Lives in a Shoe

Chickens!

Five things you didn't know.  Including: What makes a rooster sexy?  

Food, wattles, and a cock’s comb all come into play during the mating dance, which is called “tidbitting,” where the rooster repeatedly picks up and drops morsels of food on the ground in a dramatic way...

My George has this tidbitting thing down, except for the wattles part  He's gotten lucky with apple pie and gummy bears.   

 

For Hallie

Wikipedia entry here. 

Some paragraphs from the article (Freedom U: A unicorn of a university in Central America) but read the whole thing

UFM offers bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and doctoral degrees. The subjects range from architecture to dentistry to psychology to law. A recent addition is a film program. But everyone takes fundamental courses, a core, in liberal economics and philosophy.. 

The university was founded in 1971 by Manuel Ayau and a group of like-minded partners. They were Guatemalan entrepreneurs, and they called themselves “rebel improvisers.” They were fed up with the persistent socialism and poverty in their part of the world. They wanted to create at least an island of liberalism...

They named their university after Francisco Marroquín, who lived in the first half of the 16th century. He was the first bishop of Guatemala, and a pioneer in education. He was especially interested in the education of colonial girls and Indians. He was also interested in free trade and other elements of what would be known as classical liberalism...

 

 

Shhh...

Spring!

The Prescient Mr. Trump

The NY Times had a good time mocking The Donald for his dumbness and incivility -- but when the Paris jihadist was arrested in Brussels it came to light that he'd been holed up in the No-Go Muslim neighborhood for months and although everybody there knew it, nobody notified the police.  Then yesterday --  Brussels...

The NY Times, January 27, 2016:

“Go to Brussels. Go to Paris. Go to different places. There is something going on and it’s not good, where they want Shariah law, where they want this, where they want things that — you know, there has to be some assimilation. There is no assimilation. There is something bad going on.”

Warming to his theme, he added that Brussels was in a particularly dire state. “You go to Brussels — I was in Brussels a long time ago, 20 years ago, so beautiful, everything is so beautiful — it’s like living in a hellhole right now,” Mr. Trump continued.

 

Badass Tooth Removal

 

 

Who Knew?

Ask Yourself Why...

...many of us who voted R for years are so disappointed we are now enthusiastic
about Trump (although I carry a small forlorn hope for Cruz in the deep of my heart).  I like it that Trump has our interests first, that he loves this country for real.  His lack of explicitly political experience is not a bug but a feature here.  Overall his experience in running businesses, including the failures, gives him the life experience most politicians lack.  I like it that he doesn't rely on a finger-in-the-wind opinion but just says it -- without teleprompter.  I have been learning about his tax plan and like that a lot.  Today I read that Iran will build a statue of our captured sailors and it makes me ill.  Do I believe a president Trump would bend over to be disrespected like that?  Nope. A strong man at the helm will be a refreshing change. 

In the NY Post, Why I support Trump — and resent the elites trying to destroy him:

I don’t expect you to agree with me or start backing Trump. I would, however, encourage you to at least think about what I and others have said and to understand that the people backing Trump are not nihilists or uneducated hillbillies looking for a job. Some of us are pretty serious people and once considered ourselves conservatives. Even if you still hate Trump, you owe it to conservatism to ask yourself how exactly conservatism managed to alienate so many of its supporters such that they are now willing to vote for someone you loathe as much as Trump.

John Kluge is an attorney living in Washington. He served in the US Army for nine years, including two deployments in Iraq and Kuwait.

The Coming Collapse of Saudi Arabia

Since the thirties the Saudis have done nothing, nothing at all, to diversify and help their citizens to earn a better life apart from royal largess based largely on slave labor. The ruling family should be afraid since with economic uncertainty will come fraying of the ties that keep the Wahabi fundamentalists in check.

From ZeroHedge:

The Saudis have damaged the U.S. shale oil industry. And they’ll continue to cause more damage. But they won’t bankrupt every producer.

The shale industry has more staying power than Saudi Arabia. Some producers now say they’re profitable with $40 oil. And their pace of innovation will drive that even lower. The industry will survive.

All the Saudis have done is create an existential crisis for themselves.

If the Saudis don’t stop flooding the market—and there are no signs they will—they won’t be shooting themselves in the foot... but in the head. Saudi Arabia will either collapse or surrender—and stop flooding the market.

Either way, oil will eventually go a lot higher.

 

Fight the Power

Apple engineers quietly discuss refusing to create the FBI's back door.

Related: US Government Has Apparently Demanded, And Obtained, Tech Companies' Source Code In The Past