Page 179

Will it NEVER end?

Posted on May 17, 2023 by Mike

Adidas on Wednesday became the latest woke, globalist corporation to shove the radical left trans agenda in America’s face.

The company decided to feature an ugly biological male who calls himself a woman as their newest female swimwear model.

As Fox News reported, Adidas collaborated with radical South African designer Rich Mnisi to release the “Let Love Be Your Legacy” collection and campaign. The company claims to want to “encourage allyship and freedom of expression without bias, in all spaces of sport and culture” with its campaign with Mnisi.

Mnisi said this in an Adidas news release:

In creating this collection, I had a strong impulse to speak to my inner-child and express to the world how LGBTQ+ allyship can create a legacy of love. “Unifying these themes together through my own visual language and Adidas’ iconic performance and lifestyle pieces is a powerful combination, making the collection a symbol for self-acceptance and LGBTQ+ advocacy. My hope is this range inspires LGBTQ+ allies to speak up more for the queer people they love and not let them fight for acceptance alone.

In classic woke speak, this means replacing attractive females with hideous males dressing up as women.

Because hey, as the classic Irving Berlin show-tune almost but doesn’t quite say: anything girls can do, men can do better. Among the responses over at GP is this gem.

The new Adidas women’s swimwear range, modeled by men pic.twitter.com/rXwMj6deOR

— McPepe’s (@McPepes_AI)

May 17, 2023

Heh. Sure, why the hell not.

2

The wrong question

Posted on May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 by Mike

PJM’s Kevin Downey ax’s it.

The Warped Unreality of the Leftist Mind: How Many Lies Will These Idiots Swallow?

A: All of ‘em, as many as it takes. The REAL question, though, is: How many can they make the rest of us swallow, or at least pretend to?

There are people who can’t admit when they are wrong. Some folks are reluctant to admit they’ve been conned. But pinkos are emotionally weak toilet people who tie their political leanings to their self-esteem. They’ll swallow lie after lie, lest their political peers call them a horrible name — like, say, a “conservative.”

In other words, the Bolshies will eagerly lap up lefty lies to stay in the commie club, because it’s better than being considered a (gulp) Republican.

When asked why he was having trouble with working-class voters in the Midwest, then-president Obama said the following:

And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

In one sentence, the great orator managed to remind threaten people that those who do not vote for him are to be considered angry, racist, xenophobic, gun-toting hillbillies. Mind control 101.

Leftists also need to feel they are better — dare I say superior — to someone, and that someone is you.

The better to see hear genocide you with, my dear.

3

Coolest line in history?

Posted on May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 by Mike

I’d say it is, yeah.

What is the coolest line in history?
Battle of the Bulge. Winter. 1944. An entire American armored division flees from a massive German onslaught. Trundling down the road, a tank pulls up to a lone Private First Class in a snow covered foxhole. The commander yells, down to the PFC in the foxhole.

“The entire German Army is headed this way! We’re retreating!”

“Are you looking for a safe place?”, replied PFC Martin.

“Yes!”

“Well, pull your tank behind this foxhole. Because I’m the 82nd Airborne and this is as far as the bastards are going.”

Yep, it’s the coolest for sure, easily putting Tony McAuliffe’s “NUTS!” response during the Battle of the Ardennes in the shade—which, y’know, is really saying something. There’s also a pic, which I had no little trouble trying to figure out how to download for attachment to this h’yar post. But in the end, my Web-Fu proved the stronger. Thus:

82ndAirborneLine

Heh. And now you know why they called ‘em “dogfaces” back in the Big One, WW2. The look on that GI’s mug is about as surly, pissed off, and just all-round fed-up and determined as I hope (n)ever to see. Uncle Adolf would’ve pissed himself if he’d awakened late one night to find a face like that coming in through the bedroom window after his sick, sorry ass.

Update! A bit more interesting schtuff from the above-linked McAuliffe story, which you may or may not have known about already.

IT WAS MID-morning on Dec. 22, 1944 when U.S. troops manning the defences of the besieged Belgian town of Bastogne watched as four German soldiers – a major, a captain and two enlisted men – approached under a large white flag.

The four-man enemy delegation called on all U.S. forces in Bastogne to surrender within two hours or face “total annihilation” by German artillery.

Technical Sgt. Oswald Butler and Staff Sgt. Carl Dickinson of F Company, 327th Glider Infantry, and medic Pfc Ernest Premetz stepped out to meet them.

The men blindfolded the Germans and escorted them to an abandoned house serving as F Company’s command post.

