Flotsam and/or Jetsam

T’is an ill wind indeed that blows no man any good

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Mike

Wilder and Sido are worried about the possibilities for ginning up phony vidya “evidence” via AI, but I for one welcome our new ant robot overlords.

With AI there is no limit to the “news footage” They can create anything at will and if there is video evidence of you doing something, who is a jury going to believe? A racist like me or their lying eyes?

Way back in 1987 this was predicted in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Running Man. Playing Ben Richards, Arnold is imprisoned for shooting at an unarmed crowd of protesters but in reality he had refused the order to fire on them. The government then changed the film of the incident to make it look like Arnold had actually disobeyed orders to stand down and fired on the crowd…

We are conditioned to believe video. If the news just makes a claim we can be skeptical but when we see it playing out in front of us? Most people are just going to accept it for what it seems to be. It would seem a simple matter to create an AI rendition of Trump saying nigger while smoking meth with a Russian hooker peeing on him.

DUDE, I would SO pay good money to see a vid like that. GOOOOOD money.

A shocking revelation

Posted on February 12, 2023February 12, 2023 by Mike

Although the part I find most shocking might not be the one that comes immediately to mind.

In appearances on two Sunday talk shows, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) said that China sending a high-altitude spy balloon across the continental United States “was an act of espionage in plain sight” and revealed that the balloon had a greater capability than satellites to gather and collect imagery, and left open the possibility that these signals and images were still transmitted to Beijing even though US intelligence officials claim that they “mitigated” the damage.

On “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo,” McCaul said:

“These spy balloons have great capability to gather and collect intelligence, I would argue moreso than even satellites in the sense that they’re flying at, say, 40 to 60 thousand feet above the earth. The imagery that they can capture and other intelligence data that I can’t be specific about can be captured and then transmitted back to the mothership in Beijing.

“This was an act of espionage in plain sight, plain view of the American people.”

So far, so “well, DUH.”

McCaul’s first statement in the interview was that one of his priorities as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is to stop the export of American technology to China “that then goes into their most advanced weapons systems” (such as stealth technology, which CFIUS allowed to be sold to a company majority-owned by the Chinese government). Brennan asked if it made McCaul uncomfortable as a conservative “to have government try to control private business investment. How do you do that?” In his answer, we learn exactly why he’s comfortable doing that, and what a massive national security issue it is (emphasis mine):

Well, we have what’s called an entities list. The Department of Commerce had jurisdiction over the office within their — the Department of Defense has one.

We need to harmonize those, make it more security-focused. You know, capital flows is one issue, but technology exports into China that they use to turn — that maybe eventually turn against us, we have to stop doing that.

And I think we can do it by sectors. They do it by companies now. Obviously, they identified the six. I think, shockingly, when the balloon was recovered, it had American-made component parts in there with English on that. It was made — you know, parts made in America that were put on a spy balloon from China. I don’t think the American people accept that.

Bold in the original, not mine. And that’s where the part I found shocking comes in: “American-made component parts”? Really? Man, I had no idea we still made anything at all in this country anymore.

1

Moar police stories

Posted on February 11, 2023February 11, 2023 by Mike

From today’s Quora Digest email.

As a police officer, have you ever responded to a call and once you got there said to yourself, “Nope, not worth it” and just left?

Once. I pulled up behind a car stopped on the shoulder of the interstate. 5 Hispanic gang banger types standing around it. I ask if they need help. They spoke very little English but they spoke Spanish among themselves. I noticed they kept encircling me. I would step out of their circle and they would encircle me again. Then a guy in the back seat hiding under a blanket appears. Hackles on my neck are standing straight up by now. So…I get back to my squad car and drive away. I don’t know how it would have turned out had I stayed but I am pretty sure I would not be here to write this answer.

Edited to add the following. In rural areas there is no backup. I was the only squad car within 50 miles. Secondly while I thought these guys were acting weird they were not actually doing anything illegal, they were simply stopped along side the interstate and standing beside their car.

I’ve known enough LEOs over the years, and heard enough similar stories from them, to know that the refinement of exactly that sort of sixth-sense intuition can be the difference between life and death, quite literally.

Update! Another one, same source.

What’s something a police officer knows that would scare normal people?

Seeing how quickly and unexpectedly you can die.

