I've dabbled in handwriting analysis over the years. What I see is someone who is fascinated by spider webs, likes oatmeal on the thinner side, and shaves against the grain of his beard. I'm about 97.341% sure about all of that.
Then there’s prog metal, so, yeah…
I get annoyed with the metal technocrats. I can listen to clinical demonstrations of technical proficiency for a bit, but I can listen to 70s/Bon Scott AC/DC for who-knows-how-long. It’s not a contest. Make me feel something. (There’s also a happy medium, but the extremes are good for illustration.)
The album closer from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath starts with an arpeggiated acoustic guitar line that sounds like it comes straight out of a moody, early Genesis song. When the band comes in, it's built around strummed suspended chords that could be classic, early '70s Who, then this gives way to a chorus with a string arrangement - wholly unexpected, and hauntingly beautiful.
It's funny you used the word "moody," nous. I get a "Ride my See-Saw" (by The Moody Blues) vibe from that song.
Another song that's not quite as far as from Sabbath's familiar style, but still a bit different, is "Never Say Die." It's not exactly a happy song lyrically, but listening to it fills my heart with joy about as much as any song I can think of. (Needless to say, I might be a bit of a weirdo in that regard.)
I played with an electronic calculator when I was a kid. It allowed me to start recognizing patterns in numbers, particularly when performing the same calculation recursively. I'm reasonably sure I wasn't typical in that regard, but I wanted to mount some meager defense of electronic calculators.
Just because there are people who turn this into a wild conspiracy story that can be used for partisan purposes doesn't mean that there is no there there.
Agreed. The wild conspiracy story was that there was a vast deep-state cover-up to protect a large satanic pedophile network of elite Democrats that Epstein was at the center of. What's not at all unlikely is that Epstein trafficked underage girls for himself with help from Maxwell, as was proved in court well enough for both of them to be convicted.
Beyond that, the more clients you propose they had, the less likely it is to be true. And whether there was a written list of clients I would consider a toss-up. Maybe or maybe not. There's also the question of that list, if there was one, being obtained in the investigation.
A list isn't the only evidence that could implicate other participants in the sexual exploitation of underage girls, so what else might there be?
This story gets to that: https://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-epstein-key-victims-attorney/story?id=123805543
Excerpts:
"Jeffrey Epstein was the pimp and the john. He was his own No. 1 client," Edwards told ABC News. "Nearly all of the exploitation and abuse of all of the women was intended to benefit only Jeffrey Epstein and Jeffrey Epstein's sexual desires."
Edwards describes the enigmatic Epstein as living, essentially, two separate lives: one in which he was sexually abusing women and girls "on a daily basis," and another in which he associated with politicians, royalty, and titans of business, academia, and science.
"For the most part, those two worlds did not overlap. And where they overlapped, in the instances they overlapped, it seems to be a very small percentage," Edwards said. "There were occasions where a select few of these men engaged in sexual acts with a select few of the girls that Jeffrey Epstein was exploiting or abusing -- primarily girls who were over the age of 18."
Concluding with:
But for Edwards, the primary concern should be for the survivors of Epstein's abuse -- and he worries that the victims are an afterthought in the ongoing Washington power struggle.
"I think some [victims] believe that the government protected him, and there's this outrage because they believe that [Epstein] was always more important than they were, and that's why this was allowed to go on for so long. So if there was evidence that his political or other connections assisted, I think that they would want to know it," Edwards said. "But more so, they just want this to die off. And they see it's not dying off because of the way that it's being handled right now. In fact, somehow there's more attention to it today than there was when he was abusing them."
For the well-being of the survivors, Edwards is hopeful there will soon be a resolution that will allow the victims to move on.
"I just wish everybody would step back and remember real people were hurt here, and let's try to do what's in their best interest, as opposed to politicizing this whole thing and making it the right versus the left," he said. "All of that is hurting the people who are already hurt."
One thing that could make this thing a lasting problem for L’ Orange is his own reaction to the current MAGA outrage. If he would just shut up about it, it would probably blow over. But he seems to be intent on attacking his critics, even those within the MAGA-sphere. We'll see.
The concluding paragraphs from the Guardian piece:
Despite the importance of the Epstein files to the Maga and QAnon movements, Lewis thinks that “it’s unlikely this outrage will last”.
“The culture war will move on to its next target … and the rage machine will follow with conspiracies and vitriol,” said Lewis. “It’s much easier to be angry at an immigrant than to wonder whether you’ve been lied to for the last eight years.”
I hope he's wrong, but, after reading his words, I think he's right. How many times has tRump contradicted himself over the last 10 years?
It's quite a contradiction, though, to go from "This thing will implicate all the Dem pedos" to "The Dems made the whole thing up." Does it matter in the long run to MAGA/QAnon?
