Saturday Morning Pre-Thanksgiving Links

by | Nov 19, 2022 | Daily Links | 200 comments

OK, I’ll admit it- the illustrations here are absolutely unrelated to anything in this post. My life is a non-sequitur.

For example, I had a group of students explain to me that the large and uncrowded art center at the school was supposed to be a library, but they found out after the fact that the weight of the books caused the building to shift downhill a few inches per year. I thought that, hmmm, this seems familiar.

I also got to dress up in PPE and rake a 2300 degree bed of molten glass. Good thing I’d been drinking.

Oh, and speaking of drinking, I’m about to drive 30 hours to Montana for Thanksgiving. See? Just random non sequitur stuff. Such is my life.

Also, life as we know it begins at birth, and we sometimes commemorate these days. And the 18th of November is no exception, where we commemorate the births of a guy who would wince any time someone would mention the French dessert, gateau; the grandfather of modern religious grift; the Fast Eddie of chess; a guy who, if he’d been any deeper in the closet, he’d have been in Narnia; a trombonist whose sound could get you laid; a deep thinker about business whose deep thought were actually pretty shallow; a woman who really should have had HR do a better job of vetting her employees; a guy who heard voices that no-one else could; a guy who always made you think- unfortunately, the thought was, “Why is this guy famous, rich, and respected?”; a guy who fucked Jane Fonda, then the rest of us; the reason pool tables in New Bedford smell like tuna; and the guy who inspired me to write Jewsday out of pure contempt.

There’s no connection with these Links.

 

Team Blue tries to ramp up the hysteria. Good, good.

 

This is putting one hell of a crimp in my love life.

 

At least two more years of comedy ahead of us. Good, good.

 

I didn’t even know he was still alive. What an amazing life and talent.

 

Courts have become parodies, working hard to destroy any respect for legal processes. Good, good.

 

Someone has been monitoring our thrice-weekly Glibs zooms.

 

I’ve surrendered to the Borg and have let Amazon do song mixes for me. I was very skeptical, but damn, their predictive algorithms are pretty awesome. Every once in a while, I hear a song and a sound that just freezes me, and if I’m hiking, I just stop and marvel. This is a live version of one that came on during one of my trips to Buffalo; it made the Old Man pull off the road and just sit and enjoy two or three times through. Cary Ann is the anti-Taylor Swift.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

200 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “Ned Rorem, prize-winning composer and writer, dies at 99”

    RIP

    Sorry, I never heard of him.

    • Ted S.

      Wasn’t he a staple of crossword puzzles? Much like Ida Lupino or Yma Sumac.

  2. Count Potato

    “Courts have become parodies, working hard to destroy any respect for legal processes.”

    The whole thing is a scam. They are just trying to make an example out of him. Same as the Trump stuff.

    • juris imprudent

      The irony never setting in that in order to pay that he would have to do a whole lot more of what he’s been sued for.

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        It’s just about the process and scaring others.

        They do not care one whit about the rules of engagement any more and it is evidenced across all sectors of public life.

      • cyto

        I wonder if they even care at this point? They went way beyond that point years ago. They are beyond beating the corpse of a horse. It is comical… You must pay…. one Trillion dollars!!!!

        The entire 9/11 victims compensation fund, targeting over 54,000 “victims” of 9/11 and the aftermath is $7 billion. This involves tons of people who actually died, people with lung damage, etc.

        The entirety of Jones’ “harm” is that tens of people were upset.

    • rhywun

      The prosecutors must be laughing themselves stupid at the bar after work every day.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh you can be sure that plaintiffs attorneys are the only ones that will ever see any money at all out of this.

  3. rhywun

    the large and uncrowded art center at the school was supposed to be a library

    I remember checking out the newly remodeled central library in SF soon after it opened and wondering where all the books were. Turns out they had removed most of them in favor of fluff like media terminals and yes, art.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Books are expensive and nobody reads them anyway.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      And I’ve noticed that libraries have become more about the ego and politics of the librarians than the sharing of knowledge resources.

      Our local library is useless for any hard reference stuff.

    • DrOtto

      Libraries are where the homeless go to jerk off, at least those seeking a little privacy.

  4. Count Potato

    “To quantify the jump in alcohol use in those states, the study used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. They looked at answers from adults aged 18 and up over nine years.”

    Surveys are just a tally of hearsay.

    “A study published in 2019 that found states that had implemented recreational cannabis policies tended to have higher per capita alcohol sales.”

    And?

    My casual observation is that people drink way less when they smoke weed.

    • Count Potato

      “And it’s no secret that increased alcohol use can have drastic negative health effects. It impairs your frontal lobe, affects your neurotransmitters, and creates a dopamine imbalance, which may result in anxiety, depression, memory loss and an inability to think rationally. ”

      Whatever, asshole.

      • R.J.

