"How To Escape Killer Bees"

 I ran across this while surfing the net a bit, With spring coming the bees, wasps and hornets are more active and you will start seeing them and if you ain't careful, you will bungle into them, especially with the lawnmower.....Ask me how I know, LOL.  As far as the Wasp nest goes, I use the 10 foot sprays...at NIGHT, and I haul a$$.  I am a lot of things...but stupid, ain't one of them.  I try to not disturb them unless they go after me first, then I will eradicate them.   I thought this was a useful article.    I shamelessly clipped this from "Art of Manliness"

     

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.

In 1978, The Swarm premiered in theaters across the country and illustrated the raw, destructive capabilities of bees. In the film, starring a young Michael Caine, swarms of bees crash helicopters, derail trains, and wreak havoc on communities. If that sounds ridiculous, it was, but then again, these were not just any bees. These were killer bees.

In reality, when people talk about killer bees, they’re referring to the Africanized honeybee. Developed in the 50s, the Africanized honeybee is a hybrid of Western honeybees and East African honeybees. The purpose of this experimental cross-breed was to increase honey production. But in 1957, swarms of the bees escaped quarantine in Brazil and began working their way toward North America. Today, they can be found throughout the Southwest (as well as Florida) and are spreading a little more each year. 

These hybrid pollinators got their “killer” name because of their extremely defensive behavior. They sting more and chase farther, in some cases following people for more than a quarter of a mile. As individual bees, they’re no more venomous than an average honeybee. But as a group, killer bees can become a deadly force; hundreds of their stings will inject enough venom to overwhelm the body’s vital functions.

Killer bees make their nests in all the typical places you’d expect: in rotten logs, beneath house eaves, and underground. They’re typically most aggressive in spring when making new hives. It’s at this time of the year when they tend to move in large swarms. If you find yourself in their path, or accidentally disrupt their hive, here’s what to do.

The 4 Boxes of our Political system.

 This is a repost, but relevant,  I wanted to post something else but was unable to.

 I have commented repeatedly that the people that want to gut our 2nd amendment rights are perfectly happy to let the government have guns and these people whom are statist and believe that the government is all knowing and all doing and is this benevolent master, they have this parent child relationship with the government.  I and many like me view government as a necessary evil and our founders put checks and balances in the system including the 2nd amendment to prevent the government from "getting to big for their britches" to use a southernism. 

 The elitist are pushing the latest shooting and stabbings to try to disarm the American people, especially the middle class, the bulwark against the elitist that would try to rule be imperial fiat.  In a lot of countries, there are the very rich and the poor, there are no middle ground.  in those countries, the rule of law are the same, there is one rule for the rich and one rule for the "great unwashed".  The middle class is a check on the unfettered desires of the 1%ers that do desire to rule because they are "our betters".    I first heard of the 4 post of our political system from a now retired talk show host by the name of Neal Boortz.  After the recent shootings, this is a reminder of what can happen if tyranny disguised as the "caring liberals" makes an appearance.

The 4 boxes of the American Political System.

  I had posted this back when I first started blogging.  I will repost since it is pertinent to today's discussions on government and overreach.   The 4 boxes of the American political system work like this:

      1.    The Soapbox :  I can stand on a soapbox and criticize the power structure and the politicians and not get thrown in jail and sent to a gulag or get asked "Where do you want your remains sent to?"

     2.  The Ballot Box:  I can vote for whomever I want without fear of being thrown into prison for supporting the "Wrong candidate" or being wrapped in a tire and set on fire.

     3.  The jury box:  I can feel confident that the rule of law will apply equally to everybody without regard to station in life. and due process isn't being asked "which ear do you want the bullet?

     4. Cartridge box:  You open the 4th one when the others are threatened and get the first 3 back.

I shamelessly clipped this argument off farcebook after after getting into it with a hippie after the 2nd assassination attempt on President Trump.  Hippies I swear, 

Liberal idiot stridently insists that the AR-15 round is uniquely powerful and terrible. I explain that muzzle energy is the commonly accepted metric for determining how powerful a round is. And that the AR-15’s .223 round has 60% less muzzle energy than the .30-06 and 30-40% less than other common deer hunting rounds.
Liberal idiot then insists that the .223 round is much deadlier because it’s much faster. I explain that the muzzle energy formula takes velocity into account and that the .223 has about the same velocity as most deer hunting rounds and is only about 10% faster than the .30-06.

