EXCLUSIVE:
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 5, 2024
The Department Of Veterans Affairs just BANNED the V-J Day kiss photo from all department facilities.
"To promote a culture of inclusivity and awareness… your cooperation is vital." pic.twitter.com/MZfNHbpV76
Obscure | Gospel of Thomas Commentary
Here is a link to a great resource. On the front page it styles itself thus: “This page explores modern interpretations of the Gospel according to Thomas, an ancient text preserved in a Coptic translation at Nag Hammadi and Greek fragments at Oxyrhynchus. With no particular slant, this commentary gathers together quotations from various scholars in order to elucidate the meaning of the sayings, many of which are rightly described as “obscure.”
It is an excellent reference on the Gospel of Thomas. For each ‘Saying’ it provides:
–The Coptic text that was found at Nag Hammadi (prolog + 114 sayings)
–Three different translations of the text (by Blatz, Layton, and Doresse)
–The Greek text (Oxyrhynchus fragment) if it exists
–Two different translations of the Greek text (by Doresse and Attridge)
–‘Funks Parallels’ that associates the saying to other sayings, the New/Old testament(s), and other religious sources.
‘–Scholarly Quotes’ that provide ‘expert’ analysis of the saying and what it may mean.
–And ‘Visitor Comments’ that were placed by laypersons over time.
While I’m appreciative of the very informative commentary provided by the ‘Scholars’, they view The Gospel of Thomas through a different lens than others might. One might go so far as to question whether the ‘no particular slant‘ words provided in the introduction are applicable to all of the contributing authors. As a safeguard (of sorts) I suggest that you use their comments as trinkets found along discovery’s path rather than the the chest of gold at rainbows end. Your conclusions ought to be your own.
Nobody’s Perfect
This Week?
I’m always being dogged for playing 20 bucks a week on the lottery. “Why would you want to give your money away like that” they say. My answer is always the same: My 20 bucks, bite me.
The facts are plain, the lottery is won every single time. Some one somewhere always ends up with a smile on their face and an outlandish tax bill. I’m in.
Neither of the two biggies have been won in a while so the values have grown up to be in the ‘stupid money’ range. By my best guess the net (cash after taxes) is $133 M for tonight’s Powerball and $198 M for tomorrows Megamillions.
Stupid money could get you a little piece of land on the left coast.
“The Kristofferson Ranch. For the first time in over 40 years, the 557+- acre Kristofferson Ranch is now available. The ownership of the ranch dates back to 1980 when Kris Kristofferson purchased the property. Steeped in history, the origins of the ranch began in the 1800’s when it was originally developed as a dairy farm. “
“As a testament to old world craftsmanship and design, the original road house and barns still stand to this day. Just below the road house sits the cavernous rocky outcropping, known as Devils Basin. This dramatic setting played host to the filming of Karate Kid 3 and is considered some of California’s most pristine coastline. With nearly 1 mile of ocean frontage, cattle, timber production and residential development, the ranch offers endless possibilities to the next owner. “
“Multiple building envelops with panoramic ocean views run along the ridge lines throughout the property. The well-maintained road network throughout the ranch will carry you from water’s edge to the coastal meadows overlooking Manchester State Park. This is a place of solace. A fortress of solitude.“
Simple Pleasures
Wifey alerted me on Saturday that I had overbought eggs: we had 40 in the fridge. We typically go through somewhere between a dozen and 16 (or so) a week. So I decided that what the world (or perhaps just this household) needed is more pickled eggs. I tried my hand at this about two years ago and I guess I got a hold of bad recipe because they were inedible. Not so with the batch I made up earlier today.
I tripled the recipe (except the eggs where I used 21) and used 3 quart jars with 7 eggs each. No fresh dill sprigs so I used dried dill weed (a little less than half a tsp per jar) and scratched the onion. I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to add several sprigs of dried Asian Super Pepper (about 50,000 SHU) to one of the jars.
A taste test of one egg a short while ago let me know the recipe is indeed spot on. The challenge now will be to keep my paws out of the jar until they’ve aged for 6 or 7 days.
An Unraveling
What the hell are they putting in the water in Chi Town? A better question may be who in their right mind would choose to live there.
Meanwhile, in KC. . .
This behavior is (please think this through) not only acceptable, but also preferable to the alternative: a Kensington like existence. Somewhere in the back of there uneducated minds there is the nagging premonition that they must either act out/up or drift into the life of a zombie. A very real possibility.
This is the America that awaits those who place their trust in institutions.
When the Message is Undisputed, Shoot the Messenger
From Reuters: Russian media on Friday published a 38-minute recording of a call in which German officers were heard discussing weapons for Ukraine and a potential strike by Kyiv on a bridge in Crimea, prompting Russian officials to demand an explanation.
On Saturday, Germany called it an apparent act of eavesdropping and said it was investigating.
“The incident is much more than just the interception and publication of a conversation … It is part of an information war that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is waging,” Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday.
“It is a hybrid disinformation attack. It is about division. It is about undermining our unity.”
All of this may be so, but the elephant no one wants to speak of is that there is no secure communications channel in Deutschland. I wonder what other wonderful tidbits the Russians have harvested from these folk.
A Climate Defiance Ambush
What a bunch of sick fucks.
Incompetence At the Highest Level
Austin in front of the Armed Services Committee today:
If I understand this right he’s saying the only way to stop Russia from going to war with NATO is to have NATO go to war with Russia.
I’m thinking that he needs more surgery.
Without Honor
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there was no break in the chain of command when he was hospitalized in January. He admitted to the House panel on Thursday it was actually his aides who made a decision to transfer his authorities to his deputy. He then blamed those same aides for not telling for not telling the president about his hospitalization.
