Monday Afternoon Sufficient Links

by | Oct 18, 2021 | Daily Links | 253 comments

This should help class up the site!

Not a great day, not a bad day. Let us say it is sufficient. So, the Links will reflect that…

  • I hate everyone involved. Oh, and now lying to Congress is a big deal?!
  • Oh. Recall all the jokes, memes and such.
  • “official data showed” – I wonder what the real situation is (better or worse). This is not going to go well, for anybody.
  • Whycome government choo-choo no work?

See what I mean?

About The Author

Swiss Servator

Swiss Servator

Currently serving at the pleasure of a Swiss multinational. Previously a Soldier, rugby player, lawyer, bouncer, bartender, substitute teacher, risk manager, and cubicle mushroom. Will work for raclette.

253 Comments

  1. The Late P Brooks

    and now lying to Congress is a big deal?!

    Contempt of Congress is the national pastime.

    • rhywun

      Statements made by all four executives have been contradicted by recent media reports, the lawmakers said.

      Totally not-biased media reports, amirite?

      • juris imprudent

        Media is always the most accurate accounting.

    • SDF-7

      “I’m a branch of government too, not just a bunch of grifters! I’m a branch of the government – and I want respect!”

  2. Shpip

    Five people killed in a small Norwegian town last week were all stabbed to death and not shot with a bow and arrows as initially suspected, police said on Monday.

    Would it make ya feel better if they was pushed outta windows?

    • LJW

      The defenestration of Kongsberg

    • EvilSheldon

      Goddamnit. Now I feel like our entire bow vs. body armor discussion was just worthless…

      • Bobarian LMD

        Or was it planning/preparation?

    • Rat on a train

      Only if Rob Reiner went with them.

    • R.J.

      Did he have knives ties to arrows? Kinky…

  3. Sensei

    I hate everyone involved. Oh, and now lying to Congress is a big deal?!

    It all depends on who is doing the lying. Patriots like Mueller or patriots like Oliver North.

  4. Tundra

    Hiya, Swissy!

    After a swift coronavirus bounceback, recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy is losing steam, with gross domestic product growth coming in at 4.9 percent on-year, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), citing an “unstable and uneven” domestic rebound.

    Bull. Shit.

    You know things are bad there when they are trotting out their hypersonic toys to totally scare the rest of the world.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      For an idea of how bonkers China is right now, consider that real estate is 29% of their GDP versus 6% in the USA and accounts for almost 70% of their household wealth.

      That’s a bubble of epic proportions and it’s in the beginning stages of the big pop.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Easily remedied by the upcoming “three child rule.”

      • rhywun

        And two of them will be mandated to be females.

        Sorry, boys.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        Or, and bear with me here, a buyers market!

      • Fatty Bolger

        Something tells me most of the boys will be OK with that.

      • rhywun

        I suppose the ones that make it out of the womb, yeah.

      • KSuellington

        Two girls for every guy!! Come on a shanghai safari with me…

      • Ownbestenemy

        That will make the updated version of Two Girls, One Cup Guy, quite interesting…

      • Sensei

        Nice. I haven’t thought about that song in decades.

  5. Timeloose

    1980 yen for a gold plated toilet? I had bar bills higher than that.

    Happy Freedom of Speech week everyone!!!

    https://www.freespeechweek.org/

    • Timeloose

      Hell I’m off by a decimal, is that the price per use?

      • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

        It’s pay per view. Peons like us never get to actually use it.

      • db

        Pay-per-view toilet? Is that an OnlyFans?

      • juris imprudent

        Shouldn’t the price by in DM [old] or Euros [new]?

    • Tonio

      Yeah, look at the honorees MSM talking heads, NAB shills, etc. Not anyone who actually risked his/her/their life to say unpopular things. (*cough* Andy Ngo *cough*)

      Nonpartisan == ball-less, milquetoast, establishment

    • nw

      So. Thanks glibs…

      Taking a toilet to be a 16.125 inch by 32 inch by six sides for purposes of surface
      are estimation, and a source of gold leaf foils, it looks like it would
      cost about $900 to gold plate a toilet. I have no idea what additional
      costs it would be to actually get the leaf to adhere, nor what sort of
      wear characteristics the foil might have under water flow and spot
      impact.

      The cost of the gold itself isn’t all that bad. I’m pretty sure you
      can spend more than that on the base toilet. One assumes you’re not
      cheaping out on the fixture at the point you’re going to gold plate it.

  6. Sensei

    “official data showed” – I wonder what the real situation is (better or worse). This is not going to go well, for anybody.

