Lives in a Shoe

bannon

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjJ0whe0g--2ix4n37_e3oA

 

Norm Macdonald

Norm Macdonald

The Bugler

For Sure

Who Runs the World? Scott Explains It All to You

 

 

Communing With My Inner Adolescent

Yep -- Henry's been instructed to tell us something.  This is from"Too Tough to Die" from 2006.  

Alcatraz

 

also:

https://www.lifezette.com/video/history-of-americas-most-famous-prison/

 

 

Islam/Inbreeding

I had been holding this until I felt like posting it but now with the Twitter perennial ban of Gavin McInnes I think it should be shown and paid attention to.  Surprising that when I've tried to converse about this in the context of assimilation the result is accusations of Islamophobia or, more politely, a kind of quiet averting of the eyes as if I am a loon and in charity it's best not to look at me.  But here you go. 

 

Fourth!

Tramadol - Not So Good for Dog Pain

Excellent SkeptVet report:

Despite differences in indication, pain assessment, and other important variables, these studies suggest oral tramadol is not likely to be useful as an analgesic for dogs for acute or chronic pain.

Bottom Line
Tramadol has become a commonly used oral analgesic in small animal medicine, especially in dogs. While it appears to have a wide margin of safety and minimal adverse effects, both pre-clinical and clinical research evidence suggest it is unlikely to have meaningful benefits in dogs.  Even parenterally, it is unclear how useful tramadol is for pain in this species. The evidence is strong enough that tramadol should not be relied on as a sole or first-line analgesic.

Links to original study, footnotes. 

These Pipes, These Pipes Aren't Calling...

PIPE DOWN --

Watch ‘noisy piper’ argue with cops over ‘heavy handed tactics’ as he’s arrested for playing TOO LOUDLY on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Headline Writers Who Brought Us "Headless Body in Topless Bar"

The other big ass summit -- I am amused.

 

 

Easy Meat, McLoughlin

Here:

‘Tommy This, an’ Tommy That … an’ Tommy Go Away’
»	UK: Half a Million Sign #FreeTommy Petition
»	UK: MPs Call for Action on Rape Gangs as Government Accused of ‘Letting Victims Down’

Keep Tommy Robinson in mind as you read this review.

Peter McLoughlin spent years believing the Leftist narrative, namely it was 'a racist myth' that organised Muslim groups in Britain and the Netherlands ( grooming gangs ) were luring white schoolgirls into a life of prostitution. But in 2009 he first encountered people who said their children had been groomed like this. These informants had non-white people in their immediate and extended family, and were thus unlikely to be racists. So McLoughlin dug deeper and what he found shocked him: there were mounds of evidence that social workers, police officers, Muslim organisations, journalists and even some Members of Parliament must have known about these grooming gangs for decades, and they had turned a blind-eye to these crimes. He also came across references to incidents where any proof had since vanished. McLoughlin spent several years uncovering everything he could and documenting this scandal before the evidence disappeared. He demonstrates that the true nature of this grooming phenomenon was known about more than 20 years ago.

While he was writing this book, Parliament was forced by rising anger in Britain to conduct its own low-key investigation. The eventual report concluded the grooming problem was basically in one town: Rotherham. Official reports finally admitted there were more than 1400 victims in this otherwise unremarkable town. McLoughlin argues the authorities will continue their cover-up of this scandal, with many thousands of new victims across the country every year. The criminal indicators in Rotherham are to be found in scores of towns across Britain. McLoughlin's book is an attempt to get the public to wake up, for them to demand civilised solutions, because if the social contract breaks down, people may turn to vigilante justice as the prostituting of schoolgirls continues unabated. The book documents the hidden abuse of Sikh victims by grooming gangs, and how Sikhs in Britain have already resorted to vigilante justice.

The book exposes how political correctness was used to silence potential whistle-blowers, and how this grooming phenomenon demonstrates that multiculturalism does not work. Every layer of authority in the British state comes under detailed examination to expose their part in the scandal. McLoughlin leaves no stone unturned, and at 130,000 words in length, it is likely to be the most detailed critique of this scandal for years to come.

Snapback Lincoln

“I work as a valet attendant, and someone tipped me $5 in the form of this masterpiece. I call it the Snapback Lincoln.”

-- Mildly Interesting.

 

 

 

Goodbye to All My Past Darlings

Separating Kids at Border? Not that Simple.

