farrakhan in 2001. Doesn't look as if we're seeing much change here.

Also from Steyn, some fascinating background on Mickey Spillane.

Via a sidebar link at Ace of Spades, I just discovered the interesting fact that the Japanese launched a second attack on Pearl Harbor in March of 1942. Fortunately, due to bad weather and other factors, the raid was a dud.

I knew Australia had kangaroos, but I didn't know it had a "kangaroo industry". Thanks to Tim Blair for schooling me on this subject.

Happy (belated) birthday to Chuck Norris! I missed it by a couple of days, so am probably doomed. Today's Chuck Norris fact: When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.

Just because: a 1939 Falaschi (courtesy of Robert Avrech at Seraphic Secret).



The Hallsville High School dance team performs several numbers - dressed in Chik-Fil-A cow costumes:

Sunday funnies

No, it wasn't me. "Dash cam video from Fairfax County, Virginia, shows an alleged drunk driver running himself over during a police chase." (H/T: Mrs. Paco)

That Elon Musk is one inventive guy!




From this week's edition of Powerline's "The Week in Pictures":




Sometimes you have to go to The Onion for the real scoop: "‘Diversity Was The Real Winner Last Night,’ Report Hundreds Of Dumbasses Whose Very Existence Insults The Name Of Journalism".

You know, I think I would try it:





If I take up golf, I'll need something special for those times when the ball goes into the tall grass:

Jill Abramson and her comfort god

Jill Abramson, former editor of the New York Times, has penned a piece for The Guardian in which she relates her delicious dreams (hallucinations?) of a Democratic comeback. The article is full of unintentionally hilarious revelations, chief of which is that Ms. Abramson carries around a little Obama talisman:

It’s easy to look at what’s happening in Washington, D.C. and despair. That’s why I carry a little plastic Obama doll in my purse. I pull him out every now and then to remind myself that the United States had a progressive, African American president until very recently. Some people find this strange, but you have to take comfort where you can find it in Donald Trump’s America.

Equally funny is this nugget concerning Tim Kaine, buried in some observations about the pool of Democratic candidates for office:

Other credible potential candidates include New Jersey’s Cory Booker, an African American, Connecticut’s Chris Murphy, a passionate promoter of stiffer gun laws, and Virginia’s Tim Kaine, who was not stellar as Hillary Clinton’s running mate but recently brought donors in Boston to tears with a performance of This Land is Your Land, played on his harmonica [emphasis mine - Paco]. Bernie Sanders is almost certain to run again.

If only Sanders can learn to play the banjo, no doubt he and Kaine will make an invincible team.

Abramson was fired in May of 2014 from the Times amidst a flurry of stories that she was the victim of sexual discrimination. I wonder if, possibly, the truth is that she was even too loony for publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. (who's as flaky as a slab of mica, himself).

Greater love hath no man than he who lives only to hear the music of his own voice

So Barack Obama, of all people, is talking to Netflix about producing some "high profile shows that will provide him a global platform after his departure from the White House".

Swell. This puffed up college lecturer, community disorganizer and absentee senator who, through a concantenation of favorable (for him) events-including the Stakhanovite labors of an army of adoring media Mamluks - succeeded in getting himself heaved into the White House twice, refuses to fade away. The upside is that one can simply choose not to watch his absurd propaganda pieces. Although, who knows? Maybe airports will start replacing the omnipresent CNN broadcasts, bad enough in their own right, with twaddle from BHO Studios. In which case I highly recommend these.

Update: Great Tweet on the subject.

Happy Feet Friday

Ok, let's try "Guitar Boogie" again, this time featuring that fabulous Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel doing a solo version.



And I'll throw in a little unpacking music from Sonny Boy Williamson: "Shake The Boogie".

All present and accounted for

Mrs. Paco and I have moved a dozen times since we got married 40 years ago, and I don't know why it is, but I can't remember a single time when it wasn't raining or cold or both. When the movers came to pick up our belongings in Fairfax, it was cold, and when they brought the things to Southport, it was cold.

It may take a few hours days weeks to unpack. I'm afraid we still didn't downsize enough. Our house currently looks like Citizen Kane's basement - you remember, one of the final scenes from the movie, where the reporters are poking around a vast cellar crammed with hundreds, if not thousands, of crated objets d'art (I'm pretty sure I woke up this morning muttering "rosebud..."). Of course, our boxes are just filled with objects d'stuff.

Anyhow, hope to be posting regularly again, soon.

Offline

Blogging will be suspended for a few days as the Paco Command Center commences to withdraw in good order (more or less) to its new coastal defenses in North Carolina. Wish us luck.

Update: Actually, the movers aren't coming until tomorrow, and we're not pulling out until Tuesday, but we've still got a lot of packing to get done today so I don't have time to do a regular Sunday funnies post; however, here's the link to the ever-popular "Week in Pictures" at Powerline. And here's one of my favorites this week:



Update II: One more item. If you use Twitter, remember not to tell the truth because it can get you banned: "Twitter suspends user for calling Maxine Waters ‘crazy old lying lunatic in a bad wig’".

Happy Feet Friday (Saturday edition)

The big nor'easter knocked out our power for over 12 hours, so I wasn't able to post yesterday.

How about a little Jerry Lee Lewis? Here he is with a 1952 instrumental called "New Orleans Boogie".

