New Fish Torture Record

On October 29 a northern pike caught in May that measured 45 1/4 in length was certified as the largest of its species caught and released in Minnesota.
 
The big fish was caught, tortured and then released on the Rainy River, a part of the US border with Canada, according to this story. The aquatic predator remains alive so a continued diet of minnows, ducklings and muskrats is likely to allow it to grow even longer and some wily future fisherman will be able to catch it. The very same fish could conceivably eclipse itself in the state record books.

While technology has had a major effect on some aspects of outdoor sports, notably fishing, with its electronic depth finders and sonar, oddly the same has yet to occur in large and small game hunting.

Unlike fishermen, hunters can't successfully release their quarry alive after bagging and measuring them. A 65 inch bull moose must be dead to be authenticated by the Boone and Crockett Club. Hopefully, the same science that has brought us Grand Theft Auto and Facebook will soon develop equipment and techniques that will enable sportsmen to terrify deer, rabbits, ducks and turkeys yet not damage them extensively. Released, they will serve as quarry for other outdoorsmen.  

Tamara de Lempicka's "The Musician" Auctioned For $9,087,500

   Tamara de Lempicka's 1929 painting  La Musicienne was auctioned off at Christie's for $9.09 million on the evening of Nov. 11, a new auction world record for the artist.

The work was  stolen from the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art in Spanbroek, North Holland, 1 May 2009, along with a painting by Salvador Dali, in an audacious day-time armed robbery. Shortly after the theft the remaining paintings in the museum were seized by ABN Amro when Scheringa's DSB bank failed.

by ABN Amro when Scheringa’s DSB bank went bankrupt in November

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

by ABN Amro when Scheringa’s DSB bank went bankrupt in November

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

Missing for seven years the pieces were recovered in 2016 by art detective Arthur Brand. Art theft has become a focus for European and perhaps Chinese organized crime. Authorities speculate that valuable art objects might have become a medium of exchange in the criminal underworld, since it's difficult to sell them for cash.

The work of de Lempicka, who died in 1980 in Mexico after spending the last years of her life in Houston, Texas, is a favorite of entertainment glitterati. Jack Nicholson and Madonna are known to be collectors.

 

Mystery White House Intern

In the generally teapot tempest that is the White House press room self-aggrandizing pseudo-journalist Jim Acosta attempted to keep control of a microphone that was being demanded by an unnamed "White House intern" who had apparently been ordered to confiscate it.

There are some questions here that need to be asked. Numero uno, of course, is who is this "White House intern"? What's her life story? Does she have a history of snatching microphones from passive journalists bent on informing the populace of the nefarious activities of the Trump regime? Is she the daughter or wife of a significant figure in US government, politics or business? In the incestuous world of DC, is she the wife or steady of a media operative? What Greek letter sorority at which one of the Seven Sisters claims her as an alumnus? Where did she buy her dress and how much did it cost? Who is she?

Second, what's the chain of command in the White House press room for a microphone confiscation? Who gives the order and what type of situation demands it? What would have been the outcome if the unknown intern had failed in her mission?

Third, why do reporters even need a microphone to ask a question in the press briefing room? Perhaps you might say that possession of the microphone is just a signal that the possessor has the exclusive right to speak. After all, it's not an auditorium. Speakers can be heard from one end to the other without shouting. Or that the questions are being recorded for posterity, as if that microphone was the only one in the room.

Acosta's activities in the press room have been a subject for press coverage since the current president assumed office. During briefings the room is filled with media figures yet an ordinary citizen receives the impression that Acosta has an opportunity to engage more often with administration figures than anyone else. Why might this be? Are the other journalists willing to give up their opportunity to question the powers-that-be in order to observe Acosta's routine? Do administration representatives call on Acosta knowing that there will be an interesting confrontation? Is Acosta a symbiotic partner with the Trump media manipulation machine? How much time, as a percentage of press questioning, did Acosta receive, as opposed to other journalists?

The White House hasn't banned CNN from the press room, only Jim Acosta. It's hard to believe that a national media organization doesn't have a qualified replacement for this prima donna. Isn't there someone waiting in the wings that is at least as capable as he was? If the administration digs in its heels, who is most likely to replace him? Even more interesting, the press has made itself the center of a story. 

The answers to these questions are exactly what the press is supposed to supply to its reader and viewership. They're supposed to come across with the who, what, when, where and why. Eventually, perhaps, some British tabloid  will spill the beans. The US media doesn't seem to have the capability.

