Not a Shock: Delta Says That Based on Witness Statements, 9/11 Truther Islamist Removed from Flight Was "Shouting, Disruptive"

—Ace

This is not my shocked face.

In a statement obtained by LawNewz.com, the airline said that after collecting statements from "multiple passengers," they have concluded that YouTube star Adam Saleh, and his travel mate, were actually trying to disrupt the plane with "provocative behavior," and were shouting.

By the way, here's more of this very credible prankster's twitter feed:

So, you can see we're dealing with an impartial observer of American society here.

Breastfeeding Is Now A Problem: It Is Heteronormative and Gendered? This May Be Peak Lunacy!

—CBD

This is the full abstract of an article titled A Land of Milk and Honey? Breastfeeding and Identity in Lesbian Families. I have bolded the most interesting sentence.

This article explores the relationship between breastfeeding and identity in lesbian-identified families based on a pilot study of qualitative interviews and a short survey of six lesbian families in Canada and the United States. Although breastfeeding is assumed to be "natural" and a biological function, we problematize the practice as both gendered and heteronormative. In our research we found that breastfeeding has a complex role to play within the construction of one's identity as a mother, of one's gender, and of one's sexual orientation. These women's experiences offer interesting insights into the nebulous boundaries of biology and the ways in which assumptions about what is "natural" are actually social and cultural constructions.

A fisking of even the abstract isn't worth anyone's time, but this is a great example of the radical Left's desire to destroy Western cultural norms and, ultimately, Western Culture.

So breastfeeding is now a problem because it is gendered? No it isn't. Anyone can breastfeed. Of course, only lactating women are successful. As for it being "heteronormative? Uh...no. Breastfeeding has nothing to do with anything other than a mother feeding her baby, providing sustenance and also bonding in important ways. It is detached from the father, and is one of the powerful drivers of the need for a mother. But that's the part the lunatic fringe wants to break down! The rather basic division between man and woman is anathema to all they believe.

What is really interesting to me is the total lack of scientific and intellectual rigor. Six lesbian families were interviewed. Wow. These fools think that is a large enough study to mean anything? But that's a silly comment...they decided on the conclusions before they began the study.

Hoax Hate Crimes Are a Rising Trend, But No-Enemies-to-the-Left Media Says Absolutely Nothing

—Ace

If it can be used to advance a Narrative the media likes, it only takes two incidences to make a trend -- and one of those incidences can even be #FakeNews.

But if it's a Narrative the media doesn't find politically useful, not even 20 incidences is enough to outline a trend for the media.

And we're closing in on at least twenty incidences of Socially Conscious Hoax Crimes now.

John Sexton runs down some recent ones, including a three revealed as hoaxes just today alone.

Remember the story about swastikas and one "KKK" message being spray-painted on Long Island university buildings? Widely attributed to "Trump's followers."

Hoax -- the perp has been arrested, and he's Pakistani. Oh I guess the crime is real enough, and the guy is probably anti-semitic. But it has no relationship to the phantasmal "Trump Voters on Hate Rampage" Narrative.

Remember the black church that was burned down, with "VOTE TRUMP" scrawled nearby in case any one missed the likely motive? Again, a race-based hoax -- the arson was real enough, but the perp was black and a member of the church itself. The "VOTE TRUMP" graffiti was intended to either disguise his hand and his motive, or to play into the media's "Trump's Cycle of Violence" storyline.

And as John Sexton highlights, a Michigan student claimed that Trump supporter tried to yank off her hijab and threatened to set her on fire. The police categorized that "hate crime" as "ethnic intimidation," but they now categorize it as "filing a false police report."

They're hiding the woman's identity -- as Glenn Reynolds often notes, the media and politicized law enforcement brass continues treating known hoaxsters as genuine victims, concealing their identity as if they'd actually been raped, threatened or assaulted, even after they are formally charged with filing a false police report.

That's three events in a day -- and I'm not even getting into things that just happened days or a week ago.

But the media, pretending to be on a crusade against Fake News, gleefully reports these false claims when they're made and then gets very quiet indeed about publicizing the finding that they were fake news all along.

Indeed, Brian Stelter, a roly-poly person of indeterminate sex, fancies himself one of the most steadfast of #FakeNewsFighters, yet nevertheless tweeted out the Delta Prankster's claim of racial profiling without offering any skepticism or background reporting indicating that this was real and not just another hoax.

When he was called on that, xhe feebly said xhe was only commenting on how virally the story spread, not on its actual credibility or accuracy.

Xhe is wondering how the story spread so virally, when xhe xherxhelf -- a CNN "journalist" -- just tweeted it out to xher 418,000 followers!

Hey Brianx -- I have a theory on how it spread so virally. You and the other 80 reporters with large twitter followings who blasted it out, unvetted, uncritically, to your combined millions of follwerx might have had something to do with it.

That wasn't Brianx's only foray into Fake News today, either. While Tweeting about Katie Couric's triumphant (?) return to her old, old job at the Today Show, xhe forgot to mention Katie Couric is currently being sued for -- remember? -- making #FakeNews in the form of that deceptive edit in her gun control propaganda.

I guess xher mind must have just slipped.

Apparently FakeNews is only a problem when it helps spread Narratives that have not been officially approved by the Guild of Fake Newsmen.

Update: I can see now why Brianx Stelter took professional troll and prankster Adam Saleh's Delta-Hates-Muslims claim so credulously.

A Letter from a Liberal to Her Fellow Liberals: I'm Tired of You, I'm Exasperated By You, I'm Quitting You and Your Weird Cult

—Ace

In the last paroxysm of Political Correctness in the 1990s, some commentators began talking about "Compassion Fatigue," the syndrome whereby people who were told to care about everything eventually broke down and decided they just couldn't care about every stray bit of bullshit any longer. And then, the spell was broken; the forces of PC no longer had any influence over them.

We should be talking about Outrage Fatigue now-- who has the time or required neurotic/hysterical personality defect to be this outraged about so many different trivial things?

[I] was raised a secular liberal. My college professors were secular liberals. During my journalism phase, my newspaper colleagues were secular liberals. My law school professors and peers were � in the vast majority � secular liberals. Almost everyone at my corporate law firm was a secular liberal. My California neighbors and friends are secular liberals, as are my fellow government lawyers. My mother, siblings, and their spouses are all secular liberals.

By all rights, I should be a member in good standing of their tribe, "liking" their Facebook posts and joining their candlelight vigils against the evil Trump Administration. But November 8 and its aftermath revealed to me that I am just so tired of these people. I can't be like them, and I don't want my kids turning into them.

I am tired of their undisguised contempt for tens of millions of Americans, with no effort to temper their response to the election with humility or empathy.

I am tired of their unexamined snobbery and condescension.

I am tired of their name-calling and virtue-signaling as signs of supposedly high intelligence.

