Posts Tagged ‘Buc-ees’
Friday, January 3rd, 2025
Happy New Year! The Biden Administration is made of lies (which you already knew), a few links about guns, mysterious deaths in Tarrant County jails, Russian finds new, embarrassing ways to lose equipment, Hasbro destroys D&D’s legacy, and a look at biblical werewolves. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
One of Biden’s main legacies: Corrupting official government economic statistics:
Try to contain your shock: The Biden Administration hid the lab leak origins of Flu Manchu.
A brand new investigation from the Wall Street Journal has revealed that scientists knew early on that the COVID-19 virus was an engineered virus that escaped a lab, but the information was suppressed by intelligence agencies and removed from all presidential briefings on the matter.
Three scientists from the National Center for Medical Intelligence, John Hardham, Robert Cutlip and Jean-Paul Chretien, had reported their findings that the virus was manipulated in a lab. They shared their findings with the FBI, but were soon told to stop.
In August of 2021, Biden was briefed on the origins of COVID-19 after a 90-day investigation from intelligence agencies. National Intelligence Director Avril Haines briefed the President and left out all research pointing to a lab leak from her briefing.
Sarah Hoyt has a pretty good plan moving forward: We win, they lose.
It’s going to take a long time for us to stop flinching and deciding we’re going to be betrayed. 2020 left scars in the collective psyche, and scars take a long time to fade if they ever do.
The last four years we were hunching our shoulders and just enduring the blows, and that will take a long long time to fade.
And sure, there are things that won’t go our way. But you shouldn’t worry too much about that.
Look, the edifice that supports the boot on our necks is not only rickety. It always was rickety.
Keeping the big lie of the all powerful centralized government in place was a full scale production, and it required a fully coordinated media, fully coordinated panels of “experts”, and a trusting public that believed all of it. Or at least a majority of the public that believed all of it.
It has been eroding for a while, since social media and blogs got really big in the wake of 9/11. Despite their best efforts at censorship, a massed multitude of — what did they call us? — hobbits is harder to control than a few journalists who want to be invited to the right parties.
Trump’s election in 2016 was the first time the media lost to the hobbits. Really lost, publicly. They didn’t like it. The hell the establishment has put us through since is their payback.
It came with unexpected consequences though. The main ones being: their masks were yanked off; and we don’t believe them anymore.
This is the sort of thing that not all the king’s horses and not all the king’s men can put together ever again.
Sure, we’ll “lose” some. Sure, they’re making cunning plans to thwart the will of the people.
But be not afraid. If we win even a few places, it’s enough for the whole edifice of oppression and lies to come tumbling down.
It has been tumbling down, already, even while they were nominally in power, which is why we won 2024.
Be not afraid. This is very important. The rest will fall into place, provided you keep your heads and remember you’re Americans.
Mike Johnson reelected as Speaker of the House. And that was after National Review sent out an email that he hadn’t, so there was a bit of confusion around the event. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Powerline illustrates Why Democrats Lost for Dummies.
How DEI is ruining careers in academia.
Until a few years ago I was working as a mid-career research scientist, no I won’t tell you what field. Within my collaboration I was known for being extremely productive. I’ve seen jaws drop when I show colleagues my publication list.
Then it came time to start applying for junior professor positions.
Got a few interviews, but doors kept getting slammed in my face. It’s a very opaque process ofc, they never tell you why. In one case however I had the dean – a portly Hispanic woman – tell me two minutes into the interview that “women in STEM are very important to me”, and ultimately heard informally from one of the profs at that dept that I hadn’t been hired because of interference from the dean, despite all of the profs on the committee wanting me, and that instead they’d hired … no one.
(Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)
Obama’s Ministry of Censorship gets shut down.
One of the many controversial chunks of the short-term spending bill that sparked debate recently included funding for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.
But what’s the problem? After all, who doesn’t like “Global Engagement”?!
Well, this agency — formed by Barack Obama — has been moonlighting as a censorship czar, handing out taxpayer dollars like candy to groups that spend their time suppressing conservative voices online.
(In other words, your average Obama administration government office.)
But after widespread backlash, the new version has no room for the Global Engagement Center.
Snip.
Reports from the Washington Examiner indicated that the GEC bankrolled groups like the Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard, organizations that basically police speech with the finesse of a drunk mall cop. The Federalist and the Daily Wire even sued the GEC over its role in suppressing right-leaning voices.
Thanks to the new continuing resolution, the GEC finally met its own doom, with yet another scrap of Barack Obama’s legacy shuffling off into the sunset like Joe Biden’s last remaining marble.
Sounds like some companies are asking for a lawsuit:
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Suspicious. “North Texas Activist Is Latest to Die in Tarrant County Jail. Mason Yancy was the ninth person to die in Tarrant County Jail custody this year….Yancy was well known to grassroots activists in North Texas and across the state as an advocate for limited government and First and Second Amendment rights. He co-founded Open Carry Texas with activist-turned-attorney CJ Grisham.”
