Item the 1st – Guns again. Well it would be “again” without the shrink-flation. There was a sequence of comments about gun ownership and what it says about society and safety. DEG made a statement to the effect that – it’s not gun ownership that creates safety, but the culture. Agree 100% – however, widespread gun ownership in society is a proxy for the culture; it’s not either-or. I don’t think a culture of independence, self-help, and safety can exist absent the members ability to establish and protect their autonomy. And members ability to establish and protect their autonomy – gun ownership – re-enforces that culture. I don’t think they’re independent. I’m not a gun aficionado, I see them largely as practical tools; I own several – well I did before the unfortunate boating accident – but shoot them rarely. Short of maybe a handgun for EDC, I really only own multiple because I value a culture that allows gun ownership as that is a proxy for a culture that respects individual rights and autonomy.
Item the 2nd – Fuck the NFL. Re: The recent discussions about the NFL streaming on 20 difference services requiring 20 different subscriptions and, perhaps not coincidentally, turning over data to 20 different entities. I’ll just say there are ways to watch every game without a single service subscription. Just make sure you’re behind a VPN. Since I’m never going to spend a dime on the NFL ever (e.g. they’re not losing my subscription money, they’re never going to get it and I’d be just as happy working my wood on a Sunday or writing a random though on Thursday night), I may partake of such services. Yea, yeah, I’ll turn in my libertarian card at the door on my way out.
Item the 3rd – Fuck governors. Jesse Ventura, erstwhile governor of the Great State of Hockey (and for all his shortcomings, a damn sight better than the current occupant of said office) recently commented on the ongoing ICE kerfuffle in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Paraphrasing, he praised the brave protesters standing up to the unconstitutional actions of ICE. I tend to give Ventura some slack, but coming from a guy who defended mask mandates and endorsed Waltz in the middle of the pandemic – you know the guy who set up tip lines to report your neighbors – it makes me questions his judgement when it comes to things that are constitutional or no. Now I didn’t dig any deeper as to whether he thinks the manner of enforcement is ‘unconstitutional’ or the mere act of federal enforcement of immigration law is ‘unconstitutional’ (or whether even having immigration law is unconstitutional as some nut-balls seem to think), and given the above, I frankly don’t care what his interpretation is. The larger point is when did ‘unconstitutional’ come to mean ‘things I don’t like’? As a libertarian (at least until I turn my card in per the previous items), the constitution is as close to a libertarian charter/founding of a government structure, but there are plenty of things that are not vaguely libertarian that are completely constitutional. I don’t need to twist the constitution to make it conform to an endorsement of the policy prescriptions I prefer. When said twisting becomes the norm and indeed becomes codified into law, you no longer have a constitution, you have a democracy or an oligarchy. Most people are like the tribe in Star Trek – Mouthing the words of the Sacred Document with nary a clue about what it actually means. Where is our James Tiberius Kirk when we need him?
Item the Bonus: Since these are so short, you get an extra. Lucky you, eh? Speaking of football, as I started watching it again from time to time, I noted that they’ve gotten a lot better with the penalties for football hits. The pussification has slowed, nay reversed. Still a lot of inconsistency in penalty calls – PI, holding, etc can be called on every play the way the rules are written. Gives way too much leeway to officials to get caught up in the moment/momentum. That said, modulo the stupid slogans on shirts and jackets – f you with your malevolent equity nonsense – the game is more enjoyable than it was 5-10 years ago when I stopped watching. Not enough – see the slogans – for me to pay them a dime yet, but better.
Since I’m never going to spend a dime on the NFL ever
You misspelled “Formula 1”.
It’s electric!
Living alone, various forms of live sportsball have always been an excellent source of background noise for me. But yeah, I don’t wanna pay extra for it.
Meanwhile my vice…
https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/872468/crunchyroll-price-hike-raise-fan-mega-ultimate-tier
I’m watching a full Calgary v. Edmonton game from 3 mo ago on youtube. NHL has tons of full games and Classics. MLB, as well. I don’t pay for no ads, I just deal w ’em like an adult. (Time for fridge or bathroom. Simple.)
Mostly, I wanted to comment on the background noise. I kinda require it. Doesn’t so much matter what it is, but I really can’t stand *silence.* Yuck.
Good ad-free find: I listen to Victorian London ambiance (thunderstorms) as I go to sleep. Three uninterrupted hours on YouTube. I put it on and that’s my bedtime sound. My completely-different bro actually goes to sleep with old Dick van Dyke eps playing. No compute. I can’t have TALKING in my sleep sounds. Otherwise, I might pay attention. That won’t do.
