This song has been stuck in my drafts folder for a couple of years. I have no idea how or why I stumbled across this song, other than I like The Pretty Reckless.
This is "Heaven Knows" by The Pretty Reckless from their 2014 album, Going to Hell.
Is this Metal? Probably not really. More Rock. But since I make the rules...
Emmanuel Odunlami, a music producer in the UK, was wearing a fake Patek Philippe Nautilus. If real, it could have been worth anywhere from $170K up to $450K (estimates vary).
When they attacked him, he didn't fight about a fake watch. They killed him anyway. Gang who killed man for fake designer watch jailed
Jordell Menzies, 27, who was convicted of murder and robbery, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 31 years.
Louis Vandrose, 28, Quincy Ffrench, 28, and Kavindu Hettiarachchi, 31, were jailed for manslaughter and robbery.
Vandrose, of Thornton Heath, and Ffrench, of Tottenham, were sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Hettiarachchi, of Harrow, was jailed for 13 years.
The death was in 2022 and the verdicts were handed down in 2024. So why post about it now?
This is Colion Noir's video Gun Control Fail: He Complied & They Still Killed Him
I haven't had a cooperate with criminals post in some time. It is almost like the media is quietly hiding any story in which "Just give them what they want" has proven to be false.
Because if you're going to break the immigration laws, you might be breaking other laws. Illegal NY Harbor boat tour operator charged after deadly capsize | Fox News
This is a story that I saw last week, but I didn't really follow it. Boating is more dangerous than a lot of people believe, especially in a crowded harbor.
A New Jersey man accused of running illegal boat tours allegedly ignored multiple safety warnings before an overcrowded New York Harbor excursion turned deadly, killing a 5-month-old baby and her 27-year-old mother.
Manuel Hernandez, 46, of Manville, was charged Monday with two counts of misconduct and neglect of a ship officer resulting in death after the Yamaha AR210 he was piloting capsized Saturday night [August 8th].
I have the work captain in quotes in the title to this post, because that is a license that Mr. Hernandez does not hold. You have to have a Captain's License to carry passengers, and you have to have on-the-water experience to get that license. Getting a what is known as the 12 pack isn't too hard, that would let you carry 12 passengers, assuming that your boat can hold that many. To carry 14 passengers you need (I think) a Master's License, which is not easy to get. And in any event, the boat in question had a maximum capacity of 10 people. He also was not carrying the required safety gear.
But then I saw a bit on Social Media, that sent me looking for additional information. ICE arrests N.J. man who operated alleged illegal tour boat that capsized killing a mother, daughter
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Hernandez entered the United States from El Salvador and is in the country unlawfully. He was arrested by immigration authorities after an investigation by the Coast Guard Investigative Service confirmed Hernandez's unlawful presence in the United States, according to the department.
I'm shocked that someone in the country illegally would be doing other illegal stuff. OK, so no one is shocked.
William Teach of Pirate's Cove brings us a definition of irony. Haitians Are Being Sent Back To The Wonderful, Awesome Nation Of Haiti
In 2018, when Trump said Haiti was awful, Hollywood Libs jumped to declare how wonderful that country was. Today, when we are sending Haitians back to Haiti, Hollywood Libs have a different opinion. It is almost like they don't have any real positions, aside from "Orange Man Bad."
This post from X sums it up nicely.
Trump, 2018: "Haiti is a sh!thole country."
— Publius (@OcrazioCornPop) June 27, 2026
Hollywood Libs: "Haiti is a great, truly beautiful country. Trump is a r*cist!"
Trump (& SCOTUS), 2026: "Temporary means temporary, Haitians have to return home to their great, truly beautiful country."
Hollywood Libs: "Haiti is a… pic.twitter.com/MIihPkcYot
William Teach asks the relevant question.
I thought it was great? Didn’t all that Clinton Foundation cash, as well as all the money and aid given after the big earthquake fix this?
Click thru for the details.
