Jewish student suspended for displaying Indian swastika

“On March 16, the student placed a small, bronze, Indian swastika on a bulletin board at GWU’s International House residence hall. He intended to educate his friends and co-residents about the symbol’s origins, which he learned about during a spring break trip to India. The student had learned on his trip that although the swastika was appropriated by Nazi Germany, it has an ancient history in many cultures as a symbol of good luck and success.

“After a fellow student reported the swastika to the GWU police department, the university quickly suspended the student and evicted him from university housing, pending the outcome of five disciplinary charges. The university also referred the incident to the District of Columbia police for investigation as a potential ‘hate crime.’”

https://www.thefire.org/the-george-washington-university-tramples-free-speech-ignores-context-in-suspending-student-for-indian-swastika-posting/

(The incident is not so much about “free speech” as it is about ignorance on the part of the university and finding guilt before determining facts. Or, the Thought Police are not interested in facts, but appearance.

(If a Native American Indian wore a religious symbol that included a swastika, would the university suspend him? Or if, for some strange reason, a student wore a pre-WW2 45th Infantry Division patch, would he be suspended?)

Link at http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/

Just thinking – If a student put a Crusader cross on a bulletin board, would he/she be guilty of a hate crime against Saracens?

Zip Code 76679 and Ebola City

No, there was no Ebola in Purdom, Texas, Zip Code 76678, but enough people showed (1) hurried ability to believe so; and (2) their stupids.

On Oct. 14, 2014, something called The National Report claimed “Texas Town Quarantined After Family of Five Test Positive for The Ebola Virus.” The report claimed, “The CDC wasted no time sealing off the rest of the town’s denizens, and has stopped all traffic from entering or exiting Purdon, TX. As of 10:00 Pm, Oct. 13th, the area has been surrounded with police and CDC officials. Communications with the locals seems to have been severed, and press is currently awaiting an official statement from local authorities.”

http://nationalreport.net/texas-town-quarantined-family-five-test-positive-ebola-virus/

From the comments section: “The military is everywhere. they are cordoning us off into different sections of the town. I think some people managed to escape. its not safe”

National Report appears to be a lesser known The Onion. Recent headlines include:

“Charles Manson In Critical Condition; Shot By Correctional Officer After Refusing Orders.”

“Muslin Fabric Warehouse Vandalized By Dyslexic Racists.”

“Obamas And Bushes To Appear On ‘Family Feud’ For Charity.”

http://nationalreport.net/

Protein World

I don’t know what the company sells, but I admire its leadership and management for not backing down. None of that “We realize the world is made of many different kinds of people, and we certainly did not intend to insult anyone. We apologize to anyone whose feelings were hurt by our ad campaign.”

No. Protein World responded to angry Tweets in the manner in which said Tweets were received.

“why make you insecurities our problem?”

“here is a shoulder for you to cry on.”

When you take the fight back in kind, the attackers do not know what to do, because all to often they have been told surrender is the only recourse of their enemies.

“You’ll lose no customers and become a champion for those who share your side of the issue.”

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1344885/why-protein-world-reaping-rewards-its-genuine-integrity

Link at http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/

‘Some lost their babies, was blown for two or three miles around’

Frost Texas Tornado Blues, by Texas Alexander, 1934.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9cCE0vIm24

The tornado was in 1930. Forty-one people from Frost died, 64 altogether in Central Texas.

Zip Code for Frost, Texas, is 76641, same as my present Solitaire score.

“Frost, Texas was founded by 5th generation Texan, Miles Frost in 1899 as a trading post for north central Texas farmers.

“The town was established in 1881 when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway was constructed through Frost on its way from Corsicana to Hillsboro. It was named after Samuel R. Frost, attorney for the railroad and prominent local politician.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost,_Texas

Miles or Sam? 1881 or 1899? Would farmers in 1899 have used a general store, or a “trading post?”

I have driven through the area more close to two dozen times, on I35 and on US 31, but I never heard of the town until searching Solitaire score.

Not so fast, straight man

‘NO PRIDE IN BEING STRAIGHT’

“In yet another example of ‘I believe in free speech, but you need to shut the hell up,’ a series of posters calling for a week of ‘straight pride’ were seized and removed from the campus of Youngstown State University in Ohio.

“The posters read, in part:

“’Join us by celebrating straight pride by not annoying the shit out of everyone about your sexual orientation!

“’Brought to you by the students that are sick of hearing about your LGBT pride. Nobody cares about what you think you are, or what you want to have sex with. We have nothing against your sexual orientation. We just don’t give a fuck.’

“Amid a rainbow hurricane of outrage and glitter-spackled tears, the posters were removed. Campus information officer Ron Cole said:

“’While we recognize the right to free speech, this is counter to our mission of being a diverse and accepting campus.’

