The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: 07.10.23

Posted on | July 11, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.10.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I have a video up with some comments on current movies, among other things.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: It Seems Self-Defense IS Legal In Pennsylvania
EBL: The Ventures: Telstar, Lincoln Lawyer: Season 2, and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Twitchy: Liberals Continue To Lie About Moms For Liberty “Standing With Hitler”, The Lincoln Project’s Continued Love Affair With Biden Is Just Cringe, and Ray Epps Plans To Sue Fox News For Defamation
Louder With Crowder: Bud Light sinks even further, is no longer a Top 10 beer in America, also, Dad goes ballistic after pediatrician asks 9-year-old son if he’s non-binary or gender fluid
Vox Popoli: Confidence in the Profession, Better Late Than Never, Attention is not Success, They Do Love Their Pedos, and Further Evidence Against Arthur C. Clarke
Stoic Observations: Black Panther Or Blade?, also, The Logos Project Restated
Gab News: Another State Is Passing Hate Speech Laws

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: A Hard Day’s Work
American Greatness: Illegal Immigration and Western Spiritual Sickness, also, Poetic Justice for the Biden ‘Ministry of Truth’
American Thinker: Understanding Marxism Is Key To Understanding Today’s Leftists, Today’s Election Interference Isn’t The First Time The FBI’s Been Out Of Control, and Judge Doughty and Biden’s Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Desperate and hungry Cubans search for food in a landfill, While the Cuban people starve, the communist experiment persists, Shocking! Performers at Cuban apartheid luxury hotels are not being paid, and Cuban dictatorship rewards its star athletes with buckets and mops
Baldilocks: New World, Old Methods, also, Planting
BattleSwarm: 4 Bore Rifle vs. Body Armor, Netherlands – Let The Power Fall, and Netherlands: Let The Power Fall
Behind The Black: Red China launches classified technology test satellite, SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites using a first stage for 16th time, New Australian government cancels $1.2 billion program to launch four government satellites, ISRO to transfer ownership of its smallsat SSLV rocket to a private company, and The inconceivable scale of Mars’ canyons
CDR Salamander: Midrats Midsummer Free For All!, Ukraine’s Millennial War Barons, 
Chicago Boyz: “Threads”, also, Hollowed Out
Da Tech Guy: It’s Important to Remember this about the Coke in the White House Story, Health of the Force Survey 2023…sucks, Elly De La Cruz and Playing Baseball Right, As Michigan’s “pronouns” bill advances, free speech is threatened, and Quick Under the Fedora
Dana Loesch: White Stripes Frontman Loses His Mind Over Celebrities Shaking Donald Trump’s Hand
Don Surber: Having Made Her Millions, A Congresswoman Will Retire
First Street Journal: Killadelphia: What the Philly media won’t tell us, World War III Watch: The liberal newspapers are going all out neocon!, and Lock him up, and throw away the key
Gates Of Vienna: Nobody’s Business But the Turks, You’ll Use the CBDC, Eat the Bugs, and Be Happy — Or Else!, The Ascendancy of the Neocons, Mark Rutte is Dead. Long Live Mark Rutte!, and The Only Prescription is More Cowbell!
The Geller Report: Ben & Jerry’s Loses Billions in Stock Value Amid Boycott Calls, Tucker Carlson Says Capitol Police Chief Admitted ‘Jan 6 Crowd Was Filled With Feds’, and Dutch Government COLLAPSES Over Immigration Policy, Prime Minister Resigns
