Saturday, August 10, 2019

Gone Fishing.

Raj and I are off for the weekend to visit friends at the beach – or “to the shore” as they say on the Eastern seaboard. 

And shore may be more accurate than beach this year as Lake Michigan - like all the Great Lakes - is near all time record high water levels. As a result even the largest beaches at the State parks are smaller this year and places with smaller beaches to start with have virtually no beach at all.  The water laps at the very base of the bluff and erodes it away.

The stairway to beach access at Orchard Beach State Park remains closed for the season, unless otherwise stated. High water levels in Lake Michigan caused erosion and eliminated the beach area. (Ashlyn Korienek/News Advocate) The stairway to beach access at Orchard Beach State Park near Manistee remains closed for the season. High water levels in Lake Michigan caused erosion and eliminated the beach area.

Related imageOrchard Beach during happier times

Where you could once easily walk for miles along the beach you will now run into impediments that will make it unnavigable on foot.

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Millennials will of course be in a panic, thinking the world is coming to an end. Old-timers like Raj and me know that like nearly everything else in life this too shall pass. We learned this in the early 80’s, the last time lake levels were nearly this high. A particularly fierce August storm hammered the bluff at our Lake Huron cabin so badly that when morning came – bright, windy, sunny and cool – the lower half of our stone and concrete stairs leading down the 40 foot bluff to the beach had become unmoored and tumbled into the lake. Worse, the boat Raj had painstakingly built the year before was also ripped from where it had been winched a quarter of the way up the bluff and tied to a tree. Gone, except for the transom that was still tied to the tree. But that’s another story altogether.

Back to the history-began-the-day-I-was-born kids: of course they believe it is global warming, what else could it be? Poor dears never heard of sun spots and I know they’ll be sorry they insisted on getting rid of fossil fuels in order to save the planet when the next little ice age arrives. The focus of their urgency will quickly shift to the need to save themselves.  Perhaps they’ll end up emigrating someplace warmer, like Mexico.

But I digress…the point is I’m gone. On a vacation of sorts. Not even taking my computer. I’m scheduling this posting to go up Saturday morning and will also have an open thread scheduled for Sunday morning. So do behave, that way you do. I may check in via my phone, but probably not.

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Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you all back here on Monday. Unless I decide to run away from home permanently.

Friday, August 9, 2019

And Now An Important Message For Our Non-Sponsors

Hey kid, I get it: some days you’re just not feeling it.

Four-year-old princess Charlotte showed her cheeky side at The King's Cup regatta. When mum Kate Middleton told her to wave to onlookers after the race Charlotte decided to stick her tongue out instead. Mum of course was appalled.

Trust me hon, sometimes adults feel the same way.

Image result for melania trump dayton el pasoThe President and Melania on the way to El Paso

But when you grow up you have to put on your adult face and do what you need to do no matter how you feel.

Image result for melania trump dayton el paso

POTUS and FLOTUS in El Paso, Dayton

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Unless, that is, you’re a Democrat like Beto O’Rourke. Then you never have to grow up. You and your mouthpiece media will be excused for calling the President names like “white supremacist in chief” and accusing him of being responsible for the El Paso massacre – even though the murderer himself specifically states in his “manifesto” that is not the case. And then, just for effect, go ahead and stick your tongue out at the President…then act shocked and surprised when he responds in kind with a Twitter equivalent.

So yes, darling, go ahead and stick your tongue out at your tormentors. Being a royal you won’t get a chance to do that much longer. And heaven knows, there are a lot of people out there who deserve the gesture.

King's Cup regatta“Let go of me mum, I have an important message for the paparazzi.”

Thursday, August 8, 2019

If It Doesn’t Fit We Must Omit

As Byron York asks “Has anyone actually read the El Paso manifesto?”

Answer: Irrelevant. If anyone in the MSM has read Crusius’ manifesto they certainly are not reporting on the murderer’s rant which he titled “An Inconvenient Truth” because it contains well, far too many inconvenient truths. Beginning with the fact that his inspiration was Christchurch, New Zealand murderer Brenton Tarrant, not President Trump.

Nothing else should surprise anyone anymore but Aaron Klein at Breitbart lays out the incohesive ramblings of the sick and not-so-bright mind of Patrick Crusius in “Nine Themes in El Paso Shooter’s Manifesto the Media Ignored to Blame Trump” that the MSM doesn’t want you to know about. Because the mantra of the Arch-villains of Propaganda is “if it doesn’t fit we must omit.”

Image result for if the media doesn't report it isn't realMissing facts

Imagine the day when the entire country wakes up to the realization that it isn’t President Trump who is “perpetrating racism, hate and division” but rather the “esteemed” Fourth Estate. People really don’t like being lied to, especially by paid propagandists who discard the truth as casually as they do yesterday’s newspaper.

Propagandists have always accused their enemies of doing precisely what they are doing themselves. So turnabout being fair play and all, let those who feel compelled to blame the President’s “rhetoric” for mass murders stand hereby accused of said atrocities themselves as a result of their own rhetoric.

