Saturday Morning Post-Purim Links

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Daily Links | 239 comments

Scene from the last Glibs meetup.

Well, it’s Purim Recovery Time. Much water under the bridge and I may have peed in it. Hey, drinking will do that to you. SP and I played “Esther and the King,” a game where everyone is a winner. I ate a hamantash and spun a gragger. Good times.

Birthdays today include a guy who, in a just world, would have been tarred, feathered, and impeached; a guy who should be canceled because his poems rhymed; a terrific character actor who I will always love for calling Charlie Chan “Chop Suey”; one more commie writer; a guy who got splatted with Kennedy’s brain; a right-handed sax player who was moodier than Moody; the best wide receiver I ever saw until Biletnikoff came along; another piece of shit who found a great grift; a guy who did truly interesting chemistry; another piece of shit who should burn in hell, with fires fed by his organization’s victims; a guy with a rather inflated opinion of himself; an exemplar of everything wrong with American politics; and Webb Hubbell’s favorite daughter.

Let’s news it.

 

I’m sure this is racist. Let’s call it “Biden’s Negro Ban.”

 

It’s as if they’re deliberately trying to destroy the economy. Oh wait, they are.

 

“I am outraged, OUTRAGED, Sir!”

 

Much better than cages, and sourced from Fair Trade canvas.

 

Apparently one judge thinks that a taking without due process might possibly be unconstitutional. Of course, a Harvard professor disagrees and slyly transfers property rights in the verbiage.

 

“NO, STAMPY, NO!!!!”

 

Old Guy Music was something I found while running down a Tommy Johnson rabbit hole. Holy shit, this chick is terrific.

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.

239 Comments

  1. Festus

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, OMWC weekend links are the bestest links. I’m like a kid in a candy store.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I paid him $20 to say that.

      • Ted S.

        Same as downtown?

      • SDF-7

        That *is* what he pays the kids in the candy store, after all….

      • Brochettaward

        I would have only charged $5.

      • Cy Esquire

        $20? No wonder you can afford that $300 a bottle wine.

      • Festus

        It was a volunteer effort. Stolen Valor!

  2. The Late P Brooks

    “Congress can regulate classes of economic and commercial activity,” Bowie tweeted.

    “Our national government apparently lacks the ability to prevent the displacement of millions of Americans from their homes because a lone judge thinks a dictionary definition of ‘commercial’ doesn’t include evicting someone who can’t pay rent.”

    Nice sleight of hand. “Congress” is not a factor here, dummy.

    • Festus

      What part of “Get the fuck off of my lawn!” just suddenly disappeared from the rulebook?

    • mrfamous

      My understanding that the most common reason for evictions was “non-payment of rent.” I get it that, in many cases, it wasn’t the tenant’s fault, but it wasn’t the landlord’s either. Maybe if it wasn’t for all the “relief programs” people would have gotten so pissed that they would have put an immediate stop to the lockdown insanity. Insanity that, by the way, appears to have had zero effect on keeping the virus at bay.

      People must work to produce goods and services that other people want. Things have gotten so good for many the last four decades that we’ve forgotten that. “Work or don’t eat.” Pick one.

      • hayeksplosives

        This is it, right here.

        People are sufficiently insulated from consequences that the government can placate the masses and prevent a mass revolt.

      • Chafed

        *stands and salutes*

        Yes ma’am!

      • kinnath

        work or die

    • SDF-7

      Jesus… just ignore that “inter-state” before “commerce” in the Fed permission set… Wickard v. Filburn should so be overturned and regarded as the inherent crap that it is. The Founders and the Constitution were really clear what the role of the Fed was, and it wasn’t to be micromanaging the entire stupid country. /blood pressure rising…

  3. Festus

    That chick is incredible. How does she achieve that rollin’ sound with such tiny hands? OMWC knows!

    • Gender Traitor

      This!!! How old is she? If that’s what she opens with, I’m dying to hear what she plays as a finale!

  4. rhywun

    It’s as if they’re deliberately trying to destroy __________. Oh wait, they are.

    Yeah, once I recognized this, all the pieces began to fall into place.

    • Festus

      It’s like Tetris.

    • Sean

      S’mores for everyone!

  5. Sean

    Stampy. ?

      • Sean

        Barbaric. Interesting slice o history though.

      • Cy Esquire

        Also relevant:

        https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/10best/2019/09/10/10-animal-sanctuaries-u-s-you-need-visit/2276969001/

        “Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Currently home to 10 elephants retired from zoos and circuses, the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is truly one of a kind. Elephants suffering from long-term health and behavioral issues (due to having spent their lives in captivity) now get to enjoy life in peace. The sanctuary provides them with individualized care and companionship of a herd. In addition, it is dedicated to educating the public about the plight of elephants in the wild, as well as the needs of those in captivity.
        ELEPHANT SANCTUARY IN TENNESSEE”

      • Cy Esquire

        “The rescue also holds clinics, trainings and seminars across the country. Adoptable donkeys go to loving homes after careful evaluation”

        That’s a really nice way of saying, “we sell hired muscle for your choice of herd.”

  6. The Late P Brooks

    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been working on a multilateral agreement that would include a global minimum corporate tax rate on tech giants.

    The aim is to find a common solution to address the policy dilemma of how to tax profits earned in one country by a company headquartered in another that offers more favorable tax treatment.

