ICE Agents Arrest Palestinian Activist Who Leads the Columbia Protests

Another pro-terrorist foreign agent.

Federal immigration officials have arrested Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, the leader behind pro-Hamas campus protests at Columbia University. ICE agents detained Khalil at his university-owned apartment, and he now faces potential deportation as part of President Trump's crackdown on radical campus unrest.

Key Details:

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia Apartheid Divest leader, was arrested by ICE agents Saturday night at his university provided residence.

He remains under federal custody, with his green card and visa potentially being revoked.

Khalil led demonstrations that included materials reportedly sourced from Hamas and Hezbollah.

President Trump has pledged to pull $400 million in federal funding from Columbia over its failure to curb anti-Semitic campus activism.

Diving Deeper:

Federal immigration authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist who spearheaded radical anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, in an overnight raid at his campus-adjacent apartment. Khalil, who completed his graduate studies at Columbia in December, is now facing potential deportation and the revocation of his visa and green card.

Khalil's attorney, Amy Greer, confirmed the arrest Sunday, stating that ICE agents entered his university-owned residence a few blocks from Columbia's main campus and took him into custody. Despite no longer being a student, Khalil remained in school-provided housing under a university policy that allows students to stay post-graduation.

His arrest comes amid an intensifying crackdown by the Trump administration on left-wing campus unrest, particularly at elite institutions where anti-Semitic rhetoric and violent demonstrations have surged. Khalil was a key leader in Columbia Apartheid Divest, a group at the forefront of protests that descended into chaos, including the recent seizure of Barnard College's Milstein Library.

Videos from the protest showed Khalil using a bullhorn outside the library, where rioters distributed Hamas propaganda, including pamphlets justifying the October 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli civilians. Demonstrators also passed around images of deceased Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli airstrike last September.

The people who scream about "backlash" are the first to stoke hatred of others.

Happy Monday, everyone. I hope that you've all adjusted to Daylight Savings Time better than I have.

Posted by: Ace at 01:34 PM | Comments (469) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: The Hartford Insurance is Canceling Coverage to the American Energy Institute Because It Promotes Carbon-Based Energy

The Hartford Insurance Company just notified the American Energy Institute that its insurance coverage is being cancelled because it’s the stated policy of The Hartford that it discriminates against carbon-energy advocates. This is in service to The Hartford’s radical Net Zero / DEI agenda.

I’m not engaging in hyperbole. The non-renewal notice from The Hartford to the American Energy Institute explicitly stated that, ”The reason for non-renewal is we have learned from your Facebook page that your operations include Trade association involved in promoting social / political causes related to energy production. This is not an acceptable exposure under The Hartford’s Small Commercial business segment guidelines.”

Jason Isaac is the CEO and Founder of the American Energy Institute. In the tweet below, he notes that, “Insurance companies are financial companies, and the [Texas Comptroller] should add Hartford to the boycott list. Furthermore, [the Texas legislature] should pass legislation instructing our [Department of Insurance] commissioner to revoke their license to operate in Texas. Discriminating against industries vital to Texas' prosperity shouldn't be tolerated.”

Mr. Isaac also notes that the top three shareholder of The Hartford are Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street. Go figure.

Last last month, @4AmericanEnergy received a letter from @TheHartford informing me that our insurance policy was not going to be renewed. "The reason for nonrenewal is we have learned from your Facebook page that your operations include Trade association involved in promoting… pic.twitter.com/Go7wSZeJoS

— Fmr. Rep. Jason Isaac (@ISAACforEnergy) March 7, 2025

It doesn’t take much digging to discover that Christopher Swift, CEO of The Hartford, comes across as a left-wing zealot who has embraced radical wokeism. The very first sentence in The Hartford’s 2023 Sustainability Report shows that CEO Christopher Swift’s allegiance is to “stakeholders,” not its shareholders. In other words, his loyalty is to the woke political cult, not to investors and customers of the company.

The Hartford continues to prioritize sustainable business practices, creating value for our stakeholders and leveraging our strengths to do well while doing good.

Mr. Swift’s fanatical devotion to the left’s agenda is further revealed in that same report:

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (442) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

My Grandmother
Jozsef Rippl-Ronai

I reject a fair number of artworks because the reproductions on the internet are too small or too crappy, and Ace doesn't pay me enough to fly to every museum to take my own photos. This one is on the edge of too small, but I like it, so...

