In The Mailbox: 12.20.23 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | December 20, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.20.23 (Afternoon Edition)

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Shishou wishes her students a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: GOTHIX, also, What Empowering Women Really Looks Like
EBL: Håbet (The Hope), A Christmas Carol, and Iceland’s Grindavik Volcano Erupts
Twitchy: New Republic Editor Doesn’t Know What Socialism Is, NY Gov. Hochul Creates Commission On Reparations, and Minnesota’s New State Flag Looks A Little Familiar
Louder With Crowder: Dude uses a blowtorch to steal from what’s behind the plexiglass and…wait, a freakin’ blowtorch?! John Fetterman Swings Right Again, Pledges To Block Japan From Buying Crucial American Company, Grinch ‘prank’ goes horribly wrong when lil’ man starts throwing hands to save his presents, and Eric Adams asked to describe NYC in 2023 and you won’t be ready for his insane reference to 9/11
Vox Popoli: Adverse Effects in Switzerland, Clown World is ALWAYS Fake, and Gunning for the Dollar
Stoic Observations: What Americans Think Europeans Think

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Attacking the Germans
American Greatness: New Texas Law Allows Police to Bust Illegals and Judges to Send Them Back to Mexico, Progressivism Forces Americans to Forget Their History, and Trump Faces Backlash After Calling Conservative Rep. Chip Roy a ‘RINO’ Who Should Be Primaried
American Thinker: Is the Bubble You Live In Making You Dumb? also, The Real Claudine Gay Scandal
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Oldest Profession News
Babalu Blog: Cuban dictatorship tried to influence 2022 midterm elections, says U.S. intelligence, Cuban dictatorship to increase tariffs and taxes, tighten controls over ‘private’ businesses, and Video of the Day: Hungry Cubans desperately chase truck carrying food
Behind The Black: Red China’s X-37B copy deploys six independent satellites, Laser communication tests with Psyche have now included a cat video, Firefly schedules second launch in 2023, Spain’s new space agency, and Pushback? Deal between Republicans and Wisconsin University to shift away from DEI
CDR Salamander: A Gathering Of Burkes Sails East
Da Tech Guy: Muncy’s Christmas story
Don Surber: In praise of Congress
First Street Journal: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”, also, Crazy People Are Dangerous
Gates Of Vienna: The Enormity of the Corona Scam, also, So-Called ‘Women’s Groups’ Abandon Women to Islam — Silence is Complicity
The Geller Report: Minnesota Adopts New State Flag – From Somalia, also, NEVER BEFORE SEEN: Tens of Thousands of Migrants Amass at Border
Hollywood In Toto: Why The Iron Claw Gets Pinned by Its Potential, also, Word of Mouth Still Matters. Wonka Is Proving It
Legal Insurrection: The Underappreciated Radicalism of Claudine Gay, Hamas Using Female Suicide Bombers As IDF Closes In On Gaza’s Terrorist Leadership, The Woke Mob in Academia is Coming for Music Too, More Plagiarism Allegations Unveiled Against Harvard President Claudine Gay, and Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw Takes Aim at DEI Statements With New Bill
Nebraska Energy Observer: Feel good!
Outkick: Drew Lock Caught Trolling Jalen Hurts After Eagles QB Skips Postgame Handshake, Kirk Ferentz Throws Serious Shade At USC And Lincoln Riley While Reminding Everyone He’s The Ultimate Football Guy, Michael Irvin Rips Into Sean Payton For Yelling At Russell Wilson In One Of The Most Weak-Minded Rants Ever, Taylor Swift Didn’t Drop F-bomb During Chiefs Game But May Have Come Close, Expert Lip Reader Says, Aaron Rodgers Won’t Play In 2023 But Eyes Two More Seasons As Jets QB And Much More, and Bernie Kosar Reveals Taylor Swift Baked Cinnamon Rolls For Travis Kelce, Swifties Lose Their Minds
Power Line: Richard Kemp reports, The Biden family business: Deep are the roots, and The Tale of the Tape
Shark Tank: New Florida Law Would Permit Adoption Of Chaplains In Public Schools
Shot In The Dark: I’ve Noticed, also, Inconvenient
The Political Hat: 12 Posts of Christmas, 2023 (Day 7)
This Ain’t Hell: What’s Israel doing right?, also, The public has respect for military veterans, but slightly reluctant to recommend enlistment
Transterrestrial Musings: Claudine Gay
Victory Girls: Nikki Haley – The Trump Deal Breaker
Volokh Conspiracy: You Might Want to Read More Sentences of Arizona v. United States
Watts Up With That: Churchill end-of-season problem polar bear reports finally published, also, El Bosque—a village overtaken by rising sea levels?
The Federalist: Report: Government Covid Handouts Screwed Over Low-Income Households By Spiking Inflation, Did San Francisco’s Crap And Crime Dissuade Shohei Ohtani From Signing With The Giants? How A Left-Wing Appeals Panel Is Rigging Trump’s J6 Case Through Bogus Fast-Track Process, The Drive-By Smears Of Clarence Thomas Never End, Die Hard Is An Anti-Christmas Movie, and Corrupt Media Rush To Downplay Disgraced Democrat Senate Staffer’s Lewd Video Scandal
Mark Steyn: Goldmine Meets Landfill

