Moon of Alabama: On The Failure Of The Ukrainian Counterattack

Caelian · 2023-07-11T01:19:09+00:00

You know, I was going to support whoever it is that Olbermann is supporting, but then he was so mean to that nice Cornel West on the Internet that I'm going to have to "Go West" 😺

Caelian · 2023-07-11T01:12:34+00:00

Jeez. I seem to remember having had some respect for Keith Olbermann at one time. But then, I used to respect Paul Krugman before he Hillaried himself.

But then, maybe this is a fake Olbermann 🤔

Caelian · 2023-06-13T15:33:43+00:00

From the Tech wing of the Old Jokes Home:

Actually, Linux is user-friendly. It just chooses its friends carefully :-)

Caelian · 2023-08-03T13:59:19+00:00

You cannot change the race you were born into.

Sure you can! Ask Elizabeth Warren how 😺

Caelian · 2023-07-29T17:55:00+00:00

~~Grassroots~~ Astroturf campaigns like this are not new.

I was going to FTFY, but u/Maniak beat me to it.

Caelian · 2023-06-15T18:27:56+00:00

Without giving it a lot of thought, I say sit tight until the strike fund runs out :-)

SaidIt is going well IMO. We're having useful discussions without the annoyance of our Reddit trolls.

No reason we can't have a SaidIt FNDP. Strikes might make a good theme if we haven't done it recently.

Ella Fitzgerald: Strike Up the Band

Caelian · 2023-06-14T00:21:57+00:00

It's nice not tangling with trolls all the time. Playing with the cat toys was sometimes fun, but it's sure nice not having all those Logical___Conclusion posts. I suppose if we migrate here permanently the rats will follow at some point.

I think Reddit would be glad to have us back-benchers self-deport.

Caelian · 2023-09-13T03:37:32+00:00

Trump won in 2016 because the Democratic Party selected the most hated woman in America as their candidate. If the Democratic Party selects another terrible candidate in 2024 and loses to Trump again, it will be once again entirely their fault. If the Democratic-Republican Party (DeRP) weren't a bunch of corporate stooges there would be no need for third parties.

Caelian · 2023-07-28T14:53:02+00:00

I would venture to say that perhaps RFK Jr is safer with his own security than with the Secret Service 🦊

Caelian · 2023-07-23T22:33:14+00:00

Reminds me of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) when Buggin' Out -- who has a rather original haircut -- is trying to get the neighborhood to boycott Sal's pizzeria. Sweet Dick Willie says: "You wanna boycott someone? You ought to start with the goddamn barber that fucked up your head."

Caelian · 2023-07-12T00:43:45+00:00

It's very hard to say one thing while thinking of its opposite.

Caelian · 2023-07-11T23:31:31+00:00

"Oh, what a give-away" 😺

Caelian · 2023-07-11T23:29:46+00:00

From the Medical wing of the Old Jokes Home

Two psychiatrists are talking. One of them says: "I made the strangest Freudian slip the other day. I was having dinner with my mother and I meant to say 'please pass the butter' but somehow it came out 'you stupid bitch, you ruined my life!' "

Caelian · 2023-07-10T14:16:56+00:00

and they told Yellen to enjoy her evening instead of inviting her to dinner.

That's a devastating insult. But it's appropriate retaliation for the racist propaganda Brandon has been catapulting. I talked about this last February in my Reddit post Brandon attacks "the Heathen Chinee": Moon of Alabama and Geek Times. The Biden administration has been dusting off 19th Century "Yellow Peril" stereotypes to go with those bomb-throwing Bolshies. It's probably effective, given that most Mercans' knowledge of history only goes back to last Thursday.

Caelian · 2023-07-03T14:16:14+00:00

In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo has a long chapter about when an émeute (civil unrest) becomes a révolution. As I recall it, it's not so much a matter of leadership but whether the ruling authorities have become so oppressive that the people decide it's worth risking their comfort to make fundamental changes.

This happened in the révolutions of 1789, 1830, and 1848. There were many émeutes in addition to these, but they didn't make it to the level of révolutions. The émeute of 1832 is notable because Victor Hugo witnessed it and used his observations in Les Misérables. That émeute was unsuccessful, and resulted in the deaths of a bunch of characters on the barricades.

