March 30, 2017

At the Strait Gate Café...

P1120999

... squeeze in whatever you can.

Photograph, like the 2 shown last night in the Narrow Gate Café, is from Arches National Park, March 10th. No little person in this one to show the scale. Post title confirms jaed's suspicion that I intended to refer to the Bible verse. Here's a more explicit depiction of the verse:



Click to enlarge.

And this sounds a tad inappropriate now, but remember The Althouse Amazon Portal when you're doing your shopping. 

33 comments:

Yancey Ward said...

The NYTimes has identified, it believes, the identities of Representative Nunes' sources in the NSC.

Cue Representative Schiff's and Inga's call to have these "leakers" prosecuted.

garage mahal said...

I caught a brief aurora borealis show Tuesday night. This substorm lasted 10 minutes and then it was done.

Chuck said...

White House press briefing right now...

Sean Spicer dodging and avoiding questions about who from White House cleared Devin Nunes into secured area to view classified material. None of his answers make sense any longer, and they all know it.

Nunes had said for the last two days that he'd check on the info and get back to the press. Now, the new answer is that they are going to let the members of the congressional committees "review the materials." Without answering the simple and not-so-simple questions about who cleared Nunes in, and when and why, and when it was effectively decided that Spicer wouldn't answer the question.

Yancey Ward said...

It doesn't really matter, Chuck, who cleared him. As the chairman of the committee, he has every right to see this material- Congress has oversight here. In my opinion, the really unethical part of this is that someone had to "clear" him to get this information. I can't think of a single legitimate reason he had to have "whistleblowers" to get to see this material. Trump's enemies have been egging him on to support those assertions about being under surveillance, and every single one of those enemies has done nothing but try to intimidate potential sources of support from doing so, with this article just the latest example. It isn't going to work, though, and I suspect things are going to get revealed whether the CIA and the FBI wants it to or not. Trump should just take the bullet and declassify as much of this as possible.

Fernandinande said...

After being contacted by The Sun Online, Facebook removed a number of [tasteless joke] groups.
And then...
Facebook ‘banter’ trolls[sic] from sick groups set up new secret pages 10 MINUTES after being removed

mockturtle said...

Man, I'd hate to be in there during a seismic shift!

Etienne said...

Only Americans would make a National Park out of dirt and rocks...

Can you imagine the guy writing the checks out of the Treasury, and sending it to the National Park Service to give to the hordes they employ to keep them off of welfare?

Yea, the welfare people, who he writes the other checks for. Who live in Israel and the Sinai...

He probably has a great sense of humor. I picture a jovial man not unlike Peter Griffin.

"Shouldn't 'filthy bastards' be written with a red pen?" - Glenn Quagmire

Chuck said...

Yancey Ward said...
It doesn't really matter, Chuck, who cleared him. As the chairman of the committee, he has every right to see this material- Congress has oversight here. In my opinion, the really unethical part of this is that someone had to "clear" him to get this information. I can't think of a single legitimate reason he had to have "whistleblowers" to get to see this material. Trump's enemies have been egging him on to support those assertions about being under surveillance, and every single one of those enemies has done nothing but try to intimidate potential sources of support from doing so, with this article just the latest example. It isn't going to work, though, and I suspect things are going to get revealed whether the CIA and the FBI wants it to or not. Trump should just take the bullet and declassify as much of this as possible.


Well if you want clarity and transparency, that makes two of us.

The question isn't whether Nunes can see any classified material. The question is how did this very strange sequence -- Nunes getting a cellphone call, getting out of a car he was riding in with aides, to get an Uber to take him, alone, to a different place than where he had been headed, with the story subsequently being that he had been called by an unnamed person to review classified materials in a White House-secured area -- occur? Because by having done it alone and to the exclusion of the rest of his Committee, Nunes placed his handling of the Committee's work on Trump campaign-related issues in doubt.

Is all of this about a desperate attempt to find some way to back up Trump's laughable and idiotic claim that President Obama "wiretapped" Trump's phones and Trump Tower? It looks that way to me, but rather than guess about it, I want a bipartisan congressional committee (better yet, multiple committees in both the House and Senate) to come up with unanimous conclusions about what happened and why.

I'd like it if the entire leadership of the House and Senate, together with the heads of the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA, could all stand before live television cameras and say, "We have all investigated this matter. We have independently reached a unanimous conclusion. And that is, that President Trump 's series of Tweets on March 4 were untrue, misleading, and/or unsupportable."

pdug said...

Got any Truth for sale, Ann? Or like Coke in green glass bottles, do they not make it anymore?

----

This fair, therefore, is an ancient thing, of long standing, and a very great fair.

Now these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair: well, so they did; but behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the people in the fair were moved, and the town itself as it were in a hubbub about them; and that for several reasons. For –

First, the pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair made a great gazing upon them: some said they were fools; some they were lunatics; and some they are outlandish men.

