Monthly Archives: July 2023

The Comical Conservative

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Number 107 in a series

These Comical Conservatives are sometimes not so comical. Above see former D.A. for the New York Southern District, former mayor of New York, former Trump henchman Rudy Giuliani testifying before Congress. He is calling out two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and charging them with working to corrupt the vote in the 2020 election.

He is telling the congressional investigators the two were “… passing around USB ports like they were vials of heroin or cocaine.” Really? “Vials of heroin or cocaine?” Where did that come from? Apparently out of Giuliani’s expert legal mind. He is referring to this video from inside the vote processing center.

These false accusations had consequences. By naming the two women he as much as doxed them. Quickly after there were threatening people coming to their places of residence. One had to move. One said she feared having her name spoken in public. All to give a stupid and corrupt candidate another shot at an election he had lost. Not so funny anymore, conservatives.

Giuliani has now admitted to telling this lie. But he is attempting to distance himself from it, saying his admission is only to streamline a civil case brought by the women.

I am no former district attorney, and I am no lawyer, but it would appear Rudy Giuliani is admitting he lied to congress. In my non-lawyer brain that is a federal offence worth some jail time.

But what do I know?

Bad Joke of the Week

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Number 564 of a Series

Here is the definition of “lame.”

1. There’s a fine line between a numerator and a denominator. (…Only a fraction of people will get this joke.)

2. What do dentists call their x-rays?
Tooth pics!

3. Did you hear about the first restaurant to open on the moon?
It had great food, but no atmosphere.

4. What did one ocean say to the other ocean?
Nothing, it just waved.

5. Do you want to hear a construction joke?
Sorry, I’m still working on it.

Your Friend The Handgun

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Number 384 of a Series

Now those are T-shirts with an attitude. Of course along with the attitude somebody can die.

Man dies after shooting in Uptown in road rage incident, police say; suspect in custody

The shooting happened near Woodall Rodgers Freeway.

A man who was shot in his truck late last week in Uptown died at the hospital Sunday following a road rage incident, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit.

Hours before the victim died, John Luster, 47, was arrested and booked into the Dallas County Jail, records show.

Luster initially was facing a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but the charge was later upgraded to murder. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.

Officers responded about 11:10 p.m. Friday to the 2100 block of Fairmount Street near Woodall Rodgers Freeway and found the gunshot victim in a crashed truck, according to police.

I am told an armed society is a polite society. They don’t mention that somebody has to die.

Abusing Science

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Number 212 of a series

Lest readers think I take on only Republicans, see above. That is Robert Kennedy Jr. making one of the most ridiculous statements ever made by a grown person. Here is the story from The Washington Post.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggests covid was designed to spare Jews, Chinese people

By Ruby Cramer
Updated July 15, 2023 at 6:23 p.m. EDT | Published July 15, 2023 at 5:40 p.m. EDT

“There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said during a dinner on New York’s Upper East Side on Tuesday evening. “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

His remarks at the gathering — a dinner party attended by members of the media and Kennedy’s campaign manager at Tony’s Di Napoli on East 63rd Street — amplify racist and antisemitic tropes, including theories that blame Jews for the spread of the coronavirus to expand influence and financial gain, according to research by the Anti-Defamation League.

What I will do is to let that sit here and simmer. Enough said.

Quiz Question

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Quiz Question

Number 423 of a series

How often have you seen a pile of food and remarked, “There is enough there to feed Cox’s army?” So maybe you haven’t, but it is an expression that makes the rounds. And here is the Quiz Question for this week. What is remarkable about the expression, “Cox’s army?”

Update

The interesting thing about Cox’s Army is there was no Cox’s Army. The man’s was Coxey. So the proper spelling is Coxey’s Army, and it was a protest march on the Capitol.