“In other news, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.”

http://takimag.com/article/the_week_that_perished_april_27_2015/print#ixzz3YcGRF4GY

Apparently, Baltimore sucks

The Ghetto Welcomes You

By The ZMan

Baltimore calls itself “Charm City” because they used to have a sense of humor. The city is one of the least charming places on earth and it used to be a lot worse. At its peak, Baltimore was a gray, dumpy industrial town. Today, it’s Detroit on the Chesapeake with a better tourist area. Otherwise, Baltimore is an unrelenting shithole that should probably be given the Dresden treatment.

That tourist area is a big draw, particularly the ballpark. I’ve been to most of the ballparks in the US and Camden Yards is right up their near the top of the list. The park is a great place to watch a game and the surrounding blocks offer some great places to eat and drink. The Federal architecture is some of the best you will see.

Beyond that, and much closer than the tourists realize, are my people. Most Americans just don’t know what’s lurking in many of our cities. They stay off of streets named Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Everyone knows where to avoid, even if they don’t exactly know why. It’s as if their mental map has these places labeled “here be monsters.”

But, urban reservations are not a great way to keep the blacks under control unless you are willing to enforce the borders. If you let the wildlings break free of their areas and get into the tourist areas, you get scenes like last night. The hoodlums and corner boys will join in the fun and start doing what they do best, cause mayhem.

Baltimore is a good example of what happened when Progressives are allowed to rule unchecked. West Baltimore is a scary black ghetto and the main hub for narcotics trafficking in the region. If you ever want to understand why I think libertarians are fools, go to West Baltimore, but do it in the morning hours when the locals are asleep.

The rest of the city is a mix of gentrified hipsterville, old industrial and un-workingclass whites. The poor white areas are just poor white areas. Modest crime, mostly drugs, but otherwise no trouble to anyone. The hipster areas are the tax base and the future of the city, it is hoped, but they are bounded by the more rugged areas of the city.

Unlike New York or Washington, Baltimore can’t ship their problem blacks out to the suburbs. Whites fled Baltimore in the 60’s and 70’s and they are wise to this tactic. Some of it has been done Ferguson style by preying on the poorer white suburbs just outside the city, but it is hard to relocate 300,000 blacks without people noticing. The result is they remain in the urban reservation system built up fifty or more years ago.

In years past, Baltimore has tried to import Hispanics into the city hoping they would drive out the blacks. The last white Mayor and current presidential candidate spent years begging Hispanics to move to Baltimore. This worked in DC, but there was a close suburb able to take the refugees. Prince Georges County absorbed the blacks from DC on Section 8 vouchers. This mostly happened in the housing boom, which is why PG County was one of the hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.

But, Baltimore is not built for this type of ethnic cleansing. Hispanics prefer the safety of the surrounding counties where there are jobs and fewer black guys with guns. The result in Baltimore is sort of frozen in place. On the one hand you have the promise of the gentrified areas, but those areas are surrounded by a city run by the Black Guerrilla Family.

Drive around Baltimore and you can’t help but feel a little sad. There’s a lot of potential, but it is a city that seems to look for the wrong answer at every turn. Then again, the right answer, the one everyone sort of knows, can never be said, much less implemented. Frankly, shuffling these people from place to place like a bizarre game of Old Maid means someone gets stuck with the dysfunctional population. That’s Baltimore.

http://thezman.com/wordpress/

Continued war against political thieves’ junk mail

A couple of years ago I used blog space to post attempts by lying bastard “non-profit” organizations in getting money from my 87-year-old mother-in-law. I eventually got the thieves stopped, but it took filling out something like 70 forms and taking the forms to the Arkansas attorney general’s office, in two banker’s boxes, on a small dolly I bought just for that purpose.

My mother-in-law died on May 30, 2014, at my wife’s and my home. She received two or three letters wanting her money after her death.

With no personal reason to continue fighting the lying bastards, I stopped writing letters and posting here.

But other people continue the fight.

One is https://drowndinginmail.wordpress.com/

Give it a look. It’s the same battle against the same people, waged by Darth Jenni. She is doing a commendable job.

Nuns say ‘No’ to homosexual school agenda

“Faithful Catholics are praising the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, who walked out of their classrooms at Marin Catholic High School near San Francisco last Friday on the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) Day of Silence, devoted to promoting the militant LGBT agenda among young people in school.

…

“The nuns’ walkout on the Day of Silence comes amid attacks on San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone who has stood up to pressure from the left after reinforcing that those who teach in his archdiocese’s Catholic schools must follow Catholic teachings, including those on human sexuality.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/24/nuns-walk-out-of-classrooms-protest-lgbt-agenda-undermining-catholic-teaching-on-day-of-silence/

Russian rulers have always been more than a little paranoid

President Vladimir Putin says “some world leaders” would not mind Russia’s “disintegration.”

