Support




Contact
Ace:
aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
CBD:
cbd.aoshq at gee mail.com
Buck:
buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
joe mannix:
mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum:
petmorons at gee mail.com
Powered by
Movable Type





Sunday Morning Book Thread 01-15-2017: Fallen Idols

Library of Skookumchuk_525.jpgLibrary of Skookumchuk


Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are hotties, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like natural disasters, Russian hackers, Michael Moore at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, and somebody sneaking carrots into your chili. Also special snowflakes do not get respect, but instead, belly laughs. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which should be sent back to the 1970s with extreme prejudice.


"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library"
--Jorge Luis Borges


Where's The Beef?

I have a couple of recommendations from Mary Clogginstein and all the gals down at the Brattleboro, VT, Womyn's Reproductive Health Care Clinic and Chop Shop who have been in deep mourning since November 8th as Obama is being rudely shoved out the door by that ruffian Trump.

The Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own, edited by Veronica Chambers, is a collection of 16 essays from various writers. From the blurb, it sounds like a thick, syrupy goo of hagiography and gloppy praise seldom encountered outside of third-world dictatorships:

Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History. From her first moments on the public stage, she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious, to be healthy, to be First Mom, to be a caretaker and hostess, and to be partner to the most powerful man in the world. What is remarkable is that, at 52, she is just getting started.

Wait, so Michelle Obama has "challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful?" That's kind of an odd thing to say. Isn't that a tacit admission that she isn't beautiful, but some people desperately need to believe that she is? And furthermore, I'd damn well better agree, or be labeled a racist? It's got a creepy, sort of North Korean personality cult vibe to it.

And we see this same sort of constipated compliment in Mrs. Chambers' introductory essay, where she writes:

But we've never had anyone like Michelle before. She wasn't a model, an actress, or a musician. She was quite simply the star of her own life -- and that was a game changer for Black women...

In other words, she hasn't really done anything particularly noteworthy in her life up to this point, except maybe marry the right guy. Any actual accomplishments would have been mentioned, and the adulation would have been fulsome. There is no real reason for any of this nauseatingly gushing praise. As a great American philosopher once asked, where's the beef?

Incidentally, marrying well seems to be Hillary's main accomplishment in life, too. Without Bill escorting her to the big dance, Hillary would probably still be shredding billing records and shaking down local businesses at some corrupt law firm somewhere. That both she and Michelle Obama are held up as feminist icons has always made me laugh.

Now, if you're Mary Clogginstein's husband, or maybe the gals down at the clinic/chop shop don't have actual husbands, but if you are, and if perhaps that thick treacly goo isn't for you, and you're yearning for something with more meat on it that you can put in your fanny pack, then you might try We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama, compiled by Washington Post op-ed columnist and long-time voice of the establishment liberal-left of both parties, E.J. Dionne Jr.

We Are the Change We Seek is a collection of Barack Obama's (snore) 26 greatest addresses: beginning with his 2002 speech opposing the Iraq War (Zzzzzz) and closing with his final speech before the United Nations in September 2016. (ssssshh!) As president, Obama's words had the power to move the country (huh?), and often the world (snort), as few presidents before him. Whether acting as Commander in Chief or Consoler in Chief (or Agitator in Chief), Obama adopted a unique rhetorical style (um, ah, er, er) that could simultaneously speak to the national mood and change the course of public events

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I've heard that somewhere, I think maybe at a commie bookstore in Berkeley, you can buy a book collection of the speeches of Albanian commie thug Enver Hoxha. But why? Who would buy such a book? Who cares?

I imagine Dionne's compilation is pretty much like that.

If not that, then here's a list that will set your man bun all aquiver: 11 Books to Help Us Make It Through a Trump Presidency. I'm not going to go through what's on this list, that scarcely matters. The point is, the books on this list are comfort food for the progressive left. They're tailor-made for Mary C. sitting on her living room couch in her jammies with a pint of fudge ripple (fair trade) ice cream and Oreo cookies, trying not to think about the orange scalp weasel.

Lastly, I just don't get the gross idolatry that is painfully in evidence here. It's so over the top that it's as if any criticism, however small or trivial, is just not allowed, otherwise their whole world will simply collapse.

You can see this idolatry for yourself, documented in A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media by Bernard Goldberg, the ex-CBS News reporter who demonstrates how

...the media crossed an important line in the 2008 presidential race, moving from their usual unthinking liberal bias to crass partisanship of the crudest kind, practically acting as spin doctors for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. In A Slobbering Love Affair, his most provocative book yet, Goldberg demonstrates how the media launched an unparalleled effort to ensure the election of the man they regarded as The One. From the thrill Obama sent up Chris Matthews' leg to the outrageously slanted "news" reports of the New York Times, Goldberg shows in exacting detail how the media, abandoning even the pretense of objectivity, moved from media bias to media activism.

Do we do this on our side of the aisle? I'd prefer to think not, but maybe I'm just tuning it out (confirmation bias and all that). I like to think that am very much aware of Trump's failures and his actions that makes him look like a egotistical buffoon. But I voted for the guy and I'd like to think I know what I'm getting. On the one hand, he sometimes acts like a buffoon. But on the other, I like his cabinet picks and I want to shout for joy at how he regularly pimp-slaps the media like a 3-dollar hooker. I have never seen any Republican beat the media again and again like Trump does, not since Reagan. I like how one of our 'ettes put it in an earlier thread:

I voted for Trump, I'm delighted he won, I expect him to do great things, and I worry about his safety - but I'm not going to worship him like the Obamabots do Barry. He's a man with plenty of flaws, not a god. Let the left idolize their politicians.

Posted by: Donna and V. (sans ampersands at the present time) at January 12, 2017 11:30 AM (ZM2xo)

One of the roots of a conservative worldview is the Biblical concept that men are sinful and fallible. It's probably the main reason why we hold that government ought to be limited, with powers specifically defined and all others proscribed. But it also helps us see our leaders for who they are, human beings prone to hubris, greed, and other sins, and not golden god-emperors above error and criticism. This is why I believe we are less susceptible to this idolatry than progressives, who really don't have much of a countervailing force against it. Yes, I know there are progressives who are Christians, but most of them seem to be weak on the whole sin business, instead redefining it as racism, sexism, homophobia, and whatever else is not in accord with the progressive issue(s) du jour.

So, as I've said, I've never seen this sort of worship coming from our side, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. All I can say is, if I ever saw a piece about Trump (or Bush, or Reagan) that matches the slobbering adoration the left gives to its leaders and heroes, I'd probably puke.


Pushback

Politics is downstream from Culture
--Andrew Breitbart

While I applaud the election of Donald Trump and while I find the conniption fits and the own-foot-shootings put on by the progressive left to be greatly entertaining, I need to remember that electing a few guys to national office is not a long-term solution. Trump has a maximum of 8 years in office, but the progressives who control academia, education, entertainment and most of the media are not so constitutionally limited. So, the fight must be engaged on those fronts as well.

I thought about that last week as I was reading the comments in one of the mid-morning art threads where Muldoon mentioned that the book The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art has a section on that morning's painting. Muldoon added: "He gives a deeper interpretation of all that's going on in the painting, and critiques a lefty art critic's interpretations."

This is the sort of pushback we need. That is, the progressives like to shoehorn everything into their own pet narratives. No, everything doesn't need to be about brown people being oppressed, or some sexual subtext that has somehow escaped everyone's notice for 500 years. Stuff like this:

..that Peter Paul Rubens' great painting Drunken Silenus [which was CBD's chosen painting the day this book was mentioned. --OM] is an allegory about anal rape. Or that Courbet's famous hunting pictures are psychodramas about "castration anxiety."...Or that Winslow Homer's The Gulf Stream is "a visual encoding of racism." In "The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art," Kimball...describes how eight famous works of art...have been made over to fit a radical ideological fantasy. Kimball then performs a series of intellectual rescue operations, explaining how these great works should be understood through a series of illuminating readings in which art, not politics, guides the discussion.

I like the phrase "intellectual rescue operations", which is an excellent description of the work we have to do. It's a long-term task, and most of it is yet to be done. The left's "long march" through the institutions of our culture took decades. Therefore, I believe it will take at least that long to get them back.

Also, I think CBD needs this book so he can pontificate all erudite-like on the art threads.


Beta Readers Wanted

Moron author Daniel Humphreys needs beta readers for his new novel. In his e-mail, he says:

It's paranormal / urban fantasy, with the title of "Fade". I like to describe it as Harry Potter meets The Equalizer. It should be a fairly quick read and I have a number of sequels plotted out.

He's already written the back cover blurb:

"Family drama is bad enough without adding magic and human sacrifice. Ten years ago, Paxton Locke's mother killed his father in a mysterious ritual that - thankfully - went incomplete. Now, Paxton makes his living as a roving paranormal investigator, banishing spirits while Mother languishes in jail.

When a terrified ghost warms him of a dangerous, newly-freed entity, Paxton faces a fight far beyond simple exorcism. In a battle for his very soul, will he be able to endure - or just fade away?"

If this sounds like a novel you'd like to be a beta reader for, Mr. Humphreys (who is also the author of A Place Outside the Wild) can be contacted at dhumphreys5252 a-in-a-circle gee mail dot com.


Moron Recommendations

On ace's book recommendation thread back in June, a moron recommended the collection The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven:

When a tremendous spacecraft took orbit around the Earth's moon and began sending smaller landers down toward the North Pole, the newly arrived visitors quickly set up a permanent spaceport at Mount Forel in Siberia. Their presence attracted many, and a few people grew conspicuously rich from secrets they learned from talking to the aliens. One of these men, Rick Schumann established a tavern catering to all of various species of visiting aliens, a place he named the Draco Tavern.

There are 26 short stories in this book that all revolve around this tavern. Don't know if it resolves the question whether Han shot first.


___________

Another moron, znycpeasant, recommended Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy, which has been mentioned earlier on this blog before, but not, iirc, on the book thread. Moron calls it

...Historical fiction set in 1840s Texas/Mexican American War. Seems very well researched, at least so far as I can compare with my limited knowledge of the period, mostly from Noah Smithwicks Evolution of a State (fantastic) and my other assorted mid 19th century Americana (e.g. Twain, HB Stowe etc).

But mostly beautifully written, and writing about imperfect people having to do everything just to survive in a world that not only doesn't give a damn, but is mostly, actively trying to kill you.


___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:20 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle lege

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 09:15 AM (yx0Ld)

2 Books!

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2017 09:15 AM (ZO497)

3 Dusted off my copy of “They Were Ragtime” by Warren Forma (1976), a pictorial narrative of turn of the last century notables like J.P. Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, Admiral Peary, William Randolph Hearst, and Emma Goldman. I was reading up on the scandal-tainted beauty Evelyn Nesbit, whose unbalanced rich husband, Harry Thaw, shot her former beau Stanford White. The Thaw family gave her $25,000 in recompense for dragging her name through the mud, which she promptly gave to the anarchist Emma Goldman!
Just started “The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch” by Lewis Dartnell. We are all so disconnected from the basics of production, and modern devices are inscrutable to the everyday user. Would we, post apocalypse, have to retrain ourselves to use old-fashioned technology until the web of modern tech is reestablished, if ever? “Similar, small-scale scenarios have occurred in recent history: with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the small republic of Moldova experienced a crippling crash in its economy, forcing people to become self-sufficient, readopting museum-exhibit technology such as spinning wheels, hand looms, and butter churns.”

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 15, 2017 09:19 AM (EnKk6)

4 Only at 60% of Russian Officers of the Revolutionary and Napoleoic wars by Alexander Mikaberidze. Not your usual reading.

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 09:19 AM (yx0Ld)

5 Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History........., she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious......
Or being proud of what a American is I would add.

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 09:22 AM (yx0Ld)

6 Decided I would go through all the Harry Potter books again. I am see a lot of things I didn't notice before. Originally I had said in the last two books it had become much darker and was not even remotely a "children's book" as it started out. I am noticing it started turning much darker in book 4. But whatever her formula was, she sure made a ton of money off of those books.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:23 AM (mpXpK)

7 You know who else challenged traditional notions of appearance?


And what the hell did I get out of it?

Posted by: Zombie Joseph Merrick at January 15, 2017 09:23 AM (J+eG2)

8 " No, everything doesn't need to be about brown people being oppressed, or some sexual subtext that has somehow escaped everyone's notice for 500 years."
----------

You just don't get Deconstruction do you?

Posted by: The Postmodernists at January 15, 2017 09:23 AM (ZO497)

9 To be First Mom? This is the kind of crap that infuriates me. She ain't my mom.

Posted by: no good deed at January 15, 2017 09:24 AM (hJamr)

10 Just finished "The fleet at flood tide" by Hornfischer. Wow, what a read.

Long line of Navy vets in my fam including my youngest.

I thought after my service nothing would ever scare me again. I was wrong - watching my son board his DDG tears my guts out every time. He's too young to know what can happen.

I wish I didn't either.

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2017 09:24 AM (tr2D7)

11 Looks like a lot of books in that library pic. But I guess I would have that many if I could arrange all my book cases together in one row against a wall.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:26 AM (mpXpK)

12 Still working my way through 'Clash of Titans: WWII at Sea'.

So far, a nicely capsulized history of the naval conflicts, equipment, and people. It is written to be read, not a dry commentary.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2017 09:27 AM (ZO497)

13 "Constipated compliment"will now enter my lexicon.

Posted by: Pep at January 15, 2017 09:28 AM (LAe3v)

14 The Mooch is so fugly that Ace had to caution all the Morons not to make fun of her and call her ugly names.


The MFM has tried in vain to make her a svelte fashion icon. They failed miserably.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:29 AM (mpXpK)

15 I skimmed the "Michelle My Belle" article and I learned all I ever needed about her after watching the "Tonigh Show" skit with her.

Posted by: Picric at January 15, 2017 09:29 AM (s0VSd)

16 YAY BOOK THREAD!

Can't stay long; life's a bit bonkers between health stuff and class prep, especially since I had a new class added to my schedule at the last minute: 19th-Century British Novels. (I chose that over 20th-Century British both because I already had the syllabus done and because I Don't Do Moderns; we already have a separate course for the Inklings.) Dealing with computer problems, too, but I did at least get the first book for that class, A Study in Scarlet, reread while I was waiting for attempted fixes to run.

Doing a fair bit of classic children's lit in this course. Should be fun.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at January 15, 2017 09:30 AM (Bbi5h)

17 Nice library, Skook! One could get a very decent education there.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 15, 2017 09:30 AM (EnKk6)

18 One thing about the Russian officer corp in the Napoleoic wars was historians rate them as poor by other European standards, one reason that there are many with parents from other countries. One reason I wonder is there seems to be no fluidity with constant postings between regiments and branches (infantry, cavalry and artillery)

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 09:30 AM (yx0Ld)

19 There IS one good use for that Mooch book. It will make a good dieting aide because everyone who actually reads it will spend the day in the toilet barfing up their cookies.


But I suspect all the liberals that buy it will just lay it on their coffee table so guests can see how "in tune" they are.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:31 AM (mpXpK)

20 Nice library there. And as far as I can tell, nothing there that's in my collection.

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:32 AM (7qAYi)

21 Good morning OM & Horde

A wonderful thread. Thank you for a job excellently done

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at January 15, 2017 09:32 AM (voOPb)

22 Michelle will be but a foot stool in history minus the foot.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 09:33 AM (5VlCp)

23 I read All the Gallant Men the memoir of an Arizona survivor. It was a fast read. I recommend it.

His story is amazing and he is very honest about his emotions.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at January 15, 2017 09:33 AM (dF8h8)

24 "But I suspect all the liberals that buy it will just lay it on their coffee table so guests can see how "in tune" they are. "

Literary virtue signalling.



It's why I keep my recent copies of American Rifleman on the coffee table.

Posted by: Zombie Joseph Merrick at January 15, 2017 09:33 AM (J+eG2)

25 Good morning my fellow Book Threadists. I envy the book shelves in the top photo since I don't have that much contiguous wall space available. But I also can't help noticing all that space on the top of the shelves that could hold even more books. And there are ALWAYS more books.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:34 AM (V+03K)

26 But I suspect all the liberals that buy it will just lay it on their coffee table so guests can see how "in tune" they are.


Posted by: Vic

When it gets down to a buck a copy, I'll buy a box for fireplace starters

Posted by: Bruce at January 15, 2017 09:34 AM (8ikIW)

27 Be off my, you ugly English sock!!

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 15, 2017 09:34 AM (J+eG2)

28 yay book thread!

um, excuse me Mr Muse, but there seems to be a Sasquatch in my book thread....

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 09:34 AM (Om16U)

29 Elisabeth, your new class sounds like fun, both for you and the students. Hope your health is improving.

And Michelle has certainly challenged my traditional American notion of what it means to be fashion-conscious.

I'll see you all later after I finish taking apart the sofa to get my material for my inaugural ball gown.

Posted by: bluebell at January 15, 2017 09:35 AM (sBOL1)

30 "I read All the Gallant Men the memoir of an Arizona survivor. It was a fast read. I recommend it. "

One of my gifts from Little VIA this Christmas.

Short, but good read.


Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 15, 2017 09:35 AM (J+eG2)

31 I redid my weekly wrap up post, it now runs on Sundays.

For today's wrap up I picked a painting of a half dressed damsel reading a book.

link in nic

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 09:36 AM (Om16U)

32 FWIW, I seem to recall that African-American women were pleased to have a FLOTUS with a big butt or something, the idea being Michelle was not conforming to white beauty standards.

But yes, unlike most first ladies, she did not already have a passionate cause or two that she had been toiling away to support for years. She needed to get one ASAP when Barack was elected, so she used a kids health policy paper from Soros' and Podesta's Center for American Progress that provided the details for "Michelle's" fitness and school food initiative. Yep, a real-life Bond villain and his creepy spirit cooking partner are responsible for public schoolkids starving because school lunches are now so sparse and so awful.

Posted by: Lizzy at January 15, 2017 09:37 AM (NOIQH)

33 Good Sunday morning, horde. Nice library, Skookumchuk!

This week I'm reading The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell, because my son gave it to me for Christmas. I don't usually go in for dystopian fiction, but I'm enjoying it. The main character is matter-of-fact about what she needs to do or sell to survive, and is much smarter and more curious than people assume. I suspect the author may be kind of a SJW, but there is no "pity me, the destitute girl" attitude so far, so I'm going to keep reading.

Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 09:37 AM (e8PP1)

34 I just finished "Rogue Planet", the latest entry in my time-line journey through the Star Wars Expanded Universe. An unusual story, but one that introduced characters & concepts that would become vital in the narrative some 55 years later. Now what to read next?

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:38 AM (7qAYi)

35 16 ... Hope your health matters clear up as soon as possible. The new course sounds like fun. As the semester progresses, please let us know what books are being used and what the reactions of the students are. Nineteenth century popular fiction (and the books it influenced like ER Burroughs) has become my favorite.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:38 AM (V+03K)

36 "Where's the beef" should be "Where's the Wagyu?" which if you really want to know, is in Mooch's intestinal tract by now.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 09:38 AM (Om16U)

37 Vic, she was a genius with those books. Some of the later ones are a bit wordy and could have been condensed, but she had the plan when she started. It is so refreshing to have a fantasy author actually know what they are doing to finish the series.

There is so much to discuss with those books. Could Harry have been successful without breaking the rules (my largest problem with the books. My largest problem with the books.) is Harry really the protagonist or is it Voldemort? Will they become classics? Did Dumbledore use Harry to suit his own purposes or did he really care for him? And Snape. Don't even get me started on Snape. Man, I love those books.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at January 15, 2017 09:40 AM (dF8h8)

38 I can recommend Bernard Goldberg's book Bias.

I believe it was one of the first to catalog the Leftist capture of the media when it was still nascent yet becoming pernicious 20 years ago.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 15, 2017 09:41 AM (EZebt)

39 Philly Teachers Plan A Full Week Of Black Lives Matter Lessons

Weasel Zippers

Fuck that. Withdraw ALL Federal funding

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 09:41 AM (SjImc)

40 No shout out to the gay muslim immigrant furry romance, a tale of defiance in the Age of Trump? (Warning - links to slate)

http://tinyurl.com/zfmaxfn

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:41 AM (7qAYi)

41 Recommended here several weeks ago, I read The Charm School by Nelson DeMille. It's an excellent spy story sent in Moscow, and as others have noted, it gets one wondering how much is fiction and how much is fact. Scary stuff.

Posted by: Zoltan at January 15, 2017 09:42 AM (ApkN7)

42 Tancredo: Report Reveals Massive Indoctrination of Students at Universities into the New Civics of Social Justice Activism

Breitbart

IF you did't think it was a plan and that they are not all paling off the same playbook. We Have to FIGHT back and NOW

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 09:43 AM (SjImc)

43 I don't find Michelle Obama to be an attractive human being in any sense of the word.

I also don't understand why people find it necessary to go overboard in talking about how unattractive she is. Or I suppose, I want to believe I don't understand it.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:43 AM (Pz4pT)

44 Michelle Obama looks fine. My only quibble is the round-shouldered 'tall girl hunch' she does. Sometimes her fashion choices seem inexplicable, but to each his own, I guess. The bar-code dress was a true mistake, but I think she has been told so often that bigger patterns are suitable for taller women that she doesn't even think -- just wears what she is told. Unfortunately, prints date clothing immediately and go in and out of style all the time.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 15, 2017 09:44 AM (MIKMs)

45 Did Dumbledore use Harry to suit his own purposes or
did he really care for him? And Snape. Don't even get me started on
Snape. Man, I love those books.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at January 15, 2017 09:40 AM (dF8h

The one thing I don't like about the books is that snotty Malfoy and how Potter and his gang let him get away with so much stuff without beating the literal sh*t out of him every day. That punk would have been a walking bruise in my old grammar school.


And Snape woulds have been fired on day one.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:45 AM (mpXpK)

46 "...I picked a painting of a half dressed damsel..."

Now that there is a top notch example of some fine clickbait.

Posted by: teej at January 15, 2017 09:45 AM (gJ3Vg)

47 I bet Michele is going to write a book one day chronicling her time in the White House and what a horrible time it was because racism.

Posted by: Hamilton at January 15, 2017 09:46 AM (sCjDS)

48 also don't understand why people find it necessary to go overboard in talking about how unattractive she is. Or I suppose, I want to believe I don't understand it.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:43 AM (Pz4pT)

Because unlike most other First Lady's she has taken an OVERT political position and made no bones about it, Therefore, she has opened herself up to partisan attacks and all that goes along with that including her looks or lack there of.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 09:46 AM (SjImc)

49 Now that there is a top notch example of some fine clickbait.

Posted by: teej at January 15, 2017 09:45 AM (gJ3Vg)


thank you!
I try.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 09:46 AM (Om16U)

50 Among other shorter stories this week, I read "Farmer Giles of Ham" by Tolkien. Although I must have read it at sometime in the past it was long ago enough that I didn't remember. The story shows Tolkien's sense of humor, especially with word play, and whimsy. It was written in 1937 but not published until the late 1940s so I wonder if he wrote it for his own amusement. It is charming and I couldn't read it without an amused grin.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:47 AM (V+03K)

51 IDF tank blasts back as forces come under fire from Gaza
After Palestinians open fire on IDF forces carrying out maintenance work on the border fence, causing damage to a military vehicle, a tank was employed to take out a Hamas position in southern Gaza; no injuries were reported in the attack.

In the meantime at Munich 2 in Paris the West wants Israel to commit to more suicidal Borders

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 09:47 AM (SjImc)

52 Currently reading Jay Winik's "On the Brink."

Which I am keeping an eye on, for fanboy overzealous praise of some of the main characters. Almost halfway through, and Reagan is NOT the central character. So far those roles go to Richard Perle and Jeane Kirkpatrick.

The whole thing is leading up to how the Reagan Administration managed to win the Cold War, and so it's inevitably a book of triumph. My concern however, is that it portrayed the few stalwarts who pushed for a tougher position, as always right, and the ones who did not, as always wrong.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:47 AM (Pz4pT)

53 Leave Michelle alone! Don't you know that every morning she has to wake up in a house built by slaves?!?
/

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (7qAYi)

54 We Are the Change We Seek is a collection of Barack Obama's (snore) 26 greatest addresses:


*****


Don't Pay Full Price - a limerick


Perhaps the strangest thing I've ever seen
Obama's speeches on the iPod screen
If you want to purchase any
They're on Amazon! Just a penny!
By a seller with the nickname "England's Queen"

Posted by: Muldoon at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (wPiJc)

55 ...just as the Clintons challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be honest and honorable.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (NBHj5)

56 I'll see you all later after I finish taking apart the sofa to get my material for my inaugural ball gown.

Posted by: bluebell at January 15, 2017 09:35 AM (sBOL1)
---
"Let me slipcover into something more comfortable!"

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (EnKk6)

57 also don't understand why people find it necessary to go overboard in talking about how unattractive she is. Or I suppose, I want to believe I don't understand it.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:43 AM (Pz4pT)

Because unlike most other First Lady's she has taken an OVERT political position and made no bones about it, Therefore, she has opened herself up to partisan attacks and all that goes along with that including her looks or lack there of.
Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 09:46 AM (SjImc)

Fine. I'm not saying she's not put herself out there as a target. I'm saying she's not as ugly as many people say she is.

The extent to which some go overboard there is evident, and ugly itself.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (Pz4pT)

58 Nice library, Skookumchuk. I think I have the same edition of Lost Berlin.

Now about that Pauline "I only know one person who voted for Nixon" Kael book...

Posted by: cool breeze at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (StZrq)

59 "...I picked a painting of a half dressed damsel..."

Now that there is a top notch example of some fine clickbait.



Got me to click!

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (mgbwf)

60 44 Michelle Obama looks fine.
Posted by: mustbequantum at January 15, 2017 09:44 AM (MIKMs)


I don't GAF about her body shape or what she wears, it's the look of pure disgust on her face in every candid photo. What's inside tends to come out.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (8nWyX)

61 53
Leave Michelle alone! Don't you know that every morning she has to wake up in a house built by slaves?!?

/

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (7qAYi)

She could always walk downtown and sleep in a gutter near Lafayette Park.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (mpXpK)

62 "challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful?"

----

Sadly i was never able to do that

Posted by: Scarlett Johanson at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (PqqkK)

63 "Yes, I know there are progressives who are Christians..."

And their one overriding desideratum is to be crucified for the sins of others.

Posted by: jbspry at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (IhKmM)

64 I read 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber; this is part of the "Ring of Fire" series started with 1632 by Flint. The premise is that modern-day Americans get caught in a time-warp and end up in the middle of the Thirty Years War. An interesting idea is that what is history to us are predictions of future behavior to the 17th century Europeans; thus, King Charles of England preemptively arrests Olive Cromwell for a rebellion that won't start for another 15 years. Overall, a decent read but there are multiple story threads that are not resolved until later books. I give 4 out of 5 stars.

