Rain Gryphon

Pyotr Poroschenko has promised to rebuild the Ukraine's "great cultural treasure" using his own money, which, in the way these things go, probably started out as the American taxpayers' money.

Also, yesterday, Stepan Bandera's alma mater (which features a big statue of Bandera out front) also got blown up. The statue survived.

There are seasonal misfortunes that one may expect to read about every year. Fourth of July wouldn't be complete without a story about some numpty who blew himself up with fireworks. Should I decide to kill myself, and it's close to Halloween, I'll surely hang myself from a tree, and be mistaken for a decoration, as seems to be one of our modern-day national traditions. And likewise, the first snowfall of the year sees some repetition of this story. This one was even better than usual. Before burgling the house, the villain drove his car into a ditch, then just left it there, making his non-escape on foot through the snow.

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Looks like ol' Arsoney McArsonface is going to the clink! Elkhart County sentenced him to 50 years in prison, followed by 46 years probation. That was with a plea bargain. Apparently we get the next shot at him.

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Things that look like Hitler.

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Everything seemed to happen all at once, at the end of the week:

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They apparently caught the scoundrel (and his girlfriend) that lit all of those barns on fire. Barn fires were an ongoing plague here, all spring and summer. There were cows and goats in some of those barns as well.

There seems to be no real motive to this apart from sheer psychopathy. He even made a kind of family outing of it, encouraging his little kid to light one of the fires. So far, they're only talking about Elkhart County (neighboring county to the north), but it was spread out over several adjoining counties. I suspect the rest of us will get him when Elkhart Co. finishes running him through the mill.

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Jussie Smollet's trial is concluded. Next: the tribulations!

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Assange too seems to finally be well and truly caught in the Toils of Justice!

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Al Unser Sr. has died. He was one of the Presences in automobile racing my entire life. He deserves his own post, but I did want to note it here as well.

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What a horrible disaster in Kentucky! They're using the term 'ground zero' for Mayfield, which, for once, seems to be no hyperbole. Brandenburg, KY, had pretty much that 'swept' look in 1974.

The candle factory is nightmarish. Instead of the debris being sprayed across the countryside, it's all in one big heap, with cars on top, and huge gobbets of congealed wax all through it. Hot wax won't be a festive holiday smell for these people in future.

My default mental image for 'candle factory' had been a couple mouldy old hippies in a shed. That will be different in future as well.

While Jeff Bezos isn't one of my favourite people, it is utterly unfair, I think, to blame the man for carrying on with his party while his warehouse got destroyed. He's not omniscient.

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Verstappen ruined a set of mediums by locking up whilst making an utterly pointless (so far as I can tell) hot lap in P2. He still wins the pole, but will be starting on softs.

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The little blue house a few miles up the road caught fire. Saturday morning, just after I was done watching qualifying, the pumper, the tanker, and the support truck went blasting up the road, followed by the sundry firemen in their cars. Unlike the barns, this seems to be an accident.

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Blackburn beat Bournemouth, and pretty convincingly. They're still only fourth in the standings, but looking promising.

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And so, Verstappen is Champion! I'm glad to see him win. It has been an absolute chaotic mess of a season, and the final race fit right in. Hamilton's supporters are upset that the rules weren't followed, and of course they're correct. But, the rules have been applied with great inconsistency all season, including in the first lap of this race, and I think Hamilton has benefitted as much or more than Verstappen. All things taken together, I'm unimpressed by F1's new management.

It's disappointing that the lapped cars weren't cleared for Sainz, as I think he'd have had a chance too. Still, Forza! Third is acceptable, considering the season.

I really, really love the ADNOC logo (a Falcon!). Also, the trophies look like birds. BBC reports that Bottas got a basket of Moomin-themed stuff for one of his perks as well.

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The Good Ol' Boys at Talladega are in fine form! Even during the Indianapolis road course race, back in August, there was a certain amount of that, although not nearly so extensive, nor nearly so spirited, as of late.

By far the most entertaining, though, was in the line waiting for hotdogs. There were two, side by side, each moving with glacial slowness. Some wit, at the back of one line, roared out "HEY! That other line is moving faster! That's INEQUITABLE!", which went far to brighten the mood.

For all of John Dillinger's shortcomings as a citizen, he was at least competent as a criminal. One does not picture him, for instance, crashing his getaway car into the side of a train.

And could there possibly be a more iconic spot for a drive-by shooting than Martin Luther King Ave, in the middle of East St. Louis, IL?

