About The Author

Riven

Riven

[riv-uhn] noun 1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd. 2. often aims to misbehave. 3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.* And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.

494 Comments

  1. Ownbestenemy

    I preferred the other Pikachu from the links the other day.

    On another note, my kids school said “Nah, we are going to still make your kids wear the mask. We enjoy our authoritarian boners we have”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I for one look forward to our future of shoving oxygen lines up asses.

    • The Other Kevin

      I thought our anuses were safe when they got rid of rectal thermometers.

      • R C Dean

        PUBSEC SMITH SAY SERF ANUS NEVER SAFE!

      • slumbrew

        I have some bad news; those weren’t thermometers.

    • PBRstreetgang

      But, how will the drugs get out?

  2. Hyperion

    Lanks! 3rdest!

  3. Hyperion

    I’m going to be totally pissed if we find out the Green Hornet is a non-binary Brony.

    • Not Adahn

      The Green Hornet is a racist colonizer who treats PoCs as his servants.

      • Hyperion

        I really hope Kato makes a mean Chinese stir-fry.

  4. commodious spittoon

    I was ready to cash out early and put in for some vacation hours but this f’ing day won’t end.

  5. Tonio

    Speaking of Dem grandstanding about the pipeline hack…

    Loathsome swamp creature Abigail Spanberger (D, CIA) bloviates about cybersecurity. May be paywalled for some. Looks like a skin-smoothing effect of some sort was employed in that video of her. The ravenous eyes still reveal the lizard person within.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Never trusted a woman with no lips.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Kate Middlebum seems nice enough.

    • The Other Kevin

      0% of people in congress know jack shit about cybersecurity. If we’re lucky whatever they do will stop at “ineffective and a waste of money.”

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Massie probably does.

      • Gadfly

        But he leans libertarian, so nobody is going to listen to him.

      • Hyperion

        I’ll let you know a little secret. Probably 90% of experts in cybersecurity probably know jackshit about cybersecurity. Making people who should have high levels of trust in a system, log in 60 times a day is not SCIENCE! It’s an abomination and some dickweeds need to become obsolete for doing nothing but wasting time, money, and resources.

    • R C Dean

      No question in my mind that video is filtered, smoothed, something. They managed to barely cling to this side of the uncanny valley. Barely.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Nah, it’s just low-bitrate. Reminds me of a shitty webcam circa 2005. In fact, it probably is a shitty webcam from 2005.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The $5 million paid in random is really not that bad. Just wait until the government gets involved.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        *Ransom

      • R C Dean

        I thought I read that the key the hackers gave them didn’t work. Which definitely happens.

        We obsess over cybersecurity here. I am assured, and I tend to believe it, that a ransomware attack on our operation would at worst shut down part of our network for no more than 12 hours, with full backups of everything up to at least the day before.

      • UnCivilServant

        if and only if the attack immediately shuts it down rather than waiting until a sufficient number of backups are of infected data.

      • R C Dean

        Current-gen malware propagates over your system and into your backups for some time before it triggers.

        So, our backups are of some new type which is (I’m told) infection-proof. Can’t recall the name. The cybersecurity insurance wallahs who looked at it were impressed we already had it, though.

      • UnCivilServant

        So what sort of magic do they do to disinfect your backups? If it works why not apply it to the life system too?

      • R C Dean

        Now I had to look it up. We use Rubrik, which creates an “immutable copy backup”. I gather that it works on backup copies because they are static archives, and would not work on a system in active use.

        My knowledge on this topic has reached an end.

      • UnCivilServant

        From the blurb listed, that doesn’t sound like it would help. If your live system gets infected and changes the data on the live system, on the next backup, the infected live data would be copied to the backup.

        Unless there’s something checking the data as it’s copied to the backup, all the malware need do is wait 90 days or so (standard backup retention for a lot of places) before triggering.

        Then when you restore from backup, you still have to find the malware in that data or it’ll just go off again, if it doesn’t go off immediately on restore.

      • UnCivilServant

        In theory you could selectively pull and sanitize key data from that if you stand up fresh infrastructure, but it’ll take more than twelve hours to stand stuff up.

      • slumbrew

        The data isn’t infected, though – DR would be “re-image, re-apply configs”. A machine image from 2 days ago would still have the dormant malware, but you just need the last unencrypted DB dump/config/etc.

        Devil is in the details, but our data integrity folks deal with those details.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m an infrastructure guy, I’m looking at standing up the application in a mere twelve hours and going “there’s no way you’re getting a clean version running and ready for data in that time frame.” Because anything we can clone would be at risk of being infected.

        Maybe they keep some baseline images in this static vault with no retention limits.

      • R C Dean

        Alright, one more go.

        Ransomware works by encrypting data, so that you have to buy the decryption key. My understanding is that the immutable copy is encrypted at rest (by you), and can’t be re-encrypted (hence “immutable”) – the malware won’t work on it, perhaps some kind of hash control? It can, apparently, be reloaded onto your working system without being encrypted by the malware.

        Or maybe we’ve been scammed. The cyberinsurance company, which has some stake in knowing what they are talking about, was quite happy with it, though.

      • UnCivilServant

        You can reencrypt encrypted data.

        I’ve done it before. Data is data. You can encrypt it as many times as you’d like.

        We’re to the point where we’d have to get into the weeds on the details. Just chalk it up to paranoid guy being paranoid.

      • R C Dean

        You can reencrypt encrypted data.

        You can’t (re)encrypt data that the system doesn’t allow you to (re)encrypt.

        Our system, for example, doesn’t allow the installation by someone like me of encryption software – only god-level admins can do that. There is no encryption software on our system other than what is installed at the admin level, and it can only be used in specific cases.

        Of course, the whole system is encrypted, but that’s invisible to authorized users. I can’t encrypt a blessed thing on our system, unless I designate it as an encrypted email.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s because you’re a rule-abiding user, not malware.

      • slumbrew

        I’m also an infrastructure guy and my experience differs. Assuming I don’t have to deal with the damn networking requirements, I can and have rebuilt whole services in hours – baseline image, run the playbook, load the data.

        I did just that when we moved datacenters fairly suddenly.

        Dunno if it’s a Windows vs. Linux thing, but that’s pretty standard for us. YMMV.

      • UnCivilServant

        It might be a New York State versus anyplace else thing.

    • westernsloper

      Abigail Spanberger?…………….Fuck off Tonio, Derp made that name up right?

  6. Hyperion

    “‘Console games were not the future’; The Mouse is the future.”

    I remember when I walked into a Gamestop about 15 years ago and asked the kiddies at the counter ‘You guys don’t sell PC games?’. PC games! What? This is 2007, boomer! No one plays those anymore!

    Well, how did that work out console kiddie luddites?

    • Ownbestenemy

      It is as if everything has its purpose and place.

    • Urthona

      I remember that and attended E3 and the GDC at around those years. Many speakers were taking about how PC gaming was dead and the console would be the center of home entertainment.

      PC gaming now outearns all consoles combined.

      • Hyperion

        Sort of like some retards today talking about how smartphones are going to replace big screen TVs? Yeah, sure, dummies, the entire family gathered around an 8 inch smartphone screen. Why am I laughing at you?

      • Urthona

        That reminds me. They completely missed smartphones entirely.

        But how could they see it coming?

        Smartphone gaming has exploded.

        Apparently people enjoy watching their big screen tvs and looking at their smartphones at the same time.

      • Hyperion

        “Apparently people enjoy watching their big screen tvs and looking at their smartphones at the same time.”

        That shit annoys me to no end.

      • Hyperion

        I know you are, but what am I? Neener neener in betweener!

      • slumbrew

        Hey Buddy!…

      • rhywun

        I suck at the “trends” game because I am apparently the complete opposite of everyone in their focus groups.

        I hate gaming on my phone. I hate staring at it for any longer than it takes to make a phone call or look up a piece of information. I used it for reading on the trains for a long time but I’m going back to my Kindle because that is a superior device for reading.

        As for consoles, the biggest problem is you have to turn them on and mess with remotes and shit. My computer is right here, always on.

      • Hyperion

        I hear you, bro.

      • rhywun

        Well… I should add that I prefer games with controllers over games with keyboard and mouse. And I’m not into AAA games. The only reason I don’t use my console more is because I’m too lazy to operate it.

      • UnCivilServant

        I have a USB controller for the rare game where it actually makes sense.

        Most games, I prefere keyboard and mouse. I’m more precise with the mouse than an analog stick.

      • Hyperion

        I just prefer first/3rd person action games. And all of them are better with WSAD.

        The only time I prefer a controller is if I’m driving. And that’s no problem since I always have my Xbox for PC controller on my desk.

        The game I’m playing right now is a first person survival game by a small indy developer named Subsistence. It’s not for casual players.

      • Gadfly

        PC gaming now outearns all consoles combined.

        Which is not surprising at all, given that the PC market was always going to be the more upscale market. The big selling point of consoles was that they were cheaper hardware than the equivalent PC and they had a robust game resale market, meaning that more people could afford to get into it and you’d have a broader customer base, but also your customers would be spending less money than PC customers.

      • Urthona

        Don’t really see how that has anything to with it though. That has always been the case and pc game sales have not always outsold console games sales.

        What was underestimated just was how many people would prefer to game on PCs.

      • Hyperion

        If you’re going to pay $60 for a game, it might as well look pretty.

        Not to mention that the latest console will always be obsolete in a year compared to a PC, which you can upgrade.

        Also, mods. And controllers really do suck. I’ve thought about buying the new Playstation since I just bought a new 75″ 4K TV. But not unless I can use a keyboard and mouse.

      • Urthona

        Oh I know there are reasons and I prefer PC. I’m just saying all the experts got it wrong. They thought no one would want to pay that much money for a gaming machine when a standardized console would foot the bill.

      • Hyperion

        They failed to realize how human nature works. Getting a superior product and calling the others console peasants is more fun than they can know.

      • Gadfly

        I think it has a lot to do with it: the PC market has more money to spend buying products, because PC customers have more money they are willing to spend on their hobby. The console market would be the better bet if the gaming market was dominated by low-spending customers, but if the gaming market has a larger percentage of higher-spending customers than the higher spending platform is going to be where the money is. I’d bet that part of the shift is that mobile games have siphoned off a lot of the low-spending customers away from being console gamers. But I’m speaking blindly here: perhaps consoles have held steady and PC game purchases have just boomed.

