Not bad.
“Mark Hamill (Castle in the Sky) also returned to play the pivotal role of Mahito’s granduncle.”
Friday Afternoon Links
About The Author
Riven
[riv-uhn]
noun
1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd.
2. often aims to misbehave.
3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.*
And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.
They should break the mold and let you play as a Raptor coordinating hunts and trying to escape captivity.
“Vince Guaraldi is a genius, surely.”
Doubly so if you’ve ever sat down and tried to play any of these songs.
Even more impressive considering he couldn’t have made much money out of the deal.
He was, after all — working for Peanuts.
He also understood his audience.
This a perfectly straightforward arrangement perfectly “jazzed” up.
Vince Guaraldi Trio – Linus And Lucy (Official Audio)
I adore this piece. I will stop whatever I am doing and listen to it (like right now).
It’s still perfectly accessible to children as well adults. While I like most jazz some of it isn’t particularly accessible.
It’s what old Disney used to do as well. He made films that could be enjoyed by both adults and children together. I can’t recall the last modern film that does that.
Pixar — until disney destroyed them.
Good point!
I used to try to explain to people that there was a difference between a family movie and a children’s movie. Few people get the difference.
That was like 20 years ago, so not ‘modern’ in the sense of children alive today.
My wife and I complain about this all the time. Also every children’s movie by disney involves divorce or being an orphan. wtf guys.
Ratatouille 2007
Up 2009
Toy Story 2010
That was the end of the glory days.
Brave 2012
This is the start of the disneyfication of Pixar
Inside Out 2015 was an excellent movie
Incredibles 2 2018 was passable, bot woke was plenty obvious
Haven’t watched anything past that. Fuck disney for destroying Pixar (off all the IP they’ve destroyed, Pixar pisses me off the most).
In my defense, I was way too drunk from 2007-2012 to notice what Disney/Pixar was putting out.
If you have not see Up, go find it.
I was deep into middle age and staring at old age when I saw that movie. It was very moving.
It is fucking brilliant story telling.
I may have to rewatch UP, but I second the praise for Inside Out. I can’t say enough good about that one.
I did not see any of those but I enjoyed Wall-E (2008) and I was pushing 40.
I don’t know or care which studio produces them, but…Minions.
I love me some Minions.
I am always torn on whether or not non-accessable music is worthwhile. On the one hand, I usually enjoy that more than “easy” listening music. But, on the other, you sow the seeds of your own unlistenablilty this way. Look at modern Jazz and classical- most of it is, frankley, unlistenable.
If you need a book to tell you the best way to get into a music type, or any art, for that matter, you have failed. It should hit you square in the gut>
modern classical?
Like 2112? Just kidding I know people are still out there composing, but yeah. most isn’t great. I deleted the local classical station when they had black history month and spent the whole time on modern black composers. It was terrible and racist… I just want to listen to Tchaikovsky and such (or is that too modern too?)
I am not a classical* fan, at all, but much of it before the turn of the century (1900) I can respect and see that it does hit people in the gut. And the same with modern jazz, although I really like it. Post about 1965, most of it is unlistenable, and it takes the real genius of someone like Miles to push past a lot of the garbage that was foisted off on people. Post 1980, and it is just dreck. Acid jazz and rock fusion of various sorts is no different than Phillip Glass, and just as listenable.
Speaking of Vince Guaraldi, I can see how much Looney toons HATED modern classical in those Buggs and Elmer cartoons.
*I dislike using the term classical, as what is covered by that is so broad. Baroque, chamber quartets, mediaeval choral, far too much ground for one word.
Oh, and Mr Roboto = 2112.
There, I said it.
“Modern classical” as we think of it, symphonies and suchlike, are music scores. John Williams, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, et al. Superman, Star Wars. You know.
Mrs. TOK is in the kitchen listening to Christmas music. And on comes that “If you really love Christmas” song from Love Actually. Some guy named Sam Fischer recorded a serious version of it. I’m dying.
This is about as Christmassy as I’ll get before the day proper.
And on the day proper, the Midnight Mass remembering Catholic in me prefers Latin lyric carols if at all possible…
Crazy that Sam Fischer had any spare time between killing people for the CIA.