The jury is still out on Macaron's émeute of 2023. He's certainly trying lots of oppressive things to make it a révolution.

Caelian · 2023-06-22T16:08:48+00:00

Yes!

Caelian · 2023-06-17T19:18:52+00:00

If you stick around WotB, you'll be exposed to lots of classic humor, cinema, and literary references. It's very therapeutic, times being what they are.

Caelian · 2023-06-17T16:28:22+00:00

Difficult to argue against "Because Fuck You, that's why."

Michael Moore predicted that Trump would win in 2016 for exactly this reason.

Caelian · 2023-09-07T14:50:46+00:00

That happened quickly.

Caelian · 2023-08-28T17:12:03+00:00

I think that Bernie's opinion on Cornel West is irrelevant, like Bernie's post-2020 opinions on everything else. Bernie, you "coulda been a contendah... instead of a bum" :-)

But let's take a look at Dr. West's performance in the new Emerson College Poll

2024 General Election: Third-Party Candidacy Hurts Biden

In a hypothetical matchup between Trump and Biden, 46% would vote for Trump and 44% Biden. Ten percent are undecided.

With Green Party candidate Cornel West added to the ballot test, 44% support Trump, 39% Biden, 4% West, and 13% are undecided.

“Despite losing ground in the Republican Primary, support for Donald Trump in a hypothetical matchup against Joe Biden increased two points since last week’s poll,” Kimball said. “Cornel West continues to draw support from 7% of independents, 8% from Black voters, and 7% from Hispanics, key demographics that drove Biden’s 2020 victory.”

Biden's support drops a lot when there is the prospect of a third choice. Where he loses support is interesting and very bad news for Biden. Being 5% behind Trump is a pretty bad sign. In November 2020, Biden won 51.3% to Trump's 46.8%, but some of those states were nail-biters. In November 2016, Hillary's 48.2% did not give her enough margin to beat Trump's 46.1%.

On August 18th I posted a similar Fox News poll.

               Total Dem GOP Ind
Joe Biden        44% 88%  5% 29%  
Donald Trump     41%  5% 83% 29%  
Other            12%  5%  9% 38%  
Wouldn't vote     1%  0%  2%  2%  
Don't know        2%  1%  2%  2%

While comparing different polls is problematic since they ask questions differently and sample different people, both polls suggest there is a significant number of voters looking for alternatives to the Democratic-Republican Party (DeRP) candidates. Note that "Other" in the Fox poll scores much higher than Dr. West in the Emerson Poll. That's not surprising, because some people will say "I'll vote for anybody but Trump or Biden" but when you ask "how about X?" they'll say "not that one" :-) Also, Fox's "Other" includes a hypothetical Libertarian candidate, which tend to do 3 to 4 times better than Green candidates.

The Emerson poll also asks about Trump's indictments and Hunter Biden's charges:

Overall, 47% of voters say the four indictments of Donald Trump makes them less likely to vote for him for president in 2024, while 36% say it makes them more likely to vote for the former president. Seventeen percent are unsure or have no opinion.

Regarding Hunter Biden tax and felony gun charges, 46% say it makes them less likely to vote for Biden for president in 2024, while 23% say it makes them more likely to vote for him, and 31% are unsure or have no opinion.

Trump supporters are obviously feistier than Biden supporters.

H/T On the Waterfront (1954) for "coulda been a contendah... instead of a bum." Marlon Brando's best line ever, IMO.

Caelian · 2023-08-08T21:24:54+00:00

Are there any independent candidates in the US?

John B. Anderson in 1980 JBA! JBA!
Ross Perot in 1992

I voted for both. Then the Democratic-Republican Party (DeRP) made sure it was virtually impossible to get on ballots and actually impossible to join debates.

Caelian · 2023-07-07T00:19:49+00:00

Oh for crying out loud. Trump won in 2016 because the Democratic Party leadership nominated the second-most hated woman in America. They are 100% responsible.