Another book was Warfare in Woods and Forests by Anthony Clayton. I have mixed feelings about this one: interesting topic but the treatment is superficial. The best parts are the contemporary anecdotes concerning experiences and summaries of contemporary military thought. I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (5Yee7)

65 Borges' short stories are the closest you can get to having a psychedelic experience without taking LSD. His best known is El Aleph which is about an object the protagonist finds under his stairs that contains the entire universe.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 15, 2017 09:51 AM (EZebt)

66 is a collection of Barack Obama's (snore) 26 greatest addresses:

E-mail addresses? I can probably get that cheaper from the Russians.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2017 09:51 AM (NBHj5)

67 Meanwhile The Left and Technology has killed anther American Tradition: The Circus

Way to go guys.

Yeah yeah I know "The Animals" and nobody loves animals more than me, but still. Sigh

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 09:51 AM (SjImc)

68 Got me to click!
Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (mgbwf)
-----------

Surprising no one

Posted by: bluebell at January 15, 2017 09:51 AM (sBOL1)

69 50 Among other shorter stories this week, I read "Farmer Giles of Ham" by Tolkien. Although I must have read it at sometime in the past it was long ago enough that I didn't remember. The story shows Tolkien's sense of humor, especially with word play, and whimsy. It was written in 1937 but not published until the late 1940s so I wonder if he wrote it for his own amusement. It is charming and I couldn't read it without an amused grin.
Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:47 AM (V+03K)
---
I loved that book as a kid, especially Giles' verbal jousting with the dragon. Of course, Pauline Baynes' illustrations made it.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 15, 2017 09:51 AM (EnKk6)

70 JTB and bluebell, thanks! On the home stretch with this round of medication; should find out Friday whether the doctor wants me to go another two weeks, try something else, or wait a bit to see how much improvement there really is.

JTB, we're doing (not in this order):

Peter Pan
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
A Study in Scarlet
Hard Times (Dickens)
Silas Marner
The Wind in the Willows
Three Men in a Boat
The Time Machine

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at January 15, 2017 09:52 AM (Bbi5h)

71 Fine. I'm not saying she's not put herself out there as a target. I'm saying she's not as ugly as many people say she is.

The extent to which some go overboard there is evident, and ugly itself.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (Pz4pT)

Ugliness comes from the inside, from the soul. I rest my case

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 09:52 AM (SjImc)

72 Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History. From her first moments on the public stage, she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious, to be healthy, to be First Mom, to be a caretaker and hostess, and to be partner to the most powerful man in the world. What is remarkable is that, at 52, she is just getting started

--------

People find men dressing up as women to be repulsive. This has nothing to do with race.

Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 09:53 AM (M3Kbo)

73 Leave Michelle alone! Don't you know that every morning she has to wake up in a house built by slaves?!?
/
Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (7qAYi)


I am pretty sure she has feelings about it along those lines.

At one point I thought she might have aspirations for office herself, but dammit, I think we're just too disappointing to her. And I do believe she hates Washington so, likely for that reason, among others.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:54 AM (Pz4pT)

74 Ha! Yeah, he is a whiny punk. A good butt kicking would have been good for him.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at January 15, 2017 09:54 AM (dF8h8)

75 Elisabeth, great list. I especially like Three Men in a Boat. Wonderful humor in that.

Posted by: bluebell at January 15, 2017 09:54 AM (sBOL1)

76 64 Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (5Yee7)



After 1634 The Baltic War and 1635 Cannon Law you can stop. After those the series bogs down into tedium. Too many characters and sub plots.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (mpXpK)

77 64 I read 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber; this is part of the "Ring of Fire" series started with 1632 by Flint. The premise is that modern-day Americans get caught in a time-warp and end up in the middle of the Thirty Years War. An interesting idea is that what is history to us are predictions of future behavior to the 17th century Europeans; thus, King Charles of England preemptively arrests Olive Cromwell for a rebellion that won't start for another 15 years. Overall, a decent read but there are multiple story threads that are not resolved until later books. I give 4 out of 5 stars.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at January 15, 2017 09:50 AM (5Yee7)

The local dollar store(!) has a collection of short stories set in the 1632 universe. Maybe I should get it. Sounds interesting.

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (7qAYi)

78 Two recent reads:
1) The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution". This is a fairly
low-level treatise on the evolution of H. Sapiens leading up to, and
especially since, the onset of agriculture and civilization. It's a
refutation of the antiscientific "we're all the same" propaganda pushed
by the left. Much of what it covers is well known to those paying
attention to such concepts, e.g. lactose tolerance, malaria defenses,
and the development of anomalously high IQs in Ashkenazim Jews, and
emphasizes the recent vintage of many of those traits. It is
surprisingly willing to venture into what is typically verboten
territory regarding IQ and general life skills. It's not a true
scholarly work given its intended broad audience, although the authors
appear to be actual scholars, but it gives you the broad outlines and
strokes. Very interesting.

2) "A Taste for Conquest: The Rise and Fall of The Three Great Cities of Spice".
This a fascinating look at
three cities (Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam) that drove the spice trade
and therefore much of European history. It provides background as to
the larger trends that were responsible for the rise and fall of each
cities' domination of the market, and puts the spice routes in the
context of the larger world's economy. A fun read.

Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (LAe3v)

79 Is there an actual, paying, audience for ludicrous, over the top gushing about the Obamas? I honestly can't conceive of that.
I mean I liked Margaret Thatcher but one biography was good enough for me.
But I guess the publishing business isn't about business any more.

Posted by: Northernlurker at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (nBr1j)

80 38 ... "I believe it was one of the first to catalog the Leftist capture of the media when it was still nascent yet becoming pernicious 20 years ago."

San Fran, The media BS goes back at least to the 60s. There was the covering up of Kennedy 'indiscretions' and, even worse, the hatchet job the news did reporting on Viet Nam. Walter Cronkite led that assault and I've despised him ever since 1967.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:56 AM (V+03K)

81 5 days until the inauguration and America remains completely in the dark as to the status of the creases in Donald Trump's trousers.

What has happened to our Press?

Posted by: Scarlett Johanson at January 15, 2017 09:56 AM (PqqkK)

82 I'm here to challenge traditional American notions of masculinity. Now, hold my umbrella...

Posted by: Barack Hussein Obama at January 15, 2017 09:57 AM (eeTCA)

83 I think I will sign off for a while. woke up with a really bad headache and need to crawl into a hole for now

bbl

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 09:57 AM (Om16U)

84 Nicholas Chauvin is saying that they have an unhealthy enthusiasm for this guy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Chauvin

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 09:57 AM (92kX2)

85 Is there an actual, paying, audience for ludicrous, over the top gushing about the Obamas? I honestly can't conceive of that.
I mean I liked Margaret Thatcher but one biography was good enough for me.
But I guess the publishing business isn't about business any more.
Posted by: Northernlurker at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (nBr1j)


People will buy them, sure. As for reading them though...

I'm continuing to predict the Obamas will be easily forgotten by a nation that moves on dot org to other things, both good and bad.

Neither of them are remarkable people. Both were foisted on a public that needed them as symbols. Once the symbolic value goes, so do they.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (Pz4pT)

86 That Mooch book certainly threatens us with future political aspirations("and she's just getting started")Nauseating ,unearned adulation.

Posted by: steevy at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (r/0kC)

87 *I'm saying she's not as ugly as many people say she is.*

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM

Got to agree with you there. Her face is pleasant enough when she smiles. Unfortunately she does that too seldom and scowls too often. Her fashion sense stinks and she wears unflattering clothing but she is a big girl, not a waif and I would in no way say she is a heifer.

But the nastiness just oozes out of her and that makes her ugly to me.

Posted by: cfomahm at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (RfzVr)

88 I haven't been reading as much the last few weeks cuz scribbling, however-

I finished a novel, "Girl, 20" by one of my favorite authors Kingsley Amis.

Amis was a Brit who came to conservatism after a spell as a commie. His books tend to be black comedies of manners surrounding Brits engaged in some form of the Arts- writing, music, etc.

The center of the story concerns a popular 2nd tier musician/conductor destroying his reputation and family in pursuit of a young hippie chick and "Relevance" in Swinging Sixties London.

The narrator, who ineffectually represents the Old Guard, is a close friend of the musician and is himself navigating the new culture while ambivalent about the old culture up to a certain point.

Wonderfully drawn characters and its a testament to Amis' skill and understanding of human nature that this exact same story, set of characters, and events could easily take place in today's world and culture. Well, I suppose you'd have to change the slang and throw a grannie or two in the mix.

Amis knows how to twist the knife of so politely. And the final words of the novel "We're all free now." have never sound so grim and haunting before.

Check it out.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (9q7Dl)

89 2) "A Taste for Conquest: The Rise and Fall of The Three Great Cities of Spice".
Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (LAe3v)


If you're into that sort of thing and have already read Mark Kurlansky's books on the history and influence of salt and cod, give Bee Wilson's Consider the Fork a shot. Pretty fascinating book on how utensils and cooking methods shaped history and literally shaped people.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 09:59 AM (8nWyX)

90 What is remarkable is that, at 52, she is just getting started.

---

Another way of saying 52 years of nothing significant.

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at January 15, 2017 10:00 AM (PqqkK)

91 San Fran, The media BS goes back at least to the 60s. There was the covering up of Kennedy 'indiscretions' and, even worse, the hatchet job the news did reporting on Viet Nam. Walter Cronkite led that assault and I've despised him ever since 1967.
Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:56 AM (V+03K)

Covering for FDR's infirmities as well.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:00 AM (92kX2)

92 pep that evolution book soubds interesting
putting it on hold from the lib

now I'm really going

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 10:01 AM (Om16U)

93 Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM

Got to agree with you there. Her face is pleasant enough when she smiles. Unfortunately she does that too seldom and scowls too often. Her fashion sense stinks and she wears unflattering clothing but she is a big girl, not a waif and I would in no way say she is a heifer.

But the nastiness just oozes out of her and that makes her ugly to me.
Posted by: cfomahm at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (RfzVr)


Like her husband, I have spent the past 8-9 years not paying any real attention to her. Avoiding doing so, really.

So maybe people who are viscerally repulsed by her have spent much more time observing her than I.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:01 AM (Pz4pT)

94 The calls for violent insurrection continue.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/254578/

Posted by: steevy at January 15, 2017 10:01 AM (r/0kC)

95 89
2) "A Taste for Conquest: The Rise and Fall of The Three Great Cities of Spice".

Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (LAe3v)



If you're into that sort of thing and have already read Mark
Kurlansky's books on the history and influence of salt and cod, give Bee
Wilson's Consider the Fork a shot. Pretty fascinating book on how utensils and cooking methods shaped history and literally shaped people.


I read "Salt", but not the others yet. I'll put them in the queue.

Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 10:01 AM (LAe3v)

96 I'ma go on record with BurtTC. I don't think Michelle is physically unattractive. We can't help what we look like, for the most part. I'm pretty sure if I were First Lady, people would think I'm not up to par.

I think we make ourselves seem ugly by calling her names. It ain't nice.

That said, she has as ugly a personality as her spouse does, and that is fair game in my book.

Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:02 AM (e8PP1)

97 My two cents - Michelle is like most other women. She can be attractive with the right makeup and clothes. But the look of being perpetually aggrieved on her face negates any charms she could or does exude. But lefties find this attractive because they tend to be like that too - always on the warpath about some imagined injustice or other. It's exhausting to live like that I imagine.

Posted by: IC at January 15, 2017 10:02 AM (gcme+)

98 I read a Louis L'amour book in between working on "Collision of Empires."

Sometimes, one just needs a little "junk food" for the mind.

Posted by: Blake at January 15, 2017 10:02 AM (WEBkv)

99 After 1634 The Baltic War and 1635 Cannon Law you can stop. After those the series bogs down into tedium. Too many characters and sub plots.


Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (mpXpK)


Thanks for the information; I had heard that the series does bog down but wasn't sure where to stop. I found an inexpensive copy of 1634: The Baltic War on Ebay and ordered it.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at January 15, 2017 10:04 AM (5Yee7)

100 91 Covering for FDR's infirmities as well.



Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:00 AM (92kX2)


As well as covering up his cheating.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 10:04 AM (mpXpK)

101 But the look of being perpetually aggrieved on her face negates any charms she could or does exude.

They have a picture of Michelle next to the definition of Resting Bitch Face in the dictionary. I'm no day at the beach, but even I know not to constantly scowl in public. Furthermore, in her case, the personality matches the affect.

Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 10:04 AM (LAe3v)

102 A news program on official Palestinian Authority television has accused Jews of orchestrating the mugging of socialite and reality TV star Kim Kardashian in France last October, and has used the high profile theft to accuse Jews generally of being thieves.

But But But bedrooms! Munich 2 'Peace in our Time"
Umbrellas for sale

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 10:05 AM (SjImc)

103 I'm continuing to predict the Obamas will be easily forgotten by a nation that moves on dot org to other things, both good and bad.

Neither of them are remarkable people. Both were foisted on a public that needed them as symbols. Once the symbolic value goes, so do they.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (Pz4pT)

---

I can't see the lefts need for them as symbols (contrasts) ending while Trump sits in the oval office.

Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at January 15, 2017 10:05 AM (PqqkK)

104 I never make resolutions, but this year I decided I had to get organized. I have some projects that cant be put off any longer and I need better time management. I also want to read at least 100 books this year . I have a file set up for the books I will read and keep my review on them. Im doing this because my memory is shot and I have found myself rereading books and not discovering I've read them until sbout a quarter of the way through. My question is what is a good time management book that explains the steps I need to begin. Once I start I'll be fine , but I need to know how to start.

Posted by: Abby at January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (HBU7W)

105 EGW @ 70
Interesting line-up.
I re-read Dickens as an adult, because I had read him (and enjoyed him) so young.
I was disappointed to find him a scold.

Posted by: MarkY at January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (qamKG)

106 I resent that the taste makers insist upon making us say Michelle obamam one of the most beautiful women of this, or any, age. Much like they try to do with Lena Dunham & Amy Schumer. As ordinary people, they'd be average looking, but as stars in the Leftist firmament, they insist that we say they're beautiful, too.

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (7qAYi)

107 Opera Star Andrea Bocelli Backed Out Of Singing At Trumps Inauguration After Receiving Death Threats

Weasel Zippers

How very progressive of the Left.

It's War my friends

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (SjImc)

108
Live on TV now: a multi-block line of disreputable types lined up in front of the Clintonian Global Inititative and muttering something like, "...where's my fooking money?"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (BK3ZS)

109 Im doing this because my memory is shot and I have found myself
rereading books and not discovering I've read them until sbout a quarter
of the way through. My question is what is a good time management book
that explains the steps I need to


My Kindle keeps the book titles in a file, and let's me know how much of them I've read. It's very convenient.

Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (LAe3v)

110 Music As a Mirror of History by Professor Robert Greenberg

Not exactly a book but rather a series of Great Courses lectures. I am quite enjoying this. The premise is events which personally affected composers' who then wrote music inspired by the event. So, for example, he discusses the history of Islamic/Christian conflict which then led Mozart to create The Abduction From the Serail. He then discusses the Turkish influence upon the music. But he does not discuss Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture because it was written 60 years after the fact and thus was historical, rather than contemporary, when it was written. Thus we have two of my favorite interests combined. You learn an overview of western history, a bit of the composers' biographies, and some music theory and history as well.

There are, of course, some weaknesses. Although 18 hours long, there are time constraints such that some of the history is simplified to the point of inaccuracy, for example, we are told that Napoleon was recalled from Egypt rather than that he abandon his troops to their fate as he faced defeat as he would again do in Russia. Further, he often plays only excerpts from the works rather than the works in their entirety. This is necessary since among the works discussed is Wagner's Ring Cycle which runs to 11 hours by itself. I don't always agree with his interpretations, for example, he buys into the German WWI war guilt far more than I do and I find his logic of Wagner's anti-Jewish feeling in The Ring Cycle circular. A villain therein, Alberich, is short, sly, dishonest, unattractive, lustful, and deceitful and therefore must represent Jews. (Wagner was clearly anti-Jewish, he wrote a book about it, and he was Hitler's favorite composer.) But Greenberg's views are well within the mainstream and not everybody needs to agree with me about everything.

Among the topic's covered are Chopin (Russia crushing Poland), Beethoven (the Napoleonic wars), Glinka (an earlier Russia/Poland war in which Poland attacked Russia and the founding of the Romanov dynasty), Rimski-Korsakov (Russo Japanese War and the ensuing revolt), Holst (WWI), Goercki (WWII and the Holocaust), and perhaps 15 other topics. One caveat; the 20th century part part is pretty grim given that the 20th century was pretty grim and the modern music with its dissonance, atonality, and lack of form fits that mood a little too well.

Greenberg is an amusing, well-informed, and rather snarky fellow. He describes a particular treaty as comfortable as a barbwire jockstrap. If this topic interests you, you could do worse than to listen to this.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (Nwg0u)

111 "So far those roles go to Richard Perle and Jeane Kirkpatrick."

That reminds me, I've been wanting to read a biography of Jeane Kirkpatrick, but haven't found any. Anyone know of any good ones?

I was a super lefty when she was at the UN, and, as required, was very critical of her. Oddly, I remember that my most severe criticisms were that she was not attractive. :/

Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (e8PP1)

112 70 ... Elisabeth, That is a wonderful list of books. Even though I've read them, it would be fun taking your class just to see how the youngsters respond to them. I am curious how they will take to the pace and wording in "Wind In The Willows". The gentle, pleasant pace of that writing will be very different from their usual media intake.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 10:08 AM (V+03K)

113
Correct me if I'm wring, but Amy Schumer is the most beautiful potato of our age. I read it right here.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot at January 15, 2017 10:08 AM (BK3ZS)

114 Eh - Michelle is about middling as far as looks go. She could have used a way better personal stylist, as some of her outfits were just eye-wincingly awful, or grossly ill-fitting, or vulgarly expensive. It seemed sometimes that if she wasn't overdressed for the occasion, she was under-dressed. It was the push to put her over as the most glamorous, elegant First Lady since Jackie that annoyed the heck out of me.

But enough of that - books. Books - I haven't read much this week, besides a few more chapters of "Washington's Crossing" - working on a few books for the Teeny Publishing Bidness. Spent yesterday designing organizational charts for a book about the Nueces Massacre for a local historian ... and walking another local author through setting up his books on Ingram Spark, Kindle and Draft2Digital. He has a very funny picaresque adventure about two brothers and ... well, it's just now up on Kindle - BuzzVille, by Michael Lyons. He's an old marketing pro from years back, so I imagine y'all will be hearing about it soon enough. (I got involved because he was looking frantically for a publisher who knew how to install running heads and format a Word document for print publication, and being an executive, he had always had a secretary to do that for him.) Check it out - it's the same kind of humor as in Wearing the Cat.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at January 15, 2017 10:09 AM (xnmPy)

115 I was a super lefty when she was at the UN, and, as required, was very critical of her. Oddly, I remember that my most severe criticisms were that she was not attractive. :/
Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (e8PP1)
---
Bill the Cat thought his little Mujahideen Mama was one hot tamale.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 15, 2017 10:11 AM (EnKk6)

116 Draco Tavern is good. Definitely worth picking up.

Posted by: Chupacabra at January 15, 2017 10:12 AM (/x6xU)

117 Hopefully, sometime in the future, perhaps after he is dead an buried, someone will write a really in depth study of how a nation of mostly intelligent people was suckered into electing the disaster that was Barry O.

Posted by: Tuna at January 15, 2017 10:14 AM (JSovD)

118 Again missing on these fine shelves is a cat.

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 10:14 AM (yx0Ld)

119 96 I'ma go on record with BurtTC. I don't think Michelle is physically unattractive. We can't help what we look like, for the most part. I'm pretty sure if I were First Lady, people would think I'm not up to par.

I think we make ourselves seem ugly by calling her names. It ain't nice.

That said, she has as ugly a personality as her spouse does, and that is fair game in my book.
Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:02 AM (e8PP1)

The phrase "Beauty is skin deep, while ugliness goes straight to the bone" comes to mind.

She is not completely unattractive. I think she can have a kind of prettiness when she smiles. I agree we do not exactly cover ourselves with honor when we attack her purely on a physical level.

Part of the reaction to her is not reaction to her though. It is a reaction to the image that has been perpetuated around her and her husband by the sycophantic media. They say similar things about both of them, most of which are completely unwarranted and certainly over the top.

One of the things that seems to happen when you experience cognitive dissonance (you are told things that do not bear out with your own experiences) is that you have a tendency to go completely the other way. We have experienced it this time with the Obamas, and I certainly remember it with respect to the Clintons in the 90's.

The left has turned this principle into their central political philosophy. Bush is not just wrong or stupid, but he is the evilist and most disgusting, and at the same time stupidest, man in history. That is why every republican is tarred and framed the same way.

Note: Cognitive dissonance may not be the right term for what I am describing (not being able to jive other people's opinions with what you personally experience and observe or a reaction to propaganda) but I am not a psychologist. I am sure there is a term better fitting what I am describing, but I could not find it when I did a quick google search. Hell, if nothing else, I guarantee that there is a Russian word for the phenomena.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:15 AM (92kX2)

120 Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:56 AM (V+03K)

===

I can see your point. But I think the media took down Nixon because he lied, not because he was a republican. They did not take down Clinton or Obama for smilar lies because they were democrats. I think that is the kind of bias he writes about.

Cronkite slammed LBJ even though both were liberals.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 15, 2017 10:16 AM (EZebt)

121 Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (7qAYi)

Yeah, that, too. We can decide these things for ourselves.

I think the Obamas will not be forgotten. They will continue to inject themselves into every.f**king.issue for years to come, and they have a strong enough slobbering following to keep them in the liberal limelight in perpetuity.

Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:16 AM (e8PP1)

122 I just finished listening to an audio version of The Obesity Code by Jason Fung. It found it very interesting and helpful.

Let me tie that in to Michelle Obama. Her Move initiative to get school kids to eat less and move is entirely useless. The science is settled. (Haven't I heard that somewhere else before?)
It's a classic example of the left's belief that good intentions are enough and that government meddling in individual choices is always the right way to go.

Posted by: Northernlurker at January 15, 2017 10:16 AM (nBr1j)

123 Related to a book-but a movie call back

I rewatched "Remains of the Day" on cable the other day, what a fantastic movie. A statement on the pre-WWII British service economy, everyone needing to know one's place, the honorable intentions but disastrous appeasement of Germany by many in the aristocracy, how everything changed (enter: America) after the war, and fantastic acting. Highly recommended. One of my favorite period movies.

Posted by: Goldilocks at January 15, 2017 10:17 AM (pOgVG)

124 Grannie = trannie

Tnx auto cucumber!

Posted by: naturalfake at January 15, 2017 10:18 AM (9q7Dl)

125 Greenberg is an amusing, well-informed, and rather
snarky fellow. He describes a particular treaty as comfortable as a
barbwire jockstrap. If this topic interests you, you could do worse
than to listen to this. Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (Nwg0u)
=====

How about GF Handel? Fireworks and Water Music are awesome -- Messiah, anyone? I would be interested in what he has to say about the politics of court appointments.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 15, 2017 10:18 AM (MIKMs)

126 I'm continuing to predict the Obamas will be easily forgotten by a nation that moves on dot org to other things, both good and bad.

Neither of them are remarkable people. Both were foisted on a public that needed them as symbols. Once the symbolic value goes, so do they.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (Pz4pT)
---
I can't see the lefts need for them as symbols (contrasts) ending while Trump sits in the oval office.
Posted by: Buzzsaw90 at January 15, 2017 10:05 AM (PqqkK)

They'll certainly need somebody in that role, I just don't think either of them fill it all that well. Neither of them are all that bright, and frankly, without a political future, I don't see how they are of much use.

That is, UNLESS she decides to be used as a future office holder. But I'm thinking she has no interest in that.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:19 AM (Pz4pT)

127 Missed the last (hopefully) speach by Barak the Last, Dennis Prager says he purposely misses the original and goes straight to the transcript, there reading the words you see how empty they are of meaningful content.

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 10:19 AM (yx0Ld)

128 the media crossed an important line in the 2008 presidential race, moving from their usual unthinking liberal bias to crass partisanship of the crudest kind,

-
We can forgive him thinking that the media engaged in "crass partisanship of the crudest kind" in 2008 because he hadn't yet seen 2016.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:19 AM (Nwg0u)

129 Heh, nice Bloom County reference.

Jean Kirkpatrick, Casper Weinberger, and Dick Gephardt are indelibly liked in my mind because of their portrayals.

Shame Breathed is such a flaming lib.

Posted by: Emile Antoon Khadaji at January 15, 2017 10:19 AM (fsQM5)

130 Still slowly plugging my way through Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye". The first third of the book was pretty dry, introducing many of the characters and world building. After the first third, we make it to the Mote and encounter the inhabitants there-in. This is were it starts to get interesting. I'm a bit past the halfway point and this is were the story starts to kick into high gear.

Posted by: Darth Randall at January 15, 2017 10:23 AM (6n332)

131 That is, UNLESS she decides to be used as a future office holder. But I'm thinking she has no interest in that.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:19 AM (Pz4pT)

I go back and forth on this. They really enjoyed occupying the office (witness the vacations) and at the same time they both seemed to believe that they were the standard bearers. Note that Michelle as been decidedly less optimistic in the days since the Trump win than Barak. This could be due to the fact that she is not nearly as much of a pathological narcissist as he is.

I dunno. Trying to speculate on what will happen four years from now is fun, but a fool's game for most (see climate 'scientists'.)

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:23 AM (92kX2)

132 "That is, UNLESS she decides to be used as a future office holder. But I'm thinking she has no interest in that."

I think it would be too much work for her. Both Obamas are lazy which is why I hope Barack will lose interest with being the DNC mouthpiece after a year of Trump sucking all the oxygen out the political landscape.

Posted by: Tuna at January 15, 2017 10:23 AM (JSovD)

133 "So far those roles go to Richard Perle and Jeane Kirkpatrick."
-------------------------
That reminds me, I've been wanting to read a biography of Jeane Kirkpatrick, but haven't found any. Anyone know of any good ones?

I was a super lefty when she was at the UN, and, as required, was very critical of her. Oddly, I remember that my most severe criticisms were that she was not attractive. :/
Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (e8PP1)


That book, "On the Brink," might be what you are looking for.

It details rather well the movement of both those individuals, as well as others, from hawkish Democrats to Reagan insiders.

