Thursday Afternoon Links

by | Nov 2, 2023 | Daily Links | 181 comments

BITING THE HANDS THAT FED HER: Heather Stark created a girl empowerment curriculum. “Before the pandemic, we partnered with schools to deliver our curriculum. When the shutdown occurred, we lost those partnerships, but we found the homeschool crowd. This community accepted us wholeheartedly.” They bought her product and paid her bills, and she then turned on them with a hit piece in the Huffington Post.

USED SCHOOLGIRL PANTY VENDING MACHINES OF PHOBOS: Okay, not really, but still awesome. Reference.

SPEAKING OF HOME SCHOOLING: “Home schooling has become — by a wide margin — America’s fastest-growing form of education, as families from Upper Manhattan to Eastern Kentucky embrace a largely unregulated practice once confined to the ideological fringe, a Washington Post analysis shows.” Totally unbiased there, WaPo. Largest growth in DC, NY, SD, RI, and CA; that’s a lot of defection from two high population, deep blue states. Granted, many home schoolers do mediocre jobs at best, but then again so do failed public schools and at least the home schooled are presumably much safer.

FINNISH STARTUP TOUTS NEW ALCOHOL PRODUCTION METHOD: Finland-based Aircohol has developed technology that enables captured carbon [from traditional fermentation processes] to be used as a raw material in the production of a new type of alcohol by breweries and distilleries. “We take that CO2 and feed it into Aircohol process,” ​Hämäläinen explained. “We have developed a unique bioreactor and a plant-based bioprocess that provides optimal growth conditions to grow and produce biomass.”

NEXT STARSHIP TEST LAUNCH INCHES TOWARDS GOVERNMENT APPROVAL: It’s pretty hard to reach for the stars when you are hobbled on earth. Space-X passed the FAA safety review, but is still waiting for their permission slip from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. And then, back to the FAA for a launch license.

MEA CULPA: I’ve been terrible about editorial duties and correspondence for a few months. New boyfriend, cycling, disc golf, general slackness. But the weather has turned cold and things have settled down. I have caught up with everyone, but if I haven’t please let me know.

About The Author

Tonio

Tonio

Tonio is a Glibs shitposter, linkstar (Thursday PM, yo), author, and editor. He is also a GlibZoom personality and prankster. Tonio is a big fan of pic-a-nic baskets. His hobbies include salmon fishing, territorial displays, dumpster diving, and posing for wildlife photographers.

181 Comments

    • Suthenboy

      Matt Damon always plays a smart guy. How Ironic is that?

      • Tonio

        Like rain on your wedding day.
        Like a free ride, when you’ve already paid…

      • thrakkorzog

        He can play against type sometimes. Will say he pulled off the most random cameo in Eurotrip since Vonnegut in Back to School.

      • robc

        Nah, Vonnegut played himself. The Eurotrip one was completely unexpected.

    • B.P.

      “(Did you know there was a non-threatening sort of vampire? Neither did I.)”

      Vampirism is on a spectrum.

      • UnCivilServant

        Vampirism is on a spectrum.

        From humanoid leech to ancient elder vampire.

      • SDF-7

        And ancient Giant Space Vampires that they used giant crossbow ships(!) against…

      • Sean

        😉

      • thrakkorzog

        I like the Discworld vampires that are genre savvy. Sure, they can be absolute scary monsters, or they can be goofy Hammer movie villains.

        The goofy ones are tolerated, treated like an opposing school team, while the ‘smart’ ones get put down hard.

    • The Other Kevin

      * Chef’s kiss

  1. R.J.

    I have Leather Goddesses of Phobos. Fantastic game.

    • SDF-7

      For some reason, I always thought it was a Leisure Suit Larry game… conflation, I suppose.

      • R.J.

        It was a text-only game. Several others like it, all great. There are good emulators for them now.

      • Nephilium

        The old Infocom games, some of which were infuriatingly obtuse. They always came with the best feelies (which were required to complete some games as an easy anti-piracy measure that wasn’t offensive).

      • R.J.

        Yeah. Thankfully there’s a million walkthroughs now on the interwebs to solve your woes. Back then you’d just be frustrated as Hell until a random friend came up with the right answer. Not sure which way is better.

      • rhywun

        Yeah. Staying up all night with a buddy during one of the school breaks playing these games (and trying to write one) is a fond memory.

