A Glibertarians Exclusive – The River III
Tuesday: One day until impact
The old friends now had a time for the impact: The World-Killer was now due to arrive in their vicinity the next day, Wednesday, at 2:24PM.
“Leastways it’s supposed to be a nice day for it,” James pointed out. “Sunny and hot.”
“Yep. Like today. Sure is a good old hot day,” Ty agreed. “Ain’t it?”
James nodded. It was only a little after ten in the morning, but the two old friends were already back in their lawn chairs on the sandbar, and well down another bottle of Rebel Yell bourbon. What the hell, James justified it to himself, ain’t like I’m gonna lose my job for showing up hung over. If I’m gonna go out, I’m a-gonna go out good and drunk.
“My Ma,” Ty said, “she’s saying now that the meteor is God’s judgement. Says we all too fractious, too busy fightin’ amongst one another instead’a lovin’ each other like Jesus wanted.”
“She could be right,” James replied. He shrugged. “We are a fractious lot, and that’s the truth.”
“Always have been. Can’t see why God waited so long if that was his beef with us.”
James shrugged again. “If’n we knew that, reckon we’d be God.”
“Maybe.” Ty, clearly a little uncomfortable, changed the subject. “See y’all brought your fishing gear down again. Ain’t usin’ it though.”
“Yeah. Thought about tryin’ to catch a catfish for supper. Just can’t see the point, you know?”
Ty took another drink. “Lots of folks just not seein’ the point in keeping things up n’more. Jus a day or two after we find out about the meteor, they was still goin’ round, trucks movin’, café open, all that. Then comes yesterday, an’ it’s like folks jus’ stopped. Seen old man Baker sittin’ on his front step yesterday. Tougher ol’ fella never lived, but there he was bawlin’ like a little kid. Asked him if he was OK, and he starts to showin’ me pictures of his grandkids. Cryin’ about how unfair the whole thing was. Says, ‘I’m an’ ol’ man, don’t care what happens to me, but why does this thing have to come ‘long and wipe out all the little children?’ That’s what he said.”
“It’s a giant rock from space,” James pointed out. He reached out for the bottle and took another slug of Rebel Yell. “Ain’t no fair or unfair to it. Jus’ is, that’s all. Folks beginnin’ to get it, is all. Figurin’ they are gonna die tomorrow, so what’s the point?”
Ty pointed at the river. “Like you and them damn catfish?”
“Yeah. Like me and them damn catfish.”
“So you don’ reckon God sent the meteor?”
“No,” James said, a bit more sharply than he had intended. “No, I don’t reckon God sent the meteor, and I don’t reckon God is a-gonna save us at the last minute, neither.”
“So, you jus’ think that a one-in-a-gazillion chance rock from space is gonna hit us, wipe out the whole planet, for no reason a’tall?”
“Yeah,” James grumped. He took another drink of Rebel Yell bourbon. “That there is exactly what I thinks.”
Ty made as though to get up, out of his lawn chair. His face registered anger, then confusion, then resignation. At last he slumped back down in the chair.
“Hell,” he said at last, “Guess it don’t really matter either way. We’ll be jus’ as dead. And we’ll either meet up at the gates of Heaven or we won’t.”
“Guess so.”
“Han’ me that bottle, will ya?”
James handed Ty the bottle of Rebel Yell. Ty took a long drink.
“Tell ya what I think,” James said suddenly.
“What’s that?”
James pointed at the river. “Look yonder. You and me, we grew up ‘long this river. Fishin’ in ‘er, swimmin’ in ‘er. Kissed my first gal right on that sandbar downstream ‘bout half a mile. Kilt my first deer in ol’ Thompson’s pasture just upstream right on the bank of ‘er.”
“Yeah? And?”
“River don’ care about no rock from space. Don’ care about God, or Jesus, or nothin’ else. Don’ care about whose fault the rock is or ain’t. She just keeps on rollin’.” James was well into his cups, and uncharacteristically loquacious. “Rock come, she don’ come, river don’ care.”
“Can’t rightly argue wit’ that,” Ty agreed.
“So, that’s how I’m goin’ out. Tomorrow afternoon rock’s supposed to come. Supposed to hit right’chere,” James waved at the ground in front of them. “After that, no more river, no more Pollard, no more Alabama, no more people. End of the world. End of days. So, since I can’t do nothin’ ‘bout that rock no more than this here river can, I figure on goin’ out jus’ like the river. Long as the river is flowin’, I’ll sit right’chere with it.”
