Sunday Morning Links

by | Feb 19, 2023 | Daily Links | 190 comments

These are Links. They start with a funny or sad or attempt-at-interesting anecdote, move on to birthdays, then Links, followed by Old Guy Music. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Birthdays today include a guy with crazy-ass ideas about the sun; a guy who could really rate; an artist whose most famous sculpture could have been called “Banana in a Bic Pen Holder”; an actual tough guy who played tough guys; a union tool who was famous for a shower; a guy who never got the whole “intersectional” thing; a guy who was Jethro Tull’s guitarist and played for some other band as well; and an asshole who was instrumental in ruining a sport we used to love.

Links.

 

I hope that the end for this alive-too-long evil fuck is painful and undignified. The whitewashing and sanctifying after he snuffs it will be difficult to stand.

 

Which one is the troll and thief is an open question. It will, of course, be settled by politics rather than careful examination of facts.

 

Jimmy Carter would approve.

 

The answer is always, “More laws, more government, more ‘investment.'”

 

Is this the dumbest human allowed to walk around free?

 

Admittedly, it’s a tough competition.

 

I’m gaining a better understanding of Pie.

 

Old Guy Music.

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.

190 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Also that PiL album.

    • Count Potato

      I had the CD called “Compact Disc” and the poster, which read “Poster”.

  2. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

    L’chaim!

  3. Count Potato

    Are you implying Jethro Tull was better than Black Sabbath?

    • Tonio

      ^Thick as a brick, this one.

      • Count Potato

        Well, that’s how I read it.

      • Shirley Knott

        It’s all just a passion play, but we’ll give you the benefit because you’re a stand up guy.

      • Tonio

        Well, OMWC does sit on park benches and eyes little girls with bad intent, after all.

      • juris imprudent

        There’s a lot of skating away on the thin ice of a new day going on here.

        [Edit Fairy blesses you, schedules your appointment with a hunting girl.]

      • Tres Cool

        Its Sunday. Have a Hymn.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I wouldn’t imply that, I’d come right out and say it.

      • Tres Cool

        Ozzy Black Sabbath? Or Dio ?

      • Shirley Knott

        Entire career arc.

      • Count Potato

        At least you have the courage to be wrong.

      • Lackadaisical

        Besides the wizard, war pigs and faeries wear boots…

        I think I like more Jethro Tull songs, and they have a more unique sound.

      • Count Potato

        Well, having a lead flute is unique. Although plenty of other prog rock bands were doing folksy pentatonic stuff.

        Although Black Sabbath had a unique sound at the time they started. It’s just that we’ve heard 55 years worth of metal bass playing and heavily distorted guitar since then.

      • Not Adahn

        The Grammy voters agree with you.

  4. Count Potato

    Well, it is the Year of the Water Rabbit.

  5. Grumbletarian

    So CA wants to create a black market for tobacco now?

    • Trigger Hippie

      For years now I’ve been telling y’all that organized crime has been trading in tobacco. Missouri has(or did have) the cheapest tobacco products in the nation. Grab a box truck,, hit the many, many, large tobacco outlits scattered along the highways in the state, pay off the manager to fudge the numbers as to when the sales took place, load up back with as many cartons as possible, then drive to a state with absurd tobacco prices. Take a fifty dollar carton in Missouri and sell it for seventy-five in a state where it costs one hundred. Stuff a thousand cartons in a truck and you had yourself a profitable little road trip. Of course, a distribution network has to already be in place for that to work so don’t try this at home, kids.

      • Tonio

        Ahem, I’m from Virginia (where the Marlboros come from) and northbound truckers have long stopped here to stock up on cartons for resale in NY, etc.

      • Ted S.

        +1 Eric Garner

      • Trigger Hippie

        I understand Illinois has become the go-to destination in the Midwest to offload your illegal tobacco products.

      • Tonio

        Hey, they’re legal here.

      • LCDR_Fish

        It’s like the comparison with the Sheetz (and cigarette only shops) on 301 just south of the Maryland bridge.

      • Threedoor

        Indians making bank.

  6. Trigger Hippie

    ‘Is this the dumbest human allowed to walk around free?’