(Tom Clancy vidya gaem joke.
If you pause the Jurassic Park trailer at 1:25, the female character looks almost exactly like Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall in drag (which was common enough).
Heh… too bad it isn’t Mark Mckinney — he could crush the T-Rex’s head!
What’s been interesting to me is that for original animated films Japan tends to use live action actors and not professional voice actors. The bench strength on voice actors is much, much higher. I find some of the live action actors rather lacking. I believe it is marketing driven in Japan as well.
Relevant to video games:
Here is a fine example of a post-lottery-win purchase:
https://www.harow.fr/arcadia/
A hand-carved marble arcade cabinet. Stunning. I love the Doom looking one.
Perfect for Trump’s bathroom!
Honestly if you had lottery winning like that wouldn’t you rather have a bunch of original or reproduction cabinets in some kind game room?
I think that skull armchair would look fabulous in my volcano lair.
The entire collection is great. “Modern Caligula” would be the style, I suppose.
Russian drug ganster. I am not really feelin’ it.
Amazing what some people would rather have than money.
lol This is the sadly correct answer.
And after U Penn it’s Harvard’s turn to try to save her job. I’ll be equally as sympathetic if she gets tossed.
Harvard President Apologizes for Congressional Testimony on Antisemitism
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/us/claudine-gay-harvard-president-apology-crimson.html
Well, except for “From the river to the sea.” Those words don’t mean anything.
“Words matter.”
Just what I would expect from a Gay.
[looks at Lackadaisical with opera glasses]
“Words matter.”
“Indeed they do, Ms. Gay. And the words you used in your Congressional testimony matter a lot. In fact, they matter more than your job. They matter so much, in fact, that you are being terminated for cause, and your severance package, which has exclusions for bringing the institution into disrepute and also for moral turpitude, will not be forthcoming. Please accompany the security guard to your office to collect your personal effects. I don’t need to tell you that your keycard and access to our network have been cancelled.. But I will, because I enjoy it. “
Whoa! Security guard escorts off the premises. Personal belongings will be sent to your home address.
I’m enjoying this. If either one had made a stand for free speech, no matter what it was, I could respect that. And if they clamped down on all speech that was threatening or hateful, no matter what it was, I could also respect that. But using the wrong pronouns is banned as hate speech, while “kill the Jews” is ok? They’re getting what they deserve.
It’s not only that, but also that some of the recent anti-Israel/pro-Hamas/anti-Zionist (call it what you will) went beyond speech and into physical intimidation and harassment. I don’t really have a problem with their protests, and they are free to chant their slogans, but when they chase people across the quad or barricade them in a room just for being Jewish, they have crossed a line.
Imagine the reaction doing the same to a non-binary student.
I will agree there as well. As always, speech is protected, violence and intimidation is not, and never has been.
Are there many examples of the “kill the Jews” speech on campus? And no “from the river to the sea” doesn’t count. Most people chanting it don’t equate it with the genocide of Jews.
If “fatphobia” and “cisheterosexism” are forms of “violence” as directed by their mandated Title IX trainings, than “from the river to the sea” means “kill the jews.”
Libertarians have finally found the words that are actual violence. It took a while. Years were spent mocking the libs for “words are violence.” Not anymore.
Nobody here is saying “from the river to the sea” is actual violence. I, at least, am saying it is a call for genocide and easily qualifies as hate speech, if we are going to play that game. And the universities have been playing that game with gusto. They set the rules; may they have the joy of them.
The same phrase is used in the Likud Party platform.
Posted too early before adding the link
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party
“The same phrase is used in the Likud Party platform.”
Meaning comes from context. I doubt Likud means “kill all the Jews”.
What do they mean by it?
No Palestinian state. All Greater Israel is Israel. Does it necessarily mean a forced removal of all Palestinians? I don’t know. An apartheid state for them to preserve Israel as a Jewish state? The phrase in the Likud platform is open to interpretations.
WTF is wrong with you?
The only thing worse than bad laws are bad laws selectively applied. What exactly about this situation makes you unable to understand that?