Glenn Reynolds: Some Poolside Thoughts
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Don’t Know Much About History, UGC 11860, and The Largest Known Volcano
Hollywood In Toto: Spanish Prisoner Showed Shocking New Side to Steve Martin, Insidious: The Red Door Is A Superior Horror Sequel, How Screens, Progressive Groupthink Harm Gen Z, and 5 Shocking Reasons Media Savaged Sound of Freedom
The Lid: Robert Malley, Biden’s Iran Negotiator Put On Unpaid Leave, Loses Security Clearance
Legal Insurrection: Tribal Chief Responds To Ben & Jerry’s Call For U.S. To Return ‘Stolen Land’, Government Seeks Stay Of Injunction Against Censorship Collusion With Big Tech, Harvard Crimson Editors in ‘Despair’ Over Supreme Court Ruling on Affirmative Action, “Do you know who the f*ck I am?”, Right-Wing AfD is Germany’s Second Strongest Party, Polls Show, and Axios Tries to Water Down Biden’s Explosive Temper Towards Aides and Staff
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, Fofthe (Fourth) Sunday after Trinity, and Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
Outkick: Rachel Stuhlmann, World’s No. 1 Tennis Influencer, Hit By Foul Ball At Dodgers Game, Associated Press Article Tells Details The Horrors WNBA Player Face While Flying Commercial, Elly De La Cruz Steals Second, Third And Then Home, Aaron Judge Explains Incredible Reason He Sings ‘God Bless America’ During Every Yankees Home Game, Jorge Masvidal Wants To Train Elon Musk For Cage Fight Against Mark Zuckerberg, and Riley Gaines Partners With OutKick To Launch ‘Gaines For Girls’ Podcast, Continues To Fight For Females
Power Line: A Jackson “Clarification”, Biden Goes to Britain, Is Hollywood Waking Up?, and Judging Churchill
Shark Tank: Occasional Cortex Says DeSantis Can’t Beat Trump
Shot In The Dark: Don’t You DARE Say Big Left Is Coming For Your Kids! also, Stasilicious
The Political Hat: Kids Standing Up Against Woke Gender Ideology
This Ain’t Hell: Veterans included among indicted members of a violent biker gang, Stolen Valor: Top Official at Montfort Point Marines Charity Caught Faking Records, French Marines are suspected of beating rioters up, Felipe Batista – Five-Star Marine Corps General; The Pentagon’s Best Kept Secret, and Anti-LGBTQ fallout
Transterrestrial Musings: Tucker, On January 6th, That Breastfeeding Bloke, and The Violent Purging Of Womanhood
Victory Girls: Special K – Mobile Coke and Shunned Grandaughters, also, King Charles III and Joe Biden Meet For First Time
Volokh Conspiracy: If An Applicant Didn’t Check a Race Box, Harvard Would Assign a Race Anyway
Watts Up With That: Nuclear Phaseout, Green Energy Transition Causing German Industry and Power Production to Leave, Turn the Fearmongering Up to Eleven, More Nauseating Climate Grief from the Guardian, and German Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach Accused of Making Up “Tens of Thousands of Heat Deaths”
The Federalist: If You Think All Teachers Are ‘Heroes,’ You’re Part Of The Problem, Massachusetts Sued For Working With Google To Secretly Put Spyware On Residents’ Phones, Corrupt Media Care More About ‘Qanon’ Than Human Trafficking, Largest School District In Ohio Spent More Than $24,000 On Trainings About How To Hide The Transing Of Kids, and Corporate Media Try To Out-Lie America’s Biggest Liar Over His Terrible Track Record
Mark Steyn: Happy Birthday, Baby: Cars, Teens and American Graffiti, Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu), and The Full Montenegro

