Mid-Morning Art Thread

The Vision of the Young Bartholomew
Mikhail Nesterov

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (300) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 12/26/23

Good morning, kids. Hope you all had a blessed and joyous Christmas. We're still light on the links as is usual post-weekend, as well as post-holiday and as the year winds down, yet the seriousness of what's going on reflected in what we do have for sure makes up for it on a number of fronts.

While Governor Jared Pole-Smoker flits about and utterly butchers an alleged rendition of "Feliz Navidad," you'll wish you were as blind as José Feliciano and as deaf as Marlee Matlin so as not to have to endure it.

No doubt, that horrid display was his attempt at "His-pandering" to the newly-minted illegal alien Democrat voter base, despite the fact that much of the current Latino base in the state and elsewhere were as revolted as we all were. Meanwhile, the shrinking number of normal Coloradans as well as the rest of normal America cannot avoid the illegal alien invasion that his party set in motion with the intentional erasure of our border and immigration controls, along with the erasure of the rule of law and morality with the state's supreme court's naked tyranny in removing Donald Trump from the primary ballot.

Once again, Ace cruelty fan-boi Victor Davis Hanson posts a double-whammy, first a plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose with the Colorado court:

In the election of 1860, southern Democrats in 10 states of the soon-to-be formalized Confederacy made it almost impossible for their own voters to cast ballots for Abraham Lincoln for President. In that sense, the Left in Colorado would have felt right at home in the ante-bellum South—erasing the name of a presidential candidate whom they loathed and by whom they were similarly terrified.

In eerie fashion, and also similar to the old ethos of the Confederacy, the Democratic Left now believes in state nullification of federal statutes. So like the would-be secessionist states of 1860-1, over 550 jurisdictions, almost all in blue states, claim that federal immigration laws no longer apply to them. Thus they brag that they can breezily be defied. (Not so easily or willfully are federal gun laws, or EPA mandates, or federal endangered species lists, ignored in red-state jurisdictions.)

The essence of sanctuary cities is an arrogant sense that federal law means nothing to morally superior local and state governments. So they nullify federal immigration laws in the manner of defying tariffs by South Carolina in 1832, or racial integration by Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1963. . .

. . . The echoes keep popping up periodically and predictably in the news, as we saw with the Colorado erasure of Donald Trump from Colorado’s primary and likely general election ballot. Take also racial fixations and obsessions. Is the current diversity/inclusion/equity—woke movement based on similar racial essentialism? Or in Confederate terms, are we back to certifying one’s particular DNA (now by blood tests, but then by genealogists)? Does the South’s old one-sixteenth/one-drop rule (ask Elizabeth Warren) still determine racial status and privilege?

Do our DEI/woke racially segregated campus dorms, segregated safe spaces, segregated graduations, and segregated events echo Wallace’s 1963 Inauguration Address chant—“Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”? Are blue-states becoming like one-dimensional “King Cotton” economies of the past? . . .

. . . In the years before the Civil War and in the ante-bellum Jim Crow South, southern states bled populations fleeing to the new territories in the West or to the manufacturing and industrial boomtowns of the North. They were escaping a fossilized society of have and have nots—eerily representative of the current ethos of the blue-state paradigm. California has the richest zip codes and greatest number of billionaires, and near highest poverty rate. New York is close; both have largest number of residents escaping their states—ironically to a new South that is becoming as dynamic as the old bygone North.

So the recent ballot erasing of Colorado fits this larger picture of blue-states emulating the values of ante-bellum southern states—erasing ballots, defying federal laws, fixating on race and racial privileges, and catering to a one-dimensional medieval economy and caste, amid a growing underclass struggling with neglected infrastructure, poor schools, and growing poverty. . .

. . . So what will be the new/old Democratic 2024 election mantra? "Vote for us—and ballot deletion, states’ rights, federal nullification, racial essentialism and segregation, and a one-party, one-economy plantationist nation”?