I can only watch live sportsball. If I already know the score, what’s the point.
#meneither
Fortunately, I can fall asleep to almost any noise.
Re: Evan and falling asleep. I was watching Dr. Brian Cox giving a lecture on space-time or something and passed clean out in my chair. I have since found someone made a YouTube channel “sleepy time with Brian Cox” or some such and man oh man, can that put me out. I will listen to him talking until my mind wanders, then poof – I’m asleep. Seems TPTB in YouTube took the channel down, or maybe Dr. Cox did it. Either way, there is still a lot of cosmology, meta-physics, particle-physics, etc. that have someone giving a lecture that puts me out. Personally I don’t have much understanding of most of these concepts, but I do know a good night’s seep when I get one.
*pssst* Why would I check the score beforehand?!
When watching Cubs later-that-day reruns, I got *real* pissed they had the ticker rolling other MLB scores… INCLUDING the game I was catching up on! Someone must’ve told ’em, cuz I don’t think I saw that happen after a bit. I put up some books to block that part of the screen after I learned of their errant ways.
I can watch the Ryne Sandburg game (and many other Classics) if I want to on YT. I kinda *should* be able to guess how that game’s gonna end, even if I didn’t already know. But Common Sense ain’t.
I like Cox, though he’s got a niche ‘semi-attractive physicist + musician’ role I can’t imagine *isn’t* pulling in tail. Or rather, I can easily predict the wet panties and briefs for those inclined to the male persuasion.
He was good on QI, which I highly approve of. I can’t fall asleep to people ‘talking’ cuz I’ll pay attention.
OH! My legit pro-tip, and I use this quite constantly to stop my brain’s business: Counting backwards from 100. Keep going until I lose track, with *my* thoughts interrupting, then I start all over. Counting back by subtracting 3 or something also works. It’s *just* enough mental thought to keep one occupied but isn’t enough to spark my own thoughts. (Abc’s is no good cuz it’s memorized, and I *have* memorized ’em going ZYX etc.)
I do that at public urinals to start my flow if my thoughts distract me from my task *in* hand. Yeesh.
The only sports-peats I’ve ever watched were USMNT during World Cup 2010 South Africa, IIRC, because there was no alternative.
The great thing about rebroadcasts of sporting events from years ago is that you very likely don’t know who won. We’ve watched a few “vintage” NASCAR races, and they were a blast. Talk about sports that have changed over the years . . . .
“I put up some books to block that part of the screen after I learned of their errant ways.”
I’ve done the same thing when recording football. You still have to stay alert for the announcers giving an update on other games, though.
The wife and I will watch day old baseball games, as we just love the sport and the playing of it. I don’t do that with football, as I don’t care enough about any given game, and only watch if I am in the mood, which means I head down to my local.
Same. I haven’t missed a single F1 race since 1993, and there’s no way I’m buying anything Apple next year, so it’s goodbye F1.
I’d be just as happy working my wood on a Sunday.
Happier even.
Happier Evan did come ’round after working on his wood.
Oh. “even.” Well, I don’t know ‘im. I bet he’s so odd he can’t even even.
Re: guns.
It’s kind of a distinction without a difference. Living in a place with a healthy gun culture might make you demographically a little safer, but you’re going to want to own a gun (and know how to use it) when Johnny Crackhead decides he needs your car more than you do.
Either way, if you’re going to own a gun, you should make a point of practicing with it more often.
Today’s WSJ. It wasn’t as bad as I feared, but it makes just about zero useful points.
Alex Pretti Was Part of a Growing Gun Culture in Minneapolis
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/alex-pretti-was-part-of-a-growing-gun-culture-in-minneapolis-e8459a5f?st=jE3L8G&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
In which the far left discovers that Big Government doesn’t always have their interests at heart?
The revolutionaries never thought Big Gov has their back.
“Growing” gun culture in the upper Midwest? AYFKM? That place is crawling with gun owners. Probably a lot of Fudds, sure, but c’mon.
Also random
Waymo, the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company, has raised $16 billion as it plans to grow its fleet of driverless taxicabs this year to more than a dozen new cities internationally, including London and Tokyo.
——-
Waymo said the funds will be used to fuel its growth, which has accelerated over the past year and doesn’t appear to be slowing. The company recently secured rides to and from San Francisco International Airport and has expanded its robotaxi service throughout Northern California and several major metropolitan areas in the U.S., including Los Angeles, Austin, and Miami.
Maybe they’ll buy Jaguar, so they’ll have a supply of vehicles. It seems like Waymo has bought all the Jaguar i paces ever made for their fleet.
