There have been some articles stating that Pretti was only holding a cellphone.
I checked the web to confirm that a company has made a gun that looks like a phone. I linked to wiki since all of the other sites went to gun related websites.
On the video: I wish I could get our dogs into the pool; they walk up to the edge and never even budge, even on the sunshelf which is like 5″ deep. Of course, they’re not Goldens or Labs.
Washed up “comedienne” Kathy Griffin is now telling people to snoop around and find out if their neighbors are MAGA and, then, to “plan.”
I wonder when she is going to step over the line (of course, I thought she did that years ago, with the blood drenched head of Trump she very proudly held up).
My late wife had a lot of scars on her arms from dogs. I used to buy her heavily padded work gloves and she enjoyed roughhousing and bite play with our German shepherds.
Even though GSD’s are not water dogs, she would get them into the water when they were young and they really took to it. Fetching in a pond or the bay was one of their favorites. Except if they got caught in a shore breaking wave. Those big upright ears let the water right in.
physicsguy,
Do your dogs like the beach, and, when at the beach do they go into the ocean?
I had a Westie and Scotty that I’d take sailing. The Scotty was never thrilled to be on the boat, but she was a great dog and very loyal. Her attitude seemed to be, “This is the last place I’d choose to be, but my idiot human is going to do this and so I’ll stay by his side in case he gets in trouble.” The Westie didn’t love water either, but she was super alpha and just wanted to be the lead on anything that was going on. I could even take her kayaking. She tried her best not to get wet, but she loved to sit up proud on both boats, head held high, making sure all the world could see her.
Tried to put a housecat in a bike basket and take it for a bike ride once.
Didn’t work out well.
TommyJay,
A friend had a German Shepherd and my friend and I wrestled a lot as kids. His dog always stayed close and if he had the edge in our fight she would sit calmly, hardly watching, but the minute I got an advantage she would grab a hold of my shirt or pants and start helping him. And her aggressiveness was directly proportional to my advantage. On occasions when I would pin my friend she would go crazy! What was especially interesting; she ignored our sounds. My friend might have been making a lot of noise, yelling, but if he was winning she stayed put. And he might have been nearly quiet when I was winning and she’d react. She could tell what was going on physically, and if he was in jeopardy.
Incredibly intelligent animal!
God I love the Babylon Bee.
Ah yes, the old above ground pool. “Mosquito farms” I believe they’re called.
physicsguy, it looks like you’re going to freeze over the weekend! You thought you’d left that behind …
Number 1456 reason men are different from women, during a discussion by Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying on the Dark Horse podcast.
Might explain why, as women take more control of local and state governments we’re seeing, as part of the feminization, a decriminalization in general, or a reduction in penalties for offenses.
“Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others.” I’m going to go down and read just a bit from here. Middle of the paper. This analysis revealed that less empathic activity was elicited. This analysis revealed that less empathic activity was elicited by the knowledge that an unfair player was in pain.
However, there was also a marked differences between the sexes. In women, this reduction in activity was very small, whereas in men, the knowledge that an unfair player was in receipt of pain elicited no increase in empathic activity in Fi, neurological thing. And indeed, formal analysis revealed no significant difference for women when comparing painful trials for fair versus unfair players in empathy-related pain regions. However, men showed significantly enhanced activation in bilateral F1 when observing fair compared with unfair players in pain. Consistent with this finding, supplementary analysis showed that women, but not men, displayed significant activation in bilateral AYF1 and ACC in all three conditions.
In common parlance without the acronyms associated with neurological regions, having previously assessed that some people act fairly and some people act unfairly, and having generalized those observations of fair versus unfair behavior to bigger personality traits like agreeableness and likability and even attractiveness.
Men, when they see fair people experience pain, have a rise in empathy. And when they see unfair people experience pain, do not. Women, when they see fair people experience pain, have a rise in empathy. And when they see unfair people experience pain, they also have a rise in empathy. So that’s the big takeaway here, which is that women respond to people experiencing pain or punishment with an empathetic response regardless of what else they know about that person, regardless of, for instance, whether punishment is justified.
Whereas men, and this is a small N and there will be exceptions and these are averages and all of the usual caveats apply with regard to population level truths. But men have what seems to be the normal and expected response on average, which is that when you see someone who has previously indicated a tendency to cheat, to be unfair, and you see him experiencing pain, you don’t tend to have a sense of empathy towards him because it feels justified. That last bit is my interpretation because it feels justified.
