“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes Reminder
After the first release, we were supposed to get more, every week.
As far as I know it hasn’t happened.
Speaker Johnson, please follow through!
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
Booting a RINO
I’ve spent the last couple of years pounding home the message that RINO McDaniels was a symptom of a problem…a party shot through with RINO officials. In this instance it was the hundred or so members of the RNC who gleefully voted for her again, and again, and again.
Well I got to help take one of those hundred people down, as told here: https://www.theqtree.com/2024/04/07/i-aim-to-raise-a-ruckus/. What’s even better is that oxygen thief was apparently boiling mad at how poorly she did in the vote (according to a MAGA candidate for a county office I spoke to on Tuesday night). Apparently she felt entitled to her office no matter what the rubes thing…and that attitude turns people into RINOs.
Judging from the number of comments received few noticed or cared about the post, but nonetheless I noticed a pattern: Hardly anyone who regularly puts forth “devolution” or “this is all a movie” theories (or any other variant of the idea that Trump and/or his allies are really in charge) seemed to care about it. I described successful action against the enemy and they didn’t care.
I submit that that is the desired effect of such ideas as devolution…to get people on our side not to care, not to participate, not to fight, because they believe someone else will do it for them. “Nothing can stop what is coming?” Great! I don’t have to lift a finger, just be ready to microwave some popcorn!
If any of you really are thinking like this, you might as well be controlled opposition. You’re doing exactly what the other side wants you to do, sitting on your hands waiting for deliverance by deus ex machina.
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Boebert. Why Am I Not Overjoyed?
First off I *am* happy she won the primary. I said years ago I wished I lived in her district. And now I do, and I didn’t even have to move.
Just as importantly, Greg Lopez won the special election to serve out the rest of Ken B*ck’s term. There was some fear that the GOP would pick one of Boebert’s opponents and thereby give that RINO (whichever one it was, it would have been a RINO) an advantage over her in the primary.
Instead, they picked a guy who had no intention of keeping the seat, and he won the special election held the same day as the primary. The damage done to the GOP majority in the house, by B*ck having resigned, is undone. And as near as I can tell, he’s MAGA, not a RINO.
OK so that’s the good news.
That’s ALL of the good news.
Everything else in my County went WRONG in the primary. EVERY LAST MOTHERFUCKING RINO won. No MAGA candidate succeeded other than Boebert. I haven’t seen Boebert’s numbers in my county but I would be stunned if she actually won here. Fortunately for her (and me), the thin sliver of my county in her district is basically a flea on the hindquarters of the dog in significance.
THAT’s why my mood is subdued. We can’t seem to kill the RINO establishment in my county, for nothing. It’s the damned petition process, where people can bypass the convention to get onto the primary ballot, then their keepers dump tons of cash into the primary campaign, Unfortunately the petition process is written into state law.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)
Pretty much a lot of up and down, going nowhere but putting on mileage doing so. Note that palladium has reached platinum’s level (it surged $65 on Friday, while platinum only surged $7). Note that these are ask prices. (Usually people quote the bid price, which is the price the spot market is buying at.) Palladium’s bid price is still 30 dollars lower than platinum’s.
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes Reminder
After the first release, we were supposed to get more, every week.
As far as I know it hasn’t happened.
Speaker Johnson, please follow through!
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
Booting a RINO
I’ve spent the last couple of years pounding home the message that RINO McDaniels was a symptom of a problem…a party shot through with RINO officials. In this instance it was the hundred or so members of the RNC who gleefully voted for her again, and again, and again.
Well I got to help take one of those hundred people down, as told here: https://www.theqtree.com/2024/04/07/i-aim-to-raise-a-ruckus/. What’s even better is that oxygen thief was apparently boiling mad at how poorly she did in the vote (according to a MAGA candidate for a county office I spoke to on Tuesday night). Apparently she felt entitled to her office no matter what the rubes thing…and that attitude turns people into RINOs.