Zimbabwe redux

"South Africa Votes To Seize White-Owned Land Without Compensation".

Prosecutorial zealotry

A case study from Gabriel Malor.

Dept. of Odd Analogies

According to feminist, er, intellectual, Marcie Bianco, colonizing space is the same thing as sexual assault (although she puts it more colorfully).

Gone and back again

Mrs. Paco and I rented a U-Haul truck to carry some things down to our new home in North Carolina: notably my, er, collection of Hummel figurines. Plus about a score of Mrs. Paco's plants (roses and peonies and such). It rained during the entire trip down there, and water was coming into the cab from a small hole in the seal around the windshield in front of the passenger seat. The missus plugged it with chewing gum (is this what U-Haul means when it declares that its vehicles are "water resistant but not waterproof"?)

We were preparing to return this morning when I found two cables running from external electric outlets on my house to the house next door which is under construction. The workers had hooked up to my electricity, perhaps under the misapprehension that the stuff is free. I put a quick stop to that (the site manager had told them to run their cables to a hook-up across the street - which must be Spanish for "next door").

Anyhow, I'll be glad when this moving business is over. My back's aching from loading and unloading several thousand rounds accoutrements for those damned figurines.

Sunday funnies

Some folks turn everything into a problem.

Not even going the first mile...



You know what? Let's go around to the back door.



A true shame there isn't video of this: "German police rescue men tangled up with mannequin, toy car" (H/T: Mrs. Paco).

Snow blowers are pretty mundane - unless they're made out of LEGOs.

I think I've found the perfect thing to put all of my retirement money into (from Powerline's "The Week in Pictures")...



One more from Powerline...



Blackadder explains the origins of World War I...

Done

Yesterday was my last day working for the yankee government; I am now officially retired.

I confess to a feeling of loss, as I will miss my colleagues - particularly my staff, all of whom are smarter than I. Hardworking and honest, they are fine people whom I came to consider as friends. I do indeed wish them well.


"Thanks, boss!"

The ramifications - the actual fact - of retirement have not entirely sunk in. I think, subconsciously, I am letting the reality seep in slowly in order to control a mounting feeling of ecstasy that might otherwise induce me to turning cartwheels - a dangerous proposition for a fellow of my advanced years and mediocre physical condition. First and foremost is a feeling of release, of freedom, such as I have not experienced in decades, a long time ago when I was a young man for whom life seemed to be a collection of endless possibilities, just spread out for the choosing. That collection of possibilities shrinks considerably when you take on the responsibilities of raising a family, and the working years become an occasionally grinding and inescapable routine.

And now that stretch is done. To borrow from Wodehouse, who used the metaphor from time to time to describe a character who had been spared some odious fate, a courier has galloped up to the gallows on a foaming steed, a parchment in his hand. The long hoped-for pardon. I am as free as any human being can hope to be, and I thank God for it.

Happy Feet Friday

Update and bumped: The video went dark, for some reason, so here's Count Basie with "Seventh Avenue Express" to get your day off to a rousing start.




So, is this "cultural appropriation"? Two European dudes and an Australian playing a positively stompin' version of "Guitar Boogie"? Who cares, it's some fine pickin'.

Well done, old top!

A Korean War veteran in the UK takes on a passel of young hoodlums.

"Fear is not in my vocabulary."

No, but apparently kickin' ass is. Good work, Mr. Nixon.

Billy Graham, RIP

The Rev. Billy Graham has died at age 99.

I remember watching his television crusades as a small boy, and even then, was much taken with the transparent sincerity of his faith, the passion in his voice and his obvious love for his fellow man. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Update: Bruce in the comments provides a link to an interesting tribute from Joe Bob Briggs.

Haw!

Hilarious article linked on the sidebar at Ace of Spades: "Thoughts, Prayers Prove Ineffective At Preventing Neil DeGrasse Tyson From Saying Moronic Things On Twitter".

Eyes opened

A former advocate of Muslim immigration in Germany makes a U-turn based on her own observations and experiences:

I had to admit to myself that when it comes to Muslim refugees, they have grown up with completely different values, into which they have been brainwashed and are indoctrinated by Islam, and have no intention of adopting our values – worse, they look at us, unbelievers with superiority and arrogance.

No minimum IQ level required to run for president

Which means something like this could happen: "Biden telling policy aides 2020 run a real possibility".

Hey, progs, want to repeal the 2nd Amendment?

Then, as Charles C.W. Cooke wrote in 2015, get going:

When Australia took its decision to Do Something, the Australian citizenry owned between 2 and 3 million guns. Despite the compliance of the people and the lack of an entrenched gun culture, the government got maybe three-quarters of a million of them — somewhere between a fifth and a third of the total. That wouldn’t be good enough here, of course. There are around 350 million privately owned guns in America, which means that if you picked up one in three, you’d only be returning the stock to where it was in 1994. Does that sound difficult? Sure! After all, this is a country of 330 million people spread out across 3.8 million square miles, and if we know one thing about the American people, it’s that they do not go quietly into the night.

Sunday funnies

Kansas may get a teenage governor (H/T: Mrs. Paco).

From Powerline's "The Week in Pictures"...



Says it all...



Even smash-and-grab crime requires some basic skills (H/T: Clash Daily)...




Maybe we should just go ahead and surrender to the robots now...



Courtesy of Bad Idea t-shirts...



Nothing like a little privacy...