Flotsam and/or Jetsam

“Triggering the Irrelevant”

Posted on March 21, 2022March 21, 2022 by Mike

The future belongs to those who show up for it. Stop whining. Start fighting by getting married, having children, and planting the acorns of the trees in whose shade your grandchildren will play.

Yes, there are risks. You might get your heart broken. You might lose half your toys. So what? Action requires risk and risk is inherent to life.

Over at the VD blog, he says that “All the cowards and incels on Gab were triggered by this,” which shouldn’t surprise anybody. Bottom line?

There is no point in whining, blackpilling, or worrying about things you can’t possibly control. If you’re not willing to take risks to build the future, if you’re not willing to live, if you’re not willing to set your face against the entropy of the universe, then you are irrelevant and your inferior genetic line will end with you, due to your cowardly narcissism.

We should all hope so; it’s better for everybody that way, frankly. Beyond that observation, all I can think to add is a hearty “Amen.”

Unkinked, unserious

Posted on March 21, 2022March 21, 2022 by Mike

Or, as Arthur labels it, Justice for Cornrows.

House passes CROWN Act, banning race-based hair discrimination
The House passed legislation on Friday that would prohibit discrimination against people with hair styles associated with a particular race or national origin.

Lawmakers passed the bill, titled the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, or CROWN, Act, largely along party lines, 235-189. Only 14 Republicans joined Democrats in support of the measure.

Don’t ever let it be said that the US Congress can’t, or won’t, tackle the truly serious issues.

“For too long, Black girls have been discriminated against and criminalized for the hair that grows on our heads and the way we move through and show up in this world,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).

Black women in particular are more likely to report feeling discriminated against because of their hairstyles.

Or just because, y’know, reasons ‘n’ shit, nomesayin? Back over to Arthur for some closing hilarity.

I love the name, the CROWN Act, cuz dey be thinking dey dreadlocks be crownz and sheeit. See also: Kangz, We Wuz.

Criminalized you say? For your hair and the way you “move through…this world”? This is a choice example of how blaque gals move through this world…

[…a few clips of random black-beeyotch violence and mayhem…]

Whenever they “show up” in the world, chaos and violence seem to follow them.

A serious nation doesn’t devote even a second of time to the “problem” of racist hair rules.

Nope. Then again, all sense of seriousness and mature propriety fled Mordor On The Potomac and its environs long, long ago, alas.

Corn for food, not for fuel

Posted on March 21, 2022March 21, 2022 by Mike

An idea whose time has come, gone, and circled all the way back ’round again.

Typically, when supply disruptions roil markets, political leaders can’t do much about it. But in the coming food crisis, the U.S. actually has a powerful policy lever. With a single bold move, the Biden administration could free up food supplies while also reversing a policy blunder that hurts consumers, increases greenhouse-gas emissions, and damages ecosystems across the U.S. It would require some political courage, but Biden could move to suspend—and push ultimately to repeal—the Renewable Fuel Standard.

nacted as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the RFS program was meant to increase U.S. fuel supplies and promote green-energy innovation by requiring that transportation fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel contain growing portions of renewable biofuels. In 2007, Congress expanded the program and set even more ambitious targets.

But problems emerged from the start. For one, the program is mind-bendingly complex, delineating four types of biofuels, setting annual targets for each, and awarding refiners various credits for meeting their “Renewable Volume Obligation.” The EPA has the authority to change or waive these rules at whim, making the program “unpredictable and arbitrary,” writes Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Mario Loyola in The Atlantic. According to one estimate, RFS “compliance alone is adding about 14 cents to refiners’ cost per gallon of gasoline and diesel.”

