Wednesday Afternoon SugarLinks – Labia Branding edition

by | Jun 30, 2021 | Daily Links | 261 comments

Ex-‘Smallville’ Actress Allison Mack Sentenced to 3 Years in NXIVM Sex Cult Case

TV actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in a scandal-ridden, cult-like upstate New York group, was sentenced to 3 years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the group’s spiritual leader.

Mack — best known for her role as a young Superman’s close friend on the series “Smallville” — appeared Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court. She’s expected to seek credit for cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere and taking responsibility for helping him create a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.

Devoting herself to the self-improvement guru “was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life,” she wrote in a letter filed with the court last week.

“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM,” she wrote. “I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”

If the eventual TV movie is not titled The Secret World of Allison Mack and she’s not played by Larisa Oleynik, I’m going to burn shit down.


 

Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction overturned by Pennsylvania court

Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court.

The court said Wednesday that it found an agreement with a previous prosecutor that prevented him from being charged in the case.

The disgraced actor has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.

Cosby, 83, who was once beloved as “America’s Dad,” was convicted of drugging and molesting the Temple University employee at his suburban estate.

The former “Cosby Show” star was charged in late 2015, when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit — ordered his arrest just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.

The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked. However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.

One step closer to my dream of OJ, Bill Cosby and R. Kelly all living in a loft to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real…


 

The Revival of Stoicism

Over the last 10 years, Stoicism has gone from a topic confined to philosophy lectures to one consumed by the masses. Sometimes referred to as Modern Stoicism, Stoic ideas and texts are now found in dedicated podcasts, newsletters, Instagram accounts, self-help books, personal coaching, and in-person events, like the well-attended annual event Stoicon.

During the pandemic, Stoicism’s popularity has only grown. Print sales of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius went up 28% in the first part of 2020 compared to 2019, and print sales of Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic increased 42%. E-book sales of Letters from a Stoic went up 356%. Penguin Random House told The Guardian that while 16,000 copies of Meditations were sold in 2012, more than 100,000 copies were sold in 2019. “We have noticed a natural (slightly mysterious) year-on-year increase in our sales of the Stoic philosophers,” the Penguin representative said.

As trends go, a philosophy that preaches emotional tranquility, reason, and virtue would seem to be on the beneficial end of the spectrum. But Jackson’s case is just one example of what can happen when an ancient philosophy becomes popular, widely adopted, and, at times, distorted.

tl;dr: Stocism is bad because people I define as bad like and it might keep people from being screeching harpies about thing I think they should be screeching harpies about.


 

About The Author

SugarFree

SugarFree

Your Resident Narcissistic Misogynist Rape-Culture Apologist

261 Comments

  1. Ownbestenemy

    This comment serves no purpose other than to induce the bitching of the Bro.

  2. waffles

    Is Allie Mack the girl who got super powers after her irresponsible scientist parents let her get doused in their research chemicals? I never wondered what she was up to now. Ah, time flies.

    • waffles

      Oh, they are different people. Larisa Oleynik is not actually Allison Mack. Damn, that’s confusing.

    • SugarFree

      Alex Mack. Her superpower was turning into goo. Clarissa explained it all, except why she couldn’t lose the baby weight.

  3. Dr. Fronkensteen

    Donald Rumsfeld, Former Secretary of Defense has passed away.

    • Ownbestenemy

      As I said in last thread…his eternity should be him, alone, invading countries and dying each day.

      • Plisade

        …while addled on aspertame.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Painfully dying. No quick shot to the head. More like legs blown off everyday and dying in agony.

      • Tonio

        He’s going to be so lonely until John Bolton joins him.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        I though McCain got there before him?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Dick Cheney will be there first.

    • Hyperion

      What will become of Rummy’s Evil Claw of War? Will it wind up attached to Meghan McCain?

      • Chafed

        Max Boot.

    • TARDis

      Passed away… it sounds… so peaceful. More like Satan called in his marker.

      *salutes by way of farting in tactical boxer-briefs*

      “Georgie? Is that you?”
      “Yes Donnie, welcome. Come over here and sit on these Punji sticks with us. It’s our new torture.”
      “Hey John, hey Saddam. How’s it hanging?”
      “Like your entrails will soon be, you filthy dog!”

    • Agent Cooper

      I have no love lost for Rumsfeld, but his known unknowns speech makes 100% sense.

      • slumbrew

        ^^^ so much this ^^^

        I was annoyed by people who thought they were so clever mocking Rumsfeld for that.

  4. Rebel Scum

    Concerns Raised About Election Integrity After Biden Wins 80 Million Votes For NYC Mayor

    “Yeah, something about that seems… off,” said local man Joseph Joey. “Are we sure all those election people really know what they’re doing, or that they’re not all corrupt and stuff?” The FBI is now investigating Joey after his far, far-right insurrectionist comments questioning the sanctity of America’s holy elections.

    NFL Introduces Rainbow Flag For Refs To Throw When Players Aren’t Being Gay Enough

    Some of the new penalties being introduced include:

    Failure to skip
    Failure to cuddle after contact
    Badly coordinated outfit
    Not enough men on the field
    Delay of coming out
    Being Tim Tebow
    Not enough holding …

    Many fans are welcoming the changes, but some protested. Several disgruntled homophobes have announced they will no longer watch football and are switching to soccer.

    • Tonio

      Okay, I LOL’d.

