Free Speech on Campus

My wife was taken aback and so am I with a recent op-ed in the Boston Globe advocating a return to free speech codes at colleges and universities ... surprisingly written by none other than Janet Napolitano, the current president of the California University System ... see: Boston Globe Story. Our former head of Homeland Security and a clear Liberal, Ms. Napolitano is to be commended for her bold stance ... even though she is not the first recently to return to this long-held American principle. That nod goes to the University of Chicago ... see: New York Times Story for a thoughtful and well-stated avowal of kicking all this current silly Liberal newspeak to the curb.

My question therefore is: Where are all our so-called bastions of liberal thought and learning, the Ivy League schools, on this critical pedagogical issue?

[Sound of crickets] ...

Fools

Only fools believe that ineligible immigrants, both legal and illegal, don't vote ... often rounded up and bussed to the polls by "community organizers." The mall shooter in Washington state, a green card holder, illegally voted three times in federal elections ... see: Daily Mail Article ... and the media said he was "joking" when it was revealed that he planned to vote for Clinton. I personally know of equivalent cases here in Massachusetts. In states like Nevada, Florida, New Mexico, Minnesota, California, North Carolina, and many others ... Democrats are the prime beneficiaries of such voter fraud on a massive scale ... yet play the melodramatic game that this isn't happening.

How absolutely jaundiced for Democrat politicians to perpetuate this sham of disbelief and mock third-world sympathy. We can clearly see why they are so willing to open our borders to unvetted aliens and give them all kinds of public assistance. And shame those of us who resist this criminality! It is primarily for their own personal political benefit ... and only tangentially because of a sense of globalist empathy ... a most convenient cover story.

The liberals, both here and abroad, have been cynically playing their countrymen for fools for fifty years and creating this gigantic bunco game just to get and stay in public office. How very (un)patriotic of them ...

Another Milestone

This blog is rapidly approaching its tenth anniversary which will occur on 10/11/16 ... and just today the accumulated hits on this blog rose to 200,000. Now. I realize this is a modest number when compared to other popular blogs ... but, nevertheless, the good news is that things seem to be accelerating. The 100.000th read of this blog occurred on 4/27/14, a little over 7 1/2 years after my first post. Now, this accumulation has been doubled in a little less than 2 1/2 years, or three times faster than the first 100,000. If this accelerating pace were to continue (which I don't expect), then the 300,000 milestone should occur in about 10 months or so. If that does happen, I might start adding ads ...

For old time's sake, I think reproducing my first "Fletcher's Castoria" blog entry might be an interesting diversion. Here it is ... titled "Foley's Folly":

I recently listened to Mike Barnacle, on local talk radio, relentlessly bashing those who are pointed to Barney Frank, Gerry Studds, Bill Clinton, etc. as counterpoints to the Mark Foley imbroglio. And, as much as it raises my hackles, I have to admit that, in a way, he is right. That old adage “two wrongs don’t make a right” is pertinent here. The fact that Gerry Studds buggered a 17-year old Congressional page … and then turned his back on the House of Representatives when they censured him … and then was re-elected five times … is not an excuse for … nor does it diminish Mark Foley’s despicable conduct. 

What IS pertinent however is how these above individuals (and many others of all stripes) have participated in changing the culture in Congress, in the media, and in our country. By a “changing the culture” I mean that many of our old societal taboos regarding deviant behavior have been kicked to the curb. I am not focusing just on pop-culture promiscuity, but also on child pornography, on sedition, on drug and alcohol abuse, on lying (or, as it is now called, “spinning”), on “dirty tricks”, on bribery, on compulsive gambling, and on immorality of almost every stripe. This change in our culture is, in fact, the responsibility of ALL of us, both Democrat and Republican, both homosexual and heterosexual, both black and white, both male and female. We have not only allowed this to happen, but have been frequent active participants in its relentless progress. 

I don’t mean to sound like the Taliban recruit, but I do believe that the coarsening of our culture is real and can be argued to be a vector in the downfall of Mark Foley. Mark Foley’s amazing recklessness in his contacts with Congressional pages, I believe, came about because he believed he was immune to any consequences. And this feeling of immunity had to evolve out of how our culture has reacted to a series of indiscretions and outright crimes by politicians, entertainers, and other “personalities.” Rap artists can brag about being cop killers, a former President can call our current President a liar, another former President can diddle a female intern in the oval office with a cigar, “personalities” can make sex tapes to the benefit of their careers, movie stars can exhibit blatant religious intolerance, and 36% of our society can believe that our government blew up the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11 

Clearly, tastelessness, amorality, anti-social, and deviant behaviors did not begin in our lifetimes, nor are they going to end any time soon. And those who campaign for their elimination are misty-eyed Pollyanna’s. (I’m not doing that here.) However, the pendulum eventually will swing back to a position of less acceptance of such behavior. (Note how Foley now stands accused of having sex with a twenty-one year-old ex-page … conduct that is legal and has been accepted if not celebrated by the media in the past.) As this change progresses, there will be many, many more Mark Foleys who end up in the land-fill of history … wondering how and why it happened to them. 

