Wednesday Afternoon Links

by | Mar 4, 2020 | Daily Links | 426 comments

How does one even follow an H&H like that? I’ll just throw something up here and go back to that.

How do you say “Alice Cooper” in Italian?

These vegans need more protein, they got physically tossed by Jill Biden.

I think I read this book before. Eventually, every immortal who is not blessed with infinite strength gets trapped alone under something they can’t move, forever.

You know, this might be a perfect application of “red flag” gun laws.

Don’t play poker with your parrot.

 

1972 was a weird time.


Dem DeathWatch 2020 DeathWatch

Welcome now, my friends, to the end of Dem DeathWatch. It’s all over except for a headless chicken running around and girl trolling the DNC as hard as she can.

Bloomberg’s out. I’m sure many underlings will be insulted and belittled and slapped on their fat asses tonight. You’ll always have American Samoa, Mike.

Warren managed a solid 3rd place in her home state. That’s why she gets an L for loser. Because she’s a loser. Time to primary her back to her affirmative action job.

Why Gabbard is hanging on is God’s own private mystery, but the DNC has moved the goalposts again and she will not be in the 3/15 debate. So it’s just two goofy old men and a pissed off schoolmarm. Y’all gonna get scolded…

Bonus hysteria link!

Voting for the Safe Choice Means Doom for Us All

DOOOOOOO…

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

426 Comments

  1. Chipwooder

    Physically tossed by Dr. Jill Biden, Whoopi Goldberg-approved choice for Surgeon General:

    Washington Examiner

    @dcexaminer
    .@WhoopiGoldberg calls @DrBiden a “hell of a doctor”

    Whoopi wants her to be Surgeon General.

    Biden has a doctorate in education.

    Embedded video
    1,959
    11:21 AM – Mar 4, 2020

    • Gustave Lytton

      It’s not entirely her fault. Jill Biden has been obsessively titled Dr Biden for some time to conflate her degree.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        It’s not entirely her fault.

        Her Twitter handle is @DrBiden, wherein she refers to herself as “Dr. Jill Biden”. She’s not exactly demurring on the use of the title.

        Also pointed out: somehow it was never ‘Doctor Lynne Cheney’, despite her PhD in 19th-century British literature.

        TIL that many (most?) newspapers’ style manuals say to only use ‘Dr.’ for medical doctors (WaPo, NYT were mentioned).

      • Gustave Lytton

        Sorry, I meant Whoopi’s fault. Jill Biden is a driver behind it, or maybe Joe’s staff. Dunno. It’s been going on for years.

      • leon

        Jill Biden is a driver behind it

        You know what other driver was behind Joe Biden’s wife.

        :Runs, Hides:

      • Gustave Lytton

        Dr. McGillicuddy?

      • Tres Cool

        An 8 Wood ?

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Ah, gotcha. Though it doesn’t take much to confuse Whoopi.

        I was wondering how spirited Jill Biden’s dissertation defense (“Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students’ Needs”) at UD was. I’m sure nobody knew she was the wife of the longtime senator and in no way went easy on her.

      • Tonio

        Erm, it’s a doctorate in education. They are total jokes – bad methodologies copied crudely from psychology and sociology, methods lacking in rigor, lazy analyses. I could ghost write one of those.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Exactly – I suspect they _still_ didn’t press her on anything in her dissertation. If she even had to do a dissertation defense.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Erm, it’s a doctorate in education. They are total jokes – bad methodologies copied crudely from psychology and sociology

        Education tends to be “harder” methodologically than psychology and sociology. Education research, as opposed to studying to become a teacher, is usually very quantitative in focus and requires a sound knowledge of statistical inference. While psychology and sociology do have their quantitative sides, fuzzy qualitative “me”-search methodologies (autoethnography, anyone) are much more common.

        But what do I know?

      • Gustave Lytton

        STFU ACADEMICTARD.

      • Jarflax

        It seems to work from politically motivated conclusion backward through the methodology a lot.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I was hoping to take a look at the dissertation, but it looks to not be available electronically.

        This Executive Position Paper (EPP) studies student retention in the community college and Delaware Technical & Community College in particular. The paper focuses on four areas of students’ needs: academic, psychological, social, and physical. An overview of the paper is given, and an introduction to Delaware Technical & Community College is presented. First, the nature of the pre-tech (developmental) population is discussed. Then, a literature review offers current research by experts in the field. In addition, the results from pre-tech students, faculty, and advisor surveys and interviews are analyzed. Statistical information underscores the problem of retaining students, and personal accounts from students provide insight as to why students drop out. Overall, problem areas are identified, and recommendations and solutions are offered and encouraged.

        I’d be curious to see those statistical sections.

        It’s an Ed.D. in “educational leadership”, so I’m not sure how “hard” that is.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        @Jarflax

        It seems to work from politically motivated conclusion backward through the methodology a lot.

        I think that’s very true of all three, no? I’m not disputing education falls under the social sciences. 🙂

      • Jarflax

        I think that’s very true of all three, no? I’m not disputing education falls under the social sciences. ?

        LOL, fair point.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        It’s an Ed.D. in “educational leadership”, so I’m not sure how “hard” that is.

        It’s basically like a DBA or PhD in Management but focused on the educational context. Are they doing deep dives into Solomonoff probability? No. But you’re being trained…well, at least, you should be being trained in using empirical data with heuristics from the decision sciences and organizational psychology to make decisions at a range of levels (institutional, local, state, federal, etc.).

      • Old Man With Candy

        Black “ministers” also get it. It’s always Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        That annoys me as well. While we’re at it, when did “reverend” become a noun and not an honorific?

      • creech

        How dare you slander his memory. It is always “The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.”

      • Enough About Palin

        Not in the Minneapolis ghetto. Last year on MLK Day, So-Low grocery’s outdoor sign read:

        Happy Martin King Luther Day

        True story.

      • Tonio

        Yeah, outside of higher-ed use of the title by non-MDs is pretentious. Particularly for people with PhDs in education.

      • Warty

        Every pissant school district is run by a superintendent named “Doctor”.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Can confirm.

      • Chipwooder

        Superintendent? Even our principal was one of those phony-ass “doctors”

      • Warty

        One of my favorite high school memories was Doctor Principal telling my mom that she must be mistaken about what grade I was in, because the good Dr. knew all her juniors and she didn’t know me.

        After I got what must have been the highest SAT that that piece of shit school produced, she of course pretended that she had always known and loved me.

      • Enough About Palin

        True. My brother has a hard science PhD from UCLA and a post-doc from Columbia. He shuns the Dr. thing. He’a also living in one of the top-10 richest zip codes in the USA.

      • Warty

        I don’t make you idiots call me Dr. Warty. I should, though. Dr. Warty, PhD at Law.

      • Aloysious

        Wartsy, how about we just refer to you as ‘Dr. Doc’?

      • Private Chipperbot

        My best friend is an actual medical doc and never uses it, and tells us to not say anything to others so we can all get boozed up in peace.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I’m told I look quite a bit like Doctor Spaceman

      • Gadfly

        My personal taste would be that only practicing medical professionals use the title doctor, with retired doctors using MD and all other doctorate holders using the appropriate letters.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Hear, hear!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Only retired doctors?

        /Eugene Gu, MD

      • R C Dean

        In relatively recent terms (over the last, I dunno, 8 – 10 years?) I have noticed an increase in the number of lawyers appending “J.D.” to their names.

        Pretentious twats, IMO. At least back when I started practicing in Virginia back in the quill-pen days, we would use “Esq'” because old-school Virginia lawyers are old school.

      • Jarflax

        I agree. It is not a doctorate no matter what the Law Schools wantto claim.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        That’s like appending “M.B.A.” to your name. It may be technically accurate, but it’d make you like like a jackass in all but the most specific situations.

        Feel free to brag on your LL.D., but I don’t know too many of those.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        My personal taste would be that only practicing medical professionals use the title doctor

        It’s not us non-medical doctors fault that English is retarded.

        This is not a problem in other languages, in French your doctor is an “médecin”.

        Besides, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know why you all go ga-ga over a glorified biological mechanic. We other doctors actually had to contribute to the body of human knowledge by discovering or inventing something that no one had ever found or did before. But it’s the guy who studied how to burn off your hemorrhoids whose dick you’re rushing to suck.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Because if I’m having a heart attack and someone yells out, “is there a doctor in the house?”, I’m not hoping they’ll diagram the phonetic similarities between my grunts of pain and late 18th-century English.

