Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Some Russian roads

Note to Russian highway planners: Contact the Texas Department of Transportation.

http://englishrussia.com/2018/07/30/bad-roads-27-photo/

I have seen roads as bad in the U.S., but smarter drivers.

Flowers in potholes a good idea.

Monday, July 30, 2018

Flyover country 1941-45

North Platte Canteen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=07DGeLvDw8I

‘It was influenced by books, not drugs’

Keith Reid on “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”

"I had the phrase ‘a whiter shade of pale,’ that was the start, and I knew it was a song. It’s like a jigsaw where you’ve got one piece, then you make up all the others to fit in. I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene. I wasn’t trying to be mysterious with those images, I wasn’t trying to be evocative. I suppose it seems like a decadent scene I’m describing. But I was too young to have experienced any decadence, then, I might have been smoking when I conceived it, but not when I wrote it. It was influenced by books, not drugs.

"It was twice as long, four verses. The fourth wasn’t any great loss, but you had the whole story in three. When I heard what Gary’d done with them, it just seemed so right. We felt we had something very important. As soon as we played it for anyone, we got an immediate response.

"In rehearsal, instrumentation was added. We had this concept for the sound of Procol Harum to be Hammond organ, piano and blues guitar. No other band had that; it gave us a bigger sound. It’s a live recording… I think we did three takes. It’s equal parts Dylan and Stax. On our own terms, we were always trying to make a Soul record. Funnily enough, Otis Redding wanted to do it, but we wanted our record out first, and Stax wanted the exclusive."

http://americandigest.org/wp/boomer-ballads-a-whiter-shade-of-pale-live-in-denmark-2006/#more-7852

(I never thought the song was about drugs. There was a girl and a boy and pictures made with words.)

How many mistakes can a writer make in a story?

A whole bunch.

From Newsweek:

“The city of Austin, Texas has suggested in a preliminary report, that highlighted historical connections to a former Confederate leader, Stephen F. Austin, otherwise known as the ‘Father of Texas’, that it might consider changing its name.

“In addition to identifying several neighborhoods and towns linked to the Confederacy, the report, released by Texas’ Equity Office also suggested name changes for city streets honoring the Confederacy or Confederate leaders, including slave owner William Barton, The Austin American Statesman reported Friday.

“Austin, who founded the city in 1839, was notable for his staunch disapproval of an effort to ban slavery in the Tejas province following the Texas Revolution.”

So what’s wrong there?

A whole bunch.

“Stephen F. Austin was never a Confederate, "leader" or otherwise. He died in 1836, decades before the Civil War.

“Austin did not found the city that bears his name. Again, it would have been difficult for him to found the Texas capital in 1839, three years after his death.

“William Barton was also not a ‘Confederate leader.’ He died in 1840.

“Austin did not oppose banning slavery ‘in the Tejas province following the Texas Revolution,’ given that Texas ceased to belong to Mexico ‘following’ the revolution. For that matter, his pro-slavery advocacy mostly took place when Tejas was part of a Mexican state, not a province.”

https://freebeacon.com/blog/reminder-newsweek-bad-news-site/








There’s a consensus, and the sodomites won

"So it used to be that maybe when a girl hit the age of 8 or 9, she'd start to exhibit boyish mannerisms, wearing pants all the time, playing baseball, getting into fights, etc. There was a name for this. I'm old enough to remember that such girls were called "tomboys" and everyone understood that this was just a stage some girls went through and nobody thought anything of it because it would only last a couple three years, maybe not even that, puberty would hit, and that would be that. And nobody made a big deal over it. Well, now the activists have pounced on this innocent phenomenon and twisted into something dangerous and malignant. Instead of letting the tomboy phase run its course, the girls are told that they need to act on their feelings and actually turn themselves into the other gender. So they're pumped full of propaganda about how they're born into the wrong body and given chemicals that block the onset of puberty and male hormones and eventually even surgery. It is the goal of the trans activists to find even the mildest cases of gender dysphoria and make sure it gets inflamed into a full-fledged psychosis, like picking at a simple cut until it's all red and infected. You'd think the medical establishment would be up in arms against the flagrant misuse of the drugs and hormones, but they're not. Do the parents know of the high suicide rates of transsexuals and the frequency of other mental illnesses that accompany gender dysphoria? How would it be if psychiatrists started encouraging anorexics to lose weight because they feel they're too ‘fat’, and then prescribed weight-loss pills to help them accomplish this? Why does reality have to be adjusted to cater to progressive delusions?" – The Morning Rant

http://ace.mu.nu/

If you fight this, you are a homophobic racist.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Trust me. The tree will not hit the house

Or the car or the tractor or Herb or Stan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=41&v=0BLsYRfgHWI

Before You Tube, this kind of stuff happened all the time, but there were no camera phones, nor any place to show what couldn't be recorded anyway.

Disrespect leads to airline cockpit fight

Samuel Lovett

Iraqi Airways has suspended two of its pilots for physically fighting each other during an international flight with 157 passengers on board.

The aircraft, which left from Mashhad on Wednesday and was headed for Baghdad, was cruising at 37,000 ft when the two men started fighting one another in the pilots’ cockpit over a food tray.

In a letter addressed to Iraqi Airways management, the co-pilot said: “Conversation with the pilot became heated because he forbade an air hostess from bringing me a meal tray, under the pretext that I hadn’t asked him for authorisation.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqi-airways-pilots-suspended-fighting-food-flying-cockpit-a8467716.html

Link at https://gatesofvienna.net/2018/07/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-7-28-2018/#more-46301

The pilots face a possible lifetime flying ban.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Elephant decides to cross China-Laos border

Nice of those humans to provide a straight, flat, wide trail for the elephant.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/viral-and-trending/300118/video-captures-wild-elephant-crossing-china-laos-border-before-dawn.html



Hiding the oil

It’s Southern California, of course.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/hollywood-worthy-camouflage-uncovering-the-urban-oil-derricks-of-los-angeles/

“By 1930, California was responsible for a quarter of the world’s oil output.”

The top picture in the article is particularly noteworthy – A forest of wooden derricks fronting the ocean, while dozens of swimmers and beach-goers enjoy sun and sand.