Though mostly invisible to the public, the RFS program affects the lives and pocketbooks of all U.S. consumers and has remade the face of American agriculture. Today, roughly one-third of U.S. soybean oil production is used to make biofuels. Corn-based ethanol has an even bigger footprint. Virtually every gallon of gasoline sold in this country contains 10 percent ethanol, the maximum allowed by law. (A small number of gas stations also sell E85, an 85 percent ethanol blend that can only be used in specially designed engines.) Growing the corn to make all that ethanol requires a staggering 38 million acres, an area larger than the state of Illinois. If used to grow food for human consumption, Loyola writes, that acreage could feed 150 million people.

By diverting about 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop to ethanol production, the RFS program drives up food prices across the board. Since corn is a critical livestock feed, higher corn prices have inflated meat prices. The cost of ground beef has climbed almost 100 percent since the program began. Wheat and rice prices have also gone up as many farmers shifted to growing corn instead. As Loyola concludes, “The ethanol program functions as a hidden food tax—the most regressive of all taxes.” Those effects are felt not just in the U.S., but around the world.

So, just your typical Big Government dumpster fire, then— unforeseen consequences strewn extravagantly across the landscape; costs far outstripping any meager benefits; the whole disastrous burden plopped squarely onto the usual shoulders: those of the Normie schlubs who will be required to pay for it all, of course and as always.

Get the sugar out of our gas tanks and back onto the dinner table where it belongs, I say. Just think of the engine damage that will be averted by ditching this piss-water fuel, if nothing else. As for those costs I mentioned, well…

Given all those costs, one would assume the RFS program must have some powerful benefits that justify its continued existence. But recent research shows the mandates don’t even achieve the two things they were meant to accomplish: reducing fossil-fuel use and cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. If anything, it worsens these problems. Planting, fertilizing, and harvesting corn and then processing it into ethanol requires lots of energy. Researchers debate whether the resulting gallon of ethanol contains a bit more energy than went into it or a bit less, but the balance appears to be a wash at best. Rather than replacing fossil fuels, then, the RFS program simply converts those fuels into a more expensive form. Corn ethanol also backfires when it comes to reducing emissions. According to the new DOE study, “the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24 percent higher.”

I repeat: your typical, Mark 1 Mod 0 Big Goobermint boondoggle. No less, no more.

Whatever the political challenges, reforming the RFS program is the right thing to do.

Damned skippy it is…which is another reason why it ain’t happening.

“RFS is a misuse of hyper-productive American agricultural land,” Smith says. “Food inflation domestically and the potential for food shortages in other countries should make it obvious that agricultural lands should be used to produce food.” This would be a good time for President Biden and his team to remember that Obama-era mantra: never let a crisis go to waste.

Okay, you’re just being silly now. Biden’s minders are perfectly happy to keep the ethanol, and for them, what’s not to like about it? It damages internal combustion engines both large and small; its various detriments subtly discourage automobile ownership and use; it helps keep the price of gasoline artificially inflated; and it serves as a properly-bended knee to demonstrate a becoming fealty to the Enviro-nuts, who are much too useful to risk giving offense to. Somewhat related:

The average price of one gallon of regular gasoline in the United States rose by a dollar, to $3.31, during Joe Biden’s first year in the White House. Now, supercharged by war in Ukraine, the price has soared to $4.27 per gallon. That average, though, is misleading. The actual price of gas at the pump varies widely by state, with nearly a $2-per-gallon difference between the costliest and the least expensive states. While some of those differences have to do with geographic factors that affect distribution costs, state policies—including taxes and regulations—also play a significant role in the vastly different burden consumers face around the country.

The highest gas prices are found disproportionately in high-tax, heavily regulated Democratic states, while the lowest gas prices show up in so-called red or purple states. California leads the way at a whopping $5.78 per gallon, followed by Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Illinois, Connecticut, and New York among the lower 48 states (Hawaiian and Alaskan geography make any comparisons with the rest of the country difficult). At the bottom sits Kansas, at $3.81 per gallon, followed by Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Iowa.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of assholes.