      • Hyperion

        It’s just like everything else. PC gamers are serious hardcore gamers, while console gamers are casual gamers. That’s pretty generic description, but it’s an accurate one. Of course the people more serious about their hobby are going to spend more and care more about the bragging rights of having their gear.

        So as everything else, the PC gamers have more money to spend, are more willing to spend it, while the console gamers are happy with their consoles.

        So the math will equal more money spent on PCs, even though less units sold. BTW, console games are actually more expensive and you get less, inferior graphics, no mods, no frequent sales, etc. Those willing to spend more always get more.

      • LCDR_Fish

        It’s kinda weird.. I was ultra-hardcore PC while I was in college but I haven’t owned a desktop since 2004. 17 years of laptops….I played WoW on it without too many issues while I was in the army through about 2008, but things have been a lot more convenient playing consoles since I bought an Xbox at release in 2001.

        YMMV. I’ve been wanting to build a desktop for years now, but it hasn’t been as much of a priority…and sometimes more frustrating, my interest in gaming waxes and wanes – just like flicking a switch every 6 months to a year. I was really into things from last June till about Feb – lately nothing (other than my daily phone games). Hopefully sooner rather than later, because I’ve got a stack of unplayed Xbone games and I wouldn’t mind checking out the Mass Effect remaster. Cheaper than some of my other hobbies.

      • Hyperion

        Being a software engineer, I need a PC anyway. I hate laptops because the keyboard and the screen are too small.

        So being as I need a desktop anyway… built every PC I have owned since 1992.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Is that including hardware? Because I thought console games were still outselling PC.

        And of course, mobile gaming outearns both of those by a large margin.

    • wdalasio

      console kiddie luddites

      I’m not a huge gamer. But, when I do, I prefer PC. Consoles hooked up to the TV just remind me too much of the old Atari 2600s. Silly? Yeah, I guess. But, TVs are a shared appliance.

      • Hyperion

        As always, the new consoles will sort of catch up to PCs, for a short time. Then they’ll be left in the dust again.

        Today’s GPUs are extremely powerful, which is whey they cost as much as 3-4 times what a console does. Not to mention the other hardware. I just spent, about a year ago, more than a grand on a monitor and I don’t regret it and I want a bigger better one already, lol. Even my wife, who doesn’t care about stuff like games, loves to sit here and surf on my PC because of the quality and size of the monitor. I just say ‘You can have this one, but I’m buying this one’. She’s like $1500 for a monitor! I thought we were saving for a house, I want a bigger kitchen!

        You get what you pay for, simple as that.

      • R.J.

        Exactly. Everyone wants on the TV. So you never get enough peace to play a console. I went handheld gaming on emulation systems. I can pick it up anytime, play, and then get back to work. Console gaming just seems so formal in comparison.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        I prefer consoles because I spend enough time sitting at a desk staring at my computer. If I play a game I want to be laying on the couch blowing shit up on a giant TV screen.

  7. Ted S.

    Finally!!! …You were waiting, right?

    No I wasn’t.

  8. limey

    I make a drink drink a drink drink it good good time had.

    Happy Friday, Glibs.

    I guess plenty of you are still at work and I am about to pour my second BIG DRANK of the evening while watching muh ‘tubes.

    • Swiss Servator

      Not the Purple Drank, I hope.

      • Hyperion

        The racist variety, Limey Drank.

      • Not Adahn

        Back in the before times, marketing jeanyuses declared that everything must be sold by attaching a cartoon logo to it.

        QuikTrip’s lime slushie was represented by a cockney named “Blimey Limey.”

      • limey

        If you have a picature I would absolutely smash that into the avatar slot. My interweb search turns up nought.

      • Gender Traitor

        Dippin’ Dots come in Blimey Limey.

        Have you ever had Dippin’ Dots? They’re like little ice cream pellets. They sell them at our local minor league ball park. They look like the stuff that’s not salt that you sprinkle on your walk to melt the snow.

      • limey

        They kinda look like Nerds/Dweebs but I’m guessing they’re quite different. I don’t think I’ve ever seen ’em.

      • Swiss Servator

        THE ICE CREAM OF THE FUTURE!

      • Not Adahn

        I think I last saw him in… 1978?

        I will search a bit.

      • limey

        I would not say no to purple drank right now but alas I have no DXM. I’d better send the smurfs out for purchasin’.

    • egould310

      Cheers, mate! Have another drank. And throw some shrimp on the barbie!

      • limey

        Bonza!

    • rhywun

      Work is done and I have a 4 day weekend – apparently (((those guys))) are up to something on Monday and Tuesday but I don’t know what because the company calendar literally says “(Company) Holiday 2”.

      • rhywun

        LOL I remember that. Thanks!

      • Gender Traitor

        ::remembers seeing billboards about “Taste of the Jewish Cultural Festival”::
        ::searches online, realizes it’s going on right now, and rugelach is among the featured foods today only::
        ::strongly considers driving down to the temple to the drive-through festival to procure some::
        ::remembers she’s trying to get GlibFit. Sighs and decides to stay home and drink more wine::

      • UnCivilServant

        Is it in walking distance?

      • Gender Traitor

        It’s about five miles away. Per DDG walking directions, it would take an hour and 45 minutes. And the festival only goes until 7:00 so it would be over by the time I walked there. 🙁

        I shouldn’t eat rugelach anyway.

        But I really love rugelach.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s a bit further than I can walk at the moment.

        I’m still making the 4 miles stick.

      • Gender Traitor

        That’s great! I haven’t been good about getting on the treadmill. I can’t right now because TT is napping. Maybe tomorrow…

      • limey

        Second Holiday, the prequel to Last Holiday. Queen Latifah is on holiday and there is no special reason why. She just needs some me time.

        I actually really enjoyed Last Holiday. A happy movie.

  9. Swiss Servator

    “I walked 10 km and all I got was this lousy Pikachu.”

    • Ownbestenemy

      But no peaches?

      • Animal

        No Herb, either.

  10. DEG

    Song selection is good.

  11. Ownbestenemy

    Local community members around me are actually cheering on deaths mounting now that masks have been thrown out..sorta. These people are sick.

    • Urthona

      where are you that they’re not declining?

      • Ownbestenemy

        In upper middle class Henderson, NV. Our numbers are dropping but its the “unvaccinated are going to go out and kill us all” mindset. The medical and government industries have utterly fucked peoples’ minds.

    • Hyperion

      We must realize that the entirety of the left are a hodge podge collection of perpetually aggrieved luddites.

      The old saying ‘misery loves company’ has never rang more true than today.

      There is no chance of them ever being happy, so global misery is their only solution.

    • Drake

      Couldn’t

    • Hyperion

      Why. Destroying monuments like a bunch of stupid apes is progress. And free speech is just icky stuff.

    • The Other Kevin

      I see the “just do the opposite of Trump and everything will be awesome” strategy continues apace.

      • Hyperion

        We have to restore democracy. No one knows what that means, but it sounds good.

      • rhywun

        You’d think they’d have some ideas of their own.Trump’s orders were all red-meat for conservatives stuff, where are all the executive orders pushing, I dunno, trannies in bathrooms and shit?

    • Agent Cooper

      TGP is the most poorly-designed website. I fucking hate it.

      • Urthona

        Is all the stuff they say there true? cuz if so I’m gonna be pissed.

  12. Nephilium

    Still on a work meeting… again.

    Hopefully the weekly Zoom/Happy Hour/Prepping for overnight work meeting later will be more entertaining.

    I’ll kick it off at 20:00 Eastern.

    • DEG

      If I get enough done around here, I’ll join.

      I’m heading out tomorrow night, so no Zoom tomorrow night for me.

      Thanks for keeping these going.

    • The Hyperbole

      Is anyone hosting a competing Zoom, I like to have options.

      • UnCivilServant

        Sort of, but it’s a vroom, and it’s a paid service, and we don’t recommend it.

  13. Gadfly

    If you thought Pokemon were abominations…

    That was a freaky collection of creatures. The coolest was the snake with a leg, but the most terrifying was the giant rabbits, since that’s not a one-off mutation but a full-on breed of creature. Fetch me my Holy Hand Grenade!

    • SDF-7

      The Japanese have a real range of oddities from what I can tell. Check out the bestiary in games like Shadow Hearts sometime.

  14. UnCivilServant

    I made 4 miles today. Again about 90 minutes.

    Took a new route through another area I generally haven’t gone. I was never off the route I indended to take, but several times I wondered if I was lost and headed off in the wrong direction.

    I had the foresight to open the windows and turn on the fans before I left, so I’m now sitting in the cooling fan wash trying to rehydrate.

    • Hyperion

      That’s not bad. I just looked at my last 4 mile walk, on Wed. 78 minutes. I used to do it a lot faster when I wasn’t fat. I also used to walk 5-10 miles every day, parts of it running. That was also when I was not fat, around 175 lbs, as compared to 210. I can’t run now, hurts my knees. I need to lose at least 30 lbs, really 40.

  15. R C Dean

    Anyone want to bet that the gov-mandated cybersecurity requirements will include a backdoor for the feds?

    • Ownbestenemy

      I like losing money and by the time inflation really hits, your winnings will be nothing, so…lets make that bet!

      • R C Dean

        You think I accept bets in dollars?

        Quatloos or nothing.

      • UnCivilServant

        Quatloos are nothing.

        What sort of game are you playing?

    • Hyperion

      The only thing I would bet is they have no fucking idea what they’re doing and it will be another massive boondoggle.

  16. DEG

    There is an audit going on of ballots and counting machines in Windham, NH to explain why there were big swings in vote counts between the machine tally and the hand tally. I’ve suspected problems with the machines, but after reading this story, I wonder if there really are shenanigans.

    Before the security camera footage went out for about an hour, we see an image of a member of the NH Associate AG Anne Edwards walking toward a table covered with “secured” ballots – from the November election in Windham.

    My contact in Windham tells me that, before the cameras go out, the state Trooper (also pictured) can be heard saying something to the effect that there’s nobody else in the room.