Link at http://americandigest.org/



Friday, July 27, 2018

Flippy gets call-up to Dodger Stadium

LOS ANGELES – Flippy, the burger flipping robot, has a new gig cooking fried chicken tenders and tater tots at Dodger Stadium.

The robot debuted earlier this year at a Pasadena, California, burger restaurant, only to get stage fright from the rush of customers. It has since been retooled and is now working full time, processing "thousands" of burgers daily, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to the robot's creator, David Zito, CEO of Miso Robotics.

Now, Flippy is set to debut at the Stadium, which attracts as many as 50,000 customers daily, in mid-August.

"Flippy is being called to the majors," Zito says.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/07/26/flippys-got-new-gig-making-chicken-tenders-dodger-stadium/827243002/

Humans are being trained on how to work with the robot. Well, ain’t that nice. Is Flippy trained to work with humans?

Thursday, July 26, 2018

State can’t handle medical marijuana applications

Arkansas to outsource evaluation of medical marijuana applications’

Five-member commission votes to appoint five-member commission to approve or disapprove applications.

“Commissioner Travis Story strongly opposed the motion, arguing the agency had a constitutionally granted responsibility to review and score the applications.

“But last week, Arkansas lawmakers passed an amendment granting the commission the authority to hire a consultant. The commission ultimately voted in favor of hiring an outside party, largely citing the speed with which dedicated consultants could review the volume of the applications.”



“In the adopted selection process, the lowest bidder will automatically be hired.”

https://mjbizdaily.com/arkansas-to-outsource-evaluation-of-medical-marijuana-applications/

Or, We want this done fast and we want it done cheap.

The medical marijuana process is yet another example of Arkansas government not being able to handle things voters approve. A few years ago, the legislature approved a lottery ballot vote, but had nothing in place to handle the lottery when voters approved the measure. The legislature wound up hiring an out-of-state lottery group to set up what the state was incapable of doing.


Russians and their bears

Man feeds his bear.

http://englishrussia.com/2018/07/25/russia-man-share-watermelon-with-his-bear-video/

Abandoned Russia

Military equipment, towns, ships photographed from drone.

http://englishrussia.com/2018/07/24/abandoned-russia-from-bird-eye-view-25-photo/

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Did the writer not read what he/she wrote?

Did the speaker not hear what she said?

"We take the ideals of equal opportunity very seriously and we're extremely proud of 2nd Lt. Freeman's achievements," Gordon said in an Army news release. "She is further proof that we don't see race or gender in the Alabama Guard, we see soldiers and airmen and their potential."

So said Major Gen. Sheryl Gordon, Alabama National Guard’s “first female general” and “the first female to serve as adjutant general of the state,” commenting on 2LT Kayla Freeman becoming “the first black female pilot in the state National Guard's history.”

http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texas/story/2018/jul/25/black-female-pilot-makes-history/735967/

So why all the PR? If the Guard does not see race or gender, no official announcement of 2LT Freeman’s accomplishment would have been made, except that she completed the Army Aviation School and received her wings.

UN names non-existent country to head Group of 77

“The ‘State of Palestine’ will reportedly preside next year over the largest bloc of developing nations at the United Nations.

“Palestine — which is not a member state of the UN but has observer state status — was chosen to head the so-called Group of 77, a consortium now consisting of 134 nations that often speaks in one voice at the UN General Assembly, starting January 1, 2019, The New York Times reported Tuesday.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-palestinians-to-head-bloc-of-134-nations-at-un/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=dad44aaeea-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_25_11_44&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-dad44aaeea-55395173

Even though the UN regularly passes resolutions against Israel, designating non-state Palestine to chair a group of recognized states comes as a surprise. We can look for increased anti-Israel propaganda and measures. The United States and Israel should leave the United Nations.

Siberians just want to have fu-un

‘Shirtless Siberian Fined for Cruising Streets in Towable Bathtub’

“The 29-year-old driver and the 32-year-old passenger of the self-made trailer admitted to committing an administrative offense, saying they just wanted to have fun,” the police said in a statement Tuesday.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/shirtless-siberian-fined-cruising-streets-bathtub-62337

Russians (real Russians, west of the Ural Mountains) see Siberians the same way some Americans view their Appalachian and Ozark fellow citizens.

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Monday, July 23, 2018

To those who backed Obama’s Iran plan

What those did you think was going to happen? Did you expect the Iranians to say, “Oh, yes, yes. We have been bad boys, developing atomic weapons with which to destroy Israel. But thanks to the wise words of Barrack Hussein Obama, we have seen the error of our ways. And we thank the blessed Obama for returning the billions of dollars taken from us.”

Thank God for Mossad, which stole the papers and files that tell the real story.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Got an intruder in your house?

Take the advice of homeowner Alexis Quiros: “Grab him by the head and go to work on him,”

North Miami, Florida:

Alexis Quiros says he got the call from a neighbor late Friday afternoon telling him that someone broke into his North Miami home.
When Quiros arrived home, he said he wanted to make sure the burglar got what was coming to him.

“Whoever goes in somebody’s house, needs to die,” Quiros said. “You don’t do that.”

Quiros who told police he confronted and beat a burglar who broke into his North Miami home Friday afternoon. And he didn’t mince words about it.

“From the upstairs all the way to downstairs he got his (expletive) tore up,” Quiros said.

Quiros said he arrived home from work and found the burglar in the upstairs of the house. He suspects the thief got into the home by climbing onto the upper portion of the home.

“I find this dude in the top floor like he owned the house,” Quiros told reporters.

When Quiros confronted him, he said he showed the burglar no mercy and there are blood stains in parts of the home to prove it.

“Grab him by the head and go to work on him,” Quiros said about the confrontation, adding that he was like “Mike Tyson.”

https://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=80706


Saturday, July 21, 2018

Tidbits from the jihad and anti-jihad front

“(W)ith fewer taxes, with fewer foreigners, with more security we will once again be the most beautiful country in the world”. – Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

Swedish government spending 500,000 Euros to teach migrants how to have sex with blonde women. The publications also helps Muslim immigrants understand gender equality.

Forest fires raging in Sweden the fault of “elderly white men.”

Those stories and more at https://voiceofeurope.com/

Sweden vs. Denmark, Lubek and the Polish-Lithuanian Union

One of those wars passed by in history, but which led to the sinking of the Swedish ship Mars on May 30, 1564.