    Penn, who appears in almost every scene of the two-hour movie made for Vice Media, said he was okay with being called a “propagandist”.

    “We made a very unapologetically biased film because that was the true story we found,” he said.

    Unapologetically biased truth is the best kind of truth.

    • Tres Cool

      He could’ve quit after Fast Times.

      • Ted S.

        At Close Range is pretty darn good.

      • Ted S.

        There’s also The Falcon and the Snowman, although I think David Suchet deserves the acting honors there.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Definitely his best role with Bad Boys being his close second and downhill ever since.

    • SDF-7

      Fetter minus Lump… Harris… Stacey Abrams… the harpies on The View… too much competition!

    • rhywun

      Penn argues that Ukraine could be now seen as “the better us” — a new global beacon for freedom and democracy.

      I… just, wow.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He’s either a special kind of liar or a special kind of stupid. I’d guess it’s the latter.

      • Ted S.

        Why not both?

      • rhywun

        He’s been a tool for decades so yeah I would go with “both”.

      • juris imprudent

        He’s too fucking stupid to even know he’s lying.

      • Lackadaisical

        But he is very useful.

      • juris imprudent

        About like a wrench.

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        Didn’t he say the exact same thing about Valenzuela?

      • Shpip

        Nah, that film was a screwball comedy.

  7. Tonio

    “Lorem ipsit dolor” for the WIN!

  8. Gender Traitor

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

    Fun literary fact: There’s a character in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series who, as a young child, speaks only Lorem Ipsum.

    I, for one, enjoy your anecdotes. Hope for more soon.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Hah, I really like that series, but know very few Americans familiar with it.

      • Gender Traitor

        I almost certainly got wind of it due to my avid, rabid fandom of Jodi Taylor’s (another Brit writer) Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. I never finished the Thursday Next series – I think at some point I got frustrated because some long overarching (romantic) story arc wasn’t getting resolved to my satisfaction. Perhaps I should give it another go (after I finish Taylor’s St. Mary’s spinoff series featuring the Time Police.)

      • Shirley Knott

        Likewise. It’s a crying shame Shades of Grey wound up published near in time to 59 Shades of Gray, and was swamped by it. I doubt we’ll ever see the promised sequel. 🙁

      • Shirley Knott

        Sigh 50 dammit, 50, not 59. Consanguinity iPad ‘keyboard’.

      • Shirley Knott

        Consarn, dammit. Someday I’ll start proofreading before hitting sned ;-\

      • Gender Traitor

        I, for one, am impressed that the iPad has “consanguinity” in its vocabulary.

      • Ted S.

        69 Shades of Gray would have been more appropriate anyway.

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        They sold OK, not great but not bad. Mostly off the gushing reviews from when the first book came out.

  9. Tonio

    Florin Stoican (from the Romanian Trovant article) is the best libertarian name, ever.

    • Sean

      Hehe

  10. R C Dean

    “The impetus for the bill is really that we’ve known for 50 years that tobacco and nicotine products cause cancer, are incredibly addictive and decrease quality of life,”

    As far as I know, nicotine doesn’t cause cancer. And whether tobacco increases or not quality of life is up to the user, not this tool.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Nicotine is not a carcinogen, it’s the delivery system.

      • Count Potato

        But it still probably applies to vaping.

      • rhywun

        Yes, that is why they slipped “and nicotine” in there.

        It’s moral preening. Remember that when your health insurance treats “vaping” exactly like “smoking” (and cigarettes exactly like cigars).

    • Trigger Hippie

      It sure is complimenting my coffee rather nicely at the moment.

      • Tres Cool

        Its been nearly 10 years since I quit smoking and almost daily I miss that pairing.

      • Zwak, my pronouns are Ass/Asshole

        This guy gets it. I pine for Camels every single day.

      • Fourscore

        No smokes for almost 50 years. It’s the first 49 that were the toughest.

        Nah, I started running after I quit smoking. It was easy to quit running after a few years, about 15 or so.

      • Ted S.

        It’s telling your coffee how nice it is?

    • Brett L

      And what if your nicotine is entirely derived from some other member of the nightshade family? I believe the Simpsons covered the tomacco.