I am tired of their trendiness, jumping on every left-liberal bandwagon that comes along (transgender activism, anyone?) and then acting like anyone not on board is an idiot/hater.

I am tired of their shallowness. It�s hard to have a deep conversation with people who are obsessed with moving their kids� pawns across the board (grades, sports, college, grad school, career) and, in their spare time, entertaining themselves and taking great vacations.

I am tired of their acceptance of vulgarity and sarcastic irreverence as the cultural ocean in which their kids swim. I like pop culture as much as the next person, but people who would never raise their kids on junk food seem to think nothing of letting then wallow in cultural junk, exposed to nothing ennobling, aspirational, or even earnest.

I am tired of watching them raise clueless kids (see above) who go off to college and within months are convinced they live in a rapey, racist patriarchy; "Make America Great Again" is hate speech; and Black Lives Matter agitators are their brothers-in-arms against White Privilege. If my kids are like that at nineteen, I'll feel I've seriously failed them as a parent. Yet the general sentiment seems to be these are good, liberal kids who may have gotten a bit carried away.

I am tired of their lack of interest in any form of serious morality or self-betterment. These are decent, responsible people, many compassionate by temperament. Yet they seem two-dimensional, as if they believe that being a nice, well-socialized person who holds the correct political views is all there is, and there is nothing else to talk about. Isn�t there, though?

I am tired of being bored and exasperated by everybody. I feel like I have read this book a thousand times, and there are no surprises in it. Down with Trump! Trans Lives Matter! Climate deniers are destroying the planet! No cake, we're gluten-free!

These are good people in a lot of ways. But there has got to be a better tribe.

That leads me to . . . drum roll . . . the Christian Right. It is no small feat, switching tribes. It feels stressful and weird to abandon your tribe for the Detested Other Side.

The more you tighten your grip, Lord Vader, the more systems will slip through your fingers.

Lena Dum-Dum: Hey When I Said I Wish I'd Had an Abortion, I Was Inhabiting My "Delusional Girl" Persona

—Ace

Yes, Lena. You inhabit that persona 24/7/365.25.

In related news, Dylan Roof has changed his plea from "guilty" to "just doing my 'Racist Guy' character, which I had been workshopping among trusted collaborators and finally decided to stage as Theater of the Real."

'My latest podcast episode was meant to tell a multifaceted story about reproductive choice in America, to explain the many reasons women do or don't choose to have children and what bodily autonomy really means,' she wrote.

'I'm so proud of the medley of voices in the episode. I truly hope a distasteful joke on my part won't diminish the amazing work of all the women who participated.'

...

In her Instagram post, she said: 'My words were spoken from a sort of "delusional girl" persona I often inhabit, a girl who careens between wisdom and ignorance (that's what my TV show is too) and it didn't translate."

Who talks like this? It's like a parody of TalkShowSpeak, where every actor is sooo generous and every director makes you feel cherished and protected as you experiment with "your instrument."

Known YouTube Prankster Claims He Got Kicked Off of Delta Flight Because He Spoke "A Word" of "Another Language"

—Ace

That language was Arabic.

I wouldn't take his claims at face value. Part of his schtick seems to be making people on airplaines uncomfortable, then uploading the prank to Vine, Twitter, etc. For example, here he films himself "falling asleep" on a stranger's shoulder.

USAToday notes he specializes in "in-flight mayhem," which is precisely what you'd like to see an Arabic man of military age practicing.

A theme of many of his videos centers around gauging reaction to either Arab dress or language....

In another, video Counting down in Arabic on a plane, Saleh asks a friend what he thinks would happen if they began counting down in Arabic.

"I can count down in Arabic, it's a social experiment," Saleh said.

He begins counting and pan the camera around to see how people are reacting before asking the man behind him to repeat the Arabic numbers after him. The counting only lasts a few seconds before he is on to the next subject: watching friends Snapchats on camera.

Yes, people are totally paranoid and Islamophobic for reacting to two Arabic men counting down in Arabic, as if counting down a bomb's detonation, in a coordinated, military call-and-response fashion.

Cool airplane clock, kid.

Now he claims he spoke "one word" of "another language" and "white people" got "uncomfortable" and so Delta threw him off the plane. He's very fixated on the race of the persecutors -- you need to know they're "white people."

I'd just ban this guy from flying on airlines -- period. Done.

Interestingly, he's sharing the aftermath of his stunt, but I don't see the video of his behavior before Delta personnel confronted him.

The left is taking this as a Red Alert Battlestations Freak-Out, because of course they are. There are no hate crime hoaxes on the left; there are only Greater Truths which may currently lack indicia of reality.

By the Way: This "Scare Non-Muslims By Pretending to be a Muslim Terrorist" genre is popular among Muslims, it seems. Saleh didn't have anything to do with this one (as far as I know), but he seems to be copying the basic genre and spirit of pretending to be a terrorist.

More funny hijinks with racist, terrified white people here.

If you pretend to be a terrorist, and succeed in terrorizing people, guess what you are?

That's right -- a terrorist.

Correction: I originally included another series of Tweets I mistakenly thought for Saleh, calling out white people for "scaring" Muslims in movie theaters. Again, that wasn't Saleh -- just someone supporting his consciousness-raising "experiments."

As that wasn't actually Saleh, I omitted it from the post.

However, in his own video, he refers to "white people" and wants to know why they're not being kicked off the plane.

By the way, he's been called out by TigerAir Australia for faking a video before.

This guy, Grade A Under A, has a series of videos arguing that almost every "prank" video (and they are very popular on YouTube) are fake, and the ones that aren't fake are just assholish. Another video, proclaiming Prank [YouTube] Channels = AIDS, is also about all the fake prank videos.

Also, this one explains the main genres of "Prank" videos, which frequently include rude assault (like rubbing your ass on a victim and pretending to fart).

Or race-baiting.

Content Warning on all of those, but worth it.

San Diego Chargers Security Guard Caught-on-Film Masturbating in Front of Cheerleaders, Fired

—Ace

Who's the real victim here, is what I'd like to know.

A video posted on Facebook shows the unidentified guard seemingly pleasuring himself just steps away from cheerleaders at Qualcomm Stadium during the Chargers' game against the Oakland Raiders. Company officials from San Diego-based Elite Security confirmed the termination on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after versions of the video surfaced online.

...

The man did pass all state and federal background screening processes and completed all licensing requirements, the company said.

The guy is actually playing pocket pool, which I didn't know was a Real Thing until now. If you click on the video, you won't see penis, but you will see him going at himself like a cat going after yarn. So, content warning.

By the way, the T&A strip on the side of the Daily Mail today features not one but two "pert posteriors."