    • Winston

      I find it pretty funny that only the US and Canada think soccer isn’t the sport of brainless yokels…

      • rhywun

        Only because most of the US and Canada don’t think about soccer at all.

        But yeah, it has this unearned reputation of being a sport of “elites” which trust me is not true at all even in the US and Canada.

      • R C Dean

        it has this unearned reputation of being a sport of “elites”

        I suspect that is because suburban wine moms don’t want their pwecious widdles getting beat up playing football, and make them play soccer instead. Since they are all about status, treating soccer as an elite sport, rather than as a pastime for hooligans, is only natural.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Soccer is European. Same continent where soi disant “athletes” are destroyed by running into cardboard.

      • Chafed

        I thought that was horse racing.

      • Gadfly

        If anything, in the US soccer is the sport kids play when they aren’t particularly interested in sports.

      • TARDis

        It’s good exercise though. Plus, you can be a drama king.

        I’d rather watch kids play kickball or dodgeball.

      • Agent Cooper

        “Plus, you can be a drama king.”

        Having 2 more refs on the pitch would end that. It’s advantageous for any player to make more of the perceived foul since the ref’s view can often be limilted.

    • Suthenboy

      “…homophobes have announced they will no longer watch football and are switching to soccer.”

      That is funny.

  5. J. Frank Parnell

    I’m honestly surprised that it’s taken the Left this long to start attacking Stoicism.

    • Tonio

      Stoicism is racism in 5…4…3…

    • Winston

      Well Maecis Aurelius was an imperialist slave owner…

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        But would he be considered white? You know being Italian and all.

      • Winston

        Wokesters consider Ancient Rome to be a part of the oppressive West..

    • The Other Kevin

      They’ve already gone after “self help” so I think this is part of that particular witch hunt.

  6. DEG

    Prosecutors did not immediately say if they would appeal or seek to try Cosby for a third time.

    Appeal where? The Feds? Why would they get involved?

    • nw

      ” The Feds? Why would they get involved?”

      See, I come here for the jokes.

    • Bobarian LMD

      The prosecutor’s civil rights were violated?

    • Hyperion

      Because #AlwaysBelieveWiminz?

    • Agent Cooper

      I’ve never seen so many progressives upset that a black man was released from prison.

      • R C Dean

        I actually LOLed at that one. I plan to use it IRL if I ever get the chance.

  7. Hyperion

    “Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction was overturned by Pennsylvania’s highest court.”

    That Fat Albert stuff is some of the funniest shit I’ve ever heard. As far as I’m concerned, he gets diplomatic immunity for life for that. Well, maybe not if he murders someone… but besides that, leave that guy alone! Y’all will destroy every fucking thing that’s ever been good until there’s nothing left.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Can’t tell if serious.

      • Hyperion

        You can be assured that the last sentence is 100% sincere.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I guess once I find out a guy is a serial rapist, it kind of takes the fun out.

      • Hyperion

        #BelieveAllWiminz

        I guess my problem is that I don’t.

      • Gustave Lytton

        There’s always room fo jello.

      • Winston

        Jack Benny and Lucille Ball have something to say about that…

      • Gustave Lytton

        “Rochester, you got some ‘plain’n to do!”?

    • nw

      The other one and I we’re talking about the reboot: “Body-Positive Albert”…

      • DEG

        I come here for the jokes too.

      • db

        “Sex-Positive Albert” already having been done…

      • Bobarian LMD

        With his friends from the Recycling Center Gang, Weird Normal Harold, Dumb Intellectually Challenged Donald, Mushmouth Don’t make fun of Speech-impediments Jim, ….

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      +1 Jeffrey

  8. Winston

    https://mobile.twitter.com/TwitCoast/status/1410279437741047812

    This isn’t new. Indigenous activists have long been calling for a reckoning on this nation’s baseless celebration of a “proud history”. More and more of us living on Turtle Island feel increasingly fraught with the thought of celebrating a nation built on colonialist violence.

    This was supposed to not leave college campuses…

    https://globalnews.ca/news/7893553/facebook-canada-news-payment/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

    Deals made under the news innovation test program were also reached with the Coast, the Narwhal, Village Media, the SaltWire Network, the Sprawl, Discourse Media, Narcity, BlogTO and Daily Hive.

    Oh and Facebook is investing in this. Big Tech would never turn on us…

    • juris imprudent

      My selective dyslexia initially read that as disingenuous activists and I think I like that better.

      • Gadfly

        It’s more accurate, I think.

    • Agent Cooper

      So, my take is that I hate the fact that some Rep attached something tangentially related to the NIL bill, thus delaying the vote on the NIL bill until September.

      WRITE A FUCKING SEPARATE BILL!

  9. Certified Public Asshat

    No Fatties

    the researchers divided the patients into four age ranges: 20-39, 40-59, 60-79, and over 80. They found that in the two younger groups – including adults up to age 60 – being obese was associated with nearly ALL the risk that Covid would lead to intensive care or death. The findings held even after they adjusted for many different potential confounding factors, like smoking, non-weight-related illnesses, and wealth.

    The excess risk was extremely high even for people who weren’t morbidly obese – defined as a body-mass index of 40 or more. A person between 40 and 60 with a BMI of 35 – someone who is 230 pounds and 5’8” – had about five times the risk of dying of Covid of a person of normal weight. For younger adults, the excess risk was even higher, and for morbidly obese people even higher still.