    OTH, somebody in China has decided to go Charles Bronson.

    A man is on the run after allegedly killing two neighbors. Some in China hope he will never be caught

    They claim Ou was an ordinary man pushed to the brink of despair over a years-long housing dispute. Public sympathy surged further after reports emerged that he had saved a young boy from drowning at sea three decades ago and rescued two dolphins that were nearly stranded in 2008.

    Many blamed Ou’s apparent transition from savior to murder suspect on the ills that have long plagued China’s local governance, from abuse of power to official inaction. Others see it as a reflection of the broader failure of the country’s legal and bureaucratic system, exacerbated by a besieged free press and a crippled civil society. And some warn that, if things do not change, similar tragedies will happen in the future.

  7. rhywun

    The metro service for Washington, D.C., said late Sunday that it has removed 60% of its railcars from service following last week’s train derailment.

    And by how many per cent is ridership down?

    Or are they still running a bunch of empty trains like NYC?

      • rhywun

        Narrator: They’re not ready.

      • Sensei

        That was evident when the Northeast blackout of 2003 happened just 2 years after 9/11 and the city itself was actually a bigger clusterfuck than when the WTC Complex was destroyed.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, that was another fun walk from Wall Street to Queens. ?

    • Rat on a train

      And by how many per cent is ridership down?
      So much that more than $750 million taxpayer dollars were given to them to make up for lost revenue.

      • rhywun

        Pikers. I think NYC has blown through $5B or so.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    I saw an article about the precipitous drop in Japanese plague numbers. This was portrayed as bad news.

    • Sensei

      The incentives in Japan are to not test at the first hint of a sniffle. Here in the US it would seem to be the exact opposite.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Here, I believe it is a sniffle and a negative response to the vacc question.

  9. Hyperion

    I’ve decided to immediately leave the private sector and find a government job. When my new government employer notices that no one has heard from me for 2 months and inquires as to why no work has been done, I’m going to reply to the email and copy everyone and say ‘I bottle feed!’.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Go full woke. Tell those transphobes that you’re chest feeding. You will be untouchable.

      • Hyperion

        I like this. How do I sign up for your newsletter?

    • Chafed

      Lol

    • Pope Jimbo

      Hyp: I bottle feed

      HR: Um, you realize that drinking whiskey right out of a bottle is not what other people mean when they take time off to bottle feed?

      • Rat on a train

        There was a time when smoke breaks were a thing. I didn’t smoke but still took smoke breaks.

    • Hyperion

      All the robots are fully vaccinated!

    • SDF-7

      Someone’s purchasing agent made a recent trip to Japan?

    • Fatty Bolger

      her work gained a new level of recognition amid the COVID-19 pandemic as patients in long-term care facilities were forcibly barred from interacting with their loved ones. Khan saw interaction with robots as one possible remedy to this problem.

      Kyle Hooten @KyleHooten2
      Minnesota nursing homes will soon be staffed partly by robots who can be “the loved one of the resident.”

      This is parody, right? This has to be parody.

      • Tonio

        This was foretold.

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      You can at least autoclave robots.

    • R.J.

      All the robot dolls are provided by the XHarmony company and are matched to ensure happiness of the patient…

    • Plinker762

      Robotic therapy dogs with sniper rifles. They can walk around saying “Jab or shot, your decision”

  10. hayeksplosives

    Not a great day, not a bad day. Let us say it is sufficient.

    Yup.

    Just got done directing traffic with the “unloaders” and the moving van.

    Tons of boxes to open, but that will wait til another day. I’m exhausted. My husband is under the weather so I persuaded him to stay in the hotel instead of “helping” me with the movers. Definitely a wise move.

    I’m back at the hotel lounge now; not sure if we will stay here tonight if stay at the new house.

    All I have on my to-do list now is to await a call from Enterprise and pick up a gasoline powered car so we can tool around without range anxiety. I’ve only got 40 miles left on the car…

    • Tundra

      Congrats!

      I still have boxes that I chose to not open. It’s going to be a big help during the next Purge of Stuff I Thought I Needed.

    • rhywun

      I can’t wait to hear the word salad that Strawberry comes up with to explain this.

      • Tundra

        Did you see the mess she made of the Commie Missile Test?

      • wdalasio

        Hey, what’s a little “stiff competition” (yes, she actually f**king said that particular phrase) between nuclear powers.

      • juris imprudent

        Counting on the effect of a redhead saying “stiff”?

