01 April 2023

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 1 April

Wombat-socho is up first with In The Mailbox: 03.29.23

The Political Hat: “Organoid Intelligence” Of Lab Grown Brains Mean One Thing – Hyperintelligent Bioroid Catgirls
This Ain’t Hell: Three More Accounted For

The Right Way - Top of the News

The Rule of Law is almost dead in America - Bookworm Room
Trump Again Defines National Priorities - 90 Miles From Tyranny

The DaleyGator - Daily top 5

Tenured professors can be fired under new Florida board ruling
Stop WOKE Act laid groundwork for new regulations

EBL - War of the Sicilian Vespers

War of the Sicilian Vespers
The lesson here is don't fondle Sicilian women without their permission...
AoSHQ: Morning Report 03.30.23

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 29 March 2023: Pippopalypse Edition

In other good news Disney's layoffs of 7000 staff have wiped out its metaverse unit. (Deadline)
Signs that someone at Disney is awake?

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 03.30.23

Cafe Hayek: Signs of Hope
CDR Salamander: The Weapons Gap With Red China the USA Created and Funded – It Goes Boom

Animal Magnetism - Animal’s Hump Day News

“Organic” agriculture is bullshit. If you’da asked me, I could’a told you.
The SMOD may be closer than we think.
Second Amendment advocates go on the offensive.

Battleswarm Blog - LinkSwarm for March 31, 2023

“Voter Suppression Is Real And It’s Not What You Were Told.
Did the FBI have a “mole” that would tip Hunter Biden off about any China probes.

Small Dead Animals - Thursday On Turtle Island

Justin and Joe admire China’s basic dictatorship. Your morning meme.
Woke Britain: Citizens fight back against the eco-nuts. The hostile Islamist preachers (JW).

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 03.31.23

Vox Popoli: Finland Joins NATO, also, He’s Not Wrong
According To Hoyt: A Weary Morn, also, It’s Memerific

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Merry Trumpmas! LOTT Punks AOC, Q-Man Released, Insurrection in Tennessee

At NYPo, the divine Ms. Devine writes 6 people are dead and all Jokin’ Joe Biden can do is sow the rancor and division that got us here. At da Caller, 2024 GOP Presidential Contenders Weigh In On School Shootings Following Nashville Massacre. I don't particularly want to hear from them either.

Vlad Tepes - Trans, Vaxx and semantic marxism: Links 1 for March 30th, 2023

1. “Liberating Tolerance” in New Zealand
2. EU Pushing the ‘Criminalisation’ of Physical Cash with New Anti-Money Laundering Law

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 3/30/2023

Contract Shows How the FBI Purchases Massive Amounts of Online Data
The FBI was a customer of a private company Team Cymru, a contract shows. The company is in the business of harvesting NetFlow — network protocol for collecting IP traffic information

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

Scott Sumner warns of the return of industrial policy.
“Government-run business fails.”

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

Biden Targets Air Conditioners In Latest Attack on Americans’ Quality-of-Life Choices
Legacy Media Struggle to Characterize Trans Shooter’s Sex

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 3/30/23

"Nervous yet? You should be. With a stroke of a pen, or more appropriately, a flick of a switch or click of a button, you can be declared a threat and shut down at the discretion of the bureaucracy."
BE VERY AFRAID: The RESTRICT Act Is Exactly What It Sounds Like

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: A Rubicon Is Crossed

• The Consequences of Big Electric Vehicle Handouts - Cato
• Everyone Is Just Pretending Nothing's Wrong - QTR

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 03/31/2023

Asteroid the size of 18 platypus to fly closer to Earth than Moon.
Largest egg producer in US sees 718% profit growth, but just 1% increase in eggs sold.

I leave you with Wednesday Memes … from MaddMedic, Thursday's gifs from Wirecutter, and Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #1005 from 90 Miles from Tyranny.

Florida Set to Be Next Constitutional Carry State

The Left has kittens. Florida OKs bill to carry concealed guns without a permit - MyNorthwest.com

Because criminals don't obey the law, we should make more hoops for law abiding citizens to jump through. It won't do anything to stop criminals, but it will give the gun-hating politicians something to talk about.

Floridians will be able to carry concealed guns without a permit under a bill the Legislature sent to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday. The governor said at a suburban Atlanta gun store that he will sign the bill.

There are all the standard quotes, none of which explain how letting law abiding citizens defend themselves will make matters worse.