      • Count Potato

        Juice manufacturers are moving to synthetic nicotine.

      • Lackadaisical

        Honestly I have a hard time believing that nicotine doesn’t have negative side effects, it is a pesticide afterall. None of that matters in regards to someone’s right to take it.

      • juris imprudent

        So does alcohol. That doesn’t make it someone else’s business to decide if you are permitted to consume it.

      • hayeksplosives

        When I bought my Minnesota house in 2006, the flowerbeds were very neglected and overgrown so I thinned them out and tried to figure out what was growing there. Turns out a LOT of deadly nightshade (belladonna), foxglove (digitalis), monkshood (aka wolf’s bane), hemlock, and daphne.

        I wonder what the heck the planter of that garden did in her spare time?

  11. Ted S.

    an actual tough guy who played tough guys;

    Happy birthday George Raft?

    • Count Potato

      I would have gone with Lenny McLean.

  12. Ted S.

    Is this the dumbest human allowed to walk around free?

    That’s not an article about Joe Biden.

    It’s also not about Maxine Waters.

  13. SDF-7

    Textus filli diversus fuit.

    Which one is the troll and thief is an open question. It will, of course, be settled by politics rather than careful examination of facts.

    This sort of thing is why I think modern day patents are way too generous in their application (and why I probably frustrate my management chain because everything I do is either obvious with knowledge of the field or iterative based on prior work). Using improved sensors to put a pulse / ekg monitor in a wearable is not an innovative idea — granting a patent for it is, imho — stupid. But I’m not God Emperor of the Universe… so yeah, we’ll just see how this pans out, I guess.

    • hayeksplosives

      At least 20 years ago I wore a pulse and EKG monitor while exercising. It went around the rib cage just under the bustline, so not a watch, but yeah, who can patent the ability to capture signals that the human body naturally makes readily available at the skin surface?

  14. SDF-7

    ‘Orning ‘ordles before I step back over to trying to get something for work… working…

    Daily Duotrigordle #354
    Guesses: 36/37
    Time: 05:47.19
    https://duotrigordle.com/

    Daily Quordle 391
    7️⃣4️⃣
    8️⃣6️⃣
    quordle.com

    • rhywun

      I’ll take it.

      Daily Quordle 391
      3️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣7️⃣

    • Grosspatzer

      Was considering UL as seed word, bailed at the last minute. Still did OK.

      Daily Quordle 391
      6️⃣4️⃣
      3️⃣5️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 391
      6️⃣7️⃣
      4️⃣5️⃣

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 391
      4️⃣7️⃣
      5️⃣3️⃣

  15. The Late P Brooks

    This California bill would bar you from ever buying a tobacco product

    Why hasn’t anyone ever tried this before?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      She’s small boned and growing up during periodic famines doesn’t do much for one’s overall stature.

    • rhywun

      We are literally going through a cultural revolution in America.

      Yup.

      • dbleagle

        Nork defectors stand out in South Korean society because most are shorter than your average ROK citizen. In 1953 Koreans were the same average height. In the 70 years since, the south has grown taller (and more busty for Q) and the north is the only place on the planet where the average size has diminished.

  16. Stinky Wizzleteats

    The tobacco ban sets a hell of a precedent and it just amazes me that people are too stupid to see it. Let these health Puritan cocksuckers run hog wild and you’ll also be waving goodbye to sweets, alcohol, and the beloved weed. There are so many beloved products available that aren’t that great for you that it’d open quite can of worms.

    • rhywun

      Maybe. But the tobacco ban is really about culture, not health.

      Weed is totally cool now, so no bans there.

      They’re working hard on making sugar socially unacceptable so maybe.

      We already went through the same panic with alcohol – who knows if they’re ready to take that one on again.

      • Sean

        Lowering excessive sugar levels would be a good thing. Won’t happen.

      • Fourscore

        Pssssst. Wanna buy some real honey? Pure glucose, guaranteed. Every jar has a bee in it, as proof. Only got this one left.

    • LCDR_Fish

      I look forward to the inevitable clash between this and the body positivity movement (healthy at any size).

