Memes that made me laugh 236

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

And now for something completely different . . .

As regular readers will know, I underwent a surgical procedure on my kidney earlier this week.  Progress appears OK so far.  At any rate, on a whim, I went to YouTube and searched for "kidney music".  To my utter astonishment, there's quite a lot of it!  Here are four kidney songs, in no particular order.

First, here's comedian Tim Hawkins with "One Is The Loneliest Kidney", sung in honor of his friend Mark Hall, who had just lost a kidney to cancer.

Next, from the satirical TV series 30 Rock, here's "Kidney Now".

For jazz fans, back in 1947 Eddie Vinson wrote "Old Kidney Stew".  Here it's performed by the George Van Wagner Blues Band.

And for country music aficionados, here's Billy Ray Osborne with "You Ain't Nothin' But A Kidney Stone".

After hearing those, I'm going to have to make a steak and kidney pie, just for nostalgia's sake!

Peter

True dat

 

From Ashley St. Clair on X:

Whether or not one supports President Trump, it's hard to argue with that!

Peter

Post-surgery, Niagara Falls is in full spate

 

Well, I can say for sure that the surgery on Wednesday accomplished quite a lot.

Prior to the procedure, the urologist had indicated that there were still blockages preventing my kidney from draining.  The constant pressure of fluid inside the organ had produced what's called hydronephrosis:  the kidney had swelled and contorted, putting a lot of stress on it, and preventing that half of the urinary tract from working properly.  She drove a camera up the ureter, the tube transporting urine from the kidney to the bladder, and found that kidney stone fragments were actually embedded in its walls.  She thinks they'd been broken up by earlier procedures, but had not been properly removed or flushed out, so as they ground their way down the ureter they'd become caught up in scar tissue (also the fruit of those earlier procedures) and attached themselves, becoming ureteral stones.  Due to their number and position, they had continued to partly block the ureter and prevent kidney drainage, thus perpetuating the problem.  (I'll be having words with the local urologist who performed those earlier procedures, and didn't do a very good job, to put it mildly!)

She took a laser to them, and up into the kidney as well, "dusting" every stone and blockage she could find.  She also installed an extra-large ureteric stent, to allow any remaining fragments to drain down the ureter into the bladder without attaching themselves to anything.  For the first twelve hours or so after I woke up, it did indeed feel like sand or fine gravel was coming out along with the urine, but by midday yesterday that had (thankfully!) almost completely passed.

I'm here to tell you, things are sure draining now!  I wrote earlier about the absorbent underwear I use after such procedures (because with a ureteric stent, one has no control over urine flow - when it comes, it comes, and you normally don't have time to get to a bathroom).  They have a maximum absorption capacity of about a quart.  Well, in the first 24 hours after the procedure, I went through six of them!  Even if not all were filled to capacity, that's still a lot of liquid, and it's had a dramatic effect on my pain levels.  I hadn't realized just how much stress a contorted, swollen kidney puts on any and every physical movement involving the abdomen.  I'd say it added at least 25% to my permanent pain level, caused by my spinal injury and nerve damage all those years ago.  With the sudden decrease in pressure, I'm finding it much easier and less painful to lift my legs, maneuver my body into a car seat, and that sort of thing.  I'm also regaining my appetite.  I took my wife out for a steak last night, to celebrate the improvement.  She says she hasn't seen me eat so much at one sitting for at least six months.

So, I've still got a ways to go, but this latest procedure has already greatly improved my situation.  I'll be going in again in about four weeks' time to have the stent removed, and also to undergo more tests to determine whether the drainage has done the job, or whether further intervention will be needed.  Needless to say, I'm hoping it won't;  but if it is, I think I'll be in very good hands to get it done.

Blogging will be irregular today, because I'm kinda worn out, and will catch up on sleep as and when I can.  However, so far, so good.  Thank you all very much for your prayers and good wishes.  I greatly value them.

Peter

Update on Peter

 My Calmer Half is home, he's recovering, we're both exhausted. He'll update tomorrow.

Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes!

They worked, and we had a great surgical team: this is the fastest he's ever bounced back from being under the knife. This morning, he was more chipper than I was, even after my coffee kicked in. Still got quite a ways to go, but for the first time in a year, I'm getting a sneaky feeling that the light ahead in the tunnel might actually be the exit, not just a utility junction or an oncoming train.

God bless you all.

-Dorothy

In hospital for a couple of days

 

I'm heading down to the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex this morning, for yet another surgical procedure on my kidney.  This one's to examine the state of the organ after three previous procedures in a local hospital, about which I wrote extensively earlier this year.  According to the DFW specialist - whom I'm told is one of the top urologists in the country - they appear not only to have failed to cure the problem (hydronephrosis), but may actually have damaged the organ and/or the tube(s) leading from it to the bladder.  Apparently there is scar tissue buildup that is cause for concern.  Today's procedure is to assess the state of my kidney, and decide whether a more invasive procedure will be able to save it, or whether a complete removal will be necessary.