“Following a disastrous war in the 1990s, Russia fought Islamic insurgents in Chechnya and neighboring regions in the volatile North Caucasus.

“’They were actually helping them, even with transportation,’ Putin said.”

In Russia, Putin’s approval rating is 86 percent, more than10 percent less than Communist candidates’ votes in the Soviet Union.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/26/putin-us-helped-north-caucasus-separatists-russia-bush

Did US intelligence talk with Chechnyans? Probably. Putin should have talked more about that transportation assistance, though.

Without Moscow to keep them in line …

‘Georgia’s Child Brides: Opting for Marriage over School’

“While the Caucasus long has had a reputation for bride kidnapping, early marriages started to soar after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, as civil war and rampant unemployment fomented chaos, researchers say. Parents sometimes would agree to their daughters’ marriages to prevent them from being kidnapped.”

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73076

‘Kyrgyzstan Sees Rise in Child Brides’

“Kyrgyzstan’s minimum legal marriage age is 18. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, weddings increasingly have been performed by Islamic clergy in a ceremony known as nikaah that is often not registered with the state. Because the marriages fall outside of state control, there is no oversight to ensure the bride and groom are of legal age.”

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73086

Poking the Bear

Third Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment recently finished a 1,100-mile drive through former Warsaw Pact countries to let the Russian Bear know who those countries have friended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJjgSUSeJ8

Another:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7267ERWCERg

And in Poland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVCx1IYwulQ

3/2 Cav drove 1,100 miles.

http://www.stripes.com/news/dragoon-...lseck-1.337876

It’s OK -- They were doing it to ‘their own people’

“’At the time [the 90s] there were no managers for TV personalities in the Latin market.” According to Luis Balaguer, the man who would become (Sofia Vergara’s) manager, the lack of representation was due, in large part, to Univision, which had a virtual monopoly on Spanish-speaking talent: ‘You needed to be careful. You needed to behave, because if Univision fired you, people would never hear from you again.’ And Univision did more than discourage the hiring of managers. It also insisted that talent sign a contract—written in English, even though so much of the Univision talent could only habla español—in the room and on the spot, no lawyer to run a magnifying glass over that fine print. (Univision, incidentally, declined to comment for this article.)”

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/04/sofia-vergara-hot-pursuit-may-2015-cover

Link at http://www.theospark.net/2015/04/sofia-vergara-confirms-what-weve.html?utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20TheoSpark%20%28Theo%20Spark%29&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner

Department of what?

Eric Holder: “I said earlier that when we celebrated Robert Kennedy’s 50th anniversary of his swearing in 2011, people said that was the golden age for the United States Department of Justice. Well, I think 50 years from now, maybe even sooner than that, people will look at the work you all did and say this was another golden age.”

http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/24/holder-historians-will-view-my-tenure-as-golden-age-of-justice-dept-video/

Link at http://moonbattery.com/

American-built base used by Russia, China special forces

“The China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization is holding joint exercises with special operations forces from Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan -- and they're doing it at a military base in Kyrgyzstan that the United States spent $9 million to build.

…

“The U.S. particularly focused on training and equippingKyrgyzstan's special forces; in fiscal year 2012 alone U.S. special forces soldiers conducted six-week training courses for 880 of their Kyrgyzstan counterparts. The Scorpion base at Tokmok was the centerpiece of this effort …”

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73146

H. Clinton: You are going to have to change your religious beliefs and tenets

In order for all women to have access “to reproductive health care and safe childbirth … deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

How can she link “reproductive health care” (abortion) and “safe childbirth?”

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/04/24/hillary-deep-seated-religious-beliefs-have-to-be-changed-for-abortion/

Maybe she, like President Obama, will not stand silent and see Islam vilified. Christianity, yes; but not Islam.

Computercide: ‘It was glorious. Angels sang on high’

By Ryan Parker

A Colorado man finally had enough of his troublesome computer and did what pretty much everyone has fantasized about: He shot and killed it.

Lucas Hinch, 37, was issued a summons by Colorado Springs police after he shot his 2012 Dell XPS 410 eight times in an alley, police said.

"He was fed up with fighting his computer for the last several months," according to the police log.

Under most circumstances, it is illegal to fire a gun in Colorado Springs, which is about 60 miles south of Denver. There is no law on the books about machine homicide, police said.

Hinch "was very matter-of-fact about it and cooperative," said Lt. Catherine Buckley, a police spokeswoman. "He had just gotten a new gun and had enough of his computer."

Hinch told the Los Angeles Times he has no regrets.

"It was glorious," he said. "Angels sung on high."