      • Pine_Tree

        There won’t be a clash, because this part of it is about control, not health. And both of them are two parts of the same army in the kulturkrieg. They’re on the same side and they know it.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Yeah….but once they start talking about banning actual “foods” the intersectionality will start breaking down and I’m all for it.

      • juris imprudent

        Nope, because everyone of those brave intersectional-believing sheep are cowards first and foremost. They will pout and cry about losing their status as a glorified victim, but they aren’t about to stand up to anyone, least of all their ‘allies’.

      • Pine_Tree

        Oh I’m all for it also, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen. I’ve just gotten to the point (whatever-color-pilled-it-is-now) that I think they’ll ride their new religion into the ground, and take us all with it. Like how suddenly they all believed the gas stove thing. And the food piece will be incremental enough that it’ll have the boiled frog effect, etc.

        I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.

  17. Ted S.

    The answer is always, “More laws, more government, more ‘investment.’”

    Yeah, one of the civil lawsuits over the Schoharie limousine crash asserts that a company illegally performed an inspection on the limousine, yet grandstanding politicians are still claiming new laws would solve the problem.

    • Tres Cool

      Good Lord….its been dragging out for 5 years?
      You should tie that into the previous James Dean comment you made.

  18. Ted S.

    a guy who never got the whole “intersectional” thing

    James Dean’s birthday was a week and a half ago.

    • hayeksplosives

      oooooooh

      Too soon.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Connolly said his bill is a logical progression from the statewide flavored tobacco ban, which also was intended to discourage young people from using tobacco products.

    It’s all downhill from here.

    • Tres Cool

      Wasn’t this administration talking about a ban on menthol and other “flavored” tobacco ? And they knew their “base voters” *ahem* wouldn’t stand for that?

      • rhywun

        Same is happening in NY.

        Guess what? They don’t give a flying fuck about, uh, menthol fans – their support for Dems will drop from 90% to what, 85%? The horror.

      • juris imprudent

        The best kind of plantation – where they don’t even think about running away.

    • juris imprudent

      As with every politician determined to save other people from themselves – I hope he dies a long and excruciating death.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    telling the Berlin film festival Saturday the movie was also a wakeup call about Americans’ own fragile democracy.

    Of course it is.

    • Ted S.

      To be fair, the Biden administration and the rest of the Beltway Class is doing everything it can to destroy democratic values in the US.

    • rhywun

      European film festival award bait.

      They are going to eat that shit up.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Apparently Blinken is warning the Chinese to not go poking their noses where they don’t belong. That’s our job.

  22. Count Potato

    “Which social media firms are tracking you the most? How TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and WeChat are all harvesting your data – and how to stop them

    A cyber security firm has revealed the apps hoovering up the most personal data
    TikTok was labelled as the biggest offender, scoring higher than Russian site VK”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/uk-science-tech-weekend-features-project/article-11749143/TikTok-leads-way-social-media-firms-tracking-people-most.html

    But balloons are the problem?

    • rhywun

      This is controversial because “deep Christians” hate vegetables or something.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I blame Veggie Tales.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Woke would be selling that exclusively. If people want to buy that disgusting sounding concoction willingly instead of real yardbird then more power to them. That being said, it does sound like a stupid misread of their customer base but woke it ain’t.

    • Pine_Tree

      CFA does some odd things on their menu sometimes (like that kale salad that appeared back when the cool kids were pretending kale was food), but yeah, a deep-fried hunk of cauliflower on a buttered white-bread bun doesn’t scream either “woke” or “vegan”.

      I’m thinking it’s mostly an arbitrage thing. They found something they can buy for virtually nothing for awhile and try to sell it at a ridiculous premium

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Horror story

    A group of squatters linked to a car theft ring returned to the Washington state property they illegally colonized during the pandemic last week after they were removed by a SWAT team.

    Some 30 officers took in the Wednesday raid of the Lynnwood, Wash., home and found drugs and guns on the property, along with 52 cars – some of them stolen, according to KIRO 7 News.

    Five people were arrested after cops corralled a group of squatters who had been living there in “unhealthy and unstable conditions” in the “short term and long term” and had “no ownership” of the home, according to police.