Anti-Chinese riots in Africa, following a disputed election in which Daniel Chapo of the ruling FRELIMO (socialist, formerly communist) party was declared the winner. Seems like the citizens of Mozambique aren’t big fans of Belt and Road…
Ford’s account gets hacked.
John Richardson, of No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money, is a reform candidate for NRA’s board of directors.
Russian SAM system final engages a target it can take down: A Russian helicopter.
Russia loses vehicles in Ukraine every day, but usually they’re not getting stolen. And their troops don’t usually put up missing posters for them…
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger: “Wikipedia made a real effort at neutrality for I would say its first five years or so, and then it began a long, slow slide into what I would call leftist propaganda.”
The top selling guns of 2024 on GunBroker.com. I actually own the top-selling gun, the Sig Saur P365 9mm, which feels…weird.
Buyer beware: Fake ammo scam. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
It’s easier to get car parts for a 2007 Ferrari 599 than a 2016 Hellcat.
Net Neutrality loses in court again.
Oopsie! “Texas Governor Greg Abbott mistakenly sent a message of condolences to Jimmy Carter’s dead wife.”
Hasbro pimps out D&D for a gambling app. (Hat tip: Clownfish TV.)
Asking biblical questions no one else is asking: “Was Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest son, a werewolf?”
Waterloo records in Austin is relocating under new ownership. “Caren Kelleher, founder and president of Gold Rush Vinyl, confirmed Thursday she and business partner Trey Watson (CEO of Armadillo Records) will be taking over Waterloo Records. The vinyl shop has operated in Austin for more than 40 years, including 35 years at its current location along West Sixth Street and North Lamar Boulevard.” I used to spend a fair amount of time searching their used CD bins, but I all but stopped going downtown during the “homeless camping” fiasco. (Hat tip: .)
“Trump Names Buc-ee’s Beaver Secretary Of Transportation.”
“Biden Finally Claims Title Of Worst Living President.”
“White House Insists Jimmy Carter Is Still Sharp And Focused Behind Closed Doors.”
Wormsign!
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Tags:Austin, Avril Haines, Babylon Bee, Buc-ees, cars, censorship, China, coronavirus, Crime, Daniel Chapo, DEI, dogs, Dungeons and Dragons, Economics, education, Ford, fraud, FRELIMO, gambling, Global Engagement Center, Greg Abbott, Guns, H1B visa, handguns, Hasbro, Jean-Paul Chretien, Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden, John Hardham, John Richardson, Larry Sanger, LinkSwarm, Mason Yancy, media bias, Media Watch, Military, Mozambique, NRA, Obama, open carry, retail sales, Robert Cutlip, Rosalynn Carter, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Sarah Hoyt, scam, Second Amendment, Sig Saur, statistics, Stellantis, supply chain, Tarrant County, Texas, Ukraine, unemployment, werewolves, Wikipedia, Wuhan Institute of Virology
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Guns, Military | 3 Comments »
Sunday, February 25th, 2024
Hillsboro is a large town/small city of some 8,000+ people that most Texans have probably driven through at some point. They’re a county seat, sit smack dab in the great plains agricultural belt and have some light manufacturing, but their main economic advantage is being right where I-35E and I-35W join/split to I-35 traveling south to Waco, Austin and San Antonio. Hillsboro is perfectly positioned to be a road trip snack and restroom break stop.
For years one of Hillsboro’s most notable features was its outlet mall, with a variety of national brands. I bought a Fossil watch from their store many, many years ago.
Well, I traveled through there to and from the Metroplex for a funeral, the outlet mall is dead. Though the two open air mall segments have space for some 86 stores, there’s now precisely one open, a Bath and Body Works. The Hillsboro outlet mall was already ailing before the Flu Manchu lockdowns, but that seems top have accelerated the decline. (San Marcos outlet malls, also on the I-35 corridor, seem to done a much better job weathering the economic headwinds.) This would suggest Hillsboro has entered a period of economic stagnation and decline.
Not so fast! Buc-ess, the Texas mega convenience store chain, is opening a store in Hillsboro. Also, Buc-ess pays pretty good wages for a convenience store: “$18.00 * Medical * Dental * Vision * 3 Weeks Paid Time Off * 401k 100% Match up to 6%.”
This is the point where I’m supposed to insert some pithy “when one door closes another opens” aphorism. But I rather strongly suspect this particular mall closing scenario plays out very differently in a blue locale like New York or California, where everyone with the means to do so is moving away from those failing high-tax, high-crime states as fast as they can.
There’s no one coming to save those towns.
Tags:Adandoned Malls, Buc-ees, Economics, Hillsboro, I-35, Texas
Posted in Democrats, Texas, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016
I can hardly resist throwing up a link to this Kevin D. Williamson National Review piece on Buc-ee’s, can I?
