So, just a quick and long-overdue note to let you know what is going on with me and why I haven’t posted in such a long time. Basically, I’m neck-deep in a big project with a rather urgent deadline and I just haven’t had time to focus on the blog. I will get back to it as soon as I can, but I’m not quite sure yet when that will be. My apologies! And I’ll try to keep you all updated in a somewhat more timely fashion as this thing progresses.
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@ Alan
I had no idea about the renumbering; thanks for that info nugget.
…and yeah, that’s some classic legalese.
@ gaebolga
I suspect this was truer than Gary Larson imagined…
https://imgur.com/a/pQfJAwJ
I just wanna say this whole thing with Charlie Kirk and how the Right is screaming for revenge and all is just horrifying and disgusting. I know this is just an extension of everything that has been happening, and I would like to say I’m not surprised in any way, but I do wonder what the hell happened to our society. Probably gonna be a string of shootings at protests and liberal events now
@Alan Robertshaw:
Please link directly to the image file if possible. In this case it would be an i.imgur.com URL.
@ sylvia
Your wish is my command.
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Jair Bolsanaro, fascist former president of Brazil, who tried to do a coup to stay in power in 2022 much like Trump tried in 2021, has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for it. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xrqxk9p4xo. Hopefully it sticks.
Amazing how quickly the right stopped the Old Testament screaming and tried to channel the New Testament once they learned Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer was a white 22-year-old cis male who was a registered Republican.
@ Vicky P
Apparently his parents are registered as Republican voters, but he is not.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kirk-shooting-suspect-republican/
I must confess, from over the pond, it’s a bit weird that people register their political preferences. Is this because of your ‘Primaries’ thing?
Obviously there will be a lot of speculation over his motive, assuming he had one, and the interpretation of the markings on the cartridge cases. In this case though he’s still alive, so maybe that will all come out in the legal proceedings. If he can do a deal to avoid the DP then he may be asked to allocute. So that might shed some light.
It may be that they won’t offer a plea deal though, for both political and practical reasons. It’s not like they need his cooperation.
At the risk of being cynical, if this does go to trial, then it wouldn’t surprise me if the case theory is that he was a nice boy raised by decent god fearing parents who was radicalised by leftists. I can see that playing well in Utah.
Might be enough to avoid the DP. Which ironically in Utah can include death by firing squad.
@Alan
I stand corrected. When I heard about (and saw the photos of) his Trump costume for Halloween, I made an assumption.
Yes, registering as a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent can have an effect how how you vote in a primary, but it can vary from state to state so I’m just going to leave it at that.
Utah’s death penalty options are odd – the firing squad option apparently is rooted in a Mormon doctrine known as “blood atonement,” which says that for some crimes, you can only apologize by letting your blood be spilled. I find this weird. I find it easier to understand the Cherokee attitude (as shared by a friend) that the bones of the dead only rest easy when they are washed in the blood of the enemy, but that’s about war.
Mostly right now I agree with the author of the article linked below: I’m not celebrating his death, but don’t ask me to celebrate his life. From everything I’ve read and seen of him, he was the kind of human being I find despicable, and I appreciate the irony of his attitude towards the Second Amendment – namely, that we have to accept a few deaths from time to time as the price of its protection. It’s why I vote in favor of candidates who would work to remove weapons of war from civilian hands.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/charlie-kirk-assassination-maga/
@ Vicky P
As Mark Twain put it “I have never wished death on anybody, but I have read some obituaries with pleasure.“
Over here though even that might amount to an offence.
I have, personally, no strong feelings on this. I do feel sorry for his wife and children, just on a human level, especially as they were present apparently. Also his kids will inevitably end up seeing the videos some day.
I am generally not a fan of political violence, or violent rhetoric. Of course, I might make exceptions for things like Operation Anthropoid (and I’m a complete hypocrite when it comes to poachers and trophy hunters). But apart from any moral considerations, I just think it’s counter-productive. I can see why people may have derived amusement from someone sucker punching a neo nazi, but I’m not sure it’s wise to be legitimising violence as a solution when your adversaries are literally running military style training camps.
It will be interesting to see whether this shooting has any material impact on discourse going forwards. I am not optimistic.
https://bsky.app/profile/olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social/post/3lyr6hm4zx22i
Somewhat WHTM-related. And positive.
@Makroth
Thanks for posting that – it made me smile.
Not entirely on topic, but can someone dub some marching band music over this?
https://x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1966547355873767900
@ Makroth
I… never really thought about it before, because I am not a sports guy and tend to avoid chain restaurants, especially the meat centric ones, but honestly over the years I’ve had good times with coworkers, friends, and most recently the girlfriend at Buffalo Wild Wings. This guy might be on to something.
So yes, let’s go there and pass the guy who doesn’t normally eat spicy stuff the hottest wings they got for a laugh. (That’s usually me 😂)
@Makroth: Didn’t embed and all I get if I click through is a static blue butterfly logo on a white field. I don’t have an account there.
Could you screenshot it or something so non-users of social media can see it?
I can’t screenshot it. It’s a video.
@Sylvia and anyone else who can’t see the video and wants to know what it’s about.
The video is of mustachioed man with some impressively beefy forearms doing the washing up, in profile.
While he scrub-a-dub-dubs with his washing up brush, he is talking about bad self help for men, and that much of it revolves around telling men to ditch their friends if they “don’t help you achieve your goals”. He dismisses this as missing the point, because the real goal is to have said friends, to hang out with them, to enjoy their company (perhaps at Buffalo Wild Wings) and not to amass a billion dollars or be Napoleon. Napoleon, he says, wouldn’t have done so much Napoleoning, if he’d had himself a good group of buddies to hang out with instead (perhaps at Buffalo Wild Wings).
Hi all.
My BFF of 35 years died 3 weeks ago and of course I’m still out of it. But I thought I’d pop in to say I’m still around, and Mr. Buffalo Wild Wings is so right.
@GSS ex-noob:
hugs
I am so sorry 🙁
@ GSS Ex-Noob
Oh no, so sorry to hear that. Thinking of you, and may their memory be a blessing.
@GSS ex-noob:
Well, damn. Experiencing the loss of precisely someone you would have confided in during such a crisis must feel like trying to lean on a phantom limb.
”You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille…”
@GSS ex-noob
I am sorry about that. Best wishes
@GSS ex-noob
Joining in on the condolences – I’m sorry for your loss.
Every day I come across something I want to tell her, and then…
I am feeding myself and leaving the house. Sunday her husband and I went to see Spinal Tap II and it was exactly what we needed. Just good silly fun. It seems to have become a generational thing, as the people we talked to after weren’t even born when the first one came out!
@ GSS Ex-Noob
Oof, I feel for you there. Where you start the conversation in your head, then you remember.
Glad you found some solace in Spinal Tap though. It’s funny, I saw the video for the new version of Stonehenge and the bit where they flashback to the original made me very wistful. That film was quite a significant part of our youth. So it literally triggered memories with visceral sense information like the smell and the temperature.
Ah well, I guess no-one is truly gone whilst someone remembers them.