Glibertarians.com 2018 Archive

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  • The Hat and The Hair Extended Universe: Hillary, The Becoming: Episode 21

    “I just don’t know what to do, Grandmother,” Hillary said, kneeling painfully before the crone on the dais.

    “Lose not thy hope, Daughter,” came the reedy, thin voice, like the rubbing of insect wings. The widow’s hump on the crone’s back had forced her head almost down to her chest and she could barely open her eyes.

    “My failure has put a rapist on the Supreme Court,” Hillary wailed.

    “A rapist on the Supreme Court,” the assembled women of the crowd echoed, pussy hats pulled low to cover their faces.

    “I don’t know how he could have beat me,” she said, thumping the hollow between her diseased teats. “Me. Hillary Clinton. The most qualified and the most ethical and the smartest person ever to run for President…”

    Somewhere behind her, a couple of bepussyhatted figures snickered. One way in the back might have even chortled. She whipped her head around to glare, a blue light rising in her eyes, and the crowd fell into a fidgety silence.

    The crone lifted a thin arm, eyes burning with ancient hate. “The fool has great powers on his side,” the crone rasped. “The hat. The hair. These creatures work against us, offal from sidereal hells unknown.” She closed her eyes and lowered her arm. “But we too have powers, gods of the Elder Races that ruled this Earth when we mammals still scurried between the strides of titanic beasts, their cyclopean cities rising from fetid swamps.”

    “O’ mighty they were, the Fe’tyrol and the D!ga!” She reached out and stroked the huge misshapen skull on a pedestal beside her, the fangs yellowed and the eye-pits stained red with the blood of a thousand thousand maidens.

    “The Fe’tyrol!” the women said, their voices rolling out over the blasted plain where they stood, lit by the sickly orange light of a dying sun hanging sullen in the sky.

    “The D!ga!” they said, the glottal stop clicking like the cocking of a hundred guns.

    The crone cackled and pointed with her right hand and blue lightning flashed in the sky and she pointed with her right hand and fire boiled out, twenty feet of flames, individual ribbons weaving into a pillar. The crowd cooed and clapped. A few turned to take selfies with the demonstrations of seething demonic power.

    “Stop that!” Hillary yelled. “This is a holy event, not a fucking Rihanna concert!”

    The crone waved and the cellphones crumbled to noxious dust.
    “Kavanaugh,’ she croaked when the crying settled.

    “Yes, Grandmother,” Hillary said. “Let me be the instrument of your divine will. I will kill him.”

    “No,” the old woman said. “He is too powerful. Powerful magics protect him or else the accusations would have been enough. He has some phallus talisman or totem of the dingus, and it is by the dingus he must be betrayed. I am close to him now. It must be me.”

    The crone stood painfully and pulled off her sacred vestments, letting the SUPER DIVA! sweatshirt fall to the ground. Grooved and fissured, the twisted labial extrusia of her flesh quaked as she raised her arms and thrust the tomb of her vagina toward the women.

    “I SHALL SEDUCE HIM!” she said, her voice the thunder of the lightning she summoned.

  • Wednesday Morning Links

    An artist’s depiction of last night’s game.

    Columbus Day has me thrown off. I had to check three times to make sure I had the day of the week correct. No mind, its not like I ever have a normal work week or anything. But I could use a day off sometime.  Not a lengthy layoff like the Yankees now have, but just a couple days in a row.  But back to that…they gave game effort but they stuck with CC too long when he had average stuff last night.  Boston will take on the defending world champion Houston Astros starting Saturday and the NLCS kicks off Friday in Milwaukee.  Good luck to whoever you are rooting for (unless its the Dodgers or Red Sox).

    Hockey winners last night were: Columbus, Carolina, San Jose, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto. Nothing else of note happened in the sports world.

    The legend.

    Italian composer Guiseppe Verdi was born on this day.  As were: jazzman Thelonious Monk, eccentric filmmaker Ed Wood, actor Peter Coyote, rocker Alan Cartwright, accordionist James Fearnley, rocker David Lee Roth, singer Kirsty MacColl, politician and terrorist attack survivor Steve Scalise, actress Bai Ling, jeans pitchman Brett Favre, underachieving driver Dale Earnhardt Jr, and acting legend Mario Lopez.

    Its also the day on which the cellulose billiard ball was patented, the Chicago fire was finally extinguished, the dinner jacket made its debut in Tuxedo Park, NY, Ho Chi Minh entered Hanoi, “Giant” (a better film than it gets credit for, in my opinion) made its debut, so did “From Russia With Love”, Fiji became an independent nation, Spiro Agnew resigned, Giants Stadium opened, Steve Perry joined Journey, Springsteen’s “Tunnel Of Love” album was released (it was garbage), Joseph Harris went postal, LT’s #56 was retired by the Giants, and the cornerstone for the Holocaust Museum in NY was laid.

    That’s it. Now…the links!

    Panhandle residents: GTFO!

    Hurricane Michael is about to absolutely hammer the Florida panhandle. Fortunately its moving pretty quickly, but its still going to be devastating.  My thoughts and prayers are with those in its path.  I hope you’ve all gotten out of there In time.