    In contrast, people of normal weight under 40 are at essentially no risk of death from Covid. The researchers found their rate to be under 1 in 10,000 per year. Even in the 40 to 59 age range, normal-weight adults had an annual risk well under 1 in 1,000.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      I guess if you were going to engineer a virus to take out the US, one targeting overweight people would be a good way to do it. /tinfoil hat off.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, the Chinese knew what they were doing.

      • Gadfly

        But that would be super dumb: you wouldn’t want to target the unhealthy, rather the smart move would be to target the healthy. A designer virus attacking the unhealthy is just putting evolution on steroids and making your enemy (collectively) stronger.

      • westernsloper

        *puts tinfoil hat on*

        Was it made by the Chinese or the people who fund the labs that happen to be in China? What group of people is the biggest drain on socialized medicine a socialist society? (and ya, we have socialized medicine it is called medicaid and medicare both of which are tits up soon.) And if you are in either of our medicaid or medicare programs you are most likely on other government programs. A thinning of the herd?

        *takes off hat*

        That is the dumbest shit I have ever wrote in a comment here!

  10. grrizzly

    Does anybody know if VA doctors are required to get a covid vaccine? I received a letter today from my doctor informing me the he has “made the very hard choice to leave” his practice but will continue working in the VA system.

    He wasn’t pushing the vaccine on me earlier this month during the annual physical.

    • Hyperion

      “He wasn’t pushing the vaccine on me earlier this month during the annual physical.”

      He has sinned against the righteous orthodoxy and probably not paid homage to America’s Doctor. Cancel him.

      • TARDis

        Yer either fer us, or aggin us. Wuss it gonna be?

        I got a company call today from a dulcet voiced lass asking me my about my jab status. They are calling all of us Unclean for an update.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    How come I don’t get any sex slaves?

    Not fair!

    • Hyperion

      Yeah, I know, right?

    • The Other Kevin

      Me neither. I don’t have people willing to brand themselves for me either. I keep thinking I’ve got to be doing something wrong.

    • Rebel Scum

      You DO have both your right AND left hands.

    • juris imprudent

      Charismatic male libertarians are even more mythical than female libertarians.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        “Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning into….”

    • Gadfly

      Not fair!

      Are you attractive/charismatic/wealthy/powerful? If no, then it is indeed fair.

  12. Shpip

    As trends go, a philosophy that preaches emotional tranquility, reason, and virtue would seem to be on the beneficial end of the spectrum.
    I can see how an ethic that’s basically “Bad shit happens in life, suck it up and soldier on” would be anathema to modern lefties.

    • kinnath

      One of my facebook friends posts stuff from Daily Stoic. There have been numerous arguments where liberals have complained that the advice of the stoics is evil.

      • mindyourbusiness

        Another good reason to become a Stoic.

  13. Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

    God bless and vouchsafe eternal joy to the inventors of refrigeration and air conditioning.

    • rhywun

      I just one of those pleading alerts from the power company to turn it down. I’m expecting rolling brownouts this summer after Cuomo shut down the last nuke plant supplying the city but it’s a little early in the summer for a blackout.

    • Gadfly

      I’m sure they were probably racist. All good-thinking people should turn those off.

    • Plinker762

      Before AC, Washington DC was a fetid swamp which was not occupied 365 days a year by our noble saviors in the FedGov.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    As trends go, a philosophy that preaches emotional tranquility, reason, and virtue would seem to be on the beneficial end of the spectrum. But

    I, as a controlling self-centered asshole, need something to bitch about.

  15. Winston

    https://mobile.twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1409956777651748879

    What did Olbermann do before being a Democratic activist?

    Also I recall thinking he was a nut job even back in 2008 so I wasn’t mistaken…

    Also do Comedy Central politics show hosts and kate night talk show hosts make any actual jokes anymore?

    • Hyperion

      “What did Olbermann do before being a Democratic activist?”

      He was an obese idiot. So, same as now. Did they ever get rid of those Russians hiding under his bed?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        He used candles? 😉

      • DEG

        Heh

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Did Rumsfeld take all the unknown unknowns with him?

    • Hyperion

      He’s going off to that happy place where you find weapons of mass destruction everywhere.

  17. Rebel Scum

    I suppose he learned from the best.

    McAuliffe was asked by a woman in June to comment on critical race theory, a topic that has roiled public school systems nationwide and has made particularly strong waves in Virginia’s Loudoun County, where ongoing protests by parents against divisive race-based curricula have gained national attention.

    “It’s another right-wing conspiracy. This is totally made up by Donald Trump and Glenn Youngkin. This is who they are. It’s a conspiracy theory,” McAuliffe replied to the woman, according to a recording obtained by Fox News.

    I think you mean “vast right-wing conspiracy.”

    • Hyperion

      You don’t even know what [fill in the blank] is!

      • R C Dean

        Conversation from last week with an in-the-bubble squishy liberal:

        SL: We need to role out our Diversity and Inclusion training faster.

        RC: At least its not the kind of critical race theory that I’ve been reading about.

        SL: Of course not. Critical race theory is just an academic theory that got started at Harvard Law School back in the 80s.

        RC: Its really not.

        SL: What makes you say that?

        RC: Because I was there. One of my professors was one of its founders, Mort Horowitz, . It was critical legal theory, and didn’t mention race at all. Who told you it got started at Harvard Law School?

