Ah, to be insulted in such a way

is true praise, especially when they don't mean it that way.
“You’re being pedantic.”

“I’m describing the difference between invasion and being invaded. Civilisations have occasionally found that distinction useful.”

Nadia shook her head.

“This is why these conversations are impossible. You keep retreating into facts.”

I stared at her.

It remains one of the finest accusations ever made against me.

Nadia reminds me of Occasional-Cortex insisting that people were "more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right."  In her definition of 'morally right', of course.

I will throw in it's leftists, after a brutal murder, telling people to 'train with hammers' like the communist who murdered a woman, because that's such a morally correct thing...

History, messy it is

but I'm sure someone will inform us how human sacrifice was just their honoring their gods, and thus it's all good.

No matter how many altars and skull towers turn up.

A bit of news catchup

The Islamification of England is not a function of collective guilt or a deep-seated desire for cultural suicide.  No, it is purely a function of the perpetuation of the English class system, and as common Englishmen became middle class, a new class of low-wage laborers was necessary to sustain the aristocracy. The fact that those laborers imported a cultural ethos that is destroying England is of no matter to those benefiting from the low wages of these jihadist immigrants, and the forcible suppression of English free speech, English patriotism and the cover-up of rape gangs are simply the police being used as instruments of economic survival by the aristocrats.
Seems to fit, doesn't it?  Whole piece here.


Come to this country, overstay, then assault someone for wearing the wrong clothes.  And your asshole husband managed to avoid that, but throws fits about our President('I hope his family gets cancer) is all upset she's in a cell.


Tim Walz is an even worse piece of shit than previously thought.  He had to work at it, but he did.


Well, at least it wasn't handed out by a watery tart.  


That's it for this morning.

There's a new movie of 'The Odyssey' coming out

that's upset a bunch of people in various ways.  One of them is the lady chosen to play Helen of Troy, who said Homer 'didn't have much to say about women'.  In the story of a warrior traveling back home from Troy who wound up using ten years to do it.  Well, a guy has a response:

OK. So Helen’s beauty sparks a war. Athena is a strategic goddess guiding Odysseus. Penelope embodies clever loyalty. Circe turns men into pigs, which frankly is still the most realistic female character arc in literature. Calypso traps the hero on an island for seven years. Cassandra can literally see the future but nobody listens, making her the first woman in recorded history to experience a meeting. The Sirens weaponize music. Nausicaa saves Odysseus when he washes up naked and useless. Andromache gives one of the most devastating anti-war speeches in the Iliad. Hecuba is basically the emotional wreckage of empire in human form. Aphrodite starts half the problems in Western civilization by being hot and petty. Hera is running divine opposition research. Thetis gets Zeus involved because Achilles is having a workplace dispute. But apart from Helen, Athena, Penelope, Circe, Calypso, Cassandra, the Sirens, Nausicaa, Andromache, Hecuba, Aphrodite, Hera, and Thetis... WHAT HAS HOMER EVER DONE TO GIVE FEMALE CHARACTERS ATTENTION?

Polymarket

@Polymarket

Jul 6

JUST IN: Lupita Nyong’o, who stars as "Helen of Troy" in the upcoming Odyssey film, criticizes Homer for not giving female characters enough attention.

I'd say she's never read any of it.

Two things this evening

First, Calvin Coolidge's words about the Declaration on its 150th Anniversary:
About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.


The second, I'll link so you can read the whole thing, from Lawdog a few years back:

My siblings and I grew up in Africa, and the Middle East. We have seen poverty — the poverty where mothers make cold-blooded decisions about which child to sell so that she can feed the rest of her children.

America’s poor enjoy a level of comfort that is the envy of the well-off in Africa.

My brother and sister an I have seen repression — we have seen the crushing of the Ibo people (and we saw how the Ibo people treated their own ohu1 and osu2); the ‘Years Of Lead’ in Morocco aren’t a mystery to us; we weren’t there when the Gukurahundi3 swept through Matabeleland, but we knew some who disappeared; we saw the comfortable contempt of the Emiratis for the Filipino and Baluchi; and we have close personal experience with the casual repressive brutality of those cultures and many others.

America’s people enjoy a freedom from brutality and repression that is unimaginable for most of the rest of the planet.

Is America perfect? Of course not, but it is the closest thing to it that we will find this side of the grave.

Happy 250th 4th to you all

I'm going to borrow a piece from the original draft that would cause problems for those who hate Jefferson:

he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

As told my kids a long time ago, the founders of this country were people, with all the faults of any; doesn't mean they didn't try to do it the best they could.  And we've still, despite idiots and evil men, got the results of their best, and it's up to us to keep them.


And, because it never hurts to repeat, how it came out

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

In "My, this could be very useful", we have

the start of the stillsuit.  Doesn't process your own body water, but still could be damned handy.


I mentioned the other day the Democrat calling for murder as a standard action by Democrats; I can't find the article, but remember Van Jones?  Self-described as a 'revolutionary Marxist' when he hit the airwaves?  He's having fits about the open communists running for office- or in office- in NYeffingCity.  The question that comes to mind is, does he actually think they're going too far, or just being too open about it?  Bunch of other Democrats as well, and they're smashing the actual American Democrats.  This will not go well.


The Brit government is still working hard to destroy the country.  Multiple rapist gets out of prison early, AND can't be deported.  Wonderful.


Someone mentioned and I looked up Thomas Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration.  One part in particular I wish had remained in it, would've saved a world of trouble in generations to come.