“Well,” Ty said, “I got no problem with any of that. ‘Spect Ma will drag me to services in the mornin’, but once that’s done, I’ll slip out. Get my stuff. Got ‘nother bottle of Jack Daniels I can bring ‘long. Come right on down here and wait it out with ya, if’t you don’ mind the company.”
“Proud to have ya,” James agreed.
Ty looked down at the ground. “I ain’t got no girl, no more than you do. Ma, she’ll be with the ladies at the church. Reckon if I’m gonna go out, I may as well go out like you said, watchin’ this here river. With my bes’ friend,” he added.
“Ol’ buddy,” James said, “I can’t think of no better way t’go. Leastways,” he grinned, “Not no way that’s ‘vailable to us.”
“You got that right,” Ty laughed. “Han’ me over that bottle, will ya?”
***
People disagreeing on all just about everything, yeah
Makes you stop and all wonder why
Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
Who just couldn’t help but cry
Oh, this ol’ river keeps on rollin’, though
No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow
And as long as it does I’ll just sit here
And watch the river flow
I’m telling ya…
Good stuff.
no gay stuff before God
“Ol’ buddy,” James said, “I can’t think of no better way t’go. Leastways,” he grinned, “Not no way that’s ‘vailable to us.”
🙂
Who would have thought that a couple of codgers drinkin’ and waiting for the world to end would be such a compelling read?
Great stuff, Animal.
I think because it invokes the reader to think…where will I be in that situation. Huddled in a bunker hoping for the best? Out by the sea enjoying the last moments of nature’s beauty? Down by the river with your best friend or family just being? It really is a great read Animal.
Up in the mountains with my wife and kids. Adios, amigos.
Probably with family I doubt escorts would be on the job at a time like that
codgers ? don’t that mean old?
Fantastic story, Animal.
I liked it better than On The Beach. Shorter, too.
I mean can’t they get some better bourbon? wild turkey rare breed at least
I would think the end of the world is a perfect time to just drink what you like.
I am sure they would like some stuff more than rebel yell… Like midwinter nights dram or something or old forester birthday bourbon and that is the list of fancy bourbon that come to mind. oh blanton and pappy van w also hmmmm what else stagg jr was one I think and king of kentucku and elijah craig barrel proof.
Probably not that available in bum fuck Alabama right before the world ends. Just a thought.
I mean little I know of the US bourbon market, but it seems a lot is hardly available a where
When tens of millions of people have the same thought, good luck finding it on the store shelves.
You have to be the first looter and shoot your way out of the crowd
so you are saying I should have 3 months supply of high quality whisky at all times?
You mean, you don’t?
depends on how much I drink. at current rates, yes. at end of the world in 3 months rates? dunno.
Animal as the writer and hence the God of this story, you could take pity on them ya know.
And less metaphysically… I think a sufficient meteor hit, even the river is going to care — the bed can easily be dramatically changed and this will probably trigger a mass of plate tectonics throughout the crust, so that could change things too. Smug river thinking it is above it all… 😉
But the river is right with God.
“Always have been. Can’t see why God waited so long if that was his beef with us.”
Same as with the Israelites. He warned them against idolatry and etc, but gave them a 1000 years or so to try to get it fixed before the punishment he warned about came down.
was the punishment that part where they cut the front bit of their dick off?
Excellent. As always. Thanks for sharing your stories with us, Animal.
James must be a Glib. Sounds like he’s reading our Stoic series.
As noted above, a simple premise yet a compelling read. Nice job!
Indeed. And why being able to write interesting characters is so important and so rare.
I think it was the Critical Drinker who said that part of why modern movies suck is that the writers just haven’t been through any hard experiences. Your characters won’t be very interesting if the worst hardship you’ve had is someone mansplaining something to you, or addressing you with the wrong pronouns.
Power blip again. Gotta go reset the clocks again.
Have you thought about investing in clocks with battery backups so that they don’t lose the time when the power goes out? Mine will only run the clock from the battery, not powering the display so that the battery lasts darn near forever and it comes back to normal when the power kicks in.
If you’re talking about the appliances, is blinking 12:00 really that bad?
The stove doesn’t blink. It resets to 1200 and then resumes. My son will pester me if the time is wrong.
My stove simply resumes from the time the power went out, while my 35-year-old clock radio resets to 12 and moves forward. So if the power goes out while I’m out, I can tell when it went out and for how long.
