New Year’s Resolutions

by | Jan 1, 2020 | Admin | 197 comments

SP

I resolve to finally get the Wonder Dog’s fur under control and get her on a regular grooming schedule. (Hey, it could happen!)

WebDom

I resolve to finally put away laundry more than once a month.

Sloopy

I resolve to play more golf and relax a bit more this year. And, most importantly, to understand that college football officiating is an inexact science filled with people at cross-purposes

Brett L

I resolve to win the lottery, shout at my kids less, love my wife more, and become better looking

Mad Scientist

I also resolve to love Brett’s wife more.

Banjos

I’m going to try to have a better work/relaxation balance to my life. And have a personal life.

SugarFree

I want to participate in more arguments on Twitter. It’s the only real solution to all of the problems of our world.

mexican sharpshooter

I resolve to take down the Xmas lights, cheat death by putting them into the attic, find a more intellectually stimulating jib, punch Tony Horton, and attempt to get some sweet, sweet Koch money to fund this site.

What are your resolutions/goals for 2020?

About The Author

Glib Staff

Glib Staff

197 Comments

  1. Tulip

    I plan to do more local sightseeing.

  2. PieInTheSky

    I don’t have any resolutions . I hope my shoulder pain goes away enough for me to gt back in the gym with some efficiency. Given the past few years, I do not expect much of this one as such no resolutions.

  3. Not Adahn

    find a more intellectually stimulating jib

    By like having Escher designs printed on it?

    • chipping pioneer

      I don’t think her likes the cut of his current one.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Yes.

  4. Mojeaux

    If I made resolutions, which I don’t, it would be to get my shit together.

    • Gender Traitor

      Don’t worry too much about getting all your shit together – just the most critical. People with all their shit together are boring, which is (if you’ll pardon the expression) the worst.

      • Chafed

        Yes. This is 80/20 rule territory. Knock it out one piece at a time. Tackle the priorities. Not everything is a priority.

      • Mojeaux

        I keep thinking to myself, “I’ll market my books when everything else is in order and I have time.”

        The truth is, I am scared of marketing my books because I hate the hard sell and making your product a success (in lieu of 1,000 true fans) requires that you sell, sell, sell. I’m an arrogant bitch and I know I’m good, but saying so in public over and over again is just not seemly. I KNOW there is a rich market for my books, even among young people, but … where are they? To find out, I must market.

        And I am scared.

      • Tundra

        You may be scared of rejection, but there is no need to apologize for marketing your product.

        If your books are awesome and will make people happy, you are doing them a favor. Besides, what the hell is a ‘hard sell’ anyway? You have no leverage over your potential customers, you can’t browbeat them and it is a completely voluntary transaction.

        Be proud of your product.

      • Chafed

        Ding ding ding.

      • DEG

        Yes.

      • Mojeaux

        Thanks, Tundra. I think that is a distinction I have never made and I need to think about it.

      • Charles Easterly

        Hello Mojeaux,

        Regarding your interest in selling your books: Is there not an online venue? Certainly there is a means by which you do not have to interact with your buyers until after they have purchased your product.

      • Mojeaux

        The totality of my business is online, but there is so much noise from every other author out there that you really have to scream to be heard.

        The one thing guaranteed to do the trick (BookBub) is almost as stringent about taking your $600 as publishers are. It’s very pricey but I would spend my last dime to get a spot on that mailing list. Alas, I haven’t been able tomget past the curators.

        I honestly think this medieval one will be the one to break me out because it’s a familiar subgenre, favored hero (a landed noble knight), and involves Scotland (marginally). So when I release it I will try again.

        In the meantime, I have been mulling over paying for reviews.

      • SugarFree

        Needs more hot werewolf/giant sex scenes.

      • Mojeaux

        Or were-octopi. Or were-rabbits. Or were-Venus-flytraps. Or something.

        I can’t do regular ol’ smut right. One of my friends, when being given an “anonymously written” manuscript of smut, said, “I’d know your voice anywhere.”

      • SugarFree

        Smut is difficult. Either you use unsexy clinical terms or you are dragged into a quagmire of elliptical euphemisms that choke out eroticism with silliness.

        That’s why I stick to grossing people out. Simpler buttons to push.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        If it doesn’t use the term “turgid man mushroom”, I don’t want to read it.

      • Mojeaux

        “turgid man mushroom” I can do.

        “moist” I will not.

      • Charles Easterly

        “In the meantime, I have been mulling over paying for reviews.”

        hERE.nOS

      • Charles Easterly

        Oops!

        Mojeaux: “In the meantime, I have been mulling over paying for reviews.”

