People Are Beginning to See the Cracks in Disney

This Forbes article covers only the Star Wars part of Disney, but Disney paid a lot of money for Lucasfilm, and I've heard that Bob Iger has stated that it is 'core' for Disney going forward. Relentless Mediocrity Is Killing ‘Star Wars’

The rest of Lucasfilm consists of Indiana Jones (see the disappointment that was Indiana Jones and the Insufferable Feminist), Willow (they just 86ed the Willow series from D+ it was so bad), and one other thing. Any bets on whether or not Disney will try to reboot Howard the Duck?

The leadership of Star Wars, and perhaps Lucasfilm more broadly, has been lacking. The Star Wars sequel trilogy didn't have unified plan; it didn't have any plan. The author of the Forbes article says this gave audiences whiplash as nothing tied together. As for the shows that have been airing on Disney+, they are rushed, bloated - 8 or 10 hour series that should probably be 90 minute movies - and badly written. And their future plans? Base a new movie (trilogy?) around a character that no one liked in the last movie.)

Star Wars has become relentlessly mediocre. It’s not that there isn’t anything to like about these shows, it’s that they all feel half-baked and overblown, like butter spread over too little bread, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Baggins.

(Disclaimer, I have only seen the occasional episode from D+, nothing has grabbed my attention enough to try and see more, and I have never been tempted to subscribe. Well, I have seen clips on YouTube.)

This article isn't some random blogger complaining that the latest Star Wars movie did something he didn't like. (Though the latest SW movies did some things the author doesn't like.) Forbes is a serious piece of journalism that concentrates, at least in part, on finance and investing. And part of that is acknowledging that the brand of Disney, or some of the brands owned by Disney, seem to be very damaged.

I won't copy any more, you should click thru. It is a magazine article that tries to spell out where Lucasfilm went wrong, and why. Lots of content for Disney+ was one reason why. There is a quote from David Zaslav of Warner Bros. about how streaming didn't work out quite the way the folks in Hollywood thought it would. And there are a few other suggestions as well. Not that Disney, or Hollywood in general, will take any suggestions to heart. Some of the suggestions are fairly basic, and if they were going to do it, they would have by now. (For example, why does Kathleen Kennedy still run Lucasfilm?)

They’re old adages, but good ones: Less is more. Quality over quantity. You pay for what you get. You reap what you sow.

I would add one thing not covered by Forbes. Woke. Disney decided that everything Star Wars would be female. Old heroes replaced. Old heroes actually "deconstructed and destroyed." Because why not destroy the thing that you paid billions for?

I wanted to link to the article specifically because it is from (something of) a financial news source. While a lot of the Hollywood press is finally admitting that the nerds were right when they said Star Wars was being killed by bad content, the financial press is still screaming about how "all is well." Or at least that all will well again very soon.

Hat tip goes to Valiant Renegade and his video KILLING STAR WARS | Ahsoka Numbers NOT Good? | Forbes CALLS OUT Disney Lucasfilm. It is almost 12 minutes, but it is good.

Good Guys 2, Bad Guys 0

Self-defense just might be legal in Maine. That is according to one Sheriff's office anyway. Would-be burglar shot by homeowner; 2 charged with attempted murder

According to the office, the homeowner exchanged gunfire in front of his home with the suspect. Two shots were fired by the homeowner and eight were fired by the suspect. Eventually, the suspect fled the area before deputies arrived.

Detectives responded to the scene to assist with the investigation. The detectives believed that the suspect sustained a gunshot wound during the shootout. The homeowner was not injured. The sheriff’s office said the homeowner was in his legal right to defend himself and his home.

The two bad guys targeted the homeowner. They didn't say why.

The police did catch up with the 2 bad guys, and one of them was shot in the leg.

The two miscreants are charged with:

• Attempted murder in the second degree, criminal liability for the conduct of another, a class B felony
• Attempted burglary in the first degree, a class B felony
• Criminal use of a firearm in the first degree, a class B felony

Self-defense is a human-right.

Woman Fined for Defending Herself from Sexual Assault

Woman fined for fighting back 'too much' during sex attack | World News

Milica Živković walked into court as a victim, but the judge gave her a slap on the wrist for ‘exceeding the necessity of self-defence’.

She was assaulted on the street by a Turkish immigrant in northern Montenegro. She is a student of kickboxing, so she knocked him out. She was fined €82.

The guy who assaulted her was fined only €370 and released from jail.

Milica Živković is planning to appeal.

The next time someone from the gun-hating part of the Left says we should be more like Europe, send them this, and ask them if this is what they mean. Do they mean that women should fined for daring to defend themselves from sexual assault.

Hat tip to @RantyAmyCurtis on Twitter.

A woman in Montenegro was fined for “exceeding the necessity of self-defense” after knocking out the man who was sexually assaulting her.

Outrageous.

The ruling class will victimize you at every turn, and fine you if you defend yourself.

Why Does Anyone Want to Live In NYC?

First we have a story of public transit in the Big Apple. Man stabbed in the head on NYC subway in one of two attacks 10 minutes apart

In the first assault, a 52-year-old man was riding a northbound No. 1 train around 2:20 a.m. when he got into a scuffle with a stranger at the 42nd Street-Times Square station, cops said.

The attacker — a man who cops described as having a dark complexion and wearing a white T-shirt — stabbed the victim four times in the head, authorities said.

He was taken to the hospital and is stable.

Then around 2:30 a.m., a 51-year-old man was knifed in the stomach by a man who snatched his wallet in front of 500 Fifth Avenue, a skyscraper located across from Bryant Park, near the West 42nd Street intersection, police said.

Also stable.

The next story highlights NYC's need for common sense hammer control. Hammer-wielding maniac planned on 'fighting' NYC roommate before killing her and attacking kids, who are 'likely to die': prosecutors

He rented room in an apartment. In another room a woman and her 2 children lived. He was "upset" that the kitchen was often a mess. So he did what any sociopath would do.

The accused killer repeatedly complained about the state of the kitchen and bathroom to the third roommate in the weeks leading up to the brutal attack, according to officials.

If he used a gun, this would be a mass shooting, or an armed massacre of an entire family, or something. As it is, I expect it will be mostly ignored by the national media, unless they can turn it into some kind of anti-Asian screed.

And finally the story of the complete disdain for human life. NYC man killed after teen bashed him in head with rock, causing him to fall into Hudson River.

The two men — who are believed to be acquaintances — were arguing when Cortez allegedly clocked the victim with a rock, according to police.

The impact knocked the older man into the water, authorities said.

I don't know why journalist persist in calling legal adults "teenagers." The fact that he is 19 is beside the point. The fact that he is a legal adult in the eyes of the law is not beside the point.