If you’re talking about the appliances, is blinking 12:00 really that bad?
Yes. Yes it is.
I can’t stand it if my watch and the microwave aren’t displaying the same time.
Every clock I am allowed to lay hands on has the same time as my phone. I will stand and wait for my phone to tick over to the next minute to make sure they are synchronized nice and tight.
Mrs. Dean likes her clocks to run fast, so I don’t mess with those.
My wife has the same theory on time, doesn’t keep her from being late to everything and makes me have a minor hear attack until I remember that clock is incorrect.
My father (an engineer) did the same thing… 7 mins.. but only in his car… I never got it, all I can think is that if he was distracted he would read the “wrong” time, and yes, he notoriously was late, so much so that when he was the best man at a wedding they told him that it started an hour earlier. My mother got him there on time, and they said “oh we know him… have a drink”
What happens is, they know it’s fast, so they mentally adjust. And, apparently, overcorrect, which is why they are still chronically late.
I can’t stand it if my watch and the microwave aren’t displaying the same time.
Well, well [snickers]; we know how to gaslight Tundra now!
The man with one watch knows what time it is. The man with two is never sure.
my clocks have a battery so they survive shirt term power outages
I like the stories but I never know the songs it seems. How do you know all this obscure music.
Thanks Animal, another great story from the Bard of Allemakee.
Old habits are hard to break, once you live a life of frugality it’s hard to break out of the mold. That Rebel Yell is as good as it gets.
I dated a girl once that lived with her Grandad.
That dude drank Old Crow out of the bottle.
I like this oine too, Animal.
I figure if this happens to us, it’ll be the wife and me outside on the deck, having a few drinks and enjoying the show while we can.
robc – pulled my response over from the ded-thred (wrt to taxing income on land and IP)
So if you don’t get to own land, or your thoughts/inventions, why do you get to own your labor?
Because it is your labor.
You own your thoughts, that is the point of my opposing IP. I own my thoughts even if you thought it first. IP prevents me from owning my thoughts, not the other way around.
Well, to go all Lockian, my land is mine because I admixed my labor with it (or whoever first labored to improve it and whom I recompense during my purchase), yet you would tax the value of that land as though I were a monopolist of it.
And we agree on IP, so I’m really just using that as further illustration of how at odds the idea of Single-Tax is (and given it never included that kind of rent even though that income only exists because of govt granting the IP monopoly).
The Single Tax really isn’t justifiable any more than any other – your tip to that was the moral bit which ties back to land being a sovereign’s grant to his land-owners, not anything based in natural rights (as comes the argument for owning your own labor).
Yeah, Locke was wrong on that one. The mixing your labor argument is bullshit.
Locke was bright, I am a believer in natural rights. But land ownership isn’t one of them.
So the SLT justification is that all land is owned by humanity as a whole, and so everyone gets a vote on the proceeds from same?
That was pretty much Henry George’s argument. He also thought land ownership was a useful fiction and the best way to handle it. But the owner would pay a tax equal to the economic rent of the unapproved land. But improvements, as the result of labor, shouldn’t be taxed at all. Because income taxes and consumption taxes are immoral.
In the perfect world all the slt money would go into a big pot and divided equally. In the real world, government is the next best option.
My thoughts don’t exactly align with George, but close enough. Mises started me down the path. I thought his argument against natural rights in land ownership were convincing.
‘In the perfect world all the slt money would go into a big pot and divided equally.’
That was my first thought.
‘economic rent of the unapproved land. ‘
How can anyone know what value this would be?
“How can anyone know what value this would be?”
Its hard, but its done today (poorly) as property tax evaluators have to do both land AND improvements.
So it would be easier than that. But not perfect.
I suggested a solution some years back…let me go rummage thru the archives.
Here we go, from April 2018:
https://www.glibertarians2018.link/2018/04/26/funding-libertopia-a-gedankenexperiment/
Yep – that’s the core problem – what is the tax to be. That and of course the land itself doesn’t generate income – not without labor and/or improvement (the two things you don’t want to tax). So any land tax is always paid out of income. Outside of the U.S., that income was rent for the land (ownership thereof being a gift of the sovereign and then an inheritance) – but we’ve never really done it that way. That’s why I don’t get the love for the land tax here.
See the last line of that article:
The Georgist Single Land Tax is a utopian fantasy. And I still favor it over the current system or any other anyone has proposed.
