Sunday Morning Sunny Day Links

by | Mar 22, 2020 | Daily Links | 295 comments

 

 

And it is indeed starting to be glorious, the halo of sun on the horizon, promising the imminent appearance of the rosy fingers of dawn. As SHTF all around us, SP and I have comfortably continued our usual routine. We lost some treasured restaurant reservations, and an upcoming concert we had looked forward to is almost certainly going to get canceled. But… basically that’s it. I still go to work, we still pay our bills, and we feel horrible for the victims of the panic who are suddenly jobless or are losing their businesses.

On a more cheerful note, birthdays today include a drop in the bucket; a non-typical pianist; Mr. Notary Sojac himself (and someone who should be much better known, but foo); a Jew and a Nazi all at once; a guy about whom the less said the better; and proof that ham can be Kosher.

Now for the news.

 

Want useless symbolism involving government over-reach? Here’s useless symbolism involving government over-reach.

 

This had to be painful to write.

 

Because, of course, there’s no difference. Exactly the same thing. You’re all going to DIE. 

 

“We’re all Protestants now.”

 

This is why Harsanyi has long been one of my favorite writers.

 

Umm, please breathe the other way, Judy?

 

Waiting for the piles of burning corpses.

 

 

Old Guy Music is Young Girl Music. Someone was talking about this YouTube enigma in comments a few days back When will she reappear? Well, she still left us with some cool tracks.

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.

295 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    Because, of course, there’s no difference. Exactly the same thing. You’re all going to DIE. – well not me but you guys certainly

    • SDF-7

      Well, of course the undead are immune…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They still have to eat.

    • juris imprudent

      So the link I posted last night from RCP shows some wildly different infection, death and recovery rates.

      It’s almost like our lack of knowledge is being filled in with blind fear.

  2. PieInTheSky

    “We’re all Protestants now.” – That, i think, is what Tom Holland keeps saying.

    • JD is Unemployed

      I really don’t have any interest in what he has to say beyond the lines marked ‘Peter Parker’ in movie scripts.

      • PieInTheSky

        Not that Tom Holland

      • JD is Unemployed

        Well screw that guy!

        *Zoidberg scuttle*

      • JD is Unemployed

        but I already scuttled away.

  3. JD is Unemployed

    I’m glad there’s another Harsanyi fan in the house.

    Goooooodd morning Glibertnaaaaam! (inspired by whoever referenced that movie yesterday)

    • Pi Guy

      *raises hand*

      I cooled on Balko, who was my favorite from TOS but Harsyani is great.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I liked his work at TOS as well.

  4. Lackadaisical

    “upcoming concert”

    us too. we rarely do such things, so it’s a big downer. and now there’s nothing we can do as a date like that. ..

    • Certified Public Asshat

      They can stay home and work on new material at least?

      • Gender Traitor

        A young couple we know who play music for a living decided that this finally gave them time to record another album. They’re also streaming live shows from their home on Facebook and Instagram, with links to an online “tip jar” and to a Patreon account.

      • Nephilium

        Dropkick Murphys and Psychostick both did livestream concerts last week. It’s more then just restaurants and breweries being effected.

      • Lackadaisical

        At that point I can just listen to an album.

      • Mojeaux

        I did a post on FB that said “since you’re quarantined, read all my books. It’ll take about a week.”

      • Gender Traitor

        Atta girl! ::virtual fist-bump::

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah, but I only said it once. A week ago. LOL

  5. PieInTheSky

    Umm, please breathe the other way, Judy? – CCP virus then

  6. invisible finger

    Maybe we’ll see a resurgence of confessional boxes. I never cared for that veiled guilt trip of “you’re not sincerely confessing if you’re not doing face to face confession.”

    • JD is Unemployed

      Hello Father, it’s been 25 years since my last confession. This week I threw a PET bottle in the garbage instead of spending my time rinsing it out and sorting it into the recycling.

      • Lackadaisical

        my wife hates when I do that.

    • Nephilium

      Last time I went to church (other then for weddings/funerals) was ~25 years ago. Even back then they were pushing away from the anonymous aspect of it.

      • Lackadaisical

        what church is this?

      • Nephilium

        Sorry, I was raised Catholic.

  7. PieInTheSky

    America Is Still the Best Place to Be during COVID-19 – meh. There are probably a bunch of places fairly equal. I would say Switzerland for example, or Norway cause they got lots of money

  8. Fourscore

    As a kid, I loved Smokey Stover and Spooky . I probably missed the puns and only caught the literal meaning but hey, I was a kid. I am grateful for the comic strips, they helped me to learn to read, something to look forward to every day, pre-TV.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I still want a chair with the bent finger headrest.

      • Fourscore

        I’d forgotten that part, we were lucky guys, OM.

  9. JD is Unemployed

    This pandemonic has really encouraged me to get outside and do more to interact with the humons, and I’m especially pleased when able to conduct amicable business with other likeminded scofflaws.

    • Sean

      I need nothing right now, but was considering shopping at a local gun store today. They remain open despite the .gov douchebags.

      • Animal

        I have a bid in on a 1961 Winchester 100. I’ve been looking for one for a while now, but of late I’ve been wondering about reboring/rechambering one of these old .308 semi-autos for .358 Winchester. Would make a neat little deep-woods thumper.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Glorious mass civil disobedience in the name of LIBERTY is excellent when it takes a constructive, positive form like this.

  10. Sean

    I’m not dead yet. Am I doing this wrong?

    • JD is Unemployed

      I think you are supposed to be directly under the grand piano when it drops.

  11. Fourscore

    How many Italians die every day in spite of CV?

    I check the local obituaries a couple times a week, looking for friends and a chance for a funeral (and free food, always a hot dish) to see other old friends. A lot of people are dying, a lot in nursing homes, same as always. Its what we do. Not surprisingly, unlike Chicago, most are old or ill health or both.

