Why Nothing From the News Media Can Be Trusted

If true, it's an accident, especially now that the famous video  of a polar bear dying because of climate change has now been admitted as deceptively captioned:

One year later, National Geographic has finally admitted to facilitating "fake news" regarding climate change. The magazine's most viral video ever, which featured heart-wrenching images of a starving polar bear, perpetuated the narrative that the animal's imminent death was caused by climate change. However, the climate change aspect of the story is void of any real evidence."We had lost control of the narrative," admitted Cristina Mittermeier, the photographer of the polar bear. Mittermeier explained the climate change deception in a piece titled "Starving-Polar-Bear Photographer Recalls What Went Wrong" for the magazine's August issue.Mittermeier conceded that the images of the bony, emaciated polar bear were meant to sound an alarm about climate change, though she complains that people took the image "literally."

Hard to Believe: The RNC is Trying to Defeat the Democrats

When Calling 911 Doesn't Work

7/31/18 Daily Caller:

Portland, Oregon, police refused to respond to at least two 911 emergency calls from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees inside their offices where violent protesters held week-long demonstrations.

The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, a union representing ICE employees, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler, asking him to ensure the police enforce the law equally and protect innocent people.

“Your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause,” the letter says.

Increasingly, the West Coast and East Coast think they are outside the U.S.: not subject to U.S. law.  Yet federal judges keep insisting that the federal government make financial grants to these foreign entities. Maybe ICE needs to start using deadly force against the Portlandia mobs.   Then Portland PD will show up.

Left Decides Some Information Too Dangerous to Allow

Shall Not Be Questioned points to the Defense Distributed website no longer allowing access to Pennsylvania residents because downloading those CAM files could be used by criminals to make guns.  Now, 20 more states have joined, suing the federal government for deciding the First Amendment applies to machining codes.  Will they sue over access to other ideas? Somewhere the Cato Institute web site is spreading dangerous ideas. I look forward to seeing them shut down the Colonial Williamsburg videos on musket making.  The ACLU stood by NAMBLA some years ago, defending their right to publish advocacy material about having sex with little boys.

The Number of Mass Murders in American History is Overwhelming

Especially starting in the 20th century, murders with three or more dead (not including suicide by murderer, or acts of war, or other government sanctioned acts) are so common that any sort of comprehensive collection is more research time than I would have guessed.  Just the ones that appear in newspapers in the Library of Congress collection, which is certainly an incomplete list of published newspapers,  takes my breath away: 3 in 1905; 1 in 1906; 5 in 1909; 3 in 1910; 12 in 1911; 9 in 1912; 3 in 1913; 4 in 1914; 3 in 1915; 3 in 1916; 2 in 1917 (one of which was not government sanctioned but made possible by government disarmament of the 38 dead); 1 in 1918; 1 in 1919; 9 in 1920.

I am beginning to wonder if sampling every year ending in 0 might be just as effective for measuring the problem.

Is The Steak Diet Working?

I walked around a bit before church yesterday and was far less winded than usual. This morning I was down to 215 pounds,  at least 5 pounds from the pre-hernia repair surgery,  and 3 pounds down from the post-angioplasty weight.   (I doubt they put in 2 pounds of stents )

I will be satisfied at 190 pounds and overjoyed to get to my USC weight of 170.

One of Those Articles That Make You Look for The Onion in the URL

7/25/18 Sacramento Bee:

A proposal introduced Tuesday to ban employee cafeterias in future San Francisco office buildings represents more than an effort to boost the city’s restaurant scene, backers say.

“People will have to go out and (eat) lunch with the rest of us,” Aaron Peskin, a San Francisco supervisor who co-sponsored the proposal, told The San Francisco Examiner.

“This is also about a cultural shift,” Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who proposed the ban, told The San Francisco Chronicle. “We don’t want employees biking or driving into their office, staying there all day long and going home. This is about getting people out of their office, interacting with the community and adding to the vibrancy of the community.”

The verb isn't "interacting"; it is "robbed or mugged."

UPDATE: Why can't they ban eating at home?  It prevents "interacting" with everyone else in S.F.

I Will Not Even Think of Summarizing This Article

Except to repeat what a friend assigned by JAG to help reform the Iraqi justice system heard while he was there: "Women are for babies; boys are for pleasure; goats are for emergencies."

Let Me Sell You a Trans-Brooklyn Bridge

7/25/18 Campus Reform:

The author of a viral academic journal article about "dog rape culture" in Portland dog parks appears to have misled the journal about her credentials.

Helen Wilson purported to hold a PhD in Feminist Studies, but none of the institutions that offers such a degree could confirm that she had graduated from their program.

Wilson also claimed to work with the Portland Ungendering Research Initiative, but the website for PUR first appeared 4 days after she submitted the article, and has only ever featured a disclaimer that it is being "taken down."...

