It really does take some effort to fuck up waffles, Nature’s Perfect Food. I hope the featured image was enough to convince you that there is no God, we’re all doomed, and hatred and evil rule our world. And as always, I offer plenty of ammo for people leaning toward antisemitism with the image above. I would say “no Christian babies were harmed in the production of those waffles,” but I’d be lying.
Speaking of which, this is the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Which one? Both of them. Fucking Iraqis and Italians. And fucking Krauts and Polacks- it’s also the anniversary of the deportation of the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, about which in accordance with current law I am forced to say that the Polacks had nothing to do with, nossir, they were off somewhere else eating pierogies. It was only the Germans.
OK, I knew my good mood wouldn’t last.
The only redeeming quality of July 22 is that it’s the birthday of Stephen Vincent Benet, who is one of my favorite American writers. If you weren’t forced to read By The Waters Of Babylon as a public school inmate and had it thereby ruined for you, I urge you to read it now. It was the Ur-post-apocalyptic story, copied thousands of times since. And if your lips are too tired to read The Devil and Daniel Webster, the movie version with Walter Huston was absolutely delightful and quite true to the story.
On to the depressing news.
Nice to see that Donald Trump has cheerfully continued Obama’s doctrine of “kill them all and let God sort it out.”
In what has become a familiar litany, particularly in Taliban-dominated Kunduz Province, Afghan and American officials had initially denied that any civilians had been killed in the strike on Thursday, claiming the victims were Taliban fighters. Then 11 bodies belonging to women and children appeared at the hospital in Kunduz City, about four miles from the site of the attack in Chardara District. The Taliban do not have women fighters and the children were very young.
Next up: Trump gets a Nobel to match Obama’s.
A follow-up to a story from yesterday. One more step toward Heinlein’s “polite society.” In this case, there was no one polite.
The shooting “is within the bookends of ‘stand your ground’ and within the bookends of force being justified,” the sheriff said, later adding, “I’m not saying I agree with it, but I don’t make that call.”
Well, Florida. Hardly “society.”
On the bright side, progressives should be happy that the current wave of drive-by shootings don’t involve expenditure of fossil fuels.
Dr. Mark Hausknech and the shooter were both riding bikes on South Main Street, near Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, shortly before 9 a.m. local time, Executive Assistant Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference. Hausknecht, 65, was biking north when he passed the shooter going in the other direction, Finner said. The shooter turned, fired two shots at Hausknecht and rode away on his bike, Finner said.
At least Poppy didn’t grab anyone’s ass. This time.
Shootings, of course, cannot happen in California because they have common-sense gun laws. You know, the kind that guarantee that the folks who shop at Trader Joe’s are almost certain to be unarmed and make a perfect target for hostage-standoff-shooting.
“We all laid there for about a half an hour until LAPD came and got us out. They helped carry me across the parking lot and they sort of tossed me over a wall,” Kohles said.
I’m not saying that this was caused by the store running out of Quinoa Corn Chips, but… this was caused by the store running out of quinoa corn chips.
More follow-up, this time about the bus stabbings in Germany. The news stories yesterday kept emphasizing that the suspect was a “German citizen.” That was repeated several times. Well, we all know what that means.
A German court has issued an arrest warrant for a German-Iranian man suspected of carrying out a knife attack on a bus in the northern city of Luebeck but there is no indication that it was a terrorist attack…
Of course not.
Video surveillance footage from the bus led to suspicion that he wanted to set fire to the vehicle, thereby injuring as many people as possible and potentially killing some.
At some point, Europeans will have to start asking themselves why this kind of thing is so common there, yet so rare in the US. Apparently, today is not the day.
Old Guy Music! What happens if you take a great Paul Simon song and have it covered in an acoustic version by a great bluegrass band? I would say, this:
Mmmmm waffles! Does this mean you’re bringing me breakfast in bed? If so, don’t forget the mimosa, please!
You drank all our Champagne last night. I don’t think your Sunday School teacher will be happy.
You her Sunday school teacher?
Yes, my rod and my staff, they comfort her.
Psst, she’s right there^. She can hear you.
If red velvet waffles are wrong, I don’t want to be right.
I mean, waffles are first cousin to cake anyway, so I don’t see the problem with dropping the act and covering them in whipped cream anyway. Don’t know about that broccoli, though. I like a nice bran-type of waffle, particularly with chicken, but I don’t cotton to green vegetables alongside. Maybe okra, but that’s pushin’ it.
I love red velvet waffles as well.
Never heard of red velvet…anything other than cake – till I got to Hawaii. http://cinnamons808.com/
Kailua is the only really worthwhile place on Oahu.
Waffles > Pancakes.
It’s the individual syrup compartments that make the difference.
At least they’re served on a plate.
No waffling. Say what you mean, dammit.
Speaking of Waffles, what ever happened to that guy? He was alright.
I heard he had a checkered past.
Old Men With Guns?, well it is Texas,
‘Morning all!
in accordance with current law I am forced to say that the Polacks had nothing to do with, nossir, they were off somewhere else eating pierogies. It was only the Germans.
“In the morning, THEY WERE GONE! We all just thought they went on vacation.”
Speaking of which, this is the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
I like temples that aren’t destroyed.
Video surveillance footage from the bus led to suspicion that he wanted to set fire to the vehicle, thereby injuring as many people as possible and potentially killing some.
Common-sense fire control legislation.
I’m sorry, the card says “Moops”.
At some point, Europeans will have to start asking themselves why this kind of thing is so common there, yet so rare in the US.
Americans are bloodthirsty savages.
duh
that the folks who shop at Trader Joe’s are almost certain to be unarmed
It’s a go-to gun nut response, but the dude was running from the cops and crashed, the Trader Joe’s was chosen because it was there not because it was a gun free zone . I guess narratives gotta be narrative-ed.
also old man music, decent cover but made me want to listen to more Paul Simon, not more Barnstar, covers should be a bit more transformative.
Well, try this in a Korean grocery in LA and watch the ventilation. The TJ crowd tends to skew a bit more… well, you know.
Well…maybe in CA.
https://smile.amazon.com/photos/share/23DoL8q9Plz1eEbqI3FMuVM9AXWQeE6LLGCs1E8rcrV
That’s as may be, but if he crashed in front of a gun store or a pawn shop he’s probably gonna try the place next door.
Meh, he was in a running shootout with the pigs and assuming he’s your average idiot I doubt he made any conscious decision about where to run. Framing this as an armed gunman targets gun-free zone story is specious.
Yes, but according to our betters, shouldn’t most of Los Angeles be unarmed?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
AC is also correct as long you mean only cops should have guns.
Hyperbole gets it right.
True, but it doesn’t change the fact that, had a few shoppers been armed, it would be a different situation entirely.
Are we taking bets on the cops being the ones who killed the employee?
The only redeeming quality of July 22 is that it’s the birthday of Stephen Vincent Benet,
Wikipedia says that on this day in 1937, the Senate voted down FDR’s court-packing plan.
I like temples that aren’t destroyed.
Destroy them all, let Cthulu sort through the rubble for amusing trinkets.
The incident falls under Florida’s self-defense law known as “stand your ground,” the sheriff said during a news conference.
If you’re in wheelchair, stand your ground is a tall order.
Get ready for some DerpRage next week over the Florida Man shooting. The video is pretty clear, but watch for a re-litigation of Treyvon mammal again.
The background on the shooter makes me wonder. I also don’t like seeing able bodied people parking in a handicap space. Who the hell starts approaching people who do to chew them out? The guy who got shot may have believed his baby mama was being threatened by a loudmouth.