  12. PieInTheSky

    So google recommended this old (2010) song from Cleopatra Stratan which was a sort of child star in that time (8 year old I think) in Romania

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY1vv7hQQCg

    This reminded me when last year the now 18 year old and not that famous any more posted a instagram photo that amazed the nation in that she is not a kid no more. She also grew up 181 cm tall.

    https://assets.sport.ro/assets/protv/2020/02/11/image_galleries/71547/cleopatra-stratan-mai-senzuala-ca-niciodata-pe-instagram-ztrebuie-sa-ajungi-la-hollywood_size24.jpg

    • PudPaisley

      What a hotty.

      I think she’s popular again because she has a few newer videos with millions of views and one with over 50 million. I watched the latter, but not for the music.

      • PieInTheSky

        Maybe I am not fully aware cause I don’t watch the TV programs no more. I am not sure saying I don’t watch TV is accurate as I have a TV and watch netflix et al on it

  13. Fourscore

    As those of you in the Southern climes look forward to AC season we’re looking towards the snow melt and the accompanying floods. My advice to those in a flood plain is not to shelter in place, if you see the water rising. Not to worry though, there will be lots of money for disasters, unless it all gets spent before hand. It floods somewhere almost every year but those prepared for it seem to come out in better shape. Strange how that works.

    • juris imprudent

      I’m going to have to make a meme of John Paul Jones on the good ship MMT – “damn the currency, I have not yet begun to inflate”!

  14. Sean

    Fine, I’ll say it it…I miss the days of impeachment. This new season of media freak out sucks.

  15. straffinrun

    “He is creating more xenophobia every single time he does that. And we can see the results in what’s happening to Asian Americans across this country.”

    Chu went on to provide three anecdotes to support that assertion.

    • Rhywun

      And they are the same three anecdotes every hack writer has been trumpeting for the last month.

  16. juris imprudent

    And goddam you’re up early, or was this the tail-end of an all-nighter?

    • Old Man With Candy

      This is all part of my clean living.

  17. Chipping Pioneer

    C’mon, OMWC. The girl in the video is WAY too old for you.

  18. Scruffy Nerfherder

    We’ve got our first case in an assisted living facility here. They’re isolating the patient at the facility. We’ll see how well that goes.

    • Fourscore

      One way ticket…

      If I was a religious person my prayers would not include assisted living. A question asked in the medical will is something like “When is life no longer worth living?” or something like that. My answer, in writing, is “When I can no longer take care of my personal needs”. I don’t want anyone wiping my butt.

      • Madhatter

        My Mom is in a skilled nursing care memory care ward in very poor health. 10 years post stroke. A serious stroke that put her in a wheel chair and paralyzed her on her left side. Fortunately she had signed a DNR prior to her stroke, unfortunately she comes from tough stock. The first 6 years she could read but the past 3 have been a slide into isolation in her own little world. My well read, articulate, history loving, archaeology loving, family oriented Mom can not remember the names of her children. Her facility is now in lockdown, so if at the end of the lockdown she is alive she won’t even recognize my face. Mom is just being warehoused. Death will be a blessing for her.

      • CPRM

        I get DNRs, but I think too many people get talked into them to the detriment of the ones they love.

      • Mojeaux

        This is going to sound lame, but …

        In my time as a medical transcriptionist (particularly in palliative care and geriatric surgery), I have noticed that the elderly are generally afraid to die, willing to undergo risky procedures for a chance to live a little longer, and won’t sign DNRs.

      • CPRM

        My dad wasn’t even 60 and had a DNR because the VA kept pushing him on it. When we found him (in a condition that turned out to be unrecoverable) the first thing we did was rip that tag off and throw it across the the room an initiate CPR while we called 911. We weren’t successful, but it’s not something we would have had to deal with if the VA hadn’t pushed it so hard, he never would have thought about it.

      • Mojeaux

        Well, the VA. I can see it.

      • CPRM

        My experience with my dad at the VA, and my experience with my uncle under medicare were the same. They keep asking the patient if they’re ready to die, and assure them they can afford them every benefit if they choose to do so. Medicare did push the DNR as well. Something, something adult video with a Sarah Palin look a like screaming about death panels as she gets railed with an abnormally large something.

      • Mojeaux

        I won’t argue your experience because that behavior probably doesn’t make it into medical records.

      • Fourscore

        As adults, our life belongs to our self. No one else has a claim on it. I don’t believe that many old people are afraid of death but we do fear the associated pain that may accompany it. Sitting in a wheel chair, slumped over, is not living.

      • Mojeaux

        Yep. My mom? She’s ready to go.

        “Give me a pen and that damned DNR.”

        Yes, ma’am.

      • Madhatter

        My siblings and I rest easy about Mom’s as she was still in reasonably good health and mentally stable at the time she initiated the DNR and a Living Will. We just want her to have peace.

      • Mojeaux

        This is where my morals and my philosophy collide in a nasty trainwreck.

        Morals = Murder is the unforgivable sin.

        Philosophy = Why do we not show the same love, mercy, and compassion to suffering humans as we do animals?

        I worked for a doc once whose parents (both) were suffering the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. Their parents had descended i to that hell and they didn’t want to. They begged my doc to give them drugs to make them go peacefully. He wouldn’t. So one day, they told everybody goodbye. They locked themselves in their house, bolted and barricaded the doors, turned off their phones. The dad killed his wife and then himself. They had a plan, everybody knew it, and were helpless to prevent it.

      • Jarflax

        Preach brother! If one more busybody tries to shame me into moving my 85 yeal old, but still perfectly sharp metally, Dad ‘someplace he can be cared for’ I think I’ll give them a reason to need nursing themselves. Yes his house is uncomfortable (he hasn’t had a couch or easy chair since my Mom left him 30 years ago). Yes the living room and his study are filled with boxes of stuff he “is keeping because it belongs to your brothers and they may want it someday” (hint, this means the possessions they left behind when they moved out). But it is where he wants to live out his life and not only is that his choice, it is a choice I fully support and intend to emulate.

  19. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Letters to the Local Rag: Glib Confirmed

    If the governor orders restaurants and bars to only serve carryout, how do I take my rum and Coke with me when the state has a law prohibiting open containers?