    The owner and neighbors reportedly said the “criminals” had been illegally living on the property since the state and federal government placed a moratorium on evictions as COVID-19 first spread across the country.

    “They took over the house and we couldn’t collect a dollar of rent, and have a mortgage,” Laleh Kashani, the owner of the property, told the outlet.

    The suspects illegally reclaimed the property after the raid, even though the locks had been changed.

    “We changed the locks and they even broke that. So they should at least be arrested for breaking in, and they didn’t do that,” Kashani said.

    Lieutenant David Hayes of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office told Fox New Digital that it was “largely on the property owner” to prevent the suspects from returning.

    ——-

    Kashani says the continued situation had her considering leaving the state, as frustration reached a boiling point.

    “I literally cry,” she said. “I’m going to give up, I’m going to lose my house. Whatever we owe on it, let the bank take it.”

    Burn it down, and shoot whoever comes out.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Pafuckingthetic and if she booby traps the place or blasts somebody they’ll charge the hell out of her.

    • rhywun

      These squatter stories are everywhere. Was it Joe or Donald who did this one, I don’t recall.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Donald started the moratorium, Joe extended it.

      • Threedoor

        Jay Inslee

    • R C Dean

      “Lieutenant David Hayes of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office told Fox New Digital that it was “largely on the property owner” to prevent the suspects from returning.”

      And when they break in after the locks are changed, doesn’t that make it your problem, Lt. Hughes? I doubt Lt. Hughes wants property owners to take more, err, aggressive measures to prevent squatting.

  24. juris imprudent

    The RealClear headline was no silver bullets to solve crime. I of course thought lead bullets are more than adequate. Then again, when California believes it’s state police power is meant to establish a police state – the idea of over-reach may be passé.

    • rhywun

      State leaders — governors, legislators and agency officials — share the goal of advancing safety and justice in 2023.

      Can’t make it past this whopper.

  25. KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

    Jimmy Carter’s demise will be good for a day off work, though.

    • juris imprudent

      I don’t remember a day off when GHW Bush passed. I’m I just forgetting it?

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        DC-based people have generally gotten the day off for Presidential funerals, if they take place in DC.

        So even though I don’t live in DC, they may shut down the office on the day of the funeral.

        See?

      • SDF-7

        Shouldn’t Carter’s funeral be less for the hoi polloi and more for the plains?

      • rhywun

        I can probably fly down there for peanuts.

      • Fourscore

        Well, OK, but just don’t make it a habitat.

      • dbleagle

        All the puns, humanity will curse us.

      • Ted S.

        You’re lusting in your heart for a day off, aren’t you?

      • hayeksplosives

        You’re on fire this morning.

  26. Shpip

    As Vox’s Umair Irfan explained: “Rail workers, government officials, and industry analysts have long warned that such disasters are an expected consequence of an industry that has aggressively cut costs, slashed its workforce, and resisted regulation for years.”

    But, as we’ve seen, derailments have gone down from around 1400 per year during the Obama administration to around 1100 per year now. So by Vox’s “logic,” more cost cutting, workforce slashing, and regulation resisting should be the proper course of action. But that won’t feather any beds, of course.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Guess what? They don’t give a flying fuck about, uh, menthol fans – their support for Dems will drop from 90% to what, 85%? The horror.

    What are they gonna do? Vote for a Republican?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Jimmy Carter’s demise will be good for a day off work, though.

    The town will be awash in crocodile tears.

    • juris imprudent

      You know, we should all look back on that and learn the lesson that outsiders don’t really bring change to DC. He had majorities in both sides of Congress and couldn’t get his agenda enacted. And zero based budgeting was a good idea. Trump was personally an anti-Carter, but partisan-wise he was the same.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Was it Joe or Donald who did this one, I don’t recall.

    That idiot Trump signed the original rent moratorium order, and handed authority for it to Foochy.

    • rhywun

      I wonder if anyone has even bothered looking into how many property owners had their lives ruined over that.

      There is so much to unpack from the last six years I can almost understand why not.

      • juris imprudent

        Trump fucking over the property-owning class – so much irony.