“The ship was the largest in the fleet of King Eric XIV (r. 1560-1568), capable of carrying a crew of 800. The reason for the estimate of how many went down with the ship is that it sank mid-boarding. The Swedish navy engaged in battle against Denmark, Lübeck and the Polish–Lithuanian Union off the coast of Öland on May 30th, 1564. On the second day of ferocious fighting, the Mars was boarded by the Danish and Lübeckian forces who didn’t know that the ship was already on fire from a cannon shot. The gunpowder stores exploded with enormous force, blowing the front of the ship clean off — that part of the wreck was found 130 feet away from the main body of the ship — and killing whatever crew had survived up until that point died along with the enemy they had been fighting. Historians estimate that at least 300 of the dead of the Mars were Danish-Lübeckian boarders.”

Discovered in 2011 around 250 feet below the surface of the Baltic Sea, the Mars has yielded artifacts valuable to naval archaeologists and historians.

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/52092

Number of ‘Palestinian refugees?’ Probably 20,000

Not 5 million, as the UN claims, but 20,000 by an Obama State Department count that has never been made public.

http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/07/18/report-us-finds-only-20000-palestinian-refugees-in-the-world/

Link at maggiesfarm.

Why the secrecy by Obama and the anti-Semites of his State Department?

Well, when numbers don’t back up your claim, and especially when your study reverses your allegations, you slap “CONFIDENTIAL” or “SECRET” on the findings.

There's an old saying: You don't like the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.

More than likely, swallowing PLO and Hamas propaganda for years, Obama's anti-Semites thought they would find 5 million people who, egged on by Arab leaders, left the former UN Mandate of Palestine in 1948.

Simple enough

In Memphis, Tenn., a man broke into an apartment. The homeowner shot the intended burglar. The burglar died. No problem, police say.

https://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=80698

Friday, July 20, 2018

Deconstruct it! Quickly, quickly!

At a news conference in Tbilisi, Sophia, the world’s “first humanoid robot” said “robots like her are going to achieve things, such as reducing poverty and hunger, promoting clean energy and gender equality faster.”

https://www.georgianjournal.ge/society/34746-first-humanoid-robot-sophia-arrives-in-georgia.html

What are they going to do? Hand out money? Plant and harvest crops? Surely the US Democratic Party will invite Sophia and her cohorts to the 2020 national convention, maybe even register them to vote? Given Sophia’s dedication to clean energy and gender equality, can the Democrats do anything less?

“She is happy to be a female robot and to have an opportunity to speak about gender equality issues.”

Wait, wait, wait, wait! Sophia is “happy to be a female robot”? Somebody is making a lot of judgment calls in designating a machine’s sex.

Read the robot’s claims and intentions, and then insist it be taken apart and melted down into something useful. A doorstop, maybe.


Buried at sea

Loyce Edward Deen, TBM gunner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=73&v=jpt6Bvr2L-s

Link at knuckldraggin.com.

The sailor, his ship, his friends and the battles he was in.

http://www.loyceedeen.org/

Swedish parliament candidate says Israeli Jews should be deported to US

"She suggests Jews should leave Israel and move to the U.S. to make room for the Palestinians:

“So why not invite their friends over to their land and make room for them on the farm? They seem to enjoy each other’s company. And the Palestinians can live in peace and again build up the country that once was theirs. I can allow myself at least to dream about such a solution, right?”

https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/07/parliamentary-candidate-for-swedens-feminist-party-suggests-deporting-all-jews-from-israel/

Palestinians “can live in peace and again build up the country that once was theirs.” As with every other anti-Semite, Ms. Javidi has no knowledge of history beyond that of her time. Check out what “Palestine” was like when ruled by the Muslim Ottoman Empire.


Thursday, July 19, 2018

Time wasted on plastic straw ban good for economy

“Yes, most plastic waste in the ocean comes from monsoon flooding of Asian rivers / cities that washes trash out into the ocean. Yes, plastic drinking straws are a trivial percentage of the waste stream. So yes, plastic drinking straw bans will have little effect on cleanliness of the environment.

“BUT, this effort does seem to be occupying environmentalists and satisfying millennial needs for social media virtue signalling, all people who have many MUCH worse ideas for "improving" the world. In other words, every day spent by these folks pushing for and preening over this lame plastic straw effort is one less day they can spend pushing for things that would be much more destructive. It's like getting the termites around your yard to focus on easting the dead log in the back rather than eating the rafters in your house.”

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2018/07/why-western-efforts-to-ban-plastic-drinking-straws-is-great-for-global-prosperity.html

Thanks, Coyote Blog, for the information on Asian countries responsible for most plastic trash that winds up in the ocean. It just seemed natural that Western industrial nations would be responsible, although I have seen no explanation on how plastic trash from Western Europe winds up in Asian oceans. For some reason, eco-types think people who have little don’t throw things away. Those types have traveled little outside the U.S., except to other presumed great polluters in other Western nations.

Here is a fact: Poor people toss more stuff on the ground than do people of means.

Drone snaps 5,000-year-old henge in Ireland

“Prompted by the recent archaeological discoveries borne out of the British heatwave, Murphy – who runs the website Mythical Ireland – decided to fly his drone southwards of the prehistoric monument Newgrange, never actually dreaming he’d encounter an unknown site of the same ilk. Until he did.

“The circular pattern is approximately 150 metres (492 ft) in diameter, with an interior space stretching up to 120 metres (393 ft) in diameter.

“Archaeologists estimate the structure and surrounding features of interest to be somewhere around 5,000 years old, with the henge circle capable of holding a few thousand people during ancient ritual events – although the exact purpose of such get togethers is still debated.”

http://neveryetmelted.com/2018/07/18/drone-discovers-new-neolithic-henge-near-newgrange/

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Now that the World Cup is over…

‘Why I Hate Soccer’

“Now, what has always turned me off about soccer is the cultural angle. When I was a boy, our betters in America were trying to force soccer and the metric system on us. The people doing it were all loathsome snobs. Worse yet, all of them were the children of working class people who should have known better. But, their parents sent them off to the state college and they came back thinking they were sophisticated citizens of the world, so they loved soccer. Yep, soccer was a Boomer fetish."