        SL: *silence*

  18. Rebel Scum

    It’s like history has nuance or something.

    A Confederate general who later became an American war hero may see his statue removed from Congress following a push from mostly Democrats to remove monuments to Confederate leaders from the Capitol grounds.

    In a 285-120 vote on Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives moved to eliminate monuments to Confederate officers and statesmen within the Capitol grounds. All House Democrats, along with several Republicans, supported the effort. The legislation would force Congress to return each statue to the state that sent it.

    Noteworthy among those facing removal is a statue of Joseph Wheeler, a Confederate general who later became a U.S. congressman representing Alabama and served with distinction as an American general during the Spanish-American War (1898). The state of Alabama sent the statue to Congress in 1925.

    • Winston

      Iconclasts are known for nuance…

    • Gustave Lytton

      Next up, taking away civil war battle streamers from NG who are descended from confederate state militia. These ass fuckers are determined to prove that Robert E Lee was wrong and should have taken up arms as a no shit insurgency for the next thirty years. Not to worry, next time no one will be confused that we are Americans first when it ends.

      • zwak

        What is amusing/sad is that all of this, the integration of southern militias, honorifics of southern soldiers, etc, was to bring the country together.

        And now they want to tear it all apart. Thems no knot whats they does.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And rather than being a tragedy and regretful, perhaps even avoidable, is now a righteous crusade that allows no detraction or nuance.

      • rhywun

        And now they want to tear it all apart.

        Yes, that is the entire point behind the last five years or so.

      • Gadfly

        And, it was done in large part by people who had experienced the war. I could see how people whose ancestors were slaves could still bear a grudge, but for everyone else I don’t see how their opinion is more relevant than the people who actually took up arms against the Confederates.

    • creech

      On the other hand, I don’t think any of us would like to see the Capitol graced with statues of George III, Benedict Arnold, or Banastre Tarleton.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I think it would raise curiosity and not rabid screaming at clouds. That is the difference. Maybe I have too much faith in a segment of our population.

    • Agent Cooper

      Canada is a prison colony.

      • creech

        I thought that was Australia?

    • Ownbestenemy

      They are just learning from their big brother.

  19. Gustave Lytton

    SugarFree Explains It All

    ?nah nah nananah?

    • BakedPenguin

      Ooh.

  20. Count Potato

    Shouldn’t a website called “Vice” be against Stoicism?

    • juris imprudent

      “Stoicism has lots of wrestling metaphors, gladiator metaphors, soldier metaphors. And it comes out of the tradition of ancient Greece and Rome, which were quite masculine cultures.”

      There you have it.

  21. Winston

    Slobodian seems to see “white racism” everywhere in the camp of those who espouse individual liberty, free markets and international free trade, impartial rule of law, and constitutionally limited government. To disagree with the “progressive” agenda demonstrates, it seems, that, ipso facto, the dissenter is an exploiter and a racist.

    Hmm…maybe trying to appease these people is a bad idea? I mean they have been open about this belief for decades. Oh and the whole “Jefferson and Locke are hypocrites cuz slavery” arguments have been around for some time and the SJWs have been openly saying that for decades too.

    • wdalasio

      You’re pretty much right. It’s not like these sociopaths have been exactly circumspect about their agenda. It’s a shame that even a lot of self-professed libertarians have chosen the route of supporting the motte and bailey they’re playing.

      They aren’t objecting that there’s still racism. They openly state that they don’t consider discrimination against certain targets racism. It’s not like they’re opposed to hierarchy. They’ve made clear that they want a different, far more oppressive, hierarchy. They’re not after “peace love and happiness”. They publicly chanted “Mao Marx and Marcuse”.

      At some point, I have to wonder if the blindness is willful. Not that their apologists don’t see what they’re after, but that they refuse to acknowledge what they’re after because doing so would mean acknowledging their tacit support for it.

      • Winston

        Snobbery plays a role. The Good People say this stuff and the dumb yokels complain about it so libertarians being good people must side with the Good People. And there is no way good people would ever embrace anything bad right?

        And the End of History plays a role too. Good has and always will triumph so there is nothing to worry about from our elites. They would never try to reverse the Victory of History, right?

      • wdalasio

        I’ve accepted arguments like snobbery for a while. I’m coming to the point where I’m just not too sure. It gets to the “willful blindness” point. If you’re presuming someone who’s saying this stuff one of the good people, even when they’re saying this stuff, it certainly suggests that this stuff at least isn’t a disqualifier for being one of the good people. If you’re prepared to embrace an advocate of the destruction of liberty over someone who, gosh, goes to a monster truck rally on the weekend, I can’t help but wonder if you consider the latter a greater faux pas than the former.

      • R C Dean

        The Good People say this stuff

        Pretty much by definition, anyone who pushes that agenda is Bad People.

      • Winston

        These days trying to appease them makes about as much sense as anti-Soviet dissidents thinking they could avoid trouble if they trashed Hitler, Vietnam and interwar authoritarian regimes.

    • Winston

      Oh and “Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan genocided the Indians after crushing the Confederacy” has been around for quite some time too. The 1960s-1970s demythologizing the West movebt was very explicit about that. Dances with Wolves came out in 1990 and was explicit about that too…

      • SDF-7

        I know Lincoln’s not terribly popular in these parts — but besides going to the theater and achieving room temperature, he wasn’t doing a whole lot after crushing the Confederacy.