        [cue Beavis and Butthead laugh track]

      • Ownbestenemy

        I believe she just said that you need to stop politizing this. “Don’t lose the forest through the trees” is her response.

      • Chafed

        It rhymes with Fuck You That’s Why.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Needs a mask to hold in those drugs that are falling out of the posterior.

    • creech

      She told Doocy that it was just a brief moment where photog caught Biden before he put his mask on.

  11. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Not a great day, not a bad day. Let us say it is sufficient.

    3.6 Roentgen. Not great, but also not terrible….

    • Sensei

      Given NJ’s unfunded pension obligations my bet is economically this is actually a loss for the state.

  12. Certified Public Asshat

    I just received a cease and desist order from a lawyer representing someone high up in the pollical office. I will not name names. And I will also not cease or desist.— Nancy Pelosi Portfolio Tracker (@NancyTracker) October 18, 2021

    Silly twitter account told to cease and desist for trolling Nancy Pelosi.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Gosh, why would she or any supporters be upset by somebody pointing out what an incredibly gifted, successful, some might even say almost prescient investor she is? That’s a compliment, right?

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      And they thought they got rid of the mean tweeter a year ago…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s just pure political intimidation and a clear first amendment violation. Pelosi has no expectation of privacy in regards to her stock holdings.

      • The Other Kevin

        If all that’s posted is a repeat of public information, that lawyer can fuck right off.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      She just needs to put in a call to Jack Dorsey and – boom! – bannination

  13. Rat on a train

    Don’t wear a mask on Halloween

    “Consider Halloween-themed face coverings instead of costume masks. Costume masks have mouth and nose openings, and, when worn alone do not provide the same protection as cloth face coverings. Also, keep in mind that the costume mask on top of a cloth mask can be dangerous and limit breathing,” Askew said.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Wait, so we’re not supposed to do double masking now?

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      Speaking of masks, here in Oregon we are supposed to be masked at all times inside, as long as you aren’t eating or drinking, and outside when not able to socially distance. So, I am pushing my boundaries, and seeing who actually says anything to me for being maskless. So, at the bank today, no mask, no one batted an eye. I am thinking people are done with it, even in progtopia, which really isn’t. I know that this is the case in the same world, but we have gov. Clown.

      • Tundra

        I’ve been to several businesses in Boulder and no one said a fucking thing. If people in Boulder are over it, I can’t imagine how fed up normal people must be.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        In my area of Western WA, it’s been hit-and-miss. Some have been nothing said or even noticed a reaction, some have been side eye or kinda dirty looks from the employee(s), some have been immediately “DO YOU HAVE A MASK WHY IS IT NOT ON PLZ OMG”.

        Of course, I also spend time in an area where we’re supposed to show vax cards to get in the doors of certain places, and that’s also been hit-or-miss. Some are not enforcing (i.e, not mentioning it), and other places have made it part of their marketing (“Come see live music in a 100% COVID-free and vaccinated environment!”)

      • Ownbestenemy

        Oh boy…did they really use “100% COVID-free” in their marketing? Cause that is just begging for a lawsuit.

      • Rat on a train

        Well, 99.97% COVID free.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Aren’t you glad you’re covid free? Don’t you wish everyone else was covid free?

      • db

        Can I be a Pepper too?

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        May have been “100% vaccinated”… but we know what that means!

      • Lord Humungus

        It’s been really, really mask free here, even in semi-blue Michigan.

        I did go to a moving sale last week where they wanted people to wear masks to gain entry.

        I said: “I don’t have a mask.” And walked on out.

        Little did they know that I had a few hundred $$$ in my pocket and would have bought up art, etc – if available. Their loss.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Pretty much here in Vegas too. Plenty of people just stopped wearing altogether and haven’t heard anyone challenge them. Not worth their job or to instigate a fight.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Was in a store in Portland about two weeks ago where one of the employees raced over to another customer to ask them to pull their mask over their nose.

        I’m tired of trying to guess which establishment cares and which doesn’t, particularly if I’m on the clock and nominally representing my employer.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        At one of the wineries I went to yesterday we were told to wear a mask for the 10 ft. walk from the door to the bar. Once the wine was poured, the masks came off. At the other wineries we went to we didn’t wear a mask, though most of the employees did.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        I was in a restaurant down in Eugene, and they made a point of bringing a pitcher of water when you were seated. So, as you are supposed to have a glass of something before you take your mask off, this removes anything except the walk to the table.