Trust me on this one folks, if decisions are being made by the aids then there MUST have been a break in the chain of command.
Is there a more contemptible way to toss an aide under a bus than in front of a House oversight committee?
OBTW, here is a question that begs to be asked: ‘Who is running the show in that great circus performing aside the Potomac?’ The aides?
Coming to an America Near You
Forbidden Texts (Revisited)
Some time ago I posted a large collection of ‘Gnostic’ writings in a volume titled The Gnostic Bible. It contains 47 complete works by various authors or are ‘gospels’ of some sort or another.
47 is bunches and this volume runs 860 pages. An index at the back end makes it more useful than what otherwise might be.
A very informative introduction by Marvin Meyer and Willis Barnstone provide an excellent backdrop on how/why nonconforming people, doctrine and documents were treated by ‘The Church’. These folk (church leadership) could not be safely crossed because the church had cornered the market on religion, faith and salvation and were one of the most powerful agencies in the world. They were not about to give away the keys to their kingdom to any upstart spiritual movement. The simple act of translating the scriptures (for consumption by the laymen) was prohibited.
The fates of John Wycliffe, Etinette Dolet, and William Tyndale testify to what the punishment for translating the New Testament out of Latin and into English or French might be. (See page 25 of the document)
Keystone Comrades
On one hand this is absolutely hilarious . . .
. . . on the other hand it won’t be long until US forces face the same crisis in planning, leadership, and execution as the Brits now do.
Until then, here’s to our keystone comrades in arms!
Around the Farm
I put out a couple of bales of hay and topped off the minerals for the cattle earlier today. I’m down to 6 remaining bales (that’s the bad news) but they have really backed off of it as the fields begin to green up (the good news). We’ve had three bail to the greener pastures to the west (my neighbors place) so they’ll not be munching on the dwindling stock over here.
I was going to gather up some composted manure to work into the garden soil, but decided instead to go with some decomposed wood from a fallen Hackberry tree.
Two trips to the ‘corpse’ of three buckets per trip was enough to enrich the organic material in four 4×12 planting beds. I turned it in some with a shovel and will give it a month or so of rest before i take my small Honda cultivator to it. I still need to move two more beds from the south (abandoned) side of the garden to this side.
I’ve collected another clue on the mysterious lone pear tree in the front pasture: Its bloom time.
It was a good thing that I thought to cut scion wood from these trees last week. Had I waited even as much as a few days it would have been past the time when it would be a viable grafting limb. Those cuttings are in my fridge.
As educational as this all might be, I may have the names of pear tree I planted backward! I won’t be certain that I have them named correctly until they produce fruit. The near term hurdle on the pear trees is concurrency; The trees that I planted will all need to be in bloom at the same time or I’m only going to get one variety to bear fruit.
Speaking of a single variety, one of my plum trees died and I’ve got one left. It is a ‘Santa Rosa’ plum and self pollinating. I saw a couple of blooms on it last year but no fruit. Today it was absolutely loaded with blossoms.
Greenies: Hunkered Down While the Fires Burn
If you were to sharpen your pencils and calculate the amount of carbon released annually from fires world wide, you’d soon realize just how ridiculous and nefarious this ‘man made climate change’ scheme really is. This is not to say that the highbrows and pencil necks within august group won’t/don’t pin this tremendous release of carbon on man (they will/do). But not very loudly as the globalization scheme they are pushing gains no traction when the ‘marks’ (us) realize that climate is going to go one way (or another, or both ways) all of it’s own volition. The climate is going to go where the climate is going to go and nothing that we can do is going to change that.
Combating climate change has never been about climate change; it’s been about restructuring the societies and controlling populations. Climate change is the crisis/catalyst that moves great nations to destroy themselves. On a scale less grand it is greed and/or self actualization (think Maslow’s tip of the triangle) that motivates a person within a nations power structure to use hot/cold/wet/dry as the means to an end. Bending the will of the peon for these folks is a good thing.
The good news is that once they can get the great republics to fall technology will have been developed to the point that every individual can be easily manipulated to act in whatever manner the state feels is best for the state. China’s development and implementation of ‘social credit scores’ regimens provides a solid foundation to build out a effective and ubiquitous system capable of rewarding/punishing at the whim of ‘our betters’.
Speaking of China, I’m pretty damn sure that they are quiet pleased with the trajectory that our world wide body’s are hell bent on taking (centralization/control) and with their own technological achievements. Good to know that things are coming together nicely for some.
Talent
Unsuspended | The Circus Rolls On
Jimi in 1967: It’s Kinda Like Art, and Sex, and Music, and Gymnastics, and Pyromania and Destruction
He burnt his candle from both ends. Have a great Wednesday!
Almost Tree Time
I gathered scion wood from all three varieties of pear trees I have on the property and placed them in 3 separate plastic bags along with moist paper towels. They are resting in the fridge along with the 3 new varieties of apple tree I picked up from Burnt Ridge Nursery. The apple scion does not have the circumference I expected so it’ll be ‘interesting’ to see if it grafts as easily as last years trees. Root stock will be sent this way next week and I’ll have 22 new trees to babysit for the next few month.
I currently have the two varieties above and can’t help but wonder who would dish out $150 for a 4 foot stick. I paid $35 each at a local nursery for the 3 pear trees and 4 apple trees I purchased a couple year back. The new 10 pear trees will cost under $3 each (the cost of the root stock) and the dozen new apple trees will cost $6 each (root stock and scion).
As far as I can tell there are 11 different type pear trees that are self-pollinating. I should be able to determine the type of pear that the old tree up front is once the fruit on it begins to mature. We’ll see.