    • R C Dean

      I think, if DeSantis runs and is willing to drop the gloves, he can clean Trump’s clock in the primary by hanging the pandemic response around Trump’s neck. The disastrous vax, the disastrous spending, the disastrous rent moratorium, the disastrous mask/social distancing requirements and “guidance”, the choice to listen to Fauci and Birx over Atlas, the list goes on.

      • Count Potato

        The problem is that the MSM wants Trump to win the primary.

      • hayeksplosives

        This is true.

    • Gender Traitor

      Obviously in the pocket of Big Pickleball.

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        GT saw it

    • rhywun

      I wonder what “housing acquisition” means and why his constituents have to pay for it.

      • R C Dean

        Every single item grows spending, yet the word is never used.

        And who says his constituents will pay for “housing acquisition”, with all that freshly printed federal cash sloshing around?

      • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

        Yeah, that’s the crazy part

  30. The Late P Brooks

    And zero based budgeting was a good idea.

    Carter wasn’t all bad. A lot of what he gets blamed for was the inevitable result of Nixon’s imbecility.

    • juris imprudent

      And LBJ’s excesses (the guns and butter of the Great Society).

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Hunter-gatherer societies never had these problems

    What happened in East Palestine is a cruel reminder of what can happen for millions of people who live near railways throughout the U.S., said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist in the health and environment program of the the Natural Resources Defense Council, environmental nonprofit.

    There is “a really big risk” of what occurred in East Palestine happening in other communities, Sass said.

    “Rail lines crisscrossing the country are carrying hazardous materials, including materials that are explosive, and including materials that will become airborne if they’re released,” Sass said.

    Just this week another Norfolk Southern train carrying at least one car with liquid chlorine derailed outside of Detroit. In that case, no chemicals were released, local public safety officials said.

    But there are things that the industry, individuals and their communities can do to better protect themselves from potential hazards of similar chemical spills, Sass and other health and chemical safety experts told NPR.

    Learn to herd goats.

    • Grumbletarian

      Risks for chemical spills are high

      And I’m out.

    • Tres Cool

      Someone ask Butti-chug what sorts of nasty materials travel all over US interstates at every hour of every day.

      • The Last American Hero

        Racist materials, that’s what kind!

    • creech

      One of the chicks on Fox’s “Five” came perilously close to suggesting all hazardous chemicals be transported in separate trains moving ten miles per hour preceded by a guy on horseback shouting “death is coming.”

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Paging Bob Beamon…

    Congress, the White House and now the US Supreme Court are all focusing their attention on a federal law that’s long served as a legal shield for online platforms.

    This week, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on two pivotal cases dealing with online speech and content moderation. Central to the arguments is “Section 230,” a federal law that’s been roundly criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for different reasons but that tech companies and digital rights groups have defended as vital to a functioning internet.

    Tech companies involved in the litigation have cited the 27-year-old statute as part of an argument for why they shouldn’t have to face lawsuits alleging they gave knowing, substantial assistance to terrorist acts by hosting or algorithmically recommending terrorist content.

    That’s quite a leap.

  33. Pine_Tree

    I might write something when Carter passes – dunno. Not about the presidency, or policies, or whatever, but about who he IS – and why and how that touched all of those public things. And I’ve never met him, but in a bunch of ways I was/am the same or pretty adjacent – enough to (I think) understand some things that most might not.

    Here’s what I mean: it’s a stew of “small-town Southern man”, oldest son, smartest guy in the room for his entire youth, and growing up in a culture where his religion and society were intermeshed in a way that was detrimental to the former – where it was over-connected with social propriety and therapeutic moralism.

    All of that turns out a certain kind of person, and most of what everybody saw in public office and his post-presidency is directly traceable to that. Good and bad, in the end I think he was a prisoner of it.

    • R.J.

      I would like to read that.

    • mikey

      Love the description of Carter – I’d like to see an article.

  34. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    …an actual tough guy who played tough guys…

    I finally guessed one!

    Terrific Old Guy Music today. I think that’s the first I’ve ever heard them.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Tech critics have called for added legal exposure and accountability. “The massive social media industry has grown up largely shielded from the courts and the normal development of a body of law. It is highly irregular for a global industry that wields staggering influence to be protected from judicial inquiry,” wrote the Anti-Defamation League in a Supreme Court brief.