        You don’t care about the obtuse when you’re 13 or 14.

      • thrakkorzog

        Speaking as someone who knows how to get the Babelfish, those games were insanely obtuse, and I shed no tears over the loss of that genre.

      • UnCivilServant

        My perfectly rational actions don’t do what makes sense

      • R.J.

        Yes! So true!

      • Nephilium

        As a young kid, I remember buying Bureaucracy because it was written by Douglas Adams. I never made it more than getting to the bank in that game until I picked it up much later in the Lost Treasures of Infocom box sets.

      • rhywun

        Planetfall was my favorite. Never got around to Leather Goddesses 🙁

      • rhywun

        LOL I played one of those with an older brother during a college break. Dumb fun.

    • Tonio

      Of course you do, RJ.

      Hey, look over there!

      [Administers Wet Willy]

    • Urthona

      I never completed a single one of those games as an 80s kid. Too hard.

      • thrakkorzog

        To be fair, they tend to not make any sense.

        Although I do like the Monkey Island one where you are tossed off the end of a pier with a 20 lb weight around your neck with a lot of tools to cut your way out, just out of reach. The solution was to just pick up the anchor and walk off with it.

      • UnCivilServant

        Spoilers!

        Though I do like that the time to drown was the ten minutes Guybrush claims he can hold his breath.

      • thrakkorzog

        The game is ~30 years old at this point. So I feel no shame in spoiling it. And that was one of the few ways you could die in a Lucasarts game. Well, outside of microwaving a hamster.

      • UnCivilServant

        The game is ~30 years old at this point

        *monotone*That’s the joke*/monotone*

        And why would you microwave a hamster?

      • thrakkorzog

        Video game logic.

        In Maniac Mansion, You get stuck, you have have a hamster, you have a room with a microwave, let’s see how they interact. It turns out not well.

      • Compelled Speechless

        You have to microwave the hamster. You need to thaw him out because you cryogenically freeze him in a hotel chest freezer for two hundred years. Then you need dry him off by putting a human sweater on him that you shrink down to hamster size by putting it in a dryer that runs for two hundred years by feeding it thousands of quarters that you stole out of a vending machine. If you don’t do that, you can’t use him to run on the hamster wheel that powers your time traveling toilet.

        ***I made none of that up, that is all actual solutions to puzzles in the game***

        As a child of the 90s, Lucasarts Adventure games were my jam.

      • thrakkorzog

        I mean that part is true as well. But just in the sequel.

      • R.J.

        I love those games so much. Nintendo Switch has them, and it also came out on Apple the past few years, with graphics completely remastered.

      • UnCivilServant

        I can’t get my head to think in point and click logic.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Calling it “logic” is a stretch. Most people probably need to read guides to figure it out, but once you know the solution, it almost always makes sense in a hilarious way. I miss that kind of entertainment. It’s just unapologetically goofy for it’s own sake. I think Sam & Max is my favorite.

      • thrakkorzog

        UGG, freaking Soda Poppers make me want to nail my ears closed

      • Urthona

        I played the Hitchhikers Guide one before I read the book and it was mystifying.

      • robc

        Having read the book didnt help much.

  2. SDF-7

    NEXT STARSHIP TEST LAUNCH INCHES TOWARDS GOVERNMENT APPROVAL: It’s pretty hard to reach for the stars when you are hobbled on earth. Space-X passed the FAA safety review, but is still waiting for their permission slip from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. And then, back to the FAA for a launch license.

    I seriously expect Elon to just buy a Central American country at some point and move everything there. He needs to get out from under the thumb of these assholes if he’s ever to have a shot at getting to Mars – if he might succeed, there’s no way they’re going to let him. Can’t have anyone outside of the current power structure, can’t show up the government shlubs.

    • R.J.

      Yes. As predicted by L. Neil Smith, the business giants drove the way to the planets and escaped the governments, which moldered on earth and made moribund space colonies next to the free wheeling capitalists.

      • UnCivilServant

        Because the business giants and governments aren’t the same incestuous clique.

      • R.J.

        Many businesses are not. The whole world is not a circle jerk mess, although ti certainly feels that way.

      • UnCivilServant

        How many of those are “Giants”?

    • Tonio

      That would be an option. But so would an independent Texas. What a bonus it would be for them to be a spacefaring nation right out of the gate.