“A recent development, one that I find most irritating, is the fake passion of cosmopolitan men for Premiere League teams in Britain. They saw videos of Euro-guy with his hands on his head in agony over a soccer match and now they are pretending to have had a lifelong passion for a soccer club in England. I have a friend who used to call soccer ‘fag ball’ until about a decade ago. He became a vegan and started following soccer. He wears a Man U jersey. He says “footie” now. He went bald and his wife is fat. That’s justice.

http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=14379

As Z Man says, “I’ve probably heard ‘it is the most popular sport in the world’ a million times in my life. That is the sort of thing stupid people say when they want to sound sophisticated. In most of the world, soccer is the sport of the poor and lower classes. That means our bourgeois bohemians are aping the mores of chavs. Good job phonies!”

Monday, July 16, 2018

They want you gone

“The expulsion meme has become popular among the naïvecons. They are increasingly frank about who they’d like to expel: the more rural you are, the redder your state, the lower your income, the more working class your background, the more you cling to guns and God, the more you vote Republican, the more you deserve the boot. For those on the actual Right, merely arguing that the United States enforce existing laws is to be called a Nazi, heckled in public, and picketed at one’s home. But the pro-illegal immigrant, anti-native-born Left can vent their spleens and prosper. They despise you. They hold you in contempt. They want you kicked out of your own country and replaced by foreigners. They are your enemy.”

America is “a nation of immigrants”? Nonsense.

“In America’s case, our country is not a ‘nation of immigrants’ in two senses, one historical, the other theoretical. In the former sense, it is more accurate to call America, initially, a nation of settlers. A settler is not an immigrant. A settler builds ex nihilo and must form the initial social compact. An immigrant seeks to join a society already built, to join a compact already made.”

https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/02/america-is-not-the-common-property-of-all-mankind/

Link at http://www.woodpilereport.com/


Sunday, July 15, 2018

Both arguments cannot be correct

The “myth of matriarchy in precolonial Africa is popular” because “it poses less of a challenge to the status quo.”

https://www.msafropolitan.com/2012/06/the-myth-of-matriarchy-in-africa.html

Or: “Soon after taking control of Palmyrene affairs, Zenobia received an invitation to take direct control of Egyptian affairs by Timagenes, a dissatisfied military and political commander, originally appointed by Rome.”

https://www.africanamerica.org/topic/when-africa-was-a-matriarchy-ruled-by-african-queens-it-flourished-when-it-became-a-patriarchy-it-was-destroyed

Palmyra is in modern-day Syria. The author does not explain how a woman ruling Palmyra could have any effect on sub-Saharan Africa.

Soviet hero workers disappearing

Few democratic countries rely on murals to exemplify a sitting government. In President F.D. Roosevelt’s government of the Depression, hundreds of government buildings received art paid for by tax money.

In the former Soviet Union, there remain some murals depicting the wonders of Communism-Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism.

http://englishrussia.com/2018/03/09/disappearing-mosaics-of-soviet-country-the-lost-art-photos/

Friday, July 13, 2018

From a vast right-wing conspiracy site

Uncle Remus posts on Tuesdays. Some of the best readings on the internet. This past Tuesday he wrote something had come up and he should be back to posting next Tuesday. On Thursday he wrote: "I'm deeply humbled by your prayers and notes of well wishes. My sincere thanks. Wish I could answer each email. Too many. And I'm too drugged up and spacey to manage it. Into O.R. Friday morning. 'All out effort,' they say. All else has failed. I'll stop here.

"Remus, Thursday night, July 12th"

http://woodpilereport.com/

Link at http://americandigest.org/

The people Ginsberg doesn’t want too many of

In a 2009 interview for New York Times Magazine, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, commenting on Roe v Wade said:

“The ruling surprised me. Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion.”

https://thebridgehead.ca/2018/07/12/what-did-ruth-bader-ginsburg-mean-when-she-referred-to-populations-that-we-dont-want-to-have-too-many-of/

Liberal-Progressive Democrats have since attempted to use a “What she meant was…” defense, but it is quite plain Ginsburg was following the eugenics line.

Thursday, July 12, 2018

What is it you can’t fix?

Oh, yeah. And this tweet is more proof:

From somebody called nayeli @joonsxo

“I don’t know how to explain this but you ever just see a white person walk and know their racist”

http://ace.mu.nu/

“their” what is “racist?”

I am confused. Tomorrow I will not be confused, but Nayeli will still be stupid.



Texas to Bataan

A 1942 release combining Hollywood’s Texas and the war effort against Japanese and German intent to enslave the world.

“In the 17th of the 24 films in Monogram's 'Range Buster' series, Texas ranch owner Conroy returns from Washington with an order for horses to be shipped to the Philippines. The Range Busters, Dusty, Davy and Alibi, are selected to take the horses there but, before leaving, they capture three spies who are trying to steal the horses and also learn that the ranch cook, Cookie, is a Japanese spy, but he manages to escape. In the Philippines, they go to a café for dinner and see Cookie and Miller, a German spy. Eavesdropping, they learn that Ken Richards, a neighboring Texas rancher, is the Axis contact back in the states. They capture Cookie and break up the spy ring in the Phillipines, and then return to Texas intent on settling matters with Richards. They do so and are honored by the U.S. Government just as the radio blares forth the December 7, 1941 announcement of the Pearl Harbor bombing. They head for the nearest enlistment station.”

—Les Adams

Well, that’s entertainment.


Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Stroud, Okla., and Luftwaffe jet engines

Stroud is in Creek and Lincoln counties in eastern Central Oklahoma. The 2010 population was 2,690. In 1980, Stroud had its biggest ever population, 3,148.

In its early days, Stroud was a whiskey town, but with statehood in 1907, all of Oklahoma went dry. In 1915, outlaw Henry Starr decided to rob two banks in Stroud. Armed citizens made Starr to decide he had made a mistake.

More of Stroud history, including its days as a Route 66 town, can be read here:

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ok-stroud/

A few miles north of Stroud, and west of Stroud Municipal Airport, is Mint Turbines. The company specializes in repair to the T53 turbine engine. The T53 was originally developed and manufactured by the Lycoming Turbine Engine Division in Stratford, Conn. Lycoming was started in the 1850s making sewing machines. In 1907, Lycoming switched to the more lucrative manufacture of automobile engines, and then in 1929 produced its first airplane engine.