Bad Joke of the Week

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Number 563 of a Series

A Christian guy named Bill saw an ad online for a Christian horse, so he went to check it out. The horse’s owner said, “It’s easy to ride him. Just say ‘Praise the Lord!’ to make him go and ‘Amen!’ to make him stop.” Bill got on the horse and said, “Praise the Lord!” Sure enough, the horse started to walk. “Praise the Lord!” he said again, and the horse began to trot. “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” he yelled, and the horse broke into a gallop. Bill was enjoying his ride so much that he almost didn’t notice the cliff he and the horse were about to go over. Bill shouted “AMEN!” at the top of his lungs, and the horse stopped right at the edge of the cliff. Relieved, Bill said, “Phew! Praise the Lord!” —Submitted by Z.S. via rd.com

Breitbart Mentality

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Number 31 of a Series

Breitbart News appears to have its own view of reality. Here is from a recent item.

Michigan AG Nessel Charges Trump Electors with ‘Forgery,’ Despite JFK Precedent

The Trump campaign created several slates of alternate electors. This was not an attempt to create “fake” or “fraudulent” electors to fool authorities, but rather to provide a legal remedy in the event the election results were overturned. The fear was that if a court, or a state legislature, invalidated the Electoral College vote of Michigan or another closely contested state, those votes would not be awarded to Trump without electors.

Democrats themselves used this strategy in the 1960 election, a close race between Vice President Richard Nixon (R) and Sen. John Kennedy (D-MA).

True, in 1960 the Democrats did draw up a slate of alternate electors, did sign the documents, did submit them. There was a slight difference.

Although the three Democratic electors in Hawaii took the same action — signing false certificates — it does not appear they ever faced similar scrutiny, in part because of what happened next. Namely, that Hawaii’s recount ultimately did reverse the state’s election outcome.

Kennedy prevailed by an eyelash when the recount concluded on Dec. 28, 1960. A newly sworn-in governor certified the Kennedy victory and transmitted a new slate of Electoral College certificates — signed by the same three Democrats who falsely claimed to have won two weeks earlier.

Here are the fake documents submitted by the Michigan Republicans. There was no close vote. There was no squeaky recount. There was no reversal of the outcome.

The participants in the Michigan scheme knew they had lost the election and that their documents were fake. They have been charged with conspiracy to commit forgery, forgery, conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing (whatever that is), uttering and publishing (again), conspiracy to commit election law forgery, election law forgery (they actually did it).

And apparently the fake electors received their orders from on high.

Yes, Breitbart is whistling in the wind. There was no close count. The results of the Michigan (and those of five other states) were clear. Further, after all the smoke had cleared, and the winner of the 2020 election was decided, there was a coordinated attempt to introduce these false ballots into the official proceedings at the Capitol on January 6. The problem is Vice President Mike Pence refused to go along with the deal, and he counted the legitimate ballots, drawing a fierce rebuke from President Trump, the loser.

It would appear now those Michigan plotters are now on the losing side of legal charges.

Your Friend The Handgun

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Number 383 of a Series

I have been assured by the governor of my state that the cause for these gun deaths is mental illness. Particularly with grouchy old men.

Teens turned around in a fire chief’s driveway. He pulled a gun on them.

By María Luisa Paúl
June 23, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Last year, a South Carolina emergency dispatcher stayed on the line with two teenagers who said they were being chased by two pickup trucks at high speed. On the other end of the call, the voice sounded increasingly desperate.

“They’re making us get out of the car with guns,” one of the teenagers said, according to audio recordings of the 911 call obtained by The Washington Post. “Ma’am, I’m sorry. I’m getting — we’re getting on the ground.”

The teens had, about 10 minutes earlier, told the dispatcher they had turned around in someone’s driveway, prompting the man and another driver — later identified as Townville Fire Chief Billy McAdams and his son — to pursue them, according to the audio. Over the next several minutes, the teenagers said they’d almost been chased off the road and blocked — and by 7:20 p.m., were face down in the middle of a road with a pistol pointing at them.