Man went to McDonald’s — which was a treat — for his family’s dinner, and on the way back, was broad-sided in the driver’s door. He’s dead in the driver’s seat and his family’s dinner is all over the front of the car. When he didn’t come back, his 10-year-old son went looking for him on his bicycle and came up on the accident scene. The child climbed into the wrecked car and was hugging his dead father. We weren’t going to stop him, and the fire department stayed longer than they normally would have in case there was any unexpected fire.

Another officer took the child home in his police car and informed the wife of what had happened. Prime example of one of those evenings when a cop skips dinner because he has no appetite.

The driver that hit him was a teenager who had just stolen a tank of gas from the local AM/PM Mini Market, and was being chased by the idiot store manager in his own car. We arrested them both, though that did not make the outcome any better.

The only decent thing that came out of it is that the owner of a local McDonald’s franchise read about it, came in the station and we helped him arrange to pay for an elaborate funeral. The owner insisted we not talk about it publicly; he didn’t want his kind act to look like a PR move. That is class.

Indeed it is.

How quickly and unexpectedly any one of us can die is something I unfortunately know all too much about, from my own personal experience losing my late and much-mourned wife. I’ve had occasion to sit down and try to comfort other folks who have had the same bitter, painful experience of losing a loved one unexpectedly and much too soon, particularly my life-long friend Rick, whose 21 year old son died in a car wreck about five years ago.

What I straightaway said to Rick is the same thing I’ve told others: don’t waste a moment of your time trying to make sense of it, casting about for some explanation you’re never going to find. There IS no sense in it; how the hell does a 21 year old’s death make any kind of sense, to his hearbroken father and mother? It’s just something you see on the local evening news shows and automatically think of as one of those things that happens to someone else.

Until suddenly, one day, it isn’t.

Behind the badge

Posted on February 10, 2023February 10, 2023 by Mike

Two from my latest daily Quora email.

As a cop, have you ever pulled over someone who was actually rushing someone in labor to the hospital? What did you do?

Yes. I lit up a couple for doing 95 in a 60. At 2:30 in the morning. They wouldn’t stop. I hit the siren. I hit the howler. I called for backup. I had no idea of the vehicle’s situation. Finally, after 3 miles, they stopped. The driver instantly hopped out of his vehicle and came running back to me. I immediately reversed to gain distance. He screamed that his wife was in extreme labor. And please…please help.

I ran to their vehicle. She was…a mess. I pulled her into the back seat. Short story… her baby delivered into my hands. She was a mess. I was a mess. The baby (a girl) was a mess. Fortunately, a female Deputy responded, and “took charge.”

I’m glad all survived. I truly am. But I hope I never experience that again…

Heh. I imagine so, yeah. This next one is even better.

So this happened in Montana. I’m on my way to go to my interview this morning when I get pulled over by a police officer.

I am native American and my friend that was with me is black. Just saying.

Both brake lights decided to go out this time.

As he walked to the car and I was pulling out my stuff, he quickly said,

“Don’t worry about pulling anything out. I just want you to know that your brake lights are out.”

So I’m immediately upset because I just got them replaced like last month.

So I explained to him how Firestone wants to charge me $600 just to run a test on the wiring of the car.

He looked at me like 😨 and told me to pop the trunk.

He checked the lights in the trunk and tapped them, but they didn’t come on.

So he told me to pop the hood to check the relay box then asked me to get out to check the other one.

Then worked on the wiring under the dash.

He could’ve easily given me a ticket, but Officer Jenkins stepped out of the officer role, and into the mechanic role, and human role to make sure I was straight.

By the way, HE FIXED THEM. Not everyone is racist or a bad cop.

There’s a pic included with the post, to wit:

RighteousCop

It may not be the way the smart money bets these days, but even so, they’re not ALL bad. Difficult as it can be sometimes to remember that, it’s probably better if we all try to, for everyone involved.

10

One contest in which everybody comes out a winner

Posted on February 9, 2023February 9, 2023 by Mike

Minnesota strikes again with the snow-plow-naming hilarity.

The votes are in! 🎉 More than 64,000 people voted and we’re excited to welcome eight new snowplow names to our fleet (including an homage to someone who just won Record of the Year *ahem* hi @lizzo!)

Meet the Class of 2023 Snowplows and learn more: https://t.co/vCCLVYw2s3 pic.twitter.com/2aXZCsBFIp

— Minnesota Department of Transportation (@MnDOT)

February 8, 2023

Lots more good stuff here.

