Well yes, of course. it’s obvious. Click the pic to embiggen.

Hoft:

In the background of the picture a group of men are posing for one camera man and another is running towards another camera man. In other areas, people are just standing around. The woman with the children was just a photo-op…

Surber:

The whole media is a PR shop for this caravan. The media hailed the Reuters photographer as a hero.

He told NBC News, “When the tear gas started, some people were screaming and everybody started running away. I saw the woman and two children running away. One girl was barefoot from the beginning. The other was wearing beach sandals and lost them in the chaos.”

She lost her sandal!

Oh no.

Orange Man Bad…
:
…We have the worst media in the world.

We have made our media what it is, of course. The lies are going to get worse and worse, as long as they keep working. Our friends the liberals are the loudest among us — they solve everything by way of emotional outbursts, and they have the time, no one is counting on them to produce anything. And liberals have made it a point of pride to believe the right things, no matter how risible, and disbelieve all the WrongBadThink, no matter how little cause for doubt there may be. A brief glance in the rear view mirror at the Chredible Christine imbroglio, is sufficient to confirm that.

The rock won’t cease its descent until it reaches the ocean floor, and the floor has yet to be found.

The Atlantic:

In recent years, it has become painfully clear that psychology is facing a “reproducibility crisis,” in which even famous, long-established phenomena — the stuff of textbooks and TED Talks — might not be real…

One by one, researchers have tried to repeat the classic experiments behind these well-known effects — and failed. And whenever psychologists undertake large projects…they typically succeed, on average, half of the time.

Ironically enough, it seems that one of the most reliable findings in psychology is that only half of psychological studies can be successfully repeated.
:
But skeptics have argued that the misleadingly named “crisis” has more mundane explanations. First, the replication attempts themselves might be too small. Second, the researchers involved might be incompetent, or lack the know-how to properly pull off the original experiments. Third, people vary, and two groups of scientists might end up with very different results if they do the same experiment on two different groups of volunteers.

It comes as news to me that anyone was even making the attempt. I have long understood psychology to be a “soft science.” It qualifies as a scientific discipline only just barely, out of the sense that there’s a reality out there that is worth studying. But that the standard requirements applied to all others, which are really just prerequisites for conducting a valid experiment, were out of scope due to the nature of what was being studied.

Rather like economics. You can compile histories of this thing happening and then that other thing subsequently happening, then you can look for patterns. But you can’t truly reproduce these “experiments” according to a strict interpretation of that word in a scientific context, because you can’t isolate. Economics is the study of how everything is necessarily connected to everything else, and there’s always something spoiling the process. It’s the same with psychology. Those skeptics in that third group have it right. The old maxim about snowflakes, no two being identical, that’s true of people as well.

It is dangerous to intermix soft sciences like this, with hard sciences like physics, astronomy, geology, et al. Lacking the tools to replicate or to falsify, the discipline inevitably deteriorates into a hodge podge of theories that endure because they’re interesting…to someone. And then a credentialed priesthood arises around the unverified theories, because for something to be interesting, someone has to be around to find it so. The old thing about the tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it, you know? Someone has to say “That’s an interesting theory” in order for someone else to say “The experts say this causes that…”

So we require credentialing, so those high priests can say “That’s a good theory because I say it is one, and who are you to take issue?”

If all of our science deteriorates into that layer, we will have no science and we will know nothing.

From PJ Media.

“It’s not surprising that Donald Trump is increasing his attacks,” Rep. Red Lieu (D-CA) recently said on CNN. “The walls are closing in on him.”

That’s a familiar refrain on CNN and MSNBC, where hosts continue to string their audiences along with the hopeful narrative that Mueller is on the verge of delivering a death blow to the president. Those walls have apparently been on the verge of crushing Trump for the past 14-plus months now.

I’m just wondering: If this Mueller character is about to unleash the devastating final report and this is really gonna cook Trump’s goose once and for all…who gives a fig about those tax returns? Conversely, if the release of those tax returns is such a game-changing event, what does this say about the sum total of everything Mueller has managed to collect?

One really tips the scales or the other one does. Can’t be both. If it turns out to be neither one, though, that would be in keeping with the trend we’ve seen hold up thus far.

How do liberals miss this? That’s the real question. They still maintain a chokehold on our consensus expectations, on our prevailing sense of normalcy. They’ve won the House of Representatives after going two years having nothing to sell other than “we hate Trump.” Now they’re going to guide the course of Congress’ lower chamber, and arguably deserve to…therefore, The People have a right to know. What makes them so dysfunctional? How do they miss such obvious things?

It’s the same as it ever was. They “think” emotionally. A good story hooks ’em every time, if they happen to like it. There is little to nothing by way of critical thinking going on here. Regular-thinking is thinking about what fits, critical-thinking is thinking about what doesn’t. The if-then stuff.

“If your hair’s wet because you fell in the creek on the way home from school, and you didn’t go skinny-dipping, then how come your clothes are dry?”

If they had what it took to ask such questions about the narratives they happened to like, they wouldn’t be liberals.

Of the blog that is; “The Blog That Nobody Reads.”

Due to work and personal obligations, we’ve throttled way back over the last two years but the flame is still lit. We’re at 8,320 posts, 26,826 comments and many users/readers.

Normally this time of year our rotation is 11/10: Marine Corps birthday; 11/11 Veteran’s Day; 11/12 our birthday. This time we disrupted the pattern because we wanted this business up in Paradise to stay on top where the uh, you know, “nobodies” would have more of a chance to see it. We’re still waiting to see how that all goes for our friend(s) and this is sort of a sad birthday for us all.