The price of a barrel of oil accounts for about 56 percent of the cost of this gas. Taxes on average compose about 15 percent of the price, and distribution and marketing costs amount to the rest. State gas taxes are an obvious culprit, but extraordinary fuel standards beyond the national level force up prices, too—as do regulatory constraints on building pipelines and refineries, which inflate distribution costs.

There are several ways we might think of all this:

Just deserts
Getting what you voted for—good and hard
Reaping what you’ve sown
What goes around, comes around
Hoist on your own (enviro-nut) petard

Now isn’t that FUN? Feel free to post your own in the comments. Don’t be shy, you’ll enjoy it. Meanwhile, who’s really behind this latest spurt of fuel-ish frenzy, anyway? Take a wild guess.

President Joe Biden and prominent Democrats blame Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, alleged oil-company collusion and even COVID-19 for today’s sky-high gas prices. They refuse to take responsibility for this monumental mess of their own design.

Revealing either an Olympic-grade lack of self-awareness or a perjury-strength talent for lying, President Biden said: “It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production.”

While running for president, Biden repeatedly promised to do exactly this.

“I guarantee you,” Biden told New Hampshire voters on Sept. 16, 2019. “We’re going to end fossil fuels.”

Follows, a long timeline of shitlib quotes vowing to kill off the fossil fuel industry, each item with the price per gallon at the time it was excreted parenthetically appended at the end. It’s a handy, helpful reminder that can be printed out and waved under their noses whenever they start in lying about it again.

PC worlds are colliding

Posted on March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 by Mike

Peak Wokester insanity reached?

For a solid five minutes this week, I believed that an elderly woman in New York City had killed and decapitated another elderly woman. I believed it because it was in the papers. It was there in black and white. In the apartment of this ‘83-year-old Brooklyn woman’, the New York Times reported, cops found the decapitated head of Susan Leyden, a 68-year-old lady who had gone missing. Police became suspicious of the 83-year-old woman and so they ‘searched her apartment’, the BBC said, wherein they found ‘a human head’. A few days later, not far from this seemingly evil woman’s apartment, they also found Ms Leyden’s leg and torso. Grim. And surely unprecedented. When was the last time a very old woman was alleged to have killed and then gruesomely dismembered another woman?

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that an 83 year old woman would be physically capable of such a thing in the first place.

Then it hit me. I got to the very final line of the BBC report and saw these words – this 83-year-old ‘now identifies as a transgender woman’. I got further into the NYT piece, too. Its headline may have said ‘She Killed Two Women. At 83, She Is Charged With Dismembering a Third’, but then came this killer line: ‘[she] was listed as male in earlier court records but now identifies as a woman.’ So it wasn’t a woman. It wasn’t an 83-year-old lady who somehow summoned up the wickedness and the power to allegedly kill and horrifically mutilate a 68-year-old woman. It was a man. The NYT’s headline was a flagrant lie. So was the BBC’s entire account of this ‘woman’, she, allegedly killing Ms Leyden and then brutalising her corpse. I had been told, in no uncertain terms, that a woman killed a woman, and it was completely untrue.

This case is horrifying for two reasons. First and foremost because a woman has been killed and dismembered. That is appalling and it is essential that justice is done. But it’s also horrifying because the media are refusing to tell us the truth about it.

No shit, Dick Tracy, where’s the fucking squad car? And you find this revoltin’ development shocking…why, exactly?

Two of the most established media institutions in the Western world are misinforming their readers, telling us that a woman murdered a woman, because they now put ideology before truth. They put being politically pure before reporting the facts. We should not underestimate how serious this is, what a betrayal of journalism it represents. It is so clear now: the ideology of woke poses a very real, very grave threat to truth, objectivity and the gathering and dissemination of accurate information.

Not one of which things have played any discernible role in Praetorian Media “journalism” for many a long year now.

This is not an isolated incident.

A serious contender for Understatement Of The Year, that.