2

1

Limousine liberal gets kicked to the curb

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Not a fan, never have been, ain’t never gonna be.

Bruce Springsteen’s ticket prices are so high that his fan site ‘Backstreets’ is shutting down after 43 years

A magazine and website that has served Bruce Springsteen’s fans for 43 years is shutting down, with its publisher writing that he’s been disillusioned by the debate over ticket prices for their hero’s current tour.

Backstreets had been an unusually robust publication that imposed journalistic rigor on its writing and photography, while leaving no doubt of its fan worship.

But the complaints about high ticket prices left people there “dispirited, downhearted and yes, disillusioned,” publisher Christopher Phillips wrote late last week in a post announcing the shutdown.

“Disappointment is a common feeling among hardcore fans in the Backstreets community,” he wrote. Phillips did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, said that “we are very sorry to hear the news of Backstreets closing and want to thank Chris Phillips for his 30 years of dedication on behalf of Springsteen fans everywhere. “

There was an uproar among some Springsteen fans when tickets first went on sale last summer, particularly over Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model, which sent tickets soaring to $5,000 or more when there was high demand. At a congressional hearing last month following the fiasco over Ticketmaster’s handling of Taylor Swift tour tickets, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana suggested major artists like Springsteen and Swift should demand fee caps.

Springsteen’s team has defended the prices as being in line with what is charged today by many of his peers. Like many artists, he says he’s annoyed when unscrupulous ticket brokers — not the musicians — benefit from high markups.

Admittedly, Springsteen has a great band behind him. At the end of the day, though, even the legendary E Street Band is not enough to offset Bruce’s powerful asshole proclivities. Honestly, I always felt kinda sorry for Clarence Clemmons, Miami Steve Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, and the rest for having to put up with their insufferable, pretentious “Boss,” and couldn’t see how they managed to do it for all those years.

(Via Ed)

4

Vintage iron

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Good ol’ American ingenuity, creativity, and know-how.

Arizona Mechanic Builds Own Fleet of Dwarf Cars Out of Old Fridges, Junkyard Scraps—Opens Own Museum

Master tinkerer Ernie Adams had always wanted a race car. But who has money for a race car?

Moreover, living in a little trailer park in Harvard, Nebraska, at the time he had no room to park one.

So, Adams, who has worked in a garage since age 16, satisfied his longing by building his very own antique dwarf car.

Over the years, his hobby would snowball massively. Now 82 and retired, Adams has an entire fleet comprised of some 15 antique dwarf cars—including several race cars—all made by his hand.

No stranger to tinkering in the shop, growing up, Adams lived just a quarter mile from the city dump, which fed his hobby. “That city dump was like a free department store for me,” he told The Epoch Times.

“At that time, they were taking gas washing machine motors off and putting electric on, and they’d throw the old motors in the dump.”

There were old bicycle and wagon parts, too, and he started deconstructing and reconstructing them and then selling his fully-functioning contraptions.

“I didn’t realize I was learning my trade back then,” he said, adding that his learning to build his own vehicles in those days came easy, because “time meant nothing, and there was no money involved.”

Lots of great pictures of this true American artist’s amazing work at the link, including this one.

DwarfRod

You do NOT want to miss any of this one, folks, trust me on that. The interior pic of the 49 Merc—which features an old-school shrunken head dangling from the mirror stanchion, and a CD player in the dash—is worth the click all by itself. And then there’s this:

The mechanic’s dwarf cars can easily handle the highway, zooming at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, while traveling as far as 200 or 300 miles on a tank of gas. They run on Honda motors installed by Adams.

Sure, it’s cozy but not uncomfortable, as Adams drops the floors down low to provide legroom aplenty.

Plus, they’re street legal; Adams, now living in Maricopa, contacted Arizona authorities and had them registered as “homemade” vehicles—as one would register a homemade trailer.

Having participated in dozens upon dozens of antique car competitions across the state and beyond, Adams boasts a wall full of trophies.

What an incredible, all-American story. I hope Adams gets rich as Croesus off of this hobby of his, I really do.

2

Schisming

Posted on February 7, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Remember the other night when I mentioned my upbringing in the First United Methodist Church in Mt Holly? Well, my cousin (BPs drummer Mark) called me up Sunday with some welcome news: FUMC-Mt Holly had voted overwhelmingly that day to disaffiliate with the FUMC convocation, either to join the Global Methodist Church or go fully independent. This coming Sunday, Mt Holly Methodists will be holding a vote to decide on which way to jump.

