This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Hondo

  • “Allah told me to come here and kill people”

    Yesterday, a man walked into a Canadian armed forces recruiting station in Toronto. He attacked one member of the Canadian military, first striking and then slashing his victim’s arm. He then attempted to slash another member of Canada’s military before he was subdued.

    This article’s title is the reason the attacker gave for his attack.

    Fox News has a brief article about attack and the attacker’s day in court. It’s worth reading.

    Now, some tell us that US policy in the Middle East is to blame for current Islamic terrorism. Sorry, but I’m not buying that. Last time I checked, Toronto wasn’t in the US.

    Then again London, Madrid, and Paris aren’t in the US either; neither is Mumbai, Bali, northern Nigeria, or Nairobi. But that same inane rationale (“It’s the USA’s fault!”) was offered by some to explain those attacks by radical Islamic terrorists, too.

    I’m thinking US policy isn’t the reason at all. Instead, I’m thinking that Samuel Huntington may well have been correct when he proposed his Clash of Civilizations hypothesis over 20 years ago.

    But that’s just me.

  • Rest in Peace, Mr. E

    Keith Emerson, of Emerson Lake and Palmer, passed away this past week in Santa Monica, CA. He was 71.

    May we remember you as you were, Mr. E – at your best.

    Rest in peace, Mr. E. You were indeed a one-of-a-kind talent.

  • Yer Friday Funny: A Somewhat Different “Home Invasion”

    No word on whether the intruder was named Abdullah – or was fleeing from him.  (smile)

    Goat nabbed in attempted home invasion

  • Getting Paid for Academic Idiocy

    At the University of Oregon, recently a professor conducted a study related to “climate change”.  In and of itself, that’s nothing newsworthy.

    But this one is a bit different.  As part of the project, the “research professor” in charge published a paper titled, “Glaciers, gender, and science.”  It urged other scientists “to take a ‘feminist political ecology and feminist postcolonial approach’ when researching glaciers and climate change.”

    Here’s the paper’s abstract; I’ve added emphasis to highlight some of the spectacular idiocy. (The full version of the paper can be viewed here; a PDF-format copy may be downloaded here.)

    Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change.  However, the relationships among gender, science, and glaciers – particularly related to epistemological questions about the production of glaciological knowledge – remain understudied.  This paper thus proposes a feminist glaciology framework with four key components: 1) knowledge producers; (2) gendered science and knowledge; (3) systems of scientific domination; and (4) alternative representations of glaciers. Merging feminist postcolonial science studies and feminist political ecology, the feminist glaciology framework generates robust analysis of gender, power, and epistemologies in dynamic social-ecological systems, thereby leading to more just and equitable science and human-ice interactions.

    Yep, you got it:  SWJ Propaganda 101, masquerading as “science”.  Or, alternatively: an example of someone who’s figured out how to ride the “grant gravy train” by producing intellectual garbage that panders to the prejudices of those providing the funding.

    If you’re waiting for the “punch line”, here it is.  A  $412,930  National Science Foundation grant apparently at least partially funded this trash.  So if you pay Federal taxes . . . looks like your Federal taxes funded part of this lunacy.

    And if you live in Oregon, your state taxes funded the rest of it.

    Fox News has an article with more details.  It’s worth a read – unless you’re having blood pressure issues.

    Relativism has been defined as the belief that intellectually there is no distinction between sh!t and Shinola.  Based on the above, it certainly appears that both the University of Oregon and the NSF have adopted that idiotic theory.

  • Five More Return

    DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.

    From World War II

    • Sgt. John C. Holladay, B Company, 1st Marine Raider Battalion, 1st Marine Raider Regiment, USMC, was lost on 20 July 1943 in the Solomon Islands. He was accounted for on 24 February 2016.

    • Flight Officer Dewey L. Gossett, 527th Fighter Squadron, 86th Fighter Group, 12th Air Force, Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost on 27 September 1943 in Italy. He was accounted for on 25 February 2016.

    From Korea

    • CPL Davey H. Bart, K Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, US Army, was lost on 2 November 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 24 February 2016.

    • SFC Raymond K. McMillian, Medical Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 12 February 1951 in South Korea. He was accounted for on 26 February 2016.

    • PFC Aubrey D. Vaughn, C Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 5th Regimental Combat Team, US Army, was lost on 23 April 1951 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 24 February 2016.

    Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.

    You’re home now. Rest in peace.

    . . .

    Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from recovered remains against mtDNA from a matrilineal descendant can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

    DPAA’s web site now has what appears to be a decent “Contact Us” page. The page doesn’t have instructions concerning who can and cannot submit a mtDNA sample or how to submit one, but the POCs listed there may be able to refer you to someone who can answer that question – or may be able to answer the question themselves. If you think you might possibly qualify, please contact one of those POCs for further information.

    If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.

    Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.

  • Sunday Morning Entertainment: And Now, For Something Completely Different

    No, it’s not Monty Python’s man with three buttocks. (smile) It’s a bit of “lawn bowling”, so to speak.

    Yep, it’s a strike – “bowled” from nearly 500 feet (492 feet, to be precise). On a freaking golf course, no less.

    Impressive. Perhaps not exactly useful – but impressive.

  • Who Says Lightning Never Strikes Twice?

    Remember Tracy Dart? The “lady” out in Seattle who claimed to have cancer to raise money, but who in reality never had cancer?

    Well, who says lightning never strikes twice? Looks like some guy on the East Coast decided to do the same.

    Like Dart, he also got caught. But unlike Dart, he’s facing trial for larceny by fraud – apparently to the tune of $22,000+.  Predictably he’s pleaded “not guilty”.

    As I’ve said before: whenever someone can get free stuff simply by asking, sooner or later someone who doesn’t qualify will lie their ass off to get it. And it’s been my experience that generally happens sooner rather than later.

    Fox News has a short article with the particularrs.

    All I’ve got to say to this “fine fellow” is this:  be careful what you wish for. You might get it.

     

  • Yer Friday Funny: Relativism and PC Defined . . . and Deconstructed

    A word to the wise: be sure you put down any glass or mug – and clear anything out of your mouth – immediately when the images concerning alien abductions first appear on the screen at around 3 min 40 sec. And don’t pick up the glass/mug or eat/drink anything for the next 30 seconds. (smile)

    Yeah, the speaker (Terrence McKenna) was a major-league New Age flake and mushroom aficionado. Regardless, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better discussion of the subject.