And a long run nears the end

Signal from the scout master: he wants to see us in his tent

Beset with judgments against them from pedophile suits, declining enrollment, Boy Scouts of America eye bankruptcy.

Their decision to admit girls earlier this year foretold it, but this has been long time coming, and though the huge civil judgments against the organization haven’t helped, the number of boys who want to learn outdoor skills has been dropping for decades. In the mid-60s, Riverside’s Troop II had a membership of 120, with so many others wanting to get in that a new Troop, 34, was created, while in Old Greenwich, Troop 3 another 100 boys or so participated. By the time my son John joined 1992, Troop 34 had been reabsorbed into Troop 2 and total membership was less than a dozen. It was a hard task for the three of us fathers guiding the troop to assemble even six boys for weekend excursions like, say, a canoe trip through the New Jersey Pine Barrens: too many conflicts with scheduled sports team practices and games,

So I’d lay the blame on travel teams and video games more than renegade scout masters. Regardless, sad to see an institution that since 1910 has provided such a great outdoor program fade away. Worse still, this classic will soon be relegated to the dustbin of history:

Comrade Potemkin, you will please to get into this suit

Danger, Will Robinson!

Robot displayed on Russian TV as technological breakthrough revealed to be man in a suit.

And not a grey flannel one, either. Next week, Captain Nemo will wear an unterseeboot.

Just in time for Christmas, the perfect gift for all your "end CO2 by 2030" friends

Unicorn poops glitter and slime. Not quite farting rainbows, but your friends will appreciate it all the same.

The Poopsie Slime Surprise Unicorn is a doe-eyed doll with loose bowels, and it’s the hottest — and grossest — toy of the holiday season. The $49.99 mythological creature sucks down a bottle-fed meal of slime-making powdered “unicorn food” mixed with lukewarm water. Then, when a child pushes on her bellybutton, she shoots out a stream of candy-colored goo from a heart-shaped hole in her bottom.

Life is cruel

From our New Mexican correspondent, who still reads the NY Post, we learn that Bail-reform poster boy busted before he gets to meet Obama.

A poster boy for bail reform will miss out on meeting former President Barack Obama at a Manhattan gala awards ceremony Wednesday night — because he was busted during a traffic stop hours earlier.

Pedro Hernandez was stopped while driving a BMW in the Bronx around noon Wednesday, cops said.

A computer check revealed that the plates on the car were stolen and Hernandez’s driver’s license was suspended, and he was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and related charges, a law enforcement source said.

The incident marked at least his 13th arrest and the third time he’s been stopped for driving without a license in the past two years.

Hernandez was being held pending arraignment, said his lawyer, Alex Spiro.

Hernandez became a cause celebre for critics of the criminal justice system when he refused to accept a no-jail plea bargain in a Bronx shooting on grounds that he was innocent.

He spent a year on Rikers Island before the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization posted his $100,000 bail in July 2017.

The group is hosting its annual Ripple of Hope Gala at the New York Hilton Midtown on Wednesday night, with Obama among those set to be honored, and Hernandez was on the guest list, Spiro said.

“It is unfortunate and unfair that over a petty offense Pedro is forced to spend more time behind bars instead of attending the Kennedy event tonight, where he would have had the opportunity to spend time with President Obama,” Spiro said.

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Or, put more simply, “f’im”.

Democratic Socialists of America’s tattoos reveal all

(This is the party of Bernie Sanders and our new congress lady bartender)

(And very much) related:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: CLIMATE CHANGE DEMNDS A CHANGE OF LIFESTYLE

Mainers and other consumers will have to make sacrifices. We simply must reduce our production of air- and water-warming gases immediately, if not sooner.

To accomplish this goal, we all must limit our travel to necessities. No more cross-country or international vacation trips. We will have to suspend our purchasing powers and buy only necessities. And, finally, we must stop eating animal foods. There are many other actions that we can take, but these are the most important.

So, back to the pre-industrial age? A comment to the original letter goes further: destruction of the human race.