        Perhaps a link to your chosen works may prove useful to you.

      • Mojeaux

        Usually, the link will be part of the review page. For instance, the reviewers are paid to post the review on the book page itself.

        An ad, like on Bookbub, has the link in it because that’s its whole purpose on life.

        Another thing is, however, reviews aren’t great marketing tools. They aren’t BAD, but they’re kind of middling. I even got a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. I did, in fact, write the Great Mormon Novel lit types have been whining for forever. Did that help sales? Sure. For a teeny bit.

        I have also decided to pay for FB promotions because I initially got my readers via Twitter in the early days when I was one of few. But MY readers aren’t there anymore. They’re all on Facebook, where I am loath to be, but that’s what it is.

        I notice that a flood of promoted novels come through my FB feed and if they pique my interest I click. I’ve either bought a few or put a good many of them on my Kindle wishlist.

        Also, I’ve been thinking more about Pinterest promos. Two days ago I clicked on a paid-promo book cover.

        And now you’ve gotten me thinking out loud. LOL

      • Chafed

        You are not alone Mo. I don’t know squat about marketing books but I have learned how to market a law firm. The threshold decision is whether to do marketing. If it’s so unseemly it’s beneath you then don’t do it and be done with it.

        But if you are going to do it then put the fear aside. Some things will work, some won’t, and you will learn over time what’s what. I think it is Tom Hopkins who said something like you are judged by your failures. You are judged by how often you fail before you succeed.

  5. Hyperion

    Get post 3 spot on Glib new year morning links?

    • Hyperion

      Shit, not even that works. I’m done, no more resolutions.

      • Chafed

        You could resolve to tell us more tales of beautiful Brazilian women.

    • Playa Manhattan

      Maybe next year

  6. westernsloper

    I resolve to finish the drift boat I built and has sat untouched and unfinished for close to, (over?) two years. So I can then resolve to drink more but on a river fishing. As well as resolve to fish more while drinking.

    • juris imprudent

      I resolve to drink your beer while you fish and catch fish while you drink your beer.

    • westernsloper

      This may be the exact same resolution I made last year. I resolve to be less consistent.

    • chipping pioneer

      I don’t make resolutions but I was thinking I should drink less.

      Oh, and to find a more secure and fulfilling jib.

      • Hyperion

        Only if you can find a jib where you don’t work with any other humans. Otherwise, another human will always be there to ruin the fulfilling part.

    • SandMan

      A Jeff Foxworthy: “If you’ve ever been too drunk to fish, you might be a redneck.”

      • Tres Cool

        Also the title of a charming Ray Stevens song.

    • Tonio

      A drift boat is different than a drift racer, right? Is this what is sometimes called float fishing (where the fisherman floats, bobbers optional)?

      • westernsloper

        Roger that. Float fishing. The preferred method by some is fly fishing but I am not a great fly fisherman and really need to get back at it.

      • Tundra

        It’s like falling off a bike.

        My challenge is that I can’t see the little 18s or 20s!

      • westernsloper

        When I started this boat I bought a new rod and reel and a fly tying kit (all my old supplies have been boxed up for 15 years). They have both sat untouched since purchase as well. I am great at intentions, less so with follow through.

      • Fourscore

        Easy for you to say. About 2 years ago I got on a bike and couldn’t ride it, couldn’t keep my balance. I’m calling out those that say you never forget how to ride a bike.

      • SandMan

        Being sober helps.

  7. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Leave less evidence at crime scenes.

    • Hyperion

      Umm… remember to leave your orphans to clean up crime scene and take the fall in case the fuzz show up?

  8. Playa Manhattan

    1) Work more on things I like rather than things that pay the most
    2) Get a vasectomy
    3) Get pilot licenses
    4) buy aircraft, lease it out, and enjoy tax breaks

    • Gustave Lytton

      Boeing’s got some planes just sitting around. Make em an offer.

  9. Tundra

    Good morning and welcome to 2020!

    (Hey, it could happen!)

    We have a sheepdog. I feel your pain.

    I don’t really have a full-years slate of plans, but I do want to continue on some of the progress I’ve made from a health standpoint. I plan to do more diet experimentation and body composition challenges. I have some mechanical issues, too, that I want to correct.

    Go on regular dates with my wife. We will very soon be empty nesters and we should probably make sure we still like each other 😉

    I am also going to drag my guitar out and learn scales (thanks, BP).

    Westernsloper reminds me that I need to fish more in 2020.

    Good luck and cheers to you all!