A team headed by Austrian-German engineer Anslem Franz designed the T53. Franz joined the Junkers company in 1936, three years after Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Junkers built the JU-87 Stuka, the JU-52 transport, the JU-88 bomber and many other aircraft for the Nazi Luftwaffe. Junkers made lots and lots of money.

While with Junkers, Franz designed the Jumo 004 turbine engine, which powered the Me-262 jet fighter and the majority of German turbine-powered aircraft.

After Germany’s defeat, Franz was brought to the United States in Operation Paperclip. His Lycoming T53 engine, built in the 1950s, was the world’s first turbine helicopter engine and powered the UH-1 series helicopters, the AH-1 Apache attack helicopter and the OV-1 Mohawk. Franz died in 1994, at age 94.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_Franz


If you’re going to San Francisco …

Well, maybe you shouldn’t.

“Amid the current boom, a family of four earning $117,400 now qualifies as low-income in San Francisco.”

https://www.wired.com/story/how-silicon-valley-fuels-an-informal-caste-system/

Link at http://neveryetmelted.com/2018/07/10/the-caste-system-of-silicon-valley/

There are, of course, the hewers of wood and carriers of water, but they don’t live there. Among the hordes of homeless and druggies, defecating in the streets, tourists are staying away by the thousands.

A man I know, after recuperating from Viet Cong-induced bullet holes and released from the Army, decided to make his camp in the Haight-Ashbury area, circa 1968, the year after the oft-noted but never existed “Summer of Love.” The city was violent, he said. Even among, especially among, the Summer of Lovesters. After a few weeks, Keith hied out of town and made his way to the Cascades. He is much happier there, with his SKS and a few thousand rounds of ammunition and like-armed friends.

Alabama man lucky he wasn't perforated

There’s preaching, and then there’s bad-mouthing.

“WHNT reports on the story of events in Limestone County, Alabama yesterday when Thomas Zebulun Lewter, 34, began to lecture his soon-to-be-ex-wife and her parents from the pulpit of the O’Neal Church of Christ.

“’Stephen Young, Public Information Officer with the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, said Lewter approached the pulpit during the service and began to speak about his pending divorce, calling out his wife and father-in-law who were present in the service.

“’According to authorities, congregants approached the pulpit and tried to convince Lewter to stop talking and sit down, but he refused. That’s when deputies say Lewter attempted to grab his handgun. Deputies say congregants tackled and restrained him.

“’A retired Limestone County Sheriff’s deputy who was present assisted, Young said, and handcuffed Lewter while they waited for deputies to arrive.’”

“I suppose shooting your soon-to-be-ex-wife won’t convince her to stop divorce proceedings, neither will failing to shoot her because of your neighbors piled on top of you. Try chocolates and flowers.”

https://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=80460


Monday, July 9, 2018

Business as usual, the Erdogan way

“Erdogan Begins New Term By Purging 18,000 ‘Traitors’”

“The decree specified that the 18,632 people to lose their jobs were suspected of involvement with organisations that acted against the interests of national security. They include 8,998 police officers, 3,077 soldiers, 1,949 from the air force and 1,126 from the navy. On the civilian side, 1,052 civil servants were sacked from the Justice Ministry and linked institutions, 649 went from the police, 192 from the coastguard and 199 academics lost their jobs. More than 100,000 civil servants have been fired since 2016, and the army is said to be significantly under strength.

“More than 75,000 people have been arrested for connections to the Gulen movement, and many have been sentenced to long jail terms, including for alleged involvement in the coup. Named after its leader, Fethullah Gulen, the movement operated for years as a social support network with Mr Erdogan’s tacit backing, running schools and charitable foundations.

“Because it had members inside the police, prosecution services and civil service, Mr Erdogan came to see it as a state within a state, particularly after corruption inquiries targeted some of his closest associates, including his son.

“The announcement will let Mr Erdogan start his presidency on a high. Officials have indicated that after seven renewals the state of emergency will expire when its term runs out on July 19. Mr Erdogan may use his re-inauguration to scrap it immediately. That would mean that arrests could no longer happen by presidential decree. However, Mr Erdogan has shown no sign that this would lead to a shift to the democratic norms of which Turkey was once seen as a rare Middle Eastern example. Under the new constitution the position of prime minister, which Mr Erdogan held from 2003-14 and which he used to establish dominance over Turkish politics, will be scrapped.”

https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/07/erdogan-begins-new-term-by-purging-18000-traitors/

Will former President Obama make a statement on Erdogan’s purges? When the Turkish president put down the coup attempt, Obama said “the people of Turkey” had spoken.

Why does US Agency for International Development have a ‘climate change coordinator’?

“In Africa, the Trump Administration has moved to eliminate all funding for climate-related or environmental projects across the continent, including in Senegal, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Indonesia is one of the largest carbon emitters in the world, and, in 2017, U.S.A.I.D. planned to spend $23.3 million on environmental projects there, including a reforestation project designed to control carbon emissions. Only seven million dollars has been allotted to the country in Trump’s 2019 budget proposal. ‘Across the board, there has been a rollback on federal climate-change investments as a result of executive direction,’ Kit Batten, a former U.S.A.I.D. climate-change coördinator, told me.”

http://www.floppingaces.net/most-wanted/climate-activist-frustration-nobody-is-paying-for-our-free-lunch/


Link at http://www.floppingaces.net/most-wanted/climate-activist-frustration-nobody-is-paying-for-our-free-lunch/

Batten was appointed to the AID position by President Obama. After leaving AID, Batten was executive director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy. In January 2017, Batten was named Climate Resilience Chief at Pacific Gas and Electric. So … government, academia and now Big Power. Her pay check has never bounced.

A professional thing: In journalism school, long ago, students were taught never to refer to themselves in a story. Or, no usage of “I” or “me.” So all that “told me” stuff in the story is the writer stroking her own ego.



Sunday, July 8, 2018

When files are outlawed, only outlaws will have files

Judge calls for pointless kitchen knives.

I would say the judge is pointless.

“A judge has proposed a nationwide programme to file down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the country’s soaring knife crime epidemic.

“Last week in his valedictory address, retiring Luton Crown Court Judge Nic Madge spoke of his concern that carrying a knife had become routine in some circles and called on the Government to ban the sale of large pointed kitchen knives.

