If you don't have your old Atari defensive gear, T-Rex Labs has some interesting thoughts on defending against drones.
Honesty in Journalism
Cowboy State Daily: “Shooting Drones is Illegal, But a Shotgun Would Work Best”
Magic & the German Shepherd Dog
Tonight Conan found two of his tennis balls in the basement, where they had fallen down the stairs and become lost. I picked each one up in turn and threw it up the stairs, to the main floor. Each time he thought I had thrown it across the basement, and went and searched the other side laboriously.
Then, after I finished lifting weights, we went back upstairs where he found the balls. He grabbed one and was running around showing it to everyone as if to say, “Daddy is a wizard! He threw this ball in the basement, and it reappeared on the main floor! Look! Wizard!”
A Poem by Czeslaw Milosz, Translated By Czeslaw Milosz & Robert Pinsky
The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes.
Some would be devoted to acting against consciousness,
Like the flight of a moth which, had it known,
Would have tended nevertheless toward the candle’s flame.
Others would deal with ways to silence anxiety,
The little whisper which, though it is a warning, is ignored.
I would deal separately with satisfaction and pride,
The time when I was among their adherents
Who strut victoriously, unsuspecting.
But all of them would have one subject, desire,
If only my own—but no, not at all; alas,
I was driven because I wanted to be like others.
I was afraid of what was wild and indecent in me.
The history of my stupidity will not be written.
For one thing, it’s late. And the truth is laborious.
So darned unfair
For Schadenfreude, it's hard to beat about 90% of the election post-mortems in the last 5-6 weeks, but this Salon piece is a truly virtuoso performance in Looking Glass world analysis. Apparently Trump unfairly skunked the Democrats by sticking to big-picture themes and speaking about them consistently to national audiences. At the same time, he employed a "divide-and-conquer strategy while simultaneously building a multiethnic MAGA coalition." Harris, for her part, micro-targeted to splinter groups, which was apparently better because it had more details.On the other hand, Trump unfairly micro-targeted those same splinter groups with ads that purported to praise Harris's position on just the issue each group would hate. He targeted Muslims with her pro-Israel positions and Jews with her anti-Israel ones, or alarmed oilfield voters with her threatened ban on fracking, which she didn't even mention while she was campaigning this time! Evidently the ads implied they were from Harris fellow-travelers if not the Harris campaign itself, which research shows makes voters more receptive, again very unfair. It seems Harris's splinter groups were bored by her targeted message, assuming they believed a word of it, while the splinter targets of the Trump effort were galvanized by video evidence of her actual messages over time, which they totally believed.Salon quotes the NYT's lament that people don't seem to believe experts any more, and they couldn't hear Harris's message of joy/brat/whatever because they were so angry about feeling broke. Evidently nothing can be done to improve this state of affairs except for Democrats to stop playing so nice and try to dominate the culture that is upstream from politics, which they've never tried before and certainly didn't succeed at for decades by capturing most institutions from the press to the justice system to public schools to universities.
Bee Stings
Running Low On Ideas, God Makes Oklahoma
It's a fair cop, though the southeastern and southwestern corners of the state as well as the panhandle have bits of interesting topography. Really, though, is there any interesting topography from Galveston, TX, on up through Kansas?
However, an even worse heresy has recently arisen: Die Hard is a Harry Potter movie!
Updates
"OTTAWA — Former Rightful-President Hillary Clinton has been awarded an honorary medical license by the Canadian Minister of Health due to her decades of experience providing dignified euthanasia services to men and women in America."
(It's actually worth the half minute it takes to read the whole article.)
"The pardon will reportedly cover any crimes that Sauron may have committed during the entirety of the Second Age of Middle Earth."
Home for the Holidays
Country Cooking at the VFD
I arrived home last night just in time for — literally within an hour of — the Volunteer Fire Department’s Christmas party. It’s always fairly early in Advent so as to preserve the actuality of Christmas for the family: after all, the Fire/Rescue service takes members away from their families often enough throughout the year.
Especially this year! We are grateful and fortunate to have come through so much so well.
