Category Archives: Science

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Well, this is close to home.  This is the bit that concerns me:

In a September interview with the Pentagon’s news agency last fall, Iris Ferguson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resiliences said Chinese leaders have “been trying to insert themselves into the Arctic.”

“So, we’re being very mindful about their activity and in wanting to ensure that our interests are protected in the region,” Ferguson said.

China seems to be very interested in what goes on here in the Great Land, although they have nowhere near the sea-lift capacity to land troops here, and so won’t find out one thing that aren’t betting on, that being a few hundred thousand heavily armed Alaskan civilians – but they sure as hell seem to want to know what assets we have up here.  That’s disconcerting as hell.

Anyhoo…

On To the Links!

Nothing left to cut.

Trump steps on his dick again.  It’s like he’s trying to lose.

Four times.  A day.

Why is Biden so unpopular, even among Democrats?  Well, probably because he’s stupid, senile and incompetent.

The FBI is running cover for the Bidens.

Oh, the irony.

Squinted?

It’s aliens.

I take it you’re planning to lose the next war you’re in.

This is known as belaboring the obvious.

Wheee!

Who is John Galt?

Rum, sodomy and the lash.

Well, that’s a horrifying thought.

I’m not even sure at this point if the US is seeking primacy within its own borders.

Companies must do no such thing.  Mind your own damn business.

The next big crash?

Mike Pence files to run for President.  Well, the world’s got no shortage of windmills to tilt at.

Not sure why an American news network is covering these inbred mutants.

He’s going nowhere.

This Week’s Idiots:

The Bulwark’s Jill Lawrence is an idiot.

The Guardian’s Arwa Mahdawi is an idiot.

The Hill’s Niall Stanage is an idiot.  The only place Chris Christie could be a wild card is at a buffet table.

Idiots gonna idiot.

Alexandria Occasional Cortex persists in idiocy.

The Guardian’s Mark Weisbrot is an idiot.  (Also, his name literally means ‘white bread.’  Too funny.)

MSNBC’s James Downie is an idiot.

The Guardian’s Will Hutton is an idiot.  I’m starting to see another pattern.

Paul Krugman (Repeat Offender Alert) remains a cheap partisan hack, and an idiot.

James Comey is a corrupt asshole, and an idiot.

MSNBC’s Charlie Dent is an idiot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

I was never big on the Carpenters, but they sure sold a lot of records back in the day.  Karen Carpenter’s sad 1983 death from anorexia nervosa received a lot of publicity, and for a few years instances of anorexia, especially among teenage girls, spiked.  Some call this a ‘social contagion,’ when a few highly-publicized events, usually among celebrities, lead to a spike in instances of an emotional/mental disorder.

Sound familiar?

Back to the music, though.  Karen and Richard Carpenter did have a light, easy style that was relaxing and thoughtful.  While I was more of a head-banger – back in these days I was much more into Led Zeppelin, Foghat, Van Halen and the like – I’ve developed more of an appreciation of gentler music as I’ve gotten older.  I do kind of like their song Rainy Days and Mondays, from their 1971 album, Carpenters.  Here’s the official video, which presents kind of a touching photographic tribute to Karen to go along with her rich, butter-smooth voice.  Enjoy.

Animal’s Daily Cocaine Hippo News

Before we dive into this (hah) check out the first chapter of a new series over at Glibertarians.

Now then:  The world’s biggest invasive species is doing better than people thought.  A recent article in Nature says in part:

A few years ago, researchers estimated how fast the animals were reproducing, to project that about 98 hippos were living along the country’s Magdalena River and its tributaries in 20201. But the new study, for which a research team counted the animals in person, by drone and using other tracking methods, estimates that there are 181–215 of them residing in Colombia.

“Before, one argument against dealing with the hippos was that our information was limited and our arguments theoretical,” says ecologist Rafael Moreno, who participated in the study while at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute in Bogotá. “But we have put that argument to bed now. This study shows that this is a real issue, and that the state must act urgently.”

I’ve never been to the area in question, but it sure seems like an ideal habitat for hippos.  And it’s clear that people who live in the area are right to be concerned about Pablo Escobar’s escaped ‘cocaine hippos’ (not to be confused with Cocaine Bear) living in the area, as in Africa, hippos are known to be extremely dangerous animals.  In fact, in many areas, hippos are responsible for more injuries and deaths than other megafauna, including lions and the notorious Cape buffalo.

