A Very Special Sunday Morning Links

by | Jan 5, 2020 | Daily Links | 379 comments

This morning, I am abandoning my usual format because there’s something that I need to announce. I spent some legal research time before coming to this decision, and I think we can legally do this. Here’s what I found out:

The US federal age of consent is 16.

The age of consent here in Arizona is 16.

And the age of consent in Sweden is 16.

Greta Thunberg is 17.

So this brings me to the point: we have discussed the use of the Glibertarian Foundation’s funds for paying our hosting fees and charitable donations to organizations like the Institute for Justice. We have found a better use.

I am hereby offering $10,000 to fuck Greta Thunberg in the ass. Ten. Thousand. Dollars. Cash. If she would prefer a donation to the Greenpeace or some other NGO in lieu of direct payment to her, that would be fine, but I am willing to pony up the cash to her directly.

In the ass. Ten. Thousand. Dollars.

 

Now on to the news. We’ll inform you as soon as we hear from Greta’s handlers parents. And don’t try this shit, that $10,000 isn’t paid until after I have taken her childhood from her.

 

Satan just appeared next to Brady to collect.

 

Not even our libraries will be spared because of Trump’s recklessness.

 

“Those grapes were probably sour, anyway.” Never change, NYT, never change.

 

Inspector Clouseau is on the case.

 

To Protect and Serve.

 

I like the way this guy thinks.

 

There really was only one choice for Old Guy Music today.

 

OK, the announcement is made, the offer is out there. It’s in your court, Greta. $10,000 can go a long way toward healing the Earth. You do want to heal the Earth, right?

 

 

 

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

379 Comments

  1. Ted S.

    I like the way this guy thinks.

    Why should there be exclusion zones anyway?

    • JD is Unemployed

      Marijuana to Jesus is as garlic to vampires?

      • Count Potato

        Not at all.

      • Ted S.

        Let’s ask Pie.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      I am listening to Thaddeus Russel’s Renegade History and he says taverns and pubs next to churches was pretty common preRevolution. Most people got a drink before and after

      • MikeS

        Wunderbar!

      • Fourscore

        So like AA meetings…

      • Lackadaisical

        Why do you think they’re held in Church basements?

      • Gender Traitor

        The Asian subtitles are a nice touch. Anyone recognize which language that is?

      • Tejicano

        Japanese – not even a question

      • Rhywun

        Japanese

      • Sensei

        My Japanese education efforts her on Glbertarians still has long way to go apparently.

      • Gender Traitor

        Moje, apropos of nothing but classic musical theater, that sent me looking for my personal favorite, R&H’s Cinderella, and I found this YT of the long-unavailable kinescope of the whole ORIGINAL live TV production with Julie Andrews! Squeeeee!!! /fangrrrl

      • Mojeaux

        I had to stop when she said My Fair Lady was a Cinderella story. Only by secondary intent, honey.

        I will watch it all later, I promise.

        Meantime, here is my personal definitive Cinderella.

        And for fun, because we are talking about fairy tale musicals on TV…

      • Mojeaux

        I probably shouldn’t call Julie Andrews “honey.” Totally disrespectful.

      • Gender Traitor

        my personal definitive Cinderella.

        Hmmm…never saw that one, but will have to check out. Good musical pedigree per this trailer!

        And for fun

        Fun indeed! Have seen on stage and TV – possibly my favorite Sondheim.

      • CPRM

        In Wisconsin the bars are still right across the street from the church in most small towns, having been the first two buildings built.

      • Count Potato

        Priorities.

  2. Ted S.

    Satan just appeared next to Brady to collect.

    Now if Pete Carroll could be next.

    • juris imprudent

      If KC wins thru to the Super Bowl and wins that, it means Satan had to find a new sucker.

  3. Ted S.

    “Those grapes were probably sour, anyway.”

    He probably learned it from his taxi driver.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    But security experts warn that what’s being passed off as prank-call mischief is really Russian misinformation meant to undermine the United States.

    Of course they do.

    OMWC- Give her a “Fuck Off, Slaver” tramp stamp with a magic marker, while you’re there.

    • Ted S.

      Greta or Maxine?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      We should nuke Omsk in response. It’s the only appropriate answer.

    • Old Man With Candy

      “When I’m done with you, you ain’t gonna shit right for a week.”

  5. The Late P Brooks

    Whether the pair are agents of the Russian government, the kind of ruse they pulled on Ms Waters can accomplish two goals for Russia, according to Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the 2018 book, Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President.

    “The first [goal] is adding info. to a political dialogue in which discrediting one side is useful to Russia,” Ms Jamieson told The Post by phone. “The second is being able to make the argument to the rest of the world that US leaders are easily duped. Putin’s interests are served when US leaders are made to look foolish in the eyes of the world.”

    Stop it. You’re killing me.

    • Ted S.

      If somebody pranks a TEAM RED politician, it’s proof that the person is stupid and shouldn’t have power. If somebody pranks a TEAM BLUE politician, it’s OMG RUSSIAN COLLUSION OUR DEMOCRACY IS AT STAKE!!!111!!!

    • Tulip

      Yes, yes, it’s all a Russian plot.

    • Count Potato

      That’s just retarded.

      • WTF

        Well, consider the source.

    • WTF

      There is zero evidence that Trump was elected by the actions of Russian hackers and trolls.

    • Lackadaisical

      Putin’s interests are served when US leaders are made to look foolish in the eyes of the world.”

      Maybe the solution is to stop being stupid? Fucking Pols.

      • Rhywun

        Putin must be sick of all the #winning.

  6. JD is Unemployed

    Somewhat appropriate ballad for OMWC’s McAfee-level quest to negotiate sodomy with a teenager.

    • Ted S.

      I would have suggested this.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Best Beatle. I said it. Not for that, though. Ew.

      • JD is Unemployed

        All my favo(u)rite Beatles renditions are on the Exotic Beatles compilations, but most of those don’t appear to be uploaded youtube. Definitely worth checking out.

      • JD is Unemployed

        I think it was back in November there was a tangent about masturbation-themed songs. I think I remember most of them – I’ll add that to the list.

      • Sean

        I should have known bettter.

      • Ted S.

        You don’t mind not knowing what you’re heading for.

  7. PieInTheSky

    In the ass. Ten. Thousand. Dollars. – with or without lube?

    • Old Man With Candy

      Money is the best lubricant.

      • PieInTheSky

        close second to daddy issues I would say, but fair.

  8. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Between this and Mexican Sharpshooter’s beetle fucking a bumblebee up the ass or whatever the hell that was from yesterday I fear the site’s family friendly rating is going to be in jeopardy.

    • JD is Unemployed

      As a UK citizen it may be time to make a swift exit, because was pretty sure that just logging on here counts as a hate crime, but now I’m almost certain there’s some kind of obscenity charge that could be added to that.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Have y’all outlawed VPNs yet?

      • JD is Unemployed

        Probably but I am just not very good at that sort of thing and too miserly to pay a subscription fee for one that’s worth using. I do occasionally rev up one of those free ones (browser add-on) that just sends your browsing history to the ChiComs or something heinous like that, to get around all the GDPR nightmare of popups, spending 5 minutes clicking NO for every category of cookie, etc.

      • Tonio

        Proton mail offers a fairly good VPN. For like six bucks a month I get several email addresses plus VPN.

      • Count Potato

        That does sound like a good deal.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, it does, their free email service is great. Nord VPN has specials fairly regularly for three bucks a month or so if the email service isn’t needed but it sounds like JD doesn’t want to pay.

      • R C Dean

        Free VPN = trap.

