Category: Weird

Hunter S. Thompson was a Prophet

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In The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time, Hunter S. Thompson relates the following tale:

This is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in politics. Every hack in the business has used it in times of trouble, and it has even been elevated to the level of political mythology in a story about one of Lyndon Johnson’s early campaigns in Texas. The race was close and Johnson was getting worried. Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent’s life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows.

“Christ, we can’t get a way calling him a pig-f%$#er,” the campaign manager protested. “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.”

“I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the sonofabitch deny it.”

Well, right now, the UK is transfixed by the tale of PM David Cameron and Piggate:

Late last night, the Daily Mail published an astounding excerpt of an unauthorized biography of UK Prime Minister David Cameron, alleging that he placed a “private part” of his body into the mouth of a dead pig’s head while at Oxford University.
He put his nob in a pig’s mouth. Popped his todger into the poor swine’s gob.
It’s crucial when dealing with such an important and weighty story to have all the facts, so please let this Brit guide you through the revolting tale of prime ministerial pig porkery.

It is claimed that there are pictures, but this could be a, “Make the sonofabitch deny it,” moment.

In either case, this is a profoundly weird moment in politics.

This is a Night for Weird History

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I just discovered that Prescott Bush, George H.W.’s dad, and George W’s and Jeb’s grand dad, was one of the founders of Planned Parenthood:

Can you name any historical figures who helped Planned Parenthood kick off its first fundraising campaign back in 1947? If you first guessed some progressive liberal icon, you’d be wrong.

The die-hard public pro-life bona fides of George W. Bush and his brother and current GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush are undeniable. Jeb has repeatedly said that he would defund Planned Parenthood if he’s elected, and it’s been a promise he’s been making long before the Center for Medical Progress launched their viral undercover video campaign attacking the non-profit, claiming the organization was “selling baby parts.”

But a little known fact — first resurfacing in a 2005 article in SFGate — reveals that the grandfather and father of the last two Bush presidents, Prescott Bush, was the treasurer of the organization in its early years.

But even then, supporting a woman’s right to control over her own reproductive system was politically dangerous.

The political repercussions hit hard. Prescott Bush was knocked out of an expected victory for a Senate seat in Connecticut in 1950 after syndicated columnist Drew Pearson declared that it “has been made known” that Bush was a leader in the “Birth Control Society” (The old name of Planned Parenthood had been the Birth Control Federation of America.) Recall that contraceptives were controversial in those days — and remember that a constitutional right to use them wasn’t established until 1965, when the Supreme Court affirmed an implied right to privacy in Griswold vs. Connecticut.

Prescott Bush won a Senate seat two years later, and his son George and daughter-in-law Barbara continued to support Planned Parenthood even after George’s election to Congress from Texas. In fact, he was such an advocate for family planning that some House colleagues gave him the nickname “Rubbers.”

If I believed that there was an ounce of integrity in the Bush Crime Family, my head would hurt, but Poppy Bush made it patently clear that this was not the case when he turn his back on both his father’s legacy and own his lifelong support of reproductive rights to become Vice-President.  (And let us not forget that Prescott Bush’s investment firm was shut down for acting as an agent of Nazi Germany in 1942.)

I don’t think that this family would walk a straight line if their lives depended on it.

This is the Best Job Ever!!!!

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If you love cats, and you’ve considered running away to join the circus, then the fact that a Cat Circus Looking for a Tour Assistant is like ……… well ……… catnip:

Has your dream always been to run away with a cat circus? Then here’s the job for you! Samantha Martin and the Acro-Cats are looking for a tour assistant to travel cross-country with a troupe of trained cats (plus a groundhog, a chicken and a few rats) as they purr-form at venues in cities across the United States.

Job Requirements:

1. Animal care experience – Daily, weekly and monthly cat care duties – including but not limited to general and advanced cleaning and care/welfare of animals and their living environment.

