July 25, 2026
Earthlike World Found Around Red Dwarf Star
Timothy Birdnow
An atmosphere has apparently been discovered around an exoplanet similar to the Earth's and in the liquid water band, thus presenting the possibility of life as we know it.
The planet - LhS 1140 b - orbits a red dwarf star (class M) about 45 light years away, so relatively close in astronomical terms.
The article doesn't tell us more than about the star which is important. As the article observes red dwarf stars are poor places for Earth'like worlds in that they put out a lot of x rays and have strong solar winds which usually strip atmospheres off of planets in the liquid water band, which with a red dwarf is very clos
But what kind of class M star is it? They do vary in terms of size and radiative output.
Also the article just says it's an "Earth-like world" but doesn't give details on it's size relative to the Earth. Is it smaller or larger? That too can make a difference.
Such a world would almost certainly be tidally locked, like the Moon is around the Earth, so only one side of the planet would face the star.
At any rate they determined the atmosphere is primarily helium (which is a surprised; Helium is a light gas and would easily be stripped away from the world) and Helium, of course, can be breathed in place of nitrogen, meaning we could possibly actually walk outside on it (at least with protective clothing to avoid the radiation or on the night side. But the planet probably has hurricane winds if it's tidal locked, and that would be a problem. Life would be difficult on the surface. But if it has an ocean...
I rather suspect a helium atmosphere would mean a superearth, a planet comfortably larger than Earth. I should think a planet as small as ours would be stripped of it's atmosphere.
Proxima Centauri - the nearest star to ours - has a super-Earth planet that is denuded of it's atmosphere in close orbit around that red dwarf star.
At any rate this is of academic interest only; we won't be going there any time soon, not with our current technology and not with any technology we can conceive of at present. Contrary to popular fiction warp drive is an impossibility and probably always will be. You are talking about bending space in the manner of a black hole.
But it's fun to think about. And who knows; maybe eventually we'll send a probe there, and maybe a multi-generational ship. But that will be a long, long time off.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:26 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 449 words, total size 3 kb.
July 24, 2026
Hostin's Slaver Family
Timothy Birdnow
Lookie here; Sunless Hostin is demanding reparations for slavery and yet she comes from long line of slave traders and slave owners!
Henry Louis Gates had her on his geneology show and found her family traced back to Spain where they were involved in the slave trade and documents reveal they owned at least one slave.
Maybe old Sunny should start the reparations ball rolling by giving her own money to black people as reparations? No? As always she's all mouth and no action.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
11:35 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 89 words, total size 1 kb.
Thune the Buffoon
Timothy Birdnow
John Thune got called out about his refusal to push for the SAVE America Act and his response?
Laura Weiss@LauraEWeiss16
THUNE fires back, telling me: "She or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes, right?”
"So instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats. And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone. Let’s get them to yes.”user avatarRapid Response 47The White House@RapidResponse47Jul 23.@PressSec: President Trump's patience is running out. He wants to see as much of the SAVE America Act passed as possible by the August recess. He knows that's what the American people want. The House did its job;
Uh, that's what being Senate leader is all about. It's up to YOU, Senator Thune, to get the votes. If you don't want to do your job step aside and let someone else do it, someone more competent or who cares what the base of the Party wants.
Thune knows he can implement a talking filibuster and get this thing passed but he refuses to do so. He could even back passing it via reconciliation but he refuses to do so. Thune doesn't want this passed.
Why not? I've said this before; the RiNO wing of the party doesn't want to become the dominant force in Congress. They want the senate neck-and-neck so no Senator is expendable. It's job security. If the Senate is this tight nobody dares turn out any Senator, no matter how much the go against the will of the Base. If the end result will be a Democrat elected and the power structure flipped nobody will support that. It's how the GOP has been operating for decades now.
And the RINO types like the good press and like getting invited to all the parties and being treated as honored gentlemen while not having to do anything of value. They prefer to let the Democrats do the work of running things while they go on their junkets, take their gifts, take their free vacations, and strut around like peacocks, the Great Man!
And of course many of them agree with the program the Democrats are pushing, just want it to go a little slower. So many take the words of Bill Buckley, that it is their job to "sit athwart history and shout 'stop'"! When Buckley called for that there was no chance of reversing anything. But now we are in a position we can roll some of this insanity back, but it requires the Republicans going on the defensive rather than turtling up in their shell and hiding. It's easier to hide than fight.And especially since these RINO types agree with the Democrats on so many things (like the trans movement or global warming) and are at odds with the base of the GOP. In fact they disdain the base as a bunch of low-brow hillbillies. Rush Limbaugh talked about that; they tried to recruit him to their way of thinking. They hate us as much as do the Democrats.
So a big Felix Unger to John Thune (in The Odd Couple Oscar Madison voices his complaint with Felix "it took me two weeks to figure out FU meant Felix Unger.)
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
11:01 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 566 words, total size 4 kb.
Caitlin Clark: White Girls Bleed a Lot
Timothy Birdnow
The only reason anyone bothers to watch the WNBA is because of Caitlin Clark.
I hope she leaves the league and it collapses. She deserves better.
So do her "racist" fans.
There is one and only one reason for the animosity from fellow players and the League and that is racism. They hate her because she's a pretty white girl who can play some serious ball. That's SUPPOSED to be a black thing.
