Checking In
Keeping Virtual Mirage running despite almost constant hacking has been a constant battle, and you’ll notice some format changes. The malware had been embedded in the formatting. Surly and others have asked about things that are gone.
The appearance may change again. Much of what had been prepped for future blog publication had to be hollowed out to excise the damage done by the malevolent. Though this particular hacker feels immune, wouldn’t it be a frigging pity if a piano fell from a great height to end him here and send him onto the next life. I don’t predict an untimely end or rule it out. While dealing with the blog, some original fictional shorts were lost, and various bits and pieces were destroyed. I don’t know if it’s worth the effort to restore them. You never saw them, so in a sense, they didn’t exist. Such is the nature of cyber-blogs. Such is life in general. We move forward.
In his days as a bookshop assistant, George Orwell had a customer who never remembered titles or authors but could tell by glancing inside any book whether he had ‘had it before,’ if so, he didn’t want it (again) because he knew that it was supremely uninteresting. I have generally avoided reading that kind of story, and I try not to write them; with what success, it would be unwise of me to judge – though I have succeeded when I have written no stories.
Tom Simon weighed in on this by writing, “Once in a while, one happens upon an uninteresting object, but engaging in context: its interest is all extrinsic. The only use of a key is to open a lock, but once the door is unlocked, anything or everything may be on the other side. Chesterton himself failed to find one of these things, though, in his context, he had a deep and sincere interest in it. That, of course, was his railway ticket. It is only a bit of colored paper with cryptic messages printed on it. In context, it is the power to pass into another place, a real place, with all the varied and interesting things that a real place can contain: stock and stone, tree and leaf, fruit and flower, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the houses and souls of living men.” Simon said it better than I might have, so I quoted him.
Bullet Points:
** (zerohedge) Having allowed the government to expand and exceed our reach, we find ourselves on the losing end of a tug-of-war over control of our country and our lives. And for as long as we let them, government officials will continue to trample on our rights, always justifying their actions as being for the good of the people. Yes, what an excellent idea! Allow our betters to decide what’s good for us. They can’t figure out which bathroom to use and assert that men can bear children, but don’t worry about the trivial details, and come in with Big Brother for the win.
** Vivek claims to go balls-deep into the FBI. His presentation disappoints. He avoids discussing their role as political commissars and their role in the permanent Washington establishment designed to maintain control of the status quo, which includes DEI, the democrat party, a lawless agenda, and the creation of a socially engineered state – totalitarianism.
** Rogan discusses the world leader who used to play the piano with his penis.
** Men – who men are – what men do – etc. More here.
** In 2018, Democrats blocked $5 billion to build the wall between the USA and Mexico, blaming President Trump for wastefulness. In 2024, NYC is spending $10 billion a year to feed and house illegal aliens (wetbacks). It would be more satisfying for me if they turned Martha’s Vineyard into a large compound for illegal aliens by fencing it off. How much could it cost?
** Peterson discusses the race to the bottom in Canada.
** In 1971, engineers from the Soviet Union ignited a fire in a gas-filled hole in the Turkmenistan desert.
Anticipating that the flames would extinguish within days, they were surprised when the fire continued to burn. Now, 53 years later, this site, known as “The Door to Hell,” is still ablaze (right).
** The Vice President of the United States of America discusses the importance of communication.
** Why do drag queens crave an audience of children?
** I’m not suggesting that you vote for RFKjr. I am suggesting that there is a reason why the democrat party is terrified of him and why they have been desperate to remove him for the race. He says things like this.
** The question is often asked, “Who runs America?” It’s a fair question and it’s clearly not Congress or Pedo Joe or the Ho, neither of whom could pour sand out of a boot. Here’s one perspective.
** What doesn’t kill you will circle around for another try.
** If Paul the Apostle saw the Church in America today, we’d be getting a sharply worded letter…
Libraries
The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal was perhaps one of the most significant libraries of the ancient world. It was constructed by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal and located in Nineveh, the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Ashurbanipal ruled from c. 669 to c. 631 BC, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. During his reign, he fought many military campaigns, but he rarely led in person and spent most of his time at his lavish palace in Nineveh.