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Category: Linkagery

Why Are Democrats Such Bad People?

Posted on | December 20, 2023 | Comments Off on Why Are Democrats Such Bad People?

Everybody has already commented on the bizarre case of Aidan Maese-Czeropski, the staffer for Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin who was fired after posting a video of himself being sodomized in a hearing room at the Hart Senate Office Building, and then claimed victimhood:

Aidan Maese-Czeropski, the Senate staffer who filmed himself having anal sex in a Senate hearing room, cried homophobia after the video leaked online.
As Breitbart News reported on Friday, leaked video footage showed the staffer having anal sex on a table in the Senate hearing room where lawmakers sit to ask questions during important proceedings like Supreme Court nominations. The sex appeared unprotected. Another photo showed the staffer on all fours on top of a desk while salaciously staring back at the camera.
The staffer was later identified as Aidan Maese-Czeropski of Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D-MD) office and was fired as a result. . . .
After his identity went viral, Aidan Maese-Czeropski released a statement on his LinkedIn that appeared to blame the fallout from the whole incident on homophobia.
“This has been a difficult time for me, as I have been attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda,” he said. “While some of my actions in the past have shown poor judgement, I love my job and would never disrespect my workplace.”
“Any attempts to characterize my actions otherwise are fabricated and I will be exploring what legal options are available to me in these matters,” he added.

To quote George Costanza, “Was that wrong?”

Since the sex-video scandal made headlines, we have learned that Maese-Czeropski was also involved in another incident last week, when he shouted “Free Palestine” at Ohio Rep. Max Miller, who is Jewish.

And it’s not as if his bosses in Sen. Cardin’s office were unaware that Maese-Czeropski’s behavior was problematic:

A junior-level legislative aide who was fired after a video surfaced showing him and another person having sex in a Congressional office building had been warned at least once about his risqué social media postings, The Desk has learned.
In November, Senator Ben Cardin’s Chief of Staff Chris Lynch promoted U.C. Berkeley graduate Aidan Maese-Czeropski from his entry-level aide job while simultaneously warning the 23-year-old to stop posting nude and seminude photographs to his public Instagram page, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Maese-Czeropski affirmed the warning in a now-deleted story posted to his Instagram page, in which he said the “chief of staff just promoted me and in the same breath suggested I tone down my social media.”
For about two weeks, Maese-Czeropski relegated most of his revealing posts to a “Close Friends” feed, where he posted nude photographs of himself while working from home and while traveling to Las Vegas and other places, according to a source within Senator Cardin’s office who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak with reporters without permission. He began posting publicly again earlier this month, where his unclothed photographs were available to more than 1,000 followers, including some who worked with Maese-Czeropski in the U.S. Senate, the source said.
Maese-Czeropski’s Instagram page was “something of an open secret” within Senator Cardin’s office, the source affirmed, adding that it was “generally known” that some of Maese-Czeropski’s posts connected him to his Senate job. One month before his promotion, Maese-Czeropski posted that he was “waiting for Lindsey Graham in the work showers,” referencing the Republican U.S. Senator from South Carolina. In another, Maese-Czeropski wrote that he was “trying to resist the urge to suck on Representative [Eric] Sorensen’s gorgeous fingers” while seated near to the openly-gay Congressman at a luncheon.
Despite the questionable posts, few within Senator Cardin’s office felt there was much they could do about Maese-Czeropski’s social media activity, with Lynch telling one staffer that the posts were “made on a personal account” and that the office “didn’t want to come across as impeding on the personal expression of an openly-gay staffer,” the source said.