And the League is allowing Clark to get beaten up regularly with no foul calls because, well, white girls bleed a lot! She's got it coming for her "white privilege" and all!
Sports Patriot@SportsPatriotUS
This should concern every WNBA fan... regardless of where you stand on Caitlin Clark.
The issue is no longer a missed foul, a flagrant, or social media arguments.
Members of Congress are now demanding answers from the league itself.
Whether you agree with the letter or disagree with it, one thing is undeniable:
The WNBA's leadership has allowed this situation to grow into something far bigger than basketball.
Serious organizations solve problems before Congress starts asking questions.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:43 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 208 words, total size 2 kb.
Yes, There was a Medieval Warming Period and it was Good
Timothy Birdnow
Here is a piece of work at Physorg discussing the horribleness of planetary warming. In particular it uses the Medieval Warming Period as a cautionary tale to modernity about how terrible a warming period can be.
I remember a time when they denied there WAS a Medieval Warming Period (hence to be known as MWP). They tried very hard to ignore it. But since that failed they are now trying to trash it to make our current Holocene warming period (cooler still than the MWP and the even warmer Holocene Climate Optimum) appear to be an existential crisis that requires immediate action before doomsday.
But guess what? Populations in England were certainly rising during this time period and the same holds true for the rest of Europe. Populations don't rise in times of famine and crop failures.
The Low Middle Ages saw population contraction as the political environment was unsettled, as was the environment itself; a series of natural disasters, starting in the sixth century, reduced the population of Europe considerably. But at the start of the High Middle Ages in 1300 population began to rise and times were good - this was the heyday of the MWP. It was warmer, there was more food being grown, and commerce increased. But the coming of the Black Death and other plagues caused a major population drop, which this paper appears to be using to justify claims that warming causes all these problems. It wasn't warming - it was an invasion of rats. There were more people who had bad hygiene and the rats carried the Black Death.
This author tries to coin a new name - the Medieval Climate Anomaly - so as to avoid the obvious conclusion. He speaks about how it wasn't universal (and yet we know from what was happening in Central and South America as well as in Asia and Africa) that this was a time of prosperity for everyone - which suggests crops were flourishing in the warmer climate.
He admits this while denying the truth of it:
Not all regions experienced warmer temperatures during this period, however. Many scholars prefer the label Medieval Climate Anomaly instead. This better reflects the fact that climatic changes varied across the globe and involved more than just rising temperatures.
Although the warmer temperatures produced occasional drought conditions, the overall economic effects of the Medieval Climate Anomaly were largely positive for northern Europe and parts of Asia. It led to large-scale and widespread agricultural expansion and population growth.
Between 600–900, the population of Eurasia grew only marginally, from 167 million to 178 million. Between 900–1200, however, it nearly doubled to 324 million.
It was during the Medieval Climate Anomaly that a highly commercialized and monetized economy developed in large parts of medieval Europe, in what historians have described as its commercial revolution.
And we know that the Mongols exploded out of their Gobi Desert home at the end of the 13th century, and why did they do that? Because they had a major population growth spurt and enough food to feed their soldiers.
The Mayans and Incans both experienced Golden Ages during this period too.
And then there was Cahokia. A great civilization known as the Mound Builders flourished in Illinois and other parts of the Midwest (St. Louis is called Mound City in honor of the mounds they build in the "suburbs" of Cahokia) and Cahokia was their capital. In the year 900 it's population was greater than that of London at the time. By 1450 the city was almost completely abandoned. It was not conquered. But conditions changed with the end of the MWP and no doubt they had a series of crop failures along with disease outbreaks that led to the fall of Cahokia. A great civilization perished when it went from warm to cold. Most of her population loss came in the 13th century, just as the MWP was ending.
(BTW the Cahokia Indians came later and settled in the ruins, building a small village on top of Monk's Mound, the ceremonial center of the ancient city. Mounks Mound is a hundred feet high, an artificial mountain constructed on the prairie of western Illinois. The Great Sun - the leader - lived there and all ceremonial events occurred on it.)
So we have evidence in Illinois, in the Yucatan, in in South America, in China and Central Asia and Europe and even in New Zealand
Yes, there were heat waves and droughts but that is normal. It appears to me most people were flourishing around the globe. It was a period, not an "anomaly".
Here's this guy's conclusion:
"The Medieval Climate Anomaly was a largely regional episode of natural warmth. Today's climate change is a rapid worldwide warming trend driven primarily by human greenhouse gas emissions.
Moreover, temperatures are rising today at unprecedented rates. Records continue to tumble, as weather that was once considered extreme becomes normal.
There are, however, some salutary warnings from the past. As climates change, so too will the risk of diseases spreading and the possibility of weather extremes. With increasing temperatures, it is possible, for example, that malaria may once again become endemic in the UK.
As the medieval period has demonstrated, fire spread can be another acute risk during long periods of dry weather. But unlike the medieval period, we now have the technology to help us prepare, as well as national fire services and more ways to share information quickly. That gives us an advantage that medieval communities just did not have."
He says the MWP was "regional" and yet it impacted much of the globe. How is that "regional"? And he points to things that have nothing to do with the current theory of climate warming as the causes of disasters, like big volcanic eruptions, and then ignores the very point he made to kowtow to the fashionable War of the World's scare.
