On Being A Flea

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Good Late Morning/Early Afternoon, depending on your location, ladies, gentlemen and platipi, and welcome to the portion of according to Hoyt in which we commit heresy.

Oh, not heresy against religion or moral. Those poor nags have gotten hit so much over the last century at this point you are not even hitting a dead horse, more the memory of the expectation of a dead horse. Those of us who still believe and hold out our little light

are largely people of no account and even less power. So getting us riled up is stupid, and at any rate we don’t really care, because we hold the powers that be in deep and conspicuous disdain. There is literally nothing they can do to hurt us. I mean, they can imprison us or kill us, but since those of us who are believers think this just a prologue to a very long eternity, and those who aren’t believers think there are things more important than their own life, it really is no way to defeat us.

We, on the other hand, have some kind of fresh and juicy power. Because, as an old communist told me, in the seventies, while a flea can’t derail a train, it can give the conductor a case of the itch until he derails the train.

Marxists who, in the seventies, were already in power in most fields, still held on to the staunch believe that they were now and would always be the underdog. Which is only because that is part of their religion, a non-disputable one.

They are the underdog, the underdog is holy, the underdog always wins, so it is foretold, and yet he is a victim and will therefore remain the under dog.

It goes on until any over, under, or in fact in any way existent canine has to roll his eyes.

But in fact, the Marxists, particularly the 4th generation of Marxists since they more or less took over a bunch of fields in the west, not only are not the underdog. They are the power that be. And as powers that be go, they are remarkably dogmatic (sorry, puppy) and non-flexible.

In fact, even the Catholic Church when it was a de-facto theocracy spanning almost all of the west had both more doctrinal flexibility and far more sense of humor.

I could make a joke about how the devil shall not be mocked, but heck, the jokes make themselves.

The truth is I had a very bad night (no, nothing mental/emotional. More digestive. I need to get out of the habit I’ve fallen into of eating a real meal every two days whether I need it or not.) And am in that kind of mood, and feel the need to give an itch to the conductor. Particularly since the conductor is the Junta, who is mainlining cocaine diluted in vodka, snorting quaaludess and mainlining meth, while fapping more furiously than Hunter Biden surrounded by ten year olds. Frankly, if we don’t derail this train, the crash is going to be bad. And while these cartoon characters don’t realize when the crash comes it hits them first, I’d rather derail than crash in a way that will hurt most of us.

And that’s before the Junta train, the hate America train, the bought and paid for China train, the anti-capitalist train, the “we hate humans train” the —

Frankly this exchange is just overcrowded.

Part of the problem of course is that society really is like a train: it’s huge, it’s moving on tracks, the people at the front have some control, though not nearly as much as they think they do. But the rest of us, in the carriages, might as well be fleas. One of us will get upfront and give a fatal itch to the conductor, but which and how?

Well, of course, if you’re in a position to do it, we highly encourage a White Mutiny (No, it has bloody nothing to do with race) which was called in my time a “Zeal strike.”

This means basically working to the rule book, no more, no less. And the more exactly the rule book can hurt whatever insanity the PTB want done, the harder you should lean into it.

Most of us, alas, are not even in a position to do that. So what can we do?

We know, we can tell, to stretch a metaphor, from the groaning and grinding of the train wheels that this will end in tears, and not happy fun kind of tears at all, but the kind of tears where the whole d*mn machine might very well come apart, leaving us to rebuild in suboptimal conditions. (I wouldn’t bet against Americans on a rebuild under duress, but it’s still going to suck big hairy dromedary gonads.) But the Junta has welded on headphones playing satanic metal at full volume. Still, some things, sometimes get through.

You know, the most shaken I’ve seen the idiots in charge (snort, giggle) is when memes escape them or when we take their memes, turn them upside down and hurt them.

For instance, they disguised the fact that our taking “my body, my choice and applying it to vaccinations hurt them badly, and said they’re replacing it with “say abortion.” This is because their “Say vagina” meme went so well. As though anyone on the right is AFRAID of saying vagina or abortion. I say those all the time. For instance “The left says vagina when they actually mean vulva, because they’re as ignorant of anatomy as they are of everything else.” Or “Except in the most rare and difficult of circumstances, abortion is a murder of convenience, and our laws shouldn’t be based on edge cases. It might be impossible to stop with laws, but we should definitely do all we can to make it socially unacceptable.” Next?

Also the “Let’s go Brandon” thing hurt them, badly, particularly the speed with what it took off. It might for the first time they caught a glimpse that a) we’re onto them. b) there are a lot more of us than they thought.

Of course, the Kenosha Kid also shook them. Not in shooting their horror-movie-prop antifidiots, but in the fact that he became a folk hero overnight, and they couldn’t convince us he’s racissss sexisss and plain evil.

Of course, if you should find yourself in a position to make one of those go viral, we absolutely should. And why are there no songs about Ashli Babbit? Or at least no good ones, since they’ve not gone viral? The subject is costume made for a protest folk ballad, of the kind that gets in the head and won’t get out.

Meanwhile? Well, you can make them itch. We need ideas released out into the public, in the most effective way possible.

We have — at ATH to be honest, but also on the right in general — some of the smartest, most creative people in the world, who have largely gone unrecognized because they disagree with the Marxists. (This shows the Marxists’ lack of imagination, btw. On a good day, we disagree with everyone, including ourselves.)

Remember those “in this house we believe” — they seem to have vanished from yards in the ritzy areas of towns. I wonder why.

But at any rate, it’s time to make sure we tell them what WE believe and make their heads explode all over the wall.

Yes, I know, but it’s better to clean up a wall than a world.

So…. Did I say the heresy train has no brakes?

So, here, I’ll start with a few and you guys can pitch in in the comments:

There is no way to know the population worldwide, but there is no overpopulation, because we still have enough for people to eat.

When there isn’t enough for people to eat, it’s not lack of food it’s an excess of government and, oh, yeah, Marxism.

A nation that has no borders isn’t a nation. It’s a rape shack with a welcome mat.

The world is dangerous. Let’s look after our own.

Internationalism is another word for “ponzi scheme to impoverish countries that produce the most and skim a huge amount for the Marxist elite.”

Everything the left/Marxists have accused religious people of, they’ve committed, ten times worse.

People aren’t widgets, and when you try to position people for a world revolution, what you get is world chaos. And a Romanian Christmas Gift.

The history of the world is littered with Supreme leaders who had no idea what was actually happening till a bullet blew their mind.

Government like gangs should be small, controlled, local, and under the eye of the populace.

Trusting government officials to enforce fairness is like trusting the Mob to manage your bank account.

Large corporations who do the bidding of governments end up crying that “if only Stalin knew.”

There is no arrow of history. History is forever surprising, because science is never established.

Science is not determined by quorum. If 99% of scientists believe one thing, it’s perfectly possible that only 1% of them are correct.

Women should have equal rights under the law. Women who actually want to be equal to men in reality should have their heads examined, since throughout history men have died to protect women.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion was first mentioned in Shakespeare, in the famous quote “Now die, die, die.” And it is rather on the nose for what the left wants the west to do.

Equity is another word for punishing people who have done no harm for looking somewhat like people the history books say did commit harm, once, long ago.

Inclusion is another term for “We will include Marxists of many interesting shades of tan.”

Diversity is the funniest word possible for a monolithic-thought establishment.

Those are just the ideas my mind can come up with, but I’m sure you can come up with many more, and find the time and place to hit the Marxians where it hurts. (They hurt everywhere, to be fair. That’s why they’re so mad. They hate everyone, starting with themselves.)

“Educate Yourself” doesn’t mean I’ll come out of education believing as you do. Education can lead to a diversity of opinions. Indoctrination, on the other hand, always leads to one monolithic belief. And I refuse to indoctrinate myself.