    • Playa Manhattan

      “I have some mechanical issues, too, that I want to correct”

      It happens a lot when you get older; nothing to be ashamed of

    • SugarFree

      Go on regular dates with my wife. We will very soon be empty nesters and we should probably make sure we still like each other

      You have fulfilled your biological imperative. Time to wither and die.

      I have joyfully embraced my physical and mental decline since self-sterilization.

      • Tundra

        Lol.

        Well, that does take some pressure off. Beer, sofa and football it is!

    • DEG

      Go on regular dates with my wife. We will very soon be empty nesters and we should probably make sure we still like each other

      That’s a good idea.

  10. MikeS

    I resolve to putting more work into getting my business started. It should be fully operational no later than my birthday in mid-March. (2020)

    • Tundra

      Woohoo! That’s a good one!

    • MikeS

      Also, I want to get back into my numismatic and model-building hobbies.

      …and read more.

      Which means less time here.

      • Mojeaux

        Selfish bastard.

      • MikeS

        ??

    • DEG

      Excellent.

    • Plinker762

      I’m trying to put less work into my business. To that end, I’m only going to work a half day today.

    • Chafed

      MikeS you’ve been talking about your business for a bit. What is it and what’s the current status?

  11. Mojeaux

    Well, so speaking of getting my shit together, I shall endeavor to gather some of it today and organize it.

  12. Gender Traitor

    I tend to make too many resolutions, but this year I think I just want to continue the diet & exercise regimen I’ve been on, read more books, and write more fiction.

  13. Fourscore

    1. Wake up in the morning
    2. Check Glibateria for hot breaking news
    3. Eat breakfast
    4. Take a nap, which reminds me, already off to a good start except for #4

    • Chafed

      I’m jealous.

  14. Don Escaped Lane Kiffen

    slow and steady: I don’t do big changes other than moving to Texas and escaping Texas; so,

    * lose a pound, as I shall every year for the rest of my life
    * take a stroke off my handicap (it dropped five last year)
    * put yet another 10k on the Big Ugly
    * hang onto NewWife

  15. Tonio

    Adopt a dog; coming up on a year since the last one died, so it’s time.

    Finally put up that underwear beefcake selfie site I’ve been wanting to do since I retired.

    Gun-up before the Va General Assembly passes the grabber legislation they campaigned on.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Any thoughts on which restrictions they’re going to put in place and whether they will be retroactive?

      • Tonio

        Sounds like the usual laundry list of restrictions on magazine capacity, big scary guns, etc. Part of me is hoping they manage to pass something so egregious that the whole thing gets struck down by the state courts as unconsitutional, but there is always the damage done until that gets overturned.

        I don’t think retroactive is quite the right word here. If they do put in a grandfather clause that could be a big problem because it might require defacto registration.

        Implicit in that is joining VCDL and doing something with these good people (thanks, whoever on here for linking this yesterday).

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        The range was packed today. 30-40 minute waits for all distances. Also a big pile of scary guns awaiting pickup by concerned virginians.

    • Gender Traitor

      We’re ready to adopt a new kitteh – it’s been 6 or 7 months for us, but I don’t want either of us to face the worst of winter without a critter.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Head for your local animal shelter. doG knows ours are full of little orphans.

      • Mojeaux

        Gentle suggestion, which I have suggested before. Get 2. Preferably litter mates. They can keep each other company and play and zoomzoom around the house together. I have had a lone kitten (albeit I bottle fed her from a 3-day old abandoned runt) and I have had a pair (twice). I will never adopt only one kitten at a time ever again.

  16. Bob Boberson

    This year I resolve to entrench myself further in the ideological movement that is made up entirely of basement dwelling losers yet simultaneously somehow runs the world and keeps true socialism from finally succeeding.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      ??

      • dbleagle

        I vow that I will join Bob in his hellish quest to block the side of angels from imposing a “social justice based freedom” on us.

      • Chafed

        I first read this as involving side boob. Now I’m disappointed.

  17. DEG

    Many years I resolve to be less cynical. Then I say to myself, “I should pick something that would last more than 10 seconds. Oh shit.”

    Someone posted the BBC’s broadcast of the 2020 Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert to youtube. Every year I sign up for the rights to buy tickets to the show, and every year I lose that lotto.

  18. Scruffy Nerfherder

    A not insane opinion piece on Iraq at Fox News

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/joe-kent-after-airstrikes-in-iraq-here-is-the-way-forward-in-mideast-for-us

    We should not be tricked into thinking we have to stay in Iraq, partnered with a government that has done nothing but betray us. We can leave until they make a compelling reason for us to return. We do not need Iraq, they need us.