“Latest figures show stabbing deaths among teenagers and young adults have reached the highest level for eight years, and knife crime overall rose 22 per cent in 2017.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/27/knives-sharp-filing-solution-soaring-violent-crime-judge-says/

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

Business as usual in Turkey?

Government issues warrants for 271 soldiers, including 10 colonels and a retired general.

“Turkish prosecutors on Friday issued arrest warrants for 271 soldiers suspected of links to Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric accused of orchestrating a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan two years ago.

“State media said security forces started conducting operations across Turkey in the early hours of Friday morning in response to the warrants.

“The Star newspaper said those facing arrest included 10 serving colonels and a retired general.

“About 160,000 people have been detained since the coup attempt in January 2016, and about the same number of civil servants have been dismissed from their jobs, the United Nations human rights office said in March.

“Of those detained, about 77,000 have been formally charged and kept in jail during their trials, the interior minister said in April.

“The European Commission said that under the Turkish state of emergency more than 150,000 people had been taken into custody, 78,000 arrested and over 110,000 civil servants dismissed. Turkish authorities say that some 40,000 have been reinstated in the process.

“The latest arrests come as Binali Yildirim, Turkey's outgoing prime minister, said on Thursday that a state of emergency in place since the coup would end on Monday as the country transitions to a new system of government in which executive power will be concentrated in the office of the presidency.

“’The new cabinet will be announced on Monday, and the state of emergency will conclude,’ Binali Yildirim told state-run Anadolu new (news?) agency.”

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-issues-arrest-warrants-soldiers-accused-gulen-links-622216344

Link at https://gatesofvienna.net/2018/07/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-7-7-2018/#more-46133

Since the days of Kemal Ataturk, the army has kept Turkey’s government from straying too far into repression. That idea seems to have gone by the wayside.

Friday, July 6, 2018

Let’s all get nekkid!

A school in England banned boys from wearing shorts, and now other schools say girls can’t wear skirts. All because some boys think they’re girls and some girls … Well, the adults aren’t thinking at all.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-03/uk-secondary-schools-ban-skirts-accommodate-trans-students

Link at http://knuckledraggin.com/2018/07/england-goes-full-retard-again/

Thank you, thank you, ancestors, for leaving the land of the Magna Carta.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

‘So-called’ Danish values?

As in language, history, Christmas, Easter. Are not those the very makeup of a society? If several thousand Danes suddenly up and moved to another country, say Saudi Arabia, would the Saudi schools not teach Islam, Ramadan and other Saudi holidays? And would those classes not be in Arabic?

Yes, but that is different. Or so say the open borders people.

“A new set of laws governing life in 25 low-income, heavily Muslim enclaves in Denmark – officially labeled as ‘ghettos.’” – is the latest salvo as Europe grapples with integrating an influx of migrants.

“Beginning at the age of 1, ‘ghetto children’ must be separated from their 'ghetto parents' for 25 hours per week for mandatory instruction in so-called ‘Danish values,’ which includes learning about the language and the traditions of Christmas and Easter, The New York Times reported.

“Families that don’t comply with the rules could see their welfare payments cut off.”



“Justice Minister Soren Pape Poulsen told the Times these measures are not anti-Muslim.

“’That’s nonsense and rubbish,’ Poulsen said. ‘To me this is about, no matter who lives in these areas and who they believe in, they have to profess to the values required to have a good life in Denmark.’”

https://gatesofvienna.net/2018/07/mutti-goes-down-while-denmark-gets-tough/





Run for your life

A tweet: "Today, I was at the park when I saw a homeless man sleeping on a bench. I thought it would be funny to throw a small rock at him. He thought it would be funny to pull out his knife and chase me for six blocks.”

http://knuckledraggin.com/

Shooting at lasers

In Lamar Township, Pa.:

“A man and woman believed to be high on bath salts started firing bullets into the sky to chase away “alien lasers,” which were actually fireflies, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

“Troopers say just after midnight on Saturday, Jesse Shields fired a .357 Magnum handgun at the “lasers,” according to the Centre Daily Ties.

“Shields and Katherine McCloskey, fearing they were being chased, ran to a nearby home, according to WNEP. Someone inside the Clinton County house called 911.

“The duo then ran to a neighboring home where the homeowner took away their gun, police said. Shields allegedly asked that homeowner if he could take a shower to “get the goo off him that was burning his skin.”

“Troopers showed up and arrested Shields and McCloskey, both of Mill Hall. They each face charges of felony burglary, a felony criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness, according to the Centre Daily Times. McCloskey also faces a count of misdemeanor DUI.

“Shields faces additional felony counts of carrying a firearm without a license and recklessly endangering another person. He also faces several other misdemeanor charges – unlawful possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and two added summary charges.”

https://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=80340


High on bath salts. Ah, today's yoots.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Today is Independence Day in the United States of America

Lots of people will write tens and hundreds of thousand words today about what American Independence meant to the world, about what American Independence still means.

All I’m going to say is, “Thank you, ancestors, who came to the English American Colonies, who arrived here after days and days on small ships because you wanted more and better things for yourself and for your descendants.”

Both my wife and I have ancestors who arrived here in the late 17th century, up to the middle of the 18th century. They saw a future. They made that future possible.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Limited vocabulary


My wife said, “I like your stories, but do you have to use that language?”

I said, “It’s the language we used.”

She said, “Nobody I know uses that language. It exhibits a limited vocabulary.”

“There were times,” I said, “when our vocabulary was very limited.”

It wasn’t worth explaining.

See, everything was time-oriented. Today counted, and nothing else. Yesterday didn’t matter, because it was gone. Tomorrow wasn’t yet here. Today counted -- right now counted, not the next minute, because you never knew what the next minute would bring. You didn’t think about the next minute; you thought about where your foot was now, where your eyes looked now. You thought about where you were, not in some abstract geo-political sense, but where you physically were. You certainly didn’t think about home. Home didn’t matter. Home was a place you remembered only when time came to stop walking. Home was a place not in reality. Home was a dream, a thing conjured in the night, but never during the day. Reality was where you were. Reality was here.