Trust no one in power, because right now the world’s power structures are this:

at least if you assume that the waters are full of ecoli.

While we wait for the precipitating incident in this plot, over which we have no control, it’s time to amuse ourselves at their expense.

You never know, some of the not-fully convinced might yet become red pilled.

And they should definitely look under their seats, in case there’s a red pill there!

Now, go forth and be heretical.

(For those who didn’t ask: No, I don’t game. I just find the memes hilarious.)

317 thoughts on “On Being A Flea”

  2. quietly surveys closet stuffed full plastic tubs of canned foods, beans, pasta, dried milk and bottled water. Considers purchasing another plastic tub, and starting on another closet.
    Yep – it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Buckle up.

        2. Unless the duck of history is also a Duck of Doom, then that would probably be better than the boomerang, in my opinion.

          Of course now that I say that, I find myself realizing that the duck of history is absolutely a Duck of Doom, so….

          1. Ah, but the boomerang of history is also a Boomerang of Doom.

            Once you accept these things, it becomes easier. Fewer unpleasant surprises.

                  1. And worse it works. After all, do you remember?

                    NEITHER DOES ANYONE ELSE.

                    How the aardvark can explain that is something he won’t explain

          4. Why, Duck Dodgers, in the 24th-and-a-half century, of course! (insert lisps where appropriate)

        4. The plain and simple fact is that most of us are completely out of ducks to give!

  4. I wrote the words “men and women” in my work-in-progress and felt like a daring rebel

            1. Well, when I get the power to reach through the screen and smack you you’ll be sorry.
              Also, I don’t know what Ms Latinx is, but it sounds like a bad breakfast cereal.

              1. Well there was ms uno, then ms dos. Ms latinx was the third attempt. It went so bad they put it under ET

  5. Ooo, heresy….

    Related note – it’s not just those of Judeo-Christian belief who should be cranky. Our current government types are overdue for a rectification of names.

    I was looking up anything I could find on Joseon Dynasty history, and found this.

    Plan to get the whole thing when I can, but – the bit in the sample not just goes into Korean history at the time Catholicism showed up and why that was politically fraught, but also lays out a fair amount of detail on just what Confucianism found troubling about Christianity’s focus on the individual over society.

    I think part of the problem we’re facing today is that we have a bunch of people in political and cultural charge who wouldn’t come up to snuff as either Christians or Confucianists: they don’t focus on trying to overcome their individual faults, and they don’t try to uphold any of the social bonds needed for a culture to succeed over time.

  6. I live and work in central Texas, but the company I work for has their home office in California. Of course, the company requires vaccination with proof before letting anyone into their offices. Since I am not vaccinated I have been relegated to working from home. I’ve been working from home anyway since the lockdown started in March 2020, so I’m used to it now. However… yesterday there was a monthly “all office” meeting, where it was reiterated that non-employees visiting the offices for work-related reasons (vendors, delivery people, etc.) would still have to provide proof of vaccination. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask them when they would stop discriminating against the unvaccinated… but I didn’t say anything, because of the fear that speaking up would hasten my release (which I know is inevitable anyway) and right now I still need the paycheck. I’m working on making that change, though.

    Oh yeah, in the same meeting, they talked about how more large meetings, presentations, etc. would be happening in the Texas office instead of in the main California office, because, you know, we don’t have constant lockdowns happening here in Texas. Their lack of a clue made me shake my head in disgust.

    Also, last week my first- and second-level managers both came down with Covid despite being fully vaxxed. Go figure.

      1. Pretty much that. The last time I saw someone at Day Job in a mask, he was recovering from bronchitis and doing some inventory in a really dusty storage building. I’d wear a mask too, given the amount of topsoil that blows into that shed.

        1. My wife’s wearing a mask at the moment, but then she’s got a sinus infection that’s causing her to cough a lot, and she doesn’t want to cough all over people at work. She’s grabbed a fresh mask every day. We have a huge box of them leftover because we arrived in Vegas last year literally on the day the mask mandate went back into effect, places were kinda enforcing it, and the stores near our hotel only had single-mask or giant box, all the small packages were sold out. Mostly the masks worn as a chin strap (or kept in pocket when outside or eating) except the one time casino security said something on the way through, and one greeter at a restaurant. Since we got back they’ve mostly been of use when sanding, cleaning, or doing some types of yardwork. Mowing during a dry spell can be just a bit dusty.

          2. I don’t do masks when mowing the dust grasses and our “lawn”, (that oxygen addiction is an issue), but for mild cases, I’ll de-crud my sinii with saline spray. When I’m brush-cutting (major dust, turning the green tractor brown), I’ll do a shower with the humidity freeing the dust/mud to get blown out.

            When I’m woodworking, if I can, I use the dust extractor to save me. My shop-made sander/planer has an adapter box for the shop vac. Have a cyclone separator (Oneida Dust Deputy FTW) in front of the vacuum, so I can go all day without clogging/cleaning the vac’s filter.

        2. I’m seeing a few more people wearing masks, with usage spreading into younger cohorts. OTOH, it’s dusty season, and some people might think seasonal lung and sinus crud is the return of the dreaded [insert greek letter] Variant.

          There’s still a few places in Oregon where it’s (supposed to be) mandatory. Medical offices tend to enforce it, though I was quite amused on visiting the pharmacy; they’re behind the plastic barriers from us, but the masks they were supposed to be wearing were doing duty as chin warmers.

          Have to do my annual cardiologist visit today, and they reminded me about the mask requirement. I’ve been known to unmask when I hit the consulting room, and the doctor hasn’t minded in previous years. I should try the ADA gambit, claiming my addiction forces me to do without a mask. ‘Tis true; I’m addicted to oxygen and really don’t do well in a mask.

          1. I get to schedule a Electrocardiogram, well the doctor ordered one, they’ll call me. So, result of my doctor’s visit on my heart. Having what is called PVC (premature vascular contractions) pretty regularly. Doctor says that is nothing to worry about. *Scary, when noticing them, but not medically significant at the frequency I’m having them. Could have a heart monitor for a month, but something to reserve. Did confirm a small (2 of 6) heart murmur which is why the above future appointment. He is pretty sure it will be the type of “okay, lets get a baseline now” VS anything critical. BP was 130/68 which, given my BP is always slightly elevated at doctor’s visits, not bad. (Like I know what the **BP numbers mean, LOL. But the nurse said “wow, really good BP”. Probably because of my slight weight problem, age, and why I was there.)

            I don’t know what caused the above all of a sudden. Not something I had before this year. Started noticing the frequency early this spring. The “different” ***fatigue I did report to the doctor in April at my last visit. What happened since start of 2022? Stupid clotshot and ccpflu. So minor, never prove it. But dang it. OTOH aunt’s current husband ended up with fluid around his heart and is still recovering after heart surgery and multiple hospital stays.

            /* So now the PVC is regulated to the same as the visual migraines. Scary as heck when they first occurred. Now that I know what is happening they are “well dang it” category. At least the PVC once done, is done, doesn’t herald a next event. Stupid visual migraines mean the full migraine is more than likely following no matter what I do, might be able to mitigate but not stop the migraine.

            /** When the assessment nurse called to check to see if original appointment I scheduled online was “reasonable” (insisted on moving it up 2 weeks, so no), she was listing symptoms. Most my answers were “didn’t pay attention to that” as event was occurring. Finally admitted I could probably drop dead and not know I was dead because of my lack of medical knowledge. Got a chuckle.

            /*** Not the same tired feeling I get when BS is low, or because of the sleep apnea. Both of which are under control (well hypoglycemia, more or less).