        (I’m sure that last bit is nonsensical)

      • Jarflax

        And if your car won’t start you hire a mechanic, and if you need wheat you find a farmer. But if you wanted to preserve the Republic it would have been wise to have a few Philosophers and Historians on our side. I think the argument yesterday had some flaws on both sides, and I am not a fan of the vast majority of ‘scholarship’ today, but that is because there are many phonies in the towers.

      • Not Adahn

        “Human knowledge,” bah.

        I made new *stuff.* Actual physical chemical compounds that you could put into a vial or touch or taste (but I would really not recommend ingesting) that AFAWCT had never existed anywhere in the universe before.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Again, not my fault the English language is retarded.

        But I was referring more to what (sociologist!) Max Weber called “institutional mystique”.

      • Gadfly

        It’s not us non-medical doctors fault that English is retarded.

        True, but it’s what we got. Reserving “doctor” for the medical kind makes things clearer. Alternatively people could go around saying “Medical Doctor So-and-So” or “Philosophy-Doctor So-and-So”, but if it’s just going to be “Doctor” it should be for “médecins”.

        Besides, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know why you all go ga-ga over a glorified biological mechanic.

        Because mechanics are of much more practical use than the other type of doctors. Yes, a small portion of those doctors does produce useful things, but most of those “new” discoveries are trivialities. The trivia producing doctors are of the stature of boring entertainers, so they sully the rest of the title-bearers. Basically if the other doctors want the prestige of the medical doctors, they need to be more selective in who they bestow the title to.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Was that directed at me, Jarflex? Because I don’t disagree. But having philosophers and historians on anyone’s side is orthogonal to honorifics.

        People want “doctor” to mean medical doctor in case there’s a sudden need for one. My car can wait, my acute medical issue can’t.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        @Not Adahn

        New stuff is even better!

        But teaching others how to make that stuff is the transmission of new knowledge, no?

      • Not Adahn

        Of course. If you don’t publish, how can you get credit?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Because mechanics are of much more practical use than the other type of doctors. Yes, a small portion of those doctors does produce useful things, but most of those “new” discoveries are trivialities. The trivia producing doctors are of the stature of boring entertainers, so they sully the rest of the title-bearers. Basically if the other doctors want the prestige of the medical doctors, they need to be more selective in who they bestow the title to.

        No offense, but it always amuses me when I come across this sort of argument in libertarian circles.

        What have you done for the people, comrade? Though it is mixed in with the whole beer, tits, football, and Southern rock thing too.

      • The Hyperbole

        People want “doctor” to mean medical doctor in case there’s a sudden need for one.

        Outside of Zucker brothers films is this really a concern?

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Outside of Zucker brothers films is this really a concern?

        Yes – Dr. Drew Pinsky just had that happen on a flight from NY to Denver.

        Talks about it here, if you’re interested: https://podcastone.com/episode/1227-Is-There-A-Medical-Professional-On-The-Flight

        starting ~ 4:30

        TBF, the phrasing was “is there a medical professional on the flight?”, I suspect for reasons we’re discussing.

      • Jarflax

        People want “doctor” to mean medical doctor in case there’s a sudden need for one. My car can wait,

        my acute medical issue can’t.

        I’m sorry but this argument makes no sense at all. An expert in Provencal poetry being called Doctor has no impact whatsoever on your access to an MD in an emergency. Do you actually believe that the PhD is going to jump forth and begin treating you in your distress? Or that the MD will hang back because there is a PhD present? The hostility toward honorifics is silliness.

        Is a guy pretentious if he insists on his titles? Sure, but that is because he is making an issue out of a it, not because he earned the title and courtesy dictates that you should use it. It comes from the egalitarian side of things not the libertarian and is a different face of the same coin as the left wing hatred of the wealthy.

      • The Hyperbole

        Yeah no, not times where someone needs and calls for a ‘doctor’ but times where someone calls for a doctor and some Egyptology pipes up.

      • Jarflax

        Yeah no, not times where someone needs and calls for a ‘doctor’ but times where someone calls for a doctor and some Egyptology pipes up.

        Not even the Egyptologist piping up is enough to make the point, his piping up would have to dissuade the MD from piping up to have the effect being argued.

      • The Hyperbole

        that was a response to Slumbrew, my example of a Zucker brothers film scenario.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        I deserve a title. Why cum there no pilot title?

        Francisco d’Anconia, GOF (God of Flight)

      • Tundra

        Depends. What do you fly?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Is a guy pretentious if he insists on his titles?

        Context is everything, of course.

        Shit, my undergrads call me [first name]. However, if I were presenting a paper at a conference and after having been properly introduced, someone refers to me as Mr. [last name] during the Q&A, that’s a calculated insult.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        … he earned the title and courtesy dictates that you should use it.

        That’s where we disagree – I don’t think courtesy dictates I should refer to the Provençal poetry expert with a PhD as “doctor” outside of very specific professional settings (e.g., we’re on a panel at a conference).

        If I’ve just met the guy, Courtesy does not dictate I say “Doctor Gascoigne, please pass the beer nuts” when we’re at the local, especially if I’m not any sort of colleague.

        It’s a tempest in a teapot – he’s free to call himself doctor at the bar, I’m free to think he’s a douche for doing so and we’re all reduced to saying “is there a medical professional in the house?” when someone overdoes it on the jaegerbombs.

      • Gadfly

        What have you done for the people, comrade?

        You’re looking at it all wrong. The thought is “What have you don for me?”, which is the most individualistic attitude there is. 😉

        Garbage men are more valuable to me than 90% of non-medical doctors.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        However, if I were presenting a paper at a conference and after having been properly introduced, someone refers to me as Mr. [last name] during the Q&A, that’s a calculated insult.

        100% agreed. Context is, as you say, everything.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        Depends. What do you fly?

        Nothing for ten years, now. But, by god, I did’t spend 18 months at evil pilot training to be called Mr!

      • Spartacus

        Insistence on titles is usually inversely proportional to their significance.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        “It’s Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, please”

      • leon

        And what about this “Dr. Seuss” Guy?!?! I hear he wasn’t even a real doctor.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Don’t forget Dr Science!

      • Drake

        Just don’t tell me that Dr. Death Stece Williams wasn’t a real doctor.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Just wait until AOC gets her honorary doctorate.

      • Gustave Lytton

        *zombie Dr Toni Morrison nods knowingly*

      • Chipwooder

        Don’t forget <em<Doctor Christine Blasey Ford. I don’t know how you could, since the media obsessively called her “Doctor” every 30 seconds to try and give that lying gutterscrunt a veneer of credibility.

      • C. Anacreon

        I think Bill Cosby used to put his name on the titles at the end of his shows as “William H. Cosby Jr, Ed.D. (hon)”, giving himself his honorary doctorate degree as a suffix.

        He did seem to know a lot about pharmacology, though.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        He knew enough to get by.

      • Chipwooder

        Perhaps……the “hell of a doctor” part would still be funny, though.

        Julius Erving was a hell of a doctor, too – let’s make him Surgeon General!

      • Chipwooder

        Also -rans: Dr Demento, Dr Johnny Fever, Robert “Dr Doom” Brazile, and Skip “Dr Death” Thomas

      • pan fried wylie

        Tom Baker for Surgeon General or GTFO.

      • Sean

        ?

      • SDF-7

        Nah… he’ll be up for Curator of the National Gallery of Art.

        He likes to revisit the old favorites, we understand…

    • SugarFree

      “tweet is unavailable”

      • Ted S.

        Damn your nimble fingers!

      • Chipwooder

        Well, shit, it was available a few minutes ago.

        It was a Bloomberg ad on PornHub

      • Chipwooder
      • Ted S.

        Also unavailable.

      • Chipwooder

        Well, it won’t work for whatever reason. If you really want to see it, maybe the image alone will work, but now it’s been so built up that it’s bound to be disappointing.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        She apparently admitted she was wrong.

        Her handle should be #I’llbewronganyway

    • Rebel Scum

      It popped up and finished for me.

      • Private Chipperbot

        Those ads are getting really advanced!

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Are we talking about the ad?

  2. Rufus the Monocled

    Tell me about it.

    I was born in ’72.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Probably should have been with the Dr. thread above.

      • Charles Easterly

        Ted S.:
        “Also born in 1972.