Ok being utopian pretty much negates it as viable.
I really don’t want to live in my current house during retirement because of the property tax, so arguing for a big national property tax doesn’t sound like a good plan.
Depending on the relative house/land value and the rate of the slt, it is possible that the slt would be less than your current property tax.
I am pretty sure that would be the case for me.
If the current property tax is 1.5% and the SLT was 4.5%, then as long as the Land+House value is greater than 3x the Land value, then the SLT would be lower than the current property tax.
And not only would it go away, but being a SINGLE tax, the income and sales taxes would go away too.
I can reduce my current land tax by moving – SLT screws that. At least now I have an option. Nor have you explained how SLT isnt’ paid out of my income, which supposedly you don’t want to tax.
And you aren’t just a utopian, you a raving nutcase, if you ever think other taxes are going away.
IP doesn’t prevent you from “owning” your thoughts. IP says that a particular expression of ideas (not the ideas themselves) can be recognized as property, as the first step in allowing you to protect and/or monetize it. Written songs are copyrighted, recorded performances are copyrighted. I am not an expert, but I don’t believe someone who memorizes a song and then plays it live is violating anyone’s copyright. I am not violating the author’s IP if I memorize his copyrighted poem, even though I now “own” those thoughts.
If you buy a book, you can sell it, because you own the (physical) book. You do not own the copyrighted words in the book, which is why IP prohibits you from reproducing them.
This all made a sufficient amount of sense before digitization of information. Digitized information is copied/reproduced constantly, while being used, and is ridiculously easy to reproduce. Thus, the licenses you get with your software are an attempt to counteract this. IP needs some rethinking, but I am not a fan of abolishing it altogether.
We’re being sloppy and really arguing about the justification of taxation, not straight up ownership.
No, on IP I am arguing about straight up ownership.
If I buy a book, I should be able to print 100 copies and sell them all, as I OWN it. The words in the book are my thoughts once I read them.
Write your own damn book.
I have. Nearly 20 years ago I wrote a linux training manual.
there are different types of IP with different issues… the shittiest of which is patents. Trademarks are the ones which make most sense.
Copyright is the shittiest by far.
The so called “software” patents that escaped the PTO for a decade or so were an abomination, but generally patent protection is limited. Patents cost a lot of money to get and continue to cost a significant amount of money to keep in force. This is limits most of the bad aspects of patents.
Trademarks are clearly justified as a means of protecting against fraud as others have noted.
patent protection is limited – not enough. not even covering patent trolling. Maybe it differs by country though. but patents suck. And cost the economy a fuckton in useless litigation
getting server errors
test
Before patents, you had public domain information and trade secrets. The purpose of patents was to encourage inventors to publish their ideas in exchange for exclusive rights to use the ideas for a fixed period of time. By all means, lets go back to the days of guilds that kept secrets and punished people ruthlessly for letting trade secrets get out.
lets go back to the days of guilds that kept secrets and punished people ruthlessly for letting trade secrets get out – better than patents
Zildjain still has the trade secret on how they make symbols. The process works just fine.
Yes, trade secrets still exist.
But does anyone know how they make their cymbals? 😉
I couple of members of the family.
Nevermind, caught the typo. Whooooooosh.
@ GT
No “ba-dum tish”? I am disappoint.
::kicks self for forgetting link::
Copyright law is fucked up.
It covers public performances. So, singing in the shower is OK, but whistling a tune while walking down the side walk can be a copyright violation.
Hmm. Not surprised to hear that. I have only the most superficial understanding of IP.
If you have a shop open to the public, you can play the radio over the PA system, but you cannot play CDs. The radio system has artists fees incorporated into the broadcast rights. But playing your own CD while you work is stealing from the artists.
This is why some clubs only have performers that play original music. Cover bands require the club to have the BMI/ASCAP/etc licenses.
I’m no expert either, but I understand the various Performing Rights Organizations (ASCAP, BMI, etc.) or outfits working on their behalf are going after small live music venues more aggressively and requiring the venues pay fees. I don’t know how much money we’re talking about, but it was enough that one local joint was moved to restrict its Open Mic Night to strictly original (or, presumably, public domain) music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You#Copyright_status
I thought maybe “Happy Birthday” was one of the songs Michael Jackson managed to get his hands on.