            1. Really encouraging visit with the cardiologist for me. BP was 130/80 (I seem to tense up with the regular doc, but this guy is comfortable to talk with.) and the ECG (dammit, I still want to call it EKG) looked Good Enough. AFIB still going strong, but I don’t get the super-high pulse rate that scares the patients and the doctors.

              No special tests called out for next year. I’ll happily skip the Echo cardiogram, since having an ultrasound module pressed into my chest doesn’t rank high in Things I Like To Do. ECGs are not a big deal for me; had plenty over the years.

              And, he disputed the gateway doc’s assessment of “prediabetic”, since I’ve been below the bottom number for that a full three years.

              And the INR number came out at 2.1, so the dosage of warfarin was OK.

              Only bummer was a collision with a Golden Eagle on the way home. He was dining at the Roadkill cafe, I swerved left to get around him, but he took off that way with dinner in talons. Subaru 1, Eagle 0, end of game. And that’s only the second Golden I’ve seen in the local forest. Crap.

    3. Huh, that sounds like my work, a fintech that went public during covid (in SF), and didn’t require the “vax” but now requires it plus boosters. I’ve been working from home and feeling bad for my team that has been required to get the clotshot because at their level it’s required for them to visit the site…

      I feel guilty not getting boosted, but, well you all probably get it…

        1. Because I’m their manager and I’ve always tried to lead from the front… that’s the only reason, but upper management is in a bubble and won’t listen.

          2. “…upper management is in a bubble and won’t listen.” Sounds like a day ending in “y”, just about anywhere… Regardless, hope it works out for you and your team.

  7. Hey, being a flea isn’t so bad. Fleas wiped out a third of Europe once.

    Never underestimate the power of the humble in sufficient numbers. The trick is getting those sufficient numbers to start biting.

    1. I will note that Yersina Pestis doesn’t end well for the flea or the rat either … And if it moves to pnuemonic plague Katy bar the door. Although Yersina Pestis is still responsive to antibiotics (although rumors are the Ex USSR mucked with that, that’s even stupider than gain of function in COVID) so maybe you wouldn’t get the 60-80% fatality rates of pnuemonic plague in the modern world, although it would probably still be highly contagious.

        2. > “….I now have a way to make image comments.”

          Oh, God.

          I’m gonna go run and hide now. Someone let me know when the meme-pocalypse is over.

      2. The only question I had was which of yours and Ian’s heresy memes would show up first and which of you would be first! I figured it’d be you for the latter but wasn’t sure about the former. 🙂

          1. That’s something else I need to look into at some point, fantasy/Age of Sigmar. Though I admit to being more fond of the Grand Alliance Death designs than the others! Me, having a taste for macabre motifs? Never… Goes back to thinking he’s overdue to pick the Devil May Cry series back up, especially with a certain Vergil-inspired swordsman lurking around

            1. As best I can tell from the game, “smashing things lots.”

              It was awesome because I got to smite stuff and it healed my allies. 😀

              1. I’m well past due to read those books myself, especially since I loved reading the Flashman Papers!

              3. I liked Drizzt for a while! (Especially the baddies. Jarlaxle is iconic, and Artemis Entreri was… an amusing combination of “Oh, yay, it’s him again!” and “Ugh, really. Him again?”) Then the series just dragged on… and on… and on…. and never really seemed to get anywhere. And it started getting a little too dark and gritty for my tastes.

                Maybe I should look into this Ciaphas Cain guy…

              4. > “Our 12 year old is working through Drizzt”

                Free advice: if your kid likes Salvatore, don’t let him read the guy’s Twitter unless you’re prepared to do some political deprogramming. He’s not in foaming-at-the-mouth-SJW territory, but the guy is DEFINITELY no fan of freedom or the constitution.

                1. :shrug: He has to be, to have survived this long.

                  We don’t let the kids on twitter anyways, and I’ll always respect him for making a point of coming to base for a signing.

                  It may be business, it may be honor, but he did right by mine.

                  1. > “He has to be, to have survived this long.”

                    Not really. I’m sure he’s got enough fans who would stick with him if he got cancelled.

                    Do you follow either BattleTech or Razorfist? BattleTech’s biggest author just got cancelled this weekend and it sounds like a HUGE portion of the BT fanbase is siding with him:

                    2. Why? What did he do?

                      Not that cancel culture needs a reason other than “He’s got a scalp we can take.”

                    4. Ah. No surprise there.

                      But that just supports my point: if he gets cancelled his fans will go with HIM, and he’s got enough of them that he could write whatever he wants and still make a living. Just like Blaine Pardoe.

                      So I stand by what I said: he has no need to pretend to be a statist. Either he lacks the guts to be honest – which I doubt, given the way he talks – or he really is against freedom. You do you, but I agree with Ayn Rand that you shouldn’t willingly support those who want to enslave or destroy you.

                    5. Or he’s a normal person who does the normal thing of publicly agreeing with the people he works with.

                      As Sarah has beaten folks about the head and shoulders with, repeatedly– our political obsession is not normal.

                    6. > “Or he’s a normal person who does the normal thing of publicly agreeing with the people he works with.”

                      Except that he actively argues for statism even when he could just remain silent. WHATEVER his reasons, he’s on the other side.

                      If you like him and want to keep supporting him, that’s your business. I’m not telling you what to do with your money. But don’t expect me to pretend he’s some kind of undercover freedom-lover. He’s not, and you liking him doesn’t change that.

                    7. You’ve spent nearly two days lecturing me about how bad you believe him to be, and how much I should care.

                      To be absolutely blunt: I don’t care if you disapprove of his twitter, and I could not care less about what you believe of him, and I am not clear why on earth you feel the need to keep hammering on this.

                    8. > “I am not clear why on earth you feel the need to keep hammering on this.”

                      It started with you mentioning that your kid likes Salvatore and me warning that you might need to watch what he’s exposed to. Since then, it’s just been me responding to you saying things I consider false. First you claimed that someone like Salvatore HAS to toe the leftist line to make a living, and I offered a counter-example (Blaine Pardoe). Then you tried to argue that he’s not really a statist even though his behavior indicates that he is.

                      Again: if you like him and want to support him, that’s your call. And I’m not demanding that you justify it to me. But if you make claims that I believe are wrong, you shouldn’t be surprised when I argue the other side.

                    9. Your insistence that someone decades later in a totally different fandom being able to make a living proves something is as bizarre as you giving me permission you have no power to grant….

                    10. [sigh]

                      I wasn’t offering permission, Fox. I was saying you don’t need it.

                      And you really should know better by now than to try and pull this crap on me. I already see where this is going and I’m not going to play. I’m done.

                  2. I don’t keep track of publishing houses’ political habits. I’ve got enough I’m paying attention to as it is, I don’t need to pile stuff on that depresses me.

                    I do remember a Salvatore introduction mentioning how somewhere between editions (maybe the transition between 3e and 4e? maybe 4e and 4.5e?) somebody called him and said “Hey, we’re killing off all the assassins via some magical plague or some such. Artemis Entreri’s yours, so if you want to kill him yourself before that happens, you should probably get that done.”

                    There was several rounds of debate between Salvatore and the other guy before Salvatore struck gold and said “But Entreri isn’t an assassin.”

                    “… What?”

                    “He’s a Fighter multi-classed into Rogue (Thief) who just happens to kill people for money.”

                    “… I think we can make that work.”

  9. Saw a meme on Gab that pointed out that during the COVID scare, the poor and middle class lost 3.2 trillion dollars while the world’s biggest corporations gained 3.6 trillion in value (numbers pulled out of my ass because I don’t really remember). The point I do remember is that it’s the biggest wealth transfer from the poor to the already rich in the history of the world, led by…surprise, surprise…socialists. (But much more succinct; I may be a professional marketing writer, but sadly I can’t meme.)

