It’s not true that nobody knew.

Two posts are relevant. NRO’s Dennis Prager:

Conservative Parents, Left Wing Children.

And Reason’s Nick Gillespie:

JFK Still Dead, Baby Boomers Still Self-Absorbed.

The graphic above is courtesy of the Wayback Machine. But there’s also a live version at theboomerbible.com.

Life takes a long long time to sort out. Where are you on the curve?

Photo credit: Mrs. RL.

Sure, we’re going down. But life is still beautiful. What we know that they don’t.

In chess that’s what pawns are for. In politics too. Yesterday, both parties deliberately threw a gubernatorial election to the other side. Even if that’s not how the MSM are portraying it.

Barbara Buono vs. Chris Christie in New Jersey

Frank Cucchinelli vs. Terry McAuliffe in Virginia.

The logic in both instances is devious, but the evidence is limpidly clear. In New Jersey, Democrat Barbara Buono got no help from her party. No campaign support from Hillary or Obama, no financial support to speak of, and just one DNC staffer loaned to her effort against Christie. Why? The Democrats (and the MSM) are seeking to turn Christie into the next John McCain, the so-called moderate (i.e., Democrat Lite) front runner in the Republican presidential campaign, who will be lauded and admired until after his nomination, at which time all the abundant oppo research already compiled against him will be unleashed in a paralyzing smear campaign. Like most Republican geniuses, Christie’s appraisal of his own talents is inflated to the point of blindness. He’s the perfect setup. His huge win in a Blue state he believes the result of his own shrewd politicking, even though exit polling showed him still losing to Hillary among New Jersey voters. He’s just a fat fool. And Buono is a pissed off dupe.

In Virginia, the Republican establishment wanted Cucchinelli, a Tea Party type, to go down to humiliating defeat so that the party could make the argument Tea Partiers are electoral poison. Everyone knows McAuliffe is a stone whore, the insider’s ultimate dirty, principle-free insider. So the RNC gave their candidate almost no money, no campaign support, overlooked the filthy tactic that used Democrat money to fund a specious Libertarian candidate siphoning votes from Cucchinelli, and as recently as two weeks ago basked in the fact that he was down about 15 points in the polls. The new Republican hope, Chris Christie, turned down last minute appeals to campaign for his party’s candidate in Virginia. He and the other GOP bigwigs were eagerly anticipating the landslide loss. Except that it wasn’t. Cucchinelli lost by about 2 1/2 points, and McAuliffe did not win a majority of votes cast. Apparently, people are truly steamed about ObamaCare. But Cucchinelli is just another loser, sent home to oblivion.

The truth? Both parties are hopelessly corrupt, and the kings and queens on both sides are eminently for sale to the most generous lobbyists.

Does anyone put a human face on the pawns?

Only the rest of us pawns in this dirty game.

Raebert’s right this time. The smartest given that he’s not the smartest.

Actually, he’s among the most tiresome. Like Hotair’s AllahPundit, who addresses theology — and Dawkins — with a ten-point rating we’re supposed to take seriously.

Seriously, though, he’s making a banal point here — banal enough that I’ve made it myself repeatedly when arguing with readers in our comment threads. Having one of the world’s most prominent atheists admit he’s not totally sure is catnip for believers, but all he’s doing is being a conscientious skeptic. Every atheist is technically an agnostic; the distinction in the labels is largely the degree of confidence with which one’s concluded that there’s no God. Since there’s no way to conclusively prove that God doesn’t exist, no one can correctly claim absolute confidence. That’s all Dawkins is getting at, per his point that he’s a 6.9 on his own seven-point scale of doubt. I’d guesstimate that most people between, say, four and six call themselves “agnostic” while anyone beyond six self-identifies as “atheist.” Point is, you can never quite get to seven, just as virtually any conscientious believer will admit that they’re not quite at one. Which of course is why they’re called “believers,” not “knowers.”