The entire post is fascinating insofar as the parallels of 1860 to 2023/4 are concerned, vis a vis the run-up to the first Civil War. Whether or not the current situation once again tears the nation apart in another hot civil war is yet to be seen.

But one thing that has not changed in all that time, and really since Aaron Burr murdered Alexander Hamilton while parlaying with Spain to seize control of a large chunk of the nascent American nation, is the fact that 99.999% of the suffering, misery, strife, discord, dissolution and discontent that have befallen us since the founding of this nation – in short, everything wrong with America is the direct result of the policies and actions of the Leftist movement and its home base of the Democrat Party. All of it.

That is my political philosophy in a nutshell, and the sole determinant now of my voting habits, the vicissitudes of the candidates and paucity of real leadership insofar as reversing course to pre-1913 American government notwithstanding.

Now, on to VDH part deux:

We should remember the now modern proverb of Nixon-era economic advisor Herb Stein to the effect that what cannot go on (without destroying the nation), simply will not go on.

In some sense, the country for recent years has been cruising on the fumes from prior and likely better wiser generations and institutions. In 2024, the tab for our current apathy, toxic politics, and incompetence will come due. So next year we will likely see the climax to a number of current dangerous ideas, events, and forces, which finally will either overwhelm us or be addressed and remedied. We live in a Neronian age but can recover if we first understand how we got here and the nature of the suicide we are committing. . .

. . . After the 2021 Kabul debacle, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the 2023 brazen Chinese spy balloon’s uncontested trajectory over the United States, the recent Hamas invasion of Israel, the serial Iranian-fueled terrorist attacks on U.S. installations in the Middle East, and the terrorist Houthis’ veritable absorption of the Red Sea, many of America’s opportunistic enemies drew conclusions and adopted strategies that would have been previously unthinkable. Either adversaries will be so emboldened to start regional wars—an impotent Iran now brags it will block the entire Mediterranean—or a United States will be shocked into action and have to deter Iran, the Houthis, and Islamic terrorism, while dealing with an opportunistic China eager to annex Taiwan, and Russia determined to finish off Ukraine. . .

. . . No one in government has offered any projected costs to states and federal agencies of offering health, food, housing, legal, and education subsidies to millions—who broke the law by entering the U.S. and continue to do violate it while residing unlawfully here. Is that the sign of a promising American citizen—that the first thing he does upon entering America is to break his host’s law? Incredibly, no one has even explained to Americans why millions of illegal aliens are exempt from the vaccine mandates, background checks, and adherence to the law that is demanded of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. We will soon demand “real” IDs of American citizen airline travelers, while we fly illegal aliens all over the states without any identification?

In fact, those who blew up the border can’t honestly even explain to the American people why they did so. Was it to ensure future (or even present) political constituents? Cheap labor? To ensure higher taxes to pay for more government services and to “spread the wealth?” Obeyance to the diversity/equity/inclusion lobbies? To make up for fleeing blue-state population? The United States has now exceeded, both in real numbers and in percentages, all past numbers of non-native born American residents—at a time when civic education, the idea of the melting pot, and adherence to assimilation have never been more under assault. . .

. . . The October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and premodern massacring of nearly 1,200 Jews—and the virulent anti-Semitism that swept our elite campuses and big cities even before the October 27 Israeli Defense Forces’ retaliatory invasion of Gaza—was a wakeup call about the racialized hatred and anti-Semitism now endemic on the Left. Campus protestors dropped the prior protestations that they were not anti-Semitic in their hatred of Israel. Instead, they now call out Jews by name. They disrupt their homes and businesses, regardless of their views on Zionism. Pro-Hamas protestors feel free to harass Jews, and with impunity and arrogance chant genocidal chants promising the destruction of Israel and its Jewish population. . .