        FUCK THAT GUY

    • Brawndo

      Higher alcohol sales isn’t a problem. Alcohol abuse is a problem. But I guess it’s asking too much of our best and brightest for them to measure something like alcohol ODs or something like that.

      • R C Dean

        The thing is, this isn’t based on sales data (which would be easy to get and objectively real). This is based on a survey.

        Garbage in, garbage out. Why use an inferior data source when the better one is just sitting right there?

    • Not Adahn

      My casual observation is that people drink way less when they smoke weed.

      I don’t enjoy the high of MJ unless I have at least a buzz. The feeling is too “dry.”

  5. Brawndo

    I don’t know anything about this Frisch fellow, but his statements about not spending money on his campaign but on groceries and that Democrats have lost rural America makes me think he might actually be a human. Maybe that’s why they didn’t let him win.

    • westernsloper

      Being in that district, the fact he is from Aspen makes him a douche (All the normal people left Aspen two decades ago) and while I am not a big Bobert fan, she at least doesn’t vote lock step with the evil party which is exactly what Frisch would have done. This is the one race even CO installers couldn’t count their way to victory in. The CO 3rd has more hillbillies than the installers realized. Mark my words this won’t happen again.

  6. Fourscore

    I don’t envy your road trip this time of the year, OM, but if you need a place to RON you’re certainly welcome here. Hope you’re driving a 4W drive.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Appreciate it. Looks like my route takes me through Chicago, then SoDak before hitting MT. Front wheel, not 4WD, alas.

      • SDF-7

        After the deer impact in the wee hours in Nevada, all I can think now is “Watch for møøse” — whether you have a sister or not.

        Hope it goes well, OMWC. I relish cross country drives — but I’d think twice about even I-80 this time of year, much less Montana. (Yes, yes… I’m a winter weather wuss, I know..)

      • Fourscore

        …don’t wait too long…

        Summer time and the ease of living

  7. juris imprudent

    Tell me Drucker wasn’t right about GM – particularly given where they ended up.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Story of my life

    • Gender Traitor

      canisters of nitrous oxide – also known as whippets

      Oh, thank goodness! I thought he was abusing dozens of poor doggies!

      • Ted S.

        When a problem comes along, you must whippet.

      • R.J.

        All those junkies are just whippet snappers.

      • l0b0t

        I’m giggling about the mental conjured by that probably more than I should. Trying to wrangle 50 of those frenetic balls of energy would make me insane as well. Whip-It! is one of many brands of single use N2O chargers and I’ve always felt a bit sorry for the company. Having one’s brand name genericized is bad enough, but to have it become nationwide shorthand for the misuse of the whole category of product must be infuriating.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Those poor doggies.

    • DrOtto

      This article begs the question, what’s better “drug addled” or “drug fueled”?

      • SDF-7

        Have to assume “fueled”. That could be high functioning but under the influence, whereas “addled” implies only impairment.

  8. westernsloper

    Cary Ann is awesome. Thanks Old Man.

  9. Ted S.

    Judge strikes down government price-fixing; media propagandizes for “activists”

    So much of the problem is down to people who don’t work in the productive sector thinking that other people have lots of money and dammit, we need the state to have control of that money. It leads to so much hate-mongering from politicians and journalists along with the other people whose jobs are dependent on the state.

    • rhywun

      deteriorating apartment conditions

      I hate to break it to the Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, but making landlords poorer probably isn’t going to have the effect they seem to be pretending it will.

      • juris imprudent

        They won’t ever question their dogma until they’re on their knees in front of a ditch.

      • See Double You

        One of them might be:
        https://www.cato.org/blog/new-construction-housing-affordability

        The New York Times reports, “Jabari Brisport, a Brooklyn state senator and democratic socialist, announced last month on Twitter that he now believed that ‘the construction of market rate housing does not raise nearby rents’ after reading a research paper on the effect of housing supply, even as he criticized developers as ‘greedy speculators.’ ”

      • Ted S.

        Democratic Socialists of America

        I think I mentioned it when it happened, but the TEAM BLUE primary for the Assembly booted out an old-style Democrat who had been serving for something like 30 years and replaced him with a “democratic socialist”.

      • rhywun

        While claiming the Republicans have moved “too far to the right”, no doubt.

      • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

        Speaking of which, I finally received my reimbursement payment for that rent moratorium BS. I own that rental outright, so it wasn’t a death sentence, mortgage wise, but it did put a damper on shit for a whole year. If I still had payments on it, I would have been fucked, to say the least. Not to mention my property manager was also holding the bag for a whole year on it, and undoubtedly multiple properties from other owners. She had bills to pay, salaries, etc. None of us got any relief for this, just a gov’t decree, and uncertainty that the tenant would qualify, at which point we would have to ask for late rent for a whole year (yeah, right, that ain’t gonna happen), evict when it doesn’t show up (and judges are dragging their feet on this) and in the end I am out thousands.