      • R.J.

        You know I am for that.

      • SDF-7

        Works for me, though I’d rather they pull in a sizable chunk of the middle of the country to boot. Especially with the missile silos – might as well be a nuclear power right off as well.

      • R.J.

        Just a big racing stripe up the middle of the nation works.

      • The Last American Hero

        Then they could still have the most awesome Libertarian Governor ever in Jared Polis!
        /TOS

      • kinnath

        The states comprising the Louisiana Purchase. Plus we can add TX too.

      • R.J.

        1836 Texas?

      • Tonio

        Even if it was just the current boundaries of Texas, they’d still be entitled to a complete carrier group as part of the divorce. Regardless of whether you count population or percentage of federal taxes paid.

      • The Last American Hero

        They would definitely want to bring the Gulf States along. If Texas leaves, Florida would want to split too.

      • Suthenboy

        Tack Florida on and it would have everything to prosper (ports, airports, factories, reliable workforce, farms, water…ect)
        In no time the non-exiters would be a garbage strewn wasteland roamed by cannibal rape gangs. Of course that would be all our fault.

      • R.J.

        Yeah. But it would make a great movie.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        If there is a Texas starship, they better mount longhorns to the front of it.

        YEE-HAW!

      • R.J.

        And a 2023 World Champion Rangers sticker.

    • Fatty Bolger

      They would never let him move that tech to another country.

    • Timeloose

      Just launch when Space X feels it is ready and safe, accept any fines the federal gov might impose. Start to raise launch prices for US gov payloads (reverse fines) for every launch delay and fine by a gov agency for any Space X launch.

      Once the costs get too high Space X can justify moving to some island in the Caribbean (I hear some private island with a lot of previous air travel needs a new owner)

      • Nephilium

        There’s a little suburb outside of Cleveland that has an annual high school tradition that has gone on for 50+ years. It involves the juniors and seniors going around, stealing pumpkins through October, and then in the middle of the night one Friday/Saturday when there’s not much going on, they take all the stolen pumpkins, and smash them on a street that has an incline. They then take sleds, wagons, and anything that can slide and ride down the smashed pumpkins. The locals write messages on the pumpkins that say things like “Steal this” or “Smash Me”, and the students get a ticket for public dumping every year.

        The students fundraise for the money to pay for the fine and the cleanup the next morning.

      • The Other Kevin

        We have friends that have a pumpkin shoot the weekend after Halloween. They throw pumpkins in a field behind their house and use them for target practice.

      • SDF-7

        Sounds like a good way for them to avoid melancholy or infinite sadness.

      • B.P.

        Wow.

      • thrakkorzog

        But then how is Billy Corgan supposed to get residuals.

  3. Q Continuum

    “New boyfriend”

    bow chicka wow wow

    • R.J.

      Tonio’s been laying the PIPE!

    • Rat on a train

      But we now general slackness was the primary reason.

      • SDF-7

        Doesn’t sound like he had a problem with slackness with the new boyfriend….

    • Tonio

      Thanks.

      This is how I’ve felt for the last few months.

      • SDF-7

        I’m probably way too much of a musical fan — but I was expecting this…. Or is it too early for the L word? (No, Scott — not lesbians!)

      • Ted S.

        I was expecting this.

      • Tonio

        Clever!

    • Lackadaisical

      …but is he Thursday thicc?

      /don’t feel obligated to answer

  4. rhywun

    she then turned on them with a hit piece in the Huffington Post.

    I tried. Honest.

    But for the sake of my blood pressure I had to tap out.

    • Gender Traitor

      One hopes the article is shared liberally (heh) on all the most popular homeschooling resource sites.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Guaranteed to be happening as we speak. I’m very tempted to send it to my wife to get it spread across the local area.

      • Tonio

        Oh, please do…

      • Tonio

        Fly, my pretties. Fly!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Save some time and just imagine the most unfair and treacherous thing possible and you’ll probably be most of the way there (to be fair, I haven’t read it either).

    • Pine_Tree

      #metoo

      tldr version: She doesn’t know jack-shit about homeschooling families, flaunts her ignorance in the article, and counts on the Puffington Hosters to tell her what a good little Proggie feminist she is.

      • Tonio

        You forgot rednecks in the mist.

      • Pine_Tree

        Realized I’d missed that after I posted.