“https://iguanarecipes.com/browse/iguana-cut/tail-meat”
I can’t help but think of the ‘Johnny Cabs’ from the Total Recall movie.
Not Bob’s Iguana Bites?
I agree on the first part, but hard disagree on the second. In short order I can think of multiple cultures which value and encourage gun ownership in furtherance of a vendetta-based might makes right culture which does not produce a safe society but instead ongoing bloodshed. All of them are very tribal, whether they are criminal subcultures within another society, or the tribal groups in Africa and the Middle East murdering their rivals.
These encourage widespread armament, but do not produce the sort of polite, orderly society we find here.
It’s worth pointing out here that ‘widespread gun ownership’ does not equal ‘gun culture’, at least not the way we mean it.
‘Gun culture’ as we define it here in the US, is just ‘western culture’ applied to guns.
Yes, agreed.
It is definitely the culture. The Wild West culture was built around honor, which was why there was such a high number of fatalities partly thanks to the availability of guns. This honor culture had been replicated in the inner cities, with similar death tolls. Middle America? Culture built around rule of law = low fatalities. At least that is how I see it.
Since I don’t own a TV nor do I stream NFL video fragmenting like this is of no consequence to me. Sometimes I’ll listen to it on the radio. Or wait for the highlight reels or the occasional ‘complete’ game on Youtube.
Ventura is either ignorant or is being situationally ignorant.
I doubt if I have any neighbors that don’t have guns but how can I be sure?. Other than hear some gun shooting on occasion I hardly know any neighbors’ business. Truly a “Leave me alone” neighborhood.
What’s football besides something else I don’t watch. I know the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl but not who their opponents are or where it’s being played.
Ventura wasn’t a bad governor, other than the light rail for the homeless to have some place to sleep. The light rail is slowly sliding downhill.
He sent back money in excess of what was used for state business, what’s not to like? He had a teacher for Lt Gov, there’s that.
Ventura should have stuck to playing second fiddle to Ahh-nult on the big screen.
DEG made a statement to the effect that – it’s not gun ownership that creates safety, but the culture. Agree 100% – however,
“however” sounds like bait.
I started making this point during the Rona Panic when people here were pointing to Australia’s restrictions and saying, “They shouldn’t have given up their guns! This is what happens!”
Aussies have guns. It’s culture, not guns. Respect to the Aussies that resisted the Rona Panic Measures.
Having said that, after the Bondi Beach shooting, things don’t look good in Australia with respect to guns. If I had a lot of money, I’d liberate this rifle from Australia.
On a related note to things not looking good in foreign countries, the last independent gun shop in London is closing due to taxes.
As a libertarian (at least until I turn my card in per the previous items), the constitution is as close to a libertarian charter/founding of a government structure,
The Constitution is the most anti-libertarian document ever because it doesn’t abolish the State in its entirety.
The could be bait, sarcasm, or serious. We report, you decide.
If it weren’t for the anti-Federalists, we wouldn’t even have a bill of rights to protect us from the state.
bill of rights
exactly correct
worse: it has proved exactly as foretold: normal people don’t understand what the point about unenumerated rights even was about, so the founding enumerations have made and underscored entirely the wrong points
more worser: I even hear Justice Thomas say that “it” “isn’t in there” all the time, so fuck me and my naive Scottish Enlightenment notions; of course, he’s a cop sucker, so any inconvenient rights get shelved in deference to the state
what’s so American about any of this? why at long last would we expect any citizen to understand? we certainly don’t expect any pen-and-phone (that’s pretty much all of them) president to understand or give a shit…it’s just a given, so Trump is fine and Lincoln was doG-reincarnate and fuck me in general
this is the most important issue in American libertarianism; this is the reason why tasty lib tears lulz is a garbage distraction: we should be doing all we can to high-light this central feature; all our country’s failings are downhill from the abuses of federalism
Pretti’s status as a gun owner, his opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics and his support of Democratic causes have scrambled familiar political alignments: The circumstances of his death have sparked an outcry from both liberals and gun-rights groups.
“Liberals” own guns, too. It’s foolish for anybody to pretend they don’t.
Yep. And gun ownership among political liberals was always particularly common in Minneapolis. That’s one of the reasons why the NRA frequently held annual meetings there.
There was a time when Oregon was like that, too.
If you think things haven’t changed over the last 20 years, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Fragmenting and placing games behind paywalls helped me dump sportsball.
When the left achieved complete control of The Narrative? Heaven knows they have little respect for the thing and actively oppose major chunks of it.
You can’t expect them to read some old document.
Written by dead white slave owners to boot.
