Because you asked nicely.

You know, now that we're in week 17, the woman in me really feels the urge to break up with football before it breaks up with me.

Oh, and...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:25 PM | Comments (429)
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We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Thread Directly Below This One, Which Will Serve Officially as the Current "Active Conversation" Thread for All Discussions Not Related To This Topic.

-- Sincerely, the Fascist MGMT

Maybe not for Spaniards, because they get to eat it a lot and probably get sick of it, but certainly here in America it is an uncommon dish, and one that works nicely for a large group. Just don't be fooled by the whole "one pot meal" thing. It's a fair amount of work, and it will trash your kitchen.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:15 PM | Comments (184)
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I have counted the votes, and you morons decided that you wanted me to publish the epic poem that won Fox News' Miss Suzanne Sena's heart.

It's perhaps the finest work ever published in the history of the blogosphere. I say that humbly. The credit, of course, does not go to me. I am simply the vessel thru which Suzanne Sena's inspirational essence flows. (See how great that line is? It merely hints at what is to come.)

I'll put this epic masterpiece in the extended entry, so that you won't have to read it if this is of no interest to you. Don't let the fact that this will most likely be thought of by future generations as a work that is as important as "Beowulf" prejudice your decision.

And now, for your voyeuristic pleasure, I present to you my masterpiece. How long did it take me to write it? A lifetime, my friends. A lifetime.

UPDATE: They are trying to bury my masterpiece with lots of new posts, so I am bumping this one closer to the top. Humor me, or I'll publish Volume II.

UPDATE 2: (Jack M.- 2014)Thank you, Ace, for including me in your "Ten Years of Nonsense" series. Some are asking some questions below, so I just wanted to provide a couple of quick answers: Ace and I are different people (he's the one with the hobo and e-cig fetish, although not necessarily in that order. Ok, yes, exactly in that order.), this is exactly as the post appeared originally (would y'all repaint the Mona Lisa? No, no you wouldn't. But you're morons, so if you did it would come out like this, and the intro line about the "votes" is just strangely serendipitous. Also commenter AD is perhaps the greatest literary reviewer in the history of AOSHQ commenters.

Jokes aside, I appreciate greatly being included in Ace's "Ten Years" series. It's always been fun to blog here, and I'm grateful that Ace has given me opportunities over the last ten years to engage in silliness like this. Y'all are a great bunch of morons, and I wish y'all a very Happy 2014.

Jack M. (@jackmcoldcuts on twitter) more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:29 AM | Comments (157)
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Last (well almost last) games of 2013. Today I get to watch my backup QB try to beat the Eagles. I don't like our chances (but I like em better than I would have if Romo was startin).

A repeat but repeats like this are good.

Bonus New Year cheerleaders below the thingy:

more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:41 AM | Comments (386)
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I hope it was better than this guy's.

I hereby declare this thread to be open. For all non-book fol-de-rol & misc. stuff.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:36 AM | Comments (51)
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Love that new thread smell.

Posted by: andy at 04:16 AM | Comments (239)
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What's this?

Hint: There are a lot of them in this scene.

(answer below)

Content light gun thread this morning! I hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.

Tips

If there are topics you're interested in seeing in the gun thread, please send them to AoSHQGunThread at gmail. You can also send them to me (him, Andy) on Twitter at @AndyM1911.

The owner's manual for your concealed carry permit: The Law of Self Defense

Defend the Second Amendment. Join: The National Rifle Association * Gun Owners of America * The National Shooting Sports Foundation * Your state's second amendment org.

Celebrate America's firearms heritage: participate in Project Appleseed. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:30 AM | Comments (130)
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One of you asked nicely, so here you go.

Posted by: Slublog at 04:37 PM | Comments (181)
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Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to the award-winning AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Christmas Gifts

So, what books did all you 'rons and 'ettes find under the Christmas Tree this year? Me, I didn't get any, but the lovely Mrs. Muse did give me a $25 Amazon gift card for Kindle purchases. But elsewhere in the Muse household, my daughter-in-law gave my son, who considers himself a connoisseur of booze, a hardback copy of The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart. From the Amazon blurb:

Peppered with fascinating facts and well-chosen anecdotes, Amy StewartÂ’s brisk tour of the origin of spirits acquaints the curious cocktail fan with every conceivable ingredient. Starting with the classics (from agave to wheat), she touches on obscure sources--including a tree that dates to the dinosaur age--before delving into the herbs, spices, flowers, trees, fruits, and nuts that give the worldÂ’s greatest drinks distinctive flavors. Along the way, youÂ’ll enjoy sidebars on bugs in booze and inspired drink recipes with backstories that make lively cocktail party conversation.