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (303) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 3/ 10 /25

Good morning kids. A bit earlier than usual this morning as I have an early doctor's appointment, and it's a bit of a schlep.

Well at long last, Justin Trudeau, is gone or is about to be gone... aka Just Castreau-Cescu, as I refer to him because of the strong possibility that he is indeed the bastard son of Fidel Castro, and for sure given his record of totalitarianism in Canada especially during the whole COVID lockdown nightmare, his dictatorial proclivities came to the fore especially in his persecution of truckers and anyone who refused to be injected with the toxic waste pawned off as vaccinations.

Carney beat out former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, former government house leader Karina Gould and former member of parliament Frank Baylis in a contest in which just under 152,000 party members voted.

It’s not clear when Carney will formally assume office. He and Trudeau are expected to meet in the coming days to determine the outgoing prime minister’s final day at the helm.

The Wall Street wiz threw his hat in the race to succeed Trudeau in January, just a week after the incumbent announced he would resign before completing his term.

Carney has never run for elected office before, making him somewhat of a political novice. However, he has served in various roles within the Canadian government for more than a decade — most recently as Trudeau’s appointed chair of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Task Force on Economic Growth.

He previously served as the governor of the Bank of Canada before becoming the first non-Brit to run the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694

So, from what I can gather, by all outward appearances, Carney is not an insane socialist like Castreau-Cescu or Freeland, but I assume his globalist pedigree is such that he won't be doing anything to move Canada rightward and firmly towards something resembling sanity. From the article, his antipathy to Trump is evident, although that might be merely playing to the audience that doesn't perhaps necessarily appreciate the latter's 51st state rhetoric. I'm sure our commenters from the great white north will weigh in with their assessment of the situation.

While it's great that Kash Patel has charged the three soldiers with treason for selling secrets to China. The question remains, how are individuals like these, and indeed, all recruits not carefully vetted before being inducted?! Hello, Nidal Hassan?! And for me, Hello John Brennan?! And Brennan was hired decades ago?, in a seemingly saner time, or was that too an illusion?

Meanwhile, Kash Patel is on the case:

The FBI arrested three people on charges of treason this week, and believe it or not, none of them are senators or congressmen.

In a stunning blow to Chinese espionage efforts, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of three Army personnel who thought they could sell out America's national security for Chinese cash. Two active-duty soldiers and one veteran are learning the hard way that treason doesn't pay.

As to the three Chinese servicemen, I cannot determine if they are native-born American citizens of Chinese parentage or immigrants themselves. But the question of how they and their parents came here is of course crucial. Perhaps like many Chinese, immigrants or born here, they likely have relatives still back in China and that makes them vulnerable to coercion if their betrayal was not voluntary. And there are still many Chi-Com "police stations" still active and functioning in the Chinese American communities in the larger cities across the country that are nests of spies engaged in espionage as well as the coercion and monitoring of Chinese American citizens for nefarious purposes. Asiatic sharia law, in a sense.

This alone is a powerful reason to completely reexamine our immigration policies, let alone the enforcement of mass deportation of all those here illegally. And in a similar vein, Thank you President Trump!

Over the weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents reportedly detained an activist who participated in the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University last spring.

Fox News’ Alexis McAdams posted on X that sources told her that Mahmoud Khalil, identified as a lead negotiator for the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” who graduated in December, was taken into custody by ICE at his university-owned apartment in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She also noted that student groups are “demanding” his release.

Khalil’s attorney said federal authorities detained her client on Saturday night. Online records show a “Mahmoud Khalil” from Syria is in ICE custody at a detention facility in New Jersey.

This comes after Trump froze $400 million in federal funding for Columbia over its tolerance and in reality fomenting of neo-anti-semitism on its campus before during and in the wake of the 10/7 Gaza pogrom on southern Israel. I wonder if Trump and ICE will re-examine the case of Ilhan the Bro-FO Omar who likely gained her citizenship under false pretenses and has been one of the loudest, shrillest voices of anti-Americanism in Congress for years. And of course George Soros, who despite proudly admitting to being a Nazi collaborator in the deportation and expropriation of the property of Hungarian Jews in 1944-45 has used his ill-gotten literal blood money to destabilize this country and western societies the world over for decades.