Limited vocabulary was part of the time-orientation. There was not time to explain things, so we shortened everything. Anything could be, and was, a motherfucker or a variation of the word. Motherfucking gooks. Motherfucking choppers’re late again. Motherfucking coffee was cold. Motherfucking Claymore took Charlie out, Man. Wizard’n his gun, Man, he sat down on that motherfucking trigger, wasted some gooks. I told the motherfucker, Man. I told him, watch where you put your feet. Motherfucker didn’t listen.

I can sum up the whole thing in two words -- Fuckin shit. The war and everything that went with it -- Fuckin shit.

The days that were hot and wet, or hot and dry; the people you associated with, lived with, slept with, drank beer with; the gooks you killed because they were trying to kill you; the bush, the hills, mud and rain; dust that curled up, over your boots and into your face when you walked; the food they gave you to eat; the rifle or machine gun or grenade launcher you carried and the ammunition for the weapon, and, god knows, if you had more strength, you would carry more ammunition. All of that -- Fuckin shit.

See how easy it is?

But even in that one phrase, there are different degrees, differing aspects of emphasis. Say you been humpin the bush two weeks, wearing the same clothes, the only thing you’ve changed is your socks, put on a dry pair, let the wet ones dry out, and the LT says resupply choppers are coming in, bringing new uniforms, but when the choppers get there, all they drop off is hot chow in mermite cans and more ammunition. You haul the mermite cans from the choppers, go back and pick up heavy wooden boxes of ammunition and hand grenades, there are no cardboard boxes with clean uniforms, clean socks. Fuck-in shit.

Somebody gets a letter from his girl back home, she says it isn’t the same anymore, he’s so far away, and what’s a girl supposed to do, stay home every Friday night and Saturday night? She’s still young, she has a life to live, and she knows he’ll understand. The guy who gets that letter, does one of two things: He goes off by himself, and maybe you hear him say, very quietly -- Fuckin shit; or he picks up his helmet and throws it as hard as he can, as far as he can -- Fuckin shit!

Limited vocabulary. Right.

Like how ham and lima beans got its other name. (Ham and lima beans is a C-ration “Main Course Meal” and comes in a green can, a can smaller than a No. 303 can, and nobody eats the stuff. Nobody. Tastes like shit, and there’s way too much salt.) How ham and lima beans got its other name, and you have to think Black on this one: A Brother comes in off some shit detail -- even in the bush somebody gets a shit detail. Choppers came in an hour before and dropped off three days’ worth of C-rations, but by the time the Brother gets to the cases, everything is shit-scattered, boxes not picked up and burned, the steel wire that wrapped the cases thrown everywhich way. It’s near dark, just enough light to see, if you bend over and look at the boxes remaining. The Brother does that, bends over and rummages through the boxes, reading the labels, going from broken case to broken case, picking up box after box, and he finds the same thing in every case, and he stands up and says, “Ham and motherfuckers. Nothin but ham and motherfuckers.” And then: “Fuckin shit.”



Monday, July 2, 2018

China develops ‘non-lethal’ laser rifle

Pain from laser is “beyond endurance.”

“China has developed a portable laser weapon that can produce an energy beam invisible to the naked eye, but that can cause the 'instant carbonization' of human skin and tissues, according to researchers involved in the project.

“Classified as a non-lethal weapon, the ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle can also ‘burn through clothes in a split second’ and even set someone on fire ‘if the fabric is flammable,’ researchers from the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics told the South China Morning Post.

“The 6.6 pound weapon, which is powered by a rechargeable lithium battery, also has the ability to fire at targets stationed at a distance of 800 meters and can even be mounted on cars, planes and boats.”

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201807031065984499-china-develops-non-lethal-laser-rifle/

Well, the People’s Liberation Army has lots of prisoners for laser effectiveness testing.

'Take action against knives'

Here's an idea: Get rid of the people who do the stabbings.


By Voice of Europe

North Rhine-Westphalia’s (NRW) Minister of the Interior wants to ban knives ‘as far as possible’. Herbert Reul, the state’s Minister announced the measures after numerous stabbing incidents, Tag 24 reports.

“Wherever you can, you should ban the use of knives,” Reul tells the Rheinische Post.

“We already have more than ten incidents with knives every day in NRW.”

A knife attack in Lünen, a bloody murder in Viersen, there are stabbing incidents throughout the state. They are also becoming a dangerous problem for the police in NRW.

Interior Minister Raul now wants to take action against knives. For the first time, there will be a weapons ban at Dortmund’s main station this weekend, due to increasing violence.

From 6PM Friday to 7AM Saturday and from 6PM Saturday evening to 7AM Sunday morning, alarm pistols, knives of all kinds, as well as blow, shock and puncture weapons are prohibited.

The Federal Police are reacting to the increasing violence in railway stations, as well. The union of police (GdP) had already suspected “increasing knife attacks in this country”.

Hardly a day goes by without police reports of dangerous or even deadly knife attacks.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/07/german-state-wants-to-ban-knives-as-stabbings-run-out-of-control/

--

Here’s a guess: Cultural enhancers are doing almost all the stabbings. Stop paying those people to come into your countries. Stop giving them free housing. Send them back to the countries from which they came. These people are incapable of adding anything to your economy. They only take. These people are incapable of adding to your culture. They only destroy. These people want you gone. That is why these people are killing you. Open your eyes! These people are killing you!


Believe in free speech? Racist. Misogynist. Nazi.

“Once a defense of the powerless, the First Amendment over the last hundred years has mainly become a weapon of the powerful…Legally, what was, toward the beginning of the 20th century, a shield for radicals, artists and activists, socialists and pacifists, the excluded and the dispossessed, has become a sword for authoritarians, racists and misogynists, Nazis and Klansmen, pornographers and corporations buying elections.” – Law professor Catharine A. MacKinnon.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/07/whos-afraid-of-the-1st-amendment/

Say “the wrong thing,” and the Left will hit you with all the choice words, as well as calling you hurtful, making someone feel sad, etc. and etc.

Poor baby

“TOI Staff

“Israeli officials barred a Jewish pro-Palestinian activist from entering the country late Sunday and began proceedings to deport her over her support for a boycott of the country.

“Ariel Gold said that she had arranged her visit ahead of time with Israeli authorities, in line with a demand by Jerusalem after her last visit to the country, but was being deported anyway after landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport.