        And even there, people were coming in sans mask, going to the bathroom sans mask, leaving sans mask. Not many, but as I said, people are just done.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      do not provide the same protection as cloth face coverings

      You mean they actually provide protection?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Also, keep in mind that the costume mask on top of a cloth mask can be dangerous and limit breathing,

      Said without irony.

  14. Sensei

    Where’s Pope Jimbo?

    I’d like to remind folks actual workplace hostility looks like.

    Hate-speech case forces Japan to confront workplace racism

    Distributing handouts is an unusual way for executives to communicate with employees in the 21st century. The messages on some of Fuji Corp.’s materials were even more retrograde. One featured a screenshot from a nationalistic YouTube video with comments below, including one that read “Die zainichi,” a reference to second- and third-generation Koreans living in Japan. Several of the documents referred to Korean “comfort women” — women who suffered under Japan’s military brothel system before and during World War II — as “whores.”

    Mind you this crap goes in both directions.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’m here. I’m glad I’m not there.

      My nieces are half-breeds so I don’t know how bad it is for them. They both married Japanese guys, so their kids are 75% ok.

      Asia is still the place you want to go if you like old school racism. Everyone of those fuckers think that they are the best people on earth and the rest are scum.

      • Rat on a train

        Tales from my half-Japanese cousins. If you don’t look sufficiently Japanese, you will be harassed. One of my cousins looks more American than Japanese. She had a difficult time in school. I have another cousin who looks mixed. He married a full Japanese woman born and raised in the US. When they go to Japan everyone tries to talk to her but she doesn’t understand Japanese. He is fluent since he was raised there.
        And if you want some colonial style racism, go to the Philippines. They treat whitey better than the natives.

      • Sensei

        Fortunately not all. My non political Japanese friend teaches Japanese and many students are Korean immigrants. My political Japanese friend does all she can to bring attention on this kind of stuff.

        And at least at my language school the same. Fair amount of Korean and Chinese students.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Success? No toes lost or large splinters stuck into extremities?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Little spit, little dirt and back at it!

    • Tonio

      Not bad for a first-timer.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Some of us just have a knack with logs

      • Tundra

        Zing!

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        Wood.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      I had to put in a call to my dad when Youtube pointers were no help.

      I learned: a) knots are bad, and b) pull in a bit before the axe hits the wood to increase speed

      Here’s my reward: https://pasteboard.co/M67p78wDnmoN.jpg

      • Ownbestenemy

        Its like cast-iron orgy porn in the picture.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I haven’t used one (yet)

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I agree w/him that it’s fun! I would do it for regular exercise if I could.

      • db

        I have about three trees worth of wood if you want to come up and handle my maul.

      • db

        did I say that out loud

      • Lord Humungus

        Now that’s how you euphemism.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A little tip on the swing.

        Most people tend to swing an axe from their dominant side and keep the head of the axe on that side of their body. Try to center the axe head with your body on the downswing, it will help with the aim and reduce the number of glancing blows.

  15. Ownbestenemy

    I have always loved tomato juice. I go through a jug every 3-4 days. I need to get more. Just thought you should all be aware.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      I only drink it on airplanes. Turns out it really does taste different at altitude, according to Science™

      • The Other Kevin

        LOL me too! I completely forget it exists, then I get on a plane, and I’m all “oooh tomato juice!”

      • Mojeaux

        Me too!!!!

    • Hyperion

      I like it too. Do you do homemade? My grandmother used to make it and a spicy version also, loved that stuff.

      • Ownbestenemy

        No, not homemade, but I should. Usually Campbells or V8 (none of that fusion crap). 100% tomato or nothing. And KK, absolutely. That is actually where I gained my love for it was on an airplane.

      • The Hyperbole

        A V8 that’s 100% Tomato doesn’t make any sense.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Don’t question me

    • LJW

      I’m not a tomato juice drinker but my wife will have an occasional red beer with a Montreal steak seasoning rim or salt rim.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I just made gazpacho, just in time for cool weather. ? Freezes well.

        Stonewall Kitchen BM mix always looks good to me even for virgin purposes.

  16. Sensei

    Never change CNBC.

    The wealthiest 10% of Americans own a record 89% of all U.S. stocks

    The wealthiest 10% of Americans now own 89% of all U.S. stocks held by households, a record high that highlights the stock market’s role in increasing wealth inequality.

    So, mutual funds, pension funds and (most) 401(k) assets don’t count as they are investments that contain these stocks and aren’t the securities themselves. Got it!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Should have run with this headline: The bottom 90% of Americans held about 11% of stocks, and added $1.2 trillion in wealth during the Covid-19 pandemic.