The Aesop lesson here is: Morality no longer drives politics … it is now politics that drives morality.

Not bad ... 

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

UN demands U.S. pay reparations to blacks

40 days: Clinton 'panic mode' over black voters

Acne sufferers live longer

Clinton [Holt] wrong: Supreme Court says 'stop and frisk' Constitutional

Planned Parenthood will now offer transgender hormone therapy

Netanyahu booed at 'Hamilton' performance

Khan of Londonstan to defy Brexit, offer visas to migrants

[Seattle] Mall shooter illegally voted in 3 elections

NFL ratings continue to plunge in third week of Anthem protests

Shock poll: Only one in three voters think Hillary healthy enough to be president

Obama administration official: 'We don't screen immigrants for radical views'

Watch: Alec Baldwin to play Trump on 'SNL'

Hot Flash!

Katy Perry and Madonna are getting naked to promote Hellary Clinton's presidential candidacy ... see: Billboard Story. It escapes me why seeing the flabby nude bodies of two self-promoting, over-the-hill, no-talent, and (one) hot-flashing bimbos would cause anyone to vote for the consigliere of the Clinton crime family. Maybe it is a plaintiff plea to keep her from following their unsuiting stunt?

Miss Piggy

There is always more to the story than first appears. Hellary Clinton's presidential debate revelation of Donald Trump's comments about a 1996 Miss Universe contest winner which showed him to be sexist and anti-Latina have ignored key details about his displeasure with this woman, Miss Venezuela. The American liberal media are happy to go with Hellary's simplistic version of things ... Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeper ... but not so in the British media. If you have an open mind and want to understand why Donald Trump was rash and said what he did ... and why this woman is not quite the victim she was portrayed to be, then read the sordid details in The U.K. Daily Mail.

Otherwise, maintain your double standard and deny or ignore Jaunita Broaddrick's tale of much worse abuse by the Clinton crime family ... again a case of Trump's venial sin versus the Clintons' mortal sin. I'm not happy with venial sinners, but I can't vote for mortal sinners.

Afterward: When I wrote this I assumed that Hellary had evidence backing up this claim. (She would never lie.) Now this is not so clear ... see: Bizpacreview Story.

After Afterward: The Clinton team did not do a very good job of vetting this porcine  performer ... see: The Sun Sinful Revelations.

CT Scan

In this blog post, as a mental exercise, I have attempted to come up with a series of appropriate adjectives that describe the two contestants in our current presidential derby ... only using words that start with the same letter that begins their last names:

Clinton -- conniving, cold, calculating, crass, clever, cruel, Clintonian, cash-hungry, coughing, circuitous, craven, clammy, clumsy, clepto, carnivorous, corpulent, confident, creepy, cocky

Trump -- temperamental, tacky, tough, testy, true-blue, trite, tonsorial, tight-fisted, triumphant, talkative, tea-totaling, trying, thickset, totalitarian, trendy, two-fisted, testosterone-full, tobacco-free

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Hillary Clinton: We can't end terrorism without gun control

Willey: [Bill] Clinton sex assault victims could fill the entire [debate] audience

Good chance [Seattle] mall shooting is Islamic terrorism

FBI docs: Clinton IT employee called e-mail work 'Clinton coverup operation'

Growing number of race riots leave a dark mark on Obama's legacy

Britain accuses Putin of war crimes

New York Times endorses Hillary Clinton

Leaked FBI data reveal 7,700 terrorists encounters in USA in one year

Fed's mail out postcards with peoples' SSNs on them ...

Lester Holt: The third debater

WALMART: refuses to make 'racist' cop's retirement cake

Clinton surrogate asks whether Trump uses cocaine

Tongue Lashing

From Last Night's Debate

Does Hellary still have the hole in the middle of her tongue? Look carefully and then decide ...

Bag Job

I just listened to (not watched) the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hellary Clinton and I think I will try to capture my thoughts before I am barraged by the spin from both sides. First let me compare this debate to a tennis match. Trump was playing singles and Hellary and the moderator, Lester Holt, were playing doubles. So naturally the twosome had the advantage. I guess that this was what Trump anticipated and he thought he could handle it. He almost did. But he was on defense pretty much the entire debate ... on the trumped-up birther issue, on his taxes, on his bankruptcies, on his NATO comments, on his supposed misogyny, on his thoughts about Japan and South Korea getting nuclear weapons, on his cozying up to Putin, on Hellary's lack of a presidential "look", etc. He did a pretty good job in returning these drop shots but they kept coming ... served up by the moderator or Clinton as a result of her softball (set-up?) questions.