Needless to say, I'm not thrilled about all that . . . or about the prospect of another month or two with an internal stent, which is (to say the least) highly uncomfortable.  When you add it on top of my 24/7/365 pain from my disabling spinal injury, it makes me an unhappy camper.  In spades.  The fact that this will be my 26th procedure under full anesthetic makes it even worse.  One can't help wondering if, one of these days, one isn't going to wake up.  This gets old, quickly.

I won't be in blogging mode for at least two days, Wednesday and Thursday.  All being well, I'll be able to post something on Friday 11/15:  but if I'm admitted to hospital for a longer period, that may not work well, either.  If that happens, I'll ask my wife to put up a progress report, either here or on her blog.  Also, I won't be around to moderate comments, so if you leave one, don't expect it to appear until I'm able to get back to my computer.

I'll be very grateful for prayers for healing and Divine mercy, if you share my faith in such things.  If you don't, think kindly thoughts at me and the surgical team.

Peter

Interesting legal decision on busing "migrants" to New York

 

It seems New York City sued bus companies for busing thousands of "migrants" to the city from Texas, using an almost two-century-old statute as the foundation of its argument.  It didn't work.

The court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Mayor Eric Adams in January against charter bus companies contracted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. It sought to bar them from knowingly dropping off “needy persons,” citing an 1817 state law that criminalized bringing an indigent person into the state “for the purpose of making him a public charge.”

Justice Mary Rosado said in a sternly worded decision that the law is unconstitutional for several reasons.

For one, she wrote, states are not permitted to regulate the interstate transportation of people based on their economic status.

The statute also “violates a fundamental right — the right to travel,” she added.

. . .

It would have been difficult for New York City to sue Texas due to a legal doctrine known as sovereign immunity, so it went after the private charter companies instead.

Despite the court loss, the Adams administration said the lawsuit has had its desired effect: Fewer charter buses brought immigrants to the city after it was filed, and none have been identified since June, according to a statement from his office. Adams has not given up on further action, either.

“We are reviewing our legal options to address the costs shifted to New York City as a result of the Texas busing scheme,” mayoral spokesperson Liz Garcia said in a statement.

There's more at the link.

The suit was brought in a state court, too, not a federal court, so (to me) that makes the strong anti-NYC finding of the judge more surprising.  State courts are notorious for giving deference to local and regional statutes, laws and regulations, with many cases having to be taken to Federal courts for rulings on their constitutionality.  I guess the issues were clear enough in this one that the judge had no problem ruling the statute unconstitutional.

Now that the Biden administration will shortly be replaced by the Trump administration, one wonders what will happen to the whole issue of transporting migrants.  I imagine buying them a bus ticket to the nearest border crossing might be a lot cheaper than sending them up the length of the country!

Peter

Lessons for writers

 

Having read some absolute howlers by aspirant authors, I couldn't help laughing out loud when I came across this advice from Stephan Pastis.  Click the image for a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

Recent events demonstrate that some politicians might need to learn the same lessons . . .

Peter

"Why the anti-Trump ‘sex strike’ is great news for men"

 

That's the opinion of Michael Deacon, a columnist for the Telegraph newspaper in the UK.

Young, single, Left-wing women across the US are so angry about the result of the election, they’ve embarked on a “sex strike”. That is: they’ve turned celibate, in order to punish men for Donald Trump’s win.

“For the next four years, I am going to abstain from sex with men,” declared one young woman on Tiktok.

“All I have to say [to men] is: ‘Good luck getting laid’,” sniffed another.

“Hope you thought that through, you guys,” jeered a third.

On the face of it, this may sound like bad news for the young men of America. Personally, though, I think they should applaud the strike, and urge its participants to keep going.

This is because any young woman who responds in such a comically petulant manner to the result of a democratic election is clearly an insufferable, spoilt, whiny, immature, narcissistic, attention-seeking, pathologically self-righteous brat. Thanks to the sex strike, therefore, young American men will be spared the tedium of going on a date with someone so mind-bendingly tiresome. Instead, their country’s dating pool will now consist exclusively of women who are sane, and who realise that there is no more unattractive a trait, in either sex, than an all-consuming fixation with politics.

That, however, is not the only reason why young male Trump voters should welcome the strike. There’s another. Because, if the sex strike lasts long enough, these Left-wing women will never reproduce.

Which means that, in future, there will be fewer Left-wing voters, and more conservative victories.

Hard to argue with his logic, isn't it?

Peter

Just to prove that veterans haven't forgotten their military crankiness...

 

... here's a short movie for Veterans Day.

Peter

A fitting award for this Veterans Day

 

Whether we celebrate Veterans Day in the USA, or Armistice Day in most of the rest of the world, it's still an occasion to remember the heroism of those who, in the words of our National Anthem, place their bodies "Between their loved homes and the war's desolation".

Australia does that today with the award of the Victoria Cross, the highest award of Britain and her Commonwealth for valor in action, to a serviceman from the Vietnam War, in which her forces joined America's to fight the Communist invasion of that country.

Awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia – Private Richard Norden 

For most conspicuous acts of gallantry in action in the presence of the enemy in the 'AO Surfers' Area of Operations in the Bien Hoa province, Vietnam, on 14 May 1968 during the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral. 

During Operation Toan Thang, 5th Platoon, B Company were ambushed and came under heavy fire from an estimated squad of seven to ten North Vietnamese Army regular soldiers. Private Norden, a member of the leading section, ran forward under heavy enemy fire to the Section Commander and forward scout who were wounded during the initial contact. 

Private Norden killed one North Vietnamese Army soldier whilst moving forward and, having expended his ammunition, recovered that enemy's automatic weapon which he used against further North Vietnamese Army soldiers. He then half-carried, half-dragged the severely wounded Section Commander back to the section. 

Private Norden, seriously wounded, again advanced to the forward scout. He pressed forward under enemy fire and reached the scout, killing the North Vietnamese Army soldier who had been using the scout as a shield. Having determined that the scout was dead, Private Norden returned to the section to collect grenades and moved forward for a third time. He cleared the area to enable the body of the scout to be recovered. 

Private Norden showed a complete disregard for his own personal safety, and his courage and selfless acts resulted in the enemy position being secured and likely saved the lives of other members of the platoon.

There's more at the link.

Sadly, Pvt. Norden died in the course of duty in 1972, but his surviving family will receive the medal on his behalf.

As General Patton famously said, "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."  Today, Veterans Day, is a good day to do so.  I'll be remembering my own comrades in arms as well.

(A tip o' the hat to Australian reader Andrew, who sent me the link to the above news.)

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 235

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Here's an old favorite.  Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake has become a staple of the concert and ballet repertoire, and is probably one of the most often performed pieces in its genre.  Many have produced what they claim to be "Swan Lake Suites", but there are plenty of variations between them, and I'm not sure whether anyone's ever agreed to a standard, definitive "suite" of pieces from the ballet.  Be that as it may, I'll listen to them all.

Here's the Swan Lake Suite from the Third Polish Nationwide Music Schools' Symphonic Orchestras Competition - a long title, but it attracts the best young musicians in Poland to perform for and compete with each other.  The conductor is Sylwia Janiak-Kobylińska.  The piece was recorded in 2015.

I suppose it might be a bit provocative to play that music while duck hunting season is approaching . . .

Peter

"Ok, so we won, but when do we start building the camps?"

 

Carpe Donktum asks that question in a very funny thread on Twitter.  Here's his original post, and some of the responses.

There are many more at the link, some less family-friendly than the above.  Great for a laugh!

Peter

How drones/UAV's are changing the economics of warfare

 

Trent Telenko has an excellent thread discussing this subject, complete with plenty of images, links to other sources, and supporting material.  Here's an excerpt.

To date, no one has done a real logistical, cost effectiveness & weapon effect/lethality numerical evaluation of FPV drones versus conventional weapons systems.

. . .

In order to get the weapon effect of the 25mm chain gun, 120mm cannon and GMLRS rocket you just saw in Iraq, a 35-ton, 70 ton or 17-ton vehicle respectively have to be moved by sea halfway across the planet to Iraq.

Now compare all those US Army weapons to the impact of this Mammoth FPV drone with a 4 kg warhead.

. . .

Heck, you can move dozens of FPV on an airline seat.

Meanwhile those M1/M2/HIMARS loaded merchant ships will have to deal with a gauntlet of Houthi/Iranian anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM), anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) or Boat-Drones to get there.

Please also note, each 14 of such vehicles there will be one M1070 HET, and either a M88 Hercules tracked ARV or one HEMTT wrecker.

In addition to that, there will be a huge logistical tail of fuelers and ammo trucks running the same Houthi missile/boat-drone gauntlet.

Now compare all those US Army weapons to the impact of this Mammoth FPV drone with a 4 kg warhead. 

It is competitive in weapon effect, and in terms of precision, cost and logistics to move it to target, it's far superior.

There's much more at the link.

The cost-effectiveness of modern drones versus "traditional" weapons is so dramatic, so stark, that it's almost mind-boggling.  I wasn't surprised to learn, from Mr. Telenko's thread that:

"The artillery heavy, but more analytically inclined, ROK Army is seriously thinking about "Crossing the Drone Logistical Cost Effectiveness Rubicon" versus ballistic shells by converting its battalion mortars into drone units."

The savings in doing so, in terms of equipment cost, personnel, training, ongoing transport, replenishment and support requirements, etc. will be staggering.

One hopes the US military is watching this carefully.  I suspect an awful lot of "traditional" weapons manufacturers will be fighting with might and main to prevent their gravy train from being derailed by more modern technology.

Peter

Poor monkeys!

 

I had to laugh at this report from the BBC.

Two Australian mathematicians have called into question an old adage, that if given an infinite amount of time, a monkey pressing keys on a typewriter would eventually write the complete works of William Shakespeare.

Known as the "infinite monkey theorem", the thought-experiment has long been used to explain the principles of probability and randomness.