    • egould310

      Julian confirmed.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Fun fact: The Emergencies Act used to be called the War Measures Act, which was invoked exactly once in peacetime, in 1970, by … the current PM’s stepfather.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Trudeau père: Just watch me!

        Trudeau fils: Look at me!!!

    • straffinrun

      He appeared in Yellow face, too?

      • Chipping Pioneer

        There’s a 50/50 chance.

  20. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Letters to the Local Rag: Pray The Chopsick Away

    Fear or faith. I was deeply disappointed when I began to see churches notifying their congregations that the doors of the churches were going to be closed on Sunday. The leadership of these churches need to be asked a basic Biblical question; was their decision based on fear or faith. Less than 0.1% or 99.9% of the population are not affected, yet these so-called men of faith, shepherds, leaders, quickly closed the doors to God’s house.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Jesus saves from the COVID-19!

      Wife was trying to get her parents to not go to church last weekend. Most people who go to church nowadays are somewhat elderly. And they have a creepy habit of shaking each others’ hands.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’m not religious but because my kids participate I end up going a fair amount. I hate the hand shaking.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Just fist bump followed by a liberal glob of hand sanitizer. God helps those who help themselves, you know.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I find that people don’t want to shake hands if I shove my hand down the front of my pants first.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Thanks for the suggestion

      • Jarflax

        Really? Most Evangelicals I have known love them some repentent sinner. Or do you not repent from your meeting house self abuse?

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Beats hugging.

      • Fourscore

        I’d never thought about a beats hugging but I don’t spend much time in church like settings. Everyone has their own kink, I guess.

  21. Florida Man

    I’ll say this for the panic, it’s got me carrying everyday again. I had gotten lax because I live in a low crime area. Going out and about, everyone seems pretty sane. I hope not too many small businesses are destroyed or too many 401k’s wiped out. I sold all my municipal bonds this morning so I can pickup travel related stocks at bargain prices. If I’m lucky I should be able to triple my investments over the next year or so. Good luck Glibs.

    • Tejicano

      I am hoping my Florida carry license comes through before I get back to the US. I’m really itching to be carrying and although I can open carry and have other options while in New Mexico I would like to use a few of the rigs I have for that purpose.

  22. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Letters to the Local Rag: The Other Chinese Virus

    I recently noticed signs around the downtown library, announcing a Wisteria Festival on April 4. I thought that the wisteria vines in the space between the library and the Stryker Center were Chinese wisteria, wisteria sinensis. Chinese and Japanese wisteria is listed as a problem plant on the Virginia Master Gardeners site. It’s listed as a nonnative invasive species by the Virginia DCR, and the National Parks Service lists it as an invasive species found at Colonial National Historical Park. Is that the plant we’re celebrating?

    • straffinrun

      If this were one of Derpetologist’s Spot The Not, I would’ve chosen this one.

      • Gdragon

        I can’t even imagine what “Spot the Not” would look like these days, I’m not sure there’s much left that I wouldn’t believe someone actually wrote.

  23. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Thanks for the Harsanyi article. I’m getting ticked at all the sucking up to China in the media, particularly when it’s obvious that the ChiComs are lying thru their teeth. No new cases, my ass.

    • juris imprudent

      If we are going to pay attention to how another country handled this, South Korea would seem the right choice.

      • Tejicano

        I’m wondering if Germany is doing the right thing or if there is something about the way this virus affects people of different genetic backgrounds differently.

    • Tejicano

      It wouldn’t surprise me if they were taking every new case they found, locking them in individual cells with a toilet, two weeks of food rations, and running water, then going back after two weeks to see who is still alive. “Get better or die – see you in two weeks.”

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It probably wouldn’t surprise the average Chinese person either which might be contributing to the supposedly low number of new cases. Unless they’re at death’s door they might be afraid to go to the doctor. Hell, I’d avoid it if at all possible right now and I’m not worried about being tossed in the clink.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dammit

      Fucking sick motherfuckers with no regard for suffering

      I hope that motherfucker and every motherfucker that does the same dies a miserable death

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Great goodness, that’s fucked.

    • JD is Unemployed

      Fuck that’s weird. It’s impossible to explain to progs who use that stuff to bait me into some sort of hypocrisy that a libertarian worldview doesn’t prevent me from voicing my disgust, you know, with my speech, advocating against it, and also arguing from the (very unpopular here) position of animals having certain status as conscious beings that are apparently able to feel pain, and therefore due moral consideration when it comes to suffering. On the one hand, there is that darned “consensus” from the purely scientific approach that asserts that unless it can be proven beyond all doubt that animals feel pain, it must be assumed that they don’t, which I find ridiculous, and on the other hand something something I make personal choices as a free individual to not partake in, or buy such things. Well, there will always be suffering and a certain element of the population who have no qualms about causing it (rather than killing humanely*), but watch the 180 on cultural relativism the progs do when they see such “customs” enacted. I’m rambling. Well at least I hope it tasted good with all that fur and epiniphrene.

      *a relative term if ever there was one

      • Gender Traitor

        …there is that darned “consensus” from the purely scientific approach that asserts that unless it can be proven beyond all doubt that animals feel pain, it must be assumed that they don’t…

        I’ve heard audio that at least claimed to be of a rabbit being vivisected. Don’t feel pain, my ass.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The fundamental problem that progs have when discussing libertarianism is a complete inability to differentiate between legal and moral.

        I struggle with cruelty of this sort from a legal perspective. Everything in my being says put a bullet in that SOBs head because he has no conception of suffering and would just as easily put me in that damned wok. But what rights do we give to animals? What limitations do we put on human behavior in order to limit unnecessary cruelty that does not involve humans?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The same could be said for socons.

      • straffinrun

        You could have libertarians societies that punish it in one way or another and you could have others that just socially scorn it. Either could agree that the one True Scotsman should be boiled alive.

