Quote Of The Day

From Sen. Lindsey Graham (v.2.0):

“Lastly, after the treatment of Justice Kavanaugh I now have a different view of the judicial-nomination process. Compare the treatment of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and it’s clear that there is already one set of rules for a Republican president and one set of rules for a Democrat president.”

…although asking the Socialists to obey the rules of logic and fair play is like teaching your cat the virtues of veganism:  pointless, and you’re just going to be ignored.

But yeah, Senator:  give it to ’em good and hard, anyway.

Headache

Just when I thought I’d figured it all out, comes shit like this:

‘They are the sort of equations that arise when you try to study something that evolves in time but also depends on space.
‘For example, like the wind in a wind tunnel you want to model the flow of air then that of course depends on time because it changes over time but it also depends on space – the velocity of the air is different at different points in the wind tunnel.
‘So if you have a system like this which furthermore evolves under the influence of randomness.
‘So if you have randomness that enters the game then that’s described by stochastic partial differential equation.’

I used to work with people like this when designing predictive algorithms, and I would place bets with myself as to how long (measured in seconds) it would take before I lost track of the conversation completely and the speech became unintelligible.  Usually, it was about twenty seconds.

It gets worse.  The reason I used “20 seconds” in the above sentence is because I actually kept count, over the year’s worth of discussions and meetings, of the times.  Then I created a distribution chart — bell-shaped, of course, with the most common incidence around 20.

Yeah, I was a fucking geek, too.  Just a much more limited one.

By the way, if you read the article — and you should — there’s a glaring (but non-mathematical) error.  Call it the Obama Fallacy, and see if you can spot it.

Bird Time

Because Mr. Free Market is a Foul Evil BastardTM, he decided to send me a few scenic pics from his current sooper-seekrit location in Scottishland.  Here’s the general milieu (note the complete absence of freezing rain, for the first time ever in this event I’m told):

(Note that Mr. FM is not wearing a face condom, despite Scottish law.)

Then it’s off to the “boxes”:

 

Note the careful arranging of reloads in pairs, ready for the old Load & Slaughter routine in his Beretta O/U (gawd help us, but the man has such terrible taste in shotguns).

The group shot down several hundred grouse and partridge, but here’s a pic of one brace, taken by Mr. FM with a single barrel.

When I say “taken”, I mean “shot”, of course, not clubbed out of the sky with his shotgun (which would be poor form, of course).

I am so jealous I could spit.

Recommendation

Longtime Reader And Total Gun Nut PatrickS was all butthurt that I didn’t include any of his works on my bookshelf backdrop — although, as I pointed out to him in my email replay, I didn’t even include one of my own books on the list.

That said, Patrick’s stuff has been a constant companion of mine over the past decade or so, and it requires a HUGE endorsement from this website, so get the hell over and buy a couple (ignore the first listing, that’s some other guy).

And Patrick:  if you have an old paperback copy of the 1911 book lying around somewhere… (the Son&Heir stole mine).

Not A Murderer

Seems as though the Jackals Of The Press (JOTP©) may have jumped the gun, so to speak, once the charges against Kyle Rittenhouse are examined in detail:

The story of Kyle Rittenhouse is more than a gripping piece of news, it is a telling philosophical Rorschach test.  A lone individual stood up to a mob of violent felons, abusers, and pedophiles, asserting his right to live over their lust for his blood, and won.  While the American public, generous in their deference for human life, and may have paused in horror at the shootings, the tide of public opinion is turning for Kyle as the deluge of exculpatory facts break through the dam of misinformation.  Americans should take note at which institutions were quick to back Kyle, which condemned him, and the cowards in between.
Considering the facts of the case and the state laws governing Wisconsin, it becomes clear that Kyle’s actions were not reckless — the prosecutor’s decisions were.

In fact, given the the circumstances and the nature of Rittenhouse’s attackers, we might even, and justifiably term this a Righteous Shooting.  Follow the link to the story and the links within, and you’ll see why.

Let’s hope this turns out well for the boy, although when it comes to asshole, thuggish prosecutors I have little faith in the legal system.

Words Of Wisdom

From Professor Glenn Reynolds, Blogfather of us all:

“Of course, there’s no action so vile that you can’t find an academic to defend it.”

I’m reminded of the old one:

“Whenever there’s a Communist boot stomping on a face, there’s always an affluent liberal to point out that the face has free medical care and education.”