    There’s a diversity/inclusion/equity campaign going on at work. Makes me physically ill, but I can’t tell the VP of HR that this is a very bad idea, and my coworkers are happily (as far as I can tell) working on campaign materials. Thank God they haven’t asked me to do anything for it. I’d have to refuse, and I really can’t afford to rock the boat like that.

    So on my white board, which the entire floor can see, I wrote amongst my project notes D I E in big letters, followed by the rest of the words in small letters.
    Diversity
    Inclusion
    Equity

    It’s a very small thing, likely with no effect at all, but it does make me feel a little better.

      1. Oh, oh! Write that backwards from the same initials. Most people will never bother to read what is obviously just backward writing of the same words.

        emilSmile

      2. Racism, censorship, and discrimination.

        Doesn’t really flow as an acronym, though.

        1. RCD…how about pronouncing it as “irked”? Because that’s where I often end up. On a good day.

    3. Here’s hoping someone drops by your desk to complete the fish.

      (I’m trying to reference the story I’ve heard of early Christians, amidst persecution, drawing half of the now-familiar Jesus fish in the dust with a foot. And then other Christians drawing the other half of the fish as a subtle sign/countersign.)

      1. I have discovered a secret way to communicate. When someone asks how I am, I say Joyful. It is amazing how it connects true followers of the Way. If you know, you know Joy.

        One time in a “Mordor west” bank, the teller asked me how I was. When I said Joyful, another patron who overheard, burst out that he also knew. In his case, he had been forgiven much, so knew even more Joy than me, born again at 4.

        Flying a flag can be a secret signal for USAns. They want to silence us to make it appear all agree.

            1. That is the beauty of flags and Joy. How can you object without looking like a fool? Also, if they make anyone flying the flag an enemy of the left, we get more allies.

              1. Given the current Turnip in Chief/ZOMBUS and his alleged VP that have been foist upon us looking like an idiot doesn’t seem to bother the left, in fact it seems to be their prime mode of operation.

                  1. Clever, they keep using that word. I do not think it means that they think it means…

        3. Among Jews, the equivalent is “Doing well, Buruch HaShem”, – Blessed be the Name.

    4. “the poor and middle class lost 3.2 trillion dollars while the world’s biggest corporations gained 3.6 trillion in value”

      bUTT yoo tOOk teh stimmy checK!!!!!

      1. To be more accurate and verbose, I would qualify that as “mostly”. The economic problem is that if alternative energy sources such as wind and solar were profitable, there would already be people profiting from them. Government subsidies, incentives and penalties on the established traditional energy sources would be unnecessary. And if the alternatives are not profitable, government action is a useless waste.
        I was raised on gee-whiz wonder of technology, so I get the optimistic idealism. I was reading Jules Verne before I was 12. Unfortunately, I preferred my science fiction hard. I’ve been poking into reports of this or that exciting revolutionary advance in science and technology for almost as long. Every Single Time, when I dug into it, I found it was Harder Than It Looked. I preferred the difficult subjects like math, physics, and chemistry and how they applied to astronomy, earth science, biology, and engineering. The laws of thermodynamics and chemistry are implacable, ruthless, unforgiving of human error, and totally indifferent to human wishes. I also learned that when cloud castle meets the ground, the ground wins. Every Time. Aesthetically and philosophically, I’d love it if everything were powered by renewable sources like solar and wind. But there are always tradeoffs (hence not so green as presented), the necessary technology and engineering infrastructure just aren’t there, and the numbers don’t work. Legislative deadlines and fines won’t make them, and it is either folly or evil to pretend otherwise.

        1. I like wind-generators for homes and farm use, and solar panels where they make sense and are small. Hydropower? Great! Small city-sized nuclear reactors on a distributed grid? Please, pretty please.

          Enormous bird choppers with at best a 15 year life-span and no way to recycle, and that ruin the land and can wreak havoc on the local water table? NO!! Enormous solar arrays that louse up local weather patterns, or that fry birds on the wing? NO!!

        2. Five or so years ago I had a chat with a solar astronomer (out at a town festival offering filtered looks through his telescope as part of a larger demo). He was very blunt: given the amount of energy in, say, a square foot of solar energy, covering every inch of the planet in solar panels wouldn’t generate enough power.
          In space arrays….

          1. Got an *earful from cousin’s new inlaws whose farm borders someone who put in a solar farm. They are not happy. Don’t know what the charges were for but when the solar farm initially was brought on line it blew up the neighborhood’s electrical power. Local company wouldn’t come out to fix it until the “culprits paid up”, whatever that meant. Which affected the entire extended farming neighborhood. No power for water for the greenhouses, for crops, for animals. No power for barns and houses. To use the milking equipment for goats or cows. That is just what was described. All caused by solar farm they had no input on.

            /* Drove by it on the way to the reception at the farm house the two newlyweds live in.

          2. The essential problem with space arrays is that you are beaming through an atmosphere…. which is going to absorb a certain percentage….

        3. I just wish they’d drop the “renewable” canard. At bottom, every single energy source we have, with the exception of nuclear, is solar (and possibly petroleum, if it’s actually being continually produced a few miles down). A bit delayed, perhaps. And not one bit of it is “renewable”.

          1. *writes a novel where we all freeze because all the wind power takes too much energy from the atmosphere

          2. Oil is still being produced, it just takes a REAAAAAAALY long time to get there. The Caribean is probably going to be a really really rich oil source in a few million years.

          3. Coal, oil, and gas are all called fossil fuels for a reason. All of it started out as some form of life, and all life owes its existence to the sun. Hydrocarbon chains are created by living things whether plant or animal and simply turned into coal or petroleum over the course of time.
            So in a very real sense all energy is nuclear, either derived from fissionable materials mined from the Earth or gathered in some form or fashion from our own thermonuclear engine a mere 93 million miles away. Look right over there during the day and you can see it at work. Just don’t stare for too long.

          4. Either that, or it’s all renewable, although not necessarily within the financial quarter. Rather like the “ACT NOW or this opportunity will be gone FOREVER! that roll into my e-mail in-box every single day from the very same hucksters, scammers, and political parties…yes, I know, that’s a redundancy… I get tired of the constant yammering that we’re all DOOMED. Temporarily inconvenienced is more like it. I’d like to tell some people, “Slow down. Breathe. Panicked hyperventilating rarely solves anything.”

          5. I think WP ate my comment. TPTB decided that Hydropower in our area (4 dams giving 100MW) was doubleplusungood, since downstream tribes blamed those dams for their fisheries problems (ignoring other dams all in California), but that the hydro could be replaced by 36MW worth of solar, chewing up several hundred acres of productive farmland.

            I have solar systems, the biggest 3.6kW, but that’s largely because the grid around here is iffy (not to mention the creative mathematics of the green energy crowd).

            1. Well, they’re, uh — they’re lying. (Big surprise, that)

              Depending on the solar index in your area, replacing 100 megawatts of hydroelectric power would require anywhere between 500 MW and 1,400 MW of solar panels. It takes about 5,000 square meters of solar cells to produce one megawatt when they’re directly facing the noon sun, so that comes to between 2,500,000 and 7,000,000 square meters. That’s almost a square mile to 2.7 square miles OF SOLAR CELLS. Total land area required for the solar farm would be about 20% larger.

              Solar panel costs have come down to about $1.00 a watt, so just the solar panels would cost between $500 million and $1.4 billion.

              But wait! All of that power would be delivered during daylight, most of it in a few hours centered around local noon. You would also need something like 2,000 MWH of energy storage to supply power when the solar panels don’t meet demand over a single day cycle. Using today’s technology, that would take 60,000 TONS of batteries costing almost $300 million.