Secondly: and as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few could understand what they said. They naturally spoke the language of Canaan; but they that kept the fair were the men of this world: so that from one end of the fair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.

Thirdly: but that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers was, that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares – they cared not so much as to look upon them; and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity;" and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven.

One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages of the men, to say unto them, "What will ye, buy?" but they, looking gravely upon him, said, "We buy the truth"

mockturtle said...

I dreamt last night I was at a charity event with Melania Trump! We had a lovely time. Donald was there, too, and tried a sip of the punch I was drinking. The event was held at our old corporate headquarters building but morphed later into the University of Washington. Dreams are weird.

mockturtle said...

It was non-alchoholic punch, BTW.

Fernandinande said...

Are religious people a bit thick?

"I had a discussion a few days ago with someone who told me that many very smart people he knew were also religious. I thought about that for a minute, and after reflection I just couldn’t agree. I don’t think one can be really smart and religious at the same time.

Yes, I know that some people who are academically smart and who have done great things, like Newton, were and are deeply religious. But in the old days you had no choice about being religious: you imbibed faith with your mother’s milk. And there was little chance to think for oneself, for it was either a death sentence or permanent ostracism if you questioned religion, and there were few ways to find like-minded souls.
...
It is as if their brain is a jigsaw puzzle with one crucial piece missing: the piece that accepts important propositions in proportion to the evidence supporting them. And to me that kind of irrationality is a form of stupidity, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “dullness or slowness of apprehension; gross want of intelligence.” It’s not that they’re totally stupid; just partially stupid. ..."

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Yes, religious people are all a bit thick, Fernandinande. You're sounding like Ritmo now.

Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître (17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966) was a Belgian priest, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven.[2] He proposed the theory of the expansion of the universe, widely misattributed to Edwin Hubble. He was the first to derive what is now known as Hubble's law and made the first estimation of what is now called the Hubble constant, which he published in 1927, two years before Hubble's article. Lemaître also proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, which he called his "hypothesis of the primeval atom" or the "Cosmic Egg".

"Zichichi was born in Trapani, Sicily, in 1929. He has collaborated on several important discoveries in the field of sub-nuclear physics and has worked in some of the most important research laboratories in the world (Fermilab in Chicago, CERN in Geneva, etc.). He is known to the Italian public for his popularization of scientific ideas, both as the author of numerous books and essays and because of his appearances on television programs. Zichichi places an emphasis on trying to demonstrate that there is no contradiction between science and the Catholic faith."

Sister Mary Celine Fasenmyer, R.S.M., (October 4, 1906, Crown, Pennsylvania – December 27, 1996, Erie, Pennsylvania) was a mathematician. She is most noted for her work on hypergeometric functions and linear algebra."

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

As smart as Lemaitre was , his accomplishments pale besides those of Jerry Coyle. And yours, of course.

mockturtle said...

'Religion', i.e., belief/faith in God, is not intellectually but spiritually acquired. If one does not believe there is a spiritual realm, then I have some rather bad news.

Chuck said...

Trump versus the House Freedom Caucus in 2018:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/freedom-caucus-donald-trump.html?_r=0

Wow. Pass the popcorn.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I have said I do not mean to slight the Protestants, so here are a few:


Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist and inventor of the maser and laser. Townes was known for his work concerning the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated with both maser and laser devices. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics during 1964 with Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov.

Townes died at the age of 99 in Oakland, California, on January 27, 2015.[1][30] "He was one of the most important experimental physicists of the last century," Reinhard Genzel, a professor of physics at Berkeley, said of Townes. "His strength was his curiosity and his unshakable optimism, based on his deep Christian spirituality."

"Allan Rex Sandage (June 18, 1926 – November 13, 2010) was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble constant and the age of the universe. He also discovered the first quasar.

In 1983 Sandage announced he had become a Christian and began to write essays on the subject of religion and science."

mockturtle said...

The fact is, science and religion are not mutually exclusive, as the Progs would like to believe. Science is the study of God's creation, no matter how you believe it was created, or even if you believe it formed spontaneously. It's a straw man at best to call Christians anti-science.

Freeman Hunt said...

Reminded me of the same passage as pdug.

"It is as if their brain is a jigsaw puzzle with one crucial piece missing: the piece that accepts important propositions in proportion to the evidence supporting them"

There is an assumption in here about what evidence there is and possibly about what counts as evidence. Perhaps intelligent people sometimes hold different assumptions.

Or I could simply be confused by the hypothetical intellectual fog that descended upon me when I switched from atheism to theism. (And later to following Jesus. Yow! Hypothetical lobotomy?)

StephenFearby said...

Legal Jeopardy!

Shades of all them Clinton functionaries taking the 5th about her emails.

Or, what goes around, comes around.