Just flip the story around: Instead of a gay male Democrat, suppose that it was a straight female Republican, working as a Senate aide, and filling her social-media stream with “nude and seminude photographs,” as well as sexual innuendo about congress members. Does anyone think such a person would have been promoted? That anyone would hesitate to criticize her for fear of infringing her “personal expression”?

The basic problem, however, is that Democrats are bad people. As I’ve often said, “Bad causes attract bad people” and, because no good person would support the Democratic Party’s policy agenda, therefore the only people who get hired as Democratic staffers on Capitol Hill are . . . people like Aidan Maese-Czeropski. Generally speaking.

Did I forget to mention that Aidan Maese-Czeropski is from Palo Alto, California, where the media household income is $214,188? That he attended the University of California at Berkeley? That he had a fellowship at Friends of the Earth, an environmental group? And that he was actively involved in Joe Biden’s election campaign?

After graduating from Berkeley in 2020, Maese-Czeropski served as a field organizer for the Democratic Party of Virginia, campaigning for President Biden in Loudoun County.
He also worked on the statewide Latino outreach program, “Todos con Biden,” to help register thousands of Spanish-speaking voters.
During his time as a field organizer, Maese-Czeropski also appeared in a 2020 campaign video with then-candidate Joe Biden.

Look, I can’t say that everybody who worked on Joe Biden’s campaign habitually engages in what used to be known as “crimes against nature,” but on the other hand, I can’t rule it out. They’re just bad people. The activity that Aidan Maese-Czeropski recorded on video is a metaphor for what they’re doing to America, and they expect us to enjoy it.

Category: Democrats, Gays

In The Mailbox: 12.18.23

Posted on | December 19, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.18.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

From John C. Wright: Moth & Cobweb is back!

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Tis the season.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Electric Buses That Don’t Work In The Cold
EBL: The Family Plan, Mistletoe Ranch, Hannibal and the Second Punic War, and The Gift of Biden
Twitchy: Brandon Straka Announces He’s Won His J6 Case, “Human Rights” Director Attacks Israel, Defends Hamas, & Reaps The Whirlwind, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) Says Border Security Is “Right-Wing Racism”
Louder With Crowder: Megan Rapinoe: Playing soccer for America? Literally the “worst job in the world”, Christmas MIRACLE: Baby Found Alive In A Tree After Tornado Destroyed Home, and Taylor Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce is destroying the planet, cry progressives with too much time on their hands
Vox Popoli: Annual Interview 2023, A SEA OF SKULLS Full Edition, That Doggone Diabetes, The Argument for Building AI, Social Media is MPAI in Action, and Only Connect
Gab News: Shaping The AI Narrative – A Christian Call To Arms Against A Silicon Valley Monopoly

