Weel, c'mon, man, that was ... uh, different! (Updated)

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senator murphy’s day off

I asked Grok: did the obama administration conduct "double-tap" drone strikes on terrorists?

Results:

Yes, reports from human rights organizations, investigative journalism, and media outlets indicate that double-tap drone strikes—where an initial strike is followed by one or more secondary strikes targeting responders, rescuers, or survivors—occurred during the Obama administration's drone campaign against terrorist targets, primarily in Pakistan and Yemen.

Key Evidence and Context

  • Investigative reports from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) documented multiple instances of double-tap strikes in Pakistan between 2009 and 2013, including attacks on rescuers and funeral gatherings. For example:

    • A 2012 strike in Zowi Sidgi (North Waziristan) hit a tent, followed by a second strike on responders.

    • Field investigations confirmed at least 11–12 cases of strikes on rescuers or mourners in Pakistan during this period, with some revival of the tactic in mid-2012 targeting high-value individuals like al-Qaeda figure Yahya al-Libi.

  • Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports from 2013 highlighted double-tap practices in Pakistan and Yemen, noting they often killed civilians or first responders and raised concerns under international humanitarian law (e.g., protections for the wounded and civilians).

  • Academic and legal analyses (e.g., Florida Law Review, Stanford/NYU's "Living Under Drones" report) cited evidence of repeated double-tap strikes, arguing they risked violating Geneva Conventions by targeting those hors de combat or indiscriminately harming civilians.

Obama Administration's Overall Drone Program

The Obama administration dramatically expanded drone use, authorizing around 540 strikes in non-battlefield settings (Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia), compared to about 50 under President Bush. These were part of counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda and associated forces.

Official Position and Denials

The administration described drone strikes as "effective" and "legal" (e.g., Obama's 2013 speech), emphasizing precision and minimization of civilian harm. It often disputed or downplayed civilian casualty figures and did not publicly acknowledge double-tap as a deliberate policy. Some sources note internal concerns (e.g., warnings against a "take-no-prisoners" approach), but no explicit denial of the reported patterns emerged in public records.

Criticisms and Controversy

Critics (human rights groups, scholars) argued double-taps could constitute war crimes if they intentionally or indiscriminately targeted protected persons. Defenders viewed them as targeting additional combatants gathering at sites. Civilian casualties from the overall program were contested, with estimates ranging from hundreds to over 800 in affected countries.While the U.S. government never officially confirmed double-tap as standard procedure, credible independent investigations substantiate that such strikes took place under the Obama administration's drone operations targeting terrorists.

UPDATE: I referred to these new Democrat favorites as “Maryland Men” in a post last week, but Congressman Schiffforbrains has done me one better:

But you can bet they'd boycott an Israeli team (Updated — both countrie demand that gay pride events at game be cancelled. Hahahah)

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World Cup Gay Pride Match in Seattle will be Iran vs. Egypt — both countries outlaw homosexuality

“It is a Host City–led expression of Seattle and Washington State’s commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone belongs: players, fans, residents, and visitors alike. Soccer has a unique power to unite people across borders, cultures and beliefs.

“We are honored to host a Pride Match and to celebrate Pride as part of a global football community. This match reflects our ongoing commitment to respect, dignity, and unity for all.”

UPDATE: Iran, Egypt Furious About Having to Play in Seattle’s Pride Match in World Cup

Three pending sales reported

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6 Dorchester Lane, Riverside, $5.750 million. Started at $5.9 million 184 days ago. As an aside, this house was built on land purchased for $1.775 million on 10/29/2024; advocates of “affordable” housing have yet to come up with a solution to the problem of how cheap housing can be built on land worth astronomical sums. Unless, of course, they can divide that cost between, say, 34 apartments, but they’re not advocating apartment towers in neighborhoods like Riverside, are they? Oh – they are? Pity, that.

79 Richmond hill road, $5.450 million. started at $7.195 million in april.

32 Locust Road, $2.1 million. Two busted contracts so far, but this is reported as actually pending, not just under contract, so perhaps the third time will prove the charm.

Contrary to common understanding, “a capella” is actually an ancient Bantu phrase for “let’s go raid whitey’s welfare fund” — who knew?

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Kent State a cappella group bans white students from solo auditions

The Kent State Vocal Intensity A Cappella group restricted certain solos strictly to 'people of color' over 'cultural appropriation' concerns.

Emails show Kent State student disciplined after opposing race-based solo policy.

Emails obtained by Campus Reform display how Vocal Intensity A Cappella limited certain solos to “people of color,” claiming white students would be engaging in “cultural appropriation” if they were to perform them.

Mark Phillips, a three-year member and the a cappella group’s beatboxer, contacted a board member to inquire about how the exclusion of white students aligned with Kent State’s anti-discrimination policies. Phillips suggested the limitation seemed “at odds with equal opportunity” in his message to the executive board.

