What’s this?
A metaphor for KJP?
(Or anyone/everyone else in that benighted administration…?)
Black Sheep Brewery in Yorkshire makes a dark ale called Riggwelter, which they say means “a sheep that has rolled onto its back and can’t get up”. There’s a picture of such a sheep on the label.
When I see sheep it sometimes happens I’ll think shepards, whereupon I’ll recur to Cantaloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne”, which is a pleasant thing indeed.
Looks like me trying to get out of bed in the morning.
My wife needs to see this.
Some sheep-related music therapy, much needed with all the bad news of the last few weeks: the soprano aria “Sheep May Safely Graze” (“Schafe können sicher weiden”) from BWV 208, one of Bach’s secular cantatas. This performance took place about 6 months ago at the Toronto Bach Festival.
German text: Schafe können sicher weiden
Wo ein guter Hirte wacht.
Wo Regenten wohl regieren
Kann man Ruh’ und Friede spüren
Und was Länder glücklich macht.
English version: Sheep can safely graze
wherever a good shepherd watches over them.
Where rulers are ruling well,
people can feel peace and rest
and what makes their countries fortunate.
Yes, if only we had good rulers . . . ’nuff said. Anyway, here is five minutes of musical loveliness– enjoy!
So, the other day I walked past a group of senior citizens, each of whom was carrying a banana. Today, my next door neighbors put five or six empty Dole banana boxes out with their recycling.
By the Rule of Threes, I’m waiting for my next banana encounter.
Speaking of sheep; every so often one hears about a sheep that has wandered away from the herd and is not found until several years later, alive and well, but in dire need of shearing.
Apparently a sheep could die if their coat becomes too thick.
So before sheep became domesticated, how did sheep survive? Their wool coats just keep growing and growing and, I suppose, would be fatal to them.
Lots of Biblical themes involving sheep. Psalm 23 having been referenced on this site a while back while discussing various translations.
John Tyler,
Before domestication, it is likely many fell to predators. Predators , minus dogs, whose population humans tend to reduce.
the valley of death, is an actual place, a sacrificial pyre, its not metaphorical
Humans selecting animals to breed that have desired characteristics until that extremely attenuated characteristic is entiretly maladaptive in a nondomesticated (wild) environment.
Nobody has to shear wild Bighorn Sheep IIRC.
Well from personal experience, one should maybe not grab a cast sheep by the legs. Push upwards under the back instead for a gentler reaction from the animal.
Keep the Caroline Glick videos coming sdferr, but I don’t always have the heart to watch. So infuriating. Just as Arafat used to say one thing in English and something entirely different in Arabic, Biden is clearly telling the American public one thing and the Israelis something else.
This article is linked at Realclearpolitics today. Using statistics from surveys of Gazans and other Palestinians, it argues (1) that the Palestinians in general do not favor Hamas, Fatah, or Abbas, (2) that most support Israel’s existence and favor a two-state solution, and (3) that Israel must now exercise restraint given (1) and (2) as well as the fact that anytime Israel comes down on Hamas, Palestinian support for the group goes up.
Well, it’s a little late for that analysis and recommendation, even if the statistics do reflect reality.
My reaction to the article was, these are the most infantilized people ever. Or the most silent majority ever. A lot of cognitive dissonance.
I would love to see Caroline Glick’s take on this.
What to do if you come upon a sheep on its back?
I would walk on by and tell it not to vote for Democrats.
I’d tell it that the IRS is after it for back taxes, and watch it get up pronto and run away to avoid being sheared down to its skin.
Bill K –
Apologize.
“Nobody has to shear wild Bighorn Sheep IIRC.”
Or turn then right side up. Watch my dog go upside down, on occasion, and then roll back up. Takes an instant, but if I am not watching, the leash gets messed up.
