08:24 – It was 48F (9C) when I took Colin out this morning.
What is it about women and GMO’s? It’s as though many of them consider GMO’s to be poisonous, which of course there’s absolutely no scientific evidence to support.
If you visit prepping sites that discuss food storage, you’ll find that many, perhaps most, of them that are run by women who treat GMO food as something to be avoided at all costs. It’s “unhealthy” or so they apparently believe. Conversely, you’ll seldom encounter such a site run by a man that even mentions GMO’s, let alone demonizes them.
What they ignore, of course, is the fact that, with minor exceptions like wild-caught fish and wild game, nearly all of what we all eat is genetically modified in some sense. Humans have been raising crops and livestock for more than 10,000 years, and they’ve been genetically modifying those organisms the whole time. Initially by selective breeding, and more recently by direct intervention at the cell level.
For example, ancient Rome could not have become what it did without GM wheat. Few people realize that until the time of Caesar Augustus, Romans subsisted largely on emmer, a primitive natural form of wheat that was not suited to growing on the Italian latifundia and later the North African grain belts. It was only the introduction of more modern wheat that allowed the population of Rome to explode as it did.
In fact, the invention of genetic modification by selective breeding of crops and livestock is what ultimately allowed the development of the modern world. People have to eat, and without selective breeding to greatly increase production, there would not have been enough food to support cities, let alone metropolises like Rome became. People would still be living in mud huts and scratching out a living from the soil.
Now, there are obviously different types and degrees of genetic modification, some of which most people consider more “natural” than others. Almost no one nowadays would take issue with selective breeding, but many draw the line there. For some reason, many people are bothered by the idea of a human manually transferring genes from, say, one breed of tomato to another to optimize the characteristics of that tomato for human use. What you end up with, of course, is just a tomato. A tomato that has somewhat different characteristics, certainly, but still just a tomato. And there’s no reasonable basis for assuming that that new form of tomato may be any less nutritious or any less healthy to eat than the older forms of tomato.
Even more people object to the most recent form of genetic modification, which involves transferring genes from one species to an entirely different species. It’s unnatural, they say. Of course, it’s actually completely natural. Nature does it all the time via a mechanism called horizontal gene transfer. Yes, the resulting organism is a “monster” using the strict definition of that word as something that never before existed in nature, at least if you squint your eyes and ignore the fact that “nature” does it all the time.
But even the most anti-GMO people happily use the products of some of these monsters without thinking twice about it. If they or family members are insulin-dependent diabetics, for example, of course they use insulin that is produced by GMO monsters. Until 1978, when the first genetically-engineered E. coli bacteria were produced that included the gene to allow them to produce human insulin, diabetics depended on insulin isolated from livestock pancreata, all of which has slightly different amino acid sequences than human insulin. It worked, usually, but how much better is it to have access to actual human insulin without having to kill healthy people to reclaim their insulin?
* * * * *
I wonder if any students read Kipling nowadays. More than 50 years, in 7th-grade English class, I read his Gods of the Copybook Headings. I wonder if anyone today who’s not at least 60 even knows what Copybook Headings are. The final stanza has always stayed with me:
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
When Kipling wrote that poem nearly 100 years ago, nearly everyone knew exactly what he was talking about. Copybook Headings were aphorisms and rules for living. Each was printed at the top of a page in a student’s copybook, what today we’d call a notebook. Students mastered handwriting by copying these aphorisms over and over, until each page was filled with their copies. As they copied these headings over and over, they were perforce required to think about what they were writing.
* * * * *
Do I like Kipling? I don’t know, I’ve never Kippled before!
I read his “Just So” stories to my kids at bedtime. But you’re probably right. I wonder how many people think “The Jungle Book” is just a Disney movie?
I don’t get the big deal about GMOs. Humans have been altering our food for so long we don’t even think about it. By definition a fruit is something edible that grows around a seed. I have never seen a banana that contained a seed that I could plant and grow a banana tree. Is a banana really still a fruit? This was done a long time ago with traditional breeding techniques. I’ve never seen a purple carrot, but I’ve heard that is the natural color. Again this was achieved without GMOs.