Nature describes several mitigation efforts, including sterilization and relocation, but (speaking as a biologist myself) they only pay lip service to the most obvious technique:  Culling.  That means, candidly, shooting the damn hippos.

Were this Florida or Alabama, say, instead of Columbia, there would be an obvious answer; declare an unlimited open season on the hippos, and spread the word that they’re good to eat.  (This may even be true; I’m not familiar with anyone who has tried.)  But hippos swordlike tusks are ivory, and ivory is valuable.  That would be a good incentive.

Invasive species have been a problem for centuries.  And it’s not always a human-caused problem, although it frequently is.  And, sadly, mitigation efforts normally fail.  Look at starlings in North America, rabbits in Australia, rats almost everywhere.

Hippos, being slower-breeding megafauna, may be more amenable to reduction.  But I suspect the only method that will work in the end is, to put it bluntly, killing them.

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Best line in a story this past week:

Children can go to California to have their bodies irrevocably altered by surgery and be pumped full of drugs that could cause health issues in the immediate and distant future that could ruin their lives. Crime is rampant and the streets are full of homeless encampments, needles, and human waste. The term “Golden State” could soon refer to the fact that everyone there has contracted hepatitis. BUT the kids will be safe because they can’t get a bag of Skittles.

Read Lincoln Brown’s take on this stupidity here.  ‘Nuff said.

And so…

On To the Links!

How about no bail-outs for anything or anyone, ever?

We can hope.

There is no danger of default.

RIP, Tina Turner.

Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus.

RIP, Ray Stevenson.  I’ll always remember him as Titus Pullo in HBO’s amazing series Rome.

Can California be turned red again?  Color me skeptical, but still…

The Supreme Court makes a 9-0 ruling (Sackett v. EPA) and Democrats immediately start lying about it.  Hey, you jackasses, look up the difference between “concurring” and “dissent.”

No shit, Sherlock.

This will be interesting to watch.  Full disclosure:  I’m on Team DeSantis, but if Trump gets the nomination, I’ll vote for him.  The alternative is unthinkable.

And Trump might not have as tight of a lock on things as he thinks.

Debate is not allowed at debates.

Arguing with someone on Twitter is like competing in the Special Olympics.  Even if you win, you’re still a retard.

My blogger pal Robert Stacy McCain has a neat piece on the Golden Age of Hollywood.

I remember when sitzpinkler was an insult.  Hell, I live out in the woods.  I pee outside more than in the house.  Kind of hard for a dude to sit for that.

Natural Gas Forecast – not good news.

State Farm gives up on California.

Our illiterate college students.

My friend Brandon Morse has an excellent piece on Memorial Day.  Yes, that’s me in the comments.

This is what happens when you de-criminalize theft.

More signs of the Biden family’s breathtaking corruption.

Equal treatment under the law a dead letter in the US, Exhibit #211,293.

This Week’s Idiots:

The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel is an idiot.

The Nation’s Jennifer C. Berkshire is an idiot.

Vox’s Ian Millhiser is an idiot.

The LA Times editorial staff are all idiots.

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Hanoi Jane is still an idiot.

The people who run Lululemon (whatever that is) are all idiots.

The Nation’s Jeet Heer (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Robert Reich (Repeat Offender Alert) remains a sawed-off runt, and an idiot.

The Nation’s D.D. Guttenplan & John Nichols (Repeat Offender Alert) are both idiots.  Biden doesn’t need to remake his candidacy – he needs to resign, for the good of the republic.

If this little idiot tried this in Alaska, he’d likely become shot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

Back in the day – and still today, in fact – one of the most powerful male singers was the Welsh master Tom Jones.  He projected his voice like few today can, and he also combined style and class with talent.

One of his best-known tunes is actually a cover of Paul Anka’s 1970 tune She’s a Lady, but Jones, in 1971, recorded what would be far and away the most popular take on this song.  Here, then, is that tune.  Oh, and as a bonus, take a look at Tom Jones on the Ed Sullivan show in 1968, with his signature song It’s Not Unusual.  Enjoy!


Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Well, this is a stupid idea.  Here’s the part that I find particularly angrifying:

Beginning in the 1990s, the federal government made the disastrous mistake of promoting and increasing the amount of risky mortgage loans in the pursuit of increasing home ownership, notably requiring Fannie and Freddie to buy more and more such loans. The riskier loans were promoted as “innovative” mortgages by the Clinton administration. That push was a major contributor first to the housing bubble and then to the housing finance collapse of 2007–09.