When presented with the surrender demand, the 101st commander, Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, laughed at very notion of surrender. In his opinion his men were giving the Germans “one hell of a beating” and felt the enemy demand was out of line with the existing situation.

“Aw, nuts,” he blurted out.

Nevertheless, McAuliffe realized that some kind of reply had to be made and he sat down to think it over.

After several minutes he admitted to his officers that he didn’t know how to respond.

One officer, a lieutenant-colonel named Harry Kinnard, offered a suggestion.

“You said ‘Nuts!’” he observed, suggesting that be the reply.

The idea drew applause from everyone present. And so McAuliffe decided to send that very message back to the Germans: “Nuts!”

A colonel named Harper eagerly volunteered to deliver it to the German officers in person.

“It will be a lot of fun,” he said.

“I have the commander’s reply,” he said giving the enemy delegates the note.

“If you don’t understand what ‘nuts’ means, in plain English it’s the same as ‘go to hell,’” Harper explained wryly. “And I will tell you something else – if you continue to attack we will kill every goddam German that tries to break into this city.’

At that, the German major and captain saluted very stiffly and turned to leave.

“We will kill many Americans,” the junior of the two officers said as they left. “This is war.”

Historians believed that it was the German high command sent their officers to Bastogne with the surrender demand. Yet in unearthed interviews with Allied interrogators, General Hasso von Manteufel, commander of the 5th Panzer Army, admitted that was not the case. In fact, he was surprised to learn that the ultimatum was even offered.

“Panzer Lehr Division sent a parlementaire to Bastogne without my authorization,” von Manteufel would later say. “The demand to surrender was refused, as was to be expected. I did not authorize the surrender demand which was made of the Bastogne garrison, and I am still not sure exactly who did authorize [it].”

More even from there, all of it damned good. There truly were giants walking among us in those days.

Updated update! I could very well be remembering this wrong, and probably am, but as I recollect it was the 101st AID which was involved in the Battle of the Bulge, not the 82nd. Who knows, though, maybe it was both. NOTE: Upon further digging, it appears that there may indeed have been units from both AID’s at Bastogne. Never mind.

3

Fox dirt duly dished

Posted on May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 by Mike

The widow of Roger Ailes, whose sure hand guided Fox to the top of the cable-news heap and kept it there for nigh on two decades, ladles it up—and it’s delish.

Roger Ailes’s wife publicly attacks the Murdochs amid Tucker Carlson fallout
Elizabeth Ailes refers to Rupert Murdoch’s sons as characters from English nursery rhyme

The wife of the late Roger Ailes has publicly attacked Rupert Murdoch after Tucker Carlson was abruptly sacked by Fox News last month on the heels of the conservative network settling its billion-dollar lawsuit with the Dominion Voting Systems.

Ailes was appointed by Rupert Murdoch to head Fox News when it launched in 1996 and had fallen from grace two decades later after being obliged to stand down in 2016 in the wake of several sexual harassment accusations.

“Happy Heavenly Birthday Roger Ailes,” tweeted Elizabeth Ailes, wishing her late husband, who died at the age of 77, a year after his exit from the network.

“It took you 20 years to build Fox News into the powerhouse that it was and only 6 years for the Murdochs to wreak havoc,” she wrote, weeks after Carlson and Fox News parted ways as the network agreed to pay $787.5m to Dominion to settle a defamation lawsuit over election lies amplified by the channel’s personalities.

“Rupert thought he could do your job. What a joke. He has the checkbook but could never come close to your genius. RIP.”

“Karma is a b****” said Ms Ailes in a conversation with the Daily Beast. She said none of the scandals, including the Dominion lawsuit and Carlson’s removal, would have happened if her husband was still with the network.

“Roger never had his hand off the wheel when it came to Fox,” she told the outlet, adding that the Murdochs “weren’t born here and don’t have the same pedigree”.

She said her husband referred to James Murdoch, Mr Murdoch’s younger son, and Lachlan as “Tweedle Dumb” and “Tweedle Dumber” respectively.

She also described Mr Murdoch as a “jealous man” who fired Ailes because he “eclipsed Rupert on the world stage”.

She said Fox parted ways with Carlson because he became too popular. “That’s what the Murdochs did to Roger, Bill O’Reilly, Eric Bolling, and they did it to Tucker,” she said. Fox News has not issued a statement on the comments.

Sounds believable enough to me, especially that bit proposing that the whole Tucker thing, along with Ailes and the others, might be more to do with personal ego than anything else. On that level of wealth, fame, and power, such dustups quite often are. Sexual assault allegations seem to go hand-in-glove with it, also.

Via Ace, who notes:

Megyn Kelly confirms that Ailes called Les Freres Murdoch “Tweedle Dumb” and “Tweedle Dumber,” stating that he said that to her all the time.