2. Out-going personality, a keen sense of humor, the ability to roll with the punches, a flexible schedule, a high comfort level engaging with crowds of cat lovers, open to new experiences, lots of fun and craziness. We travel in a tour bus and share RV/hotel rooms.

3. Physically fit – able to lift and transport up to 50 lbs of show props and animal carriers from tour bus to stage and back.

4. Theater experience a plus – purr-form front and back of house duties, stage management, operate the light and sound, and help on stage with animals and prop placement.

5. Work with volunteers – wrangle and train volunteers who help with the shows.

Pay varies by show and includes per diem. No cat allergies. MUST LOVE CATS!
Serious applicants only. This job is a LOT of work and time on the road, but also the opportunity of a lifetime.

BTW, it appears that this is on the level, as you can see at their web site, which puts the lie to that old cliche “As difficult as herding cats.”

I Wish that Heath Ledger Were Alive and Playing Donald Trump in a Biopic

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It would be glorious.

I’m not sure whether Heath Ledger channeled Donald Trump in his glorious performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, of if Donald Trump is channeling Ledger’s Academy Award winning performance, but I definitely see the Joker in Trump’s eyes.

I didn’t realize this until I saw the Joker meme image on the Internet.

It is “The Donald”.

H/t DC at Stellar Parthenon for the image.

My Son’s Worst Nightmare

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Charlie has a mild arachnophobia, a fear of spiders, and I just told him about a spider that sounds like his worst nightmare.

It’s a jumping spider, it’s aggressive, it’s favorite food is human blood, and follows our smell.

Sounds scary, even to someone like me who finds spiders to be a fascinating member phylum Arthropoda.

It turns that this little 8 legged beast is actually good for people.

His lust for human blood is limited to human blood inside of the body of an anopheles mosquito:

………

A new study by researchers at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury and the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology looked at what these spiders like to eat. They found, reiterating what previous studies have also, that these “mosquito terminators” shouldn’t be feared at all — they should be viewed as friends.

(I know, friends sounds like quite a stretch. But follow me here.)

 Female Anopheles mosquitoes carry and spread malaria. It’s a preventable yet deadly disease that’s responsible for about 500,000 deaths a year. Even though that figure has dropped significantly since 2000, allowing half a million preventable deaths is still, by any measure, unacceptable.

 Here’s the good news: The Evarcha culicivora has a specialized craving for those female Anopheles mosquitoes.

Feasting on our blood gives these spiders an odor that attracts mates. So, naturally, they’re gunning for it. But earlier — when I said these spiders love our blood — I didn’t say it had to be in us. Funny story: These spiders’ mouths aren’t even equipped to bite humans.
They can, however, snack on human blood carried by malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.

“This is unique,” Fiona Cross, who co-authored the study, told The Guardian. “There’s no other animal that targets its prey based on what that prey has eaten.”

Not quite as scary now, huh?

I Need Some Pictures to Understand This

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Click for big honking image slideshow


Skylon
Saber Engine


Schematic of engine

Reactions Engines, the British company working on a partially air breathing cryogenic engine which would power a single stage to orbit spacecraft, Skylon, as well as a hypersonic transport, the A2.

This project has taken a major step forward with both the European Space Agency and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) have found the basic concept sound, including a heat exchanger that cools the incoming air by hundreds of degrees in a fraction of a second without choking up without being choked with frost:

It is a well-established truism in aerospace that leaps in propulsion technology almost always precede major advances in spacecraft or aircraft design.

As the clamor for affordable access to space continues to grow, there is mounting interest in the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (Sabre) concept under development by U.K.-based Reaction Engines. This hybrid powerplant is designed to bridge the infamous power gap between air breathers and rockets, potentially enabling a vehicle to accelerate from a standing start on the runway all the way to low Earth orbit.

Such an engine could power high-speed aircraft, suborbital craft or even multi- and single-stage-to-orbit vehicles. Even more encouraging to Sabre proponents is that, while earlier attempts to harvest oxygen from the atmosphere succumbed to thermodynamic reality, the Reaction design continues to pass muster with experts in Europe and the U.S. The company’s most recent—and possibly most valuable—vote of confidence comes from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which analyzed Sabre under a cooperative research and development agreement.