        I hate being reliant on this crap.

      • Fourscore

        Trump-Biden screwed the pooch and tried to buy their way out of it by sending out pittances to everyone. Some got hurt worse than others with the Covid BS. Sad to hear, Zwak

      • Ted S.

        And so many people think you deserve all that because you’re rich enough to own a rental property.

      • cyto

        That was literally the argument I heard repeated loudly and often.

        Loudly enough and often enough that it felt like an official piece of propaganda. A talking point emphasized by the party from on high.

        I had many people angrily contend that having the state allow people to live in your place rent free for a year is just the cost of doing business, and if you didn’t plan for it, you shouldn’t own the property anyway.

      • Penguin

        A rent control proposal passed here in blue Orange County, FL. It couldn’t possibly have any unforeseen consequences, could it?

      • cyto

        Oof. I didn’t see that.

        The invasive progressives down here in South Florida have been pushing for it very hard, but surprisingly have not gotten much traction, despite the solid blue politics of the area.

      • slumbrew

        My vague thoughts about keeping my current place as a rental unit when we eventually move have become a firm “no way” based on that bullshit.

        Sorry you have to deal with that.

  10. Count Potato

    I’m tired of this story because it seems too much not to be manufactured, but there is a lot about it here:

    “What happened at Alameda Research

    If you want to read a poorly researched fluff piece about Sam Bankman-Fried, feel free to go to the New York Times (PDF). If you want to understand what happened at Alameda Research and how Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), Sam Trabucco, and Caroline Ellison incinerated over $20 billion dollars of fund profits and FTX user deposits, read this article.”

    https://milkyeggs.com/?p=175

      • R.J.

        I like how “loves Harry Potter” is the new dog whistle.

      • juris imprudent

        The revenge of Gen Z (since HP is kind of a Millennial thing)?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        The alt-right likes homely as fuck crooked polyamorous Jewish broads? Who knew?

      • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

        You ever see pictures of the old royalty who just know that their parents were brother and sister?

        It’s like that.

  11. Rebel Scum

    U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday named Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor, to serve as special counsel to oversee Justice Department investigations related to Donald Trump including the former president’s handling of sensitive documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

    War criminals accusing people of being war criminals? ///HonkHonk

    • rhywun

      Finally, the walls are closing in.

    • Homple

      Nuremberg 2.0.

  12. Rebel Scum

    What to expect in the next 48 hours: Lake-effect snow moves north; 40 mph winds expected

    Sounds fun. But what about the Lake-effect storm in Arizona?

    • rhywun

      I miss real snow.

    • juris imprudent

      A trumpist in a teapot.

  13. Rebel Scum

    Democrat Adam Frisch conceded on Friday to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) in the race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, saying that an expected recount was unlikely to change the outcome of the election.

    “We’ve determined that this one would be too obvious a steal.” – Dems

    At least two more years of comedy ahead of us.

    You leave Lauren alone.

    • westernsloper

      “We’ve determined that this one would be too obvious a steal.” – Dems

      Nailed it!

  14. Rebel Scum

    Courts have become parodies, working hard to destroy any respect for legal processes.

    Clown World.

    Alex Jones Could Face Even More Penalties—Nearly $3 Trillion, Plaintiffs Claim—As Defamation Trial Continues

    The only appropriate response.

    Never mind that no one could prove actual defamation, let alone in this retardedly high monetary amount.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      He’s going to owe a year of the US defense budget before it’s all over, not including the off the book money of course. It’s beyond stupid, if the douchebag kid who committed the crime was still alive he wouldn’t receive this kind of judgement against him. How many people did Jones kill again?

      • juris imprudent

        What actual injury did he cause?

      • R C Dean

        Hurt feelings, which until this lawsuit were not compensable in a defamation case.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, defamation is a specific injury to reputation. Butthurt is not.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        What concerns me more than the individual case is the idiotic precedent it sets. It just destroys any credibility the civil system in this country had and lays the groundwork for politically motivated oppressive weaponization of the system to an even greater extent than it already is.

      • juris imprudent

        VICTIMS MUST BE RESPECTED (and compensated)!!!

      • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

        He injured the AWSOMA-POWA of the fully operational battle left.

  15. Rebel Scum

    Alcohol use rises in states that legalize marijuana for recreational marijuana use, a major study has found.

    Sure…

    • Rebel Scum

      That said I’m at the office on a Saturday covertly (which doesn’t matter because no one else is here…) having a screwdriver.

      • SDF-7

        having a screwdriver

        Is that where Uber and Tinder meet?

      • Rebel Scum

        I’m not Andrew Gillum.

      • Tundra

        Back in the old days my boss used to have a Bloody Mary bar set up when we had to work Saturdays.

        Good boss.

      • DrOtto

        I’m going to ask Rufus to weigh in on this one…

  16. Rebel Scum

    Isn’t it ironic?