    The argument to stay centers on being able to react to a resurgent ISIS. This is an emotional and losing argument. ISIS will return regardless of what we do. That’s because the Sunnis of Iraq and Syria are surrounded by militant Shias – ISIS or something like it is their only recourse. We can use that to regulate Shia expansion and occasionally bomb ISIS if it appears to be gaining momentum.

    The national security establishment has led us to believe that we must be deeply involved in Iraq, constantly spending, fighting and dying for some nebulous influence and stability that has never been realistically defined. We possess the most powerful economy in the world and have the ability to project power when needed; we must understand our strengths and use them effectively.

    • Bob Boberson

      /yells through cupped hands:

      “You listening Donnie? When you’ve lost Fox News….”

    • juris imprudent

      Except I don’t think ISIS or any of the jihadi shit of the last two decades has been Shia-based; it is all Sunni-based – from our BFF in the Arab world. ISIS was/is an off-shoot of Al Qaeda, which springs from Wahhabi teaching (that is sponsored by the House of Saud). So, no, that isn’t not insane – it is just as batshit crazy and stupid as anything you might get out of our great bi-partisan FP consensus. Great tacticians don’t always make even half-decent strategists.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I don’t think you read it correctly. He’s stating that ISIS is/was a Sunni reaction to Shia militias.

      • Chafed

        Hezbollah is Shia. Not sure if they qualify as jihadi in your analysis.

      • dbleagle

        Hezbollah flags were shown with the mobs attacking the embassy in Baghdad. Iran is fucking with Donnie T.

      • Bob Boberson

        In one sense yes but I think it’s necessary to look at the larger picture. We came in, stomped the Sunni’s dicks in, empowered the Shia minority and then bailed. Naturally a reactionary Sunni movement crops up (ISIS) to fight the Shia militias. We once again come back, stomp their dicks in and empower the Shia majority (an further Iran’s interests). Now the Shia want us gone and start antagonizing us with withering attacks so naturally we play right into their hands and murder drone/bomb a disproportionate number of militants in retaliation for the murder of a contractor. Naturally popular opinion is now firmly entrenched against the US with the help of some Iranian agitation. Is Iran innocent in this? No, but the US isn’t either.

        Bottom line, fighting both sides of a civil war in a foreign land is fucking stupid and is a guaranteed lose-lose for us.

      • Bob Boberson

        *Shia majority

      • commodious spittoon

        What they need is a domineering strong man authoritarian to keep a lid on domestic strife and spoil Iran’s regional ambitions.

      • Bob Boberson

        Did we leave any of Sadam’s kids alive?

      • Bob Boberson

        Instate a female dictator to assert regional control and smash the patriarchy!!! win-win.

  19. prolefeed

    I don’t wait til January 1st to make needed course corrections. I put shite on my to do list.

    If I had to name something, assemble my new easel I got for Christmas and make painting a higher priority.

    • commodious spittoon

      I resolved to make a to do list.

  20. Rebel Scum

    I’m gonna be healthier generally. Improved my blood pressure issue with diet, but need to add exercise to the mix.

    • Rebel Scum

      Also I am going to start reading the growing library of books I have.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    I’m going to build a scary-ghost-gun 1911. Because AMERICA, mofo.

    • Rebel Scum

      Make sure it is Cali – um – VA compliant!

  22. Hyperion

    I don’t ever remember keeping a new years resolution. Ever, not once. So I just stopped making them. If you’re going to do something, just do it. If you don’t have any expectations, you can’t be disappointed.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    This year I resolve to entrench myself further in the ideological movement that is made up entirely of basement dwelling losers yet simultaneously somehow runs the world and keeps true socialism from finally succeeding.

    [insert okay sign]

    • westernsloper

      There it is!

      • Fourscore

        Finally !

    • Chafed

      That’s the MikeS we’ve come to know and love.

    • commodious spittoon
  24. kinnath

    I resolve to gain weight and leave half my projects unfinished.

    • MikeS

      This is a recipe for success!

    • kinnath

      Time to start another project — 2 batches of Key Lime mead.

    • Fourscore

      This guy gets it.

  25. Tundra

    And the Gilded Rodents throw a pick on the first drive of the game.

    The boat is taking on water…

  26. Aloysious

    I resolve to make Wednesday my masturbatin’ day.

    • MikeS

      Just curious; what time on Wednesday?

    • Plinker762

      As in all day?

    • Spudalicious

      Just Wednesday?

  27. The Hyperbole

    Once again I will endeavor topersevere read one book a week including at least one non-fiction book a month, also I’m going to try to be less contentious with you jerks, and proof read every comment before hitting the Post Comment button.