        You aren’t their customer, so who is?

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Free VPN = “You are the product.”

      • Count Potato

        $6 != ‘free’

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Trump just ordered the assassination of possibly the dumbest man in Iran

    Due to the fact that Tom Friedman is not an Iranian, we can rate this claim as “somewhat plausible”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That article read like a pretty good argument for killing him.

      But you guys missed the bestest, most Friedmanesque part of the article:

      I write these lines while flying over New Zealand, where the smoke from forest fires 2,500 miles away over eastern Australia can be seen and felt. Mother Nature doesn’t know Suleimani’s name, but everyone in the Arab world is going to know her name. Because the Middle East, particularly Iran, is becoming an environmental disaster area — running out of water, with rising desertification and overpopulation. If governments there don’t stop fighting and come together to build resilience against climate change — rather than celebrating self-promoting military frauds who conquer failed states and make them fail even more — they’re all doomed.

      • WTF

        These idiots basically parody themselves.

      • Gustave Lytton

        If you can feel smoke inside the cabin at 35,000 ft from fires, you’ve got some other problems.

  10. PieInTheSky

    Question: did anyone calculate the carbon footprint of a war with Iran?

    • PieInTheSky

      There should be a formal Dune style assassins war where all politicians are fair game but not civilians.

    • Old Man With Candy

      It’s an easy calculation. Population of Iran is about 81MM. If we vaporize them all and assume 70kg as an average mass, that’s 472.5 billion moles of carbon.

      • PieInTheSky

        yes but the carbon they produce will be offset in a few years by them not consuming any more so win-win. Genocide is green.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I don’t agree with the killing but the hagiography is getting tiring. The man was a violent scumbag who served an autocratic regime and his writing poetry and being popular and effective doesn’t change that.

      • sloopyinca

        George W Bush?

      • Lackadaisical

        Nice.

      • MikeS

        John Wayne Gacy?

      • Agent Cooper

        Adam Lanza?

        Oh, I thought that said autistic.

      • Ted S.

        They’ve been doing it with Ernesto Guevara for over 50 years.

      • Tejicano

        Just to be pedantic – Please realize that his name was Ernesto Lynch. Guevara was his mother’s maiden name which he took up so he would sound more ethnic and less white. Up through medical school he had always been known by the surname “Lynch”.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Huh, I was unaware of that. Lynch is a far more apt name for good old Che.

      • Ted S.

        Wikipedia suggests his father was Ernesto Guevara Lynch and his mother was Celia de la Serna y Llosa.

      • sloopyinca

        So by normal hispanic naming, he should be called Ernesto Guevara de la Serna.

        Or asshole.

      • Tejicano

        Regardless, his last name was Lynch. That was the name of his Irish paternal grandfather. Most Spanish language speakers do adopt both paternal and maternal surnames but when the question comes up about which single surname to use it is the paternal name.

        I have seen the Wiki page and they do refer to him as “Guevara” but I believe that is because he chose that name when he became “Che”. I don’t respect his wishes and push for others to forget them as well.

      • Ted S.

        I thought the Spanish naming convention was that if one were Ernesto Guevara Lynch, that meant your father was named Guevara and your mother Lynch, which would have made Lynch the paternal grandmother.

      • Ted S.

        In any case, look at the treatment this nasty Ernie gets versus the other nasty Ernie, Ernie Röhm.

      • Count Potato

        Argentina isn’t Spain. They usually just go the father’s last name.

  11. Scruffy Nerfherder

    NOTE TO OUR FRIENDLY NSA/FBI PARALLEL RECONSTRUCTION TEAM

    I do not endorse sodomizing Great Thunberg

    • Lackadaisical

      +1, especially not the paying for it part…

      • Mad Scientist

        This. If anything, Greta should be paying us.

  12. Animal

    I am hereby offering $10,000 to fuck Greta Thunberg in the ass.

    STEVE SMITH OFFER TWENTY THOUSAND! WILL PAY IN PINE CONES.

    • Fourscore

      Greta’s lawyer wants to know if there is a menu? Hand job? Oral? Column A? B?

      • Animal

        When you dine at the devil’s table, you don’t get to choose the menu.

    • WTF

      I find it hard to believe that Iran could actually be that stupid knowing that Trump doesn’t bluff, but who knows?

      • Sean

        They’re not used to a man being in the Whitehouse.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I think Russia will reign them in if they go too far off the rails. Putin doesn’t want to see their efforts in Syria sabotaged by this bullshit.

      • creech

        By “them” you obviously mean Putin’s puppets in Washington: Trump, Gabbard, Paul, Ivanka, Junior, etc. etc.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    I write these lines while flying over New Zealand, where the smoke from forest fires 2,500 miles away over eastern Australia can be seen and felt.

    REPENT, SINNERS.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That’s a penning an anti-internal combustion engine screed from the backseat of your Hummer limo lack of self-awareness.

    • R C Dean

      Felt? I doubt that.

      Seen 2500 miles away? Maybe, but I’d like confirmation from someone who isn’t deranged.

      • MikeS

        He felt a tingle in his loins.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    And what have the NYT readers to say?

    MarikaS
    Palm Beach Gardens, FLJan. 4
    Times Pick

    Most chilling part was the last paragraph. If we think the flood of refugees are destabilizing governments in Europe now, imagine what this could like when water becomes more precious than oil. Unfortunately, we have little boys with dangerous toys and no regard for their oaths of office or the Constitution, making unilateral decisions that will affect the whole world, possibly very soon.

    Water more precious than oil.

    Little boys with dangerous toys.

    Zing!

    • R C Dean

      Get back to me when water is more than a dollar a gallon.

  15. Scruffy Nerfherder

    NYT Comment Picks

    I’ve liked almost every Iranian I’ve ever met.

    Smart and cultured, friendly and engaging.
    Good people.

    The theocracy under which they have suffered is the problem. Zealots who hide behind religion so they can lord over others, moralize, persecute and, above all, line their pockets.

    And maintain power.

    Just like religious charlatans everywhere.
    The US included.

    The good people of Iran need our wise support in order to weaken the regime.
    That requires a smart, diplomatic long game with many approaches and moving parts.

    Smart?
    Diplomatic?

    Not Trump and his crude gang.

    Not by any stretch.

    • WTF

      Yeah, he should send them pallets of cash like Obama, that was working out really well!

    • Tonio

      “our wise support”

      LOL

      Also, has that person been to Iran and is talking about actual Iranians? Because a lot of the Iranians here are either US Citizens who moved here to escape the strictures of the regime.

      • Ted S.

        Either that or what?

      • Tonio

        Oh, FFS. I was going to point to legal, non-citizen Iranian immigrants here for the same reason, but left that “either” in.

        You should really use your powers productively. Will you proofread stuff for me?

      • Ted S.

        How much are you paying?

      • Tonio

        Nobody at Glibs gets paid for anything, Ted. You’d have the satisfaction of knowing you helped make the site better by making the content more err0r-free.

    • LJW

      “I’ve liked almost every Iranian I’ve ever met”

      Before making stupid comments always remember to virtue signal first.

      • MikeS

        +1 and I’m friends with a black guy at work.

  16. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Would someone tell me the goal for our ME policy? Please?

    • WTF

      Goal?! What are you, some kind of communist?!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I WANT A FIVE YEAR PLAN!

      • Sean

        Parking lot?

        New Disney theme park?

      • Tonio

        Okay Scruffster, here you go: We will continue to derp around there for another five years at the cost of millions (billions) of dollars, and the lives of a number of US servicemembers, with no tangible results. Repeat as necessary.