Not to trigger those with Beatle Derangement Syndrome, but the whole sordid saga of the “Northern Songs” (Lennon/McCartney) catalog is truly convoluted. I believe Michael Jackson owned most or all of it, at least at some point, and it may have been the only reason he got his last contract with Sony (or whatever giant megacorp it was, which I can’t be bothered to DDG.) There used to be a writer on the Fox News website who had a pretty good handle on the gory details – including how Yoko could screw over Paul – but that writer got canned for reviewing a movie from a bootleg copy.
This is true. And by small venues we’re talking bars that have as few as 50 customers and a small band shoved in the corner.
Dammit, you beat me to it.
Yeah, but you don’t believe I have a right to claim that thought as my own, so what do you care if I posted it before you did? 😁
But there is someone on here that claims their is value in being first.
there dammit.
Which is why I am not an author.
One of the aspects of ownership is the ability to sell it. I can’t sell my thoughts. If I build a widget based on my thoughts, I cannot sell it because you have the patent on widgets. I have to labor for you. I am your widget slave for 14 years or whatever.
How do you square what you just wrote with what you wrote before?
“If I buy a book, I should be able to print 100 copies and sell them all, as I OWN it. The words in the book are my thoughts once I read them.”
If you cannot sell your thoughts, how can you sell others’ thoughts?
No, you misunderstand, that should say “I am not allowed to sell my thought because IP law prevents it.” “I can’t sell my thoughts” was shorthand for that.
I can sell my thoughts, I am just not allowed to, in some cases.
I can’t sell my thoughts.
It’s not our fault nobody wants to buy your thoughts about the SLT being a good thing.
And to be clear, I don’t want to tax IP. I want to amend the constitution to remove the copyright and patent clause.
But, as I have said previously (probably years ago), if I was dictator, fixing IP would literally be the last thing on my list. Some tweaks of copyright and patents would be higher up on the list, but getting rid of them altogether would be the very last item. IP opposition is entirely a theoretical concept, it isn’t a pressing need.
Well, I see I don’t need to bother bringing things over from dedthred, but I will anyway because I took the effort to type them out.
@robc from dedthred
You own the physical book with pages or you own/are leasing (depending on how you paid) the ebook file. You can re-sell the physical object.
You do not own the words inside as if you can repackage the words and sell them as your own work. The IP is the collection and arrangement of the words.
But then…
So I guess that’s a moot point.
It’s one thing to know that people are duplicating your work and passing it out to anyone who wants to read it. Okay, that’s the risk I take.
It’s an entirely different thing to know that someone (or a lot of someones) are taking your work, repackaging it, and slapping their name on it like they’re the original thinkers. And worse! That they’re a lot better marketers than you are, so they’re making a lot more money off something you created.
And a third thing to know that someone is taking your work, repackaging it, and selling it for a nice profit. Which is then denied to you.
Indeed, and with no recourse.
Of course, as someone who trades in IP and has a lot of it out there, I would have a little more emotional answer to it.
I do not think I have a right to someone else’s thinkings-up, no. The paper, glue, and ink, yes. The words, no.
But once I think them, it is my thinking. It doesn’t matter that you thought them first.
Fuck off slaver.
You’re the one who insists on being able to profit from the actual work put in by others because you can operate a copier. That is far less work than coming up with the content and combining it in an entertaining manner.
You don’t even have to go through the trouble of scrivening, or even typesetting.
And you wouldn’t have had those thoughts if not for the work put in by the actual content creator. If anyone’s the slaver in that situation, it’s you.
My brain is mine.
I am not stealing from anyone else, they still own what they had before. IP steals from me.
I’m sorry, you’re speaking nonsense. Your assertion is that because you have read someone else’s work you are now perfectly justified in producing duplicates of it in direct competition to the person who originally developed it and this is not somehow stealing from them when all of the development work was on their part?
Are you the CCP? Seriously, that sounds like the model they’re operating under.
“Your assertion is that because you have read someone else’s work you are now perfectly justified in producing duplicates of it in direct competition to the person who originally developed it and this is not somehow stealing from them when all of the development work was on their part?”
Yes. And this is how it worked for most of human history. Lots of great authors wrote without copyright protection.
In the middle ages, it began to change, with mostly kings and the church granting to printers “privileges” for certain books. I think 1710 was the first copyright law.
Shakespeare didnt have copyright. Which is probably why he wrote plays. He made the money off of the performances. Much like many musicians make their real money off of touring.
Now do slavery.
I already did, IP law is slavery.
