Trump's Fans

Dan Amselem, another son of one of my favorite bloggers, The Diplomad, recently attended the Donald Trump's rally in Costa Mesa, California ... the one that should have been featured in the national news but wasn't ... because of the number of protesters waving Mexican flags and trashing cars, including police cruisers. Dan has written an account of this rally that is very informative ... see: The Diplomad. Rather than require that you read this entire narrative, allow me to quote two of its more interesting passages that caught my eye:

The first thing I noticed about those people in line was that it was majority women. I thought, it would be mainly white guys, but no, it was mainly women. Lots of minorities, as well; I was quite surprised.  

As noted, the most interesting part of the rally proved the demographics: it was probably 60% women. Lots of minorities as well, plenty of people holding "Latinos for Trump" signs. It was a good mix of African-American, Asian, White, and Hispanic--everybody got along well. 

Now I know that the popular meme says that women and minorities will not support Trump in the general election if he is the Republican candidate. Dan's observation seems to suggest that this may be another purposeful piece of media misdirection.

More Headlines

Here are more headlines recently seen on Internet news sites:

Naked restaurant [in London] waiting list now 30,000

Missing dog found after 10 years

Talking cat collar 'translates' meows into human speech

Somebody already born will live to be 1,000

In six months since budget deal: debt up more than $1 trillion

How doctor plans to perform first human head transplant

Obama: Trump ran for president to promote his hotel business

Elephants to perform for final time at Ringling Bros. circus

Berkshire [Hathaway] stockholders reject 'climate change'

Detroit teacher sick-outs close more than 90 schools

Obama budgets $17,613 for every new illegal minor

Registrate y Vota

Community organizers are essentially the ground game for the Democrat party and, in many instances, this ground game is meant to subvert the laws of the United States ... such as, in California where they are trying to register Latinos to vote so that they can support Democrat candidates in the Fall ... see: The Press Enterprise Story. This article implies that these registration efforts are only for legal immigrants ... but anyone who pays attention knows that illegals are also being recruited (now that, in many states, illegals have driver's licenses.)

And the community organizers doing this work are quite often front organizations like PICO, the Center for Community Change and many others (often funded by government grants and tax-exempt charitable donations) ... see: New York Times Article. This article also points out that many colleges are now offering courses in community organizing and acting as conduits ... feeding this progressive movement.

And these community organizers are also then used on Election Day to get out the Democrat vote.

Before he became a politician, Barack Obummer was a community organizer in Chicago for three years ... see: Byron York Article. Community organization is but one way that the Democrat party maintains its grip on governance despite the fact that only 31% of Americans consider themselves to be liberals ... see: Wall Street Journal Article. The other is liberals' insidious infiltration of higher education and our national media. As I have previously said, no well-meaning government program, like community outreach, cannot be subverted for some self-serving end.

reddit Gallery CCCLIX

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Bigar waterfall, Romania

Narwhales

Leave Me Alone

An Ent

Venice at Dusk

Bald Blog

Jeff Bezos

It seems that being a multi-billionaire, mega movie star or chick magnet is not enough these days ... you must also have a chrome dome ... long before your time.

LL Cool J

What is this about, as a young male, having a fully-shaved head and lack of body hair? Is appearing like a newborn baby sexy? Or is it a matter of hygiene? Lice?

Bruce Willis

Perhaps it is to hide the fact that one only has a monk's fringe of real hair and is chagrined by it?

Charles Barkley

Shaving one's head every day must be a real pain in the toucas ... but it has now become de rigueur to show that one is super hip.

Mr. Clean

I shake my hirsute head at this modern mores mania.

ICE Water

President Obummer must have ice water flowing in his veins ... for since 2013 his Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a division of Homeland Security, has released back into the United States's general population 86,288 illegal aliens who had been tried and convicted of serious crimes ... in blatant contradiction to his oath of office and the laws of our land that require that they be remanded back to their native countries. See: CNS News Story for many of the serious and fatal consequences of this administrative malfeasance.