Judging from the number of comments received few noticed or cared about the post, but nonetheless I noticed a pattern: Hardly anyone who regularly puts forth “devolution” or “this is all a movie” theories (or any other variant of the idea that Trump and/or his allies are really in charge) seemed to care about it. I described successful action against the enemy and they didn’t care.
I submit that that is the desired effect of such ideas as devolution…to get people on our side not to care, not to participate, not to fight, because they believe someone else will do it for them. “Nothing can stop what is coming?” Great! I don’t have to lift a finger, just be ready to microwave some popcorn!
If any of you really are thinking like this, you might as well be controlled opposition. You’re doing exactly what the other side wants you to do, sitting on your hands waiting for deliverance by deus ex machina.
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)
Gold and silver (and platinum and palladium) continued to surge, until a couple of days ago. Silver touched $32 and gold reached $2,425
Then they got beaten with the ugly stick on Wednesday and Thursday
They recovered a tiny amount on Friday (platinum actually did best, going up $9) except for palladium which dropped $7 that day. Who knows, maybe platinum will remain above palladium for the foreseeable future.
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes Reminder
After the first release, we were supposed to get more, every week.
As far as I know it hasn’t happened.
Speaker Johnson, please follow through!
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
Booting a RINO
I’ve spent the last couple of years pounding home the message that RINO McDaniels was a symptom of a problem…a party shot through with RINO officials. In this instance it was the hundred or so members of the RNC who gleefully voted for her again, and again, and again.
Well I got to help take one of those hundred people down, as told here: https://www.theqtree.com/2024/04/07/i-aim-to-raise-a-ruckus/. What’s even better is that oxygen thief was apparently boiling mad at how poorly she did in the vote (according to a MAGA candidate for a county office I spoke to on Tuesday night). Apparently she felt entitled to her office no matter what the rubes thing…and that attitude turns people into RINOs.
Judging from the number of comments received few noticed or cared about the post, but nonetheless I noticed a pattern: Hardly anyone who regularly puts forth “devolution” or “this is all a movie” theories (or any other variant of the idea that Trump and/or his allies are really in charge) seemed to care about it. I described successful action against the enemy and they didn’t care.
I submit that that is the desired effect of such ideas as devolution…to get people on our side not to care, not to participate, not to fight, because they believe someone else will do it for them. “Nothing can stop what is coming?” Great! I don’t have to lift a finger, just be ready to microwave some popcorn!
If any of you really are thinking like this, you might as well be controlled opposition. You’re doing exactly what the other side wants you to do, sitting on your hands waiting for deliverance by deus ex machina.
SPECIAL SECTION: Message For Our “Friends” In The Middle Kingdom
I normally save this for near the end, but…basically…up your shit-kicking barbarian asses. Yes, barbarian! It took a bunch of sailors in Western Asia to invent a real alphabet instead of badly drawn cartoons to write with. So much for your “civilization.”
Yeah, the WORLD noticed you had to borrow the Latin alphabet to make Pinyin. Like with every other idea you had to steal from us “Foreign Devils” since you rammed your heads up your asses five centuries ago, you sure managed to bastardize it badly in the process.
Have you stopped eating bats yet? Are you shit-kickers still sleeping with farm animals?
Or maybe even just had the slightest inkling of treating lives as something you don’t just casually dispose of?
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
And here’s my response to barbarian “asshoes” like you:
OK, with that rant out of my system…
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)
Gold has been see-sawing around a bit (it broke $2400 earlier this week but dropped again–not as hard as last week, certainly; it’s still close this time) but slowly trending upwards when all is said and done. Silver is also showing strength at this level. Platinum and palladium on the other hand are not doing that well; they’re actually down for the week (even though palladium closed up for the day on Friday). Rhodium is the only PGM that is doing at all well.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes Reminder
After the first release, we were supposed to get more, every week.
As far as I know it hasn’t happened.
Speaker Johnson, please follow through!
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
SPECIAL SECTION: Message For Our “Friends” In The Middle Kingdom
I normally save this for near the end, but…basically…up your shit-kicking barbarian asses. Yes, barbarian! It took a bunch of sailors in Western Asia to invent a real alphabet instead of badly drawn cartoons to write with. So much for your “civilization.”
