Greetings on Thursday, May 12, 2022: National Nutty Fudge Day. Truth be told, I like my fudge, like I like my political parties, without nuts.
Here are a few events that happened on May 12:
- 1497 – Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
- 1846 – The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism.
- 1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction, Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, is found dead near Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs’ home.
- 1937 – The Duke and Duchess of York are crowned as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Westminster Abbey.
- 2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban Revolution.
Notables born on this day include:
- 1812 – Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (d. 1888)
Here’s Lear’s own illustration of his famous poem, “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat“:
- 1820 – Florence Nightingale, Italian-English nurse, social reformer, and statistician (d. 1910)
- 1907 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1937 – George Carlin, American comedian, actor, and author (d. 2008)
Carlin was mesmerizing presence and a comic genius. Here’s my favorite clip of him, one in which he tells the truth about religion; do watch it.
- 1966 – Deborah Kara Unger, Canadian actress
Those who croaked on May 12 include:
- 2001 – Perry Como, American singer and television host (b. 1912)
Como was once a barber in a town near Pennsylvania near where my father grew up, and was a barber before he was a singer. My father swore that, when he was younger, Como gave him a haircut. Heeere’s Perry with one his more famous songs:
*And as for news: as expected, a vote in the Senate to guarantee abortion rights throughout the U.S. failed due to Republican opposition and a paucity of “yes” votes needed to overcome the 60-vote filibuster limit. It wasn’t even a tie: the vote was 51 senators voting “no” and 49 “yes”. Who was the Democratic holdout? Joe Manchin of West Virginia, of course, who might as well declare himself a Republican
*Finland has said it plans to apply for membership in NATO, discarding its longstanding policy of nonalignment. There’s little doubt its application would be accepted, but that will drive Putin up a(nother) wall given that Russia and Finland are contiguous and share a border of 1,340 km (830 mi).
*Finally, the ACLU continues to sink lower, concentrating on getting transsexual women, many of whom were in men’s prisons for committing sex crimes against women into women’s prisons. According to the thread, the ACLU and its allies are seeking to speed up the transfer of 300 such inmates, at least a third of whom are in prison for sex crimes, into women’s prisons.
🚨ACLU MOVES TO INTERVENE IN CHANDLER V. CDCR🚨
This week, ACLU filed a Motion to Intervene in WoLF’s California lawsuit challenging SB 132, which allows men who self-identify as women into women-only prisons: https://t.co/IYTfQnYwrR 1/6
— WoLF (@WomensLibFront) May 11, 2022
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is having on Andrzej:
Hili: We have to sharpen our tools and start field work.A: Do not even think about birds.Hili: I said nothing about birds.
Hili: Trzeba naostrzyć narzędzia i zabrać się za prace polowe.Ja: Nie myśl nawet o ptaszkach.Hili: Nic o ptaszkach nie mówiłam.
And here’s Karolina grabbing up Kulka again (photo by Paulina):
From Divy:
From Only Duck Memes:
From Jesus of the Day:
I retweeted this extraordinarily stupid statement from Jordan Peterson (originally sent by Barry). As I said, I don’t follow Peterson, but if you’re a fan, please explain this:
I don't follow Peterson much, but this is an arrantly stupid claim: "without the Bible there couldn't even be the possibility of truth." WHAT? Does that mean that if the Bible hadn't been written, we couldn't discover empirical truths and wouldn't have science? https://t.co/gCPnYcTUq7
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) May 11, 2022
From Titania:
Q: What did Hitler, Mussolini, Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler all have in common?
A: They all had MOTHERS. pic.twitter.com/9yzqyKvEm9
— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) April 30, 2022
A lovely Egyptian cat ring (the carnelian is a single stone) sent by Gravelinspector:
An ancient Egyptian gold ring with a carnelian bezel in form of a cat. From Third Intermediate Period (1070-712 BC) Dimensions: D. 2 cm (ring) L: 1 cm (bezel) it's now in the collection of the British Museum.
