Author: Ex-PH2

  • So this is the new site….

    Peppers

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    …and what have we learned?

    Another year’s over, and winter has returned.

    And a very, merry ‘Howdy”

    To what’s old and what’s new

    A new day is coming

    And we’ll be there, too.

     

     

     

  • Naughty, naughty!

    A trans “female” customer with a baritone voice threw a tantrum in a Gamestop store at an employee for enforcing the store’s policy of ‘Store credit only – No refunds’.

    https://www.christiandailyreporter.com/trans-gamestop-rage.html

    Some enlightened soul got the video of the tantrum, including this jerkwad cursing in the presence of a juvenile, despite a female customer asking him to tone it down. S/He also cursed her.

    12/29/2018 Albuquerque, New MexicoA transgender GameStop customer who is a biological male but identifies as female flew into a minutes-long rage after being called “sir” by another customer who was politely asking him to stop cussing at the employee behind the counter because children were present in the store. – Article

    When someone throws a screaming public tantrum like this, cursing at people who ask [h/im/er/it] to tone it down around kids, and all the other things that accompany this kind of uncalled-for rage, there is something wrong, and it is not with the onlookers or the recipients of that anger.

    Tantrums thrown by toddlers are cute and funny. Tantrums thrown by people who are physically adults are not. Drill Instructors do a lot of yelling, but as long as they don’t have halitosis, s’okay. They aren’t throwing tantrums. (Where is SGT Hulka when you need him?)

    Remember the bearded sales tramp in the vape shop throwing a screaming tantrum at a customer who wore a t-shirt with Trump printed on it?  Same “generation”? There seems to be a lot of unreleased anger in these people. Perhaps sitting the zazen would help them.

    In this case, since the “customer” was threatening the employee and damaged a display on h/is/er way out, the employee would be justified in asking h/im/er “Shall I call the police?”

    After all, it’s not quite the same thing as being held up at gunpoint and loudly facing down the guy with the gun, is it? Especially if the guy with the gun runs away from you.

    The video is embedded in the article. There is a ‘freeze Alaska’ ad, but you can click it off.  Obviously, the – uh, customer has issues.

    I could not tell whether or not Gamestop has a notice posted ‘No refunds – Store credit only’, but it would probably be a good idea to do that.

     

  • Thursdays Are For Cooking….

    This one’s the simplest chili recipe, done the way it should be: a quick prep, cooked in a slow cooker or simmered in a pot on the stovetop, and gives you an appreciation of simpler times.

    Slow cooker chili

    Ingredients:

    2 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef

    1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

    2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

    1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes

    1 can (16 oz) chili beans in sauce, undrained

    1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

    You can use tomato paste in addition to tomato sauce if you want a thickener.

    2 tablespoons chili powder

    1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

    ½ teaspoon salt

    ½ teaspoon pepper

    Steps:

    In 12-inch skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain.

    In 4- to 5-quart slow cooker, mix beef mixture and remaining ingredients.

    Cover and cook on LOW setting 6 to 8 hours.

    The slow cooker method is nice because you can go to do other things and come back indoors to the wonderful scent of chili con carne in the air.

  • Viking Statue Toppled – Again

    viking statue thorfinn karlsefni boathouse row schuylkill river

    Photo from PhillyMag.

    I don’t know what the vandals who do these things have against the Philadelphia statue of Thorfinn Karlsefni, a Viking who followed Leif Erickson’s trail into North America in AD 1004, but it seems as though every year in the fall, for about six years now, someone decides to pull down the bronze statue of him and throw it into the Schuykill River.

    https://6abc.com/fate-of-viking-statue-uncertain-after-schuylkill-river-recovery/4389901/

    Last year, the statue’s face was spray painted red and then it was dragged into the river. Since it’s a 1920 bronze casting, it isn’t a lightweight object. This time it was decorated with anti-Nazi language and the anarchy symbol.

    https://www.phillymag.com/news/2018/10/02/viking-statue-boathouse-row/

    Per the Philly Mag article, since this episode of vandalism preceded a Vikings/Eagles game, that may have had something to do with it this time. However, that connection was deemed slim by Philly police.