Wilson writes that her research involved “nearly 1000 hours of public observations of dogs and their human companions” at three dog parks in Portland, claiming that during her sojourns to these dog parks, there was “one dog rape/humping incident every 60 minutes.”

“Dog parks are microcosms where hegemonic masculinist norms governing queering behavior and compulsory heterosexuality can be observed in a cross-species environment,” Wilson concluded. 

Due to this, dog parks remain “oppressive spaces that lock both humans and animals into hegemonic patterns of gender conformity,” she claims, adding that “oppressive patriarchal norms reach a zenith in dog parks, rendering them not only gendered spaces but spaces that exhibit and magnify toxic…themes intrinsic to gender binaries.” 

Is there anything more gullible than a leftist? 

Firesetters

Boise County has indicted a young lady for intentionally starting a brushfire some months back, using a can of spray paint a lighter.  The article in the Idaho World mentioned a $250,000 bond and the judge's concern for her mental health.  Her picture did not look good, so I looked up what I could find on this subject.

Results: Firesetters were significantly more likely to have been registered with psychiatric services (37%) compared with other offenders (29.3%) and community controls (8.7%). The firesetters were also more likely to have utilised a diverse range of public mental health services. Firesetters attracted psychiatric diagnoses more often than community controls and other offenders, particularly affective, substance use, and personality disorders.

Abstract

4 TYPES OF ARSON ARE RECOGNIZED: FOR PROFIT, TO COVER UP CRIME, FOR REVENGE, AND PYROMANIA. PYROMANIA IS THE 2ND MOST PROMINENT MOTIVE; 70% OF ARSONISTS ARE EITHER PSYCHOTIC OR MENTALLY DEFECTIVE, MANY OF THEM SCHIZOPHRENIC. ALCOHOLISM MAY ALSO BE RELATED TO FIRESETTING. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved) 

Embarrassing Names

7/27/18 Austin-American reports there is discussion of reaming Austin, because of racist statements by the Texas patriot after whom it is named.  Considering the University of Texas is there: how about Marxville, or Guevara City?

Two Mornings of Steak for Breakfast Are Doing Something

And the iron supplements and B12 the last few days.   I am less winded by walks.

"California ...more like apartheid South Africa or the pre-civil rights South"

7/26/18 City Journal:

Minorities and immigrants have brought much entrepreneurial energy and a powerful work ethic to California. Yet, to a remarkable extent, their efforts have reaped only meager returns during California’s recent boom. California, suggests gubernatorial candidate and environmental activist Michael Shellenberger, is not “the most progressive state” but “the most racist” one. Chapman University reports that 28 percent of California’s blacks are impoverished, compared with 22 percent nationally. Fully one-third of California Latinos—now the state’s largest ethnic group—live in poverty, compared with 21 percent outside the state. Half of Latino households earn under $50,000 annually, which, in a high-cost state, means that they barely make enough to make ends meet. Over two-thirds of non-citizen Latinos, the group most loudly defended by the state’s progressive leadership, live at or below the poverty line, according to a recent United Way study.

As long as there is someone to mow the lawns, raise the elite children, clean and otherwise service the elite homes--who cares about the peasants?

This Must Be Fake News

7/25/18 MarketWatch:

Trump and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to hold off on retaliation as long as discussions are taking place between the U.S. and the EU. Trump has threatened tariffs on European vehicles, in addition to levies already imposed on imports of steel and aluminum. But at an unscheduled news conference following their meeting, Trump said they agreed to work toward “zero tariffs” and “zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.”

He also said the EU would buy more U.S. soybeans and that he and Juncker would work to resolve the steel and aluminum tariffs. U.S. stocks DJIA, -0.30%   climbed on news of a deal between Trump and Juncker.

I confess to supporting free trade and Trump's rhetoric is often worrisome.  But now it looks like a negotiating position that is working.

Another Mass Murder

But one involving the people that Democrats, like Gov. Lamm (D-CO) used to complain needed to die so they would stop wasting resources.  7/28/18 Washington Post:

A gunman left a trail of five dead in a South Texas town Friday evening, including at a nursing home and a victim’s residence.

Reports of gunfire around 7 p.m. led police to the Retama Manor Nursing Center in Robstown, west of the coastal city of Corpus Christi. Two men and a woman were found dead at the scene, authorities said.

Investigators believe the dead at the nursing home include the shooter, city spokesman Herman Rodriguez told The Washington Post on Saturday.

Always a tragedy, but the gun control groups seem to dance best in white suburban children's blood.

I Was Curious What Role B12 Plays in Moving Dietary Iron Into Hemeglobin

Then I saw that the name is cobalamin.  Sure enough there is a cobalt atom inside a pyrrole ring.  (If you do not immediately recognize a pyrrole ring, it is what holds the iron atom in hemeglobin, and the magnesium atom in chlorophyll,   Finding a cobalt atom inside surprises me not all.