    European officials said the US shift was an important breakthrough.

    Global tax policy. What an excellent idea.

    • Atanarjuat

      The governments of the US, France and Germany don’t have a spending problem, they just need to squeeze a bit more tax revenue from that one area and everything will be running smoothly.

    • rhywun

      I’ve got nuthin’. It’s so stupid and evil it leaves me speechless.

      • Ted S.

        They’re far more addicted to tax revenue than anybody’s ever been to opioids.

    • Festus

      Canada is following Australia. We will soon start taxing on-line providers of news to prop up our failing media enterprises. As if a 500 million dollar giveaway to the friendly ones weren’t enough. America is about five years behind us but gaining fast.

      • Ted S.

        If Canada didn’t have an 800-lb. media gorilla in the form of the CBC, there would be more money to support other media outlets.

      • Atanarjuat

        There would certainly be more views to go around to the smaller outlets.

      • Festus

        Fuck that shit! Level the playing field. If it’s eyeballs and ears you’re after, fucking earn them yourselves. Nobody gives a shit about the fucking CBC except the Liberal Party.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    I stopped off at the bar yesterday for a couple of beers. So depressing. The number one topic is “Did you get a shot?”

    People have been so comprehensively broken by the kabuki, it’s astounding to me.

    • Festus

      Yep. Everyone is cowed. Almost no one is resisting, me included. This is how very bad things are allowed to happen, folks.

    • DEG

      I grocery shopped yesterday without a mask. I saw two other maskless people.

      • Cy Esquire

        If anyone asks you why you aren’t wearing your mask, just tell them you forgot your superhero outfit at home.

  8. Atanarjuat

    Webb Hubbell’s favorite daughter

    I’m convinced. Exhibit A: her face. Exhibit B: Juanita Broderick’s testimony about being raped by Bill included the detail that after he came in her, he said “don’t worry, I’m sterile”.

    • Festus

      I read that in Hillary’s voice and just puked in my mouth a little.

      • Atanarjuat

        Broderick also said that she met Hillary afterward, at a Democratic Party event, who gripped her hand and said in the iciest possible tone “thank you for what you do”.

      • Festus

        Gah! I think my balls just fled into my cranium.

  9. Surly Knott

    OFFS
    One of the dog groups I’m in on Facebook is reporting that similar groups are having problems with posts and users being deleted or suspended for use of the word “bitch.”
    So, the original and proper usage is verboten now that it’s being used in derogatory contexts. Those bitches!

    • Festus

      Just refer to them as “cuntes” and have done with them.

      • Festus

        “Cuntes” being from the old French.

      • Old Man With Candy

        When I see that word, I think, “Small cunt.”

        I’ll be in my bunk.

      • Festus

        You get me and I get you. It’s a handy situation!

    • Cy Esquire

      My grandparent’s used the ‘N’ word with zero animosity. It was just how you referred to a black person for over a hundred years. Then it changed to a different N word. Then is changed to African American. Then it changed to black. Now I think it’s “POC.” It was never about the word, it was about making the person they were talking to feel lesser. Commies and Marxists are very patient.

      • Atanarjuat

        BIPOC. Black/indigenous/POC. Unless I missed the daily new vocab change again.

        What’s up, fellow Latinxes and BIPOCs?

      • Festus

        It isn’t about the word itself but the delivery. Sneering derision makes it extra ugly. Who the hell uses those terms anymore?

      • Ted S.

        I would write it as Bip Oc.

      • Cy Esquire

        They should just shorten it up to NWP.

      • Ted S.

        Niggaz with platitudes?

      • Atanarjuat

        It seems like that would meet their requirements. But of course it must be constantly changing so you can freelydemonize anyone who isn’t on board with the 5 minute old revisions.

      • Festus

        I’ll just continue being an old white guy that refuses to say Black.

      • Festus

        I think I love you just a little more, Grosspatzer

      • Grosspatzer

        Love you long time too!

      • zwak

        At this point, I just smile and roll my eyes. The left has this weird idea that if you cut off the leaves (bad word X) that will cure any rot in the tree (racism). You see it with Idiot>retard>handycap and every other slur, such as fag, wetback, bitch, etc. And when those words become ingroup words, people who think they are part of the ingroup tend to use them in the same way, causing much anquish.

        They don’t seem to understand that they are putting the cart in front of the horse.

    • Hyperion

      Call them beeothces and if they remove the posts, call them racists.

  10. Cy Esquire

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/us/politics/brian-sicknick-capitol-riot-investigation.html

    “In a significant breakthrough in the case, investigators have now pinpointed a person seen on video of the riot who attacked several officers with bear spray, including Officer Sicknick, according to the officials. And video evidence shows that the assailant discussed attacking officers with the bear spray beforehand, one of the officials said.”

    Bear spray… Really FBI? Really?

    • Sean

      Let’s sue the bear spray company. That would be fun. ?

    • Spartacus

      They’re gonna load this guy up with every charge they can find, pressure him into a plea deal, and then say that they “caught and punished the cop killer.” 6 months later the autopsy report will be released which will show the officer’s death was unrelated to the riots.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Nobody gives a shit about the fucking CBC except the Liberal Party.

    What would the circulation of the Washington Post be if it were not the official interdepartmental newsletter of the federal government?

    • Festus

      “Well, there you go again!”