Hellary Clinton was never once put on the spot by the moderator ... not on her private e-mail server, not on her Clinton Foundation's pay for play, not on Benghazi massacre, not on her health issues, not on her Middle East and Russia screw-ups, really not on anything. The only time she was ever challenged was when Trump himself brought up things ... like the fact that, given all our current problems in the world, how come she never did anything to fix them? Even at that Trump didn't point out her hypocrisy in saying that we needed to get the guns out of the hands of inner-city criminals but wouldn't support "stop and frisk."

Also Holt never tried to fact-check Clinton ... whereas he did to Trump multiple times ... usually unsuccessfully. Add to this the fact that the student audience was, not surprisingly, clearly on Hellary's side ... and Trump had a slight case of the sniffles ... while Hellary never coughed once ... makes me believe that although she didn't score a KO, but will tomorrow be declared the slight winner on points. Whether this will slow down Trump's surge in the polls, I can't predict. This depends on how perceptive the viewing public is to how one-sided this tennis match really was.

Unpaid Trump Adviser

It appears that your intrepid blogger has just become an unpaid Trump adviser ... since Gennifer Flowers, one of Bubba Clinton's bimbos from way back in the 1990's, has just accepted an invitation to be Trump's front-row guest at the first presidential debate this coming Monday ... see: Daily Caller Story. I suggested nine months ago in this blog that Trump invite a parcel of those women that Hellary had viciously vilified with her notorious "Bimbo Eruptions Unit" while her helping get her husband elected president in 1992 ... see this previous blog entry: Bimbo Eruption (with quite a few recent hits).

Here is the specific recommendation from this blog post in case you didn't follow the above hyperlink:

Anyhow, The Donald flies them all to the debate venue in his big black Trump plane and puts them in the front row of the audience referring to them repeatedly during the debate, causing the TV cameras to repeatedly scan this lineup ... and then makes them all available to the national press in the Spin Room after the debate ... encouraging them to tell their stories of how Hillary was an enabler to Bill, the archetypal sexist.

Now that would be a true bimbo eruption ...

I'm not asking for money nor fame for this bit of political advice ... just let it begin to cause Hellary some grief for all her past feral actions ... and maybe keep her from re-entering the White House.

Provocateur

As someone who is worth about $23 billion and is hell bent on disrupting Western institutions and corrupting the country that has adopted him, he seems a strangely caustic citizen. He has supported with enormous funding mass migration of mostly Muslims into the Western world ... see: CNBC Article. He wants the U.S. federal government to control local police departments ... see: Breitbart Story. He has generously funded Occupy Wall Street (see: Human Events Article) and Black Lives Matter (see: Breitbart Article). He is often in the middle of urban unrest situations ... see: Breitbart Article. He is buying politicians ...  see: Yahoo News Story and expects them to do his bidding ... see: The American Mirror Story. And he has many other against-the-grain causes over which he sprinkles his peresuasive pelf.

This naturalized citizen being referred to is none other than George Soros (née, Gyorgy Schwartz in Hungary in 1930). He has made his money in currency trading and with a hedge fund ... and so he knows what levers to pull to get things done ... however insidious the consequences. For more on his special causes and checkered life, see: Wikipedia Entry

Why is he such a dangerous provocateur? Does he hold some kind of secret grievance or grudge against civilized society? Perhaps he is just feeling his Wheaties and wants to show the world how powerful he has become with all his pieces of silver? Maybe he is playing out some villainous role in his imagined James Bond movie? Is he merely a misanthrope (he has been married three times)? Or perhaps he is just an evil asshole? But whatever his real motivations, he is almost as powerful as El Chapo was before his recapture. (I am not suggesting offings, but who knows?) The problem is ... not only are governments not trying to rein him in ... they are often abetting his monstrous mischief.

reddit Gallery CCCLXXXIII

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!

Amalfi Coast

A Florist Washing Her Flowers

Tesla's Last Photo, 1943

Flourite

Five Presidents

Headlines

, 

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Scanning software deciphers ancient Biblical scroll

School allows boy to run for Homecoming Queen after appeal

Trump vows to drive down college costs

60% of voters believe that Iran has already or will cheat on nuclear deal

Kim Kardashian rethinking Clinton endorsement ...

Tulsa cop charged in shooting

Pythons extend their grip on parts of South Florida

Clinton IT employee held in contempt of Congress

Clinton gives nod to Sanders with 65% top estate tax rate

Charlotte riots: 70% arrested have out-of-state IDs ...

New Black Panther Chair: 'Ain't no fun when the rabbit has the gun'

Clinton demands a step-stool at debate podium to add height ...

Bunch of Hicks

His actions belie the folksy manner of his continued prevarications. He is avuncular and disarmingly believable when he looks through the TV screen and lowdown lies to us gullible Americans. Somehow we keep forgetting these subterfuges because he seems so convincing. Now, we learn of another whopper ... he has sworn, like he has on many occasions when backed into an embarrassing corner, that he had learned about Hellary's illegal e-mail server in the media.

