jesse.in.mb
Don Winslow – The Force. Is the story of a cop who thought himself good and spent his entire career methodically crossing line after line until he was really a villain. Maybe. Winslow seems unsure if this is going to be elegy or indictment and I found the damn thing an infuriating listen. There’s some unironic patter about his first duty is to get home to his family. Seriously.
James S. A. Corey – Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse Book 1). It was fun dipping my toe back in hard sci-fi. I wish I’d read this before watching the first season of the show as the show was a fairly faithful retelling of the book with some alterations so that you saw more of Earth’s politics from the beginning, primarily from the view point of Chrisjen Avasarala (Shoreh Aghdashloo), who does not appear in the first book. It cannot be stated enough that I would listen to Shohreh Aghdashloo read an intro to chemistry text book for all eternity and be content.
Richard Phillips – Mark of Fire (The Endarian Prophecy Book 1). Fantasy, a little on the generic side, but well paced. The magical system was a fun departure from most of what I’ve read, and while not exactly unique, it was well fleshed out. The second book just came out in January and the third on 02/20, so I may just continue on with the series.
SP
I’ve been driving around the country helping elderly relatives with various health stuff this month. (Pro tip: Don’t be the oldest-female-child-and-only-child-with-medical-training in a huge family.)
But, hey, I don’t mind driving. And I love my elderly relatives. Interstates, however, get on my nerves. Yes, I’d prefer to take the “blue highways” but time hasn’t allowed.
What to do? Listen to an audiobook, of course!
On this last drive, I started listening to the somewhat lengthy Shooting Victoria. The length – 19 hrs and 54 mins – would normally be off-putting for me, but when one has endless, mind-numbingly-boring hours to fill…feature, not bug.
Shooting Victoria tells the stories of the eight(!) failed attempts to assasinate Great Britain’s Queen Victoria over the course of the 19th century. Although perhaps a bit dry for some, it’s quite interesting to me from a social history standpoint. I’m only 8 hours in or so and we’ve already had much discussion of Bedlam, Chartism, the state of the judiciary, the plight of the Spitalfields silk weavers, and the Irish Potato Famine. Also fascinating-yet-not-surprising are the machinations of the political figures and those within the Queen’s household.
I am enjoying the book and will likely finish it on my next driving trip. Webdominatrix and I are headed to Florida soon to check in on OMWC’s elderly relative, with stops to visit Brett & his family and SugarFree & his bourbon (not a euphemism) along the way. Nothing good can come from this. No, there will not be pics.
Old Man With Candy
For sheer thrills and excitement, there’s nothing to match C.D. Motchenbacher, and I managed to score a copy of an older edition of Low Noise Electronic Design, sent to me as a gift from one of my favorite technical authors. It may be old, but so am I, and the basic physics that are discussed are still valid. It’s comprehensive and readable, everything a technical book should be.
For fun, I realized that it had been years since I picked up my copy of The Annotated Alice, the Lewis Carroll classics thoroughly annotated in a witty and scholarly style by the late polymath Martin Gardner. The fact that the author may well have been a closeted pedophile wasn’t the main attraction, I swear. I’m not a poetry kinda guy, but The Walrus and the Carpenter and Jabberwocky still speak to me in a way nothing else has, other than the works of Don Marquis. As someone whose professional career has been tied to molecular physics, I am particularly delighted by the insights of Through the Looking Glass and Gardner’s commentary. Everyone should own this.
Riven
All of my reading time since last month has still been dedicated to this sole book. The good news is that I should be testing on it in a few weeks. The bad news is that, until then, it’s going to be the only book I’m reading and I will continue to be scarce.
Brett L
I read The Shadow of What was Lost by James Islington, which Amazon’s AI has been pushing on me for a long time and reviewers compare to Robert Jordan. I like Mr.Islington’s writing, but the plot is very reminiscent of Jordan, which is to say that there probably is one but I can’t discern it. The plot of the book — two young men who are destined to be magic users are set on a quest. Along the way they meet a 3rd young man who may be a mass murder as well as a wizard who is probably a mass murderer, but the men he killed were probably going to kill one of the original two young men. These 4 men meet a princess who turns out to be the 2nd young man’s cousin. Eventually an army is defeated, much wrong is righted, the young mass murderer turns out to be The Highlander — an immortal with a super-sword who has killed more people than dysentery.
Oh, and a shit-ton of Microsoft Azure and DevOps training. DevOps sounds cool if I ever work on a team of more than 1 or have clients who actually can be arsed to test what I write.
SugarFree
I have read so much. So bigly of the reading. Yuge reading.
Read The Iron Druid series. I liked it quite a bit, unlike some [cough]Brett L[cough]jesse[cough]. Basically Dresden Files Lite crossed with American Gods. Druids and shit. A talking dog. Hot redhead bartenders. The ultimate in “don’t stick it in crazy Death Goddess” sex. Will say… I thought the series was finished or I would have avoided it until it was. Between Planetary and GRRM, I have literary battered wife syndrome: I never want to get into that sort of abusive situation again. The final book of the series is supposed to be out in April. I’ll believe when I see it and not before, mofo.
I have this urge to read the book before I see the movie, and over the years I have built up a large backlog of movies I’ve been waiting to see. My project for the next few months is to finally do something about it. So far I’ve read/watched The Other by Tom Tryon, The Fury by John Farris, The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin and I’m working on reading The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley.
The Other was a bit of a bust since the movie hews so closely to the novel. Kind of pointless if you’ve read the novel. But the novel was very good. The whole thing goes down like a fever dream.
De Palma’s film of The Fury is better than the book, honestly. The novel introduces better characterization and motives but is so disjointed it feels like maybe the copy you are reading had some chapters torn out at random. Time shifts back and forth, plot threads weave and unweave at random, and whole character arcs will have the important middle bit excited. Also, filming the novel as written would have had De Palma up on child porn charges.
I had already seen The Stepford Wives a couple of times, so it was a bit of cheat. In this case, both the novel and the film are worth it. The plot doesn’t make much sense–if you can make realistic sexbots, just sell the sexbots, make a ton of cash and buy young hot wives; lather, rinse and repeat every ten years or so President Donald style. But the feminist paranoia of the piece is so palpable and so–for the lack of a better term–hysterical, it creates excellent tension. And I’m pretty sure there’s not a single scene of Katherine Ross or Paula Prentiss wearing a bra for the first 3/5ths of the movie. It was the 70s, man. Can you dig it?