A Transgender Reptilian Demon Witch
Mystery | Revelation | Gnosis
I’ve found that I’m partial to authors who do a good job of providing an unbiased rendition of competing thoughts on the knot that’s formed from the confluence of the many esoteric/religious/mythological/philosophical/theosophical traditions and beliefs. Dylan Burns did a good job of keeping it clean and making it readable.
An interesting sentence in the text caught my eye, it reads: “Nonetheless, despite its lack of Gnostic myth, the Gospel of Thomas has been marketed and received as the most popular ‘Gnostic’ text recovered from Nag Hammadi, generating controversy and commentary amongst churchgoers, scholars, and even New Age exegetes alike, who ‘find’ in it what they ‘seek’.”
The last phrase struck me as odd because it implies that the ‘truths’ found in, or the ‘truth’ about it (or authenticity, or value), is dependent on what the reader/examiner seeks.
Beyond being an easy to read and solid survey of ‘Ancient Esoteric Traditions‘, its list of references is a chocked full of goodies for those delving into the history and conflict between the many traditions and the societies they formed in. Enjoy.
The Great Challenge of Our Time
The world is on fire,. It’s true but there is no reason to worry: Joe is focused like a laser on the most serious problem plaguing Americans. War, southern border, inflation, Taiwan, China, Ukraine, Global hot/wet/dry/cold, Russia, Russia, Russia? Nope, those are all distractions from the paramount challenge of our time: free enterprise.
When he finally vacates the adult daycare center that the White House has become they are going to find the handlers that put him up to this shit and whack their PP. Elder abuse is still a crime.
A couple of observations: Does anyone actually believe that Old Joe went to the store and purchased any snacks? How would he know the price? How does he know the servings are smaller, does the wait staff not place the chips and salsa in silver rimmed bowls? Given that we know he has no idea of the cost or the serving size, the anger he clearly claims to have in the little spot is just not so. We’ve become so accustomed to being lied to that we no longer notice when it’s happening, or if we do we brush it off as an insignificant event. It’s not. When you become accustomed to being lied to and you no longer care or pause to evaluate the crap that’s being sent our way, we give these bastards free rein. Weak people in powerful stations without a press or people to hold them accountable rarely ends well.
There’s a New S_. _. _t In Town
There is a new sheriff slut in town. She’s going to taint up that quiet little conclave of moral conservatism known as ‘country’.
My view is that this genre brought it on themselves; once Miley Cyrus, and her tongue, got a few pedo’s ‘richard’ hard she earned a hard pass into the community.
From there it was only a matter of time before the walls fell and folk that obviously had no place in country could spring a few dollars on a song writer and presto/chango they were a star.
The road less traveled is about to get mighty crowded as all manner of creatures rush to capitalize on the latest crash of civility. So it goes.
Must She do Everything?
An Unintentional Disservice
I now realize that article in Oxford press linked in the post immediately below is not the full paper. I have a pdf copy that was taken from the Oxford publication but it is has a copyright so I didn’t (and won’t) post it.
What I will do is do you one turn better than that; a link to the site where I found the article. The site is restricted and password protected, but if you request access for independent research they should grant you access (they did for me). They’ll allow you 100 free visits a month.
A Paradoxical Tone
I found a great read in the Oxford Handbook of Synoptic Gospels on the character of the Gospel of Thomas. It’s interesting that a handbook on the synoptic would focus on a gospel that isn’t one, but I guess that’s just the kind of world we live in.
Here is a paraphrase (of sorts) on the first few pages of Malissa Hart Sellew’s very insightful treatment of Thomas v the synoptic(s).
The frequent use of paradox and of contrasting symbols and images, leading at times to outright contradiction, a feature found throughout Thomas, coupled with the lack of interpretive narrative context or framings, forces readers to think for themselves. Many of the instances of this same paradoxical tone are found in the Synoptics: [my note: remember what she is talking to is those instances were paradoxical tone is use, not all instances of similar topics/subject/narrative]
Thomas 4b: “Many who are first will become last” (Mark 10:31) (Matt 19:30; 20:16) (Luke 13:30). Thomas 5b: “There is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest” (Mark 4:22) (Matt 10:26) (Luke 8:17; 12:2). Thomas 20: “The smallest of all seeds … produces a great plant” (Mark 4:32) (Matt 13:32) (Luke 13:19). Thomas 54: “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Luke 6:20) (Matt 5:3). Thomas 68a: “Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted” (Luke 6:22) (Matt 5:11)
Thomas takes this tendency of ‘spinning out oppositions’ further: Thomas 3: “The Kingdom is inside of you and it is outside of you”. Thomas 18: “Have you discovered the beginning that you look for the end?”
Contrasting pairs of darkness and light, body and soul, flesh and spirit, above and below are woven throughout the text (especially Thomas 22) as it calls its readers to look away from their material existence to find their authentic spiritual character.
Her thought provoking assessment and narrative is (here) and it should take you to Chapter 12 (page 223) of the handbook.
A Bargain at Twice the Price
For those fortunate enough to live in states that have no qualms about taking your coin the numbers are indeed getting large.
And if the state that so eagerly takes those coins is growing just a little crowded, here is an out of the way spot that might give you the space you need to breathe. Sure, it’s a nightmare paying property taxes, but what the hell: Gavin needs a new pair of shoes and you can’t take it with you.
Highlights are: Dating back further than the scenic, winding path of Highway One, this six-parcel, 350-acre coastal ranch presents a colorful past and an even brighter future. Six unique homes, a magnificent redwood grove, and a private beach inhabit this serene stretch of land nestled between the canyon and cliffs.