I'm not quite halfway through the book though, so it may not be enough of what you want, regarding her biography. There's plenty of it there so far though.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:23 AM (Pz4pT)

134 Being quoted on the front page, is a high honor and I blush and curtsy to Oregon Muse.

I definitely have noticed some of Trump's most ardent admirers hero worship him a bit (my ex-BIL's cousin is like that) but I think I get it. We have been scorned and mocked and sneered at for supporting Trump and in some places it's positively dangerous to admit you voted for him. Sefton would get into big trouble in Manhattan if he decided to wear a MAGA hat to work.

It's no wonder to me that people who have been continually attacked as Enemies of All That Is True and Good would get defensive about any criticism of Trump. When you're under fire all the time for supporting someone unfairly portrayed as evil, you're going to root extra hard for that person.

It's far different than all the gushing about Obama, which was and is fashionable and will not lose you jobs and dinner invitations.

And I think any Trump worship is inherently limited by one factor - Trump voters tend to be a hard-headed realistic bunch who judge by results. If Trump doesn't come through on his promises, those pipe fitters in Michigan and welders in PA won't say he's a success, because they have to live with the results of his failure.

Obama f'ed up spectacularly, but that doesn't matter to Hollywood stars and academics and media people because they're not the ones paying the consequences.

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 10:24 AM (P8951)

135 Re Michelle Obama, I never cared about her looks. But she has an inner ugliness that I find repellent and it seeps through her very pores to taint everything around her. The slobbering adulation from the left just reinforces that and makes it worse.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 10:24 AM (V+03K)

136 intellectual rescue operations

-
I'm recognizing a new emotional/mental condition, POSD or Post Obama Stress Disorder. It arises from the constant fear that you may lose your job or reputation for using the wrong pronoun even though it's the right pronoun.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:25 AM (Nwg0u)

137 106 I resent that the taste makers insist upon making us say Michelle obamam one of the most beautiful women of this, or any, age. Much like they try to do with Lena Dunham & Amy Schumer.
Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (7qAYi)


I've said (and occasionally gotten shit for saying) that that if Lena Dunham had a twin sister (preferably one who wasn't repeatedly sexually molested by Lena in childhood) who was friendly and stable she'd be indistinguishable from anyone else. It's the ugly inside that is really repellent.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 10:26 AM (8nWyX)

138 >>It's a classic example of the left's belief that good intentions are
enough and that government meddling in individual choices is always the
right way to go.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Care Act is a USDA boondoggle used to expand government meddling by converting the school lunch program into now having schools provide breakfast, in some places provide dinners, as well as provide these meals to kids during summer break. Also used to dictate what kids (including those in day care) can eat. It isn't good intentions, it's a yuuuge federal overreach, and a costly one at that.

That the biggest HHFCA booster Michelle was also known for love of dining on lobster, Waygu beef, and all sorts of pie and cake, just makes it worse.

Posted by: Lizzy at January 15, 2017 10:26 AM (NOIQH)

139 I read Blood Meridian in August 2001. It explained the evil that happened in the following month better than any analysis ever could.

I'm rereading Hamlet and The Tempest while watching the lectures by Stephen Smith on Hillsdale College's free online course on Shakespeare. Very nice coverage of the two plays. The course doesn't pretend to be an in-depth analysis of the plays, rather focusing on the topics of the virtues and other qualities necessary for leadership as demonstrated in the plays.

If you want to revisit the plays or want to experience them for the first time, the Hillsdale course provides a good framework to get a lot out of them.

Posted by: dwight at January 15, 2017 10:27 AM (iAl7a)

140 And I think any Trump worship is inherently limited by one factor - Trump voters tend to be a hard-headed realistic bunch who judge by results. If Trump doesn't come through on his promises, those pipe fitters in Michigan and welders in PA won't say he's a success, because they have to live with the results of his failure.

Obama f'ed up spectacularly, but that doesn't matter to Hollywood stars and academics and media people because they're not the ones paying the consequences.
Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 10:24 AM (P8951)

Not to mention conservatives natural distrust of authority or more importantly authority figures. The left often makes it seem like they literally want to be slaves to their political figures ("I pledge myself to Obama" and the lady who wanted to give BC a blowjob simply because of his political actions.)

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:28 AM (92kX2)

141 That the biggest HHFCA booster Michelle was also known for love of dining on lobster, Waygu beef, and all sorts of pie and cake, just makes it worse.
Posted by: Lizzy at January 15, 2017 10:26 AM (NOIQH)


"Unhinging her jaws", I believe, is the preferred term.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 10:28 AM (8nWyX)

142 The Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own

We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama

Why weren't these out before Christmas??? Maybe they were.

What fun it would be to, straight-faced and angelically smiling, give these to TFG sycophants. I believe it would get old for them, real fast.

Posted by: m at January 15, 2017 10:28 AM (3jGss)

143 I dunno. Trying to speculate on what will happen four years from now is fun, but a fool's game for most (see climate 'scientists'.)
Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:23 AM (92kX2)

Events, as they say, tend to overwhelm plans.

As you say, we can't know what will come these next few years, but I do think it's better than a coin flip, the odds the Obamas will NOT be doing any leading.

Mostly because, why should they start now.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:28 AM (Pz4pT)

144 Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History........., she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious......

-
To be smart.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:30 AM (Nwg0u)

145 I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books. Thought it weird that Rowling really painted the government as filled with incompetents and borderline evil people when in real life she is a big government liberal.

Posted by: Darth Randall at January 15, 2017 10:30 AM (6n332)

146 Neither Michelle nor Obama himself are gargoyles.

A fair reading would put them both around 5-6 on a 1-10 attractiveness scale.

But, the bizarre reality-denying puffery which the Left always indulges in with respect to their politicians is always galling.

They have to be the most intelligent, most beautiful, most enlightened creatures to every inhabit the planet every single election cycle.

Of course, Leftists are always looking for a new Mommy or Daddy, an all-powerful God-King or Queen who will take them under their wing and correct whatever personality or physical or professional or spiritual defects/problems they have.

And like all orphans, these people who are orphaned from reality and their own responsibility, they imagine their new Mommy or Daddy to be the best, most beautiful, smartest, strongest Mommy or Daddy evah.


It's pitiful but there you are.

And this is how we get kings or queens or tyrants.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 15, 2017 10:30 AM (9q7Dl)

147 Only books I've bought within the last year are...

1. Becoming a Supple Leopard.

2. High Intensity 300

3. Functional Training Bible.

All three are highly recommended.

I have also been trying to assemble the Conservative Book Canon from various free sources so I can start a deep dive into the canon in the spring.

Posted by: Kreplach at January 15, 2017 10:30 AM (+lv+r)

148 Events, as they say, tend to overwhelm plans.

As you say, we can't know what will come these next few years, but I do think it's better than a coin flip, the odds the Obamas will NOT be doing any leading.

Mostly because, why should they start now.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:28 AM (Pz4pT)

Well, we just went through eight years after the left decided on someone as the standard bearer and declaimed that anything he did was breathtaking leadership- even though none of it was.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:31 AM (92kX2)

149 Hail, O Book Thread! Another glorious Moron library on parade. I wonder what percentage of All The Books are in the slightly sticky hands of Morons, because we do seem to have a LOT.

Almost done reading Kurt Schlichter's Conservative Insurgency. He writes scathingly funny articles so I was hoping for more of the same in the book, but it didn't come through. It was actually kind of bland, with a lot of "then a miracle occurred" for the good guys to win.

But I have a mug of tea and a giant cat on my lap as I sit in the comfy leather chair in *my* library, so all is good. Read Moar Books!

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at January 15, 2017 10:31 AM (SuJIo)

150 No shout out to the gay muslim immigrant furry romance, a tale of defiance in the Age of Trump? (Warning - links to slate)

http://tinyurl.com/zfmaxfn
Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:41 AM (7qAYi)


Next week.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 10:32 AM (NzpD/)

151 I'll put that one on the list, then, Burt. Thanks!

In retrospect, I think Kirkpatrick must have been awesome, so I want to learn more about her with my new-found conservative filter.

Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:32 AM (e8PP1)

152 I've said (and occasionally gotten shit for saying) that that if Lena Dunham had a twin sister (preferably one who wasn't repeatedly sexually molested by Lena in childhood) who was friendly and stable she'd be indistinguishable from anyone else. It's the ugly inside that is really repellent.
Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 10:26 AM (8nWyX)

Hopefully that twin isn't also taking her clothes off on tv. That tends to help keep the repulse factor down.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:32 AM (Pz4pT)

153 145 I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books. Thought it weird that Rowling really painted the government as filled with incompetents and borderline evil people when in real life she is a big government liberal.
Posted by: Darth Randall at January 15, 2017 10:30 AM (6n332)

She reminds me of Joss Whedon in many ways. At the same time, she seems to be going round the bend a lot quicker (her various revisions to her own characters post facto.)

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:33 AM (92kX2)

154 Hopefully that twin isn't also taking her clothes off on tv. That tends to help keep the repulse factor down.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:32 AM (Pz4pT)


Goes along with the 'stable' part.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 10:33 AM (8nWyX)

155 Not bookish I know...

John Wick Chapter 2

Feb. 10

Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (XziOA)

156 Just finished "The fleet at flood tide" by Hornfischer. Wow, what a read.

-
He's a good writer but I saw him yesterday on CSPAN discussing this book and he is a poor speaker. He rambles when answering questions.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (Nwg0u)

157 For those bibliophiles out there, sometimes you can find a replacement for that missing dust jacket for your old book. Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC (www.dustjackets.com) sells reproduction jackets. They're not cheap ($22 each) but they are very nicely printed with high-quality ink and come in a archival mylar cover. The owner, Mark Terry, scans the jackets and restores the coloring for his reproductions.

I have purchased them several times and the owner sends them out quickly. It is best to order several in order to combine shipping costs.

He has thousands of jackets available but mostly mysteries and novels from the 1920s to 1970s. It all depends on what he can find and what he thinks is important whether he's going to have that jacket you need.

I was reminded to pass on the information because I had found a first edition of The House of Dr. Edwardes by Francis Beeding in excellent condition but minus the jacket. Copies are usually a bit expensive (because source material for the Hitchcock movie "Spellbound") but I got this one cheap because of the missing jacket. Once I get the reproduction jacket on it, the book will look great on the shelf.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (5Yee7)

158 Fine. I'm not saying she's not put herself out there as a target. I'm saying she's not as ugly as many people say she is.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (Pz4pT)


I agree. I think she's average looking, not ugly.

But what I was going after was the left's slobbering adulation of her like she's Helen of Troy. And their implicit demand that we all agree of be accused on Wrongthink.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (NzpD/)

159 "She wasn't a model, an actress, or a musician. She was quite simply the star of her own life -- and that was a game changer for Black women..."

Wasn't Michelle a lawyer? Oh wait, no, she was a Black Lawyer. Big difference. Like (half black) Barrack, she had no real law expertise, and they both backed away (gave up their law licenses?) from any actual legal work, to concentrate on identity politics.

Revisionist history is bad enough, but the quota system and diversity hires demand those revisions happen in real time. So the Obamas and now Rep. John Lewis are not just beyond reproach, but all they do is to be glorified, simply BECAUSE they are black. But Republican blacks can still be scorned for not being Wake.

Posted by: illiniwek at January 15, 2017 10:37 AM (/aIFg)

160 Oh, and speaking of not books, I watched the Debbie Reynolds/Carrie Fisher documentary on HBO: Bright Lights.

Amazing film. And at this point, terribly sad.

I would find it hard to believe anyone could watch this film and not come away with a greater appreciation for both of these women.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:38 AM (Pz4pT)

161 Greenberg is an amusing, well-informed, and rather snarky fellow. He describes a particular treaty as comfortable as a barbwire jockstrap. If this topic interests you, you could do worse than to listen to this.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:07 AM (Nwg0u)

Thanks for the tip! I have the Greenberg introductory course on understanding and appreciating great music, as well as his course on Beethoven's symphonies and I really enjoy him as a teacher. He leaves any PC leanings he might have out of his talks and he's very entertaining and passionate about his subject. I've found GC profs to be hit or miss - one (the History of Food guy) could not leave his left-wing proclivities out of his lectures and other ones are just not very exciting lecturers.

Greenberg is the best one I've seen. I wonder though, how he is faring out there in SF/Oakland. After all, he's a white guy teaching dead white guy stuff which means he's racist, classist and needs to check his privilege.

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 10:39 AM (P8951)

162 Last week's recommendation by vmom (Common Ground by Mackey Chandler ASIN: B0050YYVHY) was offered up for free as a sampler of short stories. It has since gone back to $4. For free, it hits my price point, and I enjoyed it. $4 is (for me) a bit too much for such a short read, even as much fun as it was.

The collection led me to 'April' (ASIN: B0077EOE2C) which I also enjoyed. It is about a space station that declares itself independent of Earth Gov, which is a topic that interests me. Some military tactics, some science, and an interesting character. (It was when the word 'cosplay' came to me that my perceptions of the story changed completely. That was a surprise to me.) The TV series Babylon 5 did a year or more on why the station had to declare itself independent that was so well done it was unsettling.

There was an attempt at democracy by the station population. Contra indications of Ancient Greece at Athens, the Romans in general, and the early days of Massachusetts Bay Colony seem to point out the flaws in direct democracy. Our own Representative Democracy in modern times doesn't seem to be doing so well either.

I also liked Mr. Chandler's 'Family Law' (ASIN: B006GQSZVS), and 'The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet' (ASIN: B00KYA9WTQ)

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at January 15, 2017 10:39 AM (9pknp)

163 In retrospect, I think Kirkpatrick must have been awesome, so I want to learn more about her with my new-found conservative filter.
Posted by: April at January 15, 2017 10:32 AM (e8PP1)


What put Kirkpatrick on the map was her essay in Commentary magazine "Dictatorships and Double Standards", mentioned on this very book thread a few weeks ago. Reagan was very impressed with it and that was the main reason he hired her.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 10:40 AM (NzpD/)

164 Obama and Michelle are certainly more attractive than John Kennedy and Jackie both of whom I thought were quite homely and are held up as some kind of pinnacles of attractiveness.

They both sounded retarded as well with that stupid patrician Boston accent of his and her long island meets inbred Manhattan brogue.

Posted by: Kreplach at January 15, 2017 10:40 AM (+lv+r)

165 If we don't agree that Michelle is the most gorgeous woman ever, then we are obviously racists. That's my issue with the left telling me what I need to think.

Posted by: NCKate at January 15, 2017 10:41 AM (oM8Np)

166 Hopefully that twin isn't also taking her clothes off on tv. That tends to help keep the repulse factor down.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:32 AM (Pz4pT)
(SFW)
http://tinyurl.com/gktoxty

http://tinyurl.com/zajveqy

Take a look at these two pictures. I'll admit I am cherry picking at bit here, but which of these seem, not like the more beautiful, but the more attractive lady?

One of the things I have noticed in my own experience is that someone will tell me that X is beautiful/hot/whatever and then I look at them, and while the constituent parts are there, they are not attractive. It is like looking at a painting that you can tell took truly great skill to paint, but you feel nothing when looking at it.

The smile does not reach the eyes. I found pictures of Megan Fox where she actually seemed to be smiling (it reached her eyes), but I found many more where her smile was on her lips, but her eyes seemed dead. Ms Upton on the other hand, never seems to smile without her eyes being completely in on the idea. One might say she is better at acting, but I think it is because she is a truly happy person, and it is something you pick up on subconsciously.

This goes without mentioning Ms Uptons other physical gifts. But the principle holds true. I felt the same way looking at Bo Derek as I do at Ms Fox.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:41 AM (92kX2)

167 Fine. I'm not saying she's not put herself out there as a target. I'm saying she's not as ugly as many people say she is.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:49 AM (Pz4pT)

I agree. I think she's average looking, not ugly.

But what I was going after was the left's slobbering adulation of her like she's Helen of Troy. And their implicit demand that we all agree of be accused on Wrongthink.
Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (NzpD/)


Which is precisely how we can fight back against this stuff, by being honest in pointing out how ridiculous it is.

Going to "she's really a man or a gorilla" stuff doesn't do any amount of good, and is at least as ugly as forced adulation.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:42 AM (Pz4pT)

168 John Wick Chapter 2

Feb. 10
Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (XziOA)

Can't wait. I will see this in the theater.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:43 AM (92kX2)

169 Thought it weird that Rowling really painted the government as filled with incompetents and borderline evil people when in real life she is a big government liberal.

That kind of thing is strange. Probably they never think much about whether their politics actually jibe with what they know about the world.

I've been reading a James Ellroy book (Perfidia) this week, and I had exactly the same thought. This guy must be a big liberal (I assumed) but he obviously thinks that city politics and bureaucracies are the work of the devil. Doesn't he see the conflict?

So then just now I googled to check, and learned that he's not a conventional liberal at all!

Q: How do you feel about Obama?
A: I hate him. I think he's a coward, incompetent and I find him sinister. He's the face of cancerous socialism under the guise of benevolence.

Heartwarming!

Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at January 15, 2017 10:43 AM (OVUYQ)

170 Borges' short stories are the closest you can get to having a psychedelic experience without taking LSD. His best known is El Aleph which is about an object the protagonist finds under his stairs that contains the entire universe.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 15, 2017 09:51 AM (EZebt)

Ah ha! Never thought about it, but that must me where "Aleph Objects" got their name. They make 3D printers, which can make any item in the universe, sort of...

Posted by: Bacon Jeff at January 15, 2017 10:43 AM (VSenK)

171 John Wick Chapter 2

Feb. 10
Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (XziOA)

Can't wait. I will see this in the theater.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:43 AM (92kX2)

Billy Badass ain't got a thing on JW.

Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 10:44 AM (XziOA)

172 159 Wasn't Michelle a lawyer? Oh wait, no, she was a
Black Lawyer. Big difference. Like (half black) Barrack, she had no real
law expertise, and they both backed away (gave up their law licenses?)
from any actual legal work, to concentrate on identity politics.

Revisionist
history is bad enough, but the quota system and diversity hires demand
those revisions happen in real time. So the Obamas and now Rep. John
Lewis are not just beyond reproach, but all they do is to be glorified,
simply BECAUSE they are black. But Republican blacks can still be
scorned for not being Wake.


Posted by: illiniwek at January 15, 2017 10:37 AM (/aIFg)

Her and Obama both allowed their law licenses to lapse so that they would not have to go through the expense of annual retraining and exams. Most "political" lawyers do this. Obama only did one court case anyway. And that was cooked case of a tort action against some innocent bank for BS "redlining" which is what gave us the banking collapse.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 10:46 AM (mpXpK)

173 This goes without mentioning Ms Uptons other physical gifts. But the principle holds true. I felt the same way looking at Bo Derek as I do at Ms Fox.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:41 AM (92kX2)

I see the point you are making, and it is noticeable in those two pictures... but I'm on record as saying Ms. Upton is a bit too chubby for my tastes.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:48 AM (Pz4pT)

174 The reason liberals worship their politicians and conservatives do not is quite simple. It's easy to be a liberal--we swim in a liberal-infested culture, so if you never think about things, you're a liberal.

Being a conservative means you had to question the culture you found yourself in, and learned that liberalism is not the truth.

Hence, liberals never think, they feel, and they feel that their leaders are gods. Conservatives think and examine things all the time, hence we know that even the best of us, like Reagan, were men. And while Reagan was great, he remained a man, with all the flaws that entails.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at January 15, 2017 10:49 AM (MZcWR)

175 Slept in.
Might get up and toddle over to the library, but first - coffee!

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 10:49 AM (/WPPJ)

176 Ah, the lionization of The Worst President Evah and his family continues apace.

Posted by: That deplorable guy who always says... at January 15, 2017 10:49 AM (Tyii7)

177 She reminds me of Joss Whedon in many ways. At the same time, she seems to be going round the bend a lot quicker (her various revisions to her own characters post facto.)
Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:33 AM (92kX2)

---

I agree. In season 4 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Whedon really painted government action against supernatural entities as hopelessly naive.
And then of course he went on to "Firefly". Where the government tries to create a passive, easily controlled docile population and ends up creating two types of people. One so apathetic they forget to eat and another that consists of homicidal cannibals.

Posted by: Darth Randall at January 15, 2017 10:50 AM (6n332)

178 About the Robert Greenberg Great Courses: I really enjoyed his "Bach and the High Baroque" class. It provides a lot of context that enhanced my appreciation for Bach and his compositions.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 10:50 AM (V+03K)

179 78 Two recent reads:
1) The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution". This is a fairly
low-level treatise on the evolution of H. Sapiens leading up to, and
especially since, the onset of agriculture and civilization. It's a
refutation of the antiscientific "we're all the same" propaganda pushed
by the left. Much of what it covers is well known to those paying
attention to such concepts, e.g. lactose tolerance, malaria defenses,
and the development of anomalously high IQs in Ashkenazim Jews, and
emphasizes the recent vintage of many of those traits. It is
surprisingly willing to venture into what is typically verboten
territory regarding IQ and general life skills. It's not a true
scholarly work given its intended broad audience, although the authors
appear to be actual scholars, but it gives you the broad outlines and
strokes. Very interesting.

2) "A Taste for Conquest: The Rise and Fall of The Three Great Cities of Spice".
This a fascinating look at
three cities (Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam) that drove the spice trade
and therefore much of European history. It provides background as to
the larger trends that were responsible for the rise and fall of each
cities' domination of the market, and puts the spice routes in the
context of the larger world's economy. A fun read.
Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (LAe3v)

I'm about to get controversial, and I don't Carr because Microevolution has been observed and proven.
So it's ok to point out that the Ashkenazim Jews have higher IQs but certain 3rd world countries and Continents have much lower IQs (homogeneous populations).

It almost as if the social engineers want these 3rd world populations invading and breeding (raping and shame breeding) into the 1st world populations to lower IQs, the standard of living, and allow for all types of control over the people to be much easier.

Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 10:51 AM (M3Kbo)

180 How about GF Handel? Fireworks and Water Music are awesome -- Messiah, anyone? I would be interested in what he has to say about the politics of court appointments.

-
Greenberg covers Water Music in discussing the English protestant reformation and changes to the royal succession arising from it. In discussing Bloody Mary he notes that most of her victims were burned at the stake so perhaps a more accurate nickname would be Crispy Mary.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 10:52 AM (Nwg0u)

181 Thought it weird that Rowling really painted the government as filled with incompetents and borderline evil people when in real life she is a big government liberal.
-------------------------------------
That kind of thing is strange. Probably they never think much about whether their politics actually jibe with what they know about the world.

Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at January 15, 2017 10:43 AM (OVUYQ)

If you ever spend time around government workers, you realize that's how they live their lives too.

Constantly complaining about how horrible government is (everybody but themselves, of course), and then turning around at election time and pulling the same levers time after time after time.

And it's not just "I'm voting to save my job" sort of things, they actually talk about how wonderful the Democrats are, and how evil Republicans are. It's so very simple-minded, and disconnected from reality.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:52 AM (Pz4pT)

182 The left often makes it seem like they literally want to be slaves to their political figures ("I pledge myself to Obama" and the lady who wanted to give BC a blowjob simply because of his political actions.)
Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:28 AM (92kX2)

Yeah, it's weird and a bit frightening. I've been accused of being a "Trump worshipper" by leftists just because I voted for him; when I say what I said in the comment quoted by OM, they don't seem to grasp it.

It's like they don't understand political support that doesn't involve blind adoration of a pol. The whole notion that pols work for us and are to be, not idolized but watched like hawks because power is corrupting - they don't get it.

Again, that's what happens when politics becomes your religion. Everyone wants heroes to admire; that's only human. In the case of leftists they admire one of the least admirable set of people on earth - people who want to wield power over others and control them.

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 10:54 AM (P8951)

183 Which is precisely how we can fight back against this stuff, by being honest in pointing out how ridiculous it is.
Going to "she's really a man or a gorilla" stuff doesn't do any amount of good, and is at least as ugly as forced adulation.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 10:42 AM (Pz4pT)

Yup....You know the saying, "Human see, human do."

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 10:55 AM (5VlCp)

184 "Patriotic Fire" by Winston Groom.
Non-fiction, history book about New Orleans, A. Jackson and J. Lafitte.
Picked it up at the National Park in NOLA last week.
Added to my collection of books about the War of 1812, a period that has greatly intrigued me of late.

Had a nice visit there, but man, was it cold. Brr.
Instead of the Big Easy I called it the Big Freezy.

Posted by: navybrat at January 15, 2017 10:55 AM (w7KSn)

185 In the realm of fantasty fiction-comedy writing, I found this mildly amusing this past week:


"Take the challenge of climate change. In just eight years, we've halved our dependence on foreign oil, doubled our renewable energy, and led the world to an agreement that has the promise to save this planet. But without bolder action, our children won't have time to debate the existence of climate change; they'll be busy dealing with its effects: environmental disasters, economic disruptions, and waves of climate refugees seeking sanctuary.

Now, we can and should argue about the best approach to the problem. But to simply deny the problem not only betrays future generations; it betrays the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided our founders." - BHO farewell address




My grandfather worked on a farm so that he might send his son to college to become an accountant, so that I might have the opportunity to slay the dragon known as 'Climate Change' so that my children could sit around and debate whether that dragon exidsted. (or something to that effect.)

Posted by: Muldoon at January 15, 2017 10:56 AM (wPiJc)

186 So it's wrongthink to justifiably believe with evidence that Michelle Obama is tranny. The evidence is there and questions are valid.

Joan Rivers said it was well known that Michelle Obama is a tranny (dude), and she died two days later. Calling that very suspicious is kind.

Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 10:56 AM (M3Kbo)

187 Joan Rivers said it was well known that Michelle
Obama is a tranny (dude), and she died two days later. Calling that very
suspicious is kind.

Posted by: Pepe


Just out of curiosity, how often do you buy aluminum foil?

Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 10:57 AM (LAe3v)

188 "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head"

/B.J.Thomas, noted OG climate refugee

Posted by: Muldoon at January 15, 2017 10:58 AM (wPiJc)

189 Every Obama speech was the same. Immediately afterward, the MSM would proclaim it the greatest speech since the Sermon on the Mount. The next day, no one could remember a single thing he said.

For a man the MSM unanimously proclaimed the Greatest Orator Since Cicero, Obama has said very little remotely memorable. What's his Challenger speech? "My Racist Grandmother"? If one is honest, the most memorable thing he ever said was, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."

Posted by: I Work for Dick Jones at January 15, 2017 10:59 AM (rft/I)

190 I started reading "American Fisherman" by Willie (Duck Dynasty) Robertson. So far it is enjoyable and informative. I could live without the obligatory photos of presidents fishing, but that is a minor quibble. I have a pretty good grasp of American history but I am learning more about the influence of fishing in this country, commercially and as sport, than expected.

He has another book, "American Hunter" in the same vein but haven't got to it yet.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 11:00 AM (V+03K)

191 Agreed. Send back the pants, but keep the models.

Posted by: Marooned at January 15, 2017 11:02 AM (KdYVH)

192 I'm reading a collection of trucking-themed horror short stories called "18 Wheels of Terror."

It's OK. Nothing spectacular.

