The action moves a little too fast for me…
“Jadis discovered a magic word that, once uttered, would kill everything on the planet except her.”
Friday Afternoon Links
About The Author
Riven
[riv-uhn]
noun
1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd.
2. often aims to misbehave.
3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.*
And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.
And they made good laws and kept the peace, and saved good trees from being unnecessarily cut down, and liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary people who wanted to live and let live.
From Clive’s pen to God’s ears.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Where is everyone?
:: hears knock at door ::
Oh shit.
It’s coming from inside the house!
I need to find a site with more consistent Firsters.
Firsters get the glory, but Lasters win the game.
Really?
Just ask your wife.
Outrage
TW: Boingboing
Right-wingers hail Elon Musk as a champion of free speech. He frequently boasts of his opposition to censorship in all forms and claims to defend the right of individuals to express their opinions, no matter how controversial they may be. In reality, Musk does not support free expression as much as he pretends to and is, in fact, opposed to its principles.
In Musk’s view, free speech means spreading misinformation and personal attacks without consequence. Free speech that he finds offensive is, in his mind, not free speech. It’s “spam,” and he makes a habit of suspending the Twitter accounts of people he disagrees with.
From The Intercept:
Several prominent antifascist organizers and journalists have had their accounts suspended in the past week, after right-wing operatives appealed directly to Musk to ban them and far-right internet trolls flooded Twitter’s complaints system with false reports about terms of service violations.
Completely different than when we do it.
Antifa is just anti-fascist, but the “trolls” are “far-right”.
I thought antifa got swept upon the anti-pedo dragnet.
They did, but they weren’t going to complain they got the boot because they were looking for kiddie porn and they’re pissed because now have to go find other sources.
I hate, hate, hate this debate. By their standards of “misinformation”, Biden and Fauci should be banned from all social media. Yet those two are supposed to be in charge of deciding what’s “misinformation”.
It’s a Friday, and I do not have plans tonight, so I’ll be kicking off the Zoom/Happy Hour/Holiday movie discussion starting at 20:00 Eastern.
The girlfriend and I have watched A Christmas Story Christmas, and it (shockingly) wasn’t bad.
I want to know why he calls The Old Man “dad” in the trailer, though. It’s The Old Man!
I’d like to check it out, but I don’t have whatever channel it’s on.
It’s on HBO, and the reason is that The Old Man died, which sets off the return to the old homestead.
But still, he never called him “dad” in the original.
Mrs. TOK hates the original, and I love it. But we both liked this one. She laughed a few times. At first it seemed like it was trying too hard to be like the original, then near the end it found its own voice and it was decent.
We were both pleasantly surprised. Especially considering the other two attempts at sequels were… not good.
Hey, Cocaine Bear is a real movie. It’s not a prank. At least it’s original.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DuWEEKeJLMI&feature=youtu.be
I’m holding out for Cocaine Bear Christmas: Snow Storm
Jean Shepherd is a funny writer. He has some story about when he got tagged for KP duty in WWII as his unit was being shipped in a troop train. Any enlisted man reading it will laugh and get PTSD from it.
Dude at the bar: A cannibal once took my girlfriend to a Russel Crowe film.
Me: Gladiator?
Dude: No, man… I really miss her.
/taps mic
Anybody here?
uuuuughhhhhh (also LOL)
John Valby – Gangbang
Gladiator before the gang bang.
Why dont cannibals eat clowns?
Cause they taste FUNNY
Also- why wont cannibals eat divorced women?
Too bitter.
What do you call a Roman with hair in his teeth?
Gladiator.
Lewis gives us another picture of what a better government would look like later in the book. In a word, it’s characterized by humility. Aslan asks Caspian if he feels sufficient to be King. Caspian responds, “I–I don’t think I do sir. I’m only a kid.” To which Aslan responds, “Good. If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not.”
This the only one I remember from the list. I think I read the books when I was nine? ten?
I read those books as a wee lad as well. This is the passage that sticks in my brain for some reason.
“Aslan is a lion–the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he–quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
OT breaking news: Putin fell down the stairs at home and pooped on himself.
https://wap.business-standard.com/article/international/putin-fell-down-the-stairs-at-his-home-and-soiled-himself-amid-health-woes-122120200877_1.html
LOL
Well shit.
He landed on his coccyx which is even funnier
As someone thats broken the tailbone, I almost feel sorry for the guy.
