Stuff that makes you say, ‘Dang’

Attribution on Wikipedia is a sometime thing. Sometimes you know people are doing a ROMA entry, with no regard for fact or accuracy, but only to get an opinion on the World-Wide Web.

(If you look up “ROMA,” almost all listings will give a definition concerning “Roma people,” i.e., commonly known as Gypsies. The ROMA here means “Right out of my a$$.” You can see from that meaning that accuracy is of no consideration.)

Here is an example of Wikipedia ROMA, from the entry on the town of Vian, Oklahoma:

“In May 2017, the city government of Vian was put on the national stage due to alleged corruption. A city police officer pulled over city councilman E. O. Smith's son, Joshua Smith, and discovered he was driving on a suspended license, a repeat offense. After performing an arrest, the officer was allegedly threatened with termination by City Attorney Larry Vickers. Mayor Dennis Fletcher ordered Smith's release. The officer and police chief resigned in protest and were both replaced. In 2018 Smith was charged with unlawfully using a cell phone to facilitate methamphetamine transactions, then charged with child sexual assault and continues to be protected by the local corrupt good 'ol boy system as he refuses to show up for his trial.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vian,_Oklahoma

I read that, and I said, “Dang.” Just like at a Paris, Texas, newspaper where I worked for four years, in 1997 reading year-old stories about the shooting death of a Red River County Commissioner. In one story, a reporter wrote that the county sheriff “had been mentioned as a suspect” by some people. There was no attribution. When I read the statement, I said, aloud in the newsroom, “You can’t say that.” But the reporter did write that, and editors let it into the newspaper. Bad reporting. Bad.

The Vian, Oklahoma, entry did have two footnotes listed. One footnote references a newspaper page that does not exist.

Some searching will lead to stories giving the idea that Vian city government is not quite on the up-and-up, especially when it comes to council members protecting relatives. Still, accuracy and references are required for honesty.

‘You might have to slap me’

One summer at Fort Hood the company was getting ready for continuation of assembly area operations following supper when the company commander picked my platoon to conduct a squad-size night patrol. I assigned the patrol to my senior squad leader, Staff Sgt. Hipp.

When he returned from his briefing at the company command post, Sgt. Hipp advised me of the patrol route. He also said, “Captain Landers told me to make sure I talked to him when I got back.” Company officers slept in a Tent, General Purpose, Small near the CP track. Sgt. Hipp said, “He said he might be asleep, and I was to wake him up.”

“Okay,” I said.

Sgt. Hipp continued. “He said he was a heavy sleeper and I might have to slap him to wake him up. He said I was to wake him up, no matter what it took.”

I said, “Okay,” knowing I would never have given Sgt. Hipp “no matter what” latitude, unless: (1) the safety of soldiers was involved; (2) and we were in a place where pointy bullets were commonly flying around. That was not the situation in a training exercise.

Sgt. Hipp took his squad out just about dark and got back around midnight. He came to my armored personnel carrier and let me know he was back. He said he had not seen anything of importance. I said, “Okay,” and told him to get some sleep. Neither he nor I mentioned his informing the company commander.

Next morning, just after breakfast, Sgt. Hipp and my other two squad leaders were at my APC when the company commander walked up. We all saluted and said, “Good morning, Sir.”

Capt. Landers returned our salutes and said, “Good morning.” Then he looked at Sgt. Hipp. He said, “Did you try to wake me up last night?”

“Yes, Sir,” Sgt. Hipp replied. “I did just what you told me to do.”

The captain stood a little straighter and leaned his head forward. He said, “Did you slap me?”

“Yes, Sir,” Sgt. Hipp said. He had an almost grin on his face.

The captain said, “How hard did you slap me?”

My mind was saying, That’s a dumb question to ask, but before I could make a statement of interference, Sgt. Hipp slapped the captain. Hard. “’Bout like that, Sir.”

I stood there, thinking, “Holy cow.”

Capt. Landers didn’t say anything for a few seconds. He continued staring at Sgt. Hipp. Then he said, “Don’t ever do that again.” He walked away before any of us could salute. I guess he heard Sgt. Hipp’s “Yes, Sir.”

Cromwell, Oklahoma

Cromwell is in Seminole County, pretty much in the center of the state. Most of the town is south of Oklahoma Highway 99A, but the city limits stretch north along either side of Oklahoma Highway 56, extending just north of Interstate 40.

