summary of news

lots of propaganda, from a white professor in very affluent white enclave in a mainly black working class neighborhood in west Philly calls for white genocide.

Since I have relatives in that area, in the working class neighborhood, not the affluent area, so I don't find this funny. Luckily the local gangs don't read tweets.

This is called satire, but the descendants of the survivors of the Irish, Jewish, Armenian, and Ukrainian genocides don't find it very funny.

----------------------------------------

The US MSM is in full force on their "hate" news of Duterte, presumably obeying the memo to unseat him, while not even mentioning the existence of that memo. Hey, the Embassy says it's not true, so who do you believe? A leaker or the Obama administration?

on the other hand, Wikipedia suggests the Ambassador involved was thrown out of Bolivia for trying to destabilize Morales, so it does makes one wonder.

usually the social media here echoes the lead of the US Democratic state department memes (i.e. pro abortion, anti catholic and of course pro gay), which is why the article I posted earlier that the VP's loss of support is significant

But are any of the stories about the "forever war in Mexico"?

100 thousand dead and counting, and that doesn't include the narcotic deaths from their drugs which the Obama administration has been blaming on doctors who dare to treat pain correctly.

One Pinay reporter became aware of Mexico's horrors not by reading the US MSM but while watching a TV reality show.

The Philippines is entering into the seriousness of the Mexican drug problem. Now I know why Duterte said over and over again that everyone must help whether you are a billionaire or a poor victim. It is as I had said an epidemic. Although most Duterte backers are supporting him there are many more who can help especially among businessmen and the Opposition. They will not be spared if we reach Mexico’s disastrous level.

I have relatives in Colombia. One difference is that there, the communist guerrillas, who had support for defending human rights, morphed into working for drug lords. Only a hard slog of fighting (and many amnesties) managed to stop that 50 year war down to a trickle.

Here, Duterte hopes to stay friends with the NPA by reform while splitting the MILF from the Abus etc.

--------------------------------

News years day means firecrackers and people shooting into the air (and casualties from both of these). LINK

for me, it means three terrified dogs under my bed and the three outdoor dogs trying to join them.

The good news: it means no more cats having kittens in the closet.

But the bad news is that the feral black cat, who moved here when the local grocery store closed,  just deposited her half grown kitties in the kitchen cabinets behind the pots and cleaning fluids.

we have five cats, four of which are feral and only come to eat (and Pepper our regular cat stays upstairs with Chano except when he is courting). However, we have at least three visitors sneaking in at night. The good news is that we don't have a lot of mice now.

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BBC posts pictures of the year from Africa: riots, war etc. The only positive ones are about a rail line built by China....which says a lot about China's investments in Africa and the European slant to see only bad things in Africa.

racism in African coverage is a  major problem.

------------------------
via Instapundit:

The Heavens proclaim the Glory of God

headsup SenseOfEvents


When I behold thine heavens, even the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, 4 What is [a]man, say I, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?

or as the old hymn says:
The Lord of earth and sea and sky:
How sweet is is to see Thee lie
Upon Thy mother's breast.



When Scientists investigate nature, they are finding out more about the creativity and immensity of God.

When artists paint, when musicians sing, they are proclaiming the beauty of God.

When doctors heal, they are imitating the Lord who heals us.

And when mothers and fathers care for their children, they are loving them in imitation of how God loves us.

Chicken post of the day

Rooster Trump!


the UKTelegraph reports that a Chinese mall erected a statue of Rooster Trump (and is selling Rooster Trump merchandise) to celebrate the Year of the Rooster.

VCG via GettyImages

this year it is the year of the rooster 

Rooster is almost the epitome of fidelity and punctuality. For ancestors who had no alarm clocks, the crowing was significant, as it could awaken people to get up and start to work. In Chinese culture, another symbolic meaning of chicken carries is exorcising evil spirits.

of course, in Asia, rooster also means a fighting cock, nothing to be messed with.

And this years element is metal, so it is the year of the metal Rooster.

As Roosters are already of a Metal sign, this Rooster carries a double metal element – this means that they are extra steely, determined and hardworking in their goals. Carrying great focus, he will impress others with his passion towards work, drive and high ideals, which he will see right through to the end....
..The Metal element can make this metal Rooster inflexible, obstinate and downright arrogant. He can become over-analytical, picking on everything from work, to family to relationships – even if there is nothing wrong. He holds on very strongly to his opinion, becoming very closed to the views of others. With his headstrong impulses, he will bully his way forward, crowing at the top of his voice until everyone else has no choice but to give in to him.

and this story was in the news lasts week:

Last month China's People's Daily tweeted out an image of a bird with Trump-like hair:

 Follow

People's Daily,China 

✔@PDChina

Meet the pheasant-elect: Bird sporting 'Donald Trump's hairstyle' soars to internet fame in China http://bit.ly/2frXVfK 

5:58 AM - 15 Nov 2016

Cute story of the day

Philippine news

So did the previous US Ambassador and the Obama administration try to overthrow Duterte?

Among the strategies in the supposed Goldberg "blueprint" includes the political and economic isolation of the Philippines, blackmailing neighbouring countries so they would turn against Duterte and reduce the trade with the country, and it is said to call on the US government to employ a socio-economic-political-diplomatic combination against Duterte "to bring him to his knees and eventually remove him from office."

(Manila Times article via Straits Times)

Inquirer story here.

instead, what is happening is Duterte is making nice with China.

