Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Biden plays the "dog face" card again

"Joe Biden rips Trump over coronavirus, calls reporter ‘lying dog face’".

As noted in the linked article, Biden spit out this insult in response to a question about...cognitive decline.

He does get a little testy when anybody suggests that Father Time (who, contrary to inaccurate reports, is actually older than Biden) has shaved a few watts off of Joe's light bulb.

Btw, "dog face" is slang for a U.S. soldier, usually an infantryman, but is now kind of archaic. I don't know what Biden thinks he means when he employs this expression (I use the word "thinks" loosely).

Happy birthday to a great and noble man

Dr. Thomas Sowell - economist and all-around wise man - celebrates his 90th birthday today. Here's a nice tribute from Neo.

The crucible

I note with pleasure that a St. Louis attorney and his wife stood guard outside their home, well-armed and giving every indication that they were willing to offer a lethal defense of their property and persons as a mob of protesters marched by (and I note with amusement that the pair appear to be big donors to Democrats, and are Biden supporters). We need to see more of this, frankly, especially since it has become clear that the mob now includes people who are willing to shoot their opponents - or just innocent people, if those are the only kind at hand.

It is a very dangerous time in which we live. As skeptical as I have become over the last twenty years about all politicians, including those who are nominally intellectual allies, as well as corporations and pundits, I profess myself flabbergasted at the sheer volume of betrayals on all sides. The vast extent and accelerating proliferation of backstabbing is a wonder to behold. The Democrats are, as I believe Michael Walsh was the first to observe in so many words, a criminal organization masquerading as a political party, so nothing the donks do surprises me. They are drunk with the lust for power, and will say anything, and do anything, to gain advantage. This is all expected. But it seems that we "normals", as Kurt Schlichter likes to refer to American traditionalists, are facing wars on numerous fronts, and are, indeed, fighting against all flags - corporations, social media, the mainstream media, the Vichy conservatives, both of the two main political parties, the courts, state and local governments, the federal bureaucracy, federal law enforcement, the educational system. How many more corporations are going to fall in line with the revolutionary leftist hive of organizations that constitute Black Lives Matter? How many cold-blooded, partisan sociopaths acting as prosecutors and judges are going to keep coming after honest men and women who are just trying to do their jobs, such as General Flynn? How much longer will the lives of ordinary citizens be put in danger by the activities of uncontrollable mobs of violent Marxists as city officials applaud the "spirit" of this revolution?

Most people, I believe, don't want to think too much about politics, and an unhealthy plurality (perhaps a majority) are willing to ignore the ominous trends (and have ignored them for decades). It's difficult to argue with the assertion that our own complacency has enabled the hellish turn of events we see today - first and foremost because we did not act to stop the injection of the progressive poison into our educational system decades ago.

What's to do? I don't know; I'm not a strategist or even a tactician. But I do believe our Republic has reached the post-fall Humpty Dumpty phase, and there's probably no putting it back together the way it was.

Which doesn't mean we can't build a new and better one. But we're sure as hell not going to Tweet our way to better times, or blog our way back to a healthy respect for the primacy of individual liberty. I'm not at all sure we're even going to be able to vote our way to the kind of country we want; our society is too polarized, and our system is no longer proof against massive fraud. Our options are dwindling - our peaceful options, that is. There are others and, sadly, they may ultimately become necessary for those of us who decline to live, as Voltaire once said, "in the teeth of a millions rats".

Talking about betrayals: First, KellyAnne Conway's dumpy husband, and now her daughter.

The old saying is, you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your relatives. Maybe not, but you can certainly make choices about how to deal with your family. This kid looks like she needs to be cut loose, put completely on her own for a while.

Oh, yes. Again, talking about betrayals, how can I forget the church - my church: "The Church Collaborates in Its Own Destruction".

Frankly, I prefer my Christianity to be considerably more muscular (give me Julius II, the Warrior Pope, over Francis any day).

Some upbeat reporting and counsel from Jack Kerwick at Frontpage.

All I have...

...I would gladly give to see John Brennan frog-marched into a jail cell: "Before ‘takedown’ of General Flynn, he was planning to audit John Brennan for running billions ‘off the books’".


Brennan: "You people just don't understand how government works".

And now, a word from our sponsor

China

The home of real viruses and fake gold.