    • Donation Not Taxation

      “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

      “The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs leads U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa region through carefully administered diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance that advances the interests, safety, and economic prosperity of the American people. In cooperation with regional partners, we promote democratic values and foster a free, peaceful, and prosperous Middle East and North Africa. The Bureau uses diplomatic tools and public engagement to end conflict, highlight the value of education, and enhance respect for democratic institutions, including freedom of the press, human rights, religious liberty, and the rule of law. The United States will continue to work closely with its allies and partners in the region to further these mutual interests and counter extremist ideologies that seek to destabilize the region.”

      https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-political-affairs/bureau-of-near-eastern-affairs/

      • Fourscore

        “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran”

      • Donation Not Taxation

        One general not in Iran at the time counts as bombing Iran?

    • JD is Unemployed

      A McDonalds in Tahrir Square?

      • Rhywun

        A chicken in every pot.

    • mrfamous

      To help maintain our place as the world’s reserve currency. As long as the petroligarchies are accepting dollars for their oil, we figure we can continue to crank the printing presses more or less indefinitely. Sure the bill will eventually come due one day, but those responsible will be long gone.

      We could cut spending, get out of the war making business altogether and get a hold on our budget, but what fun is that?

  17. Count Potato

    “Your Netflix binge-watching makes climate change worse, say experts. The emissions generated by watching 30 minutes of Netflix is the same as driving almost 4 miles”

    https://twitter.com/bigthink/status/1213315191338938368

    These people want to bring back the stone age, but without fire.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That is some seriously suspect analysis right there.

    • Tonio

      Feh. Amateurs. They should also be nattering on about the carbon footprint for the production itself. Even LED lighting sucks some major wattage at the levels of illumination preferred by moviemakers, so much so that they bring their own (big ass) generators for location shoots.

    • Tulip

      We’re all sinners and must repent, or something.

  18. Tonio

    Great illo. Is that original?

    Although Ms. Thunberg is over the legal age of consent for the act itself; the paying her for it part introduces certain legal complications. I would worry about a Mann Act prosecution, even if she arranges her own transportation; encouraging could be construed as “transporting.” Since you are paying it is technically prostitution, so I’d recommend doing this in Nevada where that sort of thing is legal; but I believe the service providers have to be eighteen. Alternately, California but you’d have to record the act so it becomes filmmaking and she is therefore a porn actress; but again the age would be a problem.

    But I wish you the very best in this. It is a grand vision for a noble project which would enrich us all.

    • sloopyinca

      It’s not illegal if he films it with her consent for distribution.

      Think outside the box, people.

      • Tejicano

        “…outside the box…”

        I thought that was what he was proposing.

        I haz confuz

      • Tonio

        But, as a minor she may not legally be able to give consent.

      • sloopyinca

        I retract my proposal of filming porn after consultation with my legal staff.

    • JD is Unemployed

      What about any arcane local ordinances about sodomy?

      • Tonio

        Still on the books, bun unenforceable.

      • Sean

        “bun unenforceable.”

        ?

      • JD is Unemployed

        Sublimely freudian.

      • Tonio

        At least it wasn’t Ted S. who caught that…

      • Donation Not Taxation

        “Still on the books” is always enforceable when the defendant is someone sufficiently disliked by the PTBs.

      • JD is Unemployed

        This is true – even when such things hit a legal (and ultimately expensive) dead end in the courts, should they be granted appeal, they are a rich mine of “but sodomy”, or “but Russia”, for years to come.

    • creech

      What happened to “don’t stick it in crazy?”

    • Ted S.

      Perhaps eggs aren’t the dietary problem the diet nazis claimed?

      • Tejicano

        Blood serum cholesterol levels cause heart disease like smoke causes fire. If there is a causal vector there it’s probably in the other direction.

  19. Donation Not Taxation

    If then-President Barack Who’s Sane Obama had blamed and killed Qasem Soleimani for Benghazi instead of having Nakoula Basseley Nakoula arrested, how similar would the reactions be from The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, NBC, etc. on the left and Breitbart, Fox, Rush, etc. on the right to the reactions we have gotten from them to the death of Qasem Soleimani?

    • C. Anacreon

      Mike, I thought you called him Block Insane Yomamma?

    • Agent Cooper

      Sorry, we were looking for BLOCK INSANE YO MAMMA. No points awarded.

  20. R C Dean

    Just looking at pix of Greta, she doesn’t look 17. Not even close. I would guess more like 13. I’ve heard she’s on the spectrum somewhere, but does she have some other condition?

    Regardless, I just can’t be mad at her. Her parents and misc. others I would shed no tears for if they took a one way helicopter ride, though.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      To my understanding she often goes long periods of time without eating. In a TEDx she did say she is on the spectrum and claims to have “selective mutism”. Effectively saying she physically doesn’t speak unless she thinks it is absolutely imperative to do so.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Too bad her mutism couldn’t drop the selective part.

  21. Shirley Knott

    Huh — an honest politician?

    • PieInTheSky

      I don’t believe he will do his best.

      • Gender Traitor

        The picture on the billboard may show him at his best.

    • sloopyinca

      Just to make sure I have this right: he spends this money on the campaign and withdraws at the last minute. Fine. But how else does he spend the rest of the $30m in a month and end up with nothing to show for it to get the real inheritance?
      Is he gonna pay for his local rugby team to play the All Blacks?

      • sloopyinca

        ::sigh::

        I guess Richard Pryor really is dead.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a car. You drive it.

    Now, Chrysler is invoking the Airflow again with the 2020 Airflow Vision concept. Not so much a direct preview of Chryslers to come, the Airflow Vision is designed to show off the kind of work Fiat Chrysler is putting into the user experience of drivers and passengers, which makes a lot of sense at CES, the show where automakers have long attempted to define their relationship with the consumer electronics field.

    In this case, Fiat Crysler is particularly interested in exploring the way vehicle occupants interact with the media and information suite that dominates the dash of most cars:

    Inside, UX plays a prominent role and is designed to be a captivating experience using multi-layered, high-contrast graphics and thoughtful details that provide a clean, sophisticated appearance. Built on the principles of depth, hierarchy, consistency and legibility, the user will be able to see and experience the interface in a way that is safe, easy to use and understand.

    Using a menu-based format, screens can be personalized, simplified and grouped to individual needs and interests. Offering multiple display screens, the user can access needed information and determine how it’s displayed. Information on the screens can be shared with all passengers by swiping, allowing each passenger to participate in the experience. Customization and personalization are key, whether driving or acting as a co-pilot.

    First thing we do, we kill all the automotive designers.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Built on the principles of depth, hierarchy, consistency and legibility, the user will be able to see and experience the interface in a way that is safe, easy to use and understand.

      Chrysler messages:

      CHECK ENGINE

      SERVICE NEEDED

      YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IS FUCKED

      • JD is Unemployed

        Yup. It’s called “the money light” for a reason.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I don’t care what it looks like, steer clear of anything with Fiat in the corporate name.

      • Mad Scientist

        Chrysler is even worse. The two combined…. ::shudders::

    • R C Dean

      They are so constrained by regulations, the consumer electronics/infotainment system is about all they can compete on.

    • Agent Cooper

      All cars are basically the same, so I can’t totally fault them for being bored.

      • Mojeaux

        Damned laws of aerodynamics.

