Friday, August 31, 2018

Just Love the World Wildlife Foundation's Cute Little Logo

News24 reports on how their desire for good press killed 11 of the very rare black rhinos.

I Would Love to Know the Rest of the Story


Everett, Wash. (1923)
03/16/1923: “Mrs. Karas, her brother, Gus Karas, and her two children,” were found in her burned out bakery.  Mrs. Karas and her brother were “beaten to death with a sharp instrument.”  The children died of suffocation.[1]  Mr. Karas had been shot to death a year before. [2]
Category: family
Suicide: no
Cause: unknown
Weapon: firearm, blunt object[3]


[1] “Family Found Murdered in House Ruins,” Cordova [Alaska] Daily Times, Mar. 17, 1923, 1.
[2] “Greek Charged With Murder of Karas,” Cordova [Alaska] Daily Times, Mar. 26, 1923, 1.
[3] “Family Found Murdered in House Ruins,” Cordova [Alaska] Daily Times, Mar. 17, 1923, 1.

From 1923

Six illegals murdered by their smugglers:

Even Before the Innocence Project, Minorities Were Being Cleared


They Knew About Antifa Even in 1923

Of course, that was Antifa's predecessor, the KKK.

Dangerous Misuse of Adjectives

Or did they mean experts in psychopathic behavior?

Epic Left Fail

Slates tweets that "Two years into his presidency and Donald Trump still doesn’t use computers" and the picture they tweet has a laptop to Trump's left on the desk.  I am guessing he tweets from a typewriter.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

KS2 Video

It looks like it takes a second or two to autofocus in video mode:
Here I took a still photo first to get autofocus:



Today's Weird Networking Question

My Pentax KS2 has a wifi mode, but it only seems to talk to cellphones.  (Who has PCs anymore, besides me?)  When I press the Wifi button the Pentax SSID appears, but it is a server, not a device that can actually talk to my LAN.  Does anyone have suggestions for how to retrieve files from that server?

Freeware Windows app.

More Evidence Corporations Are Now Run by SJWs

Associated Press:
After more than a century behind bars, the beasts on boxes of animal crackers are roaming free.
Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco, has redesigned the packaging of its Barnum’s Animals crackers in response to pressure from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
PETA, which has been protesting the use of animals in circuses for more than 30 years, wrote a letter to Mondelez in the spring of 2016 calling for a redesign.
“Given the egregious cruelty inherent in circuses that use animals and the public’s swelling opposition to the exploitation of animals used for entertainment, we urge Nabisco to update its packaging in order to show animals who are free to roam in their natural habitats,” PETA said in its letter.
I have not been to a circus since elementary school (LBJ was still president).  I suspect that PETA's criticism of circuses (circui?) may have some merit, but this is cartoon improvement: no cardboard animal was injured in the making of this box.


Florida Stand Your Ground Law Incident

8/30/18 WLS:
WINTER HAVEN, Florida -- After a heated text message exchange with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jason Boek followed an Uber he thought was giving her a ride home. Driving along a dark stretch of two-lane road in central Florida, Boek swerved his pickup truck early Tuesday morning in front of the rideshare car. Uber driver Robert Westlake slammed on his brakes.
They narrowly avoided a crash and stopped in the middle of the roadway. Then, Boek jumped out of his truck and quickly walked toward Westlake's Hyundai Elantra.
"You know I got a pistol?" Boek said, holding an object in the air. "You want me to f****** shoot you?"
Bang. With one shot, the Uber driver killed him.
The fatal confrontation, captured on Westlake's dash camera, was what the Polk County sheriff called a "classic 'stand your ground' case," referring to the controversial Florida law that grants immunity to people acting in self-defense.
"This is a justifiable homicide all day long. You have the right protect yourself," Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday. "This was the intent of the law."
No, he had a cell phone.  Bluffing is bad.  The next time some gun control crazy insists the Stand Your Ground  Law was passed to make it easier to shoot black people, ask them, "Why are you trying to protect misogynistic stalkers?"

Mental Illness Does Not Require a Gun to be Tragic

8/29/18 Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
When 32-year-old Timothy Hernandez's parents arrived at their Mount Vernon home after church Sunday afternoon, they found his girlfriend on the ground, with her head removed from her body and placed on the back of her torso, according to Mount Vernon police reports.
Hernandez is now charged with first-degree murder in Skagit County Superior Court, accused of plotting his 27-year-old girlfriend's death that morning. He would later tell police that he "had spoken with God," who told him to "strike down" his girlfriend. Their 3-year-old daughter also told investigators she 
witnessed the slaying....
Hernandez then took their daughter to the mall. He contended that he was "not crazy" and claimed that "a crazy person would not tell the truth."
Actually, crazy people tell the truth because they have no awareness that what they did was wrong.

Amazing How Fast The Media Lose Interest if the Weapons Are the Right Type

I saw a news item about the resignation of the Santa Fe, Texas police chief and it mentioned a mass murder that had slipped my mind.  There were ten dead and thirteen wounded.  Why had it slipped my mind?  No constant yammering in the media about it.  Probably because it involved a handgun and a shotgun.  And the owner had broken a law that I have no objection to, and I was surprised to see that Texas had: "Under Texas law guns cannot be made accessible to minors outside hunting or under parental supervision,"  Where's the potential when existing sensible laws are ignored?

