Fish Pic Friday - Peacock

Brooke goes out on a limb to catch one

Peacock Bass, that is. 

Peacock bass is a group of closely related species of tropical, freshwater fish of the genus Cichla.

There are 15 known species of peacock bass, others will surely be described (but see the results based on DNA data). Their common names vary greatly depending on the country, region, stage of development and local anglers. Below is a complete list of the taxonomic, binomial names for these cichlids, along with available English common names.

Darcizzle and friend

Extensive molecular data has cast doubt on these designations, however. Aside from limited hybridization among many species, in both natural and human-altered environments, several species do not show sufficient differentiation to imply reproductive isolation and/or a history of independent evolution. Among the species implicated as probable "good" species were Cichla intermedia, C. orinocensis, C. temensis, C. melaniae, C. mirianae, and C. piquiti. The other species were suggested to be part of two widespread meta-species or species complexes, called Cichla pinima sensu lato (including C. jariina, C. thyrorus, and C. vazzoleri) and C. ocellaris sensu lato (including C. monoculus, C. nigromaculata, C. pleiozona, and C. kelberi).

Luiza Barros

Sport fishermen have made these cichlids prized game fish for their fighting qualities, so much so that many travel agencies now arrange fishing trips to Brazil and Florida specifically to catch peacock bass.

Renowned American peacock bass fisherman and fishing author, Larry Larsen, refers to them as "freshwater bullies" due to their ferocious nature when hunting and their tendency to damage and sometimes destroy fishing gear when striking.

Cindy Nguyen

The most common techniques for catching these cichlids are similar to those for catching largemouth bass, with the notable exception that peacock bass usually will not strike artificial worms, a widely used lure among largemouth bass fisherman. In addition, fly fishing techniques, including lures such as poppers and large streamers, are becoming increasingly popular for catching them.

Peacock bass have been identified as invasive species and cause of ecological imbalances in some of their introduced areas.

Peacock bass introduction in the Rosana Reservoir and upper Paraná River, both in Brazil, resulted in a 95 percent decline in native fish density and 80 percent decline in richness in only two years.

Few measures can protect native fish once peacock bass have been introduced. Reduction in native species richness in lakes with introduced peacock bass was observed in all of the Gatun-area lakes, regardless of the presence of macrophyte refugia. After initial increase in abundance, introduced peacock bass often deplete local prey and resort to cannibalism.

In 1984, after 10 years of study, Florida officials deliberately introduced butterfly peacock bass and speckled peacock bass to the southern region of that state to prey on other non-native species, including the oscar (Astronotus ocellatus), Midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus), and the spotted tilapia (Tilapia mariae). Their introduction also provided additional sport fishing opportunities for anglers. While the butterfly peacock bass has flourished in Florida, the speckled peacock bass has not. Therefore, it is now illegal to kill or possess speckled peacock bass in Florida. The butterfly peacock bass tend to flourish in the canals and fresh waterways throughout south Florida.

Because of their tropical origins, peacock bass cannot tolerate low water temperatures. This has prevented them from becoming abundant in Florida outside of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties.

As a high school student, I sold them in the aquarium store I worked at in Los Angeles in the mid-late 60s, so technically speaking I have caught them. My time in Florida barely overlapped the period of their introduction, and I didn't have the pleasure.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and linkfest. Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

One of These Days These Boots Will Stamp on the Human Face Forever

She was cute once, but still kind of a Nazi:

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever. George Orwell

Nice boots, though.

Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

Reason #5731 That Trump Was Elected

“In Private, The President And His Top Aides Freely Admit That He Is Engaged In A Culture War”

In private, the president and his top aides freely admit that he is engaged in a culture war on behalf of his white, working-class base, a New York billionaire waging war against “politically correct” coastal elites on behalf of his supporters in the South and in the Midwest. He believes the war was foisted upon him by former President Barack Obama and other Democrats — and he is determined to win, current and former aides said.

Donald Trump Isn’t Fighting A Culture War But A Cultural Revolution

On the contrary, the fight Trump has joined is not a culture war but a cultural revolution. And it could not be more replete with significance. Instead of debating the controversy over NFL players taking a knee for the national anthem, Douthat would rather we were arguing about how we can rein in police abuses and reduce prison sentences without endangering public safety.

But why are we not having that conversation, or any rational conversation on many other issues of pressing importance to our divided nation? It’s not because of Donald Trump. It’s because one side of our national divide doesn’t want to have a conversation, or an intellectual argument, or even a culture war.