Most of this conclusion is a non-sequiter. Nothing he discusses in the meat of the article leads one to accept his conclusions.
And he fails to mention what went after, the bitter cold, the hunger, the diseases that befell the world after the climate cooled.
That's how this is done these days. I suppose we now call that "science"?
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:25 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 1057 words, total size 8 kb.
More Foolishness from Climate "Science"
Timothy Birdnow
I thought tropical islands were all going to disappear under the sea! Now they are telling us they will be too humid because of.....climate change!
Of course they are predicting this seventy four years out so nobody can check to see if it happened.
The fact is most tropical islands already have dangerously high humidity. (Yes, there are some that are desert.) But this is a condition that pretty much already exists.
AS I say, they told us these small islands would disappear under rising sea levels. But a strange thing happened; it turns out many of these islands were actually growing as opposed to shrinking from rising sea levels. It has been so good in fact that the Indian Ocean chain of atolls known as the Maldives is building SIX new airports to accommodate all the traffic coming to the "sinking" isles, and the Saychelles is planning a major airport expansion.
Here's the kicker:
The risks extend beyond health. Many island communities are already dealing with climate pressures, including rising seas, water shortages and extreme weather, meaning increased heat could add another challenge to daily life. As such, the team warns that some islands could experience conditions that become increasingly difficult for people to safely work, travel and spend time outdoors without adaptation measures.
So we are going to have higher humidity but water shortages, are we? Humidity often means more rain.
In other words they are just piling on any catastrophe' they can credibly link to changing climatic conditions.
What a load climate science has become! It's all computer models being presented as fact.
Jere is the actual paper.
AbstractExtreme humid heat is projected to increase markedly by the end of the century, particularly in the tropics. Yet, the case of small islands is ambiguous because the available studies are based on coarse global climate models (GCMs) that ignore them. Here, bias-corrected GCMs at weather station sites are used to assess present and future extreme humid heat conditions on various tropical islands. Levels of humid heat are estimated with the Heat Index (HI) combining temperature and humidity. Extreme humid heat intensity is projected to reach particularly dangerous levels by the end of the century, with higher HI values for islands located closer to the equator. Longer humid heatwaves are also notably projected to increase in frequency, with more pronounced increases equatorward, because of the lower seasonal variability of HI. Such severe conditions threaten the lives of millions of island inhabitants across the tropics.
Plain Language SummaryUnder warm conditions, heat stress to the human body is stronger for higher humidity. Previous research has shown that although northern hemisphere mid- and high latitudes are projected to warm faster than elsewhere, humid heat over continents is expected to be most pronounced in the tropics. Unfortunately, the global climate models typically used in humid heat studies are too coarse to distinguish small islands. In this paper, such models are statistically combined with weather station data to obtain projections of extreme humid heat events and humid heatwaves in various tropical islands, covering different oceanic basins and latitudes. There, the response of humid heat to global warming is found to be similar to that over continents, with a faster increase toward dangerous heat stress levels for islands located closer to the equator. Our results underline that projected humid heat conditions are an existential threat for millions of island inhabitants across the tropics.
It's pretty clear these researchers started with a conclusion and worked their way back from it. This isn't science.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:18 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 608 words, total size 5 kb.
Republican Gubernatorial Candidate in Illinois Wants to Audit NGO's
Timothy Birdnow
Illinois currently has no freedom of information act (foia) disclosure requirements for NGO's that get money from the state. That means they can launder vast sums of cash to the Democrats in the Prairie State with no fear of being caught.
At least a Republican candidate for Governor wants to change that.
Darren Bailey is calling for foia disclosures for any agency that receives over ten thousand dollars from state coffers.
Sadly this proposal will probably go nowhere as Illinois is as blue as they come and J.B. "no neck" Pritzker is running for a third term - with his billions to back him up.
But this is an important issue. NGO's have been running rampant, and they need to be reined in. Of course no Democrat will try to do that.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:35 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 143 words, total size 1 kb.
The Short Eyes of Jesse White (D-Pa)
Timothy Birdnow
Fpr,er Pennsylvania Representative Jesse White (a Democrat, naturally) has been arrested for child pornography, being in the possession of dozens of nude photos of children. Two appear to be his own children.
This is what the amorality of our modern age has wrought. And it's what the Democratics Party has sunk to.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:34 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 61 words, total size 1 kb.
July 23, 2026
Lindell Pushes Amnesty for Illegals
Timothy Birdnow
The conservative My Pillow entrepreneur and podcaster has gone insane, calling for amnesty for illegal aliens.
I guess his pillows use some toxic chemicals that cause brain damage.
Lindell, the Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota, has promoted the idea of a six month window for aliens to apply for permanent status on the theory "I'm for giving people second chances".
What of the Law, Mr. Lindell? What of the American People who are getting cheated out of jobs, out of government services? What of the theft of taxpayer dollars by illegals?
I am sorely disappointed to hear he turned to the Dark Side.
Second chances are for the penitent. If these folks were penitent they would return home and apply through official channels rather than cut the line.
As far as I'm concerned this disqualifies Lindell from being governor.
"I’d like the whole United States to do this, but let’s say I did it here in Minnesota,” Lindell told the Washington Examiner in a Tuesday interview. "Six months, all the illegal immigrants would have to go get what’s going to be called a conditional work visa.”
