GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Virginia Forces Christian Ministries to Adopt ‘Government Ideology’ or Pay $100K. “The so-called Virginia Values Act (S.B. 868), which Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) signed on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday) in the middle of a pandemic, compels churches, religious schools, and Christian ministries to hire employees who do not share their stated beliefs on marriage, sexuality, and gender identity. A companion law (H.B. 1429) requires ministries and others like them to pay for transgender surgery in employee health care plans, a procedure that violates these ministries’ convictions.”
Archive for 2020
October 1, 2020
WHERE’S THE PORK? Open The Books maps $2.3 Trillion – yes, that’s T-as-in-Trillion – in wasteful federal spending in just the years 2017-19.
CHINOOK SUNSET: A U.S. Army Chinook on a mission at sunset. Here’s some background on the CH-47F and CH-47D models. It includes this observation: “CH-47s will still be at work in the 2060s. The CH-47 will end up serving about 100 years.” Additional photo: A CH-47 in action with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan.
UPDATE: I’m told the StrategyPage certificate issue was fixed as of 12:15 pm CDT. It was not a hack. Thanks to the commenters who noted the problem.
THE IGUALA MASSACRE INVESTIGATION CHALLENGES IMPUNITY: Mexico’s President Versus Beyond-the-Law Elites.
I EAGERLY AWAIT PAUL KRUGMAN’S STERN CONDEMNATION OF THIS HATEFUL ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Some Business Leaders Should Face A Firing Squad, Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Suggests In Angry Tweet.
PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Kyle Rittenhouse’s Lawyer Will Sue Biden for Libel Over False Accusations in New Ad. “I am getting ready to teach @JoeBiden a lesson he will never forget. He falsely accused a 17-year old boy & prejudiced Kyle’s legal rights.”
WHAT REASON FOR TRUST HAVE THEY GIVEN US? Just 9% trust media ‘a great deal,’ 33% ‘none at all,’ highest ever.
ANTITRUST: US could sue Google for search, advertising dominance. The lawsuit reportedly accuses Google of trying to put search rivals such as Bing at a disadvantage. More specifically, it’s claimed that Google deprives rivals of ‘the data about users and user preferences’ that these rivals need to improve their services and advertising.”
IT’S AN AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENT: Biden Can’t Name Single Law Enforcement Group That Supports Him.
And it’s compounded by the fact that civil liberties people hate Kamala Harris for her prosecutorial overreach and misconduct.
JUSTICE: Man charged in ambush shooting of 2 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies.
Deonte Lee Murray is also believed to be involved in a Sept. 1 carjacking and robbery that occurred prior to the shooting. He was arrested in connection with that incident on Sept. 15.
He was charged with carjacking, second-degree robbery and assault with a semiautomatic firearm and attempted murder in the carjacking incident.
Ballistics testing of the gun discarded during the pursuit showed it was the one used in the attack on the deputies, LASD Homicide Bureau Captain Kent Wegener said. He also noted that the gun held eight rounds, five short of its capacity, and that five rounds had been fired at the deputies.
He also faces allegations of association with a criminal street gang and discharging a rifle inflicting great bodily injury in the carjacking incident.
Investigators later linked Murray to the shooting of the deputies and charged him, authorities said.
No motive for the shooting was given, other than “the fact that he hates police officers and he wants them dead.” said Wegener.
I blame the Democrats and their climate of hate.
VERY DANGEROUS. YOU GO FIRST: Supermassive Black Holes Might Really Be ‘Traversable’ Wormholes, Astrophysicists Suggest.
THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN REASSIGNED TO THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE: Classroom Indoctrination Season Is Here: NY Anti-Trump Professor Caught on Tape Is ‘Reassigned’ for ‘Electioneering.’