      • Winston

        Well what gets him in trouble is that whole mass execution thing. And his support of the railroads…

      • Sean

        Wait, I thought he was hunting vampires.

      • wdalasio

        See!! You even admit it! He was attempting to commit genocide of the poor oppressed undead community! A damned daywalker supremacist!

      • Gadfly

        True, but since there were Indian tribes that sided with the Confederacy (IIRC the last Confederate general to surrender was an Indian) he can be indicted under the same charge, given the level of reason and discourse common in this country.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Self identify for that but any other fields must be documented, and a supporting document chain if it doesn’t match exactly.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Oh là là. ?

      • db

        Eek barbadurkle.

    • BakedPenguin

      Listening/watching to a video on borderline personality disorder, it hit me that a lot of the behaviors sounded very similar to what the gender dysphoria / multiple gender crowd describe.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I hope that was mere curiosity born of an algorithm.

      • BakedPenguin

        I wanted to reply to that by changing my handle to “RoastedPenguina”.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Uhh…: ?

        Was more curious about the BPD interest, really.

      • BakedPenguin

        I’m interested in psychology. Yes, the vid came up algorithmically. BPD had no interest for me until I watched the video, as the symptoms described sounded a great deal like those described by the genderfluid crowd. Unlike multiple personality disorder, these people don’t act as if there’s a change to their actual identity, but rather that there are components of their personality that seemingly undergo rapid change. Given the huge expansion of the number of people (young people, especially) who now complain about this, I wanted to ask others to watch the video to see if I was possibly onto something, or off base.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        No worries. I just hear horror stories at times, sometimes even from here.

        In YT I am getting Dr. Carter (friendly Texan) links about narcissism. ??‍♀️

    • Bobarian LMD

      Will we force other counties to accept that bullshit as an acceptable form of identification?

    • zwak

      Something tells me that is going to be a shitstorm of international proportions. I mean, can’t you see a customs or border official of Russia saying “Nyet” to anyone with that on their passport?

      Pepperidge Farms can!

      • Ownbestenemy

        Cannot wait for the first international criminal that gets caught with one of these passports and then claims they are being dead-named and that is not who they are now.

      • Gadfly

        In all honesty, though, any country that would deny entry for gender neutrality is probably a country those who identify as gender neutral would be better off avoiding.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Russian disinformation. Hunter Biden is not really a massively corrupt drug-addled shit weasel.

    • Chafed

      It’s incredible no US newspaper is chasing this story.

  22. The Gunslinger

    Circling back to Ed changing jobs from the morning links. We had a designer retire today from our department. He started with the company in June of 1977. Best of luck with the new job Ed. May you still be happily working there in 44 years

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Yeah, congrats! Bad-ass. ?

  23. Sensei

    If anyone is interested 4K walkthrough of one of the more interesting towns I visited in Japan. My friend goes here to ski and for the vegetable market. It’s about a three hour drive for her.

    https://youtu.be/NMYevRLr9gw

    Takayanma.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      I’d probably pollute the place just by walking through there.  :-/

      • Sensei

        In Japan you can still smoke in bars and restaurants. It was certainly nostalgic.

        As a non smoker I don’t miss it, however.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I liked the plastic bags given with just about any purchase. Also being eliminated as part of the modernization.

  24. trshmnstr the terrible

    It’s the end of pride month, everybody. Don’t forget, pride month ends tomorrow! Watch my video on the end of pride month! What was your favorite part of pride month? Remember your LGBTQ ++÷+ colleagues as pride month comes to an end. Did you attend today’s webinar on the end of pride month? Hey everybody, read this article on the end of pride month. Show your pride on our company social network! Get your company pride gear before it’s too late. Pride month is almost over, did you think about how it affects your job responsibilities?

    /my inbox today

    • wdalasio

      did you think about how it affects your job responsibilities

      If you have time to think about how it affects your job responsibilities, you might well have too much free time and be a good candidate for redundancy.

      • SDF-7

        I can think of a few jobs where “who wants to boink whom and how” has relevance. Not mine, thank the Lord — but there are some.

        But yeah — in general to Pride Month and the rest of the YOU-MUST-CARE! Months — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAA1xgTTw9w

    • rhywun

      Your company is something else. None of that here.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Silicon valley tech co….whole Lotta HR funkies trying to justify their existence.

      • rhywun

        I’m so sorry.

  25. Winston

    https://www.aier.org/article/the-courage-to-be-utopian/

    as true radical liberals we must be willing to question all existing political and social values, and submit them to critical evaluation

    ….

    We must always question within specific contexts, and criticize on the margin while holding other values as given at that moment if we are to avoid serious errors in our reasoning about society.

    constant need for renewal and reconstruction. It is never a fixed doctrine standing still and telling the context of history — STOP. It is, instead, a welcoming of the new and novel, of the fulfillment of its ideals

    change is ceaseless, and the effort to improve institutions is constant.

    OK, this is something that never made sense to me. Things constantly evolve and change and we need to reject the old and replace it with the new but we still need unalienable rights and Hayekian ideas about spontaneous order. Except aren’t unalienable rights and Hayekian Spontaneous order old ideas that should not be challenged and new ideas that reject them should not be accepted? So this puts limits on what sort of change we should do. And if we decide that say free speech is outdated then doesn’t that mean unalienable rights aren’t unalienable?