Given events over the last several years, I had been waiting to see whether they’d make the leap or not, and hoping that they would. The FUMC has always been a fairly liberal-oriented denomination—even as far back as about 1978 or so, my dad went to our pastor to demand that his tithing money stay strictly with our local church, that he didn’t want one thin dime of it going to the national organization because of its ever-farther and faster Leftward drift—but things have gotten bad enough over the last ten years or so that a breakaway movement has begun to find its feet.

United Methodists Lose 1,800 Churches in Split Over LGBT Stance

The initial departures, mostly concentrated in the South, represent around 6 percent of the denomination—not as dramatic as the “schism” some feared.

Nearly four years ago, the United Methodist Church approved an exit plan for churches wishing to break away from the global denomination over differing beliefs about sexuality, setting in motion what many believed would be a modern-day schism.

Since then, a new analysis has found, it’s fallen well short of that.

That analysis of data collected by the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration shows 6.1 percent of United Methodist churches in the US—1,831 congregations out of 30,000 nationwide—have been granted permission to disaffiliate since 2019. There are no good figures for international departures among the estimated 12,000 United Methodist churches abroad.

The denomination’s disaffiliation plan gives churches until December 31 to cut ties, and many have already made known their desire to leave. Those churches can take their properties with them after paying apportionments and pension liabilities. Others are forcing the issue through civil courts.

The 1,831 church departures come as United Methodist bishops say they’re battling misinformation from conservative groups that encourage churches to leave the denomination for the newly formed Global Methodist Church, which has declared it will never ordain or marry LGBTQ people—the crux of the conflict.

In turn, the Global Methodist Church and groups like the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a network of theologically conservative churches, argue that the denomination’s regional conferences are making it prohibitively hard for churches to leave.

The FUMC’ers in Mt Holly, being of a more conservative bent, had long been dismayed over the parent organization’s dismal shift towards godless-Left libertinism, which has resulted in this sort of abomination:

Drag queen pastor delivers a sermon at a Methodist church. What in the world? pic.twitter.com/NXJJl9cq3T

— Catch Up (@CatchUpNetwork)

February 6, 2023

Yeah, small-town Christian folk in the South are really gonna go for that. Heartfelt kudos for the Methodists who have shown the gumption to finally tell TPTB, “Enough, no more, we’re out.” It’s about damned time, and I hope to see a lot more of it.

3

Another FederalGovCo cash grab

Posted on February 7, 2023February 7, 2023 by Mike

The goobermint is your enemy.

Those 87,000 new IRS agents that you were promised would only target the rich…

They’re coming after waitresses’ tips now: “monitoring of employer compliance based on actual annual tip revenue and charge tip data from an employer’s point-of-sale system.”https://t.co/WAvh0t2cNN

— Mike Palicz (@Mike_Palicz)

February 7, 2023

Hey, no need to fret, it’s a purely “voluntary” program. For now.

3

Grey matters

Posted on February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Mike

Nee-grows are low-IQ, prone to violence, primitive, and have poor impulse control. Yes, it’s all YOUR fault, Kemosabe.

Black children living in poverty face increased instances of stress and trauma that can alter their brain development, a new study found.

Researchers found that increased stressors like economic hardship and systemic racism play a significant role for Black children and can lead to the development of mental health issues as they age, the study said.

The stressors contribute to Black children having less gray matter in their brains, a byproduct of absorbing “toxic stress.” The study defines the stressors as “prolonged exposure to adverse experiences” that lead to excessive stress hormones and “disrupt the immune and metabolic regulatory systems.”

In the study, researchers found that Black children often developed behavioral problems later in life such as PTSD, anxiety and depression. These children also were susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse and suicide attempts and were likely to commit violence, the study said.

Black children showed lower amygdala, hippocampus, and PFC gray matter volumes compared with White children.

Bold mine, to highlight the way CNN just might be reversing cause and effect here, because reasons.

The hippocampus plays a number of crucial roles, including regulating emotions, motivation, hormonal activity, autonomic activity, and memory formation.