Yep, the Romans ate lots of carrots, most of which were purple and none orange.
Or the idea that high fructose corn syrup is unhealthy while honey is healthy. Both are basically fructose and glucose dissolved in water. For children under one year old, I’d argue that high fructose corn syrup is actually healthier because it contains no botulinum spores.
Update: My personal favorite was the products that listed evaporated cane juice as an ingredient instead of sucrose or sugar.
Richard K. Bernstein, a diabetic doctor specializing in the treatment of diabetes, has noted that the first synthetic insulin allowed him to reduce his insulin dose by 50% and still have the same control over his blood sugar. That alone made his macular edema go away.
Anyone who claims to be a “dietitian” or “nutritionist” is as much a fraud as a fortune teller or astrologist. Human nutrition is actually pretty straightforward. We require, first and foremost, raw calories, which are what fuels our bodies. Those calories can come from carbohydrates, proteins (whose amino acids we need to construct our own proteins), lipids (of which we also require a certain minimum), and numerous micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). A normal varied diet provides everything we need, and in adequate amounts. Even if you eat junk food at every meal.
The true first occupation, marketing. Think about it. 😉
@dave, just saw that cane juice extract thing yesterday. I like the asian translations that say “tea extract” instead of caffeine too.
From what I understand, there is some evidence that in our bodies HFCS is processed differently, and with negative side effects. I’ll wait and see.
Keep in mind that in the US, because of the dual nature of our regulators (ie. regulate but also promote) almost everything we think we know about food and nutrition since the 50’s is BS. Where actual science came in was finally mostly concerning high performance athletes, and not particularly applicable to ordinary folks. I’m sure the armed services, astronaut corps, and some other places where actual results are critical have good data, but again, those guys are pretty much extreme athletes in most senses.
nick
Could this be considered genetic modification? 😉
Thugs pull gun on 70-year-old Vietnam vet. But he’s armed, too — and quicker on the draw.
Source: http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02/07/thugs-pull-gun-on-70-year-old-vietnam-vet-but-hes-armed-too-and-quicker-on-the-draw/
But that’s different because of chemicals. And corporations are evil! And you’re not qualified to pass judgment because you’re a scientist so you’re part of the system.
There. I think that hits most of the reasons that I’ve heard for why we shouldn’t eat GMO products.
As for the copybook headings, I heard of them only because Pournelle explained the term in one of his There Will Be War books — he figured he needed to explain it before presenting The Gods of the Copybook Headings because no one younger than he would get the reference.
John Ringo is a big fan of Kipling, so you’ll see a lot of it in his books. (most of which are some version of PA, by the way.)
n
What is it about women and GMO’s?
Nancy “Botox” Pelosi might be GMO’d. She was screeching about the current Administration and called tRump President Bush. Only an artificial life form is that dumb.
And Coffin Cankles has a “talking head”, literally, vid for the Maker conference. “The future is female,” according to it. Her body is totally still while talking, head moving like it’s a ghost head. Very puke inducing. Another artificial life form.
PS
Cankles outfit looks like it was ripped right off Frankenstein’s monster. Geeze.
Regarding Kipling and GMO.
I still enjoy reading Kipling and am getting ready to start our soon to be 5-year-old on the Just So stories.
Leslie Fish is a singer / songwriter who used to do a lot of sci-fi conventions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her voice is smokey, gravelly and nasal at the same time. An acquired taste. What I enjoy about her is she also loves Kipling, and demonstrated that love by putting a number of his poems to music.
My favorite is Rimini.
My youngster loves to sing and Leslie Fish is going to help her memorize scads of Kipling.
What’s cool is her Kipling music became popular amongst SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) folks on the west coast and Alaska. You would walk the encampment at night and hear Kipling being heartily enjoyed, in chorus, from fire lit singers. Delightful.
Janet Kagan, regrettably dead of Lyme disease and its complications lo these many years, handled GMO in a series of short stories. They are delicious. Her opening line of the collected work, Mirabile, is one of my favorites from sci fi because it is such an unexpected image.
“This year the Ribeiro’s daffodils seeded early and they seeded cockroaches.”