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Sunday Musings
American Conservative: Michigan Democrats Woo the Felon Vote
American Greatness: VDH – We Are Well Beyond Hypocrisy, also, ‘Liberty and Justice For All’ – A Tattered Cliche?
American Thinker: The Republican Party’s Paper Elephants, Election 2024 – It’s the Voters, Stupid! Can’t We Phase Out Climate Change Instead? and Leftists And The ‘Imperial Presidency’
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: No pork in Havana for end of year holiday celebrations, How the Cuban dictatorship buried an imprisoned dissident artist into oblivion, Cuban Christmas dinner costs 33% to 42% of an annual salary at online stores (without dessert or beverage), Nicaragua’s dictatorship declares Miss Universe an enemy of the state, and Russia donates fleet of fire trucks to Cuba
BattleSwarm: Russia Now Getting U.S. Forces Directly On Its Border, Italy’s Meloni Cuts The Baloney, and Red China, The Philippines, Marcos, And Blind Spots
Behind The Black: Russia launches weather satellite, Environmental groups file another complaint attempting to stop SpaceX launches at Boca Chica, Red Chinese pseudo-company launches satellite, UK finally gives Saxavord spaceport a license, The nearest star-forming region, as seen in infrared by Webb, and What makes a Nazi?
Cafe Hayek: A Recent Conversation With a Non-GMU Graduate Student, also, Fritz Machlup (1902-1983)
CDR Salamander: A New Combined Task Force Builds In The Red Sea
Chicago Boyz: Reprise: Oh!! Christmas Tree!!, also, About ‘Disinformation’
Da Tech Guy: Putting our money where we say our mouths are, In America We No Longer Have a Common Decency, Let’s not go Brandon, and Five Under The Fedora Thoughts
Don Surber: Liberals destroy society
First Street Journal: Philadelphia: nickel-and-diming people, also, Our oh-so-noble left simply cannot comprehend what’s happening in the Levant
Gates Of Vienna: Cold Comfort in Neustadt, Shouting Fire! A Small But Significant Victory, The COVID Corruption Business, Don’t Lose Your Head, and A Soldier of Allah in the Alps
The Geller Report: Harvard Reduced Jewish Student Population From 25% to 5% of Student Population, Hopes To Reduce Further to 1-2%, ‘You’re Jewish, We Will Rape You’, MUSLIM duo who urinated on and gang raped woman on cruise ship to remain in Sweden as court says they have ‘integrated’, Georgia State Election Board Will No Longer Discuss Investigation into 2020 Massive Recount Violations, Over 17k Ballots, and LAPD swears in police officers who are DACA recipients and entered US illegally
Hollywood In Toto: Meet the Comedian Who Shamed Apple to the Core, Disney’s Terrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad 2023, Saturday Night Live Won’t Touch Hunter Biden (And We All Know Why), and 8 Pop Culture Miracles That Give Us Hope for 2024
The Lid: Canadian Government Says Christmas and Easter are ‘Systemic Religious Discrimination’
Legal Insurrection: College Republicans at Butler University Investigated for Condemning Anti-Semitic Chants, Sen. Fetterman Wants to Block Sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese Company, Israel Trains Reservists for Military Operations in the North as Iran-Backed Hezbollah Terror Group Intensifies Attacks, No, Pope Francis Did Not Approve the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions, San Francisco DA to Charge 80 Protesters Who Blockaded Bay Bridge Last Month, Biden Admin To Desecrate Graves In Removal Of Civil War Memorial From Arlington National Cemetery, and Biden’s Daughter Ashley Owes $5,000 in Income Taxes in Pennsylvania
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, Gaudete Sunday, and Monday Stuff
Outkick: NIL Problems: Colorado State’s Jay Norvell Tries To Keep Roster Intact While QB Has $600K Offer To Leave, Kadarius Toney Says Refs Lied About Controversial Offsides Penalty, Teddy Bridgewater Set To Retire, Become High School Football Coach, ‘This Is An Amazing Game And We Keep Trying To Screw It Up’, Logan Webb Desperately Defends San Francisco After Players And Reporters Express Concerns, Gronk Belts Out The National Anthem At Saturday’s LA Bowl, and Amanda Bynes Cancels Podcast After Historic 1-Episode Run, Danica Patrick Dances In Spandex, Black Vs. White Pro Bowl & Sex Talk With Shannon Sharpe
Power Line: Spoiler Alert: Nowhere, Last Refuge of a Scoundrel [Updated], and Smearing the Hero
Shark Tank: DeSantis Says Trump “Could Have Done More”, Criticizes Trump’s Trashing Of Former Officials
Shot In The Dark: Free Fall, also, There Must Be Some Mistake
The Political Hat: 12 Posts of Christmas, 2023 (Day 4), 12 Posts of Christmas, 2023 (Day 5), and 12 Posts of Christmas, 2023 (Day 6)
This Ain’t Hell: Feds have been busy, Navy veteran topples and beheads a statue in a state capitol, Remington to depart New York after two centuries of operation, TikTok Mutiny! Bob Pardo, creator of the Pardo Push, dead at 89, Black women’s group supports affirmative action at service academies, and Sarah Cavanaugh: Have A Heart
Transterrestrial Musings: Vaccine Studies, The Bigots In Academia, and Larry Correia
Victory Girls: National Guard Stat! AZ Governor Hobbs in Panic Over Border, Meet Dalia al-Aqidi, Ilhan Omar’s GOP Challenger, and 1st Amendment Win In Virginia You Haven’t Heard About
Volokh Conspiracy: Harvard/Harris Poll: Huge Majorities of 18-to-24-Year-Olds Believe Jews, Whites “Are Oppressors”, also, “Keeping Your Mouth Shut: Spiraling Self-Censorship in the United States”
Watts Up With That: Bitumen beyond combustion, Climate Advocacy: Incompetence Or Intentional Fraud? From Now To 2100 Emission Reduction Policy Costs Greatly Exceed Any Net Benefit from Averted Warming, and Biden’s Dam Removal Plan and Its Impact on Electrical Supply
The Federalist: 250 Years After The Boston Tea Party, Americans Still Recognize Government Tyranny When They See It, The Media Are Lying, Pope Francis Did Not Approve Priests Blessing ‘Same-Sex Relationships’, Righteous Anger Drove The Iowa Demon Decapitation, Pennsylvania School Board President Sworn In With Pornographic Books, and Meet Lawyer Michael Dreeben, The Man Behind Three Major Anti-Trump Operations
Mark Steyn: Our Revolting Elites (cont), White Christmas, He Finally Found Out Who’s Naughty, and Ladies’ Choice: Three on a Match and the Pre-Code picture