Ashurbanipal was a merciless king who proudly depicted his brutal treatment of his enemies on reliefs, many of which have survived. But aside from his brutality, Ashurbanipal was quite the intellectual who gathered ancient texts to fill his library and enhance his knowledge. He wanted to unite all the written knowledge under one roof. He sent messengers to cities far and wide across his empire, directing them to send copies of written texts. He was a passionate collector and writer who often depicted himself with a writing stylus in his belt. Ashurbanipal claimed:
“I, Ashurbanipal, within the palace, understood the wisdom of Nabu (the god of learning)—all the art of writing of every kind. I made myself the master of them all. I read the cunning tablets of Sumer and the dark Akkadian language which is difficult to rightly use; I took my pleasure in reading stones inscribed before the flood. The best of the scribal art, such works as none of the kings who went before me had ever learned, remedies from the top of the head to the toenails, non-canonical selections, clever teachings, whatever pertains to the medical mastery of (the gods) Ninurta and Gala, I wrote on tablets, checked and collated, and deposited within my palace for perusing and reading.”
Contents from the library include divinations, omens, incantations, and hymns to various gods; there are also writings concerned with astronomy, legislation, foreign correspondence, engagements, aristocratic declarations, and financial matters, as well as letters, census surveys, contracts, and last but not least, literary works. The library gives us a great insight into life in the ancient Near East and is probably one of the greatest archeological discoveries ever made. H. G. Wells described the library as “the most precious source of historical material in the world.”
Famous finds from the library include the Epic of Gilgamesh (pictured), the Enûma Eliš creation story, the Azekah Inscription, the Rassam Cylinder, K.3364, Esarhaddon’s Treaty with Ba’al of Tyre, the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa, and the Sargon ll Prism A.
When Nineveh was destroyed by a coalition of Medes, Babylonians, Scythians, Persians, and Cimmerians in c. 612 BC, the library was presumably lost under the rubble for almost 2,500 years until it was rediscovered by Assyriologist and author Hormuzd Rassam, in the mid-19th century.
The current amount of tablets and fragments from the library is in the tens of thousands. However, another library or archive was found in the South-West Palace in Nineveh, which belonged to Sennacherib, Ashurbanipal’s grandfather. This library was found by Austen Henry Layard’s foreman, Toma Shishman, in 1850, two years before Ashurbanipal’s library was excavated. Layard wrote:
“The chambers I am describing appear to have been a depository for such documents (historical records and public documents). They were filled with them to the height of a foot or more from the floor; some were entire, but the greater part was broken into fragments, probably by the falling in of the upper part of the building.”
Some fragmented texts from both libraries appear to have been accidentally mixed up in the past, so today it is impossible to know exactly which library some of the tablets were stored in. Fortunately, many of the tablets were stamped in antiquity, showing they belonged to Ashurbanipal’s library.
It is impossible to know the true extent of the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal in its day. How many written texts did the building contain? we can surmise that thousands of clay tablets, possibly leather scrolls, wax boards, and papyri, all written in cuneiform script, were stored there.
Climate change activism is different today than in the days of Ashurbanipal.
Identify the Armor
1
2
Identify the Aircraft
3
This aircraft was designed to fight at extremely high altitudes in the stratosphere; its name means “the vault of heaven.”
4
This aircraft was designed to fill the same role as the one above but from another nation. The Germans designed and tested very high-altitude bomber aircraft.
5
This bomber could fly higher than 12,000 m (39,000 ft), where it felt safe from enemy fighters.
Identify the Armor:
1. Char 2C
2. Warrior IFV
Identify the Aircraft:
3. Westland Welkin
4. Yak-9U
5. JU 86P
A grand piano pox on the head of the hacker, or perhaps an anvil of sufficient size. You could always reuse the anvil!