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So, everyone's talking about the huge Fauci email tranche that just got released. You can read 'em for yourself, thanks to the magic of the internet.

I hope that Fauci may finally be on his way to prison, or at least furher along in his journey. The really interesting part, which the BBC (and most MSM sites) are either refusing to acknowledge or just plain didn't understand, is that certain portions are redacted per section (b)(7)(A), "expected to interfere with law enforcement proceedings".

The curiously-named "Conservative Treehouse" has some pretty good analysis, and asks an interesting question about Fauci's relationship with Facebook as well.

And, Fred Upton, the man chiefly responsible for the failed Lightbulb Ban, is on record as having sent him a gushing fan letter :)

I may have found my metier in the Times of India letters to the editor. It's filled with stirring invective such as "Poonwalla (a political appointee) is a fat crook and a liar, and should be beheaded immediately!".

So, one COVID death yesterday in Indiana, which brings our seven-day moving average down to five, which we haven't seen since March 23rd of last year.

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India has made everyone eligible for vaccination, but seems to have run out of vaccine in most places. Given that they're doing about 3 million people per day (when they have vaccine) that 66 million doses that they sold and gave away would have supplied them for over a month. Had they already stuck them in arms, they'd have 216M vaccinated instead of 150M.

Many of the recipients of their largesse seem less than grateful, or at any rate less than deserving. Per the BBC; Malawi has been left with about 16,000 of doses out of 102,000, while South Sudan was left with 59,000 doses of the vaccine. Ghana and Sierra Leone were also left with some doses. To be clear, "left with" in this context means that they tossed the leftover vaccine into the garbage, despite the WHO begging them not to do that.

The Congolese, at least, gave their surplus back for distribution to the less fortunate, when their super-scientists discovered a way to make a 100% effective vaccine from local plants.

How many people has the WHO's "COVAX" scheme killed so far, who would otherwise have lived? And why is there not a price on this "Dr. Tedros" character's head?

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I am hoping that when it comes time to dispose of America's vaccine surplus, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand will be put at the front of the line. These are the countries which are not just allies, not even just friends, but family. They have stood with us, and we with them, throughout the World Wars, the Cold War, and all the upheavals and uncertainties of the 20th Century. They have earned our unstinting support. Mexico, Africa, et alia, have not. We honestly should be pooling our resources with Canada at this point anyway.

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So, things're gettin' real down in Burma. If we're going to intervene against the junta, then we'd damn well better send in the Marines, and quickly. If we're not going to overthrow them, then we need to shut up and support them. Standing off to one side waving our arms and tut-tutting about 'democracy' doesn't do a thing except to keep the rioters worked up and make the situation worse, and the government has already shown that they're willing to use as much force as it takes. We're going to end up driving the generals into China's orbit for their own survival, despite the fact that they've said plainly that they'd like to work with us, if only we were willing.

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Mister McGoofily fears no coronavirus!

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A full half-century ago, when I was a tiny little gryphlet, blasting people out of depression with a single heroic dose of DMT and/or LSD was the wave of the future. Now, after a half-century of breakthrough drugs largely notable for making sufferers go insane and kill themselves and/or others, we're back to psychedelics again.

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So, the snow has disrupted Indiana's vaccination program. They're saying they should have opened to the 60-64 cohort about a week ago, which is pretty much in line with what I'd been expecting. Hopefully early next week now.

Out of the 1.3 million doses received so far, we've thrown out 172, mostly due to broken/defective containers or syringes. I'm proud of our guys there.

The Federal govt. has promised an "increase" in vaccine allotment, but apparently wants to dole that out themselves, from their own clinics, ignoring Indiana's priorities. Gov. Holcomb is working to keep those under Indiana control. I appreciate that.

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So, Macron's advancing a lunatic proposal to surrender 3% to 5% of America's vaccine supply to Africa. Essentially what he's pushing here is the idea that it would be a really great and noble thing to let some Americans die so that some Africans could be saved in their stead. This would help him, or so he seems to think, with the appeasement of the banlieues, and if it doesn't, why then surely it will result in the goodwill of Africa.

We've wasted billions on Africa over the past half-century or so, and gotten absolutely nothing of value in return. If the Chinese want to waste their time and money there, we should encourage them. I'm sure that Trump would have done the right thing. I'm much less sanguine about Biden. He's already opened the southern border to allow Mexican illegals to swarm across, with no health checks or precautions of any sort. Like Obama, he seems to want to be applauded by foreigners.

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