Well, ladies and gents, I hate to disappoint you once again, but, yes, President Obummer has again misremembered things. It seems that not only did he know what e-mail malfeasance she was about, but he was also sending and receiving messages to crooked Hellary's server ... UNDER A PSEUDONYM ... see: Politico Story. Unfortunately I can't say I am surprised. He, like Hellary mixes fiction among fact with aplomb ... like the peanuts in a Cracker Jack box. This evil man is cloaked in respectable sartorial splendor and presents himself so well in speech and manner that he still enjoys the respect of 58% of we Americans.

Boy! are we one stupid bunch of hicks ...

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

It's over: Angelina Jolie files for divorce from Brad Pitt

[ISIS] Chemical attack on U.S. troops

Former Haitian Senate President: Clintons exploited earthquake to 'steal billions of dollars from the sick and starving'

Politico: Yellen helps Hillary dodge bullet .. [no interest rate hike]

Poll Shock: Trump outperforms Romney with Hispanics

McDonald's hires foreign H-1B workers, fires Americans

Life on Jupiter moon? NASA to announce 'surprising activity' ...

Hackers control TESLA [car] 12 miles away!

NFL ratings dropping ...

Syrian migrant threw children from window because wife wanted 'Western Freedom'

Clinton Foundation's AIDs program distributed 'watered down' drugs to third-world countries

Poll: 74 % Americans reject Obama's Middle East refugee. plan

Who Am I?

A male, a homeowner, a programmer, a patent holder, a provocateur, a kuffar, a blogger, an entrepreneur, a husband, a honkie, a gardener, a doubter, a hoper, a nationalist, a skeptic, an investor, a curmudgeon, a conservative, an investment analyst, a divorcee, a fogey, a father, a deplorable, a retiree, an artist, a software architect,  a gambler, a Republican, a republican, a gringo, a granddad, a diabetic, a wasp, a seeker, a cripple, a cracker, a crossword puzzler, and an American.

Afterward: a cook, a doggerel poet, a Walter Mitty scientist

Money Laundering

The following article is a very thorough and interesting case study in money laundering by David Brock and his network of "non-profits" and Democrat political-action organizations including Media Matters ... see: Zero Hedge Article for some revealing reportage. Actually these barely concealed  fiscal shenanigans seem to be more a money skimming operation than a money laundering one. It would seem that Brock, who once was a liberal Democrat, then a purported Republican before changing back his allegiance in 1997 under suspicious Clintonian circumstances, was a little fast and loose in setting up this scam ... as such operations usually have many more layers of camouflage.

It seems likely the this amateurish attempt to copy the Clinton crime family's Foundation complex was meant primarily to reward Mary Pat Bonner, President of the Bonner Group, the documented  money skimmer. Ms. Bonner jointly rented a summer house in the Hamptons with Mr. Brock and is assumed to be either his girlfriend or, more likely, his beard. Why the IRS has not investigated this obvious money skimming (or laundering) is beyond me? It is blatantly obvious in the included imaged documents. Perhaps the IRS was too busy thwarting all those Tea Party groups from getting a tax exempt status?

It is not clear if and how Ms. Bonner rewarded Mr. Brock for all this easy money (which would make it money laundering.) That would be "the rest of the story."

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Jersey Jihadi's wife fled to Pakistan before bombings

Navy requires all sailors to undergo transgender education by July, 2017

France bans plastic forks and spoons to battle 'climate change'

Venezuela: Over 15% of people eat garbage to survive

Emmys viewership hits new lows ...

Hillary: 'Remember refugees didn't do 9/11'

NYC Mayor calls for more Muslim migrants ...

Report: All three Clintons called Secret Service 'pigs'

Soros to give $500M to migrants

Establishment Dilemma: Pardon Edward Snowden or hang him

Steyn: The more Muslims, the more terrorism

[Dr.] Rand Paul: Hillary has significant health problems

The Eyes Have It

Time to add one more strange symptom ... a lazy eye ... to Hellary's growing list of bizarre indications of her as yet undisclosed (but I'm sure not undiagnosed) malady ... see: American Mirror Video. Can someone please put together all these symptoms and tell us what is possibly amiss ... and how serious it might be?

Or, better yet, when is the Clinton crime family going to fess up to the American voters exactly what is going on here?

Afterward: It is not therefore surprising that Hellary took the day off, instead of campaigning in North Carolina, to "prepare for her upcoming debate."

Afterward: See: Medical Opinion and some thorough analysis in: He American Thinker (a must read).

