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Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

Good morning and happy Sunday, friends.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Happy Sunday, GN!

Uh oh…a bored Mac could be a scary Mac. 😉

Worse yet, I don’t feel particularly amusing; coffee is not working its customary magic this morning. That’s another “uh oh”.

BBIAB.

grumpy coffee.jpg
Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

Reading through the recent crop of gun control proposals, I once again admire the left’s use and control of language. Using the term “buyback” instead of the more accurate “taking” is brilliant. Kudos, you f*ckers.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

Wondering. 3D printing is becoming popular for home/individual use -- what about a home self-publishing machine for books? Printing and binding on demand?

OK, time to get a move on. I don’t have to mow the lawn (HA!), but we are meeting with a contractor today about doing some work on this place so I will hit the market early and get the grocery shopping out of the way. I pray that they don’t have any freshly baked sourdough bread out for sale yet.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

Nice thread pic, Mac.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

Poof.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
4 years ago

A blessed Sabbath, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven, and Fatwa!

That thread-pic is scary enough for Halloween. Well played, Mac!

Today is the last Sunday with our choir director. He’s decided he wants some more time with his family while his kids are still young. I can’t say that I blame him. He’s got a full-time job in IT, he’s the choir director at a Temple, and he’s the assistant director for the Long Beach Chorale. With the director on sabbatical, he’s taking over as the director for this year. He’s arranged for an interim director for our choir through December. She’s a talented soloist who also teaches music at a local school district. She’s sung with our choir many times and we’re hoping we can get her to take the job on a permanent basis. We’ll just have to see how things shake out.

Good luck avoiding the freshly baked sourdough, Sven!

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

A busy man, Paddy -- music is one of the closest things to magic. Been listening to Chopin at work -- hard for me to appreciate, but I’m trying.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Mac

Now that’s just mean, Mac. But I did avoid it! Yeah, me!!

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Just Sven

Good for you, Sven!

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Greetin’s, Sven (sorry I missed you earlier), Paddy and Mac!

3D printing is becoming popular for home/individual use — what about a home self-publishing machine for books?

Sadly, we still have a ways to go there. Printing’s (obviously) not a problem, but binding at home on demand’ll probably take a while.

I pray that they don’t have any freshly baked sourdough bread out for sale yet.

Sourdough is one of two breads that -- when properly done -- I find pretty much irresistible. (The other one’s seeded rye bread. When we first moved to OH, there were two Joooish bakeries within a couple of blocks of our rental duplex with killer good rye. A large loaf was 35¢…criminy, I’m old.)

Paddy --

Hope things work out in a way that’s beneficial to your choir viz. a new director.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Oopsie…nearly forgot an important anniversary today. 👿

08_25_19 ted kennedy sobriety.jpg
Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
4 years ago

Teh Yay! for sobriety! He deserves it!

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

I did a book review at Amazon (gave it 1 star) on a book somewhat related to Ruby Ridge. Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew. My comments:

If the very first thing you read in a book is false, do you continue to read the book?

I saw the author on CSPAN’s Book TV last month and found her interesting enough to purchase her book. When the book arrived, I opened it at random and began browsing. Coincidentally, I opened to something that I’m familiar with – the 1992 Ruby Ridge incident. Unfortunately, the first paragraph I read was startling in its inaccuracy and I can’t recommend this book to anyone unless you have the time to fact check every page.

I’d like to believe this is just sloppy research on the author’s part and not part of her agenda in pushing a false narrative, but…

Here’s the text from the paperback version, the last paragraph on page 197. I’ve numbered each sentence.

“(1) On August 21, 1992, the Weaver’s Labrador retriever sensed intruders – federal marshals conducting routine reconnaissance of the mountaintop. (2) The dog ran toward the strangers, followed by Randy Weaver, Kevin Harris, and Sammy Weaver. (3) The marshals shot the dog, and the separatists returned fire, Harris killing marshal William Degan. (4) Marshals returned fire, killing Sammy Weaver with a shot in the back. (5) Randy Weaver and Harris placed his body in the birthing shed and took cover in the cabin. (6) They kept the rest of the agents pinned down with gunfire until nightfall, when the agents had to be rescued.”

(1) This wasn’t “routine reconnaissance.” There were two groups of three marshals that day, and one of their objectives was to locate and kill the dogs to avoid future detection. The dog didn’t just “sense” intruders – the marshals lured the dog out by throwing stones at the cabin. The surviving marshals testified to this during the trial.

(2) This sentence implies that all three were together during the confrontation – that’s wrong. The three “separatists” separated with Kevin Harris and Sammy Weaver going one way and Randy Weaver going another. Randy Weaver encountered the marshals and fled back to the cabin yelling for the others to flee as well. Coming from another direction, Kevin and Sammy ran into the marshals (dressed in camouflaged gear and not identifying themselves as LEOs) and saw their dog shot and killed.

(3) “Returned fire” is somewhat misleading. If I remember correctly, Sammy Weaver fired 1-2 shots; Kevin Harris claimed he fired only one shot as he fled after Sammy was killed. It also is unclear that Harris killed Degan – the possibility exists that he was killed by friendly fire – this was also testified to at the trial.

(4) OK, this sentence is accurate enough, although Sammy Weaver had already been shot in the arm and was running away when he was killed.

(5) This sentence implies that everything occurred contemporaneously. It didn’t. Randy Weaver returns to the cabin and is met there by Kevin Harris who tells him that his son is dead. Later that same day, Randy Weaver, Harris, and Vicki Weaver return to the shooting site (there’s no marshals there at that time) and remove Sammy’s body to the birthing shed – and then, yes, they return to the cabin.

(6) This is the most egregious misstatement in this whole paragraph. The remaining two agents may have had to be “rescued”, but no other shots were fired at LEOs by anyone up on Ruby Ridge after that first exchange of gunfire. The marshals lied about being pinned down for hours and taking sniper fire. Their lies set the stage for the government response and the FBI shootings that happen the next day. That the remaining five marshals were not “pinned down” is also part of the trial testimony and backed by physical evidence collected at the scene – there is no doubt this sentence is completely false and the author should know that.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Mac

I think the point of her book, Mac, is to link anti-govt with white supremacy. Tim McVeigh’s motivation for his killings in Oklahoma City was not white supremacy, but rather outrage over what our govt did at Waco.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Just Sven