I don’t knowingly buy GMO. I lack an articulable logical argument. My avoidance is based on a distrust of the mega industry of farming versus what my local farmer friends are growing. Reading Temple Grandin helped form that distrust. As did the various recalls and the USDA APHIS program with its proposals to implement APHIS down to the level of the individual who keeps chickens / rabbits for personal consumption. My dislike and distrust of GMO is probably a conflation as much as anything. Not convinced mega farming, and by association GMO, have my family’s best interest at heart. So I practice avoidance. We are fortunate we can afford to support our local farmer. I behave logically the majority of the time so I’m ok with this bit of irrational behavior.
Vet had concealed carry right in MO, but defended himself in IL. I’m fine with that and so were the IL authorities.
OTOH, might be different if he had to defend himself similarly in Baltimore.
My Hobby: Going to local anti-GMO meetings and passing out Granny Smith apples. 🙂
@jenny, wow, that is indeed an acquired taste. Anyone who likes “the high lonesome sound” of american bluegrass should be able to make the adjustment….. [added- or The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald…]
We’ve read a couple of the stories with the kids. The language can be tough, but so was Swiss Family Robinson, all the Roald Dahl stories, and the latter Harry Potters. the war weary stuff they don’t have enough life experience or context to understand. Fun to play with the language though.
n
@nick
=sheepish=
Yeahhhh, her voice is awful. Too many cigarettes.
But. But.
Gotta admit, Kipling as music?
That’s pretty frickin’ awesome.
My mother, the black sheep of her family, raised me on Kipling and even named my brother Kim. She ran away at 17 to NYC in 1940 to become an actress, worked minor rolls on Broadway, and stayed with Lucile Ball between gigs. She got her pilots license and was an acomplished fencer. Going broke in New York she went to Hollywood, played bit rolls on war films and became friends with R. Reagan when he was head of the SAG union. She LOVED all the Kipling poems and would often recite them to me at bedtime. Later in life I would befriend a woman whos grandfather knew Kipling in India. I wish I had written down her stories.
“While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.”
“@jenny, wow, that is indeed an acquired taste. Anyone who likes “the high lonesome sound” of american bluegrass should be able to make the adjustment….. [added- or The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald…]”
Wreck? Bluegrass?
How about the “Wreck of the Old 97”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU-MTWwFV4g
“What is it about women and GMO’s?” Fortunately not all women, my wife has been saying the same thing rather vehemently and practically word for word for years.
John Ringo is a big fan of Kipling, so you’ll see a lot of it in his books. (most of which are some version of PA, by the way.)
Let’s see:
1. space alien invasion (two series !), check and check
2. viral pandemic with resulting zombification of 99% of population, check
3. Cthulhu activity, check
4. severe global cooling causing crop failure and starvation, check
5. small group causing ruin of a future utopian society (terrorism), check
6. private army prevents nuclear weapons in the USA, check
Wait, Ringo hasn’t done global economic failure due to huge government debt yet ! Or an EMP over the home land. Or global thermonuclear war.
Aren’t most modern GMO changes for Roundup resistance when weed spraying ?
You are not going to feed 7,000,000,000 people without modern GMO and especially not with “organic” farming. I doubt the world could support more than ~1.5 billion without modern hybrids (“natural” or engineered), pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Under those conditions widespread famine would be no more than a single blight away.
When I’ve talked to people about this most will refer to “Frankenstein” or some horror movie with giant bugs** as if they are documentaries. Fair disclosure I make a living doing this. I’m a scientist in the development department of a company that makes therapeutic proteins in genetically modified animals, so maybe I’m biased. Or maybe I’m just knowledgeable on the subject….
**I love watching giant bug movies from the 50s. It’s a guilty pleasure I indulge in often.
**I love watching giant bug movies from the 50s. It’s a guilty pleasure I indulge in often.
Them! A classic giant bug movie starring James Whitmore and others. I have it on DVD. Especially appropriate for peeps living in Tejas.
Or maybe I’m just knowledgeable on the subject
Had an argument with a guy that sold vitamins. He claimed that only natural vitamin C should be used as the manufactured stuff was not the same. Never could understand that if the chemical formula is the same, the stuff is the same. Of course the synthetic vitamin C was about $1.00 a bottle, the stuff he sold was about $8.00 a bottle.