What cynical hatred of one's country would cause this man-child to govern in such a reckless, punishing and unpatriotic way? Historians will be analyzing this pathology for many years to come ... but my naive take is that there is a well-disguised social-psychosis that drives Obummer to slake a vengeance on his mostly innocent countrymen for some past slights ... either real or imagined. He performs this oily retribution while glibly dancing away from any consequences under the protection of a still adoring media and a cowardly Congress.

Yes, we have had many incompetent presidents in the past ... but Obummer is clearly a first ... as one who is slyly trying to destroy or at least severely damage the very country he is supposed to serve.

To really get your blood boiling visit: Center for Immigration Studies.

Quotes of the Day

"The soft bigotry of low expectations"  from No Child Left Behind legislation

"There is no well-meaning government program that cannot be subverted into something evil." -- George W. Potts

Headlines

I have found the following informative and/or humorous headlines on-line just over the last few days ... and deemed them interesting enough to collect them into a blog entry. I may be offering you more of same in the future:

European plan to reduce CO2 emissions actually increases them

Traffic lights in sidewalk so smart phone users don't have to look up

Family has first girl after 101 years of boys

Four out of five criminals in European capital [Copenhagen] are foreigners

Burgler sues homeowner who shot him

Obama administration fails to screen Syrian refugees' social media

Rising CO2 levels greening Earth

Dog dies of exhaustion after rescuing 7 people from Ecuador quake

Venomous spider bites man's penis

Just 37% of High School Seniors Prepared for College in Math, Reading

Meat Tax Proposed [in Denmark] to Fight Climate Change

Trump's Foreign Policy

Too bad that Donald Trump can't read from a Teleprompter with the aplomb of Obummer ... but he did do a credible presentation job yesterday with his basic approach to the foreign policy he would implement as president, I just read an expert on these matters, The Diplomad's assessment and he gives Trump high marks on his approach ... you should read this assessment too ... see: Trump's Foreign Policy Address. There is little I can add to these remarks other than it is refreshing to see Trump's active, forward-leaning foreign policy rather than our current passive, defeatist one.

A Perfect Anecdote

I am frequently accused of using anecdotal evidence to make a point. Ah, but those accusing we, who wish to have voters' identification validated, have found the ultimate anecdote to press their case against supposed "voter suppression." I doubt that a more sorrowful case of someone fighting the system to get a picture ID -- so that she could be validated -- could be found than this 107-year old black woman from Washington, DC  ... see: Yahoo Story.

Even though this woman, Virginia McLaunn, doesn't need this ID to vote in DC, she did need it to board airplanes to go to media interviews around the country. So perhaps this is really a story about airline-travel suppression. I am also curious about how this woman got into the White House to do a sit down and photo op with President Obummer prior to this exploding anecdote. Wouldn't she also need a photo ID for this visit? And I am also equally curious about her method of buying any schnapps that she might consume ... as she would also need a photo ID for that too.

Oh well, no logic is too strained or anecdote too tiny when liberals are trying to generate media outrage over one of their pet causes.

A Scoop?

The FBI has stated it won't reveal how it unlocked the IPhone in the San Bernardino terrorist case ... see: EarthLink News Story. However, your intrepid blogger heard a scoop on a talk radio show this AM ... a credible claim that five ex-IBMers did the job for a cool $1.4 million. And this was just for that single IPhone. Additional smart-phone unlockings go for the same amount. Pretty lucrative business model.

Frustration

I understand Brent Bozell's frustration at Donald Trump's being the presumptive nominee of the Republican party ... see: his Open Letter to Conservatives. But desperate times require desperate measures and it appears that most of blue-collar America doesn't agree with Bozell's assessment of the situation. Yes, Trump is too often wrong on style but right on substance and this has turned many voters off (like my wife). Even I have spent a considerable amount of this blog space criticizing Trump's vulgarities. But now, resolving myself to his eventual nomination, I am forced to concentrate on his approach to the real issues of our time.