Monday, June 29, 2020

The law of unanticipated consequences

"With Statues Gone, Pigeons Forced To Poop On Rioters".
Rioters frantically tried to put the statues back up as they were attacked by the feral flocks. "Put Christopher back! Quick!" cried one Antifa group as they were swarmed by a whole fleet of pigeon bombers. But try as they might, their weak liberal arms could not lift the statue and they were forced to flee the scene.

Black neighborhoods would be better off without a police presence

Say...a bunch of white people. Black people have a little bit of a different perspective.

Classical corner

My favorite Beethoven symphony is his 6th (the "Pastoral"). It is alive with the joyous appreciation of nature, and was inspired by Beethoven's love of the countryside. Here is the third movement.

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Sunday funnies







H/T: JeffS


The agony of defeat (reprise).

Life lesson #1: never fully trust anybody.

Yeah, I hate when that happens: "Drivers in Yellowstone Get Caught in Middle of Bison Stampede" (H/T: David Thompson)

Finally! Genuine proof of Big Foot's existence (H/T: Ditto).

"Cities Protecting Statues By Disguising Them As Karl Marx".


Dean Martin chats with the world's greatest drunk, Foster Brooks.




From Powerline's "The Week in Pictures".






Summertime

Ain't nothin' easy about the livin', though. Our yard presents some special challenges: notably a dogleg strip of uncultivated ground that runs about 40 yards east and west along the back property line, and another 40 yards north to south along the east property line. Takes a lot of work to fill it up. The right-angle strip has been mulched with pine straw, and we're gradually filling in as much as possible with flowers and shrubs and a small vegetable garden. We have a few pretty things growing.













This member (I think) of the rudbeckia family produced a two-headed monster. The flower heads somehow fused, and the resulting blossom resembles a yo-yo on fire.



Friday, June 26, 2020

Assortment

The drug cartels are really upping their game in Mexico: "Gunmen injure Mexico City police chief; 3 dead".

Lincoln statue safe - for now.

I like to ask this question at least every week or two: why is Christopher Wray still the FBI Director?



Rush Limbaugh sure had an interesting caller this past week: General Michael Flynn.

Yeah, it's a district in New York, but can't you people find a "progressive" representative who's (a) not a complete idiot and (b) doesn't look like an ambulant Port-O-Pottie with clothes haphazardly hanging from it?

Governor Ralph "Coonman" Northam of Virginia knows his Stasi won't work without the aid of snitches (of which, at least in Northern Virginia, I'm sure there's no shortage).

Man, the ball on this guy.

Gun smoke

I've had a Henry Big Boy Steel rifle chambered in .41 Magnum for a few years that I just managed to take out to the range for the first time today.

Beautiful lever-action rifle, great wood furniture, terrific shooter, accurate and surprisingly low recoil (even if I was only shooting cowboy loads). And I was the only person on the rifle range today! As Hickok45 likes to say, "Life is good".

Here are a couple of Australians shooting a Henry chambered in .45 Long Colt. Love the way you folks talk down there! Good shots, incidentally.



And let's not forget: safety first.

Oh my gosh!

Are any of you left out there? Are you ok? I mean, Joe Biden said that 120 million Americans died from Covid-19. God only knows how many millions of Australians and folks from other countries.

I think I'd better call for a show of hands.

At least one statue is fighting back



Hey, it's catching on! The statues are taking the law into their own hands!



H/T: Friend and commenter Gregory.

There's one I'd like to see canceled

As long as our educational system rewards ideological sociopaths and cultural con artists like this irredeemable hater, the country will continue its decline.
[DiAngelo's] message: all whites are indeed eternally guilty, for they’re all racists, and all “people of color” are their eternal victims. Don’t think you can escape the racist label by saying “I judge people by what they do, not who they are” or “I don’t see color; I see people.” DiAngelo doesn’t buy into the idea of colorblindness. Nor does she have any patience for Martin Luther King’s sentiments about the content of one’s character. “Individual whites,” DiAngelo explains, “may be ‘against’ racism, but they still benefit from a system that privileges whites as a group,” and are consequently racists.
I'm just baffled why, with white privilege and irreversible white racism baked into our bones, we ever bothered to fight a civil war to abolish slavery, and why we risked regional violence over integration of schools, and why we created affirmative action programs, and why we've spent trillions on social programs that predominantly benefit (or are intended to benefit) people of color.

Update Scoring off liberal white guilt for fun and profit (H/T: friend and commenter R-man).

Everything?