    • straffinrun

      We only spin thin truth.

    • westernsloper

      BUT THE COURTS!!

  12. westernsloper

    a guy who should be canceled because his poems rhymed;

    I thought fursure that was going to be that guy from Nantucket.

    • db

      Whose pack was so full none could ruck it?

      • westernsloper

        He went for a hike and ran into a dike.

      • db

        Which had leaked, so his pack–there he stuck it.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Partnership

    White House officials on Friday will unveil a new partnership between the administration and top business groups to help with the national coronavirus response and vaccine rollout, Andy Slavitt, White House senior advisor for Covid response, announced.

    The partnership includes the Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers as well as leaders in the Hispanic, African American, Asian American and other minority business organizations, Slavitt said.

    The purpose of the partnership, a White House official told CNBC, is to call on businesses of all sizes “to promote public health measures to help reduce barriers to vaccinations for employees, and to help amplify public health messaging around masking and vaccinations to their customers and communities.” The New York Times reported on the partnership earlier.

    ——-

    \“I would not present these as federal efforts,” Slavitt said. “I would present these as efforts by organizations around the country that we are encouraging others to take stock of in some cases.”

    The White House, with its new business partners, will urge more companies to do the same, he said.

    Slavitt said administration officials will hold calls with business groups over the next few weeks urging them to help with the federal response to the pandemic. He said the White House will call on them to require employees to follow public health precautions and educate the public about the importance of getting vaccinated.

    “First, require masking and social distancing to protect workers, customers and others on the premises,” Slavitt said. “Second, reduce barriers to vaccinations. Make a plan to get employees vaccinated and make it easier for employees to get vaccinated by providing incentives like paid time off or compensation for employees to get vaccinated when it’s their turn.”

    “Urging” close co-operation between the government and private enterprises. Do as we say, and you won’t get hurt. Pay the ransom. OBEY.

    You know who else…

    • Cy Esquire

      The Fortifiers must be rewarded for their heroism.

      • Festus

        Is it just me or does anyone else wish these vaccine line-jumpers a slow fungal death?

    • Brochettaward

      This is all a bunch of bullshit outside maybe the idea to pay people to get vaccinated. I mean, bribes may work for some. The rest is gibberish with no real meaning in real life. Reduce barriers to getting vaccinated? And what just might those be?

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Reduce barriers to getting vaccinated? And what just might those be?

        Definitely nothing to do with “equitable” dissemination.

    • rhywun

      I picked the wrong year to not be a minority. Well, one of the good ones.

      • Festus

        You guys were all the rage when Bush II was in power. Wha happen?

  14. straffinrun

    I wasn’t even close to making it home on time.

    • Festus

      Shank’s mare, yet again? Poor Straff…

    • rhywun

      There is no part of that which doesn’t make me scream “take my money!”

    • Cy Esquire

      “With gold-colored Trump statue, conservatives show fealty to former president”

      I thought Reuters was supposed to be a centrist right leaning news org? That’s a title from CNN or MSNBC.

      • rhywun

        Reuters has had a leftist slant for several years.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      Yeah. It couldn’t be that his supporters are having a laugh. It must be fealty.

    • Festus

      Apparently “dusky” ones don’t.

    • But Enough About Me. Why? Why not?

      “Black Lives Matter! And that’s why we’re going to eradicate them using only the best weapons tech available! The ALL-NEW Hellfire II missile! It’s five weapons systems in one!”

    • Festus

      They just need to unleash about ten thousand Australian Hate-Birds, the birds that hate* Problem solved!

  15. Hank

    “A 7-year-old girl has set up a lemonade stand inside her mother’s bakery to help fund her upcoming brain surgeries….

    “Savage’s Bakery in Alabama is serving a cool, thirst-quenching treat….

    “Less than a month ago, Liza began to have grand mal seizures which caused unconsciousness and violent muscle contractions.

    “Later, doctors discovered that she has an “extra special brain.”

    ‘In most every instance of these rare malformations doctors only see one malformation — in Liza’s case she has 3,’ Elizabeth Scott wrote on “Liza’s Mightycause page.

    “Liza and her mother will fly to Boston Children’s Hospital for the first of a series of surgeries next week.

    ““I can’t handle it. So, I hope I make it,” Liza said. “My mom keeps saying I’m going to, but I feel like I’m not.””

    https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/this-7-year-old-girl-is-selling-lemonade-so-that-she-could-pay-for-her-brain-surgeries/ar-BB1e4nwd

    • Tres Cool

      ACT II: The Health Department and Zoning Board arrive to put them both out of business

      • rhywun

        Yeah, that’s the punchline I was expecting.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I hope I make it,” Liza said. “My mom keeps saying I’m going to, but I feel like I’m not.””

      *surreptitiously swipes at eyes when nobody is looking*

      • Stillhunter

        Yeah, people are complaining about hangnails at 30 and this girl makes them all look foolish.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    #BELIEVEHER

    Newly confirmed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm seized on the bruising winter weather that left millions of Texans without heat and electricity last week to press for reform of the state’s power systems, arguing that pivoting to a clean energy economy can ensure a dependable grid and help create jobs.