Biden Regime Loves the Idea of Censorship

So did every tyrannical regime ever. Do not question the state. We know what's best. Do not think for yourself. We will tell you what to think. Biden Regime Even Wanted to Censor PRIVATE Text Messages | Frontpage Mag

The Biden regime has already abundantly established that it has no patience for dissent. The Twitter Files show regime lackeys pressuring Twitter, along with other social media giants, to silence people who dared question, among other things, its COVID-19 narrative — yes, the one that has been shown to have been full of holes all along. But as is so often the case these days, it gets worse. Now it has come to light that the Biden White House actually pressured Meta to censor private WhatsApp texts that dared to express disagreement from the regime’s line. Yes, private texts.

Not happy with getting people silenced or kicked off of Twitter, F*c*book, YouTube and the like, the Biden Regime wanted to censor WhatsApp private messages.

But regime wonks made “repeated queries about another Meta property, WhatsApp, a service designed for private messaging.” Almost all of WhatsApp’s users make use of the platform for just that — private messages with one other person. Zweig says that “according to Meta, 90% of WhatsApp messages are from one person to another,” and while the app does have a group option, “groups typically have fewer than 10 people.” Yet Biden’s handlers wanted to censor disagreement even on WhatsApp.

Go read the whole thing.

High Hopes

So we haven't listened to any Pink Floyd in way too long. Let's correct that.

This song is "High Hopes" by Pink Floyd from the 1994 album Division Bell.

31 March 2023

Friday Links - 31 March

Wombat-socho is up first with a post I should have included on Tuesday. Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Riley Gaines

Swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed for the University of Kentucky in the NCAA finals against infamous troon “Lia” Thomas, has had some harsh words for the NCAA and also for elite athletes who thanked her privately for coming out against “transgender” men in women’s sports.

The Other McCain - Nashville Shooting: Expert on Violence Agrees That Crazy People Are Dangerous

Oh, she killed six people including three kids, but the IMPORTANT thing is to make sure we use the “correct” pronouns. Gotcha.

Adaptive Curmudgeon - Miscellanea. AC offers up some sanity in an insane world.

I do have one question. What the fuck are people thinking?

The mix of bad ideas repeated on a loop and growing weirdness is unstable. The Bidenverse’s inevitable decay has gone to ludicrous speed.

Tuna at Chant du Départ - It all started with a woman's suggestion!!

I came across what is probably a little known piece of history that covers the beginnings of the car radio to the development of a highly successful aircraft. I got it through email, but I also found it on the interwebs. This link has most of the story, but not as in depth as the one I'm sharing below. Enjoy.

Again from The Other McCain - The Unlimited Wretchedness of MSNBC

But being a liberal in the media means never having to question your values, because you are surrounded by like-minded people, and are never challenged by anyone whose opinion makes any difference to your well-being. In fact, liberalism endows its advocates with carte blanche, a practically unlimited license to misbehave, so that Jeffrey Toobin can masturbate during a Zoom meeting with his CNN colleagues without damaging his career prospects. And if you work for MSNBC, you can say anything — anything at all — as long as you never forget that your main job is to blame Republicans for all evil in the world:

Chicks on the Right - This Is Where We Are. You Good?

This is the way. Ridiculing the absurdity of how low the transactivist community has taken the country. Exposing its complete lack of logic and its denial of basic science.

Pirate's Cove - Kentucky Passes Big Law To Protect Kids From Groomers, Women From Gender Confused

This has obviously made the groomers very upset, like those at the Washington Post

Clayton Cramer - There Was a Warning

Not enough time for police to intervene but still a warning.

Finally from The Other McCain - BREAKING: TRUMP INDICTED

You can read the whole thing. Basically, Democrats want to outlaw opposition. Trump’s real crime — why he’s actually being prosecuted — is that he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. So now they’ve gotten one of their reliable party henchmen, Soros-funded DA Bragg, to convene a grand jury in Manhattan (where Hillary got 87% of the vote in 2016) to indict Trump on the basis of a far-fetched theory that the payment to Stormy Daniels was somehow felonious.

WaPo Doesn't Like Facts

From Bearing Arms: WaPo wrestles with 400-million privately owned guns

They take apart a WaPoo article on the AR-15. There are a lot of problems, but this is perhaps the stupidest. The article claims that the AR-15 didn't exist before the 2000s. (You can debunk the following by going to the WiKi.) Then what was it exactly that Clinton's ban targetted in the 1990s?

Now, I have no idea where Bump got his claim that AR-15s and other modern sporting rifles didn’t exist as a consumer product until the early 2000s, especially since his employer just ran a 10-part series on the AR-15 that included a look at how it’s been marketed since the 1960s, but that mistake pales in comparison to the idea that public safety is tied to the number of firearms in the hands of peaceable Americans.