Wednesday Roundup of Link Roundups - 30 August

The Pirate's Cove starts things off with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

9. Pacific Pundit highlights Joe Biden setting a new record
10. neo-neocon covers re-education in Canada

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 08.28.23

Chicago Boyz: RetroMusical Goodness
Da Tech Guy: A Reminder to the A-Bomb breast beaters and Chin

EBL - MAUI FIRES: BLAME DEMOCRAT OFFICIALS 🔥😡

The devestation were due to official incompetence. Never Forget.
And the media is trying to cover it up and distract.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 27 August 2023: Eight Days A Week Edition

There's nothing like spending a Sunday afternoon sitting in your favourite chair with a warm cup of 9Gbps DDOS attack.
Running Linux on a Commodore 64. (GitHub

The DaleyGator - Daily Top 5

Free speech today is under assault from the Left everywhere and all the time.
You already know about the federal government’s pervasive Censorship Industrial Complex, pressuring all the big social media companies to suppress what they deem “misinformation”

Vlad Tepes - Tucker Carlson in Hungary, plans to interview Putin, US escalates war, Gay weekend in Ottawa: Links 2 for Aug. 28, 2023

5. US deploys Amphibious Assault Ship to Black Sea with hundreds of troops
Lots of people are still supportive of this war. But how can they build that support on information coming from the Biden admin

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 8/29/2023

AP Poll: Almost 70% of DEMOCRATS Say Biden Too Old to Run Again
A new Associated Press/NORC poll has found that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe Joe Biden to be too old to run for a second term

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Judge Sets J6 Trial for Super Tuesday Eve

The great Victor Davis Hanson at Am Great worries they are Saving the Rule of Law By Destroying It "We're reaching the point where the once unbelievable has become the banal."

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

Pierre Lemieux observes the absurdity in anti-discrimination legislation.
Sixty years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Ron Bailey surveys changes in race relations in America.

Don Surber - Highlights of the week

ITEM 1: The Hill reported, “Fox News is the debate’s biggest loser.”
Fox won because the debate helped do what Rupert Murdoch wants to do — re-elect Biden.

Small Dead Animals - Sunday On Turtle Island

Another Democrat city success story. Judge in Trump case is scion of Marxists.
Global Warming Scam News: Trust the climate cult. Today In Islam: A Michigan Imam (JW).

Political Hat - News of the Week (August 27th, 2023)

US Navy destroyer to be fitted with hypersonic missiles
The USS Zumwalt is the lead ship of the Zumwalt class of naval vessels. She has been described as the largest destroyer in the world

Bacon Time - Sunday Linkage

The Air Vent - Additional Proof of Large-Scale Democrat Funded Voter Fraud in Michigan
Watts Up With That? - The Climategate Gang Rides Again!

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Mark Levin on Trump's Georgia indictment: 'This is 100 pages of Bull****'

• Sunday: Vivek Ramaswamy v. Chuck Todd, As Media Push Racism Narrative: CTH • Wokism: The Latest Critical Theory: Granite Grok

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 8/28/23

Lloyd Billingsley: "The Bureau escalates deadly violence."
Biden’s FBI Shoots First – Avoids Questions Later

Maggie's Farm - Saturday morning links

The Biden Admin Is Going After Another Common Household Item in the Name of Climate Change
First they came for Chapelle, then they came for Santana

I leave you with From the "Front" from The Feral Irishman, Sunday Funnies for 08-27-23 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Sunday Funnies from Flopping Aces, and F*cking Mondays gifdump from Wirecutter.

Use the Tools at Hand to Defend Yourself

Also, don't break into other people's homes and "confront" them; they might be armed. Lakeview man whacked home intruder with a machete, Chicago police say - CWB Chicago

Lakeview is one of the 77 neighborhoods in Chicago.

Curcio allegedly entered his neighbor’s apartment through an unlocked door around 1 p.m. Saturday and confronted a 36-year-old man who lives there in the bedroom.

When the situation turned physical, the victim fetched a machete that his female roommate “keeps…by her bed for safety,” according to the report.

When just having a machete didn't stop the guy from attacking him, he started hitting him with the machete, striking both arms and wrists.

Cops found him by following the blood trail. The crazy thing is he didn't want to go the hospital, despite the fact that he was "bleeding profusely." Cops did eventually convince him to let paramedics take him to the hospital.

Clayton Curcio, 32, could not attend his bail hearing over the weekend because he was still hospitalized and scheduled to undergo a second surgery to repair severe injuries to both arms, according to court and police records.

They never said what the confrontation was about. But then, as The Other McCain points out regularly, Crazy People Are Dangerous.

Nancy Wake - WWII Spy The Germans Called "The White Mouse"

The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) of WWII has fascinated me since I ran across it a few years ago while studying parts of that war I hadn't encountered in school. Ian Flemming was involved with it, and some of the characters in his books would be based on people he knew during the war. If you have never encountered that particular part of WWII history I can recommend Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat. (That link will take you to a old post of mine. I found the book at my local library.) In many ways the stories are better than what Flemming would write after the war.

Nancy Grace Augusta Wake: 30 August 1912 to 7 August 2011.

Nancy Wake was one of the many women who worked for the SOE. Nancy Wake obituary: SOE agent during the second world war nicknamed 'the White Mouse' by the Gestapo.

In the run-up to D-day, Wake, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which was eager to recruit French-speaking women to serve as couriers.

Vera Atkins, who worked in the SOE's French section, remembered her as "a real Australian bombshell. Tremendous vitality, flashing eyes. Everything she did, she did well". Her training reports record that she was "a very good and fast shot" and had a good eye for fieldcraft. On several occasions, she "put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character".

In April 1944, Wake was dropped by parachute into the Auvergne region along with Major John Farmer, leader of the Freelance resistance circuit. Wake was a woman of very high energy, he said, with "very clear ideas of how she wanted everything done". On landing, her parachute got stuck in a tree. One of the Frenchmen greeting her said he hoped all trees could bear such beautiful fruit. "Don't give me that French shit," she replied with her customary bluntness.

There is a lot more at that link.

For a more lighthearted look at her career, you could see her entry in Rejected Princesses, Nancy Wake. (Well-behaved women seldom make history.)

She rescued Jews and POWs. She blew up bridges and kept over seven thousand French rebels in line. She had a bounty on her head worth five million francs.

She was called The White Mouse by the Nazis because of her ability to allude them.

Marooned

Here is a song I hadn't heard in a very long time, until Pandora included it in one of my evening playlists recently. I forgot how good it is.

This is "Marooned" by Pink Floyd from their 1994 album The Division Bell.