I'm not tied into the 24 hour news cycle the way I was a decade or more ago, so maybe every network covered this. Germany: Weidel slams government after mass brawl between migrants with axes leaves several seriously injured in Düren city center
Residents of the German city of Düren watched in alarm on Sunday [9 August] evening as up to 20 people fought uncontrollably in the street near Bonner Platz, a central location in the North Rhine-Westphalia city. Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel has also responded to the video of the incident, which shows women shoved to the ground and victims mercilessly beaten while they lie defenseless.
What's that? People who have no relation to Western Civilization don't act with the virtues (mercy) of Western Civilization. How can that be?
Hat tip to Gate of Vienna: Culture-Enriching Axe Battle in Düren
Yesterday evening two groups of rambunctious culture-enrichers got a little rowdy in the German town of Düren, in North Rhine-Westphalia. In their collective enthusiasm, they went at each other with baseball bats and axes (in the video below, the weapons look more like hatchets than axes, but maybe I’m wrong).
I miss civilization.
Miguel Gonzalez has musical interlude every Sunday. Or I haven't noticed him missing any, but life happens. Sunday Repose
Today he serves up a live performance by Jaco Pastorius with a performance recorded live in Montreal. I am not sure when it was recorded, but Pastorius died in 1987 at the age of 35, so it was some time ago. One of many artists gone too soon.
I prefer the work Pastorius did with Weather Report to most of his solo work. But that was the era in which he started his decent into addiction.
From The Life of Jaco
The mid-1980s were difficult for Jaco and those who loved him. He was evicted from his New York City apartment and crashed with friends for as long as he could. After a tumultuous visit to his father’s home in Pennsylvania, Jaco briefly entered a psychiatric facility. The bassist didn’t like the effects of the lithium given to him as treatment. Jaco returned to New York and continued to play, but with his reputation for performances that could be inspiring one night but dispiriting the next work was hard to find.
It was during that period that his relationship ended and his drinking increased.
Freight trains in the US are close to 3 miles long. Similar freight trains in Europe are more like half a mile long. Long-haul trains in the US, carrying standard shipping containers, are typically double stacked using specially-designed well cars. The bridges and tunnels in Europe simply do not have the vertical clearance, and the weight-bearing capacity to manage that.
Also, rail in Europe is typically owned by government, and it is optimized around passenger traffic. Freight gets the leftovers.
All this means that rail, carrying freight, in the US is much more efficient, economically and environmentally, than rail in Europe. That is the amount of fuel used per mile of cargo is much better in the US than it is in Europe.
The fuel cost per ton mile drops as the train gets longer because the locomotives are already burning diesel to move their own weight.
Locomotives use the most fuel when starting a train from rest. (A body in motion wants to remain in motion.) So when you can double stack containers, on trains that are nearly 3 miles long, and run them non-stop for a 1000 miles, as opposed to having to wait for passenger trains to get out of the way in every other town, the efficiency improves a lot.
This is the Steel on Rails video Why Europe's Freight Trains Are So Short — and America's Are Three Miles Long
Maybe he thought in a Blue State like Washington, people would not be armed. Deputies: Pierce County man dead after attempted break-in at former residence
The homeowner told the sheriff’s office that the man had previously lived in the house but had been evicted. On the night of the shooting, he said, the man had shown up at the house and demanded to be let in before forcing his way inside.
He was shot multiple times, and did not survive.
While Washington State has a long history of recognizing self-defense, it is early days in the investigation, and the DA's office will ultimately make any determinations about charges in this case. Pierce County, Washington, is home to Tacoma, which is the county seat. I have no idea how that DA views self-defense.
Self-defense is a human right.
It looks that way to me, though it appears to me that they are also behaving stupidly. Trinidad faces cascade of crises, city resignations
Trinidad, Texas, is about a 70 mile drive southeast of Dallas. It had a population of 860 as measured by the 2020 census.
There is plenty of cooruption in big cities, like Chicago, and the police departments in places like that can get caught up in it as well. But small town America is not immune, and the Good-ole Boy Network can often make them think that the rules are whatever they want them to be.
Their troubles started when Jennifer Combs was using F*c*book to collect reports/complaints about the water in Trinidad. Police arrested her and charged her with a felony. That was back in May.