Unconnected with the above, the physical therapy on the shoulder has moved from "Let's loosen you up some" to "Let me know when this gets to the 'almost too much' point, which caused me to laugh and refer her to the torture scene in 'The Princess Bride', which made her laugh.

Too close to the edge for comfort at times.

And now I've got crap to take care of and not enough time.

Commander Salamander on a idiot politician finding out

that his pretending "I'm with you!" to the terrorist supporters and communists in general won't save him.

There's a lot of them finding that out lately.


I hadn't realized this, idiot Europeans actually built hospitals without central air.  So it's not just keeping commoners from having it in their houses.  The insanity of these Net Zero people is amazing.

And some good stuff on US history

All I have to say

 

Be a lot of kids on those ships,

so it doesn't surprise me.  I'll bet some Democrats have already bitched about these child abusers being caught.

Especially that asshat in Californicated who wants to be their next Senator.

Speaking of asshats, remember that idiot mayor of Charlotte who wouldn't use that murdered girls name, and made excuses for the murderer?  She's resigning, which brings up did she get tired of being such a criminal lover(illegal aliens as well as general murderers), or did she find out someone got something on her that would cause her to be forced out?

There's been a lot of people who've made either excuses for the Aztec history of sacrifices and cannibalism, or tried to convince people it didn't happen.  Someone's started a thing about "If the Aztec had beaten the Spanish attacks off and modernized in their own time and way", so a guy dug out some quotes from witnesses.  Aided, I will note, by all the skull towers and so forth that've been found over time by people doing utility work or construction in the Mexico City area.

Sybil Ludington

There damn well should be a statue.  A better-known one.

She was born in the middle of the Depression,

and the first home she remembered was a railcar.  Her father worked for the railroad, and in that area a family got a car of their own.  She remembered it as being divided into a private bedroom with her sister by hanging sheets, there was a well of clean water nearby and a woodburning stove inside for cooking and heating.

The town this was in no longer exists, disappeared a long time ago.

She grew, and went to school.  Years later she met and married Dad, and raised two kids.  

She smoked, but the day she found out she was pregnant she stopped.  Her father died of lung cancer- smoked all his life- years later.  Her mother died, whether dementia or Alzheimer's I don't remember, but it scared her half to death.  Watching her mother become a warm body that couldn't talk, or feed herself, was terrifying, and she once told me "If I get that way, you put me in a home, you don't use your whole life taking care of me!"

Well, she avoided that fate.  Until the last few days she could talk, and thought clearly, and in the end died in her sleep.

Like Dad, I will always remember her.

April 19, a very important day

Patriots Day. Marking April 19, 1775. When Americans took up arms against their king, and bled, at the crack of terrible dawn.

It's a holiday in Massachusetts and Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts. Should be a national holiday.

July 4 marks the day they published a piece of paper, telling the king to shove it. Important. Up until then it was a civil war. Americans who considered themselves Englishmen fighting British troops. After that, it was Americans fighting the British for their independence.

Patriots Day is first blood.

I ran across this a couple of years ago, lost track of it, and just found it again, what DID happen to the buffalo? (added)

Interesting argument that the buffalo hunters did real damage, but not the main cause of those numbers dying.

“When that management was removed, the bison critically overpopulated and damaged the vegetation. Then you had crowded, starving bison in a severely degraded range that couldn’t begin to support them. That meant that their immunity was gone, and epidemic could rage unchecked. The most fascinating thing is that tick fever and anthrax both seem to be native here. Bison had suffered from them for maybe thousands of years without ever being driven extinct by them. But once they were no longer managed, once their range was destroyed from neglect, then the weakened bison were wiped out by familiar diseases.”Dr. Sierra Stoneberg Holt

Added: Commenter left this link which has some more information

Seems the Brit leadership doesn't want any cop belonging to any organization

whose ethics might involve saying 'No' to being misused.


An interesting piece of history from Mexico.  I'd read of these, but never knew obsidian could be flaked to make pieces that straight.

I wonder if they'd work as a straight razor for shaving?

Australian 'leadership':  "Who cares if the murders were religion-related, what about that guy's tattoo?!?"

Minnesota.  And a few other places from what's coming out.  Oh yes, examples must be made.
And a bunch of Republicans need to figure out that if they're part of preventing that, their asses need to be gone at the next election.

'Why we fight them tooth and nail'

Nothing outside of a pure ban will satisfy gun banners.
This, you'll notice, includes the clowns in Australia and Britain and damn-near all of Europe as well.  And that's just their start position.


A good background on how Minnesota got this way, and how/why they're trying it other places.
Which goes very well with this from Lawdog: "You can take the clans out of Africa"


Yes, the wonderful Canadian Free Health Care.  Which seems to have modeled itself on the craphole that Britain runs.


Something I hadn't thought of, but it would fit right in with why Harris chose Walz for her running mate.  And I hope some people are really digging into where all her money came from.


A bit of history on Ben Franklin and the rattlesnake.

If you'll excuse me, there are things that need doing other than me sitting here wondering what all of the current crap I want to yell about.

Man, they really want history to be what they prefer,

not what it was.

‘First black Briton’ honoured by BBC was actually white

And, apparently, the fact that if she had been black she would almost certainly have been a Roman slave, didn't matter to them.

Ain't these people wonderful?

December 7

 

If you've never read his post on Thanksgiving and the many tribes,

you might want to take a look at it.

If nothing else you can use it to help annoy the right people.

Yes, the Aztec really were a bloody-handed bunch,

and no, the Spanish didn't make this stuff  up to excuse the conquest.