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

That Wonderful & Horrible Cat

Thanks for all the suggestions the last few months about Tater's marking problem.  None have worked. For a couple months we have kept him confined to either the laundry room or the garage when he isn't outside.  But when he does escape the laundry room he immediately heads for an opportunity to mark.  Oddly enough, never in the garage.  Tonight he marked the clean laundry in the laundry room, driving my wife to extreme frustration.  We still dare not leave him outside at night because of coyotes. (When old age takes him, it will likely be more merciful than being torn apart by a coyote.) 

As annoying as the marking is, I really do love him and want the year or two left of his life to be as comfortable and safe as a suburban cat can enjoy.  Somewhere this is a family with a big yard who would love this affectionate little creature who is an outdoor kitty.  Just not sure how to find them.

Was This Mass Murder or Government Sanctioned Action?


Before 11/12/1838: “The account of a bloody butchery of thirty-two Mormons, on Splawn’s Creek is fully confirmed.  Two children were killed, we presume, by accident.  Considerable plunder—such as beds, hats, &c. were taken from the slaughtered.  Not one of the assailants was killed or hurt.”
Category: public
Suicide: no
Cause: religious hatred
Weapon: firearm[1]



[1] “Further from the Mormons,” Macon Intelligencer, Dec. 12, 1838, 1.


It turns out that Missouri Gov. Boggs issued an order Oct. 27, 1838,"The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace..."  I cannot find the date of the Splawn's Creek Massacre, so I do not know if it is mass murder or government action.

"Get Woke, Go Broke" A Instapundit Says

8/29/18 Wall Street Journal:
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. DKS -3.08% said weaker sales of Under Armour Inc. apparel and a decision to pull back from the hunting business dragged on the retailer’s latest quarterly results.
You may recall they not only stopped selling modern sporting rifles, but destroyed existing inventory.

Amazing how willing corporate SJWs are to destroy their own companies.
8/29/18 New York Post:
“I didn’t expect to be treated like a piece of meat,” she said.
Says a porn star.

Will Silicon Valley Get An Exemption?

8/28/18 CBS News:
California's assembly has voted to move the state's electricity completely off fossil fuels.
The state assembly on Tuesday passed S.B. 100, a proposal to transition California to 100 percent emissions-free electricity sources by 2045. Amid heavy lobbying from environmentalists and other groups, the bill passed, 43 to 32.
Unless they reverse their longstanding antinuclear position, I do not see how.  I suppose a few tens of billions of dollars in solar panels and massive batteries for night might do the job.  Californians (at least some) are rich.

Imagine if This Happened in a Republican Administration

You may be aware that the DNC-funded Steele dossier was used by the Justice Department to get FISA wiretap warrants.  The DOJ official involved was Bruce Ohr.  This little detail is troubling:
“The fundamentals don't change the fact that a top Department of Justice official’s wife is working for the firm the Clintons hired to put together the dossier and the FBI uses that dossier that they’re getting from Bruce Ohr ... to then go get the warrant to spy on the Trump campaign,” Jordan said. “So that’s a big concern, who at the DOJ knew that?"
Yes, Ohr's wife worked for Fusion.

The Things Trump Tolerates

8/29/18 Wall Street Journal:
Just more than half of U.S. workers—51%—said they were satisfied with their jobs in 2017, the highest level since 2005, according to a new report from The Conference Board, a business-research group.
Over the past seven years, Americans report feeling better about their pay along with a greater sense of job security, both features of an economy with a low unemployment rate and a long decline in layoffs. In July, jobless claims continued an extended post-recession slide and hit their lowest level in nearly 50 years.
Clearly, all the good stuff was done by Obama; nothing can be ascribed to the current President.

Any Questions Why These Crimes Happened?

8/27/18 KTVB:
BOISE -- Two people are in custody after investigators linked them to a home invasion robbery and a series of car burglaries Sunday night.
Terry Plew, 28, and a 17-year-old boy are now facing charges in connection to the crime spree.
According to Boise Police, officers were called out to a business near Franklin and Curtis roads at 11:20 p.m. for a report of an injured man.
When they arrived, the victim told police he had been attacked and knocked unconscious during a break-in at his home in the 5500 block of Franklin Road.
The man said he answered a knock on his door to find two men standing on his doorstep. The pair asked for someone who was not at that address, then hit the victim in the face with a large piece of wood or other blunt object, the resident said.
The blow knocked him out, the victim said, and he awoke to find the burglars rummaging through the house. The victim was able to run away down the street and call 911, he said....
As officers were investigating the home invasion, they received another call about suspicious people possibly breaking into cars about a mile away near Alpine and Latah streets.
Police responded and found the car burglary suspects - later identified as Plew and the teenage boy - who matched the description of the pair involved in the home invasion. Investigators determined that Plew is an acquaintance of one of the victim's friends.Officers found some of the property stolen during the home robbery in the suspects' possession, as well as several items taken from three unlocked cars nearby.
Plew also was in possession of drug paraphernalia, and was wanted on warrants for burglary and grand theft charges, police say. Both suspects were arrested at the scene.
It is an article of faith for some that drug abuse has no destructive side effects except because it is illegal.  But addicts are also weak on inhibitions when high, and do stupid things to those who stand between them and their drugs.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Sexual Fidelity as Public Health Measure