That Awful, Awful Herb

—OregonMuse

Sage Advice

[Open Thread until ace shows up]

Many years ago, my parents took the family out to a Mexican restaurant, and it was a miserable experience. I love Mexican food, but I thought that the restaurant forgot to rinse off the plates after washing them, because the whole meal tasted like soap. I figured it was probably the residue of soap left on the plates that caused my poor dining experience.

Later on, of course, I found out that the item I ordered had been loaded with fresh cilantro. That was the way it was normally prepared.

But I thought, do people actually eat this stuff? Why would you eat something that tastes like soap? I just couldn't understand it.

The answer, of course, is because SCIENCE!

There�s a scientific reason for all that loathing: 10% of the population was born with a genetic defect variant. Researchers looked at the genetics of about 14,000 people and found a DNA variation believed to be the root cause of the soapy smell and taste some people associate with cilantro.

In other words, my genes are messed up. Figures. And I marvel at the incredibly detailed science behind it:

The science of smell is fascinatingly complex and not entirely understood, but the current hypothesis is that having a C instead of an A in a specific location close to the OR6A2 gene, slightly alters the shape of the receptor molecule encoded by that gene, and allows cilantro molecules to activate receptors that in the rest of the population are only activated by soap/bleach/death molecules.

My kids hate me. As it happens, Mrs. Muse and I are both in the 10%, so she never used fresh cilantro in any of the food she served. And when my kids got out on their own and started sampling other cuisine, they were all, like, "what makes this Thai dish taste so wonderful?" And then "well, why didn't I find out about this before?"

So I have a question for you 'rons and 'ettes:

1. Do you think cilantro taste like soap?

2. If you don't think cilantro tastes like soap, how would you describe the taste to those of us for whom it tastes like soap?

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report 12/21/16

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. The bitch is back (see below)! Thanks to CBD for filling in whilst I was pining for the fjords in balmy Janesville, Wisconsin. I wanted to leave a sack of flaming dog shit on Paul Ryan's doorstep but no sane dog was outside in that weather. Anyway, winter has officially arrived, but the days get longer from here. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• Incompetent and Politically Correct Is No Way To Run a Police Dept., Ja?
  
• SCOAMF Flooding US with "Refugees" In Final Weeks
  
• SCOAMF Last-Minute Appoints Lawyer of Danny Faulkner's Murderer to Civil Rights Commission, Stymieing Trump
  
• Old and Busted = Colin Kaepernick, New Hotness = Covert Fap-For-Kicks
  
• How Will Russia React to the Assassination of Its Ambassador in Ankara?
  
• Fifth Successful Test of Russian Anti-Satellite Missile
  
• Irksome, Vapid Homunculus Demonstrates Classic Case of Leftist Projection
  
• Talentless, Bloated Loudmouth Airs Obvious 2020 Campaign Spiel for Hateful First "Lady"
  
• Pat Caddell on Obamas Ankling DC: "Where's the Part Where You Gracefully Exit the Stage?"
  
• The Anti-Deborah Messing/Lena Dunham: Ambushed Female IDF Army Captain Wounded While Fighting Off 23 Terrorists

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (12/20/16)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

On this day in history, 1963, the Berlin Wall is opened for the first time.

More than two years after the Berlin Wall was constructed by East Germany to prevent its citizens from fleeing its communist regime, nearly 4,000 West Berliners are allowed to cross into East Berlin to visit relatives. Under an agreement reached between East and West Berlin, over 170,000 passes were eventually issued to West Berlin citizens, each pass allowing a one-day visit to communist East Berlin.

Quotes of The Day

Quote I

The fall of the Berlin Wall makes for nice pictures. But it all started in the shipyards. Lech Walesa

Quote II

Fall of the Berlin wall? Being there was fun. Nations that flaked off of the Soviet Union in southeastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus? Being there was not so fun. P. J. O'Rourke

Quote III

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! President Ronald Reagan

Quote IV

Ronald Reagan will be remembered for leading the United States during a time of tremendous international transition - the demise of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall coming down, and the end of the Cold War. Mary Landrieu

Busy day on the calendar tomorrow, December 21st.

The first one is National Urban Outdoorsmen Homeless Persons Remembrance Day.

Local groups across the country are encouraged first to determine the number of homeless persons in their community who died in the previous year and then arrange a ceremony to remember them. Candlelight marches, vigils, graveside services, plays and performances, religious services, and public policy advocacy are the suggested ways of remembering. Some groups have read publicly a list of names of the deceased. Use #HomelessPersons’RemembranceDay to post on social media.

Feelings, nothing more than feelings.

Many of the homeless are alcoholics, drug users/abusers and those with mental illness. A recent study reveals that there are casual links between marijuana and schizophrenia.

Summary:
People who have a greater risk of developing schizophrenia are more likely to try cannabis, according to new research, which also found a causal link between trying the drug and an increased risk of the condition.

The second big event tomorrow on December 21st is the December/Winter Solstice. Day light will be increasing ever so minutely. Although by the time February rolls around it will be noticeable. Not sure where you are located but your humble Cob has already has had his share of "winter" weather.

You hear about women and the glass ceiling. How about women and the glass autopsy table? Equal occupational fatality day will be on February 19, 2027.

Groups like the NCPE use “Equal Pay Day” to promote a goal of perfect gender pay equity, probably not realizing that they are simultaneously advocating an increase in the number of women working in higher-paying, but higher-risk occupations like fire-fighting, roofing, construction, farming, and coal mining. The reality is that a reduction in the gender pay gap would come at a huge cost: several thousand more women will be killed each year working in dangerous occupations.

Tonight's Musical Interlude

Australia, The Land Down Under. Home of the kangaroo, Foster's Beer and a boatload of poisonous snakes. They like to hang out on Christmas trees. Not The ONT's idea of tinsel. h/t CBD

Do you like to drink beer? Do you make beer? Everything you wanted to know about beer styles. (Really cool interactive table)

The Beer Judge Certification Program lists 100 styles with defined ranges of alcohol by volume (ABV), bitterness (measured in IBUs, or International Bittering Units), and color (measured using SRM, or Standard Reference Method).

Below is a series of charts for all 100 styles. Mouseover any style for more details and commercial examples. Rectangles to the top right corner represent beer that is high in alcohol and high in bitterness. In contrast, a rectangle in the bottom left corner represents a beer that is low in alcohol and low in bitterness.

Gift returns go easier if you're part of The Group.

News tips, spare change and your unmatched glove can be sent here. Don't Tweet. That's OK, you can send stuff here as well, petmorons at g mail dot com.

Loose lips sink ships or Genius Award Winners

There are still some decent kids in the world. Today's Feel Good Story of The Day.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Regret:

Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ONT standards do not require Ace to label The ONT with instructions and warnings.