Read the whole article -- think about the Flores consent decree.  Also think about adults arriving with children who are trafficked.  Time to discuss this like adults instead of hurling insults -- and maybe not always demonize people you disagree with.  At least learn some facts. 

The Trump administration isn’t changing the rules that pertain to separating an adult from the child. Those remain the same. Separation happens only if officials find that the adult is falsely claiming to be the child’s parent, or is a threat to the child, or is put into criminal proceedings.

It’s the last that is operative here. The past practice had been to give a free pass to an adult who is part of a family unit. The new Trump policy is to prosecute all adults. The idea is to send a signal that we are serious about our laws and to create a deterrent against re-entry. (Illegal entry is a misdemeanor, illegal re-entry a felony.)When a migrant is prosecuted for illegal entry, he or she is taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals. In no circumstance anywhere in the U.S. do the marshals care for the children of people they take into custody. The child is taken into the custody of HHS, who cares for them at temporary shelters.

The criminal proceedings are exceptionally short, assuming there is no aggravating factor such as a prior illegal entity or another crime. The migrants generally plead guilty, and they are then sentenced to time served, typically all in the same day, although practices vary along the border. After this, they are returned to the custody of ICE.

If the adult then wants to go home, in keeping with the expedited order of removal that is issued as a matter of course, it’s relatively simple. The adult should be reunited quickly with his or her child, and the family returned home as a unit. In this scenario, there’s only a very brief separation.

It gets complicated when the adult claims asylum.  

 

 

Travel Safe Now, Y'Hear?

After pointlessly groping countless Americans, the TSA is keeping a secret watchlist of those who fight back.

Naturally, the TSA’s official definition of troublemaking goes well beyond punching its officers. According to a confidential memo, any behavior that is “offensive and without legal justification” can land a traveler on the list, as can any “challenges to the safe and effective completion of screening.” Anyone who has ever “loitered” near a checkpoint could also make the list. So could any woman who pushes a screener’s hands away from her breasts.

The memo would be more accurate if it stated that anyone who fails to unquestioningly submit to all the TSA’s demands would be found guilty of insubordination. As an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, Hugh Handeyside, told the Washington Post, the policy gives the agency wide latitude to “blacklist people arbitrarily and essentially punish them for asserting their rights.” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-New Jersey) expressed similar worry. “I am concerned about the civil-liberty implications of such a list,” she said.

The watchlist would seem less perilous if the TSA were not one of most incompetent agencies on Earth.

Travel Safe Now, Y'Hear?

Nightmare-Inducing?

 Hopefully these violent delights don't have violent ends.

Boston Dynamics, the company known for its "nightmare-inducing" backflipping robots, has unveiled two new videos that show them autonomously navigating through different terrains, including an office and a lab, and jogging in a grass field.

The clips released Thursday detail the progress that Atlas, a humanoid robot, and SpotMini, a doglike robot, have made. SpotMini, for example, is using cameras to identify and move past obstacles, such as office furniture.

 

'NIGHTMARE-INDUCING' ROBOTS ARE NOW ABLE TO DO BACKFLIPS

"During the autonomous run, SpotMini uses data from the cameras to localize itself in the map and to detect and avoid obstacles," Boston Dynamics said in the video description. "Once the operator presses 'GO' at the beginning of the video, the robot is on its own."

Meanwhile, Atlas' jump over the downed tree trunk isn't elegant in the way an Olympic hurdler is, but it more than gets the job done. If that isn't shocking enough, SpotMini continues its venture outside near grills, walking along a concrete path. That probably isn't what most people envision when they think of a fun-filled BBQ with friends and the family dog.

The videos, which have racked up a combined 1 million views, are the latest to show off these robots, who have terrified plenty of people. One of them is tech exec Elon Musk, who has repeatedly warned about the perils of artificial intelligence. In November, when Boston Dynamics showed off Atlas doing backflips, he said that was just the beginning.

This is nothing. In a few years, that bot will move so fast you’ll need a strobe light to see it. Sweet dreams… https://t.co/0MYNixQXMw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 26, 2017

"This is nothing," Musk tweeted. "In a few years, that bot will move so fast you’ll need a strobe light to see it. Sweet dreams…"

Even Boston Dynamics' founder, Marc Raibert, has acknowledged that its robots can cause fear. In February 2017, he showed off the wheeled version of one of its robots and described it as "nightmare-inducing."

"This is the debut presentation of what I think will be a nightmare-inducing robot if you're anything like me," Raibert was quoted as saying.