However, a new peer-reviewed study led by Sydney-based researchers Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta has found that the time it would take for a typing monkey to replicate Shakespeare's plays, sonnets and poems would be longer than the lifespan of our universe.

Which means that while mathematically true, the theorem is "misleading", they say.

As well as looking at the abilities of a single monkey, the study also did a series of calculations based on the current global population of chimpanzees, which is roughly 200,000.

The results indicated that even if every chimp in the world was enlisted and able to type at a pace of one key per second until the end of the universe, they wouldn't even come close to typing out the Bard's works.

There would be a 5% chance that a single chimp would successfully type the word "bananas" in its own lifetime. And the probability of one chimp constructing a random sentence - such as "I chimp, therefore I am" - comes in at one in 10 million billion billion, the research indicates.

There's more at the link.

I wonder how many man-hours of research went into that particular study - and at what cost per hour?  What's more, the report says it was "peer-reviewed".  Precisely what "peers" are we discussing?  Gorillas?  Orangutans?  Perhaps the gibbon or the colobus were asked to opine?  (Although, since Australia has no native species of monkey or ape, the platypus or the Tasmanian devil might have to stand in for them.)

On the other hand, with odds like that, perhaps we could turn loose a troop of monkeys among the slot machines in a top Las Vegas casino, along with an infinite supply of quarters to feed them.  Who knows what they might not win?

Peter

That's what happens when you rely on politically correct bureaucrats

 

Looks like Britain's Meteorological Office has been lying to the public.

Shocking evidence has emerged that points to the U.K. Met Office inventing temperature data from over 100 non-existent weather stations ... citizen journalist Ray Sanders ... has discovered that 103 stations out of 302 sites supplying temperature averages do not exist. “How would any reasonable observer know that the data was not real and simply ‘made up’ by a Government agency,” asks Sanders. He calls for an “open declaration” of likely inaccuracy of existing published data, “to avoid other institutions and researchers using unreliable data and reaching erroneous conclusions”.

. . .

Of the 302 sites quoted, Sanders notes that the Met Office “declined to advise me” exactly how or where the alleged ‘data’ were derived for these 103 non-existent sites.

The practice of ‘inventing’ temperature data from non-existent stations is a controversial issue in the United States where the local weather service NOAA has been charged with fabricating data for more than 30% of its reporting sites. Data are retrieved from surrounding stations and the resulting averages are given an ‘E’ for estimate. “The addition of the ghost station data means NOAA’s monthly and yearly reports are not representative of reality,” says meteorologist Anthony Watts. “If this kind of process were used in a court of law, then the evidence would be thrown out as being polluted,” he added.

There's more at the link.

Let's not forget that British law, as far as climate change considerations are concerned, is heavily based upon what the Met Office tells the politicians in power.  The British Civil Service is like the "deep state" in the USA:  its members and management go on regardless of whatever political party forms the government, and they can (and do) drive government policy in many areas by supplying facts and figures on which the politicians base their proposed laws.  By deliberately lying about weather readings, the Met is deliberately deceiving the politicians who make British law, and hence undermining those laws and rendering them less than accurate or effective.

Let's not forget, bureaucrats like that also make decisions that lead to murdering innocent animals on the grounds that they violate some minor regulation.  I daresay there are British equivalents of Peanut, if one looks hard enough.  Give an unelected bureaucrat unfettered regulatory power, and he'll use it, regardless of whether it's the best or most appropriate solution to a problem or not.  He won't care.  He's not elected, and therefore not answerable to anybody except his fellow bureaucrats - who can be relied upon to cover for him whenever necessary.

Elon Musk is already talking about slashing the Federal bureaucracy in this country.  Might be a good idea to offer his services to the British government as well, to cut their civil servants down to size.

Bureaucrats!  Grrrr!

Peter

Not your average vegetarian dessert...

 

From ReverendAlan on Gab:

Here is a picture of my latest Banana Bread loaf. I subbed ground beef for the banana.

It won't surprise you to learn that he posted it in the Carnivore & Keto diet sub-forum!

Peter

It's time to plan the prosecutions

 

Now that President Trump has been elected the next President of the United States, it's time to acknowledge the reality of the situation.

Trump should have been elected to a second term in 2020.  That he was not is due solely and demonstrably to fraudulent manipulation of the results.  We wrote about it at the time, exhaustively (see, for example, here, here and here), as did many other observers and commentators.  The progressive left denied that for all it was worth, and the progressive news media played along.  For the past four years, any mention of vote manipulation in any form has been preceded by the words "false" or "lies" or "unproven allegations".  Well, this election has just showed us the reality, as these two graphics (widely circulated on the Internet and social media) demonstrate:

Would anyone care to explain where those massive increases in Democratic votes in 2020 came from?  And where did they go to in 2024?  They certainly weren't due to voters staying away from the polls, as can be determined by checking the figures for previous elections.  They simply appeared on the scene, and then vanished as if they'd never existed - which, in reality, is probably true.