There’s a video embed of Kelly (who, somewhat to my surprise, is still quite hot-looking, and good for her) to back it up, too. It’s a pretty interesting segment, really; watch it if you have a cpl minutes, and care enough about this sort of thing to spend ‘em on it.

1

Diesel rules

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Mike

God help us all if all the truckers finally realize just how much power they have over this faltering NiNO (Nation in Name Only), and decide to start exercising it.

Honestly, I kind of look forward to it, in a way.

HIGHWAY TO HELL
Trucks run America. Heavy trucks move the stuff we buy and sell along the largest highway network in the world. They clean our streets, control our disasters, fight our fires, and rush to our rescue during emergencies.

In the medium-heavy (Class V-VIII) truck world, trucks fall into two categories: “On Highway,” the trucks you see pulling trailers across the country, and “Vocational”, the dump trucks, cement mixers, ambulances, fuel trucks and a dozen other variations that keep every town in this country operating. Most these are powered by diesel. Diesel engines are ideal for commercial purposes, being more reliable, more durable, and with better fuel economy than gasoline. Over 99% of all trucks working in America today have diesel engines. Without these, nothing moves. Not food, not goods, not our industry, and certainly not our economy.

California, as usual, is leading the “Green” charge. This month, the California Air Resources Board voted 14-0 to pass a law that will ban the sale of diesel trucks in California by 2036. The board warned citizens that “the time for putting public health second to the economy is over.” The new law also stipulates that all trucks operating in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (home of 50% of US foreign trade) must be zero emission by 2030.

“Putting public health second to the economy”—oh, how I love that line. Tell me, genius, how healthy you think we’re gonna be when the food stops coming in, medical supplies and prescription meds become unavailable at any price, and nobody can buy any of it anyway because they lost their jobs when the economy goes kerblooey? Stupid shitlib doesn’t seem to realize that the two are inextricably linked; when the one goes pear shaped, the other will be drastically impacted, and not for the better either. Every. Single. Time.

As the bumper sticker says: if you have it, a truck brought it. It’s as true now as it ever was, representing a hard, implacable reality in which residents of California will soon be getting an up close and personal schooling when your moronic PC folly kicks in fully and long-haul truckers begin to refuse to go to the Golden State, no matter how much they’re offered to do so.

America is a behemoth. The United States faces logistical challenges greater than that of any nation in history. The distance from Los Angeles to Washington DC is roughly the same distance as Madrid to Moscow. Despite some local attempts to regionalize food production, feeding Americans is still a national effort. The ability to transport food, medicine, and spare parts across the vast American continent can only be achieved by trucks. Highway trucks move 75% of the nation’s freight from city to city, and from region to region. Everything you buy, everything you eat, and every medicine you take has at least one truck involved in the transportation chain.

Truck manufacturers don’t have the technology to replace diesel engines with equally capable zero-emission engines, nor the production capacity to replace the soon to be illegal diesel engines. The United States also does not have the electrical infrastructure to support that many Lithium Ion Battery vehicles. For decades we have depended on these engines to sustain us, and they have not failed.

Which is probably what shitlibs hate the most about them: they simply work, far better than any other technology humanity has ever come up. There’s a reason, after all, that the world abandoned windmills, electric vehicles, and solar power a century or more ago: those outdated, primitive technologies are incapable of powering a First World economy.

Instead of making what works better, we are about to attempt to replace all of them with vehicles that are four times the cost, but only capable of doing a quarter of the work…at best. Large fleets are already slowing, and in some sectors companies are cancelling existing “green” orders in favor of procuring diesel engines while they still can. CEO’s are doing the math, and recognizing that virtue signaling is not worth bankruptcy. But the damage may already be done.

When we think of military vehicles, we imagine tanks and jets, but logistics is what wins wars. For every tank, there are a half dozen support vehicles. Fuel tankers, runway sweepers, water trucks, and wreckers are all bought commercially off the shelf from civilian truck manufacturers. Every vehicle the military buys needs to be capable of running JP8 fuel: a high sulfur fuel, which simplifies military supply requirements and enables military vehicles to run on even the dirtiest local fuel sources. Government mandated changes to emissions have created a technology gap between the civilian and military markets. Sensors in modern trucks can no longer survive with high amounts of sulfur in JP8, and so manufacturers have begun to stop making trucks capable of running on a JP8 engine.

Progressives don’t want solutions that avoid a collapse.

Annnnnd BINGO, we have ourselves a correct answer, folks!