  23. JD is Unemployed

    My (unsolicited) opinion, just for the record:

    The socon in me has a sad about what it sees as a cynical and destructive, in taking joy in unceremoniosly (unless there will be a ceremony?) taking a young girl’s innocence for the purposes of trite amusement and also understands that, as an autistic seventeen year old girl, Greta has not fully realised the person she is/could be, and what she ultimately finds important. I did/said a lot of stupid things when I was seventeen, and that was without a bunch of watermelon lobbyists pulling my strings (although I partly blame my parents’ penchant for the Guardian/Observer). I strongly, and absolutely defend the right for consenting adults to enter into private negotiations and agreements, financial or otherwise, and strongly and absolutely defend the natural right to freedom of expression and exchange of ideas. Therefore, the opinion I offer is worthless, but no more worthless than it otherwise would be. I guess you could say, in the modern parlance, that I’m “jus’ sayin”. Of course I’m not denying Greta’s agency – but I want to extend, in good faith, some benefit of the doubt, to her, and just disagree with the ideological muckspreader on which she is the mascot, taped to the grill, or bobbling about on the dash, as it rolls along flinging it’s foul payload all over the place.

    If Greta is DTF, though, best of luck. I just won’t be particularly interested in seeing any photographic of the deed itself.

    I’ll see myself out/fuck off my own Tulpa.

    • sloopyinca

      and just disagree with the ideological muckspreader on which she is the mascot, taped to the grill, or bobbling about on the dash, as it rolls along flinging it’s foul payload all over the place.

      I’m confused. I thought OMWC was the one who would be flinging his foul payload all over the place.

      • Gender Traitor

        I was REALLY confused – I thought he was offering to pay one of you guys $10K to do it.

      • Tonio

        I don’t think I’m his sort, though for $10K I’d dress as her. Sorry, OMWC, the body hair stays; non-negotiable.

      • Gender Traitor

        To clarify, I meant “pay one of you guys $10K to do it to Greta.” Which is not to say that your idea isn’t another viable option.

      • Tonio

        I know. I was making a little joke to lighten the mood.

      • Chafed

        This is the out of the box thinking we need.

    • Tonio

      We all know this is never going to happen so is therefore effectively a joke.

      Also, you don’t know that she is actually innocent in that way. She might be a big fan already.

      • JD is Unemployed

        No shit, but that doesn’t preclude me from personally finding it to be in poor taste anyway, for reasons given above.

      • The Hyperbole

        I with you JD, so you may want to rethink your position.

      • JD is Unemployed

        No understando, sorry. Is there an injoke about always disagreeing with you?

      • Ted S.

        Hyperbole, not Mojeaux, is the real worst.

      • Mojeaux

        Hyperbole and I are in the back, sitting together, pointing, mocking, and heckling.

      • The Hyperbole

        Yes, as hard as it is to believe some people here seem to think that I am wrong on any number of issues even though I am absolutely correct on everything.

      • Mojeaux

        I agree with you more often than not. Except when I don’t understand what you’re saying. Which happens a lot.

      • The Hyperbole

        Because deep and esoteric or garbled and nonsensical? either way I’m taking it as a compliment.

      • Mojeaux

        *serious on

        Sometimes I don’t understand the opposing point you’re making or why it differs from what others are saying.

        It appears to me often you are in violent agreement but you and your interlocutor are talking past each other.

        *serious off

        Deep and garbled.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, hell. I’m agreeing with Hype.

        I’m so confused.

      • MikeS

        #metoo

      • straffinrun

        The joke is soooo far over the line that it’s not really over the line? Honestly, can’t make up me mind.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The line is well past the event horizon now.

      • Agent Cooper

        It’s like the vomit scene in Team America. It’s funny, then goes on and it’s not really that funny, it’s kind of a total turn-off, but then it keeps going and comes right back around to funny?

      • MikeS

        See also: Family Guy syrup of ipecac scene.

    • Mojeaux

      You people actually read the post? Do what now? Am I in the right place?

      *reads post*

      Oh. Yes, I’m in the right place.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m lost as to what they’re talking about.

        Don’t enlighten me

      • Mojeaux

        I won’t. Repeating it would put me on a list.

  24. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Progressives are writing laws aimed at banning dollar stores:

    https://youtu.be/l0e0j10upSQ

    Yes, it’s yet another YouTube talking head but this guy’s better than most.

    • Tonio

      I’ve never understood that. The good thing is that this makes it clear that they hate poor people and anything which makes their life a little better.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Poor people and all things associated with them are icky.

      • PieInTheSky

        you don’t want poor people to be helped by capitalism, perish the though.

    • CPRM

      Calling Dollar General a dollar store is really misunderstanding being poor.

      • Fourscore

        …and being literate. Dollars Store would be more accurate

  25. The Late P Brooks

    I don’t care what it looks like, steer clear of anything with Fiat in the corporate name.

    A long time ago, I had a friend who owned a Fiat 131. It was a horrible piece of shit, but it made a sweet engine noise. Sounded almost as good as an Alfa.

    • JD is Unemployed

      They are very “cool”, but the sort of car I would only want to enjoy vicariously through someone else’s ownership.

    • Tejicano

      Fiat = “Fix It Again Tony”

  26. PieInTheSky

    UBI distributes purchasing power back to left-behind rural and post-industrial communities. It’s a civic benefit, not an entitlement program. It might not be so far off from conservatism.

    https://twitter.com/amconmag/status/1213505369386946560

    • Lackadaisical

      It might not be so far off from conservatism.

      Not far off from conservatism as practiced? I think I agree.

    • Donation Not Taxation

      If UBI is paid for by voluntary money, then we can consider whether or not to have government-run Universal Basic Income. Replace taxes and the kind of borrowing to be repaid by taxes with voluntary money.

      It is one thing to have opt-in/opt-out regulations such as apply to (but not limited to) selling to government under government contracts, being a government employee, or taking government handouts. Don’t want to submit to those regulations? Don’t do the whatever with government. Regulations that are promulgated without going through any elected persons that are de facto laws are different and should be abolished.

      Admittedly oversimplifying, there are four kinds of the kinds of laws passed by elected persons: punishable offenses (a broader category than crimes) with identifiable victim(s) (example: assault), offenses against government (examples: perjury, vandalizing firehouses), taxes, and punishable offenses without identifiable victim(s) (example: occupational licenses). As a general but not absolute rule, punishable offenses without identifiable victim(s) should be legalized.

      Also, the United States of America has a constitution that says certain levels are government are supposed to have power to pass laws over X. It is constitutional (even if Glibs say not libertarian) for states to set a minimum legal age for vaping (‘laboratories of democracy’). It is unconstitutional for the no-longer-federal government to do so (‘one size fits all’), but it appears that they have. The Constitution of the United States of America also forbids certain laws, but that is also ignored (example: 2A).

  27. straffinrun

    This has been going on for hours and hours. It’s mesmerizing.

    • JD is Unemployed

      Warning – RT live feed – if clicked upon will be added to the mounting dossier of “evidence” that we are all Russian operatives.

      There is literally nothing the US can do that won’t make at least 50% of the people in the region hate them with a passion. Regime building is a garbage pipe dream. These people will just keep voting for the wrong despots, the regimes are doomed and corrupt from the start, and the US and it’s allies will just have to keep going back and hitting reset. Just leave it alone and hoe your own row, hawks.

      • straffinrun

        True. They’re all probably crisis actors.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        RT’s actually just fine as long as you realize their angle.

      • JD is Unemployed

        That seems to be something that a lot of progressives (but some cons, too) don’t give any credence to anymore; that someone watching or reading something from X source might actually be fully aware of it’s biases and read accordingly. It’s all “this is propaganda and is brainwashing people to vote for Orange Man”, or “literally causing people to vape tide pods”, or whatever.

      • Tejicano

        “Just leave it alone and hoe your own row, hawks.”