My daughter received The Rabbi's Cat, by French cartoonist Joann Sfar, which is a graphic novel about, well, a rabbi's cat. It's hard to talk about a book like this without giving away too much, but I think this Amazon summation is the right amount of informative without straying into Spoilerville:

A slinky gray cat lives with a rabbi and his beautiful young daughter. One day, the feline eats their parrot, only to find that he has gained the bird's ability to talk. Witty and highly intelligent, the cat immediately decides that he wants to learn more about Judaism, from the Kabbalah to the Torah.

I read this one yesterday. It was OK. There's a sequel out, too.

War on Christmas Christians

The RINO stylings of Hotair's Ed Morrissey gets him routinely booed, rasberried, and mooned here at the AoSHQ. His nickname, "Poppin' Fresh", was not bestowed out of affection. But, occasionally, he does come out with some good stuff. Like this piece here, which refers to this Fox News piece by Juan Williams (who also routinely gets booed, rasberried, and mooned here at the AoSHQ) on worldwide persecution of Christians. Ed added a reference to a book on this subject, The Global War on Christians by John Allen, that looks worthwhile.

Ed writes:

AllenÂ’s book provides a well-reasoned, well-sourced wake-up call for Christians, especially in the West, where persecution is so rare that we tend to argue more about Christmas creches than the crushing of Christian populations...

Allen says there are a number of myths about Christian persecution that need to be debunked:

The Myth That Christians Are at Risk Only Where TheyÂ’re a Minority
The Myth That No One Saw It Coming
The Myth That ItÂ’s All About Islam
The Myth That ItÂ’s Only Persecution if the Motives Are Religious
The Myth That Anti-Christian Persecution Is a Political Issue

Ed summarizes:

AllenÂ’s book shines a much-needed light on those martyrs and the suffering of Christians around the world. If readers are interested in a real war on Christian beliefs and way of life, be sure to pick up The Global War on Christians, and make it a stocking stuffer for your friends and family.

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:38 AM | Comments (173)
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FYI, I'll be discussing the NSA phone metadata cases tonight on Vigilant Liberty Radio's Cigar Lounge show at 10pm Eastern.

As Ace and Drew have discussed, the two district court decisions on the NSA's phone metadata collection came to opposite conclusions about the program's constitutionality. The first court to rule on it (PDF) straight-up admitted that it was discarding the Supreme Court precedent known as the third party doctrine, saying the precedent should not apply in the context of phones anymore because their use is so ubiquitous. The second court to rule (PDF) stuck with precedent and held that the ACLU did not have a constitutionally protected privacy right to business records created and maintained by a third party, i.e., the phone company.

You can probably tell where I come down on it. Not only do I think the program is constitutional under current precedent, I think it should be constitutional.

Here's the key holding of the second decision:

And here the judge lists analogous situations:

The first district court repeatedly mischaracterized the metadata records as belonging to the customers and not the phone company, dismissed relevant precedent, responded sarcastically to the government's arguments (it's been a while since I've seen a court decision with that many exclamation marks), and dismissed out of hand part of the government's explanation for the program. For all those reasons, I expect the first decision to be overturned on appeal and the second to be upheld.

Whether the Supreme Court ultimately overturns its own precedent with respect to the third party doctrine in the context of this case, I don't want to guess. The high court's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence is a mess. Last year they held that the Fourth Amendment forbids police from putting a GPS tracker on a car for a month without a warrant, but allows police to take DNA swabs from every person arrested on suspicion of a felony. Predicting how they'd come out on this one is probably a fool's errand. And, of course, Congress may moot the question by altering FISA or the NSA next year.

Anyway, it should be a lively discussion tonight. Jason Pye from United Liberty will be on arguing for the other side. Tune in at 10pm.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:03 PM | Comments (279)
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