    Well, Sears is circling the drain and is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection. I mean, pretty much everybody not living under a rock saw this coming but that doesn’t make it any less sad.  They were a retail titan for damn near a century.

    What difference, at this point, does political violence make?

    I’m not sure if this is a call for violence or not, but I don’t know how else to take someone who says you “cannot be civil” with your political opponents. Look for things to escalate in the sunup to the midterms and fully expect the left to resort to violence should they fail to capture the House. Well, I suppose I should say more violence.

    Nikki Haley is stepping down from her post as ambassador to the United Nations. I think most everybody was caught off-guard with this one.  We’ll see what happens next, but I really want to see John Bolton get the post based solely on the statements he’s made about the UN in the past. (And yes, I know he’s got a lot of assholish views, but he’s dead right about our involvement with the UN.)

    Fresno woman shocked to find naked stranger masturbating in her living room. (Sometimes there’s no need to rewrite the headline. This is one of those times.)

    Murderer Jason Van Dyke has been moved far away from Chicago as he awaits sentencing. I hope he doesn’t get a single good night’s sleep while there. Or after sentencing. Or once he’s in prison. Or ever.

    The finger-pointing has already begun in the aftermath of the deadly limousine accident in New York. The limo operator can expect to be sued out of existence at a minimum, but if the latest claims are true, he’s probably facing a slew of criminal charges as well.

    The DC Doxxer will not be granted release before trial. Prosecutors claim a potential flight risk.  Looks like the judge learned something from the Awan family situation after all. The alleged Doxxer was employed by Shelia Jackson-Lee (D), Maggie Hassan (D) and others (D, D, D, D).

    I’m sorry, I have to play two songs by two artists today.  I was genuinely torn but didn’t want to disappoint anybody: This one is an obvious choice. You know, seeing as it is perhaps one of the best 80’s rock songs recorded. And here is the second song. Which has a level of brilliance only that band could exhibit.

    Now go out there and give em hell today!

  • The Three Way Contour

    On the side… On the back… On the front…  No Glibs, it’s not that kind of three way we’re talking about.  This particular THREE WAY is a “Contour” watch made by Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster Pennsylvania for only two years – 1938 and 1939.  It was a massive market failure and as a result is one the more highly desirable watches made by Hamilton because of its scarcity.  The watch sold so poorly that Hamilton bought back all remaining stock from its retailers, removed the movements to re-use them in more popular case styles and recycled the Contour cases.

    The New THREE-WAY “Contour”

    So called “driver’s watches” that could be worn on the side of the wrist became trendy in the late 1930s.  The Contour was Hamilton’s answer this trend.  Hamilton watches were arguably one of the best mass produced watches of the time.  Many would say they are better than anything almost anything of the period except for some limited production Swiss watches.  In terms of massed produced watches the American brands were generally superior to the mass produced Swiss watches of the same time.

    For whatever reason it’s also the watch that my maternal grandfather wore.  I’m not sure if he liked the style or simply got a deal on a watch that didn’t sell especially well.  Sadly, I never got the chance to ask him about this particular watch as I found it when cleaning out a closest in the basement after he died.  Fortunately, I was close to my grandfather and we did talk about many other things.

    Restored Hamilton Contour – Click for Full Size Image

    When I found the watch it was missing its band and buckle as well as its stem and crown.  It also had a cracked crystal.  Luckily as a Hamilton collector I had an original stem and crown in my parts collection.  For a band I used a period correct pigskin band with a period correct gold filled buckle.  I was able to order a replacement plastic crystal that you see in my photos from a parts house.  However, later a fellow collector sent me a new old stock original mineral glass crystal after he found out I was restoring a family piece.

    The movement in the watch is a Caliber 980 – a 14/0 size tonneau shaped movement that is about 19mm or 0.73 inches in length.  The 980 was commonly used in Hamilton’s gold filled cased watches.

    Hamilton 980 Movement

    This is the original and correct movement to my grandfather’s watch.  However, for Hamilton’s higher end and solid gold movements they also made a more highly finished version of this movement called the 982.  Functionally it’s identical to the 980, but has more jeweling and finishing.  It is one of my absolute favorite Hamilton movements.

    Hamilton 982 Movement

    In the old days watchmakers would inscribe the inside of the case every time the watch was brought in for service.  These cases are far from dust proof and the lubricants of the time also evaporated relatively quickly.  As a result watches of the period needed to be serviced every 2 to 4 years.  Here is the case back of the watch.

    Contour Case Back

    And here is a close up of the service marks:

    Service Marks – Click for Full Size Image

    It appears the watch was serviced from 1939 through 1955.  Each watchmaker had a different code and style for service marks so it is difficult to be 100% sure.  Today we don’t scar a watch like this. We use a Sharpie to note the date that we last serviced the watch and remove it with solvent when we clean the watch again.  With modern synthetic lubricants and gentle usage of the watch you can easily get a decade or more between services.