Probably the most well recognized function of the hippocampus is its role in learning and memory. Although the exact mechanisms remain somewhat mysterious, it is believed that the hippocampus receives and consolidates information, allowing for establishment of long-term memories in a process known as long-term potentiation (LTP). It also plays a role in spatial memory, allowing us to keep track of where things are, as well as where they are in relation to each other; as such, it is instrumental in the formation of cognitive maps.

There have been numerous reports linking tumors, lesions, and epileptogenic activity in humans within the hippocampus to aggressive reactions, ranging from minor hostility to explosive acts of violence. The hippocampus’ role in mediating aggression and rage appears to be dependant on the region of the structure that is stimulated: activation of the temporal pole, i.e. the region closest to the amygdala, stimulates predatory or fight behavior; while activation of the region closest to the septal pole instead suppresses those impulses.

If any of that behavior sounds at all familiar to you, then you are definitely a RAYCISS™ for sure. Divemedic finds CNN’s conclusions a tad sketchy.

I was with them on the other evidence. Yes, there is evidence that black children are likely to be poor, have incarcerated parents, and lower intelligence. I agree. What they are essentially saying is that blacks are poor, less intelligent, and more likely to be criminals than are whites, and that there is a biological and physiological basis for this. That’s exactly what I have been saying for years. What I have a problem with is the conclusion that is unsupported by any evidence presented by this so-called study- that it’s white people’s fault.

This seems like junk science with no control group and little in the way of actual, well, science. When I was a teacher, had one of my students turned in an unsupported conclusion like that one, it likely would have received a poor grade.

Hey, if it wasn’t for junk science, shitlibs would have no science at all to back up their politically-motivated arguments.

3

“Ace” Biden saves America!

Posted on February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Mike

I haven’t been able to verify it as of presstime, but rumor has it that this is the very aircraft flown by China Joe Bribem himself to shoot down that Gook spy balloon.

FlyingTigerP40

For his part, Bitter Centurion reminds us that, ultimately, this was about a heckuva lot more than some overinflated old gasbag.

ALL A BUNCH OF HOT AIR?

I didn’t go too far in depth in one of my last posts on the Chinese ‘spy’ balloon debacle, mainly because I didn’t have enough information available to me to make a definitive call on whether or not it actually was what the media is telling us it was. I more or less wanted to address the fact that, regardless of whether the story was legit or not, China DOES have the west by the balls in many different ways and we have largely been paying lip service to the whole entire issue.

My own thoughts are that it’s certainly possible that the media is telling the truth this time *COUGH, COUGH* BULLSHIT *COUGH, COUGH*….whew, excuse me. Yeah, anyway, the balloon may well be a device that is Chinese in origin used to conduct aerial espionage or perhaps reconnaissance. I mean, it isn’t like they don’t already have several spy satellites in orbit that can obtain this same information far less conspicuously, right?

Actually, there are plenty of perfectly good reasons for using balloons rather than satellites, for one that it’s orders of magnitude less expensive to just float a balloon overhead than to lob a satellite into LEO (Low Earth Orbit). For another, you get a much more clear and detailed view of whatever you want to look at from angels 60 than you can from orbit. Loiter time also factors in to the equation, with balloons winning out there too.

The US uses balloons for these very reasons, as do many of not most other players on the multinational stage.

Aesop points out another aspect of this kerfuffle that most probably haven’t taken into consideration.

As I noted elsewhere, and as anyone from SAC Norad or the Silent Service from 1946-1990 can tell you, don’t tell your enemy how early you can detect him, and you frequently just sit back and watch what they’re doing, because it gives you more intel on what they can do and what they’re interested in, than any intel they think they’re getting from you.

We did that with Russian subs and aircraft for decades at the height of the Cold War, with far more at stake.

Similarly, the whole point of China’s gambit may well have been not to glean intel on the missile silos in Montana, but to test US capabilities and reaction time to such an incursion, which would be highly valuable intel in its own right. Back to BC for what I still believe to be the bottom-line issue.

So, no. I absolutely don’t think that communist China is going to launch an attack on mainland North America, or anything to do with North America. No ‘Chinese blue helmets’. No bio weapons (I mean, no worse than the ‘Coronapocalypse’, but I’m starting to wonder if that was a massive screwup judging by how things played out). They’re not gonna launch chemical weapons, or ‘nuke’ us, or fry our grid with an EMP or cyberattack. And IF they do this, it probably won’t be anything large scale and it wouldn’t be for any other purpose than to harass us and keep us occupied, while they do other things. If the Chicoms are gonna attack anyone anytime soon, it’ll be Taiwan. That could go either way, really.