The 2A people tell me we need guns to protect ourselves. Guns are also handy when all you want to do is to show off your dominance over others.

Abusing Science

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Number 211 of a series

If you ever wondered whether there is such a thing as a modern fossil, then look no more. There is one right here in Dallas.

”Ancient” Katydid Fossil is…a Katydid

BY FRANK SHERWIN, D.SC. (HON.) *  | MONDAY, JULY 10, 2023

A fascinating discovery of a fossil insect has recently been made by evolutionists in Colorado. The description once again points clearly to the effects of the Genesis Flood thousands of years ago.

50 million years ago in what is now northwestern Colorado, a katydid died, sank to the bottom of a lake and was quickly buried in fine sediments, where it remained until its compressed fossil was recovered in recent years. When researchers examined the fossil under a microscope, they saw that not only had many of the insect’s hard structures been preserved in the compressed shale, so had several internal organs and tissues, which are not normally fossilized.1

The compressed shale was sedimentary rock laid down by running water that creationists suggest was part of the Genesis Flood 4,500 years ago. Indeed, the Colorado Formation, where the fossil katydid (family Tettigoniidae) was found, is part of the famous Green River Formation that also extends into Wyoming and Utah. This tristate Eocene formation was evidently formed by much more than just a local flood.2

Evolutionists understandably attempt to put a secular spin on this contemporary insect fossil discovery.

“Obviously, having a fossil species of a modern genus is really significant because it confirms the antiquity of this lineage,” [Prairie Research Institute paleoentomologist Sam] Heads said. “Now we know that about 50 million years ago, this genus had already evolved and already had a morphology that mimics the grass in which it lives and hides from predators.” The find will help scientists understand how this group of insects evolved and when they developed their unique physical structure, he said.1

The “antiquity” of this lineage is hardly confirmed! The only thing this fossil find tells scientists is this is a katydid just like the kind we find today. It says nothing about “how this group of insects evolved.” The specimen shows it had to be rapidly and catastrophically buried, “[b]ut perhaps the most striking feature of this fossil is the really exceptional, remarkable preservation of internal organs–organs that you just don’t see in fossils.”1 We do see remarkable and exceptional preservation of creatures, both of this fossil and increasing numbers of soft tissue ensconced within dinosaur fossils.3 Interestingly, original soft tissue has been found in none other than a Green River Formation fossil.4

Regardless, the public is expected to believe there has been no evolution (i.e. stasis) of this insect for 50 million years: “To double-check his analysis, Heads dissected several katydid specimens of the same genus [Arethaea] to match what he was seeing in the fossil. “They look exactly the same,” he said.”1 Creationists are not surprised. Katydids have always been katydids. Paleontologists, however, cannot let go of, or even question, deep evolutionary time even when confronted with physical evidence such as this fossil.5-6

God designed the katydid, it has no evolutionary ancestors, and it was suddenly caught up and buried by the great Flood described in Genesis thousands of years ago.

And that will about do it for the creationist argument for biblical inerrancy. Anything discovered, anything published by scientists, is grist for their mill.

Quiz Question

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Number 422 of a series

As the image shows, there two envelopes containing money. You do not know how much money, but one envelope contains ten times as much money as in the other envelope.

You are allowed to open one of the envelopes. There was $40 in it. You are allowed to take the $40 or the money in the other envelope. What is your best strategy?

Post your answer in the comments section below.

Doubtful Heritage

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Number 8 of a Series

These people from The Heritage Foundation don’t know when to quit. Here is the latest.

EXCLUSIVE: Documents Reveal Rush to Target Trump’s National Security Pick in Obama’s Waning Days as President

Heavily redacted documents from the National Security Agency tell at least part of the story of a final-month rush by the outgoing Obama administration to torpedo the incoming presidency of Donald Trump. 