Tune in next week when robc copies and pastes Animal’s story and submits it to The New Yorker.
The law and my ethics dont always correlate.
Well, if you read the story, it’s your thoughts now, right?
There is also money – often big money – from the “publishing,” i.e. the copyright on the song itself, not just a specific recording.
My favorite example, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, is Dolly Parton’s practice of never giving up her rights to the publishing of her original songs – to the point where she declined to allow Elvis to record “I Will Always Love You” because Colonel Tom insisted that Elvis always got a cut of the publishing. The money Dolly made from the publishing was reserved for the educations of her nieces and nephews, and she refused to give it up to anyone.
So when Whitney Houston recorded it years later, Dolly made enough money “to buy Graceland.” 😊
Ray Willie Hubbard has a live version of Redneck Mother, and during the “spelling” break in the song he goes on at some length about how the fact that he wrote the song is kind of embarrassing, “except twice a year, when I go out to my mailbox and there’s a letter with a check in it. And by god, it ain’t that bad.”
Check your premises.
Premises check out.
The funny thing is, I would oppose the “slapping their name on it” part. That falls under trademark type IP as far as I am concerned.
So if I were to do this, which I wouldn’t, I would resell the copies with your name on them.
Time for some SMOD bait?
Households in Great Britain to be paid to use less electricity: how does it work?
Narrator: It doesn’t.
*grabs popcorn*
Oh wait, it takes electricity to make popcorn.
*grabs tree bark*
No it doesn’t. It requires heat. If you’ve got something to burn, you can make popcorn.
I recommend burning watermelons. You may need to dry them out first.
when I was a kid my mom made popcorn in a cast iron pot on the gas stove
Gas stove? You monster!
How did anyone survive?
The pollution left over from the soviet times had coated their lungs and filtered out the fumes.
Pie survived, but he has severe asthma.
I grew up with my family making it that way.
I made it that way for my kids for years.
I got called a “hipster” by my Lt. because that was how I did it and I don’t like microwave popcorn.
We used a regular steel pan and dumped it in the “big metal bowl” where the popcorn was doused in salt and butter.
This. Pour oil in the skillet, put in three kernels, and put on the lid. After those pop, pour in more kernels (about enough for a single layer on the bottom of the skillet, IIRC) and wait. Dump popped corn onto newspaper on kitchen table, melt butter in hot skillet, pour over popcorn, then add salt.
What’s the point of the newspaper?
Staying on top of current events, obviously.
::shrugs:: We didn’t have a bowl big enough to put it in to evenly distribute the butter and salt. Also, at that time, Dayton had two daily papers (same company, but two opposing political editorial positions,) and I think we may have gotten both. (Dad worked as a linotype operator there.)
We have this:
https://www.amazon.com/Whirley-Pop-Popper-Kit-Theater-Inclusive/dp/B00004SU35?th=1
Popcorn perfection.
We had a similar contraption, and a gas stove.
Everyone died, years before meet neutrality took the rest of us out.
*the end of net neutrality
That’s cool, if I still had kids, I think I would pick one up.
I haven’t made popcorn in years.
Now I am going to be flooding with popcorn recommendations at Amazon.
We use this and it works pretty well. Doesn’t pop all of the kernels though.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1CJNXH/
You will never get 100% pop rate, some kernels are simply defective.
GL, got something similar from my sister & BIL for Christmas, but haven’t tried it yet.
are you payed by amazon or do you flood as a hobby?
I drink as a hobby.
I’ve had a few of those. Work great but unfortunately the mechanical parts tend to break.
We did that for years, too. We’d buy a big bag of popcorn at GFS for cheap, and cook it on the stove in a dutch oven.
It doesn’t sound like the programs where you get a discount in exchange for allowing them to cut your power at peak times. It’s a discount for reductions in use. It also isn’t uncapped demand pricing.
The French are getting evicted from Burkina Faso – in favor of… the Russians?
https://twitter.com/jcokechukwu/status/1617147857819111425
We live in a weird, weird world.
Very interesting. Even more so that Wagner seems to so easily deal with the terrorists. I am of two minds – 1. Russia was in control of the terrorists all along, they walk in and the trouble stops, like paying the mafia to not burn down your business. Or 2: Europe is so damn incompetent they can’t brutally hunt down and murder terrorists, and Russia has gotten quite good at it.
I don’t know which way to go.
Why not both?
