Slayer, formed in 1981 in Huntington Park, California, is one of the most influential bands in the heavy metal genre, particularly known for their role in establishing the thrash metal subgenre. Over the years, Slayer released twelve studio albums, two live albums, a box set, and several music videos and compilations. Their aggressive musical style and controversial themes helped them gain a massive following, although they also attracted significant media scrutiny. Notable albums such as Reign in Blood (1986), South of Heaven (1988), and Seasons in the Abyss (1990) are often cited as influential benchmarks in the genre. The band’s The post Complete List Of Slayer Band Members appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

On Friday, July 26, the Olympic torch arrived in Paris and was used to ceremoniously light the Olympic Cauldron, which will continue to illuminate the skies throughout the Olympic Games. It's quite the spectacle, but its origins have some unexpected twists.According to The Olympic Museum, “The Olympic Torch Relay is now a powerful symbol of understanding and brotherhood among peoples.” Per tradition, the torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, on April 16, and from there it was relayed for three months before arriving in Paris. Its journey was positively chaotic. It spent eight days bouncing around Greece before leaving from Athens on a ship to Marseille, where it then started doodling all over France, paying everyone a visit. You’ve got to wonder what the few regions that were skipped did to deserve that. This is not how it used to be. It might seem like the continuation of some beautiful ancient tradition, but the whole thing is less than 100 years old. The Olympic flame itself was lit for the first time at the Ninth Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928, where “a high flame would indicate for miles around where in Amsterdam the Olympic Games were being held” (according to the Official Olympic Report 1928).The idea of a flame was inspired by the ancient Greek tradition of keeping in front of their temples perpetual fires lit by the heat of the sun. Even today, the Olympic Flame is lit in a ceremony in Olympia. The rays of the sun are captured and reflected inside a parabolic mirror (a modern version of the skaphia) generating enough heat to light the fire (although cloudy weather meant 2024's ceremony had to rely on a backup flame).               The idea to carry that flame from Olympia all the way to where the Games were being held was first proposed for the 1936 Games held in Berlin. Yes, that’s right, 1936 “Third Reich” Germany. The planning and preparation for the relay alone took a whole two years. It was such an elaborate choreography for a display of German organization that in their official report they dedicate 25 pages to describing it in detail (the full report is 1,000 pages including all the results – quite a riveting read). Instead of the chaotic scribble that the relay did in 2024, in 1936 the torch actually traveled continuously from Olympia to Berlin for 12 days. It was a journey of 3,187 kilometers (1,980 miles), where approximately every kilometer was covered by a different runner. Each with their own torch. Apparently just getting all those thousands of torches through customs in the different countries was a nightmare.There were more than 3,000 runners, all from the different countries that the torch was going to pass through and “All were conscious of the symbolic significance of this relay run, which represented a link, so to speak, between the ancient and the modern Festival,” according to the Official Olympic Report 1936.Then there was the problem of the torches themselves. The Olympic flame cannot die from the moment it is lit until the end of the Games. It must survive the relay and live on in the bowl during the Games, despite heat, rain, storms or… falls. These days they have spares stashed away so that if it dies out they can reignite it with another flame born of the original fire – or, they take the Paris route and opt for no real flame at all. Back in Berlin they were experimenting with a new Propan gas for the flame itself (propane was new at the time in Germany, even though it had been used in the USA for a couple of decades already). For the torches, “The original idea was to follow the example of the ancient Greeks, who, [...] carried fagots of narthex stalks, which were found especially in the highlands of Ephesus and the pith of which retained fire for a long period of time. It was doubtful, however, whether such a fagot would burn for 12 days,” according to the Official Olympic Report 1936.They ended up making a magnesium torch with two fuses, which could continue to burn even in case something happened to the top flame. Pretty ingenious since that is essentially the mechanism we still use today to keep the torches lit!They had runners and they had torches, but their problems weren’t over yet. There was no good road to Olympia at the time. The Greek government planned to build a highway from Olympia to Tripoli for the occasion, but didn’t quite manage to finish it in time. Luckily, it was good enough for the relay to go ahead. The only problem in Greece was now the scorching sun, bringing temperatures of up to 50°C (122°F) recorded in cars that were being used to broadcast coverage of the relay via radio. At every town they passed, an “orator expressed the gratitude of the New Hellas to the New Germany for having instituted the Olympic Torch Relay Run”. In case you had forgotten, this was planned by Nazi Germany.When the relay finally left Greece to continue on in Bulgaria on its journey to Berlin, Lieutenant-Colonel Léonidas Ptéris, Commissioner-General for the Organization of the Olympic Torch Relay Run through Greece, said, “In its journey, this Fire will communicate the sacred Olympic spirit to the universe in order that this spirit, as in ancient times, may inspire the nations assembled at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, enlighten their thoughts and instill in them the power to serve humanity and their countries through noble, peaceful and chivalrous Activities.”

