Chamblee54

It was a monday morning for the books. After finishing the weekly notes, I started to download podcasts. Blocked and Reported was available early, which does not always happen. Working my way down the list, I thought to check Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Low and behold, the 2024 winners are here. It felt like winning the lottery.
Going further down the list, I thought of checking in on Search Engine. They had ended season one a few weeks ago, with no indication of when more episodes would appear. Turns out the new episodes started to appear a few weeks later. There are  now have 6 episodes to binge on.  After depending on youtube for Gaza-bad-news, there is now an overflow of distractions. Life is good. …
Tuesday stormed in uninvited. Though the weather outside appears to be clear and calm, inside, it is as dark and stormy as ever. The winner of the BLFC 2024 is an out and proud “opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.” “She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck.” Lawrence Person, Austin, TX. …
@asymmetricinfo “As a gentile, I don’t want to pretend that the surge of anti-semitism online affects me the way it does my Jewish friends, neighbors, and colleagues.” … @rhealforno “You can talk about antisemitism all you like. It’s not going to distract people from noticing that Israel is committing a brutal ethnic cleansing right under our noses.” @asymmetricinfo “How does dislike of Israeli government policy explain spreading vile lies about Jews murdering Christians on Passover?”
This exchange says something about the battle for public opinion. To Megan McCardle, shock about mass murder in Gaza is “dislike of Israeli government policy.” When anti-semites of the future talk, #Hasbaratwitter is what they will discuss.
Pictures today are from the Library of Congress. Marjory Collins took the pictures in September, 1942. “Dyeing hair at Francois de Paris, a hairdresser on Eighth Street, New York NY”

Peter Berg told a story on the Joe Rogan Experience. A newspaper printed an obituary, saying Alfred Nobel had died. (It was Ludvig Nobel, Alfred’s brother, who died.) Alfred Nobel had accumulated a fortune by inventing dynamite.. The obituary called him a “merchant of death.” Mr. Nobel decided he wanted to be known for something else, and established the Nobel prize. Alfred Nobel died December 10, 1896, eight years after Ludvig died. … This is a repost. In a recent episode with Peter Thiel, Joe Rogan repeated the Nobel story.
I was in skeptic mode, and decided to talk to Mr. Google. A story came up. It had a photograph of the headline … in English … in a newspaper called L’Idiotie Quotadine (Quotadine Idiocy.) History.com has another take. “The newspaper incident is often cited as the driving force behind Nobel’s philanthropy, but historians have yet to find an original copy of the “Merchant of Death” obituary.”
A google search for Quotadine led me to Kathy “Kathy Loves Physics” Joseph. She has an article, and two videos, (one two) about the Nobel urban legend. Apparently, the word quotadine, with that spelling, does not exist in either french or english.
The short version: The term “Merchants of Death” was coined in 1932, 43 years after the death of Ludwig Nobel. “The term seems to have been coined by an author of an article written in 1932 about a real character named Basil Zaharoff who was known for his ruthlessness, selling munitions to anyone who had enough money. In fact, Zaharoff was even known to encourage conflict and then sell arms to both sides! This article was poetically titled, “Zaharoff, Merchant of Death”
In later years, a pair of biographies (Fant Halasz) applied the MOD tag to Mr. Nobel, along with the festive origin story. The truth seems to be a bit more romantic. Mr. Nobel befriended a lady named Bertha Von Suttner, who seems to be a be a bit of a character. As time moved on, Mrs. Von Suttner became involved in a peace movement, and recruited Mr. Nobel to the cause. “In 1905, Bertha von Suttner was awarded the 4th Nobel Peace prize.”
Peter Berg is the JRE guest who told this tale. Mr. Berg is promoting a tv show, Painkiller, about the Oxycontin tragedy. At least some of what he is saying about opioids is the truth. It is a shame he needs to embellish that tale with Quotadine Idiocy. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

Dave Smith was on the Tucker Carlson show, “one coup and one assassination attempt” after his last appearance. The two are frequently called conservative, by people who use the c-word as an insult. It was rather surprising to hear this:
Tucker Carlson: “… there’s so many people in the Democratic party who are closeted including, in positions of real power. I know them, I don’t believe in outing people, and I’m not going to. I know that for a fact, and it’s like, on what grounds are you hiding it.”
Dave Smith: “I also have absolutely nothing against gay people. I do have an issue with people living a lie. … it’s also not just lying but living a lie. It’s a profound thing where you get used to every inch of your existence being a lie. The very nature of Who You Are is a lie. That just obviously leads to people who have the ability to totally lie about who they are. That I do have an issue with.”
The show went pretty much as expected. Smith is a vocal critic of Israel’s hideous conduct in Gaza, and Fox News fired Carlson for criticizing American support of Ukraine. Many sacred cows were slaughtered. At some points, a weird buzzing sound was heard, and the screen said they were discussing COVID. This is not allowed by youtube.
They both agreed that queers are better off out of the closet. When J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI, saying that could get you killed. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.