  17. Gustave Lytton

    Covid is over! Got a spam fax for the first time in months, possibly last year.

    • Tundra

      What the hell is a “fax”?

      • LJW

        50 years ago it was the future of communication!!!

      • Pope Jimbo

        I bet 90% of doctors still use it as the main form of communication.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        And lawyers?

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        It’s a fax mandate.

      • nw

        Not recently. When I practiced in Texas about 12 years ago,
        faxes were still a thing. Now in Wisconsin I haven’t heard
        anyone suggest a fax, everything is by email. I assume this
        is due to a difference in time, rather than geography.

      • Rat on a train

        Whatever the fax checkers say?

      • Animal

        Just the fax, ma’am.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s this newfangled technology there they send pictures over phone lines. C’mon, join the twentieth century, man.

      • db

        It’s a cute play on “Fox” for advertising purposes.

    • Sean

      We get one or two a week at work.

  18. Drake

    I find it ironic that Colin Powell was killed by bio-weapon / WMD. The covid, vaccine, or both.

  19. Mojeaux

    My cats are wandering around yowling in confusion as to where our stuff is. Tonight will be the first night in our new digs.

    Moving fucking sucks.

    • Tulip

      The mechanics of moving definitely suck, but a new place always makes me optimistic

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        It all starts out so fresh, then 6 months later you ask yourself, why in Hell did i put that there?

      • db

        That’s why you install the suction-cup-mounted dildoes; they’re easier to relocate.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        So, that’s what the sucking sound is?

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Moving gives you a chance to get rid of stuff that you don’t need any more. Like the cats.

      Just kidding. Sort of.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Or kids, but you gotta be quick about it.

        Helps to just leave everything and go when they’re asleep.

      • Mojeaux

        It was discussed…

      • Sean

        We dumped a bunch of furniture on the last move. It was cheaper grade stuff I was happy to be rid of.

        I’m not looking forward to moving again any time soon.

      • db

        I don’t think I’m going to move ever again. I’ll just buy more houses and fill them up too.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Places for your stuff!

      • db

        RIP George!

        *takes swig of beer*

      • R.J.

        Not a bad idea. My last move sucked. I remember it well even though it was 14 years ago. More houses and stuff sounds reasonable in comparison.

      • db

        My last move was about 8 years ago. I have the best friends in the world–they helped, but I’ll never put them through that again. Maybe I’ll write up the story of the Great Move in the Blizzard someday.

      • Rat on a train

        My last move included serenades from two cats. Fortunately it was only a couple hours.

      • R.J.

        I have told my friends flat out that I will give them money for movers, but I will never physically help pack or move another person again.

      • db

        I actually like helping people move–but I don’t like moving myself.

      • Drake

        Prepping for right now. We have already tossed out or donated a ton of stuff.

      • Lord Humungus

        Yeah the last time we moved it was a perfect time to dump the IKEA furniture… and go for some much better stuff.

      • Rat on a train

        I worked in an office that reorganized frequently. We couldn’t figure any logical reason other than an attempt to get people to regularly clean out their desks.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        There will be a great Schloss Zwak estate sale.

        This has been decided and confirmed. ‘Cause, fuck that shit of moving.

    • rhywun

      Heh, they do NOT like change.

      • Mojeaux

        We now have them locked in the laundry room with XX and their litter box. Hoping they don’t pee on the carpets.

      • rhywun

        Aw… they’ll settle down eventually. Might take a couple days.

    • Tundra

      Moving fucking sucks.

      But being done is awesome!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Every day is like Christmas! if not quite administered by Jack Skellington.

    • Lord Humungus

      There is always that one box that ends up in the garage and basement…

      And then you open it 4 years later and say: “Why did we move this junk?”

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve been opening boxes from my move and my reaction is always “That’s where that went”.

      • db

        I recently opened some boxes left over from our move 8 years ago that I had to move during the renovation, and thought “oh, now I have two of those.”

      • Rat on a train

        My parents packed up my room when I left for the Army. About 15 years later I bought my first house. My parents shipped all those boxes to me. Most of the stuff was junk, but I kept some things I wouldn’t have kept if I had cleaned up at the time.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        While we were out visiting, my dad tried to get me to go through the boxes of stuff from when I moved out.

        “unless it’s a toy my kids will enjoy when they visit you, chuck it all. I’ve long since forgotten about it.”

        Of course, the same song and dance will happen the next time I visit.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Did you ever get to Williamsburg or is that forthcoming?