Support Firearm Education

Professor David Yamane has a worthy request. Raising Funds for Student Field Trip to the Gun Range

As in previous years, the first meeting of Sociology of Guns Ver. 9 will be at the gun range where students will have the opportunity (but not be required) to shoot a .22 pistol (Ruger Mark III), a 9mm handgun (an Avidity Arms PD-10 sent to me by the manufacturer for range day), and an AR-15 style .223/5.56 caliber rifle.

While I believe that Professor Yamane does limit the class size for his seminar, this is still a lot of ammo, and range time.

In the past two years, all 16 students have taken the opportunity to shoot all three guns, which is amazing considering most have never shot any gun before.

I've posted about the professor's seminar in the past, and he has extensive posts on his blog about the seminar, the participants, the guest speakers, etc.

He is doing good work, and needs some financial help.

I have again created a “goal” on my Buy Me a Coffee page of $300 to cover the cost of ammo, electronic hearing protection, and a shooting bench. Any overages I will put toward defraying other class-related costs like guest speakers and course materials.

You can also donate via PayPal if that is more familiar to you.

Give New Content a Chance

We all know what we don't like about modern, corporate-controlled pop-culture. We don't like what Amazon did to Tolkien's masterpiece. We don't like what Kathleen Kennedy did to Indiana Jones. We don't like what Warner Bros did to Henry Cavil. We don't like what Marvel and DC are doing to comics. Complaining is easy, but what do we do about it?

It's not enough to simply react and criticize what we don't like in modern pop culture and entertainment. We also need to praise what we do like. ... We need art that speaks to the times we're living in, and reflects what people are thinking and feeling today, and that also gives us a sense of peoples' hopes for the future.

This is basically a call for new content to be created. Expecting the corporations, who have destroyed everything good that they have touched, to come up with new and innovative stories is a waste of time.

It is also a call for people to give independent movies a chance. Go back and watch Sam Raimi's original Evil Dead from 1981, if you're unclear on what they can do. The production values will be low, but you might just find a movie that has a new idea, or covers a topic that the big studios won't. Sound of Freedom is basically an independent film. It's production budget from about 7 or 8 years ago, was about 15 to 20 million dollars. That is a long way from the $120 million Warner Bros. spent on their latest catastrophe, Blue Beetle.

Note: Disney picked up Sound of Freedom when they purchased Fox, and they kept it on a shelf for 6 years or so, before Angel Studios was able to purchase the rights. It's almost like they wanted to stifle that message.

They won't all be great cinema. There is one that Chris Gore reviewed recently call Trashcans of Terror. I'm not expecting great cinema, but it might be the next Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (that got a sequel!) or Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

There is a list, after the embedded video of some places where you can find independent content. Some of it can even be found on Amazon Prime, or via the Hulu app. There is a lot of horror, but that is in part (see the Evil Dead reference above) because you can achieve great horror and suspense without spending a fortune on special effects.

This is The Dave Cullen Show video Rebuilding Pop Culture…

Here is a list of places to find independent entertainment. It is in no particular order (just the order in which I discovered them) and it is probably not complete. If anyone knows of another source, please leave a comment.

• Gravitas Ventures
• A24
• Angel Studios
• 1091 Pictures
• Indie Rights
• Not So Sane Entertainment
• Wild Eye Releasing

In addition to movies, there are people making independent comics. There is Eric July, of course. Mandy Summers and her Jack the Ripper: Vampire Hunter comics also come to mind. Gabe Eltaeb has an independent comic, or 2 in the works or in production. I'm sure there are more.

Tuesday Links - 29 August

The Other McCain is up first with another example of how Crazy People Are Dangerous

Everybody agrees Portia Odufuwa is dangerously crazy, and yet officials keep releasing her to terrorize others:

Lone Star Parson is up next with a Musical Interlude. DFTR

Feel it's right to post this again.

Again from The Other McCain - ‘The Blind Side’ and Business Reality

Oher recently filed a lawsuit claiming that the Tuohys cheated him out of his rightful share of the proceeds of that film, a claim which the producers of the film have now rebutted — or, at least, they’ve tried to clarify the facts, contrary to misinformation promoted by the media.

Wombat-socho - FMJRA 2.0: Thy Eternal Summer Shall Not Fade

At this time last week, I was in the Las Vegas VA hospital with IV drips of Rocephin and Vancomycin going into my veins in a successful effort to exterminate the vile bacteria that were trying to kill me. I’m home now, feeling better, and have another four days of Levaquin ahead of me until I’m 100% again.

Meep at Stump - Sunday Sumo: September 2023 Banzuke Released

Back in May 2019, Asanoyama won the Grand Sumo Tournament, and at the time he was ranked Maegashira 8. Trump was at the tournament to give a prize — the President’s Cup to the winner of the tournament.

Jonas J. Campbell - Everything Woke About Disney Junior Firebuds | Pre-school Disney | Reimagine Tomorrow

It's a Disney Junior show aimed at children as young as two-years-old, so just how woke could it be? The Walt Disney Company's pre-school channel tells the tale of two working moms and their gay ambulance partners as they abandon their daughter in the park.

Professor David Yamane at Gun Curious - Still More on Why Gun Ownership Rates Are Underestimated in Surveys

I have written previously about how survey research underestimates the rate of gun ownership in the United States.

The main sources of “false negatives” (people who own guns but tell survey researchers they do not) are (1) people who don’t want outsiders to know they have guns, (2) people who...

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 28 August 2023: Tell Me O Muse Edition

Amazone just sent a Dear John letter to users of its Honeycode service. (Honeycode Community)

This was a platform that allowed people who didn't understand how to build applications to build applications that they didn't understand.

The results were rather predictable.

Tam at View from the Porch - Useless Karens

I often refer to NextDoor as "Karens dot com", and for good reason.

While it might be useful for parting with the occasional used appliance, getting a recommendation for a local tree removal service, or posting lost dog notices, the vast majority of the content on the site is an annoying morass of Gladys Kravitzes with too much time on their hands airing their beefs and paranoid fantasies.

The Other McCain again - Best Mug Shot Ever

Wile E. Coyote could not be reached for comment.

Texas Homeowners Are Still Armed

They are also on the side of the police. Texas homeowner catches alleged burglar, holds him at gunpoint for cops

So a guy decided it would be a good idea to burglarize a Texan's detached garage or garden shed. (I looked at several stories; they only said "building on the property." Could have been anything.)

The homeowner confronts the would-be burglar and holds him at gunpoint. When a cop finally does arrive, he starts resisting arrest.

Deputy Chase Ceder responded to the scene where the suspect, identified as 47-year-old Brian Schmitt, attempted to resist arrest before two residents of the property assisted the sheriff’s deputy.

