Archive for the 'Is this a great country, or what?' Category
18th August 2021
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I had the honor of taking courses from Kagan in the mid-70s and the pleasure of knowing a number of his graduate students, including Paul Rahe (now at Hillsdale College), Ken Harl (now at Tulane), and Barry Strauss (now at Cornell). My favorite memory is his turn as Big Julie From Chicago in a student production of Guys & Dolls in Timothy Dwight College. “Let’s shoot craps!”
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Remembering and Appreciating Donald Kagan, Yale Professor, Scholar, and Mentor
18th August 2021
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A New York robbery crew that targeted drug runners hit the jackpot late last year, netting $500,000 in cash after tracking a targeted criminal’s car — with a hidden Apple Watch, new court documents show.
We have the technology.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on New York Robbery Crew Used Apple Watch to Net $500K, Feds Say
2nd August 2021
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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.
We have the technology.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Helmet Worn t Home Shrank Man’s Brain Tumor by Third
27th July 2021
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Well, if sea levels are rising as fast as the Narrative Media would have us believe, it’s a reasonable thing.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Man Tries to Go Over Water From Florida to NYC In Makeshift Human Hamster Wheel
20th July 2021
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It all began back in 1921, when an insurance salesman from Wichita, Kansas called Billy Ingram met a small-time restaurateur named Walt Anderson. They offered each other seed money and retail experience respectively. It took $700 to open the first White Castle, since demolished, in downtown Wichita. It caught on fast. In its first year the outlet sold some 12,000 ‘slider’ burgers at 5 cents apiece — and about double that the year after. Soon customers were ordering the bite-sized burgers by the dozen, giving rise to the company’s popular slogan: ‘Buy ’em by the sack.’
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | 2 Comments »
18th July 2021
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So, you want to be a conservative commentator? Welcome aboard. But before you start you need to think about what kind of conservative commentator you want to be. I know what you’re thinking: are you a traditional conservative, or a neoconservative, or a libertarian?
But the map of conservative commentary is richer and more complicated than that — containing archetypes that are not reducible to ideology alone. There are all kinds of subcultural phenomena here that you have to navigate as you build your brand. Shall we begin?
This is one of the funniest articles I’ve read in years. (Yes, I’ve encountered all of these people.)
Class me as a David French Hater.
(Let’s smoke some beer!)
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on A Guide to Conservative Commentators
10th July 2021
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Before chemicals replaced them, workers pulled weeds from the farm. Greenfield Robotics puts the “workers” back in the field with a new kind of worker — a mechanized one.
“We want to control weeds with labor and make it robot labor,” Brauer said. “Robotics is our way of putting (mechanized) labor back into the farm.”
No migrant farm workers need apply.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Kansas Farmer Invents Robots to Behead Weeds, Reduce the Use of Pesticides on Crops
6th July 2021
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Site Selection magazine says Texas topped the list of states with the most new projects for 2020, buoyed by business-friendly climate and an accessible talent pool.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on For Companies Considering California to Texas Moves, the Question Is ‘Why Didn’t We Do This Sooner’
1st July 2021
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A confrontation Tuesday between a police sergeant and member of the public didn’t start out unusually. James Burch, policy director of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), was standing outside the Alameda Courthouse in Oakland, California when an officer approached him and asked him to move a banner. As the two argued, the sergeant noticed he was being filmed. Then, he pulled out his phone and started playing “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift — in an apparent play to exploit copyright takedowns and keep the video off social media.
“You can record all you want,” he said, according to a video obtained by The Verge. “I just know it can’t be posted to YouTube.”
Pretty clever.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Watch a Police Officer Admit to Playing Taylor Swift to Keep a Video Off YouTube
21st June 2021
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Researchers at the University of Maryland have turned ordinary sheets of wood into transparent material that is nearly as clear as glass, but stronger and with better insulating properties. It could become an energy efficient building material in the future.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Scientists Develop Transparent Wood That Is Stronger and Lighter Than Glass
21st June 2021
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Medicine Crow completed all four tasks required to become a war chief: touching an enemy without killing him (counting coup), taking an enemy’s weapon, leading a successful war party, and stealing an enemy’s horse.
…
He also led a successful war party and stole fifty horses owned by the Nazi SS from a German camp, singing a traditional Crow honor song as he rode off.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Joe Medicine Crow
19th June 2021
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Anybody can run a Tesla on battery.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on How to Run a Tesla on Gasoline…
15th June 2021
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Brown University researchers have shown that tiny channels between graphene sheets can be aligned in a way that makes them ideal for water filtration.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Researchers Develop New Graphene Nanochannel Water Filters
11th June 2021
Babylon Bee.
Here at The Babylon Bee, we always make sure to impose our modern woke narrative on authors who lived decades or even centuries ago. It’s the only way to truly figure out what a text really means.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The 7 Most Problematic Characters In The Lord Of The Rings
11th June 2021
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Hey, a dog’s gotta do what a dog’s gotta do.