So Glad Liberals Are Much Bigger on Talk Than Action

This week marked Turning Point USA’s High School Leadership Summit, with speakers including Ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Orrin Hatch.  And some leftist twit responded with a picture of himself holding a barbed wire covered bat and that he was on his way to meet "the nice conservative teenagers."  Shockingly enough Twitter suspended this twit, and reminded of why we have a right to be armed for self-defense.

Iron Hunting

Going to breakfast with my son this morning;  steak and eggs is my target.  Lean steak is 52 calories per ounce; so even a half pound is only about 400 calories, and provides nearly the entire iron RDA for an adult man.  I am not sure yet that I am going to go on an all-steak diet, but two 8 ounce steaks a day should far exceed my iron requirements to overcome my anemia, and 800 or so calories of steak should be very satisfying, leaving about 500 calories for the other extravagances (a cup of tea in the morning (about 107 calories); 8 ozs.of Coca-Cola (93 calories) with a grilled cheese sandwich (291 calories).  I should lose weight quickly on 1300 calories a day.

Now if I can stop eating out!  My wife has a refrigerator magnet that says, "My three favorite words: Let's eat out."  Alas they are mine as well.  When we were middle class, finances limited us on how often we ate out; not so much anymore.

UPDATE: I had a very small ham sandwich for lunch, 8 ozs. of Coke, and some Lemonade, followed by a very flavorful but low-calorie chicken and veggies dish that my wife made (she is an excellent cook).  I suspect that I am below 1300 calories for the day and not even slightly hungry.

Leftist Concerns Turn Out to Be Projection

8/6/18 New Yorker:

For more than twenty years, Leslie Moonves has been one of the most powerful media executives in America. As the chairman and C.E.O. of CBS Corporation, he oversees shows ranging from “60 Minutes” to “The Big Bang Theory.” His portfolio includes the premium cable channel Showtime, the publishing house Simon & Schuster, and a streaming service, CBS All Access. Moonves, who is sixty-eight, has a reputation for canny hiring and project selection. The Wall Street Journal recently called him a “TV programming wizard”; the Hollywood Reporter dubbed him a “Wall Street Hero.” In the tumultuous field of network television, he has enjoyed rare longevity as a leader. Last year, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he earned nearly seventy million dollars, making him one of the highest-paid corporate executives in the world.

In recent months, Moonves has become a prominent voice in Hollywood’s #MeToo movement. In December, he helped found the Commission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace, which is chaired by Anita Hill. “It’s a watershed moment,” Moonves said at a conference in November. “I think it’s important that a company’s culture will not allow for this. And that’s the thing that’s far-reaching. There’s a lot we’re learning. There’s a lot we didn’t know.”

But Moonves’s private actions belie his public statements. Six women who had professional dealings with him told me that, between the nineteen-eighties and the late aughts, Moonves sexually harassed them. Four described forcible touching or kissing during business meetings, in what they said appeared to be a practiced routine. Two told me that Moonves physically intimidated them or threatened to derail their careers. All said that he became cold or hostile after they rejected his advances, and that they believed their careers suffered as a result. “What happened to me was a sexual assault, and then I was fired for not participating,” the actress and writer Illeana Douglas told me. All the women said they still feared that speaking out would lead to retaliation from Moonves, who is known in the industry for his ability to make or break careers. “He has gotten away with it for decades,” the writer Janet Jones, who alleges that she had to shove Moonves off her after he forcibly kissed her at a work meeting, told me. “And it’s just not O.K.”

I just cannot take any of their complaints seriously anymore when the most prominent examples turn out to be their people.

Recovery From Two Procedures: Is the Time Additive or Multiplicative?

I was told that recovery from hernia repair would take a month.  I cannot find an expectation of how long recovery from angioplasty should take.  But do you add those times or multiply them?

The place in my groin where they inserted the catheter into my femoral artery is such a mass of bruising, I find myself wondering if they put a tool there and used a ball peen hammer to drive it in, often missing the head.  It is still sore.

Better than dying, of course.

Imagine the News Storm if One of Trump's Appointees Had Been Arrested & Convicted of This

7/27/18 Daily Mail:

Surveillance footage exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com shows one of President Obama’s senior officials following a woman around a DC Metro station and taking a picture up her skirt with his cell phone.

William Mendoza was caught on security cameras carrying out the vile act while he was executive director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education.

As a result of his actions, the married father pleaded guilty to attempted voyeurism and resigned from his $140,000-a-year Department of Education post in Obama’s White House.

His arrest and conviction were never made public until DailyMail.com acquired the report of the investigation and the footage through a Freedom of Information Act request.

And there were similar incidents involving other women.  Oh yes:

When he took the indecent photos, he was supposed to be at work and was using a travel card funded by the taxpayer, according to the documents obtained by DailyMail.com through a Freedom of Information Act request.

This makes drunk driving look positively mature.  This is something I would have expected of an ill-behaved junior high or high school guy of my generation to have done.   This curious lack of coverage when he was convicted is why Instapundit calls journalists "Democratic Party activists with bylines."  This is why I no longer believe much of anything negative about Trump from the news media anymore.