The ultimate question is: Why don't we already know all these things?

 

The White House intern class of spring 2018. Which one is her? By the way, the interns are unpaid.

Univ of Minnesota Women's Basketball

At 3 PM on Dec. 2, 2018 the University of Minnesota women's basketball team will play the US Air Force Academy women's team at Williams Arena on the Minneapolis campus. The Gopher ladies are a dozen of the almost 19,000 females in the student body. Only one of the team members is from the land of 10,000 lakes. 

On the other hand, the US Air Force Academy, which has about 1100 female cadets, has a roster of 20 players, two of whom are Minnesota residents.

Fuel For the Marxist Furnace

Per Barrons:


David Hockney’s masterpiece, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972, estimated at $80 million, then headlines Christie’s contemporary evening auction on Thursday, Nov. 15. If the 7-foot-by-10-foot painting by Hockney achieves its estimated value, it will be the highest price paid for a work by a living artist, Christie’s says.

“This is really one of the greatest works of the last 40 years,” says Evan Beard, national art services executive at U.S. Trust, the private bank unit of Bank of America. “It's one of the unique paintings that's become a celebrity in its own right.”

Postscript: The Hockney painting was sold for $90.3 million, a new record for a living artist. Keep in mind that Hockney himself didn't receive this sum. The work was owned and sold by British billionaire Joe Lewis.

Civil Asset Forfeiture

CBS News:

"Civil asset forfeiture is a key tool that helps law enforcement help defund organized crime, prevents new crime from committed and weakens the criminals and cartels," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Wednesday announcing the revived DOJ policy.
Sessions said these seizures help weaken criminal organizations by taking away their funding, returning property back to victims of crime, as well as give funds back to law enforcement officials by allocating the assets toward new vehicles, vests and police training.
"Funds being used to take lives are now being used to save lives," said Sessions.
CBS News' Paula Reid reports that 24 states have passed laws limiting the practice, but local law enforcement can get around those restrictions by giving seized assets to the federal government instead of returning them to their owners. This practice is called "adoption" and it's been used to seize almost $1 billion in assets over the last decade.
In an off-camera briefing on Wednesday with reporters, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended the forfeiture practice as a way to empower law enforcement. This new policy allows local police to seize property even from people not charged with a crime. About 20 states have reformed the practice and said that assets can only be seized with an indictment or conviction.
________________________________________________________

As if the country with more people incarcerated than any other on earth needs its law enforcement to be more empowered. Now former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions will advance the cause of government theft from some other position.

His interim replacement, Mathew G. Whitaker:  While US Attorney, Whitaker served on the Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture Subcommittee of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, a group of 30 United States Attorneys across the country focusing on the Department of Justice's efforts against drug trafficking. Additionally, he was a member of the Violent and Organized Crime Subcommittee and the White Collar Crime Subcommittee of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.

We don't know for sure but it's possible that Whitaker will also have an enthusiasm for confiscating the property of Americans without charging them with any crime.

Field Marshall Lord Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst

 

 

massive.com

  Lord Amherst, Commander of the British troops in North America during the French and Indian War


"You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race. I should be very glad your scheme for hunting them down by dogs could take effect, but England is at too great a distance to think of that at present." Letter from Amherst to
Swiss mercenary Henry Bouquet, 1763.

While Amherst, the heroic individual for whom Amherst College and the town of Amherst, Massachusetts are named, was unable to procure sufficient dogs to hunt native Americans, he was able to successfully organize the distribution of smallpox infected blankets among them in an early example of germ warfare.  

Ashurnasirpal II

Frieze from the Assyrian palace of King Ashurnasirpal II, circa 883-859 BC, sold by Christie's for $31 million

Once again the sale of antiquarian art has generated international controversy. As this account tells us, modern-day Iraqis and others are outraged that Virginia Theological Seminary, the owner of the piece since 1859, had the temerity to put it up for auction. As usual, this sort of art is considered part of a "cultural heritage" that must forever abide in its birthplace.

The sale of the big blocks of carved alabaster was hardly a secret. Like all art auctions, Christie's made sure that interested parties were aware of the impending transaction. The interested Iraqis could have bid on the object themselves.