If Trump were to be elected ...  which I now consider highly likely ... how would he govern? I believe that he would go a long way toward solving our economic malaise through tax and regulation reform. (He is even against the carried interest tax loophole enjoyed by the hedge-fund nabobs,) I also believe he would find ways to fix our immigration and international trade problems ... in a tough but rational way. And I expect that our fiscal debt goblin would be put back in the closet through spending cuts and economic growth. Yet he would still rebuild our defense capabilities and put apprehension back in the minds of many the bad actors in the world.

But how would Trump handle the social issues that conservatives, like Bozell, are so focused on? Here I am not so sanguine. I expect that he will disappoint many righties in how he reforms Obamacare and Common Core ... and his Supreme Court picks may not be the best. (Wouldn't it be great if he used Ted Cruz as an adviser in this process?) And his approach to solving entitlement  reform could well be too tempered by the brickbats being tossed at him by the liberal media.

And the Trump administration probably will have its share of faux and real scandals ... just because his management style has often allowed the fringes of society to have a chair at the table. And he will come out of the White House a lot wealthier than he was when he went in.

Will Trump be another Ronald Reagan? No, but he may be a modern-day Andrew Jackson, also a rough and tumble politician ... and put Old Hickory's picture back on the double sawbuck in the process. And the best part? Lena Dunham, Rosie O'Donnell, Michael Moore, and lots of other goofy glitterati will soon be living north of the 49th parallel.

The In Crowd

"I'm in with the in crowd" -- Dobie Gray Sings

Yes, it's true ... many too many people traditionally vote for candidates whom they think are going to win. That is why media companies produce polls based on biased samples or on questions slanted to get the results they want. And this is why, more and more often, we are seeing polls that miss the actual voting results by an embarrassing degree ... particularly in times like the present when there is a popular revolt growing against such media manipulations.

So, is Hellery beating both Trump and Cruz by the amounts being touted in most of the current media polls ... and losing to Kasich (the Republican candidate preferred by Democrats to be run against)?

I have my serious doubts ...

Afterward: Now in one non-media poll it is a little closer ... see: George Washington University Poll.

The Easter Island Effect

The son of a blogster I frequently quote, The Diplomad, has written an interesting and thought-provoking article on the economic malaise that is currently eating at Japan. His name is Yonathan Amselem and he is at the Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank in Alabama .. see How Central Planners Crippled Japan's Economy. This man has obviously studied this Japanese issue thoroughly and is much more versed on its pluses and minuses than I. But he has provoked a thought in me ... suggested by his reference to the Japanese demographics which brought to mind Easter Island and what I will call the Easter Island Effect.

He points out that more adult diapers are sold in Japan than baby diapers. This is a clear indication that the population there is aging and in decline ... losing its youthful vigor.

Japan is a densely populated island with few natural resources which early-on resulted in its foray into brutal colonialism and even greater territorial ambitions in the mid twentieth century ... which was eventually slapped back by Harry Truman's A-bomb. As a release, after rebuilding its war-ravaged infrastructure, this nation's industrious population embraced the management and quality-control teachings of W. Edwards Deming (see: Wikipedia Entry) and went on a manufacturing and trading blitzcreig that lasted for forty years ... until the meddlesome government as described by Mr. Amselem started botching things up.

Back to the Easter Island Effect. Easter Island once had a very industrious population which created huge stone statues to its gods called moais. However, at Easter Island, being extremely remote and unable to expand geographically, demographics eventually took over and its civilization collapsed ... see: Wikipedia Entry. An analogy can be drawn between Easter Island and Japan in that demographics may be the bigger culprit in Japan's economic malaise than its meddlesome government.

Just a provoked thought ...

What Rules?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

More Consequences

I have commented in the past about what things, like terrorism, are being caused by global warming ... see: Consequences. As an homage to last week's Earth Day, the following items have also struck me as obviously being consequential of our not banishing carbon dioxide and worshiping the godess Gaia:

- It gets warm in the United States in August and is freezing in January, whereas in Argentina it is just the opposite ... weird!