An interesting sighting in the skies over Prague, Czech Republic has left residents and online viewers baffled. On Wednesday morning, a cube-shaped UFO was spotted floating above the city, an event that was captured on video (see below) and subsequently shared on Reddit, reports coasttocoastam.com. “This huge white cube was rotating in the skies for about five minutes,” the witness recounted. The odd object, according to the astonished observer, disappeared “in a moment” only to reappear shortly afterward. The mysterious footage has since ignited a flurry of speculation and humor across social media platforms. Some playful theories include suggestions that the object was a flying sugar cube, an artifact from the sci-fi series Star Trek (specifically, the Borg), or even a proverbial glitch in the matrix. More grounded explanations have also been proposed. Skeptics suggest that the object could have been a box kite or a cube-shaped balloon. Despite these rational theories, the true nature of the aerial anomaly remains unresolved. The post Rotating cube-shaped UFO filmed over Prague appeared first on Anomalien.com.

We have officially reached that late period in a presidential campaign where the thoroughly leftist national newspapers turn into partisan rags that coo and gush, this time over Kamala Harris. Consider the July 31 “Style” section of The Washington Post. It began with a large color photograph of a Harris impersonator on TikTok named Alison Reese. The headline was “On Harris’s laugh, a symphony of feedback.” A caption under Reese and her rainbow flag said Reese “says Harris’s laugh ‘feels more uninhibited…The laugh is truly coming from this place of inner joy.'” Post writers Maura Judkis and Kara Voght claimed Harris’s “ebullient laugh” has “the same tempo as some truly excellent dance songs.” They assembled academic experts – including Kate Manne, who wrote a whole book about Hillary Clinton’s laugh being exploited in 2016! – to find misogyny in mocking Kamala’s cackle. “It’s been taboo for women to speak too loud, to laugh too loud, to laugh too much,” proclaimed Kathleen Karlyn, a scholar of cinema and media studies. “It’s predictable that, when Kamala laughs, she’s asserting her power and her refusal to be silent or play by these old rules about proper femininity.”  Karlyn wrote a book titled The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter. Citing Kamala’s viral comment about falling out of a coconut tree, the Post scribes are declaring victory in the Laugh Wars: “Conservatives seem to have lost control of the ‘Laughing Kamala’ narrative that they tried to create. What they put forth as cringeworthy has been alchemized into coconutmentum.” Underneath that analysis was Post book critic Becca Rothfeld’s essay on the Meme Wars. Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 to “the group of pathologically online reactionaries known as the alt-right.” But have no fear, Democrats! Rothfeld touted the Kamala coconut tree meme as being “shared and reshared in a burst of collective giddiness.” The Democrat factions battled over Biden, but “the euphoric meming around Harris has allowed a wide range of members of the Democratic-leaning electorate to coalesce around her without having to commit to everything she stands for.” On the bottom left of the Style section front page was gender columnist Monica Hesse’s hot take: “Why ‘weird’ is the  most effective insult Democrats have tried so far.” Hesse began by recalling a Superman comic book in 1946 in which he battled a xenophobic group resembling the KKK (think Trump). Hesse said “It’s all about the power of word choice, rhetoric, and peer pressure.” Hesse channeled a pile of Democrat politicians uncorking their “weird” insults – Tim Walz, Chris Murphy, and Pete Buttigieg -- and this abortion-loving feminist was especially happy with a line from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Being obsessed with repressing women is goofy.” She loves how the word “weird” can freak out Trump fans: “What if, instead of being admired or feared, they are instead being laughed at? What if, instead of edgelords, they are actually just the kids in the corner eating glue off their hands?” Just above Hesse’s column as it continued on page C-3 was an article by Adela Suliman gushing over how “White Dudes for Harris” raised $4 million. More momentum talk burbled. “The momentum is extraordinary,” oozed Buttigieg. “I’ve never felt this kind of belief, this kind of enthusiasm ever,” exclaimed actor Bradley Whitford. Suggesting The Washington Post Is overflowing with joyous partisan propaganda, energetically aiming to keep the momentum surging for Harris and the Democrats all the way to November? That’s too mild. This kind of broadsheet bombast is why Donald Trump uses the term “fake news.” It looks like a newspaper, but sounds like a cheerleader.