AFRL’s validation followed a detailed study of the entire concept, particularly the precooler heat exchanger technology, which allows for the practical extraction of oxygen from the air without clogging up the mechanism with frost and ice. Reaction unveiled initial details of the methanol-based frost-control system at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Hypersonics and Spaceplanes conference in Glasgow in early July.

AFRL program manager Barry Hellman says analysis “confirmed the feasibility and potential performance of the Sabre engine cycle. While development of the Sabre represents a substantial engineering challenge, the engine cycle is a very innovative approach and warrants further investigation.” As a result, Reaction Engines and AFRL plan to continue collaborating on Sabre, with potential follow-on work focusing on evaluation of various air-breathing-powered vehicle concepts and testing of specific engine components.

The AFRL study will also evaluate other potential uses for the Sabre’s heat exchanger technologies, including looking at broader defense applications. “The question to answer next is what benefit the Sabre could bring to high-speed aerospace vehicles compared to other propulsion systems,” says Hellman. “AFRL is analyzing vehicle designs based on the Sabre engine concept. We are also considering testing their heat-exchanger technology at Mach 5 flight conditions in a high-temperature wind tunnel.”

While AFRL acknowledges that Sabre’s original target—a single-stage-to-orbit space access vehicle dubbed Skylon—remains technically “very risky as a first application,” Hellman says: “Sabre may provide some unique advantages in more manageable two-stage-to-orbit configurations.”

………

The precooler chills the incoming air from more than 1,000C (1832F) to -150C in less than 1/100th of a second, before passing it through a turbo-compressor and into the rocket combustion chamber, where it is burned with subcooled liquid hydrogen fuel. For higher altitude operation and the jump to orbit, the engine switches to an onboard liquid oxygen supply and runs as a conventional closed-cycle rocket engine (AW&ST Nov. 26, 2012, p. 47).

What this means in the short term is not space travel, but it does mean that they are far more likely to get government and private sector funding.

Good folks at Av Week have a description of how Reaction Engines made this work, but I cannot make heads nor tails of it:

………

But after endorsement of the basic technology from the European Space Agency and, more recently, the U.S. Air Force’s Research Laboratory, the company’s synergetic air-breathing rocket engine (Sabre) concept is being taken far more seriously. Designed to power a vehicle from a standing start to Mach 5.5 in air-breathing mode, and from the edge of the atmosphere to low Earth orbit in pure rocket mode, the Sabre engine with a heat exchanger at the heart of the design is attracting widespread interest for potential application on a range of atmospheric and space vehicles.

With patents pending and negotiations with new industrial partners apparently at an advanced stage, Reaction Engines has made the surprise decision to unveil the first details of the critical technology at the core of its hybrid hypersonic propulsion system.

………

“It is pretty mind-bending stuff,” says Reaction Engines technical director and chief designer, Richard Varvill. Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics International Space Planes and Hypersonics conference here, he says the system counters the frost that precipitates out of the air as it becomes saturated with increasing relative humidity during the rapid cooling process. The precipitation “looks like the white feathery frost you’d see on a cold winter’s day. Unfortunately, that frost is sufficiently mechanically strong that it can bridge the gaps between the tubes and will block the matrix solid in about 3 sec. flat if you don’t do anything about it.

“So—surprise, surprise—we use an anti-freeze, and in this case it is methanol. But we use the methanol in a rather sophisticated way, with the objective of minimizing the amount you need. Also we don’t want to spray the methanol in and leave it in the air flow because we are actually cooling down the air to the point at which the methanol would freeze itself,” he says.