And that font. I’m not a font nerd or anything, but could that font be more 70s?
JW
So I was reading the milk carton at breakfast, and discovered something interesting. Besides it providing me with the minimum daily adult requirement of Vitamin D, it turns out that Mary Margaret Cameron, age 9, is missing. She was last seen on October 13, 2007 in the company of her noncustodial father, and they had a cool picture of what she looked like with age progression. She’s developed well, and I’m sure he’s a proud daddy.
Sloopy
The only thing anyone here needs to be reading is the TUNNELL ESTATE AUCTION SALE DAY CATALOG.
Disclaimer: Contributions not necessarily actually by the author whose name appears above them.
Web Dominatrix
I have had a slow reading month. I too have been enjoying Shooting Victoria at SP’s recommendation. I am currently reading Salt: A World History and I find this far more fascinating than I expected. It is, as you might have guessed, the tale of how salt has shaped civilisation.
I am also reading/listening to (Thanks, Amazon, for allowing me to switch between Kindle and Audible!) Uncertainty about Heisenberg’s principle.
Been reading an old favorite – G. Gordon Liddy’s autobiography, Will. Sure, he’s a horrible person, but he’s so loony that the book is endlessly fascinating.
Does he give a recipe for rat?
No, but he does describe roasted rat as “tasteless and stringy”.
There are just so many strange little anedotes and side stories, like how he came close to applying to Julliard as a singer, his in-depth technique for building a prison shank, how he married not as much for love as for mathematical ability and solid bone structure, the German maid/cook of his childhood who encouraged him to listen to Hitler speeches with her, multiple detailed descriptions of demonstrations of his will by holding his arm over a flame, his frequently hilarious mocking of the Nixon aides he didn’t like such as Eugene Rossides and Jeb Magruder, etc. He clearly doesn’t give a shit what the reader thinks of him, which makes for a bizarre but compelling autobiography.
RE: arm over flames:
“What’s the trick?”
“The trick is not minding.”
Lachowsky was discussing failures of the prison system last week and I thought of Liddy.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS PRISON DISCUSSING CHOSEN ONE.
THE TABERNACLE SENDS THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYNElueJj_w
ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.
P.S. ZARDOZ HAS BEEN READING GUN CATALOGS, SO HE MAY STOCK UP ON THE GIFT OF THE GUN.
people who *actually* think that tend to not write autobiographies.
i think its probably more-accurate is that he wants people to think he doesn’t give a shit what people think of him. he cares very deeply about them thinking that.
Hmmmm….perhaps it’s more accurate to say that he doesn’t give a shit if people don’t like him based on the image he puts forth in his autobiography as long as they buy into said image, then?
” he doesn’t give a shit if people don’t like him based on the image he puts forth in his autobiography as long as they buy into said image, then?”
more or less. some people get an ego boost out of being hated. “so what if they hate me: they all know my name!”
Also, being hated by most can be good-for-business with a smaller audience.
All true.
I will say, though, that I don’t think much of what Liddy says (if anything) is an act. He believes his own bullshit, that’s for sure.
Great on the 2A, though! haha
Agreed. Nobody ever accused Liddy of not having a massive ego.
Actually, I’ve been working on one in a desultory fashion for the last couple of years. Not for publication, though, just to leave to my kids and grandkids.
I remember his radio show, when I was able to pick it up. Some low-power station in Hamilton, OH would broadcast it. He reminds me of a Michael Savage that eats HGH and anabolics for breakfast. As I recall, he used the investigative powers of the FBI to do a background check on his soon-to-be wife.
Yes. He said that FBI agents routinely did background checks on people for all kinds of reasons – girlfriends, prospective neighbors, etc.
I wouldn’t compare him to Savage because I think Savage is an act. He plays a part for the purposes of his show. Liddy is legitimately crazy. He believes every word he says. After all, he was the only guy convicted in Watergate who didn’t cop a plea or flip against someone else. He went to prison on a 20 year sentence, by far the longest imposed on anyone from Watergate, which he would have served much of if not for Jimmy Carter commuting his sentence.
I ran into him in Kuwait and introduced myself. He shook my hand, didn’t say a word. I assumed that since I didn’t have bars or scrambled eggs on my hat I didn’t rate a response.
I attended a speech he gave. Yep, he’s horrible, but he’s interesting.
I’m reading a book called Free Prices. It’s a good warm up for why the Federal reserve should be ended.
I’m reading Persepolis Rising – The Expanse Book 7. Some birds whp flew off long ago coming home to roost on this one.
I’m listening to The Plague Forge: The Dire Earth Cycle: Three. Not bad. Kind of similar to the expanse in that mysterious off-stage aliens cause cataclysms for hard to understand reasons.
On-deck is Matthew Bracken’s The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun and Lion of the Sun: Book 3 of Harry Sidebottom’s excellent Warrior of Rome series.
I just re-read Jillian Becker’s “Hitler’s Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang.” While that is interesting, I think next I’ll go once again through “My Commando Operations: The Memoirs of Hitler’s Most Daring Commando” by Otto Skorzeny. The guy could have been the inspiration for a half-dozen or so Bond villains; an unrepentant Nazi who was brought to trial at at Nuremburg for putting English-speaking Germans in American uniforms and using them to raise hell at Bastogne. He called as a witness a British Colonel who admitted the Allies did the same thing, and so the tribunal acquitted him. After the war he ran a mercenary group called “Die Spinne.” (The Spider.)
A horrible person, as Chipwooder notes above, can make for a fascinating read.
Is Becker arguing that B-M were fascists (asking based on the title).
Not in those words; she describes them as they described themselves, as far-left agitators with Marxist sympathies. These are the same assholes that rebranded themselves as the Red Army Faction.
Thanks, that’s what I was wondering. I was wondering if the was trying to re-brand Marxists as fascists as is often the trend. Sounds like she isn’t.
The “HItler’s Children” title refers to the fact that the founders of the Baader-Meinhof group were born and most of their childhood spent while Hitler was in power.