When we first introduced you to Jennifer Combs, the facts already sounded hard to believe. The Texas mom said police arrested her after she used Facebook to collect complaints about discolored water in Trinidad.
Combs spent 23 hours in jail on a felony false alarm or report charge. A Henderson County grand jury later declined to indict her. She has since filed a federal lawsuit alleging political retaliation.
While she was in jail, a man protested outside of the jail. He was arrested. A judge dismissed those charges, and the city fired the judge. The grand jury and the judges dismissal, were in July (I think).
It was about at this time that the city apparently fired the city attorney.
Both the firing of the judge and the attorney are legally suspect, as well as morally insane. The speculation is that the attorney told the city commission that they couldn't fire the judge, so they fired him as well.
It was about at this point that the Texas Rangers got involved. From water problems to city resignations, Trinidad faces cascade of crises
Three Trinidad city officials resigned [in mid July] and the Texas Rangers have launched an investigation after an area resident filed a complaint with the law enforcement agency amid concerns about discolored water coming from the rural Texas town’s pipes.
All of that prompted the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to open an investigation, and the county prosecutor to chime in. Henderson County won't take Trinidad police cases after controversial arrests, state investigations
Today's letter reveals that the Trinidad Police Department is under investigation by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement; the scope of the investigation remains unclear.
Speculation, mine and others, is that the arrest of Combs, and the arrest of the protestor basically come down to cops saying, "You have disrespected my authority."
In the meantime, a judge has questioned information given to him by Trinidad officers in relation to an arrest warrant, the chief of police has resigned, a few other city officials have resigned, and the Henderson County, District Attorney has cut the PD off at the knees.
On Monday, the Henderson County District Attorney's Office and County Attorney's office informed Trinidad that it will no longer take cases from the Trinidad Police Department.
Oh, and those water quality issues that led to the arrest of Jennifer Combs... Turns out there are water quality issues in Trinidad. Texas environmental report details Trinidad water issues; state issues deadline for improvement plan
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has been investigating the city's water supply. On Monday, TCEQ released their findings.
TCEQ's report found discolored water in Trinidad that "exceeded the standard."
Tests of the water found disinfectant contamination that exceeded federal maximums by more than 300%.
There are more details at all of those articles. Now this all mostly blew up a month ago, around 21 July, the letter from the DA is about a week or 10 days old. As mentioned, Combs was arrested in May. I only tripped across all of this because of insomnia, and a YouTube video.
This video is from Brandon Grable, ad Texas Civil Rights Attorney who runs the YouTube channel Clearly Established. Prosecutor Cuts off Trinidad Police Department. The video is a bit over 13 minutes. It covers all of this, and more.
When you're losing the liberal moms in Portland, you've gone too far. Portland mom urges people to 'be loud' after suing kids' school over pride flag | Fox News
Portland, Oregon, mother Allison Roberts told Fox News Digital Tuesday she hopes her fight with her children's elementary school over a trans-inclusive flag will inspire others to speak out for their beliefs.
Ms. Roberts describes herself as a liberal Democrat. (Is there any other kind allowed in Portland?
She didn't have a problem with the Pride Flag. It was the Trans Flag that was apparently was a bridge too far.
According to the Liberty Justice Center, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of Roberts last week, she initially expressed concern last year over Meriwether Lewis Elementary School's decision to repaint its traditional rainbow pride flag with an "Intersex-Inclusive Progress" variant and an "identity flower" assignment given to her 11-year-old child that asked students to identify and discuss their gender identity with classmates and teachers.
So the school trespassed her, even though she was speaking out away from the school, and a government agency really can't punish you over your speech.
Roberts was later issued a one-year trespass order after a heated exchange with another parent, barring her from attending school events, including her child's graduation ceremony. When she reached out to the school for clarification, Roberts was reportedly told it was a result of engaging in "harassment, intimidation, and threatening behavior" as part of a pattern of "animus and harassment targeting vulnerable members of [the] community."
Here is the quote that the Left hates.
There's no hate speech exception to the First Amendment.