BOSTON DYNAMICS' LATEST ROBOT CAN OPEN DOORS

Boston Dynamics, which was sold from Google to Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank for an undisclosed sum last year, has not revealed what it eventually plans to do with its robots.

On its website, the company, which got its start at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it is "changing your idea of what robots can do" and prides itself "in building machines that both break boundaries and work in the real world."

When "Westworld" becomes a reality (or is it already?) and the robot uprising finally occurs, at least we'll know (probably) where it started.

Adulthood Postponed - Galllup

Americans Have Little Confidence in Grads' Readiness...

Education Fraud: Education in the U.S. 2017 Report

Earlier this month, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka The Nation's Report Card, was released. It's not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.

The atrocious NAEP performance is only a fraction of the bad news. Nationally, our high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means high school diplomas, which attest that these students can read and compute at a 12th-grade level, are conferred when 63 percent are not proficient in reading and 75 percent are not proficient in math. For blacks, the news is worse. Roughly 75 percent of black students received high school diplomas attesting that they could read and compute at the 12th-grade level. However, 83 percent could not read at that level, and 93 percent could not do math at that level. It's grossly dishonest for the education establishment and politicians to boast about unprecedented graduation rates when the high school diplomas, for the most part, do not represent academic achievement. At best, they certify attendance.

Read the rest, by Walter Williams.

Elon Musk: Production Hell or Party Balloons? Pick One.

Is Elon Musk – the recipient of over five billion government dollars – really the focused workhorse he proclaims to be, or is he nothing more than a taxpayer-subsidized, scatterbrained mess hopelessly trying to make his science fiction dreams into reality? 

We spend billions of tax dollars on dumber stuff, after all.

And -- is he making a cyborg dragon?  Maybe. The thing is: I like him.  I like big dreams and hyperbole.  Cannot hold it all against him but instead think he's wonderful for pointing us in the direction of thinking about these possibilities.  Somewhere there is a kid who says to himself, "I can make this really happen".  And it will be so.

Man Charged with Stealing Police Dog's Toy

 

It happened April 5 when Eli, his handler and other officers and police dogs were training in a field behind a Holiday Inn Express, with the officers laying scent tracks for the pups to follow. One officer left behind a toy for Eli to find.

 

A man started yelling at them through an open motel room window, police said, demanding to know what they were doing. The officer explained they were there training the dogs, and advised the man not to touch the property left in the field.

 The officer then left to start the track some distance away.

 "When the police canine successfully followed the scent, the dog toy was not where it was left," Troy police posted Wednesday afternoon on the department's Facebook page.

 An officer found the man's white Ford Econoline van in the hotel parking lot — and spotted the toy ball in one of the cup holders.

 The man, who is 40 and from High Point, North Carolina, came outside as police were impounding his vehicle. He was issued a misdemeanor citation for larceny of police property.

 And Eli got his toy back.

The fact that people exist who believe that they can steal a police dog's toy and get away with it does not bode well for civilization.

Monkey Does Not Own Selfie Copyright, Appeals Court Rules

Cute, but no banana.

Scientists Finally Confirm that Uranus is Surrounded by Fart Clouds

Popular Science Explains:

[I]t’s okay if you care more about fart jokes than the very nature of our existence. And since we know you’re wondering, we’ll point out that Uranus’ stinky gas is far from its least appealing quality.

“If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus's clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions,” Irwin said in a statement. “Suffocation and exposure in the negative 200 degrees Celsius atmosphere made of mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane would take its toll long before the smell.”

 

Yayo Sanchez With Dave Grohl

Dave ackowledges a fan's sign, pulls him onstage to play Monkeywrench, and

the fan absolutely nails it. Dressed with Gene Simmons KISS makeup, said fan

shreds a few solos. Dave is so stunned he forgets the Lyrics!

Edit - found Kiss Guy's name - YAYO SANCHEZ! www.facebook.com/YayoSanchez333

The kid has all sorts of stage presence, plus he has that gorgeous hair thing going on. And, um -- he brought his own pick.

Probably eight years ago Billy Joel, in Seattle, had his roadie "Chainsaw" play Highway to Hell during the show.  Bad video taken by a concertgoer (thanks be unto him) -- but you get the idea.  Since we saw him we've wondered who he is and where he is.