Do these fools have any idea how dopey they sound to people who look at the universe and think it didn’t just think itself up from, uh, nothing? There was never any intelligence involved in the billion year history of the universe until Dick went to Oxford and Allahpundit went to, uh, (where?), er, NYU?

Love the idea that really really smart people have recently ordained themselves smart enough to perceive that everything just somehow happened and so they’re now in charge, being the ones who just figured that out.

Cool.

My own image of Dawkins.

The flouncing one in the foreground. “I have it on good authority there’s no such thing as a cat.”

Not afraid, you see, what with being superior to all possible situations. And very very pretty to boot.

I’m the smartest thing ever. Can’t you see it? Look at me. I’ve also written many books.

Yeah. Just look at him. I am SO impressed. He’s never debated any serious theologian. Because he’s so much smarter than they are.

[Sneeze]

Sorry, Dick. Even after you, the universe will proceed in its meaningful way. Just. Without. You.

If your name is Dawkins, you might want to consider the virtues and beliefs of people named Bach and Mozart. Maybe you’re not smarter than absolutely everybody.

Just saying.

Don’t get in her face today.

Don’t tell her a task is almost there. Don’t tell her the deerhound is being somewhat obedient. Don’t tell her you sort of understand what it must be like to be a military contractor in the midst of the sequester.

Everyone she works with knows these simple truths. I’m just warning the rest of you. Whatever you do, whatever you say in the Comments, don’t piss her off.

Two rules. Don’t EVER turn your back to her. Something about a hurricane.

And don’t EVER let her get on horseback when you’ve crossed her. She WILL ride you down.

And, no. it’s not all about armor and rhetoric. It’s also about celtic magic.

Swap out the hair for a red mane and you’ve got the picture. Are we understanding one another?

Other than that, she’s sweet and docile and nice. Are we clear? Good. That’s settled then.

The Progressive Mind

Robert knows. Robert has seen. When a man is both young and aware his pen is invincible.

But one cannot transmit (as a virus or a meme) if one kills with such immediacy that there is no opportunity-time to transmit the messages to another node.

Take up the pen; make them anonymized but show the Queen for what she is.

They have not (yet) sufficiently extended the definition of insect. They are ready to receive your medicine; they are strong enough to see themselves against the fabric of your original thesis.

He linked this: Five New Species Discovered

But I’ll do him one or two better. This is what we’re really up against with the progressive hive mind.

Part I:

Part II:

Sigourney kicks ass, doesn’t she? Nothing more dangerous than a pissed off mommy wannabe. Take it how you will.

A point of clarification. The “Insect Brain” was not the original thesis of the work most of you are familiar with. It was the tongue in cheek premise of a book called The Naked Woman, written in 1993 and responsible for getting me blackballed for life from the book publishing industry. Just so we’re clear.

Now for a moment of necessary atonement…

Are we good now? No garden shears in that huge manly purse?

Don’t forget I have Raebert to protect me. He doesn’t like manly purses.

Don’t like’em. Don’t ask me why.

Raebert +

Me

Equals:

One ancient, cranky laird of the manor. Hi. You were saying?…

Scottish arithmetic. It may not add up to much, but it has some bite to it.

Thanks for putting up with us. We appreciate it. Your thought for the day:

One you can see, I think. “Three Men in a Boat.” Charming, silly, episodic, and a relief from everything we’re dealing with now. Rowing on the Themes. For fun.

You can’t see it here, but you should also try Innocents Abroad. Mark Twain in a lovely miniseries starring Craig Wasson on PBS. Sorry I can’t show you the video, even though they also took some wooden boats here and there.

Sorrier still I can’t show you the best parts of the Snow Goose. Not my best night.

But I do love wooden boats nonetheless.

They breathe, you know. Like we do. Regardless of who’s at the tiller.

P.S. Forgot. The best river story ever, beginning right here.

Stop boring me with nothing. There’s no more soup. Otherwise, I’d kill The Nothing myself.

No talking. Please. I have to have my sleep.