The Daily Signal obtained 217 pages of documents from the NSA through a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents reveal that Obama administration officials, from Vice President Joe Biden down to several ambassadors and many officials in the Treasury and Energy departments, gained access to secret information about Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Trump’s choice for national security adviser.

How about adding a little truth to all that. Michael Flynn was of doubtful integrity when Trump picked him. Then intercepted messages revealed Flynn was communicating with Russian ambassador Kislyak.

On November 30, 2016, Flynn joined a meeting between Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Kislyak at Trump Tower. U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted Kislyak’s report to Russian officials about the meeting. Kislyak wanted Russian generals to discuss the topic of American policy in Syria with the Trump transition team on a secure channel; however, Flynn said the Trump transition team did not possess such channels in their offices. Kushner wanted to use secure channels at the Russian embassy, but Kislyak declined.

Flynn subsequently lied to the FBI when questioned, and after being appointed National Security Advisor by Trump he lied to Vice President Pence. Trump fired him, and he was subsequently prosecuted and convicted. Trump pardoned him.

Hey, Heritage Foundation, if you want to look for malfeasance you need only to glance to your right. You and your team are knee deep.

Heart Of Dumbness

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Number 28 in a Series

Move over, Marjorie, we may have a new candidate for The Heart of Dumbness. Revisit failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake from Arizona. She keeps insisting she won the election but was cheated out of it. Either she is a consummate, or else she is the dumbest rock in Arizona. Here is what she had to say at a rally in Iowa.

The fake news isn’t covering it,” Lake said. “They said that ‘she lost on most counts in the Arizona Supreme Court.’ Most counts. But not all counts. And we made it, we made it and we’re still out and we’re still fighting.

Not covering her loss? They very well are, and they are noting that she lost and also that she is a sore loser.

But wait! She is saying, “We have the evidence.”

Really? That is not what Rudy Giuliani told us.

Keep following the Kari Lake saga. It promises to take us deep into The Heart of Dumbness.

Bad Joke of the Week

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Number 562 of a Series

A priest buys a lawn mower at a yard sale. Back home, he pulls on the starter rope a few times with no results. He storms back to the yard sale and tells the previous owner, “I can’t get the mower to start!” “That’s because you have to curse to get it started,” says the man. “I’m a man of the cloth. I don’t even remember how to curse.” “You keep pulling on that rope, and it’ll come back to you.”

Your Friend The Handgun

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Number 382 of a Series

The 2A people are always reminding me we need guns for self-protection. For example.

Two dead, 28 injured in Baltimore block party mass shooting, police say

The two who were killed were adults. More than a dozen of the injured were minors, police said. Violence was also reported in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Wichita., Kansas

 July 2, 2023, 5:31 AM CDT / Updated July 3, 2023, 11:54 AM CDT
By Leila Sackur and Julianne McShane
At least two people were killed and dozens were injured in a mass shooting at a block party in Baltimore early Sunday, officials said.

The two people who were killed at the party, in the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood, were identified by police Sunday as Aaliyah Gonzalez, 18, and Kylis Fagbemi, 20. Police originally said Aaliyah’s last name was spelled Gonzales.

Police said 28 others were injured, three of them critically. In a statement on Sunday, Baltimore police said those injured victims ranged in age from 13 to 32 — 15 were 13 to 17 years old, and the others were adults. Mayor Brandon Scott said agencies providing resident services have been dispatched to ensure that similar violence doesn’t happen during the July Fourth holiday.

For your next block party be sure that everybody is fully armed up.

Heart Of Dumbness

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Number 27 in a Series

And wow! That is Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene telling us AA flight 77 did not crash into the Pentagon. Not to be to harsh on Ms. Greene, but that statement is just dumb. Where has she been all this time? Contradictions abound.

  • People saw it happen.
  • The plane’s cockpit voice recorder was recovered.
  • Large pieces of the plane, for example landing gear, were discovered inside the Pentagon.

Hmm. This looks like American Airlines to me.