    The case is gold filled which means it is made of brass with thin sheets of gold applied to either side of the brass and bonded to it under high pressure.  The thicker the gold the longer it will last, but it almost always wears through on the high spots and the edges of the case.  After a decade or so of usage by my grandfather the corners on the top of the case have worn through.  There is no way to repair it.  Folks have tried to electroplate the cases, but it generally doesn’t work well.  It’s a problem with watches from this era as many case styles were only available in gold filled.  Here is how the case is constructed:

    Case Back
    Front of Case
    Underside of Case

    The dial of the watch is made with sterling silver and has solid gold applied numerals. I’ve never gotten a good answer as to what karat gold the numerals are.  The consensus is 18K.   The hands are gold plated.  The dial is one of the most fragile parts of the watch.  There are firms that specialize in restoring dials, but collectors prefer originality if at all possible.  Best I can tell this dial is original, but during routine service of the day it wasn’t uncommon for the dial to be sent out for repair as part of a general service.

    Contour Dial

    Values for Contours in good condition are anywhere between $500 and $1,000 US.  Needless to say for me, the watch is priceless and is basically the only watch in my collection that I wouldn’t sell.

  • Tuesday Afternoon Links, Annoyed Edition

    People need to get up off my shit today. It’s like everyone around me has turned into squalling infants.

    Except you, my lovely internet people.

    The Madness of King Donald. Is he trolling, is he really so paranoid and deluded to think they are all paid (or not paid?)

    I am but mad north-north-west.
    When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.

    But does he? Or do we merely hope that he can?

    *****

    Let me take a minute to bitch about SparkNotes. Holy shit, SparkNotes sucks. If you put pretty much any Shakespeare quote into Google, SparkNotes comes up first. (Either they are gaming the system or just paying for the ranking–or maybe Google owns SparkNotes, I don’t care enough to figure it out.)

    Anyway, SparkNotes is basically CliffNotes. Now, I’ve never really used CliffNotes, so maybe they are this shitty, but part of what SparkNotes does is give a modern “translation” of Shakespearean English (Heaven forfend anyone expand their vocabulary.) So the quote above is translated by SparkNotes as: “I’m only crazy sometimes. At other times, I know what’s what.”

    What? What? You reduce His Words to that?!? First off, even on a surface reading, the lightest surface reading, that is not what Hamlet is saying at all. He’s saying he’s not crazy in a way that makes him seem crazy. And that’s before you get into Elizabethan pronunciation and cliches and double puns. To take a phrase so rich, so layered, so packed with meaning and spin it into grossest dross disgusts me.

    And one more, I must do one more!

    The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons
    Be all my sins remembered.

    Becomes, in the cack-handed laziness of SparkNotes:

    Pretty lady, please remember me when you pray.

    REALLY? Ophelia is the one true innocent that he has destroyed in his quest for revenge, the person he has most sinned against. This is his recognition and apology, even if it is too late. “Remember me when you pray.” Pft. Vile rot. Go to, I’ll no more on ’t. It hath made me mad.

    Trump ‘likes Taylor Swift 25% less’ after political post

    Taylor Swift’s endorsement of two Democrats for the US mid-term elections has sparked a huge response – including from President Donald Trump.

    Mr Trump has told reporters he likes “Taylor’s music about 25% less now”.

    The singer-songwriter, 28, had previously deliberately steered clear of politics but said events in “the past two years” had changed her mind.

    Her latest comments were praised by many but also sparked a fierce backlash from Republican supporters.

    Swift broke her silence on politics on Sunday, publicly endorsing two Democrats in Tennessee, her home state, in a post on Instagram, where she has 112m followers.

    “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” she wrote.

    Stormy Daniels Regrets ‘Body Shaming’ Donald Trump, Who Has a ‘Mushroom’ Dick

    Stormy Daniels, a woman brave enough to speak publicly about the unspeakable act of having sexual intercourse with Donald Trump, now feels bad that she described the president’s Lil’ Smokey as “the mushroom character” in Mario Kart.

    In a segment on 60 Minutes Australia, Daniels expressed regret about how she spoke about Trump’s Vienna sausage. “In a way, it’s body shaming and I feel like If I could go back and write the book [again], I think I would’ve left those details out,” she said.

    Donald Trump forced to be in a room with a 46-year-old woman for an uncomfortably long time

    “I assume I’m just supposed to know who this woman is?”

    President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has resigned and will leave her post by the end of the year.

    Sitting side-by-side in the Oval Office, Trump praised Haley as a “fantastic person” who has “done an incredible job” and said he would gladly welcome her back into his administration down the line.

    “She’s done a fantastic job and we’ve done a fantastic job together. We’ve solved a lot of problems and we’re in the process of solving a lot of problems,” Trump said.

    “She told me probably six months ago, ‘You know maybe at end of the year — at the end of the two year period — but by the end of the year I want to take a little time off, I want to take a break,’” he added. However, a source familiar with the situation told CNN that Haley notified Trump about her decision last week and did not tell Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or White House national security adviser John Bolton.

    Both Bolton and Pompeo were surprised by the announcement, a source familiar told CNN.

    Officials inside the White House, who had little indication Haley was resigning on Tuesday, are questioning her timing.