A Valero convenience store sits near the interstate, so one might gather the city annexed the north-south area along Highway 56 in order to take in land at the interstate, on which more name brand businesses might set stakes.

In that way, the intersection of interstate highway and state highway would look like every other similar intersection along every other intestate. You get the same fast food places, the same gasoline/convenience stores. Little boxes made of ticky tacky, as Malvina Reynolds wrote in 1962.

Cromwell was founded in 1923 and named for oilman Joe I. Cromwell. The town was a boomtown, with all the physical and moral blight that goes with the term.

“Virtually overnight during the roaring '20s, Cromwell's population went from zero to 10,000, becoming a lusty oil boom town of shacks, tents, brothels, bars and gamblers. Just as quickly, it shrunk back into obscurity.”

https://oklahoman.com/article/2664872/towns-seedy-past-gets-national-exposure

Cromwell might have had 10,000 people in 1923, but the population dwindled to 249 at the 1930 federal census. The largest population ever was 451 in 1940. The 2010 census has 286 people living there. Fifteen percent of families and 20 percent of the total population live below the poverty line.

In 1924 the town hired famed lawman Bill Tilghman to bring law and order to Cromwell. Tilghman was 70 years old when gunned down by a corrupt federal revenue agent named Wiley Lynn on Nov. 1, 1924.

“One month later the town of Cromwell was torched, with every brothel, bar, flop house and pool hall burned to the ground, allegedly by friends of Tilghman. There was no investigation into the massive fire, and Cromwell never recovered its former wild status, or size.”

The 2000 census showed 84 men for every 100 women and 84.3 men for each woman age 18 and over.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwell,_Oklahoma

End of the world

Note on book store door: “Please note: The post-apocalyptic fiction section has been moved to Current Affairs.”

Real: I was reading the first END-OF-THE-WORLD-AS-WE-KNOW-IT book I ever read, “Earth Abides,” by George R. Stewart, copyright 1949, last week and discovered the end of the world in 1949 was boring. Maybe I’ll give another read to “Alas, Babylon,” by Pat Frank, 1959. That was my second end of the world as we know it book. Read a few since then. The best is “Lucifer’s Hammer,” Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, 1977. But, having a “best end of the world” book is sort of like, “Wow! I really liked that war movie.”

Might not be any help for these people

From St. George News

“They’re gang affiliated people out of Las Vegas. Dangerous, dangerous people.” – Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel.

‘Home invader hiding in dumpster surprised by trash day pick up, deputies arrest 3’

https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2020/03/24/asd-home-invader-hiding-in-dumpster-surprised-by-trash-day-pick-up-deputies-arrest-3/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark#.Xn9YVepKiM9

Link at ace.mu.nu.

AI created to ID hate speech bops minorities

How could that be? AI should be neutral, right? If the results of a study are not what was expected, the method must be biased. Or, in language more plain, white folks developed the system. Ergo, racism.

From Pluralist.

By Kyle Hooten

Researchers from the University of Cornell discovered that artificial intelligence systems designed to identify offensive “hate speech” flag comments purportedly made by minorities “at substantially higher rates” than remarks made by whites.

Several universities maintain artificial intelligence systems designed to monitor social media websites and report users who post “hate speech.” In a study published in May, researchers at Cornell discovered that systems “flag” tweets that likely come from black social media users more often, according to Campus Reform.

The study’s authors found that, according to the AI systems’ definition of abusive speech, “tweets written in African-American English are abusive at substantially higher rates.”

The study also revealed that “black-aligned tweets” are “sexist at almost twice the rate of white-aligned tweets.”

The research team averred that the unexpected findings could be explained by “systematic racial bias” displayed by the human beings who assisted in spotting offensive content.

“The results show evidence of systematic racial bias in all datasets, as classifiers trained on them tend to predict that tweets written in African-American English are abusive at substantially higher rates,” reads the study’s abstract. “If these abusive language detection systems are used in the field they will, therefore, have a disproportionate negative impact on African-American social media users.”

One of the study’s authors said that “internal biases” may be to blame for why “we may see language written in what linguists consider African American English and be more likely to think that it’s something that is offensive.”

Automated technology for identifying hate speech is not new, nor are universities the only parties developing it. Two years ago, Google unveiled its own system called “Perspective,” designed to rate phrases and sentences based on how “toxic” they might be.