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Category: Linkagery

Bad Movies for Bad People

Posted on | July 10, 2023 | Comments Off on Bad Movies for Bad People

Aaron Paul in ‘Need for Speed’

MINNEAPOLIS
We’ve got a long layover before the next leg of our flight back home from Alaska, which gives me an opportunity to explain what was wrong with the lousy in-flight movie on the way here from Anchorage. What was wrong with Need for Speed (2014) can be summarized succinctly — everything. It stars Aaron Paul, whom you most likely would recognize as Jesse, the young meth addict who served as Walter White’s accomplice in the popular AMC series Breaking Bad (2008-2013).

We flew here on Big Country airline, which has updated its delivery of in-flight movies so that you log onto an internal server with your phone or other device, and then have access to a variety of entertainments. With a five-hour flight, my first choice was the three-hour-long 2001 Michael Bay-directed Pearl Harbor. I recall seeing that when it was out in theaters, but for some reason it didn’t annoy me nearly as much then as I did rewatching it on the plane. If you think that the output of Hollywood only recently began to suck because of “wokeness,” you really need to take a critical look at Pearl Harbor. But why even bother slagging that movie, when Need for Speed so much more obviously deserves slagging?

“Why is this guy the hero?” That’s the question that began to bother me more and more as the movie went on. Perhaps I didn’t pay close enough attention to the setup in the opening scenes, but the movie is about illegal street racing, so the question occurred to me, why is the criminal Tobey Marshall, played by Aaron Paul, the hero, while “Dominic Cooper as Dino Brewster: a former Indy racer and Tobey’s fierce rival” (to quote Wikipedia) is the villain? The moral distinction between the two is not obvious, except that Tobey is a blue-collar hard-luck case, whereas Dino is apparently wealthy and well-connected. Quoting Wikipedia again:

Tobey Marshall is a former race car driver who owns his late father’s garage, Marshall Performance Motors, in Mount Kisco, New York, where he and his friends tune performance cars. Struggling to make ends meet, he and his crew participate in street races after hours. After a race, Tobey’s former rival Dino Brewster conscripts them into completing the build of a rare Ford Shelby Mustang worked on by the late Carroll Shelby, in exchange for 25% of the car’s sales revenue.

Does that make any sense at all? If not, it might help to know that the movie was an “adaptation” a video game of the same name. The screenplay is the work of John Gatins (who was nominated for an Oscar in 2012) and his brother George. Exactly how this project came about, I’m not sure, but I guess the idea of a tie-in to a popular videogame was the selling point — a ready-made audience of game enthusiasts — and the plot was contrived to give some kind of dramatic text to the movie’s main action-flick appeal, i.e., lots of car-chase scenes highlighted by dramatic crashes done with CGI effects. If the plot is implausible and the character development deficient, it’s probably because the producers figured, “Who cares? We’re making a movie for an audience of socially awkward teenage loners who have nothing better to do with their lives but spend endless hours playing a stupid race-car game.” Which is to say, the filmmakers have contempt for their audience, and really, who can blame them? Anybody who would pay money to see this movie deserves all the contempt they get. Honestly, I kind of hate myself for wasting two hours watching Need for Speed, and it didn’t cost me a dime.

“Why is this guy the hero?” That question applies not only to the character Tobey Marshall in Need for Speed, but also to the actor Aaron Paul, who plays him. What made Paul so believable as Jesse in Breaking Bad was that he gave off the vibe of the kind of small-town dopehead who would get mixed up in a drug-manufacturing scheme with his former high school chemistry teacher. There wasn’t anything remotely heroic about Jesse, and if viewers found themselves rooting for him, it was only because his and Walter’s enemies — rival drug gangs, etc. — were so monstrously bad. But that vibe doesn’t work in Need for Speed, where the protagonist Tobey is supposed to be a racing driver of exceptional ability who, unfortunately, never got his shot at the big time because his father died (or whatever). Sorry, but I just can’t “buy” Aaron Paul as an extraordinary driver. He is a UCLA film-school graduate’s idea of what a blue-collar hero looks like. And dear God, how the filmmakers strive to sell this underdog-from-the-small-town angle which, by the way, is utterly implausible because Mount Kisco, N.Y., is in Westchester County, an affluent suburb of New York City. While Mount Kisco is somewhat below the county average in terms of household income, it’s not the first place you’d think of when you hear the phrase “blue-collar America.”

Guess what? The target audience didn’t care. Need for Speed grossed about $45 million in domestic release, but nearly four times as much in foreign sales, especially in China. Perhaps something about the scenery of Mount Kisco made it perfect as a foreigner’s idea of what small-town America looks like and, of course, the casting of the movie placed the white protagonist amid an appropriately multicultural crew of “buddies” — a couple of Hispanic dudes and a black guy. Scott Mescudi (who, as a rapper, is known as “Kid Cudi”) as “Sergeant Benny ‘Maverick’ Jackson: a member of Tobey’s crew, and a former National Guard soldier. He is a pilot, able to fly small aeroplanes and helicopters. . . . He owns a Cessna 182” (again, quoting Wikipedia). Would you be surprised to learn that the population of Mount Kisco is less than 1% black? Would you be surprised to learn that very few black people in America are licensed pilots, let alone own their own plane? A used Cessna 182 costs around a quarter-million dollars, and then there’s the cost of hangar rental, maintenance, fuel, etc. Being a small-plane owner is not a cheap hobby.

So the audience is not only supposed to believe that Tobey just happens to be buddies with one of the few black guys in Mount Kisco, but also that Tobey’s buddy just happens to be a statistical rarity, a black pilot with his own plane. And, you may wonder, why does this matter? Because the second act of the movie involves a high-speed cross-country journey and Tobey’s pilot buddy Benny flies as aerial reconnaissance to warn him about cops up ahead or whatever. See, the filmmakers had to find some way to make it (remotely) possible that you could actually get away with driving triple-digit speeds all the way across America in the 21st century, when technology has given law enforcement an insuperable advantage in dealing with speeders. Being an aficionado of police videos on YouTube, I can assure you that Tobey’s cross-country journey would be impossible. And dear God, he’d probably get killed if he went through Arkansas, where the state patrol does not play around.