I agree with everyone on this stuff. Almost all of our food has been genetically altered through breeding, cross pollination, etc. If anyone questions the consumption of genetically altered fruit ask them if they have eaten a Tangelo which is hybrid of tangerine and pomelo or grapefruit. A hybrid is a genetically altered product that would not have occurred in nature by itself.
Wife and I don’t worry too much about GMO stuff; she likes greens and veggies more than I do, and I’m big on traditional New England Yankee fare, which doesn’t float her boat that much. We also tend to avoid the fast-food joints unless really pressed for time and off somewhere else in the country. Even Princess has mostly dumped her former uber-vegan diet and will eat fish and meat now. Of course the salmon has to be wild-caught, and not farm-raised; the key to determining her likes seems to be the higher expense of it, whatever it may be.
WRT Kipling; I grew up reading him, along with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and the 1950s and 1960s sci-fi writers.
I always liked Kipling’s short stories, particularly “The Phantom Rickshaw” and of course “The Man Who Would Be King,” one of the best movies ever, and certainly the best buddy movie (I hate the term “bromance.)
We got a couple of inches of heavy wet snow overnight on top of the inch already on the ground. Supposed to rise above 40 tomorrow with rain, as Mrs. OFD heads off to Kalifornia for a few days to visit grandkids and then Denver for a week, and Charlotte for the following week. New Orleans in March, and wants to know if I wanna go down there with her; I’m sorta thinkin’ about it.
New Orleans in March
Ah, New Orleans in March. A place that is moist and smells bad, like a crotch.
@cowboyslim,,
that is a classic and has awesome pickin’.
His voice, in contrast to the lady singing Kipling, and the vocal qualities in W of the EF, is smooth as silk and in a major key.
HUGE difference!
n
Thanks for the link though, haven’t heard that in years.
Currently 91F and sunny, but very pleasant in the shade due to the low 45%RH.
NICE change of pace. I hope it’s not a harbinger of the future– no spring, right into summer. SMELLS like spring.
n
@jenny, are you a ham??
Almost every day I listen (and sometimes check in) to the Alaska Morning Net on our local repeater. It’s available thru an online link too.
If not, it’s a great introduction to nets, and friendly folks on ham radio….
http://arcticserver.com/alaskamorningnetmain1/
n
GMO : My grandfather was practicing Genetic Manipulation in the 20’s. He spent many years in his pecan orchard sticking bits of one tree on another trying to enhance the qualities of his thin shell pecans. Who would have thought he was an EVIL SCIENTIST?
We got a couple of inches of heavy wet snow overnight on top of the inch already on the ground. Supposed to rise above 40 tomorrow with rain, as Mrs. OFD heads off to Kalifornia for a few days to visit grandkids and then Denver for a week, and Charlotte for the following week.
We are 82 F today and suppose to hit 86 F tomorrow. Global warming rules ! Oh wait, sucks ! Oh wait.
sticking bits of one tree on another
That is grafting, not genetic manipulation. The genetics of the base tree or the graft do not change.
Currently 91F and sunny, but very pleasant in the shade due to the low 45%RH.
@nick, are you living in the heat island ? We just sit out here on the extended bank of the Brazos River, fan ourselves, and drink Mint Juleps all day.
https://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=KSGR
Yeah right. We’ve got the air conditioners rolling in second gear.
I forgot to mention that we had about 600 planes parked at the Sugar Land airport for the Superbowl. Apparently one of the two 6,000 ft runways was closed and had quite a few planes parked on it. We live about five miles south of the airport and they were taking off and flying over my house until 1 am.
Well, my weather station is in the sun and close to the roof. Probably reads a little bit hot. When I’m working in the driveway or garage, it’s pretty much right on for that microclimate.
RH dropped to 37% in the last hour. Hmmm.
n
Oh I used to LOVE the mint juleps. Whiskey, sugar, mint, and ice. What a combination. And the old ladies sitting on the porch drinking a tall glass.
I always liked Kipling’s short stories, particularly “The Phantom Rickshaw” and of course “The Man Who Would Be King,” one of the best movies ever, and certainly the best buddy movie (I hate the term “bromance.)