A private access road connects all of these homesites, where expansive decks overlook the diverse terrain and secluded paths allow for a lifestyle centered on the outdoors. With its use of rustic stone and wood, the original homestead proudly exhibits its rich history, while the more modern buildings gracefully complement it.
Together, the property offers 12 bedrooms, 10.5 bathrooms, 2 pools (indoor and outdoor), and innumerable viewing points. Cherish the calming effect of year-round streams, hikes up the canyon, and quick access to fine dining – Post Ranch Inn and Nepenthe. The potential for a private helipad will further prestige, and the undeveloped beach parcel presents endless value.
When (not if) I win, I’m going to buy two.
An American Princess and the Manly Man
I guess Ms Swift enjoys the same sort of public adoration as the royalty in Great Britain do/did. Folks hang on every word, every facial expression evaluated against a backdrop of R and D politics and current events. The public’s keen ear picking out what was said or left unsaid; a constant evaluation of what may be on the mind of this maiden. Such is the life of Diva.
That she is pretty much an airhead politically means little to those that are D’s, someone in high social station associates with their team and all is right with the world. Were she an R then the strait laced of that party would be showering her with their conservative accolades. It’s OK to be naive politically if you are on the right team. What she is so very adept at is ‘image management’. There are not many folk who can capture the hearts and minds of the D’s while floating around the world in a couple of their own aircraft.
Now one of the problems that those who travel in the rare airs of the Diva have is folk are ascribing meaning to actions (or inaction), They are hanging on every event, every squint, a twinkle of the eye has them furiously banging the keyboard to advise the world of what amazing thing is occurring in Divaland.
Now that Kelce is slipping in and out those bed sheets, you would reasonably expect that he would forgo one or more of the pleasures only bachelors, or those wanting to be bachelors, enjoy. Not that this would be demanded of him by the owner of the sheets, but rather as a sign of good will/intent between the couple.
The world could reasonably expect to see a little less of the Kelce of old (shown below).
That, however, is not how the press presented it. Enter Ms. Beth Silliday of ‘In Touch’ who has decided that Kelce forbearance was actually Ms Swift’s demand: “The Ohio native previously talked about going to adult-entertainment venues on his “New Heights” podcast with brother Jason Kelce. He even supported the Crazy Horse 3 Las Vegas strip club by wearing one of their T-shirts to a November 2023 football game, but those days are over. Travis “is fine not going to strip clubs anymore,” as that’s one of the “Cruel Summer” artist’s “hard rules,” the insider told the publication. However, “she also doesn’t want him posing for photographs with female fans, mostly to avoid inaccurate headlines.” Since Travis has a legion of female Chiefs fans, “He had to roll his eyes at that one,” the insider said.
Who is this infamous insider? Outside of the phantom of the mind do they exist at all, or is this an example of why ‘journalists’ are permitted to maintain the confidentiality of their sources (cause they don’t exist).
I’m calling bull shit on this entire ‘insider’ crap. Ms Beth just made this shit up and attributed the words to Ms Diva. Beth knows what the Diva knows, it is impossible for the Diva to battle against the thousands of Pulitzer winner wannabees who crank out this nonsense on a twice daily basis. Even if the Diva was aware of what words were being place in her ruby red lips, she’d have a hard time stating that it was OK for Kelce to continue on as he had in the past.
Don’t know if Ms Silliday is a member of the 4th estate or is merely a 5th estate blogger with delusions of grandeur, but for those that hang on every word of the new Princess of American royalty, a D, it matters little. That folks is a problem. When it doesn’t matter if it’s a lie or not, as long as it paints your team (R or D) in a positive light then its another proof that we are a nation in decline.
Ruh Roh
Two thousand calls is bad, but not as bad as a separate report from the Daily Beast indicates. Obviously good friends in 2001 as Wade’s cell phone shows he spent at least 35 nights at her place during the same period. This is that period that both Willis and Wade said was before any romantic involvement occurred. (the pre-bumping uglies period)
From the Daily Beast: The already sticky situation in which Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has found herself, which centers on her romantic relationship with Special Counsel Nathan Wade, may have just gotten stickier.
Wade, the trial attorney Willis hired to help prosecute former President Donald Trump on state charges of election interference, allegedly visited the DA at home—occasionally arriving late at night and staying until the wee hours—some three dozen times between April 1, 2021, and November 30, 2021, according to Trump’s defense team, which reviewed cellphone data subpoenaed from AT&T.
An eight-page affidavit filed Friday in Fulton County Superior Court by Trump attorneys Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little allegedly reveals “a minimum of 35 occasions” during those months when Wade’s phone “connected for an extended period” to the cell towers nearest Willis’ condo in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville. In it, criminal defense investigator Charles Mittelstadt describes his figures as “conservative,” explaining that he highlighted those times when Wade’s phone was “stationary and not in transit.”
Of course all of this will be brushed aside by Willis, with her dead-pan look, explaining that she merely borrowed Wade’s phone for an extended period. Nothing nefarious with this married man, simply borrowing his phone.
The Best Government Money Can Buy
How any community can come to such a sorry condition is baffling. Y’all deserve this.
and . . .
Where all the white folk?
The Lone Pear: One Last Chance
I had to run upfront on an errand and stopped to take a photo of the pear tree I mentioned in a post yesterday. I took a look at Google Earth’s historical imagery and could see that it’s been in place for at least 16 years. I left the jeep in the photo to give you a hint at the scale.
That downed wood you see along the base of the tree is what remains of an apple tree that was adjacent to the pear. It came down last year.