This is an offence against truth, reason and the very ability of society to record crimes and to understand the problems that it faces. It is also deeply insulting to the victims of male violence, who could find themselves forced in court to refer to the man who brutalised them as ‘she’. We need to stop pinning men’s crimes on women. More importantly, we need to overturn the mad idea that anyone who claims to be a woman is a woman. And we need to stop lying. BBC, NYT and all the rest of you: stop spreading misogynistic misinformation.

Welcome to the party, pal. Sadly, though, I must strongly advise you to not be holding your breath waiting for it.

All good things

Posted on March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 by Mike

Say it ain’t so, Duck Duck Go.

Diet Google: DuckDuckGo Will ‘Down-Rank’ What It Decides Is ‘Disinformation’
Popular privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, commonly considered an alternative to Google, has announced that it will be “down-ranking” sites associated with “disinformation,” along with adding “information boxes” to “highlight quality information.” The announcement received widespread backlash from DuckDuckGo supporters, who view the changes as adopting the censorship policies of the Masters of the Universe.

In a recent Twitter post, the CEO of privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo announced that the company would be downranking “sites associated with disinformation,” which has been a popular tactic by Google for years to reduce user access to content it considers objectionable.

DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg tweeted about the decision, stating that it was an effort to reduce Russian disinformation online. “Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create. #StandWithUkraine️,” Weinberg stated, adding: “At DuckDuckGo, we’ve been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.”

Weinberg goes on to say that DuckDuckGo will also be placing news modules and information boxes at the top of certain search results to highlight “quality information for rapidly unfolding topics.” This was a method used by many search engines and social media sites during the coronavirus pandemic to push official government narratives and information — that regularly changed drastically — to internet users.

Many were quick to point out that DuckDuckGo’s democratic approach to information was one of the major selling points of the website in the first place.

I must confess that the biggest selling point for me was simply that they weren’t Google. I’ll stick with DDG, at least for now, but won’t be cheerleading for them the way I had been until this move. It’s like this:

DuckDuckGo is apparently deciding that it has the judgment and authority to define and determine what is “relevant,” just like every other search engine. The company’s argument is that privacy and propaganda are two separate matters. Consequently, it appears the only difference between it and other search engines is that, by refraining from tracking its users, DuckDuckGo won’t know who they are censoring and propagandizing. And, per Weinberg’s “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” defense, if any user expected more that’s on them, not on DuckDuckGo.

Perhaps. But what is on Weinberg is the fact that, like others in a lengthy line of morally weak Big Tech titans, he evidently can’t resist the temptation to shape how and what his users should consider and conclude.

As for dissatisfied DuckDuckGo users and countless others around the world, the key question remains: Where can they find a search engine that both respects privacy and rejects censorship?

Ain’t one, I’m afraid. Hopefully some enterprising soul will step up quickly to fill this new gap.

Grift most ingenious

Posted on March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 by Mike

Elon Musk vs Henry Ford.

Elon Musk is hailed as a “genius” by some.

And he is – but not in the way they mean it.

Like Henry Ford, Musk took something he didn’t invent that was essentially a curiosity and recast it in a different way. The difference being that when Henry Ford simplified the car by standardizing parts and mass producing them on an assembly line – as opposed to hand-building them, one at a time, as had been prior practice – the result was a much less expensive and far more practical car that almost anyone could afford to buy.

Musk did the opposite.

What Musk did was to rebrand the electric car as something sexy and “new” – even though the electric car concept is older than any Model T. But he made it seem new – and very sexy – by making it very quick and very sleek, with all the very latest in the way of gadgetry. All of which served to distract from its unaffordability, impracticality and inefficiency.

But the problem remained. How to sell what most people couldn’t afford?

Enter Elon’s real genius.

Unlike Henry Ford, who appealed to the marketplace, Elon Musk appealed to the government. Not merely to subsidize what he was otherwise unable to sell but – far more fundamental – to promote the sell. That is wasn’t merely an indulgence to purchase (or subsidize) an electric car.

It was a kind of moral necessity.

This is the nature of Elon’s “genius” – as contrasted with that of Henry Ford.