I still wondered about how sheep could ever survive in the presence of predators. Partly, they stick together, making picking one out harder. Partially they just sacrifice one for the many. And some, like the Bighorn Sheep that fight with traffic just east of us in MT, use their ability to climb to stay away from predators.
Teddy Roosevelt stayed in town one time and hunted them, probably by where they endanger the traffic to this day. He apparently fell off a cliff, and only survived by hitting branches on the way down. We are talking seriously steep cliffs along there. They can be climbed by humans, but it is very hard. We had a fire through there maybe 5 years ago, and the fire fighters came down from above, rappelling down the cliffs. Took them 45 minutes to drive in there from their camp, even though they could get to the bottom of the cliffs in 15 minutes. And the sheep just run up it.
The good news is that the highway people have completed substantial fences along their old route down to the river to get water, and provided them tunnels to get under the highway and railroad tracks. Seems to have worked. Speed limit is now back up to 70, and you don’t see sheep families anymore down by the highway, with the juvenile males practicing head butting, sometimes getting bounced onto the road. Miss the sheep, but don’t miss seeing the dead ones. Now, if they could just do the same for the pre-venisons, which are the scourge of the highways in W MT…
sdferr:
Thanks for that Wallace and Grommit and Shaun the Sheep link.
De nada, om. Shaun keeps us on the level, thanks be.
sdferr: When I see sheep it sometimes happens I’ll think shepards, …
Damn, that sucks. I always think of shepherdesses.
Watt, Gazan civilians enthusiastically perpetrated much of the massacre on Oct. 7.
Gazan civilians who had permits to work in Israel provided extremely detailed intel to Hamas about their employers.
Gazan civilians celebrated the massacre afterwards.
I don’t believe that “most support Israel’s existence and favor a two-state solution.”
I think they mostly want us dead.
Hence my cognitive dissonance. Re the people with work permits, theoretically a majority of whom disfavor Hamas and/or support a two-state solution: Why didn’t some (more?) of them take courage and pass on relevant info to contacts in Israel? That this didn’t happen makes me doubt the stats. (It’s hard to believe that Hamas’s attack plans could have been kept perfectly secret.)
Although tragic, the overt antisemitism we are witnessing is unsurprising. Antisemitism has been the most common hate crime in the U.S. for decades (a century, or more?). It’s astounding how under and unreported it is. My assumption as to why is that many “mainstream” people share the vile trait, so it goes uncommented on.
Obama’s administration was the first where I saw overt outreach to anti-Jewish and especially anti-Israeli groups and we continue to see the affects. Biden’s administration has certainly done plenty to reinvigorate anti-Israeli policy and sentiment in Washington.
It makes me wonder how much of the hatred for Trump when he was in office is directly tied to his support of the Jewish community in the U.S., his daughter’s conversion to Judaism and his son-in-law’s work to truly reach equilibrium in the Middle East?
It’s interesting that on the one you have DeSantis evidently flying Americans out of Israel and now even sending Ammo, Weapons, and Bulletpoof Vests to Israel, and on the other hand you have Gavin Newsom meeting with Xi Jinping oestensibly to discuss “climate change”. Now I assume that Newsom’s antics are sanctioned by the Biden Regime, but it’s sort of odd that you have these State Governors getting so deeply involved in US international affairs. Perhaps since we have such clearly weak President we get these ambitious characters stepping in to fill the void.
Gazamites say lots of things, and then they do lots of vile things. Hamashites are Gazamites after all.
Although not all Gazamites are Hamashites. How many are of the “not?” You will get very different answers depending which situation benefits the Gazamite you ask, IMO.
Le Mot Juste, I apologize! I thought this was a safe place for puns but somebody pulled the wool over my eyes.
Watt:
I have read that only about 5 higher-ups knew what was actually planned. Everyone else knew that they were gathering info, and that some sort of terrorist event would occur, but they weren’t aware of the scope and details. Each person only knew his (or her) own role or that of a small number of like people.