If it were so easy to get away with driving over 100 mph — which is what the audience of Need for Speed is evidently expected to believe — why doesn’t everybody do it? Video surveillance is omnipresent in America nowadays, and even if you could outrun those high-powered Dodge Chargers that state troopers use as pursuit vehicles, video evidence would permit them eventually to apprehend and convict you of fleeing-and-eluding (a felony). That is, assuming you didn’t kill yourself in a crash, which is not an uncommon fate for such criminals.

Street racing is a crime, and the idea that people who engage in street racing are exceptionally skilled drivers — well, where does that idea come from> Evidence against such a claim isn’t hard to find (e.g., “Tampa police say teens were street racing before crash that killed 2”), and most mature adults probably suspect, as I do, that street racers usually are just show-offs with misplaced priorities. And again, I return to this question about the protagonist in Need for Speed: “Why is this guy the hero?”

If you’re the kind of awkward teenager who wastes your life playing video games, I suppose, there might be a fantasy-fulfillment aspect to Need for Speed that makes you relate to Tobey as the hero. And that’s just the problem: The fantasies of maladjusted 15-year-old boys — the cinematic expression of their frustrations, acted out in cartoonish ways — are warped and unrealistic, and are not appealing as entertainment to any intelligent and emotionally healthy person.

Here’s something to think about: Why do we like car chases in classic action movies like Bullitt and The French Connection? Because in both of those movies, the chase involves the good guy chasing the bad guys — and the good guy is a cop. We understand that the criminal, in a desperate attempt to escape justice, will drive with no regard for public safety, and that this in turn requires the police to take risks in order to catch up with the bad guy. Thus, the risk of the chase is forced upon the police protagonist — it’s not what he wants to do, but he is left with no other choice because of the criminal’s action. What makes a movie car chase compelling is conspicuously absent in Need for Speed, which celebrates fast driving for the sake of fast driving, with no regard for motive.

Consider the series of events that leads to the climax of Act One, the death of Tobey’s buddy Pete. There’s this super-valuable Shelby Mustang, recall, and here’s the relevant plot sequence via Wikipedia:

The completed Mustang is displayed for auction at a party in New York City. Tobey and Dino meet Julia Maddon, an English car broker whose client, Bill Ingram, wants to purchase the car if they can prove it will drive over 230 mph, as Tobey claims. Despite Dino’s objections, Tobey takes the Mustang to a local race track and successfully drives it at 234 mph, convincing Ingram to purchase it for $2.7 million.
Enraged by Tobey’s disobedience to his objections, Dino challenges Tobey and his friend Pete to a race after Pete flatly tells Dino that everyone knows Tobey is a better driver than him. Dino offers to relinquish his entire share of the Mustang sale if Tobey wins, otherwise Tobey will have to forfeit his share. He challenges them to race with his uncle’s three Koenigsegg Agera R cars illegally imported from Europe. On the home stretch, realizing he is about to lose the race, Dino intentionally bumps into Pete’s car, sending it down a ravine and killing Pete as it bursts into flames. Dino disappears from the scene, while Tobey is arrested by the police and sentenced to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, unable to prove Dino was there.

When this movie was made, the Swedish-made Koenigsegg Agera had recently been crowned “Hypercar of the Year” by Top Gear magazine. If you had an extra $1.5 million handy, and an urge to drive 275 mph, this was your car. That Dino’s uncle just happened to have three of these exotic sports cars in his garage, and that Dino decides it’s OK to “borrow” them for his ego-inspired race against Tobey and Pete — well, if that’s not your definition of “implausible,” you need a new dictionary.

Perhaps there is somewhere in America you could get away with street racing in a million-dollar European supercar, but is Westchester County, New York, one of those places? And how many rich guys have three car like that which their nephew thinks it’s OK to borrow for a race inspired by personal revenge over an insult? Anyway . . .