Click thru. (Hat tip MaddMedic)

NYPD - Ads Will Solve The Staffing Problem

Because advertising agencies can cure all the recruitment problems of NYPD. NYPD re-ups contract with LA ad agency amid recruitment woes

All the problems. Like low pay, and insane politicians, and the "Defund" crowd, etc. will all be solved by the right advertisement. Or maybe not.

Maybe this ad agency is going have a harder time applying lipstick to that pig. (No pun intended.)

The NYPD has quietly renewed a multi-million-dollar contract with a Hollywood ad agency in an effort to attract new cops — as the department struggles to increase recruitment levels while facing a mass exodus of officers.

Yeah, that will work.

But last year, the class of new recruits joining the force was still 5% smaller than it was in 2016 — despite the department shelling out $3.7 million in advertising in 2022.

Or maybe advertising isn't the answer.

I Like My Vehicle. I Like My Life More

Would calling the police be pointless in this case? Man shot in arm confronting carjackers on city’s West Side, San Antonio police say

According to police, the man had been the victim of a carjacking and later found his vehicle at a West Side E-Z Shop at the corner of West Military Drive and Timbercreek Drive. That’s when, police say, he went to confront the assailants inside the store.

They opened fire striking him in the arm. He could have been hit in the head or the heart. He should feel lucky that they are terrible shots.

So he got his car back. Well, maybe. I'm sure the cops wanted to see what evidence they could get from it, since there was a shooting.

I know there will be people in the comments about how "We have to stand up to the criminals." That's fine if you think that is what you need and/or want to do.

30 March 2023

Self-defense Hat Trick in Houston

But then it is Texas. 3 would-be robbers, burglars shot in Houston while committing crimes within 24 hours

A robber tried to steal a backpack from a disabled veteran. The robber was shot for his trouble; he will survive.

A burglar got into a shootout with a retired cop. Both were shot, and both are expected to survive.

A robber decided to rob two food truck workers. He was shot and killed.

"Crime is down compared to last year, a little bit lower," said HPD Lt. Bryan Bui. "But, it can happen at any given time. You never know when it’s going to happen. People just need to watch out and be aware of their surroundings."

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Great State of Texas. Oh, and self-defense is a human-right.

Liberal Professor Calls for Murdering People You Disagree With

The tolerant caring Left no longer exists. Liberal College Professor Placed on Leave for Suggesting it's OK to Murder Conservative Speakers | The Gateway Pundit

A professor at Wayne State University has been placed on leave after suggesting on social media that rather than shouting down conservative speakers on campus, it’s OK to murder them instead.

Higher education in America has become completely dominated by the radical left. That’s likely why this person felt free to make these comments.

Civilization was nice while it lasted. (Hat tip to Maggie's Farm)

Did The Chicago Tribune Work to Free Guilty Men?

Because journalists love to be "reformers" and they hate Criminal Justice. Justice, or criminal justice is not social justice. But then social justice is not really justice. Chicago Tribune, Eric Zorn under Fire Again | Chicago Contrarian

And it didn't help that the Cook County State's Attorney's Office was afraid of bad press, and hungry for good public relations. Justice? Don't be a fool.

There were two separate cases where the Tribune lobbied to have the convictions overturned. They both were. Neither was retried, and the CCSAO got some great press out of it. In the meantime Justice is still on vacation in the Windy City.

These are chilling claims being made in federal court about the Chicago media, but not one mainstream outlet in Chicago is willing to report on it or pursue the evidence that some exoneration cases in Chicago are being driven as much by media activism as any evidence. This would be same media talking heads regularly demanding “accountability,” “transparency,” and alleging a “code of silence” exists within the police department in one mind-numbing article after another, articles repeated time and again in a city imploding from violence by offenders who clearly have little fear of the police at all.

But then things are never quite what they seem in Chicago.

29 March 2023

Wednesday Link Roundup - 29 March

Pirate's Cove starts us off with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Victory Girls Blog has Sunday morning cafe cocktails linkage.
Vlad Tepes has links.

Political Hat - News of the Week (March 26th, 2026)

How a Private College Mandated Civics Instruction
At Pennsylvania’s Cairn University, the much-needed subject is no longer optional

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 03.28.23 (Morning Edition)

Power Line: The Daily Chart – The Bitter Fruit of the Left’s Cultural Assault, The FBI and the Proud Boys, Kennedy stumps the nominees, and Field this
Protein Wisdom Reborn: A Re-Declaration Of Independence

The DaleyGator - Daily Top 5

AS CHINA WAR LOOMS, NAVY’S PRIORITY IS GOING ‘GREEN’
The “age of American naval dominance is over”, Jerry Hendix, a former Navy Captain warned in a high-profile article in The Atlantic.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 28 March 2023: All Turtles All The Time Edition

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed a complaint against Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao for - basically - not taking the CFTC seriously. (CNBC)
On the one hand, the entire crypto industry is full of this kind of rule-bending bullshit...