Shortly after the release of Perspective, YouTube user Tormental made a video of the program at work, alleging inconsistencies in implementation.

According to Tormental, the system rated prejudicial comments against minorities as more “toxic” than equivalent statements against white people.

Google’s system showed a similar discrepancy for bigoted comments directed at women versus men.

https://pluralist.com/ai-censorship-cornell-study/45566/

Link at knuckledraggin.

Lost

Things happen. You put a bunch of flying machines in the air, some will fall. AH-1G Cobra gunship tail number 67-15596 disappeared on 21 August 1968 and was found on 23 December 1968. The following report states the facts of recovery. 

"On 23 December 1968 at 1200 hours I (LT Tommy D. Mayfield) was notified by WO1 Soderlund of the Air Cavalry Troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment that an AH-1G (Cobra) had been located in the jungle south east of Long Giao, RVN. WO1 Soderlund stated that he believed it was an AH-1G that had been missing from the 11th Armd Cav Regt since 21 August 1968. At this time I was notified that Major Bahnsen, the Air Cavalry Troop Commander, was waiting in an aircraft to fly me to the crash site. The site located at 48P YS 675 735 RVN, was thickly vegetated with a three canopy jungle. The nearest landing zone was 3/4 of a mile away. Major Bahnsen inserted me into the jungle at this point. I was met by a five man ARP team to provide security. I proceeded on foot from this point to the crash site. Upon arriving at the crash site, I noticed that there was dense undergrowth and that the aircraft was in a state of deterioration. The remains after four months were nothing but skeletons. I tried to identify the aircraft, but the tail section containing the aircraft number was missing, and the aircraft identification plate was not accessable. I obtained enough information from the generator, starter, and engine to later identify the AH-1G as 67-15596, belonging to the Air Cavalry Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, missing since 1220 hours 21 August 1968 while on a flight from Vung Tau, RVN to Long Giao, RVN. I proceeded to take pictures of the aircraft using a 135 mm Minolta with black and white film."

P WO1 COLLINS DOUGLAS WOODROW KIA
C SP6 HAMILTON DICK DALE KIA

More men, women get coronavirus than other 55 genders* combined

From The Babylon Bee

BALTIMORE, MD—A new study by Johns Hopkins University found that the novel coronavirus is impacting men and women more than all the other genders combined.

According to the study, 100% of coronavirus cases have affected men and women and not a single other gender.

"It's incredible - we've found this virus is far more likely to affect biological males and biological females than any other biological gender," said Head of Gender Research Dr. Benji Charmin. "We thought the data had to be flawed, but we checked again and again, and sure enough, this thing is aggressively going after men and women and ignoring the other genders entirely."

He shrugged. "It's just science."

Progressives quickly applauded the virus for not attacking any of the other genders and only focusing on traditional, outdated, binary genders.

"Finally, a virus that ignores the demiboys, dragonkin, and those who identify as tater tots," said one activist in Portland. "It's about time the tables were turned. Thanks, COVID-19!" He then headed over to his local Communist cafe to lick a doorknob -- "just my little way of showing my gratitude."

https://babylonbee.com/news/covid-19-impacting-men-women-more-than-all-other-genders-combined

* Apologies to any new gender(s) that might have developed since I wrote the headline.

Bunkered down

Sitting on the patio, waiting for temperature to reach corona-killing range. Down here in Florida, “patio” is pronounced “lanai.” That is Hawaiian for “patio.” I think. Translations not always accurate, “lanai” could mean “Place where silly white people sit in hot sun.”

I am not sitting in the sun. I am not that silly a white man. The lanai is recessed into the house proper. My delicate Irish-gened skin is not directly exposed to the sun.

Those translation things can be in-the-neighborhood meanings, and sometimes words rephrased so as not to embarrass. I just reread “Empire of the Summer Moon,” which has examples of translations rendered more delicate.

The book is a history of Comanche v White People. We know how that 200-year-old conflict turned out. Like other Indians, Comanche were not prejudiced when it came to killing, kidnapping, torturing and raping White People. Spanish, Mexican, Texan, American, African-American – all were equal in the eyes of Comanche. Texans were maybe more equal than other White People, author S.C. Gwynne says, mostly because more Texans than other White People went head-to-head with Comanche, and because Texans were as hard-headed as Comanche and refused to be driven out.

