"Safe Zones" for Women in Berlin Today

Two years after a massive trove of rapes and sexual assaults occurred at NYE celebrations across Germany, and now Berlin has set up a "safe zone" for women for Berlin's party tonight.   

Pretty telling.  

The obvious question - why isn't EVERYWHERE a safe zone for women?  

Second question - instead of staffing this with counsellors so that women that have been harassed or raped can get help, how about throwing enough cops and prosecution at the situation so that women can be safe in the first place?

This is incredible.  Women of Germany, your country deems your safety secondary to the unfettered and unlawful urges of its Muslim immigrant community.

Disgusting.

Saturday Song Share: Ryan Adams - Tired of Giving Up

This guy is making some of the best music out there right now.  

While not a video, just shut your eyes and enjoy how music used to sound, and how it sounds now thanks to Ryan Adams:

Brutal Cold

On our trip down to the Cities yesterday, this is what my vehicle told me it was like outside:

We're getting a reprieve for a couple of days, and will get above zero, but by the weekend we'll be back to the brutal cold again, with lows approaching this horrific number.

Considering I was in 70's earlier in the week, I've experienced over a 100-degree swing just this week alone.

Makes you wonder why we live here.  Crazy cold. 

Funeral Count Now at Seven

Back in early October I wrote how I had been back in Minnesota since late March, and in that time I had attended five funerals.

Less than three months later and the count has risen to seven.

It's remarkable, scary, and angering.  I don't understand it.  I certainly know it is part of life, but there sure has been a lot of death around me lately.  Part of it is my age - I'm getting to that point in life where this is happening more and more to those I know - and part of it has to be that I was just fortunate to avoid a lot of these events prior to now.

It's hard to accept, and can end anytime now...

Christmas Recap

Mrs. YDP and I spent the past five days at my sister's place in Charleston, SC to celebrate  Christmas.  It was a great getaway - pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered.  My brother and his kids were there, as was my mom, so we had a house full, and I loved every minute of it.  

Some highlights:

• We've welcomed a new member to the family as Hank the Labradoodle joined the team.  He's an awesome dog, and fits in perfectly.
• Weather was incredible, and afforded time at the beach and three runs outside.  It sure is nice to be in the South, especially when the high a home is not moving above zero.
• We ate a ton, with a nice dinner out and an incredible prime rib dinner on Christmas Eve.
• We also watched football, played cards, laughed, and basically enjoyed each other for our time together.

I know that none of this is of note.  In fact, upon reading it, it sounds kind of boring.  It certainly didn't feel that way, and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I am blessed.

What God Asks Us

The story of the birth of Christ contains a couple of interesting intercessions by God, and what He asks during these encounters is big.  First, He asks Mary to bear this child, and endure the pain and ridicule that would surely go with it.  Then he asks Joesph to be there in support, despite not being the father.

Can you imagine?  Put yourselves in Mary or Joseph's shoes.  Could we answer God in the affirmative on a similar request?  

Thankfully, we're not tested that way.  We are, however, tested.  God asks things of us every day, but unlike the Holy Family, our burdens are light.  Despite this, we often fail; taking the easy way out, or doing things because they appear to be better for us, or just ignoring our obligation to God altogether.

Perhaps this Christmas we can focus on the sacrifices made - by Mary, Joseph, and even Jesus - and use them as examples to step up to the small things that God asks of us.

Christmas Card from St. John's University

Merry Christmas from the students and monastic community at St. John's University:

Hot Ones

My latest YouTube binge is a show called Hot Ones, where "B" and "C" list celebrities get a chance to tout their book, movie, podcast, etc., but first, they must eat 10 progressively hot wings.  The last one they have?  2,000,000 scoville units.

For those unfamiliar with the scoville scale, a jalapeno is 5,000 and Tobasco is about 30,000.

Here's Arte Lange.  It's R rated, but he gives you a pretty good indication of what the show is like:



You really have to be in need of plugging your show to put up with this kind of torture...

Tomorrow's Next Shooting

Regardless of where you stand on the gun issue, here is something that we can all hopefully agree upon:

Barbie Gets Woke for Christmas

Over the past two months, Babie is rapidly transforming.  Long blamed for instilling false narratives about women, the pendulum has now swung completely in the opposite direction.  Consider this recent Instagram post:

Draw your own conclusions, but for now, it looks like Barbie's sexuality just got a little ambiguous.  How woke!

Now consider the latest stunt, the hajib Barbie:

This one was launched with a public relations campaign that assured the message of its release was everywhere, because, well, Muslim.  What wasn't clear was if the hajib could be removed (especially in front of a man) and if the doll came with a male counterpart so that it could go out in public.

This type of product release is what Mattel thinks will save its financial performance, which looks like this:

I guess when you can't sell toys, hopefully, you can still make a living by selling indoctrination.  

