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Author: Claire

Ohhhhh rats! I mean … wasps!

This just appeared on a corner of my house. Seemingly overnight. I don’t have any wasp killer or any way to get some in the next day or two. Don’t have a weed-sprayer attachment for the hose, either, which I understand you can use to deliver either pesticides or detergent water. I want these ugly little suckers gone. Wonder what would happen if I went out at dawn or twilight when they’re less active and — from a respectable distance — directed a hard jet of water at them from the hose? Would I end up regretting that?

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Monday links

Oh man, this creep should be Bloomberg’s next anti-gun spokesthing. “I just … um, yeah, I just found the gun right there on the bench! And as soon as I picked it up it started … um, going off all by itself! Three times!” I have no idea whether Ellen Pau should be fired. But this Reddit revolt is impressive in this day of corporatized Internet. I officially doubt this ever happened. But I can see good horror movie material here. (H/T Jim B. in comments) More on the Texas plan to repatriate and store the state’s gold. A hint…

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Projects

A year ago I blogged about finding this future project at a garage sale. I had to pay a whole $10 for it which in garage sale terms lies somewhere between scandalous extravagance and the threat of being kicked out of the Garage Sale Bargain Hunter’s League, but it looked to be 50s vintage (if not older) and its graceful shape gave me ideas. Last year I decorated an end table I found in the woods with materials found around the house. It came out so pretty that Commentariat member Pat dubbed it “Doorway to the Sun.” And it won…

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The good and the bad on Independence weekend

“Sorry folks, Independence Day is canceled.” But on the other hand, America isn’t becoming more liberal. It’s becoming more libertarian. (H/T MJR) Now, if only the message could get through to our growing corps of social justice warriors, inflexible bureaucrats, authoritarian congressthings, thuggish cops, etc.

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Weekend links

California’s gun-running anti-gunner Leland Yee pleads guilty. This is the first article I’ve read from Bloomberg’s new anti-gun “journalistic” venture, The Trace. As I’ve heard, it seems to meld legitimate-looking reporting with Bloombergian hysteria. Oh yeah, “street toughs” are just looking to get their hands on M1s so they can commit “common crime.” A former federal judge denounces the majority of the sentences she ever passed. (Why do these uber-establishment types always wait until afterward to take a stand?) Can the bacteria in your gut affect your mood? Well, then, how about the nerve in your gut? Business Insider calls…

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The “something borrowed” blues

Well, I gave back the borrowed Geo Prizm. I came this close to buying it. In fact, I told the seller yesterday, “If nothing weird happens between now and tomorrow morning, I’ll take it.” That, of course, was a trigger for all manner of weird. Forgive me if I don’t get into the details. I’m tired of this. Anyhow, it was a nifty little car. Great fun to drive. Smooth. But despite all the assurances, I don’t think I’d have ever felt completely at ease with a vehicle that old and that high-mileage. Questions about the seller’s mechanical competence tilted…

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Observations on cultural war and mob insanity

Our cultural cold war is about to boil into open conflict, thanks to last week’s Supreme Court decisions. Some of us think we’re ready, but we’re not.

I’m not saying we’re going to be shooting each other by next Tuesday or even next year. Just that the last remaining bridge between the old culture of America and the new culture of elite America got blown to smithereens. Last week was a point of no return with the Supreme Court’s Obamacare (“the Constitution is whatever we want it to be”) decision and gay marriage decision.

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Silly supremacists

Supremicists are pathetic. White supremacists may be the most notable of the breed. Their websites are loaded with scary-looking skulls and lightning bolts, but their prose is barely literate and their “proofs” of their superiority tend to be long-ago debunked books and transparently bogus “scientific evidence.”

They operate in cells of one (or two or three) not because it’s a wise security measure but because they can’t get along with each other for 10 minutes. And much of their semi-literate ranting consists of denunciations of each other.

Not one of these “superior” beings has made a single impressive accomplishment in any area of endeavor — except, rarely, murder. Which gets headlines but fails to impress as a great work of humanity.

But they are far from the only variety of supremacist, and all of them are pathetic.

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Tuesday links

Oh, so very much boo-hoo-hoo. Former Russian spy (and crook) claims he got screwed by the dishonorable FBI after he defected. “Passive Congress, Communist President, Active Supremes.” So what else is new? Exactly my opinion of nature. ICANN and Hollywood are joining forces to try to end domain privacy. And via Brad at WendyMcElroy.com comes word that Google is now trying to out-NSA the NSA by secretly planting listening devices on our computers via its Chrome browser (and even the open source Chromium version). You, too, can build your own drone. In under 30 minutes, so they say.

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