    The heavily-trafficked news aggregation site CitizenFreePress.com has been suspended from Twitter for sharing a clip of former President Barack Obama, campaigning in Pennsylvania in 2008, discussing potential problems with American voting machines and demanding paper trails for ballots.

    CitizenFressPress.com (CFP) was not the only account to have shared the clip, though appears to be the only one that has received a suspension for doing so. Though the video can still be viewed on Elon Musk’s platform, it now carries a warning label which claims the video is “misleading,” as well as noting that the clip can no longer be replied to, shared, or liked.

    The video is still shareable from other accounts, and still available on CSPAN. But someone at Twitter appears to be trying to nuke it, at least from CFP’s account

  17. SDF-7

    ‘Orning ‘ordles — warm up round suuuuucked… but probably served its purpose of waking me up enough to do okay in the main event.

    Daily Duotrigordle #262
    Guesses: X/37
    Time: 07:32.62
    https://duotrigordle.com/

    Daily Quordle 299
    6️⃣5️⃣
    7️⃣4️⃣
    quordle.com

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 299
      6️⃣4️⃣
      8️⃣5️⃣

    • Grosspatzer

      Daily Quordle 299
      8️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣3️⃣
      quordle.com

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 299
      5️⃣3️⃣
      7️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com

  18. Rebel Scum

    Cucking out yet again.

    The Washington Commanders disciplined a handful of players for violating a league rule about drinking on a team plane, but the league will take no further action, a source confirmed to ESPN on Friday.

    • juris imprudent

      The No Fun League indeed.

  19. hayeksplosives

    G’morning, peeps.

    I have to get up in a couple of hours to start icing my swollen eyes so I don’t appear hideous at the stepsons wedding today.

    I am so stupid that I still allow myself to get emotionally hurt by my spouse when he loses his freaking mind, which happened last night at 7 pm. I should fucking learn not to let him get to me, but it’s hard. The docs warned me that after his stroke he might have “inappropriate” emotional outbursts. Doesn’t make it easier when it happens though.

    QE2: “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

    • R.J.

      I am very sorry. I have been through similar situations.

    • Grosspatzer

      Damn. So sorry to hear that.

    • Count Potato

      Sorry 🙁

    • Sean

      Sorry, HE. That must be very difficult to bear.

    • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

      Fuck, that is a hard one. I am so sorry.

    • Fourscore

      I only hope the wedding goes without a hitch. Emotional times can result in emotional behavior.
      Sorry to hear but just have to remember this is a different person now. It’s not you, it’s the stroke induced.

      Happy times today, relax and good luck. See you after the ceremonies are over, we hope, and tell us how lovely the bride was and the best man more or less stayed sober until the reception is over.

      • hayeksplosives

        Thanks, guys. 💕

    • Ted S.

      At the reception, request U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”.

      • SDF-7

        Better than “Love Stinks”.

        Yes, I’m more fond of The Wedding Singer than I probably should be. At least I held off linking a clip of “The BEST man! The BETTER man!” in reply to 4×20.

        HE — sorry you had a rough night. Not there (by the grace of God) directly, though my Dad post stroke has some emotional roller coaster moments… so my ignorant sympathy is the best I can do.

      • hayeksplosives

        I love “The Wedding Singer”.

        It’s a love letter to the 80s. Nostalgia is powerful!!

      • Tundra

        Absolutely.

        Good luck today!

  20. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Merrick Garland is a completely corrupt sack of fucking shit. That is all…

    • C. Anacreon

      Imagine if he’d been a SC Justice

    • juris imprudent

      He said one true thing – “I don’t know”.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Fat human Droopy is yet another Trump mistake in the flesh. Trump’s ability to pick the worst fucking person for the job is truly astounding.

      • juris imprudent

        That is how you know he wasn’t anywhere near selecting the judges he nominated.

      • Michael Malaise

        Should’ve hired Don Willet for that gig.

    • cyto

      Did you have the evidence to check the box on:

      Obama ordering the fame up of Flynn?
      Biden taking bribes from China and Ukraine?
      Clinton having top security level documents removed from secured systems and transferred to her private,unsecured email server?

      Because we have enough evidence in press reports for that… And you were in fact the AG when charges were able to be brought…

      What about all those lying to congress cases you could have brought? No opinion? No reason to explain the discrepancy there?

  21. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    Long drive, brother. I hope you got the snow tires on.

  22. juris imprudent

    Oh c’mon bitch, it isn’t like you have a problem lying, under oath or not.

  23. Grosspatzer

    Mornin’, reprobates!

    Two chess references in the birthdays! One is less obvious ..

    The 1971 US High School Chess Championship saw hundreds of eager young men (and the odd unicorn) descend on the McAlpin Hotel in NYC’s Herald Square. 8 round Swiss System IIRC. In each round players with equal scores are paired against each other. But what happens if there is an odd number of players?