    • Chafed

      Slow down there. We’ll need time to adapt.

    • Bob Boberson

      pfffff…….who needs to poof reed?

    • leon

      also I’m going to try to be less contentious with you jerks

      Sad. I thought you were more stalwart than that.

      😉

  28. Animal

    Meh. I don’t make resolutions.

    • Playa Manhattan

      Because you resolved to do so?

  29. Chafed

    I don’t do New Year’s resolutions but I do set goals. I’ve started David Goggins book and suspect I’ll need to revise my goals. I would call him crazy but his story is real. He does a hell of a job demolishing the idea you are achieving all you can.

  30. Naptown Bill

    I’m done with resolutions, but I have an AR I’ve been meaning to finish and it’d be great if we could pull off a move into a new house this year. Also, getting a back rub would be nice. I’ve got two permanent knots in my back that have been there for years, and a buddy of mine swears by massages.

    • Mojeaux

      Massages are magical.

      Even if you cam’t get yourself naked on a table, buy a 90-minute session of head, neck, and shoulders deep massage. I will tell you also that having your hands and feet worked on is shockingly miraculous.

  31. Tundra

    The maddening saga of how an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure for decades

    The failure of every amyloid-based experimental compound has, finally, triggered soul searching about how it all went so wrong that, in 2019, there is nothing for people who develop Alzheimer’s and likely nothing for many more years. What happened?

    “People who said, wait, it might not be so simple as eliminating amyloid, they were not able to go against the wave,” said Mount Sinai’s Robakis. “Critical thinking gave way to dogma. What you believe can be influenced by what is in and what is out. How else do you explain the widespread acceptance of a theory despite its weaknesses?”

    Robakis has been continually funded by NIH (including for studies unrelated to Alzheimer’s), so his criticism isn’t sour grapes. Yet he began to feel that the amyloid camp saw him as a “traitor,” the more he pointed out flaws in the theory. “I definitely lost grants,” he said. “If amyloid wasn’t in the grant proposal, it was an uphill battle. There were very big egos involved and they couldn’t stand to be wrong. It wasn’t science anymore.”

    He paused. “We should have known better,” he continued. “You can’t say what would have happened if things had been different, but maybe if there had been more support for alternative ideas, we would be better off [in terms of Alzheimer’s treatments] than we are.”

    Science is busted.

    • kbolino

      The great fallacy of “science” is that it is somehow above the petty squabbles of men.

    • PieInTheSky

      I am not sure cabal is the word, but medicine is often stuck in some narrow mainstream theories they are loath to challenge

    • Chafed

      Science has been politicized. We still know how to science.

      • PieInTheSky

        well there is insufficient skepticism in most science imo

    • commodious spittoon

      Impossible. There was a consensus. Consensus is never wrong!

      • commodious spittoon

        In more than two dozen interviews, scientists whose ideas fell outside the dogma recounted how, for decades, believers in the dominant hypothesis suppressed research on alternative ideas: They influenced what studies got published in top journals, which scientists got funded, who got tenure, and who got speaking slots at reputation-buffing scientific conferences.

        Thank goodness this is limited to the health sciences.

    • Rhywun

      Science is busted.

      “Science” seems to be doing just fine.

      • commodious spittoon

        It’s just a funding issue.

  32. AlmightyJB

    Shoot more. Browse less.

  33. PieInTheSky

    What libertarianism has become and will become — State Capacity Libertarianism

    https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/01/what-libertarianism-has-become-and-will-become-state-capacity-libertarianism.html

    smart people are on the internet, and the internet seems to encourage synthetic and eclectic views, at least among the smart and curious. Unlike the mass culture of the 1970s, it does not tend to breed “capital L Libertarianism.” On top of all that, the out-migration from narrowly libertarian views has been severe, most of all from educated women. – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    Earlier in history, a strong state was necessary to back the formation of capitalism and also to protect individual rights (do read Koyama and Johnson on state capacity). – I find this do reada X annoying. In economic history there are plenty who disagree with Koyama and nothing is definitive

    Rapid increases in state capacity can be very dangerous (earlier Japan, Germany), but high levels of state capacity are not inherently tyrannical. Denmark should in fact have a smaller government, but it is still one of the freer and more secure places in the world, at least for Danish citizens albeit not for everybody. – this strongly depends on your definition of free. But then again given how unfree most of the world is, freer than the average is pretty low bar.

    State Capacity Libertarianism has no problem endorsing higher quality government and governance, whereas traditional libertarianism is more likely to embrace or at least be wishy-washy toward small, corrupt regimes, due to some of the residual liberties they leave behind. – I am not sure I agree to this… although it is arguable.