    It’s also notable that a skinhead group meets nearby for their annual Leif Erickson celebration, and that they’ve clashed frequently with the Philly Antifas.

    Remember those two Marines who were beaten by Antifas a couple of weeks ago? This vandalism took place around the same time as the vandalism event.

    https://www.azuse.cloud/?p=83541&cpage=2

    Probably the same bunch of useless schmucks, because frankly, people we used to call useless troublemakers have nothing else to do.

    The response I have to these acts, since they take place under the cover of darkness and also seem to have a common theme, is that if these dweebs were faced with real Vikings, they’d wet themselves… copiously.

     

    Image result for viking images

    Anyone want to tangle with this skjaldmær? They were also called Valmeyjar, or battle maidens. It was not unusual for Viking women to choose to be shield maidens (skjaldmær).

    In Old Norse, valkyrja, as well as Old English wælcyrge means literally, “chooser of the slain”.  And the fighting was usually over waelstow reáfung (battle plunder) and breeding rights. But that’s a different part of Norse history and legend.

    And then there were the Celts. You do know that some Celtic women trained the boys and men for battle and participated in fighting themselves, don’t you? You didn’t know that? Ah! Well, then….

  • Just a Little Philosophy for the New Year

    Add your own to this list.

    GySGT Rzezckowski

    Never get drunk and play strip poker with strangers.

    Never tell Them everything, but let Them think you did.

    Never, ever, assume anything.

    Just because it’s quiet on all fronts, it does not mean there are no Snakes waiting in the bush to shoot you.

    When people want to make fools of themselves, get out of their way. Record it for posterity.

    The Notebooks of Lazarus Long / Robert A. Heinlein

    A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.

    Always tell her she is beautiful, especially if she is not.

    Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

    Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes.

    Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.

    If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for … but there are certain to be those you want to vote against.

    When a place gets crowded enough to require IDs, social collapse is not far away

    One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering.

    Napoleon Bonaparte

    Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making mistakes.

    If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

    Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

    History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

    If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

    The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.

    The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.

    There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.

    In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.

    In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

    Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

  • All We Are Is Leaves in the Wind….

    Nancy Pelosi Announces Plans For A House ‘Climate Crisis’ Committee After Flying Thousands Of Miles To A Hawaiian Resort

    There is a Disturbance in the Farce. I can smell it. I can feel the vibrations emanating from it.  There is a certain… je ne sais quoi in all of this, as if – well, Thor is awakening. It’s not exactly wanting to buy the World a Coke and keep it company, you see.

    From the WUWT article in which there are so many embedded links it is simpler to provide a link to the WUWT  spot:

    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that Democrats would create a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis in 2019, which will be headed by Florida Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor.

    However, Pelosi’s announcement isn’t placating progressives in her party, such as New York Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who support “Green New Deal” legislation.

    “This committee, if it turns out that the rumors about it are true, sound about as useful as a screen door on a submarine,” Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent, told The Hill. (She has a spokesman???)

    “As it’s portrayed it’s going to be completely incapable of solving the greatest threat to human kind,” Trent said.

    Pelosi, who’s expected to be elected House speaker in 2019, said there’s “tremendous pressure” for Democrats to make fighting global warming a central part of their agenda in the new year.

    Pelosi made her announcement amid a government shutdown after she flew thousands of miles to a luxurious Hawaiian hotel where she was spotted Thursday, according to reports.

    The creation of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis is one way Pelosi plans on satisfying progressives without angering incoming committee chairs, like New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone, who want to advance their own climate bills.

    “It is with great enthusiasm that I appoint Congresswoman Kathy Castor as the Chair of our new Select Committee on the Climate Crisis,” Pelosi said in a statement issued Friday.

    “She will bring great experience, energy and urgency to the existential threat of the climate crisis,” Pelosi said. “This committee will be critical to the entire Congress’s mission to respond to the urgency of this threat, while creating the good-paying, green jobs of the future.” – WUWT Article

    Now, before you go all “toldja so” on this news, let us reflect solemnly on the potential this has for unifying the Old Guard Democrats – those in middle age or higher – with the Young Far Leftreds and bringing them together.  The possibilities for conjugality and united efforts toward this goal are bountiful and endless. There is, indeed, a New Hope on the horizon…

    So, before you get all jiggy about potentialities for this newly rising relationship, try to look at it the way I do.