Battleswarm Blog - MiniLinkSwarm for March 25, 2022

California’s leftwing Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is using his position as governor subsidize his wife’s own leftwing business empire.

Don Surber - Highlights of the week

ITEM 10: Jim Hoft reported, “Federal Judge Shoots Down Biden Efforts to Block Missouri-Louisiana-Gateway Pundit, et al’s Lawsuit Against Federal Government Violations Against Free Speech.”

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkage

The Air Vent - The True Story of Arizona Lake Election
Watts Up With That? - Germany Rebels Against EU Ban on Petrol Cars

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 03.28.23 (Evening Edition)

Victory Girls: Kamala Goes To Africa To Do More Of Nothing
Volokh Conspiracy: West Virginia Legislature Enacts RFRA, With Abortion Carveout, also, More Elite Law Student Foolishness, This Time at Columbia

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Trans Day of Rage - Transgunman Kills 3 Kid 3 Adults at Nashville Christian School

Ace, Women's Rights Activist Posie Parker Physically Assaulted by Trans Extremists at a Speech in New Zealand David Strom, Trans activists get "mostly peaceful"

Vlad Tepes - Kenya and the dollar, lots on Vaxx damage, and Repressive Tolerance come Liberating Tolerance at Ottawa Train Station: Links 1, March 27, 2023

At one point, this site did a post suggesting that the main focus on nearly all lines of effort against Western Civ, from the glorification of homosexuality to the shots, has been to end the birth rate, or at least dramatically lower it.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 3/27/2023

Nashville School Shooter Identified as Transgender Artist
The Nashville school shooter who killed three children and three adults before being fatally shot by police has been identified as a 28-year-old female who ... uses “he/him” pronouns.

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

Reason‘s Robby Soave reports on yet another abominable move by the woke crowd.
The Swiss Doctor decries “lockdown lunacy.”

Maggie's Farm - Monday morning links

Another outstanding school takes a hit for equity
Civils rights class cancelled after student feels "discomfort"

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 3/28/23

Robert Spencer: "The gravy train ran dry – and a once-great nation is aflame."
Paris Burning

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Tucker Carlson Warns About “TikTok” Senate Bill 686 and Federal Online Censorship Regime

• The one-world beast system is roaring into reality, but is anyone listening? Hohmann
• Was Massive Vote Fraud Confirmed with a Fishtail? Joe Fried

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 03/28/2023

After years of evidence that the FBI has abused its spy authorities, Congress is embarking on a bipartisan effort to revamp a key surveillance law to better protect civil liberties, including appointing special lawyers to advocate on behalf of Americans

I leave you with Sunday Funnies For 03-26-23 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Sunday Funnies from Flopping Aces, MONDAY MEMES from Granite Grok, and The shit I posted on Facebook from Wirecutter.

Compliance Does NOT Guarantee Safety

The gun-hating part of the Left loves to say, "Just give them what they want." They imply that by cooperating with violent criminals, you will be safe. They never seem to want to discuss rape in that context, though I can't imagine why.

The problem with that statement is that cooperation DOES NOT ensure your safety.

This is the Active Self Protection video Motel Clerk Gets Robbed At Gunpoint. The video is about 7 and a half minutes long.

The Department of Transportation Abandoned East Palatine, OH Because of Politics

Are we shocked? Of course not.

They approve projects based on politics. Projects in Blue States get approved. Red States? No.

This is Benny Johnson's video Federal DOT Whistleblower Exposes Dark Truth About East Palestine | BLOWS Doors Off Buttigieg LIES

Reflection

I'm not certain how I ran across this song. I wouldn't usually be searching for anything related to Prince, so I assume that I was reading something about Wendy Melvoin. She was a guitarist who was a part of Prince's group The Revolution.

Anyway this song highlights the incredible singing voice that Prince had.

This is "Reflection" performed live by Prince & Wendy Melvoin on The Tavis Smiley Show, from 12 February 2004.

28 March 2023

Tuesday Links - 28 March

An article from Gavin Mortimer at The Spectator is up first. France is on a knife edge

But beneath Macron’s defiant exterior there will be a nagging worry: that the disorder is contagious, spreading from the minority of violent extremists to the majority of peaceful demonstrators. These are the ordinary men and women who have reached the end of their tether with the cost of living crisis. By instinct many will be pro-police but they are in the street because they are anti-Macron.