Upon his release on parole, Tobey sets out to avenge Pete’s death. He borrows Ingram’s Mustang to enter the De Leon, a winner-takes-all exotic car race organized by the mysterious Monarch, but as a condition, Ingram requires Julia to accompany Tobey while Tobey is driving the Mustang. The pair have 45 hours to reach San Francisco before the race starts. In Detroit, they cause an interstate chase with the Michigan State Police and upload the footage. Dino offers his rare Lamborghini Sesto Elemento to anyone who can stop Tobey entering the race, causing a group of truckers to go after the Mustang as well. Julia retaliates by convincing Monarch of Tobey’s innocence, securing his invitation to the De Leon.

This idea of the “De Leon” as a sort of international championship of illegal street racing, “organized by the mysterious Monarch” (played by Michael Keaton) is preposterous. The “winner-take-all” means that six guys driving six million-dollar exotic cars (Bugatti, Lamborghini, etc.) are each betting their cars as the stakes, so that the winner gets the cars of the other five drivers. So, yeah, you’re so rich that you can spend $2.4 million for a Bugatti Veyron and you’re also such a macho egomaniac that you’re going to risk this expensive car in a street race against five other supercars, including a hand-built Saleen S7. Grant that some people are both rich and crazy — “Hey, let’s get in a carbon-fiber mini-submarine and go see the Titanic!” — but is it likely that six of them would be racing their million-dollar supercars this way? If you’ve got that kind of money to throw around, why not just rent a racetrack for the weekend?

Or, for that matter, why not build your own racetrack?

Obviously, I’m not the first person to point out this absurdity — or the many other absurdities in Need for Speed. My point, however, isn’t just that this movie is ridiculously bad, but rather that the people who made the movie believed that many people would pay money to see something this bad — and they weren’t wrong! This stinking pile of garbage cost $66 million to make, and it grossed more than $200 million worldwide, which is a sad commentary on the human condition.

In a world full of stupid people, all kinds of terrible things happen, and the fact that this awful movie actually turned a profit is almost as terrible as Joe Biden getting 81 million votes. But yeah, that’s a different definition of “implausible,” I guess.



 

 

Category: Movies

Rule 5 Sunday: Karen Allen

Posted on | July 10, 2023 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Marion in the hands of the bad guys – but not for long…

After her memorable debut as Katy in Animal House, Karen Allen appeared in a sizable number of movies, but people probably remember her best as Marion Ravenwood, the feisty feminine foil to Harrison Ford’s adventurous archaeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels, including the (apparently) regrettable Dial of Destiny. While it was tempting to go with Karen displaying her fine assets in Animal House, I decided to go with a more demure pic from Raiders of the Lost Ark instead, in the interests of keeping this blog PG-13. She still looks good, considering she’s in her seventies.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule 5 Fusion Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, MAGA – Diet Coke vs. Hunter’s Coke, Maria Callas, Prehistoric Humans, “Who’s On First?”, Bikini Day, The Patriot, Sound of Freedom, Happy 4th of July!, “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, and Happy Belated Canada Day.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Christen Harper, White House Cocaine Mystery Deepens, Fish Pic Friday – Tysa Dawn, Maryland Gets Catfish Money, My Heart is on the Floor, Judge Orders Government to Stop Coordinating Censorship of Conservatives on Socials, The Wednesday Wetness, Conflict of Interest on Hunter Prosecution Team, Coke Found at White House, Happy July 4th!, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Palm Sunday

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S. For July 7th

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

I Guess SCOTUS Decisions Are Constitutional Amendments?

Posted on | July 9, 2023 | Comments Off on I Guess SCOTUS Decisions Are Constitutional Amendments?

by Smitty

Via Legal Insurrection, it appears that, per the Biden Administration’s illustrious peat muppetPress Secretary, SCOTUS decisions are tantamount to Constitutional Amendments:

“This is really, really important and I know the American people are really tracking this, as they should be. Dobbs decision, that was something that was decided on a year ago. Really took away the freedoms from women. I think about abortion, I think about reproductive rights. And that was unprecedented. Now you fast-forward to what we saw last week, affirmative action. Again, taking away important constitutional rights that have been in place for a long time,” Jean-Pierre said.

One is tempted to indulge in a little bit of fremdschämen, when one feels embarrassment on behalf of someone too thick to realize that they should be ashamed.
But, in defense of Karine Jean-Pierre, we don’t declare war or budget along Constitutionally coherent lines either. So possibly she makes a good point in passing: we need to either get this ship back on course, or just scuttle the whole mess.