 

 

 

Goodbye, Mrs. Bush

U.S. Secret Service agents have continued to watch over "Tranquility" -- the Service's code name for late First Lady Barbara Bush -- since her death. Agents have been by her side since she passed, and her body will be protected until her burial.

Osborne and Funk Brothers

From "Standing in the Shadows of Motown".  Oh my...

Oh oh my..

From the comments: "I think she got the microphone stand pregnant."
 

Happy Birthday to Donna the Gardener

I save these seeds every year.

Radiator Charlie and the story of his Mortgage Lifter tomatoes.

Sometime in the early 40s, Radiator Charlie Byles wanted to build a better tomato. You remember this is a story about a tomato, right? Well, this is how he did it.

BYLES: What I did I took ten plants and put them in a circle and put one in the center.

YOUNG: McCormack has studied this part of the tape carefully and says Byles invented an unorthodox but elegant system.

McCORMACK: Well, he started with four varieties of tomatoes and he placed a tomato called German Johnson in the center of a ring of 10 tomatoes. All these tomatoes were the largest seeds he could find in the country at the time. So, he would go around to the other tomatoes, collect pollen in the baby’s ear syringe, then squirt it on the flowers of the German Johnson. Then he would save seed. After seven years, he felt he had a stable tomato with all qualities he was looking for, and once he was satisfied with that he never worked with any other tomato plants, did any other plant breeding. But he really ran with it after he developed it.

YOUNG: Ran all the way to the bank. Turns out Radiator Charlie Byles had quite a knack for marketing, and sold tomato seedlings for a buck apiece—a lot of money for a little plant in those days. He sold enough of them to pay off the mortgage on his house.

BYLES: I didn’t pay but six thousand dollars for my home, and paid most of it off with tomato plants.

Wikipedia has an article disputing the Byles story, crediting the cultivar to William Estler in 1922.  Facts are hazy.

******************************************

And I've included seeds of:

 

Elephant amaranth (Amaranthus gangeticus) is an eye-catching annual that can brighten your vegetable garden. You use its leaves as you would spinach and its seeds as a cereal-like grain that can be milled into a gluten-free flour, among other uses. The 3- to 5-foot plants are ready to harvest as seed approximately 90 days after planting. Each upright, lumpy red flower head develops into thousands of seeds. Mature plants produce upwards of 50,000 seeds -- plenty to eat or plant.

I grow them every year because they are gorgeous.  I've never eaten either the leaves or the seeds.  My brother Dennis gave me seeds from his garden more than 30 years ago and I've saved them every year -- there are always more than enough to share.  To little kids we say they look like an elephant head with trunk.  But some of us think it looks like a giant hand giving passersby the finger,  My friend Joan calls it the Elip-Off Flower.  They reseed like poppies do.   Scatter seed, lightly cover, keep moist until up.  They like sun and get about 3 feet tall.  I put four or five of the plants in a large pot and cover round the outside with lobelia and marigolds.

*

 

Profound Dogs

The Un-Cuddly Truth About Pandas

In their shrinking natural habitat, the bears are tough, sexually potent survivors, not the hapless bunglers we have created as zoo attractions.

They eat meat, too...Who knew?

Molon Labe

Stop lying about the end game. Send the foul-mouthed children back to civics class. 

This seems like a good time to re-link and re-excerpt Charles Cooke’s pitch-perfect challenge from 2015.

That being so, here’s the million-dollar question: What the hell  are they waiting for? Go on, chaps. Bloody well do it.

Seriously, try it. Start the process. Stop whining about it on Twitter, and on HBO, and at the Daily Kos. Stop playing with some Thomas Jefferson quote you found on Google. Stop jumping on the news cycle and watching the retweets and viral shares rack up. Go out there and begin the movement in earnest. Don’t fall back on excuses. Don’t play cheap motte-and-bailey games. And don’t pretend that you’re okay with the Second Amendment in theory, but you’re just appalled by the Heller decision. You’re not. Heller recognized what was obvious to the amendment’s drafters, to the people who debated it, and to the jurists of their era and beyond: That “right of the people” means “right of the people,” as it does everywhere else in both the Bill of Rights and in the common law that preceded it. A Second Amendment without the supposedly pernicious Heller “interpretation” wouldn’t be any impediment to regulation at all. It would be a dead letter. It would be an effective repeal. It would be the end of the right itself. In other words, it would be exactly what you want! Man up. Put together a plan, and take those words out of the Constitution.