    Of course not. It’s a secured room shortly before midnight.

    We are interested in why the trooper would say that. Or why the live stream microphones were on before the cameras went black for an hour and 15 minutes. But why was Ann Edwards from the NH AG’s office even there at that hour?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Its like a cliche spy movie with all these coincidental outages of cameras, pipeline bursts, fires…

  17. DEG

    New CDC mask guidance blindsided NH officials

    New Hampshire State Epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan appeared startled by the decision on Thursday afternoon.

    Unlike other CDC announcements, Chan said the first he heard about this one was from media reports.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I said it earlier this morning and still think that someone with smoking gun documents got to Fauci. The pivot on this was so fast it is insane.

      The True Believers in my everyday life are just as stunned as Ben Chan. Just two days ago they were lecturing everyone about the SCIENCE requiring us to all remain masked until we hit some magic number of vaccinations (Walz said it was 70%). Now they are trying to come up with a way to process all the retreats on masking that allows them to retain their belief in Top Public Health Officials.

      • slumbrew

        Alternate theory: they saw the inevitable coming and want some “good” news to distract from the shitshow they’re making of the economy, so they got out in front of it.

      • Pope Jimbo

        That is another reasonable theory. My problem with that one is I can’t see Fauci going along with it. That little jackass is not going to go quietly into the night voluntarily.

      • Ownbestenemy

        He isnt that is why he is focusing on the babes of the nation and now proclaims anyone under 12 must remain masked

      • Not an Economist

        Fauci will say that has been the plan all along. You got to remember, Fauci is about what will help Fauci. He was in charge of the Government response to AIDS. He botched it. He still got promoted.

        Fauci’s real expertise is not in medicine, but in bureaucracy.

      • DEG

        I just finished reading that thread.

        Someone mentioned polling. All those anti-lockdown protests were organizing opportunities. Some of the groups behind those protests took advantage of those opportunities because in order to win, they needed to play the long game. Their work is paying off, not just in NH but elsewhere.

  18. DEG

    Sununu flip-slops on unemployment

    To help businesses fill jobs, Gov. Chris Sununu says he plans to eliminate an extra $300 federal weekly payment to unemployment recipients before the benefit expires in September.

    “We will most certainly end the program a lot sooner than that,” Sununu told reporters at his weekly news conference Thursday.

    Nearly 35,000 people are receiving the $300 bonus from New Hampshire Employment Security, the department said. That’s a payout of nearly $10.5 million a week.

    Through February, New Hampshire administered $970 million in federal bonus unemployment payments — first $600 a week and later $300 — to help shore up family budgets and the state’s economy. An updated payout figure wasn’t available.

    The governor did not set a timeline for ending the benefit, which is scheduled to expire Sept. 6.

    Last week, Sununu said he had no plans to follow other governors who are ending the $300 weekly payments, but on Thursday he said the move could help businesses needing workers.

    • Nephilium

      Local papers are bitching about DeWine turning down the $300 a week bonus unemployment payouts. Key phrases are:

      “Without supporting data”
      “Even though it costs the state nothing”
      “Cutting off workers in need”

  19. DEG

    Former State Senator guilty of domestic violence charges

    Jeff Woodburn, a former three-term state senator from the North Country and once a rising star in the Democratic Party, has been found guilty of domestic violence and three other misdemeanor charges.

    A court spokesperson on Thursday said Woodburn of Whitefield was found guilty on two counts of criminal mischief; one count of domestic violence; and one count of simple assault.

    In August 2018, the Attorney General’s office charged Woodburn with two counts of simple assault for throwing water in the face of the victim, who at the time was his fiancée; and striking her in the stomach with his hand.

    Additionally, Woodburn was charged with two counts each of both simple assault and domestic violence for biting the victim on the left hand and on her right forearm; two counts of criminal mischief for kicking and breaking the door to the clothes dryer at the victim’s home; and on another occasion, kicking in the locked door to the victim’s residence.

    The Senate majority leader at the time of his arrest, Woodburn refused to resign his District 1 seat in the Senate and ran for reelection in November 2018 but lost to Republican David Starr.

    • R C Dean

      I see the rule that you don’t mention party affiliation when the miscreant is a Democrat is still in effect.

      • kinnath

        The state auditor announced an investigation of a county auditor for violating election funding laws.

        The only location that google search turned up with her party affiliation was her own profile webpage. Not a single news source had her party information.

        D if you hadn’t guessed.

      • The Hyperbole

        Jeff Woodburn, a former three-term state senator from the North Country and once a rising star in the Democratic Party

      • R C Dean

        Good point, Hype. Read too fast to catch that.

      • DEG

        It’s in the first sentence in the bit I quoted.

      • slumbrew

        Time for a well-placed “Yeah, but still…”

      • The Hyperbole

        He was called a “once” rising star, so the reporter was maybe hoping readers would think he switched parties. It’s pretty clever actually.

  20. DEG

    NH State Senate OKs tuition deals with religious schools

    Letting parents get taxpayer-supported tuition benefits for their children to attend religious schools cleared the State Senate Thursday.
    The narrowly-drawn, House-passed bill (HB 282) permits school districts to provide tuition support to parents for their children in grades at religious schools, only if the town doesn’t have public schools in those grades.
    The bill passed the Senate along partisan lines, 14-10; all Republicans in support, all Democrats opposing it.
    A federal lawsuit brought on behalf of a Croydon family sparked this legislation, which gained steam last June after a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Espinoza vs. Montana Department of Revenue, found that state could not exclude religious schools from its voucher program.
    After the ruling, the libertarian-leaning, pro-school choice group Institute for Justice filed suit on behalf of a Croydon seventh-grader whose grandparents wanted to send him to Mount Royal Academy, a religious school.

  21. DEG

    Cooper lifts many Lil Rona Panic Restrictions in North Carolina

    North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Friday that the state is lifting all mandatory capacity, gathering limits and physical distancing requirements, effective immediately.

    Most mandatory mask mandates will also be lifted.

    “We can take this step today because the science shows our focus on getting people vaccinated is working,” Cooper said. “But to keep moving forward – and to make sure that we keep saving lives – more people need to get vaccinated.”

    In most settings, indoors or outdoors, the state will no longer require North Carolinians to wear a mask or be physically distant.

    Cooper said the mask mandate will remain in effect on public transportation, in child care, in schools, in prisons and in certain public health settings.

    • Drake

      NJ is going to stay masked up because.

      • dbleagle

        Hawaii is right there with you. Plus still requiring vaccinated people get a test before traveling here. It is a good thing we have a monopoly market on warm water and sandy beaches.

  22. Pope Jimbo

    Well now that we have beaten the Rona, time to move on to the next panic. OMG Legal Pot is going to kill the kids!!!! (By kids we mean anyone under 25)

    As background, the Minnesoda House passed a bill to make recreation pot legal here. It isn’t expected to get through the Minnesoda Senate because that is controlled by those stick in the mud GOPers. That is probably true, although, I wouldn’t be shocked if it is passed.

    But just the glimmer of hope has gotten the neo-prudes out in force. This time it is from a bunch of headshrinkers who say that today’s pot is just too potent. It is making kids crazy and therefor it should only be legal to people 25 and over.

    High levels of THC, Realmuto said, can have a negative impact on the developing brain. With the real potential for legalization of recreational cannabis on the horizon in Minnesota, he’s become a vocal advocate for pushing the state’s legal age for cannabis purchase and use from the proposed 21 to 25, an age when he and many of his neurodevelopmentalist colleagues agree that human brain is more fully developed, lessening the risk of adverse reactions from the use of cannabis with high THC levels.

    I’d believe these yahoos a lot more if they acted like they truly believed their claims. If a person’s brain isn’t fully developed until they are 25, stopping them from smoking pot should be down the list a bit. First, they shouldn’t be able to vote. I mean if we don’t let kids under 18 vote now because they are too experienced and SCIENCE now says that really until they are 25, they are not fully functioning intellectually I think you need to increase the age to vote.

    I would also think it would be very important to prevent people who aren’t all intellectually there from enlisting in the armed services and being sent off to kill people. Surely the ramifications of that are a bit more severe than simply smoking strong pot.

    And all those kids who took out huge student loans? Null and void because their brains hadn’t developed enough to understand the consequences of taking those loans out.

    It also seems evolutionary suspect that a brain isn’t fully developed until someone is 25 when the average lifespan of humans is traditionally thought to be between 30 and 40 for most of history.

    • Gadfly

      It also seems evolutionary suspect that a brain isn’t fully developed until someone is 25 when the average lifespan of humans is traditionally thought to be between 30 and 40 for most of history.

      It does seem suspect, although not quite for the point you are making. That “average lifespan” figure includes all the many, many childhood deaths – as far as historical records show, people who survived to adulthood generally lived to between 40-65 years of age. But, and here to me is the big kicker, traditionally most people were parents by the time they were 25, so it would seem advantageous for the brain to be fully developed before having to care for the next generation. And even if is not fully developed, the fact that we are all descended from a long line of people who raised their kids, learned their trade, and generally made all their most important life decisions before their brains fully developed makes me think full development is not all that important of a metric.

  23. kinnath

    Maxine Waters among lawmakers accused of abusing privilege of air marshals on flights

    Some of the traveling lawmakers already have security details, while others who requested the service skipped their scheduled flights, according to records reviewed by Fox News, which was also told that lawmakers from both parties used the service – sometimes on official business, other times for personal travel.

    One such flight, according to a complaint filed with the House Committee on Ethics, involved Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who flew from Washington, D.C., to Minneapolis on April 17 to attend the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin. Waters was already accompanied by two armed Capitol Police and two U.S. Secret Service agents when she allegedly requested two air marshals and two more marshals on touchdown to escort her in the airport.

    “Congresswoman Maxine Waters utilized numerous government resources inappropriately,” the complaint reads. “Federal Air Marshals were removed from a “High Risk” flight to cover Ms. Waters flight to Minnesota. The High Risk flight took off with no armed law enforcement on board leaving a gap in National Security.”