What they want instead—and are doing their best to enforce with every possible tactic, from tweets accusing white players who don’t take a knee for the national anthem of white supremacism, to brutal physical attacks by Antifa brownshirts, to college students hounding their professors out of their jobs Red Guard–style, or chanting “speech is violence”—is for everyone who opposes their positions on these issues to be entirely shut up.

Actually, it’s worse than that. They want their opponents to be shamed or bullied into recanting and forced to parrot the party line, as in a Mao-era self-criticism session where the humiliated and broken accused admitted to inadvertently betraying the revolution and his comrades. Or, as in the press conference at which Army Ranger veteran Alejandro Villanueva—widely remarked to have been the only football player trotted out to apologize for his actions during the anthem—confessed to “unintentionally” throwing his teammates “under the bus.”

Except for the absence of the two-foot-high dunce cap with the Chinese characters on it, we might have been in the People’s Republic of China circa 1971. Thank heavens, defying our own cultural revolution costs Americans nothing more than self-respect, or at worst their job or business.

Tanlines Thursday

And some more gratuitous Kate Upton!

Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

News Knucklehead du Jour

Breaking Gun News from CBS: The "Automatic Rounds" that the Vegas Killer Used Are Currently"Perfectly Legal"

While the guns Stephen Paddock used in Las Vegas fired automatic rounds, they were perfectly legal under ATF rules https://t.co/K8RlG5v282 pic.twitter.com/pdewa9BOwU

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 4, 2017

Even Ace goes off on a tangent here, talking about how pistol rounds differ slightly in design between revolver and semi-auto. The guns Stephen Paddock used in Las Vegas were rifles (except for the pistol he used to kill himself). Rounds like the .308, 30-06, 5.56 NATO etc, can all be fired from single shot, bolt action, semi-automatic, or even in some cases fully automatic weapons. The round does nothing to determine whether the rifle is automatic or not. The feeding mechanism of the rifle determines that.

Apparently, MSM reporters are proud of their ignorance regarding weapons, because they keep making the same errors

In Defense of the Bald Eagle

Ted sent me this link to a screed by some downunderman who disses the American Bald Eagle in favor of the Aussie favorite, the Wedge-tailed Eagle: 7 Reasons the Wedgie is Superior to the American Bald Eagle.

When preparing the Australian edition of PopSci, we like to change the more US-centric references and metaphors to something more... antipodean. In our December "Best of What's New" edition, a drone was described as having a wingspan similar to a Bald Eagle (the US national animal). Naturally, we changed that to "Wedgie" because it offers opportunity for hilarious misunderstanding (cf. "rooting") and also because the Wedge-Tailed Eagle is better than the Bald Eagle in the following indisputable ways:

1. It's a proper eagle

Our Wedgie is a member of the genus Aquila, which is Latin for, well, eagle. It's one of just 12 species of totally awesome, pure, no-nonsense eagles. The Bald Eagle? It's a Haliaeetus sp. which is one of those prissy sea eagles.

I guess Australians are all afraid of the sea, because they were brought over as convicts.

2. It has a more awesome scientific name

Ornithologists know the Wedgie as Aquila audax which is absolutely the kind of thing I would carry into battle on top of a standard and fight to the death beneath etc. Also it means "Audacious Eagle". The Bald Eagle is Haliaeetus leucocephalis. Did I spell it right? Hell, I don't even know how to SAY it right.

 But not audacious enough to take on a fish.

3. They put on awesome combat air shows

Wedgies pair-bond and while sometimes they'll sit in a tree and preen each other like a couple of lovesick teenagers, other times they'll dominate the airspace over their territory by staging a series of mock-battles. This can include epic loop-the-loops and talon-on-talon duels. Bald Eagles, meanwhile, merely build the largest nests of any tree-dwelling animal (except hipsters). Like some kind of Bogan with a McMansion.

Got any Grizzly Bears down under?

 Seen Bald Eagles do all of the above, at my own beach.

4. They attack hang gliders and paragliders

Be it known: the sky belongs to the Wedgie. If you go up in it and unwisely fail to wrap yourself in steel, aluminium or carbon-composite, and fly at heights or speeds similar to the Wedgie, you WILL get attacked. What will a Bald Eagle take on? A dog. If it's little.

A little old Magpie giving a Wedgie a wedgie

Proud of having a stupid bird of prey? How Aussie of you!