Apparently you did not see Rocket and Groot in “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Serious buddy movie there with Rocket interpreting Groot’s various inflections of his trademark “I am Groot” expression to have hundreds of meanings. Of course, they were not executed together as they were too smart for that. But, Groot did give his main trunk for the survival of Rocket and the other Guardians.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/guardians_of_the_galaxy
Bummer, “The Man who would Be King” scored at 96 / 90 on Rotten Tomatoes. GOTG only scored a 91/ 92.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_who_would_be_king
@nick, here you go, “The 2018 Ford Expedition debuted today, just a couple days ahead of its official unveiling at the 2017 Chicago Auto Show. From the pictures, it looks freaking huge, helped by F-150-ish headlights that integrate into a very large grille and taillights that appear to swallow most of the rear end. It’s like a Ford Explorer was given a fistful of steroids and shoved into one of those square watermelon molds. The C-pillar is reminiscent of GM’s boxy, full-size SUVs, too.”
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/auto/2018-ford-expedition/preview/
I am not a fan of the new roided Explorer XXXXXX Expedition. Nor the dial shifter, what marketing moron thought that up ?
I may buy a new Expedition when my 2005 hits 200K miles. I am at 177K miles now. Driving it to Norman, OK in a couple of weeks (900 mile round trip).
I am going to buy a 4WD Expedition next time. $2K more for same ride height and only a loss of one mpg.
Wife asked me semi-seriously if I wanted a new one rather than fix the old. Nope. Happy with mine. Nice, but not so much I cry when it gets scratched or bumped.
And 2008 with 137k on it.
n
3.5L engine??? I’ve got the 5.3L V8 in mine.
3.5L engine??? I’ve got the 5.3L V8 in mine.
Biturbo 3.5L V6. 18 psi of boost on a 10 to 1 compression engine running on regular. Those crankshaft bearings are four bolt mains with 3/4 in bolts. I’m betting the head bolts are 3/4 inch also. The turbochargers are integrated into the exhaust manifolds with water cooling and variable vanes, no wastegates needed (at least not very often).
The 2018 3.5L V6 has direct injection instead of port injection. Sounds like a diesel. 375 hp and 470 lbfts. It is a beast. There is a hopped up version in the Ford Raptor with 450 hp.
http://www.f150hub.com/specs/ecoboost.html
Ray has the first generation in his truck and says that he loves it.
Ray has the first generation in his truck and says that he loves it.
Yep, strong engine with quite a bit of torque for pulling the boat. Cruises nicely on the I-state with around 21MPG. Mileage drops to about 10MPG when pulling the boat on the local roads. Several stops and starts from the house to the boating club. Seems to be a really good engine.
Nor the dial shifter
Mine is a lever that just activates switches to tell the computer what gear to put the transmission in. No real physical connection to anything. Getting rid of the lever probably saves a few dollars and keeps the shifter out of the way of the cup holders. I know I mine I have to be careful to lift the cup up a lot before moving sideways.
For those of us with special diets, has anyone done a study of the tears of the stupid? Is there any difference between the tears of the organically stupid, the tears of the GMO stupid, and the tears of the baseline stupid? Any health risk in feasting on the greater quantity of tears of the GMO stupid?
I suggest you contact a Mr. nick, down there somewhere in the great Lone Start State; he was washing his truck in the tears of the snowflakes a while back and may have a profound scientific insight for your question. But I don’t think he was actually consuming them himself; I’d figure they were somehow toxic and possibly contagious.
@SteveF
Not everyone who tries to avoid GMO foods is stupid.
@Jenny
“I don’t knowingly buy GMO. I lack an articulable logical argument. My avoidance is based on a distrust of the mega industry of farming versus what my local farmer friends are growing. Reading Temple Grandin helped form that distrust. As did the various recalls and the USDA APHIS program with its proposals to implement APHIS down to the level of the individual who keeps chickens / rabbits for personal consumption. My dislike and distrust of GMO is probably a conflation as much as anything. Not convinced mega farming, and by association GMO, have my family’s best interest at heart. So I practice avoidance. We are fortunate we can afford to support our local farmer. I behave logically the majority of the time so I’m ok with this bit of irrational behavior.”