China is more than content to watch us tear each other apart over manufactured ‘social’ bullshit like gender and racial equity or reparitions, or whatever ’cause du jour’ we conjure up (with some prods and nudges from certain influential folks getting bennies from the CCP) due to our society’s massive inferiority complex, developed because we haven’t actually accomplished anything worthwhile in a few generations because we’re lazy and spoiled. China is quite content to watch us squander our wealth and our children’s futures away in never ending, massive conflicts that further tear our social fabric and destroy our faith in the institutions that our forefathers initially granted permission and responsibility to in order to take care of everything. China is quite pleased to see scores of migrants and ‘refugees’ pouring over the southern border, and in some cases be flown or bused, right into the United States, causing massive issues domestically from rising crime rates and homelessness to stretching taxpayer funded government and social services – everything from nurses, to cops, to teachers – to the point where they’re almost ineffective. On that last point, I still strongly believe China has funded and driven much of that, as I believed they did during the massive migrant surge in Europe back in 2015.

The thing to keep in mind here is that China doesn’t need to hit us with anything in terms of conventional warfare. We’re far too busy kicking our own asses and we’re actually doing a pretty fucking bang up job on that. All the Chicoms have to do is fry up the jiffy pop, enjoy the show, and wait.

Pretty much, yep.

2

Yes, Virginia, there ARE good people left in this world

Posted on February 4, 2023February 4, 2023 by Mike

NOTE TO READERS: When I mentioned to BCE earlier that I was considering maybe relating the below story to you CF Lifers, he gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the idea. So here t’is; this really did happen, and every word of it is true.

So night before last I went to the Murphy’s about three miles from the house to put a little gas in the car, where I had myself a most interesting encounter. I get the gas in the tank, screw the cap on, and then roll around to the passenger door, which is the only way I can get in, having to disassemble the wheelchair, drag the whole mess through the door and onto the passenger seat, then scoot my baggy butt on over to the driver’s side. Ain’t no way the trick can be turned from the driver’s side, the steering column is in the way. Go ahead, ask me how I know.

Anyways, I had both the main wheels off, the seat-back folded down, and was just beginning my rasslin’ match with the chassis when a tall, slim young man, probably about 30 or so, walked up. He was neatly dressed and coiffed, not any kind of ruffian, at least by my admittedly dim lights. And hey, being something of a ruffian myself, I know one when I see one.

“Can I help you with that?” says he. I told him nah, no need, but thanks; I’ve got this whole PITA rotation pretty much down to a science by now, thanks to having done it way too many times. But, I said, if you have a minute you can close the door behind me when I’m in and done, which is the biggest pain of the whole ordeal. He said he’d be happy to, then whips out his wallet. “Do you need any money?”

Again, I told him I was okay, inasmuch as any of us can really say so with that jackass we got squatting in the White House making a mess of the entire damned country. He chuckled, shook his head, and pulled out a few bills, about ten bucks or so it was. I tried to turn him down again, but after a bit more back and forth he just crammed the money into my hand insistently enough that suddenly it felt somewhat rude to keep declining. So I finally gave up, thanked him, and took the dough.

Which is when he got down to the meat of the matter with: “May I ask you kind of a personal question?” “Sure, fire away.” Then he did.

“Do you believe in God?” Sayeth I, “Yes, I surely do.” “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” Again, I answered in the affirmative, then elaborated: “I was raised in the First United Methodist Church in Mt Holly. My mom worked for years as church secretary; I sang in the choir as soon as I was old enough; was asked by the music director to be the church organist when I was fourteen, which I declined to do because we have a for-real pipe organ with three manuals, a full pedal clavier, and a console with I don’t even know how many stops, not one item of which I know very much about. I attended vacation Bible school every summer. My whole family on my dad’s side were very active in our church their whole lives, in fact amounted to pretty much the backbone of it. I made sure that was where my daughter attended kindergarten a few years back, over my self-professed atheist ex-wife’s objections.”

“So yeah, even though I would never lay claim to being as good a Christian as I could or should be—I’m a sinner just like everybody else is, after all—I am most definitely a Christian.”

He asked me my name, then asked if I would mind if he prayed for me. I told him I would greatly appreciate that, since nowadays I figure we all need all the help we can get. He smiled, took my hand in his, and bowed his head.