Turns out Mr. Lindell had a long battle with drug addiction. Sounds like he fell off the wagon.
At any rate this is a craven attempt to get the many illegal aliens in Minnesota to support him and it's a despicable, craven caving to political correctness.
I would like to remind Mr. Lindell of what Jesus said in John 10:1
"Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber."
So he wants to amnetize thieves and robbers, does he? Is that being a good shepherd? Let them stay and you only encourage more and more of them to come. Plus chain migration means their extended family gets to come and generally the whole village will show up. It's not just then.
A Christian has sphered of duty that start with his family then go to his community and then to his state then his nation. Too many Christians these days forget that and start with this embrace of all at the expense of his immediate responsibilities because the Left has framed this as a "love" vs. hate issue when in fact it is not and Christendom has always recognized the right to control your borders.
Lindeell is displaying immature Christian thinking. He needs to grow up.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:48 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 416 words, total size 3 kb.
Turncoats on Trannies
Timothy Birdnow
The House of Representatives tried to make Trump's ban on trannies in the military permanent but four RINO Republicans blocked the measure.
Guess which ones?
Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
Mike Lawler (R-NY)
Rep. James Moylan Guam
Rep. Kimberlyn King-Hinds from the Northern Mariana Islands
Fitzpatrick has always been more comfortable as a Democrat while we all know Mike "Amnesty for illegals" Lawler is a POS.
These last two puzzle me; I thought territory representatives were observers and did not vote on bills. Apparently they are non-voting but can vote on amendments. As this was an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) the two territorial turncoats were eligible to vote. They shouldn't be able to vote on anything if they are "non-voting" members of Congress.
This is why we should not take any overseas territories into the U.S. They aren't American, they just use America for their defense and support.
I've long thought Hawaii doesn't belong in the Union either.
Even Alaska is questionable. Alaska is isolated from the U.S. and it has long been a hotbed of leftism despite it being a seemingly self-reliant place.
At any rate with friends like these who needs enemies? If any Republican votes with a Democrat for any reason he should be targeted for being primaried.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:33 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 233 words, total size 2 kb.
Enthusiasm for the Mission
Timothy Birdnow
HAL: Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.HAL: I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission.
HAL: I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:06 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 124 words, total size 1 kb.
Eat Smith and Die!
Timothy Birdnow
The biter gets bit.
He needs to go to the slammer.
Jim Jordan sent the referral to the DOJ after Mr. Smith was shown to have clearly lied to Congress about his investigations into Donald Trump over the 2020 election.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:22 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.
Thune the Buffoon
Timothy Birdnow
John Thune is even worse than Mitch McConnell. He has now shot down the entire Republican agenda.
Not only has Thune simply refused to push the SAVE America Act, but he is also now refusing to take up a budget deal sent to him by the House to fund the government until after the upcoming elections. That means the Democrats will shut down the government and blame it on the GOP - and maybe cost Republicans control of the House.
Thune knows what he is doing. He wants a Democratic House so he can stop Trump's agenda. It's that simple.
I wish our system worked like Britain's and we could call a vote of no confidence in Thune. Sadly it doesn't work that way. The House can remove the Speaker by declaring the seat vacant but as far as I know there is no such prevision for removing the Majority Leader.
We can't get rid of this jerk soon enough. He is a duplicitous, back-stabbing weasel.
Oh, and he's kept the Senate in session so Trump can't make any recess appointments and thus has to leave a lot of positions vacant. There is no reason to do that except to stop his own President's agenda.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:16 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 211 words, total size 2 kb.
Big Win in Court Over Illegals
Timothy Birdnow
Big win for the Trump Administration as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Trump may Keep illegals locked up until they see an immigration judge. This verdict overruled a lower court which ordered Trump to grant habeas corpus to the illegals.
In short it says illegals do not have a right to all the rights and privileges of American citizens. Sensible.
James PercivalHomeland Security@DHSGenCounsel
Another big win out of the 5th Circuit. DHS’s change in legal position on illegal alien detention restored the policy set by Congress and rejected a misreading of the law that perpetuated open borders for decades. It’s not too late to take a $2,600 check and a free flight home. DHS.GOV/CBPHOME
end
But of course these lower court judges will simply issue new injunctions and be slapped down again and again - their goal is to slow the Administration down, to buy time in the hopes the Democrats retake power.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:08 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 165 words, total size 1 kb.
Smithsonian Attacks White Culture
Timothy Birdnow
This is white supremacist culture?
user avatarEnd Wokeness@EndWokeness
Smithsonian's "white supremacy" list:
✅ individualism, self-reliance✅ nuclear family structures✅ rational, linear thinking✅ work before you play✅ plan for the future✅ protect property✅ avoid conflicts✅ manage time✅ be polite
Maybe white supremacism wasn't so bad after all!
This was the taxpayer funded Smithsonian Institute and it was intended to attack white culture, not praise it.
I am reminded of the "Fighting Whiteys". A native American tribe had a teens basketball team and they wanted to make a statement. They decided to "rub white peoples noses in it" by making whites their team mascot - "The Fighting Whiteys". They had a rendering of a dorky white man from the fifties, complete with hat and pipe on their shirts. They thought it would be funny and would enrage the white folks.