It’s obvious here that there’s a problem. Many days are very smoky. Air quality is extremely poor. The soot is getting everywhere and everything’s filthy. We’re still safe, but the emerging news remains less than encouraging for others nearby.

Washington Post:

In the ’60s, Mr. Lee took a distinctly new approach to characters and setting, as well as to the very interaction with readers who had grown used to comics that were aimed solely at a younger audience and that featured flawless, square-jawed heroes who had uncomplicated morals.

Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the comic-book-themed novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” said in an interview that Mr. Lee’s best-known characters were “vain, pompous, conceited. . . . Everything that works in comic books today is indebted to him for that.”

Wikipedia:

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber, December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic-book writer, editor, and publisher. He was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, and later its publisher and chairman, leading its expansion from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

In collaboration with several artists – particularly Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko – he co-created fictional characters including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Black Panther, the X-Men, and – also with co-writer Larry Lieber – the characters Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Thor. In doing so, he pioneered a more complex approach to writing superheroes in the 1960s, and in the 1970s challenged the standards of the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to it updating its policies.

Following his retirement from Marvel, he remained a public figurehead for the company, and frequently made cameo appearances in Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Meanwhile, he continued independent creative ventures into his 90s.

Lee was inducted into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. He received a National Medal of Arts in 2008.

Well that’s too bad. I generally disapprove of these reforms, but it is true that his contributions to the entertainment medium were invaluable and I’m certain he’ll leave a big hole that will be hard to fill.

I have, by the grace of God, many dear close blogger friends. Gerard Van der Leun is my most prized, for so many reasons.

Within the last day, he passed on word that he had to evacuate from his childhood locale of Paradise, CA due to the Butte fire, and subsequently learned his house was destroyed.

This is a fatal fire. The latest death toll I have is nine, and unfortunately I have a feeling providing linkage to the stat would be useless because that number may change. But our friend is safe, and so is his Mom, and his cat. Thank God. But so much lost. Can you even imagine.

Nobody reads this blog, as I’ve noted many times…so I’m sure no one’s reading this. But anyway. I’m heading on over to the tip jar. Anybody who wants to come along, meet me here. I’ve been interacting with this wonderful man and watching him for over a decade, during which time he’s just so freely given of himself to younger lesser blogs, like me, with his linkage and his advice and literary talents. To say nothing of his entertainment value.

It’s go-time. This is a compatriot, in his hour of need. If you have the means, at the moment, please join me in treating him that way. If not, I’m sure your best wishes will be welcome as well.

Gerard, your grief is ours. Our home, should you see fit to work us into your rotation for whatever reason, is yours.

Update 11/10/18: Returning to survey the damage. Pretty heartbreaking.

I could watch this over and over again.

Want to set it as my ring tone. The good stuff that starts around 1:18 and builds to…”Well I’m not a big fan of yours either…”

I am wondering. How many people in society today, learn how to so-called “discuss” issues like this by watching CNN reporters? I’ve seen that on these very pages, in fact the one and only account I’ve ever banned in all these years, I banned because of exactly this sort of behavior. There’s this ostensible “question” but it’s really a manhandling of the narrative — the person asking the “question” doesn’t get back the so-called “answer” he wanted, and so what follows is this won’t-shut-up, me-do-all-the-talking thing. It’s a disgrace to the what-we-call “press corps” because those exchanges occur in an environment in which this sort of passive-aggressive behavior works much better than on the pages of a blog.

Maybe we, as a supposedly advanced civilization, would do well to get back to the noble institution of…the question. You know. The interrogative. The specification of some piece of information that is actually missing, and courteously followed by a period of listening…for that very piece of information the questioner is supposed to have wanted. And then if both provider-of-question and provider-of-answer do their jobs, and are really making a priority out of exchanging information to make things better understood by all others, the exchange will be over relatively quickly and the next person can ask the question…

Remember those days?

In the strange surreal pocket-universe of CNN, I’m sure President Trump is thought of as a tyrant who is bringing that to an end — especially after the Secret Service suspended Acosta’s press pass yesterday afternoon over this. The reality is the President might very well be bringing those days back again. His behavior, here, is refreshing and if you pay attention closely, you’ll see it’s carefully compliant to the traditional rules of decorum. Please. Thank you. Excuse me. He handled this like a champ.

Acosta’s behavior, on the other hand, has become standard procedure. Anybody who’s been watching these proceedings, more than sporadically since sometime around George H. W. Bush, knows this. The whole “speaking truth to power” thing has gotten out of hand. Acosta asks “questions”…harumph. Those aren’t questions. They lead to round-robin never-done arguments, until he gets adherence to the script he’s got in his head…wasting everybody else’s time…because they’re not questions.

Trump: Making questions questions again!

Lemonhead (n.)

A person who labors under the belief that his or her feelings of resentment have something to do with the preferred and final solution to all problems.

More broadly, a person who can see resentment does not solve all problems, but any problems not solved by being resentful are not worth solving.

You may have a lemonhead or two in your circle of friends, or in your family. You’ll know it for sure if there are certain subjects you just try to avoid because you don’t want to hear the same litany yet again…see, the problem remains. They’re not really solving it.

Credo of the lemonhead:

1. Resentment solves all problems.
2. If any problem can’t be solved by way of resentment, it must not be worth solving. It’s stupid. Fuck it!
3. All feelings of resentment must be expressed.

The three questions all diligently-thinking adults must ask about all things, have no place in the world of the lemonhead. Is there room for doubt? What makes it so? What are we to do about this? Piss on that. Just be an ornery little wanker about it, do some ritual bitching, and most important of all be seen doing the bitching.

Problem solved.

In their world. Their tiny, yellow, sour little world.