      • Gustave Lytton

        I’ve got junk in storage that will go to the landfill as soon as I find the boxes. WTF do I need a high school yearbook for?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s so you can reminisce about all the girls you didn’t sleep with, but wanted really wanted to at the time.

        And so you can show everyone how bad your hairstyle and fashions were.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I escaped that last by being a non-participant and not showing up for photo day junior and senior years. Along with not showing up for a lot of classes and general youthful stupidity. So stupid. Life was so easy then and could have been a lot better off.

      • Mojeaux

        I have mementos and knickknacks, some of which I’m having a hard time culling. I coyld throw some out and a couple of years later, I’ll be like, “Where was that?”

      • Plinker762

        Not ” So that is where that hooker went”?

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        It’s more like “what happened to such and such?” 4 years later: “Oh, that’s what happened!”

    • Animal

      We left most of our furniture behind when we moved to the Great Land. Don’t regret a bit of it.

      Today, in fact just minutes ago, we took delivery of our first locally-made, big heavy sprucewood bookshelves. Now we can start unpacking our library.

      • db

        Nice!

        We did a big renovation on the first floor of our house and among the remaining clean-up items is to get a guy to build some quality bookshelves into the one room.

      • Animal

        Yup. I don’t know how the hell people get along without books. We donated all our paperbacks, kept only hardcover books when we moved, and we’re still at around 1,500 books. Lots of classics. Got a 1st edition of For Whom The Bell Tolls around here someplace. Lots more.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I love my kindle, but there’s something about owning a hardcover copy of a classic that just can’t be replicated with technology.

      • Animal

        Kindle’s great for travel. I have a few hundred books in eBook. But you can’t beat a good hardcover for lounging in a comfy chair on your deck on a sunny Sunday afternoon with a glass of rye.

      • The Hyperbole

        When I stopped wasting my parents money learning about form and function and space and light I had a shit ton of books (both academic and fiction (mostly fiction (really stupid stuff too, like fantasy and Sci-fi))) I packed them all up and moved them into my new digs. Ten years later I realized I was never going to crack a single one of those books open again so I sold any that were worth anything (very few) and had a good old fashioned book burning with the rest. Now if I can’t get an ebook or library version version of something I want to read I get the cheapest used one I can find off eBay or Amazon and as soon as I’m done with it into the fire pit it goes. It’s very liberating not being a book collector, anymore.

      • Mojeaux

        I’m planning on floating shelves. I have nowhere near 1500, but I only keep hardbacks that are special to me, and then there’s My Dude’s Stephen King collection.

  20. Pope Jimbo

    Oh joy. Just got out of a meeting where several coworkers were excited about King Walz’s newest program.

    In an effort to drive vaccinations and awareness across the state, Governor Tim Walz announced a vaccine incentive program on Monday that is geared towards teens. The “Kids Deserve a Shot” encourages Minnesotans 12-17-years-old to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

    According to a press release, the program consists of two sets of incentive rewards. Any 12-17-year-olds who start and complete their vaccine series between October 18 and November 30, will receive a $200 Visa gift card. Plus – there will be five drawings of $100,000 Minnesota college scholarships for any Minnesotan 12-17 years old with a complete vaccine series.

    If there is a white pill to be found it was in the fact that I wasn’t the only one in the meeting that said the risks from the shot were way more than the risk from the Rona and any parent who made their kid get the shot was bad. Us nuts were in the majority, but it was nice to not be the only one.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Us nuts were in the majority

      At least until they thin us out.

    • Gustave Lytton

      “Kids Deserve to be Shot”

      Trying to see the downside here…

  21. db

    Makin’ meatballs for dinner tonight (and to freeze):

    https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/220854/chef-johns-italian-meatballs/

    I love this recipe. Our local grocery store sells “Meatloaf mix,” which is a blend of ground beef, pork, and veal, in 1.3 lb packages. I take two of those and scale the recipe accordingly. Currently the mix is in the refrigerator getting ready to bake in an hour or so.

    • db

      The scaled recipe makes about 40 meatballs and they can be bagged and frozen after baking to make a quick pasta dinner (or meatball sandwich) later. Way better than store freezer-section meatballs.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Learning about a panade (bread & milk) from ATK was life-changing

      • db

        Didn’t know there was a word for that, but I should have guessed. I have one of the ATK books, and occasionally try to read a bit of it, when I get a chance. I love the idea of the science of cooking, and was a big fan of Alton Brown’s Good Eats during its initial run.