The ongoing logistical nightmares caused by the government’s response to COVID-19 is just a prelude to the horrors of this potential future. Factories that can’t get enough components, hospitals that can’t get repair parts on time for life-saving equipment, crops dying in the field while the people starve…That’s where we’re heading.

Yep—because that’s where the idiot Left is pushing us, whether we will or no. When you get down to the nutcutting of almost every problem, impasse, or issue, no matter what it might involve on the surface, that’s what it always comes down to. What we have here is not a diesel problem, an economic problem, nor even a climatic one; we have a Leftist problem, plain and simple. Until we’ve dealt with that fundamental issue, unequivocally and forcefully, all the others and more will continue to plague us.

(Via WRSA)

8

1

My, isn’t this word salad DELICIOUS?

Posted on May 16, 2023May 16, 2023 by Mike

Asked nobody, ever.

‘We Sale Your Bank’: WaPo Reporter Rewrites Disastrous Fetterman Word Salad as a ‘Quote’
To protect the ever brilliant Sen. John Frankenstein — er, Fetterman (D-PA) — a Washington Post reporter rewrote an ineluctable Fetterman ramble and posted it as a quote. Apparently, journalism now means covering up government idiocy by pretending an official is actually coherent.

Fetterman was attempting to question the former CEO of the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Greg Becker. The Washington Post’s White House economics reporter Jeff Stein tweeted, “Sen. @JohnFetterman (D-Pa.) to SVB executive Greg Becker: ‘Shouldn’t you have a working requirement after we bail out your bank? Republicans seem to be more preoccupied with SNAP requirements for hungry people than protecting taxpayers that have to bail out these banks.’” The issue? That’s not really what Fetterman said. Not by a long shot.

As PJ Media’s Paula Bolyard tweeted, the actual quote from Fetterman is quite different, to put it mildly, from what Stein claimed: “Shouldn’t you have a working requirement after we sale [sic] your bank—er, with billions of your bank? Because they see me [sic] pre-preoccupied when then [sic] SNAP, uh, in the requirements for works [sic] for hungry people, but not about protecting the—the tax papers [sic] you know, that will bail no matter [sic] whatever does [sic] about a bank to crash it.”

No, I don’t know what he was trying to say, either. But apparently, Stein thought he understood so well that he could write up what he thought Fetterman meant to say and treat it as a quote.

Well, of course he did; as a fully-credentialed “liberal” “journalist,” it’s simple as do re mi: just insert the standard-issue, Mark 1-Mod 0 D卐M☭CRAT boilerplate, and Urethra! You have found it, as a certain wise, universally respected and beloved sage once put it. Is there more, you ask? Hey, this is Senator Lurch (D-Nuthatch) we’re talking about here, of course there is.

Fetterman rambled like Joe Biden in the White House during the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing, “Examining the Failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.” The man needs to be in a hospital, not in Congress. It’s a total — and painful — joke that his family and staff keep trying to force him through the motions of being a functioning senator.

”Now they [banks] have — it’s in, a guaranteed, a guaranteed way to be saved,” Fetterman fretted about the government bailout of SVB. “By no — no matter, by — by — by how, you know. So it’s, it’s, you know, isn’t it appropriate that the, these kinds of — this kind of control be more stricter?” Unsurprisingly, his question was met by silence. Then he brought out the above clincher, where he compared Republicans’ proposed employment requirement for accessing SNAP benefits to, presumably, his desire for banks like SVB to “work.” All to save that “tax papers” money.

Isn’t it comforting that our economy is in the hands of bankrupts like Becker and senators like John Fetterman?

Oh no, that’s not so at all; like most Normal Americans, you’re thinking about this all wrong. As has been more than amply demonstrated throughout the Biden “pResidency,” the people who actually DO run things in Amerika v2.0 don’t have faces we’re ever gonna see, names we’re ever gonna hear, and never have to stand for “election” or “reelection.”

6

1

UNPRECEDENTED!!! Except when it isn’t

Posted on May 15, 2023May 15, 2023 by Mike

The author’s conclusion is spot-on, incontestable, and utterly priceless.

Senator warns about 1,200 year drought, torrential rains soak Front Range
Climate anxiety is so prevalent among the younger generation who are brainwashed to think they’ll die unless the planet is rid of modern conveniences and meat products, they’re turning to substance abuse to escape depression.

It’s no wonder, when we have the likes of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet warning his Twitter followers of an impending 1,200-year drought across the West.

Upon further investigation with informed scientist Dr. Google, it turns out we’re not facing a 1,200-year drought, as clearly signaled by the torrential rains sweeping the Front Range.