    Natural Light beer now available in convenient 77-packs

    Natural Light is to college parties as seedy couches are to college parties. And the beer brand, owned by Anheuser-Busch, totally embraces this with its new 77-pack of cans, available exclusively around the College Park, Maryland area (home to the University Of Maryland).

    The limited-edition packaging is a nod to the birth year of Natty Light—1977—and will hit stores in the next few days. A College Park liquor store I spoke to confirmed it would be receiving the 77-pack “today or tomorrow,” and that it would retail for “just around $30.” Our mass-market beer taste test determined that Natty Light tastes “like regular beer that’s been passed through a Brita filter 10,000 times.”

  • Pondering pragmatism in politics redux

    A while ago I wrote about the issues of pragmatism in politics. Planning the second part, I ran into a serious dilemma: I could not find the proper alliterative title. I thought of words starting with p to indicate this is a second part of a previous post, but I found none.  Redux does not really work but r is sort of like p…

    But enough of my personal failings. Let us once more grab pragmatism by the balls… My first post was not a critique of the concept of pragmatism in itself – this can be a different story – but what I called pseudo-pragmatism. This is basically completely ignoring principles and the multitude of problems with many politicians in the name of so called pragmatism, leading descending spiral of corruption and incompetence which is not in any way “pragmatic.”

    This led me to think, get the old rusty cogs turning among the cobwebs. Where is the place of pragmatism in libertarianism? Can we find it some room of its own? The answer to this depends on who you ask. Because, otherwise, libertarianism would be thoroughly boring.

    I thought about expanding on the issue by analyzing pragmatism and ideology, not pragmatism and every day politics. Because I believe that an ideology which is not at least somewhat rooted in reality is mostly pointless, and basically not that better than utopian communism. It is quite easy – as the corpus of fantasy literature shows – to imagine all sorts of things and put them in words. Something that will actually work in our world – and not Middle Earth – is more difficult.

    To be fair, feudalism is probably better than anarcho-syndicalism

    Now, given there are 10 different opinions for every 9 libertarians, I assume few will agree to what exactly constitutes pragmatism in ideology. But, as many of our little talks around this place are in agreement, let’s get controversial.

    The main issue is: to what point can you bend a principle in service of being pragmatic, before it ceases to be a principle? Some would say not at all, slippery slope and such. Others would try to define some minimal leeway in it. Another way of viewing things is: can we design the principles to be pragmatic? My island experiment post was an attempt to start from some basic premise and define some principles, while keeping an eye on reality.

    So let us dive in the deep end… I see two types of political discussion. One idealistic, how we would like things to be in perfect universe (cough anarchism) and another what is a good enough ideology for the world we live in – presently, not 500 years from now or in some post scarcity utopia and/or dystopia. My answer is along the lines of minarchism plus, a form of limited government, free(ish) markets and personal liberty, enabling for each a life as close to what they want as can be.

    Now, I am all for talking anarchism for the sake of an interesting debate, but after a point, we need to get back on Earth Earth and see what has a chance in hell of working. What is not impossible, but merely highly improbable? Anarchy? Yeah… no. Minarchy? Probably not true minarchy. Reasonably limited government? Well that is a very long shot maybe.  Which, in the end, we might never live to see, but I am saying there is a chance.

    To clarify, by working, I mean something that allows the individual to live and thrive. Feudalism was stable for many years, but I would not say it worked. Certainly not for the serf. One out of 100 people in a harem may think it is working.  Somewhat anarchic Zomia worked a while, only if working means hunting, gathering, swidden agriculture and almost no capital accumulation.

    While this may or may not be possible, I am trying, against the modern trend, to find principles as objective as possible, otherwise it becomes a quagmire of subjectivism and feels. So I am trying to think of some basic guideline of organizing a political entity. This is not necessarily fully libertarian, but something that maybe can appeal to a slightly broader demographic.

    We can dismiss out of hand ideas that would work if humans were different. Humans have a certain nature, respond to incentives and are not some sort of altruistic angels. Teach murderers not to murder is not a viable idea, certainly not pragmatic in any sense of the word. Due to the problems associated with putting humans and power in the same room, I will say outright that no ideology without some clear limits on state power can function.

    As I believe that, quite objectively, humans are unique individuals, I believe any system needs to focus on individual human rights, not collective ones. A system must not sacrifice individuals – which are obviously a real entity, you can touch them if you want, as long as the sign the consent form – for the sage of a vaguely defined society – which may have a function as an abstract concept but does not really exist. Neither tyranny of minority or majority must rule.

    A functioning country must have some level of stability. A revolution every two years is not sustainable. At the same time there must be a way to change whatever “leaders” there are. Whoever is in a position to wield tools of coercion – police, justice, taxation, regulation, whatever – needs to be held accountable and have some skin in the game. History shows that when leaders can act with impunity, nothing good happens.

    So is socialism right out? Socialism was always right out. I never got the whole socialism would work if humans were better. If humans were better, it would still not work and anyway there would be no need of it. There is no situation where socialism is needed or desired. We can dismiss democratic socialism. It is lipstick on a pig, trying to add the veneer of legitimacy by the democratic part.