"The WSJ reported today that Lt General (Ret.) Dirtbag "...has told the Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional officials investigating the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution, according to officials with knowledge of the matter."

"...[Flynn] has made the offer to the FBI and the House and Senate intelligence committees through his lawyer but has so far found no takers, the officials said."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-flynn-offers-to-testify-in-exchange-for-immunity-1490912959


Church Lady opines: "Well, isn't that special..."


"1. Instrumentality of foreign government

A retired Regular officer who claims to be employed by an
American-based firm and receives a civilian salary from that firm, but
where records shows that such firm is merely a conduit whereby he is
detailed by that firm to work for an instrumentalty of a foreign
government, the acceptance of salary for such employment comes within
the constitutional[emoluments] prohibition. While lacking penalty, such provision will
be given effect by withholding from member's retired pay an amount equal
to the foreign salary received in violation of the Constitution. 53 Comp.
Gen. 753 (1974)."

https://www.gao.gov/assets/210/203990.pdf

Since all Generals and Lt. Generals only hold rank on a temporary basis, I wonder if Flynn might also lose a star.

If so, he would become Major General (Ret) Dirtbag.

Michael K said...

"If so, he would become Major General (Ret) Dirtbag."

It's just so sad that your candidate Hillary(Russian stooge D) lost the election.

And it's too bad the millions of Democrats who went insane after it.

Michael K said...

" I don’t think one can be really smart and religious at the same time."

Richard Feynman to Herman Wouk. "Do you know Calculus?"

Wouk admitted he did not know Calculus. He had met Feynman to help with research on his book, 'War and Remembrance."

Feynman, "You should learn it, It is the language God speaks."

Michael K said...

The question is how did this very strange sequence -- Nunes getting a cellphone call, getting out of a car he was riding in with aides, to get an Uber to take him, alone, to a different place than where he had been headed,

Chuck, Nunes is one of the "Gang of Eight" who have access to all intel, including "the President's Daily Brief."

The source met him in the Secret Service facility suggesting the source was an agent.

Whether Schiff was invited and declined, or given his history of dishonesty, was not invited, I don't know. He and Nunes are both on the G of 8"

Mike Sylwester said...

Today CNN Chief Political Correspondent Gloria Borger reported that former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates wants to inform the House Intelligence Committee that Michael Flynn COULD HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO BLACKMAIL BY RUSSIA.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/29/opinions/why-sally-yates-is-suddenly-interesting-opinion-borger/index.html

Borger linked that phrase to another CNN article, titled "White House was warned Flynn COULD BE BLACKMAILED BY RUSSIA.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/13/politics/michael-flynn-justice-department-warning/

Yates has been trying to warn everyone that the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, knew that Flynn had violated THE LOGAN ACT. Kislyak could have proved this dastardly violation by publicly releasing a recording of his own telephone conversation with Flynn.

Yates intended to tell the House Intelligence committee, but now that committee's hearings are suspended.

Michael K said...

Yates is an expert at beating dead horses and the left is all agog at her skill set.

traditionalguy said...

Isaac Newton was totally engaged in the magnificent harmony and consistent message of scripture in the Bible. He. Also developed some scientific work on motion and energy mechanics that governed the universe. This work attracted attention.But his main work was understanding the revelation of the Creator God.from scripture.

Chuck said...

Michael K; nobody questions why Devin Nunes might see the most-classified info. He can; no argument.

But EVERYBODY is questioning why Nunes went from a meeting with a "source," to a Secret Service-secured facility, to the White House, with two press conferences in the process, without ever saying a word to the Ranking Member on his committee or disclosing the details of what he saw.

In addition to Nunes on the Intel Gang of Eight, there are Adam Schiff, Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Richard Barr and Mark Warner. And none of them, perhaps including Paul Ryan, seem to know or even understand what was going on.

Just imagine what we'd be saying, if this happened in the first days of the Obama Administration, with some kind of investigation going on involving intel and the Obama campaign, and a Dem chairman had gone to the White House for a private meeting with Obama to brief him on something he had found but had not disclosed to Republicans.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

@Fernandinande's link:

religious belief only possible because indoctrination

later

And many public intellectuals—and virtually all accomplished scientists—are atheists. Why? Because there’s no credible evidence for God.

lolololol

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

evidently "public intellectuals" and "accomplished scientists" are impervious to indoctrination

mockturtle said...

Michael K remarks: Yates is an expert at beating dead horses

That's because, if she beat live horses, PETA would be breathing down her neck.

Freeman Hunt said...

Watched the first few episodes of "Girls." That was a pleasant surprise.

Meade said...

@garage,
Awesome shot! Were you in Alaska?

Balfegor said...

One of the disadvantages of being a godless heathen -- I had never realised that the line in Invictus: "it matters not how strait the gate" was actually a Biblical reference. Haha