        1972 music”

        Ted S., that is quite a depressing song, and in your honor I will attempt to post a link to its lyrics here .

    • kinnath

      kinnath says “my god you people make me feel old”

      4score then says “settle down young man”

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Love that damn song. Great choice!

    • Tonio

      You kids get off my lawn.

      • C. Anacreon

        Effing punks, all of them.

    • Shirley Knott

      I turned 21 in 72. “Interesting times” doesn’t begin to cover it.

  3. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Welcome now, my friends, to the end of Dem DeathWatchh to the show that never ends…

    • MikeS

      Step inside, step inside.

  4. Rebel Scum

    they got physically tossed by Jill Biden.

    That’s how she takes care of Joe as well.

    • pistoffnick

      tossed…like a salad?

      • Tonio

        What you have done there – I observe it approvingly.

      • C. Anacreon

        Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin’,

        Tossed salad and scrambled eggs

    • Bobarian LMD

      She tosses him while he smells her hair?

      • Tonio

        Only when she’s wearing the mid-century little girl party dress and the Mary Jane patent leather shoes.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Now I feel like I should go wash off.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’m disappointed no shotgun blasts were involved

  5. leon

    For the many decades Joe Biden was a senator, Congress had ample time and opportunity to curb the climate crisis. Instead, it made it worse by fostering the fossil fuel industry and letting carbon pollution skyrocket. As vice president, Biden was part of an administration that oversaw a fracking boom that made matters worse.

    Isn’t this true for Bernie too….

    • Not Adahn

      Nah, Bernie never did anything in the Senate, so he couldn’t have done those bad things.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Didn’t the fracking boom reduce CO2 emissions which is the worst thing ever? How did it make matters worse?

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Because we’re not back to living in caves yet.

  6. The Other Kevin

    Mrs. TOK was planning on competing in a powerlifting comp this weekend that was related to the Arnold Classic. But yesterday Arnold himself cancelled all but the 2 premier events. Corona had arrived! In a sense.

    • Spartacus

      I have been in meetings every day this week–including Sunday–trying to plan how we are going to handle things on my campus. This week is spring break for us so we have until Monday to figure it out. So far our statewide governing board has said absolutely nothing.

  7. slumbrew - double secret satan

    Voting for the Safe Choice Means Doom for Us All

    Gizmodo – because nothing says “high-tech news” like an analysis of a primary.

  8. Tres Cool

    Fir……

    TENTH!

  9. Tundra

    Hi Brett!

    1972 might have been weird, but it was also amazing!

    • kinnath

      This is 1972!

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Not 1975?

  10. grrizzly

    Sessions finished 2nd in the GOP primary for a US Senate seat in Alabama. There will be a runoff. Trump is pleased.

    • leon

      Sessions is a piece of shit. I hope he looses.

      • creech

        He did, at least, acknowledge last year that the Civil War was caused by slavery. His Confederate ancestors aren’t turning in their graves because they knew that all along.

    • Tonio

      Socon cookie elf.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Trump knows how to hold a grudge. My Irish ancestors would approve (“Irish alzheimer’s – you forget everything but the grudges”).

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        When it comes to Sessions the grudge is more than justified. That Keebler elf is a duplicitous bastard.

  11. Rebel Scum

    So you’re saying there’s a chance…

    The overall takeaway from Super Tuesday is that former Vice President Joe Biden won the night. However, Fox News contributor Karl Rove believes Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has a path to the nomination because of California.

    “Let’s not kid ourselves, we’re focused on Biden who had a big night but the guy who had a better morning is Bernie because the results are coming in [from] California,” Rove said on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday morning. …

    Rove has previously argued that Bernie Sanders is the most formidable candidate against President Donald Trump. Last year, when Bernie appeared in a Fox News town hall, Rove said that showed Bernie’s willingness to buck party trends and pull in a diverse coalition of voters. Keep in mind, Bernie appeared on Fox News in defiance of DNC chair Tom Perez’s decision to blackball the network from hosting Democratic presidential primary debates.

    “That was a smart move on his part,” Rove said, later adding that Sanders has learned from previous mistakes. “He is a lot more fluid.”

    Rove said that, as has clearly been on display throughout this election primary, Bernie had a talent for pivoting on issues when being confronted on his more controversial positions.

    “He says, ‘I paid all the taxes I owe,’ and he quickly pivots and says, ‘I released 10 years of tax returns, President Trump ought to do the same,’” Rove said in 2019. “Martha says, ‘You know, here’s Mayor Pete, he says there should be a new generation of leadership. You will be 79 if you’re sworn in as president.’ He makes a joke. He says, ‘It’s a fair question.’ He says, ‘It’s not whether you’re young or old, it’s what you believe.’”

    “Every time he brought it back to his message,” Rove continued. “That demonstrated to me that he has learned from having run before. He really did a good job of softening the edges of socialism. Whenever the issue came up, he made it feel warm and fuzzy, kumbaya, shake hands, run around the campfire.”

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      ” run around the campfire”

      Well you have to do something for heat.

    • leon

      It’s not over till it’s over, so we shall see what happens. 5 days ago everyone was saying that Biden would be out by this time now.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        It’s over. Biden’s the nominee. The only question is, now that it looks like Biden will have the most delegates (if not an outright majority), if the Berniebots turn the convention into Chicago 1968 (they probably will).

      • leon

        ^^ I can agree with this.

      • The Last American Hero

        More like Portland 2019, bike locks and all.

    • Rasilio

      Hey, you know, if Warren stays in the race…

      she might just win 1/1024th of the delegates

    • Chipwooder

      There’s also the fact that Biden’s senility gets more and more obvious.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Leading him to nominate Michelle Obama VP

    • B.P.

      People are still interviewing Karl Rove?

      • Sensei

        He has a regular column in the WSJ.

        I normally click the headline look at the byline and quickly move to the next article.

      • Drake

        He still shows up on Fox. I sometimes watch just to hear what the old mainstream Republicans are thinking.

    • Francisco d'Anconia

      Is it just me being old, or is what’s now considered a nice ass way too big?

      In 10 years half those women are gonna look like they’ve got two puppies fighting under a blanket!

      • Heroic Mulatto

        If you’re thinking that you’ll still want her in your life 10 years from now, you are too old for this game.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        *nods in reluctant acceptance*

      • Tundra

        My buddy always described it as “two bobcats fighting it out in a burlap sack”.

      • The Last American Hero

        More like a Costco sized sack of wet popcorn.

  12. Juvenile Bluster

    Today in fun with qualified immunity (for once not granted!), a court had to say this, wherein a cop frames a man for murder and he ends up in prison for 23 years before the conviction is overturned… because the dude’s mom rejected his sexual advances.

    Golubski is correct that in 1994, no Tenth Circuit court had held that an officer violates the clearly established right to familial association by framing a son for murder in retaliation for the mother’s rejection of sexual advances. But every reasonable officer would have understood that this egregious conduct violates that right. The Court overrules Golubski’s motion on this issue.

    It should be noted that this cop had a long history of raping women (by giving them the “have sex with me or I’ll arrest you/someone you love” ultimatum) and framing people to curry favor with the drug gangs. He was never punished for it and was promoted to Captain before he retired, despite people in the PD knowing what he was doing.

    https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article240869481.html

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Idris Elba is looking rough.

      You have to wait until the 7th para before the dirty cop’s name is mentioned, and no picture, of course.

    • leon

      I sometimes wonder if we really are “more civilized” because we no longer go out and drag pieces of shit like this through the streets before flaying them alive and then leaving their bodies where everyone can see them.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        I am very much against the death penalty and very much in favor of a broad interpretation of the 8th Amendment.

        However, if they left Mr. McIntyre alone with an array of weapons in a room with “Officer” Golubski tied to a chair … well, I wouldn’t feel too bad about it.

      • Chipwooder

        Someone should whisper to Hillary that Officer Golubski knows what happened to Seth Rich.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        There are worse things than the occasional bout of vigilante justice. No torture though.

    • Jarflax

      Let’s replace the “clearly established right” standard with the “ask a random11 year old” standard, wherein the cop gets immunity only if the random 11 year old cannot decide whether the conduct was right or wrong when told what the cop knew at the moment of the decision.

      • leon

        It’s sad when the “Justice” system you have is less just than one that would make the determinations at the whims of an 11 year old.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Publicly flay the fucker

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Heh, straight out of central casting…

  13. Endless Mike

    Maybe Jill was protecting the vegans from Joe…

    Also, “Lunging Vegans” is a great band name.