I don’t trust corporate agribusiness, either. Few people behave rationally at all. Fewer still behave rationally most of the time, and almost no one other than extreme Asperger’s people behave rationally all the time.
No. Pending other data, though, that’s the way to bet. Or at least unable or unwilling to use quantitative, multivariate thought.
Many are very nice people, but never learned to think critically and rigorously.
Shifting goalposts there.
However, I agree with the latter point. Most Americans have never learned critical thought. In particular, liberal arts grad students, who flaunt their “critical reading” credentials, do not comprehend critical thought. This is mostly the fault of the public school system, which was designed to churn out docile factory workers and reliable party-line voters.
I don’t blame these recipients of an inadequate education, but neither do I feel any need to respect their thoughts.
For those of us with special diets, has anyone done a study of the tears of the stupid?
President tRump emits “tears of a clown.”
President tRump emits “tears of a clown.”
I think that is Roger Goodell. “Patriots coach returns from Super Bowl wearing a Roger Goodell clown shirt”
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/02/patriots-coach-matt-patricia-roger-goodell-clown-shirt-super-bowl
And from the Boston MSM stations, more accounts of all the very large and nasty anti-Goodell signs along the Super Bowl parade route this morning, much of it through the downtown area.
But like I told my siblings; yeah, I get the sentiment and even agree with it to a point, but the season is over and enough is enough; lay off the guy until he craps in the chowder again.
And I’m getting annoyed at Amazon, where I’ve been a Prime customer since the beginning; all kinds of hassles now placing simple-ass orders to this address and getting nowhere. I’m about to cancel the existing order. They always wanna yammer on the phone about stuff but I HATE talking on the phone to these people. Never had any problems with orders until this past weekend.
Here’s some nifty intel on the commies who got arrested in Mordor during the “inauguration.”
http://gotnews.com/breaking-heres-full-list-231-people-arrested-inauguration-riots-dc/
I’m betting the older asswipes are hardcore commie cadre.
Michael Caine was in the most manly movies about manly men doing manly things in a manly way – Zulu and The Man Who Would Be King, the latter directed by one of the most manly directors ever, John Huston.
What you end up with, of course, is just a tomato.
Most of the GMO foods out there have roundup resistance. There are a few others. Hawaiian papayas are GMOs, but were exempted from local anti-GMO laws, as there would be no papayas alive there otherwise due to a disease.
There has been some interesting research on tomatoes on how commercial tomatoes lost their flavor. They have identified what flavor compounds were lost and what genes produce them. From the conclusion:
Save the tomato!
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/saving-the-tomato-researchers-build-a-genetic-roadmap-to-taste/
We grow our own tomatoes here, at least. Fairly consistently and bought as plants locally. Only crop that’s been an unqualified success so fah. Will try different stuff this spring in different areas. There are garden joints up here in THIS county who manage to grow tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, so we should be able to do it, too.
But as RBT has pointed out, and I agree, we really need to buckle down and work on stuff that thrives in this climate, like the root veggies; more bang for the buck.
The snow has changed to freezing rain and wind, so there should be a nice thick coating of ice on everything in the morning when we have to hustle down to the airport for wife’s flight to Kalifornia.
The snow has changed to freezing rain and wind, so there should be a nice thick coating of ice on everything in the morning when we have to hustle down to the airport for wife’s flight to Kalifornia.
In my world, the words hustle and ice are incompatible.
So, apparently, are “February” and “no air conditioning needed”.
No A-C up here for as long as I’ve lived in Vermont, nearly 20 years now. Also no venomous reptiles or gigantic pythons crushing gators to death in the rivers and lakes.
I say “hustle” because invariably the Other Person who lives here leaves a bunch of chit to the last possible minute and then I have to try to make up the time without getting pulled over by eager-beaver state cops.
“No Joke: Al Franken for President?”
https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/647681?unlock=K36E7XFBC11I1KQ7
Wow, the Progs and SJWs are getting desperate, aren’t they ?
So, apparently, are “February” and “no air conditioning needed”.