Yeah, the WORLD noticed you had to borrow the Latin alphabet to make Pinyin. Like with every other idea you had to steal from us “Foreign Devils” since you rammed your heads up your asses five centuries ago, you sure managed to bastardize it badly in the process.
Have you stopped eating bats yet? Are you shit-kickers still sleeping with farm animals?
Or maybe even just had the slightest inkling of treating lives as something you don’t just casually dispose of?
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
And here’s my response to barbarian “asshoes” like you:
OK, with that rant out of my system…
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)
Gold spent this last week bouncing around and closed this week lower than last week. On the other hand silver went like gangbusters, and the PGMs are also up. It’s almost as if gold is pausing and letting the others catch up.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
Well here is a bit of VERY BAD NEWS that showed up on the daily thread.
YOU ADDED WHAT TO MY CHEESE???
First I want to give a MAJOR H/T to Dr. Mercola, Ashley Armstrongof Robert Kennedy Jr’s Children’s Health Defense Organization and to The Burning Platform for bringing this to our attention. Dr Mercola has drawn attacks from the Cabal early on especially during the beginnings of Covid as has the Children’s Health Defense Organization.
Guest Post by Ashley Armstrong Rennet is used as a clotting agent to curdle the milk into cheese, separating the liquid parts of milk from the solids. Pfizer makes a genetically modified rennet, but because of a labeling loophole, cheese containing Pfizer’s rennet does not have to be labeled as containing a genetically modified organism.
Story at a glance:
Traditionally, cheese was made with just four ingredients: milk, salt, starter culture and animal rennet.
Rennet is used as a clotting agent to curdle the milk into cheese, separating the liquid parts of milk from the solids. It’s an essential part of the cheese-making process.
Today, there are four types of rennet used in the cheese-making industry: animal rennet, vegetable rennet, microbial rennet and a genetically modified version called FPC (fermentation-produced chymosin), made by Pfizer.
Bioengineered FPC was granted Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) status, which exempted Pfizer from the pre-approved requirements that apply to other new food additives. This is even though studies have detailed concerns about safety.
An estimated 90% of North American cheese is made with FPC rennet, and ingredient labels do not distinguish between bioengineered rennet and the original animal-based type so consumers have no way of knowing what they’re eating.
…Safety concerns of GM enzymes
Well, again, this technology is new. So there are no long-term studies evaluating the safety of eating a small amount of this genetically modified food additive every single day. But there are two main concerns: 1) toxicity and 2) digestive issues since these rennet alternatives can serve as an allergen.
Toxicity concerns
Toxicity means that the enzyme solution contains biotoxins from the genetically modified host (mold or fungus) that is being cultured and fermented in the lab. The producers of these enzymes claim the final FPC enzyme solution is highly purified, but some people react as though they still contain some of the allergens from the host microorganisms themselves.
In fact, traces of the genetically engineered bacteria have been found in enzymes. A few quotes from the literature regarding these toxicity concerns. I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to consume biotoxins from genetically modified organisms! “Genetically modified food enzymes are currently produced from GMOs. Safety concerns have been raised regarding potential contamination of food with bacterial toxins or mycotoxins, allergens, or uncharacterized extraneous substances as impurities. “Because these enzymes are purified from microbial sources, toxic substances might be present in enzyme preparations/isolates. The toxic substances are basically bacterial toxins and mycotoxins, which might cause problems/risks related to the health of consumers.
“Safety legislation is also very much attentive regarding the allergenic properties of manufactured enzymes, as it is well known that enzymes are potent inhalative sensitizers. “Apart from that, numerous uncharacterized extraneous substances/ impurities of microbial/biological origin may also be present in the enzyme preparation, which is also a matter of prime concern while evaluating the safety of commercial enzyme products.