I mean, if they’re running the terrorists, they can’t trust the terrorists to not keep agitating, and have the info to find them all…
“I don’t know, why do you think they gave us these ATM cards”
The opposition needs time to find out how to pay off the new warlords… They already knew where to send the bribes in France. (works either way) If the terrorists get new supplies of good weapons, then you know who they were paying.
I don’t think the Russians ever stopped. It’s a lot easier if you don’t pretend about niceties (Afghanistan, Chechnya, etc.).
The left – always accuse their enemies of hat they are doing. Always.
An FBI official who investigated Trump for illegal ties to Russia but found none has just been arrested for his own illegal ties to Russia
Is this guy serious?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwIFMCKlVK8
Its hard to tell…but we know people exist that cannot wrap their brains around new information that is contrary to their entrenched beliefs.
that was years ago who cares
WDATPDIM?
The whole Trump/Russia thing was cooked up in the first place because Hillary had a “Russia problem”.
With that logic we could also say that Trumps classified documents issue is because Biden had a ‘classified document problem’; which honestly, is probably closer to truth than fiction.
It did come first ironically enough.
I honestly never considered that… until now.
Thomas Massie asks some crazy questions:
If someone fakes COVID vaccine credentials, is anyone harmed? If so, who is injured? If there is no victim, what is the crime?
Pfizer and Moderna obviously.
-1 lying to federal agents
No victim, no crime.
Now I have Bob Marley singing that in my head.
If the vaccines prevented transmission, potentially many people could be harmed. But they don’t so no victims.
The State is the victim, as is evidenced by the charges brought against that Utah doctor.
From the dead thread IJ link. Lots of things wrong about that case from start to finish but to frame her as some saintly grandmother that suddenly received a $2M fine out of the blue is a bit disingenuous.
I hate the appellation ‘grandmother’when used in relation to government misdeeds.
We should have just as much sympathy (maybe more?) For everyone else.
Dumb pet peeve, but there your have it.
Don’t you know?? Mothers are saintlier than childless women, and grandmothers are saintly squared./MY pet peeve.
In these things I tend to trust Justice Gorsuch, and he was not pleased with the denial of cert.
“If we don’t call it a fine, it’s not a fine.”
“If we don’t call it a tax, it’s not a tax.”
Sad to see SCOTUS falling into post-modernist magical thinking. They even have a Justice now who doesn’t know what the word “woman” refers to until an expert tells her.
I agree that the bypass of protections by calling it a civil penalty shouldn’t be allowed. Neither should forced disclosure of wrongdoing by using civil discovery or mandatory certification on tax returns unrelated to the return itself. Add to that abusive court procedures & legal system against representing yourself (not mentioned why someone with at least $4 in cash assets would be representing herself), coercion against foreign governments and financial entities regarding account disclosures, and the bullshit foreign accounts laws that punish ex-pats and others.
The BSA is akin to RICO. We must get organized crime and terrorists even if we have to punish people who aren’t.
Kuntemala is at it again.
We are here together because we collectively believe and know, America is a promise, America is a promise—it is a promise of freedom and liberty. Not for some, but for all. A promise that we made in the Declaration of Independence that we are each endowed with the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
No one in this admin can do quotes correctly.
I doubt they can even think in private.
Robc certainly won:t be taking their thoughts and profiting by them!
No one in government can. Lets be honest, they are all hacks.
I saw that quote recently, but didn’t realize the context was her defending abortion. My goodness these people are beyond the pale.
SOP. They already ignore parts of the Constitution they don’t like.
I’m getting sick of these knowledge transfer sessions. The people who are supposed to be learning flip between “Completely Disengaged” to “Rude and Pushy” at the drop of a hat. I just want to go “Fuck off now.” to the lot of them.
Unrelated good news – as of today, my car should be paid off.
Woot.
Woo hoo!
My CU is preparing to roll out a service via their online transaction site (don’t call it “online banking”) where you can check your credit score and get tips on improving it. Employees could beta test it last week, and the only suggestion they had for me was to add some installment debt to my revolving credit (the CU credit card I pay off in full each month.) Thanks, but no thanks! I’ll drive this car ’til its wheels fall off (not just until their rims are dented.)
My credit card company has that. It really doesn’t help people who have managed their money decently already. And for those who haven’t, I don’t think they’d be able to stick to suggestions out of a computer. Something about changing habits.
The proper term is “online credit unioning”.