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
All of these people have selectively enforced speech codes, ethics codes, academic codes* and are now being held to account. As a libertarian, I am not a fan off many of these things, but I do realize that to hold people accountable, you need to start somewhere. And I cannot see a better place than with a group of self important people who attempt to wishy-washy away problems they have caused.
*Yes, this is a real thing, AAUP (American Association of University Professors) as far back as 1915 declared that professors should do their damnedest not to attempt to indoctrinate students, as the minds and impressions were too vulnerable. This code has not changed, and is a cornerstone of the academic world. Or, it was, until the wolk started talking over.
I think it does count as “kill the Jews” speech. That is what it means to people with a modicum of knowledge, and people who parrot it in ignorance are nonetheless providing support for killing the Jews. Allah knows, what you say can and generally (always?) has meaning that you may not intend.
If I go around saying I support a policy of “Judenfrei”, thinking it means Jews should get free stuff, does that mean that, when I say it, that’s all it means?
Another telepath!
Beyond the disingenuousness behind the whole “we weren’t celebrating the slaughter of Jews, we were celebrating Palestinians breaking out of their concentration camp!” is the fact that:
Magic words being magically harmful is already established policy at Harvard. You don’t even need to utter the sacred hexagrammaton (though that will of course get you removed). You can just misgender someone, or utter the incantation “It’s OK to be White.” That last one is powerful enough to get the FBI involved. Stop pretending the Jews aren’t asking for anything that the rest of the non-whitey world gets and ask why it bothers you that they want to be treated like any other POC.
But maybe you’re right. And maybe WBC is really just trying to save your immortal soul.
Suddenly the Jews are treated as whites. Welcome to the club!
Almost. When the FBI investigates posters saying “It’s ok to be Hebrew,” then they’ll have achieved that.
I’d also accept DHS putting out a memo warning about the dangers posed by extreme Jews that do extreme things like keep kosher or not engage in economic activity on the sabbath.
Do you realize that most Jews at Harvard firmly support destroying anyone who states that it’s ok to be white?
They did until their own ox was being gored.
“Do you realize that most Jews at Harvard firmly support destroying anyone who states that it’s ok to be white?”n’
Doesn’t mean they lose any rights.
“Doesn’t mean they lose any rights.”
The right to be protected from “hate” speech? Is this the “right” we want to expand?
I’d much rather nobody claimed to have such a right. But people do, and I don’t think there’s any way to teach them the folly of such thing than showing them exactly what it means to be on the wrong end of it. I wish I believed we lived in a world where people changed their beliefs solely on the basis of reasoned discussion, but we don’t. Always try it first, of course, but the old lefty’s advice to make people live up to their own rules is very effective.
See, she’s Blaq, and therefore cannot be racist. It’s the transitive power of the second law of thermodynamics,
Or, FUTY.
It’s hard to find less sympathetic creatures than these university presidents, yet.
Major university presidents have three basic tasks.
Keep the donors donating.
Preserve the reputation of the university.
Stop the inmates from running the asylum.
They failed. It’s not easy, but they are paid well for doing this. Too bad.
The reputation of the university could suffer if students are unfairly targeted for exercising their right to free speech and giving into the demands of those insisting upon shutting up one side of a political debate could fall into the inmates running the asylum. There’s definitely no question as to who’s donating money though and money obviously talks. I don’t like it because I don’t like to see people suffer for defending legal speech but, considering the selectivity with they offer this defense, it’s hard to be very sympathetic.
It’s the selectivity that makes me feel no sympathy.
Use some racial or sexual pejorative and be immediately re educated or suspended, but call for violence on certain people is ok.
Me as well. I believe no speech should ever be labeled as hate speech. Say whatever you want, and prepare to be engaged in debates. You could wind up looking like an asshole, that’s the worst that should happen. Never ever should someone be expelled, fired or jailed for saying something unpopular.
I agree. But these institutions are controlled by people who do expel and fire people for saying things they don’t like, and strongly support jailing people for it.
How do you propose to change this behavior? Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything short of applying their rules equally to them.* Which could well result in the destruction of those institutions. If so, I won’t shed any tears.
*Well, I can, but I really don’t want to go there.
The term for what is going on is The Prisoners Dilemma.