There are more details if you click thru, including details on the completely, predictable lawsuit. (Hat tip to William Teach at Pirate's Cove.)
The Right Way is up first with Top of the News
Byron Donalds Will Face Dem David Jolly for Governorship After Florida Primary Wins - Briebart News
Florida Primaries - Evi. L Bloggerlady
Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 08.19.26
Shark Tank: Florida GOP Highlights Dominant Tuesday Primary, Flips Page To November
The Political Hat: Neo-Integralism
EBL - Soylent Green Alternative Ending
Soylent Green
AoSHQ: Morning Report 08.20.26
Leigh Taylor-Young as Shirl
Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 21 August 2026: Double-Stringed Balalaika Edition
Meta glasses aren't the problem. (The Verge) (archive site)
No matter how much The Verge wants to claim they are.
Assholes are the problem.
Small Dead Animals - Wednesday On Turtle Island
China Carney’s Canada: What’s wrong in Canada? Save Blackie’s relatives in Cuba. Carney’s Choo Choo train.
The Democrat Party’s America: Whines like a loser. VDH – Hating Israel. In Havana.
A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - FBI Raids Eric Swalwell's House, Office
Hat Hair's John Sexton, Will Iran Escalate As an October Surprise? It wouldn't be much of a surprise, but the media would fall for it, and might even conspire with Iran.
Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 08.21.26 (Afternoon Edition)
CDR Salamander: The Hidden, Slow, Wet & Deadliest of All Drones – MINES!
Don Surber: California regulates spare tires
Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog - LinkSwarm For August 21, 2026
“Socialists Now Say That Shoplifting Is A-OK.”
Funny how all those films of riot never show people stealing soap and toothpaste, just flat screen TVs and Nikes. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
First-year classes this fall range from Wonder Woman to ‘queer’ art to the occult.
Even Federal work-study students get the woke pushed on them.
2. Yesterday in NY a women who converted to Islam, or “reverted” as the Muslims claim in their bizarre temporally inverted universe, was arrested for planing a Jihad attack against government targets.
Gates of Vienna - News Feed 8/21/2026
9 Million Images Exposed by People Finder ClarityCheck
A reverse image search and people-finder service that promises users that their reverse image search is “private and secure” has been found to have left over 9 million image files exposed
Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 08.21.26 (Evening Edition)
Victory Girls: Prince Harry And Meghan Markle: Once Upon A U-Turn, also, CNN: The Network Who Thinks Its Viewers are Drooling Morons
Watts Up With That: The 1970s Oil Crisis: Never Forget
Flopping Aces - Communists in America: Abolish The Police, Seize The Corporations, Erase The Borders
The government already spends almost $1 trillion on K-12 education and yet somehow across the country we have places where few, if any, kids can read or do math at grade level.
The Glibertarians - Wednesday Morning Links
Oh, please. Here’s a newsflash: everything ragebaits Democrats.
“It was all just a joke. Trust us.” And I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona to sell you if you buy that bullshit.
Maggie's Farm - Wednesday afternoon links
From brothels to Medicaid fraud
The White House Needs a Ballroom. The Left Just Hates Who’s Building It.
J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 8/ 19 /26
Child-to-staff requirements raise costs without delivering clear benefits.
Sweden Doesn’t Mandate Childcare Ratios. Why Does America?
Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Why Smart People Keep Falling for Stupid Ideas
Why Smart People Keep Falling for Stupid Ideas Behind the Narrative 📣
Pacific Palisades, Twenty Months Later Chris Bray
United States debt hits $40 trillion for first time in history JTN
Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 08/21/2026
Lindsay Clancy said a voice told her to kill her children; prosecutors focus on when. You will see this woman around the right twitter-sphere, because she killed her children, and lots of other women are supporting her
I leave you with Midweek Memes from Granite Grok, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #4069 from 90 Miles from Tyranny, Thursday’s Oh Gosh What a Week Meme Drop 7-20-26 from Midwest Chick's Place, and Friday night's gifs from Wirecutter.