OK – open thread. Time to inject a little brainless levity:
It’s hard to believe that Hamas’s attack plans could have been kept perfectly secret.
On the ‘secrecy’ front, where did the Hamas Air Force learn to fly those powered paragliders? I don’t think it likely that the training happened in Gaza.
I have some friends who keep a small flock of sheep. In the winter, they sometimes need to rescue animals who’ve wandered into snow too deep for their legs. Stuck sheep aren’t the sharpest animals, but they might provide us a lesson in the perils of too much domestication.
Bill K –
You are mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
A Lamb said that. (Of Byron, but if the fleece fits…).
“On the ‘secrecy’ front, where did the Hamas Air Force learn to fly those powered paragliders? I don’t think it likely that the training happened in Gaza.”
Right, not in Gaza. It was in Lebanon.
My sister bought her sheep from the Benedictine nuns of the Our Lady of the Rock Monastery. Also got a llama from the same source to watch over them.
Neo:
Thank you for this fascinating bit of intelligence. Could you do post turtles next? The times (and the District of Columbia) call out for an analysis of post turtles, and what to do when you find one.
WRT to Israeli intelligence sources in Lebanon, here’s a repost of Tony Badran’s take on how “Biden” helped Hezbullah roll them up. YMMV….
What’s this?
A metaphor for KJP?
(Or anyone/everyone else in that benighted administration…?)
Black Sheep Brewery in Yorkshire makes a dark ale called Riggwelter, which they say means “a sheep that has rolled onto its back and can’t get up”. There’s a picture of such a sheep on the label.
When I see sheep it sometimes happens I’ll think shepards, whereupon I’ll recur to Cantaloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne”, which is a pleasant thing indeed.
Looks like me trying to get out of bed in the morning.
My wife needs to see this.
Some sheep-related music therapy, much needed with all the bad news of the last few weeks: the soprano aria “Sheep May Safely Graze” (“Schafe können sicher weiden”) from BWV 208, one of Bach’s secular cantatas. This performance took place about 6 months ago at the Toronto Bach Festival.
German text: Schafe können sicher weiden
Wo ein guter Hirte wacht.
Wo Regenten wohl regieren
Kann man Ruh’ und Friede spüren
Und was Länder glücklich macht.
English version: Sheep can safely graze
wherever a good shepherd watches over them.
Where rulers are ruling well,
people can feel peace and rest
and what makes their countries fortunate.
Yes, if only we had good rulers . . . ’nuff said. Anyway, here is five minutes of musical loveliness– enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt3DEuw0wjM
So, the other day I walked past a group of senior citizens, each of whom was carrying a banana. Today, my next door neighbors put five or six empty Dole banana boxes out with their recycling.
By the Rule of Threes, I’m waiting for my next banana encounter.
Speaking of sheep; every so often one hears about a sheep that has wandered away from the herd and is not found until several years later, alive and well, but in dire need of shearing.
Apparently a sheep could die if their coat becomes too thick.
So before sheep became domesticated, how did sheep survive? Their wool coats just keep growing and growing and, I suppose, would be fatal to them.
Lots of Biblical themes involving sheep. Psalm 23 having been referenced on this site a while back while discussing various translations.
John Tyler,
Before domestication, it is likely many fell to predators. Predators , minus dogs, whose population humans tend to reduce.
the valley of death, is an actual place, a sacrificial pyre, its not metaphorical
Caroline Glick is joined by Victor Davis Hanson, premiering now, “Biden is Not With Israel, But the American People Are”: https://youtu.be/c7UPBTdkUjw?si=J8Qqn0FJ3Ec-CICE
John tyler:
Humans selecting animals to breed that have desired characteristics until that extremely attenuated characteristic is entiretly maladaptive in a nondomesticated (wild) environment.
Nobody has to shear wild Bighorn Sheep IIRC.
Well from personal experience, one should maybe not grab a cast sheep by the legs. Push upwards under the back instead for a gentler reaction from the animal.