Interesting, I’ll check that out.
This is also supposed to be very good. I have it, but have not yet read it.
Thanks
Exactly – I’ve never read Skorzeny’s memoirs but he is indeed a very interesting character.
One minor point – he was tried as one of the Dachau Trials, not Nuremburg. They were strictly military in nature and prosecuted solely by US Army JAG.
You’re right, of course. Must have gotten my Nazi war criminals mixed up.
Its part of Celine’s lasting literary legacy
The really clever bit here is that these soldiers were not sent to go shoot Patton or Ike or blow up bridges, they were sent out to swap road signs, issue false movement orders, route convoys across each others path, and do other things of that nature. Brilliant force multiplier.
Still reading ‘Submission’ by Michel Houellebecco
And started reading ‘The Demon in Democracy’ by Ryszard Legutko, who argues that in his native Poland Western liberals openly embraced former communists, but have shunned former anti-communists. His contention is that liberal democracy and communism have more in common than people admit. He must be a Hoppe fan or something
Also, an exercise thread AND a reading thread in the same day? Does my mom run this website?
No, but I might be your dad.
Mind= blown
“Submission” is excellent. I recently recommended it to a open minded soft leftie before she went to Paris. She read it on the plane there and returned angry as a cat that has pissed on by a horse. She was furious and dismayed at the apparent actions of the French to turn the novel into reality.
Now to get her to read “The Mandibles” and get pissed at current US government policy and spending.
Bwaahahaha!
The strain of socialism in liberalism is older than (Marx’s) communism. The French Revolution happened before Marx was even born. The anti-communists were probably ardent Catholics which ticks one of the socialist berserk buttons (religion).
http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/335568,WSJ-admits-to-mistake-in-coverage-of-Warsaws-Independence-March
The contention of Legutko has only been bolstered by smears made by Western media against the Polish government, which is not friendly to socialists. Does anyone remember when the WSJ, Washington Post, and CNN claimed that a banner at a Polish Independence day march said “Pray for Islamic Genocide”, when in fact it just said “We Want God” (which is what the Polish crowd chanted when John Paul II visited the country during the Cold War)? Granted “We Want God” is seen as offensive by Western media
Whoa
Poles are vile scum who dared to defeat glorious Red Army in 1920, stopping their march of liberation into Germany, and ultimately are responsible for Stalin defeating Trotsky, who would have been wonderfully awesome. Them not liking Communism, being (broadly) religious and nationalist just adds to the list of sins.
Your boy Chesterton has a magnificent essay, in which Western disdain for Poland is obvious in 30s (not G.K – he wrote with admiration – but his right-thinking contemporaries).
This goes back to my frustration when people smear the Polish as all being accomplices in the Holocaust. There is a general dislike for the Polish within the intelligentsia of Western Europe, because they are traditional and religious. And because of this established dislike, the intelligentsia of Europe is willing to ascribe the most horrendous accusations against them, while excusing other, such as Finland, who actively allied with the Nazis. It’s disgraceful.
And this comes from someone who is not Polish and grew-up in an immigrant neighborhood where Polish jokes were routine, since they were the newer immigrants that lived just east of our neighborhood.
Also, it should be noted that the devout Catholicism of the Polish I’m sure informed Chesterton’s warm disposition toward the Polish.
Funny. The other day I got a YouTube ad for a Polish government PR foundation pushing Poles were co-victims with Jews of the Nazis (and Polish Jews are not really Poles?…).
Is there some sort of recent push to smear Poles as Nazi collaborators?
I don’t know, but there’s been a recent push in Poland to have terms like “Polish concentration camps” made illegal.
no.
there is a lot of xenophobic, and anti-semitic sentiment in parts of poland tho
and politically there has always been a distaste for the Western fascination with the Holocaust because so much of it happened on their soil. its mostly, “stop reminding us about this shit”. many find the significance attributed to the camps out of proportion to the massive loss of life the Poles themselves suffered at the hands of the Nazis and then the Soviets.
Did some poles collaborate? I don’t think there’s any doubt. There were also non-jewish Poles sent to the death camps themselves. Like anything, history always has mixed details. and no one likes to talk about the ugly ones.
going back to the 1980s, there have been groups that have wanted to get rid of the Auschwitz /Birkenau camps. Like a polish, “MoveOn.org”. On the polish right-wing, its sort of a semi popular theme.
The recent effort to make it a speech-crime to suggest polish collaboration w/ the death camps is just the latest version of this sort of thing.
Just finished Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, which was quite good. Historical fiction account of the Spartans at the Hot Gates. Much better than the Zach Snyder 300 weirdness.
Currently working on Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. Since the book(s) were written in 3 parts almost 100 years ago, there won’t be any GRRMing of the story.
Finished Pavane by Keith Roberts (thanks to Sugarfree). Sufficiently depressing stuff.
Halfway thru Warning to the West by Solzhenitsyn. It’s a collection of his speeches in the 70’s. If you want a no holds barred takedown of Western liberalism and the Soviets at the same time, look no further.
Ah, also finished The Lions Gate by Pressfield. Thanks to someone here. The Moshe Dayan chapters got a bit overwrought but otherwise interesting and enjoyable.
Having been literally literarily lobotomized* by reading SugarFree, my rehab consists mostly of Penthouse Forum, old National Lampoon issues, and the sides of tires.
*say that 3 times fast
I reject the idea that Books on Tape are “reading”
half of this POV is just, “because i say so and i have no real reason, i just like declaring these sorts of thing”
half is actually, ‘you really are using a different part of your brain’
Books on Tape
What the heck is “tape?”
/young person
It’s an adhesive strip that comes in a roll.
Meh. I’ve been including audiobooks since we started WAWR.
Oh jesse, I clued in RC Dean to an Irish gin Glendalough the other day. I recommend…not quite as off the wall botanicals as the St. George Terroir, but worth a go with its own bouquet
Also, we’re taking my dad to Hong Kong and South Korea this summer. It’ll be my first time in SK. Do you care to recommend any day trip destinations? We’re staying in Seoul and my dad really wants to take “a bullet train”….so suspect we’re up for anything.