  24. straffinrun

    Covered? Probably, but:

    Jon Miller
    @MillerStream
    Libertarianism is literal ideological rot that can statistically be proven to be directly responsible for deaths of millions. BUT WE JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE RABID POTHEADS CAN KILL WHOMEVER THEY WANT WITH GUNS FREEDOM AMERICA GAY MARRIAGE

    https://twitter.com/MillerStream/status/1241325026046914560

    • JD is Unemployed

      Well duh.

      • Fourscore

        Proof that our schools are doing a good job of what they’re good at

    • PieInTheSky

      I only killed 200 myself. I think I am slacking.

      • Fourscore

        Season is still open.

    • Animal

      The proper response to Mr. Miller is simply: “You’re an idiot.”

      • JD is Unemployed

        Or to point out that he forgot to mention the deadly vapes and prostitution, which are of course very dear to us, being the deranged whale-fucking Kochsuckers we are.

      • Animal

        Don’t forget Mexicans.

      • The Hyperbole

        Done, thanks for the guidance I was trying to come up with something snarky but your suggestion is correct.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Wow, these libertarians sound horrible. Luckily for us he’s battling a strawman that doesn’t actually exist.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      World’s greatest serial killers. More efficient than Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, Hitler and let’s throw in Chavez, the Kim-Jung Un (sp.? Racist!) and Lenin in there. And Ted Bundy. And a pinch of salt.

      • juris imprudent

        Ché was a great libertarian.

    • Gender Traitor

      “Pets can be very therapeutic during stressful situations and we hope that our animals can lend peace of mind to people as much as the foster families lend comfort and care to the animals. It is definitely mutually beneficial.”

      Can confirm.

      • Tulip

        Totally agree. But one paragraph stood out – it says the humane society will lose an estimated $285k because of the closure – I don’t get it. In donations? Costs are down because people are fostering the animals,. Are the fixed costs that high? Something is missing

      • Gender Traitor

        If they’re not doing permanent adoptions for the duration, they’re missing those fees. Don’t know if they’ve had to postpone any planned fundraisers.

        Besides the main shelter and their own mall storefront “boutique,” they also have animals (maybe just cats, as far as I know) onsite at many local pet supply stores. Don’t know if these have been fostered out and therefore not available for adoption right now.

      • hayeksplosives

        Lots of shelters holding “events” to get the critters gone before they are closed down. Nobody’s thinking of donations to the humane society right now.

      • Shirley Knott

        Based on what I see from a relatively nearby breed rescue organization, donations have dried up to pretty much zero. If the Humane Society gets donations, those are likely all but gone.
        If anyone knows of a Finnish Lapphund or Keeshond in need of a home, let me know.

  25. The Other Kevin

    That article on Medium that was posted here this weekend has been removed from Medium. You can now find it at Zero Hedge (!)

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Which article was that?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s been heavily criticized though but I didn’t go too in depth reading the criticisms.

      • Q Continuum

        It’s against the narrative of the necessity of absolute state control.

        Therefore it must be destroyed.

      • PieInTheSky

        yes I am sure there cannot be any valid criticism.

      • Subwoofer

        The criticisms are basically all rooted in appeal to authority.

        The author lacks the right credentials, so he can’t possibly know what he’s talking about, so anything he says is Trumpian disinformation.

        It is known the virus will kill millions and it will all be Trump’s fault. Anything to the contrary is politicizing the outbreak.

        And I thought climate science was politicized. It’s getting to the point that you really can’t trust anyone on anything with any political implications anymore. Since basically everything had political implications nowadays, that’s no bueno

      • PieInTheSky

        It is known the virus will kill millions – actually most valid criticism are that nothing is knows and so at least some care is warranted until more information is available given there is some case for concern.

      • leon

        To say nothing is known is a stretch. We can see what effects it had had, and even by those bounds the restrictions being proffered by government at the behest of the experts.

      • PieInTheSky

        true. not enough is known to dismiss the issue is better said.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I found the information on the likelihood of spread to be particularly interesting and comforting for lack of a better word. This is a big deal but it’s not the end of the world and just passing by someone on the street who has it doesn’t mean you’ll get infected too.

      • straffinrun

        I think there are a lot of lies by omission and probably some flat out lies being told by the experts working with the government. Blowing the whistle when the experts are lying to save lives (what they would be thinking that scenario) is not going to get you much good attention.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        “Telling the truth in a time of universal deceit is a revolutionary act and will get your article bounced off of Medium.”
        -Eric Blair

      • Don Escaped Texas

        likelihood of spread

        One of those articles pointed out the spread amongst airline employees was less than average. I don’t know how any such data could be collected, but, if true, this would pull the rug out from under the much of the popular advice.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        I sent this article to a doctor friend.

        https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/

        He said the author was ‘rambling’. I don’t profess to know about this but apparently statnews is a website doctors use and Ioannidis as respected statistician.

        Then again, the doctor believes Trump said the virus as a ‘hoax’. It takes nothing to look that up and see that’s not what he said.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s an interesting article but, as pointed out in the comments, the author makes a number of nonevidence based assumptions that undermine his overall premise.

      • straffinrun

        “If you have a COVID-19 patient in your household, your risk of developing the infection is about 10%….If you were casually exposed to the virus in the workplace (e.g., you were not locked up in conference room for six hours with someone who was infected [like a hospital]), your chance of infection is about 0.5%”

        -Dr. Paul Auwaerter, the Clinical Director for the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

        Even if they criticized the author of the article, it doesn’t appear they could/would criticize this doctor and his credentials. Unless that quote is made up or tweaked, that little nugget of info flies straight in the face of what we’re being led to believe. Led to believe or being allowed to believe.

      • RAHeinlein

        BS – all those kids on beaches during Spring Break were infected, and then they went to their grandparents retirement communities and infected them. It’s just simple math.

    • Sean

      Fucking Thespians.

      • straffinrun

        Tell me you have a lisp because it sounds better that way.

      • Mojeaux

        LOL

        My dad was hinting at a schoolmate, who was in the school production, being gay and told me, “He’s a thespian.”

        “HE IS NOT!!!”