Aside from that, what else do we know about the provenance of The Winged Genius, as the work is now known? It's likely that the good King Ashurnasirpal II, as was generally the case in those dark times, made his name through the subjugation of the weaker. Probably slaves were employed in extracting the stone and perhaps in even carving it. Eventually it, and the rest of the palace complex, were submerged under the Mesopotamian sands, not to be revealed until the middle of the 19th century. The land where it was hidden was deemed the property of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, Persians, Mongols, Ottomans and others in the many intervening years.

Although his palace may have been located in the region that was deemed a nation called Iraq by the British after WWI, its connection with the present-day inhabitants is dubious. Since the demise of Ashurnasirpal II about 2877 years ago many others have wielded power in the Fertile Crescent. No one knows what, if any, cultural ties the people now called Assyrians might have with the current inhabitants.

Ultimately, Ashurnasirpal II no doubt considered his palace to be his own personal property and, if not, at least the property of he and his fellows. It seems unlikely that he would have considered it a birthright to be bestowed on the citizens of a British creation, had he even been able to conceive of such a thing. The idea that a later group of people could, under the concept of the nation-state, successfully demand the return of an art object no one was even aware of for many hundreds of years would bring a smile to Ashurnasirpal II's lips, provided he was in a good mood that day. Yet this line of thinking continues in other avenues as well.

 


Above is American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled from 1982, sold by Christie's in 2016 for $57,285,000. The work went to Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. We haven't heard any outrage that a significant piece of America's cultural legacy has been shipped off to the Land of the Rising Sun, have we?

Sarah Fader, Sports Heroine

The 2018 version of the world track cycling master's championships was held in October at the Velo Sports Center in Carson, California. In ordinary times this event would have been generally ignored in the US and of mild interest anywhere else. This year was a little different.

The master's events are classified by both age and sex. A 55 year-old female doesn't compete against a 38 year-old male. However, a controversy erupted when Dr. Rachel McKinnon won the masters world championship in the match sprint in the women's 35-44-year-old age category. McKinnon was born a man.

Some background on competitive cycling. For  years many riders at all levels of the sport complained that some of their rivals used performance-enhancing drugs to an unfair and illegal advantage. Governing bodies in cycling developed testing programs, including out of competition random tests, to insure that riders were following the rules. Offenders were suspended from competition and banished entirely, including American superstar and multiple Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Track cycling Olympian Tammy Thomas was banned from the sport for life.

The case against Armstrong rested almost entirely on the testimony of people that claimed to have a first-hand knowledge of drug abuse in cycling. Yet, these same people had continued to compete against Armstrong and others. Considering that, even by their own standards, it was unlikely that they could defeat a competitor with a pharmaceutical advantage, these riders were only serving as validation of a corrupt enterprise. It would have shown real courage and integrity to have refused to compete against others that they claimed to have known were cheating. They could, in fact, have formed their own sanctioning organizations to assure drug-free competition. But they didn't.

Moving on to Rachel McKinnon's world championship some interesting factors in that victory can be contemplated. The most obvious, of course, is the matter of McKinnon's sex in terms of athletic competition, not as a component of the individual's self-image or psychology. While McKinnon might get up every morning thinking as a female, physically, in the competitive cycling arena, McKinnon is a male. The idea that a certain level of blood testosterone determines sex, as advanced by the IOC and McKinnon in this Velo News article, is absurd scientism. Another interesting article on the subject is here.


Tall, burly female impersonator Rachel McKinnon

The argument is made that not allowing McKinnon to compete with women would be a denial of the right to fair competition at all is similarly absurd. Over 50% of the world's population is female. The idea that they should be required to accept an astonishingly small group of non-females as competitive equals is preposterous. As is the Olympic committee's UN-like statement that everyone has a right to compete, which has no bearing on the issue.

Ultimately, the most serious problem is the abrogation of that Olympian right in the case of women themselves. No conscious feminist could possibly accept that an altered, or even unaltered, male be allowed to contest in an athletic event for females. Males with sexual identity problems could easily push genuine females out of their own sports after years of efforts to promote them. In horse racing, for instance, gelded males compete against other males, not in races carded for fillies and mares. Nobody seems to know how the geldings feel about the whole thing.




Sarah Fader, actual female cyclist

So we finally get to Sarah Fader. She was the defending world champion in the class that McKinnon eventually won. In her clear-eyed response given in the Velo News article above she explains why she refused to compete. Her ideas have more validity than those of McKinnon. It seems odd that there has been so little agreement with them, which is a dramatic step backward for all women. Sarah Fader for Sportswoman of the Year.