Working a Terroir G und T right now. Haven’t run across the Glendalough yet.
Back to War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare by Robert Taber, a classic work on terrorism and insurgency. The ‘older’ bookend in a sequence of reading about the subject that began with Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl and Peter J. Schoomaker.
Heavy going, so once I’m done, I’ll pick up some easier reading like Hobbes’ Leviathan or The Open Society and its Enemies
Popper’s time stares at me and taunts me with its oversized words.
tome
The Tomorrow Gene and our own UnCivilServant’s Gruefield 18 omnibus.
similar to declaring that “‘audiobooks aren’t ‘reading'”
in my opinion, Alice in Wonderland is the greatest work of literature in the English language. i will be uncharacteristically flexible and concede that ‘its at least in the top 5’. anything else, you will have to fight me with sword
The Annotated Alice is one of my favorite books. Of course, you could just ignore the annotations. It’s sort of like Escher, Gödel, Bach. It’s nice when you want to play with your brain, but don’t want to do anything that resembles work or study.
Current book is The Real and the Complex: a History of Analysis in the 19th Century, by Jeremy Gray.
It’s not the kind of book you really read, though…I skim it looking for choice sections, and then get out the old pen and paper and get ready for a long hard slog. I’m looking for some good bits to use in a class I’m teaching right now, so it’s not really recreational reading. My recreational reading tends to be more historically oriented, most recently James C. Scott’s Against the Grain.
A friend of mine gave me a copy of the new fiction book Radio Free Vermont. Left wing secession movement ahoy. I’ll probably be reading it.
Love the pic
? ? choose emoji
I just finished “The Man in the Brown Suit” and “4.50 from Paddington” Both have the same flaw – Agatha skipped the part where the person making the accusation tell us how they reached the conclusion. They go and lay out how the suspect could have done it, but then fails to show that they did.
Production just started on the Audiobook version of Lucid Blue.
I’m working on both “Red Card” and “Shadowfire”
OT: Hey SP, I’m having an intermittent issue (over the past month or so) where I click on article X on the main page and it loads article X-1.
I don’t have any info to help with debug, and it’s intermittent enough that I initially thought I was just fat fingering, but I’m becoming more confident that it’s a bug.
No expectations or urgency , just want to make you aware in case others start having similar issues.
It’s because you touch yourself at night.
*wipes screen off*
Well, whaddya know?? OMWC was right!
Hmm. I have not had this problem.
Are you using that weird browser infection “Mononucleosis” or some such? 😉
Start keeping track of specifics for me? You know which things I’ll want to know.
Thanks!
Read Dead Wake. Not as good as his other books, like Devil in the White City, which was great. I think this book could have cut out 1/2 the human interest story and been just as good.
I’ve enjoyed the three Larson books I’ve read – Devil in the White City, Garden of Beasts, and Isaac’s Storm. Dead Wake is one I meant to read but never got around to.
All three are good IMHO. I really enjoyed GoB and DW. I think it is in part because I have spent enough time in Berlin and studying the national socialist era that I could envision the places and events discussed. Since I ocean sail DW had interst just from that aspect.
I enjoy reading international authors and typically pick-up English translations when traveling.
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (Japan) and Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (Norway) were February reads.
I’m almost finished with Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Has anybody else read it?
Seems mostly common sense of investing in assets to grow your income.
The author likes to rail on the inequality between the rich and the poor, even going so far as to quote Bernie Sanders as it being the most pressing problem of our time. Though he then blames it on the poor for having poor financial sense. I’m trying to make sense of this combination of idolization of Bernie Sanders and free-market Capitalism, but am having trouble threading that needle.
I haven’t been super impressed by him in the few interviews/videos I’ve seen of him. I mentally group him with Suze Orman as the “televangelist” wing of the financial advisor movement (i.e. they get a ton wrong, but at least they get you thinking about improving your finances).
That’s the sense I get too.
Are you reading the original or new edition? I see there is a 20th Anniversary edition “with updates for today’s world.”
The Millionaire Next Door is a similar, but better option.
The new edition. The updates for today’s world are mainly Bernie Sanders/inequality, the tax rates Trump paid vs. Obama, and the poor interest rates you get in savings accounts.
Read it many years ago. If your copy has Sanders-fellating in it, it must be a new edition. I remember it as being pretty basic stuff, the kind of advice any moderately engaged dad would slap his kid up the head with. I do remember, because I read it at about the same time, that The Millionaire Next Door was a better and more thought-provoking book.
I’ll probably grab that book since you and RA both recommend it.
I have. It’s not terrible, but to be honest at the time I was reading such material, Dave Ramsey’s books make more sense to me.
Does Dave Ramsey have solid advice for financial investing or is it mainly debt reduction plans? I have no idea, just have only heard him referenced for the latter.
We’re working hard on getting rid of our debt and I’ve been trying find some good resources to help me develop an investment strategy that goes beyond retirement accounts once that’s accomplished.
He’s better at debt reduction/get your head screwed on straight type advice. A lot of it is common sense.
Dave Ramsey’s philosophy is that you don’t need a sophisticated investment strategy, you just need to dump money into the market. Specifically mutual funds. He recommends 1/4 growth, 1/4 aggressive growth, 1/4 growth and income, 1/4 international.
Granted, I don’t think there’s anything against managing your investments more closely, but he knows that most people would fuck it up if they tried sophisticated investing.
Sounds like someone’s a bit fixated on size at the moment.
That makes sense. I was looking at making local investments as well. Things like buying the properties up adjacent to mine as they become available and then renting them out. Investing in profitable local businesses like an automated car wash, convenience store, etc., that don’t make a lot of money individually but require little presence and can generate a nice income when combined.
One of the wealthiest guys I know came over dirt poor from India and just started buying up little businesses like that, a storage unit rental here, a fast food franchise there, a few muffler/oil change franchises. Not much money from each, but not much risk either, and the steady income stream just increases with each addition.
I don’t know. I learn by reading so thought I’d read what I can.
I’m not going to hate too much on Rich Dad Poor Dad because it can give someone a kick in the pants they need to learn some decent financial sense. I’m not the biggest fan of the author, Robert Kiyosaki due to his blatant endorsement of multi-level marketing gigs.