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Category: Linkagery

Which One of You ‘Christofascists’ Urinated in A.R. Moxon’s Cornflakes?

Posted on | December 18, 2023 | Comments Off on Which One of You ‘Christofascists’ Urinated in A.R. Moxon’s Cornflakes?

Say hello to A.R. Moxon, a writer who has a Substack where he rants against Republicans or, as he calls them, “the sort of Christian Nationalists who would love to see a fascist dictator take power to install a white nationalist Christofascist ethnostate.” That is the eminent danger, the existentialist threat, according to A.R. Moxon, whose biographical details — where did he go to college? what did he do for a living before he became a Substacker? — are difficult to ascertain.

What is A.R. Moxon’s fundamental grievance? The immediate target of his ire was a New York Times profile of two families — the Noble family and the Huckins family — who moved for political reasons. The Huckins family got fed up with out-of-control drugs, crime and homelessness in Portland, Oregon, and moved to Troy, Missouri. The Noble family, whose teenage daughter thinks she is a boy, moved from Iowa to Minnesota after Iowa passed a law prohibiting “gender affirming care” for minors. Moxon views the Times as engaging in “both-sides-ism,” hence the subtitle of his essay targets “false equivalence in an age of rising fascism.”

But is it true? Is fascism really rising? Are we living in a repeat performance of Germany circa 1933? Is Trump “literally Hitler”? And are those of us who voted for Trump — show of hands, please — really “the sort of Christian Nationalists who would love to see a fascist dictator take power to install a white nationalist Christofascist ethnostate”?

It’s such a looney-sounding accusation that I hesitate to deny it. If we have driven liberals into a state of paranoia, why not enjoy the fruits of our labors? And, in point of fact, my co-blogger Wombat calls himself The Last Falangist, so I’d be happy if A.R. Moxon, upon taking notice of our blog, were to start shrieking that he is being “targeted” by the not-so-secret headquarters of the Christofascist conspiracy.

Heck, why not just rename the blog Christofascist HQ?

As I say, however, I was unable to find much biographical background on A.R. Moxon, so I’m at a loss to explain how he came to be gripped by this paranoid fear, except to suspect that he’s spent too much time inside the hivemind echo chamber where leftists have been inciting Trump Derangement Syndrome ever since Hillary lost the election in 2016.