The year before last I went in and heavily pruned the tree and thought that I could get enough of the dead/dying and in-growing limbs cleared out to get it healthy. It didn’t help, and the in growing limbs (see below) have all but consumed the old girl. That my SIL inadvertently got in to it with the tractor last year did not help, but I’m thinking that it has gone through it’s life cycle anyway and is about to check out.
There is plenty of new growth on the limbs to pull good scion from and so my plan is to graft up 4 of these to the Quince (semi-dwarf) root stock.
There is/was no other pear tree within half a mile of this one and it always produced fruit. It could be a Bartlett (a somewhat self pollinating variety)given the density of the fruits flesh and the way it held together while it cooked down when making preserves.
From the City That Never Sleeps
There’s a reckoning coming. Sooner or later folk are going to clap back.
If these ladies would just enroll into a good school and learn sportsmanship and other civil methods they could live the good life. A good case study of this premise below:
Which Dirt?
It’s no secret that I have high disdain for a 4th estate that lies and conceals information our citizens need to make informed decisions. Unfortunately those efforts are so very effective as our population is more content to pull up a lawn chair and watch the show than they are to run a little ‘Dick and Jane logic’ test on what is being forced down our collective throats.
Here are the first three paragraphs of the article, but before we go there, the entire title and subtitle (above) is deceitful. It implies that any negative information you have about hunter is fake/fraud because it is sourced from the boogieman. It also implies that the only source of information on Biden was from this ‘discredited’ source (when it isn’t/ wasn’t )
Article: Prosecutors also said Alexander Smirnov has been “actively peddling new lies that could impact US elections” after meeting with Russian spies late last year and that the fallout from his previous false bribery accusations about the Bidens “continue[s] to be felt to this day.”
To which I say: You’ll notice that It does not say that the Russians are the source of the ‘new lies’, but the author is adept at leading you to that conclusion. If you read it carefully, the ‘new lies’ are distinct and different from ‘his previous’ false bribery accusations which by the way is being tested in the House right now with many, many witnesses.
Article: Smirnov claims to have “extensive and extremely recent” contacts with foreign intelligence officials, prosecutors said in the filing. They said he previously told the FBI that he has longstanding and extensive contacts with Russian spies, including individuals he said were high-level intelligence officers or command Russian assassins abroad.
To which I say: Yep got it, he gets inside information from foreign intelligence agents. Where did you think it came from? The source may make the information suspect, but that doesn’t make it false. OBTW, here is what a snake looks and sounds like as they twist words in remarkable ways to suit their nefarious deeds. Of note, what goes unsaid is that he (Brennan) is relying on Russian agents to reach the conclusions he comes to….the very thing they are accusing Smirnov of.
Article: Prosecutors with special counsel David Weiss’ team said Tuesday that Smirnov has maintained those ties and noted that, in a post-arrest interview last week, “Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about Businessperson 1,” referring to President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
To which I say: David Weiss? The same David Weiss that tried to sneak absolution for Hunter Biden past a sleeping public last year? These folk have so little respect for the intelligence of our citizenry that they’ll push out that looser before us again. Finally, they cannot help themselves and need to repeat that the whistleblower associated with intelligence officials so I’ll repeat myself as well (from a slightly different vector) no one in our government was going to provide us with the truth, so if it hadn’t come from them then who?
Here is a little reminder of the type of folks were dealing with.
Absolute bottom line: Russia, Russia, Russia….yep, I got it.
Prepping for Spring
My butt is dragging today, I spent several hours yesterday moving soil and gravel from the south end of my garden (which I’m abandoning) to the north side (that I’m refurbishing and reinforcing).
The most valuable thing in the garden is the soil, so I wanted to make sure that I recovered as much as possible. As for the gravel: I need it, it’s there, so a little sweat makes it a lot more affordable than it otherwise would be. So I shoveled the gravel into the yellow buckets…..
….and then move those to the 20 gallon buckets sitting on the rack on the back of my jeep.
I’d then drive those to the north side of the garden to build out the new planting areas.
So I put my brain and fingers to work (they were about the only thing still working) and ordered additional root stock and scion for my little orchard. I purchased 12 apple root stock (I went with EMLA 106) and 10 root stock for pear (Provence Quince). Both are semi dwarf and produce trees that are roughly 65 percent the size of a standard tree. I’d love to get root stock for full sized apple trees,but there two problems with that: first, I’d like to plant a tree that fruits in my life time. Secondly, I’m getting a little long in tooth and no longer amused by falling from high places. Semi dwarf will work just fine.
This will be my first year grafting up some pear trees and I’ll be pulling scion from the Kieffer and Bartlett I planted a couple of years ago and from an old dying pear tree that sits on the front of the farm near the hay barn.
I have no idea what type of pear that old tree is, but I do know that it makes great pear preserves (think of hot breakfast biscuits with homemade pear preserves splattered across the top). The recipe goes something like: Peel and core as many as you can and stick them in a very large pot. Pour 3 or 4 cups of sugar on top, cover, and let set overnight. Simmer until it reduces by half. Pack the result in half pint jars and can with a pressure canner. I cranked out almost 2 dozen half pint jars and, owing to my wife’s generosity and some obscure southern rule about gifts from the garden, a week later I had two jars left.
I’ve got 16 apple trees now. Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Fugi, Wagener, Harrison Cider, King and Gala. The scion I ordered is for Cox Orange Pippin, Granny Smith, and Gold Russet.
These 22 additional trees (12 apple 10 pear) will just about fill up the little area I have between my garden plot and a gravel road that runs up to the equipment barn. I can see part of this area from the cabin so in a couple of years it will look great in the spring when they bloom. The cost per tree, on average works out to a very affordable 8 bucks or so.