Grasping at Straws

The drum beat is increasing in tempo and loudness. The Clinton campaign is worried ... and her media toadies are doing everything in their power to reverse Trump's expanding poll numbers. This AM on Morning Joe, Trump was being castigated for saying last night two simple things:

1) Ahmad Khan Rahami, the Jersey jihadi will receive the very best medical and legal aid ... all at huge taxpayer expense ... and this process will likely will take years. Justice in this case should be fair, but swift and fitting ... , and the medical care only adequate.

2) Law enforcement agencies knew that this man was a possible terrorist and fell down on the job.

So, this pack of Morning Joe hyenas misdirected things and tore into Trump for criticizing the NYC Police Department and for his "unAmerican" comments about how Rahami should be treated. The degree of this ferocity was, I believe, driven by the notion that Hellary might actually lose in November. However, these criticisms seemed to this viewer very much like they were grasping for straws because of the following:

1) One can only compare how Rahami is likely to be treated to the obvious parallel case of the Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhat Tsarnaev, who has cost U.S. taxpayers tens of millions of dollars for his premier medical treatment, his top-shelf legal expenses for his trial and his fatuous appeal, the costs of bringing his large family from Russia as "character witnesses" for his sentencing, and now his special Muslim accommodating cell in a maximum security prison ... for likely the rest of his very long life. Trump was right on this one.

2) Trump was not referring specifically to the NYPD in his comments which did a bang-up job in quickly capturing this "alleged perp." He was obviously referring to the FBI who let one more bad guy slip through their fingers ... see: NY Times Article ... and the Elizabeth, New Jersey police who knew or should have known what a potential problem this malcontent was ... see: Heavy News Article. Trump was right here also.

And I am certain the the rest of the liberal media will follow suit ... only it seems that the American people are beginning to catch on.

Afterward: Taking a break from writing this blog to eat lunch and surf the cable channels, I discovered another straw being grabbed at by the liberal media ... they were accusing Donald Trump Jr. of saying Syrian refugees are a bowl of Skittles ... see: BBC Story. So I Googled things and what Junior basically said was that if you had a bowl of Skittles ... three of which were poison ... would you grab a handful and eat them? This is like letting in thousands of unvetted Syrians into the U.S. It's a metaphor for heaven's sake! The media knows the difference between a metaphor and a simile, yet they don't let that stop them from trying to submarine Trump's campaign. (No, I am not saying that the liberal media are under water ... wait, maybe I am!)

Oops!

The United States has mistakingly granted citizenship to well over 800 immigrants who were under order for deportation and who were from "countries of concern" (translation: Muslims). This was due to both subterfuge on these immigrants' part which wasn't caught because Homeland Security lacked fingerprint matching for these fraudsters in its database ... see: Yahoo News Story. But what is even more frightening is the following quote from this Yahoo reference:

[Inspector General] Roth's report said fingerprints are missing from federal databases for as many as 315,000 immigrants with final deportation orders or who are fugitive criminals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not reviewed about 148,000 of those immigrants' files to add fingerprints to the digital record.

I have a few questions about these screw-ups: Have we rescinded citizenship for these miscreants? And have we since deported them back to their hellholes? Are we in the process of tightening up these monsterous holes in our immigration systems? (I hope that this is not a rhetorical question.)

It would also seem to me that there is another group that should be added to Trump's list of those slated for immediate deportation were he to be elected -- any immigrants, legal or illegal, who have resorted to fraud in their immigration processing.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Trump: Under Obama & Clinton Americans have experienced more attacks at home than victories abroad

Man stabs 8 at Minnesota mall

Hello self-driving cars ... goodbye 4.1 million jobs ..

Lyft: Say goodbye to private car ownership by 2025.

Paper: Clinton campaign overcharging small donors ...

Gold coin with Nero's image found in Jerusalem dig

Geologist claim found Christ tomb

Street economists cut U.S. growth estimates as data shows less consumer spending

Trees 'express emotions and make friends' ...

Roger Goodell praises NFL player protests

Reid Senate tantrum: 'Trump human leech' ...

Just 5.7% of [Clinton] Foundation budget went to charity

The Rat Test

The New York police are seeking Ahmad Khan Rahami in connection with the weekend bombings in New York City and nearby New Jersey. Now clearly the man is most likely a Muslim and also is surely known by dozens if not hundreds of other Muslims. If, as is professed by our current political leaders, the vast majority of Muslims are peace-loving and loyal Americans ... then we're now presented with an interesting test -- will Rahami's fellow Muslims rat him out ... or will they close ranks around him and become part of this terrorist conspiracy?

Yes, it seems quite probable that Rahami will be apprehended ... but what I will be watching for ... is how he is caught. Stay tuned ...

Yawn!

More multiple bombings and stabbings across America by individuals whose motivations and/or religious affiliations we cannot even begin to decipher ... can you? (I think someone heard one of them shout, "Abba Dabba Do!")

This is all so boring!