See also:
Red State

Category: Uncategorized

The Beauty of Alaska

Posted on | July 9, 2023 | 1 Comment

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON
Kings Mountain reaches an altitude of 5,800 feet above sea level, towering nearly 3,000 feet above the Matanuska River valley below, and there’s really no way that a photo can convey the impression of standing there in person looking up at that massive peak in three-dimensional space. Breathtaking is all I can say, and while the Alaska Chamber of Commerce isn’t paying me to say this — c’mon, hit the freaking tip jar — I’d certainly recommend that every American should pay a visit.

About three hours from now, our plane leaves for the return flight home, and we’ve had a wonderful time during our visit. Just driving along the highways here is a splendid adventure, surrounded by vast forests of fir, birch and cottonwood, with gigantic mountains on every horizon, their peaks often shrouded in clouds, making them look like scenery from a Lord of the Rings movie: “Here be orcs!”

‘Who you calling an ‘orc,’ mister?’

Our granddaughter Juniper is about two months old and, as you can see, is about twice the size of a 12-ounce cup of coffee. That photo was taken Saturday at the Alaska Zoo, where we spent about five hours, including a break at the zoo coffee shop where we enjoyed some entertainment.

Walk don’t run to see the SpeNerds

The SpeNerds (their name a play on words for the Spenard neighborhood of Anchorage) bill themselves as “Alaska’s Premier Instrumental Surf Trio,” and let no man dispute their claim to that honor. Among the various tunes they performed was Dick Dale’s classic “Misirlou” (which gained renewed popularity in the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction). At one point during their performance, they played the theme song from Goldfinger, and talking to them after the gig, while they were packing up their gear, I suggested that should have been segued into “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers, to which guitarist Fred Brosius replied that they’d played that one before I arrived. My son plays guitar, and I was telling him how the surf rock sound came about at a period when the electric guitar was still something of a novelty, and guitarists were experimenting with effects like reverb and tremolo, and this sonic experimentation must be appreciated in its historic context. Cultural education is an ongoing obligation of parenthood. Meanwhile . . .

The sergeant gives Juniper airborne training

We spent the Fourth of July at the Glacier View Car Launch, and I apologize that I don’t have any videos of my own to share, but they’re easy to find online. And, of course, I bought the T-shirt, because what’s the point of visiting Alaska if you don’t bring home some souvenirs?

The sergeant and his family

With Mrs. McCain at the Car Launch

Well, we weren’t just tourists, here for sightseeing. We wouldn’t have visited Alaska if not for the fact that our son and his family are here, and this was our first chance to see our newest grandchild. They’ll be coming to visit us at Christmas, but for now I must pack up the laptop and head to the airport, leaving just enough time for me to once more remind readers of the Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

 

Category: Alaska, Uncategorized

FMJRA 2.0: Ludwig Revisited – Cozy Ludwig

Posted on | July 9, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Ludwig Revisited – Cozy Ludwig

— compiled by Wombat-socho

So after getting whupped in Philadelphia, the Senators boarded the train to Baltimore hoping to regain their road warrior mojo, but it was not to be: while Joe Coleman won the opener to balance his record at 2-2, Pat Dobson got outdueled by Andy Messersmith and Jim Kaat got pounded in an 8-1 rout. So the lads limped home to RFK, and whipped the Cubs in three hard-fought games to notch the first series win at home of the season and hang onto a second-place tie with Pete’s Brewers in the AL West. Juan Marichal outdueled Juan Pizarro in Game 1, which was won by Willie Mays’ home run in his first at-bat of the game. In Game 2, Joe Coleman held the Cubs to three runs, but the game was won by Darold Knowles in relief as Jeff Burroughs hit a sac fly in the bottom of the 9th to score Hal Lanier. The Nats benefitted from three errors by the Cubs and three double plays, as well as a great throw by Rick Reichardt to nail Vada Pinson at home. Game Three featured Pat Dobson holding the Cubs to four runs while the Nats pounded Clyde Wright for seven runs (six earned) including homers by Rick Reichardt and Jeff Burroughs. Thus we ended the week 4-2, and will face the division-leading A’s at home on Tuesday.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Fly the Curly W flag!