    “Air marshals for Miss Waters trip were assigned high risk missions, they were removed from those missions and assigned to Miss Waters mission on top of her already armed security detail from the Capitol Police,” Hightower said. “That was not an official business trip. We still don’t have any justification as to why government resources were utilized to fly Miss Waters out to Minnesota.”

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s not at all surprising if you consider that she honestly believes Trump is leading an armed insurrection.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’m no fan of Maxine Waters, but I’m also not as outraged about Air Marshalls being pulled off a “High Risk” flight. Mostly because I doubt the flight was really all that risky. This sounds like made up bullshit.

      If it was really risky, why wouldn’t somebody stick their neck out and say “Sorry Rep Waters, but we don’t have any marshals available”?

      Or – in grand American tradition – one of the marshals would definitely be a rogue cop who plays by his own set of rules and would refuse to get off the flight that he knows is packed with libertarians and Trumpistas on their way to DC.

      • kinnath

        Waters was already accompanied by two armed Capitol Police and two U.S. Secret Service agents when she allegedly requested two air marshals and two more marshals on touchdown to escort her in the airport.

        Maxine needed 8 bodyguards to walk through an airport just so she could stand in a crowd of BLM/Antifa nuts and threaten the jury.

        Regardless of how worthless the original assignment might have been for the two air marshals, it can’t possibly have been as useless as walking that cunt through an airport.

      • Drake

        Just wanted a posse.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Do you think she also demanded that all the bodyguards and marshals be black? I can’t see how any real black person – no matter how powerful she was – could be comfortable being surrounded by 8 white LEO’s.

        Statistics tell you that at least one of those racists would go into hunter/killer mode and shoot her.

      • kinnath

        I want to know how many guards were there that night when she was provoking the crowd and poisoning the jury.

      • R C Dean

        What an excellent question that would have been.

        “Rep. Waters, as a Black Lives Matter supporter, did you allow any white officers for the security detail you had on your way to a BLM protest?”

      • Gustave Lytton

        Why would a “high risk flight” even be operated? There’s passenger screening (joke as it is), no fly lists, etc. When is the last time an Air Marshal thwarted an inflight incident?

        My guess- “high risk flight” = transcon with lie flats where the Air Marshal can read or watch tv and snack for 6 hours. It’s not 31E on a single aisle at 100% capacity and no beverage or snack service.

  24. Hyperion

    Purple Drank and Limey Drank, racists everywhere. Fake robot president, I’m having a beer and I don’t drink anymore.

    Y’all are a bad influence on me. I’m a listen to this hillbilly muzak.

    Mama’s Kitchen

    Shortenin bread and chickens or something…

    • limey

      That shit is FIRE

    • Hyperion

      Can you imagine sharing an office with writers at Slate, poop are not? Making a shitty situation even shittier?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I do consider myself lucky that I am synced up to go right before hopping in the shower in the morning. It’s an emergency if I need to take a dump in public.

      • slumbrew

        I’m envious.

        I’m on a timer, pretty well tied to my first cup of coffee. The one day a week I went to the office, I would grab coffee on the way in, so…

        On the plus side, our brand new building had 6 single-occupancy toilets right in a row, so there was always one available.

      • Gadfly

        I’m on a timer, pretty well tied to my first cup of coffee. The one day a week I went to the office, I would grab coffee on the way in, so…

        So you knew what you were setting yourself up for. Coffee is known to have this effect. This is why I generally only drink it when on staycation.

      • dbleagle

        In an ideal alternate universe that Slate “writer” would be transported to a WWII era barracks building where 8-10 toilets would be less than 2 feet apart with no walls between them. Let’s see how your bowels work then.

    • LJW

      I had my own “private” bathroom in the office. They laid everyone off on the floor below us and there was a little known secret bathroom hidden around a corner. I had no issue with sharing a bathroom with coworkers. I had issue with sharing a bathroom with coworkers who had aim issues.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Actor Rob Schneider picked up on Beck’s simple rule for Joe, making it even simpler for the “czar” wannabe.

      “The rule is even simpler,
      YOU are an elected official of a Republic, not a doctor or Russian Czar,
      therefore it is the citizens who will make THEIR OWN HEALTH DECISIONS FOR THEMSELVES AND FOR THEIR FAMILIES.
      The CHOICE IS INDEED FOR EACH AND EVERY FREE AMERICAN AS THEY SEE FIT!”

      And he has a hot wife.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Works here too

      • slumbrew

        He’s a bit kooky about some things, but his heart is in the right place.

        I was amused to learn Elle King is his daughter.

    • Urthona

      This is the kind of hard hitting journalism I look for.

    • LJW

      *FOIA stupid phone

      • slumbrew

        *breaks out cloth, wipes servers*

      • Ownbestenemy

        I hear bleach works better to clean out the bits

    • Pope Jimbo

      not Biden’s handlers

      Fixed it.

      I know Psaki has been dealt a bad hand, but she really doesn’t seem very good at her job.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Her last boss had control of the machine so it was easy. This boss? He is just the name.

  25. UnCivilServant

    *sigh*

    Interviews done. Paperwork in. Paperwork processed.

    Now I have to switch over to the SSO migration which just got funded.

      • Ownbestenemy

        He is quoted “Masks? We don’t need no stinkin masks!”

      • limey

        Are you a Masksican, or a Masksican’t?

  26. The Late P Brooks

    *smirks smugly, does victory shuffle*

    The apparatus I have been working on off and on for a few days is deemed a success.

    It’s a miniature screw jack forklift for raising and positioning heavy wheels and tires as you mount/dismount them on the vehicle. Mount the new tires and wheels on your Airstream, for example. No more Less cursing and struggling. MUCH less.

    I like inventing/fabricating tools and shop equipment.

    • Ownbestenemy

      So when your wife/gf/bf/whatever asks what you are doing you can accurately say “Just screwing around”?

    • limey

      Congrats man. This is is right on my wavelength. There’s nothing quite like that satisfaction. In a rare foray into domescile improvement I today finished and mounted some custom shelf brackets and shelves. I also am hoping to get one jalopy shifted so I can start building the other one, which will involve plenty of fabrication. Please share on the forum if you don’t mind the risk of me stealing your idea.

    • R C Dean

      Yeah, there’s nothing like having the right tool for the job.

    • The Gunslinger

      Nope. Long eyelashes.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        And a hiney the size of the asteroid Ceres with a gravitational field to match.

    • slumbrew

      It’s ain’t the age, it’s the mileage.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    I wonder if Albertson’s is dropping the mask nonsense. I hardly ever go there anyway. I probably haven’t been in Albertson’s for 18 months.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I was planning on going to mine here in a few. I think I saw yesterday the signs gone. I am going to go sans mask today. If they go to their Idaho roots, they would drop it, but who knows.

    • DEG

      The grocery store I shop at, because even though they have a masks required policy they don’t give a shit that I shop without a mask, recently took down their one-way aisle signage and Leper Length floor markers.

      Unfortunately, today all of that was back up.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Brooksie here is the report.

      As I was walking up they put the sign back out saying wear a mask that wasn’t there yesterday. I was walking in behind a guy that was standing tall and proud and going to go in without his mask until he asked a pimpled teenager if “these still required?” I caught what the kid said in typical teenaged fashion “sign is still out so ya” and the guy laughed and capitulated. I on the other hand know it is better to seek forgiveness than beg for approval and just went about my business and no one said a damn thing.

      • DEG

        Nice.

        On a related note: Some of the front desk staff at my gym have stopped caring about masks. I went in today and saw the the guy working the front desk wasn’t wearing a mask. I asked if masks were still needed. He said, “I’m fully vaccinated so I’m not going to say anything.” I thanked him and took my bandanna off.

        Other staff at the gym warned me that some desk staff still enforce mask wearing in the lobby. Their advice: If you see the desk staff not wearing a mask, you don’t need it. Otherwise, put one on.

      • Ownbestenemy

        It really puts people in a logical bind where they might fry their own brains. Either the shot works or it doesn’t. As we have been saying for months now. I am with others, something happened in the halls of our leaders that scared them straight to end it.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    So when your wife/gf/bf/whatever asks what you are doing you can accurately say “Just screwing around”?

    “I’ll be down in the shop, jacking it.”

  29. Hyperion

    What the fuck else is there to say?

    WTF

    • Sean

      I hate people.

    • Count Potato

      OFFS!!

    • Gustave Lytton

      Was it you that was joking about proving air support for the Palies? Might as well just provide arms to them instead of cash. At least they can buy American.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Arming the Palestinians with more missiles is the only humane thing to do in this situation.

      Honestly, does anybody think this money will be spent on anything else aside from lining the pockets of their leadership?

  30. Sean

    Yay, Friday after work!

    Bought some mega millions tix on the way home.

    • The Gunslinger

      Yay! I bought beer on my way home. Happy Friday.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Please share on the forum if you don’t mind the risk of me stealing your idea.

    Forum?

    *recoils in terror from new and different*

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Bought some mega millions tix on the way home.

    Have you got plenty of laundry soap to wash them with?

    • Sean

      It’s on the table with all the junk on it. The dining room table ?

    • Hyperion

      Forget it, I already bought the one winning ticket, usurper attempt!

  33. Hyperion

    I’m just curious about last summers Wokeness Spring. Is that that they called it?

    Last weekend, Sunday I think it was, we were out on our daily walk and my wife stopped into the Starbucks to get her green tea thingy. She told me she had to pee but when she went to the restroom, the door was locked. Several minutes later she realized no one else was in there, so she asked the stuff. They told her that new policy was that only Starbuck customers can use the restroom and they need to ask for the key.

    What the fuck happened? I though that the new wokeness made starbucks, especially their restrooms, new safe havens for the homeless?

    Was this reported on CNN?

    • westernsloper

      Yes it was. It is to keep the homeless and freeloading wifi thieves out of their bathrooms. That is the new woke. Pay attention man!

      • Gender Traitor

        The homeless are supposed to do their business on the sidewalk anyway.

  34. commodious spittoon

    Man, that Kristin Tate. She’s the anti-AOC: gorgeous, not a bug-eyed weirdo, intelligent, eloquent, politically sound, and isn’t being puppeteered with a hand up her ass moving her manpleaser.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Ill take AOC, I won’t feel bad muzzling her. Tate I would feel bad covering up that pretty mouth. //all joking ladies, all joking.