There is another possible explanation, of course:

Be that as it may, the figures above strongly imply that the entire Biden administration has been nothing more than a criminally imposed conspiracy against America, right from the start.  To make matters worse, foreign nations who would have had - and demonstrated - rather more respect for President Trump took advantage of President Biden's fecklessness and embarked on adventures that have killed - literally killed - millions of people.  The Ukraine invasion:  the Iranian adventures in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, etc.:  political and criminal upheavals in South America:  the list is almost endless.  Those people did those things because they were not afraid of US intervention, because Trump was not there to intervene.  They didn't think Biden was worth worrying about - and they were proved correct.

How many millions died, or were injured, crippled, or maimed, as a result?  I don't suppose we'll ever know, but I'll guaran-damn-tee that it was well into seven figures.  Those who rigged the 2020 election bear at least some responsibility for that;  possibly a lot more than they'll ever admit.

There's also the immense damage done to our nation by letting in millions of "migrants" and "refugees" who are nothing of the sort.  They're nothing more or less than economic migrants, using any excuse to get to the "land of milk and honey" that they see us as being.  It's damaged our economy, too, by diverting funds desperately needed elsewhere (such as disaster relief) to aiding migrants, and subsidizing them to the tune of thousands of dollars per month.  That needs to stop right away, if not sooner, and will be a good way to begin the process of repatriating them to where they came from.  If they can't survive without taxpayer subsidies, we don't need them and we don't want them.  As for the vast increase in crimes committed by the "migrants" . . . we'll be dealing with that for years to come, and the costs of doing so are directly attributable to the policies of the Biden administration that let them across the border.

I don't expect President Trump to personally take charge of the investigation into who did what, with which, to whom, and how in 2020.  He'll have more than enough on his plate fixing our almost terminally corrupt and inefficient national administration.  However, I hope and trust that he'll appoint someone to head up a Commission of Inquiry, or some such body, to go into each and every situation uncovered in 2020 and since then, and prepare lists of the guilty parties and what charges might be brought against them.  Thereafter, let's put them all on trial, and if found guilty, lock them up and throw away the key.

As for those who will plead the need for "national reconciliation" and urge that the past be forgotten in the interests of unity . . . to hell with them!  The crime is too vast, its consequences too dire and tragic for so many, to be allowed to slide into the dustbin of history.  If it takes a national equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials to resolve it, then let's get to work.

In fact, this might be one way to improve relations with Russia and President Putin.  If we can nail down those responsible for instigating the war in Ukraine and similar actions in the region, perhaps we could ask Mr. Putin to renovate some of the long-disused Gulags in Siberia, and transfer those convicted to them.  I can't think of a more appropriate way for neocon warmongers to spend the rest of their lives!  We can even pay for their incarceration in hard currency, which will doubtless help Russia's sanctions-plagued economy.  What's not to like?

Peter

EDITED TO ADD:  Eugene Volokh suggests that there are several million votes still uncounted, which may change the total votes and margins of victory across the board.  They won't change results already declared, but may affect the graphics shown above.  I guess we'll wait and see what transpires.  Nevertheless, I still want to see a full, in-depth inquiry into the 2020 election results and all the shenanigans that were highlighted at the time.

Too soon?

 

Found on X:

Peter

Are our brightest and best no more than mollycoddled pet monkeys?

 

I was mind-boggled to read about two universities' preparations to "help" their students on Election Day.

Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy — a crucible for our nation’s next generation of elected officials and diplomats that runs a cool $61,200 per year to attend — has opened the “woke” apolitical cocoons to cater to students for whom political discourse is simply too overwhelming.

“In recognition of these stressful times, all McCourt community members are welcome to gather … in the 3rd floor Commons to take a much needed break, joining us for mindfulness activities and snacks throughout the day,” wrote Jaclyn Clevenger, the school’s director of student engagement, in an email to students and obtained by The Free Press.

Inside the suites, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, students will be treated to goodies that wouldn’t be out of place at a child’s birthday party, including a Lego station, coloring books and even milk and cookies and hot chocolate — all at a comfortable remove from anything resembling debate.

At the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., pupils are also being given options for seeking refuge — not only on Election Day but all week long.

The students can pop into a campus lobby to enjoy some cupcakes before making their way to the campus rotunda to let their minds wander in a “walkable labyrinth” featuring “calming lighting and music.”

Those who still don’t feel they’ve received adequate succor can then partake in some relaxing arts and crafts activities including beading, canvas-bag decorating and painting. Snacks will be provided, natch.

For students who still haven’t shaken off the Election Day willies by Thursday, the school is offering a “post election processing space” where students can create collages, journal using self-care writing prompts and even nosh on some comfort food courtesy of a baked potato bar.

There's more at the link.

I could understand such activities for elementary school students, missing their Mommies and wanting reassurance against the big bad world out there . . . but university students?  High school graduates?  Preparing to become our next generation of leaders and executives?

Those universities have reduced their student population to a bunch of dependent, childish, self-obsessed, shallow-minded, frightened-of-their-own-shadows little baa lambs.  Or, perhaps more accurately, they've allowed them to attend university in that condition, and done nothing to help them break their conditioning and grow into adults.

