Mid-Morning Art Thread

Landscape at Sunset
Aert van der Neer

At one of the great small museums of the world; Mauritshuis, in The Hague.

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (258) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 8/ 31 /26

Good Morning kids.

We'll start off with your morning emetic, although a mere glance at the headlines is enough to send one direct to the vomitorium, but be that as it may here we go...

More than 20 actors from the Marvel universe — including Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton — have joined a campaign calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti. . . . This is what happens when Hollywood’s woke celebrity club substitutes ideology for facts. . . Barghouti, the convicted head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is not in an Israeli prison because Israel disagrees with his politics or because he wrote an anti-Israel manifesto; he was charged with five murders, attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organization. He received a fair trial in an Israeli civilian court and was convicted, receiving five life sentences. . .

. . . Perhaps that is the problem with the Marvel campaign. These are limousine liberals at their most comfortable: wealthy, privileged and insulated from the consequences of the causes they champion. They have spent their careers playing superheroes, but appear to know remarkably little about the history they are now trying to rewrite. They sit comfortably in their movie studio trailers and pronounce moral judgments on a bitter conflict in which they have no personal stake and, judging by this campaign, very little understanding. . . A man convicted of murdering five people, including an American citizen, cannot be transformed into a symbol of peace because the red carpet revolutionaries have decided to make him one.

Red carpet indeed: red with the blood of innocents and the red of communism. Well, how did we get to this point. Sadly, it's as plain as the hooked nose on my Brooklyn Jewboy face! And I say that proudly!

Numbers from the following Brandeis report, American Undergraduates and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, show 18% support for Hamas among college students and 15% favorability for Israel.. . … this isn’t just about Israel. Or America. Colleges have normalized degrees of extremism on campus that reflect something like the Weathermen and Al Qaeda wrapped in a bow.

Yes, Ruffalo is the only American of the bunch that I can spot but along with the others perhaps it's a toxic mix of just innate Jew-hatred along with likely pandering to a receptive audience to their odious beliefs as a means to drive ticket sales. Either way these disgusting degenerates are the useful idiots of those who seek our destruction. Not just the Jews but All of us. Every last one of us who are collectively guilty of preventing them from creating their paradise on earth.

University campuses are notorious for promoting “safe spaces” where dissenting opinions are labeled as “violence.” Yet within the cushioned walls of the Ivory Tower, professors are increasingly using their lecterns to encourage literal violence in pursuit of radical agendas.

That would be bad enough, but I hate to be the bearer of bad news; the radicalization and brainwashing are beginning long before college.

In 2025, Texas passed a law that mandated a financial literacy course requirement for students in grades 9 through 12: HB 27 modifies Section 28.025 of the Texas Education Code to expand and strengthen personal financial literacy instruction for high school students. Under the bill, students will be required to complete a dedicated one-half credit in personal financial literacy as part of their social studies coursework to graduate. This requirement separates financial literacy from the previously combined economics and financial literacy course structure, allowing for more focused and practical instruction in managing money, budgeting, savings, credit, loans, and other real-life financial concepts. . . .NGPF repeatedly champions the notion that people must be made equal through government action––a foundational premise of both socialism and woke ideology. Students taking this curriculum are explicitly asked to find a relationship between justice and reparations. In fact, NGPF utilizes an entire section to promote reparations through biased history lessons that assert that reparations are merely “one step on the path toward racial justice.”

A curriculum being pushed on every Texas public high school — and maybe every state by 2030 — teaches students that equal treatment is unjust and equalized outcomes are "justice."

That is socialism.

You can bet your sweet ass that poison like this is happening as far back as kindergarten if not pre-school. Unless and until we utterly retake academia, we are finished as a nation and society. But never fear, our would-be Islamic overlords will one day be running our schools and they'll all be sharia-compliant.

Have a good day.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM | Comments (326) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 31 August 2026

Top Story

• Google Maps has correctly marked Lake America and the crazies are being crazy. (Daily Beast)
  
  Oh no.
  
  
  
• Speaking of crazies, they're upset that America's education system has stalled out 99% control by communist infiltrators. (LinkedIn)
  
  Anyway.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (121) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - August 30, 2026

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday ONT. Glad you could stop by! Open thread, as always. Fashion and music, as always. What's on YOUR mind tonight?

Posted by: Doof at 10:00 PM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Final August Edition!

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 Final August Edition? That came quickly, don't you think? As promised, next week we begin the ever-popular September editions!

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 (301) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Filet Mignon With Ramen? Sure...Why Not?

[Of course I wanted to embed a song by "Korn," but they are awful!]

New Jersey corn is pretty good, mostly because the supply chain is short and it arrives within a day or so of harvest. But supermarkets add a day or two to the mix, so it is difficult to get really fresh corn without driving to good farm stands.