8/28/18 CNN:
Rates of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia have climbed for the fourth consecutive year in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday at the National STD Prevention Conference in Washington.
Last year, nearly 2.3 million US cases of these sexually transmitted diseases were diagnosed, according to preliminary data.
That's the highest number ever reported nationwide, breaking the record set in 2016 by more than 200,000 cases, according to the CDC.
Hint: change sexual partners less often than cellphones and the public health risks fall dramatically.   STD rates increase with the square of the number of different contacts per period of time.   A

When NPR Says School Shootings Are Overblown

8/27/18 NPR:
How many times per year does a gun go off in an American school?
We should know. But we don't.
This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, "nearly 240 schools ... reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting." The number is far higher than most other estimates.
But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government's Civil Rights Data Collection.
 And especially interesting:
The Civil Rights Data Collection dates to 1968. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights administers the survey every two years. Every public school is required by law to complete it. These findings often drive public conversations.
For example, the CRDC was the source of recent reports that black students were suspended from school at rates much higher than whites — information that inspired changes in discipline policy across the country.
Untrustworthy data from one office should make you wonder about their other data.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Yup. Democrats Are Going to Roll All Over Republicans

Instapundit introduces this news story with "Blue Wave"?    This should tell the Democrats something.  Incumbent Republican House member gets indicted; still:
Poll: GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter up by 8 points despite indictment

Rain

We had rain this morning!  How glorious.  I just came in from the back porch because I was cold.

If the Left Responded to Crimes by Illegals Like Gun Criminals

Lifestyle https://www.lifezette.com/2018/08/if-the-left-treated-immigrants-the-way-they-do-guns/ points out that if the Left treated crimes by Illegals the way they treat gun criminals, it would completely reverse their model.

Domestic Terrorism

8/25/18 CNN:
A handwritten document titled "Phases of a Terrorist Attack." Talk of confronting and attacking "corrupt" institutions, including Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital. Jokes about dying in jihad. An underground stash of weapons and ammunition.

New court documents revealed these and other details in the case against five adults who lived in squalor with 11 starving children in a ramshackle New Mexico compound.
In a case infused with allegations of abuse and terrorism, prosecutors this week asked a judge to reconsider an order granting bond to all five adults arrested at the compound.

As part of the request, prosecutors on Friday cited not only the death of three-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj at the remote site but also plans by the defendants to attack law enforcement and "specific targets such as teachers, schools, banks and other 'corrupt' institutions."
Great courtroom artist sketch of the defendants in their Islamic garb.  Any chance you will see this on TV?  Didn't think so.

The fact that hey were released on bail when a child's murder was in dispute tells me something is terribly wrong.  As a commenter at Instapundit observed:
Had this been done by some nut cases, under the guise of Christianity, we would know everything about them up to, and including, the brand and size of underwear they buy.
And at Google News, see how little coverage of this there is.   Any guesses why?

And I Thought the Evidence of Collusion Was Clear

8/26/18 The Hill:
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Sunday there is not enough evidence yet to bring impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
On ABC’s "This Week," Swalwell said Trump is not above the law, but Democrats don’t have enough evidence yet to say that he has committed a high crime and misdemeanor.
“We don’t want to be as reckless with the facts as he is,” he said. “I think having thorough investigations, putting forth an impenetrable case, doing it in a bipartisan way is the proper way to do this, but we’re not there yet.”
Definitions of impenetrable:
impossible to pass through or enter:impossible to understand: 
Remember when Democrats used to make fun of how Shrub spoke?

Mass Murder: Something New?

There is a tendency to see mass murder, such as happened in Jacksonville last night, as a modern problem of American society.

First of all, it is by no means peculiarly American.  The U.S. is not even at the top of the list in mass murders by shooting.  And that's only mass murders by firearms.  In countries with more restrictive gun control laws, mass murderers demonstrate the ability to improvise, but I am sure that you don't know about these other tragedies.  In 2013, Matthew de Grood was invited to a party in Calgary, Alberta.  He retrieved a butcher knife from the kitchen and stabbed five other guests to death.  In Japan and China, mass murders at schools are not unknown; they involve sharp objects (such as the eight students stabbed to death in Osaka in 2001; and eight children stabbed to death in Nanping, China in March, 2010; and nine students murdered in Hanzhong with a meat cleaver in May 2010).

Never underestimate the creativity of a sociopath or mentally ill person.  In 2000 (after Australia's much touted 1996 gun control law), a hostel in Queensland was set on fire, killing 15.  In 2011, a nurse was questioned by Australian police about drug violations; he burned down the Quakers Hill Nursing Home, killing 11.  Of course, there are many mass murders with blunt objects (such as five members of a Sydney family beaten to death in 2009 with a hammer).  Explosives, vehicle attacks, and even poison gas are methods for mass murder in Europe and the Far East.

Now, on to my major point: mass murder is nothing new.  I am currently researching and writing my tenth and most horrifying book: a history of American mass murder.  Sadly, I am not at all short of material.  I am not even done with American mass murders committed before 1922, and I have 133 incidents where three or more people were murdered in one place and time.  Even into the early 20th century, these are usually done with axes and hatchets: silent, no need to reload, and I suspect some of these obviously mentally ill  mass murderers found it a very satisfying weapon: one beheaded his whole family, then split his father's head open.  (Amd the Jacksonville shooter?  "Divorce filings from the parents of 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore say that as a teenager he was twice hospitalized in psychiatric facilities and that he was prescribed anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medications.") Why?  He wanted to inherit his father's wealth to buy a fleet of used cars.  Crazy?  I think so.  Among the more depressing incidents are a series of ax murders committed by members of the "Church of the Sacrifice," who broke in on and murdered several dozen families with axes in the period 1910-1921.