- Earthquakes happen on a regular basis on Mars ...  clearly as retribution for our environmental neglect.

- Each generation of Americans are getting more and more obese ... except for The One, Obummer, an indication of his being a true believer.

- Democrats represent 97% of all climate scientists ... a settled statistic.

- Polar bears and penguins are flourishing and their populations expanding ... surely as a result of the more temperate nature of our polar regions.

- China's economy is only growing at about 7% per year ... obviously as punishment for its skepticism toward the effects of carbon dioxide on our atmosphere.

- Most celebrities and politicians have been forced to take their private jets to climate-change conferences.

Forgotten Fact

Here is a bit of embarrassing President Obummer (and Hellery Clinton) "stupid shit" detritus.that has been swept under the media rug ... and it is that the United States enthusiastically restored full diplomatic relations with Assad's Syria in 2009 ... see: World Tribune Article. It took me a while to find even this secondary reference to this event ... which begs the question -- is Google scrubbing its data-set history for political purpose? See: The Intercept Story.

And has Hellery been asked a single question about her involvement in this embarrassing State Department decision during any of the media-sponsored Democrat debates? No? Strange ...

reddit Gallery CCCLVIII - NSFW

Not Suitable For Work. Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Marilyn Monroe

Hawaiian Surfer

Fun with Refraction

Lace Bodysuit

Rooftop Yoga

The Future Is Now

A few days ago, while traveling back from the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida airport, there was a congestion of wheelchairs in the boarding area of a flight to New York City. There were 30 of these handicap accommodations waiting to pre-board the aircraft. (Full disclosure: mine was among them.) As a result, there was a conga line of full wheelchairs entering and empty ones leaving the plane. A Vietnam vet with two bullets in his leg and I chose to wait and walk aboard to speed things up.

Now this was on a flight of only 200 passengers ... so 15% of us oldsters were seriously handicapped physically ... and these numbers are only going to go up. This, dear readers, is the future of air travel.

Afterthought: Interestingly, all but two of the 30 walked off of the plane.

Metastasis

The Governor of Virginia and a paid-up member of the Clinton posse, Terry McAuliffe has taken a page out of Obummer's playbook ... granting, with an executive action, the right to vote en masse to 206,000 Virginia ex-felons -- murders, robbers, rapists, drug dealers, etc.. McAuliffe's justification for this unprecedented move was that this Virginia prohibition was a legacy of the racist South in that it was meant to depress the black vote ... the sweet irony being that this, in itself, was a racist comment ... since he was implying that apparently ex-felons in Virginia are mostly black ... see: Richmond Times-Dispatch Story.

I wonder what percentage of these 206,000 ex-felons will vote for Hellery Clinton this coming Fall in this critical swing state of Virginia ... perhaps 110%?

This Clinton posse is loyal, clever, reliable and corrupt ... stunningly corrupt ... such corruption being a lesson its members have obviously learned from their masters ... and it is a tumor growing both within and without the Clinton Foundation ... see: The New Mob. Every day in every way this posse is metastasizing throughout this country pushing the Clintons, the Clinton agenda and enabling one another in their corrupt ways.

And, as I have said before, if  Hellery is elected president this fall, this Clinton-posse tumor will metastasize to the point where it might well kill the patient, our nation.

Afterward: See also: Powerline Blog.

Campaign Slogans

William McKinley -- A Full Dinner Pail

Franklin Roosevelt -- A New Deal

Harry Truman -- A Fair Deal

Dwight Eisenhower -- I Like Ike

Jimmy Carter -- Not Just Peanuts

Ronald Reagan -- Morning in America

Bill Clinton -- Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow

George W. Bush -- A Compassionate Conservative

Barack Obummer -- Hope and Change

Donald Trump -- Make America Great Again

Hellery Clinton -- I Have a Vagina

The New Mob

There is a web of sordid intrigue and financial head fakes that surround Hellery Clinton and the Clinton Foundation which have come to light as a result of the revelations in the Panama Papers. New information about these complicated relationships permeates the history of the Clintons and their group of paid henchmen. Read the following article in the McClatchy Newspaper and then come back for a few comments.