Posted by: I Work for Dick Jones at January 15, 2017 11:02 AM (rft/I)

193 Joan Rivers said it was well known that Michelle
Obama is a tranny (dude), and she died two days later. Calling that very
suspicious is kind.

Posted by: Pepe

Just out of curiosity, how often do you buy aluminum foil?
Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 10:57 AM (LAe3v)


Buy? You BUY your aluminum foil???

That's what they WANT you to do!

No, I save my urine and trap sewer rats to harvest their tapeworms, and make my own aluminum foil.

The way God says we should.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:02 AM (Pz4pT)

194 What's his Challenger speech? "My Racist Grandmother"? If one is honest, the most memorable thing he ever said was, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
Posted by: I Work for Dick Jones at January 15, 2017 10:59 AM (rft/I)


Giving a shout-out to Joe Medicine Crow and then a half-assed mention about how some people died at Ft. Hood.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 11:03 AM (8nWyX)

195 189 Every Obama speech was the same. Immediately afterward, the MSM would proclaim it the greatest speech since the Sermon on the Mount. The next day, no one could remember a single thing he said. "

The same thing was true of Billy Jeff. He'd give those marathon SOTU addresses and the next day you couldn't remember any of it.

What are the memorable phrases from Clinton, who was praised for being so eloquent? "I did not have sex with that woman" "It depends what the meaning of 'is' is" and "Put some ice on it."

Truly, words for the ages!

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 11:04 AM (P8951)

196 John Wick Chapter 2


Feb. 10

Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 10:35 AM (XziOA)



Can't wait. I will see this in the theater. Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:43 AM (92kX2)


I watched the first one for the first time just this week, based on moron recommendations.

I hated it. It was one of the most pointlessly violent movies I have ever seen. Maybe I just didn't get.

Oh well. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:04 AM (NzpD/)

197 Ii seems inside every American Democrat lurks someone just one tiny bit away from drinking the grape Flavor-Aid.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:05 AM (CQnAL)

198 What's his Challenger speech? "My Racist Grandmother"? If one is honest, the most memorable thing he ever said was, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
Posted by: I Work for Dick Jones at January 15, 2017 10:59 AM (rft/I)


"If I had a son he would look like Tarpon Martin."*

"That rayciss cop acted stupidly."*


*Not exact word for word quotes, in order to do that I would have to look them up, which I won't.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:06 AM (Pz4pT)

199 but the progressives who control academia, education, entertainment and most of the media are not so constitutionally limited.

Produce nothing useful and are mostly funded thru tax-dollars and a few ultra-rich donors (one of whom is just begging for rendition).

Posted by: DaveA at January 15, 2017 11:07 AM (8J/Te)

200 "... into the 1st world populations to lower IQs, the standard of living, and allow for all types of control over the people to be much easier. Posted by: Pepe

there was something in the Wikileaks emails of Podesta IIRC, about their intent to dumb down society by way of the education system. It seems rather obvious, but I was rather surprised to see they openly speak of such anti-societal actions.

Change toward a more fascist state is one (ill-conceived) thing, but to actually try to destroy the mind of the general population is moving toward pure evil. It is the Tonya Harding approach ... knee cap all the competition. But to do that to all society is genicidaltype thinking.

Posted by: illiniwek at January 15, 2017 11:07 AM (/aIFg)

201 I'm the sexiest bitch in the world.

*snaps fingers 3 times*

Posted by: RuPaul, totally a woman at January 15, 2017 11:07 AM (M3Kbo)

202 I watched the first one for the first time just this week, based on moron recommendations.

I hated it. It was one of the most pointlessly violent movies I have ever seen. Maybe I just didn't get.

Oh well. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that.
Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:04 AM (NzpD/)

Huh. Nothing wrong with that. For myself, I liked the way they did characterization without endlessly talking. I thought they really used the medium to communicate who he was and where he was at mentally, without the need for exposition. The movie treated us as grown-ups who could figure things out for ourselves, and that is a rarity these days.

But I could see how the violence would be off putting.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:07 AM (92kX2)

203 I saw a very interesting show on The History Channel, The Nazi Jesus. It was about the Pope's conflict with Hitler but more interesting was Hitler's attempt to reform Protestant Christianity in his own image. They edited the Bible excising all the yucky Jewish parts and anything else not sufficiently Nazi. The entire Old Testament is verboten and numerous other changes were made. They had to rewrite the Sermon on the Mount because the Beatitudes about the meek inheriting the Earth and the peacemakers being blessed did not warrant the Big Adolph seal of approval. They printed and sold 600,000 copies to churches all over Germany.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 11:09 AM (Nwg0u)

204 "the most pointlessly violent movies I have ever seen."



Umm. Dude.

Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 11:09 AM (XziOA)

205 thanks Vic ... I was thinking there may have been something where one or both Obamas had to give up their license for bad practice. That is the way some leave, where they step down rather than be disbarred. Hillary deserved to be disbarred early on ... not sure what corrupt figures she fell in with to keep her license so long.

Posted by: illiniwek at January 15, 2017 11:10 AM (/aIFg)

206 Jeez, I was checking out my amazon wish list, seeing if anything was on sale and one of the books on it is now up to $22- for the kindle version!

Gah.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:10 AM (92kX2)

207 189, 194

O's best speech was the DNC keynote in 2004.

The only line I remember was: "We worship an awesome God in the blue states and we've got gay friends in the red states." But the overall impression was very strong - he seemed like the kind of centrist democrat that could be big trouble later on. (Turned out to be half right, I guess.)

Posted by: Geronimo Stilton at January 15, 2017 11:10 AM (OVUYQ)

208 Reading The Screwtape Letters -- a remarkable amount of theology in there -- and Salvation Belongs to the Lord by Calvinist theologian John Frame. Also, I'm working through my unspoken New Year's resolution to write 1,000 words a day 5 times a week. Going well.

Posted by: joncelli, whose moobs are not calm at January 15, 2017 11:10 AM (1FhAQ)

209 For rons and ettes who aren't careful, Davis Sedaris has a book called "Barrel Fever". I haven't read it so it might be an historic retrospective, a how-to book on avoiding The Barrel, or a spiritual guide warning that there is a Barrel waiting for all of us.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 11:11 AM (V+03K)

210 in "the rape of the masters" kimball performs a series of intellectual rescue operations"; that's roger kimball, editor and publisher of "the new criterion".

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 11:12 AM (WTSFk)

211 Read Patricia McKillip's Harpist in the Wind (Riddle-Master #3), satisfying conclusion to her riddling fantasy. Read the books many years ago and have held up very well, beautifully written.

Read The King's Sword (Erdemen Honor #1) by C.J. Brightley, first story in the Noblebright box set. Very entertaining story of a retired soldier traveling the countryside with a young prince who has fled for his life from a coup. Good start to the collection.

Listened to Pyramids (Discworld #7) by Terry Pratchett, which takes place in a land like ancient Egypt. Extremely funny throughout though got a bit confused near the end, enjoyed it a lot.

Posted by: waelse1 at January 15, 2017 11:12 AM (0sGOe)

212 Aetius, save $19 and buy my book.

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/B014BTSEYO

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:12 AM (CQnAL)

213 Oh well. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that.Posted by OregonMuse


*****

I Don't Know Latin But Let Me See If I Can Translate This - a limerick


While reading the comments at random
I saw some fake Latin in tandem
"The sputum of Gus
Rode a dishonest bus?"
De gustibus non est disputandum!

Posted by: Muldoon at January 15, 2017 11:12 AM (wPiJc)

214 Thanks to whoever recommended "The Captured" by Scott Zesch last week or the week before. It's a history of children who were kidnapped by Comanches, some of whom spent a brief time with them and all but forgot their earlier lives.

I live in the area the Comanche controlled and have always been fascinated by the history. Fortunately, my tiny hometown library has a pretty good Texas history section. I read "Empire of the Summer Moon" a few years ago and found that to be an excellent read, as well.

Posted by: huerfano at January 15, 2017 11:12 AM (jkkMG)

215 209 For rons and ettes who aren't careful, Davis Sedaris has a book called "Barrel Fever". I haven't read it so it might be an historic retrospective, a how-to book on avoiding The Barrel, or a spiritual guide warning that there is a Barrel waiting for all of us.
Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 11:11 AM (V+03K)

The maw of the Barrel is also in the eyes of Lena Dunham.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:13 AM (92kX2)

216 187 Joan Rivers said it was well known that Michelle
Obama is a tranny (dude), and she died two days later. Calling that very
suspicious is kind.

Posted by: Pepe

Just out of curiosity, how often do you buy aluminum foil?
Posted by: pep at January 15, 2017 10:57 AM (LAe3v)

How often do you believe a man dressed as a woman is a woman? How often does this please you?

Ever since the inception of the theater, men have been dressing as women attempting to fool the audience. So no this is not tin foil hat territory. Believing anything about the Obama story is, since it is locked up and proven to be a fraud and forgery.

Seriously, keep believe the MSM that is on record as driving home narratives instead of facts. I'll believe my own eyes and ears and make up my mind for myself.

Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:13 AM (M3Kbo)

217 I have to stay home this morning for the plumber, so I'm able to finally be part of a morning thread IN THE MORNING. I've picked up Scott Adam's "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Sill Win Big." I'm a sucker for self-help books, even though I must be the most resistant human on earth, because they never seem to help. But they're always interesting.

Posted by: Smallish Bees at January 15, 2017 11:13 AM (yjhOG)

218 But the nastiness just oozes out of her and that makes her ugly to me.
Posted by: cfomahm at January 15, 2017 09:58 AM (RfzVr)


If you ever feel the need to improve your impression about her a little, there's a video on youtube where Ellen de Generes takes her to CVS.

Now, I personally don't think the FLOTUS should be doing things like that, BUT, she actually comes across as very normal, just a regular person. I watch it now and then when I get especially pissed at something she says, or does to remind myself that she is in fact human.

We demonize both of them here and while their actions support that most of the time, I don't like having Obama Derangement Syndrome any more than I liked seeing lefties with BDS and TDS.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 11:13 AM (kqtMD)

219
"Blood Meridian" is a fine novel. Sort of magical realism/surrealism. Reminded me a little of "100 Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Posted by: Frankly at January 15, 2017 11:14 AM (gPfVD)

220 Listened to Pyramids (Discworld #7) by Terry Pratchett, which takes place in a land like ancient Egypt. Extremely funny throughout though got a bit confused near the end, enjoyed it a lot.
Posted by: waelse1 at January 15, 2017 11:12 AM (0sGOe)


There is no bad Discworld book.

It takes a few books to get cranking if you start with TCoM, but I've never read one and thought "gosh, I wish I hadn't read that".

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 11:15 AM (8nWyX)

221 one of obama's main rhetorical devices is the straw man argument, setting up a preposterous enemy, often reductio ad absurdum, to knock down. he does it over and over again.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 11:15 AM (WTSFk)

222 212 Aetius, save $19 and buy my book.

http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/B014BTSEYO
Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:12 AM (CQnAL)

Is it about the History of the Crusader Kingdoms?

I actually have your Golden Isis(?) in my "to read" section on my kindle. Need to get to that (and about 6-7 others) sometime soon.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:15 AM (92kX2)

223 What are the memorable phrases from Clinton, who was praised for being so eloquent? "I did not have sex with that woman" "It depends what the meaning of 'is' is" and "Put some ice on it."
Truly, words for the ages!

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersandsand so there at January 15, 2017 11:04 AM (P8951)


Heh. I actually *do* remember the Obama speech that had the "we are the change we've been waiting for" line. Which coincidentally, forms part of the title of Dionne's compilation.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:15 AM (NzpD/)

224
Now, if you're Mary Clogginstein's husband...[.i]

She has one?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at January 15, 2017 11:15 AM (IqV8l)

225 Oddly, every Crusader state history book on my wish list is now over $22 for the kindle version.

Can I borrow some tinfoil?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:17 AM (92kX2)

226 Joncelli, a thousand words a day. Congrats! I've started back writing on the San Francisco story. I want to finish it!

----
And of course how can I not mention James Patterson will be teaching his MasterClass courses. For $90.
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/james-patterson-teaches-writing

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:17 AM (CQnAL)

227 79 Is there an actual, paying, audience for ludicrous, over the top gushing about the Obamas? I honestly can't conceive of that.
I mean I liked Margaret Thatcher but one biography was good enough for me.
But I guess the publishing business isn't about business any more.
Posted by: Northernlurker at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (nBr1j)


On a related sidenote, the plot of last week's penultimate Sherlock episode revolved around six different people's deep affection for Thatcher, to the point that each had varying sized shrines to her memory, including a specific plaster bust of her.

Posted by: John the Baptist at January 15, 2017 11:17 AM (MPH+3)

228 224
Now, if you're Mary Clogginstein's husband...[.i]

She has one?
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at January 15, 2017 11:15 AM (IqV8l)

That's what she calls her problematic cis-gendernormative cat.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:17 AM (92kX2)

229 *glares at Cabot*

Posted by: The Barrel at January 15, 2017 11:17 AM (mgbwf)

230 So, there actually is such a thing as "Michelle-is-a-tranny-trutherism?"


Criminy. Time to step away from the keyboard.

Posted by: Muldoon at January 15, 2017 11:18 AM (wPiJc)

231 We demonize both of them here and while their actions support that most of the time, I don't like having Obama Derangement Syndrome any more than I liked seeing lefties with BDS and TDS.
Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 11:13 AM (kqtMD)

See two comments above this one.

Some things just aren't worth responding to.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:19 AM (Pz4pT)

232 Is there an actual, paying, audience for ludicrous, over the top gushing about the Obamas? I honestly can't conceive of that.
I mean I liked Margaret Thatcher but one biography was good enough for me.
But I guess the publishing business isn't about business any more.
Posted by: Northernlurker at January 15, 2017 09:55 AM (nBr1j)

I think they are books that they buy, lose interest in, but want to have in the house so they can be seen to have read them. Like buying the New York Times to impress a liberal college girlfriend.

Not that I ever did that.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:19 AM (92kX2)

233 >>Heh. I actually *do* remember the Obama speech that had the "we are the
change we've been waiting for" line. Which coincidentally, forms part of
the title of Dionne's compilation.

Ones I remember:

-- You didn't build that
-- Oceans of tomorrow, skies of tomorrow (no idea what he meant)
-- Let me be clear (followed by a huge lie)

Posted by: Lizzy at January 15, 2017 11:19 AM (NOIQH)

234
A couple of good reads for fans of WW2 Naval warfare:

"Sentinels of Fire"

"The Commodore"

Both by P.T. Deutermann

Posted by: Frankly at January 15, 2017 11:19 AM (gPfVD)

235 205
thanks Vic ... I was thinking there may have been something where one or
both Obamas had to give up their license for bad practice. That is the
way some leave, where they step down rather than be disbarred. Hillary
deserved to be disbarred early on ... not sure what corrupt figures she
fell in with to keep her license so long.


Posted by: illiniwek at January 15, 2017 11:10 AM (/aIFg)


The sad thing is that it is almost impossible to be disbarred. The only people I know of who have been disbarred are ones who have actually been caught in a MAJOR felony. Clinton has his law license temporally suspended for 5 years but got it back for committing perjury in court.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 11:20 AM (mpXpK)

236 A few new thibgs have arrived. I think my Amazon purchases have bought Mr. Bezos his new house.

Bonhoffer, by Eric Metaxas

The Autobiography of a Seaman, by Admiral Lord Chocrane (not what I expected, basically an apologia and defense of his behavior in several long- forgotten scandals)

The Voyage of the Frigate "Princesa" to Southern California in 1782. I'm slowly working my way through the logs and juornals of the Spaniards, Russians, British, and Americans who explored the Pacific Coast.

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 11:21 AM (/WPPJ)

237 And of course how can I not mention James Patterson will be teaching his MasterClass courses. For $90.
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/james-patterson-teaches-writing
Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:17 AM (CQnAL)


James Patterson writes?

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:22 AM (Pz4pT)

238 reduction ad absurdum is a commonality of the left, so much so that it was back in 1952 (!) that leo strauss noted the reductio ad hitler argument employed by the left.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 11:22 AM (WTSFk)

239 My question is what is a good time management book that explains the steps I need to begin. Once I start I'll be fine , but I need to know how to start.
Posted by: Abby at January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (HBU7W)

if it's just for keeping track of your boojs and what you read, Goodreads is ok at that.
If you have their app on your phone you can just scan the barcode and it will add that book to your shelf.
The downside is other people will be able to see your books.
Also for me I get lazy about it.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:22 AM (Om16U)

240 You know, looking at my amazon wish list- it paints an odd picture. Hawaian shirts. Fantasy novels, Historical novels, swords, and a full size Crosley jukebox. And leather dusters.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:23 AM (92kX2)

241 Crusader States? You mean like Cyprus?

Probably already have John J. Robinson's Dungeon, Fire, and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades on your shelf then plus a whole lot of related titles. But not a single Dan Brown Da Vinci Code book.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:23 AM (CQnAL)

242 "the most pointlessly violent movies I have ever seen."
Umm. Dude.
Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 11:09 AM (XziOA)


OK, looks like I'm going to have to put up or shut up.

So...

That night scene where Wick's old mob boss sends a team to his house to take him out. It would have been sufficient for cinematic/storytelling purposes to send a team of 2 goons and have Wick shoot them both. But no, there's about 20 goons on the team, and so Wick has to kill them ALL. And the scene just goes on and on, there's bullets flying and blood splattering everywhere and the only I thing I found myself wanting was for it to end.

And then after all of this mass carnage, a cop shows up, looks around, doesn't question anything much, says OK fine, and leaves. I burst out laughing at that point, it was so ridiculous.

By the end of the movie, Wick has seemingly managed to wipe out the entire Serbian mafia. Which I would think will make it hard for the sequel. I guess they'll have to go to Serbia and import a few more or him to kill.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:23 AM (NzpD/)

243 Skookumchuk, nice collection of book you have.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:23 AM (Om16U)

244 "But I suspect all the liberals that buy it will just lay it on their coffee table so guests can see how "in tune" they are. "

This is a prime example of "virtue douching".

Posted by: Twin Cities Daydrunk, damning snow and all its acoutrements at January 15, 2017 11:24 AM (TSJEX)

245 Hi Anna, Thanks for the H Piper recommendation last week. I grabbed one of the free for kindle ones Murder in the GunRoom to see if I liked his style and it was an hardboiled detective rather than SF. I like mysteries as well as SF and enjoyed it even w/o knowing antique pistols. I then sprang for the mega-pack and that appears to be ordered by theme with time anomalies first so I'm going to have to skip around because I can only take small doses of that at a time.

Posted by: PaleRider at January 15, 2017 11:26 AM (Jen0I)

246 Great comment above about Kate Upton's smile -- genuine -- vs. Megan Fox's -- insincere.

Everyone is calling Congressman John Lewis an icon. How does a person become an icon? Don't these people realize the word means an object to be worshiped.

NBC Chuck Todd had Lewis on and suggested that a Trump impeachment is the remedy for his election being illegitimate. Earlier he had Sen Feinstein on who said that she believes Hillary would have won but for Putin (and Comey). Comey is already being set-up for a fall. Trump's not selling his business is another angle of attack.

Fuck you, War!

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 11:26 AM (bQxkN)

247 No, I save my urine and trap sewer rats to harvest their tapeworms, and make my own aluminum foil.



The way God says we should.


All is proceeding as prophesied.

Posted by: King Tree Rat at January 15, 2017 11:26 AM (8J/Te)

248 -- Let me be clear (followed by a huge lie)
Posted by: Lizzy at January 15, 2017 11:19 AM (NOIQH)


Yeah, he says that a lot. Either that, or, "I've always been clear..." just before telling a giant whopper.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:27 AM (NzpD/)

249 And then after all of this mass carnage, a cop shows up, looks around, doesn't question anything much, says OK fine, and leaves. I burst out laughing at that point, it was so ridiculous.

By the end of the movie, Wick has seemingly managed to wipe out the entire Serbian mafia. Which I would think will make it hard for the sequel. I guess they'll have to go to Serbia and import a few more or him to kill.
Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:23 AM (NzpD/)


There's a film, probably about 10 years (or more) old, called "A History of Violence." I have not seen "John Wick," but your description reminds me of that film.

Among all the other silliness of it, there's a scene where the main character is being dragged back into his old life, and he says something like "violence never solves anything" to his kid, and then the kid smarts off in some way. So... the guy hauls off and cracks the kid a good one.

I can't remember laughing so hard at anything in my life.

I mean, good grief, please filmmakers. How's about at least one small subtle touch of respect for your audience's intelligence?

Please? Is that too much to ask for?

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:29 AM (Pz4pT)

250 I don't like having Obama Derangement Syndrome

Here's to hoping non-exposure will decrease the symptoms.

Posted by: DaveA at January 15, 2017 11:30 AM (8J/Te)

251 I can't remember laughing so hard at anything in my life.
I mean, good grief, please filmmakers. How's about at least one small subtle touch of respect for your audience's intelligence?
Please? Is that too much to ask for?
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:29 AM (Pz4pT)

Yes...yes it is. They just want your money.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 11:30 AM (5VlCp)

252 11 Books to Help Us Make it Through the Trump Presidency could be retitled:

"How To Maintain Your Status as a Perpetual Victim."

All the books except one focus on victim status.

Spoiler 1: sorry white hetero guys, you're out of luck.

Spoiler 2: millenials don't read books

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 11:31 AM (J5mC3)

253 ... or "let me be clear" followed by a straw man reductio ad absurdum.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 11:31 AM (WTSFk)

254
Everyone is calling Congressman John Lewis an icon. How does a person become an icon? Don't these people realize the word means an object to be worshiped.

I have a bunch of icons on my desktop. None of them look like John Lewis.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at January 15, 2017 11:31 AM (IqV8l)

255 Votermom - thanks. And then there's another one in the family room. After staring at a screen all day working, I try not to stare at another screen for relaxation. It's reading, or woodworking, or walks, anything else.

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 11:31 AM (/WPPJ)

256 Comey is already being set-up for a fall.

-
Sucks to be you, James.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 11:31 AM (Nwg0u)

257 41 Recommended here several weeks ago, I read The Charm School by Nelson DeMille. It's an excellent spy story sent in Moscow, and as others have noted, it gets one wondering how much is fiction and how much is fact. Scary stuff.

Nelson DeMille is one of greatest living writers.

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (nQ10o)

258 OM, Thanks as always for the Book Thread, truly a highlight of each weekend. And thanks for mentioning "The Rape of the Masters". The local library doesn't have it, of course, but I just ordered a used hardcover edition for a penny plus shipping. CBD's midmorning art threads have whetted my appetite for the topic.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (V+03K)

259 I would say that John Wick, the movie, is gratuitously violent rather than pointlessly violent.
The point being that you do not piss off John Wick.
I enjoyed it as a revenge flick.

In terms of action stars, he's still no Bruce Willis though.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (Om16U)

260 But no, there's about 20 goons on the team, and so Wick has to kill them ALL.

I watched John Wick whilst on the phone with an 'Ette who loves it. I hated it. Unfortunately I don't remember things I don't like so all I remember is the premise about the hotel for assassins. Which I hated.

But that's not what I came here to talk about. I came to talk about the 20 goons.

In a bad movie (I'm looking at you, Hard Boiled) a minivan shows up and bad guys keep spilling out until there must have been 50 goons in the minivan.

In a good movie (of course I mean Seven Samurai) our guys count the bad guys. There are 40. They make a banner with 40 circles and cross one out each time they kill one.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (mgbwf)

261 [... i like saying "straw man" and "reductio ad absurdum", but obama uses both rhetorically.]

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (WTSFk)

262 Library of Skookumchuk Wow. Good show. I am impressed with the volume and the order.

Posted by: gracepc at January 15, 2017 11:33 AM (OU4q6)

263 Obama is also fond of introducing a sentence with, "As I have said..." This is using himself as a reference, as if it adds authority for what follows.

Posted by: I Work for Dick Jones at January 15, 2017 11:33 AM (rft/I)

264 You know, looking at my amazon wish list- it paints an odd picture.
Hawaian shirts. Fantasy novels, Historical novels, swords, and a full
size Crosley jukebox. And leather dusters.
---

It says "You're complex and nuanced."

/coming fom someone who listens to Metallica and The Fifth Dimension

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 11:33 AM (J5mC3)

265 I can't remember laughing so hard at anything in my life.
I mean, good grief, please filmmakers. How's about at least one small subtle touch of respect for your audience's intelligence?
Please? Is that too much to ask for?
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:29 AM (Pz4pT)

Yes...yes it is. They just want your money.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 11:30 AM (5VlCp)


If I recall, I bought the thing in one of those bargain bin used sales, 3 for $10 or something like that. so if they're out to get my money, they might be doing it wrong.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:34 AM (Pz4pT)

266 Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:23 AM (NzpD/)

John Wick is violent...

But pales in comparison to Kill Bill vol 1 and 2.

Posted by: Don Q. at January 15, 2017 11:34 AM (qf6WZ)

267 "Folks..."

Posted by: words forever ruined by TFG at January 15, 2017 11:35 AM (Om16U)

268 soon to be history sock off

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:36 AM (Om16U)

269 >>That night scene where Wick's old mob boss sends a team to his house to take him out. It would have been sufficient for cinematic/storytelling purposes to send a team of 2 goons and have Wick shoot them both. But no, there's about 20 goons on the team, and so Wick has to kill them ALL. And the scene just goes on and on, there's bullets flying and blood splattering everywhere and the only I thing I found myself wanting was for it to end.

No, no, no. You don't send only 2 goons to kill John Wick. John Wick is the man you send to kill the Boogie Man, you aren't going to take him down with only two guys.

This is the whole point behind John Wick. He is the killer of killers. He was saved from this life first by the love of woman and then by the puppy she left for him to love.

When they killed the puppy, they brought Wick back to his killing ways. He doesn't just kill, he destroys everything.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2017 11:36 AM (/tuJf)

270 PaleRider, yes Piper wrote quite a few time travel stories, from time crime to criminals trying to escape justice of the howling mob. The Fuzzy books explores what do Humans do when they discover a race of cute fuzzballs who seem to have hit an evolutionary and cultural brick wall. In Uller Uprising there is mutiny among the natives. While the short story The Return Piper lightly touches Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic character. Omnilingual is probably the best short story on trying to crack a dead alien language, even if that race is the Martians.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (CQnAL)

271 But pales in comparison to Kill Bill vol 1 and 2.
---

As a female, it seems like the Liberal Gender Rules say that I shouldn't like those films.

But I do.

