Ball Diamond Ball

I admit it. I occasionally listen to NPR. A quarter of a century ago, I even made contributions to the local outlets. No more, of course. There was an old joke about an elderly couple. It makes sense only if you can remember when automobiles came with three-in-the-tree and bench seats. The wife asks, “How come we don’t sit close together when we ride anymore?” To which the husband in his normal place behind the steering wheel replies, “I haven’t moved.” I sort of feel the same way about NPR and me. https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

I just don’t understand.  Now Rep. Mike Gallagher is simply quitting, and has arranged his departure so that there can be no speedy replacement by Wisconsin — due to the date he has chosen, his replacement will have to wait until the next general election. The title of the following Washington Examiner article seems apt: There never was a Republican House majority […] Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and freeze the chamber for the second time this Congress in retaliation for the spending bill. While Greene’s motion to vacate might draw the most headlines, the motion will not face a vote until she calls it up. It is really Gallagher’s retirement announcement that is the most consequential, because it… Continue reading →

The basis of ‘woke’ is that nobody has standing except the government.  There’s a reason that the government seem to have arrogated royal prerogatives, for indeed it has.  The footsoldiers of this Marxist destruction of western civilization would not appreciate being called the loyal subjects of some monarch, but this is exactly what they are.  They are subjects not citizens, and insist that none of us have the rights of citizens.  Call it Leviathan, the divine right of kings, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the anarcho-whatever libertarian urge, and it’s all the same, yes even the an-caps.  All of these movements or desires, or worldviews, whenever the eschaton gets immanentized, have a couple of features in common, chief among them that no person may be represented in or… Continue reading →

It seems to me that the key thing in standing, and lacking in most discussions, is the fractional ownership, that is our share, of a property.  What used to be called the King’s Peace is now our peace of course, and the largely obsolete crime of disturbing the peace is not a victimless crime, but a crime against us all.  Without this general peace, you cannot take your child to the park, nor walk with your spouse, nor enjoy a meal at a restaurant.  Yet no individual has standing to claim injury unless they can demonstrate actual harm, it seems.  I don’t know; I have not researched this in depth, and I am speaking only of principles.  But I have spoken of these principles before.  Over at Ricochet,… Continue reading →

Just a quick link to a discussion of Colregs 2(b) as it pertains to vessels operating in conjuction, and how this may present the need for an addition to the rule.  I disagree, but I like the reasoning.  This is the sort of generally prudent logic which dominates in maritime law, and which seems absent in much of the law which runs our lives and this country into the ground. General Prudential Rule (ColRegs/ Inland 2(b) More on this later (and earlier), but I just wanted to drop this here to pick up when I need it.

Matthew Continetti at National Review Online (note: first published at Washington Free Beacon) has an article up entitled “Let Them Vote”, which is a plea for House Speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote to be held on the largely Ukraine/Israel assistance funding bill.  The article is as poorly thought-through as it is cloying.  From that article: Johnson says he opposes the national-security supplemental because it fails to address the crisis on the southern border. Yet Johnson also opposed an earlier version of the supplemental that did change immigration law. And Johnson has stated, correctly, that President Biden has the power to address the border crisis on his own. To fix the border, you need a new president — and some (not all) of the authorities contained in the legislation that… Continue reading →

This is a gratifying clip of oriental hillbillies getting their swamp rigs wet: Shameless YouTube link post.

I had some odd dreams last night.  We had a big dog who somehow got loose from our house and promptly tangled with a giant skunk, as big as he was.  Got sprayed, and for some reason, I’m out there in the middle of the night trying to hose the skunk funk off of the dog, and the dog just wants to come in.  Also, so did the skunk, who started behaving himself once he saw the dog begging to come in. And I inherited an apartment with a cat who didn’t like me, but the cat could talk and was smart and funny.  After a while we got along okay on an arms’ length basis.  The cat still didn’t like me, but it was okay.

The Orwellian “Diversity is our Strength” is known by the government to be a lie, and in Soviet fashion, the bosses insist upon hearing it from the lips of those who are bossed.  Let us recall that propaganda is not intended to convince, but to suppress, via demonstration of power via absurdity and numbers.  So there are probably people who actually believe that diversity for its own sake will somehow add strength, but these peoples’ belief is not the goal.  The goal is their submission and yours. So here is a screenshot from a Matt Walsh / Daily Caller video in which he presents (among a lot of other stuff) a 2013 slide from a powerpoint presentation at, or to, or from the FAA.  It is damning in… Continue reading →

The American Psychological Association has issued guidance on what it calls “Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care,” and what the rest of us would call mutilating the mentally ill.  Even assuming that you think of these things the way I do, the guidance put out by the APA is worse than you imagine, and has provoked a healthy response from people pointing out how very unscientific, un-medical, and inhumane it all is. I stumpled across a tweet by Christina Buttons (@buttonslives), whom I had never heard of.  It was re-tweeted by Columnist Rita Panahi of Australia’s Herald-Sun newspaper, which is a righteous outfit. She frequently appears on SkyNews Australia (which is firmly in the conservative sphere, unlike plain old SkyNews from the UK — very different beasts).  Anyway, one of the… Continue reading →