Close it up

Orlando Nightclub Shooting Victims' Families Sue FaceBook, Twitter, Google for Providing "Material Assistance" to ISIS and Other Terrorist Groups

—Ace

This may sound like a nice bit of payback against these villains, but in fact this will just push these organizations to perform even more censorship, and they'll be able to tell shareholders (truthfully) that their fiduciary duty requires them to censor any posts from an "extremist," or any post which could spark "extremism."

The theory that we're all on the hook for something some other asshole says is what drives this censorious, ceaseless Social Justice Warrioring, and the enlistment of every powerful corporation into the left-wing hive-mind.

The lawsuit is the latest to target popular Internet services for making it too easy for the Islamic State to spread its message. In June, the family of a California college student killed in last year's terrorist attacks in Paris sued Facebook, Google and Twitter. Keith Altman, the attorney representing the three families in the Orlando nightclub lawsuit, also represents the family of that student, Nohemi Gonzalez, in the Paris terrorist attacks lawsuit.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, uses popular Internet services such as Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube to spread propaganda, to attract and train new recruits, to celebrate terrorist attacks and publicize executions.

Earlier this month, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter said they would share a database of terror images and videos to more quickly remove terrorism content.

The Wages of Hate: Unbalanced Man "Proudly" Kills a Man He Insanely Believes to be Donald Trump

—Ace

As Instapundit suggests, if this were a deranged man listening to the right-wing "Climate of Hate," we'd never hear the end of it.

But because he got his Hatred from the approved vendor -- the political left -- there are no Larger Truths to be seen here, no threads to be spun for weeks on end into a rich tapestry of Narrative.

Explosion at Fireworks Factory Near Mexico City Injures Dozens

—Ace

What does a fire at a fireworks factory look like?

Strangely, it looks like what you'd think it would look like, even if you think it's silly to think it would look like that.

It looks just like that, only moreso.

Update: Not a good time for me to notice the spectacularness of the explosion -- ten people are reported dead.

Lena Dum-Dum: I Haven't Had an Abortion Yet but Damn I Wish I Had

—Ace

Regrets.

Shock: ISIS Admits Guilt in Berlin Market Attack

—Ace

As you've no doubt heard by now, the man arrested yesterday has been released for lack of evidence and police suspicion that he's just the wrong guy.

e Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured, as German security forces hunted for the perpetrator after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence.

IS said in a statement from its Amaq news agency that the attacker "in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition."

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, among other assets.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they'd released a man picked up on Monday night near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck. The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based on a description of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled.

But federal prosecutors said late Tuesday that he denied any involvement and they had found no forensic evidence proving he was in the cab during the rampage.

The second man in the truck was apparently not a terrorist-- he was a worker with legitimate access to the truck, hijacked and murdered by the terrorist.

The driver of a lorry which ploughed into the crowd at a Berlin Christmas market was stabbed and shot to death in its cabin becoming the first victim of the attack, the owner of his Polish trucking company has claimed.

Ariel Zurawski said German authorities asked him to identify the victim, Lukasz Urban, 37, from photos.

"His face was swollen and bloodied. It was really clear that he was fighting for his life," Mr Zurawski told the broadcaster TVN.

Right-wing parties are blaming Angela Merkel for the attack, on the convoluted theory that, simply by inviting in millions of immigrants from terrorist-infiltrated countries, she might have let in a whole bunch of terrorists.

Crazy!

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel said it would be "repugnant" for many of the people who have helped refugees to find out one has committed a terror attack, as right-wing leaders warn "horror has arrived" in the country. Speaking on Tuesday morning Ms Merkel said she was "shocked and saddened" that "12 people that were looking forward to Christmas and had plans for the festive season are no longer among us."

"We don't know anything for certain but we must assume it was a terrorist attack.

"Millions of people are asking themselves how can we live with the fact that during the festive season where we want to celebrate life, somebody has taken so many lives," she said.

Given that the apparently-innocent man was arrested due to bearing a resemblance to what the actual terrorist looked like, and given that ISIS has admitted guilt in the horror, I'm going to say you can do more than "assume" it was an Islamist terrorist attack, Angela.

Great: Glen Beck Now Sitting Down With Samantha Bee to Broker Joint Front Against Trump

—Ace

You can't spell Crazy Glen Beck without "crazy."

Glen Beck is really pushing very hard to gain "respectability" with not just the liberal media, but the absolutely most partisan hard-left fever swamps of the liberal media.

His groveling and clumsy attempts at cutesy-charm are sick-embarrassing.

Kurt Eichenwald Keeps At It

—Ace

Kurt Eichenwald accused Trump, with fair specificity and no signalling of ironic intent, of having gone to a mental asylum in 1990 due to erratic behavior brought on by "amphetamine derivatives."

He's now explaining this was... "a joke."

Newsweek reporter Kurt Eichenwald said Tuesday his baseless allegation that President-elect Donald Trump was once institutionalized in a mental hospital was actually part of a series of jokes and intended to be a "signal to a source" to talk with him.

Eichenwald made the comments on "Good Morning America," as host George Stephanopoulos asked him about the September tweet in which he said, without evidence, he believed "Trump was institutionalized in a mental hospital for a nervous breakdown in 1990."

"Any regrets about that?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"There's a long story behind it," Eichenwald said after some brief laughter. "When you go through the full lead up to that tweet -- there was a reporting purpose for that tweet going out, which is more than you are going to want to hear about."

"I was making fun of Fox News and the rest, who were doing 'Hillary has seizures,' 'Hillary has Multiple sclerosis,' 'Hillary has Parkinson's,' you know, let's go to Dr. Oz," he continued, referring to a point in the election during which both candidates' health was under the microscope.

"So I was writing a series of jokes leading up to that with the intent of sending that tweet, which was a signal to a source to talk to me," Eichenwald concluded.

The bizarre claim went unchallenged by Stephanopoulos, who moved on to another topic.

Newsweek, Business Insider says, has not responded with comment on their employee's apparently casual slander for purposes of "jokes" and "signalling" to a source to talk to him.

Below, a clip of Eichenwald's appearance with the docile, no-follow-up questions George Stephanopolous, and Eichenwald's newest jihads -- making threats of outings against people who merely didn't object strenuously enough to his alleged assault-by-.gif.

Columbia University Students Vote to Distribute Free Tampons Everywhere... Including Men's Bathrooms

—Ace

Of course. Because men menstruate. Obviously.

MTV: It's Time to Get Woke to the Idea That We're All Human Beings, Except for White Males

—Ace

#ThatsHowYouGotTrump.

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The (Fake) Morning Report 12/20/2016

—CBD

Last day of the scrubs....

• Obama Heads to Golf Course After Receiving Reports on Berlin Attack and Russian Ambassador Death
  
• Remember when Michelle Obama wore this to a posthumous Medal Of Honor ceremony?
  