Caelian · 2023-06-29T04:31:17+00:00

In 2016 I voted for Jill Stein. To Democrats, that was a vote for Trump. To Republicans, it was a vote for Hillary. So I got to vote three times! All perfectly legal, of course 🦊

Caelian · 2023-09-08T16:22:07+00:00

I suspect that Putin told Musk "that's a nice satellite constellation you have there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it."

Caelian · 2023-09-07T17:43:20+00:00

I want to see our Green expert u/SusanJ's comments on this before jumping to conclusions.

Caelian · 2023-08-31T23:38:55+00:00

As John Anderson said in 1980: "What's to spoil?"

JBA! JBA!

Caelian · 2023-08-06T18:55:05+00:00

The 2016 Electoral College vote had the most faithless electors since the 19th Century, and was the first in 100 years to have more than one. From Wiki-Pooh:

In the 2016 United States presidential election, ten members of the Electoral College voted or attempted to vote for a candidate different from the ones to whom they were pledged. Three of these votes were invalidated under the faithless elector laws of their respective states, and the elector either subsequently voted for the pledged candidate or was replaced by someone who did...

As a result of the seven successfully cast faithless votes, the Democratic Party nominee, Hillary Clinton, lost five of her pledged electors while the Republican Party nominee and then president-elect, Donald Trump, lost two. Three of the faithless electors voted for Colin Powell while John Kasich, Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, and Faith Spotted Eagle each received one vote. The defections fell well short of the number needed to change the result of the election; only two of the seven defected from the winner, whereas 37 were needed to defect in order to force a contingent election in Congress (a tally of less than 270).

I think it's hilarious that with all the Sturm und Drang about Trump, it was the odious Hillary who had more faithless electors. Nelson Muntz says "Ha Ha!"

Caelian · 2023-08-03T04:32:08+00:00

So for you guys the election was stolen?

WotB (WayOfTheBern) members have diverse opinions on most topics. There were some pretty fierce "stop the vote!" advocates at the Reddit WotB right after the 2020 election. But that died down as one election fraud allegation after another fizzled out. Died down, but certainly didn't die out.

Caelian · 2023-08-01T05:40:30+00:00

I saw "It" (1927) with live music. It was fun and Clara Bow is always adorable, but I liked Wings (1927) and The Wild Party (1929) better.

Caelian · 2023-07-15T23:52:22+00:00

He doesn’t have any committee assignments they want to preserve.

But that means they can't threaten RFK Jr with removal of his committee assignments like they could Bernie, Warren, and Klobuchar. Personally, I think RFK Jr is showing a lot of strength. When he was first running every mention of him in the MSM included the words "anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist". TPTB are discovering that AVCT is seen as a plus with a lot of potential voters.

Caelian · 2023-07-13T23:00:06+00:00

The proper term is ‘menstruator’

Don't you mean personstruator? :-)

Caelian · 2023-07-12T22:45:09+00:00

The Goodies had an excellent episode called "South Africa" in which the three Goodies cause all the black people to emigrate to England. Without having black people to discriminate against, the government decides to discriminate against short people. The new system is named Apartheight. Two of the Goodies make the cut, but the other is too short. The two tall ones immediately discriminate against the short one.

Caelian · 2023-06-29T14:36:45+00:00

Here is my favorite essay on this subject. It's from 2016 at /r/jillstein: How I feel as a former Bernie supporter right now:

I feel like I'm in a very large, very crowded room right now, filled with people who are all about to vote on whether we will all go blind, or all go deaf. Oh, and there are also other options on the table that nobody seems to be discussing. Conversations between these people and myself go like this:

"You can't possibly be willing to vote to go blind, can you? Just imagine how terrible that would be!"

"I agree, that sounds awful! Going deaf also seems like an awful choice, I'm going to vote to eat cupcakes."

"Pfft, you're just throwing your vote away. Look around here, nobody is going to vote for that! You might not like it but we're either all going deaf or all going blind and you might as well choose the better of those two options."

"I don't want either of those options. I'd rather eat cupcakes."

"Well I would too, but nobody is going to vote that way. We have a two-choice system set up and we have to pick between two crappy options."

Read the whole thing. It's not long and very well said.