    And them there is the idea that every generation we should throw everything out yet people will end up agreeing with essentially the same things as the past.

    If old truths are to retain their hold on men’s minds, they must be restated in the language and concepts of successive generations.

    Not to mention Jefferson watering the tree with the Blood of patriots stuff.

    • zwak

      So, you have been making a rather lot of cryptic remarks lately, Winston, but it seems to me that you are really preaching to the choir over here. Now, I don’t think you should get an undue amount of grief for this, but this is all stuff that is known to this branch of libertarians, and, indeed, it is the motivating factor in the NHLP kerfuffle going on these days that DEG has been talking about.

      And, in fact, this is the actual struggle going on with politics, in general, these days. Not just with the LP, but all of it in the western world. You see, the paradigm of internationalism is dying, thrashing around in its final days. We haven’t seen the far left slip its traces like this since ’68, and indeed we are still feeling the pain from that little bit of social fuckery. And the question is really, “what are we going to do next?”

      And that we have zero idea about.

      • DEG

        I really haven’t talked that much about the LPNH since I’m not involved with it and haven’t been in years.

        Tom Woods on the other hand has, like during this podcast where his guest also mentions why the LP was quiet about lockdowns.

      • DEG

        To clarify, I know some folks involved and they’ve told me a thing or two. But otherwise, I haven’t done anything with the LPNH in years.

      • zwak

        I’m sorry, I thought you had been posting links to that skirmish.

        Sorry, I must have misremembered.

    • Suthenboy

      “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

      ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

      ’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

      Yeah, we have heard this shit before.

    • R C Dean

      Post-modernism is rotten with self-contradiction.

      That’s really all you need to know.

    • Agent Cooper

      I see Siraj is on the case.

    • SugarFree

      They life is a fucking trainwreck. Former sex worker. Proud autist. Mother of two and the 8-year-old is already being told they are nonbinary and wants to be a drag queen. Both kids are “neurodivergent.” Husband transitioned to being a woman during lockdown and they stayed married, so now gets to call theyself a lesbian.

      • Suthenboy

        So, a lunatic.

      • Animal

        Yup.

    • Chafed

      The replies are brutal.

  26. Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

    Allison Mack goes to prison as Bill Cosby is released. It’s like yin and yang. And very equitable.

    • TARDis

      Plus Rummy’s dead! Where does that fit in?

      • one true athena

        I think that means John McAffee just rose from the dead, but I’m not sure.

    • Agent Cooper

      3 years for a crazy sex cultist?

      Hmmm…

  27. TARDis

    Not to mention Jefferson watering the tree with the Blood of patriots stuff.

    Always hated that saying. In the same vein as General Patton and the dying for your country thing:

    I’ll be happy to water the tree with the blood of treasonous tyrannical anti-republic shit stains.

    • R C Dean

      I think Jefferson mentioned patriots to make the point that freedom isn’t free, and people have to sacrifice for it.

  28. Raven Nation

    I feel like I’ve crossed some libertarian acceptable threshold: almost two-thirds of the charges on one of my accounts last month were for booze and ammo.

    • Sensei

      Ok that’s.funny.

    • Sean

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      What about the other third? Hookers and blow?

      • Raven Nation

        Nah. Gifts for the wife, food, and groceries.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        So you just wasted it then.

      • TARDis

        If only he had written, Gifts for the wife: food, and groceries.

    • DEG

      YAY!

    • Agent Cooper

      You’re missing:

      Messicans
      Ass-sex

    • R C Dean

      I’ve had a few months like that.

      500 – 1,000 round ammo orders at these prices will do it.

    • westernsloper

      ?

  29. rhywun

    Jackson said at a virtual hearing in the UK that he doesn’t concern himself with the external consequences of his words or actions as part of his adherence to the ancient philosophy, Stoicism.

    OFFS!

    • TARDis

      Big Restaurant can survive on this long enough to drive out all the quality one-off and local chain eateries. Lovin’ it!

    • Sean

      We should bomb them and take their stuff.

      /John Bolton

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Other than oil and Montreal strippers, is there anything we really want from them?

      • Sean

        Timbits?

      • DEG

        Poutine?

        Booze like Unibroue and Gahan House and Rossignol Winery and probably a bunch of others that I’m forgetting?

        French-Canadian women? A bit bigger of an umbrella than Montreal strippers.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (Not exactly apt, but KITH.)

      • DEG

        Heh

        Nice

      • grrizzly

        Our grizzly and polar bear population would double. So, there’s that.

      • TARDis

        I’m okay with some more Rush.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I feel for a Montreal stripper. She fell for the American dollar as it was in 1998. It was a match made in heaven.

      • Ownbestenemy

        *fell or feel, you choose. I am not your boss.

    • Winston

      English Canadians are the stupidest people ever with Anglo Torontonians and Anglo Montrealers the worst of them all..

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      What is this fucking obsession with treating everything that Ontario does as somehow representing “Canada”?

      It’s like treating everything that New York or California does as somehow representing “the United States.”

  30. Count Potato

    “A Franklin County judge recently began including vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of defendants’ terms of probation.

    Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye said last week he added the vaccine as a condition on three cases in the week of the roughly 20 sentences he imposed.

