Monday Links of Meh

by | Dec 16, 2024 | Daily Links | 161 comments

Got through a series of Christmas parties this weekend…and have discovered I am getting old. Wait, I am old. Oddly enough, what hit me most was eating too much and much of it was not-so-good for you stuff. So, being a bit sluggish today – you get some pretty meh links.

  • Remember, just be for 9-11-01, we had the Summer of Shark Attacks? What is this then?
  • You know who else called for snap German elections?
  • “Unsteady and frail” or was she really just “tired and emotional”? IYKYK.
  • Why do people think the Swiss are odd…?

Music…you all will have to pitch in, nothing comes to mind.

Comment section is open and yours.

*Late Breaking Info*

Apparently we now know more about the NJ objects!

About The Author

Swiss Servator

Swiss Servator

Currently serving at the pleasure of a Swiss multinational. Previously a Soldier, rugby player, lawyer, bouncer, bartender, substitute teacher, risk manager, and cubicle mushroom. Will work for raclette.

161 Comments

  1. Tundra

    Why do people think the Swiss are odd…?

    Would definitely play.

    And yes, we went to a Christmas part on Saturday night and my stomach still feels like shit. Getting old is brutal.

    • Nephilium

      Saturday the girlfriend and I went to see the Pietasters play. It was a strange night, there was the red head who wanted to make it clear that she wanted to dance with ME, not anyone else (and ignored the girlfriend), and her friend (I assume) who wanted me to have a set list for being a calming influence on the dance floor (she forced it on the girlfriend after I said I didn’t collect those).

      • Tundra

        Your girlfriend is a good sport.

      • Nephilium

        Tundra:

        She did get thrown early in the show when she realized she couldn’t just look for a bearded white guy with a scally cap to find me.

  2. ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

    I thought the Swiss national sport was hiding “German” gold…

    /too soon?

  3. The Late P Brooks

    The rest of the lawmakers on the trip have returned to D.C. for the last full week of legislating before the Christmas break.

    “Legislating”

    right.

  4. kinnath

    They’re busy cloning Pelosi in Germany.

      • Nephilium

        Man… nothing is safe from sticking a chick in it and making it gay, is there?

      • Ted S.

        Actually, it’s a movie about Nancy Pelosi getting a Brazilian wax.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Multiple Pelosi clones would be called a coven, right?

  5. Shpip

    “Despite playful attempts at arbitration, the Hornussen games were often followed by wild brawls,” according to Switzerland TourismExternal link.

    The real ruckus started when one village was accused of bringing in paid ringers to help the local squad.

    If there’s anything that the Swiss are united against, it’s mercenaries.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Is that more of the papal bull?

    • Pope Jimbo

      “I have a hunch that that Quasimodo guy playing for the other team is a paid ringer!”

  6. The Late P Brooks

    I see they took her to a US military hospital. I wondered about that.

    • kinnath

      Got to keep the shell alive until it is time to dump the memory in to the clone.

  7. rhywun

    political rivals in Berlin are united in an “absolute will to do everything so that this war in Ukraine ends as quickly as possible.”

    How quickly will either side run out of young men to feed into the meatgrinder?

    • Evan from Evansville

      Well, just throw ALLl the North Koreans into the meatgrinder. There are … 26M of ’em!

      “That’s a big T̵w̵i̵n̵k̵i̵e̵ sausage.” (Just shove that… wherever it is ya wanna shove it.)

      • Tundra

        The longer they stonewall the more likely. I’d also like to know what flavor of SSRI he/she was on.

      • Tundra

        CNN says female.

        So dude pretending to be a girl.

      • Tonio

        I’m waiting for a manifesto to be discovered, then disappear into some courthouse never to be seen again.

      • rhywun

        Hoo-boy…. How many legit female school shooters have there been? In living memory?

      • juris imprudent

        Her next parole hearing will be some time in ’25.

      • rhywun

        this one

        🎶 🎶 👍

    • rhywun

      Also true to form, newsertainers wondering where the metal detectors are.

      Because schools aren’t prisony enough?

      And maybe I’m heartless but why is this national, non-stop news even?

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Because the tools to keep a fascist like Trump from destroying democracy are evil and no one should have them even though Trump is literally about to destroy democracy.

        This is how you know their “But Muh Democracy!” stuff was nothing but nonsense. Why would you do everything possible to disarm people if you really believed FASCISM! was imminent?

  8. Shpip

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday lost a confidence vote in parliament, paving the way for snap elections in February

    Can we ban voting for that populist party first? Can’t have anybody advocating wrongthink, now. Limit the voters’ choices, and they are more likely to make the correct one.

    • rhywun

      The tiefer Staat wants to ban the AfD, but for now they are settling for refusing to partner with them, without which the Nazi candidate cannot possibly win.