The Road Runner v Wil-Ey Coyote solution…
Interesting to see a photograph of a Junkers Ju86P. My father was involved in the effort to stop them snooping on the Royal Navy in Alexandria, Egypt, back in the early 1940’s. I wrote about it in my brief biography of his life, shortly before he died:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2008/03/weekend-wings-9-final-flight.html
It’s also interesting that Junkers equipped the Ju86P with diesel engines, rather than gasoline. I’ve never understood why they chose that fuel source, but apparently it worked very well.
Thanks for the comments and the link to follow.
The evolution of aircraft in WW2 from fabric wings and synchronized guns to where it ended is remarkable beyond words. Armies moved by horse and mule and it ended with an A-Bomb detonation.
Oy! That was supposed to be a response to WWW below.
Dang new ice cream dish!
Man. F’ed it up again!
🤡
> said a flippin’ word to the fambly about the coincidence of two people with the same unusual last name being in adjacent rooms
Oh yes. Mentioning that would be a gross violation of SO many things. Now it might have been BECAUSE of incompetence, but it’s literally a firing offense to talk about one patient to another. And actually, I’m pretty much aboard with that.
——
As far as new blog format goes, I’m still getting used to it, but I’m not gonna complain that the free ice cream now comes in a different shaped dish. (And obvs I’ve got a workaround for the apparent “no paragraphs” problem.)
—-
Looks like this damn thing might actually take off soon (on a Logan taxiway for quite some time now 🤔), so time to sign off.
Ok, your brain cells are firing way better than mine, genius move on the paragraph break (smacks forehead)…
Glad I got up today, learned something new.
My Mother’s last physician was American Indian and was fond of telling her, “That’s YOUR federal government telling you what you can do, not mine, I’m Chocktaw.”
So in that vein, let me tell you a little story about the government drones Zero Hedge describes, deciding what’s best for us proles. A buddy recently had heart surgery for which he was, of course, hospitalized. Now in addition to having an unusual last name, he had a somewhat complicated, on again/off again relationship with one of his sons. So, while my buddy was lying in the hospital bed, his son was dying in the room next door and none of the horse-pistol workers said a flippin’ word to the fambly about the coincidence of two people with the same unusual last name being in adjacent rooms. Although I wouldn’t rule out gross incompetence given the facility, presumably it was HIPAA Act ensuring everyone’s privacy. Like the manager of the trailer park said in No Country for Old Men, they “ain’t at liberty to give out no information.”
It’s a statement on how low we’ve gone as a society. It’s shameful. And nobody is surprised by these situations either, which says volumes.
Like when you walk into a medical facility they own you, and everything associated with their procedures (many required of course) is to isolate. Used to be the first person the police called to an accident scene was the local minister or priest, because they knew him. Today, not so much.
In this day and age where your automobile collects information and sends it to the manufacturer, who then share it with insurance companies, privacy is only enforced in the hospital room.
And you know that is only because politicians and celebrities want it so.
No heart.
>>When Nineveh was destroyed by a coalition of Medes, Babylonians, Scythians, Persians, and Cimmerians in c. 612 BC,<<
Conan was a Cimmerian :-)
~~~~~~~~~
#2 tank picture, when you keep a tow line attached to the front of your vehicle you are probably used to getting stuck regulary.
Yes, the Conan factor – darned barbarians.
I hate mud.
Of all things, Saturday I’m interviewing Lord Conrad Black, The Political and Strategic History of the World, Volume I.
I’m crash reading the book.
Reading your account meshes with what I’ve been reading so far.
To be more clear, about the rise of civilization from Nineveh on. I should say, Noah on.
Will tune in.
Was out early plowing a first pass of the “globalcoolingwarmingclimatechange” as we are expecting a dump today…altho Denver apparently got more than the 4 inches we did because the Hyperventilator’s are in full swing Chicken Little (storm “hammers” the Front Range). The teachers union closed schools down that way…because…SNOW! in The Rockies is apparently a surprise to those who moved here from California.