National Media Instantly Sends Philly Mass Shooter Down the Memory Hole
The DaleyGator
First Street Journal
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

The Supreme Court’s Ruling Won’t Change The Ivy League’s Racial Quota Regime
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Have The Dutch Torn Down All Their Statues and Renamed All Their Streets?
EBL
357 Magnum

FMJRA 2.0: No Joy In Philly
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Just a Bear Walking Down the Street
EBL

We Survived Thunder Bird Falls
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: Elisabeth Giolito
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
EBL

The Consequences of Demonic Influence
EBL
357 Magnum

Democrats Kill Each Other in Baltimore; Mayor Blames…Texas, Florida, Alabama?
First Street Journal
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 07.03.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

An Alaska Fourth of July Tradition
The DaleyGator
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

Anonymous Official: We May Never Know Who Had Cocaine at the White House
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 07.05.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 07.06.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 07.07.23
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum

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Category: FMJRA Award

In The Mailbox: 07.07.23

Posted on | July 8, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts. Anybody know what’s going on with Weasel Zippers?
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Self-Defense In The Windy City, also, Stay
EBL: Sound of Freedom beat Indiana Jones at the box office?
Twitchy: Special K’s Biden Coke Bag Alibi Collides With Media Pool Report, MMFA Harpy Drops Scoop On “Hate Group” Moms For Liberty & Their Catering, and Toxic Troll Esqueer Furious Over His Third “B***S***” Threads Violation 
Louder With Crowder: Toby Keith returns from battling cancer, sends fiery message to never apologize for being patriotic: “F*** em”, also, Tucker Carlson breaks silence on being fired from Fox News
Vox Popoli: Whoever Could it Be?, They’re Not Wrong, BRICS Opts for Gold, Celebrate Reduced Life Expectancy, Science Fiction is to Blame, and Owen Drops the Mic
According To Hoyt: Why Celebrate The Fourth, Why the Metric System sucks by Phantom, and Blog Funding Day One
Monster Hunter Nation: The Death of Good Will

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Power of Knowing Your Milkman
American Greatness: Poll: Trump Grows Lead Over DeSantis in Iowa GOP Primary, also, Gallup: Faith in American Institutions Hits New Low
American Thinker: America’s Current Conception Of ‘Pride’ Is Toxic, also, The Biden White House Wants to Block the Sun to Save the Planet
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Fusion Friday
Babalu Blog: Cuban dictatorship launches new beer brand, sold only in foreign currency, Grandson of Chilean dictator Salvador Allende calls for cancellation of Cuban dissident Tania Bruguera’s art exhibition, and Putin’s ideologues call for the redeployment of Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba
Baldilocks: Willing & Able
BattleSwarm: Low-Calorie LinkSwarm Substitute
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Category: Linkagery

National Media Instantly Sends Philly Mass Shooter Down the Memory Hole

Posted on | July 7, 2023 | Comments Off on National Media Instantly Sends Philly Mass Shooter Down the Memory Hole

Mass murder suspect Kimbrady Carriker

Most “mass shootings” in urban America are actually shootouts between rival gangs, or personal disputes that turn into gunfights in crowded areas where bystanders are among the killed and wounded. And, since we’re clarifying phrases, let’s admit that “urban America” is a polite euphemism for where black people live. We have been taught by the news media to think of “mass shootings” as a category of crime whose perpetrators are crazy white men, e.g., Charles Whitman, who killed 15 people on the University of Texas campus in 1966, or Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 13 people at Columbine High School in 1999.

The point is that any discussion of “mass shootings” involves stereotypes, simply because of the way the media covers crime. The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) defines a mass shooting as one that involves “a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed,” distinguishing this from the category of mass murder, which the FBI defines as “four or more victims, killed, not including the shooter. Mass Murder by gun is a subset of the Mass Shooting count.” By Thursday, July 6, according to the GVA, there had been a total of 361 mass shooting incidents in the United States in 2023, of which 27 were mass murder incidents (at least four killed, not counting the shooter). Thursday was the 186th day of the year, so simple math tells us that we’re averaging about two mass shootings per day this year, and about one mass murder per week. Given the frequency of such crimes, the national media can’t give full attention to all of them, so they tend to be selective in their coverage, and therefore most mass shootings are considered to be strictly “local news.”

What happened Monday night in Philadelphia’s Kingessing neighborhood was definitely not the typical urban mass shooting. A lone gunman, wearing a ski mask and a bulletproof vest, walked down the street “aimlessly” shooting random people with an AR-15-style rifle. The gunman also carried a 9mm pistol and multiple magazines of extra ammunition. This rampage killed five people and wounded two others. Kimbrady Carriker has been charged with five counts of murder and several other felonies. Many hours elapsed after the shooting before Carriker’s name was made public, but almost as soon as it was, we learned that Kimbrady Carriker was a cross-dresser.