Impro Guns - Expedient SMG (NSW Police)

An expedient SMG seized by [New South Wales] Police after a recent drug related raid.

The Other McCain - ‘Limited Scientific Evidence’

Are you kidding me with this? What kind of “journalism” is being practiced at NPR? Perhaps the kind in which ordinary common sense is prohibited.

CDR Salamander - Fullbore Friday: good enough is great

Yep, you knew they were going to make it to FbF - The Flower Class Corvette from one of the books on Phibian's professional reading list (hey, there is an idea I never get around to), The Cruel Sea. For a 205', 33' beam 16 kt ship - she seems multi-mission to me.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 26 March 2023: Surely You Don't Care What Other People Think Edition. What's the difference between sharing data with a Chinese company and sharing it with the Chinese government?

None. The difference is none. All Chinese internet companies are entirely under the thumb of the Chinese intelligence agencies. [SNIP]

Which simply proves that TikTok is acting in bad faith. The company has claimed for years that US user data is held separate from and inaccessible to Chinese operations, but all of TikTok's internal tools have backdoors to allow China to spy on foreign users.

Wombat-socho - Fear And Loathing On The Intertubes. On the harassment of Pikamee over the playing of a video game.

A lot of trans activists online got jumped on with both boots for not policing their own bad actors, and then 4chan got into the act. Every one of the “activists’ who had bullied Pikamee got doxxed, and quite a few of them shut down their Twitter accounts – but not before 4chan and others brought the receipts and exposed them as the lying bullies they were.

Juliette Ochieng - California From the Inside: How I knew they were lying. Apparently there is a new mask mandate in Calif.

Now, since the new mask “mandate” of 2023, I see a lot more people wearing them than was so in the last 18 months or so, but I can’t remember the last time I put on one and no one has accosted me about it. Hey, it might be Black Woman Privilege, but I don’t think so.

Victory Girls - Notre Dame Shows Stanford How Free Speech Works

One can applaud Dean Martinez for her commitment to free speech, while also applauding Notre Dame. After the Stanford brouhaha, the Notre Dame chapter of the Federalist Society invited Judge Duncan to speak on their campus.

Again from The Other McCain - BREAKING NEWS: Nashville School Shooter Is Probably Not a Trump Voter

While I always strive to avoid speculation in situations like this, the (allegedly) transgender person known as Audrey (or “Aiden”) Hale does not seem to fit the MAGA profile.

Kentucky Is Not New Jersey

Homeowners in Kentucky are likely to be armed for their own defense. One man shot after attempted burglary of Lexington home

Lexington police say that at around 3:48 AM on Sunday morning, they received a call for a possible burglary on the 100 block of Wittland Lane.

When police arrived, they found an adult male suffering from a gunshot wound.

He had "non-life-threatening injuries," and was taken to a local hospital

You can file this under "He suffered a failure of the victim-selection process."

Self-defense is a human-right. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Electric Vehicles - A Not So Green Solution

How many minor car crashes are there every day in America? Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car | Reuters

For many electric vehicles, there is no way to repair or assess even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, forcing insurance companies to write off cars with few miles - leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric.

And now those battery packs are piling up in scrapyards in some countries, a previously unreported and expensive gap in what was supposed to be a "circular economy."

Some companies are making it easier (somewhat) to repair or replace batteries. Tesla has made the opposite design decision.

EVs constitute only a fraction of vehicles on the road, making industry-wide data hard to come by, but the trend of low-mileage zero-emission cars being written off with minor damage is growing. Tesla's decision to make battery packs "structural" - part of the car's body - has allowed it to cut production costs but risks pushing those costs back to consumers and insurers.

One of the principles of the environmental movement from way back in the day is the 3-part mantra, "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle." EVs fall flat on the all of those fronts. They require large amounts of mining heavy metals, the batteries are difficult or impossible to recycle, and they cannot be repaired (which I take as the reuse portion of that motto). So how exactly are they saving the world?

Do you really believe that a coal-powered electric grid, subject to transmission losses and the like is more sound than a modern engine? (Hat tip to Granite Grok: Another Electric Vehicle Fail – Even Minor Collision Damage Can Equal “Junked” Vehicle)

The Blessings of Liberty, To Ourselves and Our Posterity

From The Other McCain - Inheriting a Legacy of Liberty

Our freedom as Americans — our nation’s proud claim to be liberty’s “last stand on earth” — has a history, and if we don’t teach that history to our children, how can they possibly understand how precious this legacy is?

It is worth your time to read the whole thing.