Liberal idiot then insists that the .223 round is especially deadly because it’s a lighter round (!). Speechless, I start to explain that muzzle energy directly correlates to mass, so a round that’s half as heavy will have half the muzzle energy, assuming the same velocity.
Then I stop, bid him adieu and delete his messages. And hope my IQ recovers by Thursday..
Folks, THIS is the degree of stupidity we’re dealing with. They literally know NOTHING about guns and aggressively refuse to learn even the most basic facts. We can’t reason with people who are intentionally and insistently uninformed. And any Republican Quisling who makes nice with these fanatics should be kicked out of the party.

"The Case For Bringing back American Grit"

 

*Doesn't exist anymore, Porche North America Headquarters now are at that location.*

Those of y'all that have been visiting my blog for a long time know that I used to be a Ford Motor Company Assembly worker, we used to build the Ford Tauruses and Mercury Sables, but Ford had too many factories for its market share in the United States in the middle of the 2000's, even though we built a quality product, and got quality and efficiency awards, in the end it didn't matter.  My job got "Outsourced."  I knew that the Taurus was slated to end in 2006 and we were supposed to get the new "Ford Fusion" but it got sent to Mexico instead and I hoped we would get another car line, but it wasn't to be.  We got shuttered as part of Fords "Way Forward".  I don't hate Ford because of what happened, they treated us good in a bad situation, we basically got 1 years salary, they maintained our medical for 6 months,  they told us in January that the plant was closing in October for those that took the *buyout* and if you had 10 years, you were vested and kept your pension.  They also gave employees the option to transfer to "Louisville Assembly Plant" or "Kentucky Truck Plant" and Ford would help pay relocation expenses.  Or for those that wanted to go to college, they would pay for 4 years college(up to a certain amount) and pay a stipend and medical until completion.  Like I said, they treated us good in a bad situation.  A lot of places they would have given 2 weeks notice or some places, there would have been a padlock on the gate and the hourly employees would have had to go to the Dept of labor to try to get their last paychecks.  I still drive Fords even today, I still own the stock I bought back then.  I say all this to say is , I wish someone had fought for the American Workers back in the day like President Trump is doing now, the rank and file had seen our jobs go overseas, thanks to "NAFTA" and China getting "Most Favoured Nation " and the other presidents from  both parties screwed the American workers.  Most of the countries have been screwing us to the wall for generations with "Tariff "they would tariff the crap out of our goods and we would not do the same and they would dump their cheaper goods on our market and basically run our industry out of existence.  I an a big fan on insourcing, especially things that are necessary for our national defense. 

      It is a problem  when soo much of our stuff is made by a potential hostile power *cough*hack* China*cough*hack*, but I do have a concern, China has an export economy, and a large youth unemployment problem, I can see *Poo Bear* and the Chinese Military doing a preemptive strike because they fear domestic unrest far worse than they fear a foreign war., because domestic unrest is a threat against their power whereas a foreign war is a way to unite the people against a foreign enemy especially one of the "Foreign Devils" and also it will take care of some of the overpopulation of unemployed youth, remember to a communist society, you have no value except to serve the state and if you are "Cannon Fodder", well it sucks to be you and we have a large "5th column" problem, especially with our youth after several generations of being indoctrinated by the educational system, I see a bunch of kids helping the CHICOM's out because they hate the United States because they have been conditioned to because of *systemic racism* or *Climate Change* or Patriarchy* or a bunch of other words loved by the progressive leftbut basically they have lost faith in Western civilization and they will also become *Disposable* and not realizing what they are actually doing until it is too late.

     I shamelessly clipped this off *GAB* the Free Speech Social Media outlet.

The heart of America has always beat to the rhythm of hammers on steel, the hum of factories, and the pride of craftsmen shaping raw materials into something enduring. For too long, we’ve surrendered that heartbeat to the hollow clatter of foreign assembly lines. We traded our sovereignty, our dignity, and the well-being of our people for the fleeting convenience of cheaply made trinkets. But now, with tariffs reshaping the economic landscape, we stand at the threshold of a rebirth—a return to the essence of what made this nation unstoppable. This isn’t just about economics; it’s about resurrecting the soul of America.

Let’s be clear: the decay of American manufacturing didn’t happen by accident. It was a slow-motion betrayal. We outsourced our jobs, shuttered our factories, and handed over the keys to our prosperity to nations that don’t share our values or our dreams. My grandfather’s refrigerator, bought when he married my grandmother, still runs today. It wasn’t a fluke. It was built by American hands, forged with American steel, and engineered with the kind of pride that doesn’t cut corners. That fridge is a relic of an era when “Made in America” wasn’t a nostalgic slogan—it was a stamp of excellence. Today, we’re surrounded by disposable goods designed to break, replace, and drain our wallets. This isn’t progress. It’s a surrender.