“It’s important to check sheep regularly.”
Hard to argue with that.
“It’s important to check sheep regularly.”
Shaun proves that conclusively.
I had trouble getting up this morning.
Feeling sheepish.
Keep the Caroline Glick videos coming sdferr, but I don’t always have the heart to watch. So infuriating. Just as Arafat used to say one thing in English and something entirely different in Arabic, Biden is clearly telling the American public one thing and the Israelis something else.
So who’re they going to vote for?
https://siouxcountyradio.com/fox-news-latest/michigan-muslims-warn-democrats-theyll-lose-votes-over-israel-support-going-to-have-a-problem-in-2024/
What to do if you come upon a sheep on its back?
I would walk on by and tell it not to vote for Democrats.
A little too much weight indeed.
You can also apply this technique to humans.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-palestinians-really-think-hamas
This article is linked at Realclearpolitics today. Using statistics from surveys of Gazans and other Palestinians, it argues (1) that the Palestinians in general do not favor Hamas, Fatah, or Abbas, (2) that most support Israel’s existence and favor a two-state solution, and (3) that Israel must now exercise restraint given (1) and (2) as well as the fact that anytime Israel comes down on Hamas, Palestinian support for the group goes up.
Well, it’s a little late for that analysis and recommendation, even if the statistics do reflect reality.
My reaction to the article was, these are the most infantilized people ever. Or the most silent majority ever. A lot of cognitive dissonance.
I would love to see Caroline Glick’s take on this.
What to do if you come upon a sheep on its back?
I would walk on by and tell it not to vote for Democrats.
I’d tell it that the IRS is after it for back taxes, and watch it get up pronto and run away to avoid being sheared down to its skin.
Bill K –
Apologize.
“Nobody has to shear wild Bighorn Sheep IIRC.”
Or turn then right side up. Watch my dog go upside down, on occasion, and then roll back up. Takes an instant, but if I am not watching, the leash gets messed up.
I still wondered about how sheep could ever survive in the presence of predators. Partly, they stick together, making picking one out harder. Partially they just sacrifice one for the many. And some, like the Bighorn Sheep that fight with traffic just east of us in MT, use their ability to climb to stay away from predators.
Teddy Roosevelt stayed in town one time and hunted them, probably by where they endanger the traffic to this day. He apparently fell off a cliff, and only survived by hitting branches on the way down. We are talking seriously steep cliffs along there. They can be climbed by humans, but it is very hard. We had a fire through there maybe 5 years ago, and the fire fighters came down from above, rappelling down the cliffs. Took them 45 minutes to drive in there from their camp, even though they could get to the bottom of the cliffs in 15 minutes. And the sheep just run up it.
The good news is that the highway people have completed substantial fences along their old route down to the river to get water, and provided them tunnels to get under the highway and railroad tracks. Seems to have worked. Speed limit is now back up to 70, and you don’t see sheep families anymore down by the highway, with the juvenile males practicing head butting, sometimes getting bounced onto the road. Miss the sheep, but don’t miss seeing the dead ones. Now, if they could just do the same for the pre-venisons, which are the scourge of the highways in W MT…
sdferr:
Thanks for that Wallace and Grommit and Shaun the Sheep link.
De nada, om. Shaun keeps us on the level, thanks be.
sdferr:
When I see sheep it sometimes happens I’ll think shepards, …
Damn, that sucks. I always think of shepherdesses.
Watt, Gazan civilians enthusiastically perpetrated much of the massacre on Oct. 7.
Gazan civilians who had permits to work in Israel provided extremely detailed intel to Hamas about their employers.
Gazan civilians celebrated the massacre afterwards.
I don’t believe that “most support Israel’s existence and favor a two-state solution.”
I think they mostly want us dead.
CDR salamander
What does Hamas want? – blood is currency
https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/what-does-hamas-want
Three Hamas-Israel Course Of Action scenarios.