Sapient Window (Update)

"Sapient window" is a term I have used before to describe the time period when intelligent beings on a planet have the knowledge base to realize the possibility of life existing elsewhere in the universe and the scientific wherewithal to search for it ...  see: Sapient Window. In this  referenced link I estimate that, here on Earth we are now in our sapient window ... having been so for about a hundred years or so.

Being in this window, we are pouring resources into attempting then to discover life on other planets ... and to look for them contacting us and, maybe, eventually contacting them ... a naturally appealing idea. The largest radio telescope ever built ... partly to this end ... has just been activated  ... see: UK Mirror Story.  So far this search has been to no avail using other means. As full of romantic agony this search entails, it is my contention that this quest is very likely to continue to be quixotic. (Stephen Hawking disagrees ... see: CNET Story.) And my sad conclusion is simply based on three indisputable facts:

1) The likelihood that our sapient window, even were it to last for another 13 thousand years, would line up with the sapient window on some other inhabited exo-planet ... just in our galaxy alone ... is vanishingly small ... given the enormous span since the beginning of time (the Big Bang?) ... I calculate the probability of such alignments at 0,0001% (see: Are We Alone?). Even if I am off by three orders of magnitude (because of things likely being back-end loaded), there is still only a one in a thousand chance of these sapient windows matching up.

2) The vast distances ... just in the galaxy in which our solar system exists, the Milky Way, let alone the Universe, are so large that the time delays imposed on any intelligent communications pretty much negate things ... even at the speed of light. We are talking about at least tens of thousands of years between any "Hello" and our excited response. This makes any meaningful communication pragmatically impossible.

3) it has been estimated that the energy required to send a receivable message of greeting over these vast interstellar distances could be equivalent to the energy output of our sun. I kind of doubt that this is realistically doable by all but a minuscule number of exo-planets with intelligent life, if any.

Thus, I again conclude that we are on a fool's errand with our attempt to wait for the phone to ring from another exo-planet ... and our possibly responding is even nuttier. The cost benefit analysis and actual science make no rational sense to this quest. I conclude that it is all just emotional pandering by scientists looking for more grant money.

Full Disclosure

From Powerline Blog

reddit Gallery CCCLXXXII

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!

Majestic

Sunset Fire Opal

Proofreading

Kitty Love

Yemen at Dusk

The Grasshopper

The billionaire Arthur Irving, Chairman of Irving Oil, just announced a $100 million gift to Dartmouth College to fund the Energy Institute, see: Dartblog Entry. This news brings to mind an old chestnut, viz:

A grasshopper walks into a bar, climbs onto a bar stool and orders a martini. 

The bartender, as he delivers the martini, says, "Ya know, there is a drink named after you ..." 

To which the grasshopper replies, "You mean there is a drink named Irving?"

Badda Bing!

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Gov't plans to kill 45,000 wild horses ...

Clinton Doctor: all good, nothing to see

Coulter: Could Hillary tell us what percentage of Muslims are 'deplorable'?

Powell: 'Bohemian Grove attendees will vote against Trump' ...

European Parliament chief: 'Trump problem for the whole world' ...

What? Bill sez Hillary haz 'flu'

118,395,000 on government health insurance

Sessions: Obama's plan to import 110,000 refugees 'extreme, reckless'

Kim Jong-un has enough uranium to build 20 nukes THIS YEAR ...

Huffpo: Trump's plan to give women maternity time off is SEXIST

UPDATE: FBI Director says cover up your webcam ...

Merkel demands German firms hire unqualified immigrants -- quickly

Power Through

I can't count the times that Hellary Clinton, Bill Clinton, her numerous surrogates, and the talking dunderheads in the obliging media have used the term "power through" to describe what Hellary was trying to do last week when she attended the 9/11 memorial ceremonies. She supposedly had a previously-diagnosed case of pneumonia and, despite this well-circulated term suggesting her metaphoric vigor (like a power fullback plowing through the line) ... ended up having a "health episode" which I will leave it to you to recall visually.

Now, she just used this term again today in North Carolina as she, after a three day convalescence, is back on the campaign trail saying that "I had a cough that turned into pneumonia and I thought I could 'power through' it." Barf! The use of this term has obviously been panel-tested ... put out as a talking point to the lap-dog media ... and implies that she is gutsy and resolute. However, since she went all wobbly on 9/11, she obviously didn't "power through" things very well. This term is clearly a lot more gutsy and resolute than she.

Pelosi Redux

Paul Ryan talks a good game ... but his performance on the field is sub par. When Ryan took over as Speaker of the House last fall he promised (read my lips) that he would follow "regular order" and pass a series of budget resolutions funding each department of our government separately ... obviating what had been the Democrats' strategy of leaving everything until the last minute. He hasn't done that ... for reasons one can speculate on ... but, as a consequence, the House is once again faced with passing an omnibus budget resolution which probably will be another Nancy Pelosi Christmas tree ... laden with billions of dollars of profligate spending. That is, if it is passed at all ... and, if not, another government shutdown looms ... see: Breitbart Article.