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He was right, my view actors are one step below those who handle the dead and two steps below tanners and the launderers who use urine to wash my toga.

    • l0b0t

      #2 looks like my soon-to-be ex wife. #37 is the greatest of all time. Of ALL TIME!

    • PieInTheSky

      1 5 and 34

  26. Trigger Hippie

    ‘ROME – People who cannot get to confession because of the coronavirus lockdown or another serious reason can go to God directly, be specific about their sins, request pardon and experience God’s loving forgiveness, Pope Francis said.’

    Luther vindicated!….except for the whole “Kick the kikes out of Germany” thing.

  27. Mojeaux

    I had a client who wrote a little book on forgiveness. He was Catholic. Part of my job was to critique the work. I did, and some terrific discussions followed. I told him [[[we]]] don’t have a mechanism for ongoing confession. He said, “I know and that is very sad.”

    It made me think about the emotional (placebo?) impact of receiving absolution from an authorized representative of God.

    • PieInTheSky

      if you send me 500$ in bitcoin I can absolve you of everything.

      • Jarflax

        Never trust a one charge for all sins confessor! Come to my boutique confessional for a bespoke service! Isn’t your soul worth the extra effort?

      • Mojeaux

        Don’t be hasty.

        $500 in bitcoin can buy a lot of blow and assassinations.

      • Tejicano

        “Where I grew up, I kill a man like yu fo’ Five-hunend dolla’.

        But yu? Yu my fren’. I kill yu fo’ free”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      My impression of Catholicism has always been that it offers peace of mind thru ordered process and repetition. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely for some.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, I have always vaguely felt that, but never thought about it.

      • Homple

        @Scruffy, I was raised Catholic and from everything I saw, you are correct.

  28. Sean

    Range cancelled their ham shoot for today. Means the ranges will be open. Might be a good day to go.

    • Trigger Hippie

      They were going to shoot William Shatner?! Monsters!

    • Not Adahn

      One of my ranges has been closed. They are hiring a crew to disinfect the indoor range.

      • R C Dean

        Keep surfaces wet with bleach solution for 10 minutes.

        There. Sterilized.

        Not sure what you need a special crew for. Worst case – you have gunk you want to steam clean off and need a serious steam cleaner.

      • Not Adahn

        Probably if they have a receipt and a SoW that says everything has been cleaned in accordance with regulation number blah blah blah they’re off the hook. I have a feeling NY gun ranges are really good about liability.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        It just needs to be workers approved and trained by the United Brotherhood of Wiping Shit Down

  29. Tejicano

    This is the time of year in Japan when the school year changes. All Colleges, high schools, middle schools, grade schools, and kindergartens hold graduation ceremonies for the departing students. In ordinary years all other students attend to take part in the celebration. Most parents of the graduates show up in their Sunday best. It is such a big deal that my wife will stop and congratulate mothers of kids she knows who are graduating. (I’ve always found it a bit strange as “graduation” to me means high school or university)

    In the current pandemic some schools have cancelled but from what I’ve been hearing most schools are still holding ceremonies, although only with the graduates and a few teachers. It is very unusual – I don’t think it’s ever happened before.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      My brother will be graduating in May. They cancelled the ceremonies, of course. A bit sad but he’s more worried about being able to find a job after graduation.

      • Tejicano

        Lo siento.

        Really sorry to hear that. After years of working toward a goal with the expectation that it will lead to improved employment and income, just to see it snatched away at the last moment. I can inly hope that the rebound from this when it gets worked out will be even better for him than for the rest of us.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        I plan to buy him something nice for the occasion.

      • Tejicano

        I hope you give him enough magazines and ammo with that.

  30. PieInTheSky

    Orthodox confession in Romania is weirder than the catholic one. First there are no confessionals and there is no anonymity although I doubt there is any for Catholics who confess often in smaller parishes. You basically go to the priest who is sitting on a chair, you kneel next to him and he puts part of his priest garment on your head and listens to you.

    • Mojeaux

      [[[We]]] have a type of confession that isn’t anonymous, but no absolution per se is offered. If the sin is severe enough for excommunication, the excommunication-and-rebaptism process is absolution.

      • juris imprudent

        I never knew there was that kind of game reset.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes. It’s like bankruptcy. Start over with a clean slate, the sin washed away.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I watched a guy in Serbia beat his head on the stone floor while performing a couple dozen of what I assumed was the Orthodox version of a Hail Mary in front of the icon. He was pretty bloody by the end. Nobody else in the church, including the priest, even blinked at it.

      • Mojeaux

        There are those who engage in self-flagellation. It doesn’t seem to me that those people ever actually feel some measure of absolution. Forgiveness/absolution is really not something you can give yourself.

      • Fourscore

        “There are those who engage in self-flagellation”

        Finns at a sauna

    • PieInTheSky

      Also communion is ickier in Romania cause the wine is in a cup and everyone gets a teaspoon of wine, same teaspoon same cup.

      Also baptism is more traumatic as the child is stripped and dunked completely in water 3 times then dresses in different clothes.

      Also catholic priests cannot marry, in Romania you cannot be made a priest unless you are married.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I wonder if the orthodox church has a problem with umm…you know.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Every system that offers adults explicit and unquestioned influence and power over children has problems with umm.. you know.

      • PieInTheSky

        not that extensive… choir boys are not that much of a thing. Or Sunday school.

  31. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Nobody in the media is discussing the municipal pension crisis that just came out of hibernation and mauled the locals yet.

    But every pension fund manager out there is probably contemplating suicide.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Just soak the rich, that always solves everything.

    • Fourscore

      Just add another Trillion on to the bail out. At this point what difference does it make?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Now that would be a silver lining.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Unless they change radically, a lot of these places are likely to go under in coming years,” Carlson said on his show Thursday. “There’s not enough federal bailout money in the treasury to save every pointless university in a bad recession. They will be gone for good- closed, repurposed, we can hope, into much needed efficiency apartments with loads of appealing green space.”

      I like this idea.