    He said he discussed the matter in open court with the defendants, and they attributed their unvaccinated status to procrastination. None raised any philosophical, medical or religious objection.”

    https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2021/06/29/columbus-ohio-judge-richard-frye-mandates-covid-vaccine-some-probation-cases/7794381002/

    • Winston

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variolation

      Later on that year Maitland conducted an experimental variolation of six prisoners in Newgate Prison in London. In the experiment, six condemned prisoners were variolated and later exposed to smallpox with the promise of freedom if they survived.[2]:45

  31. Winston

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Zone#.22The_Time_Element.22_.281958.29

    To talk of tariff was to align oneself with the Republicans; to talk of labor was to suggest control by the Democrats. To say a single thing germane to the current political scene was absolutely prohibited

    I find it funny that back in the late 1950s Republicans were still considered protectionists. Gee I wonder why the protectionist past of the Republicans have been glossed over?

    Then there is how the Twilight Zone was always explicitly leftist propaganda…

    • rhywun

      The Twilight Zone was early sixties liberal propaganda. Some of the stories would be considered downright conservative today.

      • Winston

        Serling was a Cold War Liberal. America is awesome, especially when JFK and LBJ are in office, Commies suck and Racism is bad so we should stop thinking about race.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I know whom I would prefer of those two, despite his many liabilities.

    • creech

      Leftist? Not always. There was an episode that seemed to imply how cool it would have been had a National Guard tank come over the hill and scared the crap out of the Indians attacking Custer and the 7th cavalry.

  32. Ownbestenemy

    I am just glad we are seeing a fragmented narrative on covid now. CDC says ‘stay the course, mask guidance stays as is’, ‘doctors’ on TV say ‘we are all going to die!’, California is just doing what it can to weather the recall, and everywhere else for the most part says ‘covid? Nah, Im going to the bar’

    • Breet Pharara

      The CDC is 100% political at this point and the Biden administration is focused on 2022. They won’t reverse the mask mandate. Biden is the president that conquered the pandemic and…well that’s it. Ignore the inflation, rising tension around the world, terrible job numbers, terrible underlying economic numbers. No way the Dems let the mandate be hinted at outside of “safe” areas, as much as any disaster porn group wants it to.

    • Agent Cooper

      I have to art direct a video shoot in LA in July. Masked all day, inside and out on set. No craft services.

      Stupid fucking unions.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah. I wasn’t saying what is being done is different, just that the narrative isn’t in unison right now. Once the CDC, WHO and WH get on the same page again, the rest of us will once again feel your pain.

      • prolefeed

        Running into all sorts of signage about mandatory masking here in Washington state, but outside of areas controlled by the Feds, it seems to not be enforced.

    • Suthenboy

      Dr. Wyatt
      Replying to
      @DPalder
      and
      @wbgerwitz
      What better symbol for a creepy old man? Good job Libs

      Damn, he beat me to it.

      • R C Dean

        “Dollar a cone! Unless you let me sniff your hair, then its free!”

      • Ownbestenemy

        We like to say that our elections are probably a step up from student president elections and the DNC is proving that they are aligned with it. “Free ice cream to the 5th grade class if I am elected!”

    • Agent Cooper

      It’s $12.50 for 2 scoops.

      Next year, only $18!

      • BakedPenguin

        Anyone who wants 2 scoops is obviously a fan of OMB.

        No scoops for them! (/Ice Cream Nazi)

    • prolefeed

      Anyone have a transcript of this Tweet? Most Twitter stuff doesn’t load on my phone … fortunately.

  33. Aloysious

    Labia branding?!?

    This sounds… painful. I hope this isn’t a thing.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Can’t tell… NSFW probably.

      • TARDis

        That’s just sick. The artist pornographic mutilator is asshoe. The girl is mentally ill.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Agreed. My wife loves tattoos and she doesn’t just run out to whatever shop is nearby. She spent a good 6 months researching and deciding who was going to perform the work. The guy we ended up at has a strict policy on areas of the body he will not tattoo and that is one.

        Plus he donates his work for those who have had a mastectomy and helps give them an air of normality if they want it. Which I think is cool.

      • Suthenboy

        That is pretty creepy. I am not sure which is creepier, the tattoo girl or the kind of guys she is appealing to.

      • Ownbestenemy

        OMWC? Yeah, trust me, while trying to find a picture that dove the point home that was the least…disturbing.

      • Old Man With Candy

        She is not appealing to me. For the record.

        Best tattoos I know IRL? WebDom and Riven. WebDom’s were done by some celebrity guy.

  34. westernsloper

    I have never ever been personally aware of any sex cults in, how do you say, a biblical way. My life is a waste.

    • Ownbestenemy

      But you have been aware in say, a different way?

      • westernsloper

        Neither Quranical. Which would probably have been better anyways.

      • Ownbestenemy

        You missed out on the virgins then huh…what a waste of travels to all those countries.

      • westernsloper

        Low blow. *flag thrown

        Even I am not that big of pervert.

    • Urthona

      I’m outraged that we publicly funded schools but no publicly funded sex cults.

      Except for Congress.

    • Suthenboy

      I have only been aware of one and the guy that ran it was a narcissistic personality disorder in spades. Two seconds after I met him and before I had any idea of the cultish freakiness I knew what he was. Over the next week or so he kept approaching me and trying to strike up conversations which mostly amounted to “You arent doing X (fixing your coffee, tucking in your shirt, or whatever etc.) right”

      After I said, and you could get away with it in those days, “Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me. Now.” He never spoke to me again, thankfully.