The food at this feast reminds me so much of my childhood, when this kind of ‘country cooking’ was almost the only thing available even in local restaurants. Now, it’s hard to find. Just a simple meatloaf, fried chicken, potatoes with gravy, green beans (not pictured), rolls, and a selection of dump cakes and fruit cobblers for dessert. Water, tea or soda to drink, like the dry South in which I grew up. My wedding was dry: Georgia on a Sunday in the old days always was, except perhaps in Atlanta.
It’s good to be home.
UPDATE: I am reminded of this joke about Appalachian Southern cooking.
A Marian Carol
I came across this link on Twitter, and it leads to a post not just presenting the video, but the history, language, and musical evolution of the carol. Quite interesting. Reading that I came to suspect that the term for young ladies in the UK in the 60s- "bird"- may not have to do with the animals, but rather with a Middle English term (berde) that was resurrected with a modern spelling and understanding. Turns out that may not be exactly the case, but perhaps there's a relationship there regardless. Turns out she did a whole thread of carols, but I've not had time to go through them all yet. Something to help get you in the spirit of Advent.
Mordor Ascendant
Back in the District for three nights. With the expected transition coming in days, the bureaucracy is off the chain. Crazy times.
Assateague
A good day spent with wild horses (or feral ponies, depending upon whom you ask).
The horses are pretty calm, as long as you treat them with proper respect.
The island itself is very beautiful.
The Heart of a Bull
Peruvian cuisine tonight. The waitress carefully explained to me, after I ordered it, that it would be the actual heart of an animal. It was delicious.
The Great Eggnog Riot at West Point
Come for the riot-worthy recipe, stay for the story of Cadet Jefferson Davis's eggnog rebellion.
The lightbulb comes back on
A crazy thought from disappointed Democrats: maybe the Constitution has some answers for how to rein in government when we find ourselves in a minority. It turns out there's federalism, separation of powers, and all kinds of stuff we might want to look into.
Syria
A friend writes:
Events are moving quickly in Syria after Hezbollah was crushed. The Turkish terrorists have taken Hama, the Iraqi parliament has authorized troops to enter Syria, and Russia has pulled its fleet from Tartus. Because Turkey has closed the Bosporus to them, the Russians will have to sail to northwest Russia to reach a friendly port. What a mess. I blame Israel ;-).
Travels Before Yule
I’m making a final swing for business before settling down to winter on the mountain. I’ll be on the road until the 13th. Posting may be light.
What I been sayin'
Several reports of the surprising-but-not-surprising Hunter Biden pardon have mentioned that Hunter will no longer be able to plead the Fifth if called to testify in future probes of corruption on the part of his family, especially his father Joe and his uncle Jim. What that observation immediately suggested to me was that Hunter will be exposed to contempt charges if he does not testify and perjury charges if he does--assuming he won't simply tell the truth, a possibility I discount for the present. Jonathan Turley makes the same point in today's Hill article.Strangely enough, Still-Sort-of-President Biden could have avoided this trap by commuting Hunter's sentence instead of pardoning him. That was the approach followed by President Bush in the conviction of Scooter Libby. President Bush reportedly felt it was wrong to pardon a crime he actually believed had been committed, but it was reasonable to commute the sentence in light of the unfair and persecutory nature of the prosecution. That ostensibly is also Biden's explanation for the pardon.Like many, I look forward to pardons for the J6 participants, or commutation to time served at the very least, for any as to whom there may be credible evidence of violence. They've all already experienced more punishment than any rioters I can think of for the 2020-2022 period. Ditto for anyone convicted of standing around outside an abortion clinic praying.
Experimental Archeology and Notre Dame Cathedral
In 1997 an experimental archeology project was begun near Treigny, France. The project was to build a new castle, Guédelon Castle, using only the materials and methods available in the 13th century, in order to learn more about how castles were built. It took 25 years and involved hundreds of craftsmen, bringing about whole new generations of masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, etc., who had years of experience in medieval building methods. In 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned down and many of these craftsmen went to work on the rebuilding project.
Wikipedia article explaining the castle project -- lots of pics
Guardian article on the Guédelon Castle craftsmen going to work on Notre Dame
For anyone who is interested in 13th century castle building, I can't recommend the five episodes of the BBC series Secrets of the Castle highly enough. It seems to be available for free on YouTube. (That said, if you already know a great deal about the topic, the series was made for a popular audience and may not be all that exciting.)
Here is the Guédelon Castle website, especially useful if you plan to visit.
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