/kind of remind me of the old British TV series "The Avengers"

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (J5mC3)

272 Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:23 AM (NzpD/)

One of the things you missed (which means the movie did not do as good a job as I thought) was the world building. They created a world in which there is an entire underground infrastructure for the assassins, with cops and cleaners, assassin night clubs and hotels.

The idea was to show not just that world, but that Wick was at the top of that world (everyone knew who he was) and yet he had walked away- for love.

It implies more than it explains. What was the impossible task that Vigo set Wick in order to be able to leave the mafia? We do not know, but what is implied is something of a Herculian labor- but with murder.

The movie also does a great job in showing us that Wick is not the man he was "Baba Yaga." He tried to walk away, to expunge the darkness in his soul. This is remarked on my the characters in how they react to him:

You struck my son.

Yes sir I did.

Why?

He killed John Wick's dog, and stole his car.

Oh.

*click*

Vigo's reaction (and we can see he is a powerful figure in the mafia) tells us a lot of what we need to know about who John Wick is as well as his motivation by that reaction.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (92kX2)

273 When I was 5, my family rented Tootsie on VHS. My mom and sisters loves it. I had no clue but was entertained My dad was not pleased. Being the awesome father and warrior that he was, when he put me to bed that night, he told me that Tootsie was a man. He made sure I grasped it. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and angry because I was tricked. He told me that people are not always nice and try and truck you, especially with things like that. I'm blessed he was humble enough to explain that to me ASAP.

He made it a point that it is in human nature (a dark side) to see other people humiliated. That has always held up to be true.

Carry on and God Bless.

Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (M3Kbo)

274 He doesn't just kill, he destroys everything.

==

Like Trump.

Posted by: Hillary and Bill Clinton Inc at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (Om16U)

275 off already history sock

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:39 AM (Om16U)

276 In a bad movie (I'm looking at you, Hard Boiled) a minivan shows up and bad guys keep spilling out until there must have been 50 goons in the minivan.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (mgbwf)


Heh. Think of it as one of those little clown cars at the circus where the doors open and more clowns come out than you can possibly imagine. It's like they're coming in from another dimension.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 11:39 AM (NzpD/)

277 256 Comey is already being set-up for a fall.

-
Sucks to be you, James.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, This Is the Dawning of the Age of the Trumpius! at January 15, 2017 11:31 AM (Nwg0u)

What is interesting about the whole Anti Comey line of attack.

They are attacking him because he would NOT allow her Position to Trump the Law.

He was not sufficiently deferential to her 'position' as a Politician.... and THAT is why he is under attack.

Its framed under the cover of 'Policy', not LAW....

Posted by: Don Q. at January 15, 2017 11:39 AM (qf6WZ)

278 Seven Samurai is one of my favorites. Best Western ever.

I like my action flicks to be more realistic. In Seven Samurai its 7 against 40, but the seven have a plan for how to cut down the larger numbers in set piece actions and enlist the locals as auxiliaries.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 11:40 AM (bQxkN)

279 Greetings:

Me, I'm thinking that Michelle Obama's law license was probably just misfiled with Barack's college records and sent off to the bowels of Fort Knox.

Posted by: 11B40 at January 15, 2017 11:40 AM (evgyj)

280
214 Thanks to whoever recommended "The Captured" by Scott Zesch last week or the week before. It's a history of children who were kidnapped by Comanches, some of whom spent a brief time with them and all but forgot their earlier lives.

Also recommended: "9 Years Among the Indians"

by Herman Lehmann. Autobiography.

Probably only available at Amazon.

Posted by: Frankly at January 15, 2017 11:40 AM (gPfVD)

281 When I was 5, my family rented Tootsie on VHS. My mom and sisters loves it. I had no clue but was entertained My dad was not pleased. Being the awesome father and warrior that he was, when he put me to bed that night, he told me that Tootsie was a man. He made sure I grasped it. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and angry because I was tricked. He told me that people are not always nice and try and truck you, especially with things like that. I'm blessed he was humble enough to explain that to me ASAP.

He made it a point that it is in human nature (a dark side) to see other people humiliated. That has always held up to be true.

Carry on and God Bless.
Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (M3Kbo)


Are you serious? If you are, then I feel sorry for you. I really do.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:41 AM (Pz4pT)

282 Pepe:

RE: Joan Rivers, I'm not in disagreement with you.

Just because something seems insane/improbable doesn't mean it can't be true.

Case in point: POE Trump.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 11:41 AM (J5mC3)

283 I think Mooch is unhappy because she's always been in the cult of perpetual victimhood.

If she ever leaves politics I will pray for her happiness, sincerely.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:43 AM (Om16U)

284 283 I think Mooch is unhappy because she's always been in the cult of perpetual victimhood.

If she ever leaves politics I will pray for her happiness, sincerely.
Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:43 AM (Om16U)

You are truly a much nicer person, than I...

I will hope for.... Karma...

Posted by: Don Q. at January 15, 2017 11:44 AM (qf6WZ)

285 "after all of this mass carnage, a cop shows up, looks around, doesn't question anything much, says OK fine, and leaves. I burst out laughing at that point, it was so ridiculous." oregon muse

and then "dinner for eight" to get the clean up crew in.

But I liked the cop part. I think the point is the cops know a lot of underworld crap goes on, and in many places there is a level of detente with the crime syndicates. (silver or lead choices). Mike Royko revealed "The Boss" some 40 years ago, but Chicago seems to operate the same corrupt way, not much changed except an occassional IL governor gets convicted.

And it is not just localized ... look no further than our justice department and the Clintons with their improperly set up foundation, private server for national intel, money from foreign nations even enemies ... operating with a wink and nod from top cops Holder and Lynch.

The cop asks Wick "are you working again?" He obviously knew what kind of work Wick did. Ignoring our border laws is just as absurd, or Hillary giving an open border speech to bankers, while lying to the general population. Happens all the time, unfortunately. In my little town, a former asst DA got away (for 8 years, case now in retrial) with (allegedly) killing his wife with the kids in the house. I believe every lawyer in town knew/thought he did it, but (mostly) mum is the word.

Posted by: illiniwek at January 15, 2017 11:45 AM (/aIFg)

286 *If you ever feel the need to improve your impression about her a little,
there's a video on youtube where Ellen de Generes takes her to CVS.*

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 11:13 AM

I will look at that later Tammy. I respect your opinion and am willing to give it a whirl. I think my opinion of Michelle is pretty well set, but I am not averse to seeing a side of her that does not reinforce my prejudices.

Posted by: cfomahm at January 15, 2017 11:45 AM (RfzVr)

287 281 When I was 5, my family rented Tootsie on VHS. My mom and sisters loves it. I had no clue but was entertained My dad was not pleased. Being the awesome father and warrior that he was, when he put me to bed that night, he told me that Tootsie was a man. He made sure I grasped it. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and angry because I was tricked. He told me that people are not always nice and try and truck you, especially with things like that. I'm blessed he was humble enough to explain that to me ASAP.

He made it a point that it is in human nature (a dark side) to see other people humiliated. That has always held up to be true.

Carry on and God Bless.
Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (M3Kbo)


Are you serious? If you are, then I feel sorry for you. I really do.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:41 AM (Pz4pT)

I was 5. Why would you feel sorry for me having a great father?

You proved my point with you reply to my comment BTW.

Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:45 AM (M3Kbo)

288 If she ever leaves politics I will pray for her happiness, sincerely.

Some people are happiest being unhappy.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2017 11:47 AM (kCDOM)

289 >> I think Mooch is unhappy because she's always been in the cult of perpetual victimhood.


That and an Ass the size of Rhode Island.

Posted by: garrett at January 15, 2017 11:48 AM (OhOyF)

290 Aestius, your Amazon wish list will be nuanced when there are leather chaps on it... ;

Bandersnatch, movies like John Wick and the Kill Bill series I have watched once and have never watched again. Neither holds my repeated attention. Now was I entertained, yes much like Smoking Aces entertained me. And none of these movies are in my personal library. All are violent exploding popcorn movies. And with my exposure to Kill Bill I have also been exposed to every Tarantino movie that guy has made and will likely ever make, violent rehashes of movie tropes so will never watch another Tarantino movie.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 11:48 AM (CQnAL)

291 A friend of mine claimed Hillary was first in her Yale Law school class. Actually, The Smartest Woman in the World failed to pass the DC Bar exam.

Posted by: Lawrence Larson at January 15, 2017 11:49 AM (gNKbf)

292 We have two public companies that make handguns. Their stock prices did quite well during the Obama years -- best gun salesman ever!

Both Ruger and S&W's stock prices fell sharply on Trump's victory. (S&W is now named American Outdoor Brands Corp)

So the market expects fewer US gun sales with Trump in office than Hillary. Funny that.

Which reminds me ...

Which individual did the most to save the whales?

John D. Rockefeller, who had his early success with kerosene for lamps, which greatly reduced demand for whale oil.

Which individual did the most to reduce global CO2 emissions?

George Phydias Mitchell (May 21, 1919 -- July 26, 2013), the father of fracking. Increasing use of fracked natural gas is reducing our use of dirtier coal. Outside of Houston, where he was also a big real estate developer, no one knows his name.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 11:49 AM (bQxkN)

293 Greetings:

For Texican-Mexican-Indian history, I would recommend anything by T.R. Fehrenbach especially his "Comanches: The History of a People" which has been helpfully, in a progressive way, retitled "Comanches; The Destruction of a People" no doubt by an editor of a certain ilk.

Posted by: 11B40 at January 15, 2017 11:51 AM (evgyj)

294 On Kill Bill, I liked parts of both. I especially liked the part where she goes to Japan to have the sword made.

One noticeable difference between John Wick and Kill Bill? Most of the time in Wick, he engages people one at a time, not 50 simultaneously.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:51 AM (92kX2)

295 Hillary had such an awful tone of voice. Mooch's is bad too.
Their husbands both, while huge BSers, knew how to modulate their voices.

/cattybuttrue

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:52 AM (Om16U)

296 Am reading "The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church" by Vladimir Lossky

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 15, 2017 11:52 AM (tOcW/)

297 283
I think Mooch is unhappy because she's always been in the cult of perpetual victimhood.



If she ever leaves politics I will pray for her happiness, sincerely.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:43 AM (Om16U)


Her early life was actually quite easy. She has never really known poverty and neither has her worthless husband.


Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 11:53 AM (mpXpK)

298 >>after all of this mass carnage, a cop shows up, looks around, doesn't question anything much, says OK fine, and leaves. I burst out laughing at that point, it was so ridiculous."

Obviously, the movie was highly stylized and a lot of the acting was caricature but there was some basis in truth to much of it. The Boston area was chuck full of mob types back when I was growing up there. Many of them were an open secret.

And there was a tacit understanding between them and law enforcement that as long they were whacking each other, well boys would be boys.

If you look at the history of Whitey Bulgar, for example, he was leaving a trail of bodies in his wake and many in the FBI were well aware but they did nothing as long as he pretended to work with them. Once they crossed the line to killing "civilians" it was a different ballgame but killing rivals was just bidness.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2017 11:54 AM (/tuJf)

299


"Unhinging her jaws", I believe, is the preferred term.
Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 10:28 AM (8nWyX)

Hogmartin-- I laughed myself into a headache!

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 11:54 AM (nQ10o)

300 I'm embarrassed to say I'm reading about six or seven books at the same time. Since I'm predominantly an "escapist" reader, I was tickled to find a Joe R. Lansdale book I missed, "Honky Tonky Samurai." It's another in the "Hap & Leonard" series and a hoot so far -- except for a nasty swipe at Reagan. Why do authors do such dumb stuff as to alienate half the population?

Also started "Apocalyptica," a freebie from eReaderIQ.com. It's also a humorous buddy adventure set after TSHTF. However, one of the buddies has decided to fulfill an item on his bucket list and head to Disney World after the last of the pudding cups runs out.

I bought Hallow Mass and got a few pages into that as well as an e-book (freebie, of course) Western that's humming along and two devotionals. I guess that's enough...But "Honky Tonk" is definitely winning.

Posted by: SandyCheeks at January 15, 2017 11:55 AM (joFoi)

301 Tarantino movie that guy has made and will likely ever make, violent rehashes of movie tropes so will never watch another Tarantino movie.

Posted by: Anna Puma


Chacun a son gout.

I'm a Tarantino fanboi, except for his last two movies. Not coincidentally his editor Sally Menke died about two movies ago. The boy needs some reining in.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 11:55 AM (mgbwf)

302
Her early life was actually quite easy. She has never really known poverty and neither has her worthless husband.

==

that's why it's a cult
gets into Princeton and writes a thesis about how picked upon she is by being at Princeton
I suppose it could be a mental disorder, which I am convinced her husband has

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:56 AM (Om16U)

303 regarding:

"Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History. From her first moments on the public stage, she has challenged traditional American notions"

yes....you ever remember a First Lady saying, on the election of her husband to office...

"For the First Time in My Adult Lifetime, I am Really Proud of My Country"

she is a disgrace....people falling all over each other because she is black

feh

Posted by: ploome at January 15, 2017 11:56 AM (vzZKT)

304 Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (M3Kbo)


Are you serious? If you are, then I feel sorry for you. I really do.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:41 AM (Pz4pT)

I was 5. Why would you feel sorry for me having a great father?

You proved my point with you reply to my comment BTW.
Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:45 AM (M3Kbo)

Proved what point, that I have sympathy for someone with such a warped view of the world?

Look, you can either think I am hopelessly naive, or genuinely concerned for your mental health, but if you want to say my response is some sort of evidence of a "dark side" of human nature, then yes, you really do need my sympathy.

What a terrible way to go through the world.

And we can refrain from discussing the emotional scarring you received by viewing the film, "Tootsie" as a child.

For now.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:57 AM (Pz4pT)

305 If you sit down to watch John Wick and expect some kind of art house Frenchie fag movie, sorry.

JW is a revenge movie. Pure and simple.

Do not, under any circumstances, mess with his puppy.

Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 11:57 AM (XziOA)

306 OT-Here are the twitter comments of the lunatic Governor of Maryland:

Now is not the time for reconciliation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn't reconcile with the Nazis. MLK didn't reconcile with the KKK. Now we fight

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 15, 2017 11:57 AM (tOcW/)

307 I have the Kimball book; thanks to this post, I've finally started reading it.

Still working through "The Complete Stories" by J.G. Ballard. His style can be interesting, but he seems to've written the same story over and over.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at January 15, 2017 11:58 AM (MZcWR)

308 >>>Are you serious? If you are, then I feel sorry for you. I really do.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:41 AM (Pz4pT)

I don't understand what you're saying.

Posted by: m at January 15, 2017 11:58 AM (3jGss)

309 Two movies ago? Was that the stupid stupid WWII movie in Nazi occupied France? Yeah that is the movie that lost me.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 12:00 PM (CQnAL)

310 Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 15, 2017 09:19 AM (EnKk6)

You're gonna love this!

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/gb_videos/history-s1e6-nesbit/

These really are outstanding shows, but since it's fashionable to bust on Beck, no one talks about them.

Posted by: SandyCheeks at January 15, 2017 12:00 PM (joFoi)

311 239 ... votermom, Mrs. JTB just keeps a written list of titles and a brief summary of each book as she finishes it. It works and has saved her some repeat purchases and trips to the library.

Also, thanks for that charming picture at the top of your blog. It's attractive and pleasant.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 12:01 PM (V+03K)

312 Fen, 306 - Those kinds of comments are always telling. These are people who have never known real conflict or real fear. Sheltered children.

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 12:01 PM (/WPPJ)

313 RE: Michelle... she has to live with the Stuttering Clusterfuck, who appears to be a malignant narcisssit. Which means.. she is living with someone who is essentially mentally ill.

If at one point she was somewhat "normal" that would change her.

Conversely, she might have the type of personality that compliments a narcissist, meaning she has her own emotional problems.

Personally, I hope Michaelle/Michael will be comfortable in a life of obscurity and will be able to confront xer personal problems with the help of professionals.

/and by personal problems, I mean TFG and the fact that it seems she has a d*ck.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:01 PM (J5mC3)

314 Did someone put the "Primaries formula 1" back on the IV drip here at the AOSHQ? People seem to be getting squirrely.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 12:01 PM (92kX2)

315 I read that the Clinton Global Foundation will shut down.

If that's true, then that frees up the donors - which is probably why we see the Dems trying to out-crazy each other with political stunts. They are vying for leftwing dollars.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (Om16U)

316 He made it a point that it is in human nature (a dark side) to see other people humiliated. That has always held up to be true.
Carry on and God Bless.
Posted by: Pepe at January 15, 2017 11:37 AM (M3Kbo)
Are you serious? If you are, then I feel sorry for you. I really do.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 11:41 AM (Pz4pT)

Tootsie was a man!? Now you tell me......

Get your paws off of me you damned, dirty Tootsie!

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (5VlCp)

317 Two movies ago? Was that the stupid stupid WWII movie in Nazi occupied France? Yeah that is the movie that lost me.

No, I liked that one. Inglorious Basterds.

It was Django Unchained and the Hateful Eight where he just completely lost any sense of restraint.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (mgbwf)

318 295 Hillary had such an awful tone of voice. Mooch's is bad too.
Their husbands both, while huge BSers, knew how to modulate their voices.

/cattybuttrue
Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 11:52 AM (Om16U)


Of the four of them, Bill is the only one IMO who can actually speak well, consistently, in public. Hillary sounds like an angry crow, Michelle does that shuddery "I want you to know just how emotional I am" thing, and Barack is a trainwreck of stuttery "i-i-i-i-if" stuff even when he's in front of a teleprompter.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (8nWyX)

319 People seem to be getting squirrely.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 12:01 PM (92kX2)



Might we suggest they get chipmunky.

Posted by: Chip and Dale at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (vZ9Fw)

320 Thanks to the moron reader who recommended the Poirot series shown on Netflix. I was moaning about how I couldn't find anything to read, watch etc. etc. The suggestion met my criteria of British detective with many episodes.

I got hooked and learned so much along the way. Suchet, who re tailored Christie's Poirot and who is a fine actor beyond the series, wrote much about the work he did for nineteen years. A little commentary, http://poirot.us/suchet.php

Also, beyond visiting a hotel room in Istanbul where Christie had supposedly written part of the "Orient Express", I had no familiarity with or read any Christie works. Now I am thumbing through "Agatha Christ A to Z, The Essential Reference to her Life and Writings." Prodigious writings.

Apologies for the length. But thanks to whoever took pity on pitiful, whining me and recommended it late one night after the thread had closed. Love the SBT and all of you.

Posted by: gracepc at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (OU4q6)

321 If you look at the history of Whitey Bulgar, for example, he was leaving a trail of bodies in his wake and many in the FBI were well aware but they did nothing as long as he pretended to work with them. Once they crossed the line to killing "civilians" it was a different ballgame but killing rivals was just bidness.
Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2017 11:54 AM (/tuJf)

What little I know of the Bulger story, and admittedly it is not much, I got the impression it was one terribly gullible and/or corrupt FBI agent, and a lousy, lazy bureaucracy that allowed him to go unscathed as long as he did.

Not necessarily system-wide corruption, unless you consider the hollow, chest-thumping "we're the FBI, which means we're the best" thing to be corruption, which it kinda is.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:03 PM (Pz4pT)

322 *looks on Amazon and makes notes of things to never get the Empress*

There are apparently two different board games centered around squirrels. And stealing stuff. They are right out.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 12:03 PM (CQnAL)

323 People seem to be getting squirrely.
---

Help us COBs!!!!

We need a cute/funny thread Immediately!

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:04 PM (J5mC3)

324 Last I saw, the Chelsea Legacy Foundation had a few hundred million in unspent funds. Can't see the Clintons giving that up except at the point of a gun (or a RICO indictment, let us pray)

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 12:04 PM (bQxkN)

325 311 239

glad yoy like the pic!

I bought index cards and a cheap box to put them in to manage my to-read pile

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 12:04 PM (Om16U)

326
she is a disgrace....people falling all over each other because she is black

I just loved her psychedelic M. C. Escher zebra outfit.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at January 15, 2017 12:06 PM (IqV8l)

327 Whitey Bulgar - I watched Black Mass on streaming somewhere. It was interesting. Well done period true crime bio.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 12:06 PM (Om16U)

328 I am not averse to seeing a side of her that does not reinforce my prejudices.
Posted by: cfomahm at January 15, 2017 11:45 AM (RfzVr)


That's exactly how I feel. My overall opinion isn't going to change, and that opinion is based on words that came out of her own mouth.

But it did me good to see her in a different light, just like it does me good to look at the pics of her husband with little kids, because it isn't healthy to be filled with anger every single time I see either of them!

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:06 PM (kqtMD)

329 From her first moments on the public stage, she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious

Well I can't argue with any of that. It was challenging for anyone to find her beautiful, strong, or fashion-conscious.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 15, 2017 12:06 PM (39g3+)

330 Who is hotter.....Ranae from "Finding Moochelle" or Bigfoot?

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 12:07 PM (5VlCp)

331 OT-Here are the twitter comments of the lunatic Governor of Maryland: Now is not the time for reconciliation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn't reconcile with the Nazis. MLK didn't reconcile with the KKK. Now we figh. Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 15, 2017 11:57 AM (tOcW/)

It won't be a civil war, but it will be a cold war. One that won't be over until we win decisively. I don't know what the analog to the Berlin Wall is. But then no one expected the wall to come down, nor for that to be the indicator for the whole world.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at January 15, 2017 12:07 PM (VdICR)

332 It's easy to write glowing reviews of anybody.


' His mastery of speechmaking transcended all those that preceded him. His focus to return his country to the ideals we all strive to maintain was unparalleled. His creation of jobs and industry to pull us out of the recession may be his greatest accomplishment though his opponents push to deny him that honor. History will be the final judge. '


Okay I went Godwin.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 15, 2017 12:07 PM (IDPbH)

333 322 *looks on Amazon and makes notes of things to never get the Empress*

There are apparently two different board games centered around squirrels. And stealing stuff. They are right out.
Posted by: Anna Puma at January 15, 2017 12:03 PM (CQnAL)

...one of them wouldn't happen to be "The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game", would it?

Posted by: DoublySymmetric at January 15, 2017 12:07 PM (QjZlN)

334 It was Django Unchained and the Hateful Eight where he just completely lost any sense of restraint.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (mgbwf)


Tarantino is to restraint what Bill Clinton is to chastity or Teddy Kennedy is (was) to sobriety.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 12:08 PM (NzpD/)

335 Did someone put the "Primaries formula 1" back on the IV drip here at the AOSHQ? People seem to be getting squirrely.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 12:01 PM (92kX2)

We secretly replaced their Lipitor with Russian Krokodil.

Let's see what happens...

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:09 PM (Pz4pT)

336 I think the only Tarantino movie I really enjoyed was Dusk Till Dawn

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 12:09 PM (Om16U)

337 And Skook, I love your library! It's exactly what I envision for an L-shaped section of our living room.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:09 PM (kqtMD)

338 >>What little I know of the Bulger story, and admittedly it is not much, I got the impression it was one terribly gullible and/or corrupt FBI agent, and a lousy, lazy bureaucracy that allowed him to go unscathed as long as he did.

>>Not necessarily system-wide corruption, unless you consider the hollow, chest-thumping "we're the FBI, which means we're the best" thing to be corruption, which it kinda is.

Oh it was a lot more pervasive than just one guy although that has become somewhat conventional wisdom. What often gets overlooked and what was impossible to ignore if you lived in Boston back then was Whitey's brother Billy.

Billy was powerful in a way old time Tammany Hall pols were powerful which is to say all powerful. He was the dominant local pol for years in Massachusetts while his brother was one of the biggest organized crime figures. There is no way Whitey carried on the way he did without system wide protection.

Everybody knew what the Winter Hill Gang was up to and yet nobody ever stopped them until that Jai Alai exec got whacked in Oklahoma.

Of course it wasn't as blatant as in John Wick but everything is over the top in the movie on purpose.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2017 12:10 PM (/tuJf)

339 What little I know of the Bulger story, and admittedly it is not much, I got the impression it was one terribly gullible and/or corrupt FBI agent, and a lousy, lazy bureaucracy that allowed him to go unscathed as long as he did.

Not necessarily system-wide corruption, unless you consider the hollow, chest-thumping "we're the FBI, which means we're the best" thing to be corruption, which it kinda is.



At least I can reference a book here which makes it book thread compliant. Howie Carr's "The Brothers Bulger".

It was the worst kind of corruption. Bulger owned the Boston FBI office. Bulger's childhood friend, John Connolly, ran the office. Connolly's boss was afraid of him and left the office alone. Bulger used the FBI to take down the Italian mafia and leave the field open to him.

Not coincidentally, Bulger's brother Jimmy was Speaker of the House in MA. Massachusetts is a weak-governor state, most of the power is vested in the 90% Democrat house, which the Bulger brother ruled.


Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 12:10 PM (mgbwf)

340 The Foundation is laying off 22, which triggered a WARN Act filing.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 12:10 PM (bQxkN)

341 True Romance was Tarantino's best written movie.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 15, 2017 12:11 PM (IDPbH)

342 OregonMuse: the email address you posted for DHumphreys does not appear to work.

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 12:12 PM (nQ10o)

343 I'm prepared to argue that Mote in God's Eye is one of the best novels written. The Niven style Renner character steals every scene he's in, but the professional Pournelle characters make the plot. I've loaned copies to many people over the decades, none who actually read it ever regretted it. I'd love to see some sane people adopt it into a movie, or better yet, a streaming series.

Posted by: Graves at January 15, 2017 12:12 PM (XuAsQ)

344 Posted by: Abby at January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (HBU7W)

I use Goodreads to keep track of the books I've read, and post a review and a small synopsis after reading them. You can challenge yourself to read x-number of books for the year and Goodreads tells you when you are running ahead or behind. Sometimes I started to read a book and Goodreads tells me when I read it before and how many stars I gave it. Pretty handy tool.

Posted by: waelse1 at January 15, 2017 12:12 PM (0sGOe)

345 I've been reading about early times in Italy. First, Tacitus's History of Rome vol. 1-2, available free on Kindle. This covers the civil wars that followed the death of Nero and the eventual rise of Vespasian.

Next, I'm re-reading The Prince by Machiavelli. I am struck by how much has not changed over the centuries.

Some of the characters and actions in Tacitus could be living in today's world. Similarly, The Prince could be Donald Trump's handbook for success. I bet he has read it more than once.

For entertainment, I've been re-reading Lord of the Rings for about the fourth time (just finished The Two Towers) and read Brad Thor's latest novel Secret Agent. I've also been working on a couple of non-fiction books, including The Discovers by Daniel Boorstin and a fascinating book titled Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I have recently become intrigued by the little-understood powers of our unconscious minds.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 12:13 PM (ro5Th)

346 Shit, I meant brother Billy. Whitey was Jimmy.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 12:13 PM (mgbwf)

347 Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at January 15, 2017 09:19 AM (EnKk6)

Very interesting subject on the reconstruction of technology. My very small coffee/book group's discussion topic for the week was based on a Smithsonian pamphlet describing the technology behind the Wright Brothers aircraft engine, with very detailed engineering drawings. The engine design was over 110 years old, but was still pretty complex, although the EPA required emissions control equipment was noticeably missing.