And these aren't even the high death count ones.  Labor violence has some very high death counts.  Two labor union organizers bombed the Los Angeles Times in 1910, killing 21.  Anarchists set off a bomb in Wall Street in 1920 killing 31 and injuring 125 others.

There is nothing peculiarly American or firearm-related to mass murder.  Nor is it terribly new.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Idaho Weapons Law

Our pastor asked me to research if there will be any problem with carrying concealed weapons at the elementary school where our church is about to start renting space next Sunday.  Of course, I.C.18-3302D prohibits "any person to possess a firearm or other deadly or dangerous weapon while on the property of a school..." Firearm is clear. But what is a "deadly or dangerous weapon"?

It turns out that it means nothing, or anything depending on the jury. There is no current definition of "deadly weapon" or "dangerous weapon" in the Idaho Code. The Compiled Laws of Idaho 2:2051 (1916):
§ 7024. Concealed and dangerous weapons. If any person, excepting officials of a county, officials of the state of Idaho, officials of the United States, peace officers, guards of any jail, or any officer of any express company on duty, shall carry concealed upon or about his person, any dirk, dirk knife, bowie knife, dagger, sling shot, pistol, revolver, gun or any other deadly or dangerous weapon within the limits or confines of any city, town or village, or in any public assembly, or in any mining, lumbering, logging, railroad or other construction camp, public conveyances or on public highways within the state of Idaho,[emphasis added]
The case law is not any clearer.  State v. Matthews, 798 P.2d 941, 943 (Ida.App. 1990):

The question whether a particular instrumentality is a deadly weapon is for the jury to determine after examining the circumstances of its use. State v. Jones, 109 Idaho 31, 704 P.2d 363 (Ct.App. 1985) (sock full of batteries); State v. Lenz, 103 Idaho 632, 651 P.2d 566 (Ct.App. 1982) (pocket knife). As our Supreme Court has stated:
A deadly weapon is one likely to produce death or great bodily injury. [Citations omitted.] If it appears that the instrumentality is capable of being used in a deadly or dangerous manner and it may be fairly inferred from the evidence that its possessor intended on a particular occasion to use it as a weapon should the circumstances require, its character as a dangerous or deadly weapon may be thus established, at least for the purposes of that occasion.
Looking back over the California case law from which this derived, it appears the jury decides. There is no statutory definition. A sock full of batteries is a deadly weapon under State v. Jones (Ida.App. 1985). State v. Lens (Ida.App. 1982), involving whether a pocket knife is a deadly weapon, acknowledged that defendant's appeal raised a legitimate question:

Lenz contends that I.C. § 18-905 is defective and void for vagueness because, aside from loaded or unloaded firearms, the statute fails to define "deadly weapon." Lenz argues that, without such a statutory definition, no guidance is provided to the citizen charged with the offense, to the attorney who defends him, or to the judge and jury who must decide his fate.[State v. Lenz, 761 P.2d 566, 568 (Ida.App. 1982)]
The decision decided that lack of statutory definition was not sufficient to overturn conviction, because the threat to use a pocket knife was sufficient for a jury to define "deadly weapon."

When National Catholic Reporter Carries It

http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/ex-nuncio-accuses-pope-francis-of-failing-to-act-on-mccarricks-abuse#.W4LKg3NMFdo

Papal nuncio says the Red Pope knew about the sex abusing archbishop and repealed sanctions Pope Benedict had imposed.  He also says many top officials have covered for the pedophiles, and the Pope should resign. As Small Dead Animals observes, "I thought he was just a Communist." http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/08/26/this-is-awkward-3/

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Proof That the Left's Control of the Media is Less Effective Than They Think

For the first time in months, Democrats and Republicans are tied on the Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot.
The latest telephone and online survey finds that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters would choose the Democratic candidate if the elections for Congress were held today. Another 44% would now opt for the Republican. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
A week ago, Democrats held a 48% to 41% lead on the generic ballot.

This is the first time the parties have been tied since May. The Democrats regained their lead in early June and have maintained it since then. In early July, Democrats led by eight, their largest lead since January....
Forty-three percent (43%) of all voters now say the country is headed in the right direction. This compares to the mid- to high 20s for most weeks during 2016, President Obama’s last full year in office.
Why it is almost like all this bad news for Trump is helping Republicans or at least doing nothing against the power of the steadily improving economy.   My IRA has grown about 28% over the last year, and I am sure many other Americans have been watching their 401ks and IRAs make similar gains.  And many people are less concerned about the MSM/Democratic propaganda than just being able to get jobs.  My wife and I have noticed how many places have help wanted signs out.   Many are places where employees are not contributing to IRAs or 401ks, but a job is better than living in Mom's basement.

More evidence.  8/26/18 NBC https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna903626 reports Trump's job approval rating remains "remarkably stable" at 46%.  Maybe because no one believes the swamp creatures anymore.  Some day a really evil person will get elected, and all this "BusHitler," "Romney will enslave blacks," "Trump is actually Hitler" trash from the DNC/MSM will bear horrible fruit.