Seattle | Where Civilization Goes to Die
What diversity buys.
April on Thomas
An excellent read
It begins with: “If there is one early Christian gospel that has a career both famous and infamous, it is the Gospel of Thomas. It has been called a ‘direct and almost unbroken continuation of Jesus’ own teaching – unparalleled anywhere in the canonical tradition’…”
And ends with : “I think that the ‘place’ of the Gospel of Thomas within early Christianity has been wrongly identified in the past, but not because it represents a type of Christianity unfamiliar to the canonical tradition or deviant from it. I think it has been wrongly identified for the simple reason that our categories, particularly in regard to mysticism in this period, could not contain it. That Western religiosity has controlled the discourse on this Gospel has not helped matters, since this Western discourse did not possess the conceptual framework to explain it.”
If for some reason it won’t download, let me know.
Doomed to Repeat
I’ve been wrestling with a heat/AC problem for about a week. I’ve got two split units, one for up, the other is for the downstairs. They are heat pumps and so the air handling units are indoors and the compressor is outside. The problem is with the production of heat in the upstairs unit: it didn’t/wouldn’t.
Between closing the unit down, resetting breakers, tripping/setting relay controls, pulling unit side fuses/breakers/disconnects, grounding circuit card test tabs, and knob-dicking the electronic thermostat I could get the SOB to work after an hour or so.
I couldn’t figure it out because the clues to what might be broke would change. : one time it would be the 50 amp breaker for the indoor component sometimes the 30 amp breaker for the outside, once it was both (several times it was neither). A couple of times it was shut down for faults that sensors in the outside unit detected and they’d throw a ‘blinking light code on two LEDs on the circuit card. Several time the card would indicate there was no power to the AC when there was.
It was a real pain and I was mulling over getting the AC guy out to take a look at it when I remembered the last time he came to look at my downstairs AC unit (about out two years ago): It cost me a fortune because it took so long to troubleshoot (he was good at ‘troubleshooting by replacement’) and the actual problem was that a relay had failed on the AC unit because the 50 Amp breaker for the heat unit was not well seated in the breaker box. The problem was not in either the indoor element or outdoor element, but rather with the breaker not being seated well. In short, if the power fails to the indoor air handling unit (like when the breaker burps) then it removes a needed signal to a relay in the outside unit that allows power to the fan/compressor to energize. If the breaker ‘chatters’ (as this one did because it was not well seated) it will eventually break the relay on the AC (even though the problem was not in/on the AC unit).
With that thought in mind I began to think I had a weak breaker and that it was tripping because of the heat strips that augment the heat pump were coming on. So yesterday PM I drove into Pulaski’s Home Depot grabbed a 20 dollar 50 amp breaker and solved all of my heat/AC problems. OBTW, I’ve concluded that the loud banging was the logical outcome from the outdoor compressor having power removed from it suddenly while under load.
George Santayana was right you know, those that forget the past are condemned to repeat it.
Mind your Betters
The UK government has, for the past 13 years, claimed that it can’t cut immigration because migration is central to growing the economy. Now, despite the largest wave of immigration ever to swamp the kingdom, the economy is contracting.
These are troubling times, can’t you see the worry etched on the faces of their betters leaders?
Trust Issues?
Was looking over some of the news this morning and ran across the photo below. It’s taken from the Breitbart site.
Either some one decided to stage some soldiers behind the Governor (and in doing so made sure they would find it challenging to bring him under fire), or we have one of those inexplicable mathematical oddities where only 13 percent of the population is left handed and every soldier in the photo with a weapon appears to be left handed.
I’m going to go with it being staged. Not one of the soldier pictured appears to be happy with his circumstances. The quickest way to destroy morale is to prove to a soldier that you don’t trust him.
Why Now?
109: “The kingdom is like a man who had a hidden treasure in his field without knowing it. And after he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know (about the treasure). He inherited the field and sold it. And the one who bought it went plowing and found the treasure. “
When you consider how many times chance played a role in the survival of the Gospel of Thomas, you may begin to believe that a some Higher Power was involved. Why that Power chose to resurrect the volume when He did gives me pause.
It all started in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. A young peasant and his two brothers who were searching for fertilizer to use on their crops and fuel their family’s cooking fires when they dug up and smashed a large clay pot. Inside the jar was a cache of old leather books. They gathered them up and took them home and dumped them near their mother’s oven; she began using them to start her fires.
Somehow many of the books escaped from the mother’s hands (and fire) and found their way into collections of various antiquities dealers and private individuals. Egyptian authorities eventually tracked down and gathered the remaining manuscripts and placed them in the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo
An international team of scholars photographed the manuscripts, published the facsimiles and then began transcribing and translating the texts. The first English translation of the entire Nag Hammadi collection was published in 1979, thirty-four years after the original find.
In 1988, a completely revised edition of the translation was made available to the public. In total, there are thirteen separate books containing forty previously unknown texts from the early Christian period, literature written almost 2,000 years ago and lost for the last 1,600 years.
Quite by chance a scholar, Henri-Charles Puech, made the connection between fragments of Greek text found in the 1890 and the Coptic Gospel of Thomas found at Nag Hammadi. Because the Coptic is a translation is from an earlier Greek version of the Gospel, and the Greek papyri had been dated to 200 CE, there is manuscript evidence that the Greek fragments are 150 years older than the Coptic. This means that Thomas can be dated to the late first or early second century but no later than 140.
Those Pesky Electrons | A Read Between the Lines
An article out of California popped up this morning (here) talking about the brown boots out that way confiscating a butt load (248) of weapons and a platoon’s butt load (over a million) rounds of ammunition.