    The short answer is that some lucky participant gets a bye (a victory against nobody). Nothing exciting about that, but the tournament director was in a creative mood that weekend. The crosstable posted on the walls contained a row for each player, with the player’s name, his HS, and a series of boxes containing the player’s result for each round, cumulative score, and the opponent for that round.

    How to represent that bye? Well, the TD decided to create a few fictitious participants who would “lose” these games. I don’t remember all of them, but here are three:

    Leon Csolgosz, from McKinley HS.
    George Metesky, from Bronx Zoo
    Charles Guiteau from Garfield HS.

    I was disappointed that Lee Harvey Oswald from Kennedy HS was not included. Too soon, I guess.

  24. juris imprudent

    Ah, digging deeper into Moria, what could possibly go wrong?

    Had to quote this because you are unlikely to make it that far:

    In an insightful article, Ezra Klein outlined the polarization and virtual parity of the two parties. What he omitted, however, was how much of the parity is a perverse product of the undemocratic structures of US politics.

    • Grosspatzer

      Knew it. Tina Turner on backing vocals!

      • MikeS

        Really? I never knew that.

  25. juris imprudent

    This time they’ve really got him.

    The announcement is a significant development that underscores the seriousness of the probes into Trump

    yep, so serious they don’t want the DoJ stuck with the results.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s just setting up a Comey moment where they condemn but don’t charge four days before the election.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      I think grizzly nailed it. This is to provide a rationale for denying documents to a House inquiry into Russiagate.

    • Count Potato

      “Idk man, last time he was here this platform was used to incite an insurrection, multiple people died, the Vice President of the United States was nearly assassinated, and hundreds were injured but I guess that’s not enough for you to answer the question. Twitter poll it is

      The bipartisan @January6thCmte has extensively covered how Trump’s use of Twitter played a critical role in the violence of that day.

      Review their extensive work & ask yourself why a billionaire is toying w/ bringing back the person responsible for this:

      Let’s see if he throttles this as “negativity” too 🙄”

      https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1593794451817873408

      Very serious people.

      • Rebel Scum

        used to incite an insurrection

        Show your work.

        multiple people died

        A few were killed by the cops, a few had medical problems and a few cops offed themselves in the weeks after.

        the Vice President of the United States was nearly assassinated

        By the gallows that would be unfit to hang even a garden gnome?

      • Count Potato

        “A few were killed by the cops”

        I think it was just one?

      • Rebel Scum

        There was the woman shot and another woman beat to death.

      • Not Adahn

        There were thousands of protestors — none used deadly violence.

        There were hundreds of cops — at least five thought that the proper solution to a problem was a bullet.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Getting people’s opinions is dangerous, you must rely on your betters for this kind of stuff.

    • Rebel Scum

      the threat to how our Democracy works

      Our what?

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Wherein a voluntary public poll is a threat to democracy…

      You can’t make this shit up.

    • MikeS

      dangerous twitter poll

      lol wut

  26. juris imprudent

    So many lies in just this paragraph. Forbes might as well rebrand itself as a Vox publication.

    In recent decades, diversity initiatives have sparked little controversy – on college or corporate campuses. Diversity training traces its roots to the dawn of the 1960s civil rights era, when government officials and scholars were trying to encourage schools, local governments, and private corporations to hire more women and minorities. Recent social reform movements, like Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate, magnified the focus on racial equity in the workplace.

    • Count Potato

      Forbes lets people publish shit for cash.

    • rhywun

      diversity initiatives have sparked little controversy

      LOL

  27. Mojeaux

    Thanks for the good words on last night’s installment! Sean, I’m not forcing you to like anything you don’t want to like. Heh. GT, you know I’m just paying homage to all the romance I’ve read and loved in my life. After all, I wrote my gothic tale and wrapped it up in Hamlet.

    • Sean

      😁 😉

  28. Rebel Scum

    Nothing a little printing and spending won’t fix.

    “It’s going to take time to get inflation back to normal levels as we keep our job market strong, so we could see setbacks along the way,” he said at the White House, promising to stay “laser-focused” on the economy. …

    Biden encouraged Americans to be patient until his policies could go into effect, providing seniors with cheaper diabetes medicine. He also promoted tax credits for replacing windows and doors in their homes, replacing heating systems, and mounting solar panels on their roofs.

    “That’s good for your wallet but also good for the environment, because you’re using less energy,” he said, noting that the tax credits were “just going to start kicking in.”

    I gather that you want me to have a lower standard of living.

    • R.J.

      I’ll take a tax break for windows. Something tells me it would all be bullshit though. The government will find some fine print to weasel me out of my tax break.

      • R C Dean

        Get windows that qualify (the window company will know) and you shouldn’t have any problems.

    • rhywun

      because you’re using less energy

      Narrator: No, you’re not.