Dude, we air condition twelve months out of the year down here in the swamp. Usually heat in the morning and air condition in the afternoon of the two weeks that we call “winter”.
You got the two weeks of “winter” and we get the two weeks of “summer” here. lol.
Al Franken is a genuine, intelligent and caring statesman of the first rank.
I just wanted to see if I could write that without exploding with laughter. Fail.
Jesus wept. Well, what the hell, we have had Death Valley Days Reagan, peanut farmer Carter, Sonny Bono, Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, Larry Klinton the dope dealer and serial rapist, murderer and war criminal, the unknown junior senator from Illinois with the unknown birthplace, etc., etc. Why not another prog buffoon?
I guess John Belushi was unavailable.
Here in Lower Alabama, I haven’t had the A/C on since early October. I did have to turn the heat on two mornings last month, an hour or so each day.
Just remember, Alabama is to the USA as the USA is to the world.
Sweet Home Alabama
Is that an arithmetic or a geometric progression, Lynn? If the average Alabaman has 20 teeth and the average American has 29, does the average non-American have 38 or 42 teeth?
I don’t see how that matters. In the Democratic Party, the dead can not only vote, they can be elected to high office.
(Note: that’s an Infogalactic link. Many people can’t view those at work because IG is listed as a hate site even though it’s largely a clone of Wikipedia. Similarly, many people report that GAB is blocked as hate speech. Tweets calling for the murder of specific white people apparently aren’t hate speech, but non-Twitter social media is.)
“In the Democratic Party, the dead can not only vote…”
I see that Carnahan was with the OSI in the Air Force; we did not like those guys. They were spies going after relatively minor miscreants and rarely felons or foreign spies. They wore plainclothes and thought themselves oh so special, thus the name, Office of Special Investigations. Somewhat like the Army’s CID people, one of whom came to my house a few months after I quit working for Uncle and back from SEA. He made a big show of asking if it bothered us that he had a .45 in his shoulder holster; I about busted out laughing, having just recently finished machine-gunning a bunch of commies. His big case concerned missing photos taken by a U2 spy plane over Red China and because I’d been a customs inspector over there briefly, wondered if I knew anything about them. I remember seeing the U2s land from time to time and boy, did they kick the security up a few dozen notches when those babies came in. But nope, never saw any of their pics. I don’t think so, anyway, but part of the time I was loaded on heroin. That enabled me to get through the all too frequent task of rummaging through caskets with human remains in them.
Yup, a real barrel of laffs, that last few months.
Internet of Things!!111!!! sign up now!!!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-08/mans-pacemaker-used-track-and-charge-him-crime
My only interaction with CID was an investigation into a Major and CW4 who were thought to be coke dealers at Fort Drum, NY. The CW4 was mine. Turned out the CW4 was just an alcoholic holdover from Viet Nam. But, I alread knew that. A great pilot, though. The Major tested + for coke on a random drug test. He claimed someone put coke in his coffee. Right. Off to the hoosegow with him.
“…Off to the hoosegow with him.”
In the Army that would be the stockade. In the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, the brig.
In the U.S. Air Force, “correctional custody.”
An Air Force jail is just like a regular barracks except that the inmates have to make do with only one pool table per twelve people. Amnesty International has been called in to shine light on this violation of human rights.
Is that an arithmetic or a geometric progression, Lynn? If the average Alabaman has 20 teeth and the average American has 29, does the average non-American have 38 or 42 teeth?
The actual statement from my employee, a born and raised Minnesotan with a PhD in Chemical Engineering from CLEMSON, is, “The USA is the Alabama of the World”. Given the context, the intent is clear.
BTW, he never wants to go back to Minnesota in the winter time. Never. Something about -50 F and trying to start a 20 year old Chevy pickup so he could drive to school.
“An Air Force jail is just like a regular barracks except that the inmates have to make do with only one pool table per twelve people.”
Cruel and unusual!
Plus, only one chef per cellblock and lights out at 2 AM!
Minnesota? The mosquito capital of the US?
30 years ago I tried to get my workplace to send me there in mid winter to do some training on CDC computers (may peace and blessings be upon them.) Didn’t work out…