    In her first interview with NPR since taking office, the former Michigan governor made the case for sweeping changes to the nation’s energy markets in order to help meet President Biden’s pledge to make the U.S. carbon neutral by 2050. Granholm, who won confirmation in the Senate by a vote of 64 to 35 on Thursday, said “there may have to be public-private partnerships to get initiatives off the ground,” and pledged that for any jobs lost in the fossil fuel industry, there would be “more than a one-to-one replacement” in clean energy.

    Addressing the disaster in Texas, Granholm told Morning Edition host Noel King on Friday that one big lesson from last week’s outages is that Texas needs to weatherize and winterize its energy systems.

    “Climate change is not going away, so it’s only going to intensify those kinds of events,” Granholm said.

    Let’s take an outlier event and use it as an excuse to completely unmake an existing system. Because, you know- MAGIC!

    • Grosspatzer

      pivoting to a clean energy economy can ensure a dependable grid

      Building more nuclear reactors would certainly be a step in the right direction. This is what she is talking about, right?

      • limey

        She would mandate that they be built down on the gulf coast, hoping for a fuk-u-shima type catastrophe when hurricane season rolled around, so she could jump up and down and point while screaming emphatically “i ToLd yOu So!!1!”, while blaming Republicans for putting the plant down there in the first place.

      • Fatty Bolger

        That’s how you know they don’t really believe their own climate change disaster scenarios. If they really believed it, they would be pushing hard for nuclear energy.

    • rhywun

      Who doesn’t want to triple their energy bills? Jeez.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Granholm, 62, responded to misinformation from some leaders in Texas, including Gov. Greg Abbott, blaming renewable energy sources such as wind turbines for the majority of the power failures. Wind and solar were only a “very small part” of what happened in Texas, she said, noting that a larger driver of the outages were coal piles that froze and natural gas lines that weren’t weatherized or winterized.

    Coal piles that froze?

    COAL PILES THAT FROZE?

    • Tres Cool

      If you’ve ever been to a steam plant in summer, you’ll see that the coal piles are generally kept wet, as (likely due to compaction) they tend to spontaneously combust. And its just as tough to deal with as a good ol’ country tire fire.

      Citation

      I have a rough time believing they froze.

      • db

        I used to work at a power plant, and have seen frozen piles of coal in the vicinity of ones that were on fire. However, they don’t freeze if you turn them over frequently, and also that’s why you have a D10 and lump breakers on the feeders out in the yard.

      • Tres Cool

        ‘zackly

    • kbolino

      I can believe that all 3 of these are true, though as Granholm’s “own” EIA notes (sans footnotes),

      Natural gas-fired power plants supplied more than half of the state’s electricity net generation in 2019. About 5,000 megawatts of Texas coal-fired generating capacity have been retired since 2016. As a result, coal-fired power plants supplied less than one-fifth of state generation in 2019, down from about one-third as recently as 2014. Wind-powered generation in Texas has rapidly increased during the past two decades. In 2019, wind energy provided more than one-sixth of Texas’ generation. The state’s two operating nuclear power plants typically supply almost one-tenth of the state’s electricity net generation. Most of the capacity added in Texas since 2010 is fueled by natural gas or wind.

      This strikes me as a cascading failure problem. The natgas lines, being the most important, but not being sufficiently winterized, failing leads to demand falling too heavily on the rest of the system. Texas, being a net energy exporter, almost always has excess capacity to throw around (until it doesn’t). So early on, I’d bet no especial effort was expended to keep the coal piles from freezing (which yes, should be pretty obvious, but hindsight and all that). Even so, with so many coal plants having been decommissioned, it only would have helped so much. I don’t know how, exactly, cold weather stops a wind turbine from working, but I can believe that, like most infrastructure built in the southern states, it wasn’t designed for the same temperature range as it would have been for a northern state, because they operate on “you ain’t gonna need it” and thus save money (which has to come from somewhere, namely the value of the average person’s dollar via inflation).

      Some things I noticed when I visited Texas that I just didn’t see in the north were bridges that had remarkably thin supports, road construction that went remarkably quickly, and the cats eye reflectors on the pavement sticking above the pavement (in MD, for example, the reflectors are completely recessed, and even then the plows still pop them out occasionally). All of those things are cost-saving measures that make sense if you don’t have major freeze-thaw cycles and don’t have to run plows up and down the roads throughout the winter.

      This isn’t a “renewables” vs. “non” question really (though being 100% nuclear or 100% coal could have made this easier to prevent), it’s a preparation question. This was a 50- or 100-year storm which wasn’t accounted for in the design of the infrastructure involved.

      • kbolino

        (N.B.: road construction taking forever in MD is a relatively recent phenomenon, and likely has more to do with politics, government, and culture than weather or engineering, but it still generally takes longer to build a road that can survive frost heave than it does to build a road that can’t)

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The ramps are also inclined insanely high to this northerner’s eye.

  18. Hank

    “On the same day the U.S. House voted to advance sweeping protections for gay and transgender people, a federal judge ruled that a beauty pageant can limit contestants to only “natural born females.”…

    “…Green sued Miss United States of America in December 2019, claiming its gender identity discrimination violates Oregon’s Public Accommodations Act and infringes on [his] First Amendment rights to free speech and free association.

    “But the pageant claims it, too, has the First Amendment right to free association: in this case, the right to deny access to “non-biological females.”…

    “The pageant’s motion to dismiss repeatedly misgenders Green, referring to [him] as “a biological male who identifies as female” and “a man who identifies as a woman.”