I already posted how the vixen with her boy toy bribe collector is being wined and dined in Europe, but now we are finding out why there was a small kerfuffle about our VP in the past few weeks:

From the Inquirer:

Allies of Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday said the 12-point drop in her net satisfaction rating would not deter her from living up to her role as “chief critic” of President Rodrigo Duterte, after declaring weeks ago that she would be the unifying voice of the opposition.... 

background: The president and the vice president here are voted on separately. Duterte's VP lost to Robredo, who got the sympathy vote because her populist husband  died in a plane crash, even though she was running on a different party ticket.

Years ago, when ERAP (Estrada, a popular actor and outsider) became president, Gloria Arroyo arranged an uprising to unseat him for "corruption". So there is a precedent for Robredo's manipulations.

One reason the US President and VP are on the same ticket is because of similar problems.

one result might be that we will have a Cha Cha to Con Ass.

a charter change in the constitution to a Constitutional assembly type government, similar to the UK.


and yes, the use of these acornyms is deliberate. Everyone here has a nickname too...

Duterte is "the Punisher" or "Dirty Harry"..

Time for a cat video

I just checked the headlines, and they aren't worth wasting your time.

Instead, let's get to the important stuff: Cat videos:

Chicken news of the day

Korea just killed 22 million chickens  and other poultry to stop an epidemic of bird flu,

The outbreak, the first in nearly seven months, has been caused by the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain of bird flu, a new type of virus that was first detected in South Korea.

 and now a report at PhysOrg says Iran is doing the same thing

More than 1,000 wild birds, mostly geese, have been found dead in the Mighan wetland in central Iran, the environmental protection organisation told state news agency IRNA on Monday. IRNA said 63,000 chickens, along with 800,000 fertilised eggs and day-old chicks, were culled at a farm in Qazvin province in recent days after an outbreak of the deadly H1N8 and H1N5 strains of the disease. That adds to the 725,000 birds destroyed since mid-November

there have also been outbreaks of at least two strains of birdflu in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. OIE report and map:

the Poultrysite has this page on Chinese outbreaks.

and there are reports that three humans have caught bird flu in China. which is a worry:

The last major bird flu outbreak in mainland China in 2013 killed 36 people and caused about $6.5 billion in losses to the agriculture sector. Delegations from Japan, South Korea and China gathered in Beijing last week for a symposium on preventing and controlling bird flu and other diseases in East Asia, according to China's agriculture ministry website.

we usually don't have problems since we are off the map for migrating birds, but we did have a man die here in 2015 from birdflu caught in China.


the trend for yuppies for back yard chickens might be dangerous if they catch it from a passing bird.

the backyard urban chickens in Asia, often fighting cocks, were forbidden in Jakarta a few years ago after an outbreak. Most human cases of bird flu are from direct contact with the birds.

But the reason for culling is chickenhouses allow an infected bird to spread the disease to the entire flock.

The yuppie animal lovers are aghast at how chickens are factory farmed, but the result is that the poor in the third world can now afford to eat chickens and eggs.

We used to do chicken raising but our chicken houses were flattened by a typhoon a couple years ago and we did not rebuild, since the profit was minimal thanks to cheap imports from Vietnam etc. Luckily, the typhoon hit between "grows" so we didn't have a couple thousand chickens to bury.

But the birdflu is an economic hit to the farmers involved in the industry.

And of course, the real worry is if the flu won't stop at chicken to human, but evolve to human human transmission.

TIME article from 2014 about this. NPR discussion from 2014 here.

why worry? Because some think that the terrible 1918 influenza pandemic was a type of bird flu, and that killed 50 million people, more people than were killed in the first world war.

This is Engineer Hamid, who runs a chicken farm and teaches poultry raising in Iran..

.

Snowflakes: how times change.

Snowflakes meant something different in 1944...

StrategyPage is running a series of photographs from the Battle of the Bulge.

12/25/1944 - Members of the 101st Airborne Division as they Walk Past Dead Comrades.

My late uncle was in the Battle of the Bulge and the only time he talked about it he related that they put newspapers into their coats and shoes because it was so cold....

StrategyPage had a podcast about it a couple years ago Download LINK.

hmm... apparently General McAuliffe was a gentleman who didn't use bad language and actually said (and wrote) "nuts" not something R rated. However, when the Germans didn't understand, the officer carrying the written reply did use R rated language so they understood what it meant.

Full story here.

Did China build the impossible engine?

David Reneke links to the story.

Scientists with the China Academy of Space Technology claim NASA’s results ‘re-confirm’ what they’d already achieved, and have plans to implement it in satellites ‘as quickly as possible.’ 

 Scientists in China claim they’ve created a working prototype of the ‘impossible’ reactionless engine – and they say they’re already testing it in orbit aboard the Tiangong-2 space laboratory. The radical, fuel-free EmDrive recently stirred up controversy after a paper published by a team of NASA researchers appeared to show they’d successfully built the technology.

If the physics-defying concept is brought to reality, it’s said the engine could get humans to Mars in just 10 weeks. But now, scientists with the China Academy of Space Technology claim NASA’s results ‘re-confirm’ what they’d already achieved, and have plans to implement it in satellites ‘as quickly as possible.

With no fuel to eject, the EmDrive would violate Newton’s third law, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. At a press conference in Beijing, however, researchers with Cast confirmed the government has been funding research into the technology since 2010, and claimed they’ve developed a device that’s already being tested in low-Earth orbit, IBTimes UK reports.

Family news

It is overcast and drizzling but no heavy rain or strong winds.