Yes but shoving Florida Man as an initial response to a situation is always fraught with danger
From the FL link: After watching the video surveillance it’s pretty tough to understand how that isn’t at least a manslaughter charge. And maybe you shouldn’t be surprised someone gets physical with you after haranguing someones girlfriend for several minutes over something as trivial as a parking space. Getting shoved hardly qualifies as having your life threatened.
Where’s the video surveillance video? That article assumes you know what happened. I’m at a loss.
it came up as a pop-up after I had the page open a while
Oh, well I’ll assume this is it.
That’s the right video.
thats it, the one in the article shows the entirety of the confrontation (without audio). At the point the guy pulls the trigger his assailant is walking away from him. Who knows what was said and it colors it differently if the guy was arguing with his girlfriend or cursing her out. I’m just not seeing how that’s ‘standing you ground’ if your assailant is walking away.
Yep, and from the article]s description of his previous arguments sounds as if the guy likes picking fights and carries with the hope he gets to shoot someone someday, he should’ve just become a cop like other sociopaths.
There are about 2 seconds in that video when he’s got his gun out and the other guy is walking away. Sociopath is a good way to put it. I’m guessing he wanted to shoot someone for a while.
Yeah, you don’t shoot someone in the back unless you’re a cop.
I’m wondering if this guy has a relative or buddy on the force somewhere, they seem to be giving him as much leeway as if he were one.
It’s assholes all around, but in this case the shooting was in no way justified.
Yeah, looks to me like they were both 75% to 90% asshole so I hope one realizes how close he came to spending the rest of his ugly existence in a rape-cage and backs off while the other ended up slightly worse off.
Clearwater? I blame Scientology.
In VA, stand your ground evaporates if you are responsible for contributing the escalation of the situation. If you have contributed, then by law you must find any means possible to retreat before using lethal force.
No idea about FL.
It’s shit like this that will put wind in the sails of groups that want “stand your ground’ to go away. Idiot hotheads might have a right to carry but they sure don’t help the cause much.
I can’t help but think the sheriff *wants* the stand your ground law repealed.
No doubt. Thanks to qualified immunity cops in all fifty states can pretty much shoot whoever they want on the thinnest pretext of fearing for their lives so he’s got nothing to lose.
Dude, that’s the first thing that came to mind as I read the story. This is a textbook example of enforcing the letter of the law exactly so as to get it changed. But as said elsewhere, I think it’s a pretty tall order to believe that SYG applies in this case. Once dude turns away the threat’s over. And I’d also imagine that a prior history of combative behavior on the part of the shooter would be a consideration. Based on the story it seems as if the prosecutor declined to press charges. I wonder what’s going on there.
“Then this guy comes out of the car and starts running toward TJs,” Kohles said, referring to the grocery store. “I look behind me and there were two police guys coming with heavy guns, then boom boom boom boom, so I go into TJ’s and I see this guy and he comes in.
How did this guy live to be 91 years old?
The tamales are that good.
Judging from the map, that Trader Joe’s is practically down the street from where my brother used to live.
So many thoughts. I watched the video. Husband comes out and shove the yelling guy to the ground. Yelling guy gets to a kneeling position while drawing his weapon and fires while husband isn’t approaching him. Hard for me to believe he had no choice but to shoot at that moment.
From the article:
Oh? But earlier…:
Yeah, another story where I hate everyone.
Same here. Every once in a while I meet ‘thin-blue-line-molon-labe’ guys who might share my views on the second amendment but are every bit as insufferable as any SJW. These types always make me nervous because you get the feeling they are itching to dole out ‘justice.’ I
#metoo
That’s the whole point of gun control arguments; they are fought on the fuzzy areas where the good guy/bad guy line isn’t so clear. Same with free speech. Just washing your hands of the whole episode because both sides are dirtbags means you leave the decision making to even bigger dirtbags.
I often say that etiquette is the method by which we avoid killing each other over parking spaces.
TW: NYT. There Is a Revolution on the Left. Democrats Are Bracing. There are a lot of young, dumb, and loud youth proggies that are trying to turn the Dems into a radical left party. Yup, that’ll win you elections!
If by “bracing” they mean “enthusiastically cheering on” – that’s all I seeing.
I’m okay with this happening. As well as the GOP fracturing. Preferably simultaneous release.
now there’s a euphemism
“Waters of Babylon” was interesting for me since even 9th grade English – was considerably after I’d read quite a few other post-apocalyptic stories – need to look up the original date for reference. (think about it every time I read Psalms 137 too).
BTW – I was promised a response to the horrible Allegra Budenmayer and her involvement with RAMPIT Inc.
Never trust a Jew. Especially one who is putting links together at 5 am on a Sunday and gets forgetful.
Those quinoa corn chips give me indigestion for some strange reason, but the blue corn chips are totes ok.
Blue corn chips are just corn.
“Quinoa is not a grass, but rather a pseudocereal botanically related to spinach”
Now pronounce it correctly.
TW: The Guardian. ‘Trump derangement syndrome’: the week America went mad.
GASP! TREASON!!!!!!!!!
So Trump should believe the same intelligence agencies who said there were WMDs all over Iraq?
Seriously. That’s it. We end up will bodies piled to the ceiling based on the lies they spun, but we’re supposed to believe they’re are patriots. Patriots don’t slaughter scores of furriners based on generates more money for their cronies.
And then there’s the unAmerican illegal domestic surveillance, and the lying coverup of it. Yeah, real patriots that shit all over the Constitution.
“like watching the destruction of a cathedral”.
Holy shit. Fuck right off with that. What a screwed up mindset
I fucking hate Ash Carter. He’s a piece of shit careerist who only cares about his own advancement.
I don’t get it. After watching that smarmy little asshole Strohk flout the fact that the intelligence community can engage in baldly partisan shenanigans, why wouldn’t he?
Exactly. I would have preferred that he not be as vocal about, well, anything, especially what HM referred to as “dirty laundry”, while at a press conference during a meeting with a foreign leader, but why is anybody surprised by this? And why would he trust the IC at this point? We’re talking about a group of people with a track record that makes weather forecasters look like time travelers from the future, who are largely careerists, many of whom feel some loyalty to the previous administration, several of whom have all but admitted that they believe Trump is a treasonous puppet and would use any means to remove him from office.
of a hostile country
I don’t understand this line of argument.
“The 80s called, they want their foreign policy back.”
Fuck these people.
Carter Page FISA Documents Are Released by Justice Department
So the FBI bought his bullshit before means that they should buy his bullshit now.
Another interesting paragraph in that article:
FISA court is totally not a rubber stamp.
From what I’ve read, there are a couple of points the left and right are making.
From the right, the information shown in the non-blacked out portions are an extremely flimsy context upon which to get any warrant, let alone a FISA warrant.
From the left, the non-blacked out portions of the FISA warrant application showed sufficient cause to open an investigation.
I’m worried they are both correct.
The left is also saying the fact there are blacked out portions proves the information in the warrant application was sufficient.
From Elite Elite’s link:
“They need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want,” Ms. Conner said of Democratic leaders. “There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down and saying, ‘That wouldn’t really work.’”
Umm, guess what, you insufferable ignoramus- they say “it won’t work” because it won’t work.
As much as I despise Nancy Pelosi, at least she isn’t peddling your economically illiterate Freebies 4 U nonsense 24 hours a day.
Yet.
My daughter wants to eat a gallon of applesauce and macaroni and cheese for dinner pretty much every night. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
I am reminded why I rarely make pie. Pie crust dough is finicky and annoying.
You have to substitute half of the water in your recipe with vodka. No shyte. The alcohol evaporates while baking and leaves the crust flaky. Google it if you don’t trust me.
I do use vodka.
He meant in the crust.
Oh, ohh. Yes, that could make a difference.
My grandmother uses a sparkling dry white wine, or champagne if she’s got some on the cheap. The carbonation makes the crust very light, very flaky.