  35. Chafed

    WTF is with the reporting on Cosby’s case? The first sentence strongly suggests there was prosecutorial misconduct for withholding exculpatory evidence. Not another word about it. I haz a confused.

    • Ownbestenemy

      And now you have been properly informed to what we want you to know so you can take your opinions to the socials and drive the narrative for us. #MSM

    • Urthona

      A prosecutor had promised Cosby’s testimony in a civil trial would not be used against him and then tried to use it again him.

      • Urthona

        *against

      • R C Dean

        There was also the seriously questionable testimony from several other alleged victims at his trial. Waaaay back in the day, I was taught that was not allowed, as it is not relevant to the actual crime that he was being tried for. Since he was on trial for a crime committed against somebody else, and all.

  36. prolefeed

    I like the Bee’s take on Pride month: July is Greed Month, August is Wrath month …

    • rhywun

      Aww

    • westernsloper

      Private security stopped a crime? Where were the brave blue?

    • Suthenboy

      That’s gotta be the Bee in disguise, right?

  37. TARDis

    Congratulations, Chicago. You did it. You broke last year’s homicide tally in just six month’s. Looking forward to a total score you have not seen for decades. You can do it. I have faith in you. Show us your values, praise Lori.

    On the downside, no one got shot in the junk during June?

    • Suthenboy

      According to Lightfoot crime is going down. I am not sure if the lunatic believes that or not.

      • TARDis

        Consults the Oracle. Well sure, I guess so.

        2021 Police-involved Shootings

        Year Killed Wounded
        2021 3 6
        2020 7 13

      • Hyperion

        Beetlejuice

    • Hyperion

      Baltimore leaps into action ‘Oh yeah, hold my beer!’.

  38. Hyperion

    So, we have these friends and they visited last weekend. Overall, I like them, but the guy, he apparently just watches CNN all day, takes it as the gospel and feels the most urgent need to spread the message.

    It doesn’t matter how many times I try to just ignore him and change the subject, he just can’t stop it.

    This time, he just goes ‘So, these gun nuts, they just have all of these guns. Why does anyone need all of these guns? And then every time they just have all these guns laying all over the house and the kids shoot themselves’. And I’m like ‘What in the hell are you even talking about? Send me a link’. So he always does this thing were he tilts his head towards the side, and slightly back, half an eyeroll, and a ‘Uhh’.

    So I just let it go, then a few minutes later he just says, out of nowhere ‘We shouldn’t defund the police, just replace them with social workers’. And I said ‘Sure, let’s just have Karens go to everyone’s house until they show up at the house of some thug who’s stabbing everyone’s eyeballs out, that should go really well’. And again there it is, head to the side and slightly back, half eye roll ‘uhh’.

    That’s the point when I had a vision of me slapping the shit out of him and him lying on the floor. I told my wife ‘If he does that one more time, he’ll be unconscious for a while’. Of course she freaks out and starts to cry ‘No, I can’t have any friends, boo hoo hoo’. I said ‘Don’t worry, he probably won’t do it again’.

    • Suthenboy

      He will do it again. I know that guy/woman. Talking to them is a complete waste of breath and time.

      I had one admit to me explicitly “I dont care how many facts you have or how reasonable your arguments are I will never change my mind.”

      “At least you admit you cannot be reasoned with”. Brainwashed useful idiots.

      • Suthenboy

        Incidentally that is the same one who said they had heard about this book titled ‘Atlas Shrugged’ and wanted to read it. I replied I would lend him my copy. Two days later he gave it back. He only got half-way through chapter One and gave it up. He said it made him feel uncomfortable. Heh. Holy water makes vampires uncomfortable, who knew?

      • Hyperion

        I can’t believe I actually raised my voice at that bullshit about kids shooting themselves because people had too many guns. That shit just really hit a nerve. And you would think it might give someone pause. I truly do not think the guy is too bright. Like I said, I could slap some sense into him, I really want to. Sigh, she’s one of my wife’s best friends, and their son is a great kid. But he’s pushing it. Maybe I should just say ‘I don’t talk about politics, just shut it up’. But I really do not think he will get it because he’s sort of thick as a brick.

      • db

        If a man isn’t smart enough to figure out that when his host doesn’t want to talk about a particular subject, perhaps he needs a slapping upside the head. In your house, he should be polite enough to find a topic that doesn’t antagonize you.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Maybe I should just say ‘I don’t talk about politics, just shut it up’. But I really do not think he will get it because he’s sort of thick as a brick.

        Just ignore whatever he says and start a different conversation.

        “How bout those wacko gun nuts?”
        “Y’know, i have seen more deer in the front yard this year than in probably a decade.”
        “Yeah, but those gun nuts… man are they screwy”
        “I bet the hummingbirds will be here in full force by next week”
        “Hey, come on! I’m talking about the gun nuts! ”
        “Kids these days, huh… with their tickety tocks and their snappy chats.”

    • TARDis

      Yes, you must acquiesce. Be calm. Endure their violence wisdom. They will instruct you. Go along to get along.

      or, fuck that

      I guess there is an upside to marrying an anti-social agnostic.

    • SugarFree

      You can have, friends. Just not stupid ones.

      • Hyperion

        I’m giving my wife the wisdom of Zardoz on this one. Thanks.