And we wonder just what is the “Jihad Squad,” and should be be up in arms? Only MTG knows.

Talk about Miss Congeniality. AOC is little? A communist? Or is MTG just making stuff up?

Right! Just a riot. Nothing more.

If that was a riot, I begin to wonder what an attack on the government looks like.

To put a finishing touch on the story, the news is the Republican House of Representatives has become so embarrassed by MTG’s behavior they have expelled her from the Freedom Caucus. Actions and words have consequences. You can be too dumb.

Abusing Science

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Number 210 of a series

More anti-science from the Discovery Institute people. They are an easy mark for this stuff. So I’m getting lazy.

Long Necks in Sauropod Dinosaurs — By Neo-Darwinism or Intelligent Design?

Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig June 28, 2023, 9:47 AM

Read the article. Here is the pertinent excerpt.

Comparing ID with Neo-Darwinism

Applying Dembski’s Explanatory Filter to this question, we get the following answers:

  1. Law: There is no law that produces long necks inevitably under any defined ecological conditions.
  2. Vast improbability: Fulfilled — chance to be excluded.
  3. Specification: Fulfilled.

In comparing neo-Darwinism with the theory of intelligent design, we find the latter to be definitely the superior explanation.

That is what is most strange, because biologists have long ago addressed special adaptations such as long necks in giraffes and such. For example:

Sadly, the last plank is particularly bogus, since it completely ignores and displays no knowledge of a massively relevant and quite brilliant paper, published just back in January 2007 in American Naturalist, that constitutes an experimental demonstration of the relative feeding advantage of giraffe height:

Elissa Z. Cameron and Johan T. du Toit (2007). “Winning by a Neck: Tall Giraffes Avoid Competing with Shorter Browsers.” The American Naturalist, 169, 130–135. DOI: 10.1086/509940

Abstract With their vertically elongated body form, giraffes generally feed above the level of other browsers within the savanna browsing guild, despite having access to foliage at lower levels. They ingest more leaf mass per bite when foraging high in the tree, perhaps because smaller, more selective browsers deplete shoots at lower levels or because trees differentially allocate resources to promote shoot growth in the upper canopy. We erected exclosures around individual Acacia nigrescens trees in the greater Kruger ecosystem, South Africa. After a complete growing season, we found no differences in leaf biomass per shoot across height zones in excluded trees but significant differences in control trees. We conclude that giraffes preferentially browse at high levels in the canopy to avoid competition with smaller browsers. Our findings are analogous with those from studies of grazing guilds and demonstrate that resource partitioning can be driven by competition when smaller foragers displace larger foragers from shared resources. This provides the first experimental support for the classic evolutionary hypothesis that vertical elongation of the giraffe body is an outcome of competition within the browsing ungulate guild.

Read that article, as well, then decide for yourself whether long necks of giraffes and prehistoric animals are due to environmentally driven conditions or whether some mysterious and unseen entity decided to give these animals long necks. What is even more ridiculous is the entity these creationists propose to be behind long necks and also just about everything. When they think about Intelligent Design, they are thinking about YHWH (Jehovah), the god of the Jews. A closer reading reveals YHWH was a political convenience of the ancient Jews. 

In Judah, this was the time of King Josiah. The idea that YHWH would ultimately fulfill the promises given to the patriarchs, to Moses, and to King David—of a vast and unified people of Israel living securely in their land—was a politically and spiritually powerful one for Josiah’s subjects. It was a time when Josiah embarked on an ambitious attempt to take advantage of the Assyrian collapse and unite all Israelites under his rule. His program was to expand to the north of Judah, to the territories where Israelites were still living a century after the fall of the kingdom of Israel, and to realize the dream of a glorious united monarchy: a large and powerful state of all Israelites worshiping one God in one Temple in one capital—Jerusalem—and ruled by one king of Davidic lineage.

Finkelstein, Israel. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts (pp. 69-70). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

And that is about all that needs to be said about that.