Creepy and sick.

Here's wishing you get what you want for Christmas, and it doesn't come anchored to some political meme.

  

Miss Iraq Takes Photo With Miss Israel - Death Threat Ensue

Miss Iraq met Miss Isreal at the Miss Universe pageant and dared to take a photo together.  Immediately Miss Iraq's home countrymen demanded her death and the death of her whole family.

Here's the offending photo:



Totally worth her death.  And the death of her family as well.  Duh.

Now Miss Iraq and her family are on the lam and are living outside the country, lest they be murdered for this atrocity. 

This is Islam, folks.  By all means, let's immigrate more of this tolerant thinking into our society.   

StarTribune, Taxes, and Fake News

Here's the breathless headline on the front page of the StarTribune:

Republican tax bill could alter landscape for homeowners?  I thought the tax bill was a good thing?  

However, in reading the article, 18 paragraphs into it (!), we find that mortgage interest deduction only goes away for mortgages greater than $750,000.  Which means that it applies to nobody except the very rich, or those that live in markets where real estate is completely out of hand (I'm looking at you, California).

Wonder why people accuse the media of fake news?  Here's your sign. 

Saturday Song Share: Frehley's Comet - Rock Soldiers

We don't do hair metal much here at Yellow Dog Patrol, but I think it about time.

Better said, "Ace is back and he told you so"

Rock, two, three, four...

New Bud Light Commercial Another Home Run

Bud Light has struck gold with its "dilly dilly" campaign, and the latest installment continues the trend:



Also, when researching this ad to embed it via YouTube, I bumped into this campaign:




It is incredibly well done.  I watched it a bunch, and the depth of the ad is truly fantastic - well beyond what one finds in traditional advertising.  It's really, really well written.  There is another version as well that takes place in a zombie apocalypse, but it is not nearly as good.

I have not seen this ad aired, and judging by the release date, it looks like it launched at a similar time to the "dilly dilly" campaign.  I'm betting I live in a market that tested "dilly dilly" and scores for that campaign moved it forward nationally.  Likewise, "Hero's Return" is a :60 spot, and upon being cut down to fit into a traditional :30 ad, likely lost a lot.

Hat's off to the marketing team at Bud Light.  They're doing some of the best advertising that is out there right now.   

Army Navy National Anthem

Just about the time you think this country has zero chance and that our future is bleak, you run into something like this:



Stirring, beautiful, honorable.

And hopeful.

Company Christmas Card

One of the good things about heading up Marketing in the new gig is that I get to do things like determine what we'll do for promotional materials.  That includes our Christmas card.

Since we're a dog-friendly workplace, what could be more friendly than dogs for a holiday greeting?

I happen to be partial to the one on the left, but that's just me.

Merry Christmas.

Black Jack Does it Again

I know that purely by the numbers, Jack Morris does not belong in the Hall of Fame.  If one just looked at the stats, they'd see a very good pitcher and a very strong pitcher in his era.  He also owned an ERA which would be the highest in the HOF, never won a Cy Young, and never blew people away.

He did, however, do a couple of things.  He imposed his will on batters, he ate up innings, and he won.

Never was that more effectively on display than in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.  Deservedly touted as one of the best baseball games of all times, Morris' gutty 10 inning shutout performance, against the best team in MLB at the time and on the biggest stage, was a thing of renown.

Sometimes there are special moments in our lives that transcend us.  They end up defining us, even though, in actuality, there is some much more to us than that one moment.  Such is fate though.  Sometimes those moments carry us, and sometimes it even helps carry us all the way to the HOF.

Is Morris bigger than that one game?  Of course.  The man was a horse of starting pitcher; one of the best of the 80's.  But when you add in that one game...




Congratulations, Black Jack.  You were awesome.

How to Raise a Sweet Son

A friend recently posted an article from Time on her Facebook page on how to raise a sweet son in an era of angry men.  Her wife and she just had a son, and this looks like something that they fear.  Personally, I quietly fear for the child, as one of the moms has made posts like "I've come to the conclusion that the majority of males that i interact with on a daily basis are "superior" assholes. Honestly."

Seriously.  Hate nearly half the population much?

If you want to raise a sweet son, here are some suggestions:

• Love him.  Always.  And not only him, but his gender.  Love the differences that exist between the two, and look for opportunities for them to compliment each other.
• Shield your hate.  Hatred is a learned behavior.  What you say about others and how you treat them will be absorbed by your young sponge.  Garbage in, garbage out.
• Set expectations.  For school, for manners, for behavior.  But also know that your son is not a girl.  He's different, and he needs to be treated differently.  Treating him the same as a girl, especially as it applies to learning, will lead to his falling behind, frustration, and then worse.
• Add consequences when those expectations are not met.  Fairly, but consistently.  Morality and respect matters, especially in how we interact with each other.  
• Introduce him to God, and allow a relationship to develop.  
• Give him role models.  Look at the men that are around your son as they will have much sway as to how he develops.  End relationships that expose your son to sullied behaviors. Yeah, it's that serious.

