Hulk Hogan died. While I was never a wrestling fan, I figured that since Hogan publicly backed Trump at the convention, the left would be celebrating. Sure enough, went over to Yahoo News and while some comments were expressing sadness in spite of him backing Trump, others were celebrating his death or making comments about Trump somehow drained life from him.
RNC Chair, former NC GOP Chair, Michael Whatley will run for the open US Senate seat in North Carolina. I have some hope he could beat Roy Cooper, who was, in my opinion, a horrible governor. Whatley would be a huge improvement over Thom Tillis.
Was just told Chuck Mangione has passed at 84. RIP player.
Sure enough, went over to Yahoo News and while some comments were expressing sadness in spite of him backing Trump, others were celebrating his death or making comments about Trump somehow drained life from him.
==
The Democratic Party is chock-a-block with people who subordinate everything to contemporary political disputes. It’s pathological.
RNC Chair, former NC GOP Chair, Michael Whatley will run for the open US Senate seat in North Carolina.
Good! Whatley is from Watauga Co. My family’s from Wilkes Co. so I may be prejudiced, but it would be good for the state to have a native of Appalachia in charge.
@Art Deco:
Yes, Democrats are pathological. I favor calling them EVIL.
Another one bites the dust. A two-fer so far today. One of the slightly depressing parts of the 24×7 news stream is the steady daily drip-drip of people we have known of most or all our lives moving on.
Cormorants don’t last long here. The eagles drown them and swim ashore dragging breakfast behind them.
Chuck Mangione was as fine a popular musician who has graced the stage in the last 60 years. His brother Gap at age 86 is still making appearances, but he appears to have retired about 15 years ago. The brothers grew up in Rochester, went to school in Rochester, made their lives in Rochester. I find an address for him in the Charlotte section of town on a street full of ranch houses appraised at $200,000 or so. At least one of his children lives locally. (Both he and his brother have in the past owned property down south as well).
Thanks so much Rufus, what a great and greatly told story. A true joy to read.
I hate those guys. I’m a member of a little fly fishing club. We stock our 1 acre pond with trout in the Spring and Fall at about $2K per. Occasionally a cormorant figures out that we exist and takes up residence for a few days until it’s cleaned us out. It’s about ten miles from Boston Harbor so it’s a puzzle how a lone bird can find us and make a very expensive buffet out of our fish, but it does.
One of our members is a policeman. I’ve asked if we can shoot the cormorant. Nope. Pellet gun, nope. … Sigh.
Netanyahu: “We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre. Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.
A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.”
@Paul in Boston 4:21 pm reminded me of a story I read in elementary school about an Asian boy who fished with a trained cormorant.
The cormorant had a metal ring around its neck which allowed it to breathe and to eat small pieces of fish, but not a whole fish. So the cormorant would catch a fish, then come back to the boy, who would give the bird a slice of fish it could swallow.
Repeat as necessary.
I found the story striking. This is a real method of fishing in Asia.
Huxley, “ Cormorants are incredible underwater hunters”. The video leaves out the part where the bird comes to the surface, flips the fish so that it’s head down, and then opens its bill so that the fish slides straight down the bird’s throat and into its gullet. A circus juggler couldn’t do it more gracefully.
In the harbor you often see a group of cormorants sitting on pilings with their wings spread out wide to dry them. They are quite big with a span of about six feet.
In his recent interview, Hunter Biden spouted a lot of the usual nonsense, but he did raise a point that I had not considered. George Clooney’s wife Amal works for the International Criminal Court. According to Hunter, Clooney was pressing Biden to enforce the ICC ‘warrant’ for the arrest of Netanyahu, and that was part of what caused Clooney to turn against Biden Sr.
I knew in a vague way about Amal Clooney’s connection to the ICC, but I had never given any thought to that possibility. It seems to me that on this point, at least, Hunter’s claim is at least plausible.
Full Video – Talk Show host Hugh Hewitt interviews Salena Zito – author of bestselling book “Butler”
New post: Globalization, Reindustrialization, and Movies
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/74638.html
Hulk Hogan died. While I was never a wrestling fan, I figured that since Hogan publicly backed Trump at the convention, the left would be celebrating. Sure enough, went over to Yahoo News and while some comments were expressing sadness in spite of him backing Trump, others were celebrating his death or making comments about Trump somehow drained life from him.
RNC Chair, former NC GOP Chair, Michael Whatley will run for the open US Senate seat in North Carolina. I have some hope he could beat Roy Cooper, who was, in my opinion, a horrible governor. Whatley would be a huge improvement over Thom Tillis.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rnc-chair-michael-whatley-seek-open-republican-held-senate-seat-battleground-north-carolina-sources
I’m guessing cormorant.
huxley:
Bingo.
What though are the foreground leaf?
Was just told Chuck Mangione has passed at 84. RIP player.