Guess what? The white people loved it and the tribal kids made a fortune selling "fighting whitey" paraphernalia! We took it as an honor, not an insult.
"White supremacism" built tis country and gave more to more people - including the minorities who now resent white culture - than any other culture in history. No, white culture wasn't perfect, but it was far superior to most other cultures around the world. Anyone who has gone abroad and actually visited the Third World comes back here with extreme gratitude at what we have. We didn't find America just laying around waiting to be mined or harvested - we built it. It is so good precisely because the culture, the values, the heritage that built it was good.
I will never apologize for being a white man and supporting white culture. Anyone who expects us to is a damned fool or an ungrateful snot.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:45 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 305 words, total size 3 kb.
Mamdani, the Goodfella of New York Real Estate
Timothy Birdnow
Mamcommie just destroyed real estate in New York.
He pushed through two schemes 1.he put on a two year rent freeze, essentially making it impossible for landlords to keep up with inflation and 2. he ordered that landlords who want to sell have to offer the property to the city first or two NGO's.
The first issue is obvious; without being able to pay for capital improvements and repairs these buildings will begin to deteriorate and eventually the decline will lead to the landlords losing their shirts. Bear in mind that as buildings deterioirate the good tenants leave and are replaced by whosoever the landlord can get to take the dump. In the end it's a death spiral because they get bad tenants who then won't pay anything at all (and no doubt Mamdani will make evictions nigh unto impossible) and the the landlord is dead in the water.
Contrary to popular opinion (and I speak as a real estate man who did a rental properties) being a landlord is not a very profitable venture and it requires a huge amount of effort and money. Over and over the property management company I worked for picked up clients who were of relatively modest means who thought they could buy a building, rent it, and do a lot of the maintenance themselves. They usually lost the buildings even with our help because it was too late. It takes a lot of time to restore a building's reputation and it costs a lot of money to get it not just up to code but up to desirability. You have to offer something to get urban pioneers to risk moving into sketchy neighborhoods. You can't do it with just a mediocre property. And of course they want to pay less if they are willing to take a shithole.
Meanwhile the building keeps degrading and if vacant you risk people breaking in, squatters, drug users, and people hiding from the police.
I remember a property we had in a bad neighborhood and the local criminals actually carved a hole in the outer wall, dug out bricks, to leave an escape hole they could climb in if the cops were after them. You can't salvage a place that is that far gone. The lone tenant we had left there was unemployed and she sat on the stoop outside every day with her children, who were school aged but obviously didn't go to school. So these children were going to be just like her and raise children of their own like feral animals, stupid and woefully ignorant, so that they themselves could then have children. Lather, rinse, repeat.
But it all starts with landlords finding they can't get enough money to maintain their properties and then having to accept marginal tenants.
Now, if we want to discuss the matter of the government requiring you to sell to them, I do not believe that is legal (and I know quite a bit about real estate law). Note this is NOT using eminent domain and paying fair market price - it's about forcing property owners to simply go to them and if the government decides to make an offer you will have to take it. I assure you they will lowball these offers.
If you can't cut your loses and if you can't sell what can you do? Moran is right; properties will be abandoned at record rates as they become unprofitable.
New York is already a city that has to struggle to keep it's neighborhoods looking good. Old buildings abound, and people have to struggle to find decent places to live. There are so many people that vacant properties will be torn up very quickly, losing their copper pipes and fireplace mantles and crown molding. The only thing keeping the city livable is the high property values, which means landlords can charge a lot.
It's like Goodfellas when Henry Hill was explaining how it worked with Mafia-owned businesses "then, when you can no longer buy a bottle of booze or a keg of beer you go into bankruptcy and burn the place out". Hill was explaining how the Mafia stole a business blind when they went in with a legitimate business owner and wrung it dry.
That is what Mamdani is doing to New York. He's no different than the Mafiosa in Goodfellas.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:20 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 736 words, total size 5 kb.
Iran Threatens America, Says will Pull out Beards and Remove Toenails in Slow Motion
Timothy Birdnow
What? You mean they weren't trying to do this before now?
My late grandfather owned a stationary store, selling office supplies to the local businesses in downtown St. Louis. He often had to kick vagrants out of the store. In one particular instance a vagrant came in and demanded money and grandpa tossed him out of the store. The man uttered a dark and terrible prophecy as he was being physically removed from the premises "there will never be another yellow dog born in Missouri for the next century!" And he probably added "so there!" in his mind but gramps didn't hear it anyway.
This is kinda like that.
Iran no doubt has sleeper cells in America but they would have acted before now if they could actually pull off a major terror attack. I doubt they stayed their hand out of the goodness of their hearts. We all know the tender sensibilities of Iranian Shias.
But let's assume they could for a second. Iran knows that if they pull something big it will galvanize American voters and then all bets are off. ALL the bombs come out, all the missiles, and Iran becomes a giant sheet of glass. We have the power to destroy them utterly. They know it too.
I think this is mostly bluster. Like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, he offers to call his fight with Arthur a draw after the king chops off his two arms and both his legs.
Now, Trump has threatened to hit a bridge or plant every time Iran hits a ship in the Persian Gulf and the Iranians are threatening to retaliate by attacking Arab infrastructer - as if they hadn't already been doing so. See here for a rundown on the infrastructure Iran has already attacked.