Tariffs are not punishment. They’re a lifeline. By making it harder for foreign competitors to undercut our industries, we’re forcing a reckoning. Suddenly, it’s no longer cheaper to ship jobs overseas. Suddenly, companies that abandoned our heartland for foreign sweatshops will have no choice but to come home. This is how we rebuild. This is how we stop the bleeding. Critics will whine about “trade wars” or “higher prices,” but what’s the alternative? A nation of consumers, not creators? A people stripped of purpose, staring at screens, ordering plastic junk from faceless corporations overseas? That’s not a future. That’s a death spiral.

American men and women are starving for purpose. We weren’t born to click “Add to Cart” and wait for delivery trucks. We were born to invent, to engineer, to sweat over a weld until it’s perfect. The pioneer spirit that carved railroads across mountains and raised skyscrapers into the sky hasn’t vanished—it’s been suffocated by a culture that tells us building things is someone else’s job. Tariffs are the spark that reignites that fire. When factories reopen, when workshops hum back to life, we won’t just be manufacturing goods. We’ll be restoring dignity. Every job created here, every product stamped “Made in USA,” is a middle finger to the lie that America’s best days are behind her.

This is about more than economics. It’s about identity. For decades, we’ve been force-fed the myth that globalization is inevitable, that competition with countries exploiting their workers and polluting their rivers is “fair.” But since when did Americans settle for “fair” when we could strive for dominance? Our ancestors didn’t cross oceans and plains to become passive observers of their own destiny. They built. They fought. They innovated. Tariffs are the first step in rejecting the cowardice of offshoring and embracing the courage of self-reliance.

The road ahead won’t be easy. There will be short-term costs. But since when did greatness come without sacrifice? The naysayers can keep their flimsy gadgets and their fragile supply chains. We’ll take the struggle of rebuilding, because on the other side of that struggle is a nation that makes things again—things that last. A nation where fathers and mothers point to bridges, engines, and yes, refrigerators, and say, “We built that.” A nation where the American spirit, too long caged by complacency, finally breaks free.

This is our moment. The tariffs are more than policy—they’re a declaration. We are done outsourcing our future. We are done surrendering our pride. Let the world call it protectionism. We’ll call it patriotism. The golden age of American building begins now.

The skeptics love to preach about the “global economy” as if it’s some sacred, unalterable force of nature. But let’s strip away the euphemisms. What they call “globalization” is really just a race to the bottom—a system that rewards countries for exploiting laborers, gutting environmental standards, and hollowing out the industries of their so-called “partners.” America didn’t become a superpower by bowing to such extortion. We became a superpower by outworking, outthinking, and outbuilding everyone else. Tariffs level the playing field, yes, but their greater purpose is to remind the world that America doesn’t follow rules—we set them. This isn’t isolationism; it’s defiance. We’re done playing the sucker in a rigged game.

Consider the small towns and cities scattered across the Rust Belt, the South, and the heartland. These communities weren’t just clusters of factories; they were ecosystems of innovation and pride. When the factories left, they took more than jobs. They took identity. They took the Friday night camaraderie of workers sharing a beer after a hard week, the local diners buzzing with shifts changing, the scholarships funded by plant profits for kids to learn trades. Tariffs won’t just revive factories—they’ll revive the glue that holds these towns together. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s justice. For every Main Street boarded up, for every family fractured by addiction or despair in the wake of economic collapse, tariffs are a down payment on redemption.

And let’s talk about the men and women who’ve been told their skills are obsolete. The welders, machinists, and electricians—the ones who don’t just push buttons but solve problems with calloused hands and sharp minds. These aren’t “old economy” jobs. They’re timeless trades, the backbone of any society that values self-reliance. Tariffs will force us to reinvest in apprenticeships, in vocational schools, in the kind of hands-on education that doesn’t saddle kids with debt but instead gifts them purpose. Imagine a generation raised not on influencers peddling vanity, but on mentors teaching them to measure twice and cut once. That’s how cultures endure. That’s how legacies are forged.

Detractors screech about inflation, but they ignore the hidden costs of our current decay. Yes, a $10 toaster from overseas is cheap—until you factor in the billions spent on welfare for displaced workers, the opioid crisis fueled by joblessness, or the national security risks of relying on China for everything from microchips to antibiotics. What’s more expensive: paying a fair price for a toaster built in Ohio, or surrendering our resilience as a nation? Tariffs force us to confront these truths. They’re not a tax on consumers; they’re an investment in sovereignty. When we build our own goods, control our own supply chains, and employ our own people, we’re not just saving money—we’re saving ourselves.