    Any form of dictatorship or monarchy should be excluded – this can rarely exist with accountability. A monarchy can be ceremonial at best. Any form of democracy must not lead to mob rule and must be restricted by the fundamental rights of the individual, as history can show us how people were often mistreated by bad laws that had the support of the majority. Excessive centralization is not desirable. This reduces accountability and skin in the game. It concentrates power and it makes corruption easier. It makes the coercive institutions distant for the individual.

    Economically, for better or worse, say what you will of the tenets of small government decentralized republics, it worked some. Yes, there was graft and government imposed monopoly and protectionism, but keeping government somewhat limited meant these could not mess things up to much. And when the state grew too much, there were always problems, even in the Swedish paradise.

    Socially, the main problems were brought by putting the so called collective over the individual. There are no clear models in history for ways of organizing that did not do this. Monarchies, republics, dictatorships, theocracies, capitalism, socialism they all wronged people. The solution is simply extending laissez faire economics of small government to the non-economic issues. I do not believe in social and economic division of freedom. They are either both or neither.

    Now what are my principles? Well I believe rights are individual and that peoplekind [hupersons?]  are social beasts. As such, living together, various conflicts appear. The core role of government is solving or mediating these conflicts in a fashion which best preserves said rights. There is an individual sphere – what is inside is none of societies damn business – and a common sphere – which is basically interaction of individuals, and the main issue with many forms of government is bringing into the common things that are individual. To take a small example, there can be a case for common involvement in health when it comes to contagious diseases e.g. quarantines, but not when it comes to broken legs.

    Believing in non-anarchy, I believe there is some taxation needed and this, in my view, is where I bend the principle some libertarians hold of taxation is theft / extortion / whatever. So to get to the actual point, basically the single land tax is a good idea, is where I am getting at.

    Anyway I think this topic can go on and on and as such I want to take it to the comments section… So how do you like your principles, fellow glibs? Medium rare or blue? Not cooked at all? Discuss …

  • Tuesday Morning Links

    Gee, that was shockingly…easy.

    The Astros are joining the Brew Crew as divisional series winners and will await their opponent.  The Brewers will face the Dodgers, who took care of Atlanta yesterday. Houston, who are the current world champions, will wait to see if the Yankees can bounce back from that manhood-robbing beatdown Boston put on them yesterday.  16-1…Jeez, that’s bad.

    I hear basketball has started, but I still need to wait for a month or so to confirm.  On the ice, Anaheim are off to a hot start while the Rangers and Coyotes are close to being eliminated from the playoff race already…as usual for the ‘yotes.

    NO UCL this week, as national teams prepare for a round of games. Which seems like its happening every other week lately.  Meh, oh well. Liverpool need a break.

    Move along, buddy. We’re here to look at your sister.

    If you were born on this day, you share it with: anti-slavery campaigner and first African-American publisher Mary Ann Shadd Cary, French artilleryman Alfred Dreyfus, ballplayer Joe Pepitone, singer-songwriter-guitarist John Lennon, rocker John Entwhistle, vocalist Jackson Browne,  TV’s Scott Bakula, musician PJ Harvey, LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam, hockey star Henrik Zetterberg, and the lovely Bella Hadid.

    Its also the day on which RichardI left Jerusalem in disguise, Woodrow Wilson became the first president to attend a World Series game, Babe Ruth hit his first WS homer, NBC formed, Laura Ingalls completed the first transcontinental flight by a woman, Hoover Dam began sending electricity to L.A., Boston had a race riot, Penthouse Magazine’s Hebrew edition hit newsstands, David Souter was sworn in to the Supreme Court, and the SR-71 made its last flight.

    Wow, that’s a  big day for birthdays. Anyway, on to…the links!

    Ugh, not again.

    Hurricane Michael bears down on the Florida panhandle and Big Bend regions. If you’re in either of those places, its time to get the hell out of there. Seriously.

    The tolerant, loving left are showing their true colors. How long are we away from another psychopath trying to kill a bunch of people for merely having the wrong opinion or affiliation?  And how long after it happens will it take the media to blame the victim?  I give it until mid-November.

    The limousine driver involved in the crash that killed 20 people shared safety fears hours before the deadly crash. Hindsight being 20/20 and all that, I would never get behind the wheel of a lumbering death machine if I didn’t have confidence in its ability to stop and go as designed.

    We’re here to chew bubble gum and vote. And we’re all out of bubble gum.

    Don’t worry, it was an accident. Mistakes happen. But people never take advantage of things like this. Move along. Nothing to see here.

    Some people would have you believe that public sector unions are there to prevent malicious politically-motivated actions by superiors and to ensure a diverse, diligent group of workers in our cities and states. It also means, apparently, you can be an absolute piece of shit and be really hard to fire. And if you’re surprised this happened in Chicago, you haven’t been here long.

    Trump misspeaks about Kavanaugh “ordeal”, although the evidence provided leans in the direction of him being more accurate than his accusers. Either way, these kind of statements drive the progressives insane and I hope he keeps them up.  The American people need to see those idiots on display as they try to erode the concept of due process and innocence until proven guilty as well as utilizing political hit-jobs in order to derail our established and enumerated systems…all in an effort to regain power.  I only hope they never get power of the WH and Senate anytime soon, because they will pack the courts about 5 minutes after that happens.