Now one thing that the authors say at the very end of the paper, which is just like a little bit of a caveat for the results, is it is possible that our experimental design favored men because the modality of punishment was related to physical threat as opposed to psychological or financial threat. But then they also say, ” Alternatively, these findings could indicate a predominant role for males in the maintenance of justice and punishment of norm violation in human societies.” Which is pretty frickin’ bold and the fact that they bury the lead in the title of the paper, that you can’t tell that this is about sex-based differences at all in the title of the paper, is part of presumably, I’m guessing here, how it got published in Nature at All back in 2006.
Dogs in water, I have had a lot of dogs over my 80 years and some liked the water and some not so much. Perhaps my best dog, over 20 years ago was my Brittany Wonder-dog, Happy was his name and he was an excellent bird dog good for winning field trials and hunting. Happy was great pointing and retrieving until one day out in West Texas hunting quail he went on point and then we flushed a quail that I shot sending into a small creek. Happy never failed to retrieve birds, quail, dove or pheasant but that day I discovered Happy was not a water dog.
The water was not deep at all however I was not going to wade in my new Kangaroo hunting boots and get them wet. I told Happy to hunt-em-up and bring me the quail and Happy looked at me like I was kind of nuts. Then I unloaded my shotgun, laid it down on the creek bank and gathered Happy up and threw him into the creek close to the bird. Happy was not happy and he made his way to the bank, moved on up close to me and then stood over my nice Beretta 20 gauge over/under Silver Pigeon shotgun and shook water and mud all over the gun, getting some on me too.
I used a stick to pull the quail to the shore as I should have done in the first place, did a bit more hunting shooting a few more birds with Happy still kind of damp and muddy. At that time with close to a limit on quail we headed home, a 2 and a half hour drive with a smelly, damp, muddy dog sitting next to me on the passenger seat and I learned my lesson. The Wonder-dog and I had a lot more fine years hunting and enjoying our trips and we did not try water again, ever.
And that’s my dog in the water story today. I have had three great Brittany dogs and I miss them since I am way too old to start another one.
While y’all are dealing with the cold, Australia’s setting some pretty remarkable heat records. Feels like someone left the door to hell open and all the heat’s getting out. Lots of 43, 45, and a 49 thrown in for good measure this week. (°C just to be clear)
Maybe by Sunday it’ll be better.
Brian E: I guess that’s why I have no empathy for leftists.
FOAF,
It’s likely this sort of experiment wouldn’t be published today. I think God established a balance where men would likely turn brutish without the empathetic sensibilities of women.
It would be interesting to see if the movement toward sanctuary status of local and state governments is at all correlated to an increase of women in positions of authority. So I asked Grok.
Here’s the response.
The query asks about correlation between sanctuary status (for immigrants) in cities and higher percentages of women in city government positions of authority (e.g., mayors, council members, department heads).
Based on available data and analyses:
No direct studies explicitly link sanctuary status to increased women in leadership. Searches for correlations yielded results on sanctuary effects on crime, economy, domestic violence reduction (especially for Hispanic women), and political incorporation (e.g., higher Latinx turnout or police participation in sanctuary areas), but nothing on gender in government roles.
Indirect correlation exists: Sanctuary cities are often Democratic-leaning with high foreign-born populations, per research. These demographics align with areas having higher women representation in local government. For example:
Sanctuary states (e.g., CA, CO, OR, WA, VT) rank high in women’s municipal office share (e.g., CO 42.6%, OR 42.9%, WA 41.1%—top 10 nationwide per 2024 CAWP data).
Non-sanctuary states (e.g., ND, NE, MS, AL) rank low (e.g., ND 18%, NE 20.3%).
In large cities, sanctuary hubs like Oakland (55.6% women council/mayor), San Francisco (50%), Seattle (50%) show strong women representation, while non-sanctuary cities like Mesa (0%) or Buffalo (0%) lag.
This suggests progressive policies (including sanctuary) correlate with gender equity in leadership, but causation isn’t proven—it’s likely driven by shared political/demographic factors. For city-specific data, see CAWP or City Mayors reports.
Hmmm. Warrants investigation.
I had a lab. She loved the beach — went out swimming as far as she could, which always made me nervous. (We lived inNorthern California and the water is COLD — I would never have been able to go in after her.) But she HATED baths — they made her so miserable. It was warm water, with a nice massage, and I never got her face wet… but she couldn’t be more unhappy. When she was about ten, I finally got the opportunity to go swimming in a swimming pool with her and she freaked out. (It was always too cold to in to the water with her at the beach.)
Re: German Shepherds
I just learned that there are Belgian Shepherds AKA Belgian Malinois, truly astonishing animals, practically super-dogs. Among other things from a running start they can scale a 12-foot wall.