Ted’S gets it! 🤜🏼🤛🏼
We have two that are paid off. One that is 4/5ths paid, and another one that has a long way to go.
If it ain’t broke, break it
The spokescandies are a team of cartoon M&Ms mascots that have represented the brand in commercials and other marketing materials since 1960. Early last year, the candy brand updated the cartoons and its marketing, rebranding each mascot with a new backstory, clothing and personality to be more inclusive.
The green M&M, for example, had previously drawn criticism for being marketed as too sexy, so the company switched out her knee-high heeled boots for sneakers and put more emphasis on her feminist values. “Orange” became a mascot riddled with anxiety, and the company added a new purple M&M, which was designed to represent inclusivity.
I thought purple represented royalty and the Pope. Not inclusive, man.
99.99% of people just want to eat a fucking piece of chocolate.
I would prefer my chocolate not be fucking.
Don’t ask what’s inside the creme-filled ones. 😳
At least we’re tackling the big problems in society.
Reminds me of an episode of Psych I saw recently. Gus was trying to claim Grimace as a brother. Shawn: “He’s purple!”
99.99% of people just want to eat a fucking piece of chocolate.
All I require from this candy treat is that it melts in my mouth, and not in my hand. Is that really so much to ask?
Sorry, that simple pleasure now includes two tons of emotional baggage.
Unrelated good news – as of today, my car should be paid off.
Woot.
Time for a new one; bigger, more complex, (much) more expensive.
DO YOUR PART.
I decline.
In the last year, we’ve made some changes to our beloved spokescandies. We weren’t sure if anyone would even notice
If you didn’t expect/want people to notice, you wouldn’t have bothered.
This does not mean Carlson and whatever other shrieking baboons are wound up over this aren’t hysterical idiots.
where you can check your credit score and get tips on improving it.
Pay your bills.
What did I win?
A good, but not great credit score.
Maybe even just “Fair”.
The proof that I am right about IP…the framers needed to make a special exception in the constitution:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
If IP was like other property, for one thing, the time wouldnt be limited. This clause is entirely utilitarian.
Never heard of the 99 year lease?
Yes I have, and doesnt the UK have like 499 year ones also?
That is why common law (at least in the US) has something against perpetuities in contracts. IANAL so I will let RC Dean or something go into more detail.
So the concept of time-limited “ownership” of property is not limited to IP.
But those leases are created by the original owner, who stills owns the property and gets it back at the end. That isnt at all the same.
You could easily argue that under the constitution, the original owner of the IP is all people, who still get it back in the end.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999-year_lease
Thanks to the Aussies’ infatuation with Henry George at the time, all property in Australia Capital Territory is 99 year leases, the first of which expire this year.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/curious-canberra/2016-07-04/can-people-own-land-in-the-act/7550166
So far, the ACT is renewing expirations with only a hundred to several hundred AUS administrative fee.
Easiest fix is to go back to that specific language – authors and inventors only, not their heirs – and limited time (absolutely not beyond death). Reward the creator. And not artificial persons (corporations).
The doesn’t address the non-exclusivity characteristic of it as property.
Fun (alleged*) fact: Irving Berlin outlived his copyright on “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”
*(Disclaimer: I haven’t yet found online confirmation of this tidbit I heard years ago.)
Correct. IP is a legal fiction created by the founding fathers to encourage publication of writings and discoveries.
If you can’t make money by publishing your work (or having your earnings severely limited by other people publishing your work), then you don’t publish. Story telling remains an oral tradition where the story teller can control the audience.
If you can’t stop competitors from copying your work and reducing your market, then you keep everything a secret. Secrets are hard to keep, so only very small circles of people are allowed to know and punishment is severe for letting secrets out. This makes changing employers extremely difficult.
I expect the industrial revolution was have been severely restricted without patents.
In my opinion, the vast majority of problems with IP were created by legislators long after the founding fathers wrote the constitution. Copyright is a complete cluster fuck. Patents have a ton of problems.
+1 Samuel Slater
Disney agrees. IP should not be time limited.
One more MAGAt terrorist is off the streets.
The Arkansas man who was photographed on Jan. 6, 2021, with his foot up on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk has been found guilty of eight criminal charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding.
CBS appears gleeful over the results of these persecutions.
Goldstein deserves to be hated, comrade.
Animal,
I just got a chance to read your story. Can’t wait for the end. I do appreciate a good end of the world story told by some random schlubbs.