Some will say automation renders this vision outdated. Nonsense. Automation isn’t the enemy; offshoring is. Imagine combining American ingenuity, robotics, and high-tech manufacturing with the grit of our workforce. We’d dominate. Germany didn’t abandon its factories—it married precision engineering with cutting-edge tech. Japan didn’t outsource its auto industry—it perfected it. America can do both, but only if we have the courage to protect and nurture our industrial base first. Tariffs buy us time to innovate here, on our soil, rather than handing our future to rivals.

This is also a spiritual battle. Consumerism has turned us into a nation of renters—of our gadgets, our homes, even our identities. We scroll, we swipe, we discard. But building things changes you. It roots you. There’s a reason our grandfathers held onto that fridge for 60 years: it was a testament to their values. Durability. Integrity. Legacy. When we 

The road ahead demands more than tariffs, of course. We’ll need to slash regulations that strangle small manufacturers, rewrite trade deals that put America first, and celebrate blue-collar work as noble, not “backup” career. But tariffs are the catalyst. They’re the spark in the dark, the signal to the world that America is done outsourcing its soul. For every CEO who claims he “has no choice” but to move jobs overseas, tariffs scream back: You do now.

History doesn’t remember nations for what they bought. It remembers them for what they built. The pyramids. The railroads. The internet. Our ancestors didn’t cling to safe, small, soulless lives—they gambled on greatness. Tariffs are our gamble. They’re a bet that American hands still yearn to shape steel, that American hearts still hunger for purpose, and that this country’s best chapters aren’t behind her, but waiting to be written. Let the doubters cling to their cheap trinkets.

We’re building cathedrals.

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab AI Inc
Christ is King

Monday Music "Paint It Black" By the Rolling Stones.

 

This one is an Earworm song for me, it was playing on one of the rock stations on my Sirius /XM station in my truck as I was driving in to work this morning.  SO I figured I would spread" Da wealth", Yes I am a caring person.  Life is starting to settle down and I will try to restart my long running "Monday Music", and blog more. and put more material out.

 Vietnam was a taboo subject for a while the wounds that the conflict left on the American Psyche was deep.  We had won the battles but lost the war because we as a nation had lost the will to fight it thanks to the media and the hippies and the antiwar movement that was funded by the communist party and liberal donors.  it took several years before Vietnam could be discussed outside of the veterans.  My Dad was a Vietnam Veteran, he did a tour in 1968 and dealt with the tunnels of Cu-Chi and the Tet Offensive, then he returned in 1972 for a second tour.   For a while especially in the 1970's, the Vietnam vet was portrayed as crazy or dangerous.  The specter of Vietnam dogged every use of the Military or any support during the 1980's, from Grenada, to Beirut, to Honduras and Nicaragua.  The Ghost of Vietnam were finally laid to rest during Desert Storm. 

 

 I decided to roll with "Paint it black" It is a Rolling Stone song that was used in the opening credits of a TV series that we GI's watched in the barracks.  We liked the realism, the attention to detail,  they had used Vietnam veterans as advisers to ensure the realism and gritty reality...for 80's TV anyway.  When the show came on, the dayroom was full as everybody clustered around the AFN broadcast of the show.  This song is the only song by the Rolling Stones that I  really liked.....We would cheer when the soldiers would shoot up Charlie and the firefights.  The interplay of the people was very well done, we liked the way the new LT played by Stephen Caffrey was mentored by the platoon sergeant played by Terrance Knox.  All the other guys also played well on each other and at the end of the video, it showed the 3 soldiers standing at attention and saluting the flag on TV at the end of the broadcast day....when they played the national Anthem.   That was telling for me.  The simple patriotism showed represented the beliefs of the Veterans in their country..

 

"Paint It Black" is a song recorded in 1966 by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it is a raga rock song with Indian, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European influences and lyrics about grief and loss. London Records released the song as a single on 7 May 1966 in the United States, and Decca Records released it on 13 May in the United Kingdom. Two months later, London Records included it as the opening track on the American version of the band's 1966 studio album Aftermath, though it is not on the original UK release.

Originating from a series of improvisational melodies played by Brian Jones on the sitar, all five members of the band contributed to the final arrangement, although only Jagger and Richards were credited as songwriters. In contrast to previous Rolling Stones singles with straightforward rock arrangements, "Paint It Black" has unconventional instrumentation including a prominent sitar, the Hammond organ, and castanets. This instrumental experimentation matches other songs on Aftermath. The song was influential to the burgeoning psychedelic genre as the first chart-topping single to feature the sitar, and widened the instrument's audience. Reviews of the song at the time were mixed and some music critics believed its use of the sitar was an attempt to copy the Beatles, and others criticized its experimental style and doubted its commercial potential.