    • Private Chipperbot
      • Bobarian LMD

        Exactly what I thought it was.

        He was just too high strung.

    • pan fried wylie

      Leaping Vegans is better.

  14. UnCivilServant

    Well, there’s something I can add to the list of things I’ve done – reupholstered a chair.

    It helps that I couldn’t really just sit down comfortably until I’d finished with the chair.

    And the microsuede I got matches the original parts, so 😀

    • Tonio

      Whoa, that’s impressive.

      • UnCivilServant

        Just don’t look at the underside. It’s kinda ugly.

    • Not Adahn

      Next up: an alligator case for the 10/22.

  15. Old Man With Candy

    Where’s Sensei? I want to tell him all about my new ADC/DAC.

    • Chipwooder

      Is that a cover band?

      • Tundra

        The newest virus from SE Asia.

      • Bobarian LMD

        It’s the latest addition to the LBGTQWERTY+ string.

      • The Last American Hero

        So a cover-superband.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Heathen. Peasant.

      • Chipwooder

        Heathen, definitely. I don’t think I live close enough to the land to be a peasant, though.

    • Sensei

      Right here!

      Priced right?

      • Old Man With Candy

        Yep. RME ADI-2 FS Pro in black.

      • Sensei

        Want!

        Still priced a little too dear for my needs. Great value if you need one, however.

        I’m rocking a Topping D50s and quite happy as I don’t have much need for the ADC.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Nobody NEEDS one. But the distortion and bandwidth are so excellent that I can use it an a measurement tool. Lower distortion than an AP, and a 768kHz sample rate.

      • Sensei

        That was what I figured you were going to do with it.

        It is a bargain to use for that purpose.

        The only thing bad I can say is that firmware seems a bit of the Wild West. When I looked at the DAC only from RME there was no change log and the firmware was in individual posts on their forum.

        Hopefully things are better now.

      • Old Man With Candy

        I set it up yesterday with zero issue.

        I should mention that I got a friendly price from them, so unlike the goyim, I didn’t pay retail. Reviewers have mad privileges. (actually, it was a gift from another friend, so I paid zero- he got the discount)

        Funny thing was that it had to practically be smuggled out of China.

      • Shirley Knott

        !boggle!

        I had an RME interface on my Mac years ago. Rock solid, but interfaces were in flux then and it got obsoleted and then deleted. I don’t record any longer so I haven’t bothered.

    • Jarflax

      Aide de Camp/Deputy Assistant Commissar?

      • Sensei

        Look, the sample rate comment from OMWC should be your clue!

  16. Rebel Scum

    Muh ghost guns

    “These guns attempt to circumvent the hard fought and carefully considered gun safety laws of the District of Columbia,” said Councilmember Allen. “We know they are used in violent crimes. They’re not for hobbyists or collectors. They’re being used for one purpose: to inflict harm in our communities.”

    In just one year, between 2018 and 2019, the District saw a 364 percent increase in the recovery of ghost guns. In 2017, the Metropolitan Police Department recovered only three ghost guns in the District; in 2018, 25 ghost guns were recovered; and in 2019, 116 ghost guns were recovered. In just the first six weeks of this year, 28 ghost guns have already been recovered. The types of ghost guns recovered in the District include handguns and rifles, including assault weapons such as AR-15s.

    • Chipwooder

      Damn…..it’s almost as if criminals have no respect for the law!

    • RegicidalManiac

      Good. The more technology works to make gun control an impossibility, the better. These tyrants can’t understand that their desire for prior restraint is immoral, so we need to make it obvious that it’s impossible.

    • Q Continuum

      “We know they are used in violent crimes.”

      Because everyone knows that violent criminals are going to go through the effort to mill out an 80% receiver.

  17. J. Frank Parnell

    I won’t conjecture about what lives in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans, but it’s clear there’s a disconnect between caring about climate change and understanding what actions are necessary to address it.

    Wait, so people nod along and make a concerned face when you talk about climate change and say “oh yeah, we should do something about that”, but then balk at the part where they have to give up their cars and their air conditioning and pay 10x more for electricity (now with constant rolling blackouts)?

    Huh. How about that.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      Housing should be cheaper. Just don’t build any of it near me.

  18. Mojeaux

    Who decided to drink out of a four-legged animal’s teats?
    Who decided it would be awesome to eat bee poop?
    How did someone figure out you could make fabric out of worm poop?

    • UnCivilServant

      The silkworm question is easier, since they make a sort of fabric anyway, so the hard part was working out how to harvest it.

      It’s likely honey was already a food source before we became people.

      What I wonder is how desperate were the people who first ate oysters.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Mmmm, oysters. That was the bulk of my dinner last night.

        But yes, visually those are not something that screams out “I’m delicious!”.

      • Tonio

        Our closest living relatives, the Chimpanzees, love them some grubs. We’ve been eating bugs, snails and gods know what else [side-eyes HM] forever.

      • Drake

        Other than silk, the answer is “very hungry people”. The alternatives were dirt, grass, and bugs.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Easy there, Andy Rooney.

    • Private Chipperbot

      Whoa there, Judge!

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Who figured out that if you slice a blowfish juuuuust right you can eat it without dying a horrible death?

      • Private Chipperbot

        The 199th iron chef?

      • Mojeaux

        Right?!

    • Rasilio

      Bee Vomit actually, and fermented bee vomit at that.

      • Mojeaux

        Even better!

    • Mojeaux

      Who figured out that the anal glands and urine of beavers was tasty?

      • Jarflax

        HM?

      • Mojeaux

        *headdesk*

        I should’ve known that!

      • Heroic Mulatto

        What’s wrong with eating beaver?

      • Not Adahn

        I’ve never eaten beaver ass, but I’ve eaten Coonass beaver.

      • The Hyperbole

        I don’t think you’re suppose to say ‘Coonass’ anymore.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        It’s ok if you use the “soft” s.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s ok, you can’t be racist against wypipo.

      • Not Adahn

        I had a fraternity brother that was totally unfazed by all “slurs” against Italians — except for “guinea.” That one sent him into a rage for some reason.

      • Not Adahn

        I don’t think you’re suppose to say ‘Coonass’ anymore.

        Well, “Acadian-American” was rejected by the Federal Racial Labels Board as infringing, and “Person of Swamp” never got caught on since the greenies objected to “swamp” and when they tried to substitute “Wetlands” the veteran’s groups objected.

      • Unreconstructed

        I had a fraternity brother that was totally unfazed by all “slurs” against Italians — except for “guinea.” That one sent him into a rage for some reason.

        Would that rage be more or less severe than talking about hip width?

      • Tonio

        Eeeewww!

    • Rhywun

      Humans are in inquisitive lot.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      If you’re hungry enough you’ll try just about anything. Just ask Winston’s Mom.

    • Gadfly

      Imagine there is no store of human knowledge. Now imagine a bunch of big children (i.e. adults) who’ve never been told “no” because no one knew better yet. All of these discoveries and more are the logical and inevitable result of such a situation.

      • Mojeaux

        See: blowfish. How many people have to die experimenting with it before someone says I’MMA DO THIS and then EUREKA! and writes down a list of instructions that include the word “nanometer”?

  19. grrizzly

    It’s really amazing how quickly–what 4 days?–Biden went from someone who couldn’t compete in Iowa and New Hampshire to the favorite to win the nomination. Never happened before.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      It makes sense though. Bernie’s winning in the whitest of white states. Once the electorate got a little more diverse…

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Buttglug and Klobuchar dropping out helped him out quite a bit.

      • Pope Jimbo

        That and the MSM and DNC pulling out all the plugs to push his candidacy.

        When do they realize that all their hard work resulted in Joe being their nominee? Before or after Trump makes Hunter campaign topic #1?

        Honestly if I was a lefty Dem, I would rather have Bernie than Biden. Neither of them will beat Trump, but at least with a Bernie run, you could purge the New Commies after he loses. When Biden gets beat, the AOC cadres will be convinced it was because they cheated Bernie out of the nomination.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I’d prefer to see Bernie get the nod too but I could see good old Joe being the willing trojan horse for a truly transformative VP and heir apparent or just stepping aside for Hillary Clinton. The party shotcallers certainly realize he’s in the throes of early dementia but it’s too late to shift course now.

  20. Mojeaux

    corvids >>> parrots

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      covid >>> parvo

  21. slumbrew - double secret satan

    This whole aging thing is bullshit.