We got sidetracked on the subject of how (and could) you restart manufacturing such an involved device after a significant disruption in the total supply chain, e.g., where does the metal for the castings come from, where is a milling machine when you really need one, how do I fabricate the chain for the timing chain, how do I start from (or even find) iron ore and get to a cast iron block, etc.

Posted by: Hrothgar at January 15, 2017 12:14 PM (wCEn4)

348 It was Django Unchained and the Hateful Eight where he just completely lost any sense of restraint.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 12:02 PM (mgbwf)

Tarantino is to restraint what Bill Clinton is to chastity or Teddy Kennedy is (was) to sobriety.

Posted by: OregonMuse, deplorable since 2004 at January 15, 2017 12:08 PM (NzpD/)



He should really direct an R-rated movie from the Star Wars universe with someone else doing the writing.

Tarantino seems out of ideas.

"The Hateful 8" was exactly like QT looked at all the extra scenes he had left over from Django and said "Hey, I have all these scenes with women getting punched I like and this kickass blowjob-humiliation rape speech for Sammy Jackson.

I'm gonna make me an Agatha Christie movie set in the West."

And that's what he did.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 15, 2017 12:14 PM (vZ9Fw)

349 >>>306 OT-Here are the twitter comments of the lunatic Governor of Maryland:

Now is not the time for reconciliation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer didn't reconcile with the Nazis. MLK didn't reconcile with the KKK. Now we fight
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 15, 2017 11:57 AM (tOcW/)

Not seeing that on Larry Hogan's twitter feed:

http://tinyurl.com/jdwuvh9

Posted by: m at January 15, 2017 12:14 PM (3jGss)

350 Trader Joe's Beef Tamales with Valentina hot sauce plus the last of the Dairygold eggnog. Breakfast!

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 12:15 PM (/WPPJ)

351 Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2017 12:10 PM (/tuJf)

339 What little I know of the Bulger story, and admittedly it is not much, I got the impression it was one terribly gullible and/or corrupt FBI agent, and a lousy, lazy bureaucracy that allowed him to go unscathed as long as he did.

Not necessarily system-wide corruption, unless you consider the hollow, chest-thumping "we're the FBI, which means we're the best" thing to be corruption, which it kinda is.
--------------------------------

At least I can reference a book here which makes it book thread compliant. Howie Carr's "The Brothers Bulger".

It was the worst kind of corruption. Bulger owned the Boston FBI office. Bulger's childhood friend, John Connolly, ran the office. Connolly's boss was afraid of him and left the office alone. Bulger used the FBI to take down the Italian mafia and leave the field open to him.

Not coincidentally, Bulger's brother Jimmy was Speaker of the House in MA. Massachusetts is a weak-governor state, most of the power is vested in the 90% Democrat house, which the Bulger brother ruled.

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 12:10 PM (mgbwf)


Ok, you guys bring up the brother politician, and I had completely forgotten about him.

So... to whatever extent there was corruption vs. gross negligence, or just plain stupidity, starts to seem like a distinction without a difference.

Personally, I have no confidence in the FBI as anything more than a mundane, federal police force, with all its faults and failings being swept under the rug by this image they have as somehow the best of the best.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:15 PM (Pz4pT)

352 Personally, I hope Michaelle/Michael will be comfortable in a life of obscurity and will be able to confront xer personal problems with the help of professionals.

/and by personal problems, I mean TFG and the fact that it seems she has a d*ck.
Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:01 PM (J5mC3)

These scum are never going away. We'll have to spend the rest of our lives slapping these subhuman mongrels down right along with the rest of them.

Posted by: Country Boy - Stay Deplorable My Friends at January 15, 2017 12:16 PM (p6Zpw)

353 The dissension the Left is trying to create will just embolden our enemies to try and make trouble just as it embolden Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at January 15, 2017 12:16 PM (IDPbH)

354 Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at January 15, 2017 12:06 PM (IqV8l)

Michelle's zebra outfit looked very similar to the "F*** white people" outfit worn by a fat (white) female MTV employee.

Posted by: waelse1 at January 15, 2017 12:16 PM (0sGOe)

355 The Clintons used the Foundation to pre-game Hilary's campaign, mostly funded with foreign money. The children of key figures in the D party and MSM were put on payroll. Bill's Energizer got cut in on a deal.

The Clintons and Podesta had shady dealings with the Russians. Trump owns nothing in Russia.

But MSM is now broaching impeachment.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 12:16 PM (bQxkN)

356 "The Prince could be Donald Trump's handbook for success. I bet he has read it more than once."

Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals! Tables turned.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 12:19 PM (bQxkN)

357 Peter Blatty, who wrote "The Exorcist" , both book and movie, passed away a couple of days ago. I haven't read it or seen the movie. Mrs. JTB, who has done both, assures me I should. Ordered the DVD Friday and discovered I have a copy on Kindle that I forgot about. I think I'll start with the book. I am not a fan of the horror genre but the book and movie are supposed to be very effective examples, so I'll give them a shot.

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 12:20 PM (V+03K)

358 I am used to the fawning over Mrs Obama,but what is HIGHLY insulting to me about that blurb is the part about being the star of her own life being a game changer for black women.

Look, we'd never even know who she was if it weren't for her husband so it doesn't even make any logical sense, but there are plenty of black women out there who have busted their asses, worked several jobs to provide for their children and keep them off the streets.

A woman struggling on the south side of Chicago to keep her kid alive and in school is more of fucking star that Michele Obama, and to be honest, I think she'd probably agree.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:20 PM (kqtMD)

359 Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan on Trump:

"Everyone ought to just take a deep breath and give the new administration a chance," Hogan said. "He's going to take office in a couple of months, and we're going to see what he's going to do. People have every right to protest peacefully, but we're not going to stand for people breaking the law."

21 Nov 2016

http://tinyurl.com/h9tzu4c

Posted by: m at January 15, 2017 12:22 PM (3jGss)

360 RE: The Exorcist, I've read the book and seen the movie; I recommend both as well. It's even more disconcerting when you realize it was based on a true story.

Also recommend "Rosemary' Baby" the book and the movie.

If I recall correctly I liked the book better.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:22 PM (J5mC3)

361 Subhuman mongrels, really? Really?

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:23 PM (kqtMD)

362 "The Prince could be Donald Trump's handbook for success. I bet he has read it more than once."
-------------------
Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals! Tables turned.
Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 12:19 PM (bQxkN)


Trump, through binoculars surveys the carnage of the battlefield, cries out... "Alinsky, you magnificent bastard... I READ YOUR BOOK!"

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:23 PM (Pz4pT)

363 350 Trader Joe's Beef Tamales with Valentina hot sauce plus the last of the Dairygold eggnog. Breakfast!
Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 12:15 PM (/WPPJ)


Not exactly book-related, but Valentina is definitely something to drench on all your food, and if you disagree I will fight you. So tasty, not too much heat.

I mean... I won't actually fight you if you legit don't like spicy stuff. Or if you're a lady; hitting girls is done in the gravest extreme.

If you like spicy sauces and don't like Valentina, though, let's go for it.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:24 PM (8nWyX)

364 I am used to the fawning over Mrs Obama,but what is HIGHLY insulting to me about that blurb is the part about being the star of her own life being a game changer for black women.
--

Everyone is the star of their own life. Duh.

You know who should be really insulted?

Oprah.

She's a black woman that has actual tangible accomplishments, as opposed to Michelle and Hillary. Although I don't agree at all with Oprah's "philosophy," she has done well for herself and is, I think, someone that blacks can admire.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:25 PM (J5mC3)

365 "Alinsky, you magnificent bastard.."

You misspelled malignant.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 12:26 PM (ro5Th)

366 Also recommend "Rosemary' Baby" the book and the movie.

If I recall correctly I liked the book better.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:22 PM (J5mC3)



Man, Ira Levin had an author's charmed life there for a while.

Wrote 5-6 high concept thrillers that were all made into big movies,

then....nothing.

Maybe he's one of these guys who retired to his own island.

Talented dude.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 15, 2017 12:26 PM (vZ9Fw)

367 FORMER Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, going off the rails:

https://twitter.com/MartinOMalley

The Bonhoeffer etc. quote is his.

Posted by: m at January 15, 2017 12:27 PM (3jGss)

368 >>>78
Two recent reads:
1) The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution".<<<


If you look at a reconstruction of the earths temperature for the, say, last 400,000 years you can see how the climate probably had a significant effect on the progress of civilization. Temperatures over the last 10,000 to 11,000 have been remarkably consistent compared to the previous ~400,000.

http://tinyurl.com/3l2gc6

Posted by: Javems at January 15, 2017 12:27 PM (yOqwj)

369 I have never even heard of Valentina hot sauce, damn it.

How does it compare to say, Tapatio or Sriracha?

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:27 PM (kqtMD)

370 RE: The Exorcist, I've read the book and seen the movie; I recommend both as well. It's even more disconcerting when you realize it was based on a true story.

Also recommend "Rosemary' Baby" the book and the movie.

If I recall correctly I liked the book better.
Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:22 PM (J5mC3)


"Based on a true story...."

There are some really really silly movies with the tag line "based on a true story" behind them.

The Red Letter Media fellas do a bit on "based on a true story," I believe. Can't find it now, but yeah, based on a true story means pretty much nothing.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:29 PM (Pz4pT)

371 350 Trader Joe's Beef Tamales with Valentina hot sauce plus the last of the Dairygold eggnog. Breakfast!
Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 12:15 PM (/WPPJ)

Not exactly book-related, but Valentina is definitely something to drench on all your food, and if you disagree I will fight you. So tasty, not too much heat.
I mean... I won't actually fight you if you legit don't like spicy stuff. Or if you're a lady; hitting girls is done in the gravest extreme.
If you like spicy sauces and don't like Valentina, though, let's go for it.
Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:24 PM (8nWyX)

Thanks Hog! I am gonna try some. I like all the hot sauces and never tried Valentina. I use Texas Pete, Crystal and Louisiana Hot Sauce regularly.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 12:29 PM (5VlCp)

372
Man, Ira Levin had an author's charmed life there for a while.


Wrote 5-6 high concept thrillers that were all made into big movies,


then....nothing.


Maybe he's one of these guys who retired to his own island.


Talented dude.
--

I didn't know he was behind "The Boys From Brazil." and "The Stepford Wives." Going to put the former on my list.

He also did "Sliver."

BTW, he died in 2007.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:30 PM (J5mC3)

373 I just finished Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card. It's been out a long while. I'm fresh off of the Ender series and decided to give this one a try. I didn't expect a paranormal thriller involving a Mormon family and video games to be so engaging and gripping.

Posted by: Joekenha at January 15, 2017 12:30 PM (8RCKs)

374 Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:25 PM (J5mC3)

Yes ma'am.

Someone everyone can admire, whether you agree with every single thing she does or not. I admire her tremendously, even though she can also get on my last nerve and even though she had a huge hand in saddling us with Obama.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:30 PM (kqtMD)

375 369 I have never even heard of Valentina hot sauce, damn it.

How does it compare to say, Tapatio or Sriracha?
Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:27 PM (kqtMD)


Milder, but still spicy. Kind of like Tapatio, but you can pour it on and not regret it. It's also like $0.99/liter. Places like Meijer have it, so it can't be too hard to find.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:31 PM (8nWyX)

376 >>I have never even heard of Valentina hot sauce, damn it.



How does it compare to say, Tapatio or Sriracha?

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor

Worse than Tapatio, better than Sriracha.

Posted by: Aviator at January 15, 2017 12:33 PM (/Nite)

377 Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:25 PM (J5mC3)

Yes ma'am.

Someone everyone can admire, whether you agree with every single thing she does or not. I admire her tremendously, even though she can also get on my last nerve and even though she had a huge hand in saddling us with Obama.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:30 PM (kqtMD)


Oprah remains my #1 prediction as Democrat Pres nominee in 2020.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:34 PM (Pz4pT)

378 Hot sauces kinda like long bow vs cross bow.

Posted by: Aviator at January 15, 2017 12:34 PM (/Nite)

379 Thanks, hogmartin; if it's milder than Tapatio, I probably won't be able to taste it!

But I still want to try it, because hot sauce for me is kinda like sweater puppies for Morons...I wanna try 'em all, regardless.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:35 PM (kqtMD)

380
Oprah remains my #1 prediction as Democrat Pres nominee in 2020.
---

Most viable if she comes out as gay.

/wish i was joking.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:35 PM (J5mC3)

381 Worse than Tapatio, better than Sriracha.
Posted by: Aviator at January 15, 2017 12:33 PM (/Nite)


Kinda depends on your taste. For some people, Tabasco is the sine qua non, and I love it in gumbo and it's got lots of other uses besides. On the other hand, Valentina is great for "I want to put some tasty hot sauce on this burrito and not worry about blowing my head off". All relative.

Except for Huy Fong Sriracha, which is sweet and overpowers whatever it's on.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:37 PM (8nWyX)

382 I enlarged the photo of Skookumchuk's library and see a lot of books that I also own (or owned). Now that I am living the dream as a full-time RVer, my once fabulous library has mostly been dispersed. Until going on the road, I had 18 bookcases with many piled on top (and a cat). When I packed them up, I had a hundred boxes. I donated most of them and kept only 16 boxes of the ones I couldn't bear to part with.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 12:38 PM (ro5Th)

383 I leave for ten minutes to eat my tamales and everybody is takking about hot sauce... agree with Valentina being in the middle of the pack, heat-wise. I see the bottle says "Best by April 2021."

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 12:38 PM (/WPPJ)

384 Maryland school employee FIRED for correcting student's spelling

http://preview.tinyurl.com/h52mep2

Posted by: The Political Hat at January 15, 2017 12:39 PM (vBeA5)

385 Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:30 PM (J5mC3)

His early mystery "a Kiss Before Dying" is also excellent.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 15, 2017 12:39 PM (vZ9Fw)

386 Unlike some of the fad & boutique hot sauces, Valentina is more authentic - actually a Mexican import. Mild, but good flavor. Big bonus is that it'll be on the ethnic/Mexican aisle of your local grocery. And cheap, to boot.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 12:40 PM (mB0As)

387 One word: Tabasco.

When I read that Hurricane Katrina was zeroing in on the Mississippi Delta where the Tabasco farm is, I scurried to the store and bought two big bottles. 'Course, Katrina spared the pepper farm, so there must be a God.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 12:40 PM (ro5Th)

388 81 5 days until the inauguration and America remains completely in the dark as to the status of the creases in Donald Trump's trousers.

What has happened to our Press?

I think their heads exploded...luckily we do know about the Cut of his Jib(e)

Posted by: firefirefire at January 15, 2017 12:42 PM (of67s)

389 379 Thanks, hogmartin; if it's milder than Tapatio, I probably won't be able to taste it!
Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:35 PM (kqtMD)


Definitely one of the milder hot sauces, but not "mild salsa" mild. I wouldn't want to down a shot glass of it, but it's got a really nice citrus thing going. It's good for spreading generously on a quesadilla without worrying that OH GOSH THIS LAST SPLASH is going to make it painful.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:43 PM (8nWyX)

390 Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:34 PM (Pz4pT)

I tell you what, I'd vote for her over McCain or Miss Lindsay. And probably over Rubio, too.

I think it's gonna be some iteration of Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and a(n) Hispanic as yet unknown. Booker has bonus Victim cred by being black and gay.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:43 PM (kqtMD)

391 Maryland school employee FIRED for correcting student's spelling


Problematic, but why does a school district have a social media person in the first place?

Posted by: Bandersnatch, gentleman cad at January 15, 2017 12:43 PM (mgbwf)

392 just loved her psychedelic M. C. Escher zebra outfit.

+++

It screwed up the facial recognition software!

Posted by: Bigbys other phone at January 15, 2017 12:44 PM (W8qGk)

393 Booker has bonus Victim cred by being black and gay.
---

black >white/ hispanic/asian
woman>man
gay> straight
muslim> all other religions

Personally, I want them to check off every category-- a black muslim female who is gay.

/another look at Val Jar?

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 12:46 PM (J5mC3)

394 I like the sauce! Hot, cold or room temperature!

Posted by: 100 Proof Hillary at January 15, 2017 12:46 PM (bc2Lc)

395 I love garlic Sriracha sexually.


A couple of TBs of regular Sriracha with some mayo and a tsp and a half or so of Eagle Brand condensed milk makes an awesome sauce to go with teriyaki chicken or salmon, or anything, really. I need to find the food blog I found the recipe on.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:49 PM (kqtMD)

396 I am quite simply the star of my own life. So in that respect, I'm like the Mooch. And in that respect, we all are.

If you compare Hillary and Mooch, at least Hillary chose a better man. Yeah, I know - Bill - but srsly, Barky is a big zero. Bill had charisma. You can't deny it. With Barky, you were TOLD to believe he had charisma. Or something.

Begone, the both of yuz.

Posted by: Miley, the Duchess, 348 times at January 15, 2017 12:50 PM (tHwdc)

397 270 Anna Puma, re: Piper's "Omnilingual"

You misspelled "greatest short story ever. Seriously, I use that as an example all the time when I give talks about writing science fiction. The way he sets up the story, the character of the protagonist Martha Dane, and feeding the necessary info to the reader in drips...superb.

I would also point out, for the edification of any lurking SJWs, that the main character is a woman who is older, doesn't sleep with anyone, and still wins by using her BRAIN. Story written by a Golden Age high-albedo, high-testosterone MAN. *pantpant* *lights incense at H. Beam Piper shrine*

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at January 15, 2017 12:51 PM (SuJIo)

398 "Being the awesome father and warrior that he was, when he put me to bed that night, he told me that Tootsie was a man. He made sure I grasped it. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and angry because I was tricked."

That was the whole point of the movie - it's a comedy about a man pretending to be a woman. Same goes for "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Some Like It Hot."

Shakespeare's play have female characters pretending to be men (easier for the actor to do when you remember that in Shakespeare's time women were not allowed on stage so women were played by teenaged boys). It's a very old comedic device.

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 12:52 PM (P8951)

399 Michelle Obama "challenges traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful" much like I challenge traditional American notions of what it means to be a structural engineer.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at January 15, 2017 12:55 PM (TRzoP)

400 i've concluded that tarantino is a post-modernist, specifically of that period in the '80s when he arose when artists and architects in particular were looking back and mixing historical styles and genres often in exaggerated ways.

you can identify buildings of the post-modern period by the mixture of often oversized architectural elements, e.g. columns and cornices, renaissance and baroque thrown together. tarantino picks freely across genres, western, karate, noir, war and throws them together in exaggerated ways: post-modern.

i'm just not interested in his genres (or the violence). he titled "kill bill" volume 1 and volume 2 (not part1 & 2). i wouldn't be interested in reading and opus on lady ninja assassins. i dunno, call me old-fashioned.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 12:55 PM (WTSFk)

401 Page Smith has a history of the US that starts w/ "A New Age Now Begins" (the first 2 of 8 volumes, it's not for the faint of heart, but if I could write history, THAT's the way i would write history. Anyway, OM's comment about "One of the roots of a conservative worldview is the Biblical concept that men are sinful and fallible. It's probably the main reason why we hold that government ought to be limited, with powers specifically defined and all others proscribed". While I agree, Smith additionally identifies what he calls (IIRC), the "classical/Christian" view, in which for the classicist the Greek view of "character as fate" substitutes/reinforces the Christian view of man as sinful.

Also, he views the Constitution as the last expression of that view as a sort of rear-guard action against the Jeffersonian/ Rousseauian view of man.

Posted by: Yara at January 15, 2017 12:58 PM (0SxNf)

402 That was the whole point of the movie - it's a comedy about a man pretending to be a woman. Same goes for "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Some Like It Hot."

Shakespeare's play have female characters pretending to be men (easier for the actor to do when you remember that in Shakespeare's time women were not allowed on stage so women were played by teenaged boys). It's a very old comedic device.

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 12:52 PM (P8951)


I swear, when I initially read his comment I thought he was doing a Che Che parody.

I was waiting for the "and I looked into my daddy's eyes and asked why those bad people were making me think a dude was a lady... and that's when he lost it."

Apparently that makes me part of the dark purpose conspiracy. I'm trying not to be mean about this, but come on. We're talking about "Tootsie."

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 12:58 PM (Pz4pT)

403 395 I love garlic Sriracha sexually.
Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 12:49 PM (kqtMD)


Oh yeah, the Huy Fong jar stuff e.g. chili garlic or sambal oelek is delicious and versatile. The squirty bottle kind... mostly seems to make things taste like they're a thing that's got sriracha on them. Some people like it, some don't.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:58 PM (8nWyX)

404 Just a question. A mere question. On his final Sunday in the WH did Obama take his family to church? Simple question. Easily answered.

Posted by: DJT at January 15, 2017 12:58 PM (bc2Lc)

405 Milder, but still spicy. Kind of like Tapatio, but
you can pour it on and not regret it. It's also like $0.99/liter. Places
like Meijer have it, so it can't be too hard to find.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 12:31 PM (8nWyX)

I like it. It has a good flavor imo.

Posted by: Mimzey at January 15, 2017 12:59 PM (n3hky)

406 ... also like a lot of post-modern artists, tarantino's work, for me, represents the triumph of style over substance. it's a characteristic of the movement.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 12:59 PM (WTSFk)

407 300 I'm embarrassed to say I'm reading about six or seven books at the same time. posted by SandyCheeks

that's my habit too. most recently read in: Louis Jolliet, Explorer of Rivers by Eifert. I love history

Posted by: booknlass at January 15, 2017 01:00 PM (G7LgH)

408 It's a very old comedic device.

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 12:52 PM (P8951)

True. As a child, I did not find Maude Frickert, Monty Python, or Geraldine to be disturbing.

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 01:00 PM (ozZau)

409 On his final Sunday in the WH did Obama take his family to church Mosque?

FIFY

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 01:00 PM (ro5Th)

410 Just a question. A mere question. On his final Sunday in the WH did Obama take his family to church? Simple question. Easily answered.
Posted by: DJT at January 15, 2017 12:58 PM (bc2Lc)


A simple RAYCISS HOMOFOB question, you mean.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 01:00 PM (Pz4pT)

411 True. As a child, I did not find Maude Frickert, Monty Python, or Geraldine to be disturbing.
Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 01:00 PM (ozZau)


I forgot about Geraldine. Now I have ptsd. Thanks.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 01:02 PM (Pz4pT)

412 I'm tired of hearing that politics is downstream of culture.

It's not.

How many times have we elected politicians on their conservative platform/promises, then had them go Left?

I can't count how many times. Kelly Ayotte is a prime example. Huge disappointment, yet not representative of the culture that got her elected.

I have a thought about this politics/culture stream, and I'm willing to place a bet...

Trump will be the first to be elected and go to the Right.

Posted by: squeakywheel at January 15, 2017 01:03 PM (8H4Pg)

413 Damn it, I guess I better learn the AOSHQ version of HTML. Why don't the controls on the panel over the window actually WORK sd in striking through the word church? Oh, I know, Pixy v.0.7 circa 1978. Sad.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 01:04 PM (ro5Th)

414 No but seriously, when I was a teenager, my friend had Flip Wilson records... yes, records, and we would sit in his room laughing our heads off.

Which probably makes me rayciss.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 01:04 PM (Pz4pT)

415 Hey, Skookumchuk, where are you from? I have only ever heard your Nic used in the maritime industry. Are you a mariner?

Posted by: texas zombie at January 15, 2017 01:04 PM (SUtNI)

416 "Damn it, I guess I better learn the AOSHQ version of HTML. Why don't the controls on the panel over the window actually WORK sd in striking through the word church? Oh, I know, Pixy v.0.7 circa 1978. Sad."

#twoweeks

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 15, 2017 01:05 PM (J+eG2)

417 g'early afternoon, 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at January 15, 2017 01:08 PM (KCxzN)

418 "91 San Fran, The media BS goes back at least to the 60s. There was the covering up of Kennedy 'indiscretions' and, even worse, the hatchet job the news did reporting on Viet Nam. Walter Cronkite led that assault and I've despised him ever since 1967.
Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:56 AM (V+03K)

Covering for FDR's infirmities as well.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:00 AM (92kX2) "


Not to mention the beginning (?) of the push for gun control in the early 60's.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at January 15, 2017 01:08 PM (nuyGw)

419 Well, gotta go. Those cats aren't going to herd themselves.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 01:08 PM (ro5Th)

420 I have the audio version of We Are the Change We Seek.

It sucks rocks.

Posted by: Queen Elizabeth II at January 15, 2017 01:08 PM (GsAUU)

421 I think I mentioned before that Pooky gave me "The Bard and the Bible" for Christmas. Well, I'm two weeks into it and I definitely recommend it. The blending of the themes of the Bible and Shakespeare is well done and it's just the right length to make me ponder while not overwhelming me with the density of Shakespeare.

Posted by: pookysgirl at January 15, 2017 01:10 PM (ar2KI)

422 I have the audio version of We Are the Change We Seek.
---

We listen to it on Friday, at the Mosque!

Posted by: Prince Charles and John Brennan at January 15, 2017 01:11 PM (J5mC3)

423 Which probably makes me rayciss.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 01:04 PM (Pz4pT)

Of course we are both rayciss.

I don't even know which dusty, crusty crack in my brain I dug Geraldine out of. That was a loooong time ago.

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 01:11 PM (ozZau)

424 @120,

They took down Nixon because he was right about Alger Hiss. The press despised Nixon for years.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 15, 2017 01:11 PM (Lqy/e)

425 I've heard that somewhere, I think maybe at a commie bookstore in Berkeley, you can buy a book collection of the speeches of Albanian commie thug Enver Hoxha. But why? Who would buy such a book? Who cares?


--An audio version of Hoxha's speeches was a plot device in Inside Man, probably the best movie Spike Lee ever will make.

Posted by: Queen Elizabeth II at January 15, 2017 01:12 PM (GsAUU)

426 Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History. From her first moments on the public stage, she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious,





She challenges it because she none of it. She's an ugly individual with a hideous taste in clothes but the MFM has been playing the Emperor's New Clothes with her no matter how bad she looks or dresses

Posted by: TheQuietMan at January 15, 2017 01:12 PM (auHtY)

427 incidentally, since this is a book thread a notable correction:

yesterday came a news item of a waitress in california who was on her break and looking out the window that evening she saw a car drive into the ocean. she rushed out, told her friends to call 911 and rushed to the scene where she got some guys to dive in and rescue the 2 passengers (drunk).

in an interview she began by describing the scene she saw as "a stormy and dark night".

so, the "dark and stormy night" is not such an oxymoron after all!