I wouldn’t feel bad for him if he got buried alive & set on fire
I qualified it with “almost”.
And at the time of my injury, I had a 90+ minute commute to-from work daily, sitting on injured ass. It was quite unpleasant.
That’s a fun word.
a Telegram channel which claims links to his bodyguards has suggested, Daily Mail reported.
Okay.
Totes legit
What would be really funny is if drugs fell out of his ass, too. (No, I’m not saying anyone else posted this.)
So we have the two largest nuclear powers run by decrepit men who are conducting a war. What could possibly go wrong?
I know what could go right. Settle it in the ring between Biden and Putin. Putin can ride in on a bear. Biden can swing the chains he used on Corn Pop. Trump can be the referee. Hunter can come crashing in wearing his trademark sneakers and jock strap ensemble. Put it on pay per view.
I’d watch that for a dollar !
THUNDERDOME!
How can anyone believe for a second that it’s not made up?
Because they want it to be true.
Regardless I already send in a copyright request for PutinPoop. I’ll figure out the product later.
Yeah, well I snagged Poopin’ Putin™. Accept no substitutes!
Excellent.
JHTFC, it’s POOTIN. Short and sweet.
Do I gotta do everything around here?
Now if the report was he’d “fallen down the stairs” and died, that I would have believed.
And one of them is pretending he isn’t conducting a war.
It’s not a war, it’s a “special military operation”.
Ha! We have it so much better here. Our dictator poops himself falling up the stairs.
Censorship now!
It’s time for tech and social media companies to take some responsibility for the content they are willing to house on their platforms.
At this week’s DealBook summit, Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, said that the company would continue to allow the film – “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America!” – to be sold on its site. This film has generated huge controversy for its antisemitic content promoting false claims about the reaches of Jewish power and the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust. Jassy justified the decision by saying, “we have to allow access to those viewpoints, even if they are objectionable.”
Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving, however, paid the price for tweeting a link to the film last month. Though Irving eventually issued a full-throated apology, his failure to do so immediately and unequivocally led to a temporary suspension by the Nets and the suspension of his Nike sponsorship.
If the distribution and promotion of this hateful film was a one-time problem, we would not have cause for major concern. But it is not.
We have seen a number of platforms provide a home for bigotry over the past few months. Right now, the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, has been removing controls that had prevented bigotry, rage and provocation from being spread by the site.
——-
While it is certainly good for tech companies to promote free speech and civic debate, they also need to reexamine the content that they deem permissible on their platforms. And there are real-world implications for these companies failing to create clear boundaries. University of Washington historian Margaret O’Mara says we need look no further than January 6, 2021, in which social media played a critical role in activating violent protesters and helping them to organize.
Free the speech we approve of. Shut the rest down.
“It’s time for tech and social media companies to take some responsibility for the content they are willing to house on their platforms.”
You mean, like being liable for fraud and defamation?
Well, they did say “some”.
Look no further than January 6. Certainly don’t look back as far as the summer of riots.
…he baselessly claimed.
Iceland’s domestic guns.
Straps in (no euphemism). Huh. I don’t know what “Ocarina of Time” is, but enjoying this! Might take me to the end of the work day.
Finally! Minnesoda is going to do something about all those Klan members in the police force!
No more Somali cops shooting Aussie gals with impugnity.
Sorry for the bad quoting, but something in the original quote is causing server errors when I try to post
“Glibs need not apply”
Another Covid story that is literally full of crap
I don’t know why we have to use such sensitive testing of crap, can’t we just get an estimate from the pile of bodies that are clogging the streets?
Or the number of people plugging their arms with the vaccine. Who knows how much RNA gets pooped out after that?
Project started 2 or 3 weeks late.
Thus I am painting metal corrugated roof panels with oil based primer at exactly 50 degrees (which the can says is the lowest acceptable temp).
It’s going to take a while for them to dry out.
This week my wife’s cousin took me to a Blackhawks game. He had seats in the 11th row, behind the benches. The Blackhawks are expected to lose a lot this year, and they’re right on target. But I did get to see McDavid and Dreisitl up close, and I was not disappointed. Those two are unreal.
A couple of weeks ago I attended the Ducks-Panthers game in Anaheim. We had seats in the first row right behind the Panthers bench. I could see the likes of Barkov up close. Weirdly I couldn’t hear anything at all behind the glass.
I hate people.*
*Commute home edition.
Well that’s not very stoic of you.
