vxbush 7/21/2021 6:05:20 AM

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vxbush 7/21/2021 6:56:47 AM

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*knock knock*

Anyone home? Anyone here besides me? 

I know I'm boring, but at least attempt to follow the social graces. 

JCM 7/21/2021 7:31:12 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

I listen to news less and less. MSM hardly at all. my wife will put some evening news on, but virtually ever story I spot outright lying about some aspect. I have a round of web sites I trust Volkokh, Powerline, those types of places. I'll listen to some talk radio but not much.

vxbush 7/21/2021 7:41:26 AM

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In #3 JCM said: I listen to news less and less. MSM hardly at all. my wife will put some evening news on, but virtually ever story I spot outright lying about some aspect. I have a round of web sites I trust Volkokh, Powerline, those types of places. I'll listen to some talk radio but not much.

I don't spend any time watching broadcast news. I only get my news from a carefully selected number of sites with RSS feeds and track the news that way. 

Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 8:01:56 AM

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I read the news today, oh boy.... 

St. Louis prosecutor's office, which came down like a ton of bricks on the McCloskeys for defending their lives and property, missed three court dates in a row regarding a certain other case; causing charges to be dropped.  Those charges included some sort of minor, technical-legal kerfuffle, which goes by the name of... [checks notes]...  "first-degree murder."

vxbush 7/21/2021 8:08:17 AM

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In #5 Occasional Reader said: St. Louis prosecutor's office, which came down like a ton of bricks on the McCloskeys for defending their lives and property, missed three court dates in a row regarding a certain other case; causing charges to be dropped.  Those charges included some sort of minor, technical-legal kerfuffle, which goes by the name of... [checks notes]...  "first-degree murder."

I saw that yesterday. As I understand it, the prosecutor who was managing this case went on maternity leave, and the DA's office didn't get someone else assigned to this case. 

Is this DA a position that is elected or selected by the mayor? 

lucius septimius 7/21/2021 8:22:43 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 2:

After spending eight hours in the emergency room (and God knows how many gazillion dollars) only to find out that there was nothing wrong with me, I'm pretty tired.

One good thing was that Oldest Boy ordered a pizza for me so I'd have something to eat when I got home.  We ate and yacked until about 3.  But I don't do well on 5 hours' sleep.

Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 8:24:51 AM

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In #6 vxbush said: Is this DA a position that is elected or selected by the mayor? 

Commenters in the thread say it's an elected position; I don't know. 

Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 8:25:51 AM

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In #7 lucius septimius said: After spending eight hours in the emergency room

Oh, dear.

What happened? 

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 8:32:16 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 7:

In #9 Occasional Reader said: What happened? 

I second the question.

lucius septimius 7/21/2021 8:32:23 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 9:

I was afraid I had another DVT -- all the symptoms plus those of a PE.  Ran oodles of tests but found nothing.  In fact I seem to be in pretty good health.  The one thing they did find was that I have "chronic" DVT -- that is, the remnants of old clots just sitting around but not restricting blood flow.

None of this explains the pain and swelling in my leg, shortness of breath, and chest pains (no heart attack either).  Most likely culprit would be stress.

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 9:08:48 AM

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Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 10:05:44 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 11:

Damn, yo.

Do they have you on blood thinners? 

Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 10:06:22 AM

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In #12 buzzsawmonkey said: There's a superb, if long (52 minutes), exchange between Glenn Loury and John McWhorter on Critical Race Theory over at PJ Media.  Gave me more respect for both of them.

They ain't black!

lucius septimius 7/21/2021 10:07:46 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 13:

Not any more, and my platelet count is at the low end of the normal range. 

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 10:16:10 AM

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Even more new Ben & Jerry's flavors:

Ilhan Omar's All About the Benjalmonds

Arafat's First Mintifada

FarraCone Fudge Factory

RTWT

vxbush 7/21/2021 10:34:10 AM

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In #16 Kosh's Shadow said: Ilhan Omar's All About the Benjalmonds Arafat's First Mintifada FarraCone Fudge Factory

HA!!!! Love those. I think I've eaten Ben and Jerry's once. I simply couldn't stomach the price; really good chocolate ice cream only costs a small mint more and it doesn't come with those lovely fillers of communisms and socialism. 

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 10:44:10 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 17:

I'll eat Bibi's Wailing Walnut 

I don't think I've ever had Ben & Jerry's. Only ice cream in our freezer now is Haagen Daz 

vxbush 7/21/2021 10:53:45 AM

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In #18 Kosh's Shadow said: Only ice cream in our freezer now is Haagen Daz 

For good reason. Their chocolate ice cream is heavenly. 

vxbush 7/21/2021 10:54:50 AM

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In #11 lucius septimius said: None of this explains the pain and swelling in my leg, shortness of breath, and chest pains (no heart attack either).  Most likely culprit would be stress.

Maybe so, but personally I hate how doctors pull that out at a moments notice to explain away what they cannot find. Many prayers that you will feel better and be healed. 

Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 11:04:39 AM

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In #18 Kosh's Shadow said: Only ice cream in our freezer now is Haagen Daz 

As a rebuttal to B&J's anti-Israel posture, they should rename themselves Haagen Ah... 

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 11:06:48 AM

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Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 11:21:35 AM

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In #22 buzzsawmonkey said: TransJordan Almond Crunch.

I put down TransJordan and what do I see?
Wokie terrorists comin' after me

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 12:01:26 PM

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So, an electric bus, about 2x the cost of a diesel, can go maybe 50 miles on a charge, and doesn't function properly, either.

Proterra - the Biden Solyndria

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 12:10:54 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 24:

Another example of "greens" knowing nothing.

Fifty years ago---and for some forty-fifty years before that---most major cities had electric buses.  Look in any old photograph of Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, etc., and you'll see the black crisscrossed overhead wires that supplied the current to the electric-run trolley-buses.

These buses ran on tires, not "light rail," so there was no reason to waste time and money laying rail on the streets---all you had to do was string the wires where you wanted to go, put the bus's trolley rods up to the wires to access the current, and off you went.

Europe still uses trolley buses.  The advantage is that you don't sacrifice space because you need two propulsion systems, you don't get the added weight of two propulsion systems, and you don't need expensive and toxic batteries to run them---all you need is a current in the wires.  And, while the Left is insane on the subject of coal, a central coal-fired plant (whose chimneys can be "scrubbed" to reduce emissions) has to be more ecologically sound than a dual-propulsion-system bus which emits exhaust and requires expensive batteries.

I will believe that the environmentalcases are serious about "saving energy" when even one of them mentions electric trolley-buses.  I've been listening for years, and never heard one do so yet.

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 12:44:55 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 25:

They had those in the Boston area maybe 20 years or so ago.

As for electric busses, the electricity to charge them comes from the same kind of power plants as would supply the overhead wires.

JCM 7/21/2021 12:50:55 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 25:

I now know of three large scale studies that show busses, trolley's included are far more cost effective and useful that light rail. In the cases of these studies it was dedicated bus lanes. Put in a dedicated lane for buses, the bus can still be used elsewhere. If the traffic and loads change the lanes can be given to general purpose. Buses with property dispatching can easily be redirected for load balancing. Quickly add or remove buses on a given route. Trolley lines as you say can easily be strung on routes.

The study for Seattle showed such a bus system over rail would save so much money that fares could be eliminated and the entire systems would still operate for less than the rail system.

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 1:04:37 PM

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In #26 Kosh's Shadow said: They had those in the Boston area maybe 20 years or so ago.

As for electric busses, the electricity to charge them comes from the same kind of power plants as would supply the overhead wires.

Chicago scrapped its city-wide electric trolley-bus fleet and replaced it with diesel buses just in time for Jimmy Carter's gas shortages.

Dual-propulsion-system buses, such as New York is using now, or wholly-battery-operated buses, may require power from the same power plant(s) as would supply wholly-electric trolley-buses using overhead wires, but the first two are 

a) carrying more weight, since the batteries are heavy---which cuts down on the amount of power available for propulsion; and

b) the batteries are expensive, consume energy and resources to produce, have a limited life, and create a toxicity-disposal problem.

True electric trolley buses have none of these drawbacks.

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 1:04:56 PM

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In #27 JCM said: The study for Seattle showed such a bus system over rail would save so much money that fares could be eliminated and the entire systems would still operate for less than the rail system.

Wow.

vxbush 7/21/2021 1:23:55 PM

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In #25 buzzsawmonkey said: I will believe that the environmentalcases are serious about "saving energy" when even one of them mentions electric trolley-buses.  I've been listening for years, and never heard one do so yet.

I generally believe the current crop of environonuts have absolutely no interest in learning about the history of transportation (and environmentalism in general) in this country. They simply have no clue about this. 

JCM 7/21/2021 1:32:18 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 30:

It's a cult of Global Warming.

We can walk through all the environmentalism of the past 60 years, Rachel Carson, Paul Erlich, to modern day and every single prediction of doom has failed, not because we changed our ways, but because it was all built on a false premise.

We have do good work with air and water pollution and handling of solid waste. But that was some real, tangible that we could have an effect on.

IMAO it's is a bleed over from critical theory, small real environmental problems are magnified to the scope of disaster.

I say critical theory because the purpose is not to improve society but to tear down western liberal democracies.

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 1:47:29 PM

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In #31 JCM said: IMAO it's is a bleed over from critical theory

The "global warming/climate change/Gaia" cult is merely a throwback to primitive paganism.  

On a practical level, it is absurd to think even for a moment that people who cannot competently operate, maintain, and repair recently-built, closed manmade systems---water, sewage, public housing, public transport, roads, bridges, etc., etc.---cannot competently prevent/mitigate the effects of fires and floods, cannot prevent tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.; and are committed to using the most-expensive, least-reliable forms of energy available, can or should be trusted with determinating, and attempting to maintain, the optimum "climate" for the planet, however determined.