Senator mcCain Has Died

As much as I detest his hidden Democratic Party membership, he was a hero and patriot, long ago.

News Stories That Just Drive You Crazy

8/24/18 Connecticut Post:
BRIDGEPORT — Nikki Yovino just doesn’t seem to get it.
The 19-year-old Long Island woman — who claimed she was raped by two Sacred Heart University football players, then admitted months later to police that she lied to impress a prospective boyfriend, then claimed on the witness stand she was forced to have sex without her consent, and then pleaded guilty to criminal charges, admitting her deceit to a judge — stood handcuffed Thursday morning, rolling her eyes as one of her victims poured out his heart in court....
Riccio then read a statement from the second young man, who is not being identified.
“The last almost two years have been definitely my most difficult of my life,” the statement read. “The roller-coaster of emotions: fear, anger, sadness, embarrassment, depression, anxiety and the list goes on. She accused me of what I believe to be a horrendous, horrific crime out of her own selfish concerns. I lost my scholarship, my dream of continuing to play football and now I am in debt $30,000 and I’m simply trying to get ahead as best as I can.” [emphasis added]
One of the falsely accused is black, so in progrssivethink this must make her a racist.  There are enough remaining obstacles for black men that giving a light sentence in such a case shows how racist the progressive system is.

Last Picture I Took With the Pentax K10D

ISO-100, 1/125th sec., 2000mm f/4.5


A Foscam Router

On eBay.

Need an Antique Router?

I just listed it on eBay.  It works, why throw it away.  I have been using it a range extender to the garage.

More Fake Hate Crimes

8/24/18 MLIVE:

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A story about a white man urinating on a 5-year-old black child and calling her a racial slur was fabricated, police said.
Grand Rapids police and prosecutors late Friday, Aug. 24 said they determined the story was not valid and said no charges would be issued against a 60-year-old man arrested following the initial report on Wednesday.

Not Just a Catholic Problem

8/25/18 Philadelphia Inquirer:
Chessa Manion insists she's not looking for revenge, or to spark an ugly confrontation, when she heads to Berks County this weekend.

The plan that she and a group of former Jehovah's Witnesses have cobbled together is fairly simple: They'll gather in front of the Reading Santander Arena on Sunday with signs and artwork, and try to catch the eyes of some current followers of the millenarian religion who will be streaming into the building for a convention that's expected to draw thousands from Pennsylvania and Maryland congregations.

For some of the ex-Witnesses, it'll be a chance to share painful experiences that they tried to bury for years — in Manion's case, the rape that she suffered as a 5-year-old at the hands of a teenage Witness in a small Illinois town in 1994. Others hope to encourage active Witnesses to question the organization's leaders, who have responded to a growing number of child sex abuse cases around the world with denials and instructions to destroy records that could prove harmful in litigation.

That Dying Seagate Drive

I mentioned some weeks back?  It seems to have finally died.  It no longer appears on the drive list.

Friday, August 24, 2018

Replaced the Foscam Router

It seems to have become unreliable, occasionally dropping to data rates that the Roku did not like.  I bought a Dlink that supported A and C protocols and gigabit wired connections.  While both our new cell phones support the new speeds (472 MB) the Roku does not, nor does the 2000s laptop I use for the CNC mill, but I no longer need a wireless repeater at the far end of the house for it. Of course, my ISP data rate is only 18 Mbps, so this only matters for backups and file transfers over our internal LAN.

There are however AC USB adapters.  And cheap.

Smoke Blown Out

And Rhonda and I ate dinner on the back porch because there was a cool wind blowing.  Unfortunately, the wind blew in some clouds so astrophotography is not happening tonight.

It Might Be a Bit Early to Work on Digging Your Fallout Shelter

Maybe not.  8/24/18 Buzzfeed:
Amid concerns over North Korea, federal emergency managers are updating disaster plans to account for large nuclear detonations over the 60 largest US cities, according to a US Federal Emergency Management Agency official.
The shift away from planning for small nuclear devices that could be deployed by terrorists toward thermonuclear blasts arranged by “state actors” was discussed on Thursday at a two-day National Academies of Sciences workshop for public health and emergency response officials held at its headquarters across the street from the US State Department.
“We are looking at 100 kiloton to 1,000 kiloton detonations,” chief of FEMA’s chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear branch Luis Garcia told BuzzFeed News. The agency’s current “nuclear detonation” guidance for emergency planners, first released in 2010, had looked at 1 to 10 kiloton blasts — smaller than the 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs that killed more than 200,000 people at the end of World War II. Those smaller size detonations had seemed more reasonable after 9/11, with high concerns about an improvised terrorist bomb.

Remember, Voter Fraud is Fake News

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WNCN) - Federal authorities announced Friday that 19 illegal immigrants in North Carolina illegally voted during the 2016 election.
A news release from United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina also said several of those charged voted in more than one election.
And yes, I have a "voter fraud" label to more quickly find these stories.

You Are Doubtless Familiar With the Expression "Self-Hating Jew"

This tops that.  BigLeaguePolitics shows some tweets from a PBS personality who promotes white genocide.
“White genocide sounds rad,” she said in 2015. “How do we make it happen sooner?”
“We anti-whites are coming for you,” Lindsay Ellis Tweeted in 2017. “We know where you live.”
She then replied to her own tweet, saying that she gets “really excited about white genocide.”
“It’s going to be the best genocide ever,” according to Ellis. “I made a pinterest board for it.”
She makes my daughter and I look of questionable whiteness by comparison.  When are these SJWs going to figure out that not only is racism bad, but racism against yourself may end up being suicidal?