As The Guardian explains, weather climate has actually been around for centuries, but the last drought of this magnitude in Colorado and the southwest was the year 800 A.D.

Tim Kohler, an archaeologist and professor at Washington State University, says the current megadrought is different from prehistoric dry periods. “This one seems to be more severe than any of the previous droughts and just as long,” he says. “But the really bad news is all the previous megadroughts took place without the influence of increasing greenhouse gases. Now we are playing a new ballgame and scientists don’t know what to expect.”

In other words, the current drought that scientists say is the cause of climate change, is just like the drought we had 1,200 years ago before climate change. Only this is more serious, because we don’t know what to expect, because of climate change.

TA-DAAAH! A real masterpiece of pretzel-contorted Leftard “logic,” wouldn’t you say? Climate Change (formerly Global Warming, formerly Global Cooling, formerly The Weather)™: is there ANYTHING it can’t do? Apparently not, no. In light of where I ran across this one, what can one possibly say but: Heh. Indeed.

(Via VP Stephen Green)

Thou shalt not suffer a Leftist to live

Posted on May 15, 2023May 15, 2023 by Mike

Okay, so I finally finished reading the Frontpage mag article referenced earlier in my “Eyrie up” post, which was the subject of today’s Substack thangamabobber. It really does merit another mention and a further excerpt here on the CF main page, I think, which is a totally unprecedented occurrence around these h’yar parts.

Some amorphous “system” did not fail and could never rescue Neely. Neely’s family failed Neely, and then Neely failed himself. So many of his relatives have reported to the press that his mother’s murder, when he was only fourteen years old, devastated him. Where were they? Did they feed him, house him, teach him a narrative that enabled him to survive and thrive? If so, Neely listened to other narratives. Narratives that approved of dropping out of society and using an illegal drug that may have contributed to his violent behavior.

The “system,” and rotten old capitalist white supremacist Amerikkka, tried, again and again, to help Neely. Neely resisted help. “Mr. Neely was on what outreach workers refer to as the ‘Top 50’ list — a roster maintained by the city of the homeless people living on the street whom officials consider most urgently in need of assistance and treatment. He was taken to hospitals numerous times, both voluntarily and involuntarily.”

After one arrest for beating an elderly woman, Neely was treated with kid gloves. The Times reports, “He was to go from court to live at a treatment facility in the Bronx, and stay clean for 15 months. In return, his felony conviction would be reduced. He promised to take his medication and to avoid drugs, and not to leave the facility without permission. ‘This is a wonderful opportunity to turn things around, and we’re glad to give it to you,’ Mary Weisgerber, a prosecutor, said. ‘Thank you so much,’ Mr. Neely replied. But just 13 days later, he abandoned the facility. Judge Biben issued a warrant for his arrest.”

Jordan Neely was living his life by a narrative that facilitated violence and human decay. Living on the street, begging and threatening those who didn’t give, taking drugs, hurting, rather than contributing to society, were all acceptable plot points in that narrative. Those who give money to homeless panhandlers subsidize this narrative. Leftists who denigrate America and despise those of us who “work hard and play by the rules” advance this narrative.

Neely was not the only New Yorker living with trauma. On January 15, 2022, Michelle Go, an Asian-American woman “who did everything right,” was pushed in front of a subway train by an assailant sharing significant demographic details with Neely. Martial Simon was a homeless black man and said to be mentally ill. The subway murder of a good woman, Michelle Go, received a fraction of the attention allotted to Neely.

In April, 2022, Frank James mounted a terror attack in a subway car. He shot ten people. James was also black. On April 11, 2023, a teenager was shot dead on the subway; authorities say his death is most likely related to gang violence in a largely black housing project. On or before December 10, 2022, a man was stabbed to death on the subway. On October 23, 2022, video was released showing a black man shoving a man onto a subway track.

The New York City subway system is a deadly place. Crimes are disproportionately committed by black men. Passengers take that information with them when they enter the subway. When Neely, as reports indicate, began shouting in an irrational and threatening manner, passengers went into “fight or flight” mode. The three men who restrained Neely worked to keep him immobilized until police arrived.

Yeah, well, the dead giveaway as to what’s really going on here is that, when I lived in NYC back in the 90s—during Rudy Giuliani’s miraculous, unlooked-for, and continually-maligned-by-shitlibs resuscitation of the beleagured city, thank goodness—the subway was no such thing at all. It has been made that way, so as to reinforce a narrative and bolster The Plan even now being implemented by the Evil Left.