. . . The apogee of such extremism was evident in the congressional testimony of  three ethically challenged Ivy-League presidents. They reminded the nation that no campus president would unequivocally condemn, much less punish, any anti-Semites on a campus, who openly called for the destruction of Israel and its Jewish population. And they lied about “free speech” constraints on their punishment of mainstreaming anti-Semitic and genocidal threats—given they routinely expel, censure, and variously punish all sorts of “hate speech,” but only if it is directed against their own DEI constituencies. All this is not tenable. . .

. . . They understand that half the country knows the January 6 “riot” was the work of unarmed, overzealous, and buffoonish protestors, who broke the law by entering the Capitol, but otherwise had no master insurrectionary plan. And the majority surrounding the Capitol did in fact obey the president’s call to protest “peacefully” and “patriotically.” The left privately understands that their latest weaponization of government follows their “Russian collusion hoax,” their “laptop disinformation” farce, their two politicized impeachments, their performance-art Mar-a-Lago documents raid, and thus are all part of a systematic degradation of our campaigns, elections, and political customs, tradition, and discourse.

A jaded public knows too well that such punitive measures never applied to the 2016 Hillary Clinton crimes of destroying subpoenaed emails and devices, or the FBI’s illegal alteration of FISA documents or its contracting out social media to suppress news stories, or its hiring of a foreign national Christopher Steele, who compiled a fake “dossier” to destroy the candidacy of Donald Trump. . .

Pause while I remind the estimable Dr. Hanson, who somehow never mentions this rather salient point, that aside from the fact that the "buffoonish protesters" as he calls them did not break into the Capitol but were literally escorted into the building by the police, the violence he seems to attribute to them was instigated by scores of agents-provocateur; FBI/DOJ confederates or actual agents themselves. Back to the action. . .

What then do the campaign and election of 2024 foreordain? We will be in entirely new and completely dangerous territory. The likely Republican nominee who currently leads incumbent president Joe Biden will be for most of 2024 the constant target of a coordinated state and local Soviet-like effort to destroy his candidacy before the voters can even vote for or against him in the November election.

In sum, in 2024, we will either see the destruction of presidential electoral politics as we have known them or a complete repudiation of lawfare. The current new normal that the party in power indicts the leading candidate of the opposition is not sustainable or compatible with the idea of America.

Will we meet these challenges or ensure the ongoing decline?

If what we saw after October 7, or the wild and out-of-control reign of weaponized local and state prosecutors, or what we watch nightly on television at the border, or the paralyses we witness abroad of our military, or the breezy way in which our officials promise groups here and abroad billions of dollars in easy money, continues into 2024, then the country as we knew it will become unrecognizable.

Dr. Hanson, the country as we knew it is already completely unrecognizable. More to the point, you ask us if we are going to "meet these challenges." My question to you, and every other smart, erudite historian, commentator and pundit who writes these very well-thought essays on the state of play is simple:

H O W ? !

With a thoroughly corrupt government that has weaponized law enforcement and intelligence to target any voice of opposition, a media that is a propaganda house organ that silences voices of dissent while pumping out bald-faced lies and smears to prop up the regime and destroy all opponents, an educational system that has created at least two generations of useless brainwashed dolts instead of citizens, and a private sector that more and more is crony-fascisticly in bed with the regime, how is the average person supposed to "meet these challenges?"

In Dr. Hanson's defense, he is great at being able to articulate and catalogue the problems and their causes. If you have read him over time, he has become more and more alarmed at the speed and depth of the dissolution. Yet, he is still reticent, like so many others, at identifying real solutions, especially as the situation descends into an existential threat. Can't say I blame him.

The fact of the matter is the challenges are meeting us, with brass knuckles to the face. For the moment, that's rhetorical, but for those still languishing in the Garland Archipelago that you labeled "buffoons" it's not rhetorical at all.