A second cop arrived, Sgt. Meagher, and the guy was taken into custody for burglary of a building and resisting arrest.

The Sheriff’s Office had nice things to say about the community.

"The Sheriff’s Office would like to commend the citizens involved for their quick thinking, willingness to act, and assistance of Deputy Ceder in this case," the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page.

As I said, I looked at several news stories on this incident, one that stood out as being particularly bad is from the UK's Mirror. (Not the greatest news organization on the planet.) Armed Texas homeowner stops burglar and holds him until cops arrive

I won't quote anything from them, in fact I hesitated to give them a link, but for completeness I did provide one. They have to go out of their way to prove how much disdain they have for the very idea of armed self-defense, maybe of self-defense at all. This shows up mostly in how far out of their way they went to talk about the competing self-defense data, and how Harvard, and all the right-thinking people, (left-thinking?) refuse to accept any number of self-defense incidents that shows self-defense might actually be a good thing. Click thru if you care to.

In the meantime, self-defense is a human-right, even if it isn't your legal right in the United Kingdom. Self-defense would seem to be your legal right in Texas.

The Continuing Decline of Our Country

This started with a post by Lone Star Parson last week. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't. Then I tried to rationalize it, but that failed as well. And I've written about signs that society is breaking down for a long time. And so here we are. I could make this post longer. KOMO produced at least two other documentaries on the decline of Seattle, for example. It is long enough as it is, since the documentary from KOMO linked below is 30 minutes, and then the shorter video on Portland.

First we have a photo gallery from Lone Star Parson: Urban Hellholes

Everyone here knows it but many choose to ignore it; Europeans can scarcely comprehend much less believe it, but our major cities are urban wasteland hellholes. Seriously, I'd email pals in the UK from Detroit in '98 and I don't think they believed me.

No, fools. The urban, asset-stripped carnage of the Motor City seemed like hyperbole, mind blogging perhaps to them, wild exaggeration. But no, I was pulling punches.

Click thru for photos of Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

This is not a problem limited to the east coast. So let's look at the west coast.

It is worth referencing this documentary KOMO News documentary: A Tale of 3 Cities. It is a documentary that reviews Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. It talks about the reemergence of diseases in LA that were a problem in the dark ages. But maybe that is where we are, at the start of the next dark age. I have mentioned this program at least one other time, it is 3 years old, after all.

A more recent view comes from Portland. (4 months ago) Portland's Meltdown: A Progressive Experiment That 'Has Gone Colossally Bad.' I'm sure that some will object to the fact at it is from CBN, but is 6 minutes, or so of images of Portland and statements from people who live and work there.

Leftist Lexicon Update

Okay, so here is yet another post that has been stuck in drafts for a while. HeyJackass! brings us the new dictionary entries from the Left, or at least from Chicago. This was in observance of the first 3 months of the new Mayor's term in office. (Things haven't started out great for Brandon Johnson!) From HeyJackass! we get 90 Days Later

It's all about sensitivity.

In the past few months we’ve been instructed to use new and more sensitive terminology to describe what was once considered criminal behavior.

• “They’re young” - use this term to explain away anything; the verbal equivalent to a get out of jail free card.
• ”Silly decisions” - if used in conjunction with “they’re young”, anything and everything can be excused; may as well be a presidential pardon.
• ”Large gatherings” - replaces the 1920’s era term of “mob action” as we will no longer associate years of divestment in our youth with mobsters of the Prohibition Era. (See the video link below.)
• “not involved in high-risk activities” - one who is the opposite of a criminal.
• “certain lifestyle” - excused and approved criminal behavior
• "equitable revenue collection" - not sure, but when using the term “equitable” in this fashion, it’s best to replace with the term “retarded” instead.

Digital Bullets

Nita Strauss is one of my favorite guitarists. She plays lead guitar for Alice Cooper most of the time, but she also took some time in the past year to do a solo project.

Chris Motionless is the founder of Motionless in White, a Heavy Metal band out of Scranton, Pennsylvania. I ran accross them recently (last year?) and I like a few of the songs I've heard, or maybe that should be the few songs I've heard. I need to dig into their work some more.

This song is "Digital Bullets" by Nita Strauss, featuring vocals by Chris Motionless. It was a part of her album The Call of the Void, which was released on July 7th of this year.

Fun fact: The Call of the Void is also the name of podcast/horror story that aired (vocals only) in 2020. I have no idea if they are related.

"Digital Bullets" is a commentary on the way people attack one another on social medial. You see a lot of people, who apparently didn't know who she is, were very "upset" when Demi Lovato (or her team) selected Strauss to be the lead touring guitarist on Lovato's latest tour.

“[Songwriter Johnny Andrews] asked what made me angry,” says Strauss of Andrews’ co-writing process. “And I said, ‘All these motherfuckers on the internet who tell everybody else how to live their lives but don’t have any real-world experience!’’

Here is a bit from the lyrics. (You can find all of the lyrics in the YouTube description of the video.)

Never knowing what it's like
To chase a dream, to sacrifice
You can't stand to see them win

Fire away
Fire away
You don't have to show your face
Shoot em down
Shoot em down
You can't wait to take them out
Firing round after round after round
Firing round after round after round
You'll be safe and sound
Firing those digital bullets

He Suffered from a Failure of the Victim-selection Process

Civilization was nice while it lasted. Off-duty corrections officer turns tables on would-be carjacker, shoot him at Philadelphia gas station

The 35-year-old female victim was pumping gas for her 2018 black BMW just after 10:30 p.m. in North Philadelphia when the 22-year-old Black male suspect approached her at gunpoint and demanded her keys, the Philadelphia Police Department said.

A struggle ensued and despite being knocked to the ground, she was able to draw her own weapon. They both sustained injuries.

Officers on patrol heard the gunshots and rushed to the gas station, where they found the suspect lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. A handgun was recovered from underneath him.

They both were taken to a local hospital in stable condition. He was arrested at the hospital.

Philadelphia, which is being called "Killadelphia" by more people every day, is showing the cracks in civilization. It is approaching what Hobbes wrote about in his book Leviathan. This is not a new idea. Hobbes published Leviathan in 1651. In that book he describes the State of War that ensues when law and order break down.

Western Civilization is built on a foundation of law and order. Without law and order, you can't have nice things. You can't have anything really. Or as Hobbes stated it, when there is no force-of-law to keep people in check, things break down. No one will save or build if things can be stolen or destroyed on a whim. Philadelphia displays that, as does the exodus of retail from places like San Francisco, that have decided shoplifting is perfectly OK.