Some Comanche names have been changed by historians because literal translations were ill suited for civilized readers. Buffalo Hump is one example. Buffalo Hump was a Comanche war leader. He raided many a Texas farm; kidnapped many a Texas child, many a Texas woman; fought many times with Texas Rangers.

Buffalo Hump’s Comanche name did not convert literally into accepted translation. Author Gwynne says the literal meaning was … We will just say it was something like “In Permanent State of Arousal.”

“Empire of the Summer Moon” is a good book for this time of social-distancing. A little less than one-third deals with Cynthia Ann Parker and her oldest son, Quanah.

A good read, like I said. And, we will be coming up on summer moons not too long from now.

Concerning different kinds of Texans, historian T.R. Fehrenbach wrote: “The moral, upstanding Comanche who lived by the laws and gods of his tribe enjoyed heaping live coals on a staked-out white man’s genitals; a moral Mexican, for a fancied insult, would slip his knife into an Anglo back. The moral Texan, who lived in peace and amity with his fellows, would bash an Indian infant’s head against a tree or gut-shoot a ‘greaser’ if he blinked.” 

Trooping the colors

"Very pretty, Colonel, very pretty. But can they fight?" – Vernon L. Pinkley.

These redcoats are more than men in pretty uniforms, but they look strangely like the ones we defeated in 1775-81 and 1812-15.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=It50RW-eh0Q&feature=emb_logo

Link at lonestarparson.

A rose by another name

Customer to coffee barista: Why are you wearing a surgical mask?

Barista: I’m not. It’s a coughy filter.

Found at grouchyoldcripple.

The Chinese Virus

Developed and disseminated by a corrupt government of criminals, as are all Communist governments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=57&v=NRD-9-STnvQ&feature=emb_logo

We have a right to buy as much Mountain Dew as we want!

Kentucky couple goes off on clerk who refused to allow them to buy 552 cans of Mountain Dew.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8136527/Couple-furious-told-theyre-not-allowed-buy-TWENTY-THREE-cases-Mountain-Dew.html

(Just from the video, if I were a Kentucky law officer, I would apply for a search warrant. Those two have a meth lab somewhere.)

Celebrivirus

From rt.com.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spawned another epidemic, of incessant celebrity attention-seeking

A bevy of housebound celebrities have (sic) turned a global calamity into a stage-5 narcissism outbreak, in which they compulsively spew their mindless thoughts and feelings upon the rest of us.

Coronavirus is a terrible malady that is killing people and the global economy, but it isn’t the most pernicious pandemic afflicting the globe right now. No, the most diabolical disease currently in circulation is the dreaded Celebrivirus.

The onset of the Celebrivirus starts with a steady stream of verbal diarrhea gushing forth from empty-headed, self-absorbed, attention-starved celebrities, which is quickly followed by convulsive puking and rage headaches from the rest of us. 

The most recent outbreak of Celebrivirus began with a plethora of Covid-19-related videos from a cavalcade of self-aggrandizing stars.

For instance, Matthew McConaughey thought that now was a good time to espouse his incoherent optimism regarding coronavirus.

The Typhoid Mary of Celebrivirus, Madonna, rose from the grave that is her moribund career so that she could, in the nude of course, benevolently inform us that Covid-19 has, in fact, made us all equal. 

Serena Williams publicly lamented that she was “stressed” over the coronavirus. Not having to worry about losing her job, or being evicted, she’s struggling with her stress while safely tucked away in her mansion with her husband, daughter and her gobs of money. 

Serena explained, “I don't hang out with anyone, and when I say anyone I mean my daughter. She coughed, I got angry and gave her a side-eye. I gave her that ‘angry Serena’ and then I got sad.”

Shock of shocks that Serena’s number one priority is the well-being of Serena, and not the health of her toddler daughter. Serena has a boatload of tennis championships, but it seems like the title that will forever elude her is Mother of the Year.

The Celebrivirus that forced McConaughey, Madonna and Serena to compulsively share their idiocy, has also mutated into song version. 

Self-adoring U2 frontman Bono caught the Celebrivirus bug and decided to share with humanity an original song he conjured related to Covid-19. Yikes… this song is pretentious, even for Bono, the Crown Prince of Pretension. Note to aging restless rockstars recording shelter-in-place mediocrity: At least make it remotely decent before you drown us in pompous indulgence.