To me, it is clear that the Clintons run what amounts to a criminal enterprise and have done so since their days in Arkansas. This white-shoe mob is so vast and complicated that its web of relationships and money flows could not be established and maintained by just one or two people. This is where the Clinton Foundation comes in. This "foundation," ostensibly set up for charitable work, is, in reality, a front organization to support and grow some of these many nefarious activities as described in the above article.

Yes, every now and then, this RICO group holds a conference to discuss global warming or childhood poverty and, occasionally will even donate some previously-donated bagatels to Haiti or Somalia, but the real heavy activity takes place in the back rooms of these meetings. There information and money changes hands to benefit the Clintons and their "friends." The foundation is the way that these many partners in crime (see: Rogues' Gallery) are sustained ... and possibly a lot more.

If we are lucky enough to have a change in political parties come November, one can hope that the cold light of true justice will be shined on this den of thieves masquerading as a charitable foundation ... all done under the anti-organized crime statutes in place. If nothing happens under these circumstances, then one can assume, that the entire upper echelon of government is equally corrupt.

And if Hellery wins the White House, then this cancer will likely kill the patient.

Afterward: See also: Daily Caller Revelations and Warton School Followup.

Consequences

President Obummer and a phalanx of pissants have stated that global warming is at the root of terrorism ,,, see: Washington Post Story? This sounds logical to me ... and leads me to disclose the following other consequences I've uncovered of our planet's heating up 0.74 degrees Celsius over that last 110 years.

- Many of the best Hollywood actors and actresses of the 1940s and 1950s have passed away
- Pope Francis has donated all the Vatican's vast treasure to Save the Whales (he hasn't?)
- Michelle Obama's school lunches have made our kids thin (could also be because they don't eat them)
- Transgender bathrooms have been conscripted
- Lady Gaga invented twerking out of desperation
- China has decided to turn the entire South China Sea into a military base and amusement park
- Tipper Gore has divorced Al Gore (could also be because he lost the chad war)
- The U.S. economy has been stagnant for the last seven years
- Vladamir Putin of Russia keeps taking off his shirt
- HIV/AIDS has infected large swaths of the other sexes
 - President William Jefferson Clinton, against his will, became oversexed
- Blogging has become a popular way of exhibiting societal frustration

More for later once I've sobered up ...

reddit Gallery CCCLXII

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

On Little Cat Feet

Utah Has its Moments 

Nebraska Thunderstorm

Road to Machu Picchu

Sunrise in Iceland

Bernie's Drink of Choice

Source: reddit

Sinister

The Latin word for both "left" and "evil" is "sinistra." And consequently, for most of the modern era, left-handed people were considered to be sinister. That is why, until early in the twentieth century, left-handed children were mostly forced to write with their right hand. Interestingly our last three presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obummer have all been lefties ... physically and politically. Whether they were sinister is up to you to decide. I think that at least one fits this description.

Now for some good news ... all the presidential candidates who are still in the race are right-handed. The only left-handed ones, Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham, have dropped out. So, it now appears that the U.S. will indeed break this southpaw trend in presidents. Hopefully we will also then break this nation's downward spiral?

Yawn ...

Seven Andy Warhol screen prints of Campbell Soup cans purportedly worth $500,000 have been stolen from the Springfield, Missouri Art Museum ... see: NBC Story.

Yawn ...

Wait 50 years ... they won't be worth the $25,000 reward that the FBI is now offering for their return.

I know few may agree with me ... but I believe that Andy Warhol set back the fine art movement by at least a generation.