The Dell kept giving Hinch the "blue screen of death," he said of the machine's final moments.

"It was extremely frustrating," he said. "I reached critical mass."

Hinch then reached for his new 9-mm pistol.

"It was premeditated, oh, definitely," he said. "I made sure there wasn't anything behind it and nothing to ricochet."

Hinch was issued a summons for discharging a firearm within city limits, which Hinch called a small price to pay for justice.

"That computer had a bad day," he said.

Police said that Hinch faces a possible fine but that any jail time is highly unlikely. They did, however, confiscate his gun. It's unclear when he will get it back.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0415/man_shoots_computer.php3#XDCBMXyq0GVXYQM1.99

Solitaire 76638 and Crawford, Texas Zip Code

Census estimate 789 in 2005. In 2004, the Crawford Pirates were state 2A Division II football champions, going 16-0. (Wikipedia)

“Crawford is at the intersection of State Highway 317 and Farm Road 185, eighteen miles west of Waco in western McLennan County. Settlement of the area began in the 1850s and centered around Tonk Crossing (also called Crawford Crossing), a ford of the Middle Bosque River two miles east of the present town. The community was probably named for Nelson Crawford, who graded the river crossing. As early as 1867 the inn at Crawford was used as a changing station by the Brownwood stage line. A Crawford post office was established in 1871 with John Hamlin as postmaster. In 1881 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway laid track from Temple to Fort Worth, passing two miles west of Crawford. The focus of the community shifted to the railroad, and by 1890 Crawford had steam flour and corn mills, two general stores, three groceries, a cotton gin, four churches, and 400 residents; cotton, wheat, hides, and corn were the principal shipments from the area.

“In the 1880s and 1890s Crawford had a series of short-lived weekly newspapers, among them the Yeoman, the Democrat, the Banner, and the Advance. The Crawford Sun was established in 1928, and except for the years 1943 to 1947 continued to be published weekly until 1969, when it merged with the McGregor Mirror. When Crawford was first established, community affairs were managed by a group of five or six elected trustees. Residents voted to incorporate on August 12, 1897, by a vote of fifty-one to forty-two; it may have been at that time that the city adopted a mayor-council form of government. A private bank opened in Crawford in 1901 and was reorganized eight years later as the First National Bank of Crawford. The town reached one of the high points in its development in 1910, when it had 600 residents and thirty-five businesses. The depression hit the community hard, forcing the bank and several other businesses to close. The population fell to 491 in the early 1930s and to 471 in the early 1940s. Still, Crawford was the only town of any size in northwestern McLennan County, and as such it was the natural focal point when small area schools began to consolidate with those in larger towns in the 1930s and 1940s. By the mid-1940s the Crawford Independent School District encompassed nearly seventy-eight square miles. The population of Crawford fell to 425 in the 1950s but rose again to 480 in the 1960s; it remained fairly stable through the 1970s but rose sharply in the 1980s, as more residents decided to live in Crawford and commute to work in Waco or nearby McGregor. The population was reported at 667 in the late 1980s. In 1990 it was 631. The population was 705 in 2000, when the town gained fame as the site of President George W. Bush's "Western White House."

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlc58

Nothing like attacking an end-of-war celebration

Or, The Russians Are Coming!

Maybe.

“(Reuters) - Ukraine is planning an operation involving tens of thousands of police to guard against any attack by separatists or Russian agents during World War Two commemorations next month, security chiefs said on Tuesday.

“Tension is mounting in the capital and other cities amid an increase in rebel attacks in the east. Kiev said one Ukrainian serviceman had been killed in the past 24 hours, in an attack near the airport in Donetsk. The airport fell to the rebels earlier this year.

“The killings in Kiev of two pro-Russian activists, a journalist, by what appeared to be professional hitmen, have further driven up tension in the run-up to May 8-9 celebrations of victory in 1945, which traditionally bring thousands of people on to the streets.”

http://worldaffairsjournal.org/content/ukraine-says-it-aims-prevent-russian-attacks-during-wwii-commemorations

Demanding human rights in Western countries …

… while saying, “Oh, that’s just the way they are” to the countries from which people flee.

“‘These people who are fleeing terrible conditions in their home countries… are being treated as if they are thieves and robbers, trying to take something from the Dutch people, rather than being given their human rights.’” – Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on human rights.

http://worldaffairsjournal.org/content/un-human-rights-expert-condemns-dutch-refugee-deal

So why are the UN and the US not pressuring the (mostly Muslim) countries “these people” fled? Why do bureaucrats find Europe guilty because 1,500 hopeful refugees have drowned this year trying to cross a few miles of the Mediterranean Sea?

Pressuring the oppressive countries does not work. Rulers of those countries want continued control of their own people. Control is power is money, and neither the UN nor the US can cut off enough money to make the oppressive give up power.