I always sorta liked Musk myself; he’s pretty skilled at donning the mantle of gadfly now and then, which is always amusing to me. That said, I see little if anything to argue with in Eric’s assessment here, unlovely though it is.

Stable genius, or straight-up visionary?

Posted on March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 by Mike

Hey, anybody remember the welkin-rattling howl raised when That Ogre Drumpf™ said NATO was an outdated relic of WW2 that should be done away with, or at least ignored?

Nah, me neither.

NATO did, indeed, have a purpose when it was created: To become a military barrier against a land invasion by the USSR into Europe, and slow it enough for the United States to bring its own full military strength into play. And despite all the BS that had nothing to do with the NATO mission, like the Libya excursion or the bombing of Yugoslavia, its primary reason for existence is, and always has been, as a counter to The Russian Enemy.

Therefore, Russia must be an enemy. Otherwise, there is no reason for NATO to continue to exist.

Looked at from this POV, one might even wonder if it isn’t the NATO bureaucracy itself pushing the war with Russia in order to justify its continued existence. Bureaucracies are like cockroaches – almost impossible to kill. And they will fight anybody and go to any length to survive.

Another thing I recall, from the very earliest days of his presidency, is the overture Trump made to Putin in hopes of forging a US-Russia alliance to combat Mooselimb terrorism worldwide, a truly revolutionary proposition which Putin seemed to welcome heartily. Such would have been most salutary partnership had it come to fruition for all sorts of reasons, but instead ended up speedily strangled a-borning by the Shampeachment shitshow, which at the time seemed almost to have been ginned up specifically for the purpose.

Fear not, all is well

Posted on March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 by Mike

More “Wait, whuuuuuh…?”

Gee, what a GREAT idea! Wonder if this freakazoid was invited.

In the very BEST of hands, folks.

Not our circus, not our monkeys

Posted on March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 by Mike

Sage advice from a Redditor, quoted at VD’s place.

Yes, I was here today and blown off the top bunk of my bunk bed in the barracks by the first missile. This is where all the foreign legion troops are, the 35 killed were all Ukrainian mostly due to a direct hit on their barracks next to mine. The base is destroyed, the weapons depot destroyed, possibly the end of the legion. About 60 people with their heads on straight including myself left after the attack. They’re sending untrained guys to the front with little ammo and shit AKs and they’re getting killed. The guys who stayed got bombed again in the afternoon and casualties aren’t clear. If you still want to to join them I’m not sure what the process will be since literally all the infrastructure supporting the training/assignments of volunteers is all destroyed. The guys who are there now will all be going to Kyiv and many will die, the legion is totally outgunned and has a few crazy Ukrainian leaders. After the attack one officer wanted to march everyone to Kyiv and fight. Absolute insanity. Stay home.

I didn’t go to Ukraine for the clout. I asked the right questions, deleted my posts, actually bought a plane ticket and brought my ass over. I said in another comment that yes it was 35 Ukrainians killed because their barracks got directly hit. The 180 bullshit is real Russian propaganda. If you think I’m a Russian agent you’re just in denial that the situation is absolutely fucked. Go ahead and join the legion, by all means, but be very aware of how bad Kyiv is going to get and be aware that Russians have warplanes and you will have next to nothing. Be very acceptant of the possibility of death. Those of us who left, including SF operators from multiple countries, are simply risk mitigating. No one wants to die in an unfair fight, and after getting absolutely fucking pummeled by massive cruise missiles today – yeah I kind of want people to think twice before turning their life upside down to go and volunteer.

Like a lot of dudes there have experience and really wanted to shape the battlefield and impact their advance, but ultimately they’re manning frontline positions that are going to get hammered with artillery and airstrikes, buried under rubble and your family never gets your body. That’s when a lot of guys say yeah this isn’t our fight, not like this.

Ain’t our fight, like this or like any other way. BCE, who has spent most of his life being there and doing that, knows the score.