Last week, the DNC launched a new account on X that posts messages each day reminding its followers that Trump has “not released the Epstein files.” The account has also reposted Trump-focused, Epstein-related criticism from key social media influencers. It also includes a header image of comments billionaire Elon Musk made after a spat with the White House — and without offering any evidence — in which Musk charged that Trump “is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” (Trump has described having had a warm social relationship with Epstein, but he long ago distanced himself from Epstein. There has never been any evidence connecting Trump to Epstein’s criminal behavior.)
This makes me a little queasy, but maybe it's the sort of thing Democrats need to do right now.
Just 10% of users produce roughly 97% of political tweets.
(...)
A mere 0.1% of users share 80% of fake news. Twelve accounts – known as the “disinformation dozen” – created most of the vaccine misinformation on Facebook during the pandemic.
(...)
The problem isn’t just the individual extremists, of course – it’s the platform design and algorithms that amplify their content.
I have a t-shirt from Live 8, bought from a dude on the street, now usually worn while mowing my lawn. I only attended on the periphery in Philadelphia. It was a hot day.
Being in the middle of however-many-thousands of people wasn't appealing. But it was still a lot of fun hanging out in nearby establishments and cooling off in the AC. That whole part of town was jumping.
One thing that made me apoplectic was watching coverage from London of the Pink Floyd reunion in a slacker bar, when MTV decided to break in midsong during Comfortably Numb so some 20-year-old nitwit could yammer on about nothing.
I wanted to throw my glass at the TV, but it wasn't the bar's fault.
We're building gulags and far too many people think it's just great because immigrants are ruining the country. But we're still a prosperous country. People aren't pushing wheelbarrows full of cash to the grocery store because of hyperinflation. Unemployment remains low.
What is happening more insidiously is the continued acceleration of the concentration of wealth. Too few people care about that ... because too many people want to blame immigrants for their perceived problems. (I could go on again about the $80K pickup trucks and nice, large fishing boats with tRump flags flying from them, obviously owned by people who have been ruined by immigrants, the woke agenda, and all the socialism happening everywhere.)
It hurts my head.
We're building gulags and far too many people think it's just great because immigrants are ruining the country. But we're still a prosperous country. People aren't pushing wheelbarrows full of cash to the grocery store because of hyperinflation. Unemployment remains low.
What is happening more insidiously is the continued acceleration of the concentration of wealth. Too few people care about that ... because too many people want to blame immigrants for their perceived problems. (I could go on again about the $80K pickup trucks and nice, large fishing boats with tRump flags flying from them, obviously owned by people who have been ruined by immigrants, the woke agenda, and all the socialism happening everywhere.)
It hurts my head.
...there may be quite a few rotary phone fans waiting for a spiritual home!
You can take my rotary phone after you pull my cold, dead finger out of the dialer!
I just started the Sacred Assembly of the Mechanical Pencil. We meet at 3:30 AM every third Wednesday if anyone is interested. One stipulation is that you have to be able to do The Worm.
If this is a suggestion that we should have political shibboleths for commentators, I'm against it.
It seems to me that it's GftNC's personal filter for whom to bother discussing politics with.
Every bit of time we spend doing something is time we are not spending doing something else. Our time is limited. Spend it wisely.
It kind of reminds me of a friend's suggestion that I read Project 2025 after I mentioned that tRump was full of sh*t when he said he didn't know anything about it, even though there was a long list of major contributors to it in high-level positions in his administration.
Whether I read it had nothing to do with the point I was making, and I had better things to do with my time than read that crap.
The same goes for arguing with deluded people.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “An open thread”
I've dabbled in handwriting analysis over the years. What I see is someone who is fascinated by spider webs, likes oatmeal on the thinner side, and shaves against the grain of his beard. I'm about 97.341% sure about all of that.
On “Everyone is a hero in their own story”
Then there’s prog metal, so, yeah…
I get annoyed with the metal technocrats. I can listen to clinical demonstrations of technical proficiency for a bit, but I can listen to 70s/Bon Scott AC/DC for who-knows-how-long. It’s not a contest. Make me feel something. (There’s also a happy medium, but the extremes are good for illustration.)
"
The album closer from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath starts with an arpeggiated acoustic guitar line that sounds like it comes straight out of a moody, early Genesis song. When the band comes in, it's built around strummed suspended chords that could be classic, early '70s Who, then this gives way to a chorus with a string arrangement - wholly unexpected, and hauntingly beautiful.
It's funny you used the word "moody," nous. I get a "Ride my See-Saw" (by The Moody Blues) vibe from that song.
Another song that's not quite as far as from Sabbath's familiar style, but still a bit different, is "Never Say Die." It's not exactly a happy song lyrically, but listening to it fills my heart with joy about as much as any song I can think of. (Needless to say, I might be a bit of a weirdo in that regard.)
On “The law of the letter”
Michael Cain, your wife-to-be from before you knew her exudes goodness in that photo. Top of the preservation list, I imagine.