  22. Lord Humungus

    Am I the only person in the world who prefers Chili without beans? Mine is just beef…tomato sauce and seasonings. It best with Mac ‘n’ cheese as a a base but it is also fine with tortilla chips and plenty of cheese.

    • UnCivilServant

      You are not alone. I tend to use beef, corned beef, and bison, and no beans.

      • Tulip

        Wait – corned beef?

      • UnCivilServant

        Yes. It has a different flavor profile from regular beef and adds depth to the chili.

      • Tulip

        Interesting, I may have to try it.

    • R.J.

      I like both depending on my mood. Plain meat chili is a staple of OKLATX. But some Chisolm trail stew with beans, peppers and onions can be plenty good too. Plain meat chili 1/2 and 1/2 with velveeta is an excellent dip too.

    • db

      I like both, but when I make chili, it almost always has pinto beans in it.

    • Tundra

      I hate beans.

      My chili is verde.

    • Creosote Achilles

      I do a 3 meat chili; bison, lamb, and pork in tomato sauce made from diced tomatoes and various seasonings.

      I like to put mine over fritos and add cheese. Or over pork rinds.

      • Lord Humungus

        I would like to see that recipe.

      • db

        me too!

      • Creosote Achilles

        Here you go. I don’t know that it is a recipe as I free hand a lot of this as I make it and modify it almost every time I make it. But this is the basics of it:

        equal parts ground bison, lamb, and pork. (1lb each)
        onion (sweet onions) diced.
        garlic
        can of diced tomatoes (equivalent of fresh is better)
        1/4 cup of vinegar (depending on preference, this can be white vineagar, apple vinegar, or balsamic) / alternately I sometimes use a stout beer, some red wine, coffe, or cheap whiskey depending on my mood. (the point is some acidic liquid)
        1/4 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
        salt, pepper, smoked paprika, cayene, chipotle chili (habanero or whatever suits you as far as heat level), ground mustard powder, cummin.

        1. season one side of the ground bison, lamb, and pork to taste with the seasonings.
        2. put the ground meat into a stock pot seasoning side down and start stirring with a wooden spoon to mix the ground meats together.
        3. Once the meat is close to browning, add in the onion and garlic to sautee with the meat.
        4. Once the meat is fully brown, empty the can of tomatoes into the stockpot and stir into the meat.
        5. Add vinegar/beer/wine/liquor and brown sugar
        6. Season to taste further.
        7. Stir until it starts bubbling a bit, then leave to simmer until it reduces down ever so slightly.
        8. Put fritos or chicarones in a bow, spoon out chili, and add some shredded cheese. Sometimes a dollob of sour cream if you make it particularly spicy.

      • db

        Thanks! I saved the recipe as “Creosote Achilles’ Bison and Chilis.txt”

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      If it’s seasoned right, I like it all. I make mine with lots of beans, but meat chili is just fine.

      • TARDis

        meat chili is just fine

        I… umm.

        *blushes*

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I use Cube steak and Italian suasage, maybe some ground beef, minimal tomato sauce.
      I also make the same Chili with 4 beans, very tasty and filling
      Black
      Red
      Pinto
      Kidney
      and an onion stuck in the pot just for flavor, remove before serving,

    • TARDis

      No beans for chili dogs, otherwise black or pintos for a bit of texture.

    • Tulip

      I prefer no beans and (almost) no tomatoes. I just use some chipotles.

      • Tulip

        And other chiles. The chipotles are the only source of tomato.

      • Tundra

        You are a superior person.

      • Tulip

        *preens*

    • l0b0t

      My 4B chili (beef, bison, bear, and bacon) was top-notch but I rarely have access to bear meat. As for additives, I love adding hominy more than beans.

      • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

        I’m a chili agnostic. I love ’em all.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I had leftover chili with beans for lunch. I’m going to pay for it later tonight and tomorrow. It was delicious.

    • juris imprudent

      Chili is not made with beans, though you can have them as a side. Also, chili over spaghetti squash is epic.

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      Chili doesn’t have beans.

      I have this fight with my wife every time she makes it.

      • nw

        Ok then. What name do you use for something made exactly like “chili”, but with added beans?

  23. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Worth reading

    https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/maximum-vaccination

    So high rates of vaccination can’t reduce infections, and vaccinating the oldest and sickest hasn’t done very much for overall hospitalisations and deaths either. Yet our governments press on, not because the vaccines are working, but because they’re not. We’ve been through all of this before. Last year, large swathes of the developed world banned most of public life because everyone decided that this was the way to save lives. Wuhan convinced them that lockdowns work, in much the same way as the Pfizer/BioNTech trials convinced them that vaccines work. Except lockdowns didn’t work, and vaccines don’t really work either. Corona rages on, indifferent to the strange learned fantasies of our medical bureaucrats.