      I’m failing to see how any of that is going to cut my grocery bill.

    • juris imprudent

      I watched a Zeihan video that had an interesting contention. Since he is predicting massive deglobalization, his contention is there will be an equally massive growth in U.S. manufacturing capacity and we’re going to have a period of both inflation (reflecting bidding on scarce resources, labor in particular) and growth.

      • westernsloper

        LMAO @ caterpillar in an elementary school play.

      • slumbrew

        That made me LOL.

        Painfully accurate.

      • cyto

        More painful… Reason ruminating about a new book that blames greed and a focus on capitalism for the downfall of the libertarian movement.

        Uh… Yeah.

        It couldn’t be that the desperate attempt to make common cause with the far left drove the movement to bring in a bunch of Left-libertarian faces who became the Cosmotarian death of the movement when TDS took hold? You guys sure about that?

      • slumbrew

        Wait, really? They’re going to write that?

        It makes me sad how far they’ve fallen. To think that I once gladly gave them money.

      • cyto

        https://reason.com/podcast/2022/11/16/andrew-koppelman-delusion-and-greed-have-destroyed-libertarianism/

        Confession… I never made it to the interview. Half the summary had me rolling my eyes and moving on.

        Also, we are talking about Gillespie. He is at least an authentic libertarian.

        A quote.

        ,…………………………..
        The libertarian movement has lost its way over the past 60 years as it’s shifted from Friedrich Hayek’s classical liberal corrective to Depression-era central planning to Murray Rothbard’s full-blown anarcho-capitalism in which all taxation is theft and all transfer payments are immoral.

        That’s the argument in a provocative new book called Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy was corrupted by Delusion and Greed, by Andrew Koppelman. Along the way, he critiques major libertarian figures such as Ayn Rand, Robert Nozick, Ron Paul, and Charles Koch.

      • The Last American Hero

        Are they those high capacity, long lasting Dewalt Assault batteries?

      • slumbrew

        You can get a bunch of actual magazines for the price of one good 18v battery…

  29. juris imprudent

    Of course, PEARL HARBOR, would never have happened if FDR hadn’t planted the fleet out there, in range of a Japanese attack, to show how big America’s dick is. I wonder how much coverage there is of that in the book?

    • SDF-7

      Well, obviously yeah — hard to attack a fleet when the fleet isn’t there.

      Instead we would have been talking about the sneak attack on Manila — because Imperial Japan was most certainly going for the Dutch East Indies oil fields and they couldn’t leave the Philippines that close to the shipping lanes knowing the US and Britain would jump in with the Dutch — so all the December 7/8th attacks would have gone forward, just with the Kido Butai likely joining Manila instead.

      If you’re going to argue FDR provocation — you need to talk the economic warfare of the various embargoes, especially oil to try to force Japan to withdraw from China. That set them 100% on the path to trying to get their own sources, because if they had tried to back out of China, the junior officer fanatics would have likely assassinated the politicians who ordered it anyway. Messed up situation by that point.

      • cyto

        So what you are saying is that FDR goaded the Japanese into invading China?

      • SDF-7

        Um… no. Sorry if I was unclear. FDR was trying to goad the Japanese into leaving China. The frankly racist militaristic jingo-ed up junior officer corps is what got Japan into China with the Mukden Incident (depending if you view the Manchuria area as part of the larger China war, which I do.

        Probably going to happen anyway since Japan was decidedly “We have manifest destiny too and it means we should control Southeast Asia!” post-WW1.

      • cyto

        Should have included the sarcasm tag….

      • cyto

        I should have included the sarcasm tag. I mean, in the world of “everything is the US fault…”

        You know what… Never mind. We just live in a world that is beyond parody. How can anyone tell joke from deadpan truth any more?

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        Has anybody ever made that argument?

        I’ve heard the argument that he wanted Japan to do something that would justify joining in WW2, so he was being economically antagonistic. Sounds strangely familiar right now.

      • SDF-7

        It would be a tough sell given that Mukden was 1931 and he didn’t come in until 1933 and all.

      • SDF-7

        Oh and yeah — lots of floating around of the “Taunt the Japanese to get the US into the war”.

        Personally, I don’t buy it — I think he was convinced that the B-17s in the Philippines and the PacFleet in Pearl would keep the Japanese from moving towards the Dutch East Indies and the oil embargo especially would eventually get them to back off in China.

        I think they thought they sufficiently warned Pearl after reading the Japanese Ambassador’s mail (Nov 30 or so, I think?), but worded things poorly because they didn’t want to come out and say what was going on and reveal Purple (Setech Astronomy strikes again!)

        That said — since he was pretty much in an undeclared naval war with Germany by that point, *that’s* where I think he thought the US would get pulled in. His focus was decidedly more on Europe anyway.