Sure enough, went over to Yahoo News and while some comments were expressing sadness in spite of him backing Trump, others were celebrating his death or making comments about Trump somehow drained life from him.
==
The Democratic Party is chock-a-block with people who subordinate everything to contemporary political disputes. It’s pathological.
RNC Chair, former NC GOP Chair, Michael Whatley will run for the open US Senate seat in North Carolina.
Good! Whatley is from Watauga Co. My family’s from Wilkes Co. so I may be prejudiced, but it would be good for the state to have a native of Appalachia in charge.
sdferr,
You’ll appreciate this interview with Gasparone, Chuck’s brother. The ending is amazing!
https://www.wxxinews.org/gap-mangione-rochester-clarissa-street-history
(I think others will enjoy it also.)
@Art Deco:
Yes, Democrats are pathological. I favor calling them EVIL.
Another one bites the dust. A two-fer so far today. One of the slightly depressing parts of the 24×7 news stream is the steady daily drip-drip of people we have known of most or all our lives moving on.
Cormorants don’t last long here. The eagles drown them and swim ashore dragging breakfast behind them.
Chuck Mangione was as fine a popular musician who has graced the stage in the last 60 years. His brother Gap at age 86 is still making appearances, but he appears to have retired about 15 years ago. The brothers grew up in Rochester, went to school in Rochester, made their lives in Rochester. I find an address for him in the Charlotte section of town on a street full of ranch houses appraised at $200,000 or so. At least one of his children lives locally. (Both he and his brother have in the past owned property down south as well).
Thanks so much Rufus, what a great and greatly told story. A true joy to read.
I hate those guys. I’m a member of a little fly fishing club. We stock our 1 acre pond with trout in the Spring and Fall at about $2K per. Occasionally a cormorant figures out that we exist and takes up residence for a few days until it’s cleaned us out. It’s about ten miles from Boston Harbor so it’s a puzzle how a lone bird can find us and make a very expensive buffet out of our fish, but it does.
One of our members is a policeman. I’ve asked if we can shoot the cormorant. Nope. Pellet gun, nope. … Sigh.
Lest one forget…
https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-revolution-never-ends
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/macron-says-france-to-recognize-palestinian-state-in-september/
Another day, another classy “Biden” grift:
“Billions in Federal Aid Yield About 400 EV Chargers — at $19M Apiece”—
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/billions-in-federal-aid-yield-about-400-ev-chargers-at-19m-apiece/
“Christian photographer won’t be prosecuted by New York for declining same-sex weddings”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jul/24/christian-photographer-wont-prosecuted-new-york-declining-sex/
Everyone get doped up! It’s good for business, DEI, and helps you keep voting foolishly!
“Eric Adams wants restrictions on where New Yorkers smoke recreational pot”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jul/24/eric-adams-wants-restrictions-new-yorkers-smoke-recreational-pot/
https://www.ynetnews.com/category/3083
Netanyahu: “We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the October 7 massacre. Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.
A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.”
https://x.com/netanyahu/status/1948484711871119454
Re: Cormorant fishing
@Paul in Boston 4:21 pm reminded me of a story I read in elementary school about an Asian boy who fished with a trained cormorant.
The cormorant had a metal ring around its neck which allowed it to breathe and to eat small pieces of fish, but not a whole fish. So the cormorant would catch a fish, then come back to the boy, who would give the bird a slice of fish it could swallow.
Repeat as necessary.
I found the story striking. This is a real method of fishing in Asia.
https://www.britannica.com/video/method-cormorant-fishing-cormorants-Japan/-195674
Cormorants are incredible underwater hunters. Here’s some footage of one in its element:
–“Dive with Flightless Cormorants: Underwater Hunters | Uncover the Fascinating Hunting Techniques”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_daStLcDg0
You will believe a bird can swim underwater!
Huxley, “ Cormorants are incredible underwater hunters”. The video leaves out the part where the bird comes to the surface, flips the fish so that it’s head down, and then opens its bill so that the fish slides straight down the bird’s throat and into its gullet. A circus juggler couldn’t do it more gracefully.
In the harbor you often see a group of cormorants sitting on pilings with their wings spread out wide to dry them. They are quite big with a span of about six feet.
In his recent interview, Hunter Biden spouted a lot of the usual nonsense, but he did raise a point that I had not considered. George Clooney’s wife Amal works for the International Criminal Court. According to Hunter, Clooney was pressing Biden to enforce the ICC ‘warrant’ for the arrest of Netanyahu, and that was part of what caused Clooney to turn against Biden Sr.
I knew in a vague way about Amal Clooney’s connection to the ICC, but I had never given any thought to that possibility. It seems to me that on this point, at least, Hunter’s claim is at least plausible.
Full Video – Talk Show host Hugh Hewitt interviews Salena Zito – author of bestselling book “Butler”
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/07/full-video-talk-show-host-hugh-hewitt.html