In truth, America’s major cities don’t have to be dangerous, anarchic, eternally-blighted nightmares unfit for human habitation. NYC, Detroit, Chicago, SF: once garden spots, eminently desirable places to live and/or work which were the envy of the Western world, all of them have been made the way they now are—on purpose, by nefarious villeins who assuredly do NOT have anyone’s best interests in mind other than their own.

Ought to be some way of thanking the Left properly for that, I just can’t think of what it might be. Well, other than the one hinted at in my post title, I mean.

4

Big Country update

Posted on May 15, 2023May 15, 2023 by Mike

I’ve had beaucoup inquiries the last few days on what the status might be of my good friend Billy, known to most as Big Country Expat of the now-Goolag-ified and thus temporarily defunct Outlaw Intrepid Reporter blog. Just got off the phone with him, and all is as copacetic as it reasonably can be for a man in his current unenviable situation. So fret not folks; I’ll keep y’all posted on any further developments as and when.

Update! Billy just sent me some pics from this past weekend’s visitation with Adriana Grace.

Heh. Happy young ‘un, all piled up on Papi’s lap. This next one is excellent, too.

The Cookie Monster, caught with her hand in the cookie jar, quite literally. What a sweet, lovely child Adriana is; as y’all may remember, Billy and Gretch stopped by here a while back, and brought AG along with, to my lasting delight. Billy tells me this past weekend’s visit with Adriana will be the final one, at least until he’s hired himself a new lawyer. Which, that last is another part of the whole sordid, blood-boiling story of what transpired in the shithole state of TN last week.

Eyrie up!

Posted on May 15, 2023May 15, 2023 by Mike

Monday’s Substackery—The power of narrative—is now live. It covers one of the most remarkable pieces I’ve ever had the distinct pleasure of reading, truly, which presents a quite astute theory on why we are where we now are, and how we got here. A damned tough one to excerpt, it really is that good. There’s also some extry commentary from li’l ol’ moi included therein, of which I’ll provide a smidge for general edification and amusement purposes:

This is one hell of a fascinating piece, presenting an argument that never once occurred to me before. The author goes on from there to provide even more support for it, all of which is quite convincing. If he’s right on this, and I for one think he is, it explains…well, damned near everything. The only real flaw I can see is that it suggests an intelligence and a patient, sure-handed competence on the part of the Left that is absolutely nowhere else in evidence, undermining certain assumptions about them we’ve all been making for years.

On the other hand, though, they have managed to take over America That Was entire—gradually, bit by bit, piece by piece—without ever a shot needing to be fired, or not very many of them, and those few only in recent years. Which is a genuinely alarming prospect in and of itself: if they really ARE this smart, then we’re probably all doomed and should give up and sue for mercy, before it’s too late.

If there ever was a case where I mean every word of it when I say you really MUST read all of it, it would have to be this one. Happily enough, the piece is a long ‘un, so there’s plenty more left from there; actually, I haven’t quite finished it yet myself, but was moved enough when I got around two-thirds in to take time out and write this post. It’s wide-ranging—up to and including a Biblical reference in support of the central thesis, with direct textual quotes—well-written and -reasoned, compelling, and legitimately brilliant throughout. So don’t make me say it again, people. Believe me, you won’t be sorry.

And I promise you, you won’t. Hie thee thither; free to read and subscribe, pay to comment, the usual deal.

Eyrie up!

Posted on May 14, 2023May 14, 2023 by Mike

Despite having promised to get Friday’s Substack post up yesterday, I was too overcome by general ennui and despair to even bother reading any of my daily blog-stops, let alone futz about with my own. So I took a nice, relaxing day off yesterday instead. Turned out, yesterday was a perfect day for it: grey, overcast, with thunderstorms, it was a day tailor-made for lazing about in bed, reading some excellent WW2 fiction and listening to the classical-music station on the raygeeo.

So that’s just what I did; I accomplished not one worthwhile thing all day long, excepting the big ol’ pot of my patented-recipe chili I whipped up mid-afternoon. The secret ingredient, the unheralded key to making good chili, might come as a surprise to some of you: a cup of strong, black coffee poured into the bouillabaisse early in the process. That’s a trick I picked up from a girfriend who was an actual by-God chef, who back in the 80s taught me all about how to properly cook, for reals. Works great too, even though I know it sounds sorta odd.

At any rate, the Friday Sunday Eyrie, Stairway to…well, it definitely ain’t Heaven, delves into how the acoustic-guitar intro to Led Zep’s “Stairway To Heaven” came to be known as “the forbidden riff” among guitarists of a certain stripe, and why. Anybody who’s endured a Saturday afternoon at any major music-store chain, with the mob of teenage wannabe-Stevie Vai’s exhibiting their ferocious chops for the only audience they’ll ever have, is sure to appreciate it, whether you’re a player yourself or not. A taste:

GOD, but it was literally painful; Sam Ash on any given Saturday was a special corner of Hell for any working guitarist, believe you me. So much so that, whenever I could manage it, I’d put off stopping in to grab another case of D’Addario Jazz Rocks and/or a gross of Dunlop Tortex picks until Monday or Tuesday. Wasn’t always possible, of course, but boy, did I ever try. I tried hard.