A News Story So Horrifying

8/23/18 Fox Carolina.  That I hope the mother is not guilty.  Or else my contempt for human nature is insufficient.

The Steps Republicans Will Take to Destroy Trump

8/22/18 Des Moines Register reports that the lawyer for the illegal who confessed to the murder of Mollie Tibbets is complaining that Trump's claim that this guy is an illegal is false and poisoning the jury pool.  His evidence? 
A court document filed Wednesday morning states that the man accused of killing Mollie Tibbetts was working legally in Iowa, contradicting authorities' contention that he is an undocumented immigrant.
But officials at the Iowa dairy farm where the suspect worked offered information Wednesday afternoon that undermines the document's claim.
Later in the article:

Yarrabee Farms, Rivera’s employer, issued a statement Tuesday night saying Rivera was vetted through the government's E-Verify system. However, a government archive does not indicate the Brooklyn, Iowa, farm as a participating member of the system.
On Wednesday, officials from the farm acknowledged they did not use the E-Verify system and that Rivera gave them false information.
He gave them false information that they had used E-Verify?  Yarrabee Farms is owned by a prominent Republican.  Remember both Democrats and GOPe want illegals: one for votes; the other for cheap labor that runs when you scream la migra.

There is No Substitute for Fidelity

8/23/18 France24:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Despite rising vaccination rates, cancers related to human papillomavirus, a common sexually transmitted infection, are on the rise in the United States, particularly cancers of the head, neck and throat, officials said Thursday.
In men, most of the increase was in head, neck and throat cancers, while in women, cases of HPV-related anal cancer rose, according to a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"From 1999 to 2015, the number of HPV-associated cancers increased from 30,000 to over 43,000 annually," said the report.

Weapon Substitution As A Gun Nut Bogeyman

The 100th murder investigation in 2018 has been launched in London as the body of a 73-year-old pensioner was found in a blazing house....
The death marks the 100th murder investigation in London this year.
The year got off to a bloody start with three young men all stabbed to death on New Year's Eve in unrelated incidents.

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Mexican Standoff Failure?

The news account did not have names so I decided to put in pseudonyms.


Swan River, Minn. Terr. (1860)
A very complex incident.  One Chippewa warrior (“A”) murders another Chippewa (“B”).  A few days later, B’s squaw (“C”) sees A. and shoots A.  A’s brother (“D”) shoots C.  C’s brother (“E”) kills D.
Category: public
Suicide: no
Cause: revenge
Weapon: firearm[1]


[1] “Indian revenge,” Muscatine [Iowa] Weekly Journal, Jan. 27, 1860, 1.

Why Picking a Lawyer Without a Conflict of Interest Matters

PowerLineBlog points out that Trump's former lawyer pleaded guilty to something that is not actually illegal:
However, one of Cohen’s guilty pleas relates to Trump and the 2016 election. Cohen admitted violating election law by paying money to sexual partners of Trump in order to keep them quiet during the campaign. The theory is that these were illegal campaign contributions.
Let’s be clear. The fact that Cohen entered this guilty plea doesn’t mean he actually broke campaign finance laws. There is a substantial argument that the payments to Stormy Daniels and the other woman weren’t crimes. Election law expert Bradley Smith, among others,maintains that paying hush money to silence people with potentially damaging information on a political candidate does not constitute a campaign contribution. In my view, this is a murky area of the law.
Cohen simply decided not to contest the campaign finance count against him in order to avoid major prison time for violations he apparently couldn’t plausibly contest — tax evasion and bank fraud. These are violations that, unlike the election law count, carry severe sentences.
If Trump reimbursed Cohen for these, then Cohen gave nothing to the campaign. No campaign finance violation.  Why would Cohen confess to a non-crime?  Cohen is represented by Lanny Davis, one of Clinton's fixers.

Why California Needs Expulsion From the U.S.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-22/san-francisco-poop-patrollers-make-185000 about how San Francisco is paying $71K per year for employees to work poop patrol on the streets rather than put up Porta-Potties or worst of all, punish people for public defecation.  While the salary is$71K, with benefits, it costs $186K a year.  Why so expensive?  I believe it is because S.F. covers sex reassignment under their health insurance.  Do you have any idea what this costs?  It makes all other health care procedures look cheap.

Pretty clear the people of San Francisco like this... I will skip the obvious word, but the comments over at ZeroHedge are a riot, with only one earnest progressive blaming capitalism.

One of Those Reminders That the Left Has a Very Strange Notion of Free Speech & Equal Protection

8/23/18 Fox News:
A graduate teaching assistant has been criticized after trying to alienate and target students who conceal carry weapons in her classroom, labelling them as “absurd, antisocial, and frightening” and forcing them to stand in a “3X3 taped square.”
“If you feel that it is somehow at all appropriate to bring a gun to class (hint: it is not…),” the controversial University of Utah teacher wrote in a section of her syllabus, then the students would be forced to stand in a “Second Amendment zone.”
While the public school instructor acknowledged the students’ right to bear arms, she claimed she has the “right to restrict elements of the Second Amendment in my own classroom” like a “free speech zone.” The assistant said those students would be forced to stand in a “3x3 taped square on the floor in the very back of the classroom…This zone does not include a desk because desks are reserved for students who respect the personal and psychological safety of their classmates and instructor.”
What about students with massive fists and arms?  Are they allowed desks?