Joe Biden says, “I Would Do Everything Possible to Make It Required that People Had to Wear Masks in Public”.


I believe you, Joe, I believe you!

I didn't know this crap was still going on

The AG for the District of Columbia and the AG for Minnesota (the execrable Keith Ellison) have filed suit against various oil companies for concealing the "fact" that fossil fuels are bad for you.

So, you fellows tool around in old Stanley Steamers, do you? If not, why shouldn't we the people sue you bozos for contributing to the fossil fuels problem? I mean, a big part of the problem is emissions, right?

I thought the fad of state AGs suing oil companies had died down - or, more precisely, that their suits had been repeatedly thrown out of court. I'm thinking George Soros must have shorted oil stocks and he's looking for a quick profit.

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Happy Feet Friday

Wardell Gray on tenor sax is joined by Dodo Marmarosa on piano, Red Callendar on bass and Doc West on drums in this performance of “Dell's Bells”.

Say, who's up for scrapping the National Anthem?

I believe the new civil war is well under way: "Why it might be time to finally replace 'The Star-Spangled Banner' with a new national anthem".

I reckon we're just fine with the one we got, ain't we boys?


"You bet your twilight's last gleaming, Cap'n Paco!"

Definitely going to need a brain trust

"Joe Biden will accept the Democrat nomination in August in a ‘virtual’ convention in Milwaukee."


"Nomination for what?"

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

All a mistake

Bubba Wallace: "No, man, I said moose, there was a moose in my bay. Now just forget it and let's get back to the track."

I still regret not buying a home on Booger Hollar Road in Stanly County

Turns out, the area has its own legend.

Although I figure the little hairy men are probably just Honeycutts. They run a little on the short side.

The Plan

I'm thinking of putting together a mob to go around the country violently erecting statues. Who's with me?

I figured we'd start with statues of Selim the Drunkard and Sviatopolk the Accursed. That ought to make the anarchists scratch their heads a bit.

Who else should we honor?

If we're going to cancel everybody who ever harbored a racist thought or committed a racist deed, or even created the appearance of same...

...when are we going to get around to canceling Malcolm X, who, at least for part of his life, preferred the KKK to mainstream civil rights leaders.

Related (ostensibly satire, but 100% true): "Democrats Clarify That Black Lives Will Only Matter Until November".

Btw, do germs discriminate on the basis of color? "Oregon county issues face mask order that exempts non-white people".

Noose update Bubba Wallace wants to continue pretending there was a noose. I mean, man, there's just gotta be!

Mark my word: neckties are going to be the next thing to go, because triggering.

Good news for General Flynn

For now, at least (until Grand Inquisitor Sullivan or some other hyper-politicized judicial idiot pulls another rabid rabbit out of his hat): "Michael Flynn Wins; D.C. Circuit Orders Case Dismissed".

Working-with-your-hands Wednesday

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

I don't know about you...

...but it's a great relief to me to discover that these geniuses were in charge of implementing foreign military and domestic law enforcement policies during the administrations of Reagan and the two Bush's: "Dozens of Republican former U.S. national security officials to back Biden".
The initiative is being led by John Bellinger III and Ken Wainstein, according to the people involved, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Both held senior posts under George W. Bush. Bellinger served as legal adviser to the National Security Council and State Department. Wainstein served as Bush's homeland security adviser and as chief of staff to former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
There ya go! Deep State Deluxe, the seal of approval from some of the folks who gave us the endless meat grinder of American troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan, plus the regime of lawless law enforcement.

No matter what the stakes, I will never again vote for an establishment pinhead who fronts the GOP presidential ticket. Win or lose (and it's usually "lose"), these RINO bastards prove time and again that they're just "moderate" Democrats with the label ripped off.

Well, lookie here

Hmmm. That's definitely an old school Ruger box.



And that's definitely an old school Ruger.



Turns out, it's a like-new, never-fired Ruger Speed Six .38 Spl revolver in the original box (from the same family as the Police Service Six I posted about a couple of weeks ago). I saw it on the online inventory list of my (sort of local) gun dealer, and, since these are becoming somewhat collectible, I snatched it up. Based on the serial number, it looks like it was manufactured in 1984. The Six Series was discontinued, I believe, in 1988.

Yeah, I know. With civil war and possibly the apocalypse right around the corner, I ought to be filling my safes with AR and AK platforms. Couldn't resist this one, though.

Yet another racist hoax (or, in this instance, a case of paranoid imagination)?