So much for the romanticism of being a Merc Aye? It’s not like a vidya game…but don’t tell these people that. More and more stories leaking out and around the fringes of the story…despite the “The Russians are getting their asses beaten in!” cheerleading, the word is that now that the Krainians are suiting up youngsters and giving them 3 days of training, and sending them straight out to the ‘front…wherever that may be…

Despite -other- keyboard warriors out there, this is not the sign of an Asskicking Krainian DotMil. This’s a sign, much like what happened at the end of World War Two when the Wehrmacht called up all the Lame, The Sick, the Oldsters and Youngin’s to go out to fight cos there wasn’t anyone left to use.

Calling out the 16 to 18 year olds? “Freshmen” as the Russians used to call the baby-faced ‘Cruits? That’s to me leastways, not a sign your winning, but a sign that your DotMil is running out of experienced fighters.

The Japanese did the same exact thing with their Pilots at the end of the Pacific War…took 16 year old kids, gave ’em just enough training to get a Zero off the ground, and then Kamikaze that fucker into an American Warship for the Glory of the Emperor.

Hence the Ministry of Propaganda and Lies pushing the “Russians are looooooosing!!!” so hard now…I’m not seeing it.

Me neither. Makes one wonder just what motivation Leftards and their Establishment Media pet poodles might have for rockin’ their “Bless those plucky, unconquerable Ukrainians, kicking Rooskie ass and stymieing them completely like they are” mythology as hard as they have been, don’t it?

Update! The Rooskie incursion, a distraction from Blunderin’ Brandon’s comprehensive, unsurvivable up-fuckery? UNPOSSIBLE.

Would our country be disappointed if Russia actually solved the problem of Ukraine? You have every reason to think so. For one thing, we would be stuck having to face our own problems, especially the ones caused by lying to ourselves, such as the nearly unthinkable obscenity of having possibly poisoned a majority of the US population with mRNA “vaccines” and killed hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 patients by withholding known effective treatments. What would you suppose we might do about that?

Hold people accountable? The scale of this disaster is so enormous that the country can’t begin to process it. And it’s not just us, it’s all of Western Civ, which is more or less interchangeable with NATO, now the chosen instrument of distraction. Do any of these member nations have the stomach to face their own gross institutional failures? Apparently not yet.

Even in the face of massive emerging data that the “vaccines” are a bust and have additionally injured and killed many people, the CDC still urges Americans to vaxx up and boost up. So, by the way, does allegedly “former president” Barack Obama, who tested positive for the virus over the weekend, despite being vaxxed to the max. Who will tell them to stop digging that hole they’re in before they dig all the way to China?

By their lights they aren’t in any hole, and rather are sitting in the fabled catbird seat. Until they start being chased through the streets by angry mobs, sniped from afar, and/or hung by their necks until dead, it will remain tough to argue against ’em on that.

It’s only a matter of time before the swindled public flips and realizes it has been subject to mass murder by bureaucrats, politicians, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and purveyors of the news. They’re all in this up to their necks, as are their corresponding officials in France, Germany, the UK, et cetera. They are trying to sweep this enormous lump of depravity under the rug, hoping that the masses of citizens will just leave the room.

Suddenly, I’m reminded of a tried and true Cap’n Mal quote that I just can’t resist re-running.

As Kuenstler notes, they aren’t merely trying to kill us; they already have, and in job lots too. The favor should be returned, with great big bells on, until a becoming fear of us is re-instilled in them. I think we’re well past the point where less extreme measures are going to dissuade them, although, as always, YMMV.

1

Wait, whuuuuuh….

Posted on March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 by Mike

Looks like Gropey’s off his meds again.

Biden says he bets everybody knows somebody who’s had their naked photos shared online
Biden said:

“So we’ve established a new civil rights cause of action for those whose intimate images were shared on the public screen. How many times have you heard…I bet everybody knows somebody, somewhere along the line that in an intimate relationship, what happened was the guy takes a revealing picture of his naked friend, or whatever, in a compromising position and then literally, in a sense, blackmails her or mortifies that person.”

