The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Orion's picture

    Less Lethal Guns and Adopting A Progressive Lifestyle

    By Orion on Mon, 09/27/2021 - 1:36pm |

    There was an article on a Las Vegas news site about how Las Vegas police were training to use "less lethal" devices during confrontations:

    LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A company known for its firearm technology took the time to teach our local law enforcement about less-lethal weapons Saturday.

    Bryna Technologies' held training in Boulder City this morning.

    The U.N. goes KPop (not a parody) during the General Assembly

    By artappraiser on Tue, 09/21/2021 - 2:00am |

    [POLICING ISSUES] Starting with the NYTimes on "Gang Takedowns"

    By artappraiser on Sun, 08/29/2021 - 12:57am |

    [Previous thread here: Policing Problems Redux, May 23 thru Aug 27]

    Gang takedowns are good. Shooters are arrested. Shooters are people who shoot people. Gang takedowns are "disputed" by like a dozen people. And the New York Times found them all!

    "As Shootings Increased, N.Y.C Returned to Disputed Tactic: Gang Takedowns" https://t.co/VioqYtJ0my

    Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

    By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 08/19/2021 - 10:25pm |

    Observing our Petri dish would be better if we didn't keep sticking our thumbs in it to draw conclusions. Some more primitive societies might just indeed be more comfortable being primitive societies, even if there's some Brownian Motion or other movement of progressive thought within the culture.

    Orion's picture

    There Is Likely No Withdrawal From Afghanistan

    By Orion on Thu, 08/19/2021 - 6:09pm |

    The Gulf War occurred after then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. George H.W. Bush took Kuwait back from a dictator who had only a few years before been a tool of the West in a proxy war against Iran. Bush famously uttered “this aggression will not stand” and made a show of refraining from invading Iraq wholesale.

     

    The Christ with a thousand faces

    By artappraiser on Wed, 08/18/2021 - 4:59pm |

     

    Elites of a crumbling empire entranced by a cult fixated on a criminal brutalized to death, preaching a gospel obsessed with the salvation of the oppressed, whose fervent adepts desecrate the symbols of civic authority.

    Rome or the US?

    My latest:https://t.co/Df882bkMS8

    — Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) August 24, 2021

     

    Orion's picture

    The Last Country To Leave Stuff Behind In Afghanistan Dissolved

    By Orion on Tue, 08/17/2021 - 10:44pm |

    Mikhail Gorbachev signed peace accords that led to a withdrawal of Afghanistan in 1989. The Soviet Union collapsed two years later, toward the end of 1991.

    Russia very quickly reverted to a similar system to what it once had and under Putin's leadership, it recreated many of the institutions of the Soviet Union, such as the KGB. However, it has an economy the size of Italy and its capabilities of coercing former Soviet republics are limited to what we saw with attacks on Crimea, Ukraine, or Georgia. It can't recreate the Soviet Union as a union of 15 republics.

    A Shameful Flight Last US Days in Kabul

    By NCD on Sun, 08/15/2021 - 11:15am |

    A frenzied U.S. flight from Kabul as chaos descends.   link

    "A frenzied evacuation of U.S. diplomats and civilians kicked into high gear, while Afghans made a mad dash to the banks, their homes and the airport. Crowds of people ran down the streets as the sound of gunfire echoed in downtown Kabul.

    Wuhan & the Rand Paul Fauci Quarrel

    By NCD on Tue, 07/20/2021 - 8:10pm |

    Rand Paul and Fauci had a big quarrel today in the Senate, accusing, blaming, without talking, calm testimony and inquiry, about the heart of the topic, virus research, like that at Wuhan and elsewhere. Some funded by the NIH.

    They did not talk about what kinds of restrictions on virus research should exist or be tightened.

    Viruses were being created for infectious disease research in Wuhan.

    Orion's picture

    My Thoughts About Cuba

    By Orion on Mon, 07/19/2021 - 9:15pm |

    When the Soviet Union fell, there was adulation everywhere around the world and it was seen as a sign of "the end of history." (See book by the same title.) Everyone rejoiced except for the right wing in Russia, which recreated many of the institutions that existed during the USSR and put Vladimir Putin in charge of the task. (See the book Black Wind, White Snow.: The Rise of Russia's New Nationalism)

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    Andrew Yang has that Diamond Cutter

    By Orion on Fri, 07/09/2021 - 1:59am |

    I think Andrew Yang found a new calling - this is him with legendary professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page. FYI he previously interviewed Nic Nimeth AKA Dolph Ziggler of WWE.

     

    [World Stage] Palestinians reject vaccines

    By PeraclesPlease on Tue, 07/06/2021 - 11:34am |

    Go figure...

    Orion's picture

    Russian Hacks?

    By Orion on Tue, 06/22/2021 - 8:24pm |

    A business I work for got hacked and a forwarded racist rant message "Dr. Fauci's N!66ers" went viral. Various offensive documents with absurd, Ku Klux Klan sounding language were sent out under the auspices of staff. There was later a big apology for a security breach by the owner of the company.

    [People/Obsessions] Bitcoin Addiction

    By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 06/20/2021 - 2:01am |

    ‘I put my life savings in crypto’: how a generation of amateurs got hooked on high-risk trading

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/19/life-savings-in-cry... 

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    Homage to Amtrak

    By Orion on Sun, 06/06/2021 - 1:28pm |

     

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    More on the Complex History of Autism

    By Orion on Mon, 05/24/2021 - 3:03am |

    Newly revealed information speculates that autism was pioneered by Soviet psychologists who wanted to integrate gifted children who had been marginalized socially. (A bit like the movie Elling.)

    The methods of psychologists like Grunya Sukhareva and Lev Vygotsky were duplicated in parts of Europe that were inspired by the Soviet experiment, including Germany. When the Nazis took over these clinics, people like Hans Asperger steered them in to grooming centers for super-children who were either seen as gifted stewards of the Reich or sent them to be euthanized.

    [Science] speeding up computation & the future

    By PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/10/2021 - 1:24am |

    Not just Moore's Law - improved algorithmic approach helps make critical calculations much much faster, bringing their practical use closer. 

    [Health] Are all births traumatic?

    By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/08/2021 - 2:16am |

    As usual, these are birth anecdotes, not statistics, so the percent they represent is hard to say, nor does it address things like sheer numbers, costs, etc. But still worth considering, keeping in mind AA's note about the number of medical mistakes annually (my wife's was very good, but it was overseas and we got to pick the country!). Also, read the comments.

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellenoconnellwhittet/mothers-birth-...

    Orion's picture

    Colbert Gets Tense With Jon Stewart

    By Orion on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 12:21am |

    There is a phrase in professional wrestling called "putting over." When you help sell another wrestler, that's putting them over. Jon Stewart helped put over Stephen Colbert over a very long period of time.

    Nevertheless, when Stewart came to conclusions Colbert didn't like about the origins of Covid-19, Colbert started deriding him immediately.

    Diblasio?

    By Flavius on Mon, 04/26/2021 - 5:50pm |

     

    Until the pandemic : Bill who?

    Grave  doubts whether he would rise to a challenge if there were one.

    There were was.  He did.

     

     

     

     

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    Thoughts: Forrest Gump, Porn and Falcon and the Winter Soldier

    By Orion on Mon, 04/26/2021 - 3:12pm |

    The movie Forrest Gump popped in to my head recently. There's a scene, after having been wounded in Vietnam, where Forrest Gump's lieutenant, Dan, refuses to move or engage anything while in the hospital. He comes back to the United States and is homeless, wandering around, and, by the time him and Forrest set out on starting on a fishing business together, he's close to insane.

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