If we know who the bad guys are, we need to take them out. If we do not know, we need to find out.

Why let teams decide on player ability?

Agent Scott Boros says a panel, not a manager and coaches, should decide if a first-year player is ready for the major leagues.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/12737070/agent-scott-boras-wants-panel-rule-readiness-players-prior-end-spring-training

Only if the panel members are Casey Stengel, John McGraw, Walter Alston, Leo Durocher, Eddie Stankey and Alvin Dark, because those managers would say: “Do what? A panel decides instead of a manager and a general manager? Are you talking about baseball or GM?”

The way things are going, the commissioner’s office is likely to limit fastballs to 65 mph, lest a poor batter get hurt. And let’s do away with sliding, too. And outfielders crashing into walls. And catchers, because even though MLB outlawed collisions, it is still possible somebody will get hurt.

If you didn't already know, all it takes for consideration of stupid ideas is for an idiot to stand in front of a camera and start talking.

A new alligator

Wednesday afternoon, Priscilla called quietly from the patio: “Do you want to see the alligator?”

Does a dog want to see a pork chop?

I went outside. The alligator floated about 20 feet from the bank of the pond. Two ducks watched, suspiciously, one would think, right next to the bank and 15 feet from the patio, opposite from the alligator.

This is our second alligator. I did not see the first alligator. Priscilla said it was five feet long. The new one is about four feet long. It was out just a few minutes ago. Priscilla said it popped up when she took the dogs outside. Yesterday we had Kathleen’s two pugs. The alligator popped up then, too.

The pond – roughly 100 yards by 200 yards – has a number of fish. The fish jump many times a day. With fish, there are probably turtles as well.

Priscilla said she saw a Sandhill Crane with a catfish yesterday. The fish was around two pounds. She said the crane beat the fish against the ground several times, until movement stopped. Then the crane dipped the fish in the pond and swallowed it.

Today, Priscilla said she saw in the back yard our cormorant, a red wing blackbird, a mocking bird, a great white heron, and a black bird. And the new alligator.

Speaking of stupid …

… Well, fear-mongering, actually. Or, hoped-for disasters.

Predictions from the first Earth Day.

Civilization will end within 15 to 30 years if we don’t do something. (If civilization is ever that close to demising, nothing will help.)

It is already too late to avoid mass starvation. (With every picture of a starving Ethiopian, Sudanese, Bengali, etc., child, that guy probably said, triumphantly, “See? I told you!”)

This is good, because it is based on settled science:

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

More at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/22/failed-earth-day-predictions/

Some things are so downright stupid …

… you have to wonder why anyone came up with the idea to start with.

Trigger warnings. Notices about literature, movies, plays, discussion, and etc. that might cause discomfort in the reader, watcher, listener, etc.

“Oberlin College, long the nation’s leader in the earnestly ridiculous, seeks to be the FDA of political correctness, with warnings about classroom material nearly as comprehensive as the litany of side effects included in advertisements for a new drug. The school’s Office of Equity Concerns published a document for faculty (since pulled for more work after professors complained) urging them to ‘understand triggers, avoid unnecessary triggers, and provide trigger warnings.’ It exhorts professors to ‘be aware of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism [i.e., prejudice against the transgendered], ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression.’”

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378329/warning-literature-ahead-rich-lowry

“Privilege and oppression” applies if you are wealthy and white. If you are wealthy and a “person of color” … Well, in this white-oppressed world, you cannot be both a person of color and wealthy. It is not possible.

From the Oberlin guide:

• On the first day of class, ask all students for their preferred pronouns. Memorize them as you memorize names.
• If you realize you used the incorrect pronoun, apologize to the student in private and take steps to avoid repeating that mistake in the future.
• If your class is too large to memorize names and pronouns, avoid using gender-specific language whenever possible. For example, if your instinct is to call on “the guy in the purple shirt,” try instead saying, “you, in the purple shirt.”

Link at http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/

Russian snipers

I do not know what the language is.

http://www.oknation.net/blog/ravio/2014/08/20/entry-1

Siege of Leningrad 1942; streets of Petersburg now

A collection of photographs, 1942 siege superimposed over color pictures of today’s streets and buildings.

http://verybadfrog.com/12638/art/siege-of-leningrad-19422010-by-sergey-larenkov

So it is my fault/your fault 700 people drowned trying to reach Italy

A BBC reporter Tuesday night said the European Union is at fault for the drowning deaths of 700 people trying to get from Libya to Italy. The reporter did not say why the EU is at fault, but one need not back up opinion with fact these days.

The New York Times calls the new boat people a “relentless flow of people fleeing poverty, persecution and war.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/world/europe/european-union-immigration-migrant-ship-capsizes.html?_r=0

The Times does not say what should be done to keep the boat people safe, only that the EU must do something.