Basically, you have to trust the other guy is going to do what they said. And if they don’t, the only way to bring back compliance is to force them to live by the rules they helped create. Which is what is going on here.
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
No, if their employment contract outlined views they aren’t allowed to voice.
Until it’s as permissible to have a TPUSA chapter as it is a SJP one, I disregard all claims of 1A protection.
I think the leftist rabble have gone way beyond “legal speech” with intimidation and property damage. Kick ’em out.
Considering that the crowds are packed Antifa goons I’m still kind of surprised at the lack ultraviolence, so far.
The Anti-Fascists are running around calling for the genocide of Jews.
Not surprising. Ol’ Adolf was a piker compared to Stalin.
“The reputation of the university could suffer if students are unfairly targeted for exercising their right to free speech and giving into the demands of those insisting upon shutting up one side of a political debate could fall into the inmates running the asylum.”
No university’s reputation ever suffered for shutting up anyone with something good to say about white males or Western culture. Why would their reputation suffer for whatever is going on now?
A growing fraction of the population feels that higher ed isn’t worth the cost, and many of them even think the whole industry is toxic, when 15 or so years ago it was held in pretty high esteem. “Well Johnny, you just HAVE to go to college or you have no future!”
Also, people are withholding or clawing back donations, some in the tens or hundreds of millions.
Yup. Faked. Just like those rapes. Or those babies (which weren’t beheaded, their heads just fell off AFTER they died from natural causes. Or maybe they were killed by the jooz to make the Hamas look bad.)
Well, having started down the path of punishing speech, they are legitimately open to criticism on what speech they choose to punish.
And “hotly debated”? Well, I can start a hot debate on anything. Somebody who argues that Hamas doesn’t mean “kill all the Jews” is just flat wrong, and it doesn’t change the fact that is what “from the river to the sea” means in the context of Israel and Hamas.*
Just to be clear, I would much prefer that universities not police speech at all. But that’s not on offer right now.
*Meaning comes from context, after all. If I say “from the river to the sea” in talking about the boundaries of a national park, well, then it doesn’t mean “kill the Jews.” When I say it in the context of Israel v Hamas, that’s exactly what it means.
Less snarkily:
To the extent that the fear is performative, or the assaults hoaxes, exactly how are they any different then every other race/muslim/lgbtq/hatecrime hoax that’s been supported and outright rewarded by Harvard et. al.?
They made their beds, they can get fucked in them.
And after U Penn it’s Harvard’s turn to try to save her job. I’ll be equally as sympathetic if she gets tossed.
The world outside the academic bubble is a harsh environment.
They expect results!
Vince Guaraldi truly was a genius, I agree with everyone. I grew up with that music and the Peanuts. There would be a hole in the world without that.
Bringing back “Linus and Lucy” to play for Mozart is on my to do list once I finish the time machine.
I didn’t know that piece had a title; I just thought of it as “Peanuts music” all my life. But yeah, it definitely packs a punch.
Meaning things said to fellow members of the mandarinate, in the faculty lounge, may sound perfectly reasonable and logical. Outsiders will think you’re a gibbering imbecile.
‘Be-holed. Links on the horizon.’
*Raises eyebrows*
Nice… links?
Confusing
As sales of all-electric vehicles grow more slowly than expected, major automakers are increasingly meeting their customers in the middle.
More and more companies are reconsidering the viability of hybrid cars and trucks to appease consumer demand and avoid costly penalties related to federal fuel economy and emissions standards.
The shifting strategies run counterintuitively to industrywide EV messaging of recent years. Many auto companies have begun to invest billions of dollars in all-electric vehicles, and the Biden administration has made a push to get more EVs on U.S. roadways as quickly as possible.
Reality has a way of forcing people to modify their grand schemes.
“more slowly than expected”
Oh really? Expected by whom?
Our betters. You know, Greta Thunberg, Klaus Schwab, John Kerry, etc.
Watch the violence inherent in the system (aka Pudding Cup landing live at LAX at ~7:40pm ET. OK let’s be honest – I’ve already been watching all afternoon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fKGSpr9OnM
I guess they’re expecting protests? That Brandon… so popular!