Update V and bumped Over to you Ace: "The NooseCAR Debacle Ends Exactly As It Was Fated".
DOJ and FBI announce that there was NOT a noose planted Sunday in Bubba Wallace's garage space at Talladega. Rather, it was a rope that had been there perhaps going back to the fall and not an act of racism...
Oh, and for future reference? Just remember that Nikki Haley's instinctive reaction is to back the Leftist pearl clutchers.


Ace has some information that indicates that the "noose" found in Bubba Wallace's bay was just a pull-down rope for the garage door, with a loop for the handle.

Update Tina Fey - who has always struck me as being a singularly unfunny funny woman - gets caught up in the tide of wokeness: "Tina Fey Asks For 30 Rock Episodes Featuring Blackface to Be Removed From All Platforms".

Update II Much more on the noose story from CTH.

It's never really about the noose, or the "attack" (Jessie Smollet's elaborate con) or the "hateful words" (some Tea Party folk, per John Lewis's completely uncorroborated account). It's about what can be squeezed out of the suckers through intimidation and false shaming.

Update III Friend and commenter Gregory says the woke crusade is even having an impact down under.

Update IV Friend and commenter Spiny Norman smokes out some of black (?) activist Shaun King's aliases:
While searching "Top Ten Shaun King Nicknames", I found a few I hadn't see before: "Hueless P Newton", "Chalkus Garvey", "Snow J Simpson", "Stevie Wonderbread".

And now, a word from our sponsor

Monday, June 22, 2020

How about a little truth in advertising?



(Left over from Powerline's "The Week in Pictures")

Yep



Kurt Schlichter: "The Elites Are Revolting".
Our Establishment is revolting – in fact, it stinks on ice. What you see out there is our alleged betters struggling mightily to hold onto the power that we Normal people dared to wrest away from them in 2016. One component of their campaign is the burning and looting information operation conducted by black-clad pawns. The other component is the soft power corporate/media/cultural conspiracy to silence dissent and enforce fearful conformity to their narrative. Usually, a revolution is conducted by the peasants to throw off a tyrannical ruling class. Here, the ruling class is waging a political and cultural war to retake and then tighten its grip on the masses. They are no longer even pretending to seek the consent of the governed. And once they retake power, that’s it – they will never give up power again.
He's right, and then some. Never in my life have I seen the hits coming from so many directions: the entirety of one major political party, and a substantial portion of the other; greedy, cowardly corporations vying to sell the last rope to the Marxist hangman; the highly-politicized and corrupt federal bureaucracy, including law enforcement and intelligence units; monumentally ignorant "youths" who think terror and revolution represent a career path; the Left's mainstream media whores; Vichy conservatives in the pay of one left-wing billionaire or another; and perpetually-aggrieved racism-mongers (who ignore the ocean of blood spilled to fight a civil war to end slavery; the integration of the public school system, sometimes at the point of a gun; civil rights legislation designed to destroy official, institutional racism; unfathomable amounts of money voted by Congress to create social welfare and educational support...and then have the immortal crust to ask, "Tell us, privileged white people, what have you done for us lately?"). Once again, I say, damn them all!

Sustaining the blue line

Here's a restaurant owner in Florida who's offering a safe haven for law enforcement (H/T: Mrs. Paco).

Classical corner

When I converted to Catholicism decades ago, I remember that the priest asked me if I wanted the organist to play anything special. I suggested, perhaps immodestly, The Great Gate at Kiev. I vaguely recollect that the padre rolled his eyes, and what I got was, I think, some post-Vatican-II dreck that came across like the soundtrack of a public service commercial.

Anyway, here is the Gate, in all of its pomp and majesty. It is one of the movements from Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, originally written as a suite for piano, but probably best known in its various fully orchestrated versions.



Well, now Teddy's coming down

A statue of Theodore Roosevelt situated in front of the American Museum of Natural History in NYC is getting the boot, too. It isn't being torn down by a mob, but it's being removed as a result of the craven submission of authority to the mob mentality.

I expect they'll be toppling statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, soon, unless churches keep a good lookout.

Update Winston Churchill, on the other hand, is getting police protection.

Update II See? "Race Activist Shaun King Calls for Removal of All Statues, Murals and Stained Glass Windows of 'White Jesus and his European Mother'".

Shaun King, for those who don't remember, is a white guy who tried to pass himself off as black - hence his nickname: "Talcum X".