    I woke up today in a vast amount of pain, as if I broke my foot.

    I’m fairly certain it’s plantar fasciitis, presumably from wearing shoes without enough support yesterday. When did I become so delicate?

    • Chipwooder

      Somewhere between the ages of 35 and 45, most likely.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Gah. I had that last summer after I walked around barefoot for a few hours at a pool party.

    • Mojeaux

      Birkenstocks.

      Ugly, expensive, and kills plantar fasciitis dead.

      • Tonio

        I’ve heard there are some reasonably priced knockoffs available. #nohippie

      • Mojeaux

        I am not trusting my plantar fasciitis to cheap Chinese shit.

    • Shirley Knott

      Old age — that fun time of life when you can injure yourself sleeping.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        I pulled a hamstring stepping over a pile of laundry the other day.

    • Pope Jimbo

      without enough support

      Uffda. That is up there with circumcised pizzas when it comes to yanking my chain.

      The best thing you can do to prevent plantar fasciitis is to go barefoot (or as minimal as you can). I am not saying that taking it easy and using some support while you recover from your acute symptoms is wrong. I’m just saying that to build up the strength in your feet, try to be as natural as you can.

      I have very flat feet and used to battle plantar fasciitus a lot. Then a hippy buddy got me turned onto barefooting everywhere. I love my vibram toe shoes and Xero shoes now. And not only do I not have foot pain, it has been great for my back too.

      The only time I have ever doubted barefooting is when I discovered that Tundra was a big advocate of it too.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I was dressed like an adult, so none of those were options.

        Maybe I’ll get some minimal something for wearing around the house (I mostly work from home).

      • Tundra

        I reluctantly agree with the Pontiff of the Prairie. With one caution: if you have underlying foot structure issues they will be laid bare(foot).

        After running for way too many years on ‘stability’ shoes and suffering a shit-ton of ankle/foot injuries, I switched to zero drop shoes. For a long time I was very happy with them. My feet and ankles got stronger and more flexible and all was well. Until I started to have issues with my 2nd metatarsal (swelling, intense pain, etc.). After the first foot surgeon mis-diagnosed me (thank god I got another opinion and avoided the fucking joint replacement), a surgeon who works with athletes figured out that my gait was slightly fucked up so that my weight was not borne by the ball of my foot, but by the area of the metatarsal. Unfortunately I am now using an orthotic, but it has absolutely helped. I will be doing some other PT/exercises to minimize my dependence on the orthotics. Like most things, it’s not really my foot, but a whole chain of muscle/posture issues.

        The Pontiff is right. Explore the barefoot experience. And start fixing shit when you are young.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I looked it up on WebMD. Foot cancer.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I knew it!

      • Pope Jimbo

        WebMD is full of shit.

        Clearly has novel footovirus 19 between his toes.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        On WebMD the answer is always cancer.

      • Ted S.

        Not footlupus?

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        no

    • AlmightyJB

      You obviously have foot gonorrhea. You need to stop being such a freak.

  22. Pope Jimbo

    Sad to see Gizmodo sinking to crap like that story. I remember when they used to cover gadgets and tech and that was it. Of course slashdot used to be decent too.

    What is the over/under on Glibs? When does this place jump the shark?

    I want Shikia’s immigrant beat when that happens.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      I’m taking Robbie’s “to be fair” first amendment analysis.

    • Warty

      When does this place jump the shark?

      It depends. How badly do you hate HM, and how irrationally?

      • Pope Jimbo

        How much? A lot!

      • Heroic Mulatto

        How was I supposed to know that she was your goat?

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      I’m working on my submission titled “Why Freedom is Bad. Time to Embrace Our Bright Socialist Future.” It should be out next week.

    • Grumbletarian

      I call dibs on writing “The Libertarian Case for Centrally Planned Everything,” please.

  23. Juvenile Bluster

    My work sent out an e-mail saying that non-essential business travel is banned and that if you travel to any of the countries experiencing the worst outbreaks (China/Iran/Italy/Hong Kong/South Korea), you have to quarantine yourself for two weeks after you get home. Wonder how close they’ll check if I say I went somewhere…

    • Sensei

      My friend said there are some great deals in Japan. Currently the Japanese are visiting Kyoto again as many of the Chinese tourists are quarantined at home.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Same here.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      For us all cross-border travel is postponed until mid-April.

    • pistoffnick

      My father-in-law spends the winter in South Florida. He said the local lobster price has gone from $12/lb. to $3/lb because their largest market was China

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Wonderful news! The last time I remember lobster at 3 dollars a pound was when I was 8.

      • Spudalicious

        That’s not lobster.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        Who cares about lobster? It’s still stone crab season.

  24. Winston

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/04/government-fossil-fuel-power-projects-heathrow-judgment

    If we are to withstand the climate crisis, every decision should begin with the question of what the planet can endure. This means that any discussion about new infrastructure should begin with ecological constraints. The figures are stark. A paper published in Nature last year showed that existing energy infrastructure, if it is allowed to run to the end of its natural life, will produce around 660 gigatonnes of CO2. Yet, to stand a reasonable chance of preventing more than 1.5°C of global heating, we can afford to release, in total, no more than 580 gigatonnes.

    In other words, far from building new fossil power plants, the survival of a habitable planet means retiring the damaging projects that have already been built. Electricity plants burning coal and gas and oil will not secure our prosperity. They will destroy it.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      I’m sure that if I told them the solution was massive increases in nuclear power generation, they’d say I was an idiot.

      • AlmightyJB

        Not an idiot. A racist and a Nazi.

  25. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Speaking of tech mags that used to be OK but suck now

    A ‘Netflix for the 99 Percent’ Enters the Streaming Wars

    BROOKLYN’S GOWANUS NEIGHBORHOOD gets its name from the Gowanus Canal, the notoriously polluted waterway snaking through it. Intensive cleanup efforts began over a decade ago, after the Environmental Protection Agency declared the canal a Superfund site, and real estate developers began sniffing around the area. As the waters changed from extremely gross to just gross, their surroundings transformed too. The industrial zone is now home to a mishmash of condo mid-rises and warehouse spaces repurposed as playgrounds for adults. An axe-throwing bar, a fencing gym, a rock-climbing studio, a skateboarding academy, a shuffleboard club, and an archery range are all a few blocks from one another. There’s a cavernous Whole Foods. Brave souls can kayak the canal in the summers.

    Gowanus is also home to the live events space Littlefield, which hosted the New York premiere of Means TV, a new “post-capitalist” streaming service, on a windy Friday night last week. The premiere’s crowd skewed young, with interesting haircuts. They sipped Modelos and clapped loudly when emcee Jake Flores, the host of the podcast Pod Damn America, asked if there were any anarchists or communists in the room. And they sat attentively for the screening of the documentary Sarasota Half in Dream, a woozy, surrealist found-footage collage about the Florida city’s considerable weird side. The event, like the service’s other premieres in London, Seattle, and Detroit, was packed with supporters, many wearing T-shirts and pins to signal their support for Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Can’t we just give these fuckers a state so they’ll stop bothering us?

      • The Last American Hero

        We gave them California and it didn’t stop them.

    • Chipwooder

      Talk about ancestors spinning in their graves – mom’s family comes from Brooklyn. I suspect they’d be less than impressed with what’s become of their old stomping grounds.

      • Rhywun

        Depends which part. There’s none of that stuff near me. Just boring people going about their lives.

    • Not Adahn

      An axe-throwing bar, a fencing gym, a rock-climbing studio, a skateboarding academy, a shuffleboard club, and an archery range

      WEPUNZ OF WAR!!

      • pan fried wylie

        You can’t kill somebody with a bow&arrow, cmon.

  26. Pope Jimbo

    Nick Offerman says Minnesoda is the best!

    I’m a bit miffed because they said the lake was 42 miles SW of Bemidji. The correct answer is that it is about 40miles NE of Detroit Lakes (my home town).

  27. Spudalicious

    Did Brett just give us five links?!?

    • peachy rex

      There are five links!

  28. Michael

    Warren managed a solid 3rd place in her home state. That’s why she gets an L for loser. Because she’s a loser. Time to primary her back to her affirmative action job.

    I haven’t the faintest clue what anyone sees in this woman. The modus operandi for her entire life has consisted solely of leveraging RAWRGRRRLLLPOWER!!! bullshit for the advancement of her own career.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      She’s the preferred candidate of repressed New England schoolmarms and shrill spinster librarians everywhere.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Plus INJUNPOWER!