The tropical storm is weakening and hit south of here, and the rain should last another day. We are signal one, and Manila Signal two.

We had family supper yesterday evening in the new gazebo. Very pretty.

Dr Angie also had a family get together: I went to say hi in the afternoon while they were fixing things up, but was too full and tired after our dinner so didn't go there later in the evening.

A wrinkle in time take two

A discussion at the Library of Congress about the book

Uh oh: Houston, I think we have a problem

every cameo of the Donald...
  -------

on the other hand, the WWF part might suggest he is more of a BadA--- than Putin...

yes, it's fake, but hey, so are all those macho photos of Putin.

Podcast of the week

The queens of England podcast.

Today's episode discusses the fictional character Eowyn.and how she fits into the idea of the roles of queens in medieval times.

Finding truth in Faerie

ne reason to read Science fiction and fantasy is that they discuss themes and examples that relate to reality, but unlike reality or allegory, can be applied in many ways to see nuances.

So is the latest Star Wars about the revenge of the minorities who find themselves in thrall of the evil white men, or the revolt of the Trumpettes against the NWO/Clintons who want to rule them?

Is LOTR about Stalin and the bomb, or about capitalism's destruction of the environment in search for power over nature?

Put favorite analogue here (and shudder if you think Game of Thrones has an modern application... uh maybe Syria?).

Quote for the day comes from AlasNotMe blog, from Madeline L'Engle's book on time travel (with angels):

In the last chapter of A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Whatsit (a supernatural being, if you don't know) and Calvin, a young boy, argue about knowing the future.

 "I do not believe it. And the Happy Medium doesn't believe it, either."
"Can't she see what's going to happen?" Calvin asked.

 "Oh, not in this kind of thing." Mrs. Whatsit sounded surprised at his question. "If we knew ahead of time what was going to happen we'd be—we'd be like the people on Camazotz, with no lives of our own, with everything all planned and done for us.

(The children visited the land of Camazotz, where every action is perfect and controlled by a big brain).

So where does human freedom come into this?

How can I explain it to you? Oh, I know. In your language you have a form of poetry called the sonnet."

"Yes, yes," Calvin said impatiently. "What's that got to do with the Happy Medium?"

"Kindly pay me the courtesy of listening to me." Mrs. Whatsit's voice was stern, and for a moment Calvin stopped pawing the ground like a nervous colt. "It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not?" "Yes." "There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?" "Yes." Calvin nodded. "And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?" "No." "But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn't he?" "Yes." Calvin nodded again. "So," Mrs. Whatsit said. "So what?" "Oh, do not be stupid, boy!" Mrs. Whatsit scolded. "You know perfectly well what I am driving at!" "You mean you're comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?" "Yes." Mrs. Whatsit said. "You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you."

I hear they are making a new film based on the book: one hopes they will do a better job of it than they did in the bland disney channel version, which lacked the awe and beauty themes.

a similar theme is found in Chuck Jone's cartoon from 1965, when chaos was seen as freedom (but fifty years later, we find it has led to chaos and destruction).

what is needed is both: a sonnet, or

Another day, another typhoon

Typhoon season is usually over by now, but now the tropical storm is headed south of here, but we are signal one, with rain warnings for tomorrow.
 MAP

Right now, it has started getting hazy and we will probably be hit with rain tomorrow.

The real mess is for those who traveled home to southern Luzon or the Visayas for the holidays. Lots of ferries are not running.

A reminder: Hope was born on Christmas day

-----



----

1. In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago. 2. Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain; heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. 3. Angels and archangels may have gathered there, cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; but his mother only, in her maiden bliss, worshiped the beloved with a kiss. 4. What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; yet what I can I give him: give my heart. ----- text: Christina G. Rossetti, 1830-1894 Music: Gustav Holst, 1874-1934

Family news

No rain yet.

I went to the dawn mass as usual. Lot of folk there.

Joy and Ruby celebrated "Noche Buena" at her mom's with their family. The custom is to go to late evening mass and the come home to a huge family dinner. She will be here later this morning, so we can celebrate here.

Chano held an afternoon Christmas party here for the staff of his business and the farmers had another party at the meeting/traning center there.

The beggers and relatives and neighbors have starting coming to the door. Traditionally they come to wish you Merry Christmas (and the kids get a peso gift). Lolo used to love doing this, but not me: I placed the cook at the door to give out gifts, and we'll close up when we run out of money (usually by 10am).

Merry Christmas

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas

Another day, another typhoon... well, not a typhoon yet but a "Low Pressure Area" due to hit.

it will hit the Visayas on Christmas, and hopefully no one will die in floods/ landslides or ferry disasters.

It is due to hit us the day after Christmas, depending if it changes course.

Medical Sexism

The PC gender feminists keep trying to insist men and women are interchangable and that gender is just a social construct.

And I keep saying: uh, biology?

So the LATimes has two articles today that go against the meme.

Pregnancy brain is real

At some point in the course of pregnancy, a woman is likely to suspect that the baby she is incubating has somehow hijacked her brain. New research suggests that, in some sense, she’s right, and that pregnancy itself is altering her brain like no other experience she’s had since adolescence.

I'm not surprised: my children were adopted, but the hormones I took for infertility treatment did alter my mood and behavior and emotions. Indeed, a dirty little secret no one wants to discuss is that the newer "high progesterone" shots, implants and BC pills make you nasty, dry, and hate sex (think constant PMS)

and if you wonder about the lack of good scientific studies, it might be because it is hard to measure subjective symptoms, and then the "placebo" folks will have symptoms from their own cycles or menopause.