In any event, self-defense is a human-right. I'm glad she had the training and the weapon to fight off this attack.

It's Not About Justice, It's About Winning

There is no justice in this case. Gurnee man exonerated after serving nearly 29 years in prison for murder of ex-wife files lawsuit against officials

“Herman’s wrongful conviction was the result of a fabricated confession, manufactured and concealed evidence, and false testimony by law enforcement, by public servants who abandoned their professional and ethical obligations to falsely acquire this conviction to advance their careers,” the [lawyers] said in a statement.

Forensic evidence that stated a time-window for the murder which was just wrong. The original estimate - more accurate - was NOT provided to the defense. You can give them a pass on the DNA evidence from 30 years ago, but not the rest.

And now the family of the deceased is also left without justice. A 30 year old cold case... I'm sure that will be easy to solve.

The System is a bureaucracy. It protects itself, and it seeks those things that advance the careers of the bureaucrats. Convictions are important. Winning is important. Justice is a distraction. The System sent an innocent man to prison for 29 years because it helped someone advance their career.

Hawaiian Electric Destroys Evidence in Wildfire

I'm shocked that power company could start a wildfire. I thought it was global warming. Of course after seeing what happened in California, I would not want my company to be decimated either. Maui fire: Hawaiian Electric faces scrutiny for handling of evidence - The Washington Post

The Hawaii power utility believed to have started the deadly Lahaina fire removed damaged power poles and other equipment from a key fire scene, potentially affecting evidence that is part of an official investigation into how the blaze ignited.

And to make matters worse, the ATF is investigating.

This is only the agency’s third wildland fire investigation, a spokesperson said. Usually, it’s the U.S. Forest Service’s role, but since the Maui fires were not on any national forest lands, ATF is the primary federal investigative force.

What could possibly go wrong?

Why not ask the Forest Service to investigate under the authority of the ATF? Why not at least borrow some people who know what they are doing? Because that would mean that the bureaucracy would have to admit it isn't perfect. Oh, and they might conclude that something other than Global Warming Climate Change was at fault.

The Jacksonville Loser

From The Other McCain - The Neckbeard Menace: Pathetic Loser Ryan Palmeter’s Jacksonville Massacre

Click thru for the details, a definition or two of "Neckbeard," and more commentary than I can copy here.

Hey, kids, let the old man tell you something: Don’t ever do this.

If you decide that you life is so ruined and hopeless that you want to commit suicide, well, that’s bad. But don’t kill a bunch of random people before killing yourself in an attempt to make your death “signicant.” And for God’s sake, if you’re ever tempted to write a “manifesto,” stop to ask yourself why your life took such a wrong turn, and whether your problems are really all your own fault.

Climate Protesters Are Shocked to be Arrested for Breaking the Law

I've never heard of Freedom News before, but I found this story thanks to The Social Media Platform Formerly Known as Twitter. Burning Man Festival Road SHUT DOWN, Attendees Fight Protesters and RANGERS RAM Blockade and Point Gun at Activist’s Head – NEVADA

So they blocked the road with a trailer and chained themselves to it. The Burners were pissed of and started a ruckus, but the real entertainment began when the Nevada Rangers decided enough was enough, destroyed their barricade, and arrested them.

Navada is not Portland or Seattle.

The group blocked a main thoroughfare using a trailer, lock-ons, and banners with the words “BURNERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!”, “ABOLISH CAPITALISM”, and “GENERAL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE”.

There is a link to an alternate view of the incident after the embedded video.

This is the video Burning Man Festival Road SHUT DOWN, Attendees Fight Protesters and RANGERS RAM Blockade - NEVADA

Here is that other, shorter video, by way of Twitter/X.

Disney Live-action Remakes: The Substitution of One Limiting Trope for Another

You take one aspect of a heroine that you don't like, and you substitute an aspect that no one likes. Is this a win?

Disney hates the "Damsel in Distress" trope, and so is substituting the "Perfect Girl Boss" trope. Which is worse. There is a difference between telling good stories, and hitting people over the head with the popular tropes of the day.

But somewhere along the road something changed. Disney continued to expand its storytelling, but quite meaningful changes made by someone like [Linda] Woolverton, evolved into bombarding audiences with loud social messaging.

This is Sidney Watson's video The age of insufferable Disney princesses...

Though the best quote is...

It's like being gas-lit for 2 hours, after paying $50 for popcorn.

Disney Live-action Remakes: The Worst Films of Our Time

For a long time Disney made a lot of money on these films, even when they were horrible, because parents trusted that Disney would not indoctrinate their children. Disney has lost that trust. And people are waking up to how awful the movies are. (Disclaimer: While I have seen a few of the movies, or parts of them anyway, I have not seen all of them, and don't plan to see any more of them.)

Chris Gore is one of my favorite film critics. Probably because he also makes films himself. He is one of the few people I trust about what movies I am going to spend my time on. Though to be fair, I don't give much time, and even less money, to Hollywood these days. I will see a few of the movies that came out this year. Openheimer is one of them, if only because I know the history and am curious to see how they handled it. (I hated The Imitation Game, which I saw for similar reasons.)

I don't love anything about Disney live-action remakes. I think these are the Worst Films of our time, that represent everything wrong with Factory Filmmaking. ... Studio executives and lawyers deciding they need to make a movie to somehow preserve the intellectual property.

This is a long interview that touches on many aspects of films and filmmaking. I have it queued up to the 10 minutes (or so) in which Chris discusses the Disney Live-action remakes.

From Film Courage we get the following video: "Dear Hollywood..." - Chris Gore [FULL INTERVIEW]

He Wasn't Shot Because He Was Trespassing

But you have to get to the very end of the story before they admit that. Police: Homeowner shoots suspected trespasser in Colerain

He faces trespassing and menacing charges.

Menacing means he was a threat, which is why the homeowner was not arrested.

The homeowners didn't know him and they shot him as they investigated noises coming from the back part of their home.

The guy who got shot ran away, but cops found him and took him to the hospital and then to jail.

It remains to be seen if the DA will agree that self-defense is legal in Cincinnati. Self-defense is a human-right.

Good Guy with a Gun Won't Be Charged

So self-defense IS legal in Michigan. Prosecutors: Customer who shot suspect during attempted robbery in Cassopolis was justified

This is the incident where the customer, holding a 6-pack of beer (not Bud Light), drew his legally carried weapon and shot a guy trying to rob the store he was in. He never set down his beer.

The customer who shot the suspect in an attempted armed robbery at a gas station in Cassopolis last month will not be charged, according to prosecutors.

The guy who got shot, is facing charges.