Because the national media ignores these, as much as they can. Meet the Other Armed Civilians Who Saved Lives Before Jordan Salinas Made Headlines
We get a recap of the In-N-Out Burger shooting and the roll played by Mr. Salinas.
Many other incidents of armed self-defense by ordinary Americans flew under the radar in the weeks leading up to Salinas’ intervention. Here are just a handful of the other defensive gun use stories from around the country that occurred in July:
Click thru for those details. Here is one typical example; there are many more.
July 13, Tulsa, Okla. — Police say that a homeowner shot and wounded a man who came onto his property and threatened to kill him if he resisted the man’s attempt to steal his truck. The man then followed the homeowner into the residence when he tried to leave. The homeowner initially tried to defend himself with a baseball bat, but it proved unsuccessful and he was ultimately forced to fire his gun.
Read the whole thing.
Who knew that college students do drugs? Shocking. Penn State frat brothers charged with running cocaine trafficking ring - CBS Pittsburgh
Two Penn State University fraternities are at the center of a cocaine trafficking ring bust, leading to charges against 14 people, authorities announced on Monday.
Is the DA up for reelection this year or something? Or was this just a slow news day? I guess it is news if they operation was large, but really this strikes me as a dog-bites-man sort of story.
Thirteen of the people charged were Penn State students at or around the time of the alleged drug trafficking ring, from around 2023 to 2024, prosecutors said. The 14th defendant, Thomas Robinson's father, is accused of trying to conceal evidence and obstruct the investigation.
The only thing that surprises me is that the authorities went after them.
Gives new meaning to the term "Higher education."
How did a love of Heavy Metal lead to some great acoustic guitar? Rodrigo y Gabriela are a pair of guitar players from Mexico City who met due to a common love of Heavy Metal. But the music they play, or what little I have heard, is definitely not Metal.
This is "Stairway to Heaven" by Rodrigo y Gabriela from their 2006 album, Rodrigo y Gabriela. It was, of course, originally written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and recorded by Led Zeppelin on their 1971 untiled album, usually known as Led Zeppelin IV.
The Other McCain has an update: The Lindsay Clancy Feminists
Lindsay Clancy is a mother on trial for the January 2023 deaths of her three children in Massachusetts. There is an entire cadre of feminists who refuse to recognize the amount of evidence that she did the deed.
Women are actually rallying outside the courtroom in support of this murderer. And, of course, blaming her husband for it.
The facts of the case are irrelevant to this; Lindsay’s supporters aren’t about facts, they’re about emotion. The core premise of their argument is very simple: No woman is ever responsible for anything.
Click thru for ... whatever this is. And there is plenty of irony, and absurdity.
I miss civilization.
Star Trek premiered on 8 September 1966. 60 years ago this fall. I didn't watch it until it was on syndication, in the 1970s. (We had 1 TV in 1966, and my dad would not watch a SciFi show back then.)
When Nerdrotic says that the fans saved this franchise from the studio, he is right. The studio killed it, in part by starving the show for a budget that could sustain SciFi, and then cancelling it. It lived in syndication, through the 1973 animated series, and eventually through Star Trek fan conventions. The studio would eventually approve a movie. It was a disaster, because they didn't understand Trek. They wanted spectacle, and Trek was always about ideas. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was more true to form.
Since the J.J. Abrams era started with the Reboot (reboot - because Hollywood has no creativity) things have gone to shit. Abrams admitted in at least one interview that he didn't like Star Trek, which probably explains why he tried to turn it into something else.
This is Nerdrotic's video Star Trek is DEAD, Jim - Why it Failed. The video is 23 minutes.
William Teach at Pirate's Cove starts things off with Why Are Leftists Fighting For Hardcore Islam?
It’s something I and others have said for decades: Democrats are Useful Idiots. Especially when they decided they would quietly take the side of Islamic extremists because Bush 43 was president, due to BDS and because they were indoctrinated into this kind of idiocy.
The Other McCain - Florida Primaries: Vindman Loses, Jews Win, Very Bad Night for Hasan Piker
Controversial left-wing podcaster Hasan Piker endorsed [Democrat, Rep. Jared] Moskowitz’s primary opponent, DSA-backed Oliver Larkin — and got stomped.