        Even before I retired from the Army reserves I never felt it my place to say much about what “we” should be doing over there. I believe that the only people who should say we need to do something there are the ones who actually would be carrying arms in that area. My unit would only have been mobilized had the NORKs or ChiComs gotten out of hand in northeast Asia so it didn’t seem like my place to speak. I don’t know why this idea seems so unusual.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Top. Men. gonna Top. Men.

    • sloopyinca

      Jesus, can’t that dude clear his throat?

  28. robc

    I fing this post in poor taste, which is saying something.

    • straffinrun

      I’m not sure how to react. As long as it cleared the lawyers…

    • Ted S.

      I don’t fing it at all.

      • straffinrun

        He forgot the “er” at the end. Cut him some slack.

    • Ted S.

      For what it’s worth, though, OMWC seems intent on making certain Lord Humongous stays driven off.

      • robc

        That was my thought. It isnt driving me off, but I can see LH’s point.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    But, as a minor she may not legally be able to give consent.

    She’s a helpless plaything of the gods.

    • Fourscore

      If you wanna run with the big dogs you gotta learn to piss in the tall weeds.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    UBI distributes purchasing power back to left-behind rural and post-industrial communities. It’s a civic benefit, not an entitlement program. It might not be so far off from conservatism.

    As we all know, the sort of feckless rural left-behinders this assistance is targetted toward are incapable of any sort of self-help. Not like the urbane, innovative geniuses on the coasts.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The UBI is actually a reasonable and cheaper alternative to the welfare state as it stands now but we all know it wouldn’t end there.

      • Mojeaux

        No. Besides the fact that current welfare recipients would still be allowed to collect food stamps, housing, and whatever bennies, there would be inflation. Perhaps not rampant, but prices would go up noticeably.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Question for JD:

    Which is likely to be worse, in the eyes of UK overlords?

    a) This post about engaging in sex with a famous climate activist

    b) Posts discussing the utility and effectiveness of various firearms and ammo

    • Tejicano

      I’m afraid your comment just spun the needle off the “unwokeness” monitor gauge so there is no way to measure even the relative difference between the two.

    • JD is Unemployed

      It’s really hard to tell. It depends on the zeitgeist, I suppose. As far as I know, there isn’t currently anything precluding anyone from reading about or discussing firearms, although I think it would be used as context by the prosecution if other charges were brough, to demonstrate that the defendent is a risk of some sort. The stuff about Greta could certainly be considered “hate speech” on grounds of (and here I am guessing) misogyny, threats of sexual violence, etc. As far as I understand, the CPS and the judiciary (at least at lower levels) tend to ignore actual context and instead primarily consider things in political and “common good” contexts, i.e. there seems to be a lot of leeway for judicial activism, and sending a message about the sort of rightthink that happens to be politically popular. Of course the irony is that these are not elected officials, seeking to maximise their conviction rates for political purposes, but from a layman’s perspective (and please be aware I may be talking out my ass), it seems as though politics plays a big part.

      • Tejicano

        So, basically what I said.

      • Mojeaux

        threats of sexual violence

        So how’s about them Rotherham fellas?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Condemning them would be culturally insensitive not to mention those working class slags probably had it coming anyway.

      • Mojeaux

        How do you go from being the world’s powerhouse for several hundred years to being afraid of words flung by invaders in your own country raping your little girls?

        I has a sad for USA’s Mama.

      • JD is Unemployed

        I’d certainly like to think that the system learned it’s lesson re the Rotherham rape gang, but unfortunately that wisdom came at far too high a price, paid for by the young girls who were raped, and ultimately I don’t think much has changed because the fear of being tarred with the discrimination brush is still stronger than the fear of being taken to task for refusing to do their job? I don’t know too much about who got shuffled around from one part of the bureacratic labyrinth to another in order to show that “something had been done”, “measures have been taken”, etc, but it did seem to be as much about incompetence and lack of communication as it was about selective blindness or fear of discrimination accusations.

      • JD is Unemployed

        ps – we are also talking about a system and that a system like that could “learn” is a ridiculous concept. Those with influence have just learned new contingencies for shifting the blame around and working the bureacracy to avoid accountability.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    The UBI is actually a reasonable and cheaper alternative to the welfare state as it stands now but we all know it wouldn’t end there.

    As if we would ever put the people who administer the maternalist welfare apparatus out of work, in the name of efficiency (economic or otherwise).

    That’s just silly.

    • PieInTheSky

      Ban buses?

    • Count Potato

      “Officials say that multiple vehicles, including a tour bus, two tractor-trailers and a passenger vehicle, were involved in the crash.”

      Yikes!

    • Agent Cooper

      My son is going to NYC from Columbus in March for a Performing Arts trip. They will be taking 1-80 and not the stupid turnpike. But my wife is still now all stressed out.

  33. Shpip

    From the sidebar of the Beeb article: Georges Duboeuf has passed.

    I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the wine he promoted (in fact, a cynical side of me would say that Duboeuf was to wine what Don Kirshner was to music or E. L. James was to literature), but the man’s vision and tireless effort can’t be denied. And if some folks started drinking wine with Beaujolais Nouveau and became life-long wine drinkers… so much the better.

    • Old Man With Candy

      He was the guy who, through cultured yeast choices, taught the world that Beaujolais smells like bananas.

    • Agent Cooper

      Stop trying to raise the level of discourse on this post! ; )

  34. PieInTheSky

    those stupid Yang blue hats are spreading on twatter

    • JD is Unemployed

      A Bernie Bro, while scolding one of his friends for speaking positively about Yang, in the same breath delivering a devastating “you only like her because she’s pretty/celebrity crush trash” blow to his lack of disparagement for Tulsi, too. Perhaps that’s become a reflex among the Red Bernie Faction, much like the general distaste for Her before she was the last hope against #OrangeHitler.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    All out war with that existential threat, Iran.

    Can we survive?

    • DEG

      I wonder how many are real and not photoshopped.

  36. Q Continuum

    RE: Sodomizing Greta.

    I’ll take one for the team.

  37. Q Continuum

    Did the powers that be all of a sudden decree that the “porn question” needs to be addressed?

    https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/15/a-science-based-case-for-ending-the-porn-epidemic/

    This popped up on some news aggregator (Drudge? I don’t remember) shortly after I read MS’s beer review yesterday. I guess when the economy is going gangbusters and there’s (relative) peace the chattering classes need some moral panic to obsess over.

    TW: Wall o’ text.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s a nice reminder that the left wing authoritarians and the right wing authoritarians are just two sides of the same coin. If an 18 year old wants to enjoy a cigarette after jerking it to Anal Angels 4 it’s nobody’s business but his.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Ugh, the comments over there are discouraging.

      • Q Continuum

        Anal Angels 4 was good but it’s no Latin Street Hookers 7.

      • Rebel Scum

        Hope there’s a sequel. That one left a lot of loose ends.

    • Fourscore

      At election time every candidate is an evangelical/social scientist/scientist and knows what’s best for you and you and you and me. I’m old, I’m tired and I won’t have to put up with it much longer. Hell/hand basket…

      • Mojeaux

        They don’t even have good intentions. They SAY they do, but we know. *taps temple*

    • Tonio

      Certain socons, having been duly embarrassed by having been called out on their support for Trump who exemplifies many of the things they claim to be against, are looking for something they can do to try to reclaim some sort moral authority. Perhaps they hope to call in a favor from the President in exchange for their silence on his morality.

      I really don’t see this going anywhere, but will be annoying.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s just amazing how people can’t grasp the fact that empowering the state to go after porn in a meaningful way can and would be eventually turned against one of their causes with devastating results. A brain damaged chimpanzee could recognize that fact.