“While food enzyme preparations are considered unlikely to cause any acute toxicity, genotoxicity, or repeat-dose oral toxicity, it is the fermentation product(s) of microorganisms from the manufacturing process that is/are of interest due to the potential presence of secondary metabolites that may induce toxicity when ingested (eg. aflatoxins, fumonisins and/or ochratoxins).”
So, some are concerned about continuous ingestion of these biotoxins over time, and the negative health consequences those would have over the course of years. And unfortunately, there isn’t much regulation here. “Currently, the companies themselves are responsible for the quality control of their products.” Gee, that’s not helpful!
Allergens and digestive issues
So as a result of a small amount of these toxins potentially showing up in the final cheese product (and slight structural changes in the final proteins), the cheese can now serve as an allergen and can cause an allergic reaction, or digestive and respiratory issues.
Stomach upset or discomfort.
Runny nose, increase in mucus production.
Consumers then may think they can’t digest cheese — but hey, maybe it is just the cheese that was made! It may not be the dairy itself, but the microorganism residues that elicit an allergic response, or irritate the gut lining.
I do not digest cheese that is made with this FPC (which again can be “vegetable rennet” or “microbial rennet” on labels). I get stomach upset and a disruption of my normal bowel movements. So something isn’t going right there! I can only digest cheese made with animal rennet, so I am very picky with what cheese I consume day to day! GMO cheese may compromise your gut health One of the biggest issues here is the potential disruption of the gut microbiome. “Lastly, the case study highlights the issues related to the dissemination of [antimicrobial resistance] genes due to their potential acquisition by the human commensal flora, via direct food consumption and by environmental bacteria through contact with soil and water surfaces or food waste. This is especially the case as a living GMM [genetically modified micro-organism] was found in a FE [enzyme] preparation.” In addition, allergic responses from ingesting the biotoxin residues or modified protein structures.
👉“A known safety risk linked to industrial enzyme use is respiratory allergy and for most proteases, there is also some potential for skin and eye irritation … Enzymes present a risk of a respiratory allergy (e.g. Aspergillus-derived enzymesin bakers’ asthma) and it is well described in the scientific literature …
“Genetic modification of enzymes may also change their allergenic properties, posing new potential health risks. For instance, type I sensitization was found in a study of 813 exposed industrial workers using genetically modified enzymes.”
So, it is documented in the literature, I experience it personally, and have heard from multiple other people — some people have digestive issues digesting the microbial and vegetable rennets.
But do just fine with cheese made traditionally with animal rennet. There are consequences when we try to outsmart nature! Originally published by Mercola.com
This website is for Amos Miller, the Amish farmer that the gubt is trying to destroy. His life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Along with his his business, just like they are trying to do with President Trump. So never believe them when they tel you it’s just President Trump. They are LIARS! Remember what they did to small businesses during their fake pandemics and forced lockdowns. This website was set up by Viva & Barnes to help him and his case. There is merch here, as well as donation options for anyone so inclined. It also tells his story. Please share so more will know. https://www.freeamericalawcenter.com
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes Reminder
After the first release, we were supposed to get more, every week.
As far as I know it hasn’t happened.
Speaker Johnson, please follow through!
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
SPECIAL SECTION: Message For Our “Friends” In The Middle Kingdom
I normally save this for near the end, but…basically…up your shit-kicking barbarian asses. Yes, barbarian! It took a bunch of sailors in Western Asia to invent a real alphabet instead of badly drawn cartoons to write with. So much for your “civilization.”
Yeah, the WORLD noticed you had to borrow the Latin alphabet to make Pinyin. Like with every other idea you had to steal from us “Foreign Devils” since you rammed your heads up your asses five centuries ago, you sure managed to bastardize it badly in the process.
Have you stopped eating bats yet? Are you shit-kickers still sleeping with farm animals?
Or maybe even just had the slightest inkling of treating lives as something you don’t just casually dispose of?