I’ll echo The Millionaire Next Door as the superior book.
I’ve read it. Like 99% of ‘business’ books, I thought it was a waste of paper.
Hey, NY gun owners:
I’m no lawyer, but that makes me think that these judges really don’t give a flying fuck about being overturned – they were just terrified of contradicting any stupid gun laws, no matter how unconstitutional, in the current environment.
That is both countrary to federal law regarding interstate transport (which the 2nd circuit never gives a damn about) and SCOTUS Precedence.
Watch, it won’t get Cert.
There’s no interstate transport going on. I’d be very reluctant to challenge a NY state law on the basis of any emanations of the Commerce Clause.
If New Yorkers don’t want this kind of law, they’re going to have to get different kinds of politicians.
To keep the “But it didn’t leave the state” argument you have to overturn Wickard V Filburn.
Besides, my challenge is on 2nd amendment grounds – NYC has no authority to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms. So both the transit ban and the licence requirement are unconstitional and must be ditched.
/Why am I not on SCOTUS?
NY, and particularly NYC has been violating the spirit and the letter of the 2nd for a very long time. Why would you expect them to change now?
I don’t expect them to.
I just hope that they get slapped around for it instead of being given pass after pass.
I’m listening to “The Day the Revolution Began” by NT Wright. It challenges the common understanding of the significance of Jesus dying on the cross. I haven’t been super impressed as of yet. It’s a lot of innuendo and suggestion without really explaining what his preferred understanding is, or why the metaphors he uses are categorically different than the ones the common understanding uses. It criticizes the status quo well, but offers vague alternatives. I’m only 1/3 of the way through, so I hope it gets a bit more focused as it continues.
I’m reading “The History of Christian Doctrines” by Louis Berkhof for a study I’m doing with my pastor. It’s more engaging than reading a systematic theology textbook.
I may need to start a political or fiction book to avoid getting burnt out on the theology.
My wife’s a big NTW fan – I’ve yet to read much of his stuff.
His writing style is reminiscent of CS Lewis, but hes playing hide the ball in this book. Okay, the crucifixion was necessary because of a vocational issue rather than a penal issue… What does that mean and why should I care??
Oh man, you should talk to my wife about this: she grew up with a lot of reformed theology while I grew up Anglican (Episcopalian). But, let me see if I can summarize it…
Penal substitution basically argues that in the crucifixion, Christ suffered the father’s wrath in our place thus satisfying the demand for justice for sin. So salvation becomes a legal process which God was virtually obligated to follow. That is, rather than motivated by love & a desire to forgive, humanity is spared wrath almost as part of a contract. The further implication then is that God continues to work out of anger toward sin & sinners.
Wright is one of a number of people who are returning to some of the Church Fathers to argue that God offered salvation out of love & forgiveness.*
My guess as to the reason for hiding the ball is that a number of people who are preaching this have either ended up with universal salvation or have been accused of teaching universal salvation.
If you’re looking for a more direct treatment of this, try Brad Jersak, “A More Christ-like God.”
*I know that’s not the most coherent or effective explanation.
David Brooks is predictably pushing gun control on NPR right now.
And Dionne is pushing the idea that the NRA is flouting the will of the people.
After the Enterprise/NRA credit card thing today, I renewed my NRA membership. I’ve been putting it off, but fuck those Progs demonizing the NRA.
I have to do mine next week.
I’m a Life Member, but Enterprise has lost my business.
I don’t care if the National Endowment for the Arts pales in comparison to the wasteful Department of Defense budget, it is repulsive that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR receive public money from the NEA. Gut the National Endowment for the Arts.
Bunch of cunts
I despise Brooks. His condescending New England elitist morality really gets under my skin.
Dionne is just a damned idiot.
Plus the latter has a voice for print. I really hate both of those dickeads’ Friday tag team against liberty.
I’m still working on the collected works of William Hope Hodgson. I’m not quite the voracious reader I was when I was young.
/hangs head in shame
Here’s a free version of his novel – The Night Land – http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10662
Just Finished “Fool’s Errand: Time to end the War in Afghanistan “. The author didn’t need to sell me on his premise that we should leave now. The results will the whether our departure is today or twenty years from now – bloody and we won’t like the end result. But I didn’t realize how truly fucked up the mess really was/is. The Taliban were actually defeated early on. They asked only to be allowed to go home and live in peace. We weren’t having any so we kept at it so they basically said “Fuck you then, we’ll fight. We soaked one province in Marines (one Marine for every two Afghans) and the Taliban still owned the night and were back fully the moment we left.
I was struck by how both Obama and Trump wanted out and resisted the Generals’ efforts to send in more bodies. But, in the end both were weak and succumbed.
Starting “The Black Book of Communism”. Again, I didn’t need to be convinced, but Holy Shit the evil of Lenin is unbelievable both in manner and scope. It’s fashionaable to say Lenin was the good, principled one and Stalin was the bad guy. No – Lenin was pure evil.
And I’m only up to the civil war with the whites. A few thousand dead hear and a few more thousand sent to the camps. After a little bit it starts to add up. The horrible thing is you can see today’s proggies on every page. Never give up your gons.
Fools Errand. #metoo. Good summation of a total shitshow
I don’t know the timeline, but Obama campaigned on doubling-down in Afghanistan, and did very quickly after getting elected – sending 50,000 new troops. within a year.
e.g.feb 2009 – 17,000
December 2009 – 30,000 more
interesting that the latter piece notes that by Dec 2009, he was already saying, “But they should be done within 18 months”… as though he was going to wrap shit up real quick. He didn’t pull any out in any sincere way, or any visible way, until mid 2012, when it dropped from ~100,000 in 2011 to 60,000 by end of 2012.
MSNBC: It’s stupid to give someone a pistol to try to stop a killer with a rifle because of the difference in speed of the bullets…
On the scale of human reaction time, inside a building, both bullets are instantaneous. It’s whoever lines up and takes an incapacitating shot first.
I’m picturing the inner workings of Lawrence O’Donnell’s mind, where he imagines the guy with the rifle dodging pistol bullets Matrix-style.
Fail at step 1. Hint. There are no “inner workings”
I imagine a hamster on an exercise wheel.