              Cloudy days would cut solar panel power output by 80% to 95%. How many cloudy days do you expect in a year, and how many cloudy days in a row can you get? Multiply energy storage requirements accordingly, or install more solar panels and deal with a lot of excess energy on sunny summer days.

              Solar can work as supplemental power, but it’s a lousy choice for baseline. Hydroelectric makes excellent baseline power, and can also do demand following. Hydro turbines can be spun up or shut down in just a few minutes.
              ———————————
              The government can mandate stupidity, but they can’t make it not be stupid.

              1. I’m wondering just who managed to get the sweet deal to put in these farms. They’re using electricomechanical trackers, though a roadside glance shows that maybe 1% of the trackers are out of commission at any given time.

                We are fairly bright, though last winter, I found it a really good idea to switch to mains power for a week when we had solid overcast and/or storms.

                Equally maddening, back until sometime in the Aughts, the area was tied into the Bonneville hydro system. Some court challenge said that we were not longer eligible, and residential (and most emphatically, the ranch) users found their power rates skyrocketing. Thus, any rancher who can has sacrificed a portion of his land to grid-tie solar, though it’s only the 12MWe farms that are messing with the trackers. (The approach I use was recommended by the makers of the charger/inverter/controller module; oversize the system (use more panels than minimum) and let the electronics substitute for the tracker. Makes for fewer failures. So far.)

                I haven’t heard about the current status, but there’s a pumped storage project planned for a nearby (ancient caldera) basin. The usual “60Hz EMI ruined my life” crowd was fighting it, but I think it’s still ongoing. (Curious, most of that crowd seems happy to live in a city. Not too many of them are offgrid and surviving on 12VDC appliances.)

                1. I have a solar “passive” tracker that moves because the sun heats up one of two canisters of fluid preferentially depending on the location of the sun in the sky. It’s still working after almost 25 years in service.

                  Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the solar panels themselves, at least partly because of tree overgrowth because I basically live in a forest. Those trees were trimmed before Y2K to un-shade the panels but have grown quite a bit since then and I don’t want to pay to trim them way back to get a few hundred watts of solar power, assuming the panels are still capable of producing even that much power.

        4. I have no issue with small scale solar power. There’s a few systems on our land, ranging from 120W to 3.6kW, the latter doing full-time pumphouse power, and the former used for lights and trickle charging in the garage. (The third system covers power outages and can power refrigeration and one or two crucial loads when necessary.)

          What I do object to are the three big (150 acre, maybe) 12MW arrays put in to “replace” hydroelectric power that got denounced as evil/bad/fishkiller generators. (Clever how replacing 100MW of hydro with 36MW of daytime power makes sense to TPTB.)

          We haven’t had bad trouble with power outages yet. Counting on good luck isn’t the way to bet right now.

    2. My response to the Green Energy fans (of which I admit there are few here in southern AZ) is that it’s a wonderful thing if you want to live without air conditioning and eat bugs or tree bark, because that is the inevitable result of this insane concept…

      1. Arizona? Bugs and tree bark? In these parts, they bite back. Yes, the tree bark too, if you’ve ever been up close and personal with a mesquite, palo verde, or catclaw. Red ants and scorpions and tarantulas, oh my.

        1. Yep. I got solar (about 6kW) when it was subsidized back in ’10, and my part (about $15k) was finally amortized about the time the COVID idiocy started. And even with the amount of sun here (just south of Phoenix) there’s no way it could supply all the power we need in the summer. And let’s not talk about “living off the land”, the local natives could barely do it, and Euell Gibbons would starve in short order.

          1. In my undergraduate physics course the joke of solar-powered air conditioning came up every semester in the thermodynamics unit on heat engines and refrigeration. Such a beautiful idea, mortally wounded by the second law of thermodynamics. Once I could have even calculated the power requirements, but my physics has turned to rust from disuse.

            1. Ditto, all of the above. Sometimes I think the Greenies got their ideas from the (thankfully imaginary) “self-sustaining cat fur farm”, the biological version of a perpetual motion machine.

            2. How do you get that? I don’t see any problem with solar powered air conditioning for a house in Phoenix.

              Phoenix, Arizona is a very good place for solar power — the solar index is greater than 5, meaning that a 1 KVA solar panel will produce more than 5 KVAH per day, averaged over the year. Solar index in the summer would be greater than 5, and that’s when you need air conditioning. For this example, though, let’s use 5.

              I have a 3.5 ton air conditioning system installed in my house, which draws about 2.5 KVA when it’s running. Summers in Phoenix are hotter than here, and let’s say the hypothetical house is bigger than mine, so I’ll give it a 7 ton system that draws 5 KVA.

              If the house is well insulated, and the air conditioning system is properly sized for it, the compressor duty cycle should be about 40% in the daytime and 20% or less at night. That is, the compressor will run 24 minutes out of every hour by day and 12 minutes per hour at night. Almost all the power consumed by an air conditioning system is used to run the refrigerant compressor. Circulating the air takes very little additional power. The air handler might, or might not, run continuously. For simplicity, I’ll stipulate that the air handler shuts down shortly after the compressor. You do want to extract that residual ‘coolth’ from the system.

              Since the outdoor environment does not heat up instantly at sunrise, and begins to cool down before sunset, I will simplify calculations by dividing the day evenly into 12 hours of daytime heat and 12 hours of cooler evening/night/morning.

              5 KVA times 12 hours times 40% equals 24 KVAH energy consumed during daylight. 5 KVA times 12 hours times 20% equals 12 KVAH energy at night, for a total of 36 KVAH per day. The solar index is 5, therefore the system requires 7.2 KVA of solar panels to produce 36 KVAH per day, plus about 16 KVAH of battery storage to run through evenings, nights and mornings.

              I’d overspec the system to 8 KVA of solar panels and 20 KVAH of batteries. At today’s prices, that would cost between $26,000 and $30,000. Sounds expensive, but it would save more than $150 per month on electric bills. That’s a return on investment of 6% to 7% which is pretty damn good in this economy. I know, you have to include depreciation, but it’s quite doable.
              ———————————
              “Don’t open that!! It’s the original can of worms!”

              1. At the time, we were thinking of running the compressor with a Stirling cycle engine, and the problems were the low-temperature heat sink on one end and sufficiently concentrating the solar power at the other. Sheepish grin we never actually ran the calculations although it would have been a nice exercise, especially for a higher division engineering class. Photovoltaics were coming into use for small, remote, off-grid applications or low power things like toys and calculators, but weren’t really ready for household use..

          2. We skipped the subsidy for our larger system and didn’t do a tie. The main module could be set up as grid tie, but we wanted to be offgrid when we wanted. Grid tie systems seem pointless when the grid is iffy… (We kind of live on a back road area of the main grid. One HV line connects the cities and towns along our area, and when it goes out, there’s an interesting blackout for a while. With respect to power, I hate interesting.)

    3. Burning Greens as fuel works. Got to keep the boilers going to keep the generators going somehow, afterall. Finally, the Greens would be of some use.

      1. They’d foul the firebox. You’d have to clean it out three times a week.
        ———————————
        Today, every child in America is born $91,000 in debt.

      2. I like it! The greenies finally get to do their part to reduce the human population and increase renewable energy usage, and we get less of them. It’s a win/win.

    4. It’s quite green,though. It transfers green from the poor who are forced to buy it in lieu of functional technology to the politically connected and powerful who own the tech.

      1. It also transfers green from taxpayers to the politically connected and powerful who get subsidies and tax incentives instead of having to, like, actually make a profit.

  11. By the way, I don’t know if anybody saw this making the rounds the past couple days, but…

    https://www.neom.com/en-us/regions/theline

    Basically, it’s some think tank or something driven by Saudi money that wants to build a “habitation of the future” in a long thin line 500m wide, 200m high, and 175km long, surrounded by mirrored glass walls. No cars, everything is automated, 9 million residents, all happily owning nothing and eating bugs I guess.