    • Raven Nation

      I skimmed it and read some of the comments. Confirms to me that the US is increasingly segregated ideologically (and that’s not a good thing on either side).

      • Raven Nation

        Addendum: having just finishing teaching two freshman history courses today, I must say of the commenters claiming that homeschoolers don’t know how to function in the “real” world or are taught not to think, are apparently not too familiar with public schools.

      • Lackadaisical

        All the homeschooled kids I’ve met were really smart/well educated. That MAY start changing as it becomes a broader movement, but at this point, can you really do worse than schools that will pass no matter what and are rife with violence, and absolutely ruinous ideology in the place of a mother’s love and attention?

      • Raven Nation

        Exactly what I was getting at. The commenters wrote things like home-schooled kids weren’t being taught, they were being indoctrinated; home-schooled kids are able to function socially; home-schooled kids can’t pass first-year college exams. Well, yeah, welcome to my world.

      • Suthenboy

        I may have mentioned this a few times over the years….I home schooled 5 kids. I will make it fast, my arms get tired patting myself on the back but I am quite proud of it. It is on the top five of things I have done in my life that made a difference in the world.

        Three of them CLEP’ed out of most of their freshman university basics
        Four are married happily and have happy children. They have all asked me to homeschool their kids.
        “Nope. I taught you what I taught you in order to pass the torch. It is up to you now.”

        The vast majority of the children I grew up with in PS have lives that are just tragedies, train wrecks that never end.

      • rhywun

        It is up to you now.

        Right??

      • Suthenboy

        Right?? has always plagued parents. You are never sure. You do your best and then spend the rest of your life wondering if you did the best thing that could be done.

        In my case no one turned out to be a jailbird, dopehead or hooker. They all pull their own weight and have good marriages. *sigh, wipes sweat from forehead* I am gonna put that down as a win.

      • thrakkorzog

        I mean, the worst I’ve met with the homeschool kids is that they are a bit socially awkward when talking to strangers when starting a new job. Which is kind of normal starting off. Compare that to the pansexual transvestite vampire from Pennsylvania with ADHD and depression, you get from public schools I know which one I’d prefer to hire.

      • Raven Nation

        FWIW, purely anecdotal, I’m seeing an increase in socially awkward kids. And almost all the freshmen I teach are public schools, with some going to private schools but very few homeschooled.

      • thrakkorzog

        I mean, let’s face it. PS are a manichean struggle. What will my parents think, what will the the teachers think, what will my friends think, what will the cool kids think about me?

        Then you grow up and it turns out nobody really thinks about you that much.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        they are a bit socially awkward when talking to strangers when starting a new job

        One of my major goals is to make sure this isn’t a thing for my kids. I’m already working with the 6 year old on speaking confidently to adults.

        OTOH, some of the “awkwardness” is simply from not having the 1000 yard stare that comes from being put through the meat grinder that is public school. Some of that “awkwardness” is somebody with the joy of life still in them smashing into the dull gray wall that is the rest of humanity.

      • Pine_Tree

        Hell, all of mine who are old enough can literally (and have) walked into any employer and talked themselves into whatever job they want. Or a scholarship, or whatever. It’s astonishing even to me.

        Yes, there are weirdos out there. But on balance they are far more “adult” humans than the ones in gov’t schools.

      • Raven Nation

        I will say I’ve seen some home-school/church school curriculum that give me pause (Founding Fathers were all 18th century evangelical Christians; only “bad” Indians were killed by settlers). But these are, again, anecdotal and I know don’t represent the whole of the genre.

      • Suthenboy

        “only “bad” Indians were killed by settlers”

        John Wayne gives a double thumbs-up.

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah, the Baptist school I went to, the curriculum was about the evangelical founding fathers (but apparently this is a common belief amongst evangelicals bc my evangelical then-bestie parted company over the topic) (rather, it was the last straw), but I don’t recall the Indians being spoken of much at all, good or otherwise.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Yep. At the dinner table earlier this week, my eight-year-old homeschooled daughter asked completely out of the blue: “If the government controls us, who controls the government?”

        She’s going to do just fine.

      • Sensei

        Swamp creatures.

      • one true athena

        Big news here is a large public high school just had a “stabbing event” where three kids landed in the hospital, a few others arrested. Presumed gang stuff. So yeah, on top of the education they’re not really getting.