To do this, Reaction Engines has “borrowed a trick from the chemical process industry,” says Varvill. “We inject the methanol at one of the coldest points, and we effectively get the mix of water and methanol to flow forward in the matrix—against the direction of the airflow.” He concedes this seems counterintuitive, but explains the system generates an effective reverse flow by catching the water-methane mix and reinjecting it further upstream. “We have multiple injection and extraction points in the matrix, but the overall effect is the mix of methanol and water is actually flowing forward in the matrix against the airflow direction.”

The reasoning, he says, is that the condensate composition at the cold end of the matrix is nearly all methanol, and as it flows forward the methanol picks up the water. “At the inlet [of the matrix] it is nearly all water, so the composition is more methanol-concentrated at the cold end than it is at the warm end,” Varvill says. “That then reduces because you have extracted most of the water at the warm end, and that reduces the absolute amount of methanol you need to throw into the pre-cooler to stop it freezing.” And because the amount of liquid water reduces so does the relative humidity. “Eventually you end up with a situation where you have extracted all the water vapor as liquid from the airflow, and that leaves you essentially with dry air below 215K. The partial pressure of the water vapor at this point is so low that you can allow it to pass through the heat exchanger and it does not freeze.”

………

Reaction Engines decided to go public on the frost-control technology because of pending patent applications. “The trigger for patenting was the awareness that to execute this program we are going to have to involve other companies,” says Mark Thomas, the former chief engineer for technology and future programs at Rolls-Royce and now managing director at Reaction Engines. “You can’t keep trade secrets very long in that situation, so it is better to be protected formally and legally on the clever stuff.”

This is all going on while the engine is moving faster than mach 5, though it is slowed to subsonic speeds (the cooling allows the system to avoid the complexities of a scramjet, the shock cone in the inlet is the tell here).

I would really like to see an animation of this, because for the life of me I cannot see how they get coolant to flow forward against that sort of air flow.

It’s weird, but it is a good kind of weird.

I Expect to See a Massive Increase in Tourism to Turkey

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In response to a previous opinion by another Turkish theologian, Ahmet Mahmut Unlu, a Turkish televangelist has specifically stated that oral sex is a permitted sex act under Islam:

Last week, Turkish theologian Ali Rıza Demircan made headlines when he described “advanced oral sex” as forbidden in Islam during a television interview, as viewers watched the presenter erupt into laughter.

However, in a response to the controversial claim, a popular Muslim televangelist in Turkey offered an opposing view, saying Islam permits oral sex.

“Do not invent a lie on behalf of Allah,” said Ahmet Mahmut Unlu, popularly known as “Cubbeli Ahmet Hoca” (Robed Ahmet Hoca) among his followers, during his latest televised sermon, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Unlu said the Quran does not have verses that stipulate such ban on oral sex.

………

“No Islamic jurisprudence calls it a haram act, but some find it inappropriate. So, how can [Demircan] say that it is haram? What is your source?” Unlu said.

I guess that “Advanced Oral Sex” is a 300 level course.

Certainly, I can see how a debate about this issue might get out of  ……… hand.

I Am Shocked That This Is Not Florida

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You know the saying, don’t mess with Alligators


And the inevitable Taiwanese computer animation

I asked a number of people about this, and they all guessed that it was Florida, but instead it was Texas where a man shouted f%$# that alligator and jumped in an infested lake, where he was promptly killed by an alligator:

The man in question, 28 year old Tommie Woodward, mocked warning signs cautioning against getting in the water because of the alligator before jumping in and meeting a grizzly end.

Alligators had been spotted around the marina previously, with plenty of notices being placed around to warn people not to get too close to the water, let alone jump in and go swimming.

Woodward and an unidentified woman decided to ignore said warnings and get in the water, and while Woodward was tragically killed by the animal, the woman was thankfully unharmed.

The first gator death in Texas in about 180 years.

It’s been 8 years since a Florida gator death.

Also, Florida is cray cray, so it is not surprising that we all jumped to this conclusion.

The Middle East Is F%$#ed up and Sh%$

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A year after the war that devastated the Gaza Strip, Israel is apparently helping Qatar — which does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel — partner with the Islamist movement and longstanding enemy Hamas to rebuild the the territory.