Yes, Republican Speaker John Boehner ran things between Pelosi and Ryan and he was no better at returning to "regular order." I guess that this means that irregular order is now regular order because it  provides so many opportunities for both parties to spend and spend ... although bad for our country, good for these sleazy politicians. This is another sad commentary on where we are now politically ... and why someone as marginal as Donald Trump can now have a shot at the presidency. Whether he will fix things is still a question, but we do know that the Democrats won't. "The fault dear Brutus lies not in the stars ..."

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Washington Post pushes theory that Trump and Putin poisoned Hillary

B-1B nuke bomber flies over SKorea to rattle Kim ...

Report: John Kerry's State Dept. funneled [$9+] MILLIONS to his daughter's non-profit ...

Hillary featured in 'Women's Health' magazine ... another boo boo

NPR station publishes anti-Trump comic [book] for teachers, students to use in class

Scientists besieged by polar bears at remote Arctic post

Bill Maher: 'I'd vote for dead Hillary'

South Korea tires of North, vows to reduce Pyongyang to ashes

Obama talks about himself 137 times in a speech for Hillary

NFL players holding America flag goes viral

NYT editorial: Candidates must release full medical records

Harvard profs denounce school's return to 'Putitan' worldview

Hellary vs. Hillary

I have been castigated by many for calling Hillary Clinton "Hellary" ... but I do believe I am justified in this moniker. This woman has two distinct personalities ,,, Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde if you will ... or her outside self and her inside self. Her outside self we all know and many love. It is her inside self, her Mrs. Hyde, that has been mostly hidden from public view. We have had a few hints of this dark side ... like her supposed swearing like a sailor or when she threw the ashtray at Bill in the White House or how her staff would hide in their offices when she came down the corridor or how her secret service detail considered this duty as punishment because of the shabby treatment she visited on them.

But I just came across a narrative of how she behaved after the Matt Lauer interview last week in which she was embarrassed with a few tough questions. This narrative came as a comment in the latest Diplomad blog posting and, if true, it is even frightening. You can see it in situ by going to Hill's Ill and reading the comment from Teri ... or, in case it gets scrubbed, I have reproduced her "inside" tirade after that Matt Lauer interview below:

Hillary’s meltdown included throwing a water glass at a staffer- narrowly missing her head, and demanding Matt Lauer be fired! She was overheard threatening executives at NBC saying “If I lose, we all go down and that Fascist Fuck will have us swinging from nooses! What the fuck is wrong with you idiots?” 

It is reported Hillary then screamed at everyone for close to an hour and staffers felt like she was having a “Hitler-like rage down”. 

Calls were made to New York Times, Washington Post and Huffington post and Twitter executives with orders to “Crush Matt Lauer”. As you can easily see with all the headlines from these puppet MSM sources, they are completely bought and paid for. 

Hillary also screamed that she wanted Matt taken off the October debate… Let’s see if that command is met. My bet is that it will be. 

Staffers at HRC campaign report that they scared of her, and one described Hillary as “an out of control psychopath”. 

Since Hillary does not allow any staff to have cell phones when she is there, no footage is available, but Hillary is in full frenzy now. She has made it clear that she wants Matt Lauer to be “persona non grata for the rest of his days on earth“. 

Donna Brazile was singled out by Hillary during the rant. Donna was told “You stare at the wall like a brain dead buffalo, while letting fucking Lauer get away with this betrayal? Get the fuck to work janitoring this mess- do I make myself clear???”

Is this a factual account? (I would love to know the original source or sources of this description.) My spider senses tell me that it is ... and that is why I have reproduced it here. It jibes with first-hand stories I have heard about the "inside" Hellary. It also reflects more decorous accounts of Hellary's dissatisfaction with the Matt Lauer interview such as this one in the Daily Mail.

If this woman is capable of this kind of rage with her subordinates ... yet is solicitous with her peers, her press and her public, then I believe she richly deserves my "Hellary" tag.

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites.

Her illness shows her first instinct is to lie ...

Coakie Roberts: Dems nervously whispering about replacement ... Could it be Joe?

Man allegedly kept dead mother in freezer to keep collecting her pension

Dolphins recorded having conversations 'just like people' ...

French president blames U.S. for its terrorist problems

9/11 memorial on [Occidental] college campus vandalized ... 2,997 [American] flags crushed, thrown in garbage

David Cameron resigns from [British] Parliament

Merkel government 'incapacitated' over migrant issue

DOD Official: 9/11 moment of silence moved up 5 minutes for Obama [convenience]

NFL star loses endorsement deals after kneeling for pledge ...

'Clock Boy' blames 'Islamophobia' for his troubles -- on 9/11

Defection: Bill Clinton's CIA Director joins Trump campaign

Buffalo Springfield

"Everybody look what's goin' 'round ..."