      • Nephilium

        Look, there’s going to have to be mandated stabbing curriculum for homeschooled children.

      • UnCivilServant

        A gang too poor to have guns?

        That’s just sad.

      • rhywun

        That shit is a symptom of several other sicknesses beyond just public schooling.

  5. trshmnstr the terrible

    They bought her product and paid her bills, and she then turned on them with a hit piece in the Huffington Post.

    5 paragraphs in, and she has lied to 4 customers already.

    • R.J.

      In Bizarro world, lying to customers and writing a hit pieces on them has no consequences to sales.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        It’s a noble sacrifice. She’s falling on her sword.

      • Tonio

        I presume that she only did this because her government school revenue stream has returned and she no longer has to associate with those icky home schoolers.

  6. KSuellington

    Another solid article from The Free Press, which is fast becoming one of my favorite sites (aside from this one of course) for think pieces. I also had to read this commie tripe for a class in university and hated it then and even more so now. It you’ve been hearing the standard leftist trope of “decolonization” a lot over the past weeks, this guy was the original source.

    https://www.thefp.com/p/frantz-fanon-decolonization-israel-hamas

    • The Other Kevin

      I’ve been checking that out every day recently. They put a lot of thought and research into their stuff.

  7. Brochettaward

    “I am 20 minutes into the presentation when a woman interrupts me. ‘When are you going to talk about God in all of this?’ she asks.”

    The horror…the horror…

    You can talk about race, gender, and sexuality. But how dare you teach your children about a religion.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Solidly 2/3 of her stories, no matter how much she tried to frame them, involve her misrepresenting or downright lying about her curriculum to get people to buy it.

    • Lackadaisical

      I saw it was titled ‘grace and grit’.

      To a Christian, if you call it grace… they might think it is religiously based. Crazy people they are. *eyes roll so far inside head it exploded ala scanners*

  8. Lackadaisical

    ‘US Fish and Wildlife Service’

    Good luck!’

    They suck.

  9. Common Tater

    “I’m in California. It’s our last conference for the season. I threw up again from the anxiety of anticipating more offhand remarks and rude questions. This morning I am presenting to a full room. I am discussing ways to build confidence in girls.”

    So confident they can’t speak in front of a group without vomiting?

    • KSuellington

      You gag girl!!!

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Is she teaching Catholic School Girls?

      • thrakkorzog

        Still waiting for that full length version of Catholic School Girls in Trouble to come out.

      • Suthenboy

        Long since forgotten is the title to a French soft-porn from the early ’70s about a catholic girl’s school. I think the girls stayed in trouble quite a bit.

    • R.J.

      I already posted it again, because I am a hyperactive squirrel.

  10. Mojeaux

    I couldn’t have homeschooled my kids. I’m a crap teacher. I have many talents; teaching is not one of them. I haven’t got the ability to keep to a regimen. I don’t know enough to teach anybody anything. I can’t arrange my thoughts enough to give explanations/definitions of things. Even now, I’d love to be able to explain to my kids my political feelz, but I can’t sort my words out. I couldn’t help my daughter with her homework, and my son didn’t graduate until someone else forced him to get his shit together. I would have been utterly helpless.

    • Urthona

      I think homeschooling is great but ditto.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      The caricature you’re describing of yourself is quite descriptive of one of our friends. Here’s the encouragement I’d give to others who feel the same way as you:

      While this friend’s daughters aren’t as disciplined or as diligent as what my wife and I expect of our kids, those girls are loved and loving and in no way neglected. They’re not dragging grades and grades behind despite unschooling. They’re not floundering despite a mom who provides scant leadership. It’s not ever how I’d raise my kids, but I can recognize that it’s working for them.

      • Mojeaux

        Thank you for the assurance, but I guarantee you it’s no caricature. I really am that flighty. I can keep my shit together for myself, but just barely, and then that only lasts for a short time. It’s why I did so well being a temp (and then an independent contractor). I probably should have realized this about myself before I had kids, but I didn’t. I have my routines, but they’re very basic (e.g., “get up, pee, take meds, ????, profit!!!!!”). By contrast, my husband has his routines and spreadsheets and is very regimented. I did the bills for the first 4 years of our marriage, then I fell down a rabbit hole and my husband had to take over. I was a mess before I got married, and I’m only slightly less of a mess now.