Sunday, June 21, 2020

One wonders

Do New Yorkers make the connection between applied left-wing politics and real world outcomes? Do they blame moronic Marxists like De Blasio or do they consider their problems to be (as the insurance companies would say) acts of God?
Shootings are surging this week in New York City, with 28 incidents and 38 victims reported since Monday — the day the NYPD disbanded its plainclothes anti-crime unit, The Post learned on Friday.

By comparison, the same week last year there were only 12 shootings for the entire week.

“This is what the politicians wanted — no bail, nobody in Rikers, cops not arresting anyone,” one angry law enforcement source said Friday.

“All those things equal people walking around on the street with guns, shooting each other.”
For all their tough talk and bluster and high self-regard, the majority of New Yorkers just do not seem capable of ditching their superstitious attachment to the Democratic Party. Keep banging yourselves in the head with those hammers, folks. One of these days the collective skull will split open and then you won't feel a thing.

A particularly appropriate prayer for this time

And for this president (from today's readings at Mass).

Jeremiah said:
“I hear the whisperings of many:
‘Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!’
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.’
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
for he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!”

Jeremiah 20: 10-13

Happy Fathers' Day!



Best wishes to all you dads out there for a great day.

And a salute to the memory of Old Paco (lookin' sharp in 1945).

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Sunday funnies







Ah, yes, the first time I went skiing....

Dang! Maybe I can pass myself off as a bag of Ding Dongs. (H/T: David Thompson)

Should be handy when the power goes out. (H/T: Ditto)


Hyacinth Bucket ("It's pronounced Bouquet")...





(H/T: Stilton's Place)


From Powerline's "The Week in Pictures".







Iconoclasts

"Protesters in San Francisco, California, toppled a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the U.S. who led the Union Army during the Civil War..."

Maybe they just don't like the statues as art.

Incidentally, this post knocks the grinning visage of cheap Justice Roberts off the front page; I know that photo was giving Veeshir and others (including me) heartburn, so he's gone for now.

Unfunny funny man of diminutive stature and even more diminutive intellect gets owned



Btw, that's a pretty old Tweet, but it still holds true.

Friday, June 19, 2020

There may not be any police left to defund

"70 Atlanta Cops Have Resigned After Officer Rolfe Charged W/Felony Murder".

Make the Dems own the vanishing blue line.

There's bias

And then there's Yahoo News bias. The lead story - all freakin' day long, with no change whatsoever - has been the story of a black administration official, and another one of those "lifelong Republicans", who resigned, apparently because she didn't like Trump's response to "rising racial tensions". There are no details, incidentally, concerning what she didn't like about Trump's response, and I'm sure giving the lead to this story on "Juneteenth" is a mere coincidence.The story was originally published in Business Insider, which is another reliably anti-Trump site. I'm not linking any of it. Take my word, or just open up Yahoo.

Perhaps the real reason I want Trump to win is because I loathe so many of the people who oppose him on what, theoretically, is supposed to be "our side" - as if "our side's" cowardly support for political failures (and thoroughgoing scoundrels) like McCain and Romney had nothing to do with the rise of Trump. I also loathe the mainstream press, not just for its bias but because of its stupidity, laziness and incompetence. Damn them all.

Totally unrelated update Ace of Spades isn't under some kind of cyber-attack is he? I haven't been able to get to his site for hours.

After trying to pummel the Second Amendment...

...Governor Ralph "Coonman" Northrup's Virginia is now going after the First: "Virginia Democrats Push Legislation to Make Criticism of Government Officials a Criminal Offense".

Cheap grace

CEO Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A apparently thinks that white people should kneel and shine black people's shoes in order to help expiate the sins of racism. In an act of what I would call extreme spiritual vanity, Cathy himself did this very thing on television.

Yes, it was an act of vanity, not humility, a pharisaical display which sought to rope all whites together within a loop of collective guilt, which the Right Reverend Cathy seeks to eliminate through the low-cost gesture of dusting off some guy's shoes. Incidentally, I wonder how many people are going without shoes altogether these days because Chick-Fil-A cut off donations to the Salvation Army?

I stopped eating at Chick-Fil-A on road trips unless it was the only thing in the offing. I now intend to give it up completely and go hungry if necessary.