• Lena Dunham: "I Haven't Had An Abortion, But I Wish I Had"
  
• Example #21,987 that Paul Krugman is delusional and a retard
  
• 239 years ago the Continental Army entered Valley Forge
  
• December 20, 1957, Elvis Presley is drafted

Monday Overnight Open Thread (12/19/16)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

After nearly 14 hours of debate, the House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vowed to finish his term.

He did finish his second term. But, his wife will never be POTUS. And that's alright with The ONT.

Quotes Of The Day

Quote I

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

Quote II

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchil

Quote III

Under socialism all will govern in turn and will soon become accustomed to no one governing. Vladimir Lenin

What a crock of shit, Vlad.

Quote IV

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money. Margaret Thatcher

Venezuela is going to hell in a hand-basket. Thank you Socialists. Lessons to be learned from Venezuela's collapse.

First, Socialism never works. From Korea, Russia, Africa, to Latin America, it has never worked. But people keep wanting it. Venezuela has had a bad decade with their socialist experiment and within the last year the final domino has fallen. Their economy is in meltdown. When the price of oil plummeted, Venezuela could no longer afford their socialist programs and the state-controlled industries failed.

The second bad idea is an economic “solution” that has always failed: Venezuela kept printing money so they could pay for everything their socialist experiment demanded. Of course, Venezuela went the way of every other country that has tried devaluing their currency—hyperinflation has completely wrecked the economy. Venezuela’s currency inflated so fast that they couldn’t afford to buy more paper and ink to print more.

Hey look, mister, we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast and we don’t need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere. Is that clear or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer?

My how times have changed. Look young man, we serve pansy ass drinks in here for men and transmen who want to sip their drinks. Buttery Nipple my ass.

Clarence, George names of the past. Popular baby names over the past 100+ years. Funny, Misanthropic was never a contender.

Don't care to cater a gay wedding? Why that's homophobic. Refusing to photograph a gay wedding? Why that's illegal! Religious beliefs be damned.

But, refusing service based upon political beliefs? That appears to be just fine and dandy. And it's just not the swanky upper class punishing people because of their political beliefs. It's also occurring in every day necessities of life.

Marc Jacobs, who has also dressed — you guessed it — Michelle Obama, wants nothing to do with Melania:

I have no interest whatsoever in dressing Melania Trump. I didn’t see [Sophie Theallet’s] letter. Personally, I’d rather put my energy into helping out those who will be hurt by [Donald] Trump and his supporters.”

Tonight's Musical Interlude

Play ground changes. The death of the see-saw.

“Federal safety guidelines for playgrounds, which were created in 1981, began to limit their use. The older seesaws were wooden planks that often hit asphalt directly, leading to occasional tailbone and spinal injuries, falls and pinched fingers, not to mention splinters. Children could slam each other by dismounting suddenly. Playgrounds that retained old seesaws were exposed to lawsuits.”
And yet, there is real value to children who play on a seesaw. “Seesaws are excellent at encouraging collaborative play and patience, as they require coordination and balance between two different children to work. Core upper body strength and lower body strength are developed as a child moves the seesaw up and down,” the folks at School Outfitters explain. Kids can gain essential understanding of the mechanics of fulcrums by playing on a seesaw, as How Things Work author David Macaulay has noted. And Stephen Wills, the author of Power through Collaboration loves what a seesaw can teach.

Fat, stupid and lazy is no way to go through life. Did the ONT mention Fat & Stupid is no way to go through life? Genius Award Winner. NSFW

What could have been a terrible tragedy. Was not. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Cuteness.

Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. The ONT has been a dramatization. Professional Cob on a closed course. Do not attempt.

Close it up

NY State Employee Demands Death For Trump Supporters, And His Bosses Seem Cool With That

—CBD

The Conservative Tribune reports that, New York State Employee Demands Death For Trump Supporters, Still Employed.

"To all my friends that live in red voting states," the screed began. "You have 2 months to move. After that, if you don't do not consider us friends. I want you dead. I want your families dead. I want your wives, husbands children and grandchildren dead. Not just dead but horrible painful deaths."

Let's give this maniac credit, he was not a typical mealy-mouthed, latte-drinking wimp. He said what he was thinking.

Oh, he works for the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. That makes me feel wonderful about the care these folks are getting.

Texas Casts 36 of Its 38 Electoral Votes for Trump, One to Ron Paul (RON PAUL!!!) and One for John Kasich (Asshole);
Trump Officially President Elect According to Electoral College

—Ace

Finally.

That puts Trump's total at 304, and all of his states have completed their voting. At this point (5:35 pm ET), Hillary has lost four electors, with the possibility of losing more in California.

The left will have to find some other thing now to waste their time with, and ours, and wail like babies about.

That gif thanks to the MegaIndependent. He did that in anticipation of Obama's defeat in 2012, but we never got to use it.

Adult Babies Shriek, Cry as Electoral Votes Are Cast in State Capitals

—Ace

A lot of Adult Baby stuff. Mostly from younger white women.

In Washington, Hillary only got 8 of the 12 electors Putin permitted her to "win." Two voted for "Republican" Colin Powell, and two voted for "Faith Spotted Eagle." Correction: It looks like three for "Republican" Colin Powell, and just one for Faith Spotted Eagle.

I don't know what that is, but I'm going to assume she's a protestor of the Dakota pipeline.

Some more babyshit below the fold.

German Police: One Suspect Arrested, The Other Dead

—Ace

Police believe this was a terror attack.

Angela Merkel proclaims herself to be "in mourning" for the victims.

Countdown to warnings about "backlash."

Flashback: The last week of November, intelligence agencies reported hearing of plans to unleash a series of Christmas terrorist attacks across Europe.

Terrorists are planning a wave of Christmas attacks throughout Europe, targeting shopping areas and crowded market-places to maximise casualties.

The main groups plotting Yuletide blood-letting are Islamic State and al-Qaeda and UK intelligence agencies and counter-terror police are on high-alert.

Leftist Reaction to Today's Electoral College Vote Going Pretty Much As Expected [Warden]

—Open Blogger

This is from Wisconsin. I really dig the crowd chanting "Shame! Shame! Shame!" ala Game of Thrones. Doesn't make 'em seem like loony cultists at all.

Truck Ploughs Through Crowded Christmas Market in Berlin

—Ace

Terrorism has been proactively ruled out as a motive.

Kidding but you know that will be the next statement.

Update: At least one dead according to German papers. Many are injured.

Update: Nine dead confirmed; at least fifty injured.

Update: A "big bang"? Google automated translation of an article from Der Bild.

In trucks on the Berlin Christmas market at the memory church in a crowd drove - the police goes from a stop! A person died, as a police officer said. Several visitors were injured. The situation is still confusing. Numerous rescue cars have arrived. The Christmas market was cleared immediately.