As we roll into 2024, it's become more and more obvious that it'll either be ballots or bullets. And as we all saw in 2020, ballots are likely not going to cut it. If by some miracle they do, then for sure the bullets will be coming right at us.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Richard Moss, MD: "Medical schools embraced DEI, and it’s now beginning to infiltrate medical practices across America."
  DEI Comes to Jasper, Indiana
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "Will we meet the challenges or ensure the ongoing decline?" (Even the great VDH is not immune from perfectly diagnosing the situation without addressing the fundamental question of fighting back: "How?" - jjs)
  2024—The Year of Our Reckoning

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:45 AM | Comments (298) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 26 December 2023

Top Story

• Today only, The Outer Worlds is free on the Epic Games Store. (WCCFTech)
  
  I was looking forward to this, and was quite irked when Epic snapped it up as an exclusive title, and never got around to buying it.
  
  And now I don't have to.
  
  This edition includes the two DLC packs, so you get everything. For free.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:10 AM | Comments (129) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread (12/25/23) Christmas Edition

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:45 PM | Comments (332) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Christmas Cafe

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Merry Christmas!

Nora the baby polar bear, growing up. Make sure you see 2:45.

Great video of the mountains and fjords of Lofoten, Norway. (Instagram)

Beautiful icy waterfall in Canada. (Instagram)

Baby meets baby deer.

Some kind of mutant reindeer.

I have made a mighty Christmas Army.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:17 PM | Comments (193) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Christmas Cat-astrophes Open Thread

They tried hanging the Christmas tree from the ceiling, to protect it from the predations of the cats. Their human schemings failed.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:47 PM | Comments (117) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Christmas Birdhouse Open Thread

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:20 PM | Comments (153) | Trackbacks (Suck)

A Very Moron Christmas to All!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:53 PM | Comments (113) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Jack Frost Nipping At Your Nose Open Thread

Snowy-nosed reindeer in Finland
by @RyanResatka on Instagram

I know it's a repost, but... it's so on-theme.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:40 PM | Comments (124) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Merry Pit-mas!

The dog tearing open the Christmas gifts is very cute.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:13 PM | Comments (103) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Our Patriarch’s Final Family Gathering: The Duct-Taped-Poinsettia Christmas

There comes a time at which the Christmases of years past tend to fade into a blur. But sometimes there is one that will be remembered and cherished for all time. My father’s last Christmas at home went horribly wrong, then ended up being extraordinarily special.

About a dozen years ago, my father was in rapid decline with a cruel disease that had greatly diminished his ability to walk and to speak. We knew that the need for 24-hour skilled nursing care was drawing near. My mother, along with hired part-time caretakers and nearby family members, worked to make his life comfortable and to keep him in the house as long as possible.

It was a little before Christmas when my father found the words to say, “It’s time,” lovingly helping the family make the difficult decision as to when we should seek out a nursing facility. He was a generous, compassionate man who even at this awful time sought to give what he could to help his wife and family. His assent to this final move was the gift he offered the family. A nice nearby facility that my mother could visit every day was found, and the move was scheduled for January.

Caregiving is also tough. My mother, who might otherwise have been enjoying her golden years with travel and leisure, was instead a round-the-clock caregiver who was extremely tired after several years in this role.

But there would still be one last Christmas at home! All of their children and grandchildren would be there, including those who lived in other cities, and who had started making their own family Christmas traditions. We all made plans to converge on our hometown to celebrate one last all-family Christmas at my parents’ house.

My mother’s excitement about this Christmas gathering gave her strength as she planned for the wonderful meals and the time we would all spend together. The out-of-town family members were scheduled to arrive on December 23.

But things went very bad late on the night of December 22.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (96) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Adoration Of The Shepherds
Domenico Ghirlandaio

[Hat Tip: Bluebell]

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (197) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 12/25/23

Good morning, kids, and a very Merry Christmas to you all. I thought about just shining it today but the news never sleeps so I'll try to keep it light in terms of volume, if not, sadly in tone. So now the "Einsatz-groupies" who support the butchery and genocide of Jews first in Israel and ultimately the entire world are going after "the Sunday people," for daring to celebrate Christmas while Gaza is about to be plowed under.