That would be awesome for a pot pie crust.
She does it for her pecan pie, but yeah, I think it would make an awesome crust for a savory pie.
I generally use Rose Levy Beranbaum’s basic recipe from her The Pie and Pastry Bible. Never fails.
NYT Opinion: Disgusted With Donald Trump? Do This. DRUMPF is destroying the very fabric of our society! The Republicans refuse to stand up to him and stop him from destroying the US! We need to vote for the Dems and give them control of at least one branch of government to stop Trump’s agenda! (Hmm, I thought obstruction was racist? That’s what these people told me about Republicans during Obama’s time in office anyway).
The NYT advocates voting for Democrats…. Will wonders never cease?
It was, said Ash Carter, former defense secretary, “like watching the destruction of a cathedral”.
Mmmhmm. Tell me more about your mother.
Pie crust dough is finicky and annoying.
Well, you can always make those little rolled up butter and cinnamon treat things and then try again.
Joe Scar: What have you done with my party?! WHYCOME YOU LIKE THAT STUPID DRUMPF!?
Well, Joe, what did people like you do with it?
It was an opportunity to spend time with my dad, who I had always suspected favored my brother over me.
Five fucking seconds in and already I hate him more than his brother who I’ve never met.
People who are tired of being villainized by Eurotrash leftists while shouldering the burden of protecting them from potential aggressors?
People who think spending more than the next ten countries combined on our military is fiscally irresponsible?
People who value our veterans’ lives enough to not want them stationed in hostile areas without very good reason?
Jinkies, Joe, it’s a real mystery all right.
You’re doing breakfast all wrong, Old Man.
Thick cut hickory smoked bacon, maple and brown sugar sausage links, eggs cooked in bacon grease with wild green onions and fresh grated parmesan, toast, and coffee with Reese’s Peanut butter cup creamer. All topped off with a bowl of this:
https://www.leafly.com/indica/mr-nice
Being Jewish and vegetarian is no excuse. Report to the Vortex for reeducation immediately.
Actually, my go-to breakfast on weekends is migas. Which is far more perfect than that other crap.
Unfortunately, Illinois will be the last state to legalize.
*contemplates eating migas after an evening of heavy drinking*
I think that would either be an incredible hangover cure or completely wreck my gut for the rest of the day.
The former. That’s why it’s an Austin specialty.
You misspelled “mimosa”. Beautiful sunrise in Anderson Mill on the back porch with Mrs. Bum, started around 0400.
We had to prepare for making thick cut smoked bacon, eggs, and Mrs. Bum’s homemade pancakes for breakfast with 2 of my stepdaughters and one of the grandbabies.
The best mimosa’s in Austin are found at Bangers. A 1L mass mug, 1 bottle of cheap champagne, 200mL OJ.
Migas for the win.
^Dude knows.
Migas are illegal in Illinois ?
Who knew ?
I am a vegetarian once removed – much of my nutrition comes from beings that ate vegetables. I also eat vegetables directly myself. I might even make a rule about it if they explain it to me.
vegetarian once removed
That’s actually referred to as a “meta-vegetarian,” and I claim copyright.
“Reese’s Peanut butter cup creamer“
What the hell is weong with you?
Wrong.
If you weren’t forced to read By The Waters Of Babylon as a public school inmate and had it thereby ruined for you, I urge you to read it now.
I wasn’t a public school inmate. “Animal Farm”, “1984”, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “Beowulf”, “Macbeth”, and “Merchant of Venice” were part of my required reading list over the four years I was in Catholic school. Not much ruining went on there.
I read most of those too in high school. Lucky for me my AP English teacher thought it more important that we read great works of literature than social justice de jour. She was also weirdly single at 50 and still pretty hot.
We read all of those at my public HS too except the last one.
I think we read all those except “All Quiet on the Western Front” which my dad encouraged me to read over the summer when I was 14 or 15. I’m sure now they’ve dropped most of those in favor of Toni Morrison novels and other such dreck.
She was also weirdly single at 50 and still pretty hot.
So…. crazy?
I read most of those in HS, except for Orwell. 11th grade English had a 3 month unit on Mark Twain. 9th grade English had a 3 month unit on Shakespeare. Read “All quiet” in 11th grade WWI/WWII history class.
We read good stuff, but it was intermixed with shit and we had to dissect it all in a way that killed all enjoyment of it.
Reading Orwell at that age was very formative for me. I had individualistic notions all along but my big takeaway from reading Orwell is that collectivism is terrifying and evil and to resist it in every form. It’s a lesson that continues to serve me well.
I read Homage to Catalonia in beautiful, peaceful Barcelona; that was a fairly surreal experience.
Conversely, walking amongst the cannon at Shiloh seems normal as rain: of course there were 25k casualties here in two days.
The suspect had been born in Iran but took German citizenship many years ago and lived in Luebeck.
My prediction wasn’t quite right, I thought he would have been a son of immigrants. Oh well. Close doesn’t count except in horseshoes, hand grenades, dancing, and nuclear weapons.
Chapter (2) sūrat l-baqarah (The Cow)
O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I have bestowed upon you and that I preferred you over the worlds.
Times, they are a changing.
Context.
First, Trump and Putin spent more than two hours in conversation with only interpreters for company. Trump’s national security officials admit they still have no idea what was said or promised.
They were just trading stories about pussy-grabbing.
The temerity of the chief diplomat not wanting to conduct business with spies. Spies who have particularly been known for leaking info to make him look bad.
Making it tough for the press to
leak damaging secretspublish vital information is treason!Bourdain is cursing your brunch from his front seat in hell.
Brunch is nothing but a “horrible, cynical way of unloading leftovers and charging three times as much as you ordinarily charge for breakfast,” he said. “It’s the least popular shift for cooks. I personally hate it. I’ve all sorts of deep, highly traumatic memories of my years cooking brunch. … Hideous.”
This is why Bourdain was an overhyped hack. My brunches kick ass.
It’s the least popular shift because it’s busy and most restaurants do a very slow breakfast during the rest of the week, if they do one at all. So you have a bunch of guys who are used to closing up at midnight and starting work at 4:00PM having to wake up at 6:00AM for a horde of breakfasters once a week. That’s why they hate it.
“Democratic Socialism” is the new wave among youth, according to today’s newspaper article. Read 50 or so paragraphs and can sum it up:
“I want armed government agents to take your money to spend on things I find appropriate, so I can feel morally superior and smug.”
Thats probably the best description (beyond maybe the more laconic “Free Shit”) of Democratic Socialism I’ve heard yet.
The laughter in the room had barely faded when Jonathan Lemire, a journalist from the Associated Press, asked: “Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did … Who do you believe?”
If you called this Lemire guy’s listed phone number, would you get a “This number is no longer in service” message? If you went to his house, would it be empty, or possibly even occupied by a family claiming to never have heard of anybody named Lemire? Would the other families on the street all shake their heads in terror and refuse to answer questions about their disappeared neighbor? Has he been found face down in a pool of blood, victim of a botched robbery?
After all, if Trump is the nefarious tyrant he is accused of being, he would never allow that guy to walk free after such a public insult, right?
I just love how the law works for one side and how it works differently for the other side.
When a law gets struck down anywhere that the left doesn’t like, the next morning that ruling is the law of the land. It’s as dead as King Tut – not possible to enforce it anywhere.
But… when the 9th circus strikes down the magazine ban in California, well, you can bet your left testicle people would still be arrested for that infraction not only in the PRK but anywhere that has a similar ban.
So, just when and how will this magazine ban be struck down not only in theory but in practice? Is there even a chance that the sun of jurisprudence will penetrate to the lower reaches where us plebeians dwell?