Massad Ayoob - KNOW THE GUN LAWS OF THE STATE YOU’RE IN
I make my living teaching self-defense. Self-defense laws – when can you use force? – are pretty homogeneous nationwide. Gun laws are something else entirely –what can you have and where can you have it? – and no two states are exactly alike in that respect.
Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 19 August 2026: Triple-Baked Baklava Edition
A federal judge has ruled that a state judge who used AI to handle the entire decision in a case so she could spend the day playing Cookie Run Kingdom or something equally important cannot be sued. (Tom's Hardware)
The state judge's actions may not be reasonable, or even legal, and the decision can be appealed, but the judge cannot [be] sued.
The Silicon Graybeard - NASA and Katalyst end the Swift rescue mission
NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced Wednesday they are giving up on the robotic mission to save the Swift gamma-ray telescope.
Again from William Teach - Your Fault: Cities Sinking Under Weight Of Buildings
Somehow this is all linked to ‘climate change’
Lone Star Parson - Lindsay Clancy
Have you followed the strange, demonic and awful story of Lindsay Clancy? Lindsay was a nurse with three young children, Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, all between 8 months to 5 years old.
Clayton Cramer - Forensic Astrology
Apparently, some of Clancy's defenders are relying on this. What is it?
What is the deal with getting everything delivered? Banana pudding delivery led to fatal shooting during Miami Gardens robbery, cops say
Jabari Joshua Thomas, 19 and Demetrius Tromain Travis, 20, tried to rob a food-delivery person.
Thomas got into the backseat of the victim's car and at one point, allegedly put a gun to the driver's head, the warrant said.
The suspect were also trying to access the driver's CashApp when the driver pulled out his own gun and opened fire, the warrant said.
Travis was airlifted to a trauma center, but did not survive. Thomas was located in Miramar and arrested. The delivery driver was not charged, because Florida has not morphed into Massachusetts.
Miami Gardens, is in Dade County, Florida. It is just a bit north of Miami.
And another way that Florida is not like a Blue state, you are held responsible for the completely foreseeable consequences of your actions. Jabari Joshua Thomas is charged with 2nd degree murder in the death of Mr. Travis. Most of us non-lawyers call that Felony Murder, and it drives the Left bonkers. He was committing a felony, and as a result of that action, someone died; he will be held accountable.
Hat tip to Shooting News and Maggie's Farm.
There are two people from different parts of the country writing about Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union in one week.
Chicago Contrarian has the story I am most interested in. CPS Corruption Exposé Shows Why the CTU’s Reign of Terror Must End — Now
Those who can’t do, teach. And those who can’t teach, govern. That has to stop. We have to stop it
Chicago didn’t wake up one morning and discover itself governed by incompetents.
This disaster was grown, nurtured, and weaponized inside the very institution that now consumes the largest share of your property taxes while delivering ever-worsening results: the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the demons who have possessed it, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), led by the Notorious SDG, Stacy Davis Gates.
Chicago Public Schools consumes an enormous amount of money. What do the students get? That is a good question.
Chicago now spends nearly $40,000 per pupil on a system with declining enrollment, a ballooning bureaucracy, and outcomes that would embarrass a developing country. Functional illiteracy is up. Discipline is down. Parents are fleeing, taking their children with them, continuing the systemic death spiral.
Click through for the details.
Meep at STUMP has a story about the CTU being upset, and then a compendium of stories from the past few years. CTU Making Friends and Influencing People By Suing the Illinois Policy Institute
The subtitle is to the point.
The IPI has been big ole meanies by pointing out the CTU has not been a positive contributor to Chicago education
Meep is an actuary, so her interest in Chicago Public Schools is usually directed at the state of the pensions. (They are not in a good state.) But occasionally she can't help but covering other issues.
So, I’ve been enjoying the hissy fit that the CTU (Chicago Teachers Union) has been having over the past couple of days by saying it’s filing a lawsuit against the Illinois Policy Institute.
She has a bit of information about the lawsuit. Click thru.