Lastly, there are a number of essays highlighting the Democrats seeming self-inflicted implosion, most recently brought to the fore by their horrendous behavior during President Trump's speech last Tuesday.

Kurt Schlichter observes:

Every Republican president is Hitler, of course, but Donald Trump is somehow even Hitlerer than all of them. It was a theme in his first term, but during this election, even the corrupt eggplant masquerading as the incumbent got into the act. Trump was Hitler – no, he was Super Hitler. He was more Hitler than Hitler. And it’s a constant theme among the lesser lights of the Democrat Party. “This is what fascism looks like,” intone very serious politicians who seem to have no idea what fascism looks like. And the Trump/Hitler thing is all over social media. Every day, as Trump exercises the legitimate powers granted to him by the American people via winning the election, another leftist mediocrity with a five-digit follower account figuratively throws up his, her, or their soft, girlish hands and says, “OK. I’m calling it – he’s Hitler.”
. . . “He’s Hitler” is a shorthand for leftist disapproval, much like the term “racist.” If you’re not a leftist – and sometimes if you are – you’re a racist. It’s not what you’ve done. It’s who you are. And the term is tossed around so promiscuously no one respects it. It doesn’t matter if you do thing X that they say is racist because you’re still going to be racist anyway. You can’t win. And when you can’t win, it’s not fair. And when it’s not fair, no one takes it seriously. It becomes a joke. No one cares. It’s like the boy who cried wolf, except they don’t teach that story in schools anymore because it privileges the male gender experience. And no, the story wouldn’t work if the boy who cried wolf were the she-male who cried wolf because the trans folks are often the ones crying “wolf,” and they hate irony almost as much as using the right restroom. . .
. . . Now, they could go in the other direction. They could attack Trump and his policies substantively. But this has several problems, not the least of which is that his policies are substantively awesome. One is that they don’t know how to do this. Leftists haven’t had to argue for decades. It’s the “The Daily Show” effect. They are smart, you see, so they don’t contend with the ideas of the bad people; they mock the bad people. The bad people are unworthy of having their ideas refuted. They should simply accept that they suck and submit. But what happens when the normal people stop caring about your insults and jibes? Then you’ve got nothing.

And that brings me to today's glittering jewel of cluelessness.

Jeffries (D-NY) in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday address to a joint session of Congress, saying that the Democratic Party was still trying to regain its footing.

Slotkin, who gave her party’s response to Trump’s address, pushed back on Jeffries’ recent claims that Democrats had Trump and the Republicans “on the run” when it came to the major issues affecting everyday Americans.

The newly-elected Michigan Senator suggested that the opposite was true — and even when asked directly, did not give a clear answer as to who she believed was leading her party. . . “There’s lots of leaders in both parties, but also a strategy, right? And I think that’s something that as Trump has been successful in flooding the zone and just, like, every day 15 things happening,” Slotkin continued. “We are still finding our footing. And I think you can’t get better until you admit you have a problem. And for me, that’s one of the things that I think some of the new voices in the party have really been agitating about, right? New senators, new representatives, new folks who are like, ‘Hey, we need to do more. And we need to be showing that we’re actually having a plan to stand up on really important moments of inflection.'

Interesting observation by Slutkin — "I think you can’t get better until you admit you have a problem." And that begs the question what does she think the problem is?! The usual excuse they belch out is "messaging." Worse is that they let the mask slip from time to time blaming Americans for being to stupid for voting against their interests and that kind of bullshit. That and just declaring us, as Schlichter notes, for being Nazi racists who support literally Hitler.

Of course it can't be the fact that everything the Democrats promote is antithetical to freedom, our culture, heritage, history and sanity, despite their proclamations of being the good guys. The record is clear. All of the misery, dislocation, suffering and wastage of blood, treasure and human potential for over 200 years is the fault of or has been made exponentially worse by the policies and actions of the Left and their epicenter in the Democrat Party.

I cannot tell what is in Slotkin's heart and mind. If she had even a scintilla of awareness she would recognize what I say as truth. But of course, she like so many others have been generationally brainwashed to accept the fantasy of Democrats as the champions of peace, love, happiness and harmony as an absolute truth. And so they dedicate themselves as purveyors of that mythology in service of an evil that seeks absolute power over our lives, consciously or otherwise.