"Paint It Black" was a major chart success for the Rolling Stones, at eleven weeks (including two at number one) on the US Billboard Hot 100, and 10 weeks (including one atop the chart) on the Record Retailer chart in the UK. Upon a re-issue in 2007, it reentered the UK Singles Chart for 11 weeks. It was the band's third number-one single in the US and sixth in the UK. The song also topped charts in Canada and the Netherlands. It received a platinum certification in the UK from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and from Italy's Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI).

"Paint It Black" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song number 213 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2011, the song was added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of "The Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". Many artists have covered "Paint It Black" since its initial release. It has been included on many of the band's compilation albums, and several film soundtracks. It was played on several Rolling Stones tours. 

In 1965, popularity of the Rolling Stones increased markedly with a series of international hit singles written by lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards.While 1964 saw the band reach the top of both the albums and singles charts in their native United Kingdom, other bands from Britain dominated the American market, such as the Beatles. In 1965, the Stones crossed over to the American Market with their first number one single, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", and first number one album Out of Our Heads. That year also saw the Stones reach the top of the charts for the first time in countries such as Finland, Germany, and South Africa.

This success attracted the attention of Allen Klein, an American businessman who became their US representative in August while Andrew Loog Oldham, the group's manager, continued in the role of promoter and record producer.^[4] One of Klein's first actions on the band's behalf was to force Decca Records to grant a $1.2 million royalty advance to the group, bringing the members their first signs of financial wealth and allowing them to purchase country houses and new cars. Their October–December 1965 tour of North America was the group's fourth and largest tour there up to that point.According to the biographer Victor Bockris, through Klein's involvement, the concerts afforded the band "more publicity, more protection and higher fees than ever before".

By this time, the Rolling Stones had begun to respond to the increasingly sophisticated music of the Beatles, in comparison to whom they had long been promoted by Oldham as a rougher alternative.With the success of the Jagger-Richards-penned singles "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965), "Get Off of My Cloud" (1965) and "19th Nervous Breakdown" (1966), the band increasingly rivalled the musical and cultural influence of the Beatles, and began to be identified as one of the major pillars of the British Invasion. The Stones' outspoken, surly attitude on songs like "Satisfaction" alienated the Establishment detractors of rock music, which music historian Colin King explains, "only made the group more appealing to those sons and daughters who found themselves estranged from the hypocrisies of the adult world – an element that would solidify into an increasingly militant and disenchanted counterculture as the decade wore on".

 

"Paint It Black" came at a pivotal period in the band's recording history. The Jagger/Richards songwriting collaboration had begun producing more original material for the band over the past year, with the early model of Stones albums featuring only a few Jagger-Richards compositions having been replaced by that of albums such as Out of Our Heads and December's Children (and Everybody's), each of which consisted of half original tracks and half cover songs. This trend culminated in the sessions for Aftermath (1966) where, for the first time, the duo penned every track on the album. Brian Jones, originally the band's founder and leader over the first few years of its existence, began feeling overshadowed by the prominence of Jagger and Richards' contributions to the group.

Despite having contributed to early songs by the Stones via the Nanker Phelge pseudonym, Jones had less and less influence over the group's direction as their popularity grew primarily as a result of original Jagger-Richards singles. Jones grew bored attempting to write songs, and with conventional guitar melodies. To alleviate his boredom, he begun exploring Eastern instruments, specifically the Indian sitar, with a goal to bolstering the musical texture and complexity of the band's sound. A multi-instrumentalist, Jones could develop a tune on the sitar in a short time; he had a background with the instrument largely from his studies under Harihar Rao, a disciple of Ravi Shankar.

Over 1965, the sitar had become a more and more prominent instrument in the landscape of british rock. The Yardbirds had attempted to record "Heart Full of Soul" with the sitar as part of the arrangement in April, however they had run into problems getting the instrument to "cut through" the mix, and the session musician responsible for playing the instrument had trouble staying within the 4/4 time signature of the song. Ultimately, the final version of "Heart Full of Soul" featured a fuzz guitar in place of the sitar, although the song's distinctively Indian timbre remained. Following similar Indian-influenced experimentation by the Kinks on "See My Friends" that nonetheless still used guitar as the primary instrument, the first British band to release a recording featuring the sitar was the Beatles, with "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" released that December on the album Rubber Soul. Following a discussion with the Beatles' lead guitarist George Harrison, who had recently played the sitar on the sessions for "Norwegian Wood" in October 1965, Jones began devoting more time to the sitar, and began arranging basic melodies with the instrument. One of these melodies morphed over time into the tune featured in "Paint It Black"