“Dear Lord, I pray that you will heal Mike in his body, his mind, and his spirit. Please remove all disease, all sickness of any kind, from his body and his heart. If You will it, allow him to regrow his left leg as well. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I also know that with You, all things are possible. Guide him on Your righteous path, and let Your light and your grace shine upon Him. In Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.”

I repeated the final line of this man’s prayer myself, then released his hand and raised my own head to look at the kind-hearted, humble stranger. I swear to one and all, I felt the stump of my left leg tingling when he asked that God might regrow it, strongly enough that it was almost creepy. It weirded me out just a little, that tingling sensation, it truly did.

He told me that when he pulled into Murphy’s and saw me struggling to get that danged wheelchair into my battered, beat-up old piece of junk car, he heard God’s voice in his ear, instructing him to go over and see if there might be some way he could assist me, with anything at all. And so he did.

After I thanked him profusely, he smiled at me one last time, shook my hand, and walked on into the convenience store. I started up the car and drove back home. That unlooked-for encounter has stuck with me these last two days, and I expect I’ll carry it with me for the rest of my life. Or so I hope, anyway. It was a wonderful thing, and I can’t begin to express how fortunate I feel to have received such a powerful gift from a perfect stranger.

It occurs to me now that I really ought to have asked this fella what church he attends, because any church that’s turning out good, true Christians like himself is a church worth knowing about.

9

Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children disgrace themselves

Posted on February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 by Mike

As goes the rest of the FUSA military, so go the Marines.

Hi @USMC. My dad will be 100 yrs old on 2/24. A Marine during WWII. 5 assault landings. We’d love it if a uniformed Marine came for a visit – say “HI” to him. Few WWII Marines are left alive. Sent a message thru the Marine Corp portal.
They blew me off.
Thanks pic.twitter.com/V273AE648O

— Jim Thompson (@JimmySportToons)

February 2, 2023

Disgusting. But it’s probably just as well, I suppose; if today’s Marine Corps had deigned this vet worthy of a visit from one of their own, they’d have undoubtedly sent along a Jarhead in his prettiest black cocktail dress and spiked heels, in full make-up. If Mr Thompson’s poor dad didn’t stroke out right away from the sheer horror of it, being confronted by what Wokester pissants have done to his beloved Corps would have put him on a rage-high that would last for the rest of his days. I’m with Billy:

In TOTAL there were only 589,852 MARINES to serve in WW2.

16 Million Americans served in uniform

Only a little over 500k were Marines

That means this gentleman is one of a very few surviving Devil Dogs Left

Shame on the Marines for blowing this guy off.

Fucking the local Jarheads -should- have a fucking parade for him…

WTF ever happened to “Semper Fidelis?”

Always Faithful my ass.

Indeed. I repeat: Disgusting. Disgraceful. Reprehensible. And truly, truly sad.

My sincere apologies as a Heritage America to you, Mr Thompson, sir. May you have a happy 100th birthday anyway, despite this unconscionable PC insult to your bravery, your legacy, and your personal honor. Always remember, though: Illegitimi non carborundum. Otherwise, they win. And that, they must never, EVER be permitted to do.

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Good show!

Posted on February 2, 2023February 2, 2023 by Mike

I know I said yesterday that the animal-rights whackjobs chaining themselves by their chicken-necks to an active conveyor belt was the feel-good story of the week, and I meant that too. But suddenly, a new contender has emerged.

Vegan activists try to stop a truck 🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/ejm0WnsDsv

— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_)

January 30, 2023

In the vid, after his near-thing brush with becoming sticky red goo, one of the candidates for a Darwin Golden Achievement Award whimpers, “what’s wrong with that guy?” To which I respond: nothing whatsoever, roadkill. The only wrong thing here is you and your insufferably smug compadres, not the poor working stiff just trying to earn an honest, honorable, and entirely legal living for himself and his family, a thing I strongly suspect your ilk knows little if anything about.

Then comes the anguished bleat “HE’S A LUNATIC!!” Well, somebody certainly is, yeah. But it ain’t the truck driver; he’s had just about a bellyfull of your juvenile-delinquent bullshit, and decided he just wasn’t gonna put up with another second of it. Like the rest of us saner sorts are similarly fed up, and will have to show a little “activist” initiative of our own if we ever hope to be rid of you.