    • Bob Boberson

      “Those problems require state capacity — albeit to boost markets — in a way that classical libertarianism is poorly suited to deal with. Furthermore, libertarianism is parasitic upon State Capacity Libertarianism to some degree. For instance, even if you favor education privatization, in the shorter run we still need to make the current system much better. That would even make privatization easier, if that is your goal.”

      Yes, we must polish that turd up before we throw it out. /eye-roll

      • Bob Boberson

        In summation;

        “we need a benevolent and powerful state to protect the free market and individual rights.”

        A premise so stupid on it’s face my hung over self is disinclined to address it. The article is just a bunch of assertions sans evidence stated as fact.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        For instance, even if you favor education privatization, in the shorter run we still need to make the current system much better.

        Uhm, no.

      • kbolino

        Meh, the author does not elaborate on what “make the current system much better” means. Charters and vouchers could very well be what is meant; they are not radical reforms but incremental ones, designed to allow individuals more control (but not full control) to drive the system toward better ends.

  34. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    My resolution for 2020 is to enjoy life. 2019 was a year of sacrifice and suck. 2020 is not going to be.

    Change #1 in the Year of Enjoyment™ was to pay for the annual membership at the local shooting range while I was picking up my latest canoe trip victim. Damn thing fell out of the trunk while I was crossing a bridge. Water is like a magnet to them…

    Change #2 is getting back into the aquarium hobby.

    Change #3 will be to get on the treadmill for an hour each of Thursday and Friday.

    We’ll see whether it sticks once I get back into the routine, but I’m pretty damn motivated to make it stick.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Critical thinking gave way to dogma.

    There’s your headstone, America.

  36. Spudalicious

    1. Survive the year.

    2. I should probably drink less, but I won’t.(see #1)

  37. The Late P Brooks

    “We should have known better,” he continued. “You can’t say what would have happened if things had been different, but maybe if there had been more support for alternative ideas, we would be better off [in terms of Alzheimer’s treatments] than we are.”

    Maybe not letting the government consolidate control over research money would help.

    • commodious spittoon

      No, it’s because government doesn’t exert enough control over research money.

      Scientists closely associated with the amyloid model argue that if alternative ideas received little funding support, it was because NIH’s Alzheimer’s budget was woefully insufficient ($425 million in 2012, $2.4 billion in 2019).

      They weren’t funding alternative research with what little billions of dollars they were given, but they’d surely fund it had they been given a little more billions of dollars.

  38. Cannoli

    Happy New Year everyone!

    My resolution is to improve my sleep habits.

    I’d also like to eat better, work out more, get more done around the house, etc, but I have zero discipline when I’m tired, so that needs to improve first.

    I’m looking forward to traveling more in 2020. Mr. Cannoli starts his new job in a few weeks, and one of the benefits is free standby flights.

    • Mojeaux

      Oh, that sounds like fun! Yes, take as much advantage of that as you can, even if you have to go places alone.

      • Cannoli

        I’m really excited. Many of our college friends moved across the country, so it’ll also be good to get to visit them more.

  39. egould310

    Happy New Year, Glibs!

    Goals for the year include going to more concerts. Also, put together a functioning band and play concerts.

  40. Bob Boberson

    Resolutions are dumb but it makes sense that after roughly a month of binge eating and drinking you’d resolve to cut back. I’m going to stop drinking alone and lose 10 pounds.

    • Ted S.

      So you’re going to start drinking in groups? :-p

  41. Playa Manhattan

    Lobster tails on sale for 4 bucks.

    I’ll be eating tail all day long.

    Avocados on sale 4 for 5.

    Have brisket that needs a purpose.

    Beef Tinga with guacamole.

    • westernsloper

      Lobster tails on sale for 4 bucks.

      Sweet baby jesus it would be worth buying another freezer for that.

    • egould310

      I made the Uncivil’s beer bread from the recipe he posted in the mourning lynx. I added some parmesan, bacon, and fresh chopped rosemary. And more butter. It smells very good.

      It is delicious.

      • Playa Manhattan

        I gave up all starch except for donuts and Cheese-Its. Would eat the stuff in the bread, though.

      • RAHeinlein

        Cheese-Its over Goldfish – traitor.

      • Playa Manhattan

        I eat crackers the correct way: salty side facing the tongue.

        There is no salty side on Goldfish.

      • Toxteth O’Grady
      • Playa Manhattan

        I average less than one per day.

        Randy’s. Pink raised glazed.

        Raised donuts aren’t that dense. Probably less than 300 calories.

    • commodious spittoon

      Biden would consider choosing a Republican running mate, Biden says.