Update: Taking a leaf from the Right Reverend Dan Cathy's Bible of Collective Guilt, shouldn't black people be coming together to form a movement to Shine Jews' Shoes? Looks like black radicals involved in a BLM protest in LA engaged in acts of anti-Semitic vandalism and other acts of violence recently, so, how about it? Although, if I were Jewish, I'd probably be satisfied with a pledge not to vandalize or burn down my synagogue.

Update II Veeshir, in the comment section of a previous post: "Make him [John Roberts] Clarence Thomas' shoe-shine boy."

Thursday, June 18, 2020

Happy Feet Friday

The Slim Gaillard trio, featuring Gaillard on guitar, the frenetic Bam Brown on bass, and none other than Scatman Crothers on drums, lays down a plate of “Chile & Beans O'Voutee”.


The grinning gravedigger of our constitution

It seems that SCOTUS justices may have been passing on hearing gun rights cases because they don't trust chief Justice Roberts to come down on the side of the Second Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to pass on nearly a dozen gun-rights-related cases is breathtaking, not in the denial of hearing any, but in the seeming admission that the conservative associate justices think Chief Justice John Roberts can’t be trusted to protect the Bill of Rights.
Not at all surprising, considering that the Chef [sic] Justice sided with his liberal colleagues in cooking up some new law with the recent DACA decision.


"Hey, fellow progressives, you gonna like my legal gobbledygook gumbo, I gar-an-tee!"

George W. Bush: the gift that just keeps giving.

The latest name to pop up in the Hillary Clinton dead pool

Who woulda thought?

So, Aunt Jemima's history, and I read somewhere that Mrs. Butterworth is also being retired. Does the Left simply hate pancakes?

There's no need for a Stasi...

...when individuals, local governments and corporations can be cowed by social justice mobs into adhering to their ideological fanaticism and eliminating "enemies of the people": "Mexican-American Accused of Making ‘White Power’ Sign by Overzealous SJW Is Fired". In the first place, the whole notion of the OK sign being a secret white supremacist symbol is an example of a prank turning into a fact almost overnight (some wiseguys at 4Chan passed this business off as a true thing, when it was something they actually pulled out of thin air, just to see how many idiots would bite; lots and lots of idiots, apparently, did bite, and this utter falsehood has now become a fact with which to club the unsuspecting). In the second place, it appears that the poor truck driver was only hanging his arm out of the window, cracking his knuckles. This is only his word, of course, but I find it completely believable under the circumstances - certainly, at least, within benefit-of-the-doubt territory. So far, this is the dumbest thing I've read today, and I hope the truck driver sues his former employer for all he can get.


"Seriously, somebody owes me an apology."

Another shining young dumbass who has drunk deeply from the well of entitlement

Ibram X. Kendi explains racism to us.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Analogy of the week

From Stilton's Place: "Daughter Jarlsberg's dog, Ladybug, who currently resides at stately Jarlsberg Manor, has to be taken to the vet today because an anal gland has swollen painfully and the resulting butt bubble looks way too much like Jerry Nadler's face for us to ignore."

Where, indeed?

"Where is the Republican pushback?"

It's becoming increasingly clear that, without a radically reconstituted Republican party, our country will continue alternately schlepping and galloping toward a leftist dystopia. As it is right now, I think the GOP's elephant should be replaced with something more appropriate...

Good observation

Economist and op/ed writer Walter Williams makes a point that continues to be lost on white "progressives":
Poor people are more dependent on law and order than anyone else. In the face of high crime or social disorder, wealthier people can afford to purchase alarm systems, buy guard dogs, hire guards and, if things get too bad, move to a gated community. These options are not available to poor people. Their only protection is an orderly society.

Working-with-your-hands Wednesday

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Assortment

Autonomous zones: not so popular in North Carolina.

There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that this bogus Black Lives Matter charity is a subsidiary of the perfectly legitimate organization Pigmentation Activated Charities Online.

Somebody who knows just a little bit more about constitutional law than I do is also upset with SCOTUS's adventure in sexual taxonomy.



Don Surber posts his own assortment (which includes the terrifying news that this is Accordion Appreciation Month).

"Black Rifle Coffee Launches Tactical Caffeine Delivery System".

The suave and clever Smitty updates an old Simon and Garfunkle favorite.



Who knew?

Rick Wilson: neo-Confederate.

Of course he does: Lincoln was a Republican.

"Democrat Boston Mayor Supports Removal of Abraham Lincoln Statue – The Man Who Ended Slavery in the United States".