Caelian · 2023-06-27T17:57:55+00:00

We get lots of different opinions about Climate Change at WotB. I've been sadly observing man destroy this beautiful planet since my teen-age years. Thank goodness for Hemingway's The Killers:

"I can't stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he's going to get it. It's too damned awful."

"Well," said George, "you better not think about it."

I've written some philosophical WotB posts on Climate Change, which have excellent comments.

G'bee G'bee G'bee That's All Folks! -- -- Original at Reddit

Death of Civilizations -- -- Original at Reddit

Dormez, Dormez, Mes Petits Moutons (Sleep, Sleep, My Little Sheep) -- -- Original at Reddit

Caelian · 2023-06-17T19:47:07+00:00

I first saw Monty Python's "Spanish Inquisition" on a black&white television (yep, I'm old). I didn't find out until much later that Cardinal Fang is wearing red underwear :-)

Caelian · 2023-06-14T00:38:06+00:00

Always shake a dry martini to waltz rhythm

— Excerpts from "Thin Man" movies, starting in 193, with the great William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora. I once saw her on the stage 😻

Caelian · 2023-10-09T00:00:40+00:00

"Please don't judge me by what I say and do"😿

Caelian · 2023-10-03T14:58:04+00:00

Khanna said that the Democrats need to improve their messaging...

"Messaging" sounds so much nicer than "propaganda" 😺

Caelian · 2023-09-08T16:28:01+00:00

I like Musk's comment:

Every day that passes, more Ukrainian and Russian youths die to gain and lose small pieces of land...

It reminds me of the Norwegian Captain's speech in Hamlet Act IV, Scene 4:

Truly to speak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Caelian · 2023-09-06T18:44:43+00:00

"If Biden can do the job, how hard can it be?"

Substitute Trump and Dubya for Biden.

Caelian · 2023-08-31T13:41:58+00:00

Someone certain to lose the election...

"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it.” — Eugene V. Debs

Caelian · 2023-08-11T21:16:13+00:00

From the article:

JON KING, CNN: If you think the United States should be supporting Ukraine in the fight against Putin, raise your hand.

IOWA VOTERS: [crickets]

KING: Nobody.

IOWA VOTER: You don't have to be that smart to connect the dots, right? So is the war to cover up sins committed, so you can cover your tracks? There's too much money that has been thrown over there...

KING: That's pretty out there.

IOWA VOTER TWO: How do you trust when you know the government has shut down Facebook and Twitter and told them not to show certain news stories?

Iowa voters have good instincts as to when people are lying to them. It's probably from all those decades of retail presidential politics when candidates have to look you in the eye and either tell the truth or lie.

This is one of the reasons the Democrats changed the primary calendar. Brandon can't bear this kind of scrutiny.

Caelian · 2023-08-06T18:03:51+00:00

Electrical engineers have male and female connectors -- and sometimes hermaphroditic ones.

Electricians use hickeys to bend conduit, and build lamps using nipples.

Ethernet bridges use bippy-doos (BPDUs -- Bridge Protocol Data Units).

Caelian · 2023-08-03T21:55:47+00:00

It's amusing he can't see his own description of the "meritocracy" shows that it is not a meritocracy but a caste of a hereditary managers and abusers who do not have merit.

What Brooks describes is an aristocracy in the modern sense: "rule by a privileged group". Not to be confused with the original meaning of the word — "rule by the best" — though they like to think so.

Caelian · 2023-08-03T21:31:36+00:00

David Brooks? This should be fun. Geez, I last saw him election night 2016 with Mark Shields, one of my favorite commentators.

would you want to go back to 1963?

Yes, I would want to go back to Nov 21 and tell JFK not to ride in a convertible.

OK, I read the article. Interesting. I watched "Shields and Brooks" on PBS for many years with my old-fashioned liberal parents. Mark Shields was one of the last (if not the last) of the unapologetic old-fashioned liberals. His commentary was always good-hearted and sagacious. David Brooks, OTOH, was always the apologist for whatever outrageous shit Dubya, Cheney, and other scoundrels were saying and doing. Brooks was clearly uncomfortable in this role of being the village idiot to Shields' wise man.