The great thing about dogs is, when given the opportunity, they do Dog Stuff. No existential angst, no attempt to find The Real Inner Dog; they just Do it.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Dog Ejected During Crash Found Days Later Herding a Group of Sheep
10th June 2021
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Who’s going to tell him he can’t?
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Gigantic Alligator Walks Around A Neighborhood
6th June 2021
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on D-Day
3rd June 2021
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I love sites like these, and only wished I knew something about music.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Virtual Flute
2nd June 2021
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I first saw this vehicle in THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST, a great Coburn flick.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on A Brief History of the Amphicar
31st May 2021
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I built Heathkit stuff in high school and the Navy. They were first-rate.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | 1 Comment »
31st May 2021
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Absent Friends
18th May 2021
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You really have to have been in the Navy to FULLY appreciate these, but they’re situations that almost anybody can enjoy.
Jeff Bacon is a national treasure.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Jeff Bacon : Broadside
25th March 2021
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One of America’s most well-known conservative think tanks, The Heritage Foundation, rejected hundreds of thousands of dollars from Big Tech corporations. The organization specifically took issue with Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Heritage Foundation Refuses Money from Facebook, Google
20th March 2021
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A Google search for “President of the United States” showed both current President Joe Biden and Richard Grenell.
Grenell responded to the Google gaffe on Twitter, saying, “I will run up the stairs without tripping and then announce a plethora of Executive Orders.”
And that’s all you can ask for.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Google Accidentally Lists Richard Grenell As President, And He Promises Not To Trip On Stairs
15th March 2021
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For some years now, a Jewish baking practice has served as a kind of kitchen-based healing service, organized largely by women. Following the commandment in Deuteronomy that orders the removal of a small portion of dough and the donation of that piece to the priests, these home bakers separate a ball of dough, recite a blessing, and then—in the absence of bona fide priests—burn this “challah” offering. As they do so, they recite the names of those in need of healing. No one knows quite how this form of the ritual emerged, but for those who practice, it has a logic and a set of rules all its own.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Loaves of Blessing
28th February 2021
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Whereas refusing to wear a mask outdoors in DC is an act of resistance, in Florida it’s expected. Some businesses have their own indoor mask mandates, but they are often loosely enforced if at all. At first, mingling and schmoozing in a crowded bar without a mask felt naughty. By my second night in town, I reveled in the freedom. No flimsy piece of cloth would slow down my ability to slam old fashioneds and inhale jumbo shrimp.
New Yorkers love to express disgust and horror at videos of the pool parties and clubs in the south. They ignore the awkward truth that their own state and neighboring New Jersey have the highest COVID-19 death rates despite strict lockdown measures. Free Florida sits comfortably below average. I suspect the NY outrage at pina colada-sipping Sunshine Staters is more down to jealousy.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Florida Rules
27th February 2021
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
23rd February 2021
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on A Robot Dog. With a Paintball Gun Attached. Controlled by People Over the Internet.
30th January 2021
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As Congress tried to provide COVID relief for struggling Americans, they concocted a ludicrously pork-laden bill that included $10 million for gender programs in Pakistan along with over $1 billion in foreign aid. Their pathetic attempt to help the American people took months to draft and lard up.
In contrast, what did the millionaire entrepreneur Portnoy, a semi-regular on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News primetime show, do for his economically-afflicted countrymen?
He created a fund that has already raised more than $33 million and is able to get money directly to small-business owners in less than 72 hours. Call it Portnoy populism.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Portnoy Populism
15th January 2021
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This is why God gave us trash bins. Recycling is for slaves.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Dunkin’ Introduces a Straw for People Too Lazy to Compost
30th November 2020
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Because cheerleading is not governed by the N.C.A.A., its participants can sign lucrative endorsement deals that would lead to punishment for most college athletes, including soon-to-be N.F.L. and N.B.A. millionaires.
Sounds fair to me.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The College Athletes Who Are Allowed to Make Big Bucks: Cheerleaders
14th November 2020
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I love good cartoons.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Cartoons by Josh Calendar 2021
11th November 2020
Scott Adams.
‘Californians can act like stupid fucking idiots better than any other state.’
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Quotation of the Day
29th October 2020
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What goes down, must come up, and one quarter after US GDP collapsed by a record 31.4% annualized, moments ago the BEA reported that in Q3 the US economy rebounded by a similarly record high 33.1%, the biggest annualized increase in history.
This isn’t as amazing as it appears, because most of that growth is just a return to normalcy after the Pandemic Panic, but it’s still a Trump win.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on US GDP Soars by a Record 33.1% in Q3, Smashing Expectations
27th October 2020
Steve is focusing on what’s important.