From the Guardian:
From this perspective, Trump’s courtship of Putin is not necessarily the strategic folly it seems. His base seems indifferent to and untroubled by the Russia issue, believing the threat has been exaggerated, while conservative media have spent months wearing down trust in the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion. The liberal backlash to a visit by Putin to the White House could actually strengthen Trump in the eyes of his followers, fuelling their sense of grievance at a “deep state” conspiracy and what they see as “Trump derangement syndrome”.
———-
Even so, there was a sense in Washington that something had shifted after probably the most damaging week yet of Trump’s presidency – a week in which the word “treason” became part of the conversation.
Benjy Sarlin, a political reporter NBC News, wrote on Twitter: “I don’t know if there’s direct political fallout to the Putin meeting, but a pretty clear impact by now is that relatively fringe theories about Trump’s motives moved to the mainstream and even center-right elite in a way that wasn’t true before. Not sure that just goes away.”
So TDS is imaginary? Is that what they’re trying to say? The shrieking and hooting and shitflinging are rational responses to Trump’s treasonous submission to Putin?
Yeah, okay.
Where have these people been for the last last year and a half?
The same people throwing around the treason nonsense are the same neocons and leftists who have been over the top criticizing Trump all along, they’ve just ratcheted up their rhetoric. They’re a shrill core group with a collectively loud voice and it’s amplified out of proportion by a media that either agrees with that viewpoint or thrives on conflict. Anyone with half a brain and/or a dictionary knows the treason talk is nothing but histrionics.
So if Trump went and met with Xi Jinping for 2 hours, what would be the fallout of that?
Screeching and whining from Trump’s base. We just had his security picks invoking the Yellow Peril as the key threat of our times at Aspen. They even dismissed the threat of Russia by claiming China was much more competent in their “attacks” and more well-funded.
I’m disappointed that some people reveal themselves as deep state apologists.
2012 is calling. They say the 1980’s have been on hold for six years waiting to get their foreign policy back.
“groups that want “stand your ground’ to go away”
Stand your ground always bored me: it was always the most obvious part of agency that one comes and goes as he pleases in places he has a right to be. It is only to provide contrast with places that have contrived any other policy (duty to retreat) that any such announcement was needed: oh, BTW, we’re not one of THOSE places.
One uses weapons to eliminate a threat. I didn’t watch the video, but, after an assault, if my antagonist retreats and I still would have the ability to reset and defend myself from a second assault, then there is no threat anymore. I have the right to defend myself from a threat of violence, but it looks like this threat evaporated, so the shooting is something else.
Good guys with guns should promptly clarify such issues in these cases and call for appropriate prosecution.
Now for a scary hypothetical: assuming you’re around the corner when this happened, hear some unclear language and scuffle noises, emerge in time to see someone being shot in the back by a guy who looks unharmed and unthreatened…..and this shooter is between you and the exit…….what’s your plan? I’d draw, drop, and scramble backward hoping to find a back door or a window to knock out….which, BTW, is always my plan. But, for the record, that shooter might look a lot like a nut on the prowl, and if a third party drew and killed him, I wouldn’t stop him or even particularly mind.
Thanks, Don. That kind of scenario is what I was getting at upthread with the fuzzy areas. People of good faith need to figure that stuff out or people of bad faith will step in and use situations like the handicapped space shooting to grab every gun out there.
I thought of that hypothetical. If a bystander had drawn and shot Drejka how would they have handled that?
I agree. I’m sure plenty of internet tough guys are taking to gun forums to justify this incident. IMO it’s not justifiable and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the cops are rather cynically letting him off knowing it will up the political pressure against SYG.
For early post-apocalyptic stories, Star Man’s Son by Andre Norton is worth a quick read. My own post-nuclear war book was a bit of a homage to it.
Is this book on Kindle? If so, linkie?
Read that as a kid and LOVED it.
it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the cops are rather cynically letting him off knowing it will up the political pressure against SYG.
I thought that, too.
Maybe they hope the feds will step in and go after the guy.
The sheriff referred it up to the state for a decision apparently.
As inequality grows, so does the political influence of the rich
I… wow. Is Salon writing all their articles now?
I stopped reading at that point Did it get dumber?
By the way, I just ate some cashews; so that means somebody, somewhere, will not be able to eat cashews because of me.
The Economist became a worthless rag about two decades ago. I’d get more valuable lessons in economics from Hustler.
I still subscribe because I think it’s good reporting around the world on the most important issues; in one hour I’m pretty caught up. I’ll consider alternatives but just haven’t found a better one yet.
But it is philosophically disturbing when and how a supposedly liberal newspaper can maintain or call for further restriction in liberty. They believe in free trade and free speech, but the freedom to defend oneself from home invasion and tyrannical governments somehow eludes them. They also have this distant, forgetful posture on the American peculiarities; god, Dad, I’m this way because you made me this way; hell, you beat it into me.
It’s true that the international coverage is better than what you can get from the American weeklies, which are far, far worse.
‘freedom to defend oneself’
Ones position on this issue tells you everything you need to know about the others. They do not believe in free trade or free speech.
Welcome back.
So neither immigration nor sovereignty are worthwhile issues? Only the author’s personal bugaboo with rich people?
Appeal to the worst parts of human nature (envy and greed) and you get the worst kinds of people.
Welcome back!
Thank you.
Yeah. Hi, Suthen.
Not really, to be honest. The only sovereignty that matters is individual sovereignty.
This disconnect may be more than an oddity. It may be a sign of the corrupting influence of inequality on democracy.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did that retard Wilkinson write that?
It looks like I am going to live. I know, better luck next time, right?
I just put in another submission for those asking about reloading and it looks like it will turn out to be a series.
Shooting: We need that shooter prosecuted. Second time, same situation? I dont think so. He murdered that guy.
Inequality: Stop looking at other people’s stuff and figuring out how you are going to steal it.
War: Get the fuck out of Afghanistan. No one has told me yet what we expect to gain there.
Trader Joe: Gangbanger thug shoots up store. I got nuthin’.
German terror attack: Denial of reality never turns out well.
Bicycle shooter: WTF?
Suthenboy is back and he just cannonballed into the pool.
Hope you’re feeling better from whatever injuries you suffered while wrestling wild animals in the buff.
If only it were that exciting. My brother and I went to hatch a plan for planting some trees. There were blackberries in the access so I took a machete, a tool I have used all of my life, and on the very first goddamned swing I pulled a muscle in my back. I have been paralyzed with pain for two weeks. It pinched a nerve and made my right arm numb, muscle relaxers did nothing except make me puke for days…..blah blah. My whine is over.
Ha!
I was talking to my buddy in San Diego who decided to go bodysurfing for the first time in years. He landed on the sand and wrenched his shoulder. Then the next day, while attempting to put on a t-shirt, he pulled it again and the pain was so intense he passed out, fell on his other shoulder and screwed it up too.
Sucks getting old.
Wow. At least I only screwed up one side.
I guess I should have waited to post.
Sorry.
Hey, I am not above wrasslin’ critters in the buff.
yup, at our age we need to stretch before even attempting to tie our shoes
Doesn’t apply in this case, but I recently read that middle age is when your back suddenly hurts………and you have no idea why. The worst thing I’ve done in the past year was wake up from a nap on the couch: couldn’t walk right for a week.
I’ve had that sudden crippling back pain thing happen once so far. Shifted in my office chair and then I was suddenly on the floor in agony. Struggled to my feet to call 911 for an ambulance and they told me to sit or lie down until they came. I said “Hell no, it took me forever just to get up to the phone, I’ll just stand here until they arrive.” The cute EMT helped me hobble into the ambulance and get me to the hospital.
Naturally they found nothing, but I got handed off to more hot nurses than I could count that day, so it was almost worth the agony.
