Tag: Good News

Involuntary Reaction

Health

I read this story with both amazement and sympathy:

Kira Laconetti, 19, a self-taught musician, began experiencing difficulty when singing or listening to music, having two-minute ‘glitches’ and stuttering her words.
An MRI scan on the performer from Lynden, Washington, revealed a marble-sized mass in the right temporal lobe of her brain. The benign tumour was confirmed to be triggering a rare disorder called musicogenic epilepsy.
The condition, which is estimated to affect one in ten million people, according to Epilepsy Society, triggers seizures caused by certain types of music or frequencies of pitch for which the person’s brain has a low tolerance for. It is unclear what specific notes or music prompted Miss Laconetti’s seizures.

I should disclose at this point that I too suffer from musicogenic epilepsy.  In my case, it’s brought on not by any individual notes but by certain types of music, notably rap music, bebop jazz and the voice of Taylor Swift.

And I don’t suffer seizures either, just spasms of Tourette’s Syndrome.

Fortunately, I don’t need surgery because the remedy is simple:  a little Harry Nilsson, Peter Skellern or even something by the Beatles, and I’m right as rain.

Feel free to share the types of music which trigger your episodes of musicogenic epilepsy, in Comments.

News Roundup

Bad News

1) Candy bars lose sugar, also taste — FFS, if you think a candy bar is unhealthy or bad for you, then eat something else.  Don’t moan and complain until the manufacturer brings out a watery, tasteless variant of the classic. (see:  lite beer)

2) Man fucks with black mamba, with predictable results — there is a good reason why snake handlers in South Africa cannot get life insurance, no matter how much they’re prepared to pay.

3) Cold weather causes vag-freeze — as we’re heading into winter, you may want to get yer Missus a box-warmer (don’t ask).

4) Freaks and pervos hit the streets — where else but in San Francisco?  (Never an errant daisycutter bomb when you need one.)

5) Italy to become the “new Argentina” — as long as they don’t invade the Falklands, we’re cool.

6)  Tropical Storm Rosa will not wash the entire state of California out to sea — and a nation mourns.

Finally, Fall

Weather

Looks like today (September 20) is going to be the last day of summer, temperature-wise (91°F) here in north Texas.  Unless the weather folks have cocked it up completely, temps are dropping into the 70s over the weekend (with autumn showers coming in), and it seems unlikely that the mercury will climb much over 80°F even after the showers have gone.

Yes, British- and Euro Readers:  a daytime high temperature in the high 70s and low 80s (22-27 in your stupid Celsius thing) is what passes for autumn Over Here.  You may now eat your livers.

At least we’ll henceforth be spared the stench of lizards frying on the sidewalks.  Until next May, that is.

I am SO glad summer has passed.  Even by our standards, it was a monster.

Ten Inconvenient Facts For Liberals

Politics

The Spectator (U.S. version) lays them out in detail.

The more ambitious liberalism has become in its efforts to transform the United States, the more it has run up against one intransigent circumstance after another. For eight years, the idol worship of Barack Obama gave liberals confidence that they could remediate society and reeducate the citizens. But reality isn’t political. It doesn’t obey the principles of progressives. Some facts aren’t pliable.

Read and enjoy.  Feel free to discuss your favorite fact (if you can decide on just one) in Comments.

Victories For Gunnies

The Gun Thing

Here are a couple of recent developments which are going to make gun-controllers go

 1)  The Ninth(!!!) Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that in terms of the Second Amendment, Americans have the right to bear arms for self-defense:  

Analyzing the text of the Second Amendment and reviewing the relevant history, including founding-era treatises and nineteenth century case law, the panel stated that it was unpersuaded by the county’s and the state’s argument that the Second Amendment only has force within the home.
“We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence,” Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”

I know, for us of the gun-owning persuasion this may seem like a duh!  conclusion, but let’s not forget the socialists among us who (mistakenly) think that only gummint agencies should be allowed to carry guns in public.  So buy that judge a drink.  Here’s the killer of the two victories, however:

 2) Government Admits AR-15s Are Not Weapons of War

In its settlement with Cody Wilson’s Defense Distributed, [the State Department and the Department of Justice] admitted that semi-automatic firearms below .50 caliber are not weapons of war.
The amended regulations proposed in the settlement show the government will no longer look at semi-automatic firearms below .50 caliber as “military equipment” or weapons of war.

Saith Alan Gottlieb (PBUH):

“The federal government now saying semi-automatic firearms below .50 caliber are not inherently military means that they are admitting that rifles like the AR-15 are civilian in nature.”

I know, once again duh!  for us gunnies, but as Gottlieb adds:

“Gun rights organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation will now be able to use this government admission in debate and courtrooms from New York to California.”

Waddya think, folks?  Is it that time?  I believe it is.

About Damn Time

Gummint, Politics

If you look at examples in history when ordinary Americans suddenly flipped out and killed government agents, you will find that most of these incidents occurred when the government took someone’s land without regard for the owner’s welfare, or “for the public good” without proper compensation.  When you consider that one of the few government functions that everyone can actually agree on is that government primarily exists to protect private property from the predations of others, it’s small wonder that people freak out and go to the guns when it’s government that turns into the predator.

Then we had the disgusting Kelo v. City of New London ruling by the Supremes, which basically said that Gummint could take your property and give it to a commercial developer, because his future development would result in tax income for the local authority.  (I’m still furious about this piece of unmitigated statist sophistry.)

Finally — and far too late — Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has done the right thing, and his bill will go to the Senate where it will likely pass by a massive majority (if it doesn’t, it will be time to warm up a few barrels of tar and empty a few down pillows) and be sent to the Oval Office for the finishing touch.  (I bet Trump will sign it into law with gritted teeth;  but sign it he’ll have to.)

Read the entire article, and feel free to break out into applause at the end of it.  As I suggested earlier, it’s just a shame this gross injustice wasn’t rectified thirty seconds after the Kelo ruling, but I’ll take what I can get.