LINK 

this study saw no difference, but it is a very small number involved and the dosage (i.e. for menopause) is lower than in the pill etc.

On the other hand, the pills with testosterone side effects (to shrink my benign tumors) made me fat, hairy and h-----y. So take your pick.

---------------------

and if you want to save 32,000 lives a year, have senior citizens cared for by women doctors.

hmm... is this because we women are socialized or biologically ingrained into nurturing, and listening to our patients, or is it because we are less prone to think: as pragmatic men: They are old let'em die, why waste our time.

Christmas movies

PJMedia has a list of usual Christmas movies.

They left this one out.

The Opening scene about says it all:

Prime Minister: Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport.

General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.

Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.

When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love.

If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.

Warning: the movie has bad language, promiscuity and Martin Freeman's famous nude scene (a trivia question answer) but includes many variations on love and deep friendship. The least commented on story is a girl who gives up a date that she has been longing for, in order to care for her mentally ill brother.

-----------------------

alas, with Drudge proclaiming the nutcases are out to hit churches this holiday weekend, maybe a more topical movie would be DieHard:

Yippie Kay Yeah M.F...

Here in the Philippines there will be a lot of security in the palenkes, malls, ferries, buses, and churches, and one hopes we remain safe from terrorism.

first there came the dominos..

then came the popsicle sticks:





instructions here






headsup Randomgoodstuff

Smile

Check BBC article about an Indonesian Photographer:

MUHAMMAD ROEM

Snark of the day

A famous slut actually laments that she never had an abortion.

snide reply: Why not? maybe because no one would sleep with you to get pregnant?

 she never had any babies either, and she is 30 years old.

update: I find the whole thing very very sad, so I should not point fingers at someone who was taught by her mother to be "prochoice" but never told about the beauty of having and raising children..

the revolt of the masses

Lots of the stuff I read about the US elites ridiculing ordinary folks backfired and the result was not that they gave in (as they did again and again in the past) but that they elected Trump.

But the bigger question is will the Christian churches be persuaded by their enemies to become PC.
Ross Douthart's article is chilling.

First, Ivereigh’s insistence on the total clarity of “Amoris” and the Holy Spirit-driven theological consensus it allegedly reflects seems to be shared by relatively few ecclesiastics – which is why the overwhelming episcopal response to the cardinals’ questions, their dubia, has been a circumspect silence rather than a rush to rally ‘round the pope. It may be that “Amoris” means exactly what Ivereigh says it means – a “yes” to communion for the remarried confined to extremely rare circumstances, basically, if I’m reading his interpretation right.

But the text (very obviously and deliberately) doesn’t just come out and say that, and, pace Ivereigh and many others in the papal inner circle, the two synods decidedly did not either.

longer rant moved to my rant blog because some of those I quoted were using bad language.

Family news

Ruby was out with friends last night and came back at 9 pm... I heard the dogs barking and went outside with George, our killer lab...luckily he was on a leash so didn't attack the kids.

Joy went to Manila yesterday afternoon to attend a conference and then a Christmas party for her workers in Bulacan.

Lots of goodies to eat, since it is Christmas... not the time to diet.

The Philippines is shutting down so everyone can visit family, and should reopen after January 2 or 3rd, except for us: Our fiesta is the Three Kings in early January.

And then later in January, Manila shuts down for the Black Nazarene procession and Cebu shuts down for El Nino..
family
With all the terrorist threats in Europe, we should be afraid, but you know, we are under constant threat, so no big deal.

the new mayor is spending money to spiff up the city square down the street... the playground was removed to plant grass, but we hope it will be put back for the kids once the grass and other renovations are done.

They also have extended an area outside the park that will be one foot above the ground level, and are building kiosks... I don't know if the plan is to let the Monday palenke vendors a cleaner, drier area, or if it will be for all the food vendors to use. Now, if they would only clean out the ditch on the west side of the old city hall (the new drug rehab center)....

the news here is a "tropical depression" that may hit the Visayas for the holiday weekend. That means rain and flooded streets.

and Buzzfeed has an article on why Christmas in the Philippines is the best.

ok: Altogether now:

Past as prologue

A lot of hyperventillation about "refugees", ignoring the fact that most of the "refugees" that Merkel is importing are not from Syria, nor are they families/women/children: Most are young men from other countries, and admitting lots of young men sans women is not a good idea for anyone.

Some compare this to the "islamic" invasions (of the Caliphate into Spain, or the Turkish expansion into Eastern Europe, who still remember that tyranny and are refusing to kow tow to Merkel).

But a better historica parallel would be the Goths fleeing from Attila the Hun.
From the Baldwin project:

The Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) were conquered by this savage horde (i.e. of Attila the Hun). The Visigoths (Western Goths), stricken with mortal fear, hurried to the Danube and implored the Romans to save them from annihilation. For many miles along the banks of the river extended the panic-stricken multitude, with outstretched arms and pathetic lamentations, praying for permission to cross. If settled on the waste lands of Thrace they would pledge themselves to be faithful subjects of Rome, to obey its laws and guard its limits. 

Sympathy and pity counseled the emperor to grant the request. Political considerations bade him refuse. To admit such a host of warlike barbarians to the empire was full of danger. Finally they were permitted to cross, under two stringent conditions: they must deliver up their arms, and they must yield their children, who were to be taken to Asia, educated, and held as hostages. Such was the first fatal step in the overthrow of Rome.