5. A Wedgie was the biggest confirmed eagle of all time

Back in 1931 when people used to just shoot everything they saw, a female Wedgie was confirmed as having a wingspan of 284 cm (that's 9 ft 4 in, yanks). We like to think she was only brought down with a WWI-style howitzer. Other reports of Wedgies with wingspans of 310 cm plus are deemed "unreliable" but we're prepared to offer benefit of the doubt. Biggest Bald Eagle? Maybe 244 cm. In Alaskan centimetres.

Today's in flight meal, Speckled Trout!

Size isn't everything, as all Aussies should know.

6. They will attempt to eat emus

For Americans and other aliens, an emu is Australia's even-more-insane version of an ostrich. It is a flightless bird that weighs 60 kg and stands two metres tall. A Bald Eagle will eat fish out of a stream, but only if they are organic and mercury-free. Bonus info: a Wedgie will also eat dead kangaroo from the middle of the road and attempt to stare down an approaching semi-trailer. We admit the Wedgie cannot destroy the semi-trailer with heat-vision or telekinesis, but given the direction evolution has taken with this bird so far, it's only a matter of time...

1/7th of a Red Neck 7 course dinner,
a six pack and a 'possum

When the Ospreys leave for the year, and the Bald Eagles can no longer steal from them (there's a reason the Federal Government adopted the Bald Eagle as it's symbol, over Ben Franklin's advice), Bald Eagle, they happily switch to a diet of sea ducks, and road kill.

7. The Wedge-tailed eagle has a wedge-shaped tail...

While the bald eagle is... uh... oh apparently it's from "piebald" because it has a two-tone paint job and then the word evolved over time to blah blah blah. Sorry, I was here to admire a kick-ass raptor, not get an etymology lesson. AQUILA AUDAX VICTOR!

8. It doesn't have a yellow beak.

Seriously America, your eagle just looks ridiculous.

The Wedgie just looks kind of like a teenage Bald Eagle. He wants to grow up looking as cool as Mom and Dad.

Reason #5730 That Trump Was Elected

North Korea is apparently so confused by Trump that it's asking US experts for help

North Korea apparently is so confused by President Donald Trump that it's asking US experts for help understanding him.

According to a Washington Post report on Tuesday, government officials have been soliciting, via various back channels, US experts with ties to the Republican Party for informal talks.

"Their number-one concern is Trump," an unnamed analyst told Anna Fifield, the newspaper's Tokyo bureau chief.

"They can't figure him out."

North Korea's questions include why Trump's closest advisers, such as Defence Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, directly contradicting the president so often.
. . .
Pyongyang's designated official in charge of interpreting US politics, statements, and defence policy also can't seem to figure Trump out, according to Evan Osnos, a New Yorker journalist who visited North Korea this summer.

Trump "might be irrational — or too smart," the North Korean Pak Song Il told Osnos. "We don't know."

Trump urges staff to portray him as "crazy guy"

In an Oval Office meeting earlier this month, President Trump gave his top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, an Art of the Deal-style coaching session on how to negotiate with the South Koreans.

Trump's impromptu coaching came in the middle of a pivotal conversation with top officials about whether or not to withdraw from the U.S.-Korean trade deal. Sources familiar with the conversation recounted the exchange for Axios, and the White House did not dispute this account.

A number of senior officials and cabinet secretaries were present for the conversation, including Defense Secretary Mattis, Agriculture Secretary Perdue, and Secretary of State Tillerson. At issue was whether the U.S. would withdraw from the Korean trade deal — an action Trump threatened but still hasn't done.

"You've got 30 days, and if you don't get concessions then I'm pulling out," Trump told Lighthizer.
"Ok, well I'll tell the Koreans they've got 30 days," Lighthizer replied.
"No, no, no," Trump interjected. "That's not how you negotiate. You don't tell them they've got 30 days. You tell them, 'This guy's so crazy he could pull out any minute.'"
"That's what you tell them: Any minute," Trump continued. "And by the way, I might. You guys all need to know I might. You don't tell them 30 days. If they take 30 days they'll stretch this out."

Keep 'em guessing.

Midnite Music - "Asturias"

Ana Vidovic

Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

Beach Report 10/3/17

 Not your usual boat yard jalopy.

It appears to be an MG T type. It has antique plates, so it's an old one.

The MG T series is a range of body-on-frame open 2-seater sports cars with very little weather protection that were produced by MG from 1936 to 1955. The series included the MG TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, and MG TF Midget models. The last of these models, the TF, was replaced by the MGA.

A gorgeous day at the beach, warm enough for shorts, but not hot, clear and quiet. And now, with school back in, we have the beach nearly to ourselves.

Georgia found this mammoth Snaggletooth.