Over the weekend, I stopped to buy gas at a Buc-ee’s in Bastrop, Texas, and was greeted by (in addition to a man dressed as a giant aquatic rodent) an A-frame sign advertising Buc-ee’s version of the minimum wage: cashiers, $12 to $14 an hour; food-service and car-wash help, $13 to $15 an hour; team leaders, $14 to $17 an hour; assistant, $17 an hour and up. Each job came with three weeks paid time off each year, which employees are welcome to use, roll over, or exchange for cash. If you want 40 hours a week, there’s 40 hours a week to be had; if you want more than 40 hours a week, that can happen, too.
Everyone’s needs vary, of course, and I am not among those who believe that a two-income household is ideal for every situation. But I also believe that you can raise a family decently on $70,000 a year in Bastrop, where you can buy a perfectly serviceable house for less than $100,000 and where a nice, new one keeps you under the usual 2.5-times-your-income rule. Assuming a couple of raises and a bit of overtime, a married couple both working at a gas station could bring home something close to a six-figure income between them.
He mentions the kolaches but not the fudge. He also omits something the non-Texan audience wouldn’t be aware of, namely of just how large Buc-ee’s is; the Bastrop location is bigger than most supermarkets…
Tags:Bastrop, Buc-ees, Kevin WIlliamson, National Review, Texas
Posted in Texas | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 7th, 2016
Two observations, linked only that I saw each on the same day when traveling back to Austin from Houston:
- The black helicopters are back. By “black helicopters” I mean military helicopters without visible markings (though I didn’t stop to see if I could spot them) hovering over a highway, in this case I-10 near Katy. It wasn’t the only military activity I saw, as there seemed to be a lot of military transports, either in desert tan or olive drab cammo patterns, on the roads (couldn’t have been anything secret, since they were moving in broad daylight; I don’t assume Uncle Sam is aiming for stealth when he parks a military gasoline tanker in the parking lot of the Bastrop Buc-ees on a Friday afternoon). I’ve seen them over Austin before (usually hovering right over Mopac), but it’s been quite a while. What I don’t mean is NWO paranoia, space aliens, or any of that crap. If I had to guess they’re testing some sort of ground radar equipment, possible a smaller, more portable version of JSTARs. But the first order of business is reportage; people aren’t making black helicopters up out of thin air.
- Speaking of Buc-ees, I stopped there for gas on the way back. Since pay-at-the-pump wasn’t reading my credit/debit card, I went in and paid them $20 to put on a pump. What I had forgotten was that gas has gotten so cheap that I couldn’t put $20 worth of unleaded, at $1.39 a gallon, into my nearly empty tank. I had to go back in and get a $2 refund. One reason I mention this is that, right now, in some places in California, gas is more than $5 a gallon…
Tags:Bastrop, black helicopters, Buc-ees, California, gas prices, Military, Texas
Posted in Military, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, March 21st, 2014
Enjoy your complimentary Friday LinkSwarm, and be sure to tip your waitress!
Fourteen different ways you can you can avoid the ObamaCare tax.
Joaquin Castro to boycott Buc-ees? He should have almost as much luck in Texas boycotting air conditioning and football. Hey, when Castro can offer outstanding fudge and the largest, cleanest restrooms in the state, let me know…
Democratic Senators decide they’d like to avoid committing political suicide by voting for Obama’s gun-grabbing Surgeon general nominee.
Colorado Democratic Senator Mark Udall proves once again that taxes are for the little people.
Democrats recruit the perfect candidate for congress: an 86-year old ex-felon.
Rich liberal environmentalist Tom Steyer is 100% opposed to Keystone pipeline. Well, except when endangered Democratic Senators are involved.
What liberals are leaving out of their hagiography of Cesar Chavez: he opposed illegal aliens and would have hated amnesty.
Liberals hate the Koch brothers so much they freak out even when they’re donating money to a hospital.
How dare some racist Americans call some Muslims pedophiles just because they want to marry 8-year olds?
America could hurt Russia by lifting natural gas export restrictions.
Swell story of resurrecting a badly damaged B-2. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
It’s gotten to the point I can no longer tell liberal ranting from parody of same.
More Yelp hilarity for the Backstreet Pub and Grill owner who went out of his way to insult gun owners.
Supporting Neil Young and Scarlet Johansson against the Israel haters.
“Set in a futuristic dystopia where society is divided into five factions that each represent a different virtue….” Yeah, that’s pretty much where I stopped reading.
Solider adopts dog. Dusty room ensues.
Tags:2014 Election, amnesty, B-2, Buc-ees, Cesar Chavez, Crime, Democrats, dogs, Elections, Energy Policy, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Illegal Aliens, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Joaquin Castro, Keystone Pipeline, Koch Brothers, Media Watch, Military, Neil Young, ObamaCare, Russia, Scarlet Johansson, Tom Steyer, Ukraine
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Texas, video | No Comments »