Writing in Taki's Magazine, Paul Wood quotes British columnist Katie Hopkins’ answer to Europe’s drowning immigrant problem:

“It’s time to get Australian. Bring on the gunships, force migrants back to their shores and burn the boats.”

http://takimag.com/article/refuge_from_the_refugees_paul_wood/print#ixzz3Y3ErRiMe

Yeah, that is a cruel thought, isn’t it? Send the people back where they came from and make sure they don’t have a way of trying again.

What do BBC and The Times expect the EU to do, accept all the boat people, give them jobs, and if they have no European skills, pay them for existing?

Well, yes. After all, they are BBC and The New York Times.

Wood also quotes Ed West of The Spectator:

“There are just two policies that would stop people drowning: open borders, with assistance from EU navies, or automatically returning all illegal migrants to their homeland. (For example, no one drowns trying to reach Singapore, because there is no point – you just get sent back.)”

That seems pretty much the same argument as Hopkins’, but without the gunships.

All rich countries face problems with people from poor countries trying to sneak in. The only two possible solutions are the ones by West: Let everyone in, or send everyone back.

And taxpayers must be prepared to pay for one of the two.

Future male lieutenants told to wear red high heels

I didn’t believe this, figuring this is the Army and ain’t nobody so ----ing stupid. HAHHAHAHA!

“Army ROTC cadets are complaining on message boards that they were pressured to walk in high heels on Monday for an Arizona State University campus event designed to raise awareness of sexual violence against women.

“The Army openly encouraged participating in April’s ‘Walk A Mile in Her Shoes’ events in 2014, but now it appears as though ROTC candidates at ASU were faced with a volunteer event that became mandatory.”

http://ace.mu.nu/

ROTC leaders looking for someone to string up for talking.

https://www.facebook.com/usawtfm/posts/10153290860363606

Another Georgian soldier killed in Ukraine

Giorgi Janelidize, a member of the Georgian Legion, is the fourth Georgian to die while supporting Ukraine against Russian Ukrainians who want to add part of the country to Russia.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73046

The Georgian Legion is composed of Georgian nationals, most of whom fought against Russia in the 1992-94 war over separatist Abkhazia.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/georgian-warrior-fights-his-fourth-war-against-kremlin-382600.html?flavour=mobile

Changing winds near the Caspian

Not long ago, Azerbaijan accused Iran of “exporting religious fundamentalism,” while Iran’s government countered with charges the Azeris made the area a “playground for Israeli operations.”

Although both accusations had some degree of fact, changing political winds now fill the sails of Baku-Tehran co-operation.

“’Threats coming from ISIS and al Qaeda have been discussed [by Azerbaijani and Iranian officials]. It was decided to make joint efforts to tackle religious fundamentalism,’ APA reported (Iranian ambassador) Pak Ayeen as saying.”

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73071

More stuff you can’t make up: Clowns, animal rights protesters in brawl at circus

"What a circus.

"A chaotic clash between clowns and animal rights protesters erupted under the big top at a circus in Southern California Friday night, according to reports.

"Spectators gawked as the brawl broke out just after the Ramos Bros. Circus show got underway outside of San Bernardino, according to KNBC.

"Circus workers allegedly tried to stop the activists, who had been picketing outside the property where the family-run show was performing, from forcing their way inside the tent.

"Two protesters were arrested following the big top brawl and Ringmaster Oliver Ramos claimed his lip was split after he was hit in the face with his own megaphone.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/clowns-clash-protesters-circus-socal-video-article-1.2189953

My money would be on the clowns.

Notice at http://ace.mu.nu/

Feed the homeless, get a $2,000 citation

San Antonio among dozens of U.S. cities that will not let homeless people get free food from un-permitted organizations.

http://reason.com/archives/2015/04/18/another-infuriating-crackdown-on-sharing

Link at http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/

Marx updated

I thought Gender Police had ended Marxism, since “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” was gender specific and therefore, like, totally incorrect.

But: In comments to a column on $15/hour for flipping burgers:

“From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.”

http://www.floppingaces.net/most-wanted/fast-food-workers-you-dont-deserve-15-an-hour-to-flip-burgers-and-thats-ok/


I don’t know what to say. This is so … I am speechless that someone would change Marx. What’s next, the Bible?

If the person who wrote the comment had been standing next to me, I would have slapped them.

Skeletal remains probably those of jousting knight

Numerous broken ribs, other injuries lead to medieval knight theory.

Tourney jousting was not the single combat of movies, said Andy Boucher, of Headland Archaeology.