"
I played with an electronic calculator when I was a kid. It allowed me to start recognizing patterns in numbers, particularly when performing the same calculation recursively. I'm reasonably sure I wasn't typical in that regard, but I wanted to mount some meager defense of electronic calculators.
"
All this math talk has me celebrating pi, but not exactly.
On “Your Schadenfreude monitoring open thread”
Just because there are people who turn this into a wild conspiracy story that can be used for partisan purposes doesn't mean that there is no there there.
Agreed. The wild conspiracy story was that there was a vast deep-state cover-up to protect a large satanic pedophile network of elite Democrats that Epstein was at the center of. What's not at all unlikely is that Epstein trafficked underage girls for himself with help from Maxwell, as was proved in court well enough for both of them to be convicted.
Beyond that, the more clients you propose they had, the less likely it is to be true. And whether there was a written list of clients I would consider a toss-up. Maybe or maybe not. There's also the question of that list, if there was one, being obtained in the investigation.
A list isn't the only evidence that could implicate other participants in the sexual exploitation of underage girls, so what else might there be?
This story gets to that:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-epstein-key-victims-attorney/story?id=123805543
Excerpts:
Concluding with:
"
One thing that could make this thing a lasting problem for L’ Orange is his own reaction to the current MAGA outrage. If he would just shut up about it, it would probably blow over. But he seems to be intent on attacking his critics, even those within the MAGA-sphere. We'll see.
"
The concluding paragraphs from the Guardian piece:
I hope he's wrong, but, after reading his words, I think he's right. How many times has tRump contradicted himself over the last 10 years?
It's quite a contradiction, though, to go from "This thing will implicate all the Dem pedos" to "The Dems made the whole thing up." Does it matter in the long run to MAGA/QAnon?
On “Plus ça change…”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrats-put-previous-misgivings-hit-trump-jeffrey-epstein-files-rcna218608
This makes me a little queasy, but maybe it's the sort of thing Democrats need to do right now.
"
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/13/are-a-few-people-ruining-the-internet-for-the-rest-of-us
Neanderthals would never act this way.
On “An open thread on July 4th”
I have a t-shirt from Live 8, bought from a dude on the street, now usually worn while mowing my lawn. I only attended on the periphery in Philadelphia. It was a hot day.
Being in the middle of however-many-thousands of people wasn't appealing. But it was still a lot of fun hanging out in nearby establishments and cooling off in the AC. That whole part of town was jumping.
One thing that made me apoplectic was watching coverage from London of the Pink Floyd reunion in a slacker bar, when MTV decided to break in midsong during Comfortably Numb so some 20-year-old nitwit could yammer on about nothing.
I wanted to throw my glass at the TV, but it wasn't the bar's fault.
"
I had a feeling that was going to happen. "No root for comment."
"
We're building gulags and far too many people think it's just great because immigrants are ruining the country. But we're still a prosperous country. People aren't pushing wheelbarrows full of cash to the grocery store because of hyperinflation. Unemployment remains low.
What is happening more insidiously is the continued acceleration of the concentration of wealth. Too few people care about that ... because too many people want to blame immigrants for their perceived problems. (I could go on again about the $80K pickup trucks and nice, large fishing boats with tRump flags flying from them, obviously owned by people who have been ruined by immigrants, the woke agenda, and all the socialism happening everywhere.)
It hurts my head.
"
We're building gulags and far too many people think it's just great because immigrants are ruining the country. But we're still a prosperous country. People aren't pushing wheelbarrows full of cash to the grocery store because of hyperinflation. Unemployment remains low.
What is happening more insidiously is the continued acceleration of the concentration of wealth. Too few people care about that ... because too many people want to blame immigrants for their perceived problems. (I could go on again about the $80K pickup trucks and nice, large fishing boats with tRump flags flying from them, obviously owned by people who have been ruined by immigrants, the woke agenda, and all the socialism happening everywhere.)
It hurts my head.
"
...there may be quite a few rotary phone fans waiting for a spiritual home!
You can take my rotary phone after you pull my cold, dead finger out of the dialer!
"
I just started the Sacred Assembly of the Mechanical Pencil. We meet at 3:30 AM every third Wednesday if anyone is interested. One stipulation is that you have to be able to do The Worm.
"
If this is a suggestion that we should have political shibboleths for commentators, I'm against it.
It seems to me that it's GftNC's personal filter for whom to bother discussing politics with.
Every bit of time we spend doing something is time we are not spending doing something else. Our time is limited. Spend it wisely.
It kind of reminds me of a friend's suggestion that I read Project 2025 after I mentioned that tRump was full of sh*t when he said he didn't know anything about it, even though there was a long list of major contributors to it in high-level positions in his administration.
Whether I read it had nothing to do with the point I was making, and I had better things to do with my time than read that crap.
The same goes for arguing with deluded people.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.