    • Drake

      As 2e discussed in the last thread, her purpose in life is now to grab enough of the far left vote to garuntee a win for Biden. Joe gets to run unopposed in the center lane.

      • AlmightyJB

        Exactly

      • AlmightyJB

        Aka the “free” shit brigade.

    • RAHeinlein

      I blame Aaron Swartz, and wouldn’t be surprised if hacking played a role in her original election.

      • Winston

        Unpossible. Internet activists were supposed to be libertarian.

  29. Winston

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/606163/

    Even so, the 27th grievance reveals that the original sin at America’s founding was twofold. America was built by the labor of enslaved people. It was also built on stolen lands and the genocide of indigenous peoples. To understand where this country is now and to imagine a truly just future, America needs to reckon with both of these hard truths.

    • Q Continuum

      Blah, blah, blah, America sucks, blah, blah, blah, racism, sexism, xenophobia…

      Good lord these people are tedious.

      • Winston

        Well it works…

      • juris imprudent

        Really? On whom – the weakest of minds?

      • Winston

        Well doesn’t that describe most voters?

      • juris imprudent

        You and Noam Chomsky eh?

    • R C Dean

      Oh, fuck off already.

      America was built by the labor of enslaved people

      All them wypipo just sat around laughing and throwing things at the slaves, I guess.

      Why, I seem to recall that, when the country was founded, there was little to no slavery in a big chunk of the country, and even in the chunk where there was, not many owned slaves, and most of the “labor” was done by not-slaves.

      I wonder: Do the hundreds of thousands of wypipo who fought and died to get rid of slavery get us any karma points?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        There’s only one way to appease them, cede all power to them.

      • juris imprudent

        When grasshopper, you can seize the bullet in mid-air between the muzzle of my gun and your forehead, then you are ready to rule over me.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      *Neanderthals nod*

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Yikes.

      Amazing how fast that train comes up on them. Not like they were even near a crossing where you’d get some forewarning from a signal.

    • Raven Nation

      Mennonites?

      • Tres Cool

        Maybe.
        They’re not Amish, since the dude was looking into the camera of the picture just taken. hXc Anabaptists like Old Order Amish will eschew a ‘graven image’.

      • Tres Cool

        those pesky Swartzentrubers are what you’re used to in the movies and such

      • Gustave Lytton

        That’s what they look like to me. Reminds me. Need to stop by the local Mennonite bakery to pick up some more bread this weekend.

  30. Winston

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/03/why-are-americans-warming-to-socialism-because-capitalism-has-failed-them

    First, there is Texas’s move to the left. The traditionally Republican state has become notably less conservative in recent years thanks to a growing Hispanic population and the migration of young, out-of-state liberals to its growing tech industry. Texas is predicted to be far more competitive in the general election than it has been in the past; it won’t be easy, but it is no longer implausible that the state will turn blue. Whether Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders has a better chance of making that happen, however, is hotly contested.

    More broadly, the poll reflects a step-change in US attitudes towards capitalism. It would be inaccurate to say that the US is embracing “socialism”, because the word has become amorphous: boomers associate it with Stalinism, millennials associate it with Scandinavia. In many ways, the S-word is a red herring. The country has not so much warmed to socialism as it has cooled on capitalism. This is hardly surprising when you consider how the latter has failed ordinary Americans. The poorest men in the US have the same life expectancy as men in Sudan. Maternal mortality more than doubled between 1991 and 2014. The middle class has shrunk. People are desperate for an alternative to an increasingly dismal status quo.

    Why do policies supported by libertarians have the exact opposite effect?

    • Q Continuum

      “The poorest men in the US have the same life expectancy as men in Sudan. Maternal mortality more than doubled between 1991 and 2014. The middle class has shrunk.”

      Many citations desperately needed.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      When the Irish came to New York City, what do you think was more likely

      A.) They made a beeline to Tammany Hall due to deep genetic/cultural memory or something

      or

      B.) Their treatment by the Know-Nothings forced them into the arms of the one group willing to protect them?

      • Jarflax

        Can I pick C.) The cops and immigration officials meeting them at the boat were Irish and worked for Tammany?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Ok…before the first chicken laid the first egg.

      • Florida Man

        Dinosaurs laid eggs?

      • Winston

        Problem is you can simply give the immigrants more free shit. Who is more likely to do that?

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall

        Since the newly arrived immigrants were in deep poverty, Tammany Hall provided them with employment, shelter, and even citizenship sometimes.

        Also Tammany Hall began embracing the Irish immigrants before the Know Nothings.

      • Winston

        Also what about young, out of state tech people?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Yes, the engine of growth for the world had failed them.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      I was just re-watching the Young Turks meltdown on election night 2016 the other night. Cenk is an endlessly entertaining clown.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        “Chunk Yogurt”. Not bad.

    • Rhywun

      Despite these apparently sincere reactions, some are suggesting the hashtags themselves were created by the right to sow division.

      The tweets are coming from inside the house!

  31. Winston

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-nation_conservatism

    Fun-fact: I used to think this was referring to nationalism and opposing Scottish, Welsh and Irish nationalism but in reality it was a reference to class conflict and is a predecessor to Bismarkian welfare statism.

    It was classical liberalism first serious threat before the socialists gained power on the left.

    • Jarflax

      There are 3 contending ideas in all political philosophical debates. Liberty, Equality, and a third one that used to be Tradition, but now is unpinned from history as it lost decisively in the first World War. When the forces of Tradition ran the world Equality and Liberty made common cause, and Liberty was deceived into believing that Equality was an ally, when in fact it was its bitterest enemy.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Chucky stepped over the line, IMO. Those were some not-so-veiled threats to specific justices.

    • Rhywun

      Why am I not surprised that this freakout centers around an abortion case.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Chuck’s an asshole.

    • robc

      He wasnt on the senate floor, so, did Preet arrest him?

  32. Urthona

    An Amazon employee has just been diagnosed with coronavirus.

    If you order in the next two hours you can have it by Thursday.

  33. Tundra

    MEET THE GUY WHO SERVICES HIS OWN FERRARI F40

    “I like to do my own thing,” says John McGurk. That much is evident — it’s February, and instead of squirrelling away his classic car for the winter, he’s just had it out. Not just any classic, either, but a Ferrari F40. McGurk’s car is used as intended, out in all seasons, and actually driven.

    “You get to the gates of heaven when you’re six foot under and St Peter says to you: ‘you lucky b*stard, you had that F40, what was it like to drive?’ And if you stand there and say ‘well actually I never got in it and drove it, I just stared at it’, he’s gonna say ‘go to hell you stupid boy’. I use it. What’s the point in having it otherwise?” he says.

    I love car collectors like this. Drive the fucking thing!

    I met a dude at a car show who rebuilt the engine on his Testarossa in his two-car garage. He had some great pictures in a photo album. I asked him if he would do it again and he shrugged and said: “Sure. It’s just a machine.”

    • Francisco d'Anconia

      Same with guns. Guys with expensive shotguns but won’t hunt with them. Seems like a huge waste to me

      • Not Adahn

        They’re for the trap range, duh.

      • Spudalicious

        ^^This^^

        If you’re going to buy it, use it.

  34. Winston

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5zDPtrdQ-c

    So the novelization of the latest Star Wars movie is being revealed online. Palpatine is a Clone and Rey’s Dad is Palpatine’s clone.

    Dang so HM is still right about Palpatine…

    • Jarflax

      LOL, here we go again.

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, I’m definitely feeling some déjà vu.

      • Winston

        I don’t know is a novelization of a movie released 4 months ago that few people bother to talk about here really a spoiler?

      • Winston

        Sorry almost three months

    • Heroic Mulatto

      I watched that video earlier today too.

      Lucas’s pulp homage had enough inertia that the effete cum posh yet sinister Britishness as a characteristic of evil tradition made it pass the Abrams/Disney “It’s [present year]!” filter it seems.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      So he’s actually Palpatiine?

    • pan fried wylie

      If your spoilerboner lasts more than four months, seek medical attention.

      • Winston

        Nah I’m just pointing out the hilarious retcons of the new movie.

    • Tundra

      LOL!

      Been there.

      As long as there were juice boxes and rice crispy treats, all was well.