The leopard is never going to change its spots.

Have a good day.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• The shooter's condition is unknown.
  Secret Service Shoot Man Near White House After ‘Armed Confrontation’
  
• Radicals seek the demise of the West through organized criminal mayhem—here’s how to stop them.
  The Rise of Civil Terrorism
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: Democrats’ obsessive Trump hatred blinds them to their own unpopularity, making his counter-revolution seem inevitable—and even normal.
  Trump’s Democratic ‘Allies’
• We're witnessing history in the making.
  Trump ‘Revolutionizes’ the New American Revolution

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM | Comments (298) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 10 March 2025

Top Story

• Nvidia's next GPU to launch will be the RTX 5060 Ti and it maybe - just maybe - might not suck. (WCCFTech)
  
  The 4060 Ti had a 128-bit memory bus, leaving you with the choice of an 8GB model which didn't have enough memory, and a 16GB model which had more than the card's performance warranted, and which cost too much.
  
  The 5060 Ti has a 128-bit memory bus again, and 8GB and 16GB models, but with GDDR7 the memory runs 33% faster. So if the price is right it could be a decent entry point for the new range.
  
  If the card is available. And bits don't fall off.
  
  So probably not, on reflection.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (110) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - March 9, 2025 [Doof]

Southerndown - Vale of Glamorgan, Wales

Howdy Hordelings! Hope you are enjoying your Sunday. Most of you are likely affected by the time change to Daylight Savings Time. Have you adjusted? Did you enjoy the additional evening daylight? Do you care? However you feel about the time change, it's good to have you here on the ONT. Step inside, enjoy the content, and grace everyone with your comments!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (322) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Second March Edition!

Did you spring ahead?

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the Second March Edition? Not the March 2nd, edition, but rather the second edition of March edition, with the first being March 2nd the second being today, March 9th? I'm not sure why you people are making this so difficult. Calendar fundamentals, people. Calendar fundamentals.

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (341) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: A Parisian Sojourn

What? That's not food! That's The Basilica of Sacré Cœur de Montmartre!

So why is Dildo showing off his photography skills (such as they are) instead of wowing you with his amazing sometimes impressive often edible efforts in his kitchen? Because my current kitchen in the 8th arrondissement has two pans, a couple of knives, a cheese grater, and that's about it! Lots of plates and glasses though! Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit, but it is spartan, has an induction cook top (I am looking forward to playing with that!), an adorable and tiny oven, and a tiny sink that seems designed to splash water everywhere!

I have been here for just a few days, and trying to orient myself with respect to food shopping and cooking gear is a challenge. Mostly fun, but the neighborhood is upscale, so buying a simple roast chicken for €17/Kg ($8.11/lb in a civilized currency and weight) has me highly motivated to cook!

And everything is different. The United States is a wonderful place, and one of the things that makes it so great is American Exceptionalism, which in this case drives us to make the best stuff. Stoves and refrigerators and cook tops and sinks and faucets and showers and washers and dryers and air conditioners and all of the wonderful conveniences that we take for granted. It's just...better in America!

So I will have to find some accommodation with the small cook top and the smaller freezer (No clear ice for me!) and all of the stuff that makes cooking easy.

But... there is an "On the other hand" coming!

Stay tuned for next week!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (310) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Two shoes. One stays tied...one doesn't. And that's the culprit in the photo. The laces may be a bit short for my taste, but still, I do know how to tie a knot!

Did the shoe manufacturer spill some oil on one shoe, or even worse plot it carefully so one knot would never stay tied?

Is this a plot by Big Lace?

[Probably aided and abetted by Big Penguin]

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (280) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Is Virulent Jew-Hate The Only Free Speech Allowed At Columbia University?

Let's play a little game... pretend that a group of "White Supremacists" (yeah, I know, they mostly don't exist) decided to parade across the Columbia University quad in KKK garb, then set up a "camp" where they built little gallows for mock lynchings. Oh, add in some signs about how the Emancipation Proclamation was an existential evil, and integration is genocide. And if we really want to add some spice to this, let's have the participants harass and sometimes attack every black person they see, and trash some buildings for good measure.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it! How long do you think these protesters would last before a few hundred NYPD riot police busted their heads, fighting for the privilege with thousands of counter-protesters from all over the country? How many robe-clad-racists would survive unscathed to make it to jail? And imagine the very public trials for dozens of insane and imagined charges cooked up by foaming-at-the-mouth prosecutors salivating at the thought of throwing some 20-year-old dipshit into jail for 10 years!