“I fully respect concerns about authenticity, but I also believe that whoever gives the strongest performance should be given the chance,” he wrote. “Art, music, and culture are meant to be shared and celebrated, not gatekept.” 

In response, the board accused him of violating the university’s anti-discrimination policy, placed him on probation, and scheduled a disciplinary hearing requiring him to “plead his case” before the entire group.

The board later reaffirmed its position, confirming that the solos would remain restricted to black students unless overturned by a vote.

According to the group’s constitution, discrimination is prohibited on the basis of race, and Kent State University’s policy also bans racial discrimination and specifically retaliation against students who challenge it.

Here’s the racist interpretation of the term, which we now know is entirely false:

A cappella (Italian for "in chapel style") is music performed solely with the human voice, without instrumental accompaniment, using voices to create melody, harmony, and rhythm. Originating from sacred church music, the term now covers all styles, from choral arrangements to modern pop covers, emphasizing vocalists mimicking instruments and creating complex sounds through pure vocal technique. 

True a capella is restricted to the performance of old negro spirituals although, with permission, whites may join in, as seen here:

Four surprisingly fascinating, fun reads on subjects that I'd never have suspected would be so interesting

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Gideon and Susie both read this book and passed it along to me, and now I’m recommending it to FWIW readers.

The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel

This instant New York Times bestselling “dynamic detective story” (The New York Times) reveals the hidden history Rudolf Diesel, one of the world’s greatest inventors, and his mysterious disappearance on the eve of World War I.

September 29, 1913: the steamship Dresden is halfway between Belgium and England. On board is one of the most famous men in the world, Rudolf Diesel, whose new internal combustion engine is on the verge of revolutionizing global industry forever. But Diesel never arrives at his destination. He vanishes during the night and headlines around the world wonder if it was an accident, suicide, or murder.

After rising from an impoverished European childhood, Diesel had become a multi-millionaire with his powerful engine that does not require expensive petroleum-based fuel. In doing so, he became not only an international celebrity but also the enemy of two extremely powerful men: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and the richest man in the world.

The Kaiser wanted the engine to power a fleet of submarines that would finally allow him to challenge Great Britain’s Royal Navy. But Diesel had intended for his engine to be used for the betterment of the world.

Now, New York Times bestselling author Douglas Brunt reopens the case and provides an “absolutely riveting” (Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author) new conclusion about Diesel’s fate. Brunt’s book is “equal parts Walter Isaacson and Sherlock Holmes,[and] yanks back the curtain on the greatest caper of the 20th century in this riveting history” (Jay Winik, New York Times bestselling author).

And three other books on seemingly prosaic subjects that turn out to be page -turners: I read all three of these in the years they were first published, but all are still entirely satisfying upon re-reading. The first, “Cod” unfortunately, is only available in book form as a used paperback, but it’s also on Kindle, so that works.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World Paperback – July 1, 1998

An unexpected, energetic look at world history on sea and land from the bestselling author of Salt and The Basque History of the World

Cod, Mark Kurlansky’s third work of nonfiction and winner of the 1999 James Beard Award, is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a world history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack. What was the staple of the medieval diet? Cod again, sold salted by the Basques, an enigmatic people with a mysterious, unlimited supply of cod. As we make our way through the centuries of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tragic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their numbers were legendary. In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky ponders the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world's folly?

“Every once in a while a writer of particular skill takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight. Such is the case of Mark Kurlansky and the codfish.” –David McCullough, author of The Wright Brothers and 1776

Kurlansky also wrote “Salt”, which is just as well written — who’d have thought it?

Salt: A World History Paperback – Illustrated, January 28, 2003

“Kurlansky finds the world in a grain of salt.” - New York Times Book Review

An unlikely world history from the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World

Best-selling author Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.  Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Salt is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.

And dating all the back to 1976 but a classic that’s stood up to time’s passage far better than I have, “Beautiful Swimmers”

Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay Paperback


The classic Pulitzer Prize-winning study of the Atlantic blue crab and the people of the Chesapeake Bay who have depended on it for generations.

For decades, William Warner's exploration of the Atlantic blue crab and the Chesapeake Bay has delighted thousands of readers and become a modern American classic. Nature enthusiasts and fans of fine literature alike will find Beautiful Swimmers a timeless and enchanting study in the tradition of Rachel Carson and Annie Dillard.

In these pages, we are immersed not only in the world of the Chesapeake's most intriguing crustaceans, but in the winds and tides of the Bay itself and the struggles of the watermen who make their living in pursuit of the succulent, pugnacious blue crab.

"This is a book of rare grace and meditation, one that ranges from adventure to zoology, with no small measure of mystery and history." --Miami Herald

"Beautiful Swimmers is wonderful to read and a distinguished addition to our literature." --Larry McMurtry

"Journalism"

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Headlines on National Parks Being Free on Trump’s Birthday Omit That It’s Also Flag Day

“No… it’s because Trump’s birthday happens to fall on Flag Day, you absolute hack.”