    • Agent Cooper

      Greta is surely a treasure.

      A real sunken chest.

  38. DEG

    I am hereby offering $10,000 to fuck Greta Thunberg in the ass. Ten. Thousand. Dollars. Cash. If she would prefer a donation to the Greenpeace or some other NGO in lieu of direct payment to her, that would be fine, but I am willing to pony up the cash to her directly.

    Who was the guy that wanted to fuck Dora the Explorer in the ass? Sorry OWMC, he had better taste.

      • DEG

        I gotta say no.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Thus my comment about old Hit and Runners recognizing the joke.

    • CPRM

      More meandering than the the northern Mississippi.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Elizabeth Warren is on Meet the Press (it’s back!). She is providing us with her own special brand of nuanced, thoughtful analysis. It’s all just a ploy to divert attention from impeachment.

    Bad Orange Warmonger is bad.

    It’s been going on for decades,and it’s all Trump’s fault.

    • creech

      Was she asked what her views were when Obama helped take out Libya with no prior notice to Congress? I’m betting “no.”

  40. DEG

    But the story of the day was Brady, who was unable to pull off yet another miracle. His final pass in the dying seconds was intercepted by former team mate Logan Ryan who breezed into the end zone to clinch a victory for the visitors.

    I don’t like American football, but the game was on at the bar I was hanging out at last night. I watched it. I thought Brady looked like he was going to cry in the final seconds of the game.

    Hackers claiming to be from Iran defaced the websites of Sierra Leone Commerical Bank and the US Federal Depository Library Program, placing a pro-Iranian messages and images on the sites.

    I’m surprised anyone noticed.

    A man named only as Nathan C stabbed a man to death and injured two people, before being shot dead by police.

    I guess he and his meenkey didn’t have a license.

    • Mojeaux

      Brady looked like he was going to cry in the final seconds of the game.

      He always looks like that when they’re losing. For reals.

      • Rebel Scum

        It’s the best.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Liz wants the people (of Iowa) to know how deeply concerned she is about teh farmhandz.

    • Ted S.

      So she wants to raise the cost of production?

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Setting prices and wages is the proper function of the American Presidency.

    • Rebel Scum

      But Trump is the fascist…

  43. Q Continuum

    PWNED by Monty Python.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/terry-gilliam-interview-harvey-weinstein-victims-metoo-race-a9269136.html

    ““I’m into diversity more than anybody,” he says, “but diversity in the way you think about the world, which means you can hate what I just said. That’s fine! No problem. I mean, you can believe whatever you want to believe, but fundamentalism always ends up being, ‘You have to attack other people who are not like you,’ and that’s what makes me crazy. Life is fantastic, it’s wonderful, it’s so complex. Enjoy it and play with it and have fun. That’s why I didn’t become a missionary. That was my plan. I was quite the little zealot when I was young, but when their God couldn’t take a joke, I thought, ‘This is stupid.’ Who would want to believe in a God that can’t laugh?””

    • Yusef in Space......

      God =A.A, Milne=Whinny the Pooh
      God= Xi Jinping= Whinny the Pooh
      Coincidence? I think not…..

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “It’s been so simplified is what I don’t like. When I announce that I’m a black lesbian in transition, people take offence at that. Why?”

      Because you’re not.

      “Why am I not? How are you saying that I’m not?”

      Are you?

      “You’ve judged me and decided that I was making a joke.”

      You can’t identify as black, though.

      “OK, here it is. Go on Google. Type in the name Gilliam. Watch what comes up.”

      What’s going to come up?

      “The majority are black people. So maybe I’m half black. I just don’t look it.”

      LOL. He does like to bait people.

    • CPRM

      Good read, although the author comes across as smug asshole.

      But at its best, Python was silly and whimsical, its more pointed satirical moments punching up, not down. At its worst, it missed the mark, objectifying women when it wasn’t depicting them as shrill and preposterous, and using racial slurs that would rightly horrify people today. Gilliam doesn’t see the difference.

      And through the whole thing Gilliam sounds like he might be a lurker.

      “I just love arguing. And if you’ve got a point, you should be able to argue your thing.”

      • Urthona

        I’m a big Gilliam fan, but yeah. He is.

      • MikeS

        Hyperbole is Terry Gilliam?!?!

  44. mexican sharpshooter

    Two previous investigations by the city of Mesa in late 2018 found that Neese had exhibited a repeated pattern of sexual harassment over several years, including sending unwarranted graphic texts and Facebook messages to subordinates that described masturbating, a pornographic drawing of three female officers, and fetishizing LGBTQ officers’ private relationships. He was initially removed from the SWAT team and was to assume a sergeant role on the patrol team after the findings of the first investigation in October 2018, but was instead demoted to patrol officer after another woman came forward and the city confirmed her claims.

    Did he have a tendency to kick in doors and give people a good whack with a nightstick?

    • Fourscore

      Well, he wasn’t sending warranted graphic texts so there’s that.
      What’s retirement pay for a veteran patrol officer?

    • creech

      Seems like a good candidate to earn the $10,000.

  45. Mojeaux

    8:30 start time for church, but I have a sick kid so I stayed home. Yes, she’s 16.5 and can stay home by herself. She still needs her mama. Especially on Sundays. Especially at 8:30. Especially during church.

  46. Rebel Scum

    If anyone knows about launching a missile into some guy…

    Buttigieg said, “I would not hesitate to use force if it is necessary to protect American lives, and the question is was it necessary and better than the alternative. It is not hard to believe that General Soleimani was in the middle of the campaign of violence. He was a walking campaign of violence, but when you are dealing with the Middle East, you to think about the next and the next and the next move. This is not checkers. I am not sure that any of us really believe that this president and the people around him, especially given that he has not even filled some of the key national security posts is really going through all of the consequences of what could happen next.”

    “I’d do it too, but Orange Man Bad.”

    • Urthona

      Wishy washy

  47. Rebel Scum

    America’s librarian in chief.

    Warren said, “I think that the question that we ought to focus on is why now? Why not a month ago, and why not a month from now? And the answer from the administration seems to be that they can’t keep their story straight on this.

    He wasn’t an easy target a month ago…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s probably the dumbest criticism yet.

    • CPRM

      He hadn’t tried to attack actual sovereign US soil a month ago. (I believe that’s what embassies are, right?)

      • Rebel Scum

        Grasping. At. Straws. It is owned by the United States government. It is therefor US territory. Likewise for other countries embassies where ever they are in the world.

      • Urthona

        I believe it was.

        I am also told he was actively planning other attacks on American soldiers.

        We cannot kill someone is actively attacking us?

        This action seems more morally justified than the assassination of Bin Laden.

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Or the timing relative to certain goings on at the US embassy in Iraq and President Donald J. Trump talking about Benghazi?

  48. Mojeaux

    I’ve been listening to Jordan Peterson’s lectures a lot lately (boy, does he hate Marxism) and one thing he talks about a lot is one’s capacity to acknowledge one’s capacity to perform evil. If you know you have the capacity to perform evil, you can curb that disposition within you. Generally, normal people would.

    But then you get to things like Naziism and “I was under orders.” He says he bets 99% [of his lecture hall’s population] would be right there with the concentration camp guards and torturers because of the human capacity for evil, especially in groups.

    Which makes me wonder about my hesitation in saying whatever opinion I hold as to sex, race, religion, that is not in line with SJW mores, which would make my life miserable now that the words have become the sticks and stones. (See: UK and Canadian hate speech laws.)