© The Trustees of the British Museum#archaeohistories pic.twitter.com/V8K4Osa39N
— ArchaeoHistories (@histories_arch) May 10, 2022
From Ginger K.:
I love how this guy took a break from his crucifixion so he could grab some lunch.😆 pic.twitter.com/cOO8Hsczqs
— TimTheEnchanter 🏳️🌈🏴☠️⚛️💉💉💉✊🏼 (@TimTheEnchantar) April 16, 2022
Tweets from Matthew. Two from a little-known figure of history. Read more about him here.
Yuri Knorozov, the linguist who deciphered the Maya script, listed his cat Asya as a co-author on his work but the editors always removed her. He always used this photo with Asya as his author photo and got pissed whenever editors cropped her out https://t.co/xZqflZPw4b pic.twitter.com/DBmoY3Ajlc
— Masonic the Hedgehog (@MissPavIichenko) May 11, 2022
. . . and a statue and Knorozov’s gravestone:
More than one! https://t.co/9wdF1poGDT
— An Innumerable Wooloo (@MockWooloo) May 11, 2022
Here’s his Wikipedia photo with his Siamese cat Asya, clearly the model for the gravestone:
Look how long this flying fish is out of the water! But Matthew makes a good point:
Flying fish are amazing, but just remember how birds, or reptiles, or mammals dive under the water and we never give it another thought… https://t.co/ta4Aimsd01
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) May 12, 2022
And watch this one to the end:
⚠️❣️Heartwarming moments of joy in the midst of war❣️⚠️
I spent a week hanging out at Kyiv’s train station, watching men crowd train platforms, waiting for their wives/ girlfriends/ sisters & children who fled Ukraine months ago
So many wonderful moments. This was the best 👇 pic.twitter.com/bm81ABtkxR
— Ashleigh Stewart (@Ash_Stewart_) May 11, 2022
I’m not a Peterson fan, but I’m guessing that he’s referring to the common Christian argument that science depends on the assumption that humans can arrive at truth and understanding by reasoning, which in turn depends on the claim that God created a rational, intelligible world with us being created in his image with an ability to reason that God gave us.
This argument ignores the standard replies that: (1) evolution tells us that human brains will be at least ok at understanding the universe, else they would not be useful enough to have evolved, and (2) we can in any case test whether we can understand the world by seeing whether our science and our technology does actually work, such as by predicting future solar eclipses and seeing whether the predictions come true, or by verifying that aircraft do actually fly (unlike magic carpets).
Jordan Peterson — if you could buy that guy for what he’s worth, and sell him for what he and his fanboys think he’s worth, you’d be in fat city on the spread between the two.
Peterson presented the hypothetical situation of the hydrogen bomb wiping out the human race.
He went on to say, ‘The proposition that the universe was best conceptualized as subatomic particles was true enough to generate a hydrogen bomb but was not true enough to stop everyone from dying.’
I think he was equivocating.
Later in the discussion, he admits to ‘gerrymandering the definition of truth’.
This is not to criticize his work in general.
Peterson has much to say that’s original and interesting. Unfortunately, what’s interesting isn’t original, and what’s original isn’t very interesting.
The eminent philosopher Yogi Berra was born on this day in 1925.
Of all his words of wisdom, I think my favorite is, “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.” On its face, it seems contradictory, but I know EXACTLY what he meant.
Same with “sometimes you can observe a lot just by watching.”
Robert and Ken, youse guys started sumthin’: “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours”.
Given Dobbs is everywhere in the news, it’s worth pointing out that Carlin also had one of the best summaries of the pro-life position (please excuse the language, but I will not bowdlerize Carlin):
“If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”
Hope that, when he got back up on the cross, one of the bystanders offered him a sponge full vinegar to wash down his tasty burger.
“You have some Gall!” He said…
I think you nailed it.
My mom was a Perry Como fan, and I remember us watching his Christmas specials when I was growing up. He had a great voice, and was a great singer, but when I look at the songs of his that were hits like “Hot-Diggity, Dog-Diggity” and ‘Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba” in the 50s, the era of the American male tune-slinger, I have to conclude he was crappy at picking songs. That said, some of his early stuff like “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” and “Dig You Later” are among my favorite recordings.
A nervous wreck, ol’ Perry wasn’t.
