Category: Guest Contributors

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 18FEB2024 – Lawless

photog Guest Contributors, War Pig ,

war pig

 

If a billionaire former US President and current candidate can be nakedly screwed over, what hope is there for the rest of us?

The only glimmer is that if Trump is elected, the precedent of no Presidential immunity has been set. That means Clinton, Obama and Biden cannot hide behind it.

But whatever. There is no rule of law in this nation, anymore. It is anarchy where violent criminals are coddled and lawful citizens are murdered by their own government. Time for the red states to declare martial law or else for a movement of vigilantism to take hold. It could rapidly rein in the antifa and blm movements as the anarchists would be hugely outnumbered and outgunned.

The blue states are already seceding by ignoring law and using kangaroo courts to produce false convictions. Time for the red states to band together in solidarity and tell the left’s minions to go get stuffed.

Guest Contributor – Ed Brault – 16FEB2024 – Marie Antoinette Vindicata

photog Ed Brault, Guest Contributors ,

 

There is absolutely no historical evidence that Marie-Antoinette ever said “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” or anything like it. So where did the quote come from, and how did it become associated with Marie-Antoinette?

Folklore scholars have found similar tales in other parts of the world, although the details differ from one version to another. In a tale collected in 16th-century Germany, for instance, a noblewoman wonders why the hungry poor don’t simply eat Krosem (a sweet bread). Essentially, stories of rulers or aristocrats oblivious to their privileges are popular and widespread legends.

The first person to put the specific phrase “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” into print may have been the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In Book VI of Rousseau’s Confessions (written about 1767), he relates a version of the story, attributing the quote to “a great princess.” Although Marie-Antoinette was a princess at the time, she was still a child, so it is unlikely that she was the princess Rousseau had in mind.
Since Rousseau’s writings inspired the revolutionaries, it has sometimes been supposed that they picked up on this quote, falsely credited it to Marie-Antoinette, and spread it as propaganda, as a way to rouse opposition to the monarchy. However, contemporary researchers are skeptical of such claims, having found no evidence of the quote in newspapers, pamphlets, and other materials published by the revolutionaries.

Guest Contributor – TomD – 11FEB2024 – Photo Talk

photog Guest Contributors, Photography, TomD , , ,

Tom | Flickr

TomD

I’ve done a LOT of studio type macro. If you want the easy way to do macro shots its with a lighting setup. I’ll attach a shot of my light box setup below. BTW: Important that the lights be 5000 kelvin color temp (daylight).

how to 1.jpg
how to 1.jpg

Light box (above). That’s my old Sony A850 on the tripod. I build the light holding framework around the box with PVC tubing. I’ll also post a shot of what I was mostly doing.

A Mexican coin shot using the light box. One reason straight on lighting alone won’t work is that it won’t create the shadowing that defines the shot.

Don Quijote.jpg
Don Quijote.jpg

 

Speaking of cameras, I’m about to acquire another body. It’s been about 6, maybe more, years since I gave my ASPC Sony a6300 to my wife and went entirely to full frame, full sized cameras. When it comes to photographic quality, you can’t beat them, but they lack in one really important respect: full frame, full sized cameras are too big and too expensive to carry constantly. I kept the A6300 with a Zeiss 16-70 f4 with me almost all the time. It’s small enough to fit in a pocket or console and be available. It wasn’t exactly cheap but but if it was lost, stolen or broken, it wouldn’t be like the $5K-$6K hit for one of my full frame bodies + a Sony GM series lens. And, frankly, you would would have to look very hard to tell the difference between most shots from my 6000 series cameras and the full frame cameras.

A significant portion of my favorite shots have been serendipitous.

The wife is attached to the 6300 so I’m about to get a newer A6600 for less that a thousand and I already have the big investment, the lens selection in hand.

Guest Contributor – Milo Mindbender – 10FEB2024 – Freedom for Me But Not for Thee

photog Current Events, Guest Contributors

Free association only is applied in one direction at this time, up until it became a backup plan for failed male athletes to compete against XX chromosome women, it was ok to have a WNBA, WPGA, Women’s Bowling league, Girl Scouts, and all the other sundry other female only organizations. The only groups that are required to submit to desegregation by threat of force are those catering to males IE the Boy Scouts, the Masters Tournament, and any other group, organization, or activities catering to men, specifically white men. I have heard a rumor that groups on college campuses are now asking for minority only classes, housing and “safe spaces” but that Caucasians were evil 60 years ago for the same general principle. I’m not sure if self segregation is any better than imposed segregation or if it would be any less illegal. Someone please make this make sense to me.

Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 04FEB2024 – Free Association

photog Current Events, Glenn W, Guest Contributors , ,

Hi photog,

I basically agree with your analysis (I haven’t listened to the Zman’s podcast though). Freedom of association is critically important and it’s childish for people to demand to be included in clubs where they aren’t welcome. For example all the current hubbub about Taylor Swift is, in my opinion, because football was one of the last few bastions of testosterone heavy entertainment remaining and now even it is being eroded.

I completely agree that all levels of government must be color blind in their enforcement of the law. Separate but equal was always nonsense.

I will say I have some reservations about “public accommodations” being excluded from freedom of association. I can see forcing grocery stores to allow all law abiding members of a community (that would exclude shop lifters) to purchase food. On the other hand I don’t see why we need to force coffee shops to serve their over priced drinks to everyone. When I was younger the general attitude was that if we force people who don’t like each other to associate then we’ll all discover we aren’t so different after all. The ink is black, the page is white, together we learn to read and write… That just doesn’t seem to be true.

Feel free to call me an idiot (well, within reason :-)).

Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 02FEB2024 – A Little Daylight

photog ArthurinCali, Guest Contributors , ,

I still feel that we are winning. The constant charade by Leftists to convince the American public that all is well and normal is getting harder to maintain. Too many spinning plates to keep going as they say. Everything they touch seems to be declining, from the economy, immigration enforcement, foreign policy, education, national pride-everything.
No, this doesn’t mean that the GOP will get better at taking advantage of this, or that we will simply be able to vote our way out of this. But it does mean that more and more will recognize that the ruling class is against them and that there is a way forward to a future that allows true freedom from these forces.
It is Communism by another name that they are pushing on us, whether folks see it or not. As our blogger rightfully points out we should not forget that other things need to fill our time besides getting riled up by these shenanigans. Spend time with friends, family and hobbies you enjoy. Make sure to “Touch Grass” as they say. Have a great weekend!

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 31JAN2024 – Lots of Guns

photog Current Events, Guest Contributors, War Pig , , ,

war pig

I agree. I believe blood must be spilled to effect major change and revolt.

61% of US counties are 2d Amendment sanctuaries. Depending on who you believe, there are anywhere from 200 million to five hundred million weapons in private hands. Those include not just AR -15s, shotguns and pistols, but sniper rifles of extreme accuracy and range, machine guns up to .50 caliber, artillery up to 152mm, antiarmor rockets and missiles, old bazookas, RPGs, miniguns, flamethrowers and tons of explosives for IEDs. Also between a trillion and five trillion rounds for said weapons.

If the left wishes to disarm the People, who they gonna call? I do not believe the military will turn their guns on US citizens en mass. Several national guards would refuse Bidens attempt to federalize them. Most police would not obey Biden or their own blue governors, either.

History teaches us that it only takes 2-3% of the population willing to take up arms and fight to succeed in rebellion. The Bolsheviks were only about 3% of the Russian populace and they defeated the Czarists.

We have upward of 25 million veterans, mostly conservative. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and the Carolinas alone have millions of hunters who are good at camouflage, stalking, and are proficient with firearms.

The left doesn’t really want any part of a shooting rebellion. They just think they do. Once victorious, the hangings will begin. Pelosi, Soros, the Bidens, Clintons and Obamas are likely to suffer from rope burn if they don’t bug out on their private jets.

Guest Contributor – Chemist – 25JAN2024 – Another Texan’s View

photog Chemist, Guest Contributors , , , ,

As a Texan, the same question came to my mind: “What took you so long?” This has been going on for 3 years!
But I think one or more of your suggested reasons is the answer. Abbott needed to make the northern blue cities feel the pain before he could act. (Full credit to DeSantis who bussed illegals first.) Now that the invasion is recognized as the number 1 problem facing the US, Abbott’s actions are winning in the public arena.
Does PINO Joe want to go toe to toe with Texas in an election year?
Maybe. Maybe that’s the plan. And maybe after a bloody encounter his puppet masters will pull Joe out at the last minute and put Big Mike on the ballot in his place.
Then Michelle can distance herself from the “Recent Unpleasantness” during the election (No clue what they will do with Kamala) and the regime has another object lesson for the rest of the country.

One thing is for sure. We are living in interesting times. (See ancient Chinese curse.)

Guest Contributor – TomD – 23JAN2024 – Border Betrayal

photog Guest Contributors, TomD , , ,

I think it was Newt Gingrich (I think) who today published an article stating that he would have also voted that way. Wondering about the rational, I meant to go back to read it but got side tracked.

The thought of this devastating invasion purposefully brought on by the Federal Gov in defiance of law, reality and logic is bizarre. And the thought that efforts to lessen the invasion are being defeated by the very agency tasked with defending the border is—–it is so far beyond the bounds that I literally don’t have the words to express my dismay.