      “The answer is I would, but I can’t think of one now,” Biden replied. “Let me explain that. You know there’s some really decent Republicans that are out there still, but here’s the problem right now … they’ve got to step up.”

      Fine people on both sides!1!!

      I resolve to post fewer political threads… tomorrow.

      • commodious spittoon

        I resolve to refresh my browser before posting… tomorrow.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Just like China, where there are 8 other political parties besides the commies.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    From Pie’s Marginal Revolution link:

    For one thing, it doesn’t seem that old-style libertarianism can solve or even very well address a number of major problems, most significantly climate change.

    Fuck off, Cowen. Shouldn’t you be out campaigning for Mike! Bloomberg?

    • Bob Boberson

      Yeah, that’s where he lost me as well.

    • Mojeaux

      This climate change thing is starting to scare me a little, not because I believe in it, but because its evangelizers are affecting everyday life so much with junk science and deliberately bad data. They want control over people’s loves—and they’re getting it!

      Yes, climate change is, indeed, scary.

      • Bob Boberson

        As has been said countless times, it’s a cult. A cult that is quickly becoming a Mass Movement. Economic Marxism failed so they pivoted to a double pronged approach of attacking and degrading cultural institutions and posing the alternative to socialistic collectivism as imminent destruction.

      • Mojeaux

        Right, but that cult is eventually going to be able to force you to drink the Flavor-Aid.

      • Bob Boberson

        And it’s no coincidence that we’ve seen a huge push for “democracy” with the assumption that a majority consensus somehow creates a moral imperative.

      • Pine_Tree

        I’m re-reading Snow Crash, and just passed the line where Hiro asks Juanita (paraphrasing) “Is it a virus, drug, or religion?” And she says “what’s the difference?”

        I interview lots of soon-to-graduate Engineers. Folks from top-flight schools who’ve been through real Engineering curricula, and are doing serious interviews looking for jobs. It’s astonishing how many of them say things like “…I believe very strongly in climate change…”. This cult is more pervasive than us oldsters understand.

      • Plinker762

        I wonder about the direction of engineering. So much of it seems to be just code driven now. It seems to stem from the desire to be able to say “It’s not my fault, I followed the code.”

      • Pine_Tree

        I wonder too, but for different reasons. And I mostly do ME/EE types for manufacturing, with fewer CompE or programmers.

        I think we’re dead-thread, but my old-guy wonders are from seeing 2 types (below), and granted, there are some perfectly great youngsters also.
        1. Their one skill in life is getting 100 on every test. Think (often) tiger parents. So they did well in school, and got an Engineering degree, but don’t actually have anything in life that they care about, or that they want to do.
        2. They were told something like “you’re smart so you have to go into Engineering”, but never really wanted to.

      • Mojeaux

        Is it good code, though?

        Codes, rules, laws, regulations generally come about because somebody did something that caused harm (let’s not get into litigation’s impact on that).

        For instance, this happened because codes weren’t followed, but then the codes got strengthened after that.

        Are codes good things or bad things and at what point is it overkill and/or the equivalent of an HOA fussing at you?

        I am not trying to make any points here. I am asking in good faith, even if no one has an answer.

      • Mojeaux

        My bad. It wasn’t a failure to follow code.

      • Cannoli

        My husband is working on his master’s in analytics. In one of his data science classes they had to analyze a temperature dataset. The data isn’t clean enough to draw meaningful conclusions, and the professor always has to turn the assignment into an ethics lesson because lots of students turn in write-ups that say “I’m so sorry, I know that climate change is real, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the data to show that”

      • Mojeaux

        the professor always has to turn the assignment into an ethics lesson

        What does the professor say and is it effective? If the students can’t believe their lyin’ eyes, they need serious deprogramming.

      • Cannoli

        He tells them that it isn’t their job to draw conclusions first and then make the data support them, they’re supposed to be figuring out what the data actually shows. I’m not sure how effective it is, but I’m not optimistic.

      • Plinker762

        The climate models should make all engineers skeptical.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        ^^

        Frankly, I don’t care whether it’s real or not. Conservationism informs how I am to treat the environment. However, the mythology of climate change is growing by the day, and it gets more dire and urgent with every cycle.

      • Mojeaux

        Conservationism is the appropriate term and I try to do that. It might be my OCD, might be my quasi-Puritan upbringing, might be poverty, might be Laura Ingalls Wilder, but “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” is kind of a thing with me.

        I do think we have a reaponsibility to be good stewards of the land, but the Earth is more powerful than I and it can heal itself.

        Heaven knows what we did before people started recycling in the 70s. ?