Ordinary owners are advised against the Malinois. If you don’t give the Malinois challenging projects, the Malinois will create its own.
Rufus,
They are Icelandic Sheepdogs, a relatively rare breed. They like the beach, but not the water there either. They love fetch, but if we throw the toy into the pool they just look at us like we’re crazy.
Kate,
We’ve been sub freezing every night for 5 days now; no relief in sight until maybe Tuesday with record breaking temps coming Sunday and Monday. My community is rural and everyone is on wells; and it being Florida, all the water systems are outside. Several people here have already had their system frozen as they had no experience with this cold and never learned to set faucets on drip at night. Low 60s today, so got 9 holes in, but it will be frosty tonight again. I wish I owned a plant nursery store….they are going to be rich this spring as everyone here has to replace numerous plants.
Important News Flash! IndyCar is coming to DC. Celebrating the 250th birthday of the country with an IndyCar race August 21-23. Street circuits don’t usually make for the best racing because of the limitations of the streets. Hope they find some overtake zones.
Now they just need to move the Capitol to the center of the country.
My Weimaraner loves the water and swims out to meet me when I come back with the kayak. She swims circles around me as I come in. Yes she hates, hates, hates, baths. She got one yesterday.
Our kayak launching spot is where these ducks are in this video. This Jan 11th. As you see we had a full house at DuckSpa when the eagle hit. The camera out by that tree is down at the moment.
It’s been about a year without dogs in our house. Too long.
What is it with dogs loving the water and hating baths?
I haven’t taught mine to swim in the pool yet as I’m afraid she’ll go in unsupervised, but whenever we are outside she bullies me unceasingly to turn the hose on for her to play in the spray. Gets absolutely soaked.
Then acts like a bath is torture.
When I bought her grandfather from a German GSD breeder and remarked I’d be giving him a bath as soon as we got home, the breeder said; Oh you don’t vant to do that, for a dog, zats vaterboarding!
The Ukrainian Dog Rescue Lady almost always includes a bath after the vet visit with the rescue. Here’s her latest video:
Most of the dogs behave well during the bath and the Dog Lady always compliments them.
My impression is that the dogs are in a state of shock following the transitions from being a desperate street dog to being hugged by the lady, put into a carrier, driven to a vet, receiving an exam on a cold metal table, being jabbed with needles, then given a warm bath.
I do wonder what that’s like for a dog. It almost sounds like an alien abduction!
Someone else may have posted, in which case I’ve missed it, but: Are there any updates on the medical progress for Victor Davis Hanson? I had read somewhere that they had to remove part of a lung, but it’s been very quiet since then, and it’s been a couple of weeks. I truly hope things are improving for him.
Huxley,
My husband and I joke that when one of our rescue cats talks to other cats she probably describes her experience with us as an ‘Alien Abduction’!
‘I was minding my own business rummaging through the garbage when the Earthlings showed up.
I tried to run away, but they caught me.
Then they put me in a wire cage and loaded me into a strange vehicle that transported me far away.
Where they probed me all over and stuck needles in me and then did sexual experiments on me.
Don’t ask.
Then they dropped me back where they found me.
They do feed me regularly, and the dog seems nice, so there’s that.’
Molly Brown:
Excellent!
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From the history doesn’t repeat but echos file:
https://townhall.com/columnists/joshhammer/2026/01/30/the-rise-of-the-new-confederacy-n2670361
And for a grimmer view of the same situation of the rise of the neo-confederacy:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/01/the_neo_confederacy.html
Lemon Aid about to be made.
There have been some articles stating that Pretti was only holding a cellphone.
I checked the web to confirm that a company has made a gun that looks like a phone. I linked to wiki since all of the other sites went to gun related websites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_Conceal
So, I wonder if that is going to be a problem in the future?
From today’s Babylon Bee:
Bruce Springsteen Threatens To Keep Releasing Songs Until Deportations Stop
https://babylonbee.com/news/bruce-springsteen-threatens-to-keep-releasing-songs-until-deportations-stop
On the video: I wish I could get our dogs into the pool; they walk up to the edge and never even budge, even on the sunshelf which is like 5″ deep. Of course, they’re not Goldens or Labs.
* See https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JRHH6K-ZIsk
Washed up “comedienne” Kathy Griffin is now telling people to snoop around and find out if their neighbors are MAGA and, then, to “plan.”
I wonder when she is going to step over the line (of course, I thought she did that years ago, with the blood drenched head of Trump she very proudly held up).