Our Next President (It's Not Hillery)

Primary turnout may be a reliable indication of how the two parties can be expected to fair in the following presidential election. This certainly was the case in 2000 and 2008 ... reference the above Pew Research chart (click on to enlarge ... 2016 numbers are updated through March 6, 2016) ... see: Pew Research Numbers for greater detail and explanation. If Republican voters believe those phony AP polls that has Hellery Clinton beating either of their current Republican front runners, they are once again being lead around by the nose by this media malarkey.

Just looking at the above favorable gap between the primary turnout for the Republicans and the Democrats suggests that this November will bring a swing to the Republican candidate just like this surge took place for Obummer in 2008. Even though this gap is not quite as large for the Republicans now as it was for the Democrats then, there still are plenty of primary results to be added to these totals. (This chart could also have been used to predict Bill Clinton's win in 1992. Bush '43's win in 2000, and the contested contest in 2004.)

So, unless the Democrats get all those illegal immigrants to vote for Hellery (possible), it looks like Cruz or Trump will be taking the oath of office next January.

Neo-colonialism?

My wife made an interesting point this morning in response to Bono's appearance on "Morning Joe" on MSNBC. Bono had just returned from refugee camps in Jordan and near Somalia ... and said that these huge displacements pose an existential threat to Europe if their refugees were all to be absorbed therein.

He said that the answer to this threat was for the developed world, particularly the United States, to help these areas of the world with economic development ... so that their people will not be tempted to exit their hellholes. We need to show them how to raise themselves through better sanitation, better farming, better governance, better industry and stronger trade. (I'm extrapolating here a little from Bono's comments.) Kinda like a new Marshall Plan.

My wife's observation was that Bono's recommendation of outreach to these underdeveloped areas sounds a lot like what happened a century ago when the European nations engaged in an orgy of colonialism ... which did greatly benefit, at least economically, these areas of the world.

It seems to me that there is at least a germ of truth to her observation. If we listen to Bono and help lift these areas of the world out of their downward spirals, will we then be cursed later on as evil colonialists? The irony is palpable.

Greasing the Skids

The Republican Party in Colorado has pulled a fast one ... disenfranchising the GOP voters there from having a say in selecting their delegates to the GOP presidential convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July. In a series of sly establishment moves, they have awarded all 36 Colorado delegates to this convention to Ted Cruz ... and Donald Trump is furious as a consequence ... see: Denver Post Story.

These types of delegate stealing tactics are being attempted across the country ... South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri ... to make Cruz delegate richer at the expense of Trump. This is the Republican establishment fighting back under the assumption that a Trump candidacy would cost it the White House and at least one house of Congress. Whether this is the case or not is disputable but is what rationale is being forwarded for these hard-ball actions on the part of the Republican National Committee.

And, while Cruz is basking in this current RNC attention ... thinking that it is greasing the skids for him, he might be surprised, come convention time, when he is jettisoned in favor of a more establishment candidate like Kasich or even a parachuted-in Paul Ryan.

Performing this way on the part of the GOP runs the risk of causing many of its voters to stay home in November ... which creates a possible lose-lose situation if Donal Trump is denied the nomination. But would I vote for Cruz? Yes, if for no other reason than whom he would appoint to the Supreme Court. Would I vote for Kasich? Yes, he might even return us to fiscal sanity. Yes, Trump for his immigration stands. I would even hold my nose and vote for Ryan if it comes down to that. Anyone but Hellery.

Afterthought: The Republicans are Boy Scouts in the nomination process for their candidate when compared to the Democrats.

Islamophobia

The New York Times magazine section this Sunday has a story about the difficulties that confronted a Bavarian village in Germany that was invaded by large numbers of Muslim immigrants and how it was dealing with its Islamophobia. Being that this was the Times, I prejudged the direction that this article would be taking me -- small-mind Germans disrespecting an upright Muslim family trying to escape the horrors of civil war and, as a result of an enlightenment, opening up their hard Teutonic hearts -- and didn't finish reading it. (Go peruse it yourself and see if my prejudice is mistaken ... see: The New Europeans.)