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at January 15, 2017 01:13 PM (WTSFk)

428 Reminder:

God willing, when it's time for our next book thread, Trump will officially be president!

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 01:13 PM (J5mC3)

429 414 No but seriously, when I was a teenager, my friend had Flip Wilson records... yes, records, and we would sit in his room laughing our heads off.

Which probably makes me rayciss.
Posted by: BurtTC
-----------------

Heh. I just had this conversation the other day. When I was a kid (10?) I actually dressed as Geraldine for Halloween one year. Mom drew the line at the blackface, though.

I loved Flip Wilson! Never missed his TV variety show. When was that anyway...?

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:14 PM (mB0As)

430 San Fran, The media BS goes back at least to the 60s. There was the covering up of Kennedy 'indiscretions' and, even worse, the hatchet job the news did reporting on Viet Nam. Walter Cronkite led that assault and I've despised him ever since 1967.
Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 09:56 AM (V+03K)

Covering for FDR's infirmities as well.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 10:00 AM (92kX2) "


Not to mention the beginning (?) of the push for gun control in the early 60's.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at January 15, 2017 01:08 PM (nuyGw)




Well before the 60s. Lying about commie infiltration of the government, going after McCarthy and other anti-communists, sucking up to Uncle Joe and passing off commie dictators as freedom fighters. The electronic media has been lefty since the beginning.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at January 15, 2017 01:15 PM (auHtY)

431 I have the audio version of We Are the Change We Seek.

It sucks rocks.
Posted by: Queen Elizabeth II at January 15, 2017 01:08 PM (GsAUU)


Ohey, QE2! Welcome to AoSHQ, don't fret the lousy html here. Be snarky, you'll fit right in.

And rite your worthless children out of your will, please.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 01:15 PM (Pz4pT)

432 Afternoon all.

Go Stillers!

Anybody give Taboo a go? Looks pretty good so far.

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at January 15, 2017 01:15 PM (4b0RA)

433 421 The Bard and The Bible

posted by pookysgirl

Sounds fantastic! that's the next book I'm getting.

The last 2 books I've finished were The Untethered Soul, and Hillbilly Elegy. Both excellent.

I was hoping we would get into the destruction of western civilization via deconstruction in this thread...as OM masterfully tempted us to do.

Posted by: booknlass at January 15, 2017 01:16 PM (G7LgH)

434 421 I think I mentioned before that Pooky gave me "The Bard and the Bible" for Christmas. Well, I'm two weeks into it and I definitely recommend it. The blending of the themes of the Bible and Shakespeare is well done and it's just the right length to make me ponder while not overwhelming me with the density of Shakespeare.
Posted by: pookysgirl at January 15, 2017 01:10 PM (ar2KI)

Does that book make the case that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic?

Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 01:16 PM (7qAYi)

435 https://tinyurl.com/zkrnd2g



Talk radio's Laura Ingraham eyes Senate bid

Posted by: EVLINC! at January 15, 2017 01:16 PM (y3aQB)

436 Reading is fun-da-mental! Plus I'm hooked on fonix!

Posted by: Joe Biden at January 15, 2017 01:16 PM (bc2Lc)

437 Has anyone read IWAR? I was intrigued by Rush's interview of the author. But I tend to buy books like this with good intentions of getting versed in current real world issues and then only reading a few pages at a time and never finishing them.

*I don't buy them very often, my frugal nature can't stand me buying a book I don't read.

Posted by: PaleRider at January 15, 2017 01:17 PM (Jen0I)

438 No but seriously, when I was a teenager, my friend had Flip Wilson records... yes, records, and we would sit in his room laughing our heads off.

Which probably makes me rayciss.
Posted by: BurtTC
-----------------

Heh. I just had this conversation the other day. When I was a kid (10?) I actually dressed as Geraldine for Halloween one year. Mom drew the line at the blackface, though.

I loved Flip Wilson! Never missed his TV variety show. When was that anyway...?
Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:14 PM (mB0As)


Sadly his show was before my time. I'm sure it's out there all over the place, but I never bothered to look for it.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 01:17 PM (Pz4pT)

439 She challenges it because she none of it. She's an ugly individual with a
hideous taste in clothes but the MFM has been playing the Emperor's New
Clothes with her no matter how bad she looks or dresses
---

The media is gaslighting us. They do it all the time.

"Caitlin Jenner is a beautful woman."

"Coexist"

"Islam is a relgion of peace."

It's a form of manipulation/ abuse.

Posted by: shibumi, who requires a cute kitty story stat! at January 15, 2017 01:17 PM (J5mC3)

440 William Peter Blatty started out writing comedy screenplays...he created quite a franchise with Exorcist.

Exorcist is an important film for us Generation X'ers. The film inaugurated the devil child archetype as well as the sexualization of children.

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at January 15, 2017 01:17 PM (n3MnG)

441 Wow. The Flip Wilson Show ended its run in 74. I would've been seven then.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:19 PM (mB0As)

442 /QEII sock.


that's my habit too. most recently read in: Louis Jolliet, Explorer of Rivers by Eifert. I love history
Posted by: booknlass at January 15, 2017 01:00 PM (G7LgH)

--I'm reading Migrations and Cultures by Thomas Sowell, The Crusades by Thomas Asbridge, and The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 by Richard Evans.

Unlike food or booze, I can't have too much history!

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 01:19 PM (GsAUU)

443 342 OregonMuse: the email address you posted for DHumphreys does not appear to work.

dhumphreys5252 at gmail dot com.

Have gotten several e-mails thus far so hopefully they haven't shut me down . . .

Posted by: Emile Antoon Khadaji at January 15, 2017 01:20 PM (rvzMR)

444 Reading is fun-da-mental! Plus I'm hooked on fonix!

Posted by: Joe Biden at January 15, 2017 01:16 PM (bc2Lc)



You like him on Happy Days, didn't you?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at January 15, 2017 01:20 PM (auHtY)

445 We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama, compiled by Washington Post op-ed columnist and long-time voice of the establishment liberal-left of both parties, E.J. Dionne Jr.


In fairness, if any books sell at all it's easy money. A professional writer such as Dionne could knock out this book over a long weekend of tequila shooters and cocaine.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at January 15, 2017 01:20 PM (LTHVh)

446 Talk radio's Laura Ingraham eyes Senate bid
Posted by: EVLINC! at January 15, 2017 01:16 PM (y3aQB)


Interesting. I used to listen to her podcasts a few years ago, and she seemed like an erudite and experienced lady. I haven't heard a thing about her lately.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 01:20 PM (8nWyX)

447 Hillary's senior thesis was on Alinsky. And I'm sure Trump read Sun Tsu's Art of War, if the stereotype of 80s businessmen is true. But who is the better Machiavelli? We've seen Trump's rope-a-dope a few times already. Hillary got trolled by Pepe the Frog. It feels a bit obvious after the election, but had to learned the first time.

The country was almost claimed by an evil grasping half-wit. As I said about Kerry ... it shouldn't have been close. It should have been a landslide. These elections are symptoms, and our country will not live to celebrate 300 years in 2076 unless we fix the disease.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at January 15, 2017 01:21 PM (VdICR)

448 Thanks for the book thread by the way. I've gotten lots of reading ideas here.

Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at January 15, 2017 01:22 PM (n3MnG)

449 I like all the hot sauces and never tried Valentina. I use Texas Pete, Crystal and Louisiana Hot Sauce regularly.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 12:29 PM (5VlCp)

I like Louisiana hot sauce a lot! Cheap and delicious. I always have a bottle in the fridge.
Texas Pete is a backup.
Tabasco is expensive.
I'll have to try Valentina.

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 01:22 PM (Om16U)

450 I was hoping we would get into the destruction of western civilization via deconstruction in this thread...as OM masterfully tempted us to do.
Posted by: booknlass at January 15, 2017 01:16 PM (G7LgH)


Morons gotta Moron!

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at January 15, 2017 01:22 PM (kqtMD)

451 Michelle Obama has "challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful?"

Good thing Steve Martin didn't write that.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 15, 2017 01:22 PM (0tfLf)

452 415, texas zombie. Pacific Northwest. In the maritime industry but not a mariner.

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 01:24 PM (/WPPJ)

453 Well before the 60s. Lying about commie infiltration of the government,
going after McCarthy and other anti-communists, sucking up to Uncle Joe
and passing off commie dictators as freedom fighters. The electronic
media has been lefty since the beginning


The 1932 Pulitzer Prize was awarded to the New York Times' Walter Duranty for 13 articles about the Soviet Union. The articles were straight up propaganda for Stalin of the worst sort.

Posted by: cool breeze at January 15, 2017 01:24 PM (StZrq)

454 I also have never cared much for going after someone's looks or clothes, mainly because it distracts from the real issues of the personality and values. And it's mean.

On Obama's inauguration day though, I had to admit that MIchelle's outfit did look a little like upholstery fabric. Then one of the weisenheimers here said that her outfit needed to be accessorized by two end tables, and I just bust out laughing. What am I gonna do with you rascals?

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 01:26 PM (ozZau)

455 Just an FYI: The Bard and the Bible is by a Moron lurker who asked to be added to my horde list


http://www.bookhorde.org/2016/12/ libby-sternberg-and-bob-hostetler.html

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 01:27 PM (Om16U)

456 "you can buy a book collection of the speeches of Albanian commie thug Enver Hoxha. But why? Who would buy such a book?"

Obama, Warren, and Keith Ellison - so they could have something which they could easily plagiarize. Good speech writing is hard, cutting and pasting is easy.

Posted by: Tom Servo at January 15, 2017 01:31 PM (V2Yro)

457 omigosh please be true

Peter Thiel considering running for governor of California

https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo/status/820639390460497920

Posted by: @votermom @vm at January 15, 2017 01:31 PM (Om16U)

458 Tonypete, waaaay up @10 - wow, I am in the middle of Hornfischer's "Fleet at Flood Tide," which you just finished. Great minds and all that, I guess.


It's good, though I don't find it to flow as well as Neptune's Inferno or Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Probably because the topic is much broader, less cohesive.


Just about done with Saipan. I sense Hornfischer's building a larger case about "total war" in the latter phase of the Pacific war, from a few lines in the book so far. And since he had an interesting but odd tidbit on Col. Tibbetts in the intro, I'm gonna go way out on a limb and guess he ties the "total war" the Japanese forced the US to adopt in the islands laid the groundwork for the atomic bomb "decision".


Another, older book that makes this case, quite powerfully due to the scale of losses and the timing in spring 1945, is "Tennozan", about Okinawa. But I'm happy to see how Hornfischer arrives at the same destination starting a bit earlier.

Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 01:31 PM (QDnY+)

459 I don't find Michelle Obama to be an attractive human being in any sense of the word.

I also don't understand why people find it necessary to go overboard in talking about how unattractive she is. Or I suppose, I want to believe I don't understand it.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2017 09:43 AM (Pz4pT)

Mostly what you see is the inner ugly seeping out of her corrosive soul. Give her a set of bolt-ons so her chest measurement was proportionate to her butt measurement, and give a sunny disposition, and a smile, and she'd be a very attractive big lady.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2017 01:32 PM (bG+ug)

460 It never gets old...

http://tinyurl.com/gsexqcr

Posted by: tu3031 at January 15, 2017 01:33 PM (qJhUV)

461 Wow. The Flip Wilson Show ended its run in 74. I would've been seven then.
Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:19 PM (mB0As)

Old Flip (gasp!) SMOKED on TV.....Lawd has mecy how did we ever survive such travesty?

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 01:36 PM (5VlCp)

462 Tammy al-Thor, I gotta say, I really enjoy the Moronning. makes me laugh out loud and think, think, think, quite a lot.

logprof
I watched an empowering video on youtube by Stefan Molyneux about the Crusades for which some magnificent Moron posted a link for last week. love reading Sowell's essays.

Posted by: booknlass at January 15, 2017 01:36 PM (G7LgH)

463 BourbonChicken: "The country was almost claimed by an evil grasping half-wit. As I said about Kerry ... it shouldn't have been close. It should have been a landslide. These elections are symptoms, and our country will not live to celebrate 300 years in 2076 unless we fix the disease."


Wow. Stolen, almost xeroxed, from my brain.


I clearly recall 2004, when Bush finally was declared the winner (OH, I think, was the key). A friend and I were at an election party in a major city. We weren't the only ones who were almost as stunned, as we were relieved and happy, by the outcome. We couldn't believe it was even close.


And as I m'self have said over and over, Obama (Kerry's vote total, fill in the blank) are symptoms, not causes. Thus my "guarded pessimism," ace's election night position, remains mine.

Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 01:37 PM (QDnY+)

464 Those who argue that our A-bombing of Japan was wrong have no historical perspective. If you understood what went down at Okinawa, you'd know that Operation Downfall would have been 1,000 times worse.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 01:38 PM (bQxkN)

465 votermom Peter Thiel considering running for governor of California

Drudge's headlined this since last night. cool looking photo of him, too.

Posted by: booknlass at January 15, 2017 01:39 PM (G7LgH)

466 OM, you might have seen me use analogies to the Ceaucescus in previous acid comments on the bizarre, un-American, creepy worshipful crap spouted about Michelle (and her husband) since 2008.


There may be something to these analogies, in terms of the mindset of those spouting/consuming this nonsense. I'd guess any of us would be just as creeped out by any worshipful hagiography about any public figure we liked or respected. It's so, so un-American, so part and parcel of authoritarian and pre-modern societies.


The single, vile statement "first time in my adult life that I was proud of my country" contains so much pathology, so much ignorance, it defies analysis or proper fisking in this format.

Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 01:45 PM (QDnY+)

467 hose who argue that our A-bombing of Japan was wrong have no historical perspective. If you understood what went down at Okinawa, you'd know that Operation Downfall would have been 1,000 times worse.
Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 01:38 PM (bQxkN)

Yup...from what I have read over the years the defeat of Nazi Germany left many under arms in Europe dreading being shipped to the Pacific for the upcoming campaign in Japan. Even the wounded State's side were being rehabed to gear up for the final push in the Pacific. The A bomb was a wonderful gift back then in those times.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 01:45 PM (5VlCp)

468 If you understood what went down at Okinawa, you'd know that Operation Downfall would have been 1,000 times worse.

It also was needed to break the Japanese will. They had to be shown what they were up against and how they were not superior to all humanity and had to stop their aggression.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 15, 2017 01:46 PM (39g3+)

469 hose who argue that our A-bombing of Japan was wrong have no historical perspective. If you understood what went down at Okinawa, you'd know that Operation Downfall would have been 1,000 times worse.
Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 01:38 PM (bQxkN)

Yup...from what I have read over the years the defeat of Nazi Germany left many under arms in Europe dreading being shipped to the Pacific for the upcoming campaign in Japan. Even the wounded State's side were being rehabed to gear up for the final push in the Pacific. The A bomb was a wonderful gift back then in those times.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 01:45 PM (5VlCp)

My Dad after surviving Iwo Jima was being prepped for the Invasion of Japan. I probably would not be here today if not for the Bomb! G-D Bless Truman and The Bomb!

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 01:47 PM (SjImc)

470 I suppose I'm guilty of idolizing Ronald Reagan. He was definitely a man with flaws, and he made many mistakes during his presidency. But his greatest achievement (besides winning the Cold War), was restoring optimism to America. He was elected just five years after the fall of Vietnam, just six years from the fallout of Watergate. What a difference his eight years made.

He was the last of the two term presidents to get a 'third term' with a party surrogate in George H. Bush.

I shudder to think of the trajectory this country would have taken had he not been elected.

Posted by: Mike at January 15, 2017 01:47 PM (c056A)

471 "Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History. From her first moments on the public stage, she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious, to be healthy, to be First Mom, to be a caretaker and hostess, and to be partner to the most powerful man in the world. What is remarkable is that, at 52, she is just getting started."


The extracted quote is just so notable I have to quote it again. At 52, she's just getting started at being unaccomplished, plain and semi-literate, no doubt continuing to challenge us, and heredity.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at January 15, 2017 01:48 PM (LTHVh)

472 Trump is not are Presdent because he cheated and Bernie Sinders will be recognized as the Presdent. Brattleboron will nots accept that idiot Trumpp as Presdent and only will listen to are grape Sinator because Trump cheated ..

Posted by: Mary Clogginstien from Brattleboro, VT (Soon to be Obamaboro, VT) at January 15, 2017 01:48 PM (Fbj4h)

473 I like Louisiana hot sauce a lot! Cheap and delicious. I always have a bottle in the fridge.

I like Tobasco but I don't like the flavor as much as Louisiana. And I can get the latter at the Dollar Tree for a buck a bottle.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 15, 2017 01:49 PM (39g3+)

474 NAACP Demands Trump Apologize To John Lewis

Weasel Zipper

Yeah about that, Fuck you no

Posted by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 01:49 PM (SjImc)

475 The single, vile statement "first time in my adult life that I was proud of my country" contains so much pathology, so much ignorance, it defies analysis or proper fisking in this format.
Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 01:45 PM (QDnY+)

True and I was almost as freaked out when she recently said now we are hopeless.

What first lady in our nation's history has ever said something like that in public? It's a good thing she wasn't FLOTUS during times of real trouble like WW2.

What first lady has said that about the incoming POTUS?

And this is regarded as normal behavior now, when Democrats are trying to overturn the election and a prominent former governor just called us all Nazis and KKK.

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 01:52 PM (ozZau)

476 All the hot sauce talk, and I haven't seen one mention of Frank's Red Hot. I think it has the best flavor of the national/mass market stuff.
And, it's supposed to be what was used in the original Buffalo wing recipe.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:52 PM (mB0As)

477 Exactly, Ignoramus. May be getting it wrong, but I think it was in the book "Downfall" by Richard Frank that there is an authoritative discussion of the "decision" to use the bomb. Quote marks because it was not nearly the big decision, or watershed of any kind, to those actually involved as it has been to generations of tendentious or sloppy second-guessers ever since.


It was, as Hornfischer writes, "total war". And had been, in both theaters, almost since the outset.


The atomic bomb was .... just a bomb. Sure, there was hope that it would have shock value. Turns out, it DIDN'T (seemingly one of the enduring secrets of WWII). The geopolitical ignoramuses and scientific geniuses among the atomic scientists may have had moral qualms, and considered *their* bomb special - but the Japanese Army wasn't impressed. As they briefed the Imperial Presence himself, at the conference where he ordered them to end the war.


Hirohito and his top adviser Lord Kido adroitly used Hiroshima as a rationale and hook to do what they'd been looking for a way to do for some time. The bomb itself had no inherent effect in that regard.

Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 01:54 PM (QDnY+)

478 Head of CBC on mission to 'kick the ass' of persons responsible for removing pig painting. ...weak sauce CBC is rendered to a paper tiger with zero credibility

Posted by: Voter dude at January 15, 2017 01:55 PM (PtSGS)

479 I guess it is going to be a two thread day today.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at January 15, 2017 01:57 PM (mpXpK)

480 Seems Sen Cory Booker lives in one state and represents his neighboring state. Waiting for intrepid alphabet channels to investigate this.
Supposedly he claims two homes that are empty.

Posted by: torabora at January 15, 2017 01:59 PM (O3OBv)

481 by: Nevergiveup at January 15, 2017 01:49 PM (SjImc)

Next Trump tweet...

How about taking the same advice I gave John Lewis? That includes Reverend Bent-Over.

Posted by: Golfman at January 15, 2017 02:00 PM (48QDY)

482 But his greatest achievement (besides winning the Cold War), was restoring optimism to America.
....

Yes, my early formative years were the 60s and 70s, and one thing I hated about that whole time was it wasn't cool to be patriotic. I think most of us were, but it just wasn't cool to express it. Reagan changed that, he really did.

Even when Trump gets on my nerves, the way he talks up the USA instead of apologizing for it is inspiring. I think attitude makes a difference, and optimism about ourselves will help our jobs situation.

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 02:00 PM (ozZau)

483 stace, I guess I call it the degradation of the civic culture. It has reached astonishing dimensions, it's now so constant that one can't keep track of the examples.


I think there were some "turning points," or maybe they were just early prominent symptoms. The hysteria - complete with the utterly baseless, vile accusations of racist indifference - about the federal govt's response to Katrina sticks out to me.


Thing is, we're *still* not going to get any real push-back. Trump, for all his welcome pugnacity in responding to attacks, really doesn't focus on this aspect of his opponents or their behavior. He makes *his* point, but rarely a broader point - not a criticism, just a factor to consider.


It's hard for an informed, serious person to see so many Americans and so much of their behavior as that of fellow countrymen, and that's why many don't, any longer.


Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 02:01 PM (QDnY+)

484 476 All the hot sauce talk, and I haven't seen one mention of Frank's Red Hot. I think it has the best flavor of the national/mass market stuff.
And, it's supposed to be what was used in the original Buffalo wing recipe.
Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:52 PM (mB0As)

--I love Frank's on chicken, not so much on beefy things like tacos or on bean burritos.

Is this now the Food Thread?

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:01 PM (GsAUU)

485 Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:52 PM (mB0As)

I'll have to try it. Texas Pete Wing Sauce is the pick of Casa de Golf. Of course, one can do the same with regular Texas Pete and butter.

Too bad beef prices did in Texas Pete Hot Dog Chili. Best ever.

Posted by: Golfman at January 15, 2017 02:04 PM (48QDY)

486 I think they are books that they buy, lose interest in, but want to have in the house so they can be seen to have read them. Like buying the New York Times to impress a liberal college girlfriend.

Not that I ever did that.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 15, 2017 11:19 AM (92kX2)

Just like every home in Nazi Germany had to have a copy of Mein Kampf on prominent display.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2017 02:05 PM (bG+ug)

487 I have a shitload of copies of my book. Can't give them away. My struggle! Plus I'm out of limes! hic

Posted by: Hillary! at January 15, 2017 02:09 PM (bc2Lc)

488 474 NAACP Demands Trump Apologize To John Lewis
Weasel Zipper
Yeah about that, Fuck you no
Posted by: Nevergiveup
----------------

Speaking of - check the link on top of t h e sidebar.
But, that pic is disturbing as hell.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:09 PM (mB0As)

489 Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 02:01 PM (QDnY

He can fix this. Black and white should have nothing to do with this. It's all about the green.

We are "post-racial". Except those that have something to gain from continued exploitation of the the meme.

*looks at John Lewis, Rev Bent-Over et al.

Posted by: Golfman at January 15, 2017 02:10 PM (48QDY)

490 But we've never had anyone like Michelle before. She wasn't a model, an actress, or a musician. She was quite simply the star of her own life -- and that was a game changer for Black women...

She's the proto-Millenial.

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 02:10 PM (fiGNd)

491 Some folks call me kumquat head.

Posted by: John R.R.R. Lewis at January 15, 2017 02:11 PM (Tyii7)

492 I'm actually kind of pleased that Obama has decided to appoint himself Shadow President and Pope of the Democrats. That will keep the spotlight on him, rather than on any of the (very few) up-and-coming Democrats.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 15, 2017 02:12 PM (obrOo)

493 488 474 NAACP Demands Trump Apologize To John Lewis
Weasel Zipper
Yeah about that, Fuck you no
Posted by: Nevergiveup
----------------

Speaking of - check the link on top of t h e sidebar.
But, that pic is disturbing as hell.
Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:09 PM (mB0As)

--Judge Jeanine yesterday was wearing some strange, tight, blue vinyl-looking dress. Weirdly kinky.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:12 PM (GsAUU)

494 If you understood what went down at Okinawa, you'd know that Operation Downfall would have been 1,000 times worse.

One thing that's never been talked about is, if the invasion of the Japanese home islands had gone forward with the predicted casualties, a movement to end the war would have begun in the U.S. The Japanese military had already been largely broken, and was no longer a threat to American territory. The law of diminishing returns would have taken effect, with more and more American casualties for less and less gain.

American involvement in WWII had gone on for 3 1/2 years. At that point in the Civil War, many Northerners had had enough of the killing and would have accepted a negotiated settlement with the South.

The takeaway is that Americans can't tolerate a war that goes on longer than about four years. We seem to have forgotten that with Vietnam and Iraq.

Posted by: rickl at January 15, 2017 02:13 PM (sdi6R)

495 The NAACP never demanded an apology from Robert Byrd, former Klan leader. That's all you need to know about the group.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 15, 2017 02:13 PM (39g3+)

496 I read "Murther and Walking Spirits," by Robertson Davies this week. This is one of my favorite books. I love the idea that if we could really know our ancestors, see them as people struggling through life just as are, we would have an immense love and appreciation for them and a greater sense of ourselves. Everyone is involved in their own hero-fight.

Also read "The Righteous Mind," by Jonathan Haidt. This is a very interesting book and I'm pretty sure it's been discussed on the book thread before. Haidt studies the evolution of morality, and when he's talking about evolution it was a little dry for me, but the section on how groups have different morals was very interesting. Specifically, Haidt's research shows that progressives moral foundation is based on caring for others, equality, and, to a much lesser extent, fairness (i.e., people should get what they deserve). Whereas conservatives moral foundation is based on caring for others, equality, fairness, respect for authority, loyalty, and sanctity (having a sense of and respect for the sacred). It's become clear, however, that progressives do have a sense of loyalty and sanctity, but it's loyalty to progressivism, not the country, and what is sacred to them is progressive leaders, the earth, and abortion.

Posted by: biancaneve at January 15, 2017 02:14 PM (CQny9)

497 One thing's for sure - I ain't missin' no meals.

Posted by: John R.R.R. Lewis at January 15, 2017 02:14 PM (Tyii7)

498 Is this now the Food Thread?
Posted by: logprof
-------------

All threads eventually become a quasi-food thread.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:15 PM (mB0As)

499 497 One thing's for sure - I ain't missin' no meals.
Posted by: John R.R.R. Lewis at January 15, 2017 02:14 PM (Tyii7)


--Dude, the rolls on the back of your neck look like a pack of Big 8 franks.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:16 PM (GsAUU)

500 All threads eventually become a quasi-food thread.

Often in less than 20 comments.

Posted by: John R.R.R. Lewis at January 15, 2017 02:16 PM (Tyii7)

501 I was born pissed off and it continues to consume me. You wouldn't know it when I hop on a scale, but it does.

Posted by: John R.R.R. Lewis at January 15, 2017 02:19 PM (Tyii7)

502 All threads eventually become a quasi-food thread.
Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:15 PM (mB0As)

Or a gun thread, or a hug-a-thon. People end up talking about what they want to.

Posted by: hogmartin at January 15, 2017 02:19 PM (8nWyX)

503 500 All threads eventually become a quasi-food thread.

Often in less than 20 comments.
Posted by: John R.R.R. Lewis at January 15, 2017 02:16 PM (Tyii7)

--If you include booze with food, less than 10 comments.