I wonder if we could mandate that retired Marine Drill Instructors should head every such program, to instill a little esprit de corps - or Corps with a capital letter - into their charges?  "What is your major marshmallow malfunction, maggot???"

Peter

Stand by for a very precarious two and a half months

 

As I write these words, at about 4.30AM on Wednesday morning, it looks as if President Trump has won a second term in office.  He's won it pretty convincingly, too, with what looks to be better than a five million vote majority in the popular vote, as well as splitting the "blue wall" on which his opponent was depending for victory.  It's amusing that some of the very left-leaning mainstream media are still refusing to call some of the battleground states for him, despite the outstanding number of votes yet to be counted being insufficient to overcome his existing majority.  Despite their reluctance, of course, the result by now is inevitable.

So . . . what can we expect between now and Inauguration Day?  I predict the following:

1. Frenzied attempts by the Biden administration to implement as many of its progressive policies as possible by means of executive orders and hastily-compiled legislation, to make it as difficult as possible for Trump to undo them and/or implement his own policies.
2. Screams of outrage, anguish and rejection from the usual suspects, including a resurgence of Antifa, BLM and other such movements (or their replacements).  If they can make it appear that Trump will take office amid a wave of popular rejection of his election and policies, they'll do so - for their own sake, to make them feel better about themselves, and to demonstrate their contempt for and rejection of an electorate that didn't see things their way.  This may include attempts to assassinate President Trump and/or key members of his future administration.  (Elon Musk, I'm looking at you!)
3. Immediate moves by the "deep state" to shore up their control of the administration, to obfuscate, delay and water down every policy the incoming President tries to implement.  This will include slow-walking personnel appointments through bureaucratic logjams such as slow security clearances, refusal to hand over important documents (including many that will doubtless be "lost" or "mislaid"), and attempts to do what President Obama did and hide much of the evidence of his administration's malfeasance in his Presidential Library, where access to records can be restricted for decades.
4. An avalanche of last-minute migrant "arrivals", trying to get into America before President Trump slams the gate shut.  This may include increased violence on the borders as cartels try to maximize their income while there's still money to be made.

Meanwhile, President Trump will need to move very quickly, right out of the gate, to appoint his transition team and begin the laborious process of preparing to take the reins of power.  I can only hope and trust that he's learned his lessons from 2016, and will no longer appoint political patronage-seekers and RINO's, but will seek out those who will genuinely try to put the country and his policies ahead of themselves.  Sadly, there aren't that many of them to be found.

I hope Elon Musk is already selecting members of his government efficiency commission, or whatever it will be called.  Chopping 50% off the federal bureaucracy, including shutting down its more useless and empire-building departments and agencies, can do this country nothing but good.  (In particular, I hope he can assign all those who instigated, supported, funded, supplied and controlled the neocon wars of the previous administration to go and fight in what's left of them.  They're battlefield casualties we actually need!)

Sadly, we see yet again that we are a nation divided against itself.  We have two Americas, one pragmatic, one ideological;  one practical, one intellectual;  one with roots, one wafting wherever the prevailing wind(s) take it.  That's not going to change anytime soon, and it's going to make it very, very hard for us to come together to tackle the major issues threatening this nation.

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."

That's us, my friends.  Unless we want to be "brought to desolation", we'd better find something or someone around which or whom we're prepared to reunite.  If we don't . . .

Peter

Food for thought - but perhaps not digestion?

 

I've been enjoying two articles at the Telegraph in London, UK over a transatlantic food fight.

First, Simon Parker wrote:  "My British mind boggles at American eating habits".  He discusses what he found on a cycling tour of the USA.

Legend has it that American soldiers stationed in Italy during the Second World War found the coffee so strong they diluted it. Then, when they returned home, the practice stuck. And these days, most American coffee remains so tasteless that cream, sugar and sweetener must be added by the gallon before it can be served in a plastic cup the size of a policeman’s helmet.

Outside a convenience store in Kansas, I got talking to a man eating a “Midwest breakfast”: egg and bacon pizza, accompanied by a 36-ounce soda (containing 120g of sugar) and a pint of “americano”.

. . .

Spend enough time in the USA and you start to notice an unapologetic American trend: bigger is always better. Even if that means diminishing a product’s quality in the process. 

Case in point: The all-you-can-eat restaurant, where piles of stodge drift between tables like UFOs fuelled by MSG. And guess what? Even though you’re doing all the leg- and handwork yourself, you’ll still be expected to leave a tip. Go figure. 

At one such establishment in Nebraska I departed feeling, not just stuffed, but somewhat guilty for mankind. The restaurant’s glutinous patrons (me included) had stacked their plates so high that dozens of wayward wontons and loose prawn crackers had been crunched into the carpet and resembled a fine savoury sand. 

. . .

A community’s main source of sustenance comes from the super-processed aisles of gas stations and dollar stores, where you’re as likely to stumble across a Ming vase as you are a lettuce leaf. 