But it did get me to thinking about this supposed curse of the small-minded people like myself. How should I approach this "mania" that is sweeping the secular world ... that an alarmingly large number of Muslims, enabled by the billions of oil money that has dropped into their laps and by the leader of the free world's forbearance, have resurrected their ancient hope for an Islamic caliphate that would convert the rest of the world to this "religion of peace" and so force us to embrace all of its covenants.

Like many politicians on other sticky problems, I have been "evolving my attitude on this issue" to where now I believe that the solution to this mania lies totally within the Muslim communities ... and, if after a reasonable time period, they have not solved it, then it needs to be dealt with somewhat sharply by the rest of us.

And how should these Muslim communities deal with this problem? Let me count the ways:

- The Imams of all the mosques around the world need to publicly disavow this notion of a world-wide caliphate forced upon the rest of us. Those unwilling to take such a step should be defrocked by the Muslim higher authorities.

- Muslim communities should shoulder the responsibility of identifying and reporting on the radical elements that are festering within. If this means that they suffer retaliation from these terrorists, then this is the price they should be willing to pay.

- The Muslim religion itself needs a reformation movement wherein the more violent and antisocial elements of the Quran are deemphasized or recast in the context of the times in which they were written ... indicating that they have been misinterpreted in today's world.

- Muslims should take concerted efforts to integrate themselves into their communities. This means no "no go" Muslim enclaves, no Sharia law overriding local ordinances, no insistence on severe Islamic garb that hides identities, no attacks of the mores of the communities in which they reside, and pledging allegiance to their current countries.

- Countries that are Muslim theocracies should allow secular instincts to take hold without undemocratic suppression. Places like Iran that put down such populist instincts should not be kowtowed to ... like they have been in recent times by our current poobahs.

These conditions seem quite unlikely to happen.... even with a reasonable subset of same. (I'd settle for any three.) So, I guess our (and their) lives are going to get much more difficult.

Afterward: See also: English Regrets.

My Mirror

A blog I used to link to, but which went dormant for a while, has reawakened recently ... and its latest posting contains an oblique criticism of, I suspect, this blog ... which makes some good points. Holding a mirror up to oneself isn't always flattering, but is required to keep from losing track of one's reality. Anyway, here is what this blogger (a friend), I think, thinks of Fletcher's Castoria:

These days most of the blogs out there are just lists of new recipes, old religious declarations, timely political and philosophical screeds, tedious pompous punditry, shocking scurrilous salation, asymmetrical acrimonious alliteration, and bellicose bilious blow-hardery.  

No one reads blogs anymore.  The novelty is gone, except for wonks and choir members who need a daily fix of the same worn-out preaching.  Real people don't have time for words anymore.  Just post a picture, dude.  Give me a headline.  Boil it down to a quote.

I try my best ... See: The Other Side of the Hill for the rest of the story.

Black and White and Red All Over

The Boston Globe is publishing a fake newspaper tomorrow (Sunday) to mimic and disparage Donald Trump and his espoused immigration policies ... see its editorial HERE. This is depicted as quite a radical departure for a major metropolitan newspaper. But, to me, it is business as usual. I have lived near Boston for almost 35 years and, during this entire span, the Globe has been concocting or supressing its news to push its liberal agenda ... including a number of supposed true-to-life columns by Mike Barnacle that were either plagarized or figments of his left-wing imagination. The Globe eventually parted ways with Barnacle (he is now a respected talking-red-head on MSNBC) although it may have called him back for this faux Trump edition.

No mater who the Republican nominee is this summer, it is certain that the Globe will endorse Hellery for president ... even if she is sporting an orange jump suit.

Afterthought: I have been quite critical of Trump ... but I am a pop gun ... this is a howitze.

reddit Gallery CCCLXI

Another excursion into the world of reddit Pictures. See: reddit Pics for sources.  Do yourself a favor and click on pictures to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

Nomads

Roman Ruins in Africa

Moon over Mt. Hood

Beauty and the Beast

Contraluz Opal Worth $20000