“Life is full of contradictions and strange things,” Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of research for Israel’s military intelligence, told NPR when commenting on Israel’s recent move to allow Qatar to channel its reconstruction aid through Hamas, which is a US-designated terrorist group.

Israel has always tried to isolate Hamas and has accused Qatar of financing the Islamist movement. Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, rejects all agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, and calls for Israel’s violent destruction in its founding charter.

………

But there are other reasons why Israel is suddenly more open to cooperation with Qatar. Israel’s deputy minister for regional cooperation, Ayub Carra, mentioned that Qatar, along with other Gulf countries, shares Israel’s concerns about Iran, NPR reported. Kuperwasser also mentioned that Israel has long wanted improved relations with the region’s Sunni Muslim countries because of the threat the country faces from Shi’ite Iran and its various militant proxies.

“So we have a chance, now, to make the relationship better,” said Carra.

My head hurts.

I Just Had an Epiphany

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I was talking with my wife, and she asked how many people were running for the Republican Presidential nomination, so we went to the Wiki, and we came up with a count, 16, possibly as many as 19. (List with status key after the break)

She then asked how many Democrats are running, and I said 3, Clinton, Sanders, and O’Malley.

She jokingly suggested that I change parties to Republican, because I had more charges, and I replied, “Nope.  I want to vote against Hillary Clinton. ……… No, that’s not actually true. I want to vote for Bernie Sanders.”

And then it hit me:  I actually want to vote for Bernie Sanders.

This is the first time that I’ve actually wanted to vote for a Presidential candidate in at least a dozen years.

It’s a strange feeling. ……… It’s a good feeling, but it’s a strange feeling.

List of ‘Phant candidates.

  1. Jeb Bush*
  2. Ben Carson*
  3. Ted Cruz*
  4. Carly Fiorina*
  5. Lindsey Graham*
  6. Mike Huckabee*
  7. George Pataki*
  8. Rand Paul*
  9. Rick Perry*
  10. Marco Rubio*
  11. Rick Santorum*
  12. Donald Trump*
  13. Bobby Jindal†
  14. Scott Walker†
  15. Chris Christie‡
  16. John Kasich‡
  17. Bob “Badhair” Ehrlich€
  18. Jim Gilmore€
  19. Peter King€

* = Officially running
† = To make it official shortly.
‡ = Formed a PAC or a 529, so basically running, if not for President, then for Veep.
€ = Made noises, but nothing official.

Not the Onion

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The Cleveland Police have signed a consent decree with the Department of Justice which, among other things, has them to halt their practice of pistol whipping fellow citizens:

Cleveland police will stop hitting people on the head with their guns and document any time they unholster them, according to a consent decree between the U.S. Justice Department and Cleveland police released today.

The Justice Department found in a 21-month investigation that began in 2013 that Cleveland police routinely bash people on the head with their guns, sometimes accidentally firing them, according to a 58-page report released in December.

The consent decree released Tuesday between the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Cleveland is the result of five months of negotiations, as well as dozens of meetings with community groups, church leaders and advocates. Once approved by a federal judge, the city is legally bound to enact the reforms included in the 105-page document, meant to protect citizens’ Constitutional rights.

Seriously?

Cleveland police pistol-whipped people as a matter of policy?

I think that this is WELL beyond the need for a consent decree.

They need to shut down the Cleveland PD, and bring in the State Police for the next few years.

Amtrak Train Crash Just Got Weird

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It appears that a short time before the Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia, two other trains on the same track were hit with ……… Something:

Just before Tuesday’s deadly Amtrak derailment, both a SEPTA commuter train and another Amtrak train in the same corridor were hit by projectiles, one which crashed through the engineer’s window.

An Amtrak spokesman could not be reached regarding Amtrak Acela Train 2173, which passengers said was struck at about 9:05 p.m. A SEPTA train was struck by a projectile at about 9:10 p.m., according to a SEPTA spokeswoman, who said there is no indication the incident is connected to the derailment, which happened at about 9:30 p.m.