We can have a robust discussion about whether this is constitutionally protected free speech (obviously not including physical violence), and that is an important discussion to be had in America. But the obvious difference between our imaginary protest and the very real and violent protests on the campus of Columbia University is that the administration of the university did nothing to protect the Jewish students from real danger, and did almost nothing to the protesters in spite of their clear and obvious violations of dozens of university rules, and state and federal law.

Where were the U.S. Marshalls escorting Jewish students to class? Where was the 101st Airborne protecting the campus?

They were nowhere to be found, because the administration of one of the oldest and most prestigious (hah!) universities in the world decided that violent Jew-hate is an acceptable expression of free speech. It is as simple as that.

And in a simpler world that would be incredibly distasteful but legal (again, not including violence). After all, free speech that is anodyne is trivial. True free speech is offensive and challenging. But the second Columbia University accepted one penny of public money, they were bound by the strictures of the various federal and state laws governing discrimination, namely Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Columbia failed to protect its Jewish students from discrimination based on their religion.

If Columbia University is institutionally anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-Israel, and I believe they are, then they have a straightforward way of being allowed to express those opinions. Stop taking government money. Easy-Peasy! But they won't because they can't! They suckle at the government teat to the tune of $5 billion! So they are stuck! And it is glorious!

Trump cuts more than $400 million in grants to Columbia over antisemitism concerns, potentially more to come

The Trump administration announced on Friday that it will rescind more than $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, citing concerns over rising antisemitism on campus and the school's failure to address it.

Earlier this week, the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Education (DoED) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the initiation of a "comprehensive review" of more than $5 billion in federal grant money that goes to Columbia, "in light of ongoing investigations for potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act" related to antisemitism on campus.

I hope this hurts them. And I hope that every wealthy Jewish alum will stop giving. And I hope that no Jewish students apply to Columbia. And I hope that the massive corporate money flow to Columbia will slow to a trickle, because all of a sudden, it is appropriate for corporations to examine their funding of overtly racist programs (DEI anyone?). And yes, I am aware that some of this is a pipe-dream, but there will be incremental decreases, and that is entirely a good thing.

All of this is a result of the 2024 election of President Donald Trump. You know, the unrepentant racist/Nazi who is literally Hitler!

His hand-picked senior officials are busily tearing down the insane post-modern edifice that the Biden/Obama junta built. No more race-based funding and policies and set-asides. No more overt and covert funding of anti-Semitic organizations and anti-American organizations. Just a renewed focus on freedom for all.

Sounds great! Of course they won't get everything. The rot is too deep in our government. But they are off to a rollicking good start, and if that means that Columbia University has to dig deep into their $15 billion endowment, well, you have to break some eggs to make an omelet!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (245) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 3-9-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, set your clocks back an hour (you heard me), and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (309) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 9 March 2025

Top Story

• AMD may finally be breaking the 16 core ceiling with the Zen 6, offering as many as 24 and even, well, 24 cores. (Hot Hardware)
  
  The next generation is expected next year, and will offer 12 Zen 6 or 16 low-power Zen 16c cores on each CPU chiplet, with the standard two chiplets on desktop chips.
  
  So 24 Zen 6 cores, or 32 Zen 6c cores which will run at about 75% the performance, which works out to... Exactly the same.
  
  Zen 6 is expected to arrive on the AM5 platform, the same motherboards used for Zen 4 and Zen 5, so it should be a pretty healthy upgrade.
  
  
  
• Intel meanwhile is rumoured to be preparing a 52 core desktop chip. (TweakTown)
  
  That's 16 full-size cores, 32 low-power cores, and 4 really low-power cores.
  
  Intel's low-power cores are a separate design and run at about half the speed of the full ones, and Intel no longer supports hyperthreading on its consumer CPUs, but with that many cores it's hard to go wrong.
  