Wikipedia article here.


all of this must be put into context: The Romans had settled barbarians before, but were overstreched and plagues and civil wars had weakened the empire.

There is one big difference, however: Few of the migrants (not refugees, because most are migrants) going into Europe are actual refugees, and few are women or underaged children.

Most are indeed young men who could be trained to fight, and some are probably trained terrorists.

But most are just men wanting easy jobs that pay well. If Merkel or Obama's open border policy was near the Philippines, we would undoubtably be sending them a couple million Pinoys to get jobs too.

The Goths, however, came from a background where they knew how to fight. Luckily most of these migrants do not know how to fight, although they could easily learn to do so.

The jihadi mind set gives them a slight advantage when they shoot or mow down innocent civilians who lack a gun large enough to stop truck, but in a one to one against people with some training, it means you lose.

Alas, like the weakened Roman empire, one doubts the young Germans know how to fight either. And that is the problem.

No one thought to put up concrete barriers to protect the market, even though France had suffered a similar attack on Bastille day, and despite the meme that "professional intelligence" cannot stop attacks, in this case and in several of the other cases, it seems that this guy had known terrorist ties.

As for Merkel's policy: if you don't know what happens when a million young men without women get the upper hand over people who they hate, one might suggest you read about the end of World War II....

update: SP on Iran vs Saudi

Sigh

LINK

via Father Z who says pray and hope.

My snide comment is that the "reformers" who Douthat says are now running the show tend to be elderly ideologues, and given the recent election, maybe they are not the vanguard of the future.

Yes, just as Hillary was going to lead us into the promised land.

read the whole thing and pray.

family news

latest photo of my great granddaughter

Stories below the fold: How Convenient

Turkish murder of Russian ambassador blamed on the opposition groups. Presumably this will lead to a larger crackdown/arrest of opposition.


As the church lady says:

the bad news: Putin is already mad at Turkey, and payback's a bitch.

---------------------------
Western Digs summarizes the five newest "rewrite the history books" archeological finds in North America.

The Texans were here 3000 years before the Clovis people? How inconvenient.

----------------------------

China's space program review on StrategyPage. They are launching a lot of private satellites cheaply for various folks.

I remember when Bill Clinton was helping share with them rocket technology to send up private satellites cheaper, (and I'm sure it had nothing to do with of all that lovely money the corporations donated to him).

Bernard Schwartz donated about $1.5 million to the Democratic Party and Clinton’s 1996 campaign for reelection between 1994 and 1998. Schwartz, who was at the time chairman of Loral Space & Communication Ltd., seems to have used his influence to persuade the Clinton administration to switch the licensing authority for missile exports from the Department of State to the Department of Commerce, as the latter was more vulnerable to political influence.

heh. How convenient. Reminds me of all those donations to the Clinton Foundation before the election.

 but SP says they stole the rocket design from Russia, not the USA.

-------------------------

An immigrant maid accused the favorite for leading the IMF of sexual abuse, and  so they elected a French lady, who presumably didn't ask maids for blow jobs, to take his place.

Now she was convicted of corruption negligence in her previous job but will not go to jail.

Lagarde was found to be at fault on Monday for failing to challenge a 404m euro ($420m) compensation payout to businessman Bernard Tapie over the sale of the Adidas sports brand to Credit Lyonnais bank.

Presumably, like the corruption here in the Philippines, there is a back story with links that we peons won't read that explains why she was given a pass (the excuse is that she was such a nice lady):

She also cited Lagarde's good reputation and international standing as reasons why the court did not hand down a punishment in a case that could have carried a sentence of up to a year in prison.

How conveeninet..

-----------------------------------

why did female journalists miss the story of all those women voting for Trump?

City Journal notes

They had heads full of academic theory and millennial angst but little life experience with—and virtually no interest in—military wives from South Carolina or Walmart managers from Staten Island, who also happen to fall into the category “women.” Nor did the new luminaries or their bosses seem to notice that the latter group far outnumbered their own rarefied crowd.

The problem is that most women don't have glamorous jobs like they do. Or as Erma Bombeck once quipped: (paraphrase) I don't believe working at Woolworth's at a minimum wage is a more important job than caring for my children.

as for the 15 year old anti women "vulgar remarks" by Trump that were found and publicized: How convenient.

 Actually I thought he was describing how some women pursue rich and famous men. I disapprove that he said men could act on their sexual aggression, but I've seen enough women who went after doctors to know what he says is reality.

I suspect other women have seen this too and just shrugged and thought Sheesh how typical of men.

---------------------

The hyperventillation and campaign to have the Electoral college flip votes has ended: Trump lost two votes, Hillary four

Sort of reminds you of the recount kerfuffle, doesn't it? All that proved was that Trump got more votes in Wisconsin, and that there were a lot of extra votes in Detroit that had been counted for Hillary.

Lots of hype but no "there" there.

Now, if someone would check illegal voting in California and Chicago...

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Philippine news

bad news for the elites in the US who oppose Duterte: 85 percent of Pinoys support the drug policy, and crime is down here in the Philippines.

the elites are up in arms and say folks are in fear, says the Inquirer, quoting opposition leaders and the liberation-theology-Francis-church types in the Catholic church.

Of course, Duterte has called them SOB's too, so the dislike is mutual.