    • Tonio

      That’s fascinating, because you are extremely articulate on zooms and podcasts. But there is a huge emotional distance between an anonymous audience and your own kids.

      • Mojeaux

        Sorting out my thoughts always includes lots of history/backstory/foundational learning that I can’t make concise and understandable enough to get to my point.

        On Zoom, we have a shared Glib history and I can speak in shortcuts. For someone else, it would be like trying to explain Steve Smith to a prog.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        STEVE SMITH IS LIKE GOVERNMENT. STEVE SMITH LEVIATHON. IT TAKE YOUR MONEY AND RESTRICT YOUR FREEDOM. AND BY TAKE MONEY AND RESTRICT FREEDOM, STEVE SMITH MEAN…

      • Raven Nation

        ” it would be like trying to explain Steve Smith to a prog.”

        Or your average evangelical conservative for that matter.

    • Suthenboy

      Essence of good teaching: take a concept the student understands and make an analogy from that concept to the one the student does not understand.
      It is the natural way the human brain learns on its own…you just learn to guide it and speed it up a bit.
      Forget the “yeah, but that is not exactly technically correct” crowd. Those are the STEM teachers that cant teach for shit. They just frustrate students.
      Make the concept understandable first then polish it afterwards to ‘technically correct’.

    • Common Tater

      Hillary never had class.

    • thrakkorzog

      I mean out of all the reasons to walk out of Hillary Clinton lecture, that’s not even in the top 1,000,000. Of all the reasons to stage a walkout, that’s the one they picked?

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      I’ve said it before, and I will say in again; if you cannot stand to be seen in your protest, then you don’t have the courage of your convictions.

      If you truly believe that [whatever] is bad, then don’t hide behind a mask, don’t worry if your name is being bandied about for signing a petition. Because when you are afraid to be seen in support of something, then I know that you don’t really believe in something. And I will treat that something as the bullshit that you are admitting is the case.

      Afraid of not getting a job? Then you don’t really believe in Palestinian rights. Then why should I?

      End of story.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      “physical injury”

      *reads article*

      “physical manifestations of her emotional harm”

      🙄🙄🙄

      • R.J.

        Is that like a hunchback, or a Habsburg lip?

    • The Other Kevin

      The addiction defense only works for bribery and money laundering.

  11. Common Tater

    “FBI agents today raided the home of NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ fundraising chief Brianna Suggs while he was on his way to meetings in Washington DC, forcing him to abruptly cancel and return to ‘deal with a matter’.

    The New York Times reports that some of the agents present belong to the public corruption unit though it remains unclear what prompted the investigation or what agents were searching for.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12703487/FBI-raids-home-Eric-Adams-fundraising-chief-Brianna-Suggs.html

      • UnCivilServant

        Adams must have annoyed someone higher on the food chain.

      • R.J.

        Yeah. It’s $16 grand here, a $100,000 salary here. That’s not even potato chip money in politics. Absolutely he pissed off Biden with all his whining about the illegal aliens. We got democrats back stabbing other democrats now. They must have learned that nasty habit from the republicans.

      • SDF-7

        If it was all on the part of the minion and not his issue, he should give thanks to avoid the Turkey stuffing.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Will they hang him from a giblet?

      • Fourscore

        Check for gold bars, cash in the jacket in the closet. Check the refrig freezer. Lots of places no one would ever think of hiding cash

      • thrakkorzog

        It’s disappointing when our leadership can’t put more effort in hiding their bribes than 12 year old me trying to stash a Playboy.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s because you knew you would face consequences if discovered.

      • Sensei

        Cockfield’s daughter, Amaris Cockfield

        “Gosh Honey, our last name is Cockfield, what do you think we should name our daughter?”

      • R.J.

        “Girtha”

      • Mojeaux

        Goethe

      • R.J.

        Much better.

    • Sensei

      Worth the read just for the pictures.

      “Fentanyl seized from a mill where workers were accused of throwing the drug at law enforcers in an effort to fend them off.”

      Just a mere touch should qualify them for paid disability, right?

      • rhywun

        OMG NOT A METRO CARD!!1!

  12. The Late P Brooks

    SCIENCE

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama released a statement Wednesday calling for the Gov. Kay Ivey (R) and Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) to call off the execution.