There really isnt that much they can do. Cortisone shot is the only thing that will really give relief. Despite much urging from my wife I avoided that. They gave me some crappy muscle relaxers that had me puking for days and I kept taking them for a while not realizing that was what was doing it. vodka helped…until it didn’t.
Food and rest is all I need now. That and patience.
I have two torn rotator cuffs. I’ve been doing DIY construction on steroid shots for 5 years now.
I have hit the wall, where surgery is no longer an option. I can’t put on a bra or shirt without pain. And forget about lifting a nail gun. Or even using a 6-oz hammer from a girlie pink toolkit.
Snapon made pink handled tools at one point, just as high quality as the rest of their tools. Wifey bought a ratchet screwdriver but nothing else & sadly discontinued.
Ah I was wondering where Bayou Boy went.
Welcome back.
I think you mean Scary White Boy.
Glad you are feeling better.
Ugh. I’ve reached the age my father warned me about. I’m in pretty good shape, but maybe a month ago I’d just woken up, went downstairs, turned the coffee maker on, and while I was sitting on the couch watching the news waiting for the pot to brew I looked out the window to my right and immediately felt a sharp pain. I sprained my neck by looking around. FML.
Glad you’ve back Suthen! Seeing machete work at the paragraph open, I was expecting worse. Back pain is bad enough.
Glad to hear it, Suthen. Keeping an eye out for your reloading piece.
It looks like I am going to live.
Good. I guess I missed something while I was away?
I read your dog piece while catching up. Those dogs look great!
Glad to see you back. Condolences on getting older.
Welcome back Suthen.
Welcome back Suthen! Missed you.
Feel for you on back pain. I fell off a dock about 8 years ago and spent most of the summer nearly crippled with back pain.
Oh, no. Meet the Press has been pre-empted by golf.
*dabs away crocodile tear*
I have been paralyzed with pain for two weeks.
That sucks.
Am I one podcast, article, blog post away from understanding the world? Maybe it’s a book I need to read. A conversation with the right person at the right time? Perhaps that one piece of information I pick up will only fill out a tiny jigsaw puzzle piece and I’ve got a million more in the box waiting for me. Bet I’m dead before I figure out even a tiny bit of the world. Regardless, I’m gonna drink a beer, give my wife and kid a hug and try to make something that didn’t exist before. Cheers! Also, check out this conversation between Shapiro and Eric Weinstein. Good stuff.
You’re only ever one Agile Cyborg post away from greater understanding.
Not being sarcastic, True. I want to read every thing that can be put in writing. Got my helmet on and mouth guard in. Strap me down if you need to. Words. I can separate them from the rest of reality.
I wondered if the Glibs should have a recommended reading list.
I believe they do. I’d like to add the following to it.
The True Believer by Eric Hoffman
Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks
And for the masochists, The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper
I haven’t read True Believer. I’ve read the Hicks pamphlet but not the full book. I’ve read both Popper books which I definitely recommend to any Libertarian.
Reading The True Believer is an exercise in nodding your head in acknowledgement throughout the entirety of the short book.
There’s also The Anti-Capitalist Mentality by von Mises.
Cool. I’ll add them to my list.
Hope Hicks has a pamphlet? Asking for a friend.
Hick’s “Free Speech and Postmodernism” is the pamphet I was thinking of which is available cheap through Amazon or free for pdf download via inter tubes. “Explaining Postmodernism” is also downloadable but is not pamphlet size.
“for the masochists”
There should be black roses awarded to books that are so bad that they make the case for liberty by arguing against it…poorly and atrociously.
You definitely want a philosophy primer standing by to read Popper.
Shapiro needs a voice transplant. I think watching it at 3/4 speed helps.
Leave him his voice and castrate his war boner and I’m happy.
You are overthinking it.
Supply will never meet demand. Every creature is set against every other creature. You are here for a short time. Enjoy the simple things.
It offends my sensibilities but there it is in a nutshell.
I’m just teaching my kid this when it comes to how to handle life.
An older relative once asked me in the midst of an existential crisis “What is the purpose of it all? ”
to which I asked “Why does there have to be a purpose? You think the universe cares about you? Hell the whole earth we think of as so large and important is just a damned speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. Nobody knows we are here. You think this is a story with a plot and important characters? That it is going somewhere? It’s not. Eat good food, love good women and enjoy your life. Stop fretting, it wont change anything.”
At a certain age one tends to understand that the meaning of life is today, 3 meals and bedtime. What happens in between is of little consequence. The physical pains aren’t going to go away, the romantic inclinations already have. Old friends are fewer and older. Family matters but nothing can be changed so we recognize that even that is not worth worrying about.
Suthen sums it up pretty well.
I have been going through a rough patch lately. Thank you for this. It was certainly needed and much appreciated.
You said there’s no purpose and then named purposes.
Life and the universe have no meaning or purpose unless you invent one. It’s all up to you to create your own purpose.
https://youtu.be/yJJA6WRpvlg
You mean I’m gonna stay this color?
These cans are defective!
Aw, have a Twinkie
Set goals, work towards them. Reevaluate goals periodically.
Artistic broads.
http://archive.is/a2hIv
#1 has a certain je ne sais quoi.
1, 8,16, 17 is Way Hot!
Good choices.
Untangle this gibberish… if you dare.
It goes on and on in a similar vein. This guy somehow has convinced a newspaper to publish his rejected Dan Brown fan-fiction.
Once more with linkage.
Don’t most countries have back channels with most other countries? Aren’t there thousands of cyber attacks on every country in the world on a daily basis?
How can anyone take these people seriously?
When Chris Wallace brought up the 12 spies in his interview with Putin, I wanted Putin to say ‘of course we have spys everywhere just as the US and every other major country does. Have you always been this stupid. No wonder Trump calls you fake news”
I don’t get the everybody does it defense. Everyone also tries to ferret out those spies and stop them from doing whatever spy stuff they are attempting. So the FBI uncovers a spy ring or operation and we should just shrug because everyone does it? It seems to me you can be upset that the Commies mucked around and at the same time not think it delegitimizes Trump’s win.
Of course. It is not a defense. It is an attack on the hysteria the left has whipped up over something that happens all the time and about which they didn’t care one bit about two years ago. They are trying to pull off a coup by turning everyday business into the greatest crisis in history. It is absurd.
I think the argument is that spying is by no means unique to Russian policy nor to the 2016 election. It doesn’t mean it’s a good thing that this happens; it’s just a refutation of the theory that this entirely commonplace activity was somehow the deciding factor in the 2016 election.
e.g. If Russian spying made the 2016 election results illegitimate, then practically every election in every country is illegitimate by the very same token.
This.
Well, to your point, I think the problem is that some people seem more worried about the Trump part than they are about the Russians fiddling around part. Our own intelligence agencies do the same shit, and when we find people doing it to us we typically smack their wrists with a ruler and send them to bed without dinner, because it’s understood that friendly countries don’t spy on each other, and we confirm that we aren’t being spied on by spying on each other. Now all of a sudden certain people are shocked to find gambling going on in this establishment. It just smells more than usually partisan.
I’m not saying you should. But you also don’t have to act so incredulous about it like Wallace was. I’d rather hear him say we all no tge game here so why not just come clean. He doesn’t need to act like he was born yesterday and can’t possibly fathom any of this. I think that’s why Putin was laughing at him.
We all know the game here.
Eisenhower, U2, Gary Powers, 1960
WordTalking point of the day: KompromatTrump has made a lot of money doing deals with businesspeople from the former Soviet Union, and at least some of these deals bear many of the warning signs of money laundering and other financial crimes. Deals in Toronto, Panama, New York, and Miami involved money from sources in the former Soviet Union who hid their identities through shell companies and exhibited other indications of money laundering. In the years before he became a political figure, Trump acted with impunity, conducting minimal corporate due diligence and working with people whom few other American businesspeople would consider fit partners. During that period, he may have felt protected by the fact that U.S. law-enforcement officials rarely investigate or prosecute Americans who engage in financial crimes overseas. Such cases are also maddeningly difficult to prove, and the F.B.I. has no subpoena power in other countries. If, however, someone had evidence that proved financial crimes and shared it with, say, the special counsel, Robert Mueller, other American law-enforcement officials, or the press, it could significantly damage Trump’s business, his family, and his Presidency.