According to "Berliner Morgenpost" the truck came from the Kantstra�e / Budapest street on the premises. Recordings of a Facebook live video show destroyed boards on the Christmas market, visitors take care of injured ones lying on the ground.
The truck apparently ran across the Christmas market in an alley and came to a halt at the Christmas tree - many meters further.

In the meantime, eyewitnesses report on the social networks that there was a big bang. The cause of the pop is nothing known.

Video from after the attack at Der Bild.

Reuters Reports That Terrorist Who Murdered Russian Ambassador Was An Off-Duty Police Officer

—CBD

Reuters reports that:

The gunman who shot the Russian ambassador to Turkey in an attack at an art gallery on Monday was an off-duty police officer who worked in the Turkish capital, two security sources told Reuters.

Turkey is becoming, in fits and starts, a thoroughly Islamist country. They are allied with the anti-Assad forces in Syria, in direct confrontation with the Russians, who support the government of Bashar al-Assad.

As many have pointed out, Russia does not take kindly to the murder of its representatives, as a Lebanese terrorist faction (an offshoot of the MB) found out to its chagrin in the 1980s. The Islamic Liberation Organization kidnapped four Soviet diplomats, and the Russians promptly took family of the terrorists hostage, and reportedly sent the testicles of one to the terrorists as a warning.

It worked.

So, This Just Happened

—WeirdDave

Russia's ambassador to Turkey has been shot. Anyone remember what happened the last time the representative of a major world power got shot in a (more or less) Balkan country? It was good, right?

No further news is available yet. Article 5 is unavailable for comment at this time.

ETA From the AP:

The ambassador, Andrei Karlov, was several minutes into a speech at the embassy-sponsored exhibition in the capital, Ankara, when a man wearing a suit and tie shouted "Allahu Akbar" and fired at least eight shots, according to an AP photographer in the audience.

ETA 2 It is now reported that Karlov has died from his wounds. Picture of the assassin, who is reported to have yelled "We die in Aleppo, now you die here". Assassin killed at the scene by security forces.

ETA 3 Video of the assassination below the cut. Graphic but not gory

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

This is a pretty big piece, about 85"x62"

Raphael was about 30 years old when he painted this.

Damn.....

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (12/18/16)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Although we are towards the end of the day. It isn't too late to celebrate answer the telephone like Buddy The Elf.

Since we have opened up the ONT with a Christmas movie theme/National Day. Let's find out what your state's favorite Christmas movie is.

The internet and it's humble beginnings.

Back in the 1970s, David Newbury's dad, Paul, worked at Carnegie Mellon, one of the leading computer science schools in the country. This was in the very early years of the Internet, back when it was the secret and very small ARPANET, which had started in the late '60s, with just four locations. By 1973, it had expanded to a small handful of government labs, research universities, and private companies—but still so few that the entire network could be mapped on a single sheet of paper.

Web sites that have gone POOF and disappeared.

Then, the website disappeared. It had included everything from Vaughn’s work to copies of forgotten photos and court transcripts, all made public with the intention of showing a community still reeling from Columbine how events like this impacted them. Then it was gone. Vaughn says that one day, his work just vanished from the web. Fortunately, he had a back-up. But the question of what caused the website to disappear in the first place remains a mystery, and one can’t help but wonder: how many other websites have simply vanished over time?

You don't want the government in your bedroom? Fine. Tell the government to get out of the apple labeling biz.

In The Cider House Rules, John Irving's 1985 novel, the guidelines to which the book's title refers are a set of rules posted in the Maine cider house where much of the book's action takes place.

Please don't go up on the roof if you've been drinking—especially at night," reads one such rule. These rules, posted by management to govern the behavior of the workers in the cider house, are mostly ignored by those same workers, who live by their own set of rules.

If workers in a fictional cider house are subject to an array of sometimes-sensible rules they often ignore, real-world cider-house management is stuck having to comply with oftentimes-idiotic rules for which compliance is not optional.

I'm talking about government rules, of course. And these rules, you may be surprised to learn, can be complicated.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB), is housed within the Treasury Department and is charged with drafting and enforcing rules for hard cider. A 2016 TTB presentation, Cider Industry Federal Compliance Training, makes light of its complicated rules a handful of times, as here:

"How Does TTB Regulate Cider... Products?

...it's VERY complicated!"

It is! It is! Maddeningly so.

California

In a recent piece in the Washington Times, economist Stephen Moore presents an amazing statistic: “Of the 10 blue states that Hillary Clinton won by the largest percentage margins — California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Connecticut — every single one of them lost domestic migration (excluding immigration) over the last 10 years (2004-14)

So what are the characteristics of those Hillary-supporting states that are bleeding productive citizens? Here, Moore doesn’t mince words: “They are the loser states. They are all progressive. High tax rates. High welfare benefits. Heavy regulation. Environmental extremism. Super minimum wages. Most outlaw energy drilling. The whole left-wing playbook is on display in the Hillary states. And people are leaving in droves.”

Companionship the Japanese way. h/t via Twitter SabreMau

MATH TEST OK, no math test. How about a food test. Test your knowledge about breads.

Tonight's Musical Interlude

The thing about playing Christmas songs/carols, everyone has their favorite or something they dislike. Everyone is a judge. Long-Lost Christmas Drinking Song Discovered at Oxford. OK Morons, is it a good song?

Money talks and bullshit walks, especially if you're a gringo. Then you better have a boatload of money.

See, if your citizenship is American, you basically can’t get money in Cuba. I learned this the hard way over five nearly penniless days there. American Airlines and JetBlue were the first with regularly scheduled flights to the Communist nation, as the Wall Street Journal reported. More Americans will head there soon and undoubtedly more will make the same mistake I made. The good news: you can get by. The bad news: I’m not sure what you can do if you find you can’t [Update: There is a way to do it, which we have appended to the end].

Once an American is in Cuba, she cannot get her hands on any more cash than she has on her upon arrival, at least not without begging, borrowing, stealing or a foreign bank account. American credit cards work in very few places. ATMs don’t accept American debit cards. The country still runs on cash.

Fishermen's Check List

[x] Tackle Box
[x] Fishing Rod
[x] Fishing License
[x] Cooler of Beer Soft Drinks
[x] Bottle of Olive Oil

The ONT wonders if a pint of olive oil will knock down the 3'-4' rollers on Canadian Shield Lakes?

Are you gifted when it comes to science? Did it come naturally? Or did you get it with help from a teacher? High school students, soapy hands and a fiery propane bubble. Now that teacher deserves an award for making science class fun and exciting.

Right or wrong, marijuana is illegal in Montreal. What happens next is tonight's Genius Award Winner.

The ONT has a soft spot for children. Tonight is no different. The Feel Good Story of The Day

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by your local Basement Savers Volunteer Fire Department.

Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. No shoes, no shirt, no pants, no service. Service animals excluded.