      • Jarflax

        There’s not enough federal bailout money in the treasury

        There is no money in the Treasury. That is what running at a deficit means. They will print to order unil the day that people stop taking dollars, at which point you won’t get to pick and choose what things collapse and go away. They will all collapse and go away. You MAY get some say in what gets recreated afterwards, but don’t bet on liking it.

      • Fourscore

        . “You MAY get some say in what gets recreated ” or not.

    • Hyperion

      “many college diversity deans could soon be “out of work.”

      Nah, they’ll all get raises and promotions and more will be hired. They’ll fire all the students before letting the really mission critical diversity people go.

    • Suthenboy

      I saw that bit. I have known for a long time that the university scam was going to run off of the rails but I did not expect it to happen like that. Good riddance as far as I am concerned.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Poor thing, I had no idea the virus effects the facial musculature.

    • straffinrun

      Lemme guess. She didn’t have to listen to her dad’s music?

  32. blackjack

    I’ve got to get away!

      • blackjack

        I was considering vacationing in Philly, but they won’t let me fly with weapons. 29 bucks is about what I imagine it’s worth, though.

  33. robc

    Went to urgent care this morning, I have COVID-21. Its 2 worse.

    Its a sinus infection, I have avoided going for a few days because of sick people. Pick up prescription when pharmacy opens at 11.

    • Mojeaux

      The barometer is effing crazy. I’ve awakened with a stuffed up. aching face every morning for the last week.

    • straffinrun

      My friend and I were talking about how we could intentionally get infected if we wanted to. I suppose the cruise ship is still there, but other than that, we really couldn’t come up with much.

    • LJW

      Covid-21!? Well at least it’s old enough to go out to the bars.

      • robc

        I made it up.

    • Gender Traitor

      That’s awesome! : D

    • blackjack

      That’s cool A/F!

      Here’s my my quarantine song.

      Sorry, I tested positive for the Rockola virus. Makes me play one song at a time.

    • juris imprudent

      I was okay with the guitar but that voice, wow – nails on a chalkboard.

  34. AlmightyJB

    I saw Yngwie back in the 80s. Opened for Trump. Was tripping balls. There was an upcoming Chinese festival, and these people were running around outside the concert hall in a Chinese Dragon outfit. Was pretty sweet.

    • Mojeaux

      I went on an Yngwie jag for a while. I liked him better than other metal because it was so classically inspired.

    • Hyperion

      “Opened for Trump.”

      Bad orange man has his own rock bands? He’s even more diabolical than imagined.

  35. LCDR_Fish

    Not sure why Holman doesn’t ring a bell for me – although I’m sure I’ve seen his art around over the years.

    But dang, great little gag on his wiki page:

    To make a long Foo short, here is the dope, and I do mean me. I was born in the state of frenzy, but for present purposes let’s make it Indiana. At an early age my father died, and I was sent out into the world to make a living for my mother, one cat with a sore tail, and no kitten. This all happened in Nappanee, Indiana. My first job was running a popcorn machine for the local dime store. This is considered excellent training for a comic artist and no doubt accounts for a certain corny touch which so many of my gags seem to have. At 16, I was working in the art department of the Chicago Tribune. Having lost my eraser, I realized I could afford to make no more mistakes, so Scripps-Howard made the next one and hired me. For the next two years, I drew no crowds but plenty of drawings. My strip act laid an egg, the art editor threw it at me, and I was on my way to New York. After seven years of itch and drawing a kid comic for the New York Herald Tribune, I entered the magazine field. The following five freelance years were happy and profitable. Hundreds of my drawings infested the pages of Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post, Life, Judge and Everybody’s Weekly of London. This work drew the attention of the Tribune-News Syndicate and I was asked to submit a Sunday feature. The outcome was Smokey Stover, Spooky, the cat, seven daily cartoons and Foo. I have always liked firemen. And now that I’m being paid to draw about their adventures, I can tell you I’m just crazy about them.

  36. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I don’t care for his economics but Tucker nails it once again.

    Were you concerned that your own network was downplaying it and using the word ‘hoax’ to describe it?

    It’s not my job to get involved in that. My feeling is that the cost of lying in news coverage for three and a half years and making every story about Donald Trump and how he is a bad person, which everyone in the news media has done, has made 40% of the country deaf to what you’re saying.

    No one believes the media because every story rotates around the axis of Trump. And it’s just ludicrous. I’m not saying Donald Trump is blameless. I’ve criticized him many times on my show. … I wasn’t pivoting against my own network. I was pivoting against the entire news establishment which was ignoring this because Donald Trump was on trial in the Senate.

    But isn’t skepticism toward the president understandable because he does not always have a precise grasp of the facts?

    My position for the last three and a half years has been our problems are basically bipartisan problems. I went after a Republican Senate committee chairman last night (Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who sold stock holdings after being briefed on the severity of the coronavirus). I think what he did is wrong. A very common attitude among people in charge which is, ‘I don’t care about you; I care about me.’ I don’t think that’s a partisan thing. I don’t think it’s a Republican versus Democrat problem at all. You watch MSNBC or CNN. the Democrats are saintly and anyone on Trump’s team is evil … They are liars because they are telling viewers that it’s that simple. It’s not that simple. It’s not one party is on your side and the other is against you; it’s the people with power don’t care about you. That’s my view and it always has been.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      One of the perils of focusing everything on Trump is that you miss the fact that Trump is a symptom not the cause and the whole system is rotten and everyone in charge is an idiot.

      • juris imprudent

        That is heresy to everyone but the Bernie bros – they think the system sucks too. Everyone else just wants the right man on top of them.

    • robc

      Public Choice Theory.

      • juris imprudent

        Conclusively shown to be racist – because otherwise we might have to accept it and our house of ideological cards would collapse. /progs

    • Rhywun

      “Blah blah blah, let’s talk some more about Trump.”

    • Rufus the Monocled

      The media isn’t practicing skepticism.

      They’re practicing yellow journalism.