    “Green clarified in a declaration to the court that []he has “always been a woman.”

    ““I never altered my gender or sex,” Green said. “I simply affirmed my underlying gender identity as female based on a realization of who I deeply was.””

    https://www.courthousenews.com/beauty-pageant-can-keep-barring-trans-women-judge-rules/

    • Old Man With Candy

      XY- you’re a man.
      XX- you’re a woman
      XXY or XYY- you have a genetic defect.

      I may or may not indulge your fantasies by calling you something different, depending on if it’s a matter of manners (e.g., my old friend Steff nee Steve vs. “Rachel” Levine). But at this point, the genetics remain the same irrespective of drug treatments or surgery.

    • rhywun

      That is the kernel of all this – that we are now expected to believe that a trans-person IS an actual woman or man.

      I do not think this is going to end the way they seem to think it will.

      ?

    • Spartacus

      There’s a simple solution to this. Hand M. Green a rusty pocket knife and tell him that if he drops trou and cuts off his junk right now, in public, he can compete.

    • kbolino

      If she never altered her sex, then she’s a male (sex) who identifies as a woman (gender). The progs had twenty years of battlespace prep on “sex is not gender” then for whatever reason (no, I’m not really that naive) have thrown it all out the window in the last five years.

      There’s no real way to skirt this in the long run, as they’ll eventually fall on “disparate impact” assessment. There could be no official rules against it and yet if the judges don’t “stunning and brave” every tranny, it’ll be because they’re all ignoble bigots.

    • Hyperion

      It’s a little different than boys in sports though. While men will easily beat up on women in sports, not so much in beauty contests, I think the women folk are safe on this one.

  19. straffinrun

    Permission to rant?

    • Cy Esquire

      Does it involve dead squid?

  20. DEG

    A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the federal government cannot prohibit landlords from evicting residents who are unable to pay their rent due to COVID-19-related hardship

    John Roberts is waiting in the wings to say, “YES THE GOVERNMENT CAN!”

  21. Chai Girl

    Just had a piano lesson on the Blues. Learn about the blue note and what it is. Also learn a how to make a blues cord. You need the blues before you can do jazz or swing or rock or even ragtime. Blues came first, started in the mid 1800s. The Blues is one of the biggest influence on music, so much came out of it. I even have a blues Pandora station, from BB King to Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    I’ll just continue being an old white guy that refuses to say Black.

    I have no problem with it. It’s as good as anything. It’s a generally accepted descriptive term which has been promoted by black people for decades as better than “negro” or “colored”.

    But I won’t capitalize it. It makes no sense.

    • hayeksplosives

      I avoid talking about race.

      Unless used as an identifying characteristic such as height, weight, age, etc, it really doesn’t matter.

      • Tres Cool

        My neighbor is a 73 year-old black dude. While not dropping the n-word non-stop like most contemporary “urban” music, it kinda amazes me how often he uses “black” with descriptors of shade- “is that the light skinned dude? Or darker like me?” And “colored”, e.g. “When I worked at the VA, this colored brother from maintenance used to…”

    • kbolino

      The whole capitalization question is a good example of a very culturally myopic question (ditto “latinx”).

      In German, all nouns and adjectives are capitalized. In most of the world’s written languages, there is only one “case” in the writing system, so capitalization is a meaningless question (there are other ways to place emphasis, however). How do you spell “Black” in Hebrew or Chinese or Malayalam to indicate the proper respect?

      • rhywun

        Adjectives aren’t capitalized unless they are used as nouns. Even adjectives we would capitalize in English:

        ein deutscher Mann versus der Deutsche, for example.

        /pedant

      • kbolino

        Fair enough, I should have double-checked that.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Negro was often capitalized historically.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Permission to rant?

    Granted.

    • straffinrun

      Had a good rant all corked up, but got home and forgot it. Basic point was, let me fucking speak and don’t assume I’m a goddamn monster because I don’t agree with you. *Shrugs* It was a pretty epic rant in my head.

      • Tejicano

        So where do you go that lets you keep drinking this late into the evening? I’ve had to do most of my drinking either at home or at the office after hours (that’s the kind of office I work in – small crew and the owner/management are drinkers like me).

      • Festus

        Some thoughts are better left unsaid. Especially parking lot beer ones.;-)

      • Urthona

        Silence! No rants allowed here!

  24. The Late P Brooks

    I grocery shopped yesterday without a mask. I saw two other maskless people.

    #METOO

    • Tres Cool

      So the 3 of you killed 18 grandmas. Nice work.

      • Tres Cool

        Granny used to be much tougher.

      • Festus

        Pretty sure that both of my Grandmas could have kicked my ass until I hit 12 or so.

  25. rhywun

    Oh great, the neighbor’s kids are up. Now for 18 straight hours of shrieking and walls shaking as they stomp around like elephants.

    • Tres Cool

      #BetterCallStampy

      • rhywun

        Heinous.

    • hayeksplosives

      My neighbors have a pool and a seemingly endless supply of grandchildren.

      They don’t even live that close.

      • Festus

        You could always go over there and hold their heads under. Just sayin’

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Probably the single worst part about apartment living.

      Even at the current place, I can hear the single mom’s feral children next door screaming bloody murder all throughout my house from 3-8 on school days and from 10-8 on weekends. My backyard is basically unusable when they’re home, and eating in the dining room is not peaceful. It’s not like there’s a park literally 8 houses down that they could go to, nosiree.