Trump’s crooked dealings are Putin’s puppet strings! It all makes sense now!
These types always go on about what a failure his business enterprises have been. Now that we know Putin has been on board all along he’s suddenly this stealthy business mastermind.
Yet no one ever mentions the millions Clinton received from Russia while she was Secretary of State.
More implications and accusations with no details.
Keep it up shitheads.
My favorite part of all these kompromat stories is that they start with a small print type statement of “sure there is no proof of any kompromat but…” and then go off on for hundreds of column inches on how the Rooskies absolutely must have compromising info.
Then today the NY Times has this wonderful headline Without Evidence, Trump Claims Vindication From Release of Carter Page Documents.
I’m sure politifact and snopes will find ways to agree with the NYT, but from what I’ve been reading, the FISA warrant pretty much was just a resubmission of the Steele dossier. But I’m sure you can say Trump doesn’t have evidence evidence.
To quote the great political analyst Obi Wan Kenobe: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
It’s a classic Leftist tactic: Insinuate or suggest that something happened on the most flimsy of pretenses. This way, you can plant the idea in peoples’ minds, but you can also maintain your veneer of honesty by saying that you “never made that claim”.
e.g. “I’m not saying Barack Obama molested a young boy in Dumphries, Virginia during a campaign stop. But what we do know is that one week after Obama’s visit, a child told his teacher that someone touched him in his private parts. Is there a connection between Obama’s visit and the sexual assault of this toddler? Sources familiar with the matter say that they believe with a high degree of confidence that the two events are related.”
The collection of Russiagate articles is basically a study in how to craft a narrative without any real evidence.
Why are we here?
go to ~1:25
RE: MUH ROOSKEEZ
This continued mass delusion of a significant portion of the electorate/chattering class is quite fascinating. Reading the amount of ink expended on this paranoid fever dream makes one wonder if they believe the shit they’re peddling or is it just that they went all in on this ridiculous conspiracy theory after the election and now they can’t stop. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the media and the permanent bureaucracy are a much greater threat to the country than Russia.
I think it’s rooted in two things:
1) Their need to re-assure themselves that Hillary was ordained by the universe to win the election, but sinister forces sabotaged her chances and the other guy ended up winning. Remember all those poli-sci eggheads who gave her a +90% chance of winning? They have to maintain their “expert” image somehow, and Russiagate is the perfect excuse.
2) Their need to deflect media attention from the whole spectrum of blatantly illegal and unethical behavior on part of Hillary and the DNC.
It really is amazing the influence Hillary has had on this century. Her two presidential runs got two people elected to the presidency that would never have been there in any other Universe.
People so disliked her that they were willing to vote for an unknown shyster out of Chicago in 2008 and then a very well known shyster in 2016 simply because no one wanted her in the Oval office.
I’m probably going to make a giant batch of beer and cheese waffles and freeze them. They will go with my fried eggs (over medium) and Canadian bacon for breakfast (curing as we speak; will be smoked this evening).
Ledeneva told me that each actor in sistema faces near-constant uncertainty about his status, aware that others could well destroy him. Each actor also knows how to use kompromat to destroy rivals but fears that using such material might provoke an explosive response. While each person in sistema feels near-constant uncertainty, the over-all sistema is remarkably robust. Kompromat is most powerful when it isn’t used, and when its targets aren’t quite clear about how much destructive information there is out there. If everyone sees potential land mines everywhere, it dramatically increases the price for anybody stepping out of line.
You can’t cheat an honest man.
Or someone who simply doesn’t care if the whole world knows about his weird pornographic fetishes.
😉
Kinda slow. In case anyone is mildly curious:
Google earth – go to 31, 43′,43′.61″N 91,58’27.15″W
zoom to a height of about 5000 ft
That is approximately the southeast corner of the property and you can see the lines pretty clearly. Notice the south half has pines on it. I planted those by casting seed out by hand. The north half is bare, just cut this last january. The south half is in the hills and the north half which is bare is very low and squishy. Set your ruler on feet. If you start at that corner and go 3400 feet at 19.96 degrees you will be at the northeast corner. That is where it borders the creek. If you look carefully along the trees on the north border you can just make out the squiggly line the creek makes. Follow that until it meets the road. It is roughly 60 acres bare that need to be planted. Now you have an idea what I am up against.
I found a seed source, finally. I am putting in yellow poplar because it does better than pine in that low bottom land. It is gonna take about 45,000 trees…so three lbs of seed. Plenty of oak and pine will come up naturally so I will use the YP to fill in the gaps.
Of interest: notice there is a line across the property that looks like a ridge going east to west with a slight curve in it. That is the old railroad grade that went farm to farm through the countryside to haul out grain and timber. my grandfather said there was a train wreck once on about the east border of the property. The engine toppled on it’s side and the boiler broke. My grandfather, only a boy, ran down there and reached in the cab grabbing the engineer’s arm and tried to pull him out. The guy was totally cooked. All of the skin came off of the guy’s arm in my grandfathers hands.
My dad’s cousin’s father was a cook for a train in the 1920s and was in an accident and burned. He lost his hair and it never grew back. He also quit that job.
Most people dont appreciate how incredibly dangerous trains are.
There is another line there. It starts at the center of the property and goes north east to a point just west of the northeast corner. I dont know what that is. I have never seen it before and I have walked every inch of that land. When the trees are gone things look completely different. I am gonna have to go back and see if I can figure out what that is. The cutters left the trees that line it. I wonder why.
Huh, interesting. Around here tree (re)planting is usually done with seedlings, not bare seeds. I love old railroad grades. Once you find them, they’re hard to unsee.
Here’s the google maps version for anyone interested, I couldn’t copy&paste Suthen’s location directly. Missing the degree symbol maybe?
https://goo.gl/maps/NGSEx9oPKdu
I have done both seed and seedling. The price difference is substantial and seedlings only give you a two to three year jump. Some of that stuff you see is less than 30 years old from seed and ready to thin already.
Btw, beautiful land. I’m jealous.
Hey Suthen, it’s good to see you back. I’m sorry to hear about your injury and wish you a speedy recovery.
I wanted to ask you your thoughts on this. I have about 15 acres of overgrown woods. I’m not a good judge but I’d guess there are at least several thousand trees. Huge pine trees have started falling down into my pond and blocking my private road around the property. A local lumberyard sent me a letter recently asking if they could come take look at my woods and offer me a quote (money paid to me) for harvesting some of it.
Do you think it might be a good idea to let them thin it out some? Could they do that without damaging the forest and making it an eyesore?
I definitely do not want to clear cut. We love having our woods.
The guy who owns the land were my family deer hunts had a crew come in and chop down lots of trees on his property. I was pretty worried when I heard about it because our setup was fantastic before that. They spent the summer cutting and I have to say it is amazing how good of a job they did taking out a bunch of trees, but not clearing any areas completely.
We had to move a few of our deer stands because the trails moved but for the most part, it didn’t change much of anything. I think you don’t have to worry about losing a forest.
The only thing that is even close to an eyesore is a big slash pile on the property. And the owner has said that it could be removed fairly easily but he doesn’t see any urgency in doing so.
It is amazing how fast it grows back and how fast those slash piles rot away. BTW, the extra sun that comes in from trees being removed will facilitate the appearance of lots of different plants that deer love. Deer are grazers. Expect the population to bump up a bit. Mixed wood, open field is ideal for deer, much more so than solid forest.