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

See the Violence Inherent in the Democratic Party!

Yes, I am parodying an old Communist slogan.  A Bernie Sanders voter showed up at an Antifa demonstration with an American flag, trying to take back a symbol that conservatives use.  8/21/18 Reason gives details.  And Antifa used a metal stick on his head that required stitches to repair.



I hope this Bernie Bro learns what the Resistance really is: fascists.  And I hope Republicans start using this video.  While tragic for this Bernie Bro, it shows that when push comes to shove, we will be fighting people with limited reasoning skills and way too much emotion.

Donald Trump is a Very Lucky Man

Manafort convicted; Cohen pleads guilty and implicates Trump; and Trump's signature campaign issue is vindicated.  8/22/18 Associated Press:
MONTEZUMA, Iowa (AP) — The disappearance of a well-liked college student from America's heartland had touched many people since she vanished one month ago while out for a run. But the stunning news that a Mexican man living in the U.S. illegally has allegedly confessed to kidnapping and murdering her thrust the case into the middle of the contentious immigration debate and midterm elections.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Mass Murder With Unexpected Result


Bisbee [Ariz.] Daily Review, Apr. 6, 1922, 1.

The same page has a family ax mass murder as well.

Trump is Actually Hitler

That's why the Trump Administration just deported a Nazi war criminal who the Obama Administration failed to deport.

More Evidence of Trump's Racism

8/15/18 Black Enterprise:
African American business owners are on the rise. According to the Minority 2018 Small Business Trends survey, the number of black-owned small businesses in the U.S. increased by a staggering 400% in a year-over-year time period from 2017 to 2018.
The new survey, which was conducted by Guidant Financial and LendingClub,
interviewed more than 2,600 business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. It found that 45% of all small business in the country were owned by minority ethnic groups in 2018. This is a dramatic uptick from 2015 when the total percentage of minority business owners was 15%. The largest minority group of respondents were African American at 19%, followed by Hispanic at 14%, Asian at 8%, and Native American at 4%.
Of the African American small business owners surveyed, 63% identified as men and 38% as women. Most fell between the ages of 40 to 49 with 28%, while 25% were between 50 and 59 years old, and 22% are 30 to 39. The research also showed that the highest volume of African American entrepreneurs lives in Texas, followed by Georgia, California, Florida, and North Carolina. 
How did "63% identified as men and 38% as women": that's 101%.  The underlying study shows 62% and 38%.  That still can't be right?  Where are the trans black entrepreneurs?

Still Smoky

But at least I can open the window at night instead of running the air conditioning.  I'm glad I spent a few thousand dollars for insulation above the building standards when I had the house built: often do not need A/C until afternoon.

I Need One Too

Breitbart reports:
Socialist Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a break from her House campaign to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District but made up for lost time this weekend on Twitter by apologizing for banning the press from recent events while defending her move because supporters may need a “sanctuary space” away from the media.
Trump expresses disapproval of the news media and he's a fascist; Ocasio-Cortez says her supporters need sanctuary from them and she's a heroine?

Monday, August 20, 2018

Video Quality

Both my tiny little Canon PowerShot and new Pentax record HD video.  Trying to decide which does a better job.  The Pentax.  The video focused a bit close.
The Canon seems to focus better, perhaps because it a far larger file.  Perhaps I am not shooting in HD on the Pentax:


Actually, the Canon is 1280 x 720 and looks a lot better.  The Pentax is 1920x1080.  Still don't see why the Canon looks better and has a much larger file (3x more time).  The Canon is 25 fps; the Pentax is 29 fps.


ScopeRoller Orders Are Rolling In

I blame Trump for growing the economy.

If You Did Not Grow Up Watching the Roadrunner Cartoons This May Be Over Your Head


For those of you who missed these:


Is This a Good Thing Or a Bad Thing?

8/17/18 Vinepair:
Budweiser sales in China have officially surpassed the brand’s sales in the U.S., according to a recent report. In fact, Chinese beer drinkers are now consuming more Budweiser than anyone in the world.
Will pickup trucks and wifebeater T-shirts become the new fashion statement in China?

Nail Studded Club? Is This From Some Horror Film?


09/17/1921: Will Munroe, his wife and 18 year old daughter were murdered with a nail studded club, and the youngest daughter “probably fatally injured.”  News accounts suggested “insanity, or a mind nerved to the act by drugs or drink.”
Category: family
Suicide: no
Cause: unknown
Weapon: nail studded club[1]


[1] “Hold Munroe Suspect,” South Bend [Ind.] News-Times, Sep. 22, 1921, 1; “Neighbor Questioned on Dowagiac Murders,” Bemidhi [Minn.] Daily Pioneer, Sep. 22, 1921, 1..

Never Bring a Knife to a Gunfight

8/20/18 [U.K.] Daily Mirror:
Cops have shot and killed a knifeman [Abdelouahab Taib, believed to be of Algerian origin] reportedly shouting "Allahu Akbar", who tried to attack officers at a police station near Barcelona early this morning.
The man stormed the building with the intention of attacking cops before being gunned down in the reception area, according to officials.
When are those Amish going to learn Spanish?  14th century technologies  just will not do:

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Remember: Conservatives Are Disbelievers in Science

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/nyregion/witchcraft-in-the-metoo-era.html

At least we know spells to help Clinton win did not work

News Stories About Events You Would Expect to Have Known About

The explosion in Germany.