    A consequence of these failures is raging cognitive dissonance among the elite, and a substitution of the means for the end. Last year, it was locking down itself that became the highest policy goal. Governments schemed less about how to get cases down, than about how to reduce the Google-certified mobility of their citizenry by margins great enough to satisfy their court astrologers. The same is now true of the vaccines, which in their failure to do much about anything, have become the focus of nearly all Corona policy everywhere in the world. All that our governments want to do now is vaccinate more and harder. They want to vaccinate all of the unvaccinated, and when that grows tiresome they will want to triple and quadruple vaccinate the already-vaccinated. And they especially want to vaccinate that last demographic that has so far remained largely exempt from vaccination, namely children.

    This would be little more than a global comedy at the expense of our worthless public health establishments, if we did not have abundant evidence that the vaccines are more dangerous than is normal for vaccines; and if SARS-2 did not pose such an infinitesimal risk to children, as to make even totally safe, ordinary vaccines an unacceptable measure in this context.

    I aim to live long enough to see some people hanged in the town square.

    • Ted S.

      Sadly, it will be the unvaxed getting hanged.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Only after I take some GOV with me……

      • Mojeaux

        Ted’S is correct. It only gets worse. There will be no uprising.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        There Will be an uprising, it’s already begun, when random GOV types start ending up in creeks and on lamp posts, the rest will take heed,
        This ain’t the Soviet Union.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Submit, fight, withdraw. Those are the only options. I have my money on 80% submit, 18.5% withdraw, and 1.5% fight.

      • TARDis

        We’ll see, youngster. Old peeps with nothing left to lose may surprise you.

      • Gadfly

        FYI, 1.5% of the US equates to 5 million people, which is about double the total number of police officers (700K) and soldiers (1.4M) in the employ of the government.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      “I aim to live long enough to see some people hanged in the town square.”
      It’s coming, the Covid thing is just the start,

    • Tundra

      Thanks. That was a good read.

      I fear, however, that we will never see the hangings.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Only if you fear it, Rise up! quit living in Fear!

    • KSuellington

      Dicks out for Harambe?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Maybe the maniacs are about to finally do it and the apes are just preparing.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Nice waste of perfectly good bananas, tho

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      Bananas for the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.

  24. one true athena

    ok local hilarious story among all the grimness..

    A friend of ours, whose wife is Filipino, has been very excited for several weeks that a big Filipino festival was going to happen in San Pedro – there was gonna be food, music, the usual stuff for LA ethnic festivals. So… they go to the place in San Pedro on Saturday, lunch time to see what’s what.

    It’s EMPTY. like, it’s not even a sad little single booth or anything, there is NOTHING. There are 30 cars milling around, thinking they’re going to a Filipino festival, but there is no festival. (seems the festival actually took some people’s money on line too for “tickets”)

    So now we get to rib him about the Fyre Filipino Festival for the rest of time. LOL

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’ve concluded that we already have socialized medicine. Not quite as bad as Canada or the UK, but socialized nonetheless.

      If it weren’t for the good people that I know who got vaccinated in good faith and in trust of their doctors, I would wish serious pain and suffering on them all just to put an end to this insanity before it gets even worse.

      As it stands, I fear that they will not relent, ever. They’re deranged and they’re dangerous. And if you think two shots is the end of it, you’re fooling yourself.

      • Ted S.

        I’m astonished no hospital system had the balls to refuse to obey the vax mandate and force the government to remove the unclean at gunpoint.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They’re sucking on the government teat.

        Without it, they all go broke.

    • Gustave Lytton

      This is hitting enough people and hard enough, that someone is going to snap and some Gauleiters are going to get capped. Then the real over reaction will begin.

      • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

        Yes, and tipping points like that can degenerate very quickly.

        I suspect similar problems throughout Alberta eventually.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’ve predicted that it’ll happen by the end of the year. There will be a shooting. Then the unvaxxed will be domestic terrorists will all the fun that label entails.

  25. Gustave Lytton

    Hilarious. New business account card from Bank of America. Url in material won’t open with https and redirects to a non bofa.com domain. Dumbasses.

    • Tundra

      Cheers, KK!

    • ignoreLander

      Bottom’s up. Wish I could join you.