"Cliff’s Notes version: Come and take them, you lame fascist fucks." \\Cold Fury

Dog Love

Sense of Community

Hi-Yo Silver

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty "Hi-yo, Silver, away!" The Lone Ranger!

Melodica Men.

 

 

A Grownup Speaks: "I Am the Majority."

He's courteous and his point is well stated.  

 

Cajun Catherine

Walter Mouton plays Catherine on his B Flat Randy Falcon Accordion for the Valcour Records "Cajun Accordion Kings" Project.

 

Shortnin' Bread

I was thinking about Etta James and found "Shortnin' Bread" which was a wonderful treat.  When I was very little my mom used to sing it to me and laugh.  We'd sing it together, making our voices real low on the "give those chillens some shortnin' bread". So, with all due respect to Ms. James (whose version is below the jump) I will point out that everybody in the known universe, it seems, has done this song.  Kay Kyser, Fats Waller, Spunk Holler Boys, Flatt and Scruggs, Dave Brubeck, Ethel Mertz), the Andrews Sisters, the Blisters (so good I put it below the jump also), the Beach Boys...maybe even Perry Como (it could have happened).  The one I had the most fun with is this: 

From My Childhood

Read All About It In the Daily News...

Dad used to bring home plastic bags full of demo 45s.  One of them was this.  Can't remember what was on the other side.

 

Someday Soon

North Hollywood 1969.  I played the album over and over -- can still remember the little click where the record had a scratch.  Just -- one of the best ever.

 

Model And Mannequin

Model And Mannequin
Giovanni Boldini

Boom Boom Pow

First AND Second Amendment, woo hoo.

WITH YOUTUBE CENSORING EVEN BLAND FIREARMS VIDEO, firearms channels are moving to PornHub. "InRange TV, another channel devoted to firearms, wrote on its Facebook page that it would begin uploading videos to PornHub, an adult content website. 

“YouTube’s newly released released vague and one-sided firearms policy makes it abundantly clear that YouTube cannot be counted upon to be a safe harbor for a wide variety of views and subject matter,” InRange TV wrote. “PornHub has a history of being a proactive voice in the online community, as well as operating a resilient and robust video streaming platform.” PornHub didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the matter."
.

My Favorite Thing About the Gun Control Debate in America

The same people who insist that buying a gun at a store, which at a minimum requires a government-issued ID and background check, is too easy will also tell you that requiring an ID to vote is an impossibly high hurdle to expect average people to overcome.

Saint Paddy's Day

Cousin Pat Mann

Our family had very few girls in my generation.  Patty and I were about a year apart and although she lived in Minnesota and I lived in California I always thought of her with a special bond.  

 

March 16 2018:  Posted by Pat's daughter Stacey:  It is with the heaviest of hearts and streams of tears that we have let go of Mommer's hands and watched as she put on her angel wings. She has touched so many people with those sparkling eyes and contagious smile. We know she's ready to have a party up there and will be watching out for us each and every day. We love you xoxo — with Kelly Mann and Pat Voda Mann.

 

 

http://www.klecatskys.com/obituaries/Patricia-Mann-6/

Bad to the Bone, Achy in the Joints

Elon Musk Is Trying To Save The World. You Should Let Him

Jazz Shaw gets it.

Musk has had his detractors, and as always there have been those who try to drag politics and the usual swamp battles into this. Some said the Falcon Heavy launch with Starman in his red Tesla Roadster was a waste of money. It was “a stunt.” He was just engaging in self-promotion. Others have been suggesting for some time that he’s got a not-very-secret liberal agenda.

As far as I’m concerned… so what. Maybe the guy comes up with some wild and wooly ideas. Maybe his hyperloop will be a bust. (Or maybe it won’t?) Personally, after the Falcon Heavy launch, I paid more attention to his answer to those detractors which he posted on Twitter this weekend. Please read it carefully and with an open mind.

“Life cannot just be about solving one sad problem after another,” Musk said. “There need to be things that inspire you, that make you glad to wake up in the morning and be part of humanity. That is why we did it. We did it for you.”

Another thing:  If you haven't read "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", get it now.  Right now.  

Something Ominous is Happening to Men in America

Anybody paying attention?

and...

1. North American men’s sperm count down more than 50% in ...

   dailyhive.com/toronto/north-american-men-sperm-count-dropped-2017

   North American men have half as many sperm as they did 40 years ago, according to new research into reported declines in sperm counts. The research was led by Hagai Levine,an epidemiologist who studies patterns in health conditions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.