After due deliberation (3 seconds after reading the last paragraph in the article) I’ve determined the objective of the author and the publication (Business Insider) is not to inform but rather to inflame the public, scare children and startle the dog.
A short while before reaching the end of the article I saw the photo below. I see what looks like an air-cool 60 in the background and what resembles a Maw Deuce (M2) in the foreground . I have no idea what that rail is on the top of the M2.
Then it hit me, this guy has a federal firearms license. They are not handing out FFL to whomever asks. I hear that to get one in California requires you bring KY Jelly with you to your interview. And yes, a sit down with one of the friendly Industry Operations Investigators (IOI) cadre of the BATF is required.
The last sentence in the article? “The state’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System, established in 2006, tracks people who lawfully bought and owned firearms but were later barred from possessing them.”
If the owner lawfully bought them previously then he must have had a FFL. Knowing the love that the pencil necks in the state legislatures (and the manly-man governor )have for the 2nd amendment, you can J walk in California and they’ll grab your weapons.
BTW, what is most chilling about that little statement pegged to the bottom of the article is that in order to ‘track people who lawfully bought guns and then became prohibited from possessing them’ one must first track all gun purchases. It’s all about the electrons baby and those electron are cozy’d up in a warm little data base just waiting to be called into service.
A Little Spot on the Coast
My best guess is that the cash value less all taxes (net) is right at $140,000,000. I’m in !
Here is a little place on the coast that I thought would make a nice place to set up in on weekends and reflect on the tragic world we live in.
The tragedy? According to the spot-on sarcasm over at Genesius Times (The Most Reliable Source of Fake News on the Planet), the nation mourns:
Other reasons one might have to mourn is the incredible ignorance that floods blog-o-spheres everywhere:
Wish me luck on tonight’s drawing. I figure I’ve got a 50/50 chance of winning (I either win or I don’t)
Deception
Most folks look at the headlines on news sites and rarely drill down into the actual article to gather more information. In today’s America that’s proving to be a bad practice.
The lead in twice states that Fox burned Trump; once in the title and once in the summary. Unless you clicked through to get to the actual article do you find that it’s bullshit.
The question we should be asking ourselves is why report on the falsehood at all? I’m guessing that there is more going on here that the drumming up of clicks. My guess is that smart folk someplace are creating articles like this for dual purposes: to spread disinformation about the event (given that most folk don’t go past the headline/summary) and reinforce the bias of the D’s in advance of the November 2024 Circus election.
My life, I guess, would be much more enjoyable if I could just quit questioning the intent of our overlords and the minions they’ve enlisted to message us. Our lives would be like:
And Now the Video
Yesterday I posted a brief note about the cop who mistook a falling acorn for a gun shot. Today we have the video. I’m a law and order kinda guy, but there are some folk that should not be allowed to carry.
Note to self: this guy resigned from the force, but is probably still walking around as a concealed carry.
It’s a dangerous world out there folks.
News/Confessions/Reviews
I should have known she would kiss and tell. Next time I’m going for a non-disclosure agreement as God knows I don’t need any trouble from the regulators in the fertility industry.
Misguided? Do you think? I can just imagine the look on the faces of the ICE guys when they patted him down.
He wouldn’t have robbed Macy’s if they had hung him last time.
You’ll recall that Rachel had a little trouble with both her heritage and her integrity a while back. I can’t understand what school district thought it would be a good idea to have someone like her around the kiddies, but apparently they did. I wonder how many of her associates went delinquent on their union dues in order to have her school them on Onlyfans.
I can think of a thousand of things to say on this, but not one of them does topic the justice it deserves. I guess we can expect to see marches in the street proclaiming Oak Trees Matter.
What struck me first about this headline was the over the top portrayal of the firm she honcho’d is/was an American enterprise. A little digging showed why: she is the younger sister of Elaine Chou; the wife of Mitch McConnell and former Secretary of Labor and former Secretary of Transportation.
My sympathy to the family, but this over the top portrayal of her enterprise has me asking why all of the effort?
No Vase?
NY’s 3rd and Why It Doesn’t Matter
The outcome of that race didn’t matter for two reason: It was a blue on blue contest (thanks to the reds) and AI is going bring us to our bony knees anyway.
Who was the Republican contestant in NY 3rd congressional district? Why it was a registered Democrat of course. Her name: Mazi Melesa Pilip. Ms Pilip, a registered democrat hails from Ethiopia and more recently from Israel.
Her husband was born in the Ukraine; small world isn’t it. Wiki says he’s an American-Ukrainian-Jewish medical student from a family of Holocaust survivors who had come from the United States to Haifa to study medicine at the Technion, later becoming a cardiologist. I can relate, as I have similar background (having been born in Virginia, am quasi Christian, and now live in Tennessee).
Back to Ms Mazi and the purpose of this lengthy drivel; The R’s in New York didn’t care anything about her politics, which way she would vote, or what crap they were hoisting on the rest of the country as long as they could get a check-mark in the W column. Besides that, they get extra points and a whole lotta boxes checked for selecting a woman, of African origin, who’s Jewish. Hell they even get point for inclusion by nominating a D to represent the R party.
This is the NY’s 3rd Congressional district. I’m pretty sure the R’s, both within this congressional district and within leadership positions at the national level, knew that this seat was toast. What most of us commoners didn’t (and probably still don’t recognize) is that regardless of who won the special election in NY’s 3rd, it was a seat absolutely going to flip blue because you cannot, and I mean absolutely cannot find someone who is more RINO than a registered Democrat running as a Republican.
