THE
BOOK OF ORNAMENTAL ALPHABETS,
Ancient and Mediæval,
FROM THE EIGHTH CENTURY.

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In terms of essentials, the brilliant sunlight of Victor Hugo’s universe is the diametrical opposite of the venomous muck of Schopenhauer’s.

Literate. Literate, you browse-by, 910-SAT-scoring, Democrat-pretending-to-vote-for, lowest-man-on-the-totem-pole chimpanzees.

Update: PBS or someone apparently complained and it’s gone. :(

Borrowed from my lactation consultant who said this can improve latch quality when the milk is sour.

why some people are smarter than others

A friend of mine is a teacher dealing with teens in California. Recently one of said teens called my friend old and stupid while declaring himself intellectually superior. Teen lights an M-‌80 with a short fuse less than a minute after walking away from conversation. Teacher, in perhaps the best chance he’ll ever have at getting through to someone again, reminds the kid of how stupid teachers are while wrapping up the hand and trying to keep the fingers on.

Some people are smarter than others because they don’t do stupid shit and have no drive to do so. Why?

Part of me wants to say, “Because they’re not genetic back-‌wash who would be naturally selected to die or become unviable for breeding.” But that’s pointless, overly obvious, leaning on metaphysics and flawed.

Nature pushes boundaries and stupidity is just another niche to be explored and colonized if there is any success in it. Watching Fox News for 10 minutes conclusively demonstrates stupidity is a nutrient rich habitat.

So, back to why.

Why?

Beats the fuck out of me. All the time.

In a short absurdist piece I once threw out a line about about every member of the Pond family being in the Britannica. I had no idea till 5 minutes ago that any member of the Pond family was in the Britannica. I also question the veracity of their information because it’s news to me that he’s the one that named the place—and they dropped his II, or Jr depending on whom you ask—but what the hell.

Ashley Pond (American explorer)

Related Articles, naming of Los Alamos
…the Pajarito Plateau (elevation 7,300 feet [2,225 metres]) of the Jemez Mountains, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Santa Fe. The site was named Los Alamos (Spanish: “the cottonwoods”) by Ashley Pond, founder of the Los Alamos Ranch School for Boys (1918–43).
Encyclopædia Britannica

Army desertion rate up 80 pct. since ’03

Gentle readers, I take this opportunity to introduce you to a definition from the best dictionary ever written–

AWOL

in the military, a sudden rush of sanity and wisdom; an awakening.

I’m man enough to admit that ain’t one’a mine neither.

I’m also pedantic enough to point out that the AP editor who wrote that headline could have saved 4 characters by changing 80 pct. to 80%, spent the windfall on making sure we knew it was 2003 and not 1903 we were talking about, and still come out ahead.

Miss India Earth 2007 Pooja Chitgopekar, 22, holds a placard

Well, if you can judge by appearances, I am certain that Pooja will get the latter two of her wishes. Plenty.

Santa Fe Voted Worst Food By Travel And Leisure

Santa Fe voted worst girlfriend by Ashley.

Just to clarify for all the gringos. When you buy or patronize something with the words “Santa Fe Style” involved, you are being suckered to pay a premium for a bastard version of Cali-Mex that has nothing to do with the heritage of Northern New Mexico.

Armitage says he was foolish in CIA leak

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Sunday he was foolish to have revealed Valerie Plame’s CIA identity. Pete Yost, Associated Press

Probably also a mistake to discuss his penis size with reporters in the room.

Report Puts Hidden War Costs at $1.6T

That “T” is short for “totally fucking ridiculous.” Here is what it glosses–

$1,600,000,000,000

U.S. sets record in sexual disease cases

More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday. AP

Hmmm… 2002-2007 being the period of ever increasing VD. I knew George Bush could be blamed for a lot of things. Not really surprised to see he causes the clap too.¹

Judge loses more than pants in lawsuit

You know the story. Judge sued for $54,000,000 for lost pants which were actually returned to him and plenty of other solid customer service happened too. When I saw he lost his job I was really jazzed for a minute.

Then I started thinking about it and realized that the bastard probably has mental problems. I think many, many people who appear to function, even in high level positions like judge, are actually pretty messed up in the head and barely get by or get by with a lot of help and excuses. Then you’ll notice that merely being a little crazy can get you dominating a soft news cycle. Then you’ll notice that without consumers of soft news cycles this wouldn’t really be much of a problem. Then you’ll notice your reflection starts to get a little harder to bear.