Our nation is hurtling downward toward chaos, BLM is trying to kill cops in Philadelphia, Christians are predicting a 2020 rapture, and what am I doing? I’m smoking ribs.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on BBQ Tactics
20th October 2020
Babylon Bee.
To the relief of Texans across the state, Governor Greg Abbott has signed a law prohibiting escaping Californians from voting after they move to Texas. Experts say this will prevent the happy and prosperous slice of heaven from sliding into the endless despair and crushing poverty of leftist policy.
And about time, too.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Texas Passes Law Banning Californians From Voting After They Move There
13th October 2020
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A viral campaign on TikTok urged users to reserve spots at Trump’s rally in Staten Island, New York in September. The goal was to try to drive down attendance. Instead, the Staten Island GOP turned the tables on them, the New York Post reported. The local Republican group charged for the previously free tickets.
Now that’s comedy.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on TikTok Leftists Donate Nearly $16,000 to GOP Trying to Sabotage Trump
29th September 2020
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You can’t be a Really Engaged Voter without a Babylon Bee Debate Bingo Card.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Follow Tonight’s Debate With the Babylon Bee’s Handy Bingo Cards
25th September 2020
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Although you ought not to need a reason.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on This Ad Will Make You Want to Move to Texas
19th September 2020
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San Francisco salon owner Erica Kious got a letter from Placer County Board of Supervisors Chair Bonnie Gore welcoming her to move to the community.
“While you may already know your next destination, I would like to invite you to consider setting up your next salon here,” Gore wrote. “Our arms are open to hard-working small business owners.”
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on California County Invites Displaced San Francisco Salon Owner to Relocate
18th September 2020
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GoFundMe and Patreon, of course, wouldn’t touch it.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Gun Rights Group Raises $50,000 For Kyle Rittenhouse
13th September 2020
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A rotating globe image showing you the earth in whatever past year you wish.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Ancient Earth Globe
10th September 2020
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An Army sergeant major who rescued around 75 hostages from being executed by ISIS fighters in Iraq will be awarded the Medal of Honor on Friday, the U.S. Army announced on Tuesday.
Sgt. Maj. Thomas “Patrick” Payne ran through a burning building and enemy gunfire with a pair of bolt cutters to free the hostages during a rescue mission, according to the Army.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Army Soldier To Receive Medal Of Honor For Saving Dozens Of ISIS Hostages Facing Execution
2nd September 2020
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“What do you mean, I have to wear a mask?”
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Wild Footage Captures Bears Wandering Into Stores And Confronting People Near Lake Tahoe
22nd August 2020
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Must be a Latinx bear.
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Bear Wanders Into California Grocery Store, Leaves With Bag of Tortilla Chips, Video Shows
21st August 2020
Joel Kotkin.
For roughly the past half century, the middle swath of America has been widely written off as reactionary, backward, and destined for unceasing decline. CNBC recently ranked the “worst states” to live in, and almost all were in what is typically defined as the Heartland.1 Paul Krugman of the New York Times sees the region populated by “jobless men in their prime working years, with many suffering ‘deaths of despair’ by drugs, alcohol or suicide.”
Another Times article describes much of the small-town and rural areas as home to “the left behind”—Trumpian knuckle-draggers at war with modernity. This coastal contempt for the interior is nothing new, going back to celebrated figures such as Sinclair Lewis and H. L. Mencken, who dismissed it as hopelessly “backward if not reactionary.”2 Two New Jersey academics have even proposed, with the approval of much of the national media, that large parts of the Great Plains be evacuated to make way for an expansive “Buffalo Commons.”3 One progressive publication suggested that the country should send “reparations” to the region, as if it were incapable of devising its own recovery.
Yet in reality, the Heartland—a region of twenty states between the Appalachians and the Rockies—has remained a critical part of our country. In 2016, this area generated nearly $5 trillion in goods and services.4 As of 2015, it was also home to nearly 60 percent of the U.S. population,5 a percentage that is likely to increase as both the Northeast and coastal California are projected to grow less than the national average between 2010 and 2030.6
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Heartland’s Revival
14th August 2020
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In the early 1960s, Julia Child and her husband handed Barbara Ketcham Wheaton the keys to their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The famous couple was going to California for the summer, but they wanted their young neighbor to be able to continue one of her favorite activities: perusing Child’s collection of historical cookbooks.
Now an honorary curator of Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library Culinary Collection, Wheaton was then in her early 30s, with young children at home. She had left an art history PhD program a few years before to marry historian Bob Wheaton, but she still had a passion for the past. When she discovered her love of cooking, and her neighbor’s trove of unique books, Wheaton wondered: What if she turned the same methodology she had learned in art-history classes to a more humble text—the cookbook?
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on A Database of 5,000 Historical Cookbooks Is Now Online, and You Can Help Improve It
7th July 2020
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Straight outa 1988. Ah, those were the days….
Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on The Electronic Whole Earth Catalog