As for the district, it’s area of about 20 by 20 (400 square miles) made up of concrete and road signs. That’s about 2000 residents per square mile. It has about 100,000 more souls calling it home than the entire state of Wyoming where they have a land area of 97,818 square miles, or about 6 folk per square miles. Wyoming has one representative for the entire state. Which brings me to my second point; AI.
I wondered how large Wyoming was and searched on Yahoo. Here is what the wizard AI provided at the top of the page. Before you saw any other answer from any other source.
Somebody needs to grab a keyboard and start smashing it into the servers. Rip a few plugs out of the wall and teach this latest stone added to the pavement on our road to doom that there are 50 states. I could get a China-man with an abacus and a rotary phone to provide answers and get the results faster and more accurately than the pencil necks that have pushed this taint upon us.
I’m telling you, no good is going to come from having this ignorance available at your fingertips.
It’s All on You
I got a note from Henry yesterday suggesting that I expand on a statement that is riding along the right side of the Thomas site. It’s the third paragraph under the heading “WHY THOMAS W(H)ISPERED” and reads:
The great discovery we find in his writings is not the ‘truthiness’ of his words (I leave to each of you your own understanding) but rather it is in the existence of his writings at all.
The portion of that sentence he asked me to talk to is the portion in parentheses. On many occasions I’ve jotted down what I’ve thought on a saying or on the gospel as a whole and every entry I’ve made on the topic can be found by clicking on the title of a post (this post for instance) and then at the bottom of the page that title linked to you’ll see the word “THOMAS’. Click that link and they will all, through the magic of the intertubes, come up. What you’ll read in every instance is a poorly written demonstration of how my mind grapples with words first written in Coptic, buried for almost 2000 years, and then resurrected and translated into English within a society that has long since forgotten (if they ever knew them) the traditions of the time. The number of different English translations in and of itself is a great obstacle to understanding just what the original author intended to reveal AND took pains to conceal.
This, of course doesn’t quite scratch Henry’s itch who suggested I address the un-addressable: ‘I leave to each of you….”. to which I say; “If I do, then I didn’t.” Or in other words: I leave you to your own understanding.
The presence of the brackets in the middle of the sentence was meant in no way to exclude the latter phrase in the sentence from consideration. The first part of the sentence address ‘truthiness’ of the Sayings while the second notes the miraculous (regardless of how you attribute the miracle) appearance of the Gospel of Thomas.
Outside of the words therein, is the appearance, or more appropriately disappearance, something worthy of consideration? The vast majority of Christians view the gospel as a stumbling block and a quiet few call it a needed light: two truths? Was the revelation of the volume (regardless of the words therein) in and of itself the message?
I think that’s about as well as I can address this without rendering null my ‘leave to you’ statement made years ago.
A High Demand for the Biased and Ignorant
Not many objective folk left in this country. Of those that are not many are tooled with a solid foundation in ‘civics’. (For those born in the last 50 years, ‘civics’ was a mandatory high school course that taught students how our government works.) If we add a third logical qualifier of ‘not stupid’ (something, by the way, that we are not allowed to measure) the number of Americans well qualified to participate in our representative democracy chokes down to roughly 311K or 0.09 percent (0.00088) of the 350,000,000 (or so) population of the United States.
I’ll not bore you with the math, but if you start with 350M and begin removing those not US citizens, those not of age, felons, disinclined to vote, not objective, unschooled in civics, those that vote on the race of the candidate (which I’ve considered differently than being non-objective) and those that are just plain stupid you’ll end up with a number like 310,918.
If those 310,918, assuming voting patterns mime Gallop’s profile of the electorate, 42 percent are independent and 29 and 27 percent(s) are Democrats and Republicans respectively. The unclaimed 4 percent belong to the green/communist/socialist/mariannewilliamson/etc party.
What all of this means, essentially, is that candidates in both parties are vying for the votes of those least qualified to choose a good leader. They campaign accordingly. Everything you see or hear about any candidate is either designed to influence the closed minded, ignorant and uninformed idiot/bigot or to keep them that way. If you find yourself agreeing with one of those 30 second ad spots you may want to think about what they said that has enamored you to their cause.
Ads, with fain attempts at ridicule, such as the one below are perfect for what they were designed for: keeping the sheep tightly within the confines of the flock. It ridicules the other side and, as an added bonus (for those not paying close attention), shit-cans the idea of a bicameral legislature by laying the blame for dysfunction at the feet of the ‘Republican Congress’.
Playing to the prejudices of their constituents has, unfortunately, become the hallmark of American politics: that folks is what diversity brings to the table.
Monday Monday: Sometimes It Turns Out That Way
All the news you wish you hadn’t seen/heard/read.
I’m beginning to understand why its so damn hard to close out the tunnels in Gaza. The red arrow in the photo below shows a breach entry Israel made into one of the lairs.
It’s a good thing Kennedy advertised, I’d forgotten that he existed. I don’t know who he went to for campaign advice, but the ad is (in my mind) extremely effective in pointing out the age weakness’ of both Trump and Biden. It reminds folks of Kennedy’s heritage and paints him as being cut from a completely different cloth than that of the establishment candidates. He’s toast, but he’s not bland.
I’ve spent considerable time this morning trying to figure out which of the two tight ends pictured the article below was talking about.
If you’re in Paris and everyone around you makes you think you’re in the Bangladeshi ghetto on the east side of Johannesburg SA , you may want to rethink your life choices.
In closing, Old Joe decided the best way to show you that he’s really as sharp as he’s always been was to tweet a picture proving that the lights are still on. I can’t think of a single person who thought that they’d gone out, but the question of whether anyone is still at home remains.