    Nobody left my bachelor party smelling like fish. I don’t think they did anyway. These guys cannot say the same. (Yes, its nice to post a human interest story once in a while. It helps keep us all sane.)

    This is a tough day to pick a song. So I’ll pick three, in no particular order of brilliance on the part of the birthday boy: Let’s get this started off strong. And then let’s take it up a notch. And then finish it off smooth. (I may not leave the computer all day once I take R to school. And if I don’t, I might leave those three on loop for the duration. Brilliance. Pure brilliance.

    Anyway, on that note, go have a great day, friends.

  • Vegan School: Green Chile Potato Leek Soup

    Predictably on schedule the grey gloom of winter hit New York on the 1st of October. This weather is a blessing and a curse. Mostly a curse, but it is a blessing in that I am fully embracing soups this year.

    Last week I made this delicious green chile potato leek soup that my husband says is the best thing I’ve ever made. (I disagree, but my comfort foods are all Asian.)

    This soup uses zero dairy, and is still delightfully creamy. You’ll need an immersion blender to whir it up at the end and blend it smooth. I use this one.

    You can adjust the spice by adding or subtracting green chile. I used sauce because I had a jar made up in the fridge already, and it was a lot easier than cleaning green chiles just for the soup. But you could use freshly chopped green chile just the same.

    Right before serving, I topped my husband’s dish with some freshly shredded Havarti, and then I stole a taste. It’s delicious. If you’re #notvegan, I highly recommend you add a little at the end.

    Green Chile Potato Leek Soup

    • 6 medium white potatoes (peeled and chopped)
    • 3 leeks (cleaned and chopped)
    • 1 large sweet onion (diced)
    • 1 tbsp butter alternative of your choice
    • 1 cup hard cider
    • 1 cup green chile sauce
    • 8 cups vegetable or not chicken broth
    • 1 tbsp soy sauce
    • 1 tbsp thyme
    • black pepper (to taste)
    • salt (to taste)
    • Havarti cheese for garnish if you're #notvegan

    1. Clean the leeks and chop off the rough dark green ends. Leave a lot of green. Slice into thin rounds.

    2. Melt butter alternative over medium heat. Add leeks and cook down until soft. Add the chopped onions. Cook until the onions are starting to go translucent. The leeks will be just starting to brown. Add the hard cider and turn temperature to a simmer.

    3. Add potatoes, broth, a little freshly ground black pepper, thyme, soy sauce, and green chile sauce. Simmer until potatoes can be mashed with a wooden spoon.

    4. Remove from heat, and whir up with an immersion blender until creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you’re #notvegan, serve with some grated Havarti on top.

    This potato soup uses zero dairy, but if you’re just going vegetarian and you’re not vegan, add a little Havarti right before serving.

  • Monday Afternoon Links

    How’s your week going so far? Mine has been trying to scramble up the mountain of incoming shit before it buries me. But I can’t complain too much. The mighty Texas Longhorns held on to beat those University of Oklahoma… people. Also, the Texans won me $1. Which, I never bet on the Texans, but my boss is from Dallas, so I kind of had to. It was a pleasant surprise.

    Bill and Hillary are going on tour. I look forward to bunches of conservatives showing up at every stop with posters that have pictures of Juanita Broderick saying “#IBelieveHer”

    Florida Man sets Florida Man on fire over argument at homeless camp. I’m sure it wasn’t his stable personality that landed him in a homeless camp.

    In the water is wet department — scientists have discovered that veterans are more likely to experience PTSD than those who did not serve. Its almost like they are more likely to experience traumatic stress than the broader population.

    Friends of Justin Bieber think he’s having an identity crisis. By his recent pictures, it seems more likely he’s dead in a swamp and some Florida Man ringer has taken his place.

    Oh man, can you imagine the glorious chaos if Cocaine Mitch were to go forward with a Supreme Court nomination in 2020? Not wishing anybody dead, but just saying, if it was Notorious RBG, people might literally die of apoplectic rage.

     

    Just watchin’ a bad-ass chick play guitar today.

     

  • The Keystone

    [i]

    “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book”[ii]

                                                                                                                                                                              Joseph Smith, Jr.

     
     

    The previous article discussed Joseph Smith and the translation of The Book of Mormon. This article discusses the book itself.
     

    So, what is The Book of Mormon? To start with, the full title of the book is The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. The book is a volume of scripture similar to the Bible. Like the Bible it is comprised of “books” – the writings of various prophets expressing the will of the Lord to people whose willingness to obey what the Lord said varied wildly.

    If it’s just like the Bible, then why do we need it? It’s another witness of the divinity of Christ. In Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians, he re-stated the Old Testament dictum that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”[iii] We have had the Bible and now we have the Book of Mormon which both bear witness of the divinity of Christ.