Humans are a virus that have spread across the host-planet consuming, destroying and populating as they go. The only way to kill a virus is to starve it and make the host inhospitable. We have made our own host unlivable for our species as we continue to consume and procreate. We are the only virus that can control its own living area and we instead destroyed it.

Not that long ago, people demanding we impose Soviet rule, destroy the modern world and wipe out all hominoids would have been dismissed as harmless kooks and morons. Now they’re mainstream.

Lower Round Hill pending sale

85 Round Hill Road, asking $5.295 million. It’s been kicking around, on-and-off, since 2008, when it began at $7.495. 1958 construction, 9,000 sq.ft., with some improvements since, but a convenient location, for this road (I suppose that’s like saying, “for a fat girl, she doesn’t sweat much”, but what’s an opinion for, if not to voice it?)

Finally, a bit of real estate activity to report

23 Laurel Lane, asking $2.295, under contract. Owners paid $2.080 in 2014, added central air and a new kitchen, spruced up the rest, and it found a buyer quickly (98 days). This price range is active, and doing well.

And, sheeple that they are, their readers will believe this

Other sources suggest a motive:

The 29-year-old who shot and killed at least two people and injured 13 others at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, northeastern France last night, was well known to police and security services in no less than three countries. 

Cherif Chekatt, who shouted 'Allahu Akbar' - meaning 'God is Great' in Arabic - as he opened fire on the crowds, is known to be part of Islamist networks in Strasbourg and has a lengthy criminal record which includes 27 convictions as well as lengthy prison sentences in Germany, France and Switzerland.

The French secret service had been warned that he had become radicalised in prison, and placed him on a designated 'threat to the state' watchlist in 2015 - but this had not been communicated to German authorities who jailed him for burglary in 2016.

Yesterday morning, police searched his flat in connection with a different crime, and found an arsenal of weapons including a grenade, but Chekatt was not at home at the time of the raid, and would later go on to kill and maim more than a dozen people.  

Google: First principle, do more evil

Google’s new app enables Muslims to report blasphemy to the proper authorities, easy peasey. Will we soon see a similar app tied to the DNC and FBI?

On December 7, 2018, the Google Play Store approved the latest version of "Smart Pakem," an app that allows Muslims in Jakarta, the capital of the largest Muslim country on earth, to report violations of Sharia law such as blasphemy and even heresy. The app allows users to report people who practice unrecognized religions or unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's six officially recognized faiths: Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Protestant Christianity, and Roman Catholic Christianity.

I've never seen such virulent hatred towards any politician

Incoming NY State Attorney states that her “first priority” will be to pursue Trump.

From NBC News:

New York Attorney Gen.-elect Letitia James says she plans to launch sweeping investigations into President Donald Trump, his family and “anyone” in his circle who may have violated the law once she settles into her new job next month.

“We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” James, a Democrat, told NBC News in her first extensive interview since she was elected last month.

James outlined some of the probes she intends to pursue with regard to the president, his businesses and his family members.

Her first order of business, however, will be to pass a bill to change New York’s double jeopardy laws so that she can pursue state charges even if President Trump pardons someone for their federal crimes:

James campaigned on passing a bill to change New York’s double jeopardy laws with an eye on possible pardons coming out of the White House. James told NBC News she wants to be able to pursue state charges against anyone the president were to pardon over federal charges or convictions and whose alleged crimes took place in the state. Under current New York law, she might not be unable to do that.

“I think within the first 100 days this bill will be passed,” she said, adding, “It is a priority because I have concerns with respect to the possibility that this administration might pardon some individuals who might face some criminal charges, but I do not want them to be immune from state charges.”

(UPDATE) She shows no interest in investigating her “best friend” Al Sharpton, who, besides dodging IRS liens amounting to millions of dollars and still-outstanding libel/slander judgment from the Tawana Brawley circus under the claim that he’s broke, just had his self-owned charity “National Action Network” pay him $500,000 + for his life story. Quelle surprise. (It’s probably time to resurrect that riddle from the past: “What’s five inches wide, 9 inches long, and dangles in front of a black a**hole?” Answer: Al Sharpton’s necktie.