When? Before the ink was dry, that’s when.
+1 Whiskey Rebellion
Pretty much the door was opened by McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). Earlier Marbury v. Madison (1803) established the Supreme Court as the arbiter of constitutionality, rather than leaving it to the voters (who could vote out the congressmen who passed any unconstitutional legislation.)
lulz
LOL but I hope whoever created that is anonymous. Otherwise they’re in danger of anything from cancellation to physical harm.
“It’s not gun ownership that creates safety, but the culture.” I agree they overlap. My general thinking is the relationship between bully-victim: When the former thinks (or knows) the later can – or absolutely *will* – defend themselves, it puts a crimp on the bully’s style. They go after easier targets, those who can’t, or reliably won’t, stand up for themselves.
‘Fences’ themselves don’t make good neighbors, but it shows the enclosed neighbor gives a damn about their property, enough to erect a barrier delineating where Trespass officially begins.
Lee was friends with my elementary school scene, and he got into a real bad habit of choking kids out anytime he got any pushback. He did it to several kids before he tried his hand at me. Lee was a lot bigger than Short Fry ev, but I immediately fought back and got him the fuck off of me. He didn’t go after me ever again. That shit only stopped, or was noticed, when he later went after Hopkins, a black kid, and gave him the treatment, roughly around ’95-’97.
There’s less reward when the victim makes it hard to ‘win.’ (To show dominance.) When folk demonstrate they can defend themselves, and being armed is about as loud as one can shriek it, folk tend to move on to easier prey. Pretty simple stuff. The gun nor fence does anything, but it shows a culture where stepping over the line ain’t tolerated and may have lethal results.
“Temporary” “emergency”
A federal judge on Monday blocked the end of protections that have allowed roughly 350,000 Haitians to live in the U.S., dealing President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda another legal, though perhaps temporary, setback.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington granted a request to pause the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The termination, which was set for Tuesday, “shall be null, void, and of no legal effect,” she wrote.
“We can breathe for a little bit,” said Rose-Thamar Joseph, the operations director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, Ohio.
Reyes said in an 83-page opinion that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits of the case, and that she found it “substantially likely” that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem preordained her termination decision because of “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.”
Haiti is still a shithole. Case dismissed.
Reyes was likely to be overturned on appeal and there was a substantial likelihood that her ruling was preordained due to her dislike for Trump administration and Republicans.
The bigger problem here is that district judges are subsuming jurisdiction that congress specifically denied them by creating immigration courts. They are way out of bounds and no one seems to be pointing that out. This will not end well if those courts can simply claim jurisdiction anywhere they please.
They are off the leash and need to be slapped down hard. Trump should ignore this ruling.
“The larger point is when did ‘unconstitutional’ come to mean ‘things I don’t like’?”
Stateside Constitution? Arguably, with Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion? I don’t believe most people can take such a large commitment simply because of our homo sapien status overrides other drives. See also: “Celibate” Popes and wielders of extraordinary power (one form or another) over others. I imagine a few of ’em really do exist, but that withdrawal is itself is a rebellion against our natural, primal instincts: Resources, Territory, Mates. <– What every organism wants and they'll all fight over 'em.
Can't fix stupid? Yep. Nor can you 'fix' biology.
The judge, an appointee of President Joe Biden, said Noem did not have “unbounded discretion” and was required to consult with other agencies on conditions in Haiti. The ruling cited Noem’s own words three days after announcing an end to Haitian protections, calling for a travel ban from Haiti and “every damn country that has been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
What does USAID say?
The judge is being racist by assuming only non-whites can be entitlement junkies.
“If the termination stands, people will almost certainly die,” attorneys for Haitian TPS holders wrote in a court filing in December. “Some will likely be killed, others will likely die from disease, and yet others will likely starve to death.”
They say the decision to end Haiti’s status was motivated by racial animus, and Noem failed to consider whether there was an ongoing armed conflict that would pose a “serious threat” to personal safety, as required by law.
I thought the United Nations was on the case.
I thought the Clinton foundation fixed everything.
“Fixed” like the family pet.
Just once, it would be nice for republican-nominated judge to rule against Trump because of the actual text of the law. This touchy-feely shit is tiresome.
The problem is, the law doesn’t support the Judges’ desired outcome.
Trump should let some more Boers in just to play with these assholes.
The sole touchstone of immigration law and policy should be “what is in the best interest of American citizens (what used to be called “general welfare”). If the American citizenry is better off with Haitians staying in Haiti, so be it. It doesn’t matter how much better of the Haitians would be if they lived here.