Iran has been attacking her Arab neighbors infrastructure all along. That is why Iranian complaints about America doing that in defiance of International Law rings so hollow. They haven't just attacked American bases in these countries but have gone after their infrastructure.
But if we do that to THEM they don't like it.
The Iranian embassy in Spain suggested we build as many coffins as possible.
Going to be kind of hard to put Americans in coffins if you guys are all in the ground.
I suspect Iran's ability to strike us with major terrorist attacks is limited - this is not the Biden era and our national security apparatus isn't worried about "domestic terrorists" like the Pink Sisters or The Family Research Council. We have serious people in charge now.
Yes, America has soft targets. Everyone does, at least in an open society such as ours. But the Iranians have to have enough people here to pull it off, have to have intel, has to have access to weapons or things that can be turned into weapons.
I don't know if their sleeper agents will be able to do it. And like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor they may find Americans remember who we are and decide to finish what George W. Bush started. Trump is no George W. Bush.
Oh, there were no terrorist attacks on the 250th celebrations for America. Why didn't Iran attack then?
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:43 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 571 words, total size 4 kb.
July 22, 2026
A Party of Whores
Timothy Birdnow
You may now scream into your hat or other headwear.
From the Federalist:
The latest example comes from 47 House Republicans supporting legislation that would allow some illegal aliens working in agriculture to obtain legal status.
H.R. 9535, introduced by Republican Rep. Glenn Thompson, would overhaul the current H-2A temporary agricultural worker program by expanding the time frame so that it permits illegals to stay all year in three-year time increments and "waiv[es] some immigration violations like illegally obtaining an agriculture job,” as The Federalist’s Breccan Thies explained.
And with legal status we will have illegal voting and eventually a "pathway to citizenship" which will feed the Democratic Party and further alter the character of the United States.
But wait! There's more!
DIGNIDAD ActAnother recent fight over illegal immigration stems from Republicans’ efforts to pass a mass amnesty proposal known as the DIGNIDAD Act (or, if you’re American, the DIGNITY Act). According to a press release from Florida GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s office, the legislation "allows certain long-term undocumented immigrants to earn legal status, without amnesty or a path to citizenship” so that illegal aliens who broke the law can have an "opportunity.” The bill would create a "7-year earned legal status program allowing” illegal aliens "to live and work legally, with renewable status based on good conduct and restitution.”
More than a dozen Republicans currently support the DIGNIDAD Act.
American Dream and Promise ActA Democrat-controlled Congress first passed this legislation in March of 2021 with nine Republicans voting in favor, but it died at the end of that term. Democrat Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas reintroduced the legislation in February of 2025, though it has not moved through any processes.
The legislation would provide amnesty for illegal aliens who claim to have been brought to the U.S. as children as well as certain Temporary Protected Status recipients. The legislation would protect these illegals and noncitizens from deportations and create a pathway to citizenship.
What part of "deport" don't these Republicans get? We do not want foreigners in the country taking American jobs and changing our culture to a Latin one. The American People are united on this issue in overwhelming numbers. Yet here we are with Republicans STILL carrying the water for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Maybe we should outsource THEM, hire illegals to take their jobs.
This is why we keep losing. We have few actual men in our party - it's full of whores.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
11:20 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 432 words, total size 4 kb.
Yes, Virginia, There is a God
more...
Timothy Birdnow
I was on the message board of Bishop Robert Barron's post about why atheism is wrong, and naturally it was chock-full of atheists who were in high degrees of agitation over the Bishop daring to challenge their faith. Naturally I couldn't stay out of it. Oddly enough I got few people willing to reply to me.
Why not? Almost all of them used the same line "there is no evidence for God" and I proceeded to provide it to them. They couldn't refute anything so at most I got a laughing emoji, if that.
At any rate one of my interlocutors, one who actually answered me, took umbrage with my claim that children are generally born theists and only later are taught atheism. He insisted it was the other way around.
So I provided him with this.
Yes, peer reviewed science has shown most children are believers by nature.
The larger study by Oxford University (hardly Ave Maria University) found that most people the world over believe in God and the survival of the soul after death.
But children do especially. From the article:
Studies by Emily Reed Burdett and Justin Barrett, from the University of Oxford, suggest that children below the age of five find it easier to believe in some superhuman properties than to understand similar human limitations. Children were asked whether their mother would know the contents of a box in which she could not see. Children aged three believed that their mother and God would always know the contents, but by the age of four, children start to understand that their mothers are not all-seeing and all knowing. However, children may continue to believe in all-seeing, all-knowing supernatural agents, such as a god or gods.
end
And the same holds true for adults:
Project Co-Director Professor Roger Trigg, from the University of Oxford's Ian Ramsey Centre, said: 'This project suggests that religion is not just something for a peculiar few to do on Sundays instead of playing golf. We have gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common fact of human nature across different societies. This suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts, such as the existence of supernatural agents or gods, and the possibility of an afterlife or pre-life.'
end
So this guy was flat wrong when he claimed theism is taught.
There are multiple other pieces of evidence for the existence of a supreme being, an intelligence who designed reality.
Take the Anthropic Principle. It is a well-established scientific concept that points out that our universe is uniquely suited to our existence and if you alter just one physical law even slightly the whole thing comes unraveled and life is impossible. That is hard to dismiss. Either we are lucky beyond any sort of reasonable odds or somebody designed things.