………

SEPTA northbound Train 769, en route to Trenton on tracks on the Northeast Corridor beside the Amtrak rails, was approximately four miles from the derailment site when it was struck at about 9:10 p.m. SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said an “unknown projectile” broke the engineer’s window.

No injuries were reported and the train was held on the tracks ahead of the North Philadelphia station. The 80 passengers were transferred to buses.

Amtrak’s northbound Train 188 derailed on the Northeast Corridor tracks, killing at least seven and injuring scores. The cause of the derailment is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration.

I’m wondering if some kids having “fun” with cinder blocks on an over pass, or some nut with a firearm, was playing a really stupid game that night.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Pulitzer Prize Edition

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The editor of the editorial page most likely to be shown as factually inaccurate by the front pate, that of the Wall Street Journal, has been named as the Chairman of the Pulitzer Prize Board:

Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor and vice president of The Wall Street Journal, has been elected chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, Columbia University announced today.

Gigot succeeds Danielle Allen, a scholar and author who is the incoming director of the Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. The Pulitzer Board chairmanship is a one-year appointment. Board members serve a maximum of nine years.

 Gigot’s career at The Wall Street Journal spans 35 years. He has held his current position since 2001. He is responsible for the newspaper’s editorials, op-ed articles, arts criticism and book reviews. He also directs the editorial pages of the Journal‘s Asian and European editions and the OpinionJournal.com website. He is the host of the weekly half-hour news program, the Journal Editorial Report, on the Fox News Channel.

 Gigot joined the Journal in 1980 as a reporter in Chicago. He became the Journal’s Asia correspondent in 1982, based in Hong Kong. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his reporting on the Philippines. In 1984, he was named the first editorial page editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong. In 1987, he was assigned to Washington, where he contributed editorials and a weekly column on politics, “Potomac Watch,” which won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

The Journal‘s editorial page is the most fact averse in the nation. (with the Washington Post‘s OP/ED page being an embarrassingly close 2nd)

Putting him in charge of the prize is on a par with making Mary Mallon* the New York State Commissioner of Health.

*Aka Typhoid Mary.

What the F%$#ing F%$#?

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I understand that HIV remains a major public health image, but this is nuts:


The newest battle against HIV/AIDS stigma is being waged in blood and ink.

This month, the small Austrian magazine Vangardist will release a special-edition issue printed entirely in ink that has been infused with HIV-positive blood, in an effort to force readers to confront — and break — taboos that persist around the virus. The magazine, which is marketed toward “progressive” urban young men, plans to release 3,000 print copies of the spring “Heroes of HIV” issue, a theme inspired by the three donors who contributed their blood to the project, as well as people living publicly with HIV.

“We believe that as a lifestyle magazine it is our responsibility to address the issues shaping society today,” Vangardist publisher Julian Wiehl said. “With 80 percent more confirmed cases of HIV being recorded in 2013 than 10 years previously, and an estimated 50 percent of HIV cases being detected late due to lack of testing caused by social stigma associated with the virus [sic]. This felt like a very relevant issue for us to focus on not just editorially but also from a broader communications standpoint.”

As Wiehl explained to the Washington Post, the print edition will be packaged in a sealed wrapper, so the reader must “break the seal to break the stigma.” While it is well-known that HIV can only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood and semen, and there is no health or safety risk posed by handling the blood-infused ink, Vangardist hopes to make a statement that challenges the public. (The magazine did take extra measures to ensure the ink would be sterile, and autoclaved the donated blood before using it.)

 I have no words.

Michelle Bachmann May be Right About the Rapture

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I can think of no stronger indicator for the Apocalypse than the fact that, for the 2nd time in as many months, Donald Trump has seized the moral high ground.

Of course, this is an extremely low bar, as the competition is Pamela Geller:

Donald Trump was asked on “Fox & Friends” this morning for his opinion on the shooting outside Pam Geller’s “Draw the Prophet” contest, and he didn’t mince his words.