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/watch-kathy-griffin-urges-fellow-leftists-find-if/
My late wife had a lot of scars on her arms from dogs. I used to buy her heavily padded work gloves and she enjoyed roughhousing and bite play with our German shepherds.
Even though GSD’s are not water dogs, she would get them into the water when they were young and they really took to it. Fetching in a pond or the bay was one of their favorites. Except if they got caught in a shore breaking wave. Those big upright ears let the water right in.
physicsguy,
Do your dogs like the beach, and, when at the beach do they go into the ocean?
I had a Westie and Scotty that I’d take sailing. The Scotty was never thrilled to be on the boat, but she was a great dog and very loyal. Her attitude seemed to be, “This is the last place I’d choose to be, but my idiot human is going to do this and so I’ll stay by his side in case he gets in trouble.” The Westie didn’t love water either, but she was super alpha and just wanted to be the lead on anything that was going on. I could even take her kayaking. She tried her best not to get wet, but she loved to sit up proud on both boats, head held high, making sure all the world could see her.
Tried to put a housecat in a bike basket and take it for a bike ride once.
Didn’t work out well.
TommyJay,
A friend had a German Shepherd and my friend and I wrestled a lot as kids. His dog always stayed close and if he had the edge in our fight she would sit calmly, hardly watching, but the minute I got an advantage she would grab a hold of my shirt or pants and start helping him. And her aggressiveness was directly proportional to my advantage. On occasions when I would pin my friend she would go crazy! What was especially interesting; she ignored our sounds. My friend might have been making a lot of noise, yelling, but if he was winning she stayed put. And he might have been nearly quiet when I was winning and she’d react. She could tell what was going on physically, and if he was in jeopardy.
Incredibly intelligent animal!
God I love the Babylon Bee.
Ah yes, the old above ground pool. “Mosquito farms” I believe they’re called.
‘It’s not too late to fix it’: web inventor Tim Berners-Lee says he is in a ‘battle for the soul’ of the internet
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/29/internet-inventor-tim-berners-lee-interview-battle-soul-web
physicsguy, it looks like you’re going to freeze over the weekend! You thought you’d left that behind …
Number 1456 reason men are different from women, during a discussion by Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying on the Dark Horse podcast.
Might explain why, as women take more control of local and state governments we’re seeing, as part of the feminization, a decriminalization in general, or a reduction in penalties for offenses.
Rorschach Trap: The 311th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GWPEFIF5lc
Dogs in water, I have had a lot of dogs over my 80 years and some liked the water and some not so much. Perhaps my best dog, over 20 years ago was my Brittany Wonder-dog, Happy was his name and he was an excellent bird dog good for winning field trials and hunting. Happy was great pointing and retrieving until one day out in West Texas hunting quail he went on point and then we flushed a quail that I shot sending into a small creek. Happy never failed to retrieve birds, quail, dove or pheasant but that day I discovered Happy was not a water dog.
The water was not deep at all however I was not going to wade in my new Kangaroo hunting boots and get them wet. I told Happy to hunt-em-up and bring me the quail and Happy looked at me like I was kind of nuts. Then I unloaded my shotgun, laid it down on the creek bank and gathered Happy up and threw him into the creek close to the bird. Happy was not happy and he made his way to the bank, moved on up close to me and then stood over my nice Beretta 20 gauge over/under Silver Pigeon shotgun and shook water and mud all over the gun, getting some on me too.
I used a stick to pull the quail to the shore as I should have done in the first place, did a bit more hunting shooting a few more birds with Happy still kind of damp and muddy. At that time with close to a limit on quail we headed home, a 2 and a half hour drive with a smelly, damp, muddy dog sitting next to me on the passenger seat and I learned my lesson. The Wonder-dog and I had a lot more fine years hunting and enjoying our trips and we did not try water again, ever.
And that’s my dog in the water story today. I have had three great Brittany dogs and I miss them since I am way too old to start another one.
While y’all are dealing with the cold, Australia’s setting some pretty remarkable heat records. Feels like someone left the door to hell open and all the heat’s getting out. Lots of 43, 45, and a 49 thrown in for good measure this week. (°C just to be clear)
Maybe by Sunday it’ll be better.
Brian E: I guess that’s why I have no empathy for leftists.
FOAF,
It’s likely this sort of experiment wouldn’t be published today. I think God established a balance where men would likely turn brutish without the empathetic sensibilities of women.
It would be interesting to see if the movement toward sanctuary status of local and state governments is at all correlated to an increase of women in positions of authority. So I asked Grok.
Here’s the response.
Hmmm. Warrants investigation.