An interesting example of a fossil bearing rock on the beach.

One of the two Black Drum's teeth we found today (the smaller of the two). Overall, a pretty good day for fossils; 22 shark's teeth, 2 drum's teeth, a complete Eagle Ray chevron (very tiny), and a Tilley bone,

The girls resting as I catch up . . .

while a few yards away a GBH works the shallows

News Knucklehead du Jour

MSNBC Gun Expert: Gun Rights People Argue Against Banning Silencers Because Hunters Use Them So the Deer Can't Hear Them

Perfect.

He goes on to rebut this famous argument offered in support of suppressors by saying that hunters were able to hunt deer for centuries before the invention of suppressors.

"Sportsmen, hunters would make an argument that they need that so that their target, whether it's a deer, etc. don’t hear the shot," Gomez claimed, "but numerous other sportsmen have shot from muskets–when the founding fathers started the Second Amendment--up until now successfully killed game animals without the use of a silencer."

I like how he made up a completely stupid argument no one has ever made in the history of forever and then rebutted that stupid argument with a stupid snarky rejoinder to the stupid thing he said.

Sometimes when I'm hunting deer, I use ninja stars to silently take down their sentries.

My bold. Rifle bullets travel faster than the speed of sound, and arrive at their target (hopefully) before the muzzle blast. If you don't know that, you should refrain from commenting. The point of suppressors is to protect the shooters ears. I still have tinnitus, which I blame on a combination of using chain saws and target practice with my trusty deer slayer +2 .230 Remington 788.

Reason #5729 That Trump Was Elected

Final reading on Q2 GDP up 3.1%, vs 3% rise expected

The U.S. economy grew a bit faster than previously estimated in the second quarter, recording its quickest pace in more than two years, but the momentum probably slowed in the third quarter as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma temporarily curbed activity.

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.1 percent annual rate in the April-June period, the Commerce Department said in its third estimate on Thursday. The upward revision from the 3.0 percent rate of growth reported last month reflected a slightly faster pace of inventory investment.

Growth last quarter was the quickest since the first quarter of 2015 and followed a 1.2 percent pace in the January-March period. Economists had expected that the second-quarter GDP growth rate would be unrevised at 3.0 percent.

Harvey, which struck Texas, has been blamed for much of the decline in retail sales, industrial production, homebuilding and home sales in August. Further weakness is anticipated in September after Irma slammed into Florida early this month.

Rebuilding is, however, expected to boost GDP growth in the fourth quarter and in early 2018. Estimates for the growth rate in the July-September period are just above 2.2 percent.

However, they could be raised after another report from the Commerce Department on Thursday showed a decline in the goods trade deficit in August as well as large increases in both retail and wholesale inventories.

U.S. factory activity index to 13-year high

A measure of U.S. manufacturing activity surged to a near 13-1/2-year high in September as disruptions to the supply chains caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma resulted in factories taking longer to deliver goods and boosted raw material prices.

Still, details of the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) survey on Monday underscored the economy’s underlying momentum, with factories reporting stronger order growth last month. A measure of factory employment hit its highest level since 2011.

“Much of the gain is presumably linked to the aftereffects of the hurricanes. Nonetheless, manufacturing growth is strong,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.

ISM said its index of national factory activity surged to a reading of 60.8 last month, the highest reading since May 2004, from 58.8 in August. A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates an expansion in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy.

If it's all hurricanes, why didn't Sandy et al, do it?

Rebuilding going to be a big business. If I were a young man with building experience, I think I'd head to Texas.

RIP: Tom Petty

See, If you wait a while, they get news, well, if not exactly right, at least closer: Tom Petty, Heartbreakers frontman who sang 'Breakdown,' 'Free Fallin'' and other hits, dies at 66

Tom Petty rode to the pinnacle of pop music stardom with his beloved and long-running rock band the Heartbreakers, born out of the ashes of a group that flopped when he brought them from Gainesville, Fla., to California in the mid-1970s. He emerged as one of the most vocal and tireless champions of artistic integrity and musical purity in the record business.

Reportedly found unconscious at his Malibu home on Sunday night, Petty was rushed to UCLA’s Santa Monica hospital in full cardiac arrest and died Monday at 66. For hours, multiple media outlets reported his death only to retract those reports; his death was confirmed Monday night by his family’s spokeswoman. A cause has not been announced.

“On behalf of the Tom Petty family,” said Tony Dimitriades, longtime manager of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “we are devastated to announce the untimely death of of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty. He suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours of this morning and was taken to UCLA Medical Center but could not be revived. He died peacefully at 8:40 p.m. PT surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.”