The information caused a liberal media meltdown:

The Far Right Is Already
Using the Philadelphia Shooting
to Smear Trans People
— Vice News, July 5

Right-Wingers Push Lie
That Philly Shooting Suspect
Was Trans BLM Supporter
— Advocate, July 5

Republicans Are Already
Blaming Trans People
for the Philadelphia Shooting
— The New Republic, July 5

The main problem with mass shootings, according to liberals, is not that people get killed, but that the “far right” might blame someone — i.e., that conservatives will point out that this crime doesn’t seem to fit the preferred media narrative about who commits mass shootings. The other problem: What about his/her/their pronouns?

There was some confusion initially about Mr. Carriker’s gender identity and in a news conference on Tuesday, authorities used the pronouns “they/them.” But on Wednesday the district attorney’s office said it had no information indicating the suspect considered himself anything but male.

Hat-tip to Dana Pico for that one, and Dana also has the story about a Philadelphia City Council member who “described her district as ‘under siege’ by gun violence”:

“It creates a situation where mostly Black and Brown people can’t be in their neighborhood enjoying summer weather. Kids — anyone — enjoying their block should not live in fear of being shot and killed,” she said Tuesday.
Now that Democrats control the state house for the first time in 12 years following last November’s election, [Council Member Jamie] Gauthier said some movement on gun control legislation has started. However, any house bills would still face opposition in the GOP-controlled state senate.
“In Pennsylvania, you have Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the cities and outside of that, you have a lot of rural areas that don’t look like us and don’t have the same issues with everyday gun violence — and don’t have the same motivation to really cut off access to these types of weapons,” she said. “We have a long way to go to get these kinds of weapons off the street.”

You can read the whole thing at First Street Journal, but the most important thing that Dana points out is the basic arithmetic involved:

There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania — Philadelphia (1.6 million people, about 12% of the state population), Allegheny (i.e., Pittsburgh, 1.2 million people, about 9% of the state population) and 65 others with about 10 million people total (about 78% of the state population). The two big cities account for slightly more than one-fifth of Pennsylvania’s population, but in 2021, when there were 1,027 homicides in the state, these two cities accounted for about two-thirds of the total; Philadelphia alone had nearly 55% of Pennsylvania’s homicide total that year.

The per capita homicide rate in Philadelphia was more than triple the rate in Pittsburgh, and more than 10 times higher than the rest of the state. This is not a gun control problem. This is a people problem; specifically, it’s about the people of Philadelphia who are either (a) part of the problem, or (b) too stupid to understand how to fix the problem.

If you’re voting for Democrats like Jamie Gauthier, you are the problem. Gauthier can only think of violent crime in terms of passing new laws to “get these kinds of weapons off the street,” so that it never occurs to her that, by enforcing existing laws, Philadelphia could get these kinds of people off the streets — put them in prison where they belong.

Or in the lunatic asylum, as would seem to be the case with Kimbrady Carriker, who not only occasionally dressed up in women’s clothing, but also at different times used his (or “their”) social media to express support for Black Lives Matter and Donald Trump. As I said of another notorious cross-dresser, Carriker is self-evidently “daft, deranged, bonkers, berserk, a few fries short of a Happy Meal and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.” The evidence of his craziness is impossible to overlook:

Philadelphia Shooting Perp Says
He Opened Fire to Help the City
Do Something About ‘Gun Violence’
. . . The shooter accused of killing five people during a harrowing rampage in Southwest Philadelphia Monday night told police the shooting spree was an attempt to help authorities address the city’s gun violence crisis, and that a deity would be sending more people to help, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The assertions by Kimbrady Carriker were made to police in the hours after Carriker was arrested on the 1600 block of South Frazier Street, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Carriker first told responding officers who made the arrest that they had done a good job, the sources said. Carriker also told them the gunfire — which spanned several blocks and struck people, including two children, who had no apparent connection to one another — was an attempt to help police because “all these guys are out there killing people,” the sources said.

I keep telling you: Crazy People Are Dangerous. And the national media will now decide this is strictly “local news.”



 

 

Category: Crime, Pennsylvania
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