    They look at it and see the future of humanity. I look at it and see an entire shelf of dystopian sci-fi novels.

    1. Destroy another fetus now
      We don’t like children anyhow
      I’ve seen the future, baby:
      It is murder

      — Leonard Cohen, “The Future”

      1. “Choose life so you and your children may live.”

        I read that in some dusty tome once. Seem like words to live by. Literally.

    2. I’ve read at least two books that scream, “What a horrible idea!!!” about that sort of self-enclosed “paradise.” Shudders

      2. “Still protesting against the government, Sector Four? Well, no more electricity for you!”

    3. “Where the best and the brightest live.” The res tof us will wallow in unspeakable misery – or be ‘gone’.

    5. Another panopticon that would thrill our control freak rulers, who of course would live in Swiss chalets and fly private jets around…

    6. What’s the point of making it 75 miles long? Making a square 25 miles (or so) on a side, with parks/farms/etc. in the middle I could sort of see. Either way, seems awfully vulnerable to earthquakes, major storms, whatever.

    7. Yeah, like I posted below, it’s a human Ant Farm. Only the peons will live in the Ant Farm; their Benevolent Leaders will live in all the land that’s been freed up.
      ———————————
      If an action is evil when perpetrated by a corporation, it is just as evil when performed by a government.

    8. So, basically, Mega City One.

      And The Wall would turn out to be every bit as dystopian as Judge Dredd’s hometown, too.

    10. P.S. – WordPress really hates it when you make a comment that has nothing but a link. Third time this has happened to me lately.

  12. So, I just attempted to work.

    There was a request for technical proposals.

    I started writing an explanation of self-inflicted problems with the entire plan.

    Then, I decided to delete it, because I figured the explanation that a certain organization is screwed might be a wee bit over the line.

  13. This is because their “Say vagina” meme went so well.

    :snickers: Oh, gads, I remember the remedial biology lessons.

  14. Women should have equal rights under the law. Women who actually want to be equal to men in reality should have their heads examined, since throughout history men have died to protect women.

    Which elevates them both, and protects the species.

    1. Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. they should never settle merely for equality. For women, “equality” is a disaster.
      RAH in The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

  15. These lines caught my eye:

    “Government like gangs should be small, controlled, local, and under the eye of the populace.”

    “Trusting government officials to enforce fairness is like trusting the Mob to manage your bank account.”

    Both comparing government to criminal enterprises. I think there’s something that can be used there. How about this:

    The government we have today is basically just a successful cartel under a different name. But the only thing that makes them successful is us not recognizing the fact.

    Crack down on the leftist cartel!

    Government should provide citizens with a level playing field for doing whatever they want to do, and nothing more. Dictating what citizens may or may not do means that government needs to be abolished.

    1. I think it’s in Weber’s (and Flint’s?) “Cauldron of Ghosts” where Victor Cachat males the point that in a protection racket, you pay money to get protection from criminals and basic social services, and with a city government … you get pretty much the same. A well-run city government may be better than a well-run mob, but a well-run mob was generally better than many city governments.

      Ah, here we go:
      More than legal scholars liked to admit, the concept of a protection racket was often hard to distinguish on the ground floor from what people got from legal authorities. To a crime boss, you turned over a portion of the proceeds of your business or profession and in return you got protection, stability, stable supplies and prices—even, in the best run areas, a measure of social welfare. To a legitimate government, you turned over a portion of the proceeds of your business and profession and in return you got . . . About the same results. Superior results, to be sure, in well-run societies like Beowulf and Manticore—even much superior ones. But in many of the Verge worlds—certainly on Thandi’s native Mfecane planets—most people would have been better off with a well-run crime syndicate in charge than the “legitimate” thugs and thieves they actually got.

      1. And now I’m thinking about The Dresden Files. I wonder when Jim Butcher’s going to finish the next book…

        John Marcone is absolutely one of my favorite villain/anti-villain/maybe-anti-heroes of all time.

      2. “Honest graft” was at least up front and honest. And even the great reformers like Lincoln Steffans admitted that the system worked. It cost twice as much, and had major flaws, but it worked (Chicago, Boston, NYC under Boss Tweed, KC MO during the Pendergast days). Ditto the Mafia.

        2. Check Kornbluth’s “The Syndic”. A bit dated, but the concepts are still valid, especially the comments about bankers by “B. Arrowsmith Hynd” (aka Fletcher Pratt).

        3. Yeah, Chicago under Richard J. Daley was graft-ridden, but it largely worked. Corruption and competence, it seems. Now, it looks like they have the first part, but not the second.

          At a rough guess, the inflection point was when Richard J died in office.

          FWIW, Mike Royko’s Boss is a good snapshot of Daley (the first, dunno much about his son, Richard M.) and Chicago of that time. Been a long time since I’ve read it, though, and it’s not in my collection any more.

          1. Anne Arundel County, Maryland, where I grew up, had a second generation county executive. His unofficial but widely recognized campaign slogan was “The best County gov’t money can buy.” He got rich, and the county got good roads, good schools, good county level law enforcement, etc. He wanted happy customers, err voters, so he could stay in office an keep making graft.

      3. They say there is honor among thieves.

        No one has ever said there is honor among politicians.

        I wonder why that is?

        1. Because most politicians are for sale.
          An honorable politician is one who stays bought.

          1. No, politicians are for RENT until somebody else offers them higher rent.
            ———————————
            I used to live on a farm. I know what bullshit smells like.

    2. “[I]f you wish to know how libertarians regard the State and any of its acts, simply think of the State as a criminal band, and all of the libertarian attitudes will logically fall into place.” — Murray Rothbard

  16. (For those who didn’t ask: No, I don’t game. I just find the memes hilarious.)

    The memes are far super to the actual Grim Darkness of Dark, Grim game. 😀

    1. I have never played a WH40k game (I can’t be bothered to do all the fiddly miniature-painting) but I have watched a lot of videos on the lore of the WH40k universe. It’s…interesting, if grimdark beyond belief. Also, highly memeable.

      The Emperor protects.

      1. I knew my then-boyfriend loved me when he loaned me his Warhammer fantasy book for a flight back to the states.

        It’s DARK, but really interesting.

      6. Same here as far as looking into the lore and not really trusting myself to do a good job with the mini painting, especially since the Thousand Sons are my favorite faction. Getting the details on the Egyptian headdress parts of their armor right would not be fun for an amateur, and same for adjusting to their magic-heavy tactics for someone who’s never played a tabletop game. At least everyone can enjoy the memes, though!

  20. Oh dear. I just released a book* about a married couple, with kids, doing family stuff (and defeating evil magic). How transgressive. Especially since the next book (September launch) is about what “family” means, and about kids growing up. The horror, the horror!

    And I’m working on a story about a guy and a gal who are friends. And just want to be friends. And are both happy with that.

    *I sent it to Sarah for the book post.

      1. I’ve been following the series since about midway through, (I went back and caught up) and it’s always been mostly about a couple (since before they even married and had kids) doing family stuff (and defeating evil magic). Ghastly stuff.

  21. And in my usual tangenting, was watching this: https://youtu.be/3K25VPdbAjU

    And was reminded of the whole Darkships history. Combined with a rant I’d been having about how current US law is to complicated for ordinary people to understand, much less follow, and the possibility that artificial general intelligence may actually be capable of doing everything around 2150ish, and it hit me, if there ever is a great AI takeover, it’s going to be less Terminator, and much more AI ecologists scrambling madly to keep the remainder of the human race from going extinct and/or non-responsive.