    • limey

      Did she used to do videos with Stossel? She looks familiar.

      • Trigger Hippie

        She was a regular on Stossel and Red Eye a handful of years ago. She wrote a book titled The Libertarian Chick around that time. A pretty young woman but seemed to be more of a SoCon than a libertarian when I heard her speak on TV. Perhaps her views have matured with age. I honestly haven’t paid much attention lately. Side note: It was rumored that she posted under the handle Tweak at TOS.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I don’t trust Marxist and believe they play a long game, so I am still puckering up for something to be dropped on our heads.

    • commodious spittoon

      Tin foil hattery: The mask-free push is being promulgated by Biden’s administration because the social and economic outlook is so grim and this is low-hanging fruit. They’ll grudgingly give up on a policy they cherish (because it’s demeaning, invasive, and tells citizens exactly where the boot belongs) if it helps shore up their dour prospects.

      • Sean

        Pretty good theory.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Exactly. I was just thinking a few hours ago that the marching orders have been issued after internal polling showed that the issue would absolutely crush them in the midterm elections. Now they have a year plus to memory hole their actions.

        OTHER TEAM BAD.

        VOTE TWO WEAVILS: THE LESSER!

      • Trigger Hippie

        Er,…weevils…shut up.

      • DEG

        Now they have a year plus to memory hole their actions.

        The smart folks involved in the various Reopen groups have organized and are playing a long game.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That’s my conclusion. And why the state officials were blindsided by the change. Timing of the announcement is the opposite of the Friday afternoon dump and sets the focus of the media through Sunday as well.

        It also sidesteps the 100 days of mask wearing to crush covid beg from Joe.

      • rhywun

        It’s step 1 on the way to mandatory vaccinations and “covidiot” camps. I don’t see anything to cheer here.

        It’s the same as “you can return to the office!”*

        *”If you wear a muzzle and don’t touch anybody, and stand in line at the elevators and bathrooms.”

      • Trigger Hippie

        I disagree, at least for states who aren’t deep blue. I think traditionally red and battleground states have made it clear to Team Blue that continued restrictions are a political loser. It may very well be the case that some states go the mandatory route with overwhelming public approval but I think a federal mandate, much less a majority of states going along with that, is DOA.

      • Ownbestenemy

        ^^ I am cautiously with you on this. It all seems too convenient. It wasn’t 2 weeks from now, or prepare for it. It was a drop of the hat and that to me means they have an ace in the hole.

      • rhywun

        Every Democrat is calling for mandatory vaccines. It’s coming, maybe only at the state level like Trigger says above, but it’s coming somewhere.

  35. Ownbestenemy

    Here is our local Karens

    Karen#1: Watch the numbers rise. They aren’t going to make anyone prove anything. Typical government not thinking something through.

    Me: Numbers of what? Cases? Confirmed clinical cases? deaths?

    Karen #1: Yes cases. I bet our numbers raise.

    Backup arrives, Karen #2: all of the above.

    Me: Okay but there is really no scientific backup to that, otherwise we would have seen MS,, ND, TX, FL #s shoot through the roof over the past month or so. Its almost as if you all want that to happen to.

    Screw em all. Cower in your house and stop making live my life to your fears of daddy getting mad cause you sneaked out of the house.

    • Urthona

      I mean the CDC has a mask mandate study on their own website — the most pro mask mandate study yet done — that shows mask mandates contributing to about a 1% drop in cases. And that’s just correlation.

      Even the CDC doesn’t think mask mandates really do all that much.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    The grocery store I shop at, because even though they have a masks required policy they don’t give a shit that I shop without a mask, recently took down their one-way aisle signage and Leper Length floor markers.

    Unfortunately, today all of that was back up.

    When Gianforte rescinded Bullock’s mask order, people started showing up at the grocery store unmasked. Then some prissy bitch from the Park County health department apparently issued a rule saying masks were still required in the county, because that’s what the prissy bitch in Gallatin County (Bozeman) did. I kept going in without a mask, and a couple of checkers said I was supposed to be wearing one unless I couldn’t. “You can’t, right?”

    “Right.”

    Nobody says anything (to me) anymore, but the rest of the shoppers are back to~95% compliance.

    • commodious spittoon

      The grocery stores here regularly run reminders on the PA that if you can’t wear a mask, you should use their (paid) delivery service or schedule a pickup, which is almost always booked solid. So, thanks for that, assholes.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Kroger? “The Virus”?

      • commodious spittoon

        Yep

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        ?

        Makes me feel like a particularly tall child extra in All Summer in a Day or a similar dystopia.

        Would ordinarily prefer it to Albertsons, but latter have been fairly chill.

      • Nephilium

        Just listen to Richard Cheese while walking through.

    • Urthona

      Did you see that Walmart — biggest store in the US — just ended mask requirements?

      This thing is coming to an end baby. *rubs hands together*

      No doubt all thanks to the amazing leadership of Joe Biden.

    • Urthona

      I’m dumb. Someone just said that right above.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I think there are some vaccinated persons that are willing to show but a large amount are gonna say “nah, none your business”. Then again, like Neph, I thought this would have been over by Memorial Day last year and our population never ceases to amaze me on their pussyfooting.

    • Sean

      Some people are gonna get stabbed.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yep. The fucking state weasels, safe at home or inside locked inaccessible buildings, are setting up unnecessary confrontation.

    • Agent Cooper

      HIPAA HIPAA HOORAY!

  37. Ownbestenemy

    In local news:
    The Nevada Supreme Court on May 13th unanimously found in favor of the Republicans in their lawsuit regarding the two-thirds vote requirement in both houses of the Legislature to raise taxes. The Nevada Constitution, Article 4, Section 18(2), requires the agreement of at least two-thirds of the members of each house of the Nevada Legislature to pass any bill “which creates, generates, or increases any public revenue in any form, including but not limited to taxes, fees, assessments and rates, or changes in the computation bases for taxes, fees, assessments and rates.”

    This lawsuit resulted from two bills the Democrats passed in the 2019 Legislative Session, one that would have continued a DMV Technology fee beyond its programmed sunset and the other that would have prevented the Modified Business Tax rate from decreasing as prescribed in Nevada Law.

    Smalls rays of hope make going into the weekend a bit better.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Oregon businesses that choose to offer mask-free shopping for people who are fully inoculated against COVID-19 will likely be required to inspect each customer’s vaccination card and check the dates of individual shots, a top state health official said Friday.

    That’s the protocol the Oregon Health Authority is expected to adopt when it issues written guidance for businesses in the days ahead. Businesses that don’t want the hassle still will be allowed to require masks regardless of vaccination status.

    ALLOWED.

    Fuck

    off,

    slaver.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That was the long game I was speaking of above. Politicians (trying not to use ‘them’ so I don’t piss off Hype) that have a power trip will see this as an opportunity to lay down some laws.

    • rhywun

      required to inspect each customer’s vaccination card and check the dates of individual shots

      LOL that’ll happen ?

  39. Toxteth O'Grady

    Ralph Nader’s preference for independent restaurants while traveling seems ever more endearing to me.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Any woman or man who likes their chances with a grizzly needs to be institutionalized. You may as well try to take on a tank.

    • UnCivilServant

      A quarter of people expect to lose to a rat?

      • Sean

        They might be of an unusual size.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t believe in them.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Dammit!

      • Trigger Hippie

        I don’t think they exist…gah!!!

      • Ted S.

        Have you seen Willard?

      • UnCivilServant

        A rat. Not a swarm.

        And no, I’ve never seen the movie.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Their music was shitty but, Onward Crispin Glover is still one of my favorite band names.

      • Ted S.

        You mean Bruce Davison.

      • Trigger Hippie

        He has a band named after him? You truly are an old soul. 😉

      • Not Adahn

        Dude. I’m a pretty good shot 🙁

    • commodious spittoon

      A quarter of men think they couldn’t pin a house cat?

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Sounds realistic to me — in order to pin a house cat, you first have to catch the little bugger.

      • blackjack

        I’ve had to do this a bunch of times with all manner of dispositions among the various cats. It’s doable, but most of the time, you need a thick towel. One of our cats would fight like I was trying to kill him and, of course, he was the biggest cat we’ve ever had. He let some blood out, but I won.

      • commodious spittoon

        LOL I didn’t consider that this might be a fight the respondent starts.

        In the year I’ve owned a cat, I have twice had sleep paralysis episodes in which I dream that the cat (which normally sleeps on my bed) goes berserk and attacks me. He plays rough, and in the first several months I ended up with heavy scratches from play time that went awry. In my dreams I jostled him and he starts clawing the shit out shoulder, neck, and face. Because it’s that liminal sleep state, I’m caught up in the dream but starting to get back muscle control. But only just, so they’ve been really intense scenarios in which I’m barely able to hold off this ferocious eight pound beast. Both times I woke up shoving myself off the mattress, which startled the cat but did not precipitate an attack.

      • blackjack

        My wife gets those. It’s always a demon on her chest. I have to rouse her from her sleep to stop it. Hypnogogic hallucinations.

      • commodious spittoon

        That’s it. I heard about it from the SGU boys many years ago. Let’s see, that was before the (current) Skanks/Malice/Dave Smith era… before the Opie & Anthony era… before the era of reason.tv and all its affiliate vlogs and podcasts… before the Audible era… before the Mises.org era… before (obviously) I went off SGU because of Rebecca Watson and started listening to a slew of other, less tainted skeptics and atheists podcasts… somewhere around 2008.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        I went off SGU because of Rebecca Watson

        I stopped listening shortly after she left. I kind of felt like she was so far left that Steve felt obligated to correct her and bring things back towards the center, but after she left the show everyone just felt they could let loose and the whole show lurched to the left, if that make sense.

      • commodious spittoon

        It doesn’t, and god damn, that’s sad. I’d gone off them maybe a year before Watson left. Elevator-gate rankled me, of course, and I was getting irked by the casual critical feminist horseshit she started dropping into shows. I didn’t know that’s what it was, back then, I just knew it wasn’t skepticism or atheism.

      • rhywun

        I used to get those all the time. I fixed it* by never sleeping on my back again.