Hellary Clinton it appears has "pneumonia" ... this is why she collapsed halfway through the 9/11 ceremony on Sunday. Now, many other Democrat operatives also have pneumonia ... it's goin' 'round ... Senator Chuck Schumer, Campaign Manager Robbie Mook, and others in her Brooklyn campaign headquarters ... see: People Magazine. Boston radio host, Howie Carr, has compared this pneumonia echo to the "I am Spartacus" scene in the Kirk Douglas movie where all the escaped slaves step forward with this same avowal to protect Kirk.

But the real 64 million dollar question is: Does Huma Abedin also have pneumonia?

I have another skeptical comment about Hellary's health problems. Her persistent and serious coughing has been attributed to "seasonal allergies." Now, since this malady was first evidenced in her public appearances this last January 25th ... exactly what season are we talking about? It has been with her now for three seasons?

Today's Word

Last Christmas I got one of those new word-a-day calendars.

Today's word is:
splenetic: marked by bad temper, malevolence, or spite

Very descriptive adjective for that candidate who just categorized many Americans as belonging to that"basket of deplorables."

NFL

The National Football League (NFL) got none of my TV eyeball-time on Sunday ... nor is it likely to coax me back anytime soon. This is because this Congress-created monopoly has done nothing to nip in the bud the grotesque Black Lives Matter protests during the playing of our national anthem and our honored remembrances of 9/11. Four Miami Dolphin players "took a knee"  on Sunday and one Kansas City Chief raised his fist during our Francis Scott Key musical paean. (Their names are unimportant.) Yes I know these babinzos have every right to protest against their real and imagined slights by our nation ... independent of the millions of dollars they get annually to run around a grassy field. But I also have the same right to call them uneducated boobs and refuse to frequent their advertisers or appreciate the fans who grease their palms.

The NFL is one of the "circus" parts of the strategy that governments use to keep their people pacified, viz, "bread and circus." But I am growing out of such pampering. I've got other things I can do with my Sundays. And I have other reasons ... because of his looking the other way during Colin Kaepernick's protests, his shoddy treatment of the Patriot's Tom Brady, his disallowing the Dallas Cowboys to wear memorial insignias for their slain Dallas policemen, his denial of a player to memorialize 9/11 on his football cleats (see: Breitbart Story) and his generally poor administrative talents ... NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is not loved by many thinking former football fans ... including myself.

So I will wage my puny little protest and eschew this "circus" entertainment that I have in the past so much enjoyed ... until such time as Goodell is gone and the NFL wises up. Until then NFL, for me, stands for nudnicks, flakes and losers.

Pooh Pooh

I have written in the past about my (and others') concerns regarding Hellary Clinton's health problems ... see: Sicko?, Devine Intervention, and I Robot. Most of my liberal friends, who are emotionally committed to electing this woman, have reacted with either pooh poohs or by questioning Trump's health as well. And Hellary has had other incidents since I last expressed my concerns. I won't detail them here as most of you who are awake know of what I write. But today at the 9/11 memorial service in downtown Manhattan, Hellary had another "health episode" and had to leave this ceremony early ... possibly fainting ... see: Fox News Coverage.

The evidences of this woman's frailty are so obvious now that their ramifications need to be explored. What if this woman becomes so sick or incapacitated between now and Election Day that it becomes clear that, even if elected, she would be so diminished that she could not govern? (Pooh, pooh!) What happens? Don't forget early voting has already started in some states ... with more coming on stream every week. Do the Democrats just carry on like what happened in Weekend at Bernie's?  Do they put a wig on Joe Biden and change his name? Does Tim Kaine step up and become the nominee? Perhaps they can postpone the election until she gets better? What if she doesn't? What does the Constitution allow under these circumstances?

I will make a rash prediction ... that she will not participate in all three presidential debates ... maybe not even one ...

Afterward: Sarah Silverman says that anyone questioning Clinton's health is an a**hole. Can I be this and also be in the basket of deplorables?

The Worm Turns

"This will bend the medical cost curve down." -- President Obummer

There is a famous apocryphal quote that says, "A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged." Well now we are discovering another population who may be rethinking their politics -- university information professionals in California. Apparently the high (and rapidly rising) cost of Obamacare for this gaggle of Golden State IT workers is forcing layoffs there ... ironically to be replaced by immigrant h-1b workers, mainly from India. These cost savings for those higher educational institutions allows them to keep their heads above the rising fiscal waters, at least for a while ... see: Breitbart Article.

It is not difficult to forecast the results of these employment dislocations ... more Trump votes among these formally liberal Californian ITers. This layoff trend may even metastasize to professors and university instructors ... then these uber-liberal pedagogues would also be forced to rethink their politics and their classroom messages. Then the worm might finally turn.

reddit Gallery CCCLXXXI

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!

Malachite

Moonlit Fog

Moon Pie

Farmers' Market

Iceland Escarpment