Best Kim Basinger acting ever.

Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

Still Better Than a Sharp Stick in the Eye

Playboy model ‘sucker-punched’ by her own boob will let fans decide her busty fate

Playboy supermodel Jenna Bentley is so confused over whether to have a breast reduction operation that she’s letting her fans decide — by releasing topless snaps.
Earlier this month the 27-year-old beauty announced she was considering getting smaller boobs after she nearly knocked herself out during a morning run.

She told how she was “sucker-punched” by her whopping 36E breasts in a freak accident.

I think this is BS; even at her size, she'd have to lean her head over pretty far to get hit by them while running. Although it would be fun to watch.

After admitting that she was considering having surgery, thousands of fans have contacted her begging her not to go under the knife.

In a bid to finally make up her mind, the blonde stunner has posted mouth-watering topless snaps of herself on social media.

Bentley, from LA, said: “Since I first said I was thinking of having a boob reduction I have literally been deluged by fans.”

 And that was the point, wasn't it?

“Most are begging me not to do it. One guy even offered to pay to have an enlargement operation.”

“My breasts are 100 percent natural and I’m proud of them but they have become a problem since I’ve started exercising harder.”

“I haven’t made up my mind yet so thought I’d pose topless so my fans can help me decide.”

“I do love posing naked. It’s really hot to think of so many people seeing my boobs.”

OK, then (NSFW links).

Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

The Vegas Massacre

If by some weird aversion to news you have not heard a gunman armed with an automatic rifle (or more than 1) attacked a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada this morning, killing at least 58 people and wounding some 200 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. The gunman has been identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, and it is reported that he killed himself as police closed in. His Asian companion, Marilou Danley, was questioned, but is not thought to be involved. ISIS has claimed responsibility (why not?), but the FBI denies any link. It is important to stress that this early in the investigation, not much is known, and the likelihood of bad information being disseminated is high.

Police in Las Vegas have identified 64-year-old Stephen Paddock as the perpetrator of what the Associated Press is calling the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Police say Paddock, from Mesquite, Nev., opened fire on the crowd at a country music festival:

A gunman perched high on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas Strip casino unleashed a shower of bullets down on an outdoor country music festival below, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 200 as tens of thousands of frantic concert-goers screamed and ran for their lives, officials said Monday. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Country music star Jason Aldean was performing Sunday night at the end of the three-day Route 91 Harvest Festival when the gunman opened fire across the street from inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. SWAT teams quickly descended on the concert and the casino, and officers used explosives to get into the hotel room where the suspect was inside, authorities said. The gunman died at the scene and was identified by Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo as Stephen Paddock, 64. A motive was not immediately known. . . .
In addition to Paddock, police said they located a woman who may have been his roommate — Marilou Danley, 62. Lombardo said they believe this was a “lone wolf” attack.

Until we have definite information about Paddock’s motive, it is futile to speculate, but why target a country music festival? Recall that when the Pulse nightclub shooting happened in Orlando, many people rushed to claim that “homophobia” was the motive, before it was discovered that the gunman was a Muslim inspired by ISIS. If a shooting at a gay nightclub is immediately presumed to be inspired by homophobia, what should we presume about a shooting at a Jason Aldean concert?

Not that I’m presuming anything, you understand, but I’m just reminding you of how liberals jump to conclusions about such things.

EBL has a round up.

Dem rep says he won't participate in moment of silence for Las Vegas victims

VILE: Teacher prays ‘only Trumptards died’ in Las Vegas shooting and OTHER horrible tweets.

CBS Legal Exec: No Sympathy For Vegas ‘Because Country Music Fans Often Are Republican’

A top legal executive at CBS, Hayley Geftman-Gold, said she “is not even sympathetic” for the victims of the shooting at a country music festival at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas Sunday night.

“If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing,” wrote Geftman-Gold on Facebook, perhaps referring to Sandy Hook. “I’m actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun toters.”

Remember, they hate you and want you to die. Act accordingly.

UPDATE: Fired, for giving us that glimpse of what many of them are thinking.

Linked by Evi L. Bloggerlady in "How many reasons are there for why Hillary Clinton lost?"

Reason #5726 - #5728 That Trump Was Elected

Jeff Sessions: The DOJ Will Help Students Fight For Free Speech On Campus

Good news from today’s address at Georgetown, which included a shout-out to Ben Shapiro for braving the wrath of Antifa (“the Orwellian-named ‘anti-fascist’ protesters,” as Sessions correctly describes them) to speak at Berkeley two weeks ago.