Indeed. Lately, it seems as if there’s another new Lord Of The Idiots title-seeker popping up every five minutes or so.

4

Chickens, forsooth!

Posted on February 1, 2023February 1, 2023 by Mike

Passing strange, innit, how in these proto-Apocalyptic times a topic so previously innocuous as the humble yardbird should come to seize so much of a once-great nation’s attention. Today, we have a cpl-three of such stories dominating the news cycle. First up, something I’m going to preemptively declare the feel-good story of the week.

Close call for animal rights protester after neck chained, pinned to duck slaughter line in Petaluma

Yes, I know, I know, it’s ducks, not chickens. Whatevs.

PETALUMA, Calif. (KGO) — Officials now say approximately 80 protesters attempting to stop operations at a duck farm in Petaluma were arrested on Monday.

Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, with help from several nearby police departments, arrested members of Direct Action Everywhere (DXE), after they trespassed onto Reichardt Duck Farm.

According to a press release by the Sonoma County District Attorney, two to three hundred protesters were bused to the farm that morning and illegally entered the farm grounds.

A smaller group headed for the processing line where they stopped a conveyor belt, removed the ducks and used bike locks to attach themselves to the conveyer belt.

Unfortunately, the belt was switched back on by someone and it moved as protesters were still attached.

In the handout video provided by animal rights group Condition One, protesters scream for the belt to be stopped.

One man can be seen, his face turning red seemingly struggling to breathe, in distress.

Regrettably, the douchebag survived. Ah well, better luck next time. Next up, looks like the flood-tide of illegal crossings at our southern border has mysteriously reversed direction.

Ill’egg’al Immigration? Black Market for Eggs Growing at Southern Border, Seizures Up 300%

Think about your mindset only three years ago. Did you ever envision an America where eggs would cost as much, if not more, than a pack of cigarettes? In your wildest dreams, did you ever think that there would be a black market for eggs? There are a lot of eggs-cellent theories as to the eggs-tenuating circumstances on why this is now a reality, and eggs-citing wouldn’t be the way to describe it.

Okay, I apologize. I’m done. Please eggs-cuse me.

KENS – San Antonio reported that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that they’ve “seen a 300% increase in egg seizures within the past month.”

What’s even crazier is that the inflation that President Joe Biden’s regime downplays as not a big deal now has Americans looking to Mexico for groceries because of the economic and agricultural failures of said regime.

“I think we’re getting lot of new travelers that are going abroad to get their grocery lists stocked up because of the current increase of prices,” CBP public affairs specialist Francisco Rodriguez said.

People are literally trying to smuggle eggs into the U.S. from Mexico because of the outrageous prices in some areas for a carton of a dozen eggs.

While the price of a dozen eggs is much higher than the national average, that average — as of December 2022 — the price for “Large white, Grade A chicken eggs, sold in a carton of a dozen” was at $4.250. That national average, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), is $1.284 more than the previous high for a dozen eggs, recorded during former President Barack Obama’s administration in September 2015.

For context, FRED has data on the price eggs going back to January of 1980. That means that the current price of eggs is the highest on record — and it’s not even close.

When data collection began in January 1980, the price of eggs was $0.879 a dozen. The price ebbed and flowed over the years, never reaching above $2 per dozen until the second term of former President George W. Bush.

Our federal government needs to stop “allegedly” manipulating the supply through strangulating legislation and allow farmers to farm as they see fit.

Okay, now that’s just crazy talk. Lastly, if you think the price of eggs is bad now, just you wait.

Estimated 100,000 hens killed in Connecticut farm fire, officials say

An estimated 100,000 hens died in a weekend fire at a Connecticut farm owned by one of the country’s largest egg producers, Connecticut officials confirmed Monday. It’s one of several such fires that have killed millions of chickens around the country over the past decade.

The blaze Saturday at the Hillandale Farms property in Bozrah, about 30 miles southeast of Hartford, drew dozens of firefighters from the area and took hours to put out. The cause remains under investigation. No people were injured.

The state Department of Agriculture said it appears approximately 100,000 egg-laying hens died. It credited farm employees and emergency responders with preventing more hen deaths by containing the fire to one of the farm’s several buildings.

The agency also said the impact on egg prices was expected to be “minimal to none.”

Remember, this is a government “expert” talking here, so you can be assured that this assertion is one hundred percent true and accurate.

1

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