Probably a marketing gimmick

"The New Ford Bronco Will Debut on July 9, O.J. Simpson’s Birthday".

Seen in the sidebar at Ace of Spades.

I have come to the conclusion that you basically can't trust federal judges. Period.

Roberts and Gorsuch disappoint mightily with recent ruling: "SCOTUS's Transgender Ruling Firebombs the Constitution".

Check out the photo at the article, and behold two of the legal stalwarts who were supposed to help stem the tide of leftist insanity. Have you ever seen two such clueless dopes? Chief Justice Roberts, the thin-lipped, grinning tool of the Washington establishment, who lives in constant fear of being smacked in the face by the media and the Democrat hierarchy with a rolled up copy of the Washington Post, and Associate Justice Gorsuch, whose trash-compacter mouth is just right for chewing up the constitution.

God help us (a phrase, incidentally, which will probably be banned within the next ten years).

Btw, the author of the article, Joy Pullman, sure has the GOP's number:
This is a time to redouble pressure on Republicans to stop helping Democrats shred the Constitution and Americans’ natural rights, withdrawing support from them if they do not. This decision makes Congress irrelevant, unless they decide to make themselves relevant again by eliminating the underlying law on which this decision is based.

The last century of abdicating their responsibilities when in power shows Republicans are not keen on defending our rights. They’d prefer to give rousing speeches about our rights at conventions like CPAC while scapegoating our continued loss of these rights on the judges and the bureaucracy they’re supposed to oversee. That needs to end, and for it to end, all constitutional hypocrites need to be made uncomfortable until they do the right thing.
She's absolutely right, but the cowardice, laziness and absence of genuine principals is a rot that has set in deeply, and, quite possibly, fatally.

And now, a word from our sponsor

Monday, June 15, 2020

Classical corner

Igor Stravinsky represented a radical break with the musical past and his work sounds as fresh and modern today as it did a hundred years ago. His revolutionary approach is obvious in such works as Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), one of a series of ballets written for the Ballets Ruses.

Here is the introduction to Part Two. Although the theme of the ballet is the pagan rituals of planting and harvesting, including the sacrifice of a maiden who dances herself to death, the music - specifically, the first minute of the segment below - has always acted on my imagination to conjure up sensations of a cataclysmic falling away, a vastness of desolation, the crumbling of a civilization, the death of the world.

Yes, I can almost see you all shaking your heads. "C'mon, man!", you seem to be saying. "That's a lot of weight for a minute's worth of music to carry." Well, you're probably right; just my imagination running away with me. Fascinating stuff any way you slice it.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Happy Flag Day!



Much beleaguered these days, but also still much beloved, long may our proud banner wave.

It's also Donald Trump's birthday. Happy birthday, Mr. President, and my sincere best wishes in your reelection battle.

It's my birthday, too. I turn 65 today, now very officially a "seasoned " citizen, as Rush Limbaugh likes to call us. As a special treat, you might want to see photographic evidence that I am maintaining the kind of ponderous dignity associated with elder statesmen...



That's about six months worth of no haircuts. I started off going for the Doc Holliday vibe, began veering in the direction of Tommy Chong, and am now afraid that I've settled on a particularly ghastly transgendered Veronica Lake. Well, barber shops are now open, I believe, so I'd better check in first chance I get.

Sunday funnies













"Desperate Seattle Police Hit Antifa With Fire Hose Of Axe Body Spray".


"An alternative to fly spray" (H/T: David Thompson).


Rep. "Nadless" Jerry Nadler demonstrates the proper way to put on a mask (H/T: Ditto).


Feudin' - you're doin' it wrong.




Seen on Facebook: "I HOPE Y'ALL STOLE CONDOMS SO WE DON'T HAVE ANOTHER GENERATION OF IDIOTS!".


From Powerline's "The Week in Pictures".




Saturday, June 13, 2020

Spotted outside of Lowe's hardware store

A Buick Electra (1961, I think).



A legend in his own mind, and the hero of all his dreams

Bill De Blasio is the greatest mayor in the country - just ask him.
“This is the strongest mayoralty in the country, in every sense, and the strongest city in the country, in every sense, and we can persevere through all sorts of challenges and we will."
The expression, "blithering idiot", comes to mind for some reason.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Further proof that the recent insurrection and the media voices supporting it...

...are not driven by a thirst for justice but by a rabid desire to rewrite our history and undo the work of the founders - "CNN Contributor: Statues of Washington, Jefferson Should Be Taken Down".