“LAPD Says They’re Aware of Possible Upcoming ‘First Amendment Activity’ in Los Angeles”
So they’re instructed to buy a box of donuts and go home?
I hope he gets mobbed by pissy leftists that hate him for not progging hard enough.
That may not be Stoic, but it is my wish.
If it’s due to Biden’s arrival, that is exactly what it is.
ah I see the A380s have returned to LAX. Haven’t seen one in my infrequent trips that way in awhile. There’s a soccer field where my kid used to play just outside LAX under the landing path, and jfc being right under that thing as it’s coming in was impressive as hell. More so than actually flying in it.
Glad I’m not going to the west side of LA this afternoon – it’s always a wreck when POTUS comes to town. And protests will make it more so.
Ahhh…that’s what you mean by “deepest proglandia”!
Yeah, it’s a hard indigo Ted Lieu district.
The Environmental Horticulture Club down the road at Big College had their poinsettia fundraising sale these last two days. Great group of kids, and a welcome respite from the usual campus jackassery that seems to make all the headlines these days.
Remember folks: you can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.
My old man was a horticulture prof. I think he enjoyed the fringe benefits.
Ha! I used that in a book.
Tragic tale
News unions have expanded their footprints in the last couple of years, organizing longtime holdouts like the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and a dozen Gannett newsrooms, as well as most top news websites and magazines (Slate, Vice, HuffPost, POLITICO, The Atlantic, Esquire, The New Yorker, New York, Washingtonian, et al.). But the successes can’t mask the newspaper industry’s death spiral. Post workers may well win a new contract, secure desired workplace enhancements and collect raises if they keep at it. But the victory may prove Pyrrhic as the newspaper industry’s dim and dark present unfolds into its future.
According to a Thursday Post piece about the Post strike, labor and management aren’t even talking the same language. Workers have not had a contract for 18 months. The Guild wants a minimum salary of $100,100 for reporters, and management is offering only $73,000. The parties are also separated by annual cost-of-living demands.
Seeing as it’s only money they’re talking about, Bezos could buy every newsroom employee a $4 million home in the Hollywood Hills or thereabouts, give each $1 million in walking around money and make a bonfire on Malibu beach of $1 billion just to celebrate his generosity, and he’d still have $165 billion in his pocket. But that’s not how Bezos thinks. He counts every penny and fights unions hard wherever they appear in his kingdom. Since buying the money-losing Post a decade ago for a mere $250 million, he’s been adamant about not running the paper as a philanthropy. Instead, he invested untold millions to reverse the newsroom headcount decline, expanding it by more than a third and adding new foreign bureaus, too. And miracle of miracles, he succeeded in making the paper profitable as recently as 2019.
Ask yourself why the newspaper business is in a death spiral.
And watch independents such as Bari Weis and Matt Taibbi take off, hire people who want to work, and earn trust as a news source.
Death spiral, or suicide pact? YOU BE THE JUDGE!!!
Seeing as it’s only money they’re talking about, Bezos could buy every newsroom employee a $4 million home in the Hollywood Hills or thereabouts, give each $1 million in walking around money and make a bonfire on Malibu beach of $1 billion just to celebrate his generosity, and he’d still have $165 billion in his pocket.
Right, because it’s not as if Jeff Bezos owns businesses that are worth several hundred billion and would have to sell them to give everyone houses and shit, he just has that much money in his wallet.
“Union successes” are a contributing cause of the “death spiral”, you blithering idiot.
Or what Grumble said immediately below.
But the successes can’t help but accelerate the newspaper industry’s death spiral.
***
“This characterization of Austin’s remarks is 100 percent not true, acc to two sources who were in the briefings,” she wrote. “Austin warned that it is not hyperbole to say Putin won’t stop at Ukraine. If he enters NATO territory US troops could be called to fight; cheaper to fund Ukraine now.”
***
Hmm. There is little effective difference between the above and what follows below:
***
The Biden administration is openly threatening Americans over Ukraine. In a classified briefing in the House yesterday, defense secretary Lloyd Austin informed members that if they don’t appropriate more money for Zelensky, “we’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia.” Pay the oligarchs or we’ll kill your kids.