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
And here’s my response to barbarian “asshoes” like you:
OK, with that rant out of my system…
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)
Gold still bouncing around. But the platinum group metals are all undeniably in decline. Palladium has almost dropped below platinum. Actually, by one measure it already has. I quote the “Ask” prices because that’s what your purchase price is (somewhat) related to, but most quote “Bid” (how much they will pay a trader for the paper, in the commodities market). Platinum has a ten dollar spread, which means the Bid is $10 less than the ask, at $874. But palladium’s spread is typically $40, so bid on that is $847. If you can see past the dyslexia hazard, that means most people today are quoting palladium at less than platinum, for the first time in a LONG time. (I suppose I should have sold when it was at $3,000?)
When I was new to this, gold was roughly $300, platinum was roughly $400, and palladium was $80 or maybe $120 though it jumped to $180 when “cold fusion” was announced. So to my gut the market was upside down with palladium the most expensive and platinum the cheapest. At least palladium is back where it belongs, now if the sale on platinum would just effing end…
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes Reminder
After the first release, we were supposed to get more, every week.
As far as I know it hasn’t happened.
Speaker Johnson, please follow through!
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
SPECIAL SECTION: Message For Our “Friends” In The Middle Kingdom
I normally save this for near the end, but…basically…up your shit-kicking barbarian asses. Yes, barbarian! It took a bunch of sailors in Western Asia to invent a real alphabet instead of badly drawn cartoons to write with. So much for your “civilization.”
Yeah, the WORLD noticed you had to borrow the Latin alphabet to make Pinyin. Like with every other idea you had to steal from us “Foreign Devils” since you rammed your heads up your asses five centuries ago, you sure managed to bastardize it badly in the process.
Have you stopped eating bats yet? Are you shit-kickers still sleeping with farm animals?
Or maybe even just had the slightest inkling of treating lives as something you don’t just casually dispose of?
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
And here’s my response to barbarian “asshoes” like you:
OK, with that rant out of my system…
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)
Yes things are down a bit (except rhodium). BUT: Gold has now showed some staying power above $2,000. No guarantee it won’t have another Big Dip, but this looks good for the long term.
OK with that out of the way it’s time to discuss asshoes.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes Reminder
After the first release, we were supposed to get more, every week.
As far as I know it hasn’t happened.
Speaker Johnson, please follow through!
24/7, to piss on your grave. Then there will be a latrine erected there so people can make, shall we say, more substantial commentary.
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
SPECIAL SECTION: Message For Our “Friends” In The Middle Kingdom
I normally save this for near the end, but…basically…up your shit-kicking barbarian asses. Yes, barbarian! It took a bunch of sailors in Western Asia to invent a real alphabet instead of badly drawn cartoons to write with. So much for your “civilization.”
Yeah, the WORLD noticed you had to borrow the Latin alphabet to make Pinyin. Like with every other idea you had to steal from us “Foreign Devils” since you rammed your heads up your asses five centuries ago, you sure managed to bastardize it badly in the process.
Have you stopped eating bats yet? Are you shit-kickers still sleeping with farm animals?
Or maybe even just had the slightest inkling of treating lives as something you don’t just casually dispose of?
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
And here’s my response to barbarian “asshoes” like you:
OK, with that rant out of my system…
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)
This is a record high close for gold. It jumped up $35 on Friday. I do not know what the absolute high point was, earlier in the day, other than it was around $2,075. Many analysts expect a sustained push beyond $2,100. Meanwhile palladium’s slow decline continues. Silver is climbing (but nowhere near its 1980 high of roughly $50, even without adjusting for inflation). Platinum seems stable.
How We Know What Classical Latin Sounded Like
I stated earlier this week, as a side note to something else, that the Latin of Julius Caesar sounded a bit different from the Latin spoken by the Catholic Church (i.e., the one headquartered within Rome). We don’t know everything, exactly, but we do know a lot.
I got some pushback, and some arguments that demonstrated that some people simply don’t believe (or don’t understand the consequences of) the fact that languages change over time, especially when there are no audio recordings.
People are right to not simply take my word for it though, so I’ll bring some of the reasoning.
It at first seems a daunting task to reconstruct the sounds of a language when there were no audio recordings. (Well, I suppose if aliens have been watching us for millennia, there might be. Just the thought of that is enough to make historical linguists drool.)