Because I couldn’t find much background on A.R. Moxon, I began to suspect this might be a pseudonym. Like, what kind of name is “Moxon,” anyway? He admits to being a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan, so I Googled “Moxon + Grand Rapids” and discovered that in fact the Moxon family has a long history there. Two of his ancestors, the brothers Frank and Milton Moxon, were both WWII veterans who died in 2014 and 2022, respectively. Both Frank and Milton were members of First Evangelical Covenant Church in Grand Rapids, and Milton in particular was a zealous Christian. Milton had eight grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, and I suppose A.R. Moxon might be one of Milton’s descendants. But why then does he hate Christianity so much?

Who pissed in his cornflakes, huh? That’s the real puzzle, but unless and until A.R. Moxon explains himself, I have no way of solving it. Now, excuse me while I go place my Amazon order for hobnailed jackboots. Just hope they’ll be here in time for Christ(ofascist)mas.

Category: Progressivism

Rule 5 Sunday: Outstanding In Her Field

Posted on | December 18, 2023 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Outstanding In Her Field

— compiled by Wombat-socho

This week’s appetizer courtesy of Rule 5 Texan on X.
Unsolicited and completely unrelated plug: if you like fudge and bad jokes, I cannot recommend the Uranus Fudge Factory (“The Best Fudge Comes From Uranus!) highly enough. I ordered a couple small boxes of the Reduced Sugar fudge, and it was GOOD. I can’t eat more than half a piece at a time, it’s that rich. Still time to get your fudge packed and out the back door in time for Christmas!
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Or the woods. Whatever.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Nuclear Deterrent News, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Holiday Inn, MAGA – Rudy Giuliani Gets Raped In Court, Reacher Season 2, Julie London, The Ghost Of Christmas Always, Archie, Peyton Place, “Time For Her To Come Home For Christmas”, Bookie, Godzilla Minus One, Lucille Ball, Love On Harbor Island, Israel & The Jews, Hannah Waddingham, and Spirited

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Mia Fer, EPA Issues It’s Annual Christmas Nag, Fish Pic Friday – Erin McGuinty, In My Own Mind, DOI Worries About Offshore Wind Power’s Effects on Fish, The Wednesday Wetness, Tattoo Tuesday, MD Issues Fish Consumption Advisories for PFAS, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Republicans Out to Kill Me says Hunter, Palm Sunday and Gone Fishin’

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S. for December 15

AVERAGE BUBBA: Rule Five Friday – Santa’s Snow Bunny Edition

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Falcons & Eagles

Posted on | December 17, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Falcons & Eagles

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Well, we done good, even though we lost three of our last five games – split a two-game series with Baltimore, and then lost two of three in Pittsburgh. Still, we finished 91-71, far better than any Senators team IRL, and get the home field advantage against whoever we’re playing in the first round.

Larry Fast, who released most of his music under the name Synergy, is one of the electronic music scene’s forgotten people. Starting in 1975 with Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra, he released eleven albums of music that fell somewhere between the classical-influenced work of Klaus Schulze and the shorter, more Europop stuff that Tangerine Dream was doing in their later years. He also played with Yes, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Bonnie Tyler, Nektar, and Tony Levin, another former member of Yes.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

On to the playoffs!

The ‘HotWifeExperience’ Democrat Won’t Go Away (and She Thinks You’re Stupid)
The Pirate’s Cove
The Daley Gator
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: For The Fallen
Average Bubba
Flappr
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

BREAKING: Penn’s Magill Resigns
First Street Journal
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Pharaoh Amenhotep II and the Exodus: Vindicating the Bible as Israel’s History
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Dune
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 12.11.23 (Weakened Warrior Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

David Drake, RIP
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

Save The Republic
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 12.12.23
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 12.13.23 (Morning Edition)
EBL
357 Magnum

Can We At Least Agree That Nobody — and Certainly No Republican — Cares About Hunter Biden’s ‘Struggle’?
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 12.13.23 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

‘The Usual Suspects’: Detroit Police Make Arrest in Murder of Synagogue Leader
The Daley Gator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 12.14.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Fact Check: Jesus Was NOT an ‘Undocumented Immigrant’ (and Also, Joseph and Mary Weren’t Homeless)
The Daley Gator
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 12.15.23
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending December 15:

EBL (16)
357 Magnum (15)
A View From The Beach (10)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: FMJRA Award

John Hoge, R.I.P.