“’Tourney, the true form of jousting, is open combat between large groups of people in fields — basically, a mock battle,’ Boucher said. ‘They just laid into each other with blunted weapons, which is another reason we think he might be a knight, because none of the wounds to him are caused by sharp weapons. They're all caused by blunt-force trauma.’"

http://www.livescience.com/50459-medieval-knight-discovered-hereford.html

Link at http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/

Coming to a country near you

“Their eyes glazed with moral certainty, they explained to me at length that culture warps minds and shapes behaviour and that is why it is right for students to strive to keep such wicked, misogynistic stuff as the Sun newspaper and sexist pop music off campus. ‘We have the right to feel comfortable,’ they all said, like a mantra. One — a bloke — said that the compulsory sexual consent classes recently introduced for freshers at Cambridge, to teach what is and what isn’t rape, were a great idea because they might weed out ‘pre-rapists’: men who haven’t raped anyone but might. The others nodded. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Pre-rapists! Had any of them read Philip K. Dick’s dystopian novella about a wicked world that hunts down and punishes pre-criminals, I asked? None had.”

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9376232/free-speech-is-so-last-century-todays-students-want-the-right-to-be-comfortable/

You have the right not to be made uncomfortable by free speech? Really?

The university “safe spaces” bring images of drab, gray 1984-type movies. It’s a cliché, those scenes, but quite imaginable.

Link at http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/

And peace broke out all over the world

Sweden: Cold War’s over, people. Let’s cut army numbers by 90 percent and air force and navy strength by seventy percent. After all, the Soviet Bear is now a pelt in someone’s parlor.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/bully-baltics-kremlin%E2%80%99s-provocations

Well, not exactly. And now that Sweden sees a need for more soldiers and those nasty weapons … “We have lost a whole generation of combat commanders,” says (retired Maj. Gen. Karlis) Neretnieks. “If you buy new tanks, you have to know what to do with them.”

The bear is the bear is the bear.

Want to make hajj? Tajikistan imposes age restriction

“Tajikistan has banned the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, for citizens younger than 35.

“Many in the Central Asian nation believe the ban is an attempt to prevent young Tajiks from developing radical ideas and joining extremist groups such as ISIL.”

http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/157855/tajikistan-bans-hajj-pilgrimage-for-young-muslims

In secularization moves, “Tajikistan has banned headscarves for schoolgirls, barred minors from mosques, and forced thousands of students to return home from Islamic schools abroad in recent months amid reports that many Tajiks have joined fighters in Iraq and Syria.”

(Saudi Arabia cut Tajikistan’s quota of hajj visas from 8,000 to 6,300, which might indicate the Saudis are worried, too.)

First directive from the Community Association

“We are writing you in reference to the frogs in your flower bed and the windchimes in your tree.”

The frogs are small and concrete, the windchimes are small.

However: “Accessory structures sculptures, and decorative objects such as bird baths, English globes, and fountains are prohibited in the front yard.” -- Forest Creek Rules and Regulations.

All that was delivered in a letter, with shadowy photograph of the front of the house, said photograph showing neither the frogs nor windchimes.

My wife said, “Well, I’ll just move the frogs to a back flower bed and the whindchimes to a backyard tree.”

Problem solved.

And, yes, we know we agreed to follow rules and etc. when we moved in.

Some sort of fight is going on …

… in the science fiction world, Social Justice Progressives vs. Right Wing (Somethings).

http://thefederalist.com/2015/04/08/the-hugo-awards-culture-wars/

Here’s what I know: If a novel is good, I am pleased. If a novel sucks, I have wasted my entertainment/Other World dollars.

Link at: http://ace.mu.nu/#356018

How stupid can some people be? Very

‘CSM Perry T. McMNeil sentenced for stolen valor’

“Another active duty member of the military, Command Sergeant Major Perry T. MacNeill of the Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery, has been sentenced for wearing unauthorized insignia, decoration, badge, ribbon, device or lapel button, in violation of Article 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, and of one specification of making a false official statement, in violation of Article 107 of the code.

“The Senior NonCommissioned Officer was sentenced to receive a letter of reprimand, reduction to the E-7 pay grade (sergeant first class) and forfeitures of $500 per month for 10 months.

“From Guardian of Valor;

“’According to the charges he wore both the Ranger Tab and the Pathfinder Badge wrongfully and without authority on multiple occasions: on or between March 4, 2011, and Feb. 28, 2014. It also says he submitted an official record to the Centralized Selection List Board for the fiscal year Active Component and U.S. Army Reserve Active Guard Reserve Brigade/Battalion Command Sergeant Major and Key Billet Sergeant Major Board, a falsified enlisted record brief stating he had graduated from Ranger School in 1994.’

“According to his bio, he had two Bronze Star Medals (for Merit), five Meritorious Service Medals, four ARCOMs and six Army Achievement Medals and a member of the Order of Saint Barbara, but I guess that wasn’t good enough. The rest of your career will rightfully suck, SFC.”