      Unfortunately for the other parties, the more popular the AfD gets, the more likely any government they do manage to form will be even less popular and respected than the current one that’s failing.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Correct.

        People are pissed. Doing the things they’re pissed at harder isn’t like to quell the mob. They’re doing the same thing in France by doing everything possible to thwart what people actually want, which is the “far right” party.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    That trick never works

    The grow-your-way-out-of-debt claims frustrate economists who specialize in budget policy because “the causality is just the opposite,” Smetters said. “The way you grow the economy is by fixing the fiscal [problems.”

    Fuck you, cut spending.

    • Suthenboy

      “…fixing the fiscal problems.”
      Details? Specifics?

  10. The Other Kevin

    We went to one party this weekend, for roller derby end of season. The theme was “Renaissance”, which of course meant lots of fetching lasses and their cleavage. Those derby girls sure do clean up nice. But neither I nor Mrs. TOK could take the noise for too long.

  11. The Other Kevin

    Won’t we all be embarrassed when Nancy’s gone and Paul continues to make 700% on his investments!

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      I am sure he will keep hammering it down.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Democrats argue that one partial fix could come by allowing some provisions of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to expire. Extending individual tax cuts made under the law could cost $4 trillion. Even though allowing those cuts to expire might weaken growth in the short term, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the economy would actually grow more quickly over time as deficits shrank due to higher revenue.

    And, of course, they cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die promise the additional revenue will only be used to bring down the debt and not pounded down some rathole of political expediency.

    *clears throat*

    FUCK YOU, CUT SPENDING.

    • The Other Kevin

      They’re only worried about the deficit when taxes are involved.

    • R C Dean

      “Extending individual tax cuts made under the law could cost $4 trillion.”

      No, tax cuts don’t cost anything, because they aren’t spending.

      And the CBO is claiming that raising taxes causes economic growth, as long as deficits shrink? Removing money from the productive sector of the economy causes growth?

      Regardless, I don’t suppose the CBO could look at the historical record, of what happens to spending when revenue goes up, could they?

      • juris imprudent

        Pay no attention to spending citizen, trust us – there is nothing left to cut!

    • Suthenboy

      Keep in mind these evil morons are malthusian limited growth adherents.

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s a shame they took so long to get that second album out. The guitar work on Second Coming is so good.

      • kinnath

        better late than never

      • rhywun

        I feel like we’ve had this argument before but I never got into the second album.

        Too baggy for my taste. I suppose I could give it another chance 30 years later.

      • The Other Kevin

        I got to see them live when they toured for that album, they were amazing.

        In Peter Hook’s book, he claims the Stone Roses’ manager contacted New Order’s US manager to get a tour set up in the 80’s. But he wanted the US manager to guarantee there would be a crowd of screaming girls at the airport like the Beatles. The US manager was not willing to do that, so no US tour.

      • Tundra

        I like both, but if I’m choosing I’ll have to go with the first.

        Still, what an amazing band.

      • kinnath

        I feel like we’ve had this argument before

        Yes.

        They are two bands: the early stuff and the later stuff. I like the second band. Someone else here, really didn’t.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, the first album knocked my socks off. It was just what I needed at the right time.

        A Beatles comparison is certainly appropriate; it’s obviously their biggest influence early on.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Death in the kitchen

    That black plastic spatula in your kitchen drawer? It may be time to toss it. Recently, there’s been lots of buzz about the dangers of cooking with black plastic utensils — think spoons, spatulas and more. The main claim: Using black plastic to stir things in your pots and pans over heat can release chemicals into your food that you will ingest. One study even suggests that the main problem is the use of unregulated recycled plastics in these cooking utensils, so you may be getting items that have flame retardants in them — which can become toxic when exposed to heat.

    Anything will kill you in a high enough dose. but let’s all panic.

    Spoiler alert- it’s a ploy by Big Stainless Steel Spoon to get your money.

    • Tundra

      Hah!

      I already use bamboo. Nice try Big Stainless!

      • Old Man With Candy

        Those harbor bacteria.

        Ur ded, dood.

      • Tundra

        Not if you use mineral oil!

      • Tundra

        You’ll envy the dead.

      • LCDR_Fish

        I like the silicon ones, but some of my plastic utensils still work better for certain things.

    • R C Dean

      “there’s been lots of buzz about the dangers of cooking with black plastic utensils”

      There has? First I’ve heard of it.

      • Jarflax

        Recycling makes spatulas of color toxically masculine.

    • Tonio

      So, the recycled plastic buying, virtue signalling, public hoisted on their own petards?

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      BLACK UTINSELS MATTER!!!

    • R C Dean

      What, nobody went with “once you go black, you never go back”?

      I haz disappoint.

      • juris imprudent

        As with the Zed left hanging in the earlier thread. We are all off today.