RFK Jr. says truth, for a Kennedy that is…albeit he is a classic Liberal, not a Lefty…which is why The Uniparty hates him and is doing everything to eliminate him (effectively saying “You Kennedy’s are no longer relevant, go away.”) Yesterday it was floated that Aaron Rogers was a potential VP pick. Today…like clockwork…this headline pops up: “Aaron Rogers shared false Sandy Hook shooting conspiracy theories!” Two things with that: 1) The Lefty Machine is way out over its collective skis on this in order to control the narrative, 2) It’s a false statement, many people (myself included) are unconvinced of what actually happened — actors?, weird scene control, and now tying up the “assault weapon” loose end by indicting the lunatic shooters mother for “negligence”, like she facilitated her son’s actions. If that were true how about indicting the pop-psyche quack as well as it seems every one of these school shooters were seeing a pseudo-science practitioner and taking psychotropics (see Ablow’s interview with Carlson). This is a typical response by The Meat Grinder Machine, showing it to be a false flag attack on Kennedy to discredit.
These same bums in Congress are now saying they have EVERY RIGHT TO DEMAND a blatant take-over of Tik-Tok (same mode as with small business “registration” Bill by the Dept. of Labor that surfaced yesterday which is designed to further destroy the Middle Class economic engine]. Most of the take-over proponents have no clue what they are talking about, proving this is another asinine false flag that has taken over the public narrative timed to smokescreen Biden’s failings, both for America and his personal decline. What mental midget thinks it’s okay for a government – acting in its own interest – to demand a company become a Federal entity? It’s criminal. Then, earlier this morning, Kilmeade showed Fox’s true Lefty underbelly agenda by “debating” Sen. Paul on who owns the company. Pure dishonesty when Meta, Google, and former Twitter were used to control public information to steal an election, suppress truth with SARS-Cov-2 and its Big Pharma money machine spinoff, The Not-A-Vax. Add the Border and America in decline and it proves tyranny by our leadership. BTW, heard a PSA by the Oil & Gas industry asking We The People to support them against the governnent killing their industry. Uh, folks, drill your a– off and tell these self-appointed regulators to suck an egg, they have no right to confiscate OUR national resources, doling them out as they see fit (and depending on who’s ruling the roost. Next they’ll try to take-over Starlink and Space-X because “they don’t like Musk”, operating as if they now own Space.
Other than that it’s a good day.
SISU MAGA! ™
There’s a lot to unpack in what you’re commenting on. Though I try to give blog readers something to unpack every day myself.
The effort to break America has not yet succeeded. Their efforts are unrelenting and are funded by — US — but they do struggle to crack the nation. The fact that Kennedy is never mentioned in polls – even on Fox – is telling to me. Yes, he’s a liberal. I don’t think that he’s a very good democrat. Which is the point isn’t it? There were attractive things about both conservatism and liberalism and they balanced each other. What we have with Pedo Joe, Ho and the Swamp is something else all together.
A bit of a screed, all pointing to your “break America” result. It is The Firehose Affect to keep us scrambling. Then again – from good Catholic parents – I was named after the Apostle so I come by the velvet hammer approach honestly.
It’s news to me that TikTok would be federalized.
We could sue them on monopoly grounds since they already control FC and IG.
It will likely be purchased by American investors and will be run wherein Chinese owners will control something on the order of 30% without any control over the company. They’ll get dividends, will be able to sell their equity if they wish, etc. The Communist People’s Republic of China, which remains at war with the United States of America will lose their control.
Yep.
I am no fan of TT, or any social media platform, I find them a cancer on society when used beyond a tool, but this situation is the pot calling the kettle black. Rand Paul was trying to explain to Kilmeade that 60% of TT was owned by a group of multinational businessmen, not just China, but Kilmeade wasn’t allowing him to explain that…didn’t fit the narrative. FB, Google, and Twitter were weaponized against American citizens by our own government, for those same people to point fingers at China for doing the same thing (assuming they are) is more slight of hand deflection to keep the spotlight off themselves.