I had a lab. She loved the beach — went out swimming as far as she could, which always made me nervous. (We lived inNorthern California and the water is COLD — I would never have been able to go in after her.) But she HATED baths — they made her so miserable. It was warm water, with a nice massage, and I never got her face wet… but she couldn’t be more unhappy. When she was about ten, I finally got the opportunity to go swimming in a swimming pool with her and she freaked out. (It was always too cold to in to the water with her at the beach.)
Re: German Shepherds
I just learned that there are Belgian Shepherds AKA Belgian Malinois, truly astonishing animals, practically super-dogs. Among other things from a running start they can scale a 12-foot wall.
–“Belgian Malinois, Amazing Athlete!!!” (3:07)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orAGU04T0rc
They are also extremely intelligent and trainable. The Navy SEALS accept no substitutes:
https://navyseals.com/2163/the-dogs-of-the-navy-seals/
Ordinary owners are advised against the Malinois. If you don’t give the Malinois challenging projects, the Malinois will create its own.
Rufus,
They are Icelandic Sheepdogs, a relatively rare breed. They like the beach, but not the water there either. They love fetch, but if we throw the toy into the pool they just look at us like we’re crazy.
Kate,
We’ve been sub freezing every night for 5 days now; no relief in sight until maybe Tuesday with record breaking temps coming Sunday and Monday. My community is rural and everyone is on wells; and it being Florida, all the water systems are outside. Several people here have already had their system frozen as they had no experience with this cold and never learned to set faucets on drip at night. Low 60s today, so got 9 holes in, but it will be frosty tonight again. I wish I owned a plant nursery store….they are going to be rich this spring as everyone here has to replace numerous plants.
Important News Flash! IndyCar is coming to DC. Celebrating the 250th birthday of the country with an IndyCar race August 21-23. Street circuits don’t usually make for the best racing because of the limitations of the streets. Hope they find some overtake zones.
Now they just need to move the Capitol to the center of the country.
My Weimaraner loves the water and swims out to meet me when I come back with the kayak. She swims circles around me as I come in. Yes she hates, hates, hates, baths. She got one yesterday.
Our kayak launching spot is where these ducks are in this video. This Jan 11th. As you see we had a full house at DuckSpa when the eagle hit. The camera out by that tree is down at the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwJyrIgHKr0
Old Texan:
That is a great remembrance of Happy.
It’s been about a year without dogs in our house. Too long.
What is it with dogs loving the water and hating baths?
I haven’t taught mine to swim in the pool yet as I’m afraid she’ll go in unsupervised, but whenever we are outside she bullies me unceasingly to turn the hose on for her to play in the spray. Gets absolutely soaked.
Then acts like a bath is torture.
When I bought her grandfather from a German GSD breeder and remarked I’d be giving him a bath as soon as we got home, the breeder said; Oh you don’t vant to do that, for a dog, zats vaterboarding!
The Ukrainian Dog Rescue Lady almost always includes a bath after the vet visit with the rescue. Here’s her latest video:
–“Puppy Found Abandoned and Helpless Gets the Sweetest Second Chance”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya9YECmzBqU
Most of the dogs behave well during the bath and the Dog Lady always compliments them.
My impression is that the dogs are in a state of shock following the transitions from being a desperate street dog to being hugged by the lady, put into a carrier, driven to a vet, receiving an exam on a cold metal table, being jabbed with needles, then given a warm bath.
I do wonder what that’s like for a dog. It almost sounds like an alien abduction!
Sad day.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/30/entertainment/gallery/catherine-ohara-memorable-roles
Best in Show, and of course SCTV, were my favorites.
Mao Cultural Revolution Survivor: “Minneapolis Protests Are A Communist Insurrection” Video
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2026/01/mao-cultural-revolution-survivor.html
Someone else may have posted, in which case I’ve missed it, but: Are there any updates on the medical progress for Victor Davis Hanson? I had read somewhere that they had to remove part of a lung, but it’s been very quiet since then, and it’s been a couple of weeks. I truly hope things are improving for him.
Huxley,
My husband and I joke that when one of our rescue cats talks to other cats she probably describes her experience with us as an ‘Alien Abduction’!
‘I was minding my own business rummaging through the garbage when the Earthlings showed up.
I tried to run away, but they caught me.
Then they put me in a wire cage and loaded me into a strange vehicle that transported me far away.
Where they probed me all over and stuck needles in me and then did sexual experiments on me.
Don’t ask.
Then they dropped me back where they found me.
They do feed me regularly, and the dog seems nice, so there’s that.’
Molly Brown:
Excellent!