    Am I a coward for not saying some of the things I think (even here), believe, and feel? Am I wise and prudent? Does it even make a difference? What am I prepared to do for the sake of my children? Can I stand up for the right to say reprehensible things, even if I don’t say them? Again, does it matter if I do? Could I dare to be the 1% that stands up?

    I don’t think I’d like the real answer to that question. How far can I be pushed before I break and say NO no matter what? I have, at certain points of my life stood up and said NO when I had a lot to lose and I was scared to death, and it didn’t take much. But where is the crossing point for things like free speech when all someone has to say is “That doesn’t apply here because X is not the government”? And “You are not free from the consequences,” but the consequences are so vastly outré for the offense?

    I don’t like that abyss staring back at me.

    • Urthona

      When I was a kid I once told my parents that if they lived in the Deep South in the early 1800s I bet they would’ve owned slaves. And they were pissed.

      It’s not exactly fair though, in some ways.

      • Mojeaux

        You had to have money to do that. They’d have more likely been sharecroppers.

      • Urthona

        Well I think they pointed this out too.

    • Mojeaux

      To continue: Glibs are the Pure Libertarians(TM), it is known. But to what purpose? Wars will not end because to war is the nature of man. Restrictions upon private behavior deemed not only unhealthy but merely unseemly in Some People’s eyes will continue to grow unabated. Marriage will never be taken out of the realm of the state to be given over to the contract lawyers. you will be made to bake that fucking cake because LOL 4th Amendment LOL.

      Meantime, we watch our circuses and eat our bread because it seems silly to fight over plastic straws and bags, and a 17yo girl with people’s hands up her ass will be the face of a movement designed to enslave us—and it is working.

      One thing I learned from my Gma From Hell #1: You cannot fight a narcissist gaslighting you. You just look crazy.

      Trump won because he is immune to gaslighting and will call it out, no matter how petty he looks because petty is the only way it gets done. The gaslit will recognize the truth and be emboldened to speak up. The left hates Trump because he’s willing to scrap in the mud the left will not call mud. No, it’s Special Mud. CLEAN mud.

      I think I’m done.

      • Mojeaux

        And yes, I’m fixating on a straw (add plastic bags). That is the Form of the Destructor. It’s always something insignificant.

        Really done now.

      • Q Continuum

        Saul Alinsky was right in that one of the most powerful weapons anyone has is ridicule. Ridicule is effective against gaslighting and I think Trump is inspiring a new generation to laugh at and mock the Left rather than try to argue and reason.

        As much as I’d prefer reason to prevail, ridicule, mocking and bullying is more effective. The Left has done it for decades and their weapons must be turned against them if there’s any hope.

      • juris imprudent

        Hmm, yes, but.

        One of the things I most despise in the modern right is the willingness to do everything the left has done, with the justification “well it worked for them, why not for us”.

      • R C Dean

        If they are the only ones who bring guns to a knife fight, guess who wins?

      • Agent Cooper

        and a 17yo girl with people’s hands up her ass

        This post is dedicated to getting something else up her ass. Not that I agree with it … (yes, I know, it’s a joke)

    • Fourscore

      Its reasonable to assume the military would follow the orders of the commanders. I’m hoping that we would be willing to be set the example and accept the outcome of our beliefs, even at pain of death. I’m not sure I would, however.

      I learned a lot about even small town politics when not agreeing with the consensus (ie zoning laws).

    • creech

      “He says he bets 99% [of his lecture hall’s population] would be right there with the concentration camp guards and torturers because of the human capacity for evil, especially in groups.”
      I think the greater portion of the German, or Russian, or any other atrocity-performing military is only complying with orders because they don’t want to face the consequences of not obeying said order. What was the fate of the German camp guard who said “I refuse” when he was told for the first time to kill the Jewish prisoner?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s still an evil act, even if done out of self-preservation.

        Which I think is his point. Humans will do all sorts of things to each other in order to save their own skin (or social standing).

      • Mojeaux

        I explored this question in a book as related to Snowden and Dread Pirate Roberts.

        The baseline instinct is: “What is your price?”

        EVERYONE has a price.

      • Fourscore

        My Lai Massacre (Wiki)

        “The incident prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in November 1969. The incident increased to some extent[11] domestic opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War when the scope of killing and cover-up attempts were exposed.,strong> Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue the hiding civilians were shunned, and even denounced as traitors by several U.S. Congressmen, including Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Only after 30 years were they recognized and decorated, one posthumously, by the U.S. Army for shielding non-combatants from harm in a war zone.[12] Along with the No Gun Ri massacre in South Korea 18 years earlier, Mỹ Lai was one of the largest publicized massacres of civilians by U.S. forces in the 20th century.[13″

      • Mojeaux

        Three men out of how many? Is that better or worse than 1%?

      • Fourscore

        2 companies involved, 200-300 troops, maybe more.

        This guy was the investigator

        Colin Powell, then a 31-year-old Army major serving as an assistant chief of staff of operations for the Americal Division, was charged with investigating the letter, which did not specifically refer to Mỹ Lai, as Glen had limited knowledge of the events there. In his report, Powell wrote, “In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal Division soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent.” Powell’s handling of the assignment was later characterized by some observers as “whitewashing” the atrocities of Mỹ Lai.[74]

  49. Rebel Scum

    That is quite the hot take…

    Colin Kaepernick✔
    @Kaepernick7

    There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism.

    • juris imprudent

      People from the Caucasus – now brown? or black??? Obviously that sports journalism degree never encountered geography and/or history.

  50. Trigger Hippie

    *checks in for the first time in a couple days*

    Jesus Fucking Christ…

    *wanders off*

    • CPRM

      OMG, they can’t use media to indoctrinate kids, that’s OUR JOB!?!?!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dennis Prager is just an old-school Democrat, yet they talk about him like he’s Russell Kirk.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I also like the implicit admission that they think competition of ideas is a bad thing.

  51. Rebel Scum

    Word.

    Trump promised to maintain not only traditional faith in America but capitalist fiscal policy. “America was not built by religion-hating socialists. America was built by church-going, God-worshiping, freedom-loving patriots,” the president said.

  52. CPRM

    What I’m hoping for is Iraq to follow through and we just take our ball and go home. A guy can dream, right?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Can you imagine the pissing and moaning from the warhawks and the media if we left?

      • CPRM

        To be sure, it would be definitive proof that Putin is pulling the strings….But that’s the answer if we don’t leave either.

    • Urthona

      Wait. I thought we already left Iraq?

      • Fatty Bolger

        It didn’t stick.

      • MikeS

        Trump sent about 5,000 troops there about 4.5 years ago to fight ISIS

      • creech

        Yeah, I heard he was responsible for the troop buildup in Vietnam back in the day too. Also, he called out for volunteers when Fort Sumter was fired upon.

    • MikeS

      The majority of about 180 legislators present in Parliament voted in favor of the resolution. It was backed by most Shiite members of parliament, who hold a majority of seats. Many Sunni and Kurdish legislators did not show up for the session, apparently because they oppose abolishing the deal.

      I’m tempering my optimism.

    • juris imprudent

      The best part will be hearing the experts who tout the multi-agency consensus having to dispense with such pesky democratic notions in our client, er, strategic ally.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Peer into the abyss

    Biden has repeatedly suggested that, as president, he’d get members of both parties working together again to churn out legislation.

    Just thinking about bipartisan consensus makes my ass hurt.

    • chipping pioneer

      Exactly what legislation needs churning out so urgently?

      • CPRM

        The Butter Lobby is always knifing it’s way to the front of the breadline.

      • Rhywun

        Can’t you hear Americans’ cries for radical Change?!