Yahoo Mail Down

Part of why I keep multiple email addresses is that free ones aren't reliable.  I can get to Yahoo mail through Android app, but not browser on my PC.  Nor does it appear that emails are arriving there.

Whatever the problem, it is working again.

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Powerful Call to Holiness by Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin

Here.  Unlike Donohue, he gets it, and speaks uncompromisingly for the clergy to follow their duties to chaste lives, and to make no excuses for homosexuality.
It is time to admit that there is a homosexual subculture within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that is wreaking great devastation in the vineyard of the Lord. The Church’s teaching is clear that the homosexual inclination is not in itself sinful, but it is intrinsically disordered in a way that renders any man stably afflicted by it unfit to be a priest. And the decision to act upon this disordered inclination is a sin so grave that it cries out to heaven for vengeance, especially when it involves preying upon the young or the vulnerable. Such wickedness should be hated with a perfect hatred. Christian charity itself demands that we should hate wickedness just as we love goodness. But while hating the sin, we must never hate the sinner, who is called to conversion, penance, and renewed communion with Christ and His Church, through His inexhaustible mercy.

I'm Guessing That Blue Wave Is Going to Disappoint

8/17/18 USA Today:
Trump at 36 percent approval among African-Americans, new poll finds
How long before white progressives decide blacks aren't smart enough to vote?

Judge Ellis Recognized the Risks

8/17/18 Politico:
Paul Manafort's trial will stretch into a fourth week, as jurors headed home Friday without reaching a verdict for the second straight day and the judge overseeing the case alluded to "threats" the jury may be receiving.
“I had no idea this case would incite this emotion,” U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III said in an open court hearing, responding to a motion from seven news organizations, including POLITICO, seeking access to sealed materials related to the trial that would have publicly identified the jurors.

Ellis denied the motion, telling the courtroom that jurors were "scared” and “afraid.” As a result, Ellis said, he didn’t “feel right” releasing the names of the 12-person jury.
Incite this emotion?  The Swamp will do whatever it can to engage in coup d'etat. 

Some People Should Stop Digging Before the Hole Collapses on Them

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights:
How many of the 300 were probably guilty? Maybe half. My reasoning? The 2004 report by the John Jay College for Criminal Justice found that 4 percent of priests nationwide had a credible accusation made against them between 1950-2002. That is the figure everyone quotes. But the report also notes that roughly half that number were substantiated. If that is a reliable measure, the 300 figure drops to around 150.
Of course, substantiated means going back over accusations made in the 1950s, where many of the witnesses, victims, and abusers, were dead.
Myth: The grand jury report was initiated to make the guilty pay.
Fact: False. It has nothing to do with punishing the guilty. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh "Salacious" Shapiro admitted on August 14 that "Almost every instance of child abuse (the grand jury) found was too old to be prosecuted." He's right. But he knew that from the get-go, so why did he pursue this dead end?
Why did he waste millions of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of alleged offenders when he knew he couldn't do anything about it? Because he, and his predecessor, Kathleen Kane (who is now in prison for lying under oath and misusing her Attorney General's office) wanted to shame the Catholic Church.
Too old to prosecute doesn't make them irrelevant to understanding the damage done.  Shaming officials who assisted in hiding these crimes seems like a way to discourage repeating.
Fact: This is an obscene lie. Most of the alleged victims were not raped: they were groped or otherwise abused, but not penetrated, which is what the word "rape" means. This is not a defense—it is meant to set the record straight and debunk the worst case scenarios attributed to the offenders. 
Furthermore, Church officials were not following a "playbook" for using terms such as "inappropriate contact"—they were following the lexicon established by the John Jay professors. 
Examples of non-rape sexual abuse found in the John Jay report include "touching under the victim's clothes" (the most common act alleged); "sexual talk"; "shown pornography"; "touch over cleric's clothes"; "cleric disrobed"; "victim disrobed"; "photos of victims"; "sexual games"; and "hugging and kissing." These are the kinds of acts recorded in the grand jury report as well, and as bad as they are, they do not constitute "rape."
True: no penetration means it isn't rape.  But that list of covered-up offenses is hardly what most people think of when you say "in the Name of Christ."
There have been two scandals related to the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church. Scandal I involves the enabling bishops who covered it up. Scandal II involves the media cover-up of the role played by gay molesters. 
Let me repeat what I have often said. Most gay priests are not molesters, but most of the molesters have been gay. Not to admit this—and this includes many bishops who are still living in a state of denial about it— means the problem will continue. Indeed, there are reports today about seminaries in Boston and Honduras that are disturbing. How do I know that most of the problem is gay-driven? The data are indisputable.
He is right that this is overwhelmingly priests going after boys.  Heterosexual abuse is a minority of the offenses.  Still, blaming gay men and ignoring their status as priests and the role of the Church in covering up both secular crimes and violations of Christian standards is hardly a ringing endorsement of Christ's representatives on Earth.  Matthew 18:6:
"If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Donohue should be looking for a way for the Church to make amends to these victims and make sure that the hierarchy that covered up these crimes never does this again.