Update Kundera knew what he was talking about...

Professor Jacobson is right

We are witnessing something that smacks of the kind of toadying fanaticism witnessed during the Chinese cultural revolution.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Happy Feet Friday

Merle Travis sings “Louisiana Boogie”, the saga of Ol' Delta Dan.



Bonus video! Here's a video from 1951 featuring Merle Travis and then-wife Judy Hayden singing "Too Much Sugar for a Dime". There are a couple of amusing references to other singers/musicians in the lyrics.

In retrospect, I wish they had indicted and tried this preening generalissimo instead of letting him off with a wrist slap

Victor Davis Hanson is right: "Petraeus Is Virtue Signaling to the Mob on Renaming Military Bases".

I wonder if he ever talked to his mistress about his problem with military bases being named for Confederate generals?

Ace of Spades: our modern Paul Revere

Ace blows up National Review for a "Two cheers for Antifa" piece that he's been predicting for quite awhile.

The enemy is within the gates, and it looks like house to house, street fighting, man-the-barricades time - polemically and literally.

Another Beria wannabe

"WHO IS JOHN GLEESON?"

No matter how fast Trump replaces left-wing judges, it will never be fast enough.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Our Air Force?

"A leading Democratic candidate in a closely watched House race brushed off looting and arson that occurred during nationwide unrest during protests about racism and police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd.

'What the hell you got snipers on the roof for in a peaceful march? Even if people loot, so what? Burn it to the ground, you know, if that’s what it’s going to take to fix our nation,' retired Air Force Col. Kim Olson said during a live digital event on Tuesday, shown in a clip obtained by the Washington Examiner."

Emphasis mine.

Looks like they've included everything

Via friend and commenter JeffS, here is a list of demands submitted by the...let's see here...oh, yes, "The Collective Black Voices at Free Capitol Hill".

Here's one demand that I'm pretty sure is in the process of being granted right now: "We demand the de-gentrification of Seattle, starting with rent control." Even the progressive gentry are going to think twice about putting a lot of money into a house that's likely to become a billboard of the revolution (if not a charred pile of smoking wood and blackened bricks).

A tsunami of stupid

The imbecilariat is out in force across the nation, trying to erase our history and create anarchy everywhere.

A statue of Christopher Columbus in Richmond, Virgina was torn down and thrown in a lake.

Antifa seized a section of downtown Seattle, declaring it an autonomous zone.

Gone With the Wind has been pulled by HBO Max because we, the people, are obviously too dumb to put some of its depictions in historical context.

I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere, a statue of Booker T. Washington is being toppled at this moment because he was just some uncle Tom. Vast numbers of our fellow citizens are desperately in need of reeducation, but not the kind that's to be found in secondary schools and universities. They are liable to get this education in a school of hard knocks, unless the rest of us have suddenly gone British and turned into sheep.

Update Revolutionaries encounter a few bumps on the road to serfdom.

Definitely not looking forward to the kakistocracy.

Working-with-your-hands Wednesday

Ought to come in handy in wine country...

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Two eloquent public servants exchange refined sentiments

Dramatis personae

Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of Chicago
Raymond Lopez, Alderman


“I think you’re 100% full of shit, is what I think,” Lightfoot said.

“F— you, then,” Lopez responded. “Who are you to tell me I’m full of shit? … Maybe you should come out and see what’s going on.”

“If you think we’re not ready, and we stood by and let the neighborhoods go up, there’s nothing intelligent that I could say to you,” Lightfoot responded. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I understand you want to preen.”

“Mayor, you need to check your f—ing attitude. That’s what you need to do,” Lopez replied.

The mayor and alderman were later spotted enjoying cucumber sandwiches at a local tearoom, where they were cornered by admirers who lauded their sparkling repartee.

Just say "No".

And say it loudly and with gusto. Kurt Schlichter: "More Than Ever, It’s Time to Unleash the Power of 'No'".
It’s time to push back on these punks. They leverage our natural politeness and tendency to try to avoid conflict to take advantage and seize the high ground. Understand that tactic and refuse to play along. They leave you spinning your wheels by drawing you into trying to reason with them when reasoning is beside the point. You do not owe them a debate. Mock them instead, and stubbornly defy their commands.

Somebody will establish order

Either the police or the vigilantes. Here's an interesting piece by John Daniel Davidson at The Federalist about the autodefensas in Mexico.

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