    “As Alabama races to experiment on incarcerated people with nitrogen gas, they put the lives of correctional staff, spiritual advisers, the media, and victims at risk by potentially exposing them to an odorless and lethal gas,” Alison Mollman, ALCU Alabama interim legal director said in the statement.

    Alabama paused its executions last year following reports of botched executions by lethal injection. The ACLU noted the pause and said state leadership failed to conduct an independent review after the botched executions before restarting them.

    The state is rushing to kill Smith at the direction of Marshall, Mollman said, using an “untested, unproven, and never-before-used method of execution.”

    Fucking gas chambers- how do they work?

    There was a family (4 or 5 people) in Livingston, shortly after I moved there, who were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty furnace vent. They were found sitting in the living room, with the television on. They evidently never had a clue as to what was happening. Now, strapping a guy to a chair in an air tight phone booth is a different story.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Couldn’t they just give him some Fentanyl?

      • R.J.

        Just drop a big rock on him. Film it in slow motion, and sell it to the hydraulic press channel.

    • Suthenboy

      Or stop fucking around. If you are going to kill someone then do it with. your head held high and own it. Stop fucking around trying to pretend it is not what it is.
      Firing squad or go home.

      • The Gunslinger

        Reminds me of Ned Stark from Game of Thrones.

        “The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.”

      • Suthenboy

        Better than I said it, but yeah. If you are justified then have the courage of your convictions.
        Trying to hide it or disguise it is cowardice.
        I am not against the death penalty…there are people who need killin’, that’s for sure. I just dont trust the state to do it. It is something of a dilemma.

      • Brochettaward

        It’s all disingenuous regardless. Groups like the ACLU pressured pharmaceutical companies to stop selling the drugs that were being used and then complain that the alternatives aren’t as humane or now a threat to others.

      • thrakkorzog

        Not just the ACLU, but a lot of Euro countries thought they could stop the death penalty by refusing to do business with the pharma companies that supply the drugs used for lethal injections. The result was the companies stopped selling, and the states went with me cocktails less merciful than the old cocktail.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        So know man knew killed him?
        Gimme the gun,

    • Pine_Tree

      Death by nitrogen hypoxia is not remotely “experimental”, as the AL stories mention.

      Nitrogen hypoxia is…..interesting. I know enough about it from an industrial Process Safety engineering standpoint. Nitrogen gas is in one way the most fantastically common thing there is, of course, as long as it’s part of “air”. When it’s alone, it’s one of the most hazardous things there is, just because it’s so invisible, odorless, common, etc. Lots of fatalities and opportunities for them, because what (generally) happens is you get a little bit buzzed/happy/loopy, doze off, and die with no pain or physical distress whatsoever.

      So revealing that you know much about it gets people like counselors/therapists/doctors a little twitchy because that knowledge can be a “tell” for somebody who’s been studying suicide methods.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Couldn’t they just give him some Fentanyl?

    Absolutely not. He might find it enjoyable.

    • Mojeaux

      Of all the painkillers I’ve ever had, Fentanyl was the only one that did what it was supposed to do without side effects (like nausea). It was on a pain pump and I was pressing that button like a coked-up rat, which should have been about their sixth clue that they needed to take me back to the OR to fix the problem.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    If you are going to kill someone then do it with. your head held high and own it. Stop fucking around trying to pretend it is not what it is.
    Firing squad or go home.

    Capital punishment is revenge murder, carried out by the state, so… yeah.

    • R.J.

      Why not let the victim’s family do it, as a present?

  15. KK, Non-Man

    Dr. Leo Spaceman (the Starlink) has been unhooked and stowed. I’m on mobile hotspot til Saturday afternoon!

    That means no Zoom for me tomorrow – someone else will probably need to post the link

    • Mojeaux

      NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

    • KK, Non-Man

      It’s been a long week of prep. When you’ve been stationary for a year, you have stuff lying around that needs to be stowed for travel.

      Also, all 10 of my tires needed air. That was fun. Had to remove one of the hub caps to get the correct angle for the air hose.

      The dog (who is actually a big pussy) is extremely unhappy with all the goings-on.

  16. R.J.

    Gotta pack for Shreveport tomorrow. Just not feeling it. I would like a weekend at home.

  17. Yusef drives a Kia

    Disc golf,
    Yeah boy!