Let Us Now Praise Western Medicine

For all the hype I hear from the soy-drinking hippies about the superiority of Eastern medicine, I have yet to hear anyone comment about angioplasty.  Had this been in common use in the 1970s, my father would likely have survived.  Think about it for a moment:

1. Push a tube from femoral artery up to arteries in the exterior surface of the heart.

2. Use a balloon or wire at the end of the tool (sometimes a rotating blade) to expand the artery to knock plaques out of the artery.

3. Stick in some stents (little mesh tubes) that keep the artery from shrinking back and clogging again (at least there).

4. Pull the tool and catheter out.

Next day, you go home.  Miraculous stuff!

And What Does She Do That Makes Her More Valuable Than the POTUS?

Or even a fair number of corporate officers?  7/25/18 Miami Herald:

Tiffany Carr runs the state’s top domestic violence organization, a nonprofit that uses public money — state and federal — to finance shelters and other essential services. And she makes a good living.

How good? In a June 30, 2017 report, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence disclosed she is paid $761,560 annually, a salary that is approved by its board. She hit that mark after receiving pay raises totaling $313,475 over a two-year period.

“That’s — it’s ridiculous,” said Dan Ravicher, a professor at University of Miami School of Law who focuses on nonprofits, business and social entrepreneurship. “We’re talking almost 2 percent of the budget being paid to one person. That’s pretty unusual.”

Domestic violence is a serious problem.  But  even if she is paying half of her wages in taxes, that's more than $7000 a week net.  The left hates fatcats.  I suspect that they make an exception for her.

Civil War II Is Coming

7/27/18 Roll Call:

Authorities arrested and indicted a Tennessee man this week who threatened to assault and murder Rep. Diane Black.

Clifton Ward allegedly threatened to kill Black, a Republican who is running for governor of Tennessee, after she introduced the Border Wall Trust Fund Act to help the federal government pay for President Donald Trump’s envisioned wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Ward left a voicemail at one of Black’s district offices, officials told WKRN in Nashville.

“They were serious enough threats that the grand jury did take action,” Black said in an interview with Fox News Wednesday.

“This is not the first time — and it probably won’t be the last time — that when people get angry they do and say things that are threatening,” Black said. “I can tell you that they were very serious and they were threatening enough where they concerned the police.”

Where are the threats and violence against Democrats?  I fear that this is going to get more frequent as the economy starts to evaporate the usual Democrat clients out of poverty, leaving only the  basement-dwelling graduates in Victim Studies and Puppetry.   If, as many suspect, the Blue Wave in November turns out to be about 1 mm high, that rage may grow to widespread threats and murder like the Congressional softball team practice and the attack on Sen. Paul.

Videos

I am still recovering from my heart repair.  My wife insists that I rest, so YouTube is my friend.  Most of these are really sad; shopping malls that died in the 2000s (before Amazon could be at fault) when you think of the jobs lost and dreams destroyed.  This one I watched this morning is a huge house abandoned about 2003 and absolutely stuffed with momentos, children's pictures, and furniture:



My guess is that the last resident (probably an old woman) died and no one cared enough to sort through it.  You would think just to sell the house, this would make sense, but this was in Texas.

Another tragedy is this 1920s Texas hotel; a huge place, originally a resort built around a mineral springs, which closed in 1972.



I understand why no one would try to restore it now; it is falling apart and would cost far more to repair than it is worth.  But in 1972, why was it abandoned?  Even if it no longer made sense as a hotel, it is hard to imagine that it could not have been repurposed.

Of course, most of these abandoned places explorers are technically trespassing, but they seem pretty careful not to destroy anything (unlike the previous thousand graffiti artists), but it does not seem like anyone would care.

And Why Is There An Unemployment Problem?

A reader pointed me to this press release about the Wyoming Unemployment Insurance system's revision, by an Indian company.  Why do U.S. government's (and especially an unemployment department) offshore work Americans can and will do?  What they save in costs may be partly lost in payroll taxes and social misery.

Alex Jones & YouTube

As you are aware, I think Alex Jones is a clickbait chasing problem, prepared to promote whatever bizarre idea will get him his tiny paranoid audience.  But when I saw this about how YouTube is sanctioning him, all I could think was, "What about the Holocaust denier videos?"  My wife spends a lot of time watching documentaries about the Holocaust, and inevitably some of the suggestions YouTube makes are Holocaust denier videos.  These are promoting a grossly false "history" for what are clearly hateful reasons.  Yet YouTube isn't doing anything about those.

More Evidence That Great Wits Are Commenting

Newsbusters reports on an MSNBC "journalist" admitting that they don't spend much time on "climate change" because it is a "ratings killer": amazing what slaves to capitalism MSLSD is.  Where is their commitment to saving the Earth?  Stop taking salaries. But the comments:

ratings killer.” Viewership went from 25 to 20

MSNBC is fighting to stay ahead of the Chinese Opera Network. 