I'm day-drinking right now.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:20 PM (GsAUU)

504 Have gotten several e-mails thus far so hopefully they haven't shut me down . . .

Thanks, OregonMuse. I'll try it again.

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:20 PM (nQ10o)

505 Ok, speaking of gun threads, Libertarianwannabe was asking for gun advice and I don't know if she ever got it. Is now a good time?

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 02:22 PM (ozZau)

506 505 Ok, speaking of gun threads, Libertarianwannabe was asking for gun advice and I don't know if she ever got it. Is now a good time?

I'll listen.

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 02:23 PM (fiGNd)

507 @503
Yep. Too cold for me outside, so I'm on the couch watching Quick And The Dead. With a short bourbon & ginger ale
Thinking about making some meatballs. The thinking is about as far as I got so far.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:23 PM (mB0As)

508 As for Michelle O - she's okay. I refuse to buy into the leftist lie that she's a beauty and a fashion plate, but I see no reason to put her down either. Some of her wardrobe choices early on were inexplicable, but lately she's dressed much better, with the occasional mistake. I can sympathize with her figure flaws - big hips, proportionally small bust.

I just don't understand the left's need to turn her into something she is not.

Posted by: biancaneve at January 15, 2017 02:24 PM (CQny9)

509 506 505 Ok, speaking of gun threads, Libertarianwannabe was asking for gun advice and I don't know if she ever got it. Is now a good time?

I'll listen.

I'm here.

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:26 PM (nQ10o)

510 Mom is refusing to leave the WH. Surely you know she's been living here for 8 years. On your dime.

Posted by: FLOTUS at January 15, 2017 02:26 PM (bc2Lc)

511 Posted by: biancaneve at January 15, 2017 02:14 PM (CQny9)


Robertson Davies is always a good read. One of my faves and an inspiration for my writing (yes, really).

Too bad he didn't live long enough to get the Nobel cuz he deserved it.

I need to plow through his books again.


Posted by: naturalfake at January 15, 2017 02:26 PM (vZ9Fw)

512 Watching a National Geographic documentary of the Galapagos. Biding time until football.

Those marine iguanas are fucking cool.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:27 PM (GsAUU)

513 Could turn this into a gun thread untill the foody thread comes up in a couple of hours

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 02:27 PM (yx0Ld)

514 I'm back *sniff sniff* What's that funny smell? Oh, hot sauce and Moochelle. OK, carry on.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 02:28 PM (13Al/)

515 Libertarianwannabe is a she? I didn't know that.

Howdy, ma'am.

Posted by: rickl at January 15, 2017 02:28 PM (sdi6R)

516 Watching a National Geographic documentary of the Galapagos


Did you see me?


I'm in it about halfway through. I was visiting family.

Posted by: Mitch McConnell at January 15, 2017 02:28 PM (vZ9Fw)

517 I'll listen.

I'm here.
Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:26 PM (nQ10o)

Well, I don't have much to offer.
I was hoping some of the other morons would jump in.

We could start though by determining if this is for carry, or just for home, and so forth.

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 02:28 PM (ozZau)

518 I'm here.

OK ... what's on your mind ?

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 02:29 PM (fiGNd)

519 515 Libertarianwannabe is a she? I didn't know that.

Howdy, ma'am.
Posted by: rickl at January 15, 2017 02:28 PM (sdi6R)

Howdy, Sir. Yes, I am female! My twin brother is named "Rick."

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:30 PM (nQ10o)

520 All the hot sauce talk, and I haven't seen one mention of Frank's Red Hot. I think it has the best flavor of the national/mass market stuff.
And, it's supposed to be what was used in the original Buffalo wing recipe.
Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 01:52 PM (mB0As)

Yup....when I make buffalo wings I always use Frank's and butter.

But that's it. Not my everyday go to type of hot sauce.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2017 02:30 PM (5VlCp)

521 Trump, for all his welcome pugnacity in responding to attacks, really doesn't focus on this aspect of his opponents or their behavior. He makes *his* point, but rarely a broader point - not a criticism, just a factor to consider. "

Yeah. That is a good criticism of Trump. His anger regarding his media coverage is personal. It's not about the institutional bias the press has against anybody with a R after their name or how they always frame issues to favor the leftist take on things.

Newt Gringrich understands this and knows how to challenge the press by questioning their basic assumptions. With Trump's it more just " Those bastards are saying mean things about me because they hate me and love Obama and Hillary."

Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 02:31 PM (P8951)

522 512 Watching a National Geographic documentary of the Galapagos. Biding time until football.

Those marine iguanas are fucking cool.
Posted by: logprof
--------------------
Speaking of Galapagos, did you ever see the pic of the tortoise that just showed up in my front yard one day this fall?

http://tinypic.com/r/2h50cg4/9

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:32 PM (mB0As)

523 Libertarianwannabe, the other day (? think it was the last pre-ONT thread?) you asked about gun advice, and at the very end of the thread, "whig" had a nice concise package of recommendations.


My search-fu is weak, not sure how to find it. I actually copied and pasted it onto the ONT that day for you to see it.


Anyway it was a nice concise package.


One other recommendation: check out the website "Cornered Cat". Female firearms instructor with great advice/perspectives, overall, on guns and self-defense. Highly recommended for all, but esp. for folks like you.

Posted by: rhomboid at January 15, 2017 02:32 PM (QDnY+)

524 517 I'll listen.

I'm here.
Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:26 PM (nQ10o)

Well, I don't have much to offer.
I was hoping some of the other morons would jump in.

We could start though by determining if this is for carry, or just for home, and so forth.


I am happy to throw a few pennies for thought in, too.

Posted by: Iron Mike Golf at January 15, 2017 02:33 PM (di1hb)

525 Newt Gringrich understands this and knows how to challenge the press by questioning their basic assumptions. With Trump's it more just " Those bastards are saying mean things about me because they hate me and love Obama and Hillary."

Yeah ... which is why, I think, Trump is more effective. Because he makes it personal.

Making it personal is the only way I've ever found to make a Progressive back off that doesn't involve quick lime.

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 02:33 PM (fiGNd)

526 >>Yup....when I make buffalo wings I always use Frank's and butter.



But that's it. Not my everyday go to type of hot sauce.





Posted by: Hairyback Guy

Here as well. We have Franks, Cholula, Tapatio and Tabasco on hand usually.

Posted by: Aviator at January 15, 2017 02:34 PM (/Nite)

527 Watching a National Geographic documentary of the Galapagos. Biding time until football.

Those marine iguanas are fucking cool.
Posted by: logprof
****

Prefer the Army iguanas myself

Posted by: Tilikum Killer Assault Whale at January 15, 2017 02:34 PM (hVdx9)

528 523 Libertarianwannabe, the other day (? think it was the last pre-ONT thread?) you asked about gun advice, and at the very end of the thread, "whig" had a nice concise package of recommendations.


My search-fu is weak, not sure how to find it. I actually copied and pasted it onto the ONT that day for you to see it.


Anyway it was a nice concise package.


One other recommendation: check out the website "Cornered Cat". Female firearms instructor with great advice/perspectives, overall, on guns and self-defense. Highly recommended for all, but esp. for folks like you.

Oh gosh-- really sorry to have missed the information. I need reasoned and seasoned advice.

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:35 PM (nQ10o)

529 The Swiss have denied a resident passport document to a Dutch woman because they find her "annoying". That's the official explanation.

How in all that is holy have they tolerated Secretariat's visits all these years? "Annoying" takes on a whole new dimension with that guy.

http://tinyurl.com/jumn3w6

Posted by: MTF at January 15, 2017 02:35 PM (X4ZNp)

530 Shit, the HQ had more threads each day over the Christmas holidays that is has had on . . . MLK Day Sunday.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:35 PM (GsAUU)

531 Oh gosh-- really sorry to have missed the information. I need reasoned and seasoned advice.

First gun ? Home defense ? What's up ?

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 02:36 PM (fiGNd)

532 Thanks for the reminders about the hot sauce. Just got back from running errands and picked up a backup 1l bottle of Valentina "Extra Hot" as well as a few tins of sausage hash (!) for my prepper stash.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at January 15, 2017 02:37 PM (jV8Mq)

533 Trump, for all his welcome pugnacity in responding to attacks, really doesn't focus on this aspect of his opponents or their behavior.
...
With Trump's it more just " Those bastards are saying mean things about me because they hate me and love Obama and Hillary."


Posted by: Donna di deplorable ampersands&&&&and so there at January 15, 2017 02:31 PM (P8951)


Trump's responses are more effective Newt's responses are more reflective.

Posted by: gNewt at January 15, 2017 02:38 PM (jcSzd)

534 Learned a few things yesterday. If in need of a used part from a certain vehicle, then I'd better be on it first when it arrives in the wrecking yard.
The other is that M90 superchargers are easy to remove from their mount, but heavy.
Lastly, Pixy eats posts made while using VPNs. Pixy ate well last night thanks to me.

Posted by: Tilikum Killer Assault Whale at January 15, 2017 02:38 PM (hVdx9)

535 Trump's shtick works on an Alinskite mass market level

Saw an article about a point I made way back. Because the National Enquirer cover gets seen so much at checkout counters, its many anti Hillary covers were a big help to Trump

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 15, 2017 02:39 PM (bP9Gl)

536 Speaking of Galapagos, did you ever see the pic of the tortoise that just showed up in my front yard one day this fall?

http://tinypic.com/r/2h50cg4/9
Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:32 PM (mB0As)

--What a beauty!

It had to have been a pet. What happened to it?

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:39 PM (GsAUU)

537 True. As a child, I did not find Maude Frickert, Monty Python, or Geraldine to be disturbing.

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 01:00 PM (ozZau)

Thing is, this works as comedy because we know, instinctively, that men and women are different, so a man posing as a woman is therefore absurd, and hence funny.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2017 02:39 PM (bG+ug)

538 I, too, just returned from the store with a bottle of Valentina hot sauce, on the advice of the horde. I shall see how it compares with my beloved Tabasco.

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 02:40 PM (ro5Th)

539 532 Thanks for the reminders about the hot sauce. Just got back from running errands and picked up a backup 1l bottle of Valentina "Extra Hot" as well as a few tins of sausage hash (!) for my prepper stash.
Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at January 15, 2017 02:37 PM (jV8Mq)

--I used Valentine Extra Hot (black label, heh) just last night with my burritos. When I'm lucky I can get the big jar for just one dollar.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:41 PM (GsAUU)

540 Valentina is good, cheap hotsauce.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at January 15, 2017 02:42 PM (nafpB)

541 531 Oh gosh-- really sorry to have missed the information. I need reasoned and seasoned advice.

First gun ? Home defense ? What's up ?

Yes, first, and for personal protection only. Grew up in a family whose members, while not anti-gun, simply never owned any. I will also admit that I not entirely comfortable at the thought of owning one, but now live alone in a metropolitan area (previously lived in crime-free small town). Younger brother and friends have advised me to get one and younger brother gave me gift certificate to a very good practice range.

Younger brother and his wife now have concealed carry. Highly educated, quiet people, but I think we're worried about firearms being banned for good.

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:42 PM (nQ10o)

542 540 Valentina is good, cheap hotsauce.

I never leave home without it !!!

Posted by: Hillary at January 15, 2017 02:43 PM (fiGNd)

543 540 Valentina is good, cheap hotsauce.

I never leave home without it !!!

Posted by: Hillary
****

Doesn't it burn Huma? Or are you that fast?

Posted by: Tilikum Killer Assault Whale at January 15, 2017 02:44 PM (hVdx9)

544 Lastly, Pixy eats posts made while using VPNs.

We wouldn't do that if Pixy fed us properly in the first place.

Posted by: Server Hamsters local 294 at January 15, 2017 02:44 PM (UzBQ4)

545 Yes, first, and for personal protection only.

So ... you're looking for a hand-gun. And it sounds like you'll be getting a concealed carry permit. Do I have that all right ?

Posted by: Hillary at January 15, 2017 02:45 PM (fiGNd)

546 Heh, tourism ad for Belize on Nat Geo.

I would love to visit there some day.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:46 PM (GsAUU)

547 Lastly, Pixy eats posts made while using VPNs.

We wouldn't do that if Pixy fed us properly in the first place.


Posted by: Server Hamsters local 294
****

It's hard out there for hamsters. I cry every time a "server" burns out.

Posted by: Tilikum Killer Assault Whale at January 15, 2017 02:46 PM (hVdx9)

548 510 Mom is refusing to leave the WH. Surely you know she's been living here for 8 years. On your dime.
Posted by: FLOTUS at January 15, 2017 02:26 PM (bc2Lc)
-------------------------------
"Dime" is about the extent of it, since the only added expense of having her there is a slight increase in the water and electric bill.

She pays for her meals, toiletries, and laundry/dry-cleaning, as does the whole family, BTW. They get a bill for that stuff every month and it ain't cheap.

MOST presidents have had extended family or even friends living in the WH, either permanently or for specific periods. I have never understood why having a widowed grandmother live with the family is so awful.

Yikes! I actually have to defend the Obamas on this one.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 15, 2017 02:46 PM (Nox3c)

549 "545
Yes, first, and for personal protection only."


So you are not going to go all postal with it?

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 02:46 PM (ro5Th)

550 545 Yes, first, and for personal protection only.

So ... you're looking for a hand-gun. And it sounds like you'll be getting a concealed carry permit. Do I have that all right ?

Posted by: Hillary at January 15, 2017 02:45 PM (fiGNd)

Correct, though, Hillary, I don't think you have any standing on this issue any longer!!

Posted by: Libertarianwannabe at January 15, 2017 02:47 PM (nQ10o)

551 "545
Yes, first, and for personal protection only."


So you are not going to go all postal with it?



Posted by: Ruthless
****

Don't you know they do that entirely on their own?

Posted by: Tilikum Killer Assault Whale at January 15, 2017 02:48 PM (hVdx9)

552 MOST presidents have had extended family or even friends living in the WH, either permanently or for specific periods. I have never understood why having a widowed grandmother live with the family is so awful.

Yikes! I actually have to defend the Obamas on this one.
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 15, 2017 02:46 PM (Nox3c)

--George Washington left the White House with a big debt, partly since he had to pay for liquor to entertain guests out of pocket.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:49 PM (GsAUU)

553 Heh, tourism ad for Belize on Nat Geo.

I would love to visit there some day.


Don't do it by cruise ship, though. Belize City, where they stop, is a hole. Coral reefs don't let the big boats get anywhere good.

Posted by: mikeski at January 15, 2017 02:49 PM (UzBQ4)

554 --What a beauty!

It had to have been a pet. What happened to it?
Posted by: logprof
---------------------
The entire block ate turtle soup for a week!

Seriously, it was a pet visiting neighbors a few house away. Someone started up the woodchipper, and it took off (those things can move!).
He scared the shit out of my min pin - heck, he was bigger than my lawnmower!

Really beautiful creature. Dude say he was a half dollar less than 13 years ago.quite impressive. Bet it costs a fortune to feed him.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:49 PM (mB0As)

555 Don't you know they do that entirely on their own?

There aughtta be a law! Damned guns!

Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 02:49 PM (ro5Th)

556 What? The president and his family pay for meals and laundry/dry cleaning. That's, well, I never considered that.

Posted by: gNewt at January 15, 2017 02:50 PM (jcSzd)

557 Hillary has no one to blame but herself.

Her consent is on it all, Bill, law firm billing, bimbo eruption tactics, Hillarycare, Clinton Global Iniative, shithouse server, senate term, Huma, Benghazi, worse than Nixon stonewalling.

Remind me again: Who won? Oh, that was Barry.

I can't breathe.

Posted by: 80's music fan at January 15, 2017 02:51 PM (PHcLa)

558 MisHum to the rescue upstairs...

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:52 PM (mB0As)

559 The end is near
Nood

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2017 02:52 PM (yx0Ld)

560 Correct, though, Hillary, I don't think you have any standing on this issue any longer!!

Live by the Sock, Die by the Sock. You know how it is.

So ... if you're going concealed carry hand-gun, seems to me you've got to answer three questions ...

1) How will you carry (purse, pocket, inside waistband)
2) What caliber do you fancy (.22, .25, .38, 9mm, bigger)
3) Revolver or Semi-Auto

Put any thought into any of this ?

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 02:53 PM (fiGNd)

561 Just saw where the left is claiming Trump was wrong about GA 5th district being crime ridden.
Funny how he gets them wound up so easily. May he never tire of doing so.

Posted by: Tilikum Killer Assault Whale at January 15, 2017 02:53 PM (hVdx9)

562 Paula Deen has a fried chicken recipe that uses Frank's hot sauce in the egg batter. It's my go to recipe.

Posted by: olddog in mo at January 15, 2017 02:53 PM (Dhht7)

563 559 "The end is near"

Eeeek!

*runs and hides*


Posted by: Ruthless at January 15, 2017 02:54 PM (ro5Th)

564 539 I used Valentine Extra Hot (black label, heh) just last night with my burritos. When I'm lucky I can get the big jar for just one dollar.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:41 PM (GsAUU)



I use it on nearly everything including the baked chicken I had for lunch today. Given that I go through at least one 1l bottle per week, I wish I could get them for a buck a piece! Maybe I could get them directly from the distributor...

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at January 15, 2017 02:55 PM (jV8Mq)

565 Don't do it by cruise ship, though. Belize City, where they stop, is a hole. Coral reefs don't let the big boats get anywhere good.
Posted by: mikeski at January 15, 2017 02:49 PM (UzBQ4)

--Ugh, There's a lot of travel dreams I yet have, but taking a sea cruise is not one of them. I'd rather just be shut in a hotel resort on land for a wekk.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:56 PM (GsAUU)

566 So ... if you're going concealed carry hand-gun, seems to me you've got to answer three questions ...

1) How will you carry (purse, pocket, inside waistband)
2) What caliber do you fancy (.22, .25, .38, 9mm, bigger)
3) Revolver or Semi-Auto

Put any thought into any of this ?
Posted by: ScoggDog
---------------

I followed the discussion that evening, and will follow this one too.
Same boat - first handgun, concealed, I'm thinking wheelgun for price, reliability, ease of cleaning, etc.
I'll certainly be visiting the store/range when I have the funds, but am always curious what you experts have to say.

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 02:57 PM (mB0As)

567 @Libertarianwannabe

Being an 'Ettte, I think one of the big things you should pay attention to is comfort and fit. Your hands may be smaller than the "average" user the handgun makers design for. And by comfort and fit, I mean not only how it feels in your hands, but ease in operating the controls. Things like how difficult or easy it is to reach and pull the trigger, pull the slide back on a semi-automatic, operating magazine releases.

The other night, you got an excellent suggestion: find a range that has a wide variety of handguns you can rent and shoot them.

Ranges and gun clubs are very welcoming to new shooters and getting help in selecting something that works for you is not hard.

Do not buy anything until you have shot a box or two through that model of firearm and you feel comfortable with it.

They are loud, but you will get used to it. I've done just this type of exercise for Mrs IMG and my poor old gray-haired (80 yr old) mother.

Posted by: Iron Mike Golf at January 15, 2017 02:59 PM (di1hb)

568 I'll certainly be visiting the store/range when I have the funds, but am always curious what you experts have to say.

Easy Chi ... I'm no expert. Of course - I don't think alot of others are either.

Here's the deal ... as honest as I see it. There are no Perfect Answers to this question. And what and how you carry is a very personal, individual decision.

But I'll help however I can - because I think the decision to carry is one one of the most responsible, realistic decisions you can make in today's world.

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 03:00 PM (fiGNd)

569 Ugh, check out the #writersresist hashtag on twitter...

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=%23writersresist&src=typd

Posted by: The Political Hat at January 15, 2017 03:01 PM (vBeA5)

570 Oh, and any 'Ron or 'Ette in NE Ohio who needs to try out handguns, hit me up. I'd be happy to meet at a range and bring a pile of guns and ammo with me.

Posted by: Iron Mike Golf at January 15, 2017 03:02 PM (di1hb)

571 The other night, you got an excellent suggestion: find a range that has a wide variety of handguns you can rent and shoot them.

Fantastic advice.

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 03:02 PM (fiGNd)

572 I thought omnilingual sounded familiar so I went to it. Yes, I read it years ago in an anthology. Still a great short story.

Posted by: PaleRider at January 15, 2017 03:04 PM (Jen0I)

573 I think that would be a great topic for a gun thread (you listening, Jim in Galveston?) - newbie/virgin gun advice.

I'll worry about how to carry when I find the right first gun. I really like that Urban Carry inside-the-pants holster, though. Or at least the idea of it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pkRofcvfnHg

Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 03:05 PM (mB0As)

574 I am about halfway through reading The Queen Of The North Disaster, The Captain's Story by Colin Henthorne.

The Queen of the North was the flagship of the B.C. Ferry Corporation's fleet, a true ship of ocean-going capability, which it needed because portions of its route took it into stretches of the open Pacific.

On March 22, 2006, she struck an underwater ledge of Gil Island, which ripped out much of her bottom, and tore off both propellers. In a little over an hour she sank in deep water. Two passengers went missing, and are presumed dead, despite a thorough search of the sinking ship by crew members.

Colin is a personal friend, and a stand-up guy. For the record, he was on a mandated rest period at the time of the grounding, and the conn of the ship was in the hands of a qualified mate of long standing.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2017 03:07 PM (bG+ug)

575 Posted by: Chi at January 15, 2017 03:05 PM (mB0As)

Chi, check out Alabama Holster and The Beltman.

Posted by: weirdflunky at January 15, 2017 03:07 PM (c28cZ)

576 Don't do it by cruise ship, though. Belize City, where they stop, is a hole. Coral reefs don't let the big boats get anywhere good.
Posted by: mikeski at January 15, 2017 02:49 PM (UzBQ4)

--Ugh, There's a lot of travel dreams I yet have, but taking a sea cruise is not one of them. I'd rather just be shut in a hotel resort on land for a wekk.

Posted by: logprof at January 15, 2017 02:56 PM (GsAUU)

IIRC, one of our Morons, Tim in Georgia, aka Man With No Party, is the owner of a bar on Caulker Key in Belize. Sounds like it would be a fun place to visit.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2017 03:09 PM (bG+ug)

577 I'll worry about how to carry when I find the right first gun. I really like that Urban Carry inside-the-pants holster, though. Or at least the idea of it.

I pocket-carry with a snub-nosed revolver ... because it's easy. I can wear jeans, shorts, whatever and carry that gun. That's the gun that gets me to my truck - where I keep a 4" .357 Magnum and sometimes a long-gun as well.

And I'd advise you think more the other way ... how do you want to carry ? Because the perfect gun in your nightstand won't help you a damn bit if you don't have it on you because you can't hide it in your daily outfit.

Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 03:12 PM (fiGNd)

578 421 ... Hi pookysgirl, I've been enjoying "The Bard and the Bible" as well. Something I can dip into for those brief moments waiting for the tea kettle to whistle. The only problem is I start thumbing through my Riverside Shakespeare or the family Bible to look up more about the quotes. :-)

Posted by: JTB at January 15, 2017 03:18 PM (V+03K)

579 ScoggDog makes excellent points.

Look at weapon selection as being fitting a gun to you. Your body, your lifestyle (gad, I hate that word), your environment(s).

Let those things point you to what to carry.

Posted by: Iron Mike Golf at January 15, 2017 03:20 PM (di1hb)

580 452 415, texas zombie. Pacific Northwest. In the maritime industry but not a mariner.
Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 15, 2017 01:24 PM (/WPPJ)

I thought that was probably the case. The Pacific Northwest is the only place I have ever heard the term Skookumchuk. Thought maybe you were a salty fisherman or something ;-)

Posted by: Texas Zombie at January 15, 2017 03:20 PM (SUtNI)

581 Trump will be the first to be elected and go to the Right.
Posted by: squeakywheel at January 15, 2017 01:03 PM (8H4Pg)

From your keyboard to God's ears!

Posted by: SandyCheeks at January 15, 2017 03:22 PM (joFoi)

582 Posted by: ScoggDog at January 15, 2017 03:12 PM (fiGNd)

Good points, but OTOH, once she finds a gun she likes to shoot that's also small enough to conceal carry, if it's of a reasonably well-known make she'll be able to find holsters for it for every method of carry. There is sooo much available out there now.

Posted by: stace, deplorable at last at January 15, 2017 03:23 PM (ozZau)

583 I don't even know which dusty, crusty crack in my brain I dug Geraldine out of. That was a loooong time ago.

The devil made me do it!

Posted by: Geraldine Jones at January 15, 2017 03:23 PM (joFoi)

584 When I decided to get my concealed carry, I took a gun safety class first. The instructi had us shoot a ton of different guns to get comfortable with them all. I found the guns I liked and went from there.

Posted by: Abby at January 15, 2017 03:26 PM (HBU7W)

585 98 I read a Louis L'amour book in between working on "Collision of Empires."

Sometimes, one just needs a little "junk food" for the mind.

"Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914"? Hey, that's the same non-fiction book I'm working on! ...when not reading novels. It can be a tedious book to get through...

Posted by: Castle Guy at January 15, 2017 04:47 PM (7aeqx)

586 Has to be Giada. I once saw her give a forearm shiver to a Fillipino bus boy that left him paralysed above the waist and able to say "Hot plate" only with great difficulty.

Posted by: Regular joe at January 15, 2017 04:49 PM (ROIz5)

587 150 No shout out to the gay muslim immigrant furry romance, a tale of defiance in the Age of Trump? (Warning - links to slate)

http://tinyurl.com/zfmaxfn
Posted by: josephistan at January 15, 2017 09:41 AM (7qAYi)

Someone needs a fatwa. (not josephistan)

Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at January 15, 2017 05:13 PM (THS4q)

588 How dare you say Michelle Obama has no real world accomplishments!

She had a $300,000/year job at the University of Chicago as "Director of Diversity Outreach".

Her work was so brilliant that when she quit to become First Lady, U of C didn't even try to hire a successor.

Not that anyone has ever said anything about it, AFAIK.

Posted by: Rich Rostrom at January 16, 2017 02:59 AM (YkV15)

589 "Obama's words had the power to move the country (huh?), and often the world"
Well, they often moved me. I usually had to get up in the middle of whatever he was blathering on about and go visit the porcelain library.........

Posted by: GWB at January 16, 2017 09:12 AM (KlGDT)

590 Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected her face as a model for that of the Predator because it was too unbelievably hideous.

Posted by: mantuaBill at January 16, 2017 10:36 PM (S90LB)

(Jump to top of page)






Processing 0.06, elapsed 0.0773 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0309 seconds, 599 records returned.
Page size 382 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.



MuNuvians
MeeNuvians
Polls! Polls! Polls!

Real Clear Politics
Gallup
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
News/Chat