***
It’s just another mutation of “better fight ’em over there than here” thinking. Again with the unnamed sources. So tiresome.
If public money is being used to fund this war, shouldn’t it be debated in public? Maybe even have a vote on it?
There will be no public debate because they want to fund it and the arguments for it suck unless you’re a defense contractor, it’s as simple as that. Democracy is only favored by that bunch when the outcomes are favorable to the desired narrative.
I want to know where is the evidence that Putin is going to steamroll across Europe.
All the fans of continued carnage in Ukraine are claiming it, without a shred of evidence as they say.
While I believe Putin would love to recreate the Soviet empire, I also believe he’s way too smart to make a run at Poland, or really much of anything west of Ukraine.
It’s ridiculous. He would have to be crazy as a loon to even make a run at one of the little ones.
That’s why the MSM was packed with stories a few months ago about how he is crazy as a loon. I wonder why that died out.
Defeating Hamas would require killing their leaders who are hiding in various countries.
The Wall Street Journal
Israel Plans to Kill Hamas Leaders Around the World After War
Story by Dion Nissenbaum
***
TEL AVIV—Israel’s intelligence services are preparing to kill Hamas leaders around the world when the nation’s war in the Gaza Strip winds down, setting the stage for a yearslong campaign to hunt down militants responsible for the Oct. 7 massacres, Israeli officials said.
With orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s top spy agencies are working on plans to hunt down Hamas leaders living in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar, the small Gulf nation that has allowed the group to run a political office in Doha for a decade, the officials said.
The assassination campaign would be an extension of Israel’s decades long clandestine operations that have become the subject of both Hollywood legend and worldwide condemnation. Israeli assassins have hunted Palestinian militants in Beirut while dressed as women, and killed a Hamas leader in Dubai while disguised as tourists. Israel has used a car bomb to assassinate a Hezbollah leader in Syria and a remote-controlled rifle to kill a nuclear scientist in Iran, according to former Israeli officials.
For years, countries such as Qatar, Lebanon, Iran, Russia and Turkey have provided Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, with a measure of protection. And Israel has at times refrained from targeting the Palestinian militants to avoid creating diplomatic crises.
The new plans would mark a second chance for Netanyahu, who ordered a botched 1997 attempt to poison Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan. The well-documented attempt instead led to the release of Hamas’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
***
Israel forgot to mow the lawn.
***
Mowing the grass (Hebrew: כיסוח דשא) is a metaphor used to describe the strategy of Israel against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.[1][2]
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe ‘a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents’ capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the “Dahiya doctrine”). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity.[3] These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.[4]
According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, “the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back.”[1]
Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said “מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו (‘He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him’).” [5]
***
***
The Dahiya doctrine, or Dahya doctrine,[1] is a military strategy of asymmetric warfare, outlined by former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot, which encompasses the destruction of the civilian infrastructure of regimes deemed to be hostile as a measure calculated to pressure combatants,[2] and endorses the employment of “disproportionate force” to secure that end.[3]
The doctrine is named after the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut, where Hezbollah was headquartered during the 2006 Lebanon War, which were heavily damaged by the IDF.[2]
***
What kind of idiot country would presume to go around the world killing people?
Heh, just kidding.
Good one.
Yeah, “worldwide condemnation”.
I got a chuckle out of that.
They got caught on camera, perhaps on purpose, for that Dubai hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zWU-tLCWIw
“You do need about 11 people to assassinate somebody.”
The mafia begs to differ.
Dubai, Qatar, etc.
At least they don’t have to travel too far to mop ’em up.
“There will never be a last cell.”
-from The Siege, a surprisingly prescient movie from the late 90s about martial law being declared in NYC after a series of terrorist attacks by militant Muslims.
As if such a preposterous thing could ever happen…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szNrOdjjhkw
My Warhammer 40K strategies are not elegant, but they make for an enjoyable game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-istquWjZ8M
My mom almost got discharged from the hospital today, but she was unable to stand up. She did sit up and move to the edge of the bed under her own power. Now she must wait til Monday for transport to another facility.
She turned 70 this week. My dad and I threw a birthday party for her in her hospital room.