The comments are hilarious: Lot of PC trolls getting told off in Tagalog.

yes, a "poll" proves people are "afraid":

Fr. Jerome Secillano summed up on Monday the reaction of critics of President Duterte’s war on drugs following the release of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that showed eight out of 10 Filipinos feared that they, or people they know, could become victims of extrajudicial killings associated with the bloody campaign.

actually, no that doesn't prove people are afraid; it only proves people will tell the pollsters what they want to hear, and of course, shows a lot of folks know someone with a drug problem: and here in the Philippines, with extended family and friends, that would include a lot of people.

and yes the lovely lady who was schtupping her driver (the reported go between for collecting money from drug pushers) is also going around pretending to be a heroine.

Sen. Leila de Lima said in a speech at the annual conference on cultural democracy in Berlin on Sunday that she was disturbed that there was no expression of outrage among Filipinos on the daily drug-related killings.

the US is threatening to pull aid and other support if Duterte doesn't stop: But the next step is to cut legal protection for felons, so the big shots can't get off via delays and bribes.

China is helping without "strings": Yes, they will continue to steal the West Philippine sea, but hey, Obama sat back and left them build islands there over the last four years, while pushing population control and gay rights (which is not an issue here outside of Makati) as their priority.

backstory is that China does supply a lot of the meth and heroin analogues, and Chinese banks launder drug money (as do US and UK and a lot of other banks even the Vatican bank).

but Xi is trying to fight corruption in China, stepping on a lot of toes to do so but has the support of ordinary folks.

the serious fight is if "rule of law" will prevail. The US and EU are fighting against Duterte because he is breaking the rules.

The problem is, until you get people in charge to follow the rules instead of pulling strings to get around the rules and steal everything in sight, that a lot of common folk figure a benevolent strict government is better than government of the nice who are too polite to punish their friends who take bribes to let the powerful get away with crime.

Tita Cory was once asked why she didn't go after a corrupt politician and she explained he was family. That is the problem in a nutshell.

And that is the backstory no one is discussing.

Tolkien on the Mass

Many pious Catholics leave the church because they are tired of enduring superficial, happy-clappy church services.

Tolkien advises:

 Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children – from those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who the moment the tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn – open necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with hair both unkempt and uncovered.

Go to Communion with them (and pray for them). It will be just the same (or better than that) as a Mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people (it could not be worse than the mess of the feeding of the 5000 – after which [Our] Lord propounding feeding that was to come.)

read the whole thing.

related item:

Tolkien on marriage.

ecotoxin take two

while I'm at it, maybe I should put down some environmental toxins that may be associated with obesity.

LINK

LINK

Ecotoxins

Stuff below the fold

Drones? We haz that... StrategyPage discusses the drones in the west Philippine sea and why they are collecting data.

no, they aren't top secret, but use ordinary commercial software.

Which is why Trump said just keep the damn thing.

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One of the pushbacks by the Pope's minions against faithful bishops asking inconvenient questions is to say: But the bishops approved of this.

Not so: Father Z points out the paragraphs did not reach a 2/3 majority 
Did all the bishops who read the documents in a language other than their own catch the subtle nuances? After a long hard day of voting on a lot of paragraphs filled with theological gobblygook that was hard to understand, could they have just said yes, not noticing the verbal trap?

and if more would have voted no if they recognized they were being manipulated?

And of course the "exhortation" of the Pope on marriage is 300 pages long and few bothered to read it let alone notice how that footnote was snuck into the document, but already liberal bishops are interpreting a foot note to destroy the dogma of the church on marriage.

This was how many who objected to the abuses in the recent church were silenced, by saying "but it was in the spirit of Vatican II", never mind it was not in the documents, because no one bothered to read the documents.

the end result of that was that lax catholics became ex catholics, wishy washy catholics just went to happy churches as social clubs, and pious Catholics became Protestant. The second largest religious group in the US is ex catholics...

ah but the press is happy, and laments the Pope can't get his "reforms" passed.

So who can correct a Pope/council of bishops?

 Bishops with backbones... St Athanasius comes to mind.

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this is not just a church problem:
Related item:

Techdirt article on Snowden. Whistleblowers get punished.

(headsup Instapundit)

Pressure to work with the system is great and don't dare find something wrong (been there done that, against the IHS deficiencies that were killing our patients back in the 1980's).

A few days ago, I posted this BBC film about Professor Feynman and the Space Shuttle disaster... watch it if you want to see how politics works to cover up problems.

and, like Bishop Burke and those nasty bishops who dare to say no, Professor Feynman is just stubborn enough to push back at the attempted coverup.

Environmental hormones and transgenderism

Drudge says Nat Geo has a cover photo and article on transexualism.

The latest fad, being pushed to eliminate the cultural differences between men and women (never mind the biological differences are real).

But what is not being discussed:

Is there an environmental cause behind all this sudden discovery of transsexuals?

LINK

LINK2

Link 3

like the obesity epidemic there might be a biochemical toxin behind the problem.

update: This study say no...

But they also note they haven't done brain structure evaluation, and this suggests there is an agenda behind their reserach:

But searching for a biological explanation of gender identity shouldn't imply that being transgender is something that needs to be corrected. "The idea that being transgender is a 'disorder' of any kind invalidates a specific human experience that has existed since the beginning of human experience," Olson added.

uh, based on what data? Many cultures report gay and transgender people at a very low percentage of the population, so that is true. But are we just "noticing" so many cases, or is there an actual increase? Statistics please.

of course, we see these ladies here in the provinces of the Philippines, and have no problem with them.