  Except perhaps in power consumption, and even there Intel has reduced power draw of recent parts for horrifying to merely bad.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:02 AM | Comments (233) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Overnight Open Thread (3/8/25)

*****

Good evening boys and girls and everything in between. The 3 Amigos or whatever their stage names are have this evening off. You get me. Suck it up Buttercups.

|

*****

The Saturday Night Joke

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 09:31 PM | Comments (576) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread [moviegique]: Presence

Steven Soderbergh. While best known for his breakout film Sex, Lies and Videotape, his award winning films like Erin Brockovich and Traffic, his Ocean's Number-of-people-on-the-Team films, and his flirtation with communist thugs (Che), he's actually made a lot of trash you've never even heard of. Or if you've heard of it, you didn't know he directed it. Or you knew he directed it but forgot it right after you heard about some controversy.

Like, did you know he directed the Magic Mike movies? Did you remember the controversy where he hired an actual porn star to star in his movie Girlriend Experience about a hooker? He directed Gina Carano's disappointing feature debut, Haywire.

Perhaps most relevant to today's film, he also directed Contagion, which was a serious look at what would happen if Gwyneth Paltrow infected everyone with a deadly disease. It fit comfortably into the zombie genre (though there are no zombies) and felt kind of like a grown up entry into a hyper-sensationalized field.

This strength, the low-key realism, was also its weakness. It felt competent without being lurid, but a little more luridness might also have been more fun to watch.

Tiger MILF?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (332) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - March 8, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin. Turns out, the Wheel has a case of wanderlust. It said ROAD TRIPS and SCENIC DRIVES. Let's go for a ride!

[Photo: Checkerboard Mesa, Route 9, East Entrance, Zion National Park, Utah]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (218) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, March 8

Remember to watch the cats.
Daylight Savings Time could be an "issue" for them (or an excuse).

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:16 PM | Comments (87) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Community Thread, March 8

The gorgeous photo above is from Neal in Israel:

The first clivia I planted last year made it through the winter and has already decided to start spring blooming. The second was almost killed by the snails, but has survived in a reduced state. Hope it will revive fully and will also flower.

The flowers above are gorgeous. Then again, Clivia is one of my favorites. Hope you can successfully combat the snails attacking your new plant.

Anybody else have flowers blooming now, just as Daylight Savings Time starts here in the USA for most of us? Are you ready? I haven't thought about it yet.

*

Why, look! What do we have here?

Posted by: K.T. at 01:12 PM | Comments (31) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New perspectives from California - even Gavin Newsom

Thanks to Misanthropic Humanitarian for filling in here last week. I was not in California. I was traveling for my mother's funeral, which was a lovely experience (after years of anxiety and heartache). A few more words about that in the Gardening Thread.

Back here in Central California, the road construction around the beginnings of the High Speed Rail to Nowhere is currently a little less muddy than it had been recently, even in the rain. Newsom has promised to lay the first real rail soon after many years. What a legacy from Jerry Brown!

*

Anyway, my interest in current events has been quite superficial recently, but as Ace noted earlier, Gavin Newsom seems to have mostly lost interest in being governor of California since he can't run again in 2026. He has turned his attention to being President. Who would have expected him to address the unfairness of transgender-identifying male athletes in female sports with Charlie Kirk????

I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” the California Democrat said in the first episode of his new podcast. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” the California Democrat said in the first episode of his new podcast. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.

Mark Hemingway:

Newsom can say this stuff all he wants. Until he actually does something about it as governor, no one cares. Pass a law in California that gets boys out of girls' sports and get back to me.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:01 AM | Comments (213) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

Dear Father,

Thank you for sparing Donald J. Trump's life in Butler, PA. Thank you for a President who loves his country and is trying to do everything he can to improve our citizens lives. We often come to you with our troubles and not to you as often as we should when we should be thankful. We pray through Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 08:26 AM | Comments (343) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 8 March 2025

Top Story

• The EU has denied that it deliberately targets US companies under its Digital Markets Act to impose massive fines and loot the treasuries of foreign companies, which is obviously what it does. (Yahoo)

  "It applies to all companies which fulfil the clearly defined criteria for being designated as a gatekeeper in the European Union irrespective of where they are headquartered," they said.
  
  "By preventing gatekeepers from engaging in unfair practices vis-à-vis smaller companies, the DMA keeps the door open to the next wave of innovation in vital digital markets," they said.
  
  "Of course, there is no innovation, and there are no smaller companies, because we kill them with our other regulations. Don't quote that."

  Don't worry, we won't.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (192) | Trackbacks (Suck)