      • Cy Esquire

        This is a huge pet peave of mine. If your kid is screaming, in ANY scenario, there had better be someone dieing. My kids have this ingrained in them. Have a good time, go nuts. You only scream if there is a problem that requires adults.

        Then we go visit some family or another family comes over and their little shits just run around screaming at everything like it’s cute. Tee-hee! Fucking drama queen little assholes. I’m not a full on seen and not heard, but don’t be rude.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        ^^ This. It’s especially hard to train ours not to scream when cousins/friends/etc aren’t discouraged from the same.

        I agree on not quite being in the “seen but not heard” camp, but it’s amazing to see the insanity that most parents let their kids get away with.

      • Cy Esquire

        My wife and I had the discussion yesterday of kids not being in charge. If I show up to pick up my kids 10 mins after school has been let out, I’m not late. Kids aren’t to be waited on. As adults and heads of household, our priorities and time takes precedent over the children’s.

        “Oh no, little Timmy had to stare at his phone for an extra 5 mins after he got out of school instead of doing it when he was riding in the car.”

        It’s no wonder kids are so impatient, food, entertainment and attention are all on demand. These kids are being taught that the world serves them. Oh you didn’t use the right pronoun when referring to me? How dare you eat a PBnJ at school, what about my peanut allergy you had no idea of?

        Pets are suddenly being treated as children and children are damn near walking deities to some of these parents.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        My wife and I had the discussion yesterday of kids not being in charge.

        Yup. We have had that conversation. Around here, the “extra” insanity is rampant. Elementary and middle school sports are bigger commitments than high school sports were when I was a kid. I’ve been to weddings more austere than the birthday parties around here. To hear people (mothers) talk about their kids, Jesus Christ himself was just an ordinary man compared to them.

        It’s one of the reasons we’re looking to move a couple hours east. Maybe we’ll be less of a cultural outlier in a smaller city.

      • rhywun

        The hours don’t vary here. The little shits are obviously not getting any education because it’s the same all day on weekdays, too.

      • Grosspatzer

        No wonder teachers don’t want to go back to work.

      • Spartacus

        They’ve probably been told to stay home while mom’s at work. Or “at work”.

    • Mad Scientist

      Children exist to make everyone else as miserable as possible.

    • db

      We used to live in a duplex, and the single mom had 3 or 4 kids from mid teens to about 8 or so. They were very pleasant and almost never caused trouble. One Saturday, however, we heard what sounded like heavy fighting and throwing of stuff, screaming and shouting. It went on for at least an hour, until I went next door and knocked. The kids rather sheepishly answered the door, and said they were just playing when I asked if everything was all right.

      Later on, the mother knocked on our door and demanded to know why I was yelling at her kids. I politely told her that there was so much noise and crashing that I was afraid the kids were going to hurt each other. She turned to her daughter and asked about it, and the daughter admitted that was right. The mom thanked me and took the kids back inside and then she spent a good 5 minutes yelling at them, then everything was fine again.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Basic point was, let me fucking speak and don’t assume I’m a goddamn monster because I don’t agree with you. *Shrugs* It was a pretty epic rant in my head.

    I concur. I was just ruminating about the astonishing superficiality of political/social “thought” these days.

    Our so-called discourse has devolved into a series of word association triggers. I say “X”, you immediately construct an entire narrative to explain what a monstrous evil ignoramus I am, or, conversely, that I am obviously a genteel, perceptive member of TEAM RIGHTEOUSNESS.

    Pathetic.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    So the 3 of you killed 18 grandmas. Nice work.

    *puffs out chest, marks kills on score card*

    • DEG

      #metoo

      Gotta do better next time!

  28. hayeksplosives

    All the people who were convinced that Trump was the Antichrist here to destroy the country now make no connection between Biden’s shitty policies and the fact that the stock market is down and people are still locked up.

    At some point they will try to tie the recession to either Trump or to COVID. Not to the lockdowns or bailouts or Fauci, but to the virus itself.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      They will try to inextricably link the virus to the GOP, and especially Trump. As I mention in my next article, they’ll be touting victory over the ViroRepublican alliance soon enough.

    • Tres Cool

      Oh, and gas here is creeping towards $3/gallon again. Seems the average is about $2.80

      • hayeksplosives

        And more troops are going to the ME instead of coming home.

        And we’re going to cripple the economy in the name of Carbon (which is rather an innocuous element) while China pollutes the world and makes the US more dependent on it.

      • Hyperion

        Feature, not bug.

    • Festus

      Yeah, it’s all a great big sad sigh. The worst of it is the way that we’ve all went along with it. I’ve always been rebellious. Now I’m beaten down. I need to sleep, Friends, back to 7 days a week again.

    • Hyperion

      But the vid is sentient! It’s threatening a comeback! Just listen to this bullshit and stay afraid!

      IT’S ALIVE AND IT GOAN GET US!

    • grrizzly

      The stock market is very much up.

  29. Tundra

    Mornin’ folks.

    • Cy Esquire

      *fedora tip*

    • Tres Cool

      ‘sup fam

      • hayeksplosives

        As my employer-required COVID test date approaches, I looked up HIPPA and found a coronavirus article:

        The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released guidance on employee testing stating that testing must be consistent with business necessity, mandatory medical tests must be job related, and tests should be reliable and accurate.