In that regard, on a par with Dean Martin.
My mom used to play his Christmas album over and over throughout the season, so I have it memorized. I must say, it has good arrangements, especially “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
First image of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of our galaxy.
(Or, more likely, and more correctly, image of the accretion disk surrounding the black hole itself, with the black hole somewhere in the central cavity.)
I’m in full agreement with you on Mr Carlin, the man was brilliant, and this clip is him at his best. No rational person can watch that routine and come away without thinking Christianity is nuts. Everyone should watch it. It’s like a 10 minute video short of The God Delusion. And it’s hilarious to boot!
+1
And he makes it very understandable why ancient humans actually worshipped the sun (I’m sure some humans still worship the sun). It makes much more sense than worshipping an invisible do-nothing.
HAPPY National Limerick Day in the UK
A Russian called Vladimir Putin,
Thought Ukraine a good place to go shootin’.
The blighter invaded,
Then quickly paraded,
But all he could boast was some lootin’.
Is that your own, Dom? It’s damned good, whoever wrote it.
One of my own favourites:
There was an Old Man with a beard
Who said “I demand to be feared!
So call Me your God,
And love Me, you sod!”
And Man did just that, which is weird.
Yours is pretty good ! 🙂
The result of a five minutes thunk, when I saw someone tweet one this morning…
I’ve never been a fan of Jordan Peterson but this seems like a new low. He’s nothing but sound bite now. He does have good delivery though.
“I don’t follow Peterson, but if you’re a fan, please explain this.”
I don’t follow him either. In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever seen him, and his affect comes across as slightly deranged.
Peterson apparently accepts that there are “facts” (i.e., “empirical truths”) but is arguing that we can’t arrive at ethical truths by accumulating more and more facts. He might have a case on that point, though how he gets from there to the assertion that we can arrive at ethical truths by reading the Bible is beyond me. E.g., on what grounds are we to take “Though shalt not kill” as ethical “truth” rather than simply an ethical assertion?
The linguist looks like an actor with his own interpretation of Don Corleone.
Halfway between De Niro in Part II and Brando in the original.
Holding the cat from the wedding scene with Bonasera.
Aha! I knew you would respond. It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future; but I got this one right.
Nuts make fudge, families, communities…and political parties….more fun and interesting! 🙂
The Mayan linguist looks a bit scary. Not sure the cat helps dispel or promote the illusion. Reading about Knorozov in the Wiki link provided shows he was quite the interesting guy…..brilliant and probably also a nut. lol…
They only had to credit the cat, that obviously did all the work.
The ACLU stand is not just wrong, but dangerous to women prisoners.
But even outside prison (or sports) the ‘trans’ activist movement harms women:
https://thecritic.co.uk/biological-sex-in-sydney/
Although I used to have some sympathy for the ‘trans’-movement, it’s dogmatic insistence that ‘trans women are women’ in all respects -regardless of circumstances- has completely evaporated it. I’m solidly ‘anti-trans activism’ now.
Can someone with more skill than I have send that George Carlin bit to those so called “Supreme” Court Justices. Pleeease.
SCOTUS took a close look at one of Mr. Carlin’s most famous routines in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation.
When a bill fails 49-51, it isn’t because of failure to get 60 votes to break the filibuster. The filibuster has nothing to do with it.
From the NYT link to that report:
So please be a bit less dogmatic and more civil when saying “the filibuster has nothing to do with it.” You were simply wrong.
While reading the linked Knorozov page about his deciphering of the Mayan script, my eye caught the line where the destruction of Mayan texts/artifacts by bishop Diego de Landa is mentioned. Following that link, the supreme arrogance of all religions again struck me: based on his (de Landa’s) RC religion, he decreed all Mayan codices and thousands of artifacts to be destroyed, as these things were “idolatrous”…
So much more of the Mayan society would be known today, were it not for his madness (that’s what religion does to one).
To be sure, some Mayan practices would be considered horrible and unacceptable by today’s standards: ripping peoples hearts out and child sacrifices are not exactly humane and morally defensible. But again, the source of those behaviours was religion: the Mayan priests demanded it.
Down with ALL religion!