Oh Holy Night

May the Hope of this blessed event fill you with comfort and joy, and allow you to face all that may arise with calm confidence.

Peace And Joy, Where Ever You Are.

This Is Insane

How is this “Justified”?

Follow the pills and you’ll find the overdose deaths.

The trail of painkillers leads to West Virginia’s southern coalfields, to places like Kermit, population 392. There, out-of-state drug companies shipped nearly 9 million highly addictive — and potentially lethal — hydrocodone pills over two years to a single pharmacy in the Mingo County town.

Rural and poor, Mingo County has the fourth-highest prescription opioid death rate of any county in the United States.

The trail also weaves through Wyoming County, where shipments of OxyContin have doubled, and the county’s overdose death rate leads the nation. One mom-and-pop pharmacy in Oceana received 600 times as many oxycodone pills as the Rite Aid drugstore just eight blocks away.

In six years, drug wholesalers showered the state with 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills, while 1,728 West Virginians fatally overdosed on those two painkillers, a Sunday Gazette-Mail investigation found.

780 million pills…to a state with a population of 1.85 million.

Good lord.

This

Ben Stein on the post-election atmosphere: They’ve Gone Insane

I just don’t get it. People are going insane about Donald Trump being president-elect. It’s beyond the wildest anger and fear I saw even about Richard Nixon, my hero. And, as I say, I just cannot see it.

For example, this morning, I got several emails from men who had been my friends since high school. “America is going through its worst days ever,” said one letter. “We’re going to lose everything,” said another.

It gets even worse. A dear old friend — a woman who has been my close friend since the mid 1970s, a woman who never even liked Hillary Clinton much — has simply refused to speak to me since election night. Her daughter, the wife of a wealthy real estate developer, sent me hate mail election night, when she learned I had reluctantly voted for Mr. Trump.

Why are people so upset? What has Mr. Trump done that’s so awful? His choices for the Cabinet fall well within the range of the usual types — Wall Street, campaign helpers, ideological bedfellows. Despite what you may have read online, none of them has made horrible statements. None is a Klansman. None is a Nazi. They have different views from those of the ACLU, but that’s what you get in a free country.

The voters voted in a candidate with certain views. That candidate won fair and square. He gets to choose people he agrees with and who agree with him.

I have a ton of friends on Facebook, etc., and I look at what they are posting and I just shake my head in disbelief. Of course, I don’t respond and really never get involved in political craziness on FB because, well, a) it’s just pathetic how carried away people allow themselves to get when they’re not sitting in the same room with someone who has the temerity to maybe kinda sorta have a different opinion on things, and b) well as a conservative I’m just schtupid and should really just shut up for my own and Society’s Good.

And they STILL wonder why they lost.

Update: Here’s an example. The Left is screaming that “ZOMG Trump supporters boo John Glenn”

Take a listen. There’s definitely some booing when Trump mentions Mercury, but it seems to me Trump doesn’t consider these folks supporters.

75 Years

75 years ago we were taught a very important lesson, that an enemy can strike us anytime, anywhere.

And now I guess there’s some sort of kerfluffle because Abe won’t “apologize” during his historic trip to Pearl

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won’t apologize for Japan’s attack when he visits the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor later this month, the government spokesman said Tuesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that “the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology.”

Abe announced late Monday that he would have a summit meeting with President Barack Obama in Hawaii and visit Pearl Harbor. He will be the first Japanese leader to go to the site of the Japanese attack that propelled the United States into World War II.

Why should he? I sure as hell don’t want the US to apologize for attacks we made. It was a war. They made a calculated decision that by striking first they could knock us out.

Happily we were very very lucky and they were mistaken.

“Shut Up, Wesley”

lol, never gets old

Here’s A Headline You Don’t See Everyday

“Arrested German spy was a onetime gay porn actor — and a secret Islamist”

Someone has, ummmm, “issues”

The Lies Continue

The Associated Press conveniently misses a rather important fact in this story

UVA dean awarded $3M in Rolling Stone magazine case

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Jurors awarded a University of Virginia administrator $3 million Monday for her portrayal in a now-discredited Rolling Stone magazine article about the school’s handling of a brutal gang rape a fraternity house.

The 10-member jury’s decision came after they concluded Friday that the magazine, its publisher and reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely were responsible for defamation, with actual malice, of former associate dean of students Nicole Eramo in the 2014 story “A Rape on Campus.”

I’m glad she won.

But there was no “brutal gang rape.” It was a lie and fabrication. I have sympathy for this “Jackie,” whoever she is; it seems pretty clear that she has a lot of problems.

But she is a liar and has caused a lot of damage to a lot of people.

And that needs to be stated.

Yes, It’s An “Isolated Incident”…

…it’s isolated the ship in dry dock

The US Navy (USN) acknowledged that delivery of the USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78) will not occur in 2016 as the navy must determine the cause of problems with two main turbine generators (MTGs) on the next-generation aircraft carrier.

The USN has been working to determine the root cause of the problem, and how to fix and prevent recurrence of these issues.

The problem with the MTGs is an isolated incident, Vice Admiral Thomas Moore, commander Naval Sea Systems Command, said on 2 November, at the Washington, DC, Navy Yard.

Seems to me we’ve got some reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally expensive toys of late that ain’t quick working out the way they were supposed to.

Signs Of The Times

or “lack there of” actually.

I hate this election, I really really do.