Although Legal Insurrection refers to “headlines”, the duplicity runs deeper. Check out the actual AP story in its entirety, below; it’s an entire crock, written solely to deceive readers and score points against Trump. As an editorial, it works, but what makes AP’s fake news significant is that it’s treated as straight, legitimate reporting by the failing newspapers across the country that subscribe to and publish it. I first saw this hit piece earlier this morning in the Bangor Daily News, but you would have found it simultaneously in papers in all fifty states, including Greenwich Time and its parent, CT Insider. All published it as though it were a real news story and not propaganda. Few will remember, but newspapers once had independent editors and writers who, if they didn’t always report the truth, at least knew what it was. No longer.

National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day, Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

by The Associated Press18 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forward for the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.

Color me unsurprised

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David Strom on the latest exercise in liberal preening

Not having lived in any other timeline, I can't be certain that the one we live in is THE most absurd in existence. 

But it must be in the ballpark. 

Pantone is a company that does...colors. Literally, that is their business, and I suppose it's good that somebody does. I knew there was something called Pantone, because I have been in a Home Depot looking at paint, but I guess I never thought about the fact that there is an actual company that focuses on...whatever exactly Pantone does, which my wife reliably informs me that it does a lot of it. 

One of the many important things that Pantone does is predict what they call the "color of the year," which is apparently a trendsetter more than a trend predictor because people like my wife, interior designers, and a type of gay man we all know and love care quite a bit about what Pantone says it should be.

I hope it isn't "Avocado" again anytime soon. 

Well, this year Pantone has, for the first time ever, chosen a shade of white as the color of the year. And predictably, this has set off a firestorm about Trump, Sydney Sweeney, and whether some version of brown should have been chosen as a political statement about white supremacy during the Trump years. 

I give you...Cloud Dancer, the color of the year:

The reaction was fast and furious:

I am not making this up, or blowing the issue out of proportion. The controversy is being covered in The New York Times, Forbes, ArtNews, and, I am sure, many other places. I could check, but I am turning a shade of Avocado thinking too much about this. 

Now I will freely admit that "Cloud Dancer" doesn't blow my socks off, although picking that as the name of a slightly bluish shade of white was a stroke of genius. If what you are selling is boring, give it a great name, and maybe that will help. Ironically, last year's color was some version of brown that everybody called "babys**t brown," which tells you that the choice didn't appeal to the masses, but again, I am not interested enough to look it up. 

Liberals keep claiming that ordinary people are obsessed with race, and that people of pallor cannot quit dividing the world between those of us with lighter (read PINKish) skin and people with more melanin. This seems odd, because I doubt that anybody who just saw a swatch of "Cloud Dancer" would ever have thought, "Hey, that looks like me."

Well, except for albinos, who come in all races, I think, and Irish people, who sure do look really pale to me. However, that isn't so true if they go to the beach, where they eventually turn a shade of lobster red, and they give up on using men's soap for a week until they start to heal. 

(FWIW) This is really all about posturing — silly, stupid people making themselves feel better and morally superior by boasting to their friends just exactly how enlightened they are. This woman is the perfect example:

Some things haven't changed one whit: the left continues to wallow in racism and project it onto the right

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She was black, conservative, and Republican, and so fair game

AI Overview

This political cartoon by Jeff Danziger, titled "Condoleezza Rice in the Role of a Lifetime", satirizes the shifting statements by the George W. Bush administration regarding the intelligence about Iraq's alleged aluminum tubes program. 

  • The cartoon was published in 2004.

  • It refers to Condoleezza Rice's initial strong claims about the tubes being for nuclear centrifuges, which were later downplayed or corrected.

  • The text depicts her saying "I KNOWS ALL ABOUT ALUMINUM TUBES!" followed by the "Correction" "I DON'T KNOW NUTHIN' ABOUT ALUMINUM TUBES..".

  • The imagery of the tubes with faces and the one bending over adds a layer of visual humor to the political commentary. [So says Google, anyway —Ed]

  • did this cartood ever appear in the New York Times?

    Yes

    , this specific cartoon by Jeff Danziger appeared in the New York Times. The credit line at the bottom right of the image itself includes "NYTS CS", which stands for New York Times Syndicate Sales, indicating it was distributed by the syndicate associated with the newspaper. 

    The cartoon, which ran around October 2004, relates to the debate over the U.S. intelligence regarding aluminum tubes and whether they were intended for Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Condoleezza Rice, then the National Security Advisor, was a key figure in public statements about this intelligence. 

I found the Condoleezza Rice story in the comments to the post shown below. Of the two: the NYT’s outrageous racism in 2004 that was perfectly acceptable to its readers, or Axios’ current claim that the right has “removed the guardrails for civil discourse”, I think the former is more important; Axios is irrelevant, while the NYT is still very much alive and continues to spread its malignant influence everywhere.