^^^^^^^^
You would think so but politics is driven entirely by feelz now & with a not inconsiderable amount of animus towards native-born Americans.
If immigrants reliably voted for the other team, the left would have 50 familiar reasons why immigration should be restricted and immigration laws enforced.
My daughter has a Blackstar Core ID-10 mini guitar amp. It is giving signs that one of the speakers may be blown (lots of noise on crunchy tones)
It has two 3-inch full range speakers, according to the interwebs. 5 w each.
I have not opened the cabinet yet. Any suggestions on repair? How to properly source speakers? Is it reasonable to even try?
They are $150 new. If size didnt matter, there are plenty of nice used full size amps available at that price.
She got it for $80 used.
https://www.parts-express.com/
You just need to know the impedance. – for example 8 ohms or 4 ohms. Small, low power speaker like that is cheap. (Or used to be pre-tariff.)
the rating for Ohms should be stamped on the back of the metal driver for the speaker, it will not be hidden or hard to figure out.
How do I know which one will sound right with the amp?
Or, drop your multimeter across the speaker contacts. If it’s something other than 4Ω or 8Ω, then there’s probably a short in the speaker coil or something similar.
They’re 3-inch speakers being driven by a 5-watt amp. Anything will sound fine.
True. Also if your speakers have specs on them, indicating range and distortion, just try to match the replacement speaker to it as close as your can.
figure out
right
worst case it’s a quick moment with a multimeter so long as you have good technique
One of these things is not like the others. In fact, as the culture of (neurotic?) safetyism has metastasized, I would say it is incompatible with independence and perhaps self-help.
It is also incompatible with safety.
“Just make sure you’re behind a VPN.”
For my TV, I’m pretty sure that would mean running a VPN at the router or modem. Which isn’t possible with my current setup.
Apparently some smart TVs have VPN functionality. Look at this for Roku:
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/smart-tvs/roku-vpn
“Now I didn’t dig any deeper as to whether he thinks the manner of enforcement is ‘unconstitutional’ or the mere act of federal enforcement of immigration law is ‘unconstitutional’”
I don’t believe that he is thinking about this at all.
People with die!
So Fuck Trump!
and you see the typo simultaneously with pushing the submit button . . . .
as usual
We do need more tool and die people.
Oh, I bet it was more like “Fuck Trump… ‘Cause people will die, or something”
(and I didn’t see your typo until you pointed it out.)
And no ” journalist” thought to ask.
I suspect journalists have as tenuous a relationship with thinking as Jesse Ventura does.
US gun culture is a facet of frontier culture, sort of like what the Boers have and the Australians had. Self-reliance is the key part of frontier life, and if you’re relying on yourself for protection, you need a gun.
In places like 19th century Sicily or modern-day Yemen, gun culture and honor culture arose because the government offered little to no protection. It’s like how karate started because peasants needed a way to protect themselves after the government banned them from owning weapons. Karate means empty hands in Japanese.
I can understand a certain reluctance to own or carry weapons, but everyone should have some means of self-defense. It’s the same logic as wearing a seatbelt.
An armed society is a polite society
In places with endemic warfare, not so much.
tribal warfare in Papua New Guinea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ID7FpoImdc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZCTGnrjf4
also Rwanda – most of the deaths were from machetes
anayeishi kwa panga atakufa kwa panga
Are you suggesting my cliche may not be true for all places at all times? I am mortified.
Politeness is more a result of trust and homogeneity, IMO. On the other hand, lawless places usually have a tradition of hospitality to strangers, as is found the Pashtunwali code of Afghanistan.
You never know when you might get robbed by bandits in the desert and have turn to a rando for help.
True, but…
While it has always been spoken karate, it hasn’t always been written “empty hand.” Originally, it was written “China hand.” But the Nihonjin are a proud and xenophobic people.
The Seoul area Itaewon had a similar sanitizing/modernization of its writing.
Yeah, everybody thinks they invented ass-whoopin’. There are paintings of Greco-Roman wrestling that predate kung-fu and every other Asian martial art.
A touchstone for the practical value of a martial artist – ask him how he feels about guns.
Another one – ask him how he feels about American Folkstyle wrestling.
In jujitsu, we learned some gun and knife defense techniques. The instructor was up front about how the odds of success in a real fight with them are pretty low, as in better than nothing.
knife vs hands reality check
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBBahcNMSDI
gun disarms reality check
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_k4wYrx3Jo
also knives are better than guns at the range of a typical street fight
Long story short, John Wick is not realistic. Shocking…
AYFKM?
SHE didnt know personally. The recruiter and background check people knew.
Pray for another Katrina.