Several revolting examples took place over the weekend in a number of blue shit-hole cities and as far away as Australia, as you can see in the links. Meanwhile, an autistic Jewish kid in Vegas comes home with a swastika carved in his back, and all you can hear are crickets from the usual suspects in and out of government who perpetually shriek "Islamophobia!" at a volume to make a dead man's ears bleed.

Speaking of the usual suspects, in the wake of the 10/7 slaughter in Israel, the Dept. of Injustice is growing alarmed at the potential for attacks here in the US. Of course, given both the wide open border where several million people from not just Latin America but all over the globe, including many Islamic countries who aren't exactly coming here because they're moved by Emma Lazarus' poem, and the fact that the DOJ's Public Enemy #1 is the American public (that is, those who are not down for the Leftist takeover) the words of DOJ apparatchik Lisa Monaco do not inspire confidence.

The complete politicization and weaponization of that department, and every agency, bureau and office of the federal government, as well as far too many segments of what we used to call the private sector, means their singular focus on ideological goals and shibboleths precludes them from performing their actual duties competently. When it comes to our national security and ultimately our personal safety, this all but guarantees disaster.

How the hell did we sink so low? A big clue is in the tenure of the supposedly embattled Harvard president Claudine Gay, and the fact that so many people are circling the wagons of at best a manifestly incompetent nebbish, who now faces massive charges of not just plagiarism but making shit up out of whole cloth. That she should've been shit-canned immediately goes without saying, but how the hell was she even hired in the first place? And now, the worst radioactive, chest-burster herpes of the American body politic has emerged to come to her aid.

One explanation for Obama backing Gay is he shares her tolerance for the pro-Palestinian Israel-haters and their woke comrades on the radical left, with whom he may well feel a kinship.

It’s easy to conceive of a college-age Obama marching in solidarity with these students as a onetime campus radical himself who would graduate to the pews of rabid “anti-Zionist” and anti-American Rev. Jeremiah Wright; pal around with the like-minded Louis Farrakhan, Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi; and spend eight years as president empowering Islamic supremacists Sunni and Shia while putting the screws to Israel.

Jewish Insider’s reporting suggests a more mundane explanation: Obama aimed to “keep the broader administration stable” — an administration governed by a board helmed by former Obama administration Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, who led and championed Gay’s selection as Harvard’s president.

But Obama’s defense of Gay almost assuredly transcends sympathy for her remarks and the students for whom she spoke, concern about Harvard’s stability or a desire to effectively defend a political ally, given Pritzker’s responsibility for Gay’s presidency.

Like l’affaire Gay broadly, Obama’s intervention should be seen as a major salvo in the broader war over diversity, equity and inclusion in America’s most influential institutions. Obama is making a play to protect the DEI regime itself — a regime, already roiled by the backlash against wokeism and the Supreme Court’s strike against affirmative action in schools, critical to maintaining political power . . .

. . . DEI, in short, is a tool of power and control — engendering political and ideological conformity and the mobilization and weaponization of its cadres — the left has wielded to maximum effect as it’s taken over every influential institution. If Claudine Gay were to fall, it could topple the entire house of cards the left, led by Barack Obama, helped build.

To fire her would be to acknowledge the evil hatred of the West at DEI’s core; admit DEI elevates politics over merit, given Gay has proven to be something of an academic fraud; and therefore delegitimize the movement as a whole given Gay’s and Harvard’s symbolic and substantive prominence in it.

The DEI project falling in the academy would be cataclysmic for the left given these institutions are pivotal for indoctrinating and credentialing the next generation of leftist leaders atop society’s commanding heights. Elite schools are the left’s center of gravity, feeding power centers from Washington to Wall Street to Silicon Valley. That Obama stepped in to support Gay suggests he believes it to be a political imperative of the highest order. . .

. . . The triumph of DEI would spell death for our republic.