Democrat Means Never Having to Face Prison

7/26/18 New York Post:

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s once-unruly niece has ​apparently ​grown up.
Caroline Biden, 31, offered a heartfelt apology and promised that her wild-child ways were behind her Thursday when she was sentenced to two years’ probation for racking up over $100,000 on a stolen credit card.

“I not only acknowledge my conduct and take responsibility but deeply regret the harm caused,” the blond stunner told Justice Curtis Farber.

“I can assure you that I have made amends, full restitution, completed community service and that nothing like this will ever happen again,” added Biden, wearing a fitted black dress and ankle booties.

As part of the sweetheart plea deal, her felony conviction was tossed in June for the unauthorized shopping spree at a Greenwich Village pharmacy. She was allowed to re-plead to the lesser charge of petit larceny.

Stolen credit card/  Petit larceny on a $100K fraud?  I know NYC is expensive, but did she bring a truck for $100K worth of goods?

Today's Not Too Painful Machining Discovery

I have been using E-Z Lock 3/8"-16 to 1/2"-13 adapters for some time.  Some casters are 1/2"-13; the cheaper ones are 3/8"-16.  To avoiding making the plastic inserts in two different threads, or worse, tap them for each order, I just tap the inserts 1/2"-13, and use the E-Z Loks if a customer orders the cheaper 3/8"-16 casters.

A simple solution, but sometimes the E-Z Loks do not go in the 1/2"-13 holes.  I found that putting a 3/8"-16 bolt through and then using a ratchet wrench put them in, but not always.  Unlike steel bolts, the E-Z Loks require the tapped hole to be countersunk.  Problem solved!

Why Trump Needs to Appoint Some More Supreme Court Justices

A few months back, a federal district court in Texas agreed that the Gun Control Act of 1968's ban on sale of handguns to residents of states other than the FFL's state of residence is a leftover from a period when it was impractical for an FFL to determine if a buyer from state X could lawfully possess a handgun.  Now that background checks are done by the federal government, this should not be a problem.  This particular case, Mance v. Sessions, involved a resident of DC who wanted to buy a handgun in Texas to avoid the absurd $125 fee charged by the only FFL in DC.

This case was of course appealed to the 5th Circuit.  They just ruled against us.  The argument is that for an FFL to figure out if Mance has permission to buy a handgun in DC is impractical, even if Mance has an official statement of this from DC.  Even the fairly sympathetic concurring opinion recognizes that even aside from the federal background check:

For example, California is a point-of-contact state, and the point of contact for background checks is the California Department of Justice (DOJ).^[47] If a Texas FFL desired to sell a handgun to a California resident, and the California DOJ issued a handgun permit to that resident, then the Texas FFL would still have to ascertain and comply with other California laws. These include laws that: prohibit delivery of a handgun unless the purchaser presents documentation indicating that he or she is a California resident (the documentation includes "a utility bill from within the last three months, a residential lease, a property deed, or military permanent duty station orders indicating assignment within" California);^[48] prohibit delivery of a handgun until a 10-day waiting period has expired;^[49] require the handgun to be unloaded and securely wrapped or in a locked container at the time of delivery;^[50] prohibit delivery unless a handgun safety certificate is presented;^[51]and impose specific record-keeping requirements.^[52] California law prohibits a dealer from delivering a handgun "unless the recipient performs a safe handling demonstration with that handgun,"^[53] and the dealer must give instruction as to "how to render that handgun safe in the event of a jam."^[54] The specific safe-handling demonstrations required are set forth by law; they differ, depending on the type of handgun;^[55] and the firearms dealer must sign and date an affidavit stating that the requirements have been satisfied and obtain the purchaser's signature on the affidavit.^[56] A firearms licensee is required by California law to "post conspicuously within the licensed premises a detailed list" of fees and charges required by government agencies for processing firearms transfers and license charges.^[57] Effective January 1, 2018, California law directs firearms dealers to require agents and employees who handle, sell, or deliver firearms to obtain a certificate of eligibility from the California DOJ that he or she is not prohibited by state or federal law from possessing a firearm.^[58]

In short, California has created a maze of irrational rules intended to prohibit handgun ownership.  Trying to figure out if a sale would be lawful in California might be impossible.  (It already is almost impossible to figure out inside California.)

By 11:30 Fires Were No Longer So Scary

But videoing all our possessions and going through the evacuation preparation drill was still worthwhile.

Remember the sequence in The Thirteen Warrior : "The worm!  The worm!"  It looked just like that. 

When Racism Merges With Incomphrehensible Language Abuse

7/25/18 Campus Reform:

In response to concerns over the lack of minority educators in K-12, especially as schools are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, Lewis argues that “the question of whiteness cannot be avoided if we are to continue to uphold the idea of educational equity and equality.” 

To address this, Lewis urges educators to develop a deeper understanding of whiteness. Though previous scholars have conceptualized it as an “experience” or a “feeling,” Lewis suggests that whiteness is better understood if one considers its geometrical dimensions.