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=59142

Medical stuff update

This morning Priscilla and I went to the doctor to talk about my balance problems. The doctor said what we thought – increase of phenytoin might be the problem. So, he recommended I go back to the previous dosage and see what happens.

It is good when a doctor agrees with your diagnosis.

Now I will cancel all my physical therapy sessions until my balance returns. No sense in doing things that aren’t going to help.

Medical stuff

After waking up this morning, I sat up in bed and closed my eyes, intending a minute or so of reflection before fully getting up.

Everything in my head seemed to collapse in on itself, each part separate, although I cannot now describe how the separate parts became so or even what those parts were. The parts just seemed to collapse, to fold back, beginning at the right front, folding back and to the left.

It was very odd, having parts inside my head collapse en masse, yet at the same time become separate pieces. (I have never used the phrase “en masse” before. Sixty-five years of reading and writing, and I never used that phrase. I will consider other common phrases I have not used, although there must be reasons why other common phrases have failed to make their way from mind to fingers. Perhaps I should consider why. Perhaps I should not use the word “perhaps,” but “maybe.”)

A couple of weeks ago my doctor increased my phenytoin by 50 percent, from 200 mg twice daily to 300 mg twice daily. At advice of a pharmacist, the doctor also stopped my Nifedipine, since it and phenytoin are sometimes contraindicated. He replaced Nifedipine with (I’m not certain what), which I had been taking 10 mg at night, but now take 20 mg each morning. I have not noticed any blood pressure problems, only balance problems and blurred vision.

And everything in my head collapsing in on itself.

Devol, Oklahoma

2000 census, 150 people. From earlier years: “Devol is said to have had a four churches, lumber store, feel store, a hotel, two dance halls/bars, a brothel and hundreds of small structures to rent as a home during the growing Burk boom.” (Emphasis added.)

A “feel store” and a brothel?

Modern explanation: “For every 100 females there were 114.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.1 males.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devol,_Oklahoma

You got more men than women in a town, you got problems.

Devol came up at http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=59108 where there is a story of a man who got his life changed after trying to break into a house only to find the resident had a gun.

Dry road, clear day, car turns over -- Must be Russian traffic

Alcohol might have been involved in some crashes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itMdLTd1l4E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmsQ-obL1Z4

Whatever the speed limit is in Russia, add 35 mph.

The second one around 2:15, the driver of a car bumps a motorcyclist on purpose.

The accident will find you.

Do not assume any vehicle has brakes.

4:45 – truck with acetylene bottles or some other bottles of explodes-when-broken material.

I tell you what

A couple of places I used to live, things are tough.

A man drove his ATV into a 20-foot-deep hole on County Road 3572; somebody else driving on Texas Highway 11 hit a pig; and on County Road 1100, a driver hit and killed a cow.

http://www.myssnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28727:man-pulled-from-20-foot-hole-after-atv-crash&catid=93:local-news&Itemid=376

(The pig likely was feral.)

Hitting a cow is not for fun. One annual training at Fort Hood, two women soldiers in an M151 under blackout conditions hit a range cow. The soldiers jumped out just before quarter-ton and cow contacted each other. The cow rolled over the hood and into the windshield, breaking the windshield glass and mount. The soldiers were not injured.

And in another place, reporters now have to put (sort of) subtitles in stories?

"We were fixin [about] to put the cuffs on him and he hugged his mother then jumped right on top of his mother and ran," says court bailiff Bobby Lacefield.

http://www.ksla.com/story/28699842/escaped-inmates-mother-i-saw-it-in-his-eyes-he-snapped

Lookie here, KSLA TV staff – You work for a station in Shreveport, Louisiana. Shreveport. Louisiana. You think 99.9 percent of your viewers don’t know what ‘fixin’ means? Sounds like KSLA hiring way too many outsiders. Have to explain ‘fixin.’

I tell you what.

It takes a village to ruin a child …

… and Florida news programs are doing just that.

Collective child rearing. Simple parents are not capable.

This morning there was a piece on a walk for bringing awareness about victims of child sexual abuse.

Don’t we know this already? Have we not seen story after story of evil people perpetuating unspeakable offenses against children?

Why do we not simply make child abuse, physical and sexual, a life-sentence crime, with no chance of parole? One conviction and the perpetrator is jailed for life.

The link is not about abuse, specifically, but in a way it is, because over-protective parents keep kids from learning the real meaning in life – You’re on your own.

http://karendecoster.com/collective-child-rearing.html

The future of medicine

The ER patient is bloody from a car wreck and somewhat emotionally distraught because her baby did not survive.

The computer check list does not care.

http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2015/02/15/please-choose-one/

Link at: www.maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com