My lifelong friend Tim Conard, one of the finest Fender P-bassists I ever did know, actually landed a job at Ash years ago; he lasted about three months before bowing out due to the awful torture represented by those interminable Sam Ash Saturday sessions. First cpl-three times I walked in when Tim was pulling a shift, he’d breeze up to say hi with a broad smile on his mug. After those halcyon early days, though, he’d have that blank, thousand-yard-stare not unfamiliar to combat vets, staggering like one of the undead. The transformation from friendly, happy-go-lucky fella to shambolic, groaning zombie was something to see, it really was.

By the time I started frequenting Sam Ash as a serious player, The Forbidden Riff had long since faded from the hack’s lexicon, supplanted by more contemporary—and infinitely more annoying—hair-farmer metal, duuuude! My own gripe with “Stairway” was more personal, operating as it did on a slightly different plane. It was the same with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” actually. For one thing, I’d heard those damned chestnuts plenty enough times already on classic rock radio, til I was sick unto death of both of them, regardless of how much I always liked Zep and Skynyrd.

You probably are too by now, I’d bet.

Lots more fun schtuff at the link, of course and as usual. You know what you must do, Glasshoppa.

Unrelated addendum: Yes, I know that Billy’s “Outlaw Intrepid Reporter” blog is down. No worries though, really. It can hardly come as any kind of shock, being as OIR dwelt under the Goolag censorship umbrella; for any non-shitlib blogger resident on the loathsome Blogspot, it’s not a matter of if but when. The Man himself says:

NUKED!

If’n I had any luck this week…got both my bleggs blown out…’service violations’

Did I unknowingly piss on a Mummy’s Tomb or accidentally desecrate a Native American Graveyard? I swear man all I can do is laugh at this point… it’s fucking recockulas

It is indeed.

The Daily Donnybrook, and other fine things

Posted on May 12, 2023May 27, 2023 by Mike

Welcome to Ye Olde Colde Furye Blogge’s shiny new open-comments thread, where y’all can have at it as you wish, on any topic you like. Do note that the official CF comments policy remains in effect here, as enumerated in the left sidebar. All new posts will appear below this one. There will be blood…

Mike @Substack

Mike’s latest Eyrie post is available here. Don’t miss it if you can! NOTE: bonus points to anybody who can tell me where that last seemingly-flubbed line comes from.

Update! What, no takers? Okay then, the “don’t miss it if you can” line comes from here: Kermit Schafer’s All Time Great Bloopers, an album of my dad’s that me and my brother both loved as kids. Nearly wore that sucker slap out, we did.

Publick Notice

Posted on May 12, 2023May 12, 2023 by Mike

Been out running around like the proverbial chicken with his proverbial head cut proverbially off all day, only just now getting back home again. So the Friday Eyrie post, while about half-done from working on it some yesterday, is probably gonna be postponed until tomorrow night, I’m thinking—in part because I have a sad, sad duty to perform for a close friend who’s had a bit of a setback. A BIT of…? A good, hard sucker-punch right to the goddamned ‘nads thrown by a MMA champeen in peak form, more like.

Billy, a/k/a Big Country Expat, has asked me to put the word out as best I can that, after a trip most arduous from FLA, he was greeted in the sorry-ass shithole state of Tennessee with some horribly bad tidings, which have rocked him back on his heels considerably. Yes, I know the details. No, I won’t be going into them here; that’s for Billy to do or not do at his own discretion, in his own good time. But take my word for it, it’s bad. About as bad as bad gets, in fact. Trust me, there’s a reason his latest post announcing a two-week hiatus from blogging prominently features an image of a large, green, pear-shaped object, and not Word One else.

More as and when, but in the meantime, your heartfelt prayers for my brother-from-another-mother Billy and the sweet and lovely Gretchen in their time of direst need would surely not go amiss.

Update! Presented without comment; far as I’m concerned, none is necessary.

GREAT song, GREAT arrangement, GREAT vocal performance, no matter the context.

Just. Don’t. DO it

Posted on May 11, 2023 by Mike

Reason #8,741 why you never, ever, EVER try to rob a gun store.