The suspect in the attempted armed robbery, identified as 35-year-old Cordeleus Anthony Martin of Dowagiac, was charged with armed robbery, assault with intent to rob while armed, felonious assault, and habitual offender (fourth offense notice). According to prosecutors, Martin was armed with a knife during the incident.

This is a link to my post from August 1st with the details of the incident.

One Size Does Not Fit All

You would not believe the amount of time I have spent "discussing" issues of concealed carry, about actually concealing a firearm. Most men, and some women, will say, "You should do exactly what I do, since it is the only good solution." Yeah, not so much.

Most of the discussions revolve around, "What works for you, might not work for me." I'm happy that you have something that works for you, but maybe I can't dress like I'm a photographer about to go on Safari in the wilderness." Maybe my weight might make a difference. Etc.

Probably the only "discussions" that got more heated is about which gun is best, or what gun a husband should buy for his wife. Hint: you need to pick out your own weapon, because the grip needs to fit your hand the way your shoes fit your feet. (When I was teaching NRA safety classes, guys tended to either buy what they liked - the worst example being .44 magnum snubby - or a .22 long rifle.)

Anyway, InRangeTV has video that finally addresses the fact that what works for you, might not work for me.

This is the InRangeTV video Concealed Math with Annette Evans.

Investors Are Starting to Wake Up to the State of Disney

While some people are still hawking Disney stock, some have begun to question what the F-ck is going on with The Mouse. Disney is on a ‘woke path to ruin.' Even ‘Snow White’ actress hates her own story

Earlier this month, Disney announced it is continuing to lose massive sums of money, $512 million in the most-recent quarter, on its streaming service Disney+. Disney stock is down 56% from their March 2021 high. And their one revenue producing asset, their amusement parks, saw a downturn in attendance this summer.

To combat this, Disney has not gone back to basics and focused on the family friendly entertainment that made it an amusement behemoth. No, it’s continued down its woke path to ruin, making sure to leave nothing in its wake.

Some in the financial press tried to spin half-a-billion dollars as a win, because the loss was smaller than expected. (I'm not surprised that Bob Iger employed spin; it is part of his job.)

That article goes on to talk about how Rachel Zegler is trashing the Disney Legacy in the form of the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs animated feature from 1937. She has been going on about how a love story is so out-of-date, and how she actively hated the character as a child. It is hard for me to see why she has been chosen to play Snow White in the live action remake, because it is turning out to be more of Snow Brown and Seven Portland Baristas. I think it will be a financial disaster at the box office, along the lines of the recent Little Mermaid live action. It pulled in $500 million at the worldwide box office, which means that it will end up losing a couple of hundred million dollars for Disney.

And investor are beginning to notice that things are not going well. Disney stock slides as investors lose faith

Shares in the Mickey Mouse firm sank 3.9% on Thursday (August 24).

That took them to their lowest in almost nine years.

The stock is down 5% since Bob Iger failed to Wow people on the earnings call August 9th.

There are still "investor magazines" and other news sites hawking Disney as a "bargain" now that the stock price is "depressed."

But there is a bigger problem than lackluster earnings. I believe Disney is a broken brand.

What movie has the Disney Company put out in the past 2 years that has been a success? Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness made $952 million at the box office, but if cost, according to Forbes, $294 million to produce. Let's be conservative and say that with marketing costs they were all in at $400 million on that movie. That means that the Disney Company saw $75 million worth of profit from that movie. If they spent more than $106 million on marketing, and I believe that they did, that would have come out of that $75 million profit.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 probably had a similar box office haul. Depending on what the actual cost of production was, and the marketing spend. Officially, Disney admitted to a $250 million production budget, and they never talk about marketing costs, but if they spent $100 million on marketing (they likely spent more) then on the $845 million box office, Disney probably realized a profit of about $75 million.

That can't offset the losses on Elemental, Lightyear, Indiana Jones and the Insufferable Feminist, or Little Mermaid. And it doesn't consider the money spent on "direct to D+" crap like Peter Pan. When you add it all up, Disney lost something like a billion dollars on movies in the past 18 months. It won't get better with The Marvels, due out in November, or the stuff they have planned for next year.

The current spin is on declining parks attendance. It is because of excessive heat. It couldn't possibly be because the cost to attend the parks has become astronomical, or that you MUST use a Disney app to schedule every aspect of your attendance, or that it is difficult to understand exactly what you need to do to schedule attendance at the parks even if you can afford a ticket. It doesn't have anything to do with their closing Splash Mountain, or a Star Wars land built around the era of Star Wars (the sequel trilogy) that has No Fans. It can't have anything to do with drag queens trying to sell princess dresses to young girls in the Magic Kingdom? And it definitely doesn't have anything to do with parents' wholesale rejection of their not-so-secret gay agenda. No. It is all about the weather.

And while Universal has seen attendance drop since 2019, it is not at the level that Disney has seen. Disney Is Slipping, Universal Rises, and Other Surprising Findings From Theme Park Attendance in 2022.

Disney is still larger than Universal, but Universal Studios Japan is #3 (based on attendance), Universal Islands of Adventure is #5 and Universal Studios Florida is #7. Universal Studios Hollywood comes in at #13.

The parks were the one part of Disney that ruled. If they have managed to damage their brand by injecting The Message™ (hat tip to Critical Drinker for that) then they have little left to hope for in terms of a speedy turn around. Why do people want to go to Disney? Well kids want to go to see the characters they are familiar with and enjoy. But if they are failing to produce new characters that resonate, and working overtime to destroy their old characters, then kids will not want to go to the parks. And even if kids want to go, who can afford to go?

Disney+ (streaming in general?) is a money pit. Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm movies are losing hundreds of millions of dollars. The parks are slipping. It is hard to ignore that. Still there are some that claim Disney is a bargain with its stock price at a 10-year-low. They aren't asking why it is at a 10 year low.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 26 August

The Right Way is up first with Top of the News

Where All The ‘Ukraine Money’ Is Going - IOTW Report
The Shokin firing wasn’t about corruption after all. Who would have thought?- The New Neo

Animal Magnetism - Animal’s Hump Day News

No shit, Sherlock.
Gee, I wonder why?
I love a happy ending.

