I looked at my kid’s third-grade math assignment and couldn’t complete it. Not because I’m particularly bad at math but – and this is the funny part – I’m apparently not good at language. The task asks children to “use the Commutative Property of Multiplication.” That’s the actual spelling, and I don’t have the foggiest what it’s supposed to mean and why the words are capped.

On the one hand, I’m glad third-graders are assumed to be able to read this kind of words. On the other, this seems like a way to scare very young children away from math because what is a fun activity at this age is made to sound prohibitively complicated and boring. “Hey, kids, let’s do this fun game about a guy who had two buckets of pears and had to share them equally among his friends” might attract 8-year-olds more than “let’s use the Commutative Property”, is what I’m saying.

During the Spanish conquest of the New World, Spaniards were legally obligated to pronounce a set of statements that, according to their legal system, would entitle them to the conquest of the new lands they encountered. This statement they would pronounce was called requerimiento, or demand. The aborigines had no capacity to understand the language of the demand or the concepts it used. As a result, they couldn’t access or not to it in any meaningful way. But Spaniards still considered the locals obligated to abide by its terms once they heard it.

Today’s land acknowledgements are exactly like that. In the images above, you can see a land acknowledgement used by an Australian writer as an opening statement of her novel. Australian aborigines did not have the concepts of nation and sovereignty. The writer’s insistence on calling them “nations” is actually quite disrespectful. It’s very similar to the Spanish requerimiento because it uses the aborigines as props or mannequins to achieve self-serving purposes.

This is supposed to be a historical novel but now I don’t know if I want to read it because the author’s knowledge of history is scant.

Have you ever wished you could have a private viewing of your favorite painting? One lucky man named Stefan Kasper in the Netherlands was granted that opportunity and more when he became the 10 millionth visitor to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  He was granted his very own night at the museum, including a dinner and bed underneath Rembrandt‘s masterpiece The Night Watch.

This incredible event occurred in 2017. It was business as usual at the Rijksmuseum until Kasper had his ticket scanned and came up as the 10 millionth guest. He was immediately presented with a special ceremony, where an official of the Rijksmuseum explained what was in store for him. After the museum closed for the day, Kasper was allowed his own private evening with Rembrandt’s painting, and many other famous works of art.

10 Millionth Visitor to Rijksmuseum Is Granted Private Evening With Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’

First of all, it wasn’t private because the poor dude was filmed and footage was plastered all over social media. And second, the whole thing must be fake anyway. It’s too big of a coincidence that the 10-millionth guest just happened to be a person who doesn’t want or need to be at home at night and possesses a strongly exhibitionist personality that would make this not a dreaded punishment. And that he’d be male, adult, and fairly young because women and older people can’t go to bed in a random place.

Former President Trump sidesteps his role in Afghanistan exit in trying to link Vice President Harris to chaos https://t.co/grosxPTAXx

— The Hill (@thehill) August 28, 2024

What role? He was not in office. Just like he was not in office both times when Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Trying to link”, my foot. She boasted of being the last person in the room with Biden when he made the decisions that led to the embarrassing chaos of withdrawal. The same withdrawal that Putin is reported to have watched on a loop for days when making the decision to invade in February of 2022.

Do you despise the MSM as much as I do or almost as much? Nobody despises them more, that’s for certain.

I talked to two Ukrainians who say I should vote for Trump. They say with Kamala it will be more of the same, and that’s turning out badly for Ukraine. With Trump, it can go much worse or much better but at least there is a chance for better.

I understand their point but I’m not a gambling person. I’m the opposite of that. I’m very risk averse.

Yes, yes, I know my individual vote changes nothing. But I care about voting and I think about this a lot.

The anti-Jewish protests made Zuckerberg remember that, woke wife or no woke wife, he runs a risk she doesn’t once pogroms begin. As a result, he’s moving somewhat to the right:

Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:

1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans.

2. Facebook censored Americans.

3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.

Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K

— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024

People who say Doug Emhoff is a sex symbol are as stupid as those who claim that he’s subservient to his wife and is sacrificing his ambition to hers.

Emhoff is a very rich person. He was rich way before he married Kamala. He was a lawyer for Walmart, Merck, and many other extremely wealthy clients.

The “job” and the ambition of very rich people is to get even more rich by administering their assets. Pulling a salary, like we, the plebs, do is not crucial. Emhoff has a gigantic investment portfolio. Making sure that investment portfolio grows is his career. What do you think advances that goal more, having the intimate loyalty of the President of the United States or going to a job?

Emhoff is being a shrewd businessman (as well he should) and not some weakling cuck in supporting Kamala’s presidential bid with everything he’s got. Let’s not project our middle-class realities into these stratospherically rich people.

To continue the thought I started yesterday, depression doesn’t just happen. It’s a destination, and it takes a while to reach it. There are signs along the way, saying “Exit 29B, Depressionville, 26 miles”. If you notice the signs, you can correct course and go someplace else.

Of course, nobody tells us how to read the signs because if we do, we can’t be milked for cash. We can’t be put on meds and then more meds to correct the previous meds, and then some meds for the other 3 meds, and so on.

There are signs, and they are age-specific.

I was talking to a colleague in STEM who runs a lab. We agreed that when you give people opportunities, in about 85-90% of cases, they don’t take them. The remaining 10% take the opportunities and run with them, often in amazing ways. But that’s always a small minority.

I’ve wasted some major chances myself and I know how it feels to have no life energy to grab what’s dangling right in your face.

Heading into emergency abdominal surgery.
Wish me luck!
If anything happens tell Kamala and Tim I loved them. pic.twitter.com/7rOMHuGzfI

— Beth (@MrsStinkFingers) August 27, 2024