As I said, I haven't seen Brooks since 2016. So since then, without having to change any of his Reagan Republican nature, Brooks has effortlessly become a Biden Democrat. That says a lot. All of the crap he says about ~~educated~~ credentialed affluent big city anti-Trumpers is an excellent description of the "limousine liberals" who have taken over the Democratic Party. Kudos. He's finally comfortable in his own skin now that he's one of them.

And yes, David, you're part of the Bad Guys now. Both parts of the Democratic-Republican Party (DeRP) are bad guys: the Blue Meanies and the Red Meanies. 😺

Caelian · 2023-07-30T18:49:42+00:00

Time to bring back the "yellowcake" false flag :-)

Caelian · 2023-07-27T04:19:36+00:00

Could be a TIA — Transient ischemic attack, or "mini stroke". Pretty common with elderly people.

Caelian · 2023-07-20T03:34:07+00:00

At WotB, you usually find Internationale socialists rather than National ones 🐻

Caelian · 2023-07-12T00:42:08+00:00

A quotation from Marx (Groucho, The Cocoanuts, 1929). In this scene, Groucho is pitching woo to rich widow Margaret Dumont:

Groucho: If we had a nice little bungalow where we could bill and cow... I mean where we could bull and cow... I mean...

Margaret (serious and somewhat suspicious): Do you know what you're trying to say?

Groucho: Yes, but it's not what I'm thinking of :-)

Caelian · 2023-07-11T18:46:18+00:00

In Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Eric Idle does his excellent imitation of an Austraylian. He says:

American beer is like making love in a canoe... because it's fucking close to water!

Caelian · 2023-07-08T05:29:26+00:00

Yeah. Can't we just wait for all the Russians to kill themselves playing Russian Roulette?

Caelian · 2023-07-04T20:10:06+00:00

The Hunt is on!

Caelian · 2023-06-28T05:39:40+00:00

In 2020, NH had just 24 out of 3,979 pledged delegates, less than 1%. If the DNC refuses to issue NH delegates, it has essentially no effect on voting at the convention. The threat has the teeth of a plastic lice comb.

The NH primary is about momentum. I would love to see NH go ahead with their traditional primary and watch RFK Jr sweep it for the simple reason that NH residents are ornery and value their freedom. "Live free or die." They are also very political and prefer to meet candidates in person before voting.

Caelian · 2023-06-23T14:02:46+00:00

"If you so rich why ain't you smart?"

Caelian · 2023-06-23T01:31:12+00:00

You know, if we let on that "I like turtles" is actually double-secret WotB code for "I hate you-know-whos", our visitors would stand in line to be turtled 🐢

Caelian · 2023-06-22T16:25:40+00:00

Pax vobiscum

Caelian · 2023-06-22T14:42:46+00:00

Here's an appropriate line from the classic British comedy Private's Progress (1956):

You all behaved like a shower, now you are to be treated like a shower!

In this context shower is a British slang term meaning "a shower of shit". Unfortunately I've never seen Private's Progress, but I love I'm All Right Jack, its 1959 sequel with the same cast playing the same characters. Shower is a favorite word of Major Hitchcock, my favorite Terry-Thomas performance. He pronounces the word shaarr, usually in the phrase absolute shaarr.

Terry-Thomas in I'm All Right Jack, with superb character actor John Le Mesurier

Caelian · 2023-06-22T14:27:06+00:00

I would say that he has an interesting approach to Faith :-)

Caelian · 2023-06-20T19:23:17+00:00

Feminism Against Progress

FAP? A rather unfortunate choice of acronym :-)

Caelian · 2023-06-17T19:39:16+00:00

Tolerance is what Satan preaches. Just eat the apple, what could go wrong?

I recently read The Dumas Club (1993) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. There's a character in the novel who has an interesting opinion about Satan. She claims that in the great war, Satan was fighting against God for man's freedom of thought. But since History is written by the victorious side, Satan has been made to look indescribably evil. I've heard similar things said about Richard III.

Terrific novel. It was adapted into Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate (1999), also excellent. Stars Johnny Depp, with an excellent performance by Frank Langella.

Caelian · 2023-06-17T19:29:14+00:00

Do you tolerate pedophilia in your community?