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 08.24.23 (Afternoon Edition)

Nebraska Energy Observer: Over the Parapet
Outkick: Baltimore Orioles Owner Tells Fans He Can’t Keep Young Stars Without Raising Prices

EBL - MAGA X: Tucker and Trump are having an interview on Twitter X tonight ☀️

AoSHQ: Biden not running in 2024? and Morning Report 08.23.23
EBL: Tucker and Don, is Steyer moving to stop Biden and put in Newsom 2024?, and Attorney John Eastman vows to fight Georgia Indictment

The DaleyGator - Friday Fun, well, mostly anyway

IOTW- THEN, they came for the booze
Chief Nose Wetter is a smart ass, I can respect that

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Booked

Phil Holloway at Front Page calls Georgia’s Trump Indictment a Partisan Political Hit Job. "Malicious - and absurd - overreach." Andy McCarthy at NRO (cited at Hat Hair) calls The Fani Willis case the J6 Commission of indictments.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 08.25.23 (Morning Edition)

The Lid: Debate Night In The Cream City
Legal Insurrection: Only Paved Road Out of Maui’s Devastated Town of Lahaina Was Barricaded During Wildfire Evacuation

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 24 August 2023: Worlds Enough And Apple Edition

A new ruling from the NHTSA says that car makers must comply with Massachusetts' right-to-repair law and provide a standard mechanism for retrieving data from the cars' computer systems for owners and independent repair shops. (Tech Crunch)

Vlad Tepes - Five items on the state of the communist revolution as it is in North America for August 23rd, 2023

2. Rudy Giuliani basically gets it
3. ‘We Refuse to Watch Things Burn’: Canadians Steal Firefighting Gear as Justin Trudeau Yells at Facebook

Small Dead Animals - Thursday On Turtle Island

Trudeau’s Canada: Eco-terrorists block street in Ottawa. Ontario university claims merit based hiring causes microagressions or something. Apparently only the Soviet version of communism was evil.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 8/23/2023

Exclusive: Man Violently Assaulted in Portland at Antifa ‘Festival’ While Holding Up Sign That Read ‘Andy NGO is Wrong But So is Beating People Up’

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 08.25.23 (Evening Edition)

Victory Girls: DOJ To SpaceX: Hire Illegal Immigrants Or Else, FEMA Still Focused On DEI Training While Maui Mourns, and Joy Reid Loses Her S**t On Live TV Over Trump Mugshot

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

“The political war on ride-share companies in California is relentless.”
James Pethokoukis is appropriately relentless in his criticisms of the “degrowth” movement.

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

“What’s the ‘anti-racist’ perspective on the atomic mass of boron?”
San Fran State hires ‘anti-racist’ engineering dean

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 8/25/23

“Television news today is fully circumscribed by the internet.”
Tucker and Trump are TV’s Gravediggers

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Garland’s Theater of The Absurd: Why the Hunter Biden Scandal is No Laughing Matter

• Biden Pushes 4 Woke Military Officers for Promotion as Sen. Tuberville Holds Firm Fred Lucas
• Wall Street denizens fleeing NYC Jazz Shaw

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 08/23/2023

Biden faces brutal backlash for ‘poor taste’ jokes while visiting Maui wildfires site: ‘Comic relief tour.’
Hawaii resident: Biden is a ‘vile human being’ for joking about Corvette when ‘There were children who were incinerated into ash.’

I leave you with Wednesday's gifs from Wirecutter, Wednesday Memes .. from MaddMedic, and Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #1292 from 90 Miles from Tyranny.

If Cops Act Like Criminals...

They should expect to be treated like criminals. ‘They saw the truth': Man thanks jury for acquitting him of attempted murder after he shot at police

He was walking while black, and a bunch of cops drove up on him, and pulled guns. He defended himself.

Of course that isn't how they wrote up the incident report.

The State Attorney’s Office initially charged Lopez with four attempted murder charges of a law enforcement officer and other gun-related charges for shooting at four Miami-Dade Police officers back in 2020.

On Monday, a jury acquitted Lopez of all charges. Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez ordered Lopez to be released.

He spent 3 years in jail awaiting trial.

Oh, and self-defense is legal in Miami.

The Problems Caused By Decriminalizing Drugs

You don't have to love the War on (Some) Drugs™ to see the problems that drugs are causing in major cities. Oregon's Brutally Hard Lesson about Decriminalizing Drugs | National Review

Even Oregon progressives are seeing that there are problems.

This is not an either-or issue; you can look at the War on Drugs and find it counterproductive, ineffective, and turning otherwise law-abiding people into criminals simply for being curious about the feeling of getting high. You can heed the lessons of Prohibition and conclude that certain human activities can be unsavory, unpleasant, or potentially self-destructive, and should still remain legal. But you can also recognize that making something legal will increase the demand for it, and that the bad consequences of those newly-legal actions are likely to proliferate rapidly.

This idea that drugs and decriminalization bring problems is not new. See Seattle is Dying | A KOMO News Documentary. Even though it is a few years old, I can still recommend it. And it isn't all a tale of woe. It does offer at least one tested solution. But back to Oregon...

If decriminalizing hard drugs made places like Oregon safer and more pleasant places to live, more people would sign off on that change in the laws. Unfortunately, the opposite appears to be the case. Ryan’s report is chock full of jaw-dropping and disturbing figures and anecdotes. “Portland police investigated a record number of drug-overdose deaths in the city. This year, they topped that record in early August.”

Now I am no fan of the War on (Some) Drugs™, but open-air drug markets, addiction, and the criminal activity that goes along with all of that has to stop. I'm not sure how you stop it, but handing out free needles, and turning the landscape into a hazardous waste zone is not the solution.

There is a lot more to the story. Click thru.

Hope

Another ballad from a soprano with a beautiful voice? Why not.

Floor Jansen is one of my favorite artists. She is usaully the lead singer for Nightwish these days, but she released a solo album earlier in the year.

This song is "Hope" by Floor Jansen from her March 2023 album Paragon.

We could all use some hope today.

Hope
Hope is where the heart beats on
And even when you changed, and all feels wrong
A better day will come if we stand tall, to give us hope

The lyrics can be found at this link.

Apparently There Was a Debate

The Other McCain brings us the following. Debate Aftermath: The Media React

The way you can tell that Vivek Ramaswamy did well in the debate is that the media have now begun attacking him, in quite the same way that they’ve been attacking Ron DeSantis for the past several months. Whereas, by the same token, you know Asa Hutchinson has no chance of winning because the media never say anything bad about him.

More details. More spin. More apathy. (The last is on my part, anyway.) But you should click thru. It's your civic duty.

The Next Bit of AI Released on an Unsuspecting World

From Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 25 August 2023: Damned If You Damn Edition

Introducing Code Llama, a state-of-the-art AI for programming. (Meta)

While this has the same general limitations as other LLMs (like ChatGPT), you can download itself and mess around with the code and models without worrying about leftist lunatics wrapping the whole thing in the curare-dipped razor wire of wokeness.

There are a couple of restrictions on the code license, and more on model license, but you can get the code and the data, and once it's out there you can rely on someone to ignore all the rules, and once that happens there's no putting Pandora's cat back in the bottle

The best you can say is that it isn't Woke.