Ilana,
Hence my cognitive dissonance. Re the people with work permits, theoretically a majority of whom disfavor Hamas and/or support a two-state solution: Why didn’t some (more?) of them take courage and pass on relevant info to contacts in Israel? That this didn’t happen makes me doubt the stats. (It’s hard to believe that Hamas’s attack plans could have been kept perfectly secret.)
Although tragic, the overt antisemitism we are witnessing is unsurprising. Antisemitism has been the most common hate crime in the U.S. for decades (a century, or more?). It’s astounding how under and unreported it is. My assumption as to why is that many “mainstream” people share the vile trait, so it goes uncommented on.
Obama’s administration was the first where I saw overt outreach to anti-Jewish and especially anti-Israeli groups and we continue to see the affects. Biden’s administration has certainly done plenty to reinvigorate anti-Israeli policy and sentiment in Washington.
It makes me wonder how much of the hatred for Trump when he was in office is directly tied to his support of the Jewish community in the U.S., his daughter’s conversion to Judaism and his son-in-law’s work to truly reach equilibrium in the Middle East?
It’s interesting that on the one you have DeSantis evidently flying Americans out of Israel and now even sending Ammo, Weapons, and Bulletpoof Vests to Israel, and on the other hand you have Gavin Newsom meeting with Xi Jinping oestensibly to discuss “climate change”. Now I assume that Newsom’s antics are sanctioned by the Biden Regime, but it’s sort of odd that you have these State Governors getting so deeply involved in US international affairs. Perhaps since we have such clearly weak President we get these ambitious characters stepping in to fill the void.
Gazamites say lots of things, and then they do lots of vile things. Hamashites are Gazamites after all.
Although not all Gazamites are Hamashites. How many are of the “not?” You will get very different answers depending which situation benefits the Gazamite you ask, IMO.
Le Mot Juste, I apologize! I thought this was a safe place for puns but somebody pulled the wool over my eyes.
Watt:
I have read that only about 5 higher-ups knew what was actually planned. Everyone else knew that they were gathering info, and that some sort of terrorist event would occur, but they weren’t aware of the scope and details. Each person only knew his (or her) own role or that of a small number of like people.
OK – open thread. Time to inject a little brainless levity:
Jamie Brockett – Legend Of the U.S.S. Titanic (1971)
It’s hard to believe that Hamas’s attack plans could have been kept perfectly secret.
On the ‘secrecy’ front, where did the Hamas Air Force learn to fly those powered paragliders? I don’t think it likely that the training happened in Gaza.
I have some friends who keep a small flock of sheep. In the winter, they sometimes need to rescue animals who’ve wandered into snow too deep for their legs. Stuck sheep aren’t the sharpest animals, but they might provide us a lesson in the perils of too much domestication.
Bill K –
You are mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
A Lamb said that. (Of Byron, but if the fleece fits…).
“On the ‘secrecy’ front, where did the Hamas Air Force learn to fly those powered paragliders? I don’t think it likely that the training happened in Gaza.”
Right, not in Gaza. It was in Lebanon.
My sister bought her sheep from the Benedictine nuns of the Our Lady of the Rock Monastery. Also got a llama from the same source to watch over them.
Neo:
Thank you for this fascinating bit of intelligence. Could you do post turtles next? The times (and the District of Columbia) call out for an analysis of post turtles, and what to do when you find one.
WRT to Israeli intelligence sources in Lebanon, here’s a repost of Tony Badran’s take on how “Biden” helped Hezbullah roll them up. YMMV….
“Eyeless in Gaza;
“How the U.S. blinded Israeli intelligence gathering efforts on Hamas and other Palestinian groups inside Lebanon”—
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/america-leaves-israel-eyeless-in-gaza
More stuck sheep, this time a ewe that needs to be rescued and shorn. Or shorn and then rescued?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/26/britains-loneliest-sheep-two-years-beach-scottish-highlands/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr