So, to clear our heads, a little off-beat mirth:
Menage à trois — a French term, after all:
And in the same vein:
And while we’re in that territory, so to speak, some offerings from Frederic Leighton:
The last is not by Frederic Leighton. But run off to work, anyway.
Yeah, Scarlett O’Hara in that unforgivably racist / “problematic” / slavery-accepting movie which glorified the Klan and anyway, why put a Brit chick in the archetypal Southern-belle role? Why?
And then there’s the result:
…the last pic being possibly the greatest “morning after” pose ever filmed.
No question.
As a rule, I tend to prefer Impressionist landscape paintings, such as Monet’s Morning:
That doesn’t mean I’m completely averse to the more realistic style, though, and I also think that 19th-century American painters are quite noteworthy, especially those of the Hudson Valley School. Here are a few from John William Casilear, for example, that are quite lovely:
Hudson View
(One might think that this is an Impressionist painting, unless one has actually seen the Upper Hudson Valley at this time of day…)
Lake George (early)
Lake George (later)
Saratoga Springs
New Hampshire Beach
Sea Scene
Sunset
My favorite Casilear, though, is a moodier piece:
Moon Rise
Landscape art, I think, is supposed to calm the viewer and make them wonder at the beauty of Nature. Casilear’s work does that, in spades.
Jimi’s old bassist has a go at the psychedelics. And another one, just for the hell of it.
Lotta junk came out of the 60s, too. It’s just too bad that a lot of it has stuck to my memory like shit on a shoe.
I’ve ranted on and on about how I hate the intrusion of technology into the simple act of driving, but my ire is approaching volcanic levels. Try this little snippet (via Insty, thankee, Squire):
While it’s often easier to sync your phone to a vehicle, it doesn’t allow the company you purchased the vehicle from to maximize its data harvesting capabilities. It also lets you circumvent their operating system to a large degree and any apps that might be tied to commerce, which is why automakers are now trying to sweeten the pot. The ultimate goal is to basically convert your vehicle into something that can sweep up just as much information about you as your smartphone — if not more.
“If you’re using Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, then you’re kind of limited [for use of applications]”, Alexander Schoenhals, a Mercedes-Benz engineer working on third-party apps, explained.
Do they even realize how sinister this all sounds? Every time I read shit like this from MB, BMW or VW, I want the 8th Army Air Force group to be re-constituted just to fly over and bomb their fucking factories into rubble (and repeat with Detroit on the return leg), simply to weed this bullshit out and force the aforementioned data harvesters to start from scratch all over again.
I’m unlikely to buy a new car anytime soon, if at all — more likely, I’ll be driving New Wife’s Fiat 500 forever, once my non-technological Tiguan has breathed its last drop of 89 octane unleaded.
But mark my words; I will never drive some information vampire like the modern breed.
I’d rather find a way to get my hands on something from the pre-technology era (1970s) like a VW Thing, a Jeep CJ5 or others of that ilk (other suggestions in Comments), and deal with their discomfort and unreliability.
As for modern car manufacturers: fuck ’em, and the motherboard they’re surfing in on. I want no part of their shit.
I enjoy reading Ann Coulter’s posts, by and large, because she’s so often correct despite her terminology and manner — and let’s be honest, getting fired by the milquetoasts at NRO has to be some kind of a badge of honor, right?
And yes, she occasionally gets out of control, but then again, so do I.
A month ago, things were looking bad for the Democrats.
Immediately after Trump announced for president last November, he may as well have gone into the witness protection program. Even Fox News cut away from his announcement speech. He had to have dinner with a noted Hitler enthusiast to get any attention, and, when he spoke at CPAC in February, the room was half-empty.
Looming before them was the threat from Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis. He was beating Trump in the presidential polls without even announcing. He’d scored victory after victory against Democrats and won his reelection bid — in a purple state! — by 20 points, despite attacks from Trump.
Against DeSantis’ smarts and energy, the Democrats would be running President Senile Dementia and a vice president whose sole credentials are that she is black and a woman.
They had only one hope: Get Trump the nomination.
…and her argument is quite compelling.
Finally, I know that the bony Ann is a New England blueblood and therefore despises Trump. But her assessment of his actual achievements is quite accurate, and her portrayal of the Republicans as The Stupid Party is more than accurate: it’s inside the X-ring at the very intersection of the X.
In this, she’s of a kind with the always-irritating but maddeningly-correct David Cole at Taki’s. Dealing with both of them is an object lesson in ignoring the messenger and concentrating on the message.