The real question is if it is becoming more common, or a variation of OCD,  just another way for teens (and men in midlife crisis) to get control of the chaos in their lives, in the same way teenaged girls become anorexic.

yes, I know: Simplistic answers to complex problems, but if chemical pollution is part of the problem, one worries about it also causing a drop of fertility...

Thank you, Dr. Heimlich

BBC notes the passing of Dr Henry Heimlich, who invented and popularized the idea of clearing the airway by squeezing the pit of the stomach below the chest (instead of pounding on the back). AKA The Heimlich maneuver.

photo credit AP

Dr Heimlich invented the lifesaving technique, which uses abdominal thrusts to clear a person's airway, in 1974.phh
In May he used the technique himself to save a woman at his retirement home.
He dislodged a piece of meat with a bone in it from the airway of an 87-year-old woman, telling the BBC: "I didn't know I really could do it until the other day."...

Since the technique was introduced in 1974 it is believed to have saved the lives of more than 100,000 people in the US alone.
They include former President Ronald Reagan, pop star Cher, former New York mayor Edward Koch and Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, Carrie Fisher, Jack Lemmon and Marlene Dietrich.
In 2014 actor Clint Eastwood was credited with saving the life of a golf tournament director in California who was choking on a piece of cheese.
In the UK, celebrity promoter Simon Cowell was reportedly saved by comedian David Walliams, who carried out the Heimlich manoeuvre on him after a mint became stuck in his throat.

Sunday morning headlines

AnnAlthouse links to an article on Calexit: what would an independent California look like? and cite several novels which postulate this ( Heinlein's Friday postulates a libertarian California, but I suspect things have changed).

More probably, it would become Mexico 2.0: Neither PaxMafiosa nor Rule of Law.



And the Althouse article includes this factoid:

" If you take California out of the popular vote equation, then Trump wins the rest of the country by 1.4 million votes. And if California voted like every other Democratic state — where Clinton averaged 53.5% wins — Clinton and Trump end up in a virtual popular vote tie.

Hmmm...

Maybe Jill picked the wrong state to check for voter irregularities...

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The Diplomad laughs at the Russian hack:

Just days ago, as noted, the heads of our intel agencies declined to send briefers to Congress to provide the intel on Russian hacking of the elections. Leaked reports indicated that the FBI and CIA were at logger-heads over the issue of Russian hacking. Now, suddenly, unanimity. Right.

in the meanwhile, Powerline (right wing) notes: Russia has been hacking the US gov't for years, since a major hack in 2014, but nobody worried about it until Hillary lost?

 Hillary and the DNC emails were hacked or stolen by whisleblowers, who passed it on to Wikileaks instead of the WaPost, as was done when Nixon was pulling dirty tricks.

this says more about today's Washington Post than it does about the Russians. Or maybe not: the Watergate break in was originally a local story, and as the Rolling stone fauxrape article shows, their local reporters are still able to burst the bubble of the meme of the day.

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Michael Totten writes about Aleppo: The massacres of Assad are not new, but all the attention on ISIS lets him get away with it.

The ethnic groups in Syria have been fighting each other for 4000 years, and are still at it.

If the Assad regime were to fall instead of Aleppo, the war wouldn’t end. Everyone left standing would still have to battle it out. Lord only knows what would happen or how long that would last. It would depend in part on whether or not “the international community,” such as it is, felt motivated enough to do anything to prevent the worst factions from seizing power. In the worst-case scenario, the entire country could become a Sunni Islamist terrorist state, which is why so many people are rooting for an Assad victory even though he is a monster.

AlJ suggests Russia might be a key player in a political settlement.

So right now, Assad is winning, and Iran is helping him.

This is bad news: the Mullahs are crazy and dangerous and would spread terror all over the place, (but on the other hand, they love money enough that one doubts they would start a nuclear war and get vaporized. This might not be true for ISIS).

history suggests letting Iran win might be the least worst scenerio.

StrategyPage has a long essay on Iran vs Arabs Lots of history there that is rarely discussed in the press, maybe because it is a "MEGO" article. I mean, who can keep track of all those wars?

He writes it goes back to the 1200 year old blood feud on who should run Islam,

So yes, there is very much another Sunni-Shia war going on and Iraq, Syria and Yemen are right in the middle of it as are all the Persian Gulf states that control so much of the world oil supply. Much to the distress of the Arabs Iran moves slowly, deliberately and usually wins when their scheme reaches a climax. Arabs have been on the wrong end of this before and do not approach the situation with nearly as much self-confidence. Most outsiders don’t appreciate all this but these ancient animosities, rivalries and conflicts 

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If all of these things are related, it could be summarized in one word: Russia.

But a closer look suggests Russia might be meddling because there is incompetence and laxity in American leadership.

Dilbert on ISIS

Dilbert has an article on how to stop ISIS.

I called my idea for a persuasion play against ISIS a “filter fence.” Trump calls his persuasion play “safe zones.” Same thing. The reason you don’t recognize Trump’s plan as persuasion is that he’s disguised it as humanitarian assistance to the innocent. That’s how you start.

But once the safe zones are up and running, the persuasion begins. Safe zones would be a big deal to the psychology of the region. It would give hope to the innocent. It would give ISIS a new thing to worry about. It would be large and physical and influence lots of things around it. But most of all – and this is the important part – it creates a mental categorization that has in one bucket the people who are in the safe zone and in the other bucket the people who are not. And the people inside will probably mostly be women and children – also known as the future of ISIS.

he has more on this type of strategy HERE. on how to build a war and win the war.

 read the whole thing.

 some of this is familiar and resembles how SriLanka overcame the Tamil rebels. by sticking all the Tamils they could find in concentration camps and killing or jailing all those suspected of being fighters. And they threw out the "human rights" groups who reported atrocities, both real (often payback) and made up so they could kill without the world hyperventillating about killing known terrorists innocent civilians.