Historical Linguistics (sometimes called diachronic linguistics) is the study of language change over time. (It is a science, albeit a rather “soft” one, so I expect and hope Wolf will be filing this in the sidebar.) This means it’s concerned with how one language changes over time, and the process by which one widespread language splits into multiple languages.
A good, down-home example of the former is the changes that English has gone through since the Germanic invasions and settlement of Britain in (roughly) 500 CE. And the change is considerable. Our founding fathers’ writing patterns seem quaint but we usually have no trouble understanding them (except for those times we only think we understand them…fortunately those don’t arise much in the documents). Shakespeare is notably harder to deal with. The King James Bible translation was made in Shakespeare’s day, and deliberately had some archaic language in it for gravitas, and it gets more difficult. Not only old words, but sometimes a word we use today meant something different back then and we get tripped up. The moral of that story: over generations words can shift meanings. But there’s more. In the couple of centuries before Shakespeare, and even during Shakespeare’s day, we underwent something called the “Great Vowel Shift” where the sounds of the vowels all changed, over the span of less than a century. I…formerly pronounced like the i in machine, but with a little more duration (making it “long”), became pronounced like aye. (And we still call it “long I” even though it’s not actually long in duration.) Meet, meat, and the middle e in serene changed from sounding like today’s e in bet, or an Italian e, to sounding like I used to sound. The a in mate used to be a long-in-duration ah, and sounds…well like it sounds today…a combination of former e and i called a diphthong. These are vowels that are pronounced in the front of the mouth with the tongue at different heights, and they all shifted up one place once “i” became “eye.” Curiously this happened mostly to our “long” vowels. Instead of just being the same as the short vowels, only pronounced for twice as long, they shifted.
Other similar changes upward happened with o and u (which are pronounced in the back of the mouth.
If you’ve ever taken Spanish, you’ve noticed that a, e, i, o, and u are pronounced quite differently than in English, and you may have thought it a bit weird. It turns out Spanish is much closer to the original pronunciations; we’re the weird ones. We used to have more Spanish-like pronunciations (though we sometimes lengthened a vowel). Then we spent 1400-1700 bodging all this, and making our own spelling hard for us and completely incomprehensible for others.
And the International Phonetic Alphabet actually goes with the older usages. I like machine. e like the Italian e (which we don’t have any more and fake with the day diphthong), a like in father (and never like in day), u as in fool, and o sort-of as in vote. (Another diphthong used to fake a pure sound we don’t have any more.) The e in bet is actually a different sound represented in the IPA with ε. (Linguists usually write actual sound values like this: /i/ to distinguish them from some language’s letter I which might mean something totally different.)
So…sounds can change with time, too.
And languages can split. Most famous here is Latin, splitting into Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and a whole host of other languages that don’t happen to share the names of countries. And within each of these, very distinctive dialects that are sometimes different enough that it’s debatable whether it’s the same language any more. It’s actually a gradient. The local language spoken in Marseille (as opposed to the Parisian French in the schools) isn’t terribly different from the tongue spoken in nearby parts of Italy…or the tongue spoken in northwestern Spain. They’re geographically close, but in all three places a faraway capital imposes a “standard” language, and those standard languages differ far more (especially French, which has undergone some serious pronunciation changes).
In this case every local group’s language has slowly shifted, in slightly different directions, until they’re quite separate, and it’s hard to understand other languages (the further away, the worse), if it can be done at all.
Some languages change more than others; historical linguists love finding a language that is “conservative” meaning it hasn’t changed too much. The Baltic languages (Latvian and Lithuanian) apparently haven’t changed much; neither has Icelandic (the other Scandinavian tongues have changed a lot more).
Okay…so there’s some examples.
Latin, of course, was originally spoken in Latium, the region around Rome in Italy.