Friday Links - 25 August

The Other McCain with probably the funniest story of the week. (Of the day, anyway.)THEY’RE CANCELLING BIG BUTTS?

Great minds think alike, and so when word got out that “Fat Bottomed Girls” is omitted from an updated version of Queen’s Greatest Hits, Ed Driscoll asked if “Sir-Mix-a-Lot [will] be able to escape the PC police?”

Watts Up With That - Bernie Sanders: Confronting Chinese Tyranny is Undermining Climate Cooperation. (What's a little tyranny between friends?)

I never imagined Bernie Sanders would argue the case for throwing human rights under the bus, that he would suggest we should overlook state sponsored forced labor and genocide against an entire ethnic group.

Jews Can Shoot - City of Oakland’s Air Horn Personal Defense Advice is Stung by the Babylon Bee

In other words, “Be a good victim” and arm yourself with a really loud air horn. With bars on the residential doors and windows, it also begs the question of who the police are locking up. It’s obviously not the criminals.

Again from The Other McCain - A Smoking Gun, Next to a Bloody Corpse: Joe Biden Is Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

Now my buddy Matt Margolis at PJMedia is talking about the latest “smoking gun” confirming the quid pro quo of bribes from Burisma being the reason Joe Biden got a Ukraine prosecutor fired. Whenever I see that phrase now, I’m like “smoking gun”? How many more smoking guns do we need?

The Federalist - There Is Something Demented About Biden’s Lies

Though most politicians idealize or romanticize their past, it is unlikely that there has ever been a bigger fabulist in presidential history than Biden. Let’s again recall that this is a person who, during a presidential campaign, felt comfortable appropriating a stranger’s hard-boiled, mine-digging, poetry-reading life in Wales. And Joe didn’t merely steal Neil Kinnock’s words, as reporter Maureen Dowd noted in 1987, he copied the story “with phrases, gestures and lyrical Welsh syntax intact.” One might call that sociopathic behavior.

Tam at A View from the Porch - Space Race News

On the heels of the Russian probe making like a Baikonur lawn dart in the lunar surface, the Indian space program has successfully landed its probe and is ready to go lunar roving.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 23 August 2023: Unbaked Babies Edition

Facebook is one of the few honest actors in AI research right now, and even if they're doing it out of spite - firing open-source torpedoes at rival companies - it's still welcome. I'm not going to shed a tear if decades from now submersibles are taking vacationers to the wreck of OpenAI at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Clayton Cramer - A Case On Which I Worked Won

Columbus wanted its own assault weapons ban and limits of firearms possession by 18-21 year olds.

And my work on this will air condition my garage.

From The Other McCain again - Did Anybody Watch the Debate?

The Network That Fired Tucker Carlson™ hosted a debate Wednesday night between Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and six people who will definitely not get the Republican presidential nomination.

Moonbattery - Transparency Redefined

Transparency now means we can keep no secrets from the government. It was supposed to work the other way around. But now it doesn’t:

The Way Domestic Violence Should Be Handled

Actually the way it must be handled, because expecting The System to save you is a losing proposition. 13 women use firearms in self-defense against exes, criminals over 2-week period across US

The Supreme Court has ruled in at least one, and I believe two, cases saying that the cops have NO DUTY to protect you, not even if you have a restraining order. You are literally on your own.

At least 13 women across the country used a firearm to fend off assailants between the waning days of July and Aug. 12, local news reports show.

“Can we take a minute to appreciate how many women have protected themselves and others with firearms in the last two or so weeks? It’s basically a highlight [reel] of just how important the right to keep and bear arms is for us, too,” Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Amy Swearer posted on X, previously known as Twitter, detailing the cases.

Even if the cops want to save you, they are not there (wherever you are) when bad things start happening.

You Are On Your Own in Chicago

Cops won't intervene even if they see you being robbed. At least 23 armed robberies reported Sunday as Chicago cops *again* see a robbery in progress, but don't chase the offenders - CWB Chicago

And, for the second time in less than a week, Chicago police officers witnessed an armed robbery in progress but did not try to catch the offenders, who continued to rob innocent victims on the street freely.

Why, because they are effectively being told not to. Try to arrest someone as a cop in Chicago, and there is a good chance you are the one who will end up on trial. They didn't want cops to enforce the law, because putting criminals in jail is unfair. Now they have exactly what they wanted.

Two people were robbed in the 2000 block of North Stave. Two more were held up in the 1700 block of North Talman. And a couple was robbed in the Wendy’s parking lot at 2215 North Washtenaw, reports show. At Wendy’s, the robbers hit the male victim in the head with a gun.

Then the wheels came off starting around 4:30 a.m., with at least eleven more armed robberies unfolding in an hour.

Civilization was nice while it lasted.

Just an Average Weekend in Our Nation's Capital

I'm really going to miss living in a civilized society. We have a couple of stories about last weekend in Washington DC that I tripped over when looking for something completely unrelated.

First up we have the fact that future generations have absolutely no respect for the law. DC police arrest boy, 12, following armed carjacking in broad daylight: 'It's gotten so bad' | Fox News

What were you doing at 12 years of age? I'm guessing it wasn't stealing cars.

The incident took place at about 1 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr Avenue and U Street in Southeast D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release.

A woman reported that a suspect approached her and demanded her keys, according to Metro police. She also said he had an object in his waistband that looked like a firearm.

It must not have been too convincing, because when she refused to hand over the keys he ran away. My guess is that he will have a firearm within a month or 3.

And you know things are bad in DC when people from Iraq are calling it a war zone. Uber driver from Iraq survives SUV sprayed with bullets in DC, says city is like a war zone: 'God saved me'

An Uber driver caught in gunfire in Washington D.C. during a drive-by shooting over the weekend said the city feels like a war zone, similar to his native Iraq, which he fled.

The driver, who didn't give his name to FOX DC, said he was near the Cathedral of St. Matthew on Saturday when his Toyota Highlander SUV was hit with a barrage of gunfire.

There is apparently video from inside the Uber SUV, but Fox News provided neither a copy nor a link to where it is. There are photos of nearby vehicles. At least one person, not in the SUV, was injured.

There is more at both links.

As these stories often do, these two stories have reminded me of the poem "The Second Coming," by William Butler Yeats. The entire text of the poem, it isn't long, can be found below (after the break). The part I always think of is...

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

What kind of life does a 12-year-old have to lead, that he thinks it is a good idea to embark on carjacking as a way of life? How can you live when someone might open-fire on you at any minute, for apparently no reason? Think on those questions and weep for the future of our country.

Civilization was nice while it lasted.