      • commodious spittoon

        We are not going to beggar humanity to prevent a few degrees temperature change. It’s just not going to happen. It will be a boutique, token effort in some countries, or impossibly stupid efforts in others (*cough* Germany, Britain), but we are not dissuading India or China to immiserate their citizens because slacktivists in London and Berkeley cause a few traffic jams. No matter how many teenage moppets the West trots out.

        If this had been a serious concern for the people peddling it, the focus from the start would have been mitigation. But it’s not because it wasn’t and it wasn’t because it’s not.

      • commodious spittoon

        dissuading persuading ?

    • Gustave Lytton

      He’s too busy advising the Niskanen Center.

      Speaking people like Tyler, the wiki for Jim Pinkerton

      calls himself a “big government libertarian”

      He can call himself a meat popsicle, it doesn’t make him one.

      • Bob Boberson

        “big government libertarian”=

        “carnivorous vegetarian”

        “violent pacifist”

        “devout agnostic”

        “liberal fundamentalist”

        this is fun

  43. The Late P Brooks

    posing the alternative to socialistic collectivism as imminent destruction.

    Exactly.

    “We’re all gonna DIE! if you don’t do what we say. Now just let us take control of every aspect of your life.”

    • Bob Boberson

      I marvel less at the charlatans, grifters and sociopaths who want to loot, pillage and control the populace as I do the enthusiastic dupes who seem to be eager to be exploited by them.

      • DEG

        Eric Hoffer had some things to say about those dupes.

      • Bob Boberson

        Having read it, yup. Although ‘Brave New World’ preceded that thought.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Eric Hoffer do come to mind, don’t he?

      • mindyourbusiness

        Deg: Great minds…

      • DEG

        🙂

      • Mojeaux

        Rule followers.

        I am generally a rule follower until they get in the way of something I want. For example, I had to get a spinal tap once, and I was supposed to lie flat on my back afterward for 6 hours. Firstly, that hurts. Secondly, if you’re not going to give me a Foley, I’m going to get up to go potty when I have to go potty because not only am I not going to pee myself, I’m not going to then lie in it. Oh the nurses were pissed, but what were they going to do?

        At the point an order/rule doesn’t seem right, I’ll stop and think about it and then after a while, say, “Nah, fam.” But if it’s something I feel strongly about already, that’s a definite no, and I don’t give a shit about the consequences.

        But what can I do but comply if I can’t have a straw? Resort to compliance with my own metal straw I bring everywhere I go? (Never mind I don’t drink out of straws at all.)

        I was pissed when McDonald’s was pressured into using cardboard to put their Big Macs in instead of foam. THEY DO NOT WORK. I happened to be telling my daighter about DDT and malaria yesterday, after I saw a picture of a farmer pulling a flamethrower behind his tractor to kill weeds and pests (likely because he couldn’t use chemicals).

        Lastly, and I linked this in the other thread, at some point, ideologies become mutually exclusive.

        How far does Joe Sixpack have to be pushed before we all stand up and say “No more!”? Someone yesterday said Virginia’s guns problem was Virginia’s problem. Well, no, it’s not Virginia’s problem. It’s everybody’s problem because the hammer and sickle are ou and out, just waiting to cut down whoever’s in their way.

        I will not be pushed past my boundaries no matter what’s at stake, but a straw is not worth the fight, but it IS the fight.

      • Bob Boberson

        Agree totally. I was kinda shocked at the “it’s Virginia’s problem” comment too. If it’s not your problem today, it sure will be in the near future.

      • Mojeaux

        hammer and sickle are ou and out

        out and proud*

  44. hayeksplosives

    I’m 2020 I endeavor to achieve waterfowl alignment.

    I started by purging my work email inbox of all unread or spam messages.

    Feels great.

    Ready for a work reboot!!!

    • Mojeaux

      Hey, you got a new dress!

  45. The Late P Brooks

    “libertarian socialist”

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe Mike! Bloomberg can be the Libertarian Party candidate for President.

    • commodious spittoon

      He and Bill Weld can be the ticket for people understandably disgusted by Trump but unwilling to vote for the avowed socialist.

  47. robc

    Sloope,

    Now you know how Miami feels. I think both calls were right, but close enough to go the other way too.

    • egould310

      Now he knows what Willis McGahee felt like.

  48. R C Dean

    Thinking about VA gun legislation.

    Needs to be detailed out, but I would be happy to buy gun as at $1 apiece, or perhaps hold guns as collateral for loans, in the event there is a need to extract firearms from a tyrannical state. Your could always redeem the loan or buy them back later.