Latium is now called “Lazio” which just goes to make the point about changes. This is one that in hindsight is no surprise. /t/ before /i/ tends to become /ts/ (spelled z in Italian). Why? Because people are lazy and start to slur their words, eventually the slur becomes normal. If the process were to continue, the /t/ might disappear entirely leaving just /si/. This has been seen under so many different occasions world wide that now if we have two related languages and one has /ti/ where the other has /tsi/ or even /si/ we know the second language is the one that changed.
Sometimes, though, you have just one language and since not all possible changes will actually happen (otherwise Latin would never have split up, just changed the same everywhere), it can be hard to figure out what the original sound was.
But with Latin we have multiple descendant languages. And we have something else; we have writings in other languages, trying to render Latin words.
For instance we have the Greek spellings of Latin words. And in this case, without fail, the Greeks rendered Latin “C” with Greek “Κ” (kappa). Kappa is never pronounced as anything other than /k/. Never /s/ and never /tʃ/ (our ch). Now one might say that the Greeks don’t have a /tʃ/ sound so they might have faked it with kappa, but that’s very doubtful. /tʃ/ is pronounced in the front of the mouth, /k/ in the back. The Greeks would have likely faked /tʃ/ with tau and sigma: τς or τσ, not with some sound from the back of the mouth. They don’t have a match for ʃ (sh) at all, but /s/ is pronounced in almost the same place.
Thus “vici” was pronounced with a hard /k/, as was Caesar, and Cicero. We also have Roman authors asking why on earth they don’t just get rid of the letter K since it’s pronounced just like C. (It’s a part of the Latin alphabet but rarely used; kalends is probably the most common Latin word I see with that K. Kyrie is borrowed from the Greek.)
OK, so now onto the other bone of contention, the V.
We again have Greeks rendering Roman words with the v in them, and again without failure, it’s never with the letter the Greeks use for v (more on that below). For example Valerius (a commonly used name) is rendered in Greek as Ουαλεριος (Oualerios). The Greeks didn’t (and still don’t) have /w/, but /Ου/ was pronounced /u/ and that’s very, very close, in a diphthong it is basically a /w/. We can tell when V changed from /w/ to /v/ though, because later Greek inscriptions rendered ‘Valerius’ as Βαλεριος, starting with the Greek letter beta.
Beta (Β, β) has been pronounced like /v/ not /b/, since about 200 BCE and is still /v/ today. (If Greeks want to spell the /b/ sound today, they use μπ.) /b/ and /v/, note, are both pronounced in the front of the mouth, one is a stop and the other is a fricative. If you pronounce the sounds and pay attention to what your mouth and lips are doing, you’ll see what I mean.
And this is why Cyrillic В is a /v/; Cyrillic was based on Greek in the 9th century, well after that shift happened. Cyrus and Methodius were aware of the old pronunciation, so /b/ is represented with a variant shape, Б, right before В in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Now as to the point of why Eccesiastical (Church) Latin sounds so much like Italian today (used as an argument for it not having changed at all), the reason it sounds so much like Italian, is because it is largely Italians who have been using it. The Church is based in Rome; they’re surrounded by Italians, most of the staff are Italians, and in fact even today 49 out of 241 cardinals are Italians. As Italian changed into its present form, the “frozen” Latin from the early centuries of the Church changed its pronunciation (the one thing not preserved in writing) to match. Grammar and vocubulary (as spelled) did not change, because it was preserved in writing.
Bonus video:
An American, fluent in Latin, using the classical pronunciation (wenee, weedi, weeky) in Rome. You can see it’s a bit of a struggle but they eventually get it.
And again at the Colosseum. I haven’t watched this one like I have the others, but if he’s really asking where the Flavian Amphitheater is, they’re entitled to ask him if he’s fricking blind. (The Flavian Amphitheater is what the Romans called the Colosseum.):
A more open experiment: I believe in this case he actually asked the Romans to try the experiment of speaking in Latin. Some things are easy, some things they couldn’t get:
And going to the Vatican. This time he used the Ecclesiastical pronunciation (vennee, veedee, veechee) which is how they’re used to it. Still, few people there claimed fluency:
OK with that out of the way it’s time to discuss asshoes.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
You LOST and now because of the shenanigans you tried to pull to get back in, everyone knows what a backstabbing ratfucking turd you are.
