Archive of entries posted by Oppo

Lawyer Talk

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Elsewhere, on another site, I read this. It was talking about that other site (which is a no-subscription-required site, like IMAO). Seemed to make sense.

A web site that depends on 100% voluntary donations [or no donations at all] has much more flexibility than a web site that requires a mandatory payment.

Such a site has very limited legal liability.

If a monthly subscription is required, the site is instantly vulnerable to:
copyright lawsuits [because they’re making money off others’ work]
libel lawsuits, and
hate speech lawsuits that result in injury or damage.

Lawyers. God love ’em.

Straight Line of the Day: Why Would a UFO Look Like a Potato?

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New Pentagon release details “potato” UAP over Colorado Springs
Fox21 | 6-12-26 | Ashley Eberhardt

The latest batch of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) reports from the Department of War includes an incident in 2022 in which five members of the U.S. Army reportedly saw an object shaped like a potato hovering over Cheyenne Mountain. …

“The object was ‘potato’ shaped with distinct edges and appeared to look painted in a creamy/whitish opalescent color. It was somewhat translucent with a slight shimmer”…

Welcome to IMAO! Say, If Any of You Are Otherwise Known as Porky or Cuervo, Please Let Me Know

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Feds Offer Up To $15 Million For Tips On Top MS-13 Leaders ‘Porky’ And ‘Cuervo’
Tampa Free Press | June 18, 2026 | Jack Kaminsky

The U.S. government is significantly ramping up its efforts to capture two high-ranking leaders of the MS-13 gang, offering a combined reward of up to $15 million for information leading to their arrest or conviction. …

Specifically, authorities increased the reward to up to $10 million for Yulan Adonay Archaga Carías, a fugitive widely known by the alias “Porky.” A separate reward of up to $5 million is being offered for Víctor Eduardo Morales Zelaya, who goes by the street name “Cuervo.”

Friday Night Open Thread: Was Lincoln a Genius?

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All humans agree that slavery is an abomination. (The grey area of wage slavery, we won’t go into at this time.)

Was it a mark of genius on Lincoln’s part to place one thing even higher on the scale of morality, instead of taking the easy route, and simply condemning slavery?

It was the Constitution that he was sworn to protect. It was the union, the notion that the government of the people, etc., should not perish from the earth.

Lincoln’s statement may be equivalent to saying that murderers, stranglers, and wife-beaters must be punished, but only by the system of jury trial — which above all must be preserved.

 

Executive Mansion
Washington, August 22, 1862.

Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.

I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.

Yours,
A. Lincoln.

 

In just over five months he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Straight Line of the Day: Causes of the Big Chimpanzee Rift…

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Largest Known Wild Chimpanzee Community Breaks Apart After Decades of Unity

SciTech Daily | June 2, 2026 |  University of Texas at Austin

Wild chimpanzees in Uganda split into two separate communities and later engaged in deadly attacks against each other.

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For the first 20 years of research, the chimpanzee community remained united. Individuals regularly moved among flexible subgroups, known as “clusters,” while maintaining social bonds across the larger group. This fission-fusion social structure is common in chimpanzees, with members temporarily separating and later rejoining.

That pattern began to change in 2015, when researchers noticed growing division between the Western and Central clusters, which increasingly avoided one another.

Straight Line of the Day: Do You Plan To Go to Hersheypark and Hide Under a Table, and Miss Out on the 55-Person Brawl at the SooperDooperLooper Coaster?

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Giant brawl forced Hersheypark to stop rollercoaster as parents hid under tables: police
PennLive | 9 June 2026 | Zahriah Balentine

Hersheypark visitors shielded their children and hid under tables during a wide-scale fight on opening day in April, police said in court documents released Tuesday.

The rollercoaster Skyrush also had to come to an emergency stop during the April 3 series of fights, Derry Township police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause charging Quaneek Williams, 18, with riot, a felony, and other charges including assault and failing to disperse.

Williams, of Lemoyne, was one of 55 people between 12 and 19 years old charged in connection with the brawl. …

Police said surveillance footage showed two groups of people arguing before a fight broke out near the SooperDooperLooper coaster about five minutes prior.

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Nah. I plan to go to go to DisneyWorld and watch Bearded Snow White during Pride Month.

Immigration. Heh.

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Million migrants expected to sign up for Spain’s amnesty
The Telegraph | June 15, 2026 | James Crisp

Spain’s migrant amnesty is set to attract more than one million people, which is double the expected number of undocumented workers seeking legal residency rights.

The migration ministry said it had received about 900,000 applications. The government initially thought only half a million illegal migrants would claim.

Meanwhile: . . .

Tourists in Spain face scrutiny over their finances – with new rules meaning visitors could be asked to prove they have ‘sufficient’ money for their stay
daily mail

Millions of Britons will jet off to Spain this summer – but holidaymakers should make sure they’re financially solvent before they touch down or face being denied entry.

Tourists visiting for up to 90 days could be asked to present proof of having sufficient means for the duration of their proposed stay, after regulations were first introduced post-Brexit in 2021.

Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs quietly announced earlier this year that every visitor to the destination in 2026 will now be required to have €122.10 (£105.53) per person per day.

So, interns can’t go there unless they sneak in and apply for amnesty.

Inspirational Thought for the Day: TV

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Definition:

Taedium Vitae:

Ennui. Irksomeness of life. The inanity of sublunary things has afforded a theme to philosophers, moralists and divines, from the earliest records of antiquity: “vanity of vanities,” says the preacher, “all is vanity!” Nor is there anyone, I suppose, who has passed the meridian of life, who has not at some moments felt the nihility of all things.

— Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia (1794–1796)

Straight Line of the Day: What Are the Canadians and Irish Up To?

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Canadian PM Carney to visit Dublin and Mayo next week
RTÉ News | 7 Jun 2026 | Jackie Fox

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will make an official visit to Ireland next week….

His office said that during his time in Ireland, he will focus on deepening Canada and Ireland’s longstanding cultural and people-to-people ties and expanding relationships across agri-food, digital innovation, AI, pharmaceuticals and climate.