On a more general level, I will again mention my father's observation:

"When I was young, my colleagues and I thought that rationality would vanquish irrationality.  We were wrong---because while man is capable of rationality for short periods and in various situations, man is not fundamentally a rational being, and if you try to suppress the non-rational side, all you get is bad science, because the non-rational seeps into the rational and corrupts it. 

Human non-rationality is like a universal solvent, something that dissolves everything it touches.  The first question to be faced when confronted with a universal solvent is, "What vessel can contain it, so that it can be handled safely?" The only vessel that has ever been shown to safely contain human non-rationality, so that it can be controlled and harnessed for good, is religion.  It is not a perfect vessel---there are spillages and other lab accidents and breakages---but religion still remains the best and safest vessel to contain and harness humanity's non-rational side."

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 1:54:20 PM

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In #28 buzzsawmonkey said: Dual-propulsion-system buses, such as New York is using now, or wholly-battery-operated buses, may require power from the same power plant(s) as would supply wholly-electric trolley-buses using overhead wires, but the first two are  a) carrying more weight, since the batteries are heavy---which cuts down on the amount of power available for propulsion; and b) the batteries are expensive, consume energy and resources to produce, have a limited life, and create a toxicity-disposal problem. True electric trolley buses have none of these drawbacks.

Exactly. There is nothing special about battery powered buses, and the charging system probably wastes more energy than the transmission lines.

But environuts seem to think electric battery powered vehicles get power from magic or something. 

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 1:57:48 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 32:

Critical theories trace back to Immanuel Kant and his Critique of [pure?] Reason. That whole movement was a reaction to the failure of the idea that logical thought would produce a better society.  As academic mental masturbation, such theories are fine; the problem is, when it escapes the ivory tower. I can look up the Tabletmag article on this later.

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 1:59:37 PM

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BEHOLD THE CO2 FREE CAR

Nuclear power! But the problem was the reactor produced too much heat. I think we could do better today.

Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 2:18:52 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 35:

I remember that photo, from a book by.. C.B. Colby, perhaps?  I was in awe.  ATOMIC.... FREAKING... CARS.

JCM 7/21/2021 2:41:52 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 35:

IIRC the Chrysler Turbine could run on natural gas. They just couldn't get the per-unit cost of the turbines down enough to make it an viable product.

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 2:47:11 PM

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Reply to JCM in 37:

Snazzy little machine there.

Occasional Reader 7/21/2021 2:47:30 PM

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In #37 JCM said: the Chrysler Turbine could run on natural gas.

Yeah yeah whatever

ATOMIC... FREAKING... CARS

JCM 7/21/2021 2:58:29 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 39:

Combine the Ford Pinto and the Ford Nucleon..........

buzzsawmonkey 7/21/2021 3:01:27 PM

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So, with all the snickering about the Texas Democrats who went to DC being "superspreaders," I notice that there's also prominent mention of their all having been vaccinated.

I am increasingly suspicious that the whole "superspreading by vaccinatees" line is merely a setup for a new batch of lockdowns; we've already seen some of that in California, and rumblings of it being done elsewhere.  The Dreaded Delta Variant™, of course, will be the REAL culprit, and it will not be permitted to doubt the efficacy of The Vaccine(s), oh no---we will, rather, be invited to contemplate How Much Worse It Would All Have Been if the fugitive Texans hadn't been vaccinated.

Anyone else think this plausible?

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 3:07:18 PM

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In #37 JCM said: IRC the Chrysler Turbine could run on natural gas. They just couldn't get the per-unit cost of the turbines down enough to make it an viable product.

Of course, that emits CO2, too, but the other problem was the exhaust temperature. 

Saw one at the NY World's  Fair, but did not get to ride in it. Very high-pitched squeal.

JCM 7/21/2021 3:27:54 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 41:

We know the manipulated the PCR testing, how "cases" are reported, to show high number of cases then after Biden is elected to show a drop. 

Statistically I believe by now a vast majority should have been exposed, or vaccinated. So 40 cycle PCR would show a high number of positives in those populations.

Yeah they're fiddling the data, to maintain control.

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 3:35:34 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 41:

Of course the Dems want to use anything they can for control. 

I go by the Jerusalem Post articles, as Israel is way ahead of keeping track.

One article on how the Israeli statistics are being misused,

“Does the vaccine reduce the risk of getting infected and getting severe disease? The answer to both questions is yes – the vaccine reduces the risk of getting infected and it significantly reduces the risk of developing severe disease,” Leshem said.

Data shared by Prof. Eran Segal, a computational biologist with the Weizmann Institute of Science who advises the government, showed that in this wave versus the previous wave, only between 1.2% and 1.6% of infected people are developing severe disease, compared to between 3.9% and 4.3%. When looking at the older population, in this wave between 4.8% and 6.8% of people over the age of 60 are developing severe disease, compared to 28.1% and 31%.

Kosh's Shadow 7/21/2021 3:37:15 PM

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In #40 JCM said: Combine the Ford Pinto and the Ford Nucleon..........

Video