Initial reaction to "Paint It Black" was mixed. Some music critics found the addition of the sitar to be simply a case of the band copying the Beatles.n his book Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones, Paul Trynka comments on the influence of Harrison's sitar playing on the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" from the Rubber Soul album and draws parallels with Jones' droning sitar melody on "Paint It Black". Responding to claims that he was imitating the Beatles, Jones replied: "What utter rubbish", comparing the argument to saying that all groups using a guitar copy each other merely by using the instrument. Jonathan Bellman, an American musicologist, agreed with Jones, writing in a 1997 issue of The Journal of Musicology that the events are an example of concurrent musical and instrumental experimentation. Jones' sitar part on the track influenced the development of a whole subgenre of minor-key psychedelic music.

Lindy Shannon of the La Crosse Tribune felt "Paint It Black", the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" and the Beatles' "Rain" were straying from the "commercial field" and instead "going into a sort of distorted area of unpleasant sounds". Staff at Melody Maker lauded the track, calling it "a glorious Indian raga-riot that will send the Stones back to number one".Writing for Disc and Music Echo, Penny Valentine praised Jagger's singing, writing that it was "better than ever" but was critical of the track's sitar Guitar Player's Jesse Gress cited "Paint It Black" as originating the 1960s ragarock craze.In a review for New Musical Express (NME), Keith Altham considered "Paint It Black" the band's best single since "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" was released the previous year. A reviewer for Billboard predicted that Aftermath would become another hit for the band, citing "Paint It Black" as the focal point of this hard rock album and praising Oldham's production. The Herald News considered the song a "top record ... for teeners", and in The Sunday Press Nancy Brown described it as a "pulsating, blues-soaked romantic tear-jerker".In the San Francisco Examiner, Ralph J. Gleason lauded the song for its "hypnotizing tone" and "same qualities of ambiguity and obscurity as some of the previous Stones hits". In April 1967, while hosting the television documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, Leonard Bernstein praised the song for its "arab café" sound, and cited it as an example of contemporary pop music's ability to evoke disparate moods through instrumentation.

In a retrospective review, Richie Unterberger of AllMusic called the song an "eerily insistent" classic that features some of "the best use of sitar on a rock record", and in another AllMusic review wrote it is "perhaps the most effective use of the Indian instrument in a rock song". Writing on the song's 50th anniversary in 2016, Dave Swanson of Ultimate Classic Rock considered the song, like its parent album Aftermath, to be a major turning point in artistic evolution for the band, noting: "'Paint It, Black' wasn't just another song by just another rock group; it was an explosion of ideas presented in one neat three-minute package." In 2017, ranking Aftermath as one of the best albums of the 1960s, Judy Berman of Pitchfork described the song as "rock's most nihilistic hit to date".vid Palmer, editor of the Cullman Times, wrote that the "attitude" songs on Aftermath – particularly "Paint It Black" – influenced the nihilistic outlook of punk music. Stereogum critic Tom Breihan praised the song as a strong example of the band's brand of "swirling doom-blues", and praised its heavy sound and dark lyrics as ahead of its time when compared to the landscape of popular music in 1966.

"Paint It Black" inspired almost four hundred covers.It has placed on many "best songs" lists including those by Rolling Stone, Vulture magazine, NME, and Pitchfork. The Recording Academy inducted the song into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018. It is ranked number 213 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,and according to Acclaimed Music it is the 115th most celebrated song in popular music history.

The Trump Administration to shut down the DOJ Arm that help start up the Ferguson riots.

 

I saw this article and was very pleased, I like many bloggers"Blogged about Ferguson and the Ferguson *Effect* on policing". Feel to read about it on the link, there are a lot of articles in the link.  The same organization was used every time there was a flashpoint that was necessary to further a political goal for the democratic party, whether it was stirring up the base for protest before an election or for financial gain.  This was part of the politicalization of the DOJ that was used against the conservatives part of the country and against President Trump in his first term.  

Ferguson was the ground zero for the BLM movement that destroyed public safety and the race riots that wrecked out cities and led to a wave of radical pro-crime policies that killed thousands.

While Ferguson may be in the rearview mirror for many, the Trump administration is moving to shut down the Community Relations Service that was at the heart of it.

A little flashback.

The Justice Department “sent in its secretive Community Relations Service, all but indistinguishable from a group of community organizers, to train protesters and provide liaison services for them. The so-called ‘Peacemakers’ wear the blue windbreakers, polo shirts and dark sunglasses of Federal agents, but claim to be the ‘eyes and ears of the community.’ Eyes and ears, but not mouths. The CRS organizers were ordered not to talk to the media about what they were doing.”

