vxbush 10/13/2023 5:19:31 AM

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vxbush 10/13/2023 5:42:14 AM

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Something different today: a history of cocktails, which explores a writer's new book and includes some interesting stories, including this one: 

In 1475, Iain MacDonald, the Earl of Ross, was playing a dangerous game. The Wars of the Roses had been raging for decades and the entire region was in turmoil. Hoping to capitalize on the chaos, the Scottish Earl had signed a secret treaty with the British king, with the promise that he would partially rule Scotland if England subdued it. When John Stewart, 1st Earl of the Atholl of the Highlands, heard that the treacherous Ross was plotting a rebellion against the Scottish king, he devised an unconventional plan to stop the insurgent forces.

Spies informed the Earl of Atholl that MacDonald was hiding in the hills, waiting to strike. According to the legend, they also said that MacDonald and his troops liked to drink from a certain well. In the dead of night, Stewart instructed his men to fill the water supply with oats, honey, and Scotch. The rebels drank their fill of this extremely potent grog and promptly fell asleep. As a result, the uprising was quashed and a popular drink, the Atholl Brose, was born—or so they say.

vxbush 10/13/2023 5:46:14 AM

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To no one's surprise, Biden's mishandling of classified documents has taken a turn for the worse--and as usual, the coverup is the issue. 

But it turns out that the documents were likely discovered well before November 2022, and White House employees may have been accessing the documents as early as March 2021.

“We have discovered new information about the number of White House employees involved in President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents,” the Oversight Committee said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“President Biden’s attorney stated that the discovery of classified documents at Penn Biden Center occurred on November 2, 2022,” the committee continued. “Our Committee has developed evidence showing the timeline of relevant events began in 2021 and involved at least five White House employees. President Biden and his legal team omitted months of communications, planning, and coordinating among multiple White House officials, a former VP staffer, Penn Biden Center employees, and President Biden’s personal attorneys to retrieve the boxes containing classified materials.”

Why is this important? Well, as the committee explains, “There is no reasonable explanation as to why this many White House employees and lawyers were so concerned with retrieving boxes they reportedly believed contained only personal documents and materials.”

How much more investigating needs to happen? Isn't there enough evidence here to go forward and actually start holding Biden accountable?

JCM 10/13/2023 7:09:27 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

Gee, thanks I was going use this to sleep in, and not do anything all day!

Now you burst my bubble and I have to go to work!

buzzsawmonkey 10/13/2023 7:22:44 AM

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It appears that I have been shadowbanned from Instapundit.  

Interesting.

buzzsawmonkey 10/13/2023 7:38:09 AM

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Yep---shadowbanned.  Posts appear when I'm logged in, but do not exist on the browswer where I'm not logged in.

Screw 'em.

vxbush 10/13/2023 8:05:22 AM

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In #6 buzzsawmonkey said: Yep---shadowbanned.  Posts appear when I'm logged in, but do not exist on the browswer where I'm not logged in.

Well, that is seriously wrong, considering the whole mantra of "free speech" on the right. Do we need to start a campaign? 

vxbush 10/13/2023 8:08:01 AM

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In #4 JCM said: Gee, thanks I was going use this to sleep in, and not do anything all day! Now you burst my bubble and I have to go to work!

You're welcome. /

Occasional Reader 10/13/2023 8:19:32 AM

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Mildly interesting: I noticed among the newspaper vending machines on the street that the uber-Prog gay-oriented free weekly Washington Blade has the above the fold headline: “Standing With Israel”.

Seems the week’s events have definitely awakened some of the “woke”, at least a bit.

Occasional Reader 10/13/2023 8:20:35 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 5:

Point me to a recent thread where you posted/tried to post, and let me see if I can “see” you.

buzzsawmonkey 10/13/2023 8:36:54 AM

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In #10 Occasional Reader said: Point me to a recent thread where you posted/tried to post, and let me see if I can “see” you.

I posted in the Rand Paul thread (10:03), and in the "Israeli Student Beaten" thread at 9:40, in (acerbic) reply to Jew-hating poster "Hoxworth."

buzzsawmonkey 10/13/2023 8:53:26 AM

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Occasional Reader 10/13/2023 9:54:00 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 11:

yeah, I don’t see a post from you on either one. It might be a glitch with Disqus, I have never heard of Insty shadow banning anyone.

buzzsawmonkey 10/13/2023 10:09:43 AM

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In #13 Occasional Reader said: yeah, I don’t see a post from you on either one. It might be a glitch with Disqus, I have never heard of Insty shadow banning anyone.

Yeah?  Well, if I look at the alternate browser on which I'm not "logged in," I can see the "Content Unavailable" posts---but I can't see mine.   If I look at the site through the browser I'm theoretically "logged in" on, I can "see"  my posts.

Looks like a shadowban to me.  FWIW, I sent the following to a couple of folks at PJ Media, of which Instapundit is a vassal:

You may, perhaps, recall me; under my online moniker, “buzzsawmonkey,” I contributed (gratis) to PJ Media for a number of years, until the format altered to accommodate cell phones and Rick Moran replaced Bryan Preston. My “Buzz Ballads,” however, remain accessible on the PJ Media site.

This morning I discovered I was shadowbanned from the PJ Media satellite “Instapundit”; posts of mine which are made, and appear, when I am allegedly logged in do not appear/exist if I visit the same page via a browser where I am not logged in.

I do not know why this has occurred, nor how to remedy it.  It appears to have occurred when I was responding to one of the many members of Instapundit’s Jew-hate coterie, but whether the ban was initiated by the owner and his monitors, or by the Jew-haters, I do not know.