Lewis posits that there is a “corporeal geometry of whiteness,” and that what emerges from his analysis “is a description of the aesthetic dimensions of discrimination through the geometric deployment of lines (that maximally extend white bodies into space) and an angle of vision (that constitutes totalized and rigidified racial hierarchies).” 

“Race is lived through an aesthetic geometry of lines and angles that connect and disconnect bodies on a pre-conscious level,” Lewis asserts, adding that “whiteness is a kind of one-dimensional way of being in the world.” 

What was it that physicist Hans Bethe once said?  "This isn't right; it isn't even wrong."

Still a Ways Off

Big brush fire a few miles north of us.   Inventoried everything on video camera,  figured out what to take if evacuation is needed.   Beginning to see fire planes headed towards it.  Getting bigger.  Everything essential ready for evacuation. Militia weapons last to load.

Trying to Find Some Humor in a Very Dark Project

Santa Rosa, Cal. (1920)

Dec. 10, 1920: Two men and a woman suspected of rape, and the murder of the county sheriff and two deputies who were investigating the rape, were taken from the jail and hanged by a mob described as “50 to 100 men.”

Category: lynching

Suicide: No

Cause: impatience with legal procedures

Weapon: hanging[1]

---

[1] “Mob Lynches Three Brutes in California,” [Marshalltown, Ia.] Evening Times-Republican, Dec. 10, 1920, 1; “Deputies Guard Santa Rosa Jail,” Chattanooga News, Dec. 6, 1920, 1.

The first account describes the mob breaking down the jail door by using a telegraph pole as battering ram.  That must have been a sight to see.  Medievalism, meet Samuel Morse.

How to Spend a Lot of Taxpayer Money With Zero Result

It feels like a bunch of skater kids with no fear (ever seen a skateboarder afraid of anything) put together a video of several miles of abandoned subway tunnels in Cincinnati.  As they explain, they started building it a century ago, ran out of money, and just gave up.

Odd Little Video

Prepper Collides with "Little House " and "Live Simply So Others May Simply Live"

I Am Sure That Millennials Everywhere Have Heard This Story, At Least the Lie on Social Media

7/23/18 Washington Post:

The Texas restaurant company that banned a customer after an employee’s story of a receipt scrawled with a racial epithet went viral said Monday that it had parted ways with the employee and learned that the story was spurious.

“After further investigation, we have learned that our employee fabricated the entire story,” Terry Turney, the chief operating officer of Saltgrass steakhouses, said in a statement. “Racism of any form is intolerable, and we will always act swiftly should it occur in any of our establishments. Falsely accusing someone of racism is equaling disturbing.”

There are real hate crimes, but so many of the publicized ones are just progressive agit-prop.

That Mentally Ill Toronto Mass Murder Story Gets More Curious by the Day

7/25/18 Toronto Sun:

The man who has presented himself as the point of contact for the family of Faisal Hussain is a professional activist who has reportedly committed himself to “framing a new narrative of Muslims in Canada” and creating a “national political movement.”

Shortly after the Ontario Special Investigations Unit revealed the identity of the Danforth shooter as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, a news release was sent out to select media attributed to the “Hussain Family”.

The family's involvement with that press release remains murky.

7/24/18 CBS News:

"At this stage, based on the state of the investigation, which is led by the Toronto police service, there is no connection between that individual and national security," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said.

But a law enforcement source told CBS News that Faisal Hussain visited Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) websites and may have expressed support for the terrorist group. They were looking into whether Hussain may have lived at one time in Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan, the source said. There is no indication that Hussain was directed by ISIS to carry out the attack.

But remember, it's all about the guns.

Oh, and this surprising news from 7/25/18 CTV:

The gun used to shoot 15 people on a busy Toronto street was likely obtained from a “gang-related source,” according to a person familiar with the case.

CP24 safety specialist Cam Woolley says a police source has told him the semi-automatic handgun used in the shooting is illegal in Canada and was originally from the United States. American authorities are helping track the gun’s exact origin.

Wow!  A murderer gets his gun from a gang.  Doubtless they did not know they were breaking the law by selling a smuggled gun.  And even more unbelievable:

CTV News has further learned that ammunition and large-capacity magazines were found by police officers searching the apartment Faisal Hussain shared with his parents. Police are also looking into the connection between Hussain’s brother, who is currently in a coma, and a 2017 seizure of more than 30 guns in Pickering, Ont.

AFP now reports ISIS is saying Faisal is one of their operations:

Montreal (AFP) - Canadian authorities said Wednesday they have no evidence to substantiate a claim by the Islamic State group that the gunman who killed two people in a Toronto rampage was an IS fighter.

The group's Amaq news agency said the gunman, identified by police as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, was an IS "soldier" responding to its calls for attacks on nationals from countries fighting the group in Iraq and Syria.

 I can believe it or not.