Brian Kilmeade asked whether he still believed “in freedom of speech, regardless of what they’re talking about — you’ve got to think they could do without being shot, don’t you think?”

Trump replied that it’s “very terrible,” but was heartened that the police acted “very strongly” by killing the two suspects. After blaming the “weak action” of the Baltimore police for the destruction of “over 200 businesses in a single night,” he praised the Garland, Texas police for their handling of these shooters.

However, he quickly switched subjects, saying that “I watched Pam [Geller on Fox News] earlier, and it really looks like she’s just taunting everybody. What is she doing drawing Muhammad? I mean it’s disgusting,” he said in reference to the attempted shootings. “Isn’t there something else they could be doing? Drawing Muhammad?” he went on.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck cut in to say that they’d asked Geller whether there wasn’t some other way they could have exercised their freedom of speech besides this contest, and Geller told her “No, there wasn’t another way, because you have to fight back against this war against the freedom of speech.”

Trump replied by again asking, “They can’t do something else? They have have to be in the middle of Texas doing something on Muhammad and insulting everybody?”

He reiterated his disgust at the attempted shooting, as well as his belief that Geller is taunting Islamic extremists. “What is she doing?” he asked. “Why is she doing it? It’s probably very risky for her — I don’t know, maybe she likes risk?”

“But what the hell is she doing?” he concluded.

So in April, he shamed most of the Republican Presidential candidates over Social Security and Medicare, and now, this.

I do not mean to imply that “The Donald” is meaningful ethics, but rather that the morality of the right wing has descended below his level.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!! (on Saturday)

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We had two credit unions closed on Thursday, bringing the total to 5:

  1. TLC Federal Credit Union, Tillamook, OR
  2. ​New Bethel Federal Credit Union, Portsmough, VA

Here is the Full NCUA list.

The odd bit is that this means that there have been more credit union closings than commercial bank closings, 4 banks and 5 credit unions.

If someone amongst my reader(s) knows if there is some sort of regulatory or financial condition that has caused this, contact me.

This is weird.

Bad Day at the Office

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This is one of the finest examples of a correction ever:

Correction: This post initially attributed the song “Barbara Ann” to The Beatles. It is, in fact, a Beach Boys song. The author of this post would blame his relative youth, but as a fan of the oldies, this would be dishonest. He would instead like to extend his sincerest apology for this egregious error and promise that it will not be repeated.

Clarification: As Ed Morrissey notes, the song was originally written and sung by The Regents and later covered by the Beach Boys. So the author of this post is clearly having one of those days.

He was writing how bombing Iran is incredibly unpopular, even among Republicans.

In the process, he writes about how McCain sang “Bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Ann”, and completely screws up the provenance of the song.

Normally, I reserve the, “Bad Day at the Office,” hed for vehicular crashes, but I think that Aaron Blake’s correction rated this title as well.

H/t Jim Romenesko.

There is Now a Nazi Definition of Chutzpah………

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The descendants of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, are suing Random House demanding royalties for the use of his quotes in the book Goebbels: A Biography:

The estate of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda, is taking legal action against the publisher Random House over a new biography, claiming payment for the use of extracts from his diaries.

Cordula Schacht – a lawyer whose own father, Hjalmar Schacht, was Hitler’s minister of economics – is suing Random House Germany and its imprint Siedler, over the book Goebbels, by Peter Longerich, professor of modern German history at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Longerich, an authority on the Holocaust and Nazi era Germany, drew extensively on Goebbels’ diaries in his biography, which was published in Germany in 2010. Now those same passages from the diaries are set to appear in the English ­edition, which Penguin Random House UK and its imprint Bodley Head will publish on 7 May.

Rainer Dresen, general counsel of Random House Germany, told the Guardian that an important principle was at stake. “We are convinced that no money should go to a war criminal,” he said.

Agreed, Mr. Dresen.

Not only is this chutzpah, it’s insane, even when not considering the overweening nature of the international copyright regime.