    We exist to sue people who say things we don’t like. This is unfair restraint of trade.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Since 2016, when social media platforms’ role in spreading Russian election disinformation broke open a national dialogue about the companies’ handling of toxic content, Democrats have increasingly railed against Section 230.

    Civil society experts agree: censorship is needed.

    • rhywun

      social media platforms’ role in spreading Russian election disinformation

      OFFS

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Repeat a lie enough, even a verified lie, and it becomes the truth.

    • creech

      What, exactly, did this “misinformation” consist of? That Hillary was an evil lying cunte? Didn’t we all know that already ( even by most who voted for her,)?

  37. The Late P Brooks

    So close


    Vice President Harris had to switch planes on Saturday during her trip home from Europe after technical issues grounded Air Force Two.

    Harris, who was speaking at the Munich Security Conference, boarded a C-17 support plane to head back to Washington.

    “Due to maintenance difficulties, the VP and the traveling party will depart Munich to Washington, D.C., on a backup aircraft,” a Biden administration official told reporters on Saturday.

    That problem wasn’t supposed to appear until they were in the air. Better luck next time.

    • Bob Boberson

      Does Kamala have the reputation Hilldog has for being abusive and generally shit toward underlings? Because I can only imagine how awful it would be to be a C-17 Loadmaster transporting a bunch of pissy politicians angry they aren’t getting the red carpet treatment for a few hours.

      • R.J.

        Yes, she does. Apparently she is an absolute asshole.

      • The Last American Hero

        Is she or does she just talk to everyone like they are 5 years old because that’s how she talks?

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        That trait would itself make her a raging asshole.

      • dbleagle

        The AF has a VIP unit that they load into C-17’s. It is a large van with an apartment inside of it. The VIP goes in there and enjoys life. The staff sit in red canvas seats along the walls of the aircraft. Kammie was just fine.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I’m betting that ride back was a real treat for the military personnel on board.

        I’m also sure she’ll make a bad joke about it being racist, followed by that cackle

      • Gustave Lytton

        I wonder if her backup had the Airstream vip pods or a more ordinary C17. I can see the anti-kamala faction sticking her in web seats for 18 hours. And her whining but not really doing anything about it.

      • Bob Boberson

        But of course they have VP pods

        SMDH

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hah!

        Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but apparently there are no reporters traveling with her and snapped a picture of the interior. Did find footage of her motorcade, and… US vehicles were flying the German flag alongside the US one! The horrors! Traitorous!

      • Ted S.

        Would the military approve pictures of the interior?

    • rhywun

      What really happened is Zyy got AF2 after their love-fest in Munich.

    • westernsloper

      Maybe this has been asked and answered, but who owns Norfolk Southern and how are they connected to the Democratic party?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Publicly traded, so the usual institutional investors.

      • westernsloper

        Lots of publicly traded companies are owned/ran/most shares held by an individual person. Who is that person?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Not that hard to answer. Cya release part of drafting a permission slip, no one thinks twice about it until it hits the media and then PR spinners claim it was accidentally included when it becomes apparent how bad it looks. Hey, no one at a senior level signed off on it specifically, so it wasn’t really approved (even though it didn’t require such approval and never did before).

  38. westernsloper

    Is this the dumbest human allowed to walk around free?

    JFC…… maybe?

    • Bob Boberson

      He has certain low cunning…..he manages to insert himself in the wrong side of politics and thereby keep himself relevant (to use the term loosely)

    • Gender Traitor

      The original Oompa Loompas were African pygmies and were changed to little orange guys in the first Willy Wonka movie (and maybe in subsequent editions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – I haven’t checked.)

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe this has been asked and answered, but who owns Norfolk Southern and how are they connected to the Democratic party?

    I don’t know, but the stock has cratered. I’m tempted to buy some.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    bowdlerization
    noun
    Expurgation of offensive or indelicate passages or words from an edited book or writing.
    the deletion of all passages considered to be indecent.
    The action or instance of bowdlerizing; the omission or removal of material considered vulgar or indecent.

    Forward, into the past!

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Actually, cratered isn’t the right word. Decimated, more like it.

    Only down ~10%