Sunday, December 20, 2015

Headlines below the fold

Busy catching up on headlines now that the internet is back and my updates have stopped slowing the connection to a crawl.

the most absurd story of the week:

From Instapundit:

gee...even rich SJW don't like healthy foods: they are protesting non fried General Tso's chicken as inauthentic.

No it's just called healthy eating. Recipe HERE.

and I wonder if these students realize that the dish is genuine Chines-American cuisine, invented in New York City...


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also from Instapundit (SarahHoyt)


ah yes, but back then, Americans didn't have a president ashamed of the country, and didn't have an army that stressed being politically correct. Sigh.

And they were attacking Hessians who were drunk from celebrating at a Christmas party: ISIS doesn't use alcohol: they prefer to get hopped up on Tramadol and meth...and they don't party.

Sarah has also coined a word to describe the enemy: 
Danesh-bags. Works for me.

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Report on what is being found by the Mars Rover.

Water? Silica?

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astronmer DavidReneke has an article on the Christmas star.

This one makes a lot of sense, since the Magi were probably Zorastrian priest/astronomers, not "kings".


On 12 August, 3 BC, Jupiter and Venus appeared very close together just before sunrise, appearing as bright morning ‘stars.’
It would have been visible in the eastern dawn sky of the Middle East from about 3:45 to 5:20 a.m.
The crowning touch came ten months later, on 17 June 2BC, as Venus and Jupiter joined up again in the constellation Leo.
This time the two planets were so close that, without binoculars, they would have looked like one single brilliant star.
Jupiter was known as the “planet of Kings” and Saturn as the “Protector of the Jews”.   This could easily have been interpreted as a sign that the Jewish Messiah had been, or was about to be, born.  Also, Leo was thought to denote royalty and power.

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Star War: The ten best Droids.



and yes, John Williams is doing the soundtrack...
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KRu has an essay on the Kili-Tauriel relationship.

I think they overdid the relationship, which didn't quite work in the film: but I agree with KRU that not everything is deep romantic love. It may have been clutching at love on the rebound after the king put Legolas off limits for her.

 I doubt she had many suiters among the elves who admired a strong woman of an inferior race (green elf, not Noldor or Sindar),  So Kili's flirting was not harassment, but amused her, leading to (presumably) conversations with Kili that weren't in the film.

On the other hand, where would they have lived?

Can you see her living in the Blue Hills with Kili running their mines there? She would be of a different class, an outsider in a culture where outsiders are not welcome. She'd have to educate herself to fit in...

Sort of like Demelza?



Myself, I was amused when I found that the Demelza character in the latest Poldark had red hair, not the dark hair of the book. But I enjoyed the character in the new series better than the one in the original one, because in the old series she was a slut (and Graham hated how she was portrayed, since he based her character on his wife)

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Remember this patriotic song?

yes, it's true.

caution: R rated.
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Archbishop Cruz notes why Pinoys celebrate Christmas (and other holidays).

Why do Filipinos simply love Christmas?  Because they are by and large family-oriented and the  Christmas nativity scene is none other than the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph together.


Why do Filipinos observe the “Simbang Gabi”?  Because it was precisely in a “Silent Night, Holy Night” that Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph, and when the angels sung “Glory to God in the highest”.


Why do Filipinos usually hang in their homes and light a“Parol” in the form of a star?  Because they want to tell others that Jesus could be found in their homes, considering that it was a star that led the Wise Men to where Jesus was born.
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