When the Left Shows How Shameless It Is

Instapundit posted this Zimbabwe $100 trillion note:

And Venezuela is trying to catch up.  At some point, can't the socialists ask themselves, "Why does this keep happening?  Are we doing something wrong?"

For You Californians

I am at a gas station that charges $2.89 per gallon for unleaded.  And you are still behind enemy lines because of?

9th Circuit Strikes Down Hawai'i Open Carry Ban

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-court/u-s-appeals-court-constitution-gives-right-to-carry-gun-in-public-idUSKBN1KE28C?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter

In a doctor's office or I would have more to say,  but as a friend points out, en banc reversal 3, 2, 1...

Might be a good case for the Supreme Court to hear after the new justice.

I know while many of you found Trump's vulgar brashness so upsetting that you would have preferred Felonia Pantsuit,  elections have consequences,  and Trump's appointees will cause leftist apoplectic seizures for years.

I Think I Have Figured Out the Anemia

My wife is gluten intolerant and so wheat was no longer appearing in our home the last few years.  We eat out ar Mexican restaurants a lot and she always insisted on corn tortillas.  Guess what?  Wheat bread has 4x the iron of gluten-free bread, and flour tortillas have 4x the iron of corn tortillas.

Color Me Startled

7/23/18 Fox News:

Canadian authorities identified the gunman who killed two people and injured 13 others in a lively Toronto neighborhood Sunday night as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, whose family claimed had suffered from "severe mental health challenges."

In case you wondered, Canada followed the U.S. down the same inhumane and dangerous path on deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, but this will be evidence that Canada needs more gun control laws.

If I Were a White Supremacist, I Could Not Make Up Anything Better

Campus Reform points to this curriculum from a "Witnessing Whiteness" class at the University of Colorado:

Facilitator’s Note: It is suggested that each small group include a facilitator or someone who is relatively advanced in their thinking on these issues. Facilitators should help pull out some of the following themes as they brainstorm with their groups: individualism, consumerism, meritocracy as an ideal, superficiality, competition, ambition, productivity, extreme exploitation of labor/resources for profit, etc. 

"Meritocracy as an ideal"?  You mean non-whites regard mediocrity as an ideal, or at least regard competence as not valuable?

"Productivity"?  I guess going back to primitive living conditions is better?

Why do the voters of Colorado fund this trash?

Interesting Hydraulics Problem

Before the angioplasty,  anytime my blood pressure went above 130mm, I had chest pain. Then they gave me nitroglycerin, the pressure dropped into the 130mm range and the pain stopped.   The student will identify which variables are required to identify the amount of blood flow reduction in the circumflex artery.

I Need Some Help Spending Money

I discovered some money left in a research grant from the Lock, Stock, and Barrel project, and I am encouraged to exhaust that grant.  Ideally, I would do promotion of the book through radio and TV talk shows, but I do not have the connections (and apparently not the skills: local conservative radio here is profoundly uninterested).  I had contacted a book PR firm, but they were not interested because my website www.claytoncramer.com was not modern and professional (using the standard templates to make it look like all the others).

So: two possible ways to spend $1000 or so:

1. A web designer out there who would bring my website out of the HTML Dark Ages.

2. Someone with PR experience willing to flog my book.

Was Bill There Getting Tips?

7/22/18 Daily Mail has pictures of the Clintons enjoying a meal with Harvey Weinstein in December 2016:

Photos of Hillary Clinton having dinner with longtime pal Harvey Weinstein weeks after her election loss have emerged.

The Clintons were reported to have dined with the disgraced film producer, his wife Georgina Chapman and lawyer David Boies at Rao's in Harlem, five weeks after Trump was elected president.

Details of their dinner were revealed in a New York Time's article on Weinstein last year, two months after he was accused of sexually assaulting multiple women in a damning exposé. 

Clinton and Weinstein were in talks to create a TV documentary about her failed campaign until allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against him.   

Of course, who have dinner with does not necessarily say anything about your values, but imagine how a dinner with candidate Trump and a Russian diplomat would be played.

This Must Be Fake News

7/23/18 CTV News:

Gunfire rang out along a busy Toronto street Sunday night leaving three people dead, including the 29-year-old man alleged to have been the shooter.

Toronto police say a total of 14 people were shot by a man with a handgun. According to Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, two people were killed by a man who “fired shots at groups of people several times” while walking along Danforth Avenue.

Impossible.  Gun control advocates insist Canada is safe because of their strict gun control laws.

Please: For Your Own Long Term Benefit

Eat less.  I am hoping that enough oxygen to the furnace will increase calorie burn, but it would have been better not to have even reached this point.

Imagine if Zhe Had a Gun!

7/9/18 Sydney Morning Herald:

A woman who allegedly attacked three people with an axe wrote in a "heated" social media conversation an hour beforehand that "most people deserve to die ... one day I'm going to kill a lot of people", a court has heard.