Um no, I don’t know anyone who this has happened to…nope. But I bet Biden is really talking about his son, Hunter.

Ditto. Speak for yourself there, Gropester. My own personal closet is free of skeletons of that particular stripe, thenksveddymuch. Well, okay, as far as I KNOW, it is. If anybody out there knows otherwise, please keep it to yourself, mmm’kay? Actually, I can’t recollect anybody ever even suggesting I let them take a few snaps of me in the buff, and can’t imagine why anyone would even want to. The worst and most bizarre Innarnuts “gotcha” on me is at Urban Dictionaruy, of all places, and I’m rather proud of it. Here, see for yourself:

The Mike Hendrix

A sex move where the male The Hendrix leaves the female The Chick halfway through coitus to make and eat a sandwich. When confronted about leaving the room, offer to make The Chick one as well.

The Mike Hendrix can be performed by announcing (“I’m gonna go make a sandwich”), or by virtue of leaving, but The Hendrix must make and consume a sandwich to be considered valid.

We were having great sex, but then pulled the Mike Hendrix on me.

Never have I done any such thing, I solemnly swear, not even once. So it may not even be me they’re talking about. But I kinda hope it is, to be perfectly honest.

Strongest, most effective military on Earth?

Posted on March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 by Mike

The Lone Superpower.

Navy Refuses to Deploy Warship While Commander Remains Unvaccinated
U.S. Navy officials have said a warship can’t be deployed because its commander has refused the COVID-19 vaccine.

The service said an East Coast guided-missile destroyer is “out of commission” after a Florida federal judge ruled that the Navy and Marine Corps cannot remove its officer for being unvaccinated against COVID-19.

The warship now remains docked in Norfolk, Virginia.

It comes after U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, a George H. W. Bush nominee, ruled on Feb. 2 to bar Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and all other military officials from taking punitive action against the unnamed Navy officer, who sought religious exemptions to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Merryday wrote that the Navy’s rejection failed to note that the branch has separately granted hundreds of medical exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Annnnd…Cut! Print! That’s a wrap, people! We have now officially reached peak Covid stupidity, I do believe.

Top military officials determined that the commander’s religious beliefs were sincere and that they would be “substantially burdened” by being forced to get vaccinated, but also claimed that granting the exemption request “would have a predictable and detrimental effect on the readiness of you and the Sailors who serve alongside you.”

Oops. Looks like I mighta spoke too soon.

Admiral Daryl Caudle filed a statement on Feb. 28 saying that the Navy “cannot have a Sailor who disobeys a lawful order to receive a vaccine because they harbor a personal objection any more than we can have a Sailor who disobeys the technical manual for operating a nuclear reactor because he or she believes they know better.”

DAYUMMMM, dude, this Covid-stupidity hole is deep enough already! So stop digging, willya?!? Bill, with all the analysis of this risible nonsense you’ll ever need:

The American Dream will end in farce. And then nightmare.

Not quite there yet, Bill. From where I’m sitting, it ended in farce a goodish while back. And as I’ve been saying, the nightmare part has already begun.

Update! Here’s a link to the original article, hat tip Bill, just in case anybody has problems with the archive.is one. I never have had any trouble with ’em myself, but I’ve heard from others who have here and then.

No. Just…NO

Posted on March 8, 2022March 8, 2022 by Mike

Here they go again.

(A) group of 27 foreign policy heavyweights has signed an open letter to the Biden administration calling for a “limited no-fly zone.” The campaign is led by ROBERT MCCONNELL, co-founder of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation.

Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN warned Saturday that Russia would view any nation declaring a no-fly zone “as participants of the military conflict.” It’s one of the few things that Biden and Putin seem to agree on: A no-fly zone would start a war between NATO and Russia.