Lying there, asleep?
Fairchild Air Force Base had a !ass shooting in the 90’s at their hospital by a service member being discharged on mental health grounds. He had and AK (or maybe SKS) and an air Force cop dropped him with a single 9mm at range. So yeah there is precedent that refuted all these FB experts.
Link: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/jun/15/in-one-week-20-years-ago-fairchild-air-force-base/
I guess he had an MAK-90…..whatever that is
Romanian AK-47 clone
Chinese*
I have no idea why I thought it was romanian
Gypsies.
That is all.
Chinese AK clone. You used to be able to get them super cheap since there was a California/AWB legal version that had an ugly wooden thumbhole stock. Then norinco got caught trying to sell weapons directly to Al Qaeda and were banned from import. Switching the future is pretty trivial as long as you comply with 922r.
I used to have a MAK-90. It was great. Looked like an AK-47 but with a thumbhole stock and shorter. Shot 7.62×39. Came with 4-round mags but I got 30’s for it.
It made you invulnerable to pistol fire, why did you get rid of it!?!
I got married, and my new wife didn’t want firearms in the house at the time. So I left it and my other two firearms in the care of my brother in law. Who then moved to Florida, and has since divorced my sister. Now I am firearm-less. (sad trombone)
Why don’t you get your guns back?
I live in Indiana, he lives in Florida, it was a bad breakup, and word is he sold them.
This is why Marines slept with their M-14’s.
I don’t want no teenage queen, I just want my M-14!
The right kind of teenage queen *with* a happy switch might make me consider carefully.
I get that. If I had to do it over I’d buy a safe.
My wife has come to accept that I might buy a gun every few years.
I’m already prepping her for the basement floor-bolted safe in the next house.
That’s a shame. That asshole stole your guns then, your sister’s breakup be damned.
These people are damned fools with a platform.
both travel 100x faster than a claw-hammer
i guess that means its safe to hit people in the head with them
You can throw a Claw hammer pretty hard and fast though, I wouldn’t want to get hit with my Framing Hammer at 32 oz.
Civilians have no need of a 32oz hammer, Yusuf. Only Professionals should have them.
Are you just compensating for something?
Are you just compensating for something?
Must be, I’m a professional and anything over a 25 oz California framer is too much hammer, besides it’s not the size so much as how you swing it.
Momentum is mass times velocity.
Force is change in momentum over change in time. (also mass times accelleration)
Gravity applies effectively constant accelleration near the earth’s surface.
A heavier hammer will fall with more momentum and apply more force when your head triess to stop it.
He didn’t take time-dialation into his calculations.
Also, that rule only applies north of the Equator. South of the Equator it’s opposite; pistol bullets are 3x faster than rifle bullets.
Sounds like a powerful argument for using Liberty Defense ammo in handguns. 1700fps, 50gr, 9mm round.
At least it will “obviously defeat” anyone with slower rounds in their handguns.
Yikes. It may defeat your pistol while its at it…
Nope. They’re rated +P. Nice to shoot too, although they’re a bit showy at the muzzle end.
They’re not actually true frangible rounds, but they fragment nicely in a pig carcass. Not so great against body armor or windshields, but there are always going to be tradeoffs.
I’m noting the 50gr projectile. Most 9mm are designed around a 124gr +p projectile. I’m just thinking of long term durability with that load. It’s probably fine to carry.
They’re just copper hollowpoints really.
Looking at the specs, the 9mm has a muzzle velocity quoted at 2000fps, with chamber pressures within SAAMI ratings as +P. I can’t imagine that moderate use is going to do much harm to the firearm.
You’re probably right. You might guess I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to that sort of thing. For instance I have .38 Special +p 158gr soft lead hollow points in my 686, because it’s pretty well proven.
I have a (mostly rhetorical) question: what is it that prevents people (and it does seem to be more prevalent on the liberal/progressive end of the political spectrum) from distinguishing “may” from “must”?
I have been tormenting myself by reading various news stories about the suggestion that allowing teachers to arm themselves on school grounds might be A response to the wave of bullet riddled mayhem which has engulfed this once great nation. For example, there is one at Quartz in which they found THREE!!!! teachers who are appalled by the thought they will be *forced* to carry a sidearm in their classrooms. Some moron NYT commenter (but I repeat myself) insinuated that every teacher in the land will be rounded up and forced to undergo combat marksmanship training at Parris Island. A classroom is supposed to be a caring, supportive environment, and what could be more caring or supportive than willfully refusing to contemplate a possible insurance policy against what is a vanishingly remote risk?
More children will probably die in bathtub accidents than in schoolyard assassinations in any given year, but the mere presence of a firearm in a school building guarantees daily firefights, if I understand the argument correctly.
Utilitarianism and projection. When a solution may improve outcomes by the slightest statistical gap, they would mandate it without a further thought. They of course expect others to do the same.
The formula is simple, but the discipline is hard.
Set your lifestyle 25% lower than your income, stay out of consumer debt, and use the extra 25% to invest in retirement/kids college/paying off the house.
Average millionaires have paid for houses in the $250k-500k range, $400k-$1M in retirement accounts, a few different assets on the side (a small business, rental houses, etc), and their only regular bills are taxes and utilities.
I think some segments of the personal finance community waaaaaaaaay overhype passive income. I forget if Robert Kiyosaki (sp?) is one of them. IMO, passive income is great if you want to be a landlord or a small business owner, but it comes with a boatload of financial risk.
Gilmored it. Lo siento
1700fps, 50gr, 9mm round.
*checks side panel of .45acp box*
I’ll just have to hope the bad guy can’t pull a Keanu Reeves on me, and jump aside.
I despise Brooks.
HEY!
Oh, that one. Carry on.
https://twitter.com/Bmac0507/status/967145190736609280
If you are not yet ashamed to be Canadian, this video should change that
I’m not even Canadian and I’m ashamed.
Meh. One douche doesn’t define a people. He only represents douche.
No, no, we earned it. He’s like a mix of Obama and Dubya.
I’ve had the impression for a while that Trudeau is basically mirror-universe Trump. It’s a pleasure that both our countries can have perhaps their most ridiculous executives ever at the same time.
The coverage of Trudeau’s India trip has been fantastic. It’s even more amazing when you take into account how badly he has to be doing for the press that adores him to call attention to it.
Does this qualify as a casus belli?
Cartel activity in the mexico border area is cassus belli for invading Canada.
Anchor Lawrence O’Donnell said on his show Thursday night that “a bullet fired from an AR-15 travels 3x faster than one from a handgun…and yet the president and the NRA think giving teachers guns will stop a school shooter.”
Didn’t O’Donnell suffer some sort of traumatic brain injury in a car crash? It’s really magnanimous of MSNBC to pay him to say stuff like that.
WTF?
That is likely the stupidest thing I have heard in my entire life.
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson, classic noir/crime seems common enough now but one of the early psychopath as narrator pulpy novels 4/5 stars
Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan. I read his latest book last month and it was good so being the completist that I am I will now go back and read the rest of his work. This is his debut and a solid murder mystery centered around crime writers, a lot of ‘If this were one of your novels the killer would….’ kinda thing going on. 3.5/5 stars
Ordered UCS’s second book for my kindle but then saw a new Ken Bruen is out so Shadowdemon will have to wait a few days, sorry UnCiv but new Jack Taylor books cut to the front of the reading list everytime.
“The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson”
he has like 3 or 4 that are similar, 1st person things where you’re not 100% sure how crazy the narrator is
my fave is “Pop 1280” (or 1080? whatever) about a sherrif who happily narrates his day to day activities, including some pretty horrible shit. its both funny and disturbing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop._1280
Thanks I have been waffling on which of his books to get next, I’ll take your suggestion, and forever hold you responsible if I am disappointed.
I am confident anyone will like that one a lot. its more personal-feeling than many of hist books.
its been said the character of the sheriff may have been based on Thompson’s own father, who was also a sheriff in oklahoma, and who also may have combined ‘happy go lucky’ demeanor with weird dark-streak.
e.g.
http://www.topmystery.com/authors/biography/Jim-Thompson
“”James Meyers (Jim) Thompson was born in Oklahoma. His father James Thompson was a sheriff of Andarko, Oklahoma, who foiled jail breaks and arrested horse thieves. He also was a chronic gambler and was in 1907 dismissed for misappropriating funds. Avoiding arrest, he fled to Mexico.””
Hey, you bought it, sooner or later you’ll read it, I’m not going to whine.
I recently finished Open, Andre Agassi’s autobiography. I actually enjoyed it a lot. The story of how he came to the game was pretty horrifying, though. His father made every psycho sports parent I’ve ever seen seem like gentle, caring souls.
His descriptions of playing other superstars was pretty cool, as well. It was a good look into the psyche of an athlete at the top of his game and how fucking nuts they all are. And Steffi Graf?
Would.
Dana Loesch unloads on CNN in about the most polite manner possible.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/23/dana-loesch-heres-real-story-happened-cnns-garbage-town-hall/
That Broward sheriff just keeps looking like more and more of an asshole
Some links in the comments led to this (I believe Playa mentioned last night or this morning):
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/966854507744374784.html
So when do we get to see his head on a pike?
Because that appears to be the just result.
going off topic VT governor has changed his opinion.
how any law will pass with the way the VT constitution is, I have no idea.
“Let’s require that gun owners pass a safety course so we can weed out the crazy ones”
Yeah Rick, great idea. That’s foolproof AF.
Public officials exempted, I presume.
I’m saving up my reading for Nancy Pelosi’s new book ‘The Crumbs of Wrath’ and Bernie’s upcoming ‘No one needs 23 kinds of books’.
Peter Thiel is a doodoohead
Silicon Valley has made Peter Thiel both wealthy and powerful, but he sees the rejection of his views—whether his libertarianism or his support of Trump—as an act of oppression. The fact that his opinions are rejected (and occasionally mocked) by his peers is apparently proof of a liberal cabal out to stifle the free exchange of ideas. But Thiel has had plenty of forums for his ideas. He has written widely and spoken at universities throughout the country. Given his role in the demise of Gawker, it would be more than fair to draw the opposite conclusion: that there is an effort underway to silence both dissent and unpopular speech, and it’s being led by billionaires like Thiel.
But that is not how Thiel and many other conservatives see things. Instead, a cult of victimhood has arisen around the culture wars. They see the rise of a politically correct monoculture, one that’s enforcing ideological conformity across one of the largest sectors of the economy. Thiel’s tactical retreat is likely an admission that he has grown tired, at some level, of the infamy that has surrounded him over the past several years. But there’s also an air of martyrdom in it. Silicon Valley gave him almost unparalleled power, influence, and wealth. Thiel used that power, influence, and wealth to push an ideology that was not only rejected by many, but that subjected him to unwanted personal scrutiny. The healthy reaction when faced with such a situation is to look inward. But Thiel isn’t doing that. Instead, he’s moving to Los Angeles.
You can practically see the tear stains on the page when he mentions Thiel’s revenge murder of Gawker.
TW: New Republic
Jesus fuck. If the Sheriff doesn’t resign by Monday I’m going to be at the courthouse protesting.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/parkland-school-shooting-broward-deputies/index.html
There are very few times in my life where I’ve been as angry as I am right now. Fucking cowards, all of them.
Christ, can you imagine how the family of the football coach feels? That sheriff will be lucky to only get fired.
I voted for him the first time he ran, mostly out of my “I’m going to vote against the incumbent in any race I don’t know about” strategy I once had.
Another in my pile of reasons to never vote again.
The Cowards of Broward County.
The Effluvia of Florida?
Dear FBI, my name is Nikolas Cruz. Next week I’m going to shoot up my old school. Here is my address and where I’ll be all this week. Tomorrow at noon, I’ll be purchasing my guns. Here is the name and GPS coordinates of the gun store. / FBI: obviously there is no possible way this guy can be stopped. Guess we’ll just have to let it happen and then confiscate everyone’s guns.
Jesus Christ, I thought my opinion of cops could not get lower than it just did.
I’m not saying a lynch mob is a good thing per se, but if the parents of these kids grabbed those three cowards and the murderer and strung them all up from the same tree, I don’t think I would vote to convict them.