     

    And have a Very Happy and Joyous New Year!!!!

     

  • A Few Words From Thomas Paine

    The Crisis

    Thomas Paine

    December 23, 1776

    These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

    What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but “to bind us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

    Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet.

    All that [Gen.] Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.

    I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent.

    Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he.

    * The present winter is worth an age, if rightly employed; but, if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the evil; and there is no punishment that man does not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.

    ‘Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fifteenth century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment!

    Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.

    The remainder of Paine’s essay The Crisis is here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3741/3741-h/3741-h.htm#link2H_4_0002

    It is free to read and copy, if you choose. I suggest reading it when you have time to devote full attention to it.

  • Ikeishi! Ikeishi buadda, japalai!!!

    This is in regard to Melania Trump’s choice of yellow Timberland boots on her trip with Pres. Trump to visit the troops during the Christmas holidays. The noise that has been generated over them consists of not just gossip, but blatant lies.

    There was something posted on Twitter about racism on her part in this egregious spatter of pejoratives, based on her choosing to wear those boots.

    From Business Insider:  https://www.businessinsider.com/melania-trump-timberland-boots-visit-troops-iraq-2018-12

    That’s on one of those ‘turn off your ad blocker’ deals, so read it if you wish.

    The “racist” nonsense comes from a now-defunct site called Naha Daily, which in 2014 claimed falsely that Timberland’s CEO said he didn’t want blacks or Latinos in his boots. They admitted that it was completely made up out of whole cloth – a lie, in plain English, but people are now digging it up and pointing the finger at it and saying ‘Aha!’ and making themselves far worse than they pretend Mrs. Trump is.

    According to Snopes, the false remarks originated from a December 2014 article from the now defunct site Naha Daily, which cited the shoe company’s CEO saying he did not want to see “Blacks and Latinos” in the boots.

    Snopes reported that a disclaimer on the Naha Daily’s site said that its content was “based off current events [in 2014] in urban culture and entertainment” and was “completely fictional.”

    Got that? Completely fictional.

    It is something that some moron cooked up in 2014, posted on his website, and then added a disclaimer that it was all made up out of dust bunnies and hot air and is completely fictional. Naha Daily is out of business, but this trash still shows up.

    Because there are enough imbeciles on the internet to populate a small planet like Mars, this disclaimer is disregarded by them as an inconvenient fact. They ignore it and subsequently carry the lie forward, using it against someone who had nothing to do with the source of the lie.

    They do this out of pure hatred toward someone who has done nothing to them but exist.

    Because they are addicted to trash, they got all excited when  Mrs. Obama was recently seen in a yellow split-front drapey dress that would not look good on a bone-thin runway model, wearing thigh-high streetwalker glitter boots with it. If you dare, take a look. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/leftists-mock-first-lady-melania-for-wearing-timberland-boots-but-they-loved-michelle-obamas-streetwalker-thigh-high-glittery-boots/

    Melania Trump, on the other hand, wore sensible boots on her Christmas trip to visit troops overseas, but people still won’t lay off her.

    Yes, she’s made some faux pas. We all do that, but this obnoxious trash is grasping at straws, acting out their roles as schoolyard bullies because they think it’s okay.  They have the maturity of freshly-laid eggs. And even if the hen sat on them, they’d still turn out to be rotten.

    I have never seen such hatred manifested toward someone simply because she exists and has done nothing to deserve it.

    This poisonous, festering slop has consequences for the people who generate it and perpetuate it. Employers expect their hirees to behave like adults in an adult world. Everything is investigated now.  People who do these things are telling potential employers that they are not reliable, won’t be good workers, and won’t focus on doing their jobs.

    Would you like fries with that?

    Oh, yeah, the title – The first word starts with “F”, and the last word starts with “A”.  And it means the same thing in another language that it means in English.