A quick look at the most recent college statistics shows boys are still falling behind - in 2017 alone, women represented 56% of the college population.  That's downright scary.  We're failing our boys.  Hence, instead of bashing their gender so that we can make them "sweet," how about we start taking steps to stop hating our sons and make them successful instead?

The sooner we can stop hating each other, the better.

 

Saturday Song Share: Manchester Orchestra - Where Have You Been

I always found this song to be really deep; maybe it's just my interpretation.  I looked for a good version to try and do the studio version justice to no avail.  It's too bad, as the best part of the studio version has lead singer Andy Hull wailing, "GOD MY GOD, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

I've read some accounts of live versions where Hull screams that at the end.  It's reported to be quite stirring.  Also, I've read that he sometimes substitutes the word "God" with "child" at the end, as God responds to the question as He likely would.

All of us at times have been in a situation where we've asked the same question, and the way he sang it just came out so raw and real.  This version?  Not so much, but still a great song:

Jerusalem Finally Recognized as Capital, Islam and Liberals Erupt

Jerusalem is the holiest city of Judaism.  It has been that way for 3,000 years.  Even those with a modicum of biblical understanding know this.

It is also Isreal's capital.  Their national government seats are there.  In fact, pretty much the only thing missing was a US embassy, as we've been cowed by the Muslim world to pretend Jerusalem isn't really the capital.  In typical Muslim fashion, the message was "do as we want, or else," and previous administrations were more than happy to oblige.

Enter Trump.  He campaigned on this move and did so loudly.  It was not a secret.  He's fulfilling a promise.  However, the media and the Muslim world consider what he's done to be tantamount to lighting a cigarette in an ammo dump.  

Really?  Isreal operates with Jerusalem as its capital.  All we're doing is stopping to pretend it's not.  Yet the world rages because we're not pretending anymore.  

This is your "religion of peace" ladies and gentlemen.  

More like "religion of perpetual outrage," but we can't say that now, can we?

Anheuser Busch Sends a Cease and Desist

By now, you've obviously been made aware of the popularity of "dilly dilly."  It was first introduced by Bud Light in this ad:



The ad pretty much got the whole country saying, "dilly dilly."  It was so popular, in fact, that local Twin Cities brewer Modist Brewing crafted a "Dilly Dilly Mosaic Double IPA."  Well, word got to the folks at Anheuser Busch, and their legal team got to work.  This is how they responded:



This is just outstanding.  The fact that AB did this without any fanfare and just did it from one brewer to another is so cool.

What's not cool?  A couple craft brewers from Modist at the Super Bowl having to drink Bud Light the whole time.  Pit of Misery, indeed.

Left to Suffer - Expose by the StarTribune

The media has won a well-deserved reputation of being biased do-nothings.  As their audiences have crumbled, they've lost a lot of the resources that enabled them to do actual traditional investigative journalism.  They've kind of been rendered as not much better than the loudmouths that bray in the comment sections of their articles.

However, every once and a while they hit it.  That was the case in a recent expose by the StarTribune called "Left to Suffer."  In it, they cover the rampant amount of abuse being conducted in Minnesota senior care facilities, and the shocking lack of protection and prosecution going on.

How bad is it?  In it, they report that maltreatment allocations rose to a volume of 25,000 cases in 2016 alone (a doubling of 2011 levels), while just over 3% of those cases were even investigated.

It is a very scary proposition.  It's made even scarier for someone like my wife and myself that have no children to serve as our advocates.

Good work, StarTribune.

Saturday Song Share: Talking Heads - Girlfriend is Better

There she goes...

A Walk Around Uptown

Last weekend we had a post-Thanksgiving feast walk around the lakes and Uptown area in Minneapolis.  It just underscored how much we'd missed in being gone.  To be closer to family and the places we love is just a blessing, and we're very lucky to be back in our home, because it is just that.  Home.

The day was pretty and not too horribly chilly.  It made for a great photo opportunity with the beautiful Minneapolis skyline in the background:

Uptown is an eclectic area, and has been for a good long time.  How long?  Well, here's an example - the Uptown Theater is doing a midnight showing of Rocky Horror.  Ladies and gentlemen, that movie was released in 1975:

Finally, we close with some marketing, because, well, marketing...  From the incongruity files comes this Plastic Surgeon.  See for yourself:

Good thing it's authentic plastic surgery.  You wouldn't want any of that fake plastic surgery.

Love being home.