This is exactly what I have been saying. All this garble about how cops now go in immediately when there is an active shooter is lies. They wait until it is perfectly safe for them, when everybody who is going to get killed is dead, and then go in.
Fucking. Cowards.
I’m still slogging through Caesar’s Commentaries on Gaul, and re reading some Forrest Mims, basic electronics, as well as The DS9 Series, I’m midway through Season 2, only 5.5 years to go
Caesar was a tedious old fart, wasn’t he?
The deputies had their pistols drawn and were behind their vehicles, the sources said, and not one of them had gone into the school.
I… yeah.
But they made it home safe that night so there’s that…….
There’s a reason you never hear people tell cops “thank you for your service”
“Racially abused ex-Miami Dolphins star is arrested after posting chilling threat of ‘suicide or revenge’ on his Instagram account, causing his former prestigious LA school to close
Ex-Miami Dolphins player Jonathan Martin was behind an Instagram post threatening a shooting that led to Harvard-Westlake’s closure in California
The high school and middle school were closed on Friday morning after officials were alerted
The 28-year-old former student was taken into custody over the post, although he made no direct threat against the school, officials said
Martin posted a photo of a shotgun and cartridges on a bed Thursday, writing: ‘When you’re a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge’
Martin left the Dolphins in 2013 amid allegations he was a victim of racist bullying from his teammates”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5428331/Ex-Miami-Dolphins-player-caused-evacuation-high-school.html
Recently completed “The Orphan Master’s Son” by Adam Johnson, 2013. It is set in Kim Jong Il Korea and follows the life and travails of several nK people. It was surprisingly good and had a bleak sense of hope. Without giving away much of the tale it sticks close to the reality of life in nK and the human spirit. I did not realize it had won the Pulitzer Prize until I finished it.
For my commute I am almost done re-listening to the unabridged “Castles of Steel” by Robert K. Massie. It is only 2000 CD’s long (slight exaggeration) and is the story of the British and German fleets during WWI. Very well done.
I have a business trip soon so I have copies of “Artemis” by Andy Weir and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by RH for the plane rides. We’ll see how they match up head to head.
For the summer I am also re-reading a book on ocean racing tactics for sailboats and breaking out a celestial navigation book to try and brush the piles of rust off my sextant skills.
“ocean racing tactics for sailboats” I wish I could be there, I love Sailing, alas, I sold my Prindle Cat,
Enjoy the Ocean for me!
“George Clooney’s ex Krista Allen catches burglar in her home who drinks her alcohol, tries to take her vibrator and injured her dog”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5427849/George-Clooneys-ex-Krista-Allen-catches-burglar.html
Damien’s mom has got it going on
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5427669/Elizabeth-Hurley-52-parades-age-defying-figure.html
Not much derriere there, probably Would, NOT
I want the practice Bomb and one of the pedal cars but the shipping would kill me.
I’m currently reading a Robert Silverberg collection, Man in the Maze, Nightwings a third story I haven’t gotten too.
I heartily recommend Tower of Glass.
I’m reading The Stone and the Flute now. It’s a bit long.
Its been busy in the “the Wheel” household since December. Here’s what I read since Dec 1:
A Wrinkle in Time: This holds a special place in a young Leaps life. I grew up with hippy peacenik Catholic parents, one of whom is an ardent anti authoritarian (but more in the way a 14 year old is than any consistent philosophy). This, along with an early exposure to Animal Farm and and Lord of the Flies did a lot to cement the distrust of power I have. Or to highlight what was already there. Genetics – how do they work??!? Anyway, I told my 6 year old if he reads it, I’ll take him to the movie. We had to read it together, because the idea of an all-powerful anti-love monster is the scariest thing in the world to him. He’s got a big soft dopey heart, he’s wildly intelligent but doesn’t understand it, and in generally there’s a lot of Meg in him. It was really helpful for him to connect with a character in a book like that. I will take him to the movie, which I’m sure will teach him the rule that The Bastards Will Destroy Everything You Love, which will also be good for him. Still Recommended
Persepolis Rising: We’ve reached the “Look, if you got this far in the series, you are going to read this,” stage for this series. Still, I enjoyed it. I like the advancement in time. That’s a good touch. Look, if you got this far in the series, you are going to read this.
The Confidence Game: A look at con artists. Part history, part pop-psychology. I’ve only got about a third of the way through. So far, its competent but not gripping. I’ll probably finish it after the book I left it for. Incomplete
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos: Heroic Mulato forgive me, but I picked up a timely book by a timely author that’s Internet Famous in the culture war. What has become of me. I listened to him on Econtalk and was kind of surprised that, when he got away from the culture war stuff, was actually pretty interesting. So heaven help me I got the book. I’m about half way through and.. holy shit I’m really enjoying this book. I thought it would be a shitty self help book and I’d drop it a few chapters in. Nope. Instead its some crazy-ass psychologist (all mental health professionals are nuts, this is no exception) doing his best to combine Fire-And-Brimstone-Old-Testament-Parson with What-If-Like-Everyone-Was-Psychic-Jungean with Refined-And-Educated-Man-With-Much-Rich-Mahogany with Red-Foreman-Kicking-His-No-Good-Son-In-The-Ass. Its also like 85% tangent on whatever Peterson was thinking about at the time. If you are a fan of the Old-Man-Haranguing-You genre (e.g., Starship Trooper), you may like this. If you want a coherent, easy to follow checklist to improve your life… you probably won’t find that here. Recommended
PS- What, is February “Everyone Read USC’s Books?” or something? Well, whatever. Have fun. I really enjoyed all of them and look forward to the next one.
My contribution to a dead thread:
I love books but have found a hard time getting time to read real ones. A friend loaned me several that I have started, Lamb, a Ringworld novel and several others. Hoping to find time to read more dead-tree books.
Just finished the collected works of Mark Twain (second time, always a joy) on my smartphone. Afterwards I read The Lost Continent by Burroughs, which I had missed before. Much fun but dated.
Current read is my third foray into A Thousand Nights And A Night by Burton. I have always enjoyed the pre-lunatic look at Islamic life and it has given me a different insight on things like marriage and divorce as expressed traditionally (hint: think contract). Also, the dowry always belonged to the wife as it was her financial independence in the event of divorce.