The most egregious of all the Celebrivirus videos came from Gal Gadot of Wonder Woman fame, who recruited a bunch of her patronizing and condescending celebrity friends like Kristen Wiig, Jamie Dornan, Mark Ruffalo, Amy Adams, Sarah Silverman, James Marsden, Natalie Portman, Sia, Labrinth, Pedro Pascal, Zoe Kravitz and Will Ferrell, who looked like he had just ingested his body weight in cocaine, to sing a truly nauseating version of John Lennon’s iconic kumbaya knock-off ‘Imagine.’ 

On the best of days, ‘Imagine’ is a cringe-worthy number, but in the hands of these smug and self-satisfied jackasses it rockets into the stratosphere of saccharine dreadfulness.

If John Lennon were alive to see this cloying, celebrity-fueled monstrosity he would beat Mark David Chapman to the punch and shoot himself in front of the Dakota Building just to end his own mortification and misery. 

The fact that these filthy-rich stars, not a single one of which is not a multi-millionaire, chose to un-ironically sing the lyric, “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man,” when there are millions of people potentially facing evictions from their apartments, foreclosures on their homes, losing their jobs and life savings, not to mention the fear of getting sick and dying, is a staggering testament to their delusional fanaticism and fatuousness.

Yes, Wonder Woman and friends, people can imagine life with no possessions because most of them live a life with few or no possessions…especially now, since the ranks of the unemployed are swelling from the coronavirus depression. 

It is easy to sing about a world of no greed or hunger when you are rich and nourished. I wonder if they hum “Imagine” to themselves as they drive past the filthy hordes living in cardboard boxes on the street?

It would have been less offensive if Gal and her cornucopia of celebrity clowns started a band named The Marie Antoinettes, then wrote and performed their new song, titled “Let Them Eat Cake.” 

They are so in the thrall of the Celebrivirus they actually thought their syrupy crooning from the security of their golden-gated castles would ingratiate them to the masses rather than inflame hatred.

When I watched these various vacuous and vapid Celebrivirus videos, I didn’t have the insipid ‘Imagine’ playing in my mind. No, my soundtrack was Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’ with its wishful lyric, “when I am king, you will be first against the wall, with your opinion which is of no consequence at all”.

On the bright side, at least the Celebrivirus is bringing ordinary people together out of common animosity toward these narcissists. I know hate is supposed to be bad, but I think in this case it is healthy and helps to keep our collective immune system robust. 

As for a cure for the dreaded Celebrivirus, scientists have found only one…and that is for celebrities to simply keep their moronic mouths shut. In other words…there is no cure. 

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/483855-covid19-pandemic-celebrity-narcissism/

Antifa weapons instruction

Be on guard for the masked man and his Ach Four-Dash-Seven rifle. Made in China, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v61Z3ZvDyRo&fbclid=IwAR22gnjynhXzL-tF3HRE_IZs8xOkTWT-__UKrzVHT_OrFoMUOHUH6b_az0s

Syrian Panzer IVs against Israel in the 1967 war

Syria bought Panzer IVs from France and Czechoslovakia, also StuG-IIIs.

In the 1967 war, both went against Israeli Defense Force Centurions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbgW9C9G0H4&feature=emb_rel_end

Whatever you're used to

A friend in Texas said the oil company had put a new pump motor on the well nearest her house. The new motor had a different sound than she was accustomed to, and was keeping her awake at night. 

I asked, "How many wells do you have?"

"Five," she replied.

I could sleep soundly with one well. I think. I've never had any, so I really don't know.

(Asking someone how many wells she has is not a Texas thing to do, but we knew each other well enough it wasn't bad manners.)

Some dude twerting as Reagan Rose:

“Just heard a British person call Oreos ‘chocolate sandwich biscuits’ and I finally understand why the Revolutionary War had to happen.”

Comment: Hey, (R)ick, where was your head during American history class? Buried in some Duper Hero “illustrated novel?”

Sean Penn wants ‘humanitarian’ U.S. military mobilized

Somehow, a Hollywood liberal's suggestions don't ring true. Maybe he could get his Venezuelan dictator friend to contribute a few billion for the cause.

https://www.rt.com/usa/483729-coronavirus-martial-law-sean-penn/

Washington Post columnist demands TV stop live Trump briefings

“Put him on tape-delay so journalists can counter his rush of misinformation.”

https://gunfreezone.net/wapo-we-must-silence-the-president/

And she cannot understand why people do not believe the writings of her kind. After all, she writes only the truth.