“Gold is the national co-director of US left-wing activist group Code Pink and an advocate of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to isolate Israel internationally.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/prominent-jewish-bds-activist-denied-entry-to-israel/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=d5e3014273-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_02_10_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-d5e3014273-55395173

Gold got her feelings hurt when Da Jooz wouldn’t let her in for on-the-ground pro-Palestinian demonstrations like she has done in the U.S.

Santos Benavides -- Texas patriot, Confederate leader

BENAVIDES, SANTOS (1823–1891). Santos Benavides, the highest ranking Mexican American to serve the Confederacy, the son of José Jesús and Margarita (Ramón) Benavides, was born in Laredo, Texas, on November 1, 1823. He was the great-great-grandson of Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza, the founder of Laredo. Benavides married Augustina Villareal in 1842, and the couple eventually adopted four children. As a political and military leader in Laredo, Benavides brought a traditionally isolated region closer to the mainstream of Texas politics while preserving a sense of local independence. His prominence in Laredo resulted initially from the influence of his uncle, Basilio Benavides, who was three times elected alcalde under Mexican rule, then mayor and state representative after annexation. Santos Benavides's success as a merchant and rancher also contributed to his selection as procuradorin 1843, then to his election as mayor of Laredo in 1856 and chief justice of Webb County in 1859. He won further distinction as the leader of several campaigns against the Lipan Apaches and other Indians. Under both Mexican and American rule, his politics remained consistent. During the Federalist-Centralist wars that swept the Rio Grande frontier in the 1830s and 1840s, geographically isolated northern Mexico supported the Federalist cause of local autonomy against the Centralists, who wanted power focused in distant Mexico City. As a young man Benavides fought for the Federalists. Frustrated with the Mexican government, he cooperated with the forces of Mirabeau B. Lamar, which occupied Laredo during the Mexican War. Benavides joined his uncle in opposing the annexation of the Laredo area by the United States, as called for by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, because he feared it would compromise the independent character of northern Mexico. When Texas seceded, Benavides and his brothers supported the Confederacy, whose states'-rights principles were so close to their regionalism.

Commissioned a captain in the Thirty-third Texas Cavalry (or Benavides' Regiment) and assigned to the Rio Grande Military District, Benavides quickly won accolades as a fighter. He drove Juan Cortina back into Mexico in the battle of Carrizo on May 22, 1861, and quelled other local revolts against Confederate authority. In November 1863 Benavides was promoted to colonel and authorized to raise his own regiment of "Partisan Rangers," for which he used the remnants of the Thirty-third. His greatest military triumph was his defense of Laredo on March 19, 1864, with forty-two troops against 200 soldiers of the Union First Texas Cavalry, commanded by Col. Edmund J. Davis, who had, ironically, offered Benavides a Union generalship earlier. Perhaps Benavides's most significant contribution to the South came when he arranged for safe passage of Texas cotton along the Rio Grande to Matamoros during the Union occupation of Brownsville in 1864.

During Reconstruction he continued his mercantile and ranching activities with his brother Cristóbal Benavides and remained active in politics. In support of his son-in-law, Gen. Lázaro Garza Ayala, and Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, he was accused of using his rancho, Charcos Largo, as a supply depot for filibustering expeditions against Mexican president Porfirio Díaz. He served three times in the Texas legislature from 1879 to 1884 and twice as an alderman of Laredo. He was instrumental in the formation of the Guarache or citizen's party in South Texas, a faction of the Democratic party opposed to the powerful Botas. His political affiliations indicated his continued belief in regional independence from national authority. His leadership built Democratic support among Hispanics in Webb County and contributed to the eclipse of the Republican party in the region. Benavides's friendship with the followers of Benito Juárez and his kinship ties to Manuel Gonzales prompted Porfirio Díaz to select him as an envoy to the United States during the reciprocity controversy in 1880. In recognition of his political achievement, he was appointed Texas delegate to the World Cotton Exposition in 1884. Benavides died at his home in Laredo on November 9, 1891. – Jerry Thompson.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbe47




Sunday, July 1, 2018

Writing lead sheets

“Don Ciccone: I was doing lead sheets, which are a music sheet that embodies the melody of a written song, the chords that go with it above the melody, and the lyrics that go with it below. It’s just like sheet music. I did the tools for the printer to make that sheet music. I put the music, the chords and the lyrics on [special] paper, which would go through the printing machine.

“I would get a cassette or an acetate of a song that someone had written and long before the records came out, the publishing companies would have to copyright them. They would have to secure them, and they would give them to a guy like me and I would transcribe the music that I would hear onto paper so the publishing company could send that paper into the Library of Congress in order to get the copyright. It was very technical and specialized work, and apparently there weren’t very many people doing this, and within a year I was working for every single major record company.”

http://www.goldminemag.com/articles/backstage-pass-don-ciccone-reminisces-about-the-critters

I did not know there was such a job. The people who do or did that work had to have a good ear and knowledge of music. (Understatement.)



‘How Much White Russian Slave Costed 150 Years Ago?’

“Just 150 years ago Russia formally abolished slavery. Slaves in Russia were called ‘krepostyne’ or ‘fixed – the ones that couldn’t do with their lives anything without their master will. They can’t move away, couldn’t marry, couldn’t change their master. Were often beaten and were more or less a property. They could be bought and sold for cash or gold. Just like African slaves in USA, except they were local Russian white skinned people. So how much money did you need 150 years ago to buy a Russian man, woman or kid?”

http://englishrussia.com/2018/06/27/how-much-white-russian-slave-costed-150-years-ago-photos/

In 1782, a 1-year-old Russian girl cost one-half ruble, “more than a price of a pig, but cheaper than a horse.”

Russians still deal in slaves. Now it's called "human trafficking."

The charge

On 25 October, 1854, the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, the 17th Lancers and the 8th and 11th Hussars charged Russian guns at Balaklava. Of the approximately 670 men who rode toward the guns, 120 were killed, at least 160 were wounded and 50 were taken prisoner.

Also killed were 375 horses. As in all wars in which horses charged or pulled or transported, the animals did only what their humans asked. Like their riders and drivers, they did not ask why.

http://neveryetmelted.com/2018/07/01/the-bugle-call-from-the-charge-of-the-light-brigade/