UPDATE

Top 10 commenters:
1 [462 comments] 'Insomniac' [64.87 posts/day]
2 [458 comments] 'garrett'
3 [440 comments] 'Christopher R Taylor'
4 [376 comments] 'rickb223'
5 [361 comments] 'Jane D'oh'
6 [358 comments] 'Steve and Cold Bear'
7 [338 comments] 'Deplorable Jay Guevara'
8 [318 comments] 'Soothsayer'
9 [312 comments] 'Slapweasel, (Cold1), (T)'
10 [312 comments] 'bluebell'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [47 names] 'garrett' [6.60 unique names/day]
2 [47 names] 'Steve and Cold Bear'
3 [45 names] 'The Duke of Mish'
4 [35 names] 'Mike Hammer, etc., etc.'
5 [33 names] 'Bertram Cabot, Jr.'
6 [33 names] 'garrett'
7 [31 names] 'Steve and Cold Bear'
8 [31 names] 'Adriane the O-furo Critic ...'
9 [31 names] 'a bunch of scared ants'
10 [30 names] 'Splunge'

Close it up

Baby It's Cold Outside Open Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

It was a little cold here this morning at the crack of dawn. The rest of the day hasn't been much better.

Stay warm and conversational until The ONT shows up.

Food Thread: Christmas Feasts: Home Cooked Or Restaurant?

—CBD

A pub in East Sheen (a suburb of London) that is open for Christmas Day.

It seems that most Americans eat at home for Christmas, but it seems that the Brits are tempted by restaurant dining, if this article is indicative of a trend. Some of the places on this list of 10 of the best restaurants open on Christmas Day are impressive. And impressively expensive!

I remember a spectacularly bad Christmas dinner at a fine restaurant in NYC. For whatever reason, the place was packed and the staff was overwhelmed. There were about 10 of us at the table, and they resorted to family style service. Except they didn't provide utensils to serve from the large bowls and platters. When we asked for, at the very least, a large spoon for the mashed potatoes, a busboy finally arrived with a small spoon that he tossed into the bowl, and of course it disappeared into the depths of the potatoes.

It became a farce, and the manager finally just comped the meal. The sad thing was that the food was quite good.

My experience with holiday dining is that it is best done at home. Restaurants seem to lose their collective minds, and plan meals outside their kitchens' comfort zones, and cobble together staffs that have sub-optimal skill sets.

But I am sure that it can be done well, so let's hear about successful Christmas or other holiday meals! Although if you have a good catastrophe story, don't hold out!

******
Here's a handy guide from Lucky Peach. Well, not really handy, because of the 15 cookbooks they describe, only half are of interest to anyone who isn't a bit of a hipster douchebag. Fifteen Cookbooks We Loved This Year might be a good list of stuff not to buy. It's not that the food isn't interesting, it's that most of these books are so aggressively smug about the particular style or region or neighborhood they describe.
******

From commenter "ibguy" (of SW Ohio Moron Meet-up fame), comes an interesting recipe for the food geeks among us. Overnight Sous Vide Bacon Recipe might seem a huge waste of effort, because bacon is axiomatically good in all of its many preparations, but if you have a Sous Vide machine, it might be worth a try. I have been toying with the idea of getting one and cooking a Thanksgiving turkey with it.

******
I tried something new last night, and it was a qualified success. One of my favorite side dishes is yellow potatoes, cubed, soaked in water for a bit, then rinsed, dried, and tossed in fat at high temperature to get them nice and crispy. My fat of choice, as many of you should be able to guess, is duck! But Chez Dildo was devoid of this ambrosia (I feel so..inadequate!), so I decided to try something different and cook the potatoes on extremely low heat, mostly because I had no idea what was going to happen, and I had the time. I used olive oil and butter instead of duck fat, because I am not a fool. Fat is flavor!

Anyway, at low temperature the potatoes gave up a huge amount of liquid, so i turned up the heat to boil it off, and then dropped it back down to the lowest setting. Just before I served them I turned up the heat to crisp and brown, which was quick because so much of the surface liquids had been driven off.

I discovered that the long, slow cook had converted some of the carbohydrates to simple sugars, and they had a very pleasing sweetness. Odd, and good.

******
The main course next to those sweet little nuggets was a roasted boneless leg of lamb (thank you Costco!). I took it out of the netting that keeps it roast-shaped and smeared a thin paste of parsley, garlic, Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper all over it, then made a huge mess of my kitchen by replacing the mesh. It's elastic, and not designed to be replaced. Yes, there is a lovely green splatter on the ceiling.

Anyway, I slow roasted it at 275° for about 2.5 hours, until it reached an internal temperature of 130°. Then I let it rest while I heated the oven to 500° and then browned it for 15 minutes before serving.

One issue was the startling carry-over, even at 275°. I didn't expect much at all, but the final internal temperature was about 138°. Next time I will pull it at 125°.

******
Here are a few Benedictine-based cocktails. The first and most famous one really is a damned fine drink. The others are not quite as good, but certainly worth a try.

I am fairly certain that I have posted at least one of these before, but they are festive drinks, so what the hell...
[And...I went through my recipes and nothing jumped out at me]

Vieux Carre
• 3/4 oz Brandy
• 3/4 oz rye whiskey
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/4 oz Benedictine
• dash Peychaud's Bitters
• dash Angostura Bitters
• stir with ice
• strain into glass
• garnish: lemon twist
• glass: old fashioned

Monte Carlo
• 2 oz rye whiskey
• 1/2 oz Benedictine
• 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters
• stir with ice
• strain into a cocktail glass

Derby
• 2 oz Maker's Mark Bourbon
• 1/4 oz Benedictine
• dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters
• stir with ice
• strain into a cocktail glass
• garnish with lemon twist

La Louisiane
• 3/4 oz rye whiskey
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 3/4 oz Benedictine
• dash Peychaud's Bitters
• dash Absinthe or Herbsainte
• stir with ice
• strain into glass
• garnish: cherry
• glass: antique or martini

Have an extra antelope steak? Contact me at: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com

Close it up

Good Songs Gone Bad.....

—CBD

Courtesy of commenter Bluebell, below the fold is a profoundly odd but vastly amusing take on the Mondegreen. Instead of a mishearing of the lyrics, this lunatic ran the lyrics through Google Translate SDL Translate*, into various languages, then back into English.

And Open Thread...of course.

*Correction and "Neener neener" courtesy of Anon Y. Mous, who was, coincidentally, just banned.

[Just kidding. Thanks]

Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-18-2016: Aftermath

—OregonMuse

Library of Lurkette 'swim mom'

Good morning, it's another beautiful day at AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread and continual soiree, where men are men, all the 'ettes are impossibly attractive, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like tornados, hurricanes, phaque knooze, and Russian hacks, where special snowflakes do not get respect, but instead, belly laughs. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which you can find in the dictionary under the word "gay."