  22. Because why not:
    A flea and a fly in a flue
    Were trapped, so what could they do?
    Said the flea, “Let us fly!”
    Said the fly,” Let us flee!”
    So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

    1. If that’s how it’s gonna be…

      There once was a gal named Irene
      Who lived on distilled kerosene
      But she started absorbin’
      A new hydrocarbon
      And since then has never benzene.

    2. Bigger fleas have little fleas
      Upon their backs to bite ’em.
      And little fleas have lit’ler fleas,
      And so ad infinitum.

    1. That DOESN’T include the explosive, though, right? I figured the bullets could be printed easily enough; it’s the stuff that goes bang that’s the problem.

  24. The Marxists lack the introspective qualities of Stargate’s O’Neill: “I’ve spent my whole life sticking it to the man. If I do this, I’ll be the man. I don’t think I can be the man.”

  25. Blasting satanic metal in headphones…? Sounds like a good time to me. 🙂

    These satanic-adjacent death metal guys describe our present predicament quite well and urge us to fight. (No political prescriptions in it, so I’m taking it for my own even though as Europeans their politics are likely opposite mine.)

    Come for the orchestra, stay for the mosh pit.

    3. I’ve been going back and really listening to metal from the ’80s and ’90s. There’s a LOT of “the government that you love is going to do you in” and “you’re not the boss of me.” Although the budget figures tossed around in Queensrych’s “Empire” make me giggle. They need to remaster it and add a few zeroes to the totals.

      1. The Who got there first. There was a reason Who’s Next was the favorite rock album of many libertarians, back in the seventies. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” hasn’t lost any of its relevance . . .

      2. I’ve done a bit of that recently.
        And I’ve been wondering where Dave Mustaine got his fricking time machine.

        How does “coked out paranoia” become “practically prophecy” in two decades?

      3. The dollar amounts are puny in hindsight, but the ratio still holds. It’s truer now than it ever was. And still a great song. It’s AMAZING live.

    4. When I read LotR to my daughter, all the Orcs spoke in variations on that Death Metal Cookie Monster voice. Some of the longer speeches really thrashed my throat. 🙂

      1. Respect! That had to have been a great experience for both of you. I’m not sure why I never read LoTR to my kids (it was all Harry Potter for us), but I really should have.

        I used to be able to scream “Find the halfling!!!” and other such evil commands in a very convincing Uruk-hai voice, just like the movies — without even hurting myself — but I moved on to other pursuits and then was very sad to find out that I had lost the knack when I tried it again a few years later. (I’d pull out the orc voice sometimes when my wife would ask me to go find one of the kids…she didn’t appreciate it…not sure why.) 😀

        Most people don’t realize that you’ve got to practice very specific techniques to do those harsh vocals without hurting yourself. Unless you really are an orc, I guess. Heh.

      2. Dad read The Lord of the Rings out loud to my siblings and me once, but the traditional book (when we had time, way back when I was young… uh. Younger…) was The Hobbit. He had a really beautiful special edition – green leather cover with gold runes and embellishments, plus illustrations on the inside.

        I recently bought my own copy in the same style, and I’m really proud of that. Someday, when I have my own kids…

        1. It’s probably for the best that I won’t have children. I’m the kind of guy that would read “Bored of the Rings” to them at some point. 😛

      3. My Dad used to read the Tintin comics to us . . . and sang Castafiore’s arias in the most torturous falsetto. I could readily believe she could break glass using only her voice! He also read us Asterix and Obelix, and I’m still not sure how he kept a straight face while reading about the druid Getafix, the bard Cacofonix, or any of the other punnily named characters.

  26. It’s actually been bouncing around for months, well back into the heyday of a certain Trust The Science! public figure; but given the invitation and the warm spot I have in my heart for such sentiments… and the rumored resurgence of the Masquerati here and there:

    ((ideally sung, to the tune of a well-konwn children’s hymn))

    My Mask pro-tects me, this I know
    Wise Lord Fauci told me so.
    Oth-er peo-ple tell me lies,
    They are weak but He is Wise.

    (refrain)

    Yes, Fauci loves me,
    Wise Fauci loves me;
    I-know Fauci loves me,
    My Tee-Vee told me so.

    2. Wow. I am in awe.

      How can this be both so right, and so, so wrong at the same time?

      Kriff this timeline, I’m going wardrobe-hunting until I find anywhere else!

      Well, okay, maybe not Panem. But honestly, the world of Twilight might not be that bad as long as you avoid Washington like the plague.

  27. I love that you are using 40k memes. I’m never sure how many people even know what 40k is.

    Also, I have that video of Joe Biden sayin “Lets go Brandon, I agree” to that phone caller. I will cherish that moment forever.

    2. Quite a lot of people know what 40K is. Not only are there the miniatures games and books, but there are also a very large number of video games. Most of them are poor quality. But some of them are very good, and have attracted a large number of players.

    4. 40K is what you’ll have left of your 401K after the Brandon regime is through with it.

  28. Expanding on a (some days) earlier comment:

    Trofim Lysenko was an expert, and a major historic leader in “Consensus Science.”

    So how can the Global Warming Consensus or the mRNA Covid Vaccines Are Safe and Effective Consensus possiblybe wrong now, too?

    1. Trofim Lysenko was a government approved expert!
      ———————————
      Facts do not depend on opinions. Unfortunately, for far too many people, opinions do not depend on facts, either.

  29. Regarding anatomical details:
    Stolen Jeff Foxworthy joke: You might be a redneck if you go “You paid $2500 for a used WHAT?” when you find out your kid bought a Swedish car.

      2. First Sarah tells us to be unicorns. Then she tells us to be fleas. Now I’m supposed to be a wasp.

        Alright, you bastards, quit holding out on me and tell me where I sign up for the shapeshifting classes already. 😛

        1. That would be the School of Transmutation, I believe. Whichever campus is near you. Although I warn you, if you’re looking for a party school, Transmutation really isn’t for you. The professors make McGonagall look indulgent. Something about ‘unstable transmutations ALWAYS revert to their original state at the MOST inconvenient time possible.’

          And no drinking while Transmuting, EVER. That way lies dead wizards, huts that walk on chicken legs, and owlbears.

  31. Good post! You do good memes. Yes, we need more heresy. I think my recent books are heresy. Hmmm. Come to think of it, they might be more hisesy. Keep ’em coming!

  32. I spent a few moments staring at the screen in awe when I saw the first image in this post. (The Gothic Hellfire Express picture.) There might be something wrong with me. But that image is, to my own curious sense of aesthetic, absolutely gorgeous. And awesome.

    Granted, the front of the train (that isn’t the cowcatcher – or rather, the tarrasque catcher) could be streamlined to look less like a block and more like a cowcatcher writ large crossed with Grond from The Return of the King. But it’s really cool anyway.

    1. Nothing wrong with having those kind of artistic tastes, like me and Fox were discussing above! You’re in good company around here if those are the things you like.

      1. Thanks! I wrote that kind of tongue in cheek… my family and friends are all quite aware of my tastes, and it’s generally a source of amusement to everyone, especially me. I’m glad to get to know (even just over the Internet) others like me.

  33. On January 6 of ’21,
    I was down in Washington,
    Down in the District of Columbia
    On the day Ashli Babbitt was killed,
    On the day Ashli Babbitt was killed.

    Ashli knew the election
    Was rotten as the Devil in Hell –
    Those damn Mail-in ballots
    Had corrupted the vote, you could tell,
    Hurt Pres’dent Trump, you could tell.

    But after a summer of riots
    By BLM and ANTIFA,
    Nobody wanted to listen,
    To what a white girl, a veteran would say,
    To what a white girl, a veteran would say.