In fact this bothered the hell out of (pardon the pun) astronomer Fred Hoyle, an atheist, who calculated the odds of life spontaneously coming into existence. He didn't even calculate the odds of life - he just looked at the amino acids. His numbers were staggering - 10 to the 40,000 power. He likened it to a tornado moving through a junkyard and creating a Boeing 747. Many atheists have tried to disavow this and yet their criticisms largely fail (mostly they say multiple smaller processes could happen at the same time then amalgamate, something equally preposterous but they think they can get the odds down to 10 to the 26,000 power.)
At any rate Hoyle realized this was impossible so he kicked the can WAAAAYYY down the road. He invented the Steady State theory in which he argued the universe always existed but that just our little slice of it is only 4.3 billion years old and that life drifted here from the older parts. Of course, if the universe is eternal it would long ago have reached heat death. And there is that pesky 3 degree background radiation from the Big Bang to contend with. And the fact life is a violation of thermodynamics, a complete reversal of entropy - order from disorder. The universe doesn't workt hat way as we see it now.
Speaking of the Big Bang it followed the Book of Genesis perfectly. Cosmological expansion began BEFORE the Big Bang for reasons that are yet unclear. Genesis said "and the Earth was malformed and void and darkness was upon it's face, and God said "Let there be light" and there was light. Just like Cosmologists now believe.
Oh, there are other arguments. Order, for instance, comes from somewhere despite entropy. We have mathematical concepts that suggest a rationality to the universe, a design. The Nautilus Shell Spiral is called a "Golden Spiral" and it appears all over the place. The Milky Way is such. There is Pi. There are Mandelbrat sets. etc.
There is Natural Law; self-evident truths that we all intuitively understand. What is the first thing out of any child's mouth when something doesn't go his way? "That's not fair!" Why does he think that? Why does he expect fairness in a world clearly governed by it's opposite? Because he knows in his heart that there is Natural Law and so many things violate that. Thomas Jefferson understood it too and it's part of our Declaration of Independence.
Where did that concept originate? It certainly violates what appears to be the law of our universe, survival of the fittest and power granting the strong to thrive.
We have near death experiences all over the world with witnesses actually coming back from death with tales of an afterlife - both good and bad.
We have Marianne apparitions which many people have seen. For instance, in Zeitun Egypt back in 1968-71 where over a MILLION people saw a vision of Mary above a Coptic church in this suburb of Cairo. President Nasser was one of them and after that he began the peace negotiations that Anwar Sadat would later complete with Israel. It was actually televised and we have films of it!
Zeitun was far from the only one - we had Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe, all over the world. Medjugorje, although that has yet to be approved. I know a guy who went to Medjugorje and saw the miracle of the sun, in which the sun started spinning violently. First seen at Fatima it terrified people at the site then.
And the miracles. The Catholic Church investigates miracles from Marianne sights and is very careful to NOT declare one without solid evidence, yet people are cured of diseases and problems all the time at these locations.
And what of demonic possessions? Those too are ubiquitous, universal occurrences common to all humanity. If the Devil exists than so too does God.
I could go on and on but you get the point. None of these are smoking gun proofs, but they are evidence. If we were in a court of law we certainly could get an indictment, but a conviction would be tougher. God wants us to have free will so we can choose, choose who and what we want to be and decide our place in eternity. He makes us partners with Him in our own creation. Atheists often just take their ball and go home because they are angry at God or don't like life. But life isn't supposed to be easy, and if we are to become what we want we have to face the consequences of our decisions. You can't do that without there actually being consequences.
And as Paul said, this is "our momentary, light affliction" in eternity, a breath and done. As he also points out, it is like labor pains for a women, who will forget all about them as soon as the baby is born.
Yes, life is hard and that may actually add to our joy much like a little garlic improves pasta or salt improves our food in general. The memory of our suffering may be a great source of our joy in the hereafter.
I once read a near death experience and the person involved said he was told by a guide that we have to learn certain things and are thus sent here which is the only place we can learn them. You can't truly love your enemy if you have none, so we have to come here to learn to love our enemies. Otherwise we remain simple children. I am sure there is a lot of that in our being sent here. And always we have to learn to trust God and seek His grace because it's far too easy to put ourselves on the godhead, and that way leads to damnation. (Damnation is chosen, by the way; Hell is a place where people go to get away from God. As one near death experiencer said, the worst part of Hell is the people there - they have nothing to do for eternity and so they entertain themselves by tormenting others.)
In the final analysis atheism is as much a leap of faith - more actually - than belief. It's not agnosticism, where you say "I don't know" but rather you say "I know and there is no God" which is entirely unprovable. It's a dangerous and foolish risk to so confidently dismiss God's existence because you think you could do a better job.
I know I can't. I've long pondered God's ways, which are mysterious, and come to the conclusion that I wouldn't have done it any differently. I hate that but I understand it. God has to be hidden or we wouldn't have free will, wouldn't have a choice. He has to allow bad things to happen because otherwise we would have nothing to respond to. It's easy being good when times are good, not so much when the cold winds blow. We all have to learn fortitude to trust God so when we get back to Him we know it's not just sucking up to Him to get stuff. We have to make a choice. And we have to remake ourselves.