    • Pope Jimbo

      unregulated

      There is the money shot! Some pol has a Cousin Eddie who needs a job as deputy assistant to the undersecretary of recycled plastics.

      • Tundra

        I love that movie.

        A guy in the neighborhood has a bloodhound. Amazingly cool dogs.

      • juris imprudent

        We saw it with a group of dog people, including some who were show people. They were all hysterical because they knew real people that were like the characters – they’d be going “oh, that’s so-and-so” and laughing their asses off.

      • juris imprudent

        Also of note, a bloodhound did win Westminster Best in Show in ’22.

      • slumbrew

        For having such a metal name, bloodhounds are adorably derpy.

  14. R C Dean

    “What is this then?”

    A pretext for deploying even more surveillance technology, apparently.

    • rhywun

      the embassy did not attach a high priority to helping Lira and referred to his attempt to escape alive as “his attempt to abscond to Hungary.”

      Note to self: Do not leave the United States.

      • The Other Kevin

        Depends, are you a black lesbian who plays for the WNBA?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Plenty of nice places to go to but Ukraine in wartime ain’t one of them, places slightly above Haiti in my book.

    • Suthenboy

      My empathy is low. He laid down on the tracks all on his own.

      • Suthenboy

        Reputation. Actually Mississippi isn’t a bad place to live. I would live there over any country in Europe and most of the US.

      • Pope Jimbo

        No, Mississippi is a fucked up state.

        This isn’t Yankee snobbery. It is from living just across the border in Memphis. Maybe the Gulf Shores part of the state is nice, but the rubes around Memphis were terrible.

    • rhywun

      I wonder how comparable the figures are – and this one’s been floating around for decades, long before the recent self-destructive habits – because having lived there, Germany never came across as “poor” to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • Suthenboy

        They use that example implying there is something wrong with Mississippi. There isn’t.

    • R C Dean

      Jeebus, the Imperial Capitol is even more bloated than I would have guessed.

      • Drake

        That one is an eye catcher.

      • Suthenboy

        That does jump out doesnt it. That is a VERY serious problem.

      • rhywun

        Because it’s a city, not a state. Throws off the statistic.

        I bet NYC’s would be even higher.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Japan’s lower then Boppity Boopyland where they eat pasta and drink wine all day? Who compiled those numbers?

      • Pope Jimbo

        I wonder how much of that is because of Japan’s weak Yen?

        Shit is really cheap here. Much nicer (for me) than when I was here in ’87 or so and the Yen was crushing the dollar. Didn’t help I was an E-3 nonrate making something like $200/month.

        The thing that would kill me long term in Japan is the crowding. I’m staying on a man-made island right now so it isn’t too bad, but the older parts of Kobe/Osaka are super claustrophobic with the way people are stacked into apartment buildings.

      • Sensei

        Honestly after NYC even Tokyo subways at rush hour don’t faze me.

        I don’t like it and wouldn’t want to it by choice, however.

    • juris imprudent

      That’s a bullshit chart, as there is no GDP in Washington DC. There may be income – but no productive economy.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Entertainment News: Kraven the Hunter Flops at Box Office.

    No

    fucking

    way.

    • rhywun

      third behind Thanksgiving blockbusters Moana 2 and Wicked

      Never heard of this one or “Moana 2”. Come to think of it, I don’t see any movie ads anymore.

      If it’s not dick pills or Medicare, my television seems uninterested in advertising it to me.

      • Suthenboy

        Oh, c’mon my tv is nonstop snake oil in a thousand flavors every day.

  16. Mojeaux

    I hate hate hate giving a quote for ebook formatting, then having to tell the client that their cover is unsuitable and I can fix it, but it’s gonna be more money. I HATE upselling. HAAAAAAAAAATTTEEEEE

  17. Pope Jimbo

    That is some nice transit planning Lou. Alternate Headline: How you don’t have to stop losing money on light rail after opening a new line – losses now, losses forever!

    Our light rail lines don’t have anything preventing you from just walking on the choo-choo. Everyone is on the honor system. Even when you get caught, you rarely get fined. One of the changes to the law was to reduce the fine because the old fine was so high that everyone who was charged with fare evasion wasn’t prosecuted because the fine was too much for the poors. The thinking was that with a lesser fine, maybe some people would actually have to pay it.

    The new hawtness coldness is turnstiles to make people pay for a ticket before getting on. Turns out the cost of installing them is prohibitive. And in some cases, the fare evaders would just walk on the tracks to get around the turnstiles. So of course, you know some idiot would get killed and his relatives would sue the shit out of the city.

    Minneapolis resident Renee Pitman believes turnstiles would be a massive waste of money used to enable harassment of riders who can’t pay. “I’m worried that it would be a waste of money, that they would end up spending more money than they would make in fares,” Pitman said, adding that the train should be free. “I’m just opposed to