    Her blood flowed red on the marble,
    Of the Peoples’ House floor,
    Her blood was as red as the stripes of Old Glory,
    She wore ’round her shoulders that day,
    She wore ’round her shoulders that day.

    Ashli voted for Obama,
    Back in the year of ’08,
    Hoped he would bring us together again,
    But he fanned the flames of hate,
    And Hillary she could not take.

    Unarmed and brave in th’ Cap’tol,
    She crossed that Rub-i-con,
    And stood against the Democrat Coup –
    To save our nation true,
    She died for me and you.

    When she died they dragged her down,
    The Media did what they do,
    They ruined her name and shamed her cause,
    They called her a treasonous clown,
    They called her a traitorous pawn.

    But her blood flowed red on the marble
    Of the Peoples’ House floor,
    Her blood was a red as the stripes of Old Glory,
    She wore ’round her shoulders that day,
    She wore ’round her shoulders that day.

    But her blood flowed red on the marble
    Of the People’s House floor,
    Her blood was as red as the stripes of Old Glory,
    She wore ’round her shoulders that day,
    She wore ’round her shoulders that day,

    (Not mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8C_4n2jbjc)

  34. Remember enough fleas on a dog will drive it insane. Let us all vow to be fleas on the Beast!

  35. Anyone want a bunch (about 35) of issues of Liberty Magazine? This is the late 1980’s-early 1990’s one starring all of the libertarian stars of that age including Karl Hess, David Friedman, Murray Rothbard and John Hospers. I need to clear out some room and I’ll even pay the media mail postage. I just don’t want to have them shredded.

    If anyone is interested, please reply here.

  36. Today one of my students, who is an officer of the Malaysian armed forces, asked why the US would conduct maritime interception operations (the topic of the lesson I was teaching) in places far from our actual borders. I told him the truth: someone has to, and we’re the best equipped and the most trusted by others.

    The reason we’re the most trusted by others (even when they are resentful and frustrated and feeling jealous and vindictive) is because we make an honest effort to live our values. That includes not being petty, biased, or only out for ourselves. That idea seems heretical to many people in the US who have never actually talked to people from other countries other than those trying to suck up to the anti-American “globalist” element within the US that is so active in international diplomacy and the deep state.

    There’s a reason why Hong Kongers were waving US flags, why you see US flags at protests around the world. Don’t let anti-American doomers spread their heresy and their lies about how much we’re hated.

  37. Kevin Doocy missed a brilliant follow-up to his question about the recession yesterday:

    Doocy: “Did you just redefine recession in order to avoid having to admit your stupid economic policies have caused a recession?”

    Karen: “No, we’re not redefining recession.”

    Doocy: “So now you’re trying to redefine the word ‘redefine’?”
    ———————————
    The government can mandate stupidity, but they can’t make it not be stupid.

    1. Damn, made up a signature line for that comment and forgot to use it:

      “Yer best start believin’ in recessions, Miss Turner — yer in one.”

                1. > “Ah, got it. Sorry.”

                  I did use the 😛 smiley. Are you not familiar with smileys?

                  1. Hm. I’m not sure I really noticed that, to be honest… my brain might be subconsciously editing out emojis, which is not actually helpful, since they might actually provide context for messages. Like that one.

                    (“C’mon, me! Do better!”)

    2. My understanding: they’re making changes to a bill, trying to avoid it being kicked out by the senate. They don’t want their pork to be stricken from the bill (scrubbed by privilege). The Byrd rule is a way of determining if the pork is actually related to the bill being considered.

    3. I saw that. Good Lord, she actually made Biden sound sane and coherent by comparison.

      Anybody figured out what happened to her? Concussion? Drunk/stoned out of her mind? Having a stroke? Going hard senile nearly overnight?

  39. D.I.E. and C.R.T. are doctrines of Original Sin. You were born guilty of crimes you never committed, and you will never be pardoned. Your only hope is to buy indulgences from your accusers.

    2. Or to walk away, flipping the bird, and saying, “Ah well, convicted of the crime, might as well do the time and be as evil as I want.”

  41. A minor correction.
    If 99% of scientists believe one thing, it is possible that at most 1% are correct.

    Iterative application of Sturgeon’s Law.

  42. OK, now I’ve seen the Saudi promo video for ‘The Line’.

    It’s a human Ant Farm. That is their Utopia.

    Of course, the Good Men won’t live in the Ant Farm.
    ———————————
    “I wasn’t going to compare the government to the Mafia. Not to his face.”

  43. Completely off topic: The first part of this post got me humming the “Underdog” theme song, and a little Wikipedia/Youtube journey and wow, there’s a whole block of stuff I hadn’t remembered that I remembered, so to speak: the “Underdog” cartoon itself, with the baddies Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff, and the companion cartoons “Go Go Gophers”, “Tennessee Tuxedo”, “Klondike Cat”, and “Commander McBragg”. All of which were (somewhat shockingly) instantly familiar even though I haven’t actually seen any of them since I was five.

  44. If you just want to harvest memes, check out PowerlineBlog on Saturdays. They have a series The Week in Review, that is a meme dump. And generally the best ones are in the comments.

      1. > “Believe it or not I only get this profane when really, really angry.”

        Razorfist has been a bad influence on you, hasn’t he? 😛

      1. Because nothing says, ‘This is a completely honest and clean election” like prohibiting anyone from watching the vote count and saying “it’s not an election-election.” feline eyeroll here Pull my other-other leg. It’s got bells on it.

    2. And speaking of elections…..

      “We’re doing it anyway. What are you going to do? Take us to court?”

      https://justthenews.com/accountability/whistleblowers/doj-official-named-fbi-whistleblower-complaint-involved-earlier-lois

      A senior Justice Department official recently flagged by a U.S. senator in an FBI whistleblower probe into alleged politicization of prosecutions played a key role in the Lois Lerner IRS scandal a decade ago in which conservative Tea Party groups were improperly targeted for scrutiny, government emails and congressional evidence shows.

      Richard Pilger, the current chief of the DOJ Elections Crime Branch of the department’s Public Integrity Section, engaged in discussions in 2010 and 2013 with Lerner and other IRS officials about ways to pursue criminal prosecutions of conservative nonprofits, the records show.

      When we win, there MUST be an accounting.

  48. The other day, I watched the Babylon Bee’s interview of John Cleese. Mr. Cleese said that he loved American comedians, but that American comedy wasn’t silly. I think he’s right, and I blame Lenny Bruce and George Carlin for that. This has led directly to Stewart and Colbert and to people getting their “news” from “comedians.”

    So, my act of heresy is I’m going to be silly. Not all the time, but sometimes. I’m going to do my best to make silly great again. I expect to fail, but there is honor in the attempt, so I’m going to try.

      1. I guess I don’t need to say this here, but if you get your news from the lamestream media, you should switch to Gutfeld’s show. He carries a lot more real news than they do.

  50. Remember those “in this house we believe” — they seem to have vanished from yards in the ritzy areas of towns.

    One of my neighbors had one of those offensive signs. No one ever commented on it, and, unlike other neighborhoods, no one ever vandalized it. BUT. When he put his house up for sale, he replaced it with a tree-mounted American flag. Hmm.

  51. By the way, is it just me, or are other people not getting emails for new comments?

    WPDE

      1. Ah. I logged out of WordPress and logged back in and voilà! comments in the inbox.

  53. }}} And why are there no songs about Ashli Babbit?

    Thought: Someone go to the Con Costume Ball as “Zombie Ashli Babbit”?

    Might be fun to poke some of them in the eye.

  54. }}} Science is not determined by quorum. If 99% of scientists believe one thing, it’s perfectly possible that only 1% of them are correct.

    Less than 1%.

    Look up “Lumniferous Ether”, and Michaelson-Morely vs the rest of Scientists.

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