America The Bountiful

Only in America. Well, one would hope. Rednecks unite!

A Kentucky state lawmaker and 2018 winner of the television competition Survivor had to hastily scrap a proposed measure that — if approved — would have unintentionally legalized sex between first cousins.

And, if you believe it was "unintentional", then there's a bridge in Brooklyn you'll just love to buy.

Music Lesson

If you're into CD music, from way back, and eschew things like streaming and such, you're in for a surprise. I sure as shit have been. New Beethoven symphonies are generally dismissed as a waste of time. But, then, I read this piece which mentions the set from Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra. He/it sounded familiar, so off I went to let my fingers do the walking through the Yellow Googles.

Much praise from most everywhere. The 4/5 and 2/7 discs arrived today, and they're mind blowing. Not that they are Beethoven as has never been heard before; I'm not giving away my Kleiber 5/7 any time soon.

But these discs do represent something that has been possible since the dawn of the CD: dynamic range as would be heard in a concert hall. The Red Book dynamic range is in the realm of 100db, but most CDs are compressed to all get out. These, the ones I have in hand but it's safe to say the entire set, are anything but. If you normally set your volume control to, say 10 o'clock, expect to set to midnight. If you don't the piano moments will be nearly inaudible. OTOH, be prepared to hold on to your hat during the crescendos. You will test not only your ears, but the quality of your phones and/or speakers.

Vanska also follows the recent Del Mar edition, so you will hear a slightly different symphony.

By The Numbers - part the fortieth

As I type this, the future whereabouts of Bill Belichick aren't public. I am among, what I suppose is, a minority here in snowed-in New England in that I've little use for the man. The sports pundits have been cumming all over themselves for years proclaiming him the GOAT of not just foobaahh coaches, but all head honchos in all sports. Horse shit.

Here's the number:
without Brady - 84 and 103

Yeah, that's genius. Some claim that, at least, he's the guy who got Brady. Well, not so much. He wasn't actually the GM, after all.

Brady - 199th pick in sixth round
Belichick is widely regarded as a genius for turning lead into gold, but few ever ask the obvious question: why was it that Bill ignored Brady for 5 rounds, too? Could it be that 199 was a 'what have we got to lose' toss away pick? Or did he believe the meh Combine numbers same as everybody else? Enquiring minds need to know.

A GOAT foobaahh coach gets more wins out of a roster than their revealed talent warrants. Bill ain't ever come close to that. If he were such a coaching guru, he'd have turned Bledsoe into Brady. He wouldn't have stunk out the joint after Tom Terrific went South.

The Oracle of Atlanta - part the second

Well, CDC has moved JN.1 into the near-week column of the data set, and it's now shown as 38.8% and the upper PI limit just a tick higher than the first published value of 44.2%. Aren't stats wonderful?

RIP TGIF

One of life's guilty pleasures was watching Anthony Bourdain traipse around the world, reveling in local food, quite often street offerings. At various times, he drew not laudatory comparisons with what he ate there to American equivalents; the American versions he lumped into the category "TGI McFunster's". I admit that in times past I and the little woman spent time at one of those establishments, but not for the food and/or drink, but the satellite video trivia. Don't recall the name of it, alas.

But now we find the list of locations being axed, some here in The Land of Steady Habits. What's surprising is that the one in this shithole town is spared, but the one in the tonier town of Newington is not; off with its head. A puzzlement. The same seems true of the dead ones in Taxachusetts; they're among the nicer suburbs of Boston. One/only in Columbia, MD is also listed. For those not in the know, Columbia was/is a semi-ritzy 'planned community' attached to Washington. When I was a Fed, Columbia was a town for the upper-crust bureaucrat. Hard times have fallen?

It's Gander Time

Sleepy Joe is scheduled to give a speech later today and according to reports it's to tell the USofA that Orange Jesus and his cabal are a threat to democracy and so forth. Pussy Prose. May haps there is an alternative?

Perhaps the better approach is to tell us that if Orange Jesus gets his way with SCOTUS, whatever they say about Orange Jesus applies to Sleepy Joe, too.

Orange Jesus asserts:
1 - there was no insurrection
2 - but even if there were, POTUS is immune from prosecution
3 - what he said early on, "I have to the right to do whatever I want as president" really is true and for all POTUS

If SCOTUS rules that such is the case, then Sleepy Joe does have the authority, through Executive Order, to find Orange Jesus unfit to be on any ballot. Orange Jesus is toast, and there's not a thing he can do about it.

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Retribution's a bitch.

May haps Sleepy Joe will reveal a set of truck nuts banging against his thighs, not the pair of wrinkled raisins he's demonstrated to date.

By The Numbers - part the thirty ninth

Well, Happy New Year. And, since this is likely the most important year in the history of the USofA since 1861, let's look at some of the numbers which will affect the outcome.

Crooked Hilary vote total:  65,853,514 
Orange Jesus vote total:    62,984,828

Sleepy Joe vote total:   81,283,501 
Orange Jesus vote total: 74,223,975 
~7,000,000 more for Sleepy Joe, but ~5,000,000 came in CA.  Electoral College - Boo!!

%-age of GDP from Sleepy Joe counties:    71%
%-age of GDP from Orange Jesus counties:  29% 

Sleepy Joe support from the sub-GED crowd:    28%
Orange Jesus support from the sub-GED crowd:  35%

Blue state Federal dependency:  12.4% 
Red state Federal dependency:   22.6% 
[remember those Congresscritters from Red states crowing about Damn Gummint aid to them, 
which they voted against?]

Education: Red states are dumb as a sack of hair. (Select BA or higher.)

jobs - Covid-19 skews both numbers 
Sleepy Joe new jobs:   13.2 million 
Orange Jesus new jobs:  5.2 million  

Sleepy Joe baksheesh:           $0 
Orange Jesus baksheesh: $7,800,000 (at least)

Sleepy Joe's favorite teeVee show:    "How The Universe Works"
Orange Jesus's favorite teeVee show:  "Swamp People"