And now they are proposing doing it again, only rather more so:

In this case, the FHFA wants to politically manipulate Fannie and Freddie’s Loan-Level Price Adjustments (LLPAs). The LLPAs are meant to be credit risk-based adjustments, which reflect fundamental factors in the credit risk of a mortgage loan, to the price of getting Fannie or Freddie to bear the credit risk of the loan. They are an adjustment to the cost of the loan to the borrower, supposed to be based on objective measures of risk.

Welcome to More Government Interference in Markets, Version 6,927,394.  This kind of crap was the genesis of the 2008 housing market crash.  Now we’re looking at economic illiterates in the Imperial City again doubling down on stupid.  I swear, it’s idiots all the way down.  Read the whole thing, and if it doesn’t piss you off, you probably aren’t really paying attention.

Now then…

On To the Links!

Chicago is committing suicide.

This should come as a surprise to no one.

The latest leftist fraud.

I’m glad to see Alaska helping with this effort.

This is known as belaboring the obvious.

Our schools continue to fail.

We’ve known this was coming for years, and nothing will be done.

Smooch!

Sour grapes from Netflix.

Grotesque is a major understatement.

This gets more and more embarrassing by the day.

Unconstitutional, evil and stupid.

“Disgraceful” doesn’t begin to cover it.

If by “deep bench” you mean “an astounding collection of incompetents,” then, yes.

When worn on the other foot, the shoe pinches.

Bottomless Pinocchios.

Probably not.

I would be curious to know more about this.

Inept hypocrisy, indeed.

This Week’s Idiots:

TikTok users are idiots.  Film at eleven.

Paul Krugman (Repeat Offender Alert) is still a cheap partisan hack, and an idiot.  And again.

When your target market is basically “BroDudes” and you go visibly woke in your marketing, you might be an idiot.

Rep. Cori Bush (Moron-MO) is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Michael Cohen (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

The Nation’s Jeet Heer (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Frank Figliuzzi is an idiot.

The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer is an idiot.

Al Sharpton is and always has been a disgusting hustler.

Juan Williams continues his descent into nutballery.

Vox’s Ellen Ioanes is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Steve Benen is an idiot.  Is it just me sensing this pattern every week?

OK, that’s all the stupid I can take this week.  I really do read these, you know.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

Summertime is coming!

Those of us of a certain age remember acts like Mungo Jerry, who are probably best known for their 1970 hit In The Summertime.  Lead singer and writer Ray Dorset later claimed he wrote the song in ten minutes, and if you give it a listen, it’s not really an implausible claim.  Still, it’s a fun little tune, and still gets my toe tapping, even fifty-some years after I first heard it.  Oh, and Dorset rocks those big Seventies ‘burns.  Here it is – enjoy!

 

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

You can tell it’s spring at last here in the Great Land when the sound of snow machine motors is replaced by ATV motors.

Our ATVs.

We don’t yet have a snow machine (in the 48 you call them snowmobiles) but we have two ATVs, a big six-seat Polaris Ranger for taking guests on tours, and a neat, agile little Polaris Sportsman that I mostly use for getting out in the woods after grouse or just indulging in one of my favorite activities – woods-bumming.  If you like the outdoors and live up here, one or both of these machines is a hell of a handy thing to have.

Now then…

On To the Links!

No shit, Sherlock.

Florida Man rides again.

And in the end, we’ll go further and further into debt.

And nothing will come of this.

Sanctuary city, my ass.

Another one leaving Chicago.

Impossible.  IEDs are against the law.  And I’m pretty sure this is a no-IED zone.

Because they are ruled by morons.

Atlas is shrugging.

Just when you think you couldn’t get any more disgusted.

Senator Murphy:  Come on out here to the Susitna Valley and try to take our guns.  Let us know how that works out for you.

OK, is there anybody in this group who isn’t a Fed?

This isn’t a good sign.

“Missing?”  One wonders if cement overshoes are involved.

The red-pilling of Elon Musk continues apace.

Haw haw haw!

I’ll take my chances.

This Week’s Idiots:

Salon’s Heather Parton is an idiot.

Whoever thought this was a good idea is an idiot.

Minnesota is run by idiots.

An actual photo of Brian Stelter.

Brian Stelter is an idiot.  And a potato.

New York Magazine’s Ed Kilgore is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Policies designed by morons result in epic cluster-fuck.  Film at eleven.

Slate’s Michael J. Socolow is an idiot.

How can you tell when Joe Biden is saying something stupid?  His lips are moving.  And again.