A selected Kamala Harris will become the only presidential nominee of the two parties in the modern era who has never once entered, much less won, a single primary. And it is hard to think of a single statement or position that Harris has not suddenly disowned or now rejected.It is near miraculous how for three and a half years Kamala Harris was the Biden administration’s megaphone for its hard-left craziness. She was the go-to emissary to the radical Democratic Party base. Yet now she seems to be copying Donald Trump on secure borders, legal immigration, support for law enforcement, and fracking.Like Biden, Harris’ deer-in-the-headlights moments are not sporadic but characteristic. The only remedy is as much seclusion from the public as possible.Still, when the Kamala hysteria subsides, Harris may well suffer the fate of Michael Dukakis, as James Pierson recently noted. After the giddiness of the July 1988 Democratic convention, the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, was leading Vice President George H.W. Bush in the Gallup poll by 17 points. Yet he was crushed by Bush in November by 7.8 points. Why and how?Bush’s politico Lee Atwater, in series of brutal but accurate ads (the tank fiasco ad, the Willie Horton ad, the polluted Boston Harbor ad, etc.) accurately redefined Dukakis — a far more capable, kind, and well-spoken official than Harris — as an unapologetic Massachusetts far-left liberal. And by the way, the 1988 election was the last time Republicans won 51 percent of the popular vote.Apparently, the Republican Party grandees decided never again to “lower” themselves to the Atwater level. And so they have gone on to lose “nobly” seven of the last eight popular votes.Down the memory holeOne of the most demagogic Harrisisms was her 2020 claim that the pseudo-martyr Jussie Smollett was a victim of American racism and homophobia. Here is what she gushed: “Jussie Smollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern-day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.”The left until late June used to refer to Harris as Biden’s “border czar.” And indeed, she insisted that the nonexistent border was “secure,” even as her own administration unapologetically welcomed an influx of 10 million illegal aliens. In her role, Harris envisioned dismantling Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opposed the wall, and did not consider illegal entry into the United States a crime. Americans were talked down to by Harris and told not to say “illegal alien,” as she ritually introduced herself with her pronouns, “she/her.”Word-cop Harris also sermonized us not to utter the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” — as if, say, the 9/11 killers were not radical, were not Islamic, and were not terrorists. Just this week at the Olympics when the Israeli national anthem was played, radical pro-Hamas crowds waved their Palestinian flags while wildly saluting and chanting “Heil Hitler.”In the pre-July 21 world of Kamala Harris, there should be no private health care, but certainly free government coverage for illegal aliens. If you currently legally own an “assault weapon,” the government has a right nonetheless to force (“mandate”) you to sell it to the government.For Harris, a country $36 trillion in debt, with $1.2 trillion in interest payments per year, in its seventh decade of affirmative action, ever-increasing DEI mandates and virtual quotas, and over $20 trillion spent on Great Society poverty programs, should nevertheless go ahead with racial reparations — a policy that even Californians reject.All abortions are to be permitted on demand to the moment of birth. We are not told by Harris the method of terminating the baby in passage through the birth canal.Harris was an early vocal supporter of the Green New Deal that would bankrupt the middle class.In her view, police should be defunded and thousands of imprisoned criminals released. Harris vocally supported California’s disastrous de facto legalization of shoplifting and “misdemeanor” theft of items less than $950. She sought to raise bail funds for the 2020 rioters, many of them arrested for street violence, assault, and looting.Her most infamous demagoguery was her CBS interview with Stephen Colbert, when she boasted that the ongoing 2020 protests (quite violent despite her fact-checkers’ efforts to “contextualize” Harris’ vitriol) would not cease:They’re not going to stop. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not going to stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. They’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.Note how Harris called the Antifa and Black Lives Matter-orchestrated violence a “movement.” Note her threats that the turmoil would not stop and “should not” stop. Note her warning: “beware.” Note how she shamelessly linked the left-wing protests to the 2020 Election Day, emphasizing their assumed political utility.Back to the basementIn 2020, the left found old Joe Biden from Scranton a useful “moderate” and “unifying” veneer for a hard-core, Obama third-term agenda — thanks to Biden’s long Senate career and his phony working-man schtick. But Harris was first a Bay Area leftist, second a California hard-core progressive, and third a failed 2020 primary candidate who tried to vie with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic socialist base — on the assumption that she had a harder-left record in the Senate than Sanders himself.So the 2024 Harris campaign may again emulate the 2020 formula of keeping the gaffe-prone, cognitively challenged candidate in the basement. Like Biden, Harris’ deer-in-the-headlights moments are not sporadic but characteristic. The only remedy is as much seclusion from the public as possible. And her handlers may again count on the 2020 revolutionary changes in state ballot laws to ensure that nearly 70% of voters do not cast ballots on Election Day.But in 2024 they will not be able again to veneer the hard-core left-wing Harris and repackage her as a middle-class centrist. There was never any such thing as good ol’ moderate Kamala from Berkeley.Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared on X (formerly Twitter).

If her record is any indication, her presidency would shackle America with unprecedented levels of “green” bureaucracy and fiscal irresponsibility.

This dramatic turn toward lawlessness in American schools post-pandemic is perhaps the most consequential story in education that receives little to no coverage.

On a comeback kid; the Secret Service; race and Election 2024; so-called workers’ parties; William Calley; and more.

Plus: Evan Gershkovich and Vladimir Kara-Murza are released in prisoner swap with Russia.

Jeanne Herry’s Restorative Justice masterpiece humanizes our collective unconscious.