Starting today, the Department of Justice will do its part in this struggle. We will enforce federal law, defend free speech, and protect students’ free expression from whatever end of the political spectrum it may come. To that end, we are filing a Statement of Interest in a campus free speech case this week and we will be filing more in the weeks and months to come.

The case he mentions is Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, a lawsuit brought by a student at Georgia Gwinnett College against the school’s administration. It’s a shrewd choice politically, not only because the plaintiff was evangelizing on behalf of his Christian faith but because the facts of the case are, well, bananas:

In July, college officials stopped Uzuegbunam from talking with fellow students about Christianity and handing out religious literature in a plaza outside the college library. After Uzuegbunam complied, campus officials informed him that GGC policies also prohibited him from speaking privately with students about his faith unless he provides three days advance notice and speaks only in one of the two small speech zones during the two to four hours a day they are open during the week.
In August, Uzuegbunam followed these restrictions and spoke and distributed literature peacefully at a small patio area that is one of the speech zones. After 20 minutes, campus police arrived and told him to stop sharing his faith because of “some calls from people complaining.”

Georgia Gwinnett is a public school. Under the First Amendment, the government does have some leeway in restricting the time, place, and manner of speech on public property, You don’t get to bring your megaphone to the public park at 3 a.m. when people are trying to sleep, for instance. Calling the cops on a kid for handing out leaflets in some free-speech holding pen, though? Time, place, and manner restrictions are supposed to serve an “important” government interest and be narrowly tailored to that end. Good luck to Georgia Gwinnett in making the case that an important goal was served in preventing a religious believer from politely offering people free literature.

Is Free Speech a problem on campuses?  Berkeley Antifa stalks Republican students at dinner

Conservative students at the University of California, Berkeley have been actively stalked and targeted by a regional Antifa organization known for inciting violence.

While the Berkeley College Republicans met at a local restaurant Wednesday evening, Berkeley Antifa took to Twitter to post the exact location of the student group online.

“BCR meeting right now inside Eureka at 2068 Center St after drinking with Kyle Chapman and Joey Gibson at Fashy's, I mean, Pappy's,” the Antifa organization tweeted. “Inside right now is Troy Worden, Ashton Whitty, Naweed Tahmas, Matt Ronnau, Angelie Castenada, and two others.”

While Antifa did not openly advocate for violence against the students, members of the Berkeley CRs have previously reported being stalked, followed, and targeted by the radical activists.

In late August, Ashton Whitty, one of the conservative students at the university, was stalked by several Antifa demonstrators who approached her at a gas station and pummeled her vehicle as she fled the scene.

“Antifa has taken pictures of me, they've followed me on the street, and have tracked my location using social media,” Whitty told Campus Reform. “It's rather odd why these people would see us as such a priority when we're just everyday people.”

On Tuesday, prominent Antifa leader Yvonne Felarca was arrested following the group's “Victory March” in the city. Berkeley Police later released a mugshot of the activist, noting that she was arrested for "battery and resisting arrest."

Students are in school to learn, because, let's face it, they're ignorant.



Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

She May Not Be Able to Define It, But She Knows It When She Plays It

Maggie Gyllenhaal: ‘Pornography is an art form’

Set in the grimy, trash-strewn New York of 1971, The Deuce is named after a notoriously seedy stretch of West 42nd Street that was populated by pimps and prostitutes, and home to live peep shows and porn shops. Written by David Simon, who created The Wire, and his frequent collaborator George Pelecanos, the series charts the rise of the pornography industry in New York City. Simon has said that the show is about “the commodification of women” and from the female bar staff poured into skimpy leotards by James Franco’s bar manager, Vinnie, to the violent control the pimps exert over the prostitutes they run, every woman in the show, and her sexuality, is being packaged and profited from. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Eileen “Candy” Merrell, a prostitute and single mother who rejects street-walking protocol and refuses to be controlled by a pimp, stating that “nobody makes money off my pussy but me”.

I hope she at least pays income tax; the government needs its share.

“Somebody asked me the other day whether I thought porn was exploitative or empowering for women,” says Gyllenhaal. “At the time, I didn’t actually know how to answer. Then a couple of days later, I thought, can the answer just be: ‘Yes?’”