But...damn! It's worth it. A few weeks ago we picked up a few ears of freshly picked corn and ate it that day. I shucked them, popped them into 185 degree water, and simmered for 10 minutes.

That's it. No salt. No butter! They were incredibly sweet and tender and absolutely delicious.

So why not go back to the well? And we did, but the later season corn...just two weeks later...wasn't as good. Still solid, and a pleasure to eat, but not incredible.

Posted by: CBD at 03:57 PM | Comments (279) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Wow...that really is a First World Problem! We have the leisure time to examine our pasts and try to learn as much about our ancestors as we can.

And because we live in an information cornucopia, we expect that everything will eventually appear.

But...that isn't the case!

That's my great uncle...and I know nothing about him! Nor will I ever. Whatever information there was describing his life has been lost. It is simply impossible to recreate, which in the grand scheme of things is fine. But I sure would have liked to have known what happened!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (182) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Warrantless Surveillance Is An Unalloyed Evil, And Cannot Be Justified By Claiming A Reduction In Crime

This is an absolutely moronic take on a massive degradation of our civil liberties. It's difficult to underestimate the stupidity of this author, who seems to think that there is some balanced equation between our God-given, natural rights, and the destruction of those rights on the altar of safety.

Do Flock Cameras Actually Work?

It’s been a tough summer for automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that at least 50 police officers have been charged with or accused of misusing plate-reader networks, including for stalking wives, ex-girlfriends, and other women. One small-town Georgia police chief ran his ex-girlfriend’s plates roughly 600 times. California legislators took up the technology in hearings titled “Don’t Flock me,” a jab at Flock, the Atlanta company whose ALPRs now scan roads in more than 6,000 American communities. A backlash that began among left-leaning civil libertarians has spread to the populist Right, and city councils now face packed hearings on whether to keep the cameras.

The debate has become more heat than light. Both sides fixate on anecdotes, with supporters pointing to abducted children recovered after a timely plate hit, while critics list stories of rogue officers and plate data shared far beyond the agencies that collected this information. Neither answers a question that policymakers face: Does the technology produce enough public safety to justify its costs, in dollars and in privacy?

I don't give a sh*t that Flock and other unconstitutional searches may decrease crime. So will sending SWAT teams into every house in America to look for drugs or "illegal" weapons, or taking the medical records of every American and analyzing them for possible illegality. Or sending forensic accountants into every business in America and checking their books. Or....

The list is long how we can make ourselves "safer." But as some very wise men understood, safety is a temporary condition that leads inexorably to totalitarianism.

Does that sound histrionic? Maybe, but provide a counter example please!

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

-- Samuel Adams

Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

-- Benjamin Franklin

Government is fundamentally evil, and the expansion of its surveillance capacity simply makes it worse, and gives it more power over us. If anyone thinks that government is expanding its surveillance capacity because it will make us safer, then I have a bridge to sell you. They expand it, and all of its power, for one reason: control over the people.

We have to push back whenever we can, and Flock cameras are an excellent place to take a stand. And it's easy! Agitate against them in every public forum, starting with your local government council. And if you ever end up on a jury for a trial of someone who destroyed a Flock camera or any other onerous surveillance technology...you know what to do.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (151) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Book Thread: August 30th, 2026 [MP4]

Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes. It’s time once again for the monthly MP4-hosted Sunday Book Thread. Dress for men, as always, is country club casual. Women, however, are encouraged to cater to my own particular tastes:

So ask the barman for a cocktail, covfefe or tea and let’s get started!
‘AI, ay, ay!’

A while back, an offer popped up on my Facebook feed.* It was an AI program that, if you gave it some prompts, would shoot you back a plot for a book. I was curious, so offered it a basic line of ‘what would happen if a 1915 NJ movie studio had a murder to keep it from moving to Hollywood?’

A few minutes later, the program gave me a full plotline. As one might expect from this woke age, the main character was a spunky female reporter trying to make her way in a male-dominated world. I liked what I saw, but decided that I didn’t need it and wiped it out.

But, having thought about it, I wondered why I shouldn’t use it for my next book? After all, the late Clive Cussler paid people to come up with plots for his Dirk Pitt novels. And James Patterson ‘collaborates’ with unknown authors, takes their plots, adds his ‘unique viewpoint’ and pushes them out on the marketplace.

So let’s presume I asked an AI program for a plot. Am I cheating? Suppose I didn’t follow it slavishly, but used the plot as a jumping off point for my own thoughts. Is my book compromised because I began with an AI plot?
Incidentally, the same program would, if you asked it, take the plot it generated and then spit out an entire book. But why would anyone even within whispering distance of calling themselves an author do such a thing? Oh, I know it happens (and, as I joke, because Amazon will print just about anything up to and including Bigfoot-themed erotica, ‘author’ is practically a worthless word), but beyond the lure of money and the simple ease of the shortcut, why do such a thing to yourself?