        I wake up on my back a lot but the important part is do not go to sleep on your back. “The literature” actually supports this.

        *knock on wood

      • blackjack

        I dated a chick for a while, maybe back in 1988-89 or so who claimed to be a witch. One night, she woke me up screaming. I looked around at all of the windows and the door and saw nothing. I asked what was the problem. She pointed at the ceiling and asked if I saw that too. Now, I’m not a believer in occult supernatural stuff or anything, but clear as day I saw what she saw.

        First there was a scene of prehistoric people marching diagonally across the ceiling. There were children, dogs, women and men wearing pelts and dragging travois’s and wearing packs. This went on for quite a bit and then sorta morphed into a woman with flowing robes and hair and seriously piercing eyes. Her eyes got brighter and brighter and eventually overtook the whole ceiling. Then, there was bits of lights like stars that morphed into a bright yellow and orange color which overtook the whole ceiling. Then, it flashed super bright and was gone.

        She recounted the cave people, and Then I gave the next detail and we did this through the whole show. Back and forth. It was weird. I have no idea what it was or what it meant. I’m just certain that it happened and I’m really glad there was another person to see it too.

      • commodious spittoon

        That’s, um.

        I had a girlfriend who woke me when she bolted straight up in bed and vomited all over herself and the bedspread. She’d been quite drunk. I had to coax her crying ass out of bed so I could clean her up and replace the linens.

    • R C Dean

      Anything above large dog, I would say no (except maybe the kangaroo, maybe). I assume fully-grown adults. I think I could take a 12 inch crocodile or a wolf pup.

    • Gender Traitor

      Those 6% think they could make the grizzly apologize and buy them flowers if they gave it the silent treatment.

    • The Hyperbole

      I’m surprised the numbers for eagles are so low, I’d totally kick an eagles ass.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Guarding is the key. Turn your body sideways, tuck your elbows on your ribs and guard your eyes with the lower portion of your palms before counterpunching via flurries.

        Once it’s knocked to the ground a bootheel on the neck will finish the job.

      • westernsloper

        This made me chuckle a bit too much. HA!

      • The Hyperbole

        That’s better than my plan – dress up as a sexy girl eagle and then smack him on the head with a mallet when his eyes bug out and he starts wolf whistling.

    • Urthona

      If there was a reality/ game show with people fighting animals I would watch every episode.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Those are some weird stats. I could take an eagle before a large dog, easy.

      Sure, both are going to suck for me, but the eagle is going to lose. Facing off with a dogo argentino is just a losing proposition.

      • UnCivilServant

        yeah, there’s a reason we invented weapons.

      • Urthona

        I’d argue we should be allowed to make weapons for the fight. That’s our thing.

      • Hyperion

        You will not only need a weapon when you happen to get the attention of a grizzly, you’ll need a big one and you’d better not miss.

      • blackjack

        .44 magnum or better and empty it in him. Scary to even consider.

    • Hyperion

      “6% of women think they could beat at grizzly bear unarmed??”

      Some people done watched too much TV.

    • Agent Cooper

      No respect for THE HATE BIRDS THAT HATE.

      • commodious spittoon

        Listening to Ozzy Man just now… “Canadian Cobra Chickens”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Is it their right to decide if they want to adhere to vaccine passports though? I’d bet her answer would be no.

    • R C Dean

      But it’s not your right to go to a concert, bar, restaurant, or large event.

      The hell it isn’t.

      SLD: Unless, of course, the proprietor decides of his own free will not to allow me in.

    • EvilSheldon

      Fuck you. I do whatever I like.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Thin ice

      You’re standing on it.

    • Hyperion

      Well, I’m sure all of the people doing all those things will be fine with the sub 1% of the populace who feel that way keeping their business afloat.

  40. Mojeaux

    Well, the car is totaled. I’m getting more than I thought I would, but not enough to do much. I decided to do nothing. No fix, no buy. Just bank the money. We have a perfectly good car and truck, and Mr. Mojeaux works at home. The heater in the truck doesn’t work. I may just fix that before winter, and load the bed up with sandbags. I don’t go anywhere anyway.

    • Count Potato

      What doesn’t happen when you put on the heat?

      • Mojeaux

        Um … no heat?

      • Count Potato

        So blows cold air?

        Now, I mean this sincerely, did you check the thermostat? If it’s stuck open the car will run fine unless the weather is very cold, but the heat won’t work.

      • Mojeaux

        My Guy is guessing (from a description of its behavior) the heater core is bad. Of course the only way to know is to take it to him and get a real dx.

      • Count Potato

        A bad core that isn’t leaking? Doubt.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Back in the day with my first car, even though the AC died, the guy I took it to was able to set up some kind of radiating coil so that the vents would blow heat from the engine and I could get heat when I needed it. No idea if that’s possible with current models. That was an 87 Acura.

      • Fourscore

        I had a car with a rusted core, took the heater hoes off and blew water forward/reverse. An hour later I ha a toasty heater and

      • Sensei

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtnVyFNyU1w

        Heater Core Flush: Using CLR

        South Main Auto does two things. Makes me happy I didn’t become a mechanic like wanted to and second is the rare example of an honest independent mechanic.

        I have an independent that I found here and I treasure the relationship. He does zero unnecessary work. So if he says X is busted X is busted and he will fix it properly in the least expensive way.

      • blackjack

        Imma second that. Everyone who’s not a mechanic should be pleased with their choice.

      • Sensei

        Eric works in upstate NY in a rural area with a relatively with low income population.

        Road salt + vehicles that are road hard and put away wet make for some amazingly difficult simple repairs.

      • Plinker762

        After growing up in Northern NH and moving out west, I was amazed when I was able to use a socket to remove the nuts on the suspension of a 30 year old car.

      • Sensei

        Even here in NJ where we salt nowhere near as much as New England it tears the cars to pieces.

      • Plinker762

        A friend was working for the auto hobby shop on the AF base here. He was amazed to see a van from NJ come in with holes rusted in the driveshaft. I just knowingly chuckled.

      • blackjack

        Unless it’s plugged, it would be leaking water, usually into the cabin. If the core has been bypassed, it probably leaks. Some trucks are not too bad to replace a heater core. I’ve seen blend door motors cause no heat and some vehicles have a water shut off valve that might could cause it. Been doing quite a few evap cores on late ford trucks at work lately.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, yes, I meant to say, it blows cold air.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Aw. ❤️ I feel your pain. Nothing like a good old uncomplicated pony. ☹️

      • Mojeaux

        My poor beloved Zippicar is back in my driveway waiting for the insurance company to come get it. I haz a sad.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Awww… ? I would too!

    • Sean

      Sorry Moj’ ?

    • Gender Traitor

      Mr. Mojeaux’s Guy(TM) can’t help you? Way back when my ’91 Festiva (rollerskate with roof) got rear-ended by an Explorer, I fought not to get it totaled because we didn’t have a vehicle to spare and I couldn’t afford to buy another. Our landlord at the time was a body & fender man, and he managed to find a matching hatch door and keep the price under the insurance company’s limit.

      • Mojeaux

        Mr Mojeaux’s Guy is just a DIYer and I’m not sure I want to trust that.

      • Gender Traitor

        Yeah, I can understand that. You don’t want a door falling off while you’re driving.

      • UnCivilServant

        Unplanned cabin cooling isn’t a feature?

      • Gender Traitor

        I suppose if you’re particularly spontaneous and adventurous, you could go for that option.

      • Mojeaux

        Definite bug.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      My condolences. It’s always tragic when you lose a trusted family member.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Really disappointed no one linked the colonoscopy news to this news about the car. So many lost jokes. Sorry to hear Mo about the vehicle.

    • DEG

      Sorry.

    • blackjack

      You know that they’ll let you buy the car back from the insurance company and then you can fix it cheap? They just gave you more than enough money. Slavage title, but who cares about that. The pic of your car looks like a pretty easy fix.

      • blackjack

        *salvage, and I guess I should have read the whole thread. The doors just bolt on and need a tiny bit of adjustment. It’s super easy. The paint is the hard part assuming you don’t luck out and find doors in the same color.

      • blackjack

        Once I had a customer wreck his Sportster and I did the damage assessment for the insurance company. They totalled it. He called me up and offered to pay me for the estimate and teold me they would come pick it up next week. I told him to find out how much it cost to keep it. The next day he told me 700.00 keeps it. So I had him buy it and paid him for it. Maybe two weeks later, I crashed my bagger. I got a ride with the bike back to my shop and immediately put a new front end on it and rode it until I finished my avatar bike. It was a pretty nice bike. I even went to AZ on it once.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I suggested that yesterday. I have an oldish car too.

  41. westernsloper

    If you thought Pokemon were abominations…

    Ya, saw the first pic and check out.

  42. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Evening gentlelads and ladies. I hope your evening is as good as mine has been. Some wine, some mozzarella caprese, some chicken fiorentina and the company of my lovely wife.

    My best wishes to all of you and many thanks for being an island of sanity in this lunatic world.

    • westernsloper

      You too Scruffy. Have a great night!

    • Gender Traitor

      *For some values of “sanity.”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Beggars can’t be choosers.

    • slumbrew

      That sounds like a perfectly lovely evening. Salute!

  43. Gustave Lytton

    USPS dropped off some blocks of aluminium. Going on another couple of lists now.

    • westernsloper

      SSSShhhhhh. We don’t talk about that.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Heh.

      Sounds like “Thursday” to me (I use aluminium billets at my electronics bench for heat sinks sometimes . . . ).

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      The “tips well at Christmas” list?

      *not allowed to accept cash or gifts over $20, yada yada

      • Gustave Lytton

        Not the carrier. Asshole left a note that my car in my driveway was in his way and he couldn’t turn around. Something UPS, FedEx, and the relief carriers have no problem with.

  44. B.P.

    ABC News hourly update on the radio just told me about the fearsome COVID Indian variant. I was previously instructed that identifying the origin of a virus is racist.

    • Gadfly

      It is hilarious how successive events have proven that that line was merely parroting the CCP line of propaganda. After saying that it was racist to call it a Chinese virus, we then had a South African virus and an Indian virus and all manner of other place of origin viruses.

