Magnificent Find for Genealogists and Others Interested in Peculiar Names in the U.S.

I have just begun this book. What a find! Curiousities of Puritan Nomenclature (1880) by Charles W. Bardsley of the still-extant “Harleian Society” regarding genealogy and heraldry — witness their motto The Glory of Children are their Fathers, which is as spectacularly self-serving as it gets for a bunch of Fudds doing genealogy. But go grab the FREE book: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39284/39284-h/39284-h.htm

The first lines of the first section shed a mighty light on English nicknames, with the opening shot: “The Paucity of Names After the [Norman] Conquest.” The old English (indeed Old English) names were simply driven out of the language, and a very few Norman names caught on rapidly. And so for four hundred years there was a great winnowing of names, so that:

In every community of … Continue reading

Thrown Out of Ricochet — Again!

Yes, it’s true, I’ve been banned. While I disagree about some specifics along the way, I can’t complain. They didn’t have to let me back in again at all, but they did. I’ll always be grateful for that.

Ricochet.com has improved by leaps and bounds over the past several years. The thing seems to have been purchased by Charles C. W. Cooke (not sure if I have the technicality right, but that’s close), and this was a great improvement over some of the previous structure. But things had been getting better behind the scenes for a while, which was blisteringly obvious to me as a “returnee” after being absent through the entire Trump administration and up until shortly after our collapse in Afghanistan. Here at my blog, I … Continue reading

Physics Remains Undefeated; EV Hype Collapses in Cold Weather

So here’s a guy showing clips of media propaganda pushing EVS juxtaposed with clips of EVs failing miserably once the chips are down. I’ve had conversations with completely nice people who simply do not get the physics of this, and it’s not complicated. You just need to understand two things: First, chemical reactions slow down a lower temperatures, and all battery actions (charging and discharging) are chemical reactions. This means longer charge times and reduced driving range. Second, power grids of nations across the world, including the US and Canada, are *already* challenged when the weather gets too cold or hot. This means that EVs will not be charged at all in a prolonged emergency, regardless of how long it might take.

Electric Vehicles “unfit for purpose” — … Continue reading

Ann Coulter As Usual

I’m feeling better and better about having gotten rid of my Coulter books. I had several, and now I have none. This is an improvement. Without simply guessing at paydays, I cannot fathom how she makes up her mind whom to support from day to day. She was big on “severely conservative” Romney and has tried to sell us Christie several times. I think she supported Trump for about three minutes at one point.

It’s not even her disdain for a particular candidate that I find so off-putting. It’s her contempt for the conservative base. It’s a pretty well-established point that if the Democrats are allowed to pick our candidates by blowing up the ones they don’t like, then all we will get are Democrat-approved candidates. Trump is … Continue reading

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Recommissioning the old Battleblog.  Again.

This thing is in rough shape, and I deleted my WordPress.com account after seeing what Gravatar had done.  My guess is that’s why I cannot update.  Just a guess, though.  I’ll fire up this or something similar.  But different.

I have some ideas, but we’ll see how the execution goes.  Watch this space.