It is a typically nebulous answer from an actor, who, in spite of roles in mainstream films such as The Dark Knight and Nanny McPhee Returns, has spent much of her career in the independent film sector. She is famed for playing the kind of complex, unconventional women who are now increasingly emerging from the small screen; her most famous role to date, of course, was the troubled, submissive assistant to the masochistic James Spader in 2002’s Secretary. While initially wary of the extensive shooting schedules of most series, the enormous success of The Honourable Woman – the BBC miniseries that won her a Golden Globe for her role as Baroness Nessa Stein – opened up Gyllenhaal to television. With The Deuce – set to be one of HBO’s biggest shows of the year – how did she feel about the high levels of nudity the part required?

Well, do they keep the set warm?

“You know, I spent no time moralising it. I am pretty comfortable with it,” Gyllenhaal says when we meet in a slick boutique hotel on the Brooklyn waterfront. “I have never been very shy about my body, and this is something I really believe in.” She lets out a small laugh. “This is so silly, but the only place I have felt shy is imagining those people who I see when I pick up my kids from school watching it. And I have to be honest and say that I don’t think I ate any bread at all while I was making this show. When you know you are going to have to wear very short shorts all summer long, you don’t.”

She's no neophyte to bare work, she has plenty of previous experience. (NSFW links)

Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".

The Truth about Puerto Rico

The effort to Katrina Trump with Marie continues apace.

I know Trump fed his haters, yesterday morning on Twitter:

The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.
...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....
...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.

That's aggravating, when people are suffering, but should it be called "demented" and "racist"? I can see why a Trump hater would jump at an opportunity to frame "They" as Puerto Ricans in general and, in addition, to see Puerto Ricans as a racial group being subjected to disrespect because of race. But that's a leap beyond Trump's text. And yet, if the text supports that leap, one might say Trump intended to cause his followers to make racist inferences.

This morning I watched George Stuffenenvelopes and his henchpeople on ABC "This Week" all but claim that Donald Trump personally whipped up Hurricane Maria and send it rampaging over Puerto Rico, and was certainly negligent in his handling of the rescue of the island (there was a token conservative hold out, but they cut him off repeatedly).

Here is the truth of the situation. The entire network of civilization that we rely on in this day and age has been blown away on an island with 3.4 million people, and the restoration is going to be difficult and time consuming because all the means we count on to restore services have been damaged and destroyed as well. For all practical purposes, Puerto Rico needs to be re-raised to the 20th, let alone the 21st, century: U.S. Military on Puerto Rico: “The Problem is Distribution” and Here's Why:

Col. Valle is a firsthand witness of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) response supporting FEMA in Puerto Rico, and as a Puerto Rican himself with family members living in the devastation, his passion for the people is second to none. “It’s just not true,” Col. Valle says of the major disconnect today between the perception of a lack of response from Washington verses what is really going on on the ground. “I have family here. My parents’ home is here. My uncles, aunts, cousins, are all here. As a Puerto Rican, I can tell you that the problem has nothing to do with the U.S. military, FEMA, or the DoD.”

“The aid is getting to Puerto Rico. The problem is distribution. The federal government has sent us a lot of help; moving those supplies, in particular, fuel, is the issue right now,” says Col. Valle. Until power can be restored, generators are critical for hospitals and shelter facilities and more. But, and it’s a big but, they can’t get the fuel to run the generators.

They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they’re needed.

“It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government,” says Col. Valle.

Put another way, 80% of truck drivers do not show up to work, and yet again, it’s important to understand why.

There have been rumors that the truckers are on strike, but . . .

“There should be zero blame on the drivers. They can’t get to work, the infrastructure is destroyed, they can’t get fuel themselves, and they can’t call us for help because there’s no communication. The will of the people of Puerto Rico is off the charts. The truck drivers have families to take care of, many of them have no food or water. They have to take care of their family’s needs before they go off to work, and once they do go, they can’t call home,” explains Col. Valle.

It’s a dilemma with dependent conditions. The citizens need fuel and supplies brought in by relief efforts. The truck drivers who move the fuel and supplies from ports and airstrips need fuel and traversable roads—and before anything else they need supplies for their own families.

One of the guys I was fishing with the other day works in the Pentagon, and is currently involved in the Puerto Rican relief. He said much the same, the problem is that none of the infrastructure is working. The relief is there, but with everything depending of everything else, it's a matter of prioritizing the most important steps that will make the others possible.

Linked by Evi L. Bloggerlady  in "San Juan's Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz: What we've got here is failure to communicate..."