      • blackjack

        Not to mention that every previous virus was named for it’s point of origin ( albiet sometimes incorrectly).

  45. westernsloper

    The new narrative is being pushed. Not a mask in sight.

    Get the vaccine or you have to mask forever. I have some personal insight I can share during happy hour on this as of today. I am pissed. Or not. I have a plan.

    • Gender Traitor

      Is it cunning?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Will you tell us the plan with a cigar in your mouth?

      • slumbrew

        I ain’t getting on no airplane!

      • slumbrew

        (Idea: A -Team/Blackadder mash-up – go!)

      • Surly Knott

        I pity the fool!
        Ah, Baldrick, we were just talking about you.

      • slumbrew

        Bravo!

      • Ownbestenemy

        Look over there! *stabs slumbrew with a needle* You are now getting on a plane.

      • slumbrew

        The A-Team, 2020 is very sad, what with’s B.A.’s dementia from getting knocked out all the time.

  46. grrizzly

    Meanwhile, in Singapore…

    Singapore Moves Back Toward Lockdown as Virus Cases Rise

    Singapore is returning to the lockdown-like conditions it last imposed a year ago, banning dining-in and limiting gatherings to two people, as a rising number of untraceable virus infections pressures one of the most successful places in the world at Covid containment.

    For four weeks from May 16 to June 13, gathering sizes as well as household visitors will be cut to a maximum of two people from five people now, working from home will be the default, and food places can only do takeaways and deliveries, the health ministry said in a statement on Friday. The resurgence is also putting a highly-anticipated travel bubble with Hong Kong in doubt.

    • rhywun

      Covid containment

      *sigh*

      It’s like we’ve willingly gone stoopid.

      • commodious spittoon

        Willing, hell. Eagerly and unashamedly.

      • Tejicano

        You should meet my sister. “Proudly” covers it better.

      • commodious spittoon

        She single?

        /drunk sway

  47. Hyperion

    Here you go.

    Baaaaaaa!!!!

    We have created an entire generation of worthless sheep.

    • Ownbestenemy

      We all know young people have a good grasp on risk assessment so, lets do it!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Hey hey, looks like public education has worked.

      • Ownbestenemy

        To my point above, these are the same people having unprotected sex, drinking to excess, probably driving way too fast, texting while driving, and other activities that have a much greater risk than going back to work. They get to be “heard” and “part of the in-crowd”.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Oh absolutely, people in general, the young included, have a terrible time assessing risk but there’s something uniquely obsequious about the current incarnation of that age group. They’ve had their nuts cut out.

      • Hyperion

        They need to get on a playground with real boys who actually have testosterone in their bodies and get their asses kicked good and hard. Since their parents won’t teach them about real life.

      • Ted S.

        I thought they were having less sex.

      • Hyperion

        They don’t have any jobs and aren’t planning on getting any. That’s what mums are for, paying for the internet.

      • Hyperion

        “Hey hey, looks like public education has worked.”

        Exactly that.

    • KSuellington

      The millennials seem to be the most into the mask theatre bullshit around here. I have hopes that the generation after them will rebel against their conformist ways and bring back some rebellion to this country.

      • Hyperion

        Here as well, it’s the teens to 30 crowd wearing masks outdoors, even though there’s no rule to do so. No one has even talked about it. No one else is doing it.

  48. juris imprudent

    If you watched Game of Thrones you might recall the scene where Tywin Lannister guts and skins a deer he killed while discussing King’s Landing politics. That is so much of what I was reminded of in this Taibbi piece – particularly when he gets to Dr. Dre and Apple. Except in this case it is the woke hypocrites who are the game being butchered ever so matter of factly.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I thought that show was all tits and ass. There were plots?

      • J. Frank Parnell

        I thought that show was all tits and ass.

        and wieners..

    • Fourscore

      I saw that in a Western movie, covered wagons circled, settlers alert, an owl hooting, then another, then another.

      Suddenly there were Indians, making Custer’s Last Stand look like a 4H picnic.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Ideologically-motivated violent extremists fueled by perceived grievances, false narratives, and conspiracy theories continue to share information online with the intent to incite violence.

      Wow sharing information online sounds bad maybe we should just shut down the Internet.

    • Tejicano

      “Ideologically-motivated violent extremists fueled by perceived grievances, false narratives, and conspiracy theories continue to share information online with the intent to incite violence.”

      In other words, ANTIFA? But this article makes it sound like a bad thing. I haz confuz….

  49. blackjack

    Look at our douchebag Governor, still lying as he tries to rehabilitate his image before the recall. There’s a fucking constitutional amendment requiring him to rebate excess revenues. Instead, he’s got a plan to use the money for “stimulus” which preempts the requirement. The people getting the “rebates” mostly pay little to no taxes anyway. Shouldn’t a rebate go the people who paid the fucking money in the first place?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Isn’t a rebate by definition the return of money to the person that paid it? Who looks like the favorite to replace twat?

      • blackjack

        Personally, I like Faulkner so far. He’s talking about huge tax cuts, as in if you make less than 100k you pay zero and if you make more, you pay zero on the first 100k. It’s a possibility that people will hear that and like the idea.

      • LCDR_Fish

        I thought I’ve been hearing rumbles from Dr. Drew about running (when he’s on the show with Carolla), but I’m not sure if he’s just being facetious or referring to something else.

      • blackjack

        There will be over a hundred candidates. All anyone needs is a yes to recalling and a simple majority of the whole crowded field. You can win with a tiny percentage of the vote. It’s the best chance to elect a decent person in this fucked up state. Most of the candidates will get some tiny number of votes. The front running Republican has the best shot.

    • KSuellington

      He’s definitely worried about the recall. I actually think that he squeaks by as their plan is to delay it until the fall. By then kids are back in school and life is back to normal and he hopes people are just happy to forget about his terrible bullshit during the COVID scare. This is his straight up bribery attempt and it might just work. I doubt Team Elephant will get it together to back one decent candidate to oppose him, and the Jenner thing will add ridiculousness to it.

      • blackjack

        The fall is right around the bend. There’s plenty more to hate the guy for, other than the ‘vid tyranny. Remember the intermittent blackouts? They are coming right back. Also, people get to go outside and be reminded of the tripling of the homeless problem since he took over. I have decent hope that it might stick. The guy is such a douchebag, he’ll have to get back to douchebaggery sometime between now and then.

      • DEG

        Yep.

        And I think the recall folks have a good organization.

      • KSuellington

        I really really hope so. I hate the guy for all those reasons and more and would love to see his ass sacked. If the voters actually send him packing I will be ecstatic. Faulconer would be a baby step in the right direction. Until the Dems are not in the super majority in the Legislature this state will continue its downward slide. I’m just trying to squirrel away enough money to buy some land in another state while maintaining our house here. In my dream scenario we get a State of Jefferson, but I realize that is a super long shot.

      • blackjack

        Yeah, it’s Faulconer. I would love to see him let loose a million vetos.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Squishy crony, but would still be a huge improvement. Oy.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Was Arnold better than Gray Davis? I wasn’t really paying attention.

      • Hyperion

        I don’t know what Arney was, but today he’s a pussy ass commie.

      • blackjack

        Arnie started strong, but became a squishy girly man by the end. His worst move, IMO was to pardon his buddy’s son for taking part in a gang murder. Zero class. He eventually got busted for shctooping his middle aged Mexican maid and fathering a child with her. Now, he’s hero again because he didn’t seem to like Trump.

      • KSuellington

        Arnold tried to get some reforms passed. The legislature was totally against it so he went to the voters directly to pass them. Voters went with the status quo and he basically gave up trying to get anything else done the rest of his time in office (aside from banging his maid).

      • blackjack

        The good thing is Gray Davis had his career ended. I certainly hope we can do that for Newsom as well.

      • Hyperion

        He didn’t like Trump because Trump has a set of balls, something he and his comrades don’t have. Envy sucks.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        All I remember is the maid schtupping and cannabis decrim. I hadn’t heard of this pardon until mentioned here recently.

      • blackjack

        Here’s what thats all about.

      • Chafed

        I strongly suspect fire season and blackouts (or a lack of them) will determine the outcome of the recall.

  50. LCDR_Fish

    Well, read the SecDef’s memo today rescinding the mask mandate on base – indoors and outdoors – for all vaccinated folks (ie. everyone). Unfortunately…there may still be wiggle room for individual COs (ie the building where I work). We’ll see. At least I won’t have to wear it in the gym any more.

  51. db

    anyone on the zoom want to let me in?

    • blackjack

      All the cool kids are zooming. I’m a quarter Sicilian and therefore genetically adverse to cameras. All of my family photos include relatives holding newspapers over their faces while handcuffed.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Vergogna! 😉 ?

      • Hyperion

        NOT the cool kids. The cool kids have already been in Zoom meetings all week and would rather sit on a fucking cactus.

  52. Hyperion

    Don’t pay the ransom

    Huh, sounds a lot like paying Iran to be nice. Who’s the idiots running this show?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Sounds vaguely familiar…

      • Hyperion

        Well, Obama has not been gone that long. Not long enough…

    • KSuellington

      Terrible fucking move. In Brazil you still get kidnappings for ransom. That is almost unheard of here now. Yes, part of that is the difference in policing, but a large part is that here the kidnappers don’t get paid. That is just massive encouragement to do it again and again.

      • blackjack

        +1 J. Paul Getty

      • Hyperion

        Well, there, criminals have the best guns, that’s what common sense gun control looks like. Coming to a country near you soon.

  53. Hyperion

    Man, can anyone recommend a pizza cutter that actually works? I just threw my two in the garbage, total trash.

    • blackjack

      Most of the pizza cutters are out on unemployment because it pays so well. None of them work.

      • Hyperion

        I wasn’t looking for the type you have to keep paying for.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Look into home sharpening as recently discussed here?

        Oxo?

        America’s Test Kitchen suggestions?

      • Hyperion

        Hmm, do you have a link? I have a lot of Oxo stuff, I think one of those cutters is theirs.

      • Hyperion

        Heh, I like it.

        I’m more interested though in the home sharpening you were referring to, I missed that.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Oxo Made in China.