This is a subject more for the authors of the Horde, but what about you? If you knew that an author used AI to create a plot, but not the content of the book itself, would that drive you away?

*I hate Facebook. I am only there to be part of the ‘Theda Bara Fan Club.’ I hate the rest of it.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (389) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 30 August 2026

Top Story

• Positive reception of the Grand Theft Auto VI preview suggests positive reception of Grand Theft Auto VI, say analysts. (CNBC)
  
  Where would we be without analysts? I mean, at the beach sipping Mai Tais, yes, but which beach?
  
  
  
• GTA VI will only run at 30fps on consoles. (Tom's Hardware)

  Following that track record, we likely won't see 60 FPS support on consoles till the PS7, while PC will enjoy unlocked frame rates once its port drops down the line.

  GTA VI will not be available on PC at launch, and there's no indication as to when that might happen.
  
  Not really an issue for me, personally. I don't even own GTA V and I picked up GTA IV in a bundle somewhere but have never played it. So I can keep running Hytale at 60Hz on my 9070 XT... Needing about 10% of its available performance.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:40 AM | Comments (260) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - August 29, 2026 [Disco & Dino]

Welcome to Club ONT - a whelming collaboration of The Disco and The Dino.

Open thread - bar is open, too. Come in in, grab a drink or 2. Or 3. Keep it light and friendly. The moose is feeling blue tonight, so stop and say hello before entering.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (422) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Music Thread - August 29, 2026 [TRex]

Happy Saturday evening friends! Welcome to the music thread! (or is this the Hobby Thread afterparty? or maybe the Club ONT pre-party?)

Please adjust your treble and bass and get your woofers and tweeters in order.

Tonight's music thread theme is writing. Yes, music can be about singing but how do singers know what to say? This may come as a shock to some of you, so I'll say it gently: in some cases, other people write the words. What? Yep.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (172) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - August 29, 2026 [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. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) is feeling lucky and decided on a YouTubeing theme for this Hobby Thread.

A what? A YouTube theme? Warning: there may be modest math involved.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (80) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, August 29

Courtesy Kentuckiana Humor

* * *

Hi KT,

Someone sent me this knowing that our Stella is part Belgian Malinois, and I do think she would love it because she has a little crazy in her.

Weekreekfarmgirl

Dramatic visuals on a surprise YouTube Short:

Impressed?

* * *

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 03:32 PM | Comments (63) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Aug. 29

From the famous Pat*:

From a commercial Roma plant, the biggest Roma I’ve ever seen.

Impressive! Lotsa sauce possible from tomatoes like that.

*

Posted by: K.T. at 01:24 PM | Comments (46) | Trackbacks (Suck)

When government finishes something - even in California!

There have been some raised eyebrows and a lot of commentary over a statement by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman about finishing a recent infrastructure project:

The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council alerted our office in late 2025 to the need for a crosswalk at Sunset Dr. and Bates St., which has just been completed!

Thank you to our incredible CD4 Field Team for continuing to problem-solve, push for solutions, and make our streets safer.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:06 AM | Comments (134) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. A big thank you to TRex for filling in a week ago. My computer died. And he was gracious enough to fill in at the last moment.

Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Bedford Falls)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate
2) Be kind, be nice. And for heaven's sake, stay in your lane.
3) No, you may not run with sharp objects. I don't care if Timmy's mom let him.
4) Have a great weekend! Except for Timmy's mom. I hope she spends it at the ER.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (289) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 29 August 2026

Top Story

• Stripe has decided maybe they won't buy PayPal after all. (Axios)
  
  Apparently they got it confused with some place in Italy.
  
  
  
• China is secretly fueling America's datacenter rage. (Axios)
  
  The guys pushing for all the datacenters are making it easy for them, though.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (148) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Dreams From My ONT

Hi everyone! Come on in a set a spell!

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (340) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Real Life Energy Vampire Cafe

Bun-fu
by Mora Nakamura

Get ready for an uncomfortable realization: Boston's first album is now fifty years old.

Fisherman comes home with an unexpected catch: a mangy orphaned kitten.

This poor cow is infested with goats.

A driverless truck is rolling down the street. This guy handles business like a boss.

There might be a new "trend" of asking people to follow you while you do goony dance moves.

Bad cat.

Bad dog.

Bad driver.

Bad baby. Or maybe he was doing the girl a favor.

This kind of thing happens to me.

Monty Python demonstrates the English sense of humor for a Dutch audience. I've seen them do this bit at their live shows but I never saw the original staging, which I guess was for Dutch TV.

Anyone a fan of Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice" Bond theme? Apparently they made a video for it.

Eighty pet guinea pigs and also a bunch of chickens.

Wolf fishes. There's an annoying guy calling out to the wolf that kinda spoils this one.

Parrot spent ten years in a shelter before he was adopted by his true owner.

When an elk comes for a visit.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:40 PM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)