      • Mojeaux

        Yanno, this is the way journalism has been since it was invented. Everybody forgets that 19th century journalism was little more than gossip rags and whipping people up into a frenzy against the politician they didn’t like.

      • Shirley Knott

        They also ignore the more recent history wherein most large cities had 2 major newspapers, 1 for each party. It was not only known but in a sense celebrated. You read the newspaper of your team.

      • leon

        Someone on Michael Malices show said: three press doesn’t have a democratic bias. They are the democratic party. They are the ones who pushed pelosi into impeachment when she didn’t want to.

      • Rhywun

        yellow journalism

        ?
        ?

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Are yer yella?
        I think yer yella.

        I forget which Loony Tunes that’s from.

      • Rhywun

        Gotta be Yosemite Sam.

  37. RAHeinlein

    Steve Bannon on Maria Bartiromo calling Covid-19 the CCP virus.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That’s what the colloquial name should be and it puts the blame where it belongs.

    • Not Adahn

      You don’t use prunes for figging.

  38. Q Continuum

    “Holdouts remained, as you would expect in a culture built on individualism.”

    https://apnews.com/a82294fc0723630d850603dd7b016ad5

    Fortunately comrade, the Glorious State is taking measures to neutralize these wreckers and enemies of the people before they jeopardize the collective wellbeing!

    • leon

      Damn individuals!!!

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They suck!

      • leon

        My father was killed by an individual!!!

      • LJW

        Maybe one day we will all be collectivists. Everyone knows they’ve never harmed anyone.

      • Nephilium

        Of course not, they were just making the collective stronger.

    • Hyperion

      FREEDOM BAD!

      The epidemic is now bigger in Europe, where governments aren’t used to giving harsh orders, and citizens aren’t used to following them.

      • PieInTheSky

        where governments aren’t used to giving harsh orders – meh the orders are not harsh cause the people be sheep

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The NYT apparently believes China’s numbers and appears to be envious of their authoritarian measures.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        “ Virus Hits Europe Harder Than China. Is That the Price of an Open Society?”

        That’s actually a legitimate question and even if the answer is in the affirmative it’s worth it. This is a very unusual event and maybe being able to weld people in their homes is advantageous to preventing the spread of the virus but, when this is gone or controlled, the CCP will be just as authoritarian and oppressive as ever.

      • Tejicano

        ” Virus Hits Europe Harder Than China. Is That the Price of an Open Society?”

        For anybody who doesn’t believe so I will send them my three years of Mandarin language text books with the MP3 files so they can prepare to emigrate. Let me know in a year if you still think it was worth it.

        I had heard that there was a commune/village in China which was a group of western, anti-war (Vietnam war) people who went there and stayed. During my first trip to China in 1988 I was hoping to find out where they were. I would have congratulated the for sticking to their principles and staying – unlike Jane Fonda and her ilk who spewed propaganda but never backed it up.

      • Rhywun

        Experts say.

    • Suthenboy

      America changed, my ass.
      We have been through much worse.

      • Hyperion

        When I was a kid growing up, the threat of nuclear war with Russia seemed a lot scarier to me than a virus. Am I the only one who remembers the drills in elementary school where we would get under our desk? I had nightmares for years about that stuff. Fortunately, it never happened.

        And it may just be that we will not all die from this virus. The problem as I see it, is that we live in a society now where there is very little threat from anything. Which is how we got first world problems and why there is such a panic over this.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        +1 The Day After: assigned viewing in some schools. (or Threads for the Brits)

  39. Not Adahn

    Late start to the morning, but since all my Sunday activities have been cancelled NBD.

    Went to the creperie, called in the order from outside and picked it up. Instead of the filling (beef short rib, broccoli, Gruyere) being wrapped in a buckwheat crepe they laid down a buckweat crepe, piled an absurd amount of filling on it, and topped with a second crepe breton. This sort of thing is why I keep going back to particular places.

    • Subwoofer

      My state isn’t de jure in lockdown, but it is in de facto lockdown. Everywhere I’d want to go is shuttered, so while we could leave the house we can’t go anywhere except for a walk in the park. And it’s cold today with rain forecasted to start soon.

      Do not like.

    • westernsloper

      Wow, that sounds good. I have only seen crepes with sweet pie type filling or plain old jelly. What is this creature you speak of?

      • Not Adahn

        Crepe parisienne = sweet crepe, if a place only makes one type of crepe they will use this. I’ve gotten savory filings in them at fairs/festivals in Quebec.
        Crepe breton = buckwheat crepe, for savory fillings
        Crepe canadian = what Americans call “pancakes”

  40. CPRM

    Don’t worry Old Man, if that was 6 years ago, she’s safe from you now. She can rest easy.

    • CPRM

      When I met up with SP and and OMWC SP asked me if I got the comedy that she didn’t in his character. Then I explained my cartoon Idea I’ve had for 20 years about a scout leader…she still didn’t get the humor.

  41. Not Adahn

    striking a a female neighbor in the face with a purse inside a parking garage at the Renaissance condominium complex, causing the neighbor, who is 87 years old, to fall and suffer facial lacerations and bruises.

    Hate crimes are bullshit, but knocking an 87 year old onto a concrete surface is attempted murder.

  42. Pope Jimbo

    So yesterday I walked around a local lake. The loop of walking paths is a little over 5 miles and it was festooned with chalk messages that some little band of kids wrote. Mini-Tundra upbeat messages.

    “Don’t Panic”, “Walk at your own pace and have fun”, “You are great”, “We’re fine”, etc, etc. Miles of messages like that. Pictures of flowers and fireworks.

    What a great thing to see. It was also amazing how many other walkers were out and about.

    *Fish Lake is where I was walking if any other Minnesoda Glibs are wondering.

    • CPRM

      Those weren’t written by kids, but by hippies too stoned to know what is going on.

      • Jarflax

        Hippies are pretty much little kids that never grew up. At least the old school hippies were.

  43. PieInTheSky

    Thinkins of the CHIANA COMUNIST VIRUS I am thinking that one issue is that actual flu deaths are not properly counted. Most estimates I have seen are from various models.