Posted on | December 16, 2023 | Comments Off on John Hoge, R.I.P.

“The Other Podcast” is on hiatus, and NASA’s space robot program has suffered a major setback, as my podcast co-host John Hoge died Friday morning. Our friend Aaron Walker relayed the news:

I want to take a moment to announce that my best friend, John Hoge (@wjjhoge) has passed on. His son, William Hoge IV, called me this morning to share the terrible news. Earlier today, he was driving as normal when he had a heart attack. What little chance he had of surviving was foreclosed when he struck the side railing on the road. I am told that no other persons were hurt in that accident. I have no doubt that John would be glad to hear that no one else was harmed. A few years ago, his beloved wife, Connie Hoge had also passed on. I don’t think he ever fully got over losing her and I think everyone who knows him would be comforted by the thought that they are together again in heaven. Maybe doing some slow dancing. Maybe just enjoying each other’s company. Will is still working through the details, such as when he will be memorialized. I am sure Will would appreciate any thoughts and prayers for John and everyone who cared for him. And I am sure John would want well-wishers to donate to Connie’s Fund . . . (But you might also save your money possibly to help Will with final expenses.) I know many people online and offline will be mourning him. . . . We lost a good one today, folks.

As longtime readers will know, I first met John because of the Brett Kimberlin saga. In May 2012, when Kimberlin was trying to get Aaron Walker jailed, John immediately rallied to the cause on Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day, and was able to attend several court proceedings in the Kimberlin v. Walker affair to act as a reporter (he got his start in journalism as a radio broadcaster in Nashville in the 1960s). Eventually, the Kimberlin controversy culminated in Hoge, Walker, Ali (Akbar) Alexander and myself being co-defendants in a lawsuit (see “Sue Me Again, You Evil Liar,” August 13, 2014). Although he was an engineer by profession, John was the son of a lawyer, and proved to be quite an industrious pro se litigant, taking the legal offensive against Kimberlin on occasion, while monitoring the proceedings of Kimberlin’s various doomed efforts to appeal his original criminal convictions.

Polymath would be the best one-word description of Hoge’s tremendously versatile intelligence. The scion of a prosperous Tennessee family, John was a proud Vanderbilt University alumnus, and served as an officer in Army intelligence during the Vietnam War. He worked as a recording engineer in Nashville, then was a design engineer for sound equipment companies before landing (pardon the pun) in the aerospace industry, which brought him to Goddard Space Flight Center. When people asked him what he did, he’d give some kind of dry description, but after I understood his most recent endeavor, I told him his answers weren’t cool enough: “No, you design space robots for NASA.” Literally true, and much cooler sounding than “engineering contractor.”

As Aaron remarked, John was devoted to his late wife Connie, and since her death, he had a habit of beginning his anecdotes by saying, “When Connie and I . . .” For example, anytime there was news from California to discuss on the podcast, we’d hear a story about “when Connie and I” lived in California. Did I mention he was a leader in his church? His ancestors included prominent clergyman, among them a Presbyterian pastor named William J. Hoge. John led congregational “shaped note” singing at Frederick Church of Christ. He was a gentleman and a scholar, who was always well-dressed, well-mannered and well-spoken. His engineering skills made him indispensable at NASA, which was why he continued working into his 70s — younger engineers simply couldn’t do what the old guy did, having learned his trade in the slide-rule era.

John loved word-play and puns, and his last blog post was part of his long-running riff on Pinky and the Brain: “Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering? I think so, Brain … but if we switched to Danish, today would be a day ending in –g.” A typical droll Hoge-ism there.

In my first phone conversation with his son Will after John’s death, Will’s immediate thought was to find some way to get the podcast done at its usual time, but I told him to forget about that for now, as I’m sure he’ll have much work to do in making funeral arrangements.

Will should be your in prayers, and as for what else you can do to help, I’m sure contributions to Hoge via Pay Pal would be best.

Category: Blogging, The Kimberlin Files