MSNBC’s Steve Benen is an idiot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

I love Japan.

This is Masayuki Suzuki, who does a lot of soundtracks for Japanese television and so forth, in addition to pure musical work.  I’m not sure what genre he falls under, but these two songs are from the soundtrack of an anime called Kaguya-sama:  Love is War, they’re kind of fun, and a little different than our usual servings.  Enjoy.

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Best headline of the year so far:  Giant phallus-shaped iceberg floating in Conception Bay surprises residents of Dildo, Canada.  Image from story:

Yes, it’s true, my sense of humor has not changed significantly since I was twelve years old.  On that subject I am not only unapologetic, I embrace it.

Now then…

On To the Links!

There’s a first time for everything.

This, however, is nothing new.

National treasure Dr. Victor Davis Hanson weighs in.

I’m pretty sure cartels have control of a lot of the border now.

And everyone on the Left yawns.

To each according to his needs.

Tell him to demand in one hand, shit in the other, and see which hand fills up first.

That would be a mistake.

Dunning-Kruger rides again!

No.  No, he cannot.

We can hope.

Fuck off, slaver!

Don’t mess with Texas.

I love a happy ending.

Or, you could just mind your own damn business and leave me alone.

This Week’s Idiots:

The daffy old Bolshevik from Vermont goes full Commie.

MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem is an idiot.

Paul Krugman (Repeat Offender Alert) remains a cheap partisan hack, and an idiot.

Natural Stupidity appointed to oversee Artificial Intelligence.

Mother Jones’ Tim Murphy is an idiot.

Salon’s Amanda Marcotte (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Michael Cohen is an idiot.  Sure, let’s just keep borrowing, and borrowing, and borrowing, world without end, amen.  What a dipshit.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

While I was a bit on the young side for most of Cream’s work, having older siblings exposed me to a lot of stuff from the late Sixties I may not have readily picked up on otherwise.  My older brother had several of Cream’s albums, and that combination of Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker produced some neat stuff.

I always thought their 1967 album Disraeli Gears had some good songs.  One of my favorites is the side 1 opening tune Strange Brew.  Hearing this song always takes me back to when I was a kid hanging out with my big brother.  Here, then, is that tune; enjoy.

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

An indubitable sign of spring only Monday past, as our juncos have returned.  Dark-Eyed Juncos are somewhat migratory; they stay rather late in the fall and are usually the first migratory birds to return in spring.

Junco.

It’s interesting.  In all the years I lived in the city, I paid only nominal attention to the turn of the seasons.  Since returning to a rural lifestyle, I’ve become much more aware of the great circle the year makes, not just with the weather but with the creatures around us.  Soon the robins will return, then the swallows, the sandhill cranes will be overhead on their way to Arctic nesting grounds, and we’ll be in the full bloom of our short, mild, beautiful Alaskan summer.

And so…

On To the Links!

Brits go full retard.  Never go full retard.

24 months of pay cuts.

Just blame the dog.

What minds?

Will Disney lose another one to DeSantis?

Oh, now she’s alarmed?

President(ish) Biden says he’s known for two things.  That’s true:  Stupidity and senility.

Bring it, asshole.  Fuck around and find out.

Let’s face it, equal treatment under the law is long gone.

Whatever happened to “disperse or you will be fired upon”?

This is one of the most Alaska things that can happen.

Bill Maher finds another acorn.  I don’t often agree with the guy, but lately he’s been making some good points.

Colonel Schlichter:  Playing by the rules is for suckers.  He may be right.

Is Trump imploding?  It’s beginning to look that way.

More fuss over Cleopatra’s skin color.  If only there were some contemporary depictions we could look at!  Oh, wait:

San Francisco Target store locks up its entire inventory.

This should be fun to watch.

A desiccated old weirdo runs for President.

This Week’s Idiots:

MSNBC’s Jarvis DeBerry is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Janai Nelson is an idiot.

MSNBC’s is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Katelyn Burns is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

I’m sensing a pattern here.

USAToday’s Rex Huppke is an idiot.  Wait, USAToday is still a thing?  Who knew?

Robert Reich (Repeat Offender Alert) remains a sawed-off runt, and an idiot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

OK, plenty of folks have been saying that it’s time for the political Right to start playing hardball, me among them.  (This is relevant, I promise.)  Too many in the GOP seem to be worried more about continued invites to Georgetown cocktail parties than adhering to what are supposed to be ‘conservative’ principals – much less, you know, promoting actual liberty.