Obama announced that at the time that “we’ve also had experts from the DOJ’s Community Relations Service working in Ferguson since the days after the shooting to foster conversations among local stakeholders and reduce tensions among the community.”

The secretive experts in question seemed to be geared at worsening the situation and not improving it.

But now the Trump administration is trying to put this community organizer arm of the DOJ to bed.

An internal Justice Department memo reviewed by CBS News said Trump appointees are considering closing the Community Relations Service, which was created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The mission of the office is to be “America’s peacemaker,” tasked with “preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, conflicts, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony.”

The Community Relations Service does not investigate or prosecute crimes and has no law enforcement authority, and according to the Justice Department, its services are both confidential and free of charge to communities that accept or request them.

The CRS is at best an odd artifact of sixties liberalism and at worst means embedding activists inside the DOJ. Mediation is not the job of the DOJ and having activists with the authority of the Justice Department behind them show up in local communities is troubling and threatening. That said, winding down the CRS may prove legally difficult, so expect lawsuits and judicial rulings. But Ferguson is enough of a reminder that the Community Relations Service is a dangerous and destructive organization.

"Is The Man Cold Real?"

 I ran across this and thought this may have something to it.  Last week I came down with something that literally pulled me out of work for several days and when I finally went back to work on the 4th day, I still wasn't at 100%.  I do know that when my wife gets a cold, it doesn't affect her as bad as it nails me, but that being said, I don't get sick that often, the last time I got sick was back in 2021 when I got covid for the 3rd time, naturally, no vaxx.    I thought it was a good article.

    I shamelessly cribbed it from the "Art of Manliness"

     

Flu and cold cases are at all-time highs this year. I got the flu two years ago. Never felt sicker in my life. It was awful.

Kate got it too, and felt nigh near to death’s door at times, but she seemed to recover faster than I did and wasn’t moaning and groaning as much as I was. She was in bed for a couple days and then was back to work. Meanwhile, I was holed up in our bonus room upstairs for a week, alternating between Tylenol and Advil to manage the fever and body aches.

Kate has always teased me about being overdramatic about my symptoms whenever I get sick.

But, truth be told, I don’t think I’m exaggerating. I genuinely feel damned awful when I come down with something, and all I want to do is moan and lay in the “sick hole” upstairs for days.

Other couples have noticed a discrepancy between how men and women experience sickness — with men seeming to have more severe symptoms while women can power through the sniffles without missing a beat. So much so that we’ve named how men experience sickness as the “man cold” or the “man flu.”

But is the man cold actually a thing?

Do Men Get Sicker Than Women?

Many people have noticed that guys seem to feel sicker and feel sicker longer than women do when they get the flu or cold. And there are clinical studies that bear these observations out.

According to one study about the differences between men and women when they get the flu, women report more flu symptoms than men, meaning that while a guy might just have a fever and body aches when he gets sick, a woman might have both those symptoms plus cough, headache, runny nose, etc. But men are two times more likely to be hospitalized when they get the flu, which suggests that of the symptoms they do experience, they experience them more severely.

You saw this pattern with COVID-19 during the pandemic. Around the world, severe cases of COVID were predominantly among men, with men’s mortality rates 1.6 times higher than women’s. (It’s worth noting that some of this difference may be due to men generally having poorer health and being more likely to delay seeking medical care when COVID symptoms worsened.)

Surveys have suggested that men take about 1.5-1.7 days longer to recover from the flu than women. But other studies have shown that men recover faster from the flu than women. 

So, based on some studies, men do experience more severe symptoms, for longer. Man flu/cold might be a thing. 

But why would there be sex differences between how men and women experience sickness?

Blame the Man Cold on Testosterone and (Low) Estrogen

It all comes down to sex hormones. At least, that’s what the research suggests.

Testosterone, which men typically have 10-20X more of than women, can be a double-edged sword. While it increases muscle mass and puts hair on your chest, it also suppresses inflammatory cytokines like IL-6, potentially prolonging recovery from the flu by delaying viral clearance.

Testosterone also gives men a larger hypothalamus region, which, among other things, regulates body temperature. Scientists theorize that this enlarged hypothalamus could explain why men often report higher fevers during infections. And because fever drives some of the unpleasant symptoms of the flu or a cold, like chills and body aches, more severe fevers mean a more severe sickness.

Estrogen also plays a role in immune function. It seems to boost it. While men have estrogen, they don’t have anywhere near the same amount as women. Women’s elevated estrogen levels seem to enhance antiviral responses by boosting interferon-γ production, which slows down viral replication in illnesses like the flu. The retardation of viral replication can take the edge off of symptoms in women. What’s interesting is that this female hormonal advantage diminishes after menopause, when estrogen levels go down in women. Postmenopausal women have an immune response that aligns more closely with men’s.