    • KSuellington

      Have you tried the Oxo brand cutters? They generally make pretty decent stuff.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Just get one from Dollar General, they’re all junk anyway or use a big ass butcher knife like I do.

    • The Hyperbole

      Get the rocker style, basically a long curved knife, no rolling wheel shit that gets gummed up.

      • Hyperion

        Thanks, I’ll check it out.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      I knew someone who used to cut pizza with scissors.

  54. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Why oh why didn’t I think of this?

    https://www.immunaband.com/

    A twenty dollar plastic bracelet that’s “a symbol of your commitment to safety — for yourself and for others.” Whoever came up with this nonsense is going to make a damn mint.

    • Hyperion

      Those people need to die already.

    • blackjack

      We can make a variant that goes around your neck and gets progressively tighter the more people you tell, until it finally shuts your smug, ignorant ass up forever.

      • Hyperion

        Where do I donate?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        A govt administrated app that’s not working too well? That’s unpossible.

    • rhywun

      Our brains aren’t wired that way.

      Thank God.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        You mean to fleece people with stuff like this? It’s borderline unethical to not take these people’s money.

  55. zwak

    Watching Hulu right now, and the number of commercials that feature people wearing makes is… Sad. You just know some moron just hired in marketing thought this was a great idea and they ran with it cause, you know, youth and shit.

    And now they look like assholes.

    • Sensei

      Confirming why I spend the extra cash to go commercial free.

    • zwak

      Oh, and going out and about today, people are either done with this shit, or quivering balls of fear of life.

      • Hyperion

        “quivering balls of fear of life”

        Unfortunately, that describes at least 50% of the current US population.

    • Hyperion

      Outdoors? WTF? Not even commie MD does that.

      • Sensei

        Been that way for just about a year. Roughly 50% compliance and 50% dirty looks at those of us that refused.

        But essentially I can’t go anywhere here w/o a mask. The exception being my independent mechanic that I mentioned above. Any retail or any restaurant is this ridiculous charade.

        And I know that taking the train back to work is going to mean more of the same.

      • blackjack

        I’ve never worn one outdoors. At work and at businesses. Work is a little bitch that makes us and will continue to until Sept. 13th because Biden is making us and businesses because they get into trouble if I don’t. Otherwise, I refuse. Nobody has said anything, but I can sense the stress from the more committed cult members.

      • rhywun

        Nor does commie NY, except if you can’t “distance”. I don’t talk to people so that doesn’t figure in my calculations.

  56. rhywun

    Apropos of nothing… I have mentioned a few times that I run the TV in the background pretty much all day. I like the noise. And yeah, I like my Trek reruns, tennis matches, and L&O marathons. But… what I don’t like is that every other commercial nowadays is some woke BS. I am actually shouting “Woke!” at my television every time I see something about “organic cotton sheets!” or “sustainable!” or “made from plants!”

    I think I’m starting to lose my mind.

    • blackjack

      I would say that’s a sign that you’re one of the few that is not losing his mind.

    • Sensei

      They did successfully ruin the new Doctor Who. I think it’s been 3 plus years since it went woke and I bailed. Prior to that it was nice campy fun.

      • rhywun

        I just kind of got tired of it. Too frenzied to keep up. I saw one with the chick doc and it wasn’t bad but it didn’t draw me back in to the show.

      • Sensei

        Torchwood did that to me. I bailed in the middle of Season 3.

        I should have realized that was coming to Doctor Who.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Y’all have stronger stomachs than me. I was bailing half way through Season 2.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Season 2 of new Who.

        The one thing new Who has done is rehabilitate JNT’s reputation.

      • rhywun

        Season 3 was good – better than 2.

        Season 4 was a hot mess, though. Bailed half-way.

      • slumbrew

        JFC, Torchwood.

        Someone pointed out that Torchwood fanfic would be something like “two of the characters get involved in a stable, monogamous relationship, get married and have kids”.

        What annoyed me most about Torchwood and, I think, the woke Who universe – it’s made clear(?) there is no God, but there is the Devil and demons.

        Either there’s no supernatural, or all parts of the supernatural – “just the bad supernatural parts exist” is just lazy.

    • zwak

      My wife is a “TV on all the time” kinda person. I can’t separate the words coming from the screen from whatever I am reading.

      And yeah, I get you with the woke.

    • Tejicano

      “made from plants!”

      Wait until that morphs to “It’s what plants crave!”

    • Trigger Hippie

      No, no. You’re not crazy. At least 10 percent of the commercials I see nowadays are met with an internal “Oh, fuck you” after viewership. Don’t beat yourself up over it.

  57. Chipping Pioneer

    We are winning. We will win.

    • commodious spittoon

      Okay Malice

  58. commodious spittoon

    Where is everyone, it’s barely ten

    • rhywun

      I just nodded off in my chair for an hour.

      • Chafed

        You’re living the rock ‘n roll 50 year old lifestyle.

      • rhywun

        No kidding. And I’m ready to pass out again.

    • Chafed

      I’m writing GlibFit. What did we do to cause Friday night’s post to go AWOL?

    • Tejicano

      I’m still kinda here – drifting in and out.

  59. commodious spittoon

    Some romanian dude took over the stream.

    • commodious spittoon

      Kep insisting he’s French canadian, but he sounded Romanian to me, seriously

  60. commodious spittoon

    Valheim sailing is ridiculously cool.

  61. commodious spittoon

    Helfen mich, bitte, ihr hat gesaght.

    Aber helfen warst nicht going to happen

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Was ist los?

  62. hayeksplosives

    I’m watching Norm MacDonald “Hitler’s Dog” standup.

    “Listen, it’s no coincidence that the rope store and the rickety stool store are always right beside each other.”

    What a cheery old coot he has turned out to be.

  63. one true athena

    JFC there was just a PSA on the radio about “WEAR YOUR MASK!” including children on the playground.

    UGH FUCK YOU California Dept of Public Health.

    • hayeksplosives

      It has grown tiresome.

      No regard for the CDC’s new guidance on masks? I suppose it’s consistent with the “XYZ substance is known by the state of California to cause 123 ailment.”

      Arrogant hippies.

      I thought I could hack it out here on the West coast but today has me down.

    • hayeksplosives

      It has grown tiresome.

      No regard for the CDC’s new guidance on masks? I suppose it’s consistent with the “XYZ substance is known by the state of California to cause 123 ailment.”

      Arrogant hippies.

      I thought I could hack it out here on the West coast but today has me down.

      • hayeksplosives

        Squirrels!!

        I am not likely to move in reality but I am going to allow myself to go through the mental exercise of looking nationwide at jobs on offer.

        Kentucky has Rand and Massie. I like to think that would mean something about the good people of Kentucky but then there’s that other senator from KY.

      • Tejicano

        Sometimes I fantasize about moving back to the US. I wonder if the culture shock would kill me. It’s been years since I’ve spent more than a couple weeks there and a lot of the changes just leave me scratching my head.

        There is almost zero wokeness in Japanese society, not to say they aren’t tolerant of others because they always have been open to people with different sexual orientations. A guy in drag – either on the street or in the media – is regarded as a woman and few people are crass enough to say anything about it.

        But this in-your-face requirement to celebrate all lifestyles, use the “preferred pronouns”, in addition to the general denigration of traditional male values – I just wouldn’t fit in. I would probably only look for friends among veterans, in the Japanese-speaking community, and resuscitate my Spanish and find people my age in the Hispanic community. I have more in common with those communities than I would with anybody who has gone along with the woke shift in the culture.

      • hayeksplosives

        I don’t think the wokeness has permeated society in reality to nearly the extent that they portray on media (news, movies, sitcoms, commercials, politicians, academia).

        Of course it’s true that things will have changed, and “you can never go home”, but the folks next door are still made of the same stuff as decades ago.

        Race relations have suffered though. While the common goal used to be to get to a point when people are judged by the content of their character, now there is overt racism and lumping of people into collective groups based on skin color.

        It’s so bad that persons of color call persons of pallor “racist, evil, selfish, exploitative.” Hateful, bullying words.

    • Chafed

      JFC is right. These are the people who won’t share the SCIENCE! behind their decisions. I have a rusty spoon with all of their names on it.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, we get that plus a constant barrage of hectoring to get the prick.

  64. westernsloper

    You never realize how old you look until your are sitting on a zoom happy hour by yourself. And or how lame

    • westernsloper

      And sun burnt. I am ok with that.

    • Chafed

      How did you wind up alone on the Zoom?

  65. Toxteth O'Grady

    You sleepers are weak!

    • Tejicano

      Who’s sleeping? I’m still up. Just slightly inebriated but I will try to fix that.

  66. Yusef drives a Kia

    Wow, no late night posts? I sleep in and it’s still Friday afternoon,
    Well, a Fine Saturday waits, wassup, Kids?

    • Brochettaward

      The sky.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        The Sky is, The sun is, things Revolve and precess, and you are you, Good morning,

  67. Fourscore

    Good Morning, Good Morning, the best to you this morning!

    Good to see you folks, another great day!

    • Tulip

      Good morning Fourscore

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, Tulip! How are you and your critter(s)? (My apologies – I forget how many you have!)

      • Tulip

        I have a cat and a dog and both are doing well.
        How are your kitties? No more blood trails?

      • Gender Traitor

        No, no more crime scene evidence (knock wood!) They’re fine! The little black one has taken to climbing up on my lap when I’m on the porcelain throne, however. 🙁

        Speaking of blood trails, I got my new Hoover carpet cleaner delivered Wednesday, and I’ve been dragging my feet, but I’m going to finally try it out today after pretreating the lingering blood stains one more time. Fingers crossed!

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, 4(20)!! It’s finally warm enough this morning for me to settle in at Tranquility Base! Last weekend it was too cold and/or wet to come out here at all. Today, it’s beautiful! So far, I don’t even need to put on socks under my fuzzy slipper! 🙂

      How are you feeling today?

      • Gender Traitor

        (Ummm….fuzzy slipperS! I AM wearing one on each foot! 😉 )

  68. The Late P Brooks

    Just slightly inebriated but I will try to fix that.

    Drink harder!

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Brooksie! How go developments re: the offer upon your domicile?

      And do you refrain from watching TV news shows on Saturday mornings, I hope?