  35. JD is Unemployed

    I accidentally shot myself in the scrotum with the poor kid’s pool chain from 6 weeks away and a state primary fell out my ass. It’s all here in this bus they brought me in. We go back to the home afterwards, it’s lights out bed time at 5 o’clock. I can’t pee straight in the morning when old Ethel Merman used to be on the talkies signing and waving that damn flag. I knew Jack, yeah everybody knew Jack. Wouldn’t stop a bullet from Red Charlie. No sir, you gotta pull it to keep moving otherwise the old man in the window don’t see ya there. What’d you order? Bag sag of onions and some corn bread was all we had, buck-fifty. All week. Corn something, or was it a corn dog? He was a bad dude.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      But what about your leg hair?

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Bravo, I LOL’d.

      • Rhywun

        I bet there’s a random Joe-gibberish generator out there.

      • Jarflax

        Yeah and it is about to be the Democratic nominee for President.

    • Count Potato

      LOL

  36. juris imprudent

    Ha, given the vegans/Jill Biden link, this isn’t even OT.

    So this popped up on my browser (at work), and well, it is derp that should be shared to be appreciated.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      “As a fat woman working in food justice…”

      *closes browser tab*

      • Tres Cool

        Thats about where I quit, too

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You guys are missing out on a litany of complaints from an angry and morbidly obese woman who has no concept of how the world works other than that it’s unfair.

      • UnCivilServant

        You write as if we actually want to read that

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        You must be using a novel definition of “missing out”

      • juris imprudent

        Dude, you didn’t even get to the GOOD stuff.

      • Rhywun

        I made it a few sentences in.

        find an outlet for my frustration with a society that allows the poor to suffer

        Then I cursed at my screen and left.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “What angered me then – and angers me still – is that we didn’t have anything to be ashamed of. We weren’t the ones who made fresh food a luxury and junk food an easily obtained comfort.”

      You also weren’t the ones who fed the world and went a long way to ending starvation.

      Fresh food has always been a luxury. It’s just that for most of human history, food has been a luxury.

      • kbolino

        I have not yet found anywhere in this country where fresh food is more expensive than junk food overall. Yes, top shelf fresh food is more expensive than bottom dollar junk food. But that is not an apples to apples comparison. There is also top shelf junk food and bottom dollar fresh food. People aren’t buying potato chips because they’re cheap, they’re buying potato chips because they’re delicious or at least satisfying. Nobody is getting obese off of bulk canned meat, canned vegetables, and burlap sack starches. That is what cheap food looks like, and apart from preservatives, tends to be nutritiously sufficient.

        You eat junk food because you like it. You might think it’s cheaper because you’ve decided that anything other than top shelf fresh food doesn’t count. It does, and that’s your problem not the world’s.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Food justice is not about forcing people to eat food they don’t want. It’s about changing the world they live in so they can make choices about what they eat, and believing that those choices will lead them to a healthier and more enjoyable diet. ”

      OFFS, she literally wants to have her cake and eat it too.

      • juris imprudent

        And she apparently has a lot of cake.

      • Gender Traitor

        Scrolled down at that link and found this. Having gone through this wringer a bit recently, I thought it was pretty funny. ::lights Glib writers signal::

        How Dare You Submit to Our Literary Journal
        How. Even. Dare. You.

      • Tres Cool

        “DRAW GREAT BIG DICKS ON BATHROOM WALLS ”

        heh…the Englewood Kroger, in the side-lot, has a space where someone spray-painted a crude dick-n-balls in a parking space
        Jugsy was appalled and said “who does that? Kids?” I said, “me, if you hand me a can of spray-paint”

      • banginglc1

        The girl I’m spending the majority of my time with keeps asking me why her 10 y/o son does this or that . . . She’s always enraged by something he does. I think the kid has been lucky I’ve been around lately, because I keep telling her that he’s just being a boy. She grew up in a female dominated house and really doesn’t understand boys at all.

      • Tres Cool

        ‘sup home-team?

        LETS GO FLYERS!

      • Gender Traitor

        Chillin’ with New Cat on my lap. You?

        LET’S GO FLYERS!!!

      • Gender Traitor

        Well, the same one we’ve had for a few weeks. Humane Society just followed up with an e-mail to ask how things are going and pester us to take him to the vet even though they gave him a complete exam shortly before we brought him home.

        Taking a cat to the vet is a very special kind of hell. I think the Humane Society is in the pocket of Big Veterinary.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Do any vets near you make house calls?

      • Gender Traitor

        It’s probably not worth the extra cost to get a house call. This cat may not be as bad as Previous Cat – that one would get downright frantic at the vet’s, and it would take multiple staffers to hold him down for whatever they needed to do and to get him back in the crate.

        Once when we took Previous Cat to the vet, they didn’t get the top and bottom of his crate latched back together securely. When Mr. GT got home and lifted the crate out of the back seat of the car, the crate fell apart. PC panicked and bolted, and we couldn’t find him for several days. Found out he was hiding under our next door neighbor’s yard barn, and it still took us a couple of days to coax him out and get him back in the house.

      • banginglc1

        Remind me again why people love cats?

      • Gender Traitor

        Because as they’re kneading their claws into your legs, they’re gazing up at you adoringly and purring.

      • Spartacus

        We have a vet that makes house calls. Then again, we have seven cats. Because they are awesome little tigers in miniature.

      • Tres Cool

        dem LAIGS and hips? If she wasnt such an annoying cunte….WOULD

        /with a pillowcase over my head

      • Gender Traitor

        Doesn’t the pillowcase go over HER head?

      • Tres Cool

        Why not both, in her case.

        /still like dem laigs

    • juris imprudent

      A round of applause for the comments. I am most certainly not disappoint.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      That certainly doesn’t sound like the FBI I know

      • juris imprudent

        Since when do they allow someone they are intimidatinginterrogating to take notes?

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I believe their go-to move is to imply that you may not take notes or even record it, but they can’t and won’t stop you.

  37. Derpetologist

    Schedule shift freed up my evening today. There was a point I dismissed flippantly over the weekend that I wanted to give a more serious treatment. From time to time, I hear that Christianity, particularly the conservative flavors, is a bulwark against leftism/big govt.

    Here are some reasons why I doubt that:

    -Every country south of the Rio Grande is majority Christian and all of them have or have had leftist/authoritarian governments.
    -Russia was probably the most conservative Christian country in the world in 1917 and that did nothing to stop communism.
    -Nearly every congresscritter who voted in favor of the income tax, prohibition, and the war on drugs was a Christian.
    -If Christians had been opposed to the New Deal, Social Security, etc, FDR would not have been re-elected 3 times.
    -There are and have been many influential Christian Socialist parties in Europe.
    -William Jennings Bryan nearly became president, and he was a fundamentalist Christian who promised to inflate the currency so farmers could pay off their debts more easily.

    The Gospels contain many passages that are critical of capitalism/private property: you cannot serve both god and mammon, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven, store treasure in heaven and not on earth, etc. Even the phrase “to each according to his needs” comes from Acts 4:35.

    Even in the Old Testament, there is the prohibition on charging interest and the forgiveness of debts every 50 years. There’s no way a modern market economy could survive that.

    Christians *can* be pro-liberty and sometimes are, but I say that is because they choose to ignore or re-interpret what the Bible says.

    Jefferson, Madison, Friedman, Bastiat, Hayek – none of them were Christians. Well, maybe Bastiat was, but he didn’t say much about it.

    Alright, I said my piece. Launch your tomatoes!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      ” forgiveness of debts every 50 years.”

      Argentina is counting on that one.

    • Jarflax

      So your argument is that there have been Christians, or at least culturally Christan folk in places that went commie and that Jesus encouraged charity, therefore Christianity is naturally communist and what? Atheism is a bulwark against a philosophy that is expicitily atheist? Sorry, not tomato worthy, would you settle for a scoff?

      • The Hyperbole

        Saying Christianity isn’t a bulwark against Communism isn’t the same as saying that Atheism is. Similar to Mojo’ Law about praising/criticizing Trump.

      • The Hyperbole

        My bad you weren’t saying that he said that you were questioning him, ignore me and carry on.

      • Jarflax

        Fair enough, and if the argument had stopped with the Christianity is not a bulwark I’d not have added that, but:

        The Gospels contain many passages that are critical of capitalism/private property: you cannot serve both god and mammon, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven, store treasure in heaven and not on earth, etc. Even the phrase “to each according to his needs” comes from Acts 4:35.