Other studies show that women have additional immunity advantages over men, like stronger innate (first-line defense) and adaptive (targeted) immune responses. This can help clear infections faster.

So, men’s high testosterone makes them more prone to getting sicker longer, while elevated estrogen in women helps blunt the severity of symptoms and helps them recover faster.

Scientists hypothesize that these hormonal differences between men and women are evolutionary in origin and represent a “reproduction-immunity trade-off.” Females evolved to have less testosterone but stronger immunity to protect offspring during pregnancy and breastfeeding; men evolved to have more testosterone, giving them weaker immunity to disease but greater strength and drive for the tasks of hunting and fighting.

Is Man Flu Just in Your Head?

While many scientists think that man flu is real and biologically rooted, others argue it’s psychosomatic. In other words, man flu is all in your head, man.

A study from the University of Glasgow suggests that men are less in touch with their biofeedback signals (which helps in understanding how one’s body feels), which could result in reporting that their symptoms are more severe than they truly are.

Another study suggests that men and women objectively experience the same severity and duration of flu and cold symptoms, but men subjectively rate some of them as more severe and longer-lasting. The study examined how the sexes experienced the common cold and found that while men and women experienced physical symptoms (like nose and ear issues) similarly, men reported emotion-based symptoms, such as mood changes and psychological distress, as being more severe. The researchers of this study concluded that the man cold is just in dudes’ heads.

Why would men subjectively experience more severe cold symptoms? Some researchers theorize that because men are conditioned to be stoic, tough, and productive, and to power through things, when they do experience a sickness, they see it as an opportunity to take a break from these expectations; they amplify the severity of their symptoms to elicit sympathy, get taken care of for once, and justify taking off work.

I’m not sure I buy that, but that’s the argument.

Perhaps it’s the case that, since women historically were responsible for the lion’s share of childcare, which creates urgent obligations (kids still need to be fed and diapered even when their parents are sick), it’s more ingrained in women to bounce back and make sure the family is tended to. Is that difference rooted in evolutionary biology, cultural expectations, or a mixture of both? There’s no conclusive evidence to know.

How to Treat the Man Flu/Cold

Personally, I think the man flu/cold is a thing — an actual biological phenomenon. It’s been interesting to watch how my son Gus’ experience of sickness has changed as he’s moved from boyhood to teenagehood. As a boy, he’d get sick and be down for a day or two. Now that he’s 14, and has testosterone coursing through his veins, he experiences sickness like I do. He feels like garbage, and he’s out for longer. He just wants to go up to the bonus room and be by himself to wallow and moan and groan. Whenever either of us gets a bad cold or flu, we just tell the family, “Well, I’m off to the sick hole. See you when I feel better.”

You treat the man version of the cold or flu just as you would its female counterpart; do the stuff your mom told you to do when you were a kid:

• Drink plenty of fluids. Water is best, but you gotta get some ginger ale in there. It’s a miracle elixir.
• Keep your eating light. Soups and saltine crackers are clutch.
• Avoid caffeinated drinks.
• Get plenty of sleep and rest.
• Alternate between Tylenol and Advil to manage pain and fever.
• Watch The Price is Right and The Young and the Restless.

Most colds and flu bouts take about 4-7 days to clear. You could experience lingering fatigue for up to two weeks.

When you feel the first symptoms of sickness, take an at-home test to see if you’ve got the flu, cold, or COVID. If it’s the flu, get a prescription for xofluza. Taking it within 48 hours of your first flu symptoms can reduce their severity and duration.

While whether the man flu is an actual physiological thing or just in guys’ heads is up for debate, doctors all agree that we shouldn’t label men as whiny when they get sick because it could delay men getting the care they need to get better, which could result in worse outcomes — including death. Be sure to go see a doctor if:

• Your fever reaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit or higher or is above 100 for over three days.
• You have difficulty breathing or chest pain.
• Your symptoms get worse after an initial improvement.
• Your symptoms last longer than three weeks without improvement.

Trying to tough out a sickness and continue your normal routine isn’t wise; it will just prolong the sickness and delay your recovery. In keeping your sickness lingering on for longer, you’ll actually lose more productivity in the long run than just completely taking time off and letting yourself heal up. It’s in your best interest, and in the best interest of your family, who wants to see you bounce back as quickly as possible, to hit your rest and recovery hard. At the same time, your household may be hurting without your help, so don’t wallow unnecessarily, and once you’re ready, get back in the saddle.