    Is there a country that somehow counts? Like people who are diagnosed with the flu and there is reason to believe the flue caused death?

    • PieInTheSky

      CHIANA COMUNIST was an intentional misspelling, Thinkins was meant to be thinking.

      • PieInTheSky

        also I randomly misspelled the word, was not thinking of farscape

      • Not Adahn

        But now I’m thinking of Chiana.

    • Hyperion

      “Is there a country that somehow counts?”

      Well, they don’t teach the countin in American schools anymore, on count of it being racist.

      • leon

        I knew them census workers were unsavory.

  44. Timeloose

    My wife and I are watching NYPD blue from beginning to end as she was too young when it was on TV in the early years.

    Great cop drama, but by watching it back to back several things become clear. If you get brought in for questioning by the NYC PD.

    1) Be prepared to get roughed up, then confess as soon as possible.
    2) Never ask for a lawyer, the cops have you best interests in mind and will not be able to help you once you lawyer up.
    3) They will never lie to you, so believe everything they tell you.

    • PieInTheSky

      she was too young when it was on TV – humble brag?

      • Timeloose

        More of an indictment of her parents and their ban on TV watching. Also it was on past her bedtime.

    • CPRM

      +1 Dennis Farina’s ass!

      • Timeloose

        Franz not Farina

      • Mojeaux

        Farina was the first detective on L&O, very nattily and expensively dressed, with the running joke that he had mysterious wealth and was just slumming in the PD because he had nothing better to do.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        Montana came well into the second decade. Are we talking about the same character?

      • Mojeaux

        My bad. I knew I was wrong as soon as I hit post. I lose time and mix up timelines. I think I had that i pression because he was there such a short time.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        I vaguely remember Dzundza as a very uncompelling character early in the series.

        Lennie Briscoe is my spirit animal. No amount of hot ADA can get me to watch L&O when he’s not in the cast.

      • Mojeaux

        I loved Lennie. I loved Mike. And I was shipping Jack and Claire so hard I—

        Um, never mind.

      • CPRM

        Don’t Dennis shame me!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Crime Story’s lost third season.

    • Not Adahn

      Some of the acting was just remarkable.

      There was a scene where Denis Franz’ character was about to lose his temper, and he somehow managed to draw his chin up into the rest of his skull, making his profile even more beaky than usual. I’ve never seen a better physical representation of someone about to lose their shit than that.

      • Timeloose

        That’s why I’m still watching it. Great performances.

      • kinnath

        It was a great show.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      Great show. The Sipowicz arc was maybe the best ever on a tv show. He played a nasty drunk as well as anyone has. And he got some amazing ass for such an ugly dude..
      Franz also played a similar character on Hill St. Blues.

      • Suthenboy

        I had a laceration once and treated it myself. Later my doctor scolded me and wanted to know why I had not gone to the ER.
        “Because I want to keep my arm, that’s why.”
        She asked what I meant by that.

        “I know they took micro and passed the course but watch the staff carefully. It is obvious that they either don’t care, don’t understand germ theory or they don’t believe it.”

        She didnt respond but I saw the subtle head nod that meant she was thinking “Yeah, that’s true”

      • blackjack

        The last bike wreck I had was a doozy. I got flipped over the fairing and landed 30 feet down the road. As I went over the bars, my hands broke the mirrors. This was shortly after that lady had a skiing accident and later died from brain swelling. The ER took double MRIs and were only concerned about my brain maybe swelling. I asked them to fix my huge cut on my right palm, but they declined, saying it’s not bleeding and to not worry.

        For the next three months my hand kept hurting worse and worse. It developed a bump in the large muscle that pulls the thumb. Finally, I got sick of it, so I sterilized and exacto knife and some tweezers and cut into it. I found a quarter inch triangle of mirror and plucked it out. It hurt digging it out, but then it healed over quickly and stopped giving me trouble. Seems like the experts like to focus on the object of their expertise, to the exclusion of the real problem, sometimes.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Oy.

        (Natasha Richardson)

      • Ayn Random Variation

        Jesus. Do you take a swig of whiskey and pull your own teeth too?

  45. westernsloper

    Because, of course, there’s no difference. Exactly the same thing. You’re all going to DIE.

    Like we are just like Italy. Hell most of us don’t even make Carbonara right.

    • Suthenboy

      That’s never going to die, is it?

      • Jarflax

        Turns out adding cream prevents Covid-19 from turning into pneumonia.

      • CPRM

        And stops Malaria, Donald told me so…

      • westernsloper

        Not if I have anything to say about it.

      • Suthenboy

        I may not make it right but I sure do make it well. That stuff is delicious. Next time I am adding shrimp and garnishing with cherry tomatoes cut in half. My local store has a particularly sweet and tasty variety they bill as ‘red candy’.

      • Suthenboy

        Oh, and I committed another sin. All of the recipes I saw called for parsley. I used sweet basil. I am an American and that’s what Americans do – we appropriate others culture and improve it.

      • westernsloper

        ?

        I mentioned the other day, along with tp, paper towel, pasta, rice, beans, etc…. the hoarders hit the frozen crawfish supply here. I was pissed.

      • blackjack

        I believe carbonara is American food, anyway. The GIs in WW2 asked for bacon and eggs. The wops then invented this for them specifically. At least, that’s the story I’ve been told. Modify it all you want (as if you needed permission!)

  46. Mojeaux

    So Kansas City just locked down. “Police will be asking why you are out” (only said much more gently).

    Where are your papers, comrade?

    • Ayn Random Variation

      “On my way to Independence Park to read the amendments and cry?”

  47. blackjack

    My wife sounds like a sports fan about this virus.

    “It’s a bold play, but in Florida a bunch of old people are dying. That just might turn the tide in this championship series. The Italians look unstoppable this year.”

  48. Ayn Random Variation

    If I’m supposed to be scared of catching this, why would I get take-out? All those coootied hands touching the food and packaging, plus being so close to the person taking your order and exchanging funds with them?