(Alleged) bad guys drive off, leave wounded (alleged) accomplice

From WSBTV.

ATLANTA — A witness to an attempted carjacking ended up shooting the man police say was trying to steal the car.

The shooting happened about 1:45 p.m. at a Shell gas station along Powers Ferry Road at the intersection of Roswell Road in Buckhead.

Police said an SUV with men inside pulled up next to a Mercedes-Benz at the gas station as the owner of the car was filling up.

That’s when police said one of the men from the SUV got out and tried to steal the car.

A nearby witness saw what was going on and shot the man trying to steal the car, police say.

The SUV then took off from the gas station.

The witness stayed at the scene and spoke with police. Investigators said the witness will not be charged.

The man shot was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. He is reported to be in critical condition.

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/man-shot-busy-gas-station-heart-buckhead/JQB7WLOHTRG2ZJNHLUY5WDW4B4/

Link at valorguardians.com.

Questions answered on coronavirus

By Simona Weinglass

The Times of Israel

Professor Yehuda Carmeli is head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and a professor at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. He is one of the medical professionals leading the Israeli Health Ministry’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/coronavirus-explained-22-questions-with-epidemiologist-guiding-israeli-response/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2020-03-20&utm_medium=email

(More answers than I have heard from TV news.)

5 bad guys were not as bad as 1 woman with a gun

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A woman was in her car Wednesday morning at a Wells Fargo ATM in north Charlotte when she said five men tried to rob her, but she pulled out a gun and shot one of them.

It happened around 2:30 a.m. at a Wells Fargo on Beatties Ford Road near Interstate 85.

Police said a 17-year-old boy called 911 to say he had been shot and officers found him behind a church next to the ATM.

He was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

Authorities are investigating to determine if the shooting was justified.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/woman-fights-back-shoots-suspect-after-5-men-try-rob-her-atm-cmpd-says/JWBEPHYRQNFELNBBQB7A55NWYE/

Link at valorguardians.com

What Democrats want

The governor of California has told everybody to stay at home.

Democrats want to rule an empty nation, one where no one is seen or heard, passing laws read only by them, all agreeing on the wisdom of their dictates, surely awarding each other for the diversity and equality of those laws. Not one will realize that diversity and equality are polar opposites.

‘Corona, I’m from Texas’

Dead wild hog serves more than one purpose.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/no-gym-dont-matter-quarantined-minor-leaguer-uses-dead-hog-for-workout/2334237/

Mammoth bone circle

A mammoth bone circle recently unearthed at the Kostenki 11 site in Russia has been identified as one of the oldest and largest in the world. It is a concentric ring of mammoth bones laid in a continuous circle 41 feet in diameter. A preliminary inventory of the bones has counted 51 mandibles and 64 crania of mammoth and a smattering of reindeer, horse, bear, wolf and fox bones. Radiocarbon analysis of samples from across the site date it to 25,063-24,490 years before the present, making it the oldest mammoth bone circle ever discovered on the Russian Plain.

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58141

Mammoth bone circle is a new one to me. 

A joke

You know, you can’t fool all the people all the time, and last night all those people were at my show. – Mitch Hedberg, Feb.24, 1968-March 29, 2005.

Funny Democrats

It is to laugh when Democrats talk about working families. Democrats moved away from representing working people long, long ago. Now, Democrats represent homosexuals; other kinds of sodomites';foreign people who want to walk across our non-existent borders (said borders eliminated by Democrats); elimination of oil, gas and coal as drivers of American industry and comfort; and the idea that the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard should give up and never have again, billion upon billions of dollars spent for protection of this country. Democrats will be satisfied only when the United States is not equal to all other countries, but below average in living standards. And that is not funny.

The Army air guys from that mission

CW5 Englen’s wife said at awards ceremonies when her husband’s citation was read, she would say, “You did what?”

A long read, but worth it.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/03/17/legendary-special-operations-aviator-reveals-bin-laden-mission-details-for-the-first-time/

No panic in Russia

Last Wednesday, Moscow was building three new hospitals to treat people with coronavirus. The city announced roundup of all stray animals and a war on rats. Moscow said it would use facial recognition to make sure quarantined people remained at home.

Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia has coronavirus “under control” and added infections were “contained.”

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/17/virus-situation-in-russia-under-control-putin-says-a69659

Today, Moscow officials denied the city government “will introduce a near-total shutdown of the city to contain the spread of the coronavirus.”

The business daily Vedomosti said today that extraordinary measures are about to be taken in the Russian capital. Moscow officials said citizens should get information from official web sites.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/17/moscow-officials-deny-planning-total-shutdown-to-contain-coronavirus-a69655

When Putin speaks, Moscow listens.

‘Fighting-age invaders’ battle Greek border guards

By Arthur Lyons

The Voice of Europe

The Greek government erected 1.5-meter tall concrete blocks in the Kastanies region of its border with Turkey on Friday. This was done to defend Europe from an invasion of tens of thousands of hostile, fighting-age male migrants who are trying to breach its borders.

For weeks now, Greek border guards have, among other things, been forced to fire tear gas canisters to fend off the invaders who relentlessly continue in their attempts to breach the barriers which separate Turkey and Greece, Anadolu Agency reports.

Since Turkish regime leader Recep Erdogan made good on his promise to “open the gates” and flood Europe with migrants, clashes between migrants – most of whom are fighting-age men – and Greek security forces have become increasingly frequent and violent.

As Voice of Europe has chronicled, clashes between the migrants and Greek security forces reached a new level of intensity last Wednesday when fighting-age migrant men attacked Greek officers during the night with incendiary Molotov cocktails, which set fire to the border fence in the Evros region.

Local media reports indicate that the migrants’ attacks were being supported by the Turkish security forces and that in addition to using firebombs, the migrants employed tear gas which they had obtained from the Turks.

To combat the increasingly hostile migrants – aided by the Turkish regime – Greek security forces have applied their ingenuity to combat the program, and are now using gigantic fans to blowback the tear gas and smoke onto the Turkish side of the border, Voice of Europe reported.

The fans are mounted on jeeps and were deployed yesterday near the Kastanies crossing point in the Evros region. Greek officials said that the massive fans are ordinarily used in parachute training for their airborne forces.

Earlier this week, Voice of Europe reported on shocking night-vision video footage released by Greek authorities that depicts a Turkish tactical armored combat vehicle ripping down the border fencing along the Greek-Turkish border to aid migrant invaders to cross over illegally into Greece.

In response to the attempted invasion of Europe by mostly hostile, military-aged migrant men who’ve been sent by Turkey’s regime leader Recep Erdogan, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has dubbed the Aegean sea and the Evros River the “shield of Europe.”

https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/03/greek-government-erects-1-5-meter-tall-concrete-blocks-at-its-border-to-defend-europe-from-fighting-aged-migrant-invaders/

Bowlegs, Oklahoma

You might think Bowlegs got its name from bowlegged cowboys, that physical appearance suggested from years of riding horses. You would be wrong.

The town in Seminole County was named after Billy Bowlegs, 1810-1864, a Seminole war leader who fought the United States in the Second and Third Seminole Wars. Billy Bolek, as he was also known, left Florida in 1858 after being paid $10,000 to go to the Seminole tribe in the Seminole Nation in Oklahoma. That $10,000 would equal around $306,000 today.

Wikipedia notes: “After reaching Indian Territory, Bowlegs became a leading chief there. He and his daughters became prominent land holders and slave owners. His slaveholding put him in the category of major Southern planters, those with more than 20 slaves.”

Bowlegs died in the Seminole Nation in 1864. He is buried in Fort Meyers, Fla.

Another Billy Bowlegs was a Union Army captain in the American Civil War. He was born Sonuk Mikko, and adopted the name of the more famous Billy Bowlegs. He, too, died in 1864, from smallpox. He is buried in Fort Gibson National Cemetery.

Bowleg’s population was 405 at the last census. Of those, 81 percent were white, 16 percent Native American. Fifteen percent of the families and 24 percent of the total population lived below the poverty line. 

The town was incorporated in 1975 and had its biggest population, 522, in 1980. Before incorporation, a 1926 oil boon brought more than 15,000 people to Bowkegs. 

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=BO028

Millions of Canadian ‘green dollars’ going to Texas company

From Rebel News

“The CEO of a green energy firm that has yet to turn a profit despite millions in subsidies yesterday thanked the Commons finance committee for taxpayer grants.