As has been obvious I haven’t been posting much at all just because I am so disgusted and dispirited by everything attached to and associated with it, and I know I’m not alone in this feeling. Here in Deep Blue New Jersey as I drive around I see hundreds of signs advocating various candidates for various local offices…but interestingly none for the Presidential candidates; and by “none” I do mean none. Thinking back on years past when the yards were festooned with “Gore” and “Obama” and “Bush” signs it is shocking to drive around and see no Trump or Hillary signs; and the lack of Hillary signs is especially so here in New Jersey (and frankly should be very troubling for her and her Party).

There is ONE sign in my town with her name on it, and it’s not exactly a ringing endorsement:

I’m writing in my Bride’s name on my ballot.

Oh Fer Gawd’s Sake

This is just beyond stupid

Save the Children Report on Girls Ranks U.S. 32nd Out of 144 Countries
by EMMA MARGOLIN

The United States has finished behind countries including Algeria and Kazakhstan in a new ranking of the best and worst countries in which to be a girl.

The report compiled by Save the Children suggested Sweden was the best place for young females to live. Niger finished at the bottom. The U.S. was rated 32nd on the 144-country list.

Not all rich countries are doing as well as they could for their girls, according to the non-governmental organization. It singled out the U.S. in particular.

“There are things where we do not shine on the U.S. side,” said Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children. One major example she pointed to was female representation in national government.

I cordially invite Emma and her cohorts to move to Algeria and Kazakhstan and enjoy the glorious life for women there.

Please.

Go.

Like We Need Another Governor Goldman Sachs

…since the last one turned out so well

Five years after MF Global’s collapse after big, levered bets on European bonds blew up leaving a $1.6 billion shortfall in customer funds, WSJ reports former New Jersey Gov. and Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine is nearing a deal to pay $5 million to end a U.S. regulator’s lawsuit.

Ending what The Wall Street Journal calls a long and messy chapter in a four-decade career which touched the pinnacles of Wall Street and politics…

Mr. Corzine reached the tentative settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in June, submitting to a ban from trading client money in commodities and others assets regulated by the commission, the people said. A final deal has been on hold as the commission negotiates a resolution to its case against another former executive at MF Global, the people said. The terms may still shift ahead of a final deal, several people said.

And the Dems are all set to select another Goldman alum for our next Gov.

Obviously As A Sentient Being I Despise The Red Sox

But this is very sweet and cute

The First Concerto Ever Recorded

Also happens to be my favorite (mind you, the score was heavily edited to go from 30+ minutes as written to the 6 minutes the wax could hold)

Ah, What A World

Not much else to say, really.

Shine On Harvest Moon

Breaking: Hillary Reveals Real Reason For “Overheating”

Greatest Picture Ever

Oh sure, Leonardo painted some nice stuff, and that Michelangelo fellow as well I suppose.

But seriously, can they hold a candle to this?

Hanging near the top of a dark, stone staircase in Rosenborg Castle one sees this painting by an unknown artist.

It is pure magic.

It is pure joy.

It makes me laugh like a nut.

I Do Miss Our Boy

sigh

He wasn’t much of a vegetable eater

but cow…

nom-nom

Number Nine, Number Nine…

Ok, I do NOT like how this thing slows down and starts drifting west over the weekend

Roast Venison

It’s what’s for dinner

More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lighting in central Norway in what wildlife officials are calling an unusually large natural disaster.

The Norwegian Environment Agency has released eerie images showing a jumble of reindeer carcasses scattered across a small area on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau. The agency says 323 animals were killed, including 70 calves, in the lightning storm Friday.

Agency spokesman Kjartan Knutsen told the AP it’s not uncommon for reindeer or other wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes, “but we have not heard about such numbers before.”

He said reindeer tend to stay very close to each other in bad weather, which could explain how so many were killed at once.

Santa was unavailable for comment.

One Of My Favorite Songs Of All Time

and a loving tribute to his dad

27 Years Of Joy I Haven’t Deserved

Happy Burfday Crusader!!!!!

Actually, if you took a picture of him right now he’d look exactly the same, the bastard.

Minus the onesie, I hope.

ths update: I’ll add a “GREATEST HITS” medley. WUBS you, little bruzzer.

A Very Good Article On The State Of Our Union

And by “good” I of course mean sad

Haunting this year’s presidential contest is the sense that the U.S. government no longer belongs to the people and no longer represents them. And this uneasy feeling is not misplaced. It reflects the real state of affairs.

We have lost the government we learned about in civics class, with its democratic election of representatives to do the voters’ will in framing laws, which the president vows to execute faithfully, unless the Supreme Court rules them unconstitutional. That small government of limited powers that the Founders designed, hedged with checks and balances, hasn’t operated for a century. All its parts still have their old names and appear to be carrying out their old functions. But in fact, a new kind of government has grown up inside the old structure, like those parasites hatched in another organism that grow by eating up their host from within, until the adult creature bursts out of the host’s carcass. This transformation is not an evolution but a usurpation.

What has now largely displaced the Founders’ government is what’s called the Administrative State—a transformation premeditated by its main architect, Woodrow Wilson. The thin-skinned, self-righteous college-professor president, who thought himself enlightened far beyond the citizenry, dismissed the Declaration of Independence’s inalienable rights as so much outmoded “nonsense,” and he rejected the Founders’ clunky constitutional machinery as obsolete. (See “It’s Not Your Founding Fathers’ Republic Any More,” Summer 2014.) What a modern country needed, he said, was a “living constitution” that would keep pace with the fast-changing times by continual, Darwinian adaptation, as he called it, effected by federal courts acting as a permanent constitutional convention.

read the whole thing and have a depressing weekend.

(via the sidebar at Ace’s)

Plagiarism!

Honestly if I had written that and someone stole it I would never call them out; I’d be too embarrassed to be associated with such banal pablum.