        Ok, looking good there: it’s not consistent with a business necessity, job related, and there’s pretty damning evidence regarding accuracy.

        So I should be able to refuse, right?

        Not so fast.

        “Applying this standard to the current circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers may take steps to determine if employees entering the workplace have COVID-19 because an individual with the virus will pose a direct threat to the health of others,” stated the EEOC.

        For the love of…poses a direct threat? That they might also get the mild sniffles?

        Seems the burden of proof should be on the employer that the test is accurate and that a person who tests positive is a threat to others.

      • kbolino

        What would we do without the the EEOC weighing in.

      • Hyperion

        HIPAA is dead, has been for years.

      • hayeksplosives

        GATTICA is going to be good fun.

        It was a pretty good run, Western Civilization.

    • limey

      *pushes the donut box across the table to you*

      Alls we got is alls we got left.

      *the box contains a single, squashed bran muffin*

      Mornin’

    • Hyperion

      Mornin. Looks like it’s Saturday and I’m awake, so beer o’clock has arrived!

  30. UnCivilServant

    Question I think the Glibs know the answer to

    What are the names for alcohols made from maple syrup? (plural because the just fermented name always seems to be different from the fermented then distilled name)

    • Hyperion

      Canuckistanian Hipster Juice?

    • limey

      Canada wet

    • kinnath

      Mead made with honey and maple syrup would be Acerglyn.

      I am not familiar with any maple syrup only products.

      • UnCivilServant

        Oh well.

        It was a random curiousity.

      • kinnath

        From a quick google search, it looks like the indians taught the european immigrants how to make maple sugar from sap. So, there wasn’t a european history of doing that.

        There doesn’t appear to be an american history of boiling sap down to make a wort with the proper sugar concentration for fermentation.

        But brewers will use adjuncts (sugars) of all sorts when making beer, wine, and mead. So I would guess that maple sugar as an addition to traditional beverages would be not that uncommon.

      • Nephilium

        I seem to recall finding a specific name for fermented straight maple syrup (basically watered down or sap just boiled down to mead levels), but nothing for distilled. As the fermented maple syrup was already expensive (and not considered that good).

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s surprising, since people have been known to distill all sorts of undrinkable things.

      • Nephilium

        Not with expensive base ingredients though. It’s an instance where the end product is worth less than the starting product. Doing some quick searches, it looks like a Maple Wine is becoming something that people are trying to make. Based on the descriptions, it sounds as if it’s on the same sweetness level as ice wines.

      • l0b0t

        I have some friends who run a maple plantation in Northern NY; it’s a fascinating business with some strange (to me) timing requirements. I’ll ask about fermented or distilled stuff next time I talk to them.

  31. Hyperion

    “US drops key obstacle to global digital tax: Treasury”

    Didn’t we once throw tea into a harbor and then start a war over shit like this?

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Headline:

    “House Passes BIDEN’S Relief Bill”

    SRSLY?

    Ballgag Joe wrote it, in all its excruciating detail? Is there nothing our savior cannot be credited with?

    • Hyperion

      Since he can no longer speak at a comprehensible level, he just writes stuff all the time.

    • rhywun

      As if Biden would stoop to writing legislation when he can just executive-order shit.

      • hayeksplosives

        But this way they can get all the donkeys plus Mittens to sign if and call it bipartisan.

  33. Grosspatzer

    Last night I had a dream so fair
    I dreamt that Fauci wasn’t there
    But there he is again today
    Oh, how I wish he’d go away

    And then I saw him on teevee
    Narrowing his gaze at me
    “Mask up! Mask up! Before we all
    Put you up against the wall!”
    Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
    Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door…

    Last night I had a dream so fair
    I dreamt that Fauci wasn’t there
    But there he is again today
    Oh, how I wish he’d go away

  34. Hyperion

    “Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said in a statement. “Offensive military action without congressional approval is not constitutional absent extraordinary circumstances. Congress must be fully briefed on this matter expeditiously.”

    Oh just knock it off, Timmy.

    • Grosspatzer

      extraordinary circumstances

      Which can always be conjured up to justify all manner of bullshit. Pandemics, global warming…

    • kbolino

      I’ll believe Congress gives a shit about retaining its authority over warmaking when they stop throwing money effusively at the defense and intelligence sector. As it stands, people like Kaine will whine for the TV cameras or Twitterati now but then vote lockstep on the next defense appropriation or authority expansion.

      • Hyperion

        “Kaine will whine for the TV cameras or Twitterati now but then vote lockstep”

        That’s why I said knock it off… with the play acting for the cameras.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    But there he is again today
    Oh, how I wish he’d go away

    BRAVO! AUTHOR!

  36. Hyperion

    “Biden administration to open new tent facility in Texas amid surge in migrants at border”

    We can no longer refer to them as immigrants, that’s racist. Them is voters.

    • Cy Esquire

      Extra special, free dual citizenship, multi-cultural, BIPOC, poor, oppressed, commie fleeing, perfectly clean of all diseases and viruses, never harmed a fly in their home country, vital seasonal worker, future doctors and engineers voters! (sorry if i missed one)

      • Cy Esquire

        Damn it. I forgot ‘refugees.’

      • hayeksplosives

        Critical race theorists are more important than engineers.