If they want some inspiration, they should tune in to the 1975 Nazereth tune Hair of the Dog.  The refrain includes:

Now you’re messin’ with a
A son of a bitch.
Now you’re messin’ with a son of a bitch.

The Right could learn a thing or two from that.  I think they need a few more sons of bitches in the Imperial City – and yes, I think that was part of Donald Trump’s appeal.  Here, then, is that tune.  Enjoy.

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Up here in the Great Land, the bears are waking up.

Yr. obdt. on bearwatch.

Bears are just one of the wildlife-related things we deal with, living in rural Alaska, of course.  We had a black hanging around for a while last summer, and while I stood watch a few times while Mrs. Animal was working in the greenhouse, I never got a good clear look at him – or else he’d have been in the freezer.  Black bear is downright good eating, and the season is open up here year ’round, with an annual bag limit of three.  And there’s a reason we keep a chest freezer that’s big enough to double as a crypt for a Pharaoh of old.  So, maybe this year.

Now then…

On To the Links!

The urban v. rural divide, in microcosm.

Now do Fetterman.

My good friend Brandon Morse nails the gun control debate.

No, Tim Scott doesn’t have a chance of being elected President in 2024.  He’s not really running for President; he is at most running for a cabinet post.

I love a happy ending.

Once in a while, a little common sense emerges.

Demand in one hand, defecate in the other, see which hand fills up first.

Piers Morgan finds an acorn.

Massive chimp-out in Chicago.

California goes full Commie.  Commiefornia?

Why are people fleeing the blue states?

Well, people in blue states are leaving in part because of stores being forced to shut down by runaway crime.

Something about the plank in one’s own eye…

Dead bird drones.  Yes, really.

This Week’s Idiots:

Slate’s Alex Kirshner is an idiot.

The NY TimesLydia Polgreen is an idiot.

Slate’s Nitish Pahwa is an idiot.

Robert Reich (Repeat Offender Alert) remains a sawed-off runt, and an idiot.

The LA Times’ Robin Abcarian is an idiot.

Rep. Ro Khanna (Horse’s Ass – CA) is an idiot.

“Pothole Pete” Buttigieg is an idiot.

The daffy old Bolshevik from Vermont has another stupid idea.

Katie Porter is an idiot.

Germany doubles down on stupid.  Why not just invade Russia again while you’re at it?

Outgoing Chicago Mayor Beetlejuice is an idiot.

Incompetent, and stupid.  Kind of defines the entire Biden(‘s handlers) Administration.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

Something a little different this week; you’ve all seen here, in previous installments, my fond memory of the great Johnny Carson.  Well, in this show, he had as his guest on the Tonight Show another great, Ann-Margret.

In this episode she puts on, as a preview for an upcoming performance, a musical number that will knock your socks off – among other things.  (Also, it must have been chilly on that stage.)  Unforgettable is something of an understatement here.  Enjoy.

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

I’m toying with the idea of buying one of these.

This is the Uberti 1873 Cattleman Bird’s Head revolver, in .45 Colt.  The basic gun is a clone of the famous Colt Model P.  I’d prefer to have the 3″ barrel option, even though that would preclude my hot .45 Colt loads; I think the gun would handle it but it would be a handful to shoot.

Why do I want one?  I’m not entirely certain.  It would make a nice backup piece to my belt guns in the big .45 Colt (a Smith & Wesson 25-5 and a Ruger Vaquero) or a decent CCW piece in its own right.  But I think I’d like to have one mostly because I think they’re cool.  And that’s reason enough, right?  Of course right.

And so…

On To the Links!

Check out my bonus post this week over at Glibertarians; this one is another Profile in Toxic Masculinity starring one of my personal heroes, Theodore Roosevelt.

Point of order:  Chicago doesn’t have a sensible candidate for Mayor.  Just more of the same.

Of course Xi is prepping China for war.  You’d have to be an idiot not to see it.

If this isn’t an impeachable offense, I don’t know what is.

Fuck off, slaver!

Now this is heroism.

San Francisco should fix their own damn problems.

The more I read about Winsome Sears, the more I like her.

Are Democrats Really This Dumb Or Just Evil?  I’d point out that the two are not mutually exclusive.

You really can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

A touching story of a television legend.

OPEC cuts production.  Hold on to your butts.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

I love a happy ending.

Florida is now a Constitutional carry state.  That makes a majority of states with permitless carry.

This Week’s Idiots:

Donna Brazile (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Vox’s Li Zhou (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Rolling Stone’s Ron Kuby is an idiot.