And I ask you, who are the real Nazis here? Us, or the Goebbel-esque media committed to the propagandists’ credo “repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth?”

Beware the Fourth Estate when they are no longer satisfied (or qualified) to win the day through the power of reason communicated via the written word. At that point they choose to be the sword.

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Wednesday, August 7, 2019

History Doesn’t End, It Repeats

I wonder if this will exhaust the illusion of Democrats as the purveyors of social justice and the political home of societal change:

Trash and rat sightings map of Baltimore:

Poop map sightings of San Francisco:

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If the reality of living in the midst of trash, rats and people pooping in your streets isn’t enough to exhaust the basic illusion of liberalism I wonder what will.

Let it be noted that even Mr. Fukuyama, who prematurely announced the end of history in 1992 as it appeared that Western liberalism would prevail on the world stage, has reexamined his premise and found it lacking.

History doesn’t end, it repeats

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

I Rest My Case

Nate Silver was the first to criticize the New York Times headline yesterday, “Not sure 'TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM’ is how I would have framed the story.”

Well of course not, it doesn’t say “Orange Man Bad!”

Meanwhile Ohio Rep. Candice Keller took to Facebook to assail the real reasons behind these crimes and was of course instantly assailed for it:

Criticism of her comments came fast and furious from every front, including Butler County Republican Party Chairman Todd Hall who said this was a time for prayer and reflection – not accusatory comments like Keller's. Again, of course: accusatory comments regarding shootings are the exclusive purview of the progressive left.

But back to the NYT headline, “TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM.” Following Nate Silver’s tweet they were instantly condemned by such luminaries as AOC, Corey Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Beto O’Rourke. In case you can’t figure out why, it’s that it was, uh, too neutral. As explained by the Washington Post that’s just wrong, wrong, wrong:

For many, the headline fell short of the expectations placed on media outlets in the Trump era to provide context, and in some cases fact-checking, when reporting on the president’s remarks.

AOC’s criticism spelled it out best:

"Let this front page serve as a reminder of how white supremacy is aided by – and often relies upon – the cowardice of mainstream institutions."

Naturally, the venerable NYT caved and came up with a more suitable alternative for the second addition: “ASSAILING HATE BUT NOT GUNS.” There you go! That’s more like it: “Orange Man Bad!”

Here’s my two cents, directed at the progressive left that runs Hollywood, Big Education, Big Government and Big Tech: if you’re the one who opened the backflow valve on the sewer line you have no right to criticize the smell of sewage everywhere.

Or in the immortal words of Bill Maher: “Hollywood isn’t your cesspool, America. It’s your mirror.”

I rest my case:

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Monday, August 5, 2019

Well Butter My Biscuits!

I knew it! Citizens in countries with more butter are happier. 

Image result for butter croissantOf course they are!

Image result for lobster melted butterEven lobsters are happier with butter

The article graphs countries’ happiness index against their butter availability and shows a clear, statistical link between self-reported levels of life satisfaction and per-capita butter supply. Interestingly, I note that the journalistic community that normally doesn’t bother to note, let alone question, the difference between causation and correlation in other crackpot “studies” they report on takes the trouble to ask here “is it causation or correlation?” Their skepticism kicks in only when one of their touchstone beliefs like “fat is bad” or “Orange man bad” is challenged.

Here is my own, off the top of my head, recollection of things the experts have once deigned either good or bad for us, but have subsequently changed their minds about (in some instances twice): coffee, eggs, salt, saturated fats, butter, nuts, potatoes, carbohydrates, whole milk, coconut oil, red meat, red wine, chocolate, baby aspirin, multitasking, plastic bags, toilet paper….

The take away for today: if butter makes you happy - and why wouldn’t it? - eat more of it.

Image result for butter cow The Ohio State Fair Butter Cow

In fact, why don’t we just ship all of our surplus butter to Guatemala, Nicaragua,  Syria, Iran, and every other ‘sh*thole country that wants to invade and/or destroy us. Maybe if they’re happier they’ll just stay home and make their own countries great. And if that happens maybe all the illegal aliens in our midst will go home.

Related imageET, in butter

Now forgive me while I go enjoy a Canadian butter tart with my covfefe.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Be The Seagull

If at first you don’t succeed…

- Racism!

- Misogyny!

- Homophobia!

- Islamophobia!

- Russia Russia Russia!

- Collusion!

- Obstruction!

- Racism!…

try, try, again. That’s the modus operandi and mantra of the Left. Anyone, anywhere, anyhow to achieve their objective. Maybe ‘white supremacist shooters’ will finally do the trick.

How do you spell ANTIFA?

Whatever they do the one thing we know is that it will be Trump’s fault. Because Orange Man Bad.

All I know for certain is that each of us has but a finite number of days on this earth and nobody knows for sure what that number is. It is wise to not squander any of them, which makes it a good day to shut off the TV, put your computer away and turn off your phone. Maybe go to the beach and jot down a few thoughts.

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Listen to the gulls,

listening back to you.

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The seagull is a pesky, noisy, resourceful bird. They can adapt to nearly any environment and are capable of unbelievably long flights of both fancy and survival.

Be the seagull today.

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