How do gun shops prevent a person from simply walking in, asking to look at a gun and some bullets, then holding up the store owner with the weapon?
You know, this is funny. I was actually in a gun store when something almost exactly like this happened.

It was a fairly large store, with the owner and 4 other sales clerks behind the counters. I was with a friend who was there to pick up a shotgun he’d ordered. A guy walks in and asks to see a Colt .45 Model 1911. The clerk opens the glass, retrieves the pistol, and performs the necessary check, then lays the gun on the counter for the man. He picks it up, looks it over and says “Perfect…I like it.”

He then reaches into his pocket, pulls out a loaded magazine, and inserts it into the gun, then slides a round into the chamber – all pretty darned smooth and quick. He then points it at the clerk and says, “I’ll take it.”

The clerk just shrugged, and nodded past the guy. He backs off a bit, and then looks around the store. Every other clerk was armed, and had pistols pointed at the guy. Every customer had been ushered quickly behind counters or racks out of the way, without any fuss or noise. When the guy looked back at the clerk, he now had HIS pistol out and pointed at the guy. My friend and I were both trying not to laugh at this point.

The owner then starts walking towards the guy, with his hands up. He’s explaining to the guy how badly this is likely to go for him, and points out that he is seriously out-gunned, and he is definitely NOT leaving the store with that firearm. He speaks calmly, gently…and slowly reached out and took the gun from the guy without resistance at all. He then politely asked him to get on the floor, and told one of the clerks to call the police.

Found out later the store owner was a veteran, and the other sales people were either veterans or retired cops. All in all, I was never worried, scared…no, I was amused. And so were the cops, when they showed up (greeting the owner by name as they came in), wondering who’d try to rob a gun store.

I still wonder about that myself, some 30 years later, to be honest.

A gott-damned idiot, that’s who, and nobody whatsoever else. Period fucking DOT, as Ringo always says.

6

First thing we do, let’s ban All The Things

Posted on May 11, 2023May 11, 2023 by Mike

Why we can’t have nice things anymore.

‘The Wrong Side Of History’ Is The One With Air Conditioning, Dishwashers, And Gas Stoves
These campaigns unfurl the same way every time. Leftists float some outrageous invasion into personal freedom in the name of stopping climate change or enhancing safety. When conservatives react with indignation, the media gaslights the country, casting critics as a reactionary cabal itching to start a “culture war.”

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but you know, I still maintain that a Biden appointee to the Consumer Product Safety Commissioner, Richard Trumka Jr., probably told Bloomberg News that gas stoves were a “hidden hazard” and “any option is on the table,” and then argued that the state could ban anything that “can’t be made safe” — which includes ladders, bikes, candy bars, cars, forks, desks, bathtubs, and televisions, and so on.

Oh, stop being such a hysteric; no one is going to take away your straws or light bulbs or combustible engines.

“No, Biden Is Not Trying to Ban Gas Stoves,” the New York Times assured its readers. The GOP “freak out” over the government “coming for your gas stoves” was “outright nonsense,” explained MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. Though, they all argue, gas stoves are basically mini Chernobyls that are killing your children as we speak — especially minority children. All the pseudoscience says so. And if you disagree, you might be one of those “Gas Stove Denialists.”

“Gas stoves became part of the culture war in less than a week,” added NPR. “How Gas Stoves Became the Latest Right-Wing Cause in the Culture Wars,” explained Time Magazine. The Washington Post claimed that the “GOP thrusts gas stoves, Biden’s green agenda into the culture wars.” The “culture war” can never be instigated by leftists suddenly shifting societal norms but only by social conservatives who pick needless fights over piddling, long-decided issues.

As Axios noted, gas stoves had become the “Right’s new fight,” which was somewhat confusing considering “the Right” didn’t bring up gas stoves in the first place. But the natural state of the world — the inevitable evolutionary finale of any policy debate — resides on the left. The speed of progress merely hinges on compelling the knuckle-draggers to see the light.

Ahh, but you didn’t really think they’d stop with just gas stoves, did you?

As Christian Britschgi in Reason points out, the Biden administration “has proposed tightening energy efficiency standards for 16 product categories, including many home appliances. The DOE has opened or finalized rules on microwave ovens, normal ovens, refrigerators, and laundry machines in just the last few months.” The Biden administration’s counterintuitive policy initiatives ensure that you’ll be compelled to buy crappier appliances at higher prices.

A-yup. All things, please note, that Whypeepuh dreamed up, engineered, and made a reality. Meanwhile, the Leftard Red Wreckers can do nothing, invent nothing, create nothing except chaos, destruction, and general human misery. And they’ll never, ever forgive us for that.

7

1

Mike @Substack

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