I’ll stick with real beer.

The marketing people for Bud Light are all idiots.  Honestly, who still drinks this stuff?  It’s “sex in a canoe” beer – fucking close to water.

CNN’s Dean Obeidallah (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Kesha Ram Hinsdale is an idiot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

Last week’s Eddie Money video prompted a comment from a reader, pointing out that the red-hot Latina in the video was actually Apollonia Kotero, who co-starred with Prince in his 1984 film Purple Rain.  I might have spotted her before if I had seen that film since I originally did, in 1984, at the Midnight Movie in the old Waterloo Theater in Waterloo, Iowa.  The theater served beer at the Midnight Movie, and there was usually a joint or two being passed around, which added a little… flavor to the experience.

In those days I listened to a bit of Prince as he got a lot of radio play, in addition to being a regular feature back when MTV was new and actually, you know, had music.  I recognized his talent even though I wasn’t an enormous fan of his style (he was a quite good technical guitarist in addition to being a dynamic performer) but I did, and still do, kind of like the song Little Red Corvette.  Here, then, is the official video for that song, just like you might have seen on MTV back in the day – enjoy.

 

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Take a look at this.  Key excerpt:

John Kerry speaks at Davos.

Speaking of that, there was also Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry, who during a Friday interview with Yahoo News insulted the intelligence of every American by not only cheerleading forthcoming new climate mandates from Biden, but also by proclaiming that it was okay for global warming fanatics to be wildly hypocritical because not only do they allegedly do the “carbon offset” thing but also because “they are working harder than most people I know to be able to try to effect this transition…”

And:

This prompted a response by media critic Joe Concha, who hit the nail on the head.

“They can still work harder and get to Davos by flying the middle seat in coach on Aer Lingus,” Concha tweeted. “The elitism is utterly breathtaking…”

Breathtaking, if anything, is a gross understatement.  Seriously, fuck these Davos assholes, and fuck John “Lurch” Kerry (who, by the way, served in Vietnam, as he constantly reminds us) and while we’re at it, fuck all the horses they all rode in on – and by horses, I mean gas-guzzling private jets.

And so with that off my chest…

On To the Links!

“Organic” agriculture is bullshit.  If you’da asked me, I could’a told you.

The SMOD may be closer than we think.

Second Amendment advocates go on the offensive.

It doesn’t matter whether a wealth tax would “work” or not – it’s illegal.  Why are we still talking about this?

And Putin gives not even one single fuck.

I love a happy ending.

Ahead, Troll Factor Eight!

Democrats v. parents.

Insane reparations math in Californey.  I mean, the whole idea is nucking futz.

You fucked up!  You trusted us!

I love a happy ending.

Neandertals may have collected cool animal skulls.

Ron DeSantis isn’t tired of winning  yet.

Get woke, go broke.

Nothing will come of this.  Equal treatment under the law is a dead letter in this nation.

Holy crap!  Hint:  Don’t buy aftermarket reverse-offset wheels for your vehicle.  Really hard on bearings and axles.

There may be a lot of water on the Moon.

This Week’s Idiots:

We have a bumper crop this week!

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.  And it’s a twofer this week!

The LA Times’ Jackie Calmes is an idiot.

The Massachusetts DMV is apparently staffed with idiots.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Shamann Walton is an idiot.  San Francisco voters are getting the government they wanted, good and hard.

Cori Bush is an idiot.

Sheila Jackson Lee is an idiot.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Caroline Light is an idiot.

Juan Williams is an idiot.

Vox’s Li Zhou is an idiot.

Stacy Abrams doesn’t know her ass from her face about energy, so…

Dr. Charles Darwin, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

In 1978 or so, I went to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with a couple of buddies.  We were there to see the main act, Foghat, and what a great show that was!

But that’s not who we’re going to present here today.

Before Foghat came on stage, the opening act came out.  I remember one of my buddies looking at me and asking, “Eddie Money?  Who the hell is Eddie Money?”

“Isn’t he that Two Tickets to Paradise guy?”  I replied.

“Oh, yeah.”

Eddie went on to have a pretty decent career after that, before his untimely passing in 2019.  One of my favorites of his tunes was from his 1982 album No Control, the song being Shakin’.  I remember listening to it quite a bit while wearing Uncle Sam’s colors, and I still give it a listen from time to time now.  Here, then, is the official video (the smoking-hot Latina gal doesn’t hurt any, either) – enjoy.