I haven't seen tolerance for pedophilia at WotB.

I haven't seen much tolerance for anti-semitism either.

Caelian · 2023-06-17T19:26:45+00:00

A Christians love is tough. We won't sit idly by while those we care about go down a life-destroying road.

Sounds like the kind of thing they said in the Middle Ages before burning people at the stake.

Blimey, I didn't expect the...

Caelian · 2023-06-17T19:22:42+00:00

It's a Marxist reference, specifically to Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers (1932), in which Groucho says about his son (played by Zeppo):

He's only a shell of his former self, which nobody can deny. Whoopee!

Caelian · 2023-06-17T15:33:32+00:00

I agree with these suggestions. Insisting on "I hate Reddit" is a good way to control 'bots, but does seem excessive. Maybe a pithy Latin phrase like dulce et decorum est pro Reddit mori or Illegitimi non carborundum :-)

Caelian · 2023-06-17T15:25:45+00:00

I've been able to post at Reddit Chat this morning and I'm seeing messages from u/Maniak.

The last post I see of yours in last night's

Yep, it's by design "to limit mod power as was a problem on reddit".

Caelian · 2023-06-16T22:53:04+00:00

The great Glenda Jackson just passed away at age 87. Here is my favorite of her many roles: Charlotte Corday in Peter Brooks' Marat/Sade (1967). Patients at the Charenton Asylum are performing The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat under the direction of fellow-inmate the Marquis de Sade. Glenda Jackson is a sonambulist who plays Charlotte Corday in de Sade's play. She has come to Paris from Caen to assassinate Marat. In the video, she awakes and describes what it is like to die by guillotine. Amazing actress, in one of her first movie performances, reprising her stage role.

Here's an amusing YouTube comment by someone who saw Marat/Sade on the stage:

I remember seeing a production in Newcastle in the 1960s, with a friend who was very stoned, thought it was all happening in real life and made several attempts to join in. Strangely this added positively to the experience.

Charlotte's friend Duperret is dressed as an Incroyable, an outlandish fashion movement that arose in reaction to the Reign of Terror.

Caelian · 2023-06-16T15:17:09+00:00

There must be a noticable revenue hit because they wouldn't be issuing a threat like this after only 5 days of blackouts.

Ah, that wonderful sinking feeling in the pits of their stomachs.

Caelian · 2023-06-14T19:06:22+00:00

In fairness, Bernie did lead many away from the Democratic Party by causing them to expose their hypocrisies in the most obscene manner.

Caelian · 2023-06-14T00:54:53+00:00

The Friends of Italian Opera celebrate "Spats" Colombo's birthday with a surprise cake in Some Like it Hot (1959)

Caelian · 2023-06-13T15:35:32+00:00

Yes, but all WotB members are above average :-)

Caelian · 2023-11-15T02:10:49+00:00

"Deeply Unpopular" sure is a nice way of saying "most hated woman in America" 😾

Caelian · 2023-10-29T03:46:25+00:00

Anything to claw out of the low single digits, eh? Maybe he thinks he can get Mike Pence's End Timers.

Caelian · 2023-10-10T15:32:42+00:00

Amusing, but not hillarious.

Caelian · 2023-10-05T00:48:12+00:00

Is this part of the Democratic Party's new & improved ~~propaganda~~ "messaging"?

Caelian · 2023-09-21T21:02:09+00:00

Thoughts on climate change?

I'm against it.

H/T Calvin Coolidge

Caelian · 2023-09-21T19:04:38+00:00

I hope they declare victory in Ukraine, Russia, and China soon :-)

Caelian · 2023-09-21T18:41:24+00:00

Not "free" any more...

‘Too expensive': Bay Area residents shocked over new COVID vaccine prices

For the first time since the pandemic began, the federal government isn’t paying for most people to get the vaccine. And that’s causing some problems in the initial rollout, Including at CVS stores across the country where some people are finding out the shot comes with a big price tag.

Caelian · 2023-09-21T18:36:25+00:00

You'd think that between Vietnam, Afghanistan, War on Drugs, War on Poverty, Trade Wars, etc., the USA would have gotten used to defeat :-)

Caelian · 2023-09-15T16:05:11+00:00

Kamala is a non-starter, she's Dan Quayle in a pantsuit.