Most nights I would study the shelves of these brightly lit prefab buildings, searching for products containing the fewest possible E numbers. A good meal would be instant noodles and a can of peas. A bad one might be a microwave burrito and a chocolate bar. And all while, smash-hit TV shows like The Bear portray an American restaurant scene of abundant flavour and freshness.

There's more at the link.

Not to be outdone, Sara Sherwood fired back with "My American mind boggles at British eating habits".

Cheap roadside food in Britain is hardly healthy: budget motorway hotels are uniform in serving fried bread, fried bacon, fried sausage, fried hash browns, fried mushrooms, and fried tomatoes. Sadly, a sideline of the Anglo-American Special Relationship is a kinship in the dedication to ultra-processed, unforgivably bland food.

. . .

If the baguette defines the French, and the hot dog Americans, surely the tinned bean is the ultimate culinary symbol of Britain. They have been named as favoured treats by the current Queen and the late Princess Diana, both of whom presumably had access to a wide range of alternatives. But if you have not been raised on these cloyingly sweet piles of mush, they’re a tough sell.

Although they come from New England, the British collectively consume two million tins of them a day – more than the rest of the world combined. These haricots swim in a tomato sauce laden with 10 per cent of a person’s daily sugar allowance, and 20 per cent of the salt they need. Yet they inspire as much national pride and unqualified praise as the country’s National Health Service. They are served at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and appear on regular rotation in schools for children, on top of jacket potatoes or sponge-like ultra-processed sliced bread (more sugar and salt).

. . .

One thing that makes it difficult to navigate the British dining scene for American visitors is that we may be in pursuit of a different goal. Recently an American cousin with fond memories of atmospheric London pubs in the 70s and 80s, wandered South Kensington, perused local reviews, and settled himself in for what turned out to be an astoundingly disappointing meal. He was served mushy fish and chips, decidedly un-mushy peas (hard as nails, he said), and the beer selection was poor (mainly in cans). “Who eats this stuff?” he asked me afterwards.

Had he asked me beforehand, I would have advised caution when choosing to eat in a pub. Take a recent review of a pub in North London, where the diner noted: “The food wasn’t the best.” Okay, this could be helpful, I thought. What made it bad? “We ordered a pizza and chips with gravy. Unfortunately, they forgot to cut the pizza, and the chips tasted undercooked.”

The mind, as Simon wrote about America, boggles: What would the successful delivery of pizza, chips and gravy look like?

Again, more at the link.

Perhaps I should contribute an article to the series, titled "My colonial-raised mind boggles at both diets"?

Peter

Making terrorism pay a handsome dividend

 

It seems that Houthi terrorists, backed by Iran, are making massive profits out of their blockade of the Bab-el-Mandeb and the sea areas surrounding it.

Intelligence cited by the Seahawk report confirms that the Houthis, in partnership with al-Shabaab and Somali pirates, have revitalised piracy operations along critical Red Sea and Indian Ocean shipping lanes.

“This strategic alliance allows the Houthis to exert control over shipping routes while financing their operations through illicit piracy proceeds and arms smuggling,” states the report.

“The expanding Houthi presence in Somalia signals a strategic escalation that poses immediate and long-term threats to regional stability and security,” warns the Seahawk report. “The alignment of Houthi, al-Shabaab, and Daesh interests underpins a coordinated front that is poised to disrupt maritime commerce, strengthen local militant capabilities and challenge international forces.”

The UN Panel’s investigation, meanwhile, revealed that the Houthis are using various networks of individuals and entities operating from multiple jurisdictions, including Djibouti, Iran, Iraq, Türkiye and Yemen, to finance their activities.

They employ various banks, shell companies, exchange companies, shipping companies and financial facilitators. The panel interviewed the officials of a few exchange and shipping companies and banks, who, requesting anonymity, confirmed the details of these operations.

The Houthi command even established a special committee to augment its military spending.

The panel’s sources conveyed that the Houthis allegedly collect illegal fees from “a few shipping agencies to allow their ships to sail through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden without being attacked”.

Sources further informed the panel that these shipping agencies coordinate with a company affiliated with a top-ranking Houthi leader and that the fees are deposited in various accounts in multiple jurisdictions through the hawala network and through adjustments involving trade-based money-laundering.

While the UN Panel has not been able to independently verify this information, the sources estimate the Houthis’ earnings from these illegal safe-transit fees to be about $180m per month.

There's more at the link.

As always, follow the money.  The Houthi leaders aren't ideologically pure, theologically motivated nationalists at all - they're just grifters, extortionists, chiselers par excellence, as many people have been in that part of the world for untold centuries.  Just as Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have made literally billions of dollars for themselves out of the suffering of their people, so the Houthi leaders are following their example.  Iran, meanwhile, is profiting not only from its cut of all that money, but also from the disruption caused to its opponents by its satellite allies in Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon.

I think we need to ask Elon Musk to find a decently inhospitable planet somewhere, and export the entire extremist population of that region to it, using suitably sized rockets.  Let them try to extort rocks from each other there, and leave the rest of us in peace!