Bingo. We goof on Obama as a failure, but has he really failed? His intention was to destroy us by "fundamentally transforming" the nation and he succeeded. At least, he was the figurehead who was the face of that transformation, the roots of which go back decades. Obama is as intellectually vapid as Claudine Gay. The lack of any transcripts or even record of his attendance at Columbia IIRC, is quite telling. He's black, glib and has the hatred of 10,000 suns for everything American, western and Judeo-Christian. And he'll stop at nothing to see his dream of destroying us realized.

In this regard, I can't recommend friend and friend of the blog Scott McKay's new book Racism, Revenge and Ruin: It's ALL Obama highly enough. It's a very fast read but it's excruciatingly painful to relive this record of disaster – a record that continues to this day since Obama, or whoever is pulling his strings, is the one pulling Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants'. You can also listen to our conversation with Scott on a recent podcast.

All of that said, as pessimistic or at best realistic as I am, I will say that where there is life there is hope. We cannot know the future, and as implacable as our enemies surely are, they are not infallible. So hang in there and keep the faith.

Again, here's wishing all of you a blessed and joyous Christmas!

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• "If Claudine Gay were to fall, it could topple the entire house of cards the left, led by Barack Obama, helped build. To fire her would be to acknowledge the evil hatred of the West at DEI’s core; admit DEI elevates politics over merit, given Gay has proven to be something of an academic fraud; and therefore delegitimize the movement as a whole given Gay’s and Harvard’s symbolic and substantive prominence in it."
  Here’s Why Obama Stepped In to Save Harvard Prez Claudine Gay
  
• Roger Kimball: "We watch the unfolding of an unedifying spectacle."
  Will the Guardians of the Narrative Win?

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:26 AM | Comments (217) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 25 December 2023

Top Story

• What kind of bubble is AI? (Locus)
  
  Obviously it's a bubble, but is it the kind that leaves some value behind after the fires die down, or is it the kind where you just have to eat your losses and maybe your children?
  
  Image-generation AI suggests the former; textual AI suggests the latter.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (154) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (12/24/23) Christmas Eve Edition

***

Luke Chapter 2

1) And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

2) (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4) And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David

5) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6) And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7) And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9) And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10) And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12) And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13) And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14) Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15) And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16) And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17) And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

1 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19)But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20) And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:52 PM | Comments (357) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Night Before Christmas Edition!

Time to dust off the Santa pic!

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 night before Christmas?!

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 (182) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Christmas Tables And Something Else...But What Is It?

One of the skills I most definitely do not possess is the ability to set a lovely table. Oh, I know where the soup spoon goes, which way the blade of the fish knife faces, and I can place wine glasses with the best of them, but making it pleasing to the eye eludes me.

The Christmas table above isn't particularly fancy, but it is lovely nonetheless. I prefer to decorate my tables with full serving plates, but that just ends up looking cluttered. And welcoming, but still...

Anyone have some stories to tell about tables gone bad? That is a thing...I guess. My attempts are pedestrian, and my wife usually removes them before we sit down. "Uh...dear...nobody can see over that...thing...in the middle of the table!"

I suspect that some of you are masters. I know for a fact that Bluebell has every holiday covered several times over with all the accoutrements , so I'll bet her Christmas table looks spectacular!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (262) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First-World Problems...

What does that even mean?

America is a Christian nation, and no amount of post-modern nonsense is going to change that. Besides, the Christmas season is wonderful! And I write as a committed Jew who has never been the least interested in other religions in anything other than a historical and cultural context.

As the signs I see occasionally say: "Keep Christ In Christmas!"

Ah..that's better.

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (172) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Merry Christmas!

[Insert CBD's yearly rant about how unfair it is that Christianity got most of the great composers]

Thank you all for reading and commenting and being a part of this lunatic asylum known as AoSHQ.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (257) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 12-24-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(HT: CBD)

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 (I know the author of this one). 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, put out some cookies and milk for you-know-who, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

NOTE: We had Christmas services at church last night, so I'll be around all morning...

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

-- Luke 2:8-14 (NIV)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (325) | Trackbacks (Suck)