“I don’t see this as a subsidy,” said Steve Oldham, CEO of Carbon Engineering Ltd. of Squamish B.C. “I see this as strategic support for early-stage companies that have got great ideas.”

“Carbon Engineering, founded in 2009, will not be profitable until “roughly 2023, 2024” and has fewer than a hundred employees, said Oldham. The company since 2011 was paid $36.8 million in federal grants from the Department of Industry, Department of Natural Resources, National Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and others. The Government of British Columbia awarded the company $3.75 million four years ago for total subsidies of $40.6 million.”

“We expect the first plant will make us profitable,” Oldham said. The plant will be constructed near Midland, Texas.

Canadians are paying higher taxes on our food, utilities, heating, and fuel for our cars through a carbon tax so that energy recipients of subsidies in Canada can promise to be profitable somewhere else, where gas and groceries and taxes are cheaper.

Midland, Texas is Oil Boom Town USA, where unemployment today is around 2.1 per cent thanks to oil and gas and yet, one of America's hottest economies is going to get the jobs Canadian taxpayers are subsidizing with millions.

Midland has no carbon tax and no state income tax. It sounds great, actually. No wonder the region attracts businesses.

These green energy companies are advocating for higher taxes on Canadians, then they take our tax money and spend it where their bad ideas don’t exist.

https://www.rebelnews.com/trudeau_liberals_give_green_energy_firm_40_6m_to_create_jobs_in_texas

("I don't see this as a subsidy." Of course you don't! You see it as FREE MONEY. Canadian taxpayers, what there are left of them, anyway, are giving you this "strategic support." I mean, it's like an investment, innit? Right. An investment in the Texas economy for Texas workers. What could be better? For Texas.)

When you take your girlfriend to Texas De Brazil…

…you should expect life to be interesting. But, maybe not this interesting.

From Fox59.

‘New York man inadvertently shoots girlfriend while trying to pay for steakhouse dinner’

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. – A New York man inadvertently shot his girlfriend while trying to pay for their steakhouse dinner, WIVB reports.

Cheektowaga police say 19-year-old Anthony Ciccarelli dined with his girlfriend at Texas De Brazil Thursday evening. He reached into the front pocket of his pants when the bill arrived, and his gun discharged. The gunshot hit his girlfriend in the upper leg.

The couple quickly left to get help. Ciccarelli pulled into a parking lot, and his girlfriend called police requesting medics. She was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Ciccarelli was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.

https://fox59.com/news/new-york-man-inadvertently-shoots-girlfriend-while-trying-to-pay-for-steakhouse-dinner/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Link at Ace of Spades HQ.

Ciccarelli has been charged with the usual charges, but come on. Police have to know his name indicates he knows a guy who knows a lawyer experienced in guns and stuff.

Ach, nien! Das hurenhause, auch?

From RT.

No action will be available in Germany’s capital from now on, after Berlin shut down all public venues in an attempt to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus in central Europe’s most populated city.

The decision was announced by Berlin’s authorities on Saturday. All venues such as bars, clubs, cinemas, theaters and even brothels have been closed, while citizens are effectively prohibited from forming any groups of 50 or more.

“The Berlin Senate decided today that from now on all public and non-public events in Berlin with 50 or more participants are forbidden,” the city’s authorities said in a statement.

Some 216 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Berlin so far, while nationwide Germany has over 3,400 registered cases and eight resultant deaths.

Germany’s system of government is highly de-centralized, so lockdown announcements lie in hands of local authorities. Shortly before the capital’s, a similar move was made by the city of Cologne.

While the coronavirus epidemic has seemingly lost momentum in its country of origin –China– the disease has been spreading rapidly worldwide in the past few days. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the hotspot of the outbreak has shifted to Europe and the daily numbers there already surpass those in China. So far, Italy has experienced this the worst among the European countries – its total number of cases reached over 21,000 and the death toll has surpassed 1,400.

Earlier this week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called upon the citizens to minimize social contact, namely urging children to abstain from visiting grandparents. However, she spoke against tougher border controls, such as those implemented by Germany’s neighbors, to slow down the virus spread. For Germany, closing borders is “not an appropriate response to the challenge,” she argued.

https://www.rt.com/news/483155-berlin-coronavirus-museums-brothels-shutdown/