“I don’t know if it’s worth the effort to restore them.”
Yes, please do. If you can find the time. Consider the poor archeologist rummaging through your library; think of them as partial scripts from the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal.
There’s no argument about your first “Bullet Point.” Indeed, I am unable to see any sane person arguing with any of Zero Hedge’s points. That’s not the important question; we all see the problem; we all see it’s well past mending: the question is when are we (and yes! I’ll be in the vanguard, with walker) going to do about it?
1. I think I’d be happy to contribute $ to an effort to locate this insectoid annoyance (hacker) and punitively dislocate some arthrodial areas; should we start a fund?
2. I sincerely hope new formatting is shortly forthcoming; I, for one, am finding it more difficult to read that far across the page. I’d much prefer a shorter “newspaper” column — perhaps the grey letters as well aren’t as friendly to my aging eyes
I’m in, otherwise they get away with their PITA destructive operation.
Boron has a good point. The grey on a grey block with a bright white edge is more difficult to read. Also, a serif style fount is much easier to read.
As a note, Boron, depending on your software, you can pull in the sides of your viewing area to give the newspaper look.
In this format, the print is “black” not gray and the background is white. You can condense your browser window by making it smaller if you need to give it more of a newspaper look in the near term. Long term, it will be more readable.
@ Dave n’ LL
I tried, with the first new format, condensing the viewing area (reducing the size of the window), but this also reduces the size of the font (bitch, bitch, bitch), so reading it makes me look more like the inscrutable Easterner of ’30s fame.
I would continue to read VM in any case; even if though the letters were white on white: only place I can decent up-to-date news with minimum slant.
Commenting as I do (aka. usually a spleen vent, more often barfing all over the place here), I’m patiently waiting for whatever format emerges after a pile of nefarious hack-age’s, especially considering our Host is busier than a one-armed post-hole digger in Wyoming. The fact LL got it back up and running inside of day or so is pretty worthy of a major h/t, otherwise I’d have to do some actual work and make my own “blog”…which I won’t because it’d likely be a lousier version of VM, certainly less military in content as that’s not in my wheelhouse. In the meantime I’ll be out at the Paul M Contemplative Pasture Sign taking in the globalcoolingwarmingclimatechange that I get to plow again, which is fun for the first two times in a day.
Hilight what you want to read and the contrast improves.
Sadly I have no back 40 or backhoe to provide. There are plenty of gators nearby though. Just a passing thought.
Isolated, land locked, backhoe available. Privately owned.
40° 24′ 30.96″ N
108° 23′ 09.31″ W
Transportation not provided.
What about pythons?
colt, or snakes?
What’s that about the difference between a friend and a really good friend?
I’m your huckleberry.
Shoot to incapacitate with a Colt Python and let the organic python have its supper.
Ed, a friend doesn’t say anything, a really good friend helps dig the hole.
I like this format. Except for the text being light in my browser (It appears Grey) It is much easier to read.
“Sand out of a boot”- There’s always the first time to hear or read something…and that’s a first for me.
Cletus Valvecore
Hi LL.
Just a note. First time in a while I’ve been able to access it with out being blocked by my Virus detector.
Good to be back on
It’s good to have you back.
I clicked on I Am Not A Robot out of curiosity.
Started getting pop ups for McCafee AV.
Easy to get rid of by blocking that website, but I got a trial of Malawarebytes (again).
It’s not happy when I visit .
Screw ’em.
I always look at unusual objects and wonder what stories they could tell. I have a few of those items in my “archives”. They’re of no value to anyone but me, but friends always ask what they are.
Whole lotta BTU’s going to waste in Turkmenistan.
Thought the same…you’d think after all this time they’d figure out a way to harness the energy.
I’m impressed by the tasteful green backgrounds and indirect lighting in Ashurbanipal’s library. Who knew that the Assyrians had both electricity and modern design sense? Wait. What?