        It is known.

  37. hayeksplosives

    February 27, 2012

    “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”–Stephen Chu, Energy Secretary

    • hayeksplosives

      That’s the memory that Facebook saw fit to share with me today.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    We believe in the First Amendment, but not for those murderers

    The Supreme Court on Friday once again sided with houses of worship challenging regulations aimed at stopping the spread of Covid-19 in California.
    The court blocked so-called gathering restrictions in Santa Clara County that critics said treated churches differently than secular businesses in violation of the First Amendment.
    The issue has bitterly divided the court and the three liberal justices — Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor — noted their dissent in an order issued after hours on Friday.
    The court acted despite the fact that the restrictions are scheduled to be lifted next week.

    The dispute was brought by several churches in Santa Clara County that objected to a ban on all indoor gatherings, including political events, weddings, funerals, movie showings and worship services.

    Millions will die!

    • rhywun

      despite the fact that the restrictions are scheduled to be lifted next week

      Then what are they bitching about? Geez, some people are so ungrateful.

  39. Semi-Spartan Dad

    Got to return to a sense of normalcy today. Picked up the AR10 from my FFL shop, which is way out in the boondocks. Really more a hunting shop than a gunstore. 80 year old owner is maskless. No masks on any employee or customer. It was great. Took my daughter who had a great time looking at all the taxidermied animals.

    Went to the grocery store to add to dried goods stockpile. Found them stocked with mason jars, thought of Kinnath, and cleaned em out of quart and pint. The price tags were all covered up with “we’re sorry this item is out of stock” so apparently they sell out so quickly, the employees don’t even bother removing the tags. Need to get a canner soon and the garden prepped for Spring.

    Stopped by a different gunstore and was glad to see a sign on the door that said employees will assume you have a medical condition if not wearing a mask. Employees were masked not a single customer. Limit 1 box of ammo per customer and, unfortunately, my 6 year old was not allowed to buy ammo. So now I have a whopping 20 rds of 308 for the new purchase until my bulk orders come in next week.

    • kinnath

      outstanding

    • hayeksplosives

      a sign on the door that said employees will assume you have a medical condition if not wearing a mask.

      That’s an excellent idea for letting the business cover its ass while making customers comfortable and happy.

      I’d like to see that go mainstream.

    • Suthenboy

      Maybe one in ten people in my parish are wearing masks. I had to pay 35 bucks for. half gallon of vodka this morning because all but the most expensive stuff is sold out. Hmmm. Maybe I should stay off of the roads.
      The best fried chicken in town is not at the local restaurant but at the local convenience store. I came home with a bucket of their last chicken and told the wife “All they had left was wings. I got a dozen of them.”
      Her: “Oh no! All they had was wings? Bring them here and let me inspect them!” The Cookie Monster has nothing on her.

    • rhywun

      How about just sell them the land? I know, crazy.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The enviros? We pretty much have, minus assessing them for property taxes. Who am I kidding? As non profits they’d still be exempt.

      • rhywun

        No, the people who want to use it.

    • Hyperion

      You almost have to think they’re trying to pick a fight with the American people.

  40. KromulentKristen

    Yo Limey – you damn near killed l0b0t & me last night with that barfing video

    • Brochettaward

      You went and searched for it yourself, if memory serves me correctly.

      • KromulentKristen

        If you mention gross food challenges & 4 minutes of barfing, I really have no choice.

    • limey

      Haha. I larfed for a full ten minutes after, and some more again today. Emetophobics beware.

      • KromulentKristen

        I’m-a probably go watch it again

      • Ownbestenemy

        Gluttton for punishment

      • KromulentKristen

        Glutton for deep, deep belly laughter

      • Gender Traitor

        Was it this one?

      • Gender Traitor

        #WhoWantsChowda?

        Nope. Nope. Nope. Not clicking your link. I did my time when my stepson lived with us and developed some sort of mysterious upper GI IBS-like chronic condition, and I had to listen to his suffering night and day. ::shudders::

      • Ted S.

        Hawt.

      • Gender Traitor

        Rule 34?

      • l0b0t

        The can is SO swollen! Never eat food from a swollen can!

      • Tulip

        Nope, nope, nope. I would end up barfing too.

      • KromulentKristen

        That one time where he leans his head back? I thought he was gonna spew like a volcano. Too bad he didn’t.

      • l0b0t

        I love dragging the kid back in – “Robby, gae back in the videooo!”

      • KromulentKristen

        As he barfs all over Robbie’s seat!

    • Brochettaward

      I own one. I call it the Commie Masher.

    • The Hyperbole

      Sport type: Hunting

      what.

      • l0b0t

        I thought bashing and collecting baby seals was called harvesting.

    • Cy Esquire

      That guy who screwed the bolts in his? He knows how to fuck.

    • Hyperion

      I have a wakizashi as my backup close quarters weapon of choice.

  41. Ted S.

    It’s a good thing I don’t like beer.

    • Ted S.

      Alastair Sim is a really underrated actor.

      There is/was a company called Reel Vault making gray-market DVDs of British films for sale in the US, and I picked up cheap copies of a couple of fun Sim movies, Cottage to Let, Laughter in Paradise (with a small role by Audrey Hepburn), and School for Scoundrels (with Terry-Thomas and badly remade in the US a dozen or so years ago).