Have fun looking at yourself in the mirror every morning.
Just know that when you pass on there will be a line around the block, 24/7, to piss on your grave. Then there will be a latrine erected there so people can make, shall we say, more substantial commentary.
A Caution
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
SPECIAL SECTION: Message For Our “Friends” In The Middle Kingdom
I normally save this for near the end, but…basically…up your shit-kicking barbarian asses. Yes, barbarian! It took a bunch of sailors in Western Asia to invent a real alphabet instead of badly drawn cartoons to write with. So much for your “civilization.”
Yeah, the WORLD noticed you had to borrow the Latin alphabet to make Pinyin. Like with every other idea you had to steal from us “Foreign Devils” since you rammed your heads up your asses five centuries ago, you sure managed to bastardize it badly in the process.
Have you stopped eating bats yet? Are you shit-kickers still sleeping with farm animals?
Or maybe even just had the slightest inkling of treating lives as something you don’t just casually dispose of?
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
And here’s my response to barbarian “asshoes” like you:
OK, with that rant out of my system…
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend).
After spending the whole week in the neighborhood of $1980-1985 and opening at that level Friday, gold blooped up over the $2K mark sometime during the day.
Silver is just not doing well. It’s up for Friday but overall down, even as gold is climbing. I’m not sure when rhodium took the hit, but on Friday it actually went up a hundred bucks to end, well, still below where it was last week.
Palladium was the only loser on Friday but did close up for the week.
A Little Lighthearted Fun
Well, it’s not politics. But this is where I usually stick science stuff (when I can think of something to write about) or maybe even math, so…This one has been going around on YouTube, with plenty of reaction videos from real mathematicians and scientists watching, delighted at all of the hidden references and the visuals. It touches a LOT on the sorts of things I talked about in my recent series on numbers that culminated in Gauss’s Formula and Identity.
The last minute or so starting with the squiggly symbol (ζ; lower case Greek zeta) it goes beyond my ken. I don’t know what that symbol means in this context.
So for the people here who will appreciate it and understand (most of) it:
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.
State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.
Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!
SPECIAL SECTION: Message For Our “Friends” In The Middle Kingdom
I normally save this for near the end, but…basically…up your shit-kicking barbarian asses. Yes, barbarian! It took a bunch of sailors in Western Asia to invent a real alphabet instead of badly drawn cartoons to write with. So much for your “civilization.”
Yeah, the WORLD noticed you had to borrow the Latin alphabet to make Pinyin. Like with every other idea you had to steal from us “Foreign Devils” since you rammed your heads up your asses five centuries ago, you sure managed to bastardize it badly in the process.
Have you stopped eating bats yet? Are you shit-kickers still sleeping with farm animals?
Or maybe even just had the slightest inkling of treating lives as something you don’t just casually dispose of?
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
And here’s my response to barbarian “asshoes” like you:
OK, with that rant out of my system…
Biden Gives Us Too Much Credit
…we can move on to the next one.
Apparently Biden (or his puppeteer) has decided we’re to blame for all of the fail in the United States today.
Sorry to disappoint you Joe (or whoever), but you managed to do that all on your own; not only that, you wouldn’t let us NOT give you the chance because you insisted on cheating your way into power.
Yep, you-all are incompetent, and so proud of it you expect our applause for your sincerity. Fuck that!!
It wouldn’t be so bad, but you insist that everyone else have to share in your misery. Nope, can’t have anyone get out from under it. Somehow your grand vision only works if every single other person on earth is forced to go along. So much as ONE PERSON not going along is enough to make it all fail, apparently.
In engineering school we’re taught that a design that has seven to eight billion single points of failure…sucks.
Actually, we weren’t taught that. Because it would never have occurred to the professors to use such a ridiculous example.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend).
Wow…this is very little movement. Noise level in fact. Except for silver where just under 50 cents up is actually significant, proportionately speaking.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