Well, DUH. Establishing a “no-fly zone” being, y’know, an act of war and all, requiring as it will the destruction of Russian military assets up to and including fighter jets and/or pilots. One doesn’t have to have deep family ties to the Rodina to understand how that might be viewed by the Rooskies as hostile and aggressive behavior, no?

But in their new letter, these signatories are calling for something a little different:

Yeah, I just bet so. Problem being, however “limited” this piss-poor joke of a proposal might be, “no-fly zone” still means pretty much what it means: physically denying Russia the ability to conduct aerial-combat operations, to put the aviation component of its military force into action.

As president, Bill Clinton made promises to Ukraine he shouldn’t have, thereby writing checks that the US and NATO of 2022 can’t possibly cash, and maybe even shouldn’t. While I hate tyranny anywhere and any way it rears its ugly head, admire the spirit the Ukies have shown so far, and wish them well generally, one fact remains: not our circus, not our monkeys. It’s like this, I believe:

Oh, mustn’t forget:

Some of the big names who signed: retired Gen. PHILIP BREEDLOVE, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe; IAN BRZEZINSKI, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense; PAULA DOBRIANSKY, former undersecretary of State for global affairs; ERIC EDELMAN, former undersecretary of Defense; EVELYN FARKAS, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia; DANIEL FRIED, former assistant secretary of State and U.S. ambassador to Poland; JOHN HERBST, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; JOHN KORNBLUM, former assistant secretary of State and U.S. ambassador to Germany; DAVID MERKEL, former deputy assistant secretary of State and NSC director; WILLIAM TAYLOR, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; ALEXANDER VERSHBOW, former U.S. ambassador to Russia and NATO; and KURT VOLKER, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and special representative for Ukraine negotiations.

All them big brains, all that experience, all that savvy…and not a win to be found among ’em.

2

A true must-have

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Mike

For Francis: If you haven’t run across this one already, and you well may have, take my word for it and waste not one moment, son. You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about here when I say “FUCK BLOCKS!!!,” I expect.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Posted on March 8, 2022March 8, 2022 by Mike

If you noticed my latest addition to the sidebar at top right, let it serve as the announcement of some big ones coming, at least for my crippled old ass anyway. For one, I’m due to be released from the rehab center early Thursday morn, the mere thought of which makes me absolutely giddy with delight.

Gonna be the beginning of an extremely busy time, though; this checking out from the hospital, being fitted for a prosthetic, and such-like schtuff seems to bring a lot of churn along with it. So even as I ease my way back into walking, driving, and plain ol’ ordinary living, I’ll be easing back into whatever the hell it is I do around this ol’ websty as well. I can’t thank you people enough for hanging with me through this awful ordeal, and couldn’t even begin to put into words how much your kind attention, your love and support, and your patience means to me. We’ll be back to what our new normal is going to be real soon now, and keep chooglin’ on from there.

10

Well done, Mister LaForge

Posted on February 17, 2022February 17, 2022 by Mike

The ones they want to ban most are the very ones they ought to be forced to read, up to and including putting a gun to their empty heads if that’s what it takes.

Literacy advocate, Star Trek star, and game show host LeVar Burton wants people, particularly children, to read banned books. The former Reading Rainbow host appeared during a segment about banned books on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. In the piece, Burton attempts to read some seemingly innocuous books only to get cut off because of a book banning for one contrived reason or another. Eventually, Burton runs away after hearing sirens nearby, but not before encouraging folks to read banned books “because that’s where the good stuff is.” You can watch the entire The Daily Show segment below.

The topic of banned books reached new heights when a Tennessee school district banned Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus, which chronicles the cartoonist’s father’s experiences in a concentration camp during the holocaust. Many have rallied against this movement, including author and CBLDF supporter Neil Gaiman, who wrote, “There’s only one kind of people who would vote to ban Maus, whatever they are calling themselves these days.”

They can call themselves anything they damned well please, but the song always remains the same with creatures like these. and always will.

5

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