        I would love to see an alternate timeline where Hitler had an ounce of sense and didn’t declare war on the US after Pearl. There was no reason to, after all — the Axis treaties didn’t obligate Germany if Japan was the aggressor if I recall correctly. Still could have gotten sucked in via u-boats being sunk in the Western Atlantic because FDR was obviously going to keep shield convoys and trying to provoke things, but what impact that would have on Lend-Lease to Stalin (ok… as long as Hitler is getting extra brain cells, either when you invade Ukraine et alia treat them like valued allies instead of slaves, at least until the Soviets are fully crushed so they become guerillas for you instead of hating your guts… but at this point I know that’s trying to change the fundamental nature of the Nazi regime and all — or at least just fort up the Eastern Front for a bit until you knock Britain completely out of the war and don’t bring in the US so you’re only doing one front at a time…).

      • juris imprudent

        The Axis treaties and the actual behavior of the govts thereunder is almost a comedy of errors.

      • juris imprudent

        Of course the economic attacks on Japan precipitated actual war.

    • Rebel Scum

      Are We on the Road to Another Pearl Harbor?

      We’re going to allow the Ukrainians Russians to sink a stray destroyer in the Mediterranean?

  30. The Late P Brooks

    The Washington Commanders disciplined a handful of players for violating a league rule about drinking on a team plane

    Wait, what?

    • Count Potato

      Too bad there isn’t a league rule for having a stupid name.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    In his remarks, Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman, said he was proud of the campaign he had run in a district that former President Trump carried just two years ago. But he also criticized his own party for eroding “the trust of rural Americans.”

    “Democrats have abandoned rural America and working-class America for the last many years,” he said. “Republicans have had a monopoly over the backbone of this country.”

    That part’s not wrong.

    No matter how many times Biden yammers about the “middle class”.

  32. Not Adahn

    Just got back from the dog park. There’s a Dutch Shepherd pup that is just adorable that spent some time trying to rip my beard out of my chin. I couldn’t help but think “Aww, so cute!”

    I also found a forgotten package of Irish bacon in my freezer. Score!

  33. Rebel Scum
    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Time notoriously praised Stalin and Hitler in the 30’s. Nothing’s changed.

  34. Shiny Nerfherder

    Oh lord, industry conference is trying to push DEI on a bunch of small businesses. Makes me want to head to O’Hare early.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Speaker is conflating the legal definition of diversity and shifting market conditions. So effing tedious.

    • Rebel Scum

      Diversity
      Inclusion
      Equity

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        Now she’s straight up lying. Equity is not equality of opportunity.

      • slumbrew

        Equity is not equality of opportunity.

        “Stupid or liar?”

        Either way, that’s very much incorrect

      • rhywun

        That’s exactly how they’re sneaking communism in.

  35. Not Adahn

    This is putting one hell of a crimp in my love life.

    You’re supposed to set up your schedule so that the two of you are together and get snowed in. Bonus points if you can arrange a power outage.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Woke law is a lack of law.

    • rhywun

      “Diversity” über alles.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Bugaboos

    Critical race theory is a decades-old academic framework that examines how racism helped to shape institutions and traditions that exist today.

    The idea was once confined to law school seminars. But over the past two years, the term has become a catch-all shorthand for a variety of conservative bugaboos: workplace diversity trainings, protests over police brutality and high school history lessons.

    Not all race based analytical frameworks are created equal.

    • cyto

      Funny how it becomes a right wing fantasy…. Yet they have to ban and censor a YouTube channel that merely finds and collates the left bragging about such activities.

    • rhywun

      Your tax dollars at work, America.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Now she’s straight up lying. Equity is not equality of opportunity.

    “She” you say. How surprising.

    Ask her if men and women are equitably represented in the ranks of DEI proselytizers.

  38. cyto

    The pace of our descent into banana republic status has astonished me. For most of my life, I would have bet it would be impossible here.

    Yet…

    The courts asses multiple billion dollar damages for the defamation of “I don’t believe those kids were killed”. Now, that is weird, to be sure. And probably pisses you off if you have to hear it as a dad. But where does that compare to the dad in Virginia who’s daughter was raped in a school bathroom having the school superintendent publicly announce that no such incidents have happened in their schools… Right to your face? (That dude didn’t get a billion dollars, that dude got arrested)

    It isn’t so much that we have a president who openly bragged about his bribery exploits, who’s son helpfully detailed the scheme in writing and whose co-conspirators have publicly explained the scheme, it is that the obedient media dutifully pretends that it didn’t happen.

    That same Soviet style press has spent the last decade cheerleading for censorship and more censorship. How did this happen in the country you grew up in? Remember the 70s? Remember all the hero journalist movies? Freedom of speech and freedom of the press and holding the powerful accountable….. Now project Veritas gets raided and sabotaged by the FBI and nobody cares, even a little bit….