TWENTY YEARS AGO, IN A MOMENT OF INSANITY — YOUNG I WAS, HUSBAND TRAVELING FIVE DAYS A WEEK WAS, STUCK AT HOME WITH TWO UNDER-SIX KIDS I WAS — I DECIDED TO WRITE FANFIC:
Only to realize one probably needed to watch much more TV or movies than I did (or do.) Bizarrely, (ahem) no one had pages for Heinlein fanfic or Agatha Christie fanfic. The only sf series that had a robust fanfic following — of the series I’d read and liked, that is — was Anne McCaffrey’s Pern, and she’d just stomped all over the fanfic groups before I started looking. Dumas fanfic…. Do yourself a favor and don’t look up Three Musketeers fanfic. Let’s just say that’s not what I wanted to write. I finally found Austen fanfic. And after I’d got myself kicked out of the most humorless of the groups for a joke about unruly pillows (you had to be there) I found myself a home at the Derbyshire Writers’ Guild. Over the next few years, I established some online friendships.
Eventually this led to the creation of a fantasy version of Pride and Prejudice, co-written with a friend (who honestly did most of the work, as — as soon as we’d started writing it — I found myself under a bunch of deadlines and also working part time in a real-life job.) The story, set in the same universe as my novel Witchfinder (if not the same world) went on to be one of the most popular at the site. (And by the way, now that the health problems are, if not conquered at least under control, I am writing the sequel to Witchfinder for free on my blog, one chapter at a time on Saturdays. Only somewhat impaired by it being 2020. Another sequel is largely finished and waiting a clear week to make it coherent. Note the free novel is first draft, with all its typos and inconsistencies upon it.)
A Touch of Night was published, for a few years, a few years ago (don’t make me look up how many) and we’re now bringing it out again, considerably cleaned up (and I take some blame for how bad it was, since I did see page proofs. Take that as a measure of how ill I was back then) in terms of typos and inconsistencies and now under my published-fanfic name.
A Touch Of Night: Pride, Prejudice, Werewolves and Dragons, Oh, My! – by Alyx Silver and Sofie Skapski
In a world that puts shape shifters to death, Mr. Darcy was unfortunate enough to be born as a were-dragon.
But the cruel laws don’t always find their victims. Mr. Darcy has survived and protected Mr. Bingley who is a werewolf.
Meanwhile, in Hertfordshire, Lizzy has been protecting her sister Jane who turns into a beautiful hunting dog.
When Mr. Bingley rents Netherfield, the Were-Laws and the shape shifting of three of them add extra complications to the flowering of romance between the well-loved couples. And Mr. Wickham. joining the Royal Were Hunters, lends additional danger to the situation.
Will they get together despite the danger, Lizzy’s active imagination and Mr. Darcy’s excessive nobility of character?(This book was previously published with Sarah A. Hoyt and Sofie Skapski as the authors. Sarah’s name has been changed to match her other published Austen fanfic.)
SO I JUST SAW THIS PIECE, WHICH HAS BEEN OVERTAKEN BY EVENTS: A Recess Appointment for the Ginsburg Seat?
But let me go on record as saying that while I have no desire for a regular Supreme Court appointment, I’d love to serve a recess appointment there. I think it would be a nice change from my regular routine, and obvious book fodder afterward.
DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO: Guess How the Times Knows So Much About Tax Losses Trump Uses.
AND THIS NEEDS TO STOP: The American Narrative is Being Re-Written.
WHATEVER COMES BACK FROM THE DEBACLE THAT WAS/IS COVIDIOCY IT WON’T BE THE COLLEGES WE KNOW NOW. MIND YOU, THEY WERE ON THEIR WAY. BUT THIS HAS ACCELERATED THEIR DEMISE AND MAKES IT INEVITABLE IN THE NEXT DECADE: Paint it Black.
AS LONG AS AMERICA PERSISTS IN A SINGLE HEART, WE CAN HAVE HOPE. IDEAS ARE HARD TO KILL. BUT LET’S TRY TO KEEP THE TERRITORY AND SOCIETY TOO: Two uplifting thoughts for you to take with you.
THE LEFT TRULY DOESN’T UNDERSTAND ANY DIVERSITY OF BELIEF AND/OR OPINIONS: Justice and Religion and RACISM.
LEARN TO CODE: Student Journalists Walkout Because Boss Was Mean.