The land we hunt on has a lot of ridges with oaks growing on them, so the deer swarm in to get acorns in the fall.
With it being cleared, a lot of younger growth has popped up, but not too bad.
We are meat hunters when white tail hunting, so it is all good.
The secret to big buck hunting is to go sit in the nastiest densest part of a swamp because that is where the big boys tend to go the first time they hear a shot (that is why they have those big racks). I’m too old for that shit anymore. Now we sit in nice stands shoot some fat does or the occasional buck and the landowner comes along with his skidsteer and takes them all back to his barn for us. Then we spend a couple hours talking about the day’s hunt, drinking a bit and telling old stories. Can’t beat that set up.
Hint: the gene for low-tannin acorns is recessive. Deer love acorns but they target specific low-tannin trees early in the acorn fall. Find out which trees those are and put your stand near that. After those run out, and they will fast, they will move to the less tasty trees.
If you have hogs in the area just follow the hog trails. They will lead from tasty tree to tasty tree.
Sound like me, only I haul out the deer with a small Farmall and a trailer. Fawns are good to eat, just takes more. Rarely see a buck unless its a spike. If you Minnesota folks come for the Honey Harvest you can hike the trails, which aren’t very far or long. Anyone interested in watching us harvest the honey are invited on Sep 16th, a fun day with good food, camaraderie and sticky fingers without Mick. Looks like a successful year so far, the bees have been doing a good job.
I have a question for you: how do you overwinter your bees? I’ve had bees on and off for a decade in NW Ohio. I’ve had very few overwinter. The ones that did best were a swarm of what looked like “wild” bees. Do you buy your bees from CA or have a local breeder? Do you put all the hives together to decrease exposure? Is moisture an issue? Do you have good foraging areas for the bees? Very agricultural here.
Topnotch, we tried overwintering them but the cold weather was too extreme, regardless of what we tried. We gave up, buy new bees every year from Mann Lake, about 50 miles from my house. Bees come fresh from CA, arrive early May. We feed them once usually but they start flying in a couple days. I think they were about 125 for a 3 lb pack.
Strangely, this is heavy forested area, a few open fields but no Ag at all. Honey this year looks light, maybe basswood. My bee partner and I each have 2 hives, separated by about 6 miles. Mine are in a clearing, his in the brush. Since we are near water they seem to get enough, we tried watering them but usually they aren’t too interested.
Good to know I’m not doing something totally wrong. Thanks
I didn’t have bees this year. I miss them. Bees made me much more aware of plants and flowering times. I learned just as much botany as I did beekeeping. Gonna get some next year
We been doing bees for maybe 20 years or so. Its always a money losing proposition but since we don’t sell any we can’t lose money, right? Its fun, very little work, maple syrup is much harder. The best part is the Honey Harvest party. It takes care of our social obligations for a year and the relatives, neighbors and classmates have a chance to get re-acquainted. We got 360 lbs last year and the fun of doing it.
It won’t be too long for me to not be able to do the work physically but until then we’ll keep on keeping on. We had sort of a co-op but most of the others have dropped out. We had years when the harvest was limited but we always kept hoping, like fishing and deer hunting.
Thanks for sharing your experience. That makes me feel more comfortable if I do proceed.
Prices are local but timber here is up pretty high. Where are you? The price depends on your distance from a mill that will take the logs. It takes the harvester a couple of thousand just to move his equipment to your property, usually. It also takes a shit ton of gasoline to move logs to the mill.
Best strategy: Hire a forester not associated with the mill to cruise your timber (estimate board feet) and he will tell you what a fair price is. It sounds like your trees are past prime growing. At 30-40 years the tree’s growth slows considerably. Economically it makes sense to cut then and replant. Younger trees will add bulk much faster. It kills me to see good saw logs die and rot. See what the forester says about how best to manage it. I cant really say without seeing it. He can tell you which trees to take and which to leave in order to maximize the appreciation of value.
Thanks for the advice. I’m in southern VA. The harvester is about 10 minutes away.
I would like to replant certain areas. We have an excellent state forestry program where I can buy oak and blacknut seedlings for pennies apiece.
I’m not really sure to where to find a forester, but I think I’ll start with our coop. VA Tech probably has a great forestry program but might be too far away.
*black walnut
Hills or plains? The hills there are ideal for black walnut (dont expect to ever see that. It is a slow grower so your children will see it) and yellow poplar (high value fast, grower) and pine at lower elevations (get the super-pines. They grow so fast they will knock you down and pay the same as poplar). Plant thicker (8×8 or 6×10) if you want tall straight timber. If you plant them too sparsely they will have wider crowns and more limbs – pretty to look at but loses a lot of value. The limbs make knots in the wood and that makes poorer quality lumber.
With timber keep in mind that this is not a short term investment. You may see it, you may not. I think in terms of generations. I am simply a one generation caretaker. I am planting the east 15 acres of so on the property I mentioned in black walnut and filling in some blank spots elsewhere. I have a grandson less than a year old. If he makes it to 70 he will see the money from that. It should be a small fortune, or maybe not so small. If not, his son will.
Plant then then go about your life. Ten years, twenty years will pass before you know it and one day you will look at it and be blown away by what it has become. Then you will feel truly old.
It’s all hills, Definitely, if we plant them then it would be for my grandchildren or great-grandchildren. We are trying to plan ahead and make our place a multi-generational homestead.
I just noticed…ten minutes? That should add to what you get paid considerably. Our closes mill is 30-40 minutes away. That makes a hell of a difference. Here they have to buy a permit to haul on highways and miles driven make a difference in that price, plus the gasoline. Driving a 60 ton truck+load over a highway creates a lot of wear and takes umpteen shit-tons of gasoline.
Ten minutes? You are in good shape.
That’s good to hear. Yea it’s real close, maybe 12 minutes tops.
I have lots of ideas and buying a mobile mill has always intrigued me. Any thoughts? Is it a waste of time and money?
Copy/paste the coordinates into Apple maps works too. Thank you for this. So interesting. My older brother instilled a fascination with maps/geography that I still have to this day. When we were kids, we could spend hours looking at maps and atlases. My brother had a deal where he would recieve the used weather maps (hand charted) from the WFAA meteorologists every week or so. We’d get a packet in the mail, and then we’d pore over the charts and he’d explain the weather fronts, barometer readings, wind patterns and stuff.
If my wife and I are out and about and come across an old map (hanging in a diner, displayed in a park, etc), she’ll just roll her eyes because she knows I’m stopping and looking at every inch of that map.
+1 old National Geographic. Every few issues there would be a map in them and I was the same way. I’d put it on the floor and pore over it.
The tragedy of Homo Economicus
The issue here is one of overreach: taking an argument that has worthwhile applications and extending it further than it usefully goes. Our motives are often not what they seem: true. This explains everything: not true. After all, it’s not as if the idea that we send signals about ourselves were news; you could argue that there is an entire social science, sociology, dedicated to the subject. Classic practitioners of that discipline study the signals we send and show how they are interpreted by those around us, as in Erving Goffman’s “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,” or how we construct an entire identity, both internally and externally, from the things we choose to be seen liking—the argument of Pierre Bourdieu’s masterpiece “Distinction.” These are rich and complicated texts, which show how rich and complicated human difference can be. The focus on signalling and unconscious motives in “The Elephant in the Brain,” however, goes the other way: it reduces complex, diverse behavior to simple rules.
Speaking of willful misinterpretation…
Quinoa:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DiadP1fW4AAlSf8.jpg:large
Awesome. I think he got permabanned last week though ;p
He did, because Twitter sucks.
Nice trolling:)
*sends up flare*
Looks like the horoscope hasn’t been scheduled to go up. Mistake or decision?