        Even in the Old Testament, there is the prohibition on charging interest and the forgiveness of debts every 50 years. There’s no way a modern market economy could survive that.

        and

        Christians *can* be pro-liberty and sometimes are, but I say that is because they choose to ignore or re-interpret what the Bible says.

        sure seem to be going further toward Christianity is pro commie rather than just not a bulwark.

      • Derpetologist

        I accept your scoff graciously.

        Jesus did not just encourage charity; he encouraged asceticism. That’s why monks take a vow of poverty.

        Christianity is not necessarily pro-socialist, but it’s pretty hard to argue it’s pro-capitalist. Some of the biggest critics of capitalism were clergymen.

        Atheism isn’t a political philosophy, though most of the ones I have known are leftists of some sort.

        As for a bulwark, I found Bastiat and John Stuart Mill to be the most compelling.

        Chesterton was probably the most influential Christian thinker since 1900 and guess what? He was a member of the socialist Fabian Society.

      • Jarflax

        Clive Staples Lewis was probably the most influential Christian thinker since 1900 and guess what? He was emphatically not a member of the socialist Fabian Society.

        at least if we are talking about intellectual discussion of Christianity. If we are really talking influence someon like Billy Graham or his predecessors is likely more important.

        I really don’t wnat to end up writing 500 word comments here but I suggest that you are conflating a number of widely differing beliefs, misstating the message of the New Testament and I’m too tired to play this game the way it should be played, so I will leave it at this:

        You are conflating beliefs held by a faction of the Catholic Church and in many cases a faction deeply influenced by the Marxists, with “Christianity”, and I know a slew of protestants who would take issue with that characterization.

        To the extent that Jesus encouraged charity (not asceticism) he was encouraging private and voluntary charity. He urged the wealthy man to give away his wealth, he did not urge others to take it and redistribute it. The distinction is not a trivial one, it is the essence of the question.

        Christianity is the largest religion in the world ,over a quarter of all human beings practice some variant of it. Sweeping claims about it are unlikely to be universally true.

      • Derpetologist

        Noted. The render unto Caesar thing though- if Jesus thought it was fine to pay taxes to what at the time was seen as a corrupt and evil government, what does that say?

        The political attitude of early Christians seems to be mostly indifference and a desire to be left alone, which is fairly libertarian.

        Later, when the Christians got power, things changed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Because Jesus didn’t want your money, he wanted your soul, or that which belonged to God.

        The church just expanded on what “belonged to God” for their own benefit.

      • Derpetologist

        Makes sense.

        I read a story about some priest from a podunk town in the 1500s. Anyway, he won a prize and was excited to go on a trip to Rome. An older priest who knew about all the shenanigans going on there at the time thought that it would kill the faith of the young priest. I forget the ending, but the gist was something like “if it’s this bad in Rome, how much worse the rest of the world must be!”

    • Francisco d'Anconia

      Religion’s got nuthin’ to do with it.

      *squints*

      • Not Adahn

        I can’t really see how any religion can be a bulwark against a total state. That’s kind of the point of theocracy after all.

      • Derpetologist

        I think there are only 2 explicitly pro-liberty religions: Wicca and Satanism

        “And it harm none, do as you will.” – Wiccan Rede

        “The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.” – Church of Satan

        “Here at least, we shall be free.” – Satan arrives in hell, Paradise Lost

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Derpy is feeling his oats this evening.

        I’m just gonna go grab some popcorn.

      • juris imprudent

        Am I mistaken, or is Wicca really rooted in more than Crowley’s eccentric intellect?

      • Derpetologist

        Crowley was the Church of Satan guy. Wicca started in England in the 1920s. Of course, they say they are reviving a much older tradition that the meany Christians stomped out.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yes, the Wiccans like to play the cishetero patriarchical overlord supremacist game too.

      • juris imprudent

        I think you’re mistaken about Crowley – definitely not Church of Satan, though apparently not Wicca.

      • Derpetologist

        You’re right. I mixed him up with LaVey.

      • juris imprudent

        More on Thelema:

        Aspects of Thelema and Crowley’s thought in general inspired the development of Wicca and, to a certain degree, the rise of Modern Paganism as a whole, as well as chaos magick and some variations of Satanism. Some scholars, such as Hugh Urban, also believe Thelema to have been an influence on the development of Scientology,[7] but others, such as J. Gordon Melton, deny any such connection.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        I think you’re making associations where none exist. Christianity is neither pro or anti-liberty. Sure, there are a couple anti-capitalistic passages in a book chock full of inconsistencies. Big surprise.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        And postmodernism does not logically (pun intended) lend itself to socialism, but just about every postmodernist of significance is avowedly socialist or communist.

        Humans are adept at finding the patterns they prefer.

    • juris imprudent

      You need to distinguish between branches of Christianity. South of the border is overwhelmingly Catholic, and the church for the looooongest time was perfectly okay with wild inequality – as long as the rich paid the vig.

      No Reformation, no capitalism.

      • Derpetologist

        Protestantism didn’t seem to do much to inoculate the US, England, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, etc against big govt.

      • juris imprudent

        No kidding. Progressivism was rooted in Protestant belief in the early days – perfectability (or at least improvement) of [white] man. The Social Gospel. All kinds of old-timey connections, that shared a link back to Puritanism.

        Not all of Protestantism was supportive of capitalism and liberalism; and very little of Catholicism was.

    • Raven Nation

      Meh, I’ve been one of those “born-again” Christians since my late teens. In that time I’ve been so far to the left that I would have hated Obama as a sell-out, a Christian reconstructionist, a late 20th century American conservative, a classic liberal, a libertarian, pretty close to an anarcho-capitalist, and a believer in The Hyperbole-ism and Heroic Mulatto-ism. In every case, I’ve been able to rationalize my political belief with my religious beliefs.

      Bottom line: I think religion is about something other than politics and that any religious belief can be used to justify any political ideology.

      *heads for the kitchen for more Irish Whiskey*

      • juris imprudent

        The more interesting question is about transference of omnipotence that happens in a lot of secularly-devoted people – where the power (and benevolence) of god is transformed into the state.

      • Derpetologist

        Not sure there’s a much of an ideological difference between various forms of despotism. Stalin’s mother once asked him what he did, and he said he was the general secretary of the communist party. When she didn’t understand, he said do you remember the czar? I’m kind of like him.

        Wan sui ([may you live]10,000 years) was a traditional exultation for Chinese emperors, but it didn’t take long for people to start saying it about Mao.

        As for the body count, communism remains the most compelling argument for a monarchy.

      • juris imprudent

        My point is less about Stalin and more about those who did [or still] worship him. Think of how the Party can be viewed as the Elect (in Calvinism) – only those of true faith!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The Enlightenment crippled the church and there were a lot of people who wanted it back but couldn’t rationalize it.

        So they created a new church. Kant, Hegel, Rousseau, et al all bemoaned the loss of the guiding light and moral authority of the church and sought to replace it with something else, anything but rank individualism.

    • Derpetologist

      I guess to sum up, I think America being a nation of immigrants and settlers did a lot more to encourage a capitalist/individualist culture than Christianity. It’s similar to the way overseas Chinese and Jews often end up as wealthy merchants. When a group is in a sink or swim situation, they usually learn how to swim.

      OK. That’s enough out of me for tonight I think. Best wishes to all except Bloomberg.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        We were somewhat separated from the 19th century German influence and had a strong pioneer ethic from expanding Westward. That, along with our explicitly Lockean founding documents, is what kept us from wholly adopting collectivism earlier.

        But all good things end…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Of course it is…

  38. slumbrew - double secret satan

    Starting season 3 of Stranger Things; I enjoyed Season 2, not too many glaring “why would you do that?” moments. However – they’re in a small, Midwest down and literally nobody has a gun? I sort of get the single mothers, but there’s not a single duck hunter in these families? Not a shotgun to be found, other than the Chief’s.

  39. Gustave Lytton

    Wonder how long hand sanitizer is going to be sold out? Went to pick up a bottle of specialty one with hand cream from 3M for frequent use from the medical supply and it was completely gone, along with the regular Purell stuff as expected. Stuff isn’t cheap either. Damn.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Jan-San supply store guy told me today he was back ordered for at least two months on sanitizer and masks.

    • Francisco d'Anconia

      My bro lives in Brisbane Australia. All of his markets are completely out of toilet paper.

      People are completely insane.