Obliviously on he she sails
With marks not quite as good as Quayle's

-- From Calvin Trillin's 2004 book Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme

Caelian · 2023-09-11T21:35:56+00:00

"O ye of little faith."

Caelian · 2023-09-08T19:54:20+00:00

I'm currently reading Thomas Bullfinch's The Age of Chivalry (1858), an excellent collection of the mythology of Britain, primarily the King Arthur legends. The Author's Preface has this insightful passage:

It is believed that this presentation of a literature which held unrivalled sway over the imaginations of our ancestors, for many centuries, will not be without benefit to the reader, in addition to the amusement it may afford. The tales, though not to be trusted for their facts, are worthy of all credit as pictures of manners; and it is beginning to be held that the manners and modes of thinking of an age are a more important part of its history than the conflicts of its peoples, generally leading to no result.

In other words, those battles you learned about in school are mostly pure waste, echoing Carl Sagan's comment.

Thomas Bullfinch wrote two other books of mythology. The Age of Fable (1855) covers Greek mythology. Bullfinch's Mythology often refers to just this book. The Legends of Charlemagne (1862) is French mythology of the Middle Ages. All are available at Gutenberg.

Caelian · 2023-09-07T20:58:13+00:00

I voted for Ralph Nader in 2020

You probably mean 2000, when I voted for Ralph Nader too. Same typo at Reddit :-)

Caelian · 2023-08-31T22:18:50+00:00

Why doesn't she sue him for defamation and fund her own campaign for president? 🤔

Aha! She just wants to build that mailing list.

Caelian · 2023-08-23T20:48:09+00:00

Now I gotta friend who spends his life
Stabbin' mah picture with a bowie-knife
Dreams of stranglin' me with a scarf
When mah name comes up he pretends to barf...
I've got a million friends

-- Bob Dylan I Shall Be Free No. 10

Caelian · 2023-08-23T17:48:07+00:00

Moon of Alabama has lots of comments about the plane crash in today's excellent article Sunk Cost Fallacy In Ukraine

As usual with Moon of Alabama comments, bring salt.

Posted by Biswapriya Purkayast (usually requires lots of salt IMO) | Aug 23 2023 17:20 utc | 13:

Breaking news:

A private jet belonging to Prigozhin has crashed in Tver, allegedly with eyewitnesses saying it was shot down by Russian air defence. Conflicting claims on whether Prigozhin himself was on board. Tver is northwest of Moscow and very, very far from Ukranazistan so any innocent mistaken identity shooting down is out of the question.

If Prigozhin is really dead and if the plane was really shot down nothing will convince any sane person that it was not deliberate murder at the orders of Shoigu/Gerasimov.

Posted by Ed4 | Aug 23 2023 17:21 utc | 14:

Reported on board the "crashed" aircraft:

Yevgeny Prigozhin
Dmitry Utkin

Russian air defense *shot down the plane*

Posted by Ed | Aug 23 2023 17:27 utc | 20:

RT Breaking News.

Wagner chief among passengers on crashed plane – officials

Evgeny Prigozhin was listed on board the Embraer Legacy that crashed with no survivors, authorities have reported

Wagner chief among passengers on crashed plane – officials

A private jet traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed on Wednesday in Russia’s Tver Region. The Russian Emergencies Ministry said all 10 people on board had died. Rosaviation has since said that Evgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Private Military Company, was listed among the passengers.

OK, it is conspiracy time folks.

Posted by unimperator | Aug 23 2023 17:32 utc | 23:

My guess is Prigozhin will pop up giving interviews within 2 weeks. This is just another coordinated scenario to make fools out of the west.

Caelian · 2023-08-20T00:34:34+00:00

Tulsi was forced out of the race. They fine-tuned the debate rules so she couldn't participate.

I think it was the debate after Tulsi cancelled Kamala that Tulsi was about to cancel Biden as well, but they cut to a commercial just in time.

Caelian · 2023-08-18T19:23:27+00:00

ROFLOL!

The Hunt is on!

Caelian

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