Nice fortune telling there, Miss Cleo. You couldn’t predict your own demise.
Economics, Morson and Schapiro say, has three systematic biases: it ignores the role of culture, it ignores the fact that “to understand people one must tell stories about them,” and it constantly touches on ethical questions beyond its ken. Culture, stories, and ethics are things that can’t be reduced to equations, and economics accordingly has difficulty with them.
Value is subjective. Pay me.
Economics has no difficulty with them. None at all.
Hey musical Glibs!
I’m looking into getting a keyboard mainly for just playing around at home. I haven’t played in over 10 years, but I was an intermediate player back in the day. I don’t really care about the accompaniment and mixing capabilities. I simply want something that faithfully reproduces an analog piano experience in feel, found, and capability.
I’m looking at a few yamahas. The high end one that caught my eye was the DGX-660. Frankly, that’s a lot of money for a keyboard, but everything I’m reading says it has the most faithful representation of a grand piano. Do I need to spend $800 to get what I want, or is there something in the $300-500 range that fits the bill?
Sound*
That’s 1 thing about ol Liberace. He was one hell of a piano player, but he really….SUCKED ON THE ORGAN!
/I’ll be here all week.
So you want a weighted keyboard, and a decent piano sound?
You might be able to find a used Kurzweil PC88 for $500.
The weighted keyboard is going to be the expensive part.
Finding an inexpensive E-Mu Proformance module, or an E-Mu proteus or whatever box that contains their Proformance piano, should be easy.
Do you have room or interest in a real piano? Some places give away old school practice pianos for the cost of moving and tuning.
Unfortunately I don’t have is a place for it. The ability to easily set up and tear down is the main reason I’m leaning keyboard.
“Trans Activism’s Dangerous Myth of Parental Rejection
When children and adolescents experience gender dysphoria, our aim should be to provide them with treatment of the highest standard of care. We should be attempting to provide assistance that will result in the best outcomes—in the short-term, as well as the long-term. Unfortunately, treatment of childhood dysphoria is an area not yet well understood. The extreme contentiousness around the topic means that research can be difficult to conduct and is often hampered by ideological agendas. (For example, see here.) Without a clear consensus among researchers about the best way to treat gender dysphoric children and teens, input from parents increases in importance when determining course of treatment, since it can be assumed that most parents know their children well and have their best interests at heart.
A further problem with the rejection assumption is that it leaves no room for sensible parental concern. If our starting supposition is that parents who express anything other than effusive enthusiasm are bigoted and rejecting, then the parental voice quickly gets lost, discounted, and even mocked when addressing clinicians. Rather than discerning whether transition might be right for a particular child after a careful evaluation that includes information from many sources including parents, gender therapists tend to assume that transition is the one and only right response, and parents are wrong if they don’t affirm. According to this belief, a questioning parent who wants to slow down on medical intervention is prima facie wrong.
In practice, many schools have informal policies whereby any request on the part of a student for a change in name or pronouns is immediately granted without any discussion with parents. In my work consulting with parents of teens who have adopted a trans identity out of the blue without any prior history of gender dysphoria, I hear frequently that the child has been affirmed at school without parental input.”
https://quillette.com/2018/07/20/trans-activisms-dangerous-myth-of-parental-rejection/
While any article at Quillette is long enough, it ignores parents that try to push their kids into being transgender.
“WTF? Waleed Aly says that “Australian-born Victorians were responsible for 71.7% of the crime committed last year,” implying that a massive 28.3% of crime is being committed by people who have recently migrated and/or are visiting. Is this correct?!”
https://twitter.com/clairlemon/status/1020782559016321024
98% of tortured statistics come from the mouths of smug punch-faces.
Welcome Back, Suthen!
After all, if it wasnt for you, the moniker ‘Yufus’ wouldnt have stuck and bring a smile to my face each time I type it out.
Thank you Tres. It is nice to be back. I missed you knuckleheads.
Back atcha dude. Hope you’re 100%.
Sad, isn’t it.
I have some perpetually messed-up shoulders, and what I found to be a substantial treacle (not to mention allowing me to sleep) is the lidocaine patch. I get Rx strength in the form of ‘Lidoderm’, but you can usually get an OTC version (Blue Emu or Icy Hot, I think) which is usually just 1% lower than the prescription grade. I’ve never used it for muscle aches, but they’re a gift from G_d for joints. Just my $0.02
Good to hear you’re on the mend.
Welcome back!
“Mobs on the Menu: Restaurateurs and the Culture War
Last weekend, The Griffin was forced to shut down when a group of social media-mobilized activists swarmed the bar upon hearing news of a meet-up by Trump supporters in ‘MAGA’—Make America Great Again—hats. For days afterward, activists from both ideological camps followed up by filling the web with negative reviews and hateful comments. A visit to the business’s Yelp page shows a banner indicating the site’s support team is monitoring the page’s content “related to media reports.”
Around 9 p.m. on July 14, VICE contributor Josh Androsky, who’s also a member of the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, began asking his social media followers to descend on The Griffin after receiving a tip that a group of ‘Proud Boys’ were drinking on-site.
The Proud Boys are a hard-right men’s group made up of self-described ‘Western chauvinists.’ They consider themselves to be a fraternal men’s rights organization with somewhat high-minded aims—when, in fact, it’s mostly a drinking club for young men who enjoy railing against political correctness. As part of their provocative posture, the Proud Boys have adopted MAGA hats paired with black Fred Perry polo shirts, making them easy to identify when they gather in public. They revel in their open street brawls with antifa. And they’ve been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), based mostly on crass quotes uttered by the group’s gadfly, say-anything founder, Gavin McInnes. While the SPLC has a questionable methodology and has frequently been accused of bias, the Proud Boys really do often come off as sexist and xenophobic—though not generally racist or fascistic.”
https://quillette.com/2018/07/20/mobs-on-the-menu-restauranteurs-and-the-culture-war/
So pretty much like a bunch frat boys out drinking?
Do you have incitement laws in the US, or is Androsky covered by the 1A?
Just start false flagging MAGA meet ups all over the place. Run the little goon squads ragged to places that either sympathize but don’t have any deplorable, or places that will press charges.
A further problem with the rejection assumption is that it leaves no room for sensible parental concern. If our starting supposition is that parents who express anything other than effusive enthusiasm are bigoted and rejecting, then the parental voice quickly gets lost, discounted, and even mocked when addressing clinicians. Rather than discerning whether transition might be right for a particular child after a careful evaluation that includes information from many sources including parents, gender therapists tend to assume that transition is the one and only right response, and parents are wrong if they don’t affirm.
These people are completely insane.
I also think there is a lot of peer pressure these days for kids to say they are something other than cis hetero. Even if it’s not true. Easy to see how something like that could spiral out of control especially for kids.
Trans is the new goth.
Exactly.
It’s just something that is controversial at the moment, like goth culture and hippie culture before that, so teenagers and kids are going to do it just for reactions.
I think the big distinction between those things and the whole transgender issue is that they’re not permanent. Sure, getting a peace sign or Marilyn Manson tattooed might be regretted later in life, but not as much as getting your dongle chopped off.
The other distinction is that hippies and goths were somewhat legitimate grassroots movements. The trans fad is a political ideology masquerading as a civil rights issue
“Trans is the new goth.”
Bingo.
While the SPLC has a questionable methodology and has frequently been accused of bias, the Proud Boys really do often come off as sexist and xenophobic—though not generally racist or fascistic.
To be sure.
The comments to that nudity thing are… unsurprising.
I know Hillary’s appearance at some hippy festival was already posted, but the pictures are priceless. She has abandoned the pantsuit for a mumu. She’s the crazy, angry old woman you run into at the supermarket who smells of wine and piss.