    The Book of Mormon teaches of Christ on nearly every page. As Nephi, the first prophet of the Book of Mormon, states “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”[iv]

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sees the Book of Mormon as the fulfillment of prophecy. It is Isaiah’s “voice from the dust”,[v] and “sealed book”[vi] (see the story of Martin Harris’ encounter with Dr. Charles Anton in the previous article), and the stick of Joseph referenced by Ezekiel.[vii]

    The importance of the Book of Mormon to the Church cannot be overstated. Joseph Smith’s description of the book as the “keystone of our religion” is apt. Like the arch a keystone supports, the Church would crumble without it. If the Book of Mormon is not the word of God, then Joseph Smith was a master con-man whose fraud continues to this day, and all the millions of people who have professed a belief in his teachings are either credulous dupes or cynical perpetuators of the fraud. If, on the other hand, the Book of Mormon is the word of God, then it was translated as Joseph Smith said it was, which means that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Church has a modern imprimatur from God.

    The Book of Mormon is an abridgement of sacred writings generated over a thousand years by prophets living in the Americas. The records were selected, edited, and compiled mostly by the prophet Mormon (after whom the book is named). The project was completed by Mormon’s son Moroni (the same Moroni who gave them to Joseph Smith). After Moroni finished his father’s work, he added two things: The Book of Ether, which relates the story of the Jaredites (see below), and the Book of Moroni, which contains letters and sermons which Mormon gave to his son along with procedures for ordinances such as baptism and the administration of the sacrament.

    The Book of Mormon was not created for the people it talks about. It was written for the people who lived in the time it was brought to light – our time. The prophet Mormon was compiling it as his nation was sliding towards oblivion. His enemies would have destroyed the writings if they had found them. His son Moroni added his contributions and buried the plates to preserve them, and there they remained for 1400 years, until he showed them to Joseph Smith.

    So, what’s in the book? Wonderful things. The Book of Mormon relates the rise and fall of two civilizations on the American continent. The earlier civilization, known as the Jaredites, began as a number of family groups who came out from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel under the guidance of a prophet known only as the brother of Jared. This prophet guided them to the sea shore where the Lord instructed them to build boats in which he would carry them over the sea to the land of promise. While the Jaredites were building the boats, the brother of Jared went to the Lord with two problems: because the boats were airtight, 1) it was dark and 2) the people in them would suffocate and die.[viii]

    The Lord told them how to solve the problem of the air: Drill holes in the top and bottom of the boat, and stop them up. When the air gets foul, open which ever plug is on top. If water comes in, you’re underwater, plug it back up.[ix]

    For light, the Lord told the brother of Jared to come back with a suggestion. They couldn’t have fire – they’d be going up and down on waves and diving beneath them – but he should come up with something.[x] The prophet melted sixteen clear, small, stones (two for each boat) out of a rock and brought them to the Lord, and asked him to touch them so that they would shine in the darkness.[xi] The Lord agreed, and when he reached out to touch the stones, “the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear.”[xii]  When the Lord asked him what had happened, the brother of Jared replied that he had seen the Lord’s finger, and was afraid he would be struck down “for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood”[xiii].

    The Lord responded that faith had enabled the brother of Jared to see the finger, and the fact that he would eventually take on a mortal body. He then revealed his spirit body to the brother of Jared, and introduced himself as Jesus Christ.[xiv]

    After this revelation, the brother of Jared took the lit stones down off the mountain and put them in the boats. After preparing stores for themselves and their flocks for the voyage, the Jaredites boarded the boats, and the Lord conveyed them across the ocean. The remainder of the Book of Ether reports a cycle of righteous and wicked kings among the Jaredites. They war and intrigue against each other until finally, in a last calamitous battle, the Jaredite nation destroys itself completely. The Book of Ether reports that the lone survivor was one of the kings, who had been warned by the prophet Ether that if he did not repent of his sins, he would live to see his lands taken over by another people.[xv] The Book of Mormon records the fulfillment of this prophecy in the Book of Omni.[xvi]

    The other major civilization described by the Book of Mormon is the family of Lehi. Lehi was a prophet who lived near Jerusalem in 600 BC. Lehi warned the people of Jerusalem about the imminent Babylonian invasion. When the people tried to kill him, the Lord instructed Lehi to leave and take his family – comprised of his wife, Sariah, his sons Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi, and an unspecified number of daughters – out of the city. 1 Nephi, the first book in the Book of Mormon, is the story of their travels in the wilderness until they came to the seashore, where they built a boat, and were guided by the Lord to the Americas.

    The story is punctuated by tension between the brothers. The older brothers (Laman and Lemuel) were quite happy with their civilized lifestyle, and didn’t actually believe their fathers teachings. Bailing out of the city at a moment’s notice, based on a dream their father had was not part of their plan. The younger brothers (Sam and Nephi) believed their father and obeyed his commands without complaining.

    One example of this division is an event which took place in 1 Nephi 3. The Lord commanded Lehi to send his sons back to Jerusalem (several days journey from where they were) to obtain plates which contained the scriptures and other records they would need to preserve their civilization once they arrived at the promised land. These plates were in the keeping of Laban – a powerful member of the ruling class in Jerusalem.