The US, of course, will not be able to do this, but hey, Putin can, as can the other more ruthless folks in the area.

but if you really want to worry, shudder when you read this prediction:

Another key part of my prediction is that the Caliphate will start to weaponize hobby-sized drones for attacks all over the world. When that nightmare starts – and you know it will – expect to never hear another press report from the Caliphate, because that’s when the depopulating will begin.

nah, we won't be at risk (why buy an expensive drone when a bomb placed in a mall or palenke is cheap an easy).

But since Duterte has escalated the war against the ISIS surrogates in the south, that means one hopes the US Embassy has sharpshooters to watch out for drones.

Drones, they aren't just for Amazon anymore.

Feynman take two

Stories on important trends below the fold

It's not just those who have sex outside of marriage who will get a wink and a nod from the "Francis-church" under the guise of "mercy"..

now people who are sick and discouraged (and who can't get decent pain relief thanks to the narcotic clamp down) and those who are just old or crippled and made to feel a burden to their relatives will have priests bless them and tell to just do it.

LINK

LINK2.

WWJD? Kill''em all?

No, he'd take care of them, as did Mother Teresa, Cecily Saunders, Leonard Cheshire, Jean Vanier, Rose Hawthorn, Vincent de Paul....

or of the many, many nameless people who lovingly care for their sick, handicapped or elderly relatives or close friends.

Yes, Pope Francis condemned such killings, noting that they are just another example of the "throwaway" cultures of the modern world.

In a culture that is increasingly “technological and individualistic,” some tend to “hide behind alleged compassion to justify killing a patient,” the Pope told health professionals from Spain and Latin America on June 9. “True compassion does not marginalise, humiliate or exclude, much less celebrate a patient passing away,” the Pope said. “You know well that would mean the triumph of selfishness, of that ‘throwaway culture’ that rejects and despises people who do not meet certain standards of health, beauty or usefulness.”

But words are easy: Will he (or his minions) condemn these bishops for their co enabling of killing of the sick? Maybe even ask them to resign? I suspect not. Indeed the opposite is more likely.

Anyone who is Catholic is bound to notice the Pope's minions are busy blasting the bishops who are defending the faith as being rigid and hateful, not blasting bishops who wink at sin.

If I am cynical, maybe it's because one of the "leaders" of the "bishop's meeting on family" was one of Francis' friends who covered up pedophilia and did nothing when his country legalized abortion and euthanasia. Some even see a conspiracy behind all of this, and say that the church being hijacked by a coterie of "reformers",  Hmm... Sounds like the conspiracy stuff Malachi Martin proephecized 20 years ago ....

St. Athanasius once said: The path to hell is paved with the skulls of bad bishops.  so nothing new with any of this...

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StrategyPage on the Philippines.

a lot more accurate than the headlines that you are probably reading.

and China just stole a USNavy Drone.

Uh, China, Trump isn't president yet. Try it again in six weeks...


and they also have this article, about drone strikes that target the propaganda leaders of ISIL

SteveGreen notes that Salon blames President Trump for this.

Salon 

✔@Salon

Hey, President Donald Trump: Do you know where your bombs are falling? http://slnm.us/FVl3FFj 

6:20 AM - 16 Dec 2016

amazing: Not yet president and already being blamed for stuff.

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It's not just Russian hackers

 Several states confirm being hacked by the Feds.

headsup SteveGreen (instapundit)

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Connect the dots: synthetic THC aka Zombie drug is sending folks to the hospital.

But unless you google, you wouldn't know:

 It goes by many names - K2, Spice, Bizarro, Scooby Snax, Kryp2nite and Stoopid, to name but a few - and it is setting off alarm bells across the United States. Imported primarily from China, synthetic marijuana is being cited by police and public health officials for a dramatic surge in potentially lethal overdoses and drug-related offences nationwide.

more HERE
Not all of the MSM are busy pushing the PC meme: The Miami Herald actually did some on the ground reporting on the problem.(2015).

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STEM is hard. Stem stands for Science, tehcnology, enginerring and math.

So the PC snowflakes insist you need to add "Art" so that girls who don't like to study hard stuff won't feel left out.

this is being pushed by fluffy feminists (of both sexes) who think poor little girls would be ashamed to be seen as scientists, so they add "art" and voila, all of a sudden girls (of both sexes) who don't want to study hard and hate getting their fingers dirty in experiments can feel better about themselves.

No, this is not about making Science major take a few liberal arts courses to keep them well rounded in knowledge, (we all were forced to do this, but I usually could pass these courses without bothering to read the book).

Nor is this about supporting those of us who did go into STEM fields: we don't need happy posters to make us feel good.

The dirty little secret is that this is about envy: of those of us (both men and women) who worked hard in hard subjects. This is a way to knock us down.

lots of scientists are actually good at art and music (Richard Feynman anyone?). But he don't need fancy posters telling him that taking a course in nuclear physics is just as important as taking a college course in bongo lessons. He just went out and learned to play bongos on his own.

Richard Feynman - The Pleasure of Finding... by Mazanga_Von_Badman

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heh. Science vs engineering:

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