Evie Amati, 26, was armed with an axe and an 18-centimetre kitchen knife when she walked 450 metres from her home to the 7-Eleven service station in Enmore just before 2.19am on January 7, 2017.

She allegedly did a lap of the store and talked briefly to Ben Rimmer, who had stopped to buy a pie on his way home, before she swung the axe into his face with such force it fractured his nasal bone, eye socket and cheekbone and caused him to fall to the ground.It is alleged Ms Amati then turned to Sharon Hacker, who was leaving the store after buying milk, and swung the axe into the back of her head, fracturing the base of her skull....

At 1.55am, less than 30 minutes before the axe attack, she updated her Facebook status: "Humans are only able to destroy, to hate, so that is what I shall do."

Ms Amati's barrister Charles Waterstreet said there was no dispute that his client's body had committed the axe attack, but the question to be decided was what was happening in her mind.

"It's not whether the body of Evie Amati was guilty of the charges, but whether the mind, brain, soul of Evie Amati bore any legal or moral responsibility for the body's actions," Mr Waterstreet said....

He said Ms Amati, who was born a man, began taking hormones in 2012 to transition to a woman but the drugs had a significant effect on her state of mind.

He said Ms Amati's mental state deteriorated in 2015, when she had surgery in Thailand to complete her transition to a woman, and she began to experience visions, hallucinations and suicidal and homicidal ideation.

Embarrassing Question

One of my readers is an attorney in Boise who studied under Eugene Volokh and fabulously represented me in an employment dispute some years ago.  I have temporarily forgotten his name and I need to contact him.

Best Night's Sleep in Many Months

And in a hospital bed. Working hearts are wonderful.

Being discharged as I blog.  The circumflex artery was 90% blocked.  The left anterior descending artery which was cleaned and stented in 2014 needed additional cleaning and stenting.  Anemia still explains some of my recent exhaustion but that is easily fixed.   While it is nice to have such a relatively easy fix for this,  losing weight is even more important.  Of course, this may get easier with enough oxygen feeding the furnace. 

And yes, angioplasty is relatively easy compared to bypass surgery.  Still very unpleasant even with a wonderful hospital like St. Alphonsus.

Blogging Very Limited

Heart attack Thursday  morning,  but fortunately a small one.  I had angioplasty absurdly early this morning.   This was through the femoral artery so I cannot stand or or walk for a 10 hours and to call the channel choices bad is like mistaking a hospital bed for a place to sleep.  ]

Going home in the morning.   The pain is gone, and they found arteries with limited capacity that needed stents.

The Enzyme Level Was >0

When i went to E/R this morning.  I am now in the hospital,  waiting for an angiogram and angioplasty.   The back artery that was not cleared in 2014 because I had a stroke probably needs cleaning.   This is fortunately a simple procedure,  usually out next day.

I am so glad that I live in a country with a spectacular health care system,  in spite of the Obamacare blunder.

I Mentioned Watching Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics

last night.  There is a reason that Rod Serling's early death was such a disaster to the arts, and this one of them.  The first of the story's either a descent into mental illness, or a supernatural discovery of dangerous predestination as were many of the episodes of the original series.  The second story is one of those reminders of how much of the mainstream of our culture has changed over time.  Like many of Serling's stories, death is an inevitable process not to be feared, even if there is nothing afterwards, but as one line observes, "like going to sleep after a long and tiring day."  In this Serling captured well the dominant Judeo-Christian perspective of Western Civilization even ignoring the assumption in Daniel 12:2:

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

The older and sicker you get, the less frightening death becomes: only the prospect of a painful death remains truly frightening.  I have obviously spent a lot of time contemplating the inevitable since my 2013 aortic valve replacement.  Even without the hope of John 10:28:

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Death becomes more and more: "like going to sleep after a long and tiring day."

Along with the Good News, the good news is that since I started on the iron supplements this morning (and a wonderful medium rare steak tonight), many of the symptoms have been alleviating.

In Spite of Police Abuses of Their Authority, Why Most Americans Give Them the Benefit of the Dount

Not sure shooting through your own windshield is safe, but he certainly had reason.

If California Was a Country...

You know the rest of the story.  But what if Texas was a country?  7/17/18 CNN:

Plunging drilling costs have sparked an explosion of production out of the Permian Basin of West Texas. In fact, Texas is pumping so much oil that it will surpass OPEC members Iran and Iraq next year, HSBC predicted in a recent report.

If it were a country, Texas would be the world's No. 3 oil producer, behind only Russia and Saudi Arabia, the investment bank said.

As Instapundit points out "I’m so old, I remember a president who said we couldn’t drill our way to lower energy prices." 

And Texas allows women to drive and dress "immodestly."

By the way, not only would Texas be #3, the USA is already #1.

Total Petroleum and Other Liquids Production, 2017

Ranking  

Country 

Thousand Barrels Per Day 

1

United States

15599

2

Saudi Arabia

12090

3

Russia

11200

4

Canada

4986

5

China

4779

6

Iran

4669