    From the beginning of the journey back, Laman and Lemuel complained about the orders and their father. When the plan ran into difficulties, they took it out physically on their younger brothers.[xvii]

    Eventually, the plates were obtained by Nephi who found Laban drunk in the street, killed him after a fair amount of soul searching, and assumed his identity to trick Laban’s staff into giving him the plates.[xviii]

    Once the family reaches the Americas, the split grows wider. Once Lehi dies, the family splits into the two factions by which they are known for the rest of the Book of Mormon: the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Book of Mormon is told from the point of view of the Nephites who followed the same cycle of righteousness followed by wickedness we saw in the Book of Ether.

    The highlight of the Book of Mormon takes place in 3 Nephi. At the death of Christ, the Nephites and Lamanites are wracked by a series of natural disasters followed by three days of impenetrable darkness.[xix] At the end of these three days, the resurrected Christ appears and ministers to them.[xx] He preaches the Sermon on the Mount, blesses them, heals their sick, and ministers to their children. While he was among them, he chose twelve especially righteous men as disciples to run the church, and gave them their choice of a reward. All but three of them chose to be reunited with him once they had lived out a normal lifespan. Those three made the same choice as John the Beloved and chose to remain on the earth as ministers until Christ’s millennial return.[xxi]

    After the departure of Christ, the inhabitants of the new world lived in peace for 200 years. There were no divisions among them, “nor any manner of
    -ites.”[xxii] After the 200 years were done, people began to abandon the teachings of Christ, and things began to go downhill. One group who left the church called themselves the Lamanites, and the old divisions began again. By about AD 320 the entire civilization was sliding over the edge into apostasy and wickedness.

    The prophet Mormon, who compiled the Book of Mormon, narrates the end of the Nephite nation. His writings form an internal Book of Mormon. The people had grown so wicked that they would not listen when he tried to teach them, and, at one point, the Lord forbade him to try because they had willfully rebelled against God.[xxiii] Mormon’s writings tear at the heart, because you watch this man of God desperately trying to save his people. A people so far gone into wickedness and nihilism that they weren’t interested in survival, much less salvation.

    The final battle took place at a location called Cumorah in about AD 384. Mormon lists by name 11 commanders of 10,000 who fell along with their commands – wiped out to a man – along with his 10,000 and those of his son Moroni. He also states that “there were ten more who did fall by the sword, with their ten-thousand each[.]”[xxiv] There is no count of the Lamanite casualties, but of the nearly a quarter million Nephites who marched to that final battle, 24 escaped alive.

    After the death of Mormon, Moroni completes the project of compiling the plates, adds the Book of Ether and his own writings, and buries them. This was completed in about AD 420.

    That’s the bare plot, but it doesn’t do justice to what the book is. Intertwined with the narrative are the teachings of Christ. The book discusses faith, moral agency, the fall of Adam, the atonement of Christ, and many other principles – sometimes putting them in terms clearer than what the Bible describes.

    So, what is the Book of Mormon? To the believers, it is another testament of Jesus Christ. It contains His gospel, and His promises to our day. It is also a warning – that God will not always strive with man. Sometimes, when we are sufficiently unwilling to listen his voice, he withdraws and leaves us to the natural consequences of our actions.
     
     

    [i] Photo credit: www.lds.org

    [ii] History of the Church 4:461

    [iii] 2 Corinthians 13:1 KJV

    [iv] 2 Nephi 25:26

    [v] Isaiah 29:4

    [vi] Isaiah 29:11-12

    [vii] Ezekiel 36:16, 19

    [viii] Ether 2:19

    [ix] Ether 2:20

    [x] Ether 2:22-25

    [xi] Ether 3:1-5

    [xii] Ether 3:6

    [xiii] Ether 3:7-8

    [xiv] Ether 3:9-15

    [xv] Ether 13:18, 20

    [xvi] Omni 1:20-22

    [xvii] 1 Nephi 3:10-28

    [xviii] 1 Nephi 4

    [xix] 3 Nephi 8:1-23

    [xx] 3 Nephi 11 – 26

    [xxi] 3 Nephi 28:1-8

    [xxii] 4 Nephi 1:17

    [xxiii] Mormon 1:16

    [xxiv] Mormon 6:10-15

    I have removed the “Mormons in the Mist” title because the Prophet has asked that we not use the term “Mormons” to refer to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

  • Monday Morning Links of Linking

    Grüezi mitenand. Your linkings are hereby here for you. Alles klar and in ordnung. Enjoying them you shall be – comments you will be making.

    Celebrate the Links!

     

    Sports were played, birthdays are being observed, historical events have seen another year slide them further out.

    • The world continues to provide SugarFree more material. Perhaps a return to Korea for the Hat and Hair?
    • This article shames me…I should get my lazy self to write up a Catalonia Update…in the interim, the link will have to do.
    • I…I…can’t even come up with a good joke for this one. Something, something Turkish prison? No… oh, you figure this one out. (P.S. I got $5 says she is dead within 6 weeks).
    • Ah, the usual “give us all your money and liberty or we are all GOING TO DIE in 10 years!!!” story. I seem to see these…every few years. Funny, we are still all here, right? Wait, or we were all already killed by the Tax Cuts, Net Neutrality going down, Kavanaugh sitting on the bench, etc.?
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