I would appreciate the restoration of my ability to comment on the Instapundit site, and being informed directly when that has been done—if only as a professional courtesy for my past unpaid contributions to your own success.  It would be a further gracious gesture were my prior contributions to be acknowledged via a gratis VIP membership in PJ Media, but I am willing to settle for the courtesy of removing the shadowban.

Thank you for your attention.

Regards,

buzzsawmonkey 10/13/2023 10:48:53 AM

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This week we read the opening portion of the Torah, the first part of Bereishis, which contains the story of Adam & Eve.

The story of Adam & Eve & the snake is akin to a Rudyard Kipling “Just So Story”—but instead of being “How the Rhinosceros Got His Skin” or “How the Leopard Got His Spots,” it would be called “How the Snake Got His Fur.”  

The key to the story is the one word that is consistently mistranslated: “arum,” naked;  “the snake was the most naked animal in the Garden.”  It’s usually wrongly translated as “cunning” or “guileful.”  

The story is a tale of envy and revenge; the snake IS the “most naked” because it not only has no hair, or fur, or feathers, but it sheds its skin.  You can’t get more naked than that. The snake is ashamed of being so naked, is envious of Adam and Eve for not being ashamed, and therefore resolves to make them as ashamed as he is (envy always wants to tear down to its level) by making them as self-conscious as he is. 

What is the Tree?  It is not the Tree of “Knowledge," but the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It is the Tree which enables humans to make a l’havdil between the good and the bad—which means, among other things, the ability to use sex for proper or for manipulative purposes, which is why Adam & Eve become “ashamed.”  

Midrash tells us that when HaShem says to the snake, “On your belly you will go,” the snake loses the limbs it had formerly had.  In other words, HaShem says, “You thought you were naked before?  You just lost your limbs, and you still shed your skin. Now you’re really naked.”  

Meanwhile, consider that the indelicate modern term for “penis”— “trouser snake,” undoubtedly had its ancient-world counterpart; snakes have had phallic associations since the dawn of time.  So consider that the (naked) snake “gets his fur”—and without shame—when humans engage in proper intercourse.  Thus, the story of Adam, Eve and the snake is a Just-So Story not only about how the snake came to be what it came to be (limbless), and the human condition likewise, but of the "redemption of the snake” and the granting of the snake’s wish to not be naked, via a divinely-blessed union.

vxbush 10/13/2023 11:05:45 AM

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Croatia wants to turn this superhot underground lake into a 16MW geothermal power plant.

This sounds cool. 

vxbush 10/13/2023 11:13:10 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 15:

That seems reasonable to me. 

buzzsawmonkey 10/13/2023 11:33:06 AM

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Cute; I went on the Blogmocracy site---which I haven't visited for some time---and found that my post(s) are "awaiting moderation."

Damn the Internet gatekeepers to hell.

Occasional Reader 10/13/2023 12:55:08 PM

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“ Understand this: Hamas and its supporters aren’t engaged in a land dispute, or protesting “imperialism” or “colonialism.” Hamas is transparent in its aims: to wipe every last Jew off the face of the earth.*. Secular leftwing Jews who back every leftist cause, from BLM to “trans affirmation” to “Palestinian rights” — the cream of the self-haters and the sickeningly needy pleasers — will be killed with the same alacrity as Israeli soldiers, if Hamas and its supporters can manage it. They’ll slaughter babies and desecrate their tiny bodies; they’ll “dirty” women — raping them repeatedly — before torturing and killing them; they’ll execute any and all Jews whenever possible — and they’ll film and exhibit their barbarism while “innocent civilians” in Gaza celebrate, hand out sweets, attend mosques where the message is always the same: annihilate and exterminate every last Jew.”

https://jeffgoldstein.substack.com/p/how-dare-jew?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1050295&post_id=137933536&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=9bg2k&utm_medium=email

JCM 10/13/2023 3:49:00 PM

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Two front war.

THREAT FROM THE NORTH

Hezbollah attacks Israeli military positions along Lebanon border

Kosh's Shadow 10/13/2023 4:35:26 PM

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In #20 JCM said: THREAT FROM THE NORTH Hezbollah attacks Israeli military positions along Lebanon border

Where is UNIFIL? Probably too busy raping children.

Video

Kosh's Shadow 10/13/2023 4:39:34 PM

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When all this is over, the Israeli government should state:

"Not only did Hamas rape, kill, behead, mutilate people, but our so-called "peace partners" supported them.

So, Hamas has raped, killed, beheaded, and mutilated any two-state solution. We are annexing all of Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and any Arab who at all appears to want to kill Jews has to leave and is banned from being close enough to Israel to attack. Other countries can compensate them; Israel has lost too much."

Kosh's Shadow 10/13/2023 4:46:52 PM

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This might explain how the Israelis were caught blindsided - they were listening to the American "intelligence" community

Iranian Agent in Pentagon Counterterrorism Office Accused of Sabotaging Intel

Kosh's Shadow 10/13/2023 5:20:53 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 23:

CIA - Caliphate Islamic Agency

Occasional Reader 10/13/2023 5:34:00 PM

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Reply to JCM in 20:

There’s a Michael Corleone “settle all the family business” spirit afoot in the IDF (and government) now, I should think.

Kosh's Shadow 10/13/2023 5:37:09 PM

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In #25 Occasional Reader said: There’s a Michael Corleone “settle all the family business” spirit afoot in the IDF (and government) now, I should think.

THe head of Hamas should wake up with the head of a pig in his bed. With a bomb in it

Occasional Reader 10/13/2023 6:50:41 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 26:

I’d more go with, a pig should wake up with the head of Haniyeh next to it, but either/or.