    There was a time when sending 3 staffers to break in to the oppositions offices to get a peak at their strategy was enough to bring a government down.

    Now? Using the FBI and CIA to spy on, lie about and frame the opposition gets hero pieces written about the FBI and the politicians who sent them. Nobody even bats an eye about the FBI director, Assistant AG and the President sitting down with 2 FBI agents to discuss framing an incoming government official for a crime.

    We have a judiciary that will even defend such actions, ordering additional prosecution of the victim of the frame job when he proves that his prosecution was actually a criminal act by the state.

    Did you ever think you would live in a country where the youth would revolt and grab their pitchforks if someone dared to proclaim that all Americans have the right to free speech? Yet look at where we are with Elon Musk. The irrational vitriol is so bad that the dude has half of the right doing the Robby Soave throat clear every time they mention him. It is astonishing that barely a handful of people even raised their eyebrows when the President of the United States said they would “look into him” and the business dealing he has around the world.

    Trump was president for 4 years. They have been using state power against him for nearly 7 years, and now they add an entire office of the government dedicated to “getting Trump”. Remember when they impeached Trump for asking about Biden’s involvement in a bribery scheme in Ukraine? Remember how they said that even though Biden was not a candidate at the time, he might become one, so that made asking about crimes he committed an impeachable offense?

    Yeah. So… Where does sending the FBI to raid his home, dedicating offices in multiple government agencies and now assigning an independent prosecutor after he announces his candidacy rate? Did Chuck Schumer rush out to demand an impeachment proceeding?

    Yeah..

    You thought “things are getting a little crazy, but it isn’t that bad…”

    It seems to me that China’s Xi is more subtle in his power games. How does the free press Biden has to deal with compare to Putin’s press at home?

    Banana.

    Republic.

    • SDF-7

      I wish I could argue with you, sir. I very much wish…

    • Rebel Scum

      You paint a rosy picture. I guess I need to clean and inspect my, um, fishing rods…

    • Aloysious

      If we accept the premise that politics is downstream of culture, what does that tell us about an all too large segment of the society we live in?

      Decadent? Immoral? Crazy? Delusional, obtuse, and smug in self righteousness?

      I’m still trying to figure it out, but I know I don’t want any of ‘the right kind of people’ anywhere near my life.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t accept that premise.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Wagons were circled

    Although its core concepts have been around nearly as long as public education itself, social-emotional learning is emerging as the latest lightning rod in the battles over what gets taught in schools nationwide.

    Across the country, parents and community members have protested angrily at school board meetings, administrators have distanced themselves from the term and legislators have introduced bills trying to ban it. In the last two years, NPR found evidence of disputes specifically concerning social-emotional learning in at least 25 states.

    Essentially, social-emotional learning teaches students how to manage their emotions, how to make good decisions, how to collaborate and how to understand themselves and others better.

    Essentially, it is an integral part of the program of indoctrination; it is another tool we use to encourage unquestioning obedience to authority and acceptance of the hive narrative.

    • rhywun

      I thought all the drugs they pump into kids these days is how they “manage their emotions”.

    • SDF-7

      That would have made The Hunger Games 1000% more interesting. Talk about Catching Fire…

    • cyto

      Sophi Dossi made an entire career out of that one trick.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      I hope her father is well armed and knows enough martial arts to fight off the dudes.

      • cyto

        However well armed, he is facing The Penis Mightier….

      • Michael Malaise

        I think she could handle herself.

    • Rebel Scum

      Quiver me timbers…

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Here is a Twatter question for those of you more attuned:

    Musk did the eight dollar thing, and the troll hordes promptly set up fake accounts, including one purporting to be Eli Lilly, announcing free insulin. This was reported as the cause of a “crash” in the stock price.

    Fake legit or not, how does an hours-old account get disseminated widely enough to have that sort of an effect?

    • cyto

      Pretty good question.

      One wonders how many of the aggrieved Twits at Twitter were sufficiently motivated to create such chaos?

      They laid of 3,700 workers.

      I have no idea how many of those were technical staff.

      My supposition would be that a company like Twitter has a couple of hundred real tech staff. That app ain’t that complicated. They need teams for each supported platform.

      But most of the work would be about ad revenue and data mining. Still. That surely isn’t a team of hundreds? 20 guys? 50?

      Most of the company should be sales and marketing and accounting.

      There are a lot of nerds here. What do you think? If you ran it lean, how big is the real team? If you use AWS for your back end… 20 DBAs, 15 middleware guys and 3 teams of interface guys for the apps and web pages? Add in a team of QA… There just doesn’t seem to be that much, at least not if you don’t spend millions combing through posts looking for anything successful from the right and hand optimizing things to stop it….

  41. UnCivilServant

    Well, the slow-cooker is going. Now I gotta figure out what to have for brunch since it’ll be hours until that’s done. (yes, I slept in, so I couldn’t start it sooner)