The “assorted” columns are something I try to limit, as – despite my intentions going in – I often blather for hundreds of words after each citation. Trust me, Gentle Reader: I know I’m an addict. But to date, there’s no known cure for boring long-windedness.
1. Stunning.
As I no longer watch pro sports – or any broadcast or cablecast material, for that matter – I learned about this only this morning:
Thank you, Mark Wahlberg. That needed to be said.
2. Saying It Straight Out.
In this column on Argentine president Javier Milei, Austin Petersen lays into the whining leftist feminists who’ve been accusing Milei of attacking women’s rights. Every paragraph is a Sunday punch: sharp and decisive. An example:
Regarding the contentious issue of abortion, it’s crucial to remember that being pro-life is not an assault on women’s rights. It’s about protecting the rights of all humans, born and unborn. Milei’s stance is a bold move in a world that often forgets the value of every human life. It’s not about controlling women; it’s about acknowledging and respecting the sanctity of life at all stages. The article ties Milei’s actions to a supposed attack on feminism.
(What did Milei do to enrage those feminists? He closed the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity. The horror. But I digress.)
Either an unborn baby is a human, with human rights, or he’s “just a blob of tissue.” To me, the former case is indisputable – and yes, I know there are people who dispute it. But if I’m right, then calling abortion a “woman’s right” is proclaiming that a woman has a right to commit murder, as long as her intended victim is helpless within her womb.
If you don’t like that, prove to my satisfaction that an unborn baby is not a human being. Go ahead; I’ll wait.
3. Living in a Goldfish Bowl.
The unobservant and under-observant might not have noticed the proliferation of surveillance devices here in the Land of the Formerly Free. But Patriotman has:
We live in a time of unprecedented, near-ubiquitous surveillance. Almost everything we do or say is recorded, tracked, correlated, analyzed, categorized, and alerted on. Not just by devices in public spaces, but those we voluntarily place in our homes or on our person as well. Increasingly, law enforcement is using data from these devices to enforce an ever more Orwellian, dystopic rule.
Today, I want to educate you on one such device, commonly known as the Police Observation Device, or POD. These devices can be found in growing numbers in urban, suburban, and even rural areas. Police Observation Devices (PODs) are specialized equipment used by law enforcement agencies for surveillance and monitoring purposes. These devices can range from simple CCTV cameras to more advanced systems with multiple sensors and analytical capabilities. Manufacturers include, but are not limited to: Axis Communications, Hikvision, Dahua Technology, Bosch Security Systems, Panasonic, Honeywell Security, FLIR Systems, Samsung Techwin (now part of Hanwha Group), Pelco, and others.
That there are nine manufacturers – at least – of such devices should surprise no one. Governments pay big bucks for the gear they want. (Ask anyone who’s worked in the defense sector.) So at this time, your default assumption should be that whenever you leave your home, you will be watched. Agents of the State will have access to the record of your movements. Moreover, there’s nothing you can do about it.
To those who’ve equipped their homes with “smart,” Internet-enabled devices capable of hearing and recording what’s said therein: You’re helping to fasten collars around your own necks. Get rid of that crap and get smart yourself.
4. A Melancholy Observation.
Kevin Downey wants us to remember a few things about pResident Biden and his family:
Joe Biden is the worst presidential candidate since Vermin Love Supreme Al Sharpton. He “brought class back to the White House” in his first term by allegedly dropping a crabcake in his pants while chatting up the Pope. A week later he “stepped on a goose” while making small talk with the wife of then-Prince Charles. But hey, that’s just “blue-collar Joe” being one of the folks.
Biden has managed to get away with political murder for decades. Sure, he was forced to bail on his presidential ambitions in the 1980s when being a liar and a plagiarist had consequences, but apparently those malfeasances are no longer enough to keep a good-for-nothing trickster out of the White House.
Even the ole stand-by nuke in the Democrat’s quiver — an accusation of racism — hasn’t stopped Biden, despite a decades-long history of bigotry.
Downey then lists five major reasons to spurn the Usurper-in-Chief come November. (Yes, yes, there are more than five, but pixels are expensive.) They constitute good arguments for Biden to be sent, not back to the White House, but to prison. Still, it won’t happen, and you know why.
The Deep State, of which the Justice Department is a key component, will not prosecute a man who has been such a generous enabler and supporter. Neither will they permit the mud he deserves to be spread over his reputation to be thoroughly documented and aired in a court of law. Documents will vanish. Prosecutors will be instructed about “proprieties.” Witnesses – the lucky ones – will be prosecuted or discredited. (You know what will happen to the unlucky ones.)
Don’t expect a better outcome than Biden’s removal from office next January.
5. A Trial Over An Entirely Legal Act.
Remember this classic Monty Python skit?
Yes, it’s absurd; that was the Pythonic idiom. But the meat of it is now being tried in a Georgia courtroom. The defendant, of course, is President Donald Trump – and it appears that his prosecutors are guiltier than he is!
Today, in an Atlanta courtroom, a judge heard testimony on a motion by defendants to disqualify Fani Willis from her prosecution of Donald Trump and others. The hearing was live-streamed, but I didn’t watch it. From all accounts, though, the day went badly for Fani.
The issue is being framed as whether Willis had a conflict of interest in her prosecution of Trump et al. The conflict would arise, I take it, from her hiring Nathan Wade, her illicit lover, to prosecute the case (a task for which he had few apparent qualifications), paying him extravagantly, and then benefiting herself when her lover, in turn, spent some of the money on her.
Ironic enough…but wait: there’s more! What Trump is being tried for is a completely legal act:
The complaint charges Trump with trying to overturn the result of the 2020 election in Georgia, but of course there is nothing wrong with that. Al Gore tried to overturn the result of the 2000 election in Florida, and Al Franken became a senator by successfully overturning an election in Minnesota. In my opinion, Fani Willis’s lengthy complaint alleges only a single crime, and it wasn’t committed by Donald Trump. You can’t make legal conduct illegal by calling it a conspiracy.
Now do you see why I posted the Python snippet?
6. In Conclusion.
According to my Merriam-Webster, a fricassee is “a dish of pieces of meat (such as chicken) or vegetables stewed in stock and served in a white sauce.” Well, one must be true to one’s words, so here’s the white sauce:
Yes, they call Rhodesia Zimbabwe these days, but you have to expect that sort of thing from savages. Anyway, watch South Africa draw the moral.
I think that will be it for today, Gentle Reader. I’m very tired. Even so, I have a great deal to do. So hang in there, be of good cheer, and remember: The State loves you! (Why else would it want to know everything you say and do and everywhere you go? 😒)