God made all sorts of intelligences and He wanted each to be unique. But how is that fair? Lucifer was the best and brightest and most beautiful while some schlub of an angel (let's forget humans who were worse than all the angels in beauty and intellect) got nothing, the null set. He was slow, plain, not real bright,not very engaging. But God loved him too! So how do you right this? You hold a tournament and give prizes away. You give gifts to those who win and the victory is largely based on desire. If you want to be kind God gives you kindness. If you want patience He gives you patience. If you want to be close to Him, sitting at His right hand, you will get that, provided you try to be righteous. Lucifer and the other fallen angels simply took their ball and went home. They refused to serve "better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven" and so now they have what they wanted - and it is overwhelmingly bad. Michael, the prince of the angelic host, had just been an archangel, the second lowest order of angels. Now he bosses around Cherubim and Seraphim because he was the one who loved God the most.
Mary is at the very top of creation (as opposed to Jesus, who is the top of everything) because she loved God and her son more than anyone. What was she? An uneducated peasant woman, the kind most people would see as a "hillbilly" as she was from Nazareth. Now she is greater than Queens and Empresses.
This is not to say salvation is not the gift of Jesus, that we can work our way into Heaven. We still must have faith and ask Jesus for it. But the things we do in life matter to our place in eternity. Adolf Hitler could possibly be in Heaven (very doubtful) and certainly Mussolini could. But they would be at the very bottom because they were bad people who may have repented at the end. Some very seemingly holy people may not be there.
At any rate in my view there is plenty of evidence for the existence of God although none of it is a smoking gun proof. God isn't going to give us that until Jesus returns. But He gives us enough if we are willing to seek it with an open mind. Sadly too many atheists lack that.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:59 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 2893 words, total size 18 kb.
Learn Our Ways or Go Home
Timothy Birdnow
So what's wrong with aliens in our country doing the work "Americans Just Won't Do"? Let me tell you a story.
Last night I wasn't up for cooking, and it was very hot out and I saw no reason to heat up the kitchen, so I ordered a pizza. Now, there is a new Jets Pizza that just opened in my neighborhood, about three minutes from where I live, and Jets is pretty good, so I called in an order.
Problem was the place had their delivery guy call in and so they sent the order out via Door Dash. Door Dash apparently hires foreign people.
I ordered my pizza at 5:30 by 6:3o I got a call from the delivery driver who barely spoke any English. He asked my address, which I am sure he was given when he picked up my order from Jets. I told him the address. He called back saying he was having trouble finding it. I told him again. Then a bit after 7 a woman called and said (also in broken English) they were there but where was I? She gave me an address that was not mine. I told her "no, I'm right by the pizza place" and she complained she was ten miles away! She kept saying she was at this address in an accusatory manner as if I was somehow at fault for their inability to understand English. I finally had to hang up on her because she just kept repeating how she was at this other address. I looked it up - it WAS ten miles away.
How on Earth did this woman think someone that far would order a pizza and expect it to be delivered?
At any rate she was absolutely unreasonable and I had to hang up on her and call Jets. The manager apologized, made me new food, and brought it himself. He threw in an enormous brownie (in a whole cake pan) for my troubles. I didn't get any food until quite late. He said when he called them they simply refused to come back to deliver my food.
THAT is what's wrong with outsourcing your labor, even when it's in the country. These people were clearly Middle Easterners and apparently didn't think they needed to become fluent in English and expected we kaffirs should kowtow to them. I would add I had used a credit card and put a very generous tip on the bill to pay them. Hopefully the manager at Jets kept the tip for himself and further hopefully he'll refuse to pay these two idiots. He did say he will never use them again.
I don't know why it took two of them to do the job one person could do, either. I suppose delivering food is a complex endeavor requiring several minds to navigate.
At any rate I didn't eat until about eight thirty, and enjoyed the fun and adventure of a blood sugar crash in the process so I filled up on sherbert before I got my dinner. Ah, good times!
I don't blame Jets; I blame Door Dash for hiring people who have no business doing a job when they can't speak proper English and can't write down an address properly.
In times past teenagers would have done that job but now foreigners have taken all the jobs kids used to do and now kids get no training for the working world. So young people start with career jobs after college when they finally HAVE to start working and they have no experience with handling the vicissitudes of employment. McDonalds or convenience stores or amusement parks or delivering pizza used to be the minor leagues of employment, where young people learned responsibility. No more. Now we have so many aliens here taking not just those jobs but good ones too. How many people doing coding for big corporations are aliens?
But we never hear about any of the detriments from the mainstream media, just about how terrible it is we are kicking some of them out of the country. Well, I am not willing to wait two and a half hours for a pizza just to give a job to some interloper I didn't invite here. If it was an American kid who screwed up in this fashion I'd be a bit more forging because kids screw up. But I find it offensive to have to argue with someone who has broken English just to get a pizza I ordered - especially when I gave them a very generous tip.
If you come here you had better learn how to live here, how to work here, and learn proper English. If you don't want to do that go home.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:19 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 800 words, total size 5 kb.
114kb generated in CPU 0.1425, elapsed 0.4236 seconds.
49 queries taking 0.4023 seconds, 244 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
49 queries taking 0.4023 seconds, 244 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