      • Fourscore

        That was my wife having a serious conversation with me

    • creech

      How could he possibly do this without quid pro quo and offering bribes?

  54. The Late P Brooks

    This desire for kumbaya exposes the stark difference in how Democratic voters view the 2020 election. For many, especially those in the left flank of the party, Donald Trump is a symptom of a much larger problem in American politics—one that calls for new leadership and major structural reforms of the country’s economic and political systems. “If the best Democrats can offer is business as usual after Donald Trump, Democrats will lose,” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told supporters at a rally in New Hampshire on Thursday. But others see Trump as the key obstacle to the nation fulfilling its potential.

    At the end of his speech in Fairfield, Biden asked the voters in attendance to consider three questions before the caucus in February: Which Democratic candidate is most likely to beat Trump in November? Which of them is best positioned to help down-ballot candidates win? And which candidate can work with Republicans in Congress to “get things done”?

    But there’s another question Biden didn’t ask that he may as well have: Do Democrats want a brand-new kind of politics—or something closer to the pre-Trump status quo?

    “It’s not like we’re opposed to divisiveness and hyperpartisanship, per se; we just want to be on the winning side, for a change. Given half a chance, we’ll give it to you good and hard. And make you thank us for it.”

  55. Mojeaux

    Yet AGAIN, Derpy gives me fodder.

    https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-trump-warns-iran-we-have-targeted-52-iranian-sites

    ***
    “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD,” Trump said Saturday, explicitly laying out that the U.S. will act if Iran retaliates.
    ***

    The gauntlet has been thrown down.

    For the first time since the first time I heard Cheeto Jesus muse about running for president (late 80s), I’m tempted to vote for him.

    That is what I want a president to do.

    “Come at me, bro.”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Good lord no. The Iranians will hit back and then we’ll be at war with Iran because Trump can’t allow himself to look weak. Painting yourself into a corner isn’t a good idea.

      • Mojeaux

        We’ll be at war with Iran

        *squints* Can’t tell if serious.

        I infer he is threatening to crush them on the first go. Are you inferring he’s just going to dick around while they “hit back”? Am I underestimating their ability to “hit back” effectively?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Fifty two sites is dicking around and Iran does have a pretty substantial capability both militarily and through proxies. It may be satisfying in a way to let Iran have it militarily but our mideastern military adventures rarely go as planned and verbally committing yourself when you might have to actually back down is unwise.

      • Urthona

        We sank Iran’s navy one time and they didn’t do dick. I’m not too worried.

      • Rebel Scum

        We wouldn’t need to put boots on the ground to beat them. Mobilize enough naval and air force assets and you can eliminate Iran’s ability to make war in an afternoon. Besides, Trump has already demonstrated that he doesn’t bluff with this stuff. I think that is the strategy here.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, I see this as a Reagan/Thatcher move.

        The hostages were released on January 20, 1981. Coincidence? They demonstrated their weakness against a pissy president with a twitchy trigger finger then.

      • Urthona

        I still want to see a movie where Mel Gibson leads a plucky band of Falkland Islanders against the British.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Maybe they were afraid and maybe they were just sticking it to Carter.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, that’s my point exactly. They were afraid of the guy who might actually have the balls to do something that hurt.

        MIGHT.

        Trump’s already demonstrated he MIGHT.

      • juris imprudent

        We wouldn’t need to put boots on the ground to beat them.

        So you were in the Air Force in the run-up to Bosnia eh?

      • Urthona

        To be fair, this is in response to them listing the 30+ American sites they were going to target.

        Is it wrong that I find this amusing? I know it’s serious, but this dickwaving actually is making me laugh.

      • Mojeaux

        listing the 30+ American sites they were going to target.

        Even so … does anybody take that seriously?

        Yes, al Qaeda brought down the towers and hit the Pentagon. It did significant damage (the worst of which was the Patriot Act and its accompanying laws).

        That was almost 20 years ago, and they missed one of their targets (because of ordinary citizens, yet!) We’ve been there since. What could they have gathered to do anything like that?

        I just don’t see that they have the capability of carrying through with their threats.

      • Urthona

        No. But we would only do our thing in response. So if they’re not serious, we’re good.

      • Mojeaux

        That is my point also.

      • R C Dean

        A state of war already exists. The question is, can we afford to let Iran wage war against us indefinitely without returning the favor?

        The answer isn’t obvious to me, but the first step to a good answer is asking the right question.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    What I’m hoping for is Iraq to follow through and we just take our ball and go home. A guy can dream, right?

    Talk about 5-D chess.

    “Hey, the Iraqis are kicking us out. I guess that means we have to leave. Unless you guys are saying they’re not really a sovereign government, but merely our puppet state.”

  57. commodious spittoon

    Was she a premie? Like, born an embryo? She doesn’t look much older than my eight-year-old niece.

    • CPRM

      I’m guessing they have people making sure she looks younger, like someone else pointed out they seem to be doing everything they can to make her seem like an innocent child and not someone on the verge of the age of majority.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    That is what I want a president to do.

    “Come at me, bro.”

    The opening part of Highway 61 is applicable, here.

    Oh, God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
    Abe say, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
    God say, “No,” Abe say, “What?”
    God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
    The next time you see me comin’, you better run”

    • Mojeaux

      Tangentially, I read a rewriting of that story that made me think about it more deeply. What if Abraham had said no? Could God have then said, “Good answer”? IOW, yes AND no were the right answer and God wanted to see which one Abraham would choose.

      Yeah, yeah, I get the point. It was a test of devotion and loyalty (we have no reason to believe Abraham thought God would change his mind) and saying no would’ve demonstrated an utter lack of devotion and loyalty, but an unassailable love for his son. Who says no to a god?

      • CPRM

        Who says no to a god?

        James Tiberius Kirk?

      • egould310

        Powerful.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    Am I underestimating their ability to “hit back” effectively?

    Are you kidding? The Iranians pose an overwhelming existential threat to this nation. If we do not appease them, they will annihilate us.

    • Mojeaux

      Oh, whew! I thought he was serious.

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Who says no to a god?

    Not twice, anyway.

    • AlmightyJB

      Mary didn’t even get the chance to say no.

      • Mojeaux

        Right?!

      • Fourscore

        She shoulda said “Put it in writing, god, then we’ll talk about it”

      • Mojeaux

        Poor Joseph. Cucked by a god.

  61. Aloysious

    ~”I am hereby offering $10,000 to fuck Greta Thunberg in the ass.”

    Well, it better happen on a Wednesday, aka Hump Day.

  62. AlmightyJB

    I’d titty bang the mom but not paying for it.

  63. Mojeaux

    The thing you have to remember about women is, despite our capacity for love and compassion, we are utterly ruthless, to the good or evil. Good and evil don’t usually enter into the equation.

    I’m just one of two of the only women I’ve ever known who have accepted this, acknowledged it, and embraced it. This is why what Peterson is saying about our dark sides resonates so much.

    What does she want?

    What is she willing to do to get it?

    What is her price?

    • Mojeaux

      The key (to everything, for everyone) is knowing what you want.

      If you don’t know that, nothing is going to happen.

      • AlmightyJB

        What do you want?

  64. egould310

    This morning links post is in very bad taste. And not particularly funny.

  65. cyto

    I’m gonna go way out on a limb and say that this post is probably not “family friendly” compliant.

    Also….. a legal question. If the offer is made in a not legal for prostitution location but is designated to be consummated in a legal prostitution location…. is there a legal issue with solicitation for prostitution?

    • juris imprudent

      Interstate commerce! Mann Act!!!