Peter

A heartwarming animal saga

 

On a day when everybody's going to be blathering on about elections and voting and partisanship, I figured we could all do with something completely different.  Well, here it is!  From the Telegraph in London, UK:

Wrapped up against the gusting Scottish wind, a man is strolling slowly along the jagged shoreline with his lolloping puppy. Anyone passing on the road above would notice him bending over the water, pushing apart the thick brown fronds of rock weed – and then being taken aback to see the “pup” sinuously dive beneath the surface and emerge with a crab in its jaws.

“At a distance it’s easy to mistake Molly for a dog,” says Billy Mail. “Otters are so shy and elusive it just doesn’t seem plausible that one would be voluntarily going for a walk with a human in broad daylight.”

Implausible but obviously not impossible, which is why the remarkable relationship between Billy and Molly, the orphaned otter he rescued from certain death in the Shetland Islands, is so heartwarming.

. . .

Such is the emotional heft of the story that it caught the eye of an award-winning National Geographic photographer and cinematographer. The resulting documentary, Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story is set against the backdrop of wide skies, glittering sea and the austere, elemental beauty of the land.

. . .

“I was looking out the window and I saw this otter fishing in the sea,” says Billy. “I wondered how close I could get, so I hurried down to the pontoon while she was underwater, phone in hand, in case she came close enough. Then she popped up right in front of me and started to eat the crab she had caught. Then halfway through she turned and looked me straight in the eye.

“I immediately knew something was very badly wrong because there’s no way a healthy otter would remain so close. And then I saw how emaciated she was.”

Bedraggled and skinny, her bones jutting out, Molly was around nine months old and too young to fend for herself. It was clear she was orphaned – later the couple learned that a female otter had been found dead on the road some time earlier

Billy fed her fish, dropping haddock on the ground, which she seized and dragged away to eat. He made her a bed from coiled rope under an upturned boat, so she had somewhere dry to sleep.

There's more at the link.

I won't spoil the article by reproducing more of it here, but it goes into a lot more detail about how the bond was established between Billy and Molly, and how it's grown to where, today, he watches her raise her young, teaching them to play in the tiny house he built for her.  It's a heartwarming story.

I've embedded the documentary below.  If that doesn't work, or stops working, you can find it here on YouTube.

Much more entertaining than non-stop electioneering!

Peter

German raccoon sausage???

 

I was intrigued to learn that first, Germany is being overrun with raccoons brought over there from America a century ago:  and second, that a local butcher (with official permission) is making a range of consumer meat products out of them.

A butcher in northeast Germany has come up with what he believes is an innovative solution to the country’s growing raccoon problem: turning them into sausages and other meat products.

Michael Reiss, a hunter who set up a butcher’s shop in Kade, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) west of Berlin, in 2022, told CNN Wednesday that he developed the idea after trying to think of a standout product to take to the Green Week international food fair.

He realized that raccoons who are killed as pests are simply thrown in the bin, and decided to ask local officials if they could instead be processed and turned into food.

After receiving the green light, Reiss started making his “raccoon balls,” meatballs made from raccoon meat, which he said turned out to be a hit at the fair and with customers at his shop, which is called Wildererhütte.

Soon Reiss was selling online, and he now makes a total of seven raccoon meat products, including salami.

. . .

After being introduced to Germany for use in fur farms in the 1920s, raccoons were first released into the wild in 1934, according to the Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU).

Since then, the mammals, who are highly adaptable and can live in towns and cities as well as forests and grasslands, have bred swiftly.

There are now an estimated 2 million raccoons in Germany, reported German press agency DPA, citing researchers at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt.

The animals, who are originally from North America, typically weigh around 10 kilograms (22 pounds), but large males can reach 20 kilograms (44 pounds).

They now represent a danger to domestic biodiversity, especially the reptiles and amphibians that they eat, according to Germany’s Senckenberg Nature Research Society.

There's more at the link.

Considering that large parts of North America (including our cities) are overrun with trash pandas (a local nickname for raccoons), we might have a new export market here!  I daresay any number of locals equipped with air or rimfire rifles could stack up a bountiful harvest to send to Germany.  Perhaps we could add possums, skunks and sundry other wildlife of similar size?

On second thought . . . skunks . . . perhaps not!  On the other hand, if we exported them to Ukraine, would they be a suitable biological weapon to unleash against Russian invaders?

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 234

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

I've never been into so-called "techno" electronic dance music, and I'm unfamiliar with most of the artists and hits in that genre.  Nevertheless, Pixy Misa caught my attention when she posted a "House and Techno Live Set" by Klangphonics to her blog.  I casually pressed "Play" while scrolling down through the rest of her content, and was surprised to be drawn into the music.  It reminds me a lot of earlier Mike Oldfield works such as Tubular Bells, with echoes of his later techno music such as Light + Shade.

I thought I'd give you the chance to see if you liked it too.

There's lots more music from Klangphonics on their YouTube channel.

Peter

No blogging today

 

We have to go down to the Metroplex (DFW), which is a five-hour return trip plus time spent down there.  It won't leave any time for blogging, so please amuse yourselves with the blogs listed in the sidebar.  They write good, too!

Peter