Psalm 90:10
King James Version
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Is that the genesis of Fourscore’s moniker?
Yes
Hope your mom feels better soon. Not looking forward to that stage of my life (taking care of older parents).
Good thoughts for your mom
I’m-a be a little late on account of being an avgeek
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821224358?pwd=eW55MTRDbDNtQkh2aHd3M1Nmenlzdz09
Me thinks the article oversells Marcus Aurelius. I don’t dispute he was one of the five good emperors in a row that ruled Rome. “Meditations” is a small gem of a book as well. But MA failed in the crucial task of ensuring his successor* would be trained and capable of running the empire after he died. Instead of adopting in a worthy replacement he relied on family. That did not work well for Rome.
Many consider Trajan as the optimal emperor.
*His son Commodus was a failure. He devalued the coinage as soon as he obtained the purple. He was a tyrant that constantly proved he had not reached peak shithead. After his death there was civil war and the year of five emperors before Severus could consolidate power.
As a MA fan, that is a really fair analysis.
The problem with Rome is that many of its best leaders were assassinated (Caesar) or resigned (Cincinnatus).
Cincinnatus was such a boss. He came out of retirement after being nominated dictator, won a battle, spared the enemy, and went back into retirement. All that in 15 days.
***
Aurelian (Latin: Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September c. 214 – c. November 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had nearly disintegrated under the pressure of barbarian invasions and internal revolts. Born in modest circumstances, most likely in Moesia Superior, he entered the Roman army in 235 and climbed up the ranks. He went on to lead the cavalry of the emperor Gallienus, until Gallienus’ assassination in 268. Following that, Claudius Gothicus became emperor until his own death in 270. Claudius’ brother Quintillus ruled the empire for three months, before Aurelian became emperor.
During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire’s eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following year he conquered the Gallic Empire in the west, reuniting the Empire in its entirety. He was also responsible for the construction of the Aurelian Walls in Rome, the abandonment of the province of Dacia, and monetary reform, trying to curb the devaluation of the Roman currency.
Although Domitian, two centuries earlier, was the first emperor who had demanded to be officially hailed as dominus et deus (“master and god”), these titles never occurred in written form on official documents until the reign of Aurelian.[4] His successes were instrumental in ending the crisis, earning him the title Restitutor Orbis (“Restorer of the World”).
…
The deaths of the Sassanid Kings Shapur I (272) and Hormizd I (273) in quick succession, and the rise to power of a weakened ruler (Bahram I), presented an opportunity to attack the Sassanid Empire, and in 275 Aurelian set out for another campaign against the Sassanids. On his way, he suppressed a revolt in Gaul – possibly against Faustinus, an officer or usurper of Tetricus – and defeated barbarian marauders in Vindelicia (Germany).
However, Aurelian never reached Persia, as he was murdered while waiting in Thrace to cross into Asia Minor. As an administrator, he had been strict and had handed out severe punishments to corrupt officials or soldiers. A secretary of his (called Eros by Zosimus) had told a lie on a minor issue. In fear of what the emperor might do, he forged a document listing the names of high officials marked by the emperor for execution and showed it to collaborators. The notarius Mucapor and other high-ranking officers of the Praetorian Guard, fearing punishment from the emperor, murdered him shortly after October 275 (Tacitus began his reign in November or December), in Caenophrurium, Thrace.[56][31]
Aurelian’s enemies in the Senate briefly succeeded in passing damnatio memoriae on the emperor, but this was reversed before the end of the year, and Aurelian, like his predecessor Claudius II, was deified as Divus Aurelianus.
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Reading Steven Saylor’s “Dominus” right now. Covers that period of the Empire. You can sure see the flaws in that design, but there was no going back to a Republic.
“His son Commodus was a failure.”
Well, I wonder if Marcus was expecting anything different when he named his kid after a toilet. Biggus Dickus was laughed at in his day, too.
/contrary to type, doesn’t think about the Roman Empire every day
No one considered the irony that there is a link about Marcus Aurelius just after an article on Stoicism?
That’s not irony, just a coincidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbyERt0oIM
It’s Finally Ironic song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32LCwZFoKio