Pic Note

Lurkette swim mom tells me:

As a teacher for 30 years, I've amassed a lot of books. The 2 photos I have here show the reading corner in my rec room and a separate 12x16 square foot outbuilding for approximately 5000 books. These shelves are 2 deep.

There's also books in both bathrooms, the guest room and my daughter's room, not to mention, another 12x16 outbuilding that serves as an office. Too many spots to photograph.

Here is a panoramic wide shot of another section of swim mom's library, just to give you an idea of how yuuge and luxurious it is.

Reading Recommendations from 'Mad Dog' Mattis

I heard from a lurkette last week who wrote:

With the recent news of General James "Mad Dog" Mattis as President-Elect Trump's choice for DOD secretary, and the multiple mentions of the general's 6,000-book library, I started to wonder what the Warrior Monk had read.

Another 'ette, All Hail Eris, suggested I post a pic of Mattis' library (reputed to be over 6,000 volumes, all of which he takes with him from post to post), and I'd love to do so, but unfortunately have not been able to find one.

Lurkette pointed me to this article from the Small Wars Journal site. From 2007, it is then-Lieutenant General Mattis' reading list, for all grades of officers.

Due to the time period, there is an understandable focus on the Middle East and Afghanistan. The list links to some free PDFs, full-price Amazon books, and a few cheap Kindle ebooks. Morons interested in history and particularly military history should have a field day with this list. The one weird name that jumped out at me was Tom Friedman, but I guess if Mattis can read Rommel, he can read Friedman. To paraphrase Bret Easton Ellis, reading a book is not an endorsement.

Also, a site called Military Reading Lists has the same series of books as Small Wars Journal, but with pictures of the book covers: https://militaryreadinglists.com/reading_list/47-lt-gen-james-mattis.

There is also a GoodReads list that includes some classics like The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

So what's on Gen. Mattis' list that might be of general interest. I'm tempted to leave out such narrowly specialized titles such as Small-Unit Leaders' Guide to Counterinsurgency: The Official U.S. Marine Corps Manual and Afghanistan Cave Complexes 1979-2004: Mountain strongholds of the Mujahideen, Taliban & Al Qaeda, but this being the Smart Military Blog that it is, perhaps I shouldn't.

However, there are a couple of fiction books on Gen. Mattis' list. One of them is Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, an historical fiction novel set at Thermopylae in ancient Greece, a narrow pass where 300 Spartan soldiers held off the vast army of the invading Persians, numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

EMT 12/18/16

—krakatoa

Wow. It's 7 days to Christmas. Little girl's 2nd, and oh my is she excited about it. And a bit of a scold: On the way to the carousel today she reminded me I shouldn't yell or scream or else Santa wouldn't bring me anything.

Overnight Open Thread (17 Dec 2016)

—CDR M

The Progressive Echo Chamber Explained In One Roundtable.

Derangement of the Left

This is pretty stupid if true. Maine gas distributor won't deliver to Trump supporters.

China

China must be done analyzing the drone. I wouldn't have given them this long to respond or return it. China to return seized drone, calls 'hype' inappropriate.

Best News Bloopers of 2016

Fake News

It's all BS. The hackers and the hacks.

Who in the United States intelligence community has created the hysteria about Russian hacking, and what is the evidence of means and motive? House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes sought a briefing by National Intelligence Director James Clapper with participation from FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan in a closed session yesterday. They, however, would prefer not to. USA Today reports that they refused to appear for the requested briefing.

Brief it or STFU.

Speeding Ticket Insurance Cost

How a speeding ticket affects your car insurance in every state. I just try to avoid them.

Flying Vid

College

You're wasting your money and time if you take this crap. University of Wisconsin offering course on the 'The Problem of Whiteness'.

Sex Toy Self Defense

I dunno, not a smart thing to do if a gun is aimed at you. Employees of an adult store scare off an armed robber by throwing assorted sex toys at him. I'm thinking it wasn't a real gun. Either that or the guy saw there wasn't any money in the till.

Total Solar Eclipse

Sweet. Next August, the US will be treated a total solar eclipse.

Cat Video

Tonight's ONT brought to you by Khrushchev meets a U.S. Nude Statue:

Yikes. I agree with Khrushchev.

Top cat pic via

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to the cob of your choice or CDR M. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Close it up

A Visit From Saint Hillary

—CBD

Here's a treat from our Poet Laureate: Muldoon.

A Visit From Saint Hillary - Not a limerick

(Apologies to Clement Moore and also to that other dude Not Clement Moore who totally wrote the original)

'Twas Inaugural Eve, when all through the land
Not a creature was stirring, not woman nor man
The bunting was hung by the platform with care
In hopes that the President soon would be there

Adult babies were nestled all snug in their safe spots
While visions of peppermint lattes danced through their thoughts
And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my bare feet
Had just settled on the couch to write up some Tweets

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter
I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter
Away to the window I flew like a flash
Tore open the designer window treatments and threw up the sash

The moon on the crest of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of midday to objects below
When what should my wondering eyeballs now view
But a nondescript van with a medical crew

With a little old lady so wrinkled with sag
I knew in a moment she must be The Hag
More rapid than eagles her minions they came
And she cackled, and wheezed, and called them by name

"Now Weiner! McAuliffe! Podesta and Mills!
On Huma! Palmieri! On Chelsea and Bill!
To the top of the platform on the Washington Mall
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky
So up to the Capitol her minions they flew
With the van full of medication, and Saint Hillary too

And then, in a twinkling, I heard a guffaw
The grasping and clinging of each grubby paw
As I drew in my head, set for taking my lumps
Down the stairway St. Hillary came with a thump

She was dressed in polyester, from her head to her foot
And her clothes were all draped like a baggy Mao suit
An enemies list she had stashed in her pants
And she looked like a homeless guy starting a rant

Her eyes-how they wandered! Gone wild with strabismus!
She kept sticking her nose into everyone's business
Her droll little mouth was drawn back in a sneer
And the chin whiskers bleached, until they were clear

A bottle of vodka was clutched in her fist
And the vapors encircled her head like a mist
She had a harsh laugh and a fake Southern drawl
She warn't no ways tahrred, in spite of it all

She was chubby and plump, a right nasty old elf
And I laughed when I saw her, in spite of myself
A three-hundred-sixty degree twist of her head
Soon gave me to know I had something to dread

She spoke not a word, but went straight to her work
Emptied everyone's stockings; called me "Deplorable jerk!"
Then mashing the throttle right down to the floor
Her Hoveround rose up the stairway once more

She lurched toward her van, her team gave her a boost
And away they all flew like the down of a goose
But they heard me exclaim, ere they drove out of sight-

"Happy Christmas to all! She's not President tonight!"