The train wreck continues
State Rep. Stacie Laughton (D-Nashua) will remain in jail as her attorney negotiates a plea agreement in the criminal case alleging she serially harassed a Hudson woman.
Laughton, New Hampshire’s first elected transgender state representative, is not leaving Valley Street Jail in Manchester until at least Dec. 22, the date of her next hearing. Her attorney, Elliot Friedman, told Judge John Curran he hoped to have a resolution to the numerous criminal charges worked out with prosecutors in the coming weeks.
“We are negotiating a resolution,” Friedman said.
Mentally unstable person remains mentally unstable.
How in the hell did that freakshow get voted in?
NH House elections are usually pretty easy to win. Small districts, easy to canvass.
In this case, he has a D by his name. Nashua has gone from split between Republicans and Democrats when I moved to NH to being dominated by Democrats. The entire state house delegation from Nashua is Democrat as the lone Republican in the state house delegation lost reelection in 2022. There are two state senators from Nashua – one Democrat and the other Republican. The Republican only got elected because his district includes a bunch of towns to the west which are heavily Republican.
https://www.fox8live.com/2022/12/02/affidavit-oklahoma-man-said-he-killed-4-men-cut-them-up/
He did it cuz they were stealing from him (allegedly).
Hardcore.
Dude owns a scrap yard and the best he can do is toss the bodies in a river? He must not read much crime fiction, there are thousands of ways to dispose bodies at a scrap yard.
Give me a barrel and some battery acid …
They could build a small space ship! And beat NASA to everything, ’cause the little guy has no paperwork!
(do you remember that show? I have vauge memories of it, back in the seventies.)
Salvage One?
With Andy Griffin?
I think that was it! Thanks.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2022/12/02/in-photos-webb-telescopes-first-look-at-titan-saturns-giant-moon-that-may-once-have-have-hosted-life/
Im going to bed.
Ya’all hold it down.
Today in stories I’m having trouble getting worked up about, Jiang Zemin dead at 96.
ALL HAIL HYPNOTOAD!
I did not know you were a TCU fan!
anecdata: the most conspicuously decent, even, humane alumni I have known are from TCU
I’m not talking about football crowds: I’m talking neighbors and business associates; whey you find out someone went to TCU, you’re never surprised, the way when you find out someone is an Eagle Scout
Remarkably unlike my collegiate cohorts then.
It is too bad he lived so long
Maybe he was in excruciating pain for the last decade.
We can only hope.
I was in China less than a month after whatisface died in 97. It was weird. Video of his widow throwing his ashes out of an airplane was on constant loop. Too bad it wasn’t his living body being tossed out…
Friday Funbags demand your respect!
https://archive.ph/K151G
If you want to see more of #1.
#2 is Carol Vorderman.
You can enact your own labor if you want to know who more of them are.
My personal favorite, from The Silver Chair:
“ Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things–trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow.”
You could do it from behind so he can prop the phone on your back?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/dear-deidre/20616136/husband-watched-porn-whilst-having-sex-devastated/
Maybe your confusing ‘uninterested’ and ‘disinterested’ is killing his boner…
So where the fuck is Elon?
He’s letting Matt Taibbi handle it
Found it. Amazing!
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1598825403182874625
This post seems to be updating with Taibbi’s tweets without everyone else’s comments clogging up the thread. (May not be updating as quickly as the actual Twitstorm.)
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598822959866683394
But can Taibbi write a good Prohibition-era sex scene?
Is he missing?
If you haven’t seen it already:
Riven almost always includes a link to a FEE article that is almost always interesting.
OT:
D2 is in negotiations to buy her first home. Outgoing folks are taking the wood stove so we thought a replacement would be a good housewarming present.
As always, things have changed since I last checked and I can’t find any of the names I recall and don’t recognize the ones available.
Anyone have any pros or cons?
We had a Vermont Castings wood stove when I was growing up. It works well. It must be about 30 years old now.
I think that’s what we had in Wisconsin. Heated about 1,000 square feet with it every winter. Worked very well.
ProTip: get one with a side-loading door. Big improvement if you are planning to use it at all seriously.
I’m partial to the top loaders.
would be a good housewarming present.
Does Tres know you are stealing his schtick?
I knew someone would catch that.
Thanks to all for your recommendations. I have a 30+ year old Vermont Castings but the new ones are way out of my budget.
It’s only $200 a year, lol.
Wild.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598847065970204672