Reason #5725 That Trump Was Elected

Have I mentioned SJWs yet? I have? Well here's another example of one making a fool out oh herself trying to find something bad about Melania Trump (and by extension, the Donald).  First from Vanity Fair: An Elementary School Librarian Doesn’t Want Dr. Seuss Books from Melania Trump

Melania Trump has a new battle to fight as First Lady, one with an elementary school librarian from Massachusetts. Trump has been sending a donation of books to one school from each state as part of National Read a Book Day along with a signed letter in which she writes, “Getting an education is perhaps the most important and wondrous opportunity of your young lives.” The library at Cambridgeport School outside of Boston, though, won’t be accepting her gift.

The school’s librarian, Liz Phipps Soeiro, published a letter on the Horn Book Family Reading blog explaining her decision to refuse the First Lady’s donation of Dr. Seuss titles. She noted that her school was chosen due to its “high standards of excellence,” and because of that, had no need for the books. She then asked why the First Lady wouldn’t put her resources toward schools that are struggling.

“Cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit are suffering through expansion, privatization, and school ‘choice’ with no interest in outcomes of children, their families, their teachers, and their schools,” she wrote. “Are those kids any less deserving of books simply because of circumstances beyond their control? Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?”

Soeiro then explained her issues with Trump’s specific choice in books, calling Dr. Seuss “a bit of a cliché, a tired and worn ambassador for children’s literature,” and suggested that Trump could have reached out to Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden to discover other options. Additionally, she wrote that “another fact many people are unaware of is that Dr. Seuss’s illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes,” linking out to the article “Is the Cat in the Hat Racist? Read Across America Shifts Away From Dr. Seuss and Toward Diverse Books.”

I hope you won't be shocked to find her list is mostly leftist nonsense.

CBS News spoke to parents outside of the school on Wednesday who were supportive of Soeiro’s decision to publish the letter. Parent Eric Munson told CBS, “That’s the librarian’s prerogative and I support her decision,” while another parent, Alex Vanpraagh, said, “I think the letter is really articulate, constructive in its suggestions.”

Ann Althouse,  appears to defend her from attacks on her looks: Let's take a closer look at that Cambridge, Massachusetts elementary school librarian who rejected the gift of Dr. Seuss books from Melania Trump.

Hello, Central Casting? I need a Rosa Kleb-style totalitarian children's reeducation camp schoolmarm pic.twitter.com/d8K5kGmwOc

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 29, 2017

I think she looks more like Dolores Umbrage:

As usual, the comments at Althouse are a joy to behold. I think the best was one who suggested that people go to the library and repeatedly ask her for Dr. Suess books.

But, of course, the power of the internet is that it never forgets (although I hear Google is working on that) and it turns out that Ms. Soeiro was caught in an earlier library promo wearing a Cat In The Hat Outfit pushing Dr. Suess books.

Ooh! That's racist! At least according to Ms. Soeiro. Never mind many previous examples of Presidents and First Ladies reading Dr. Suess.

The school district was not impressed:

Though the parents may be fine with the letter, the Cambridge School District was quick to distance itself from it. “The employee was not authorized to accept or reject donated books on behalf of the school or school district,” it wrote in a statement. “We have counseled the employee on all relevant policies, including the policy against public resources being used for political purposes.”

I hope Ms. Soeiro is enjoying her 15 minutes of fame. It's probably good for a few free drinks in Cambridge, but damaging for her career. I do agree with her on one point. The Cambridge School District and library needs no help. Cut them off from all federal aid.

Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls" and "FMJRA 2.0: Birthday Weekend".

Just Grab Her by the . . .

Oh, never mind: A 45-foot tall nude sculpture may be coming to the National Mall

If you walk along the National Mall this November, you'll see the Smithsonian Museums, the Washington Monument, Capitol Hill, and, possibly, something else: a 45-foot tall nude sculpture of a woman.

The Amazonian figure would tower over the National Mall next to the Washington Monument, directly facing the White House until March 7 to promote women's equality.

You would need a crane!

Organizers are trying to raise funds to transport the R-Evolution sculpture from San Francisco to Washington. They've gotten conditional approval from the National Park Service to have the structure on the grounds of the National Mall.

Event organizers have raised more than $21,000 in four days to transport the sculpture across the country and assemble it, although they still have a long way to go to meet their 30-day fundraising goal of $90,000.

Cheap at twice the price! Maybe Trump will fund it!

 The sculpture was created by artist Marco Cochrane as part of The Bliss Project. He said the sculpture was meant to combat a culture that increasingly dehumanizes women and sexualizes the female form.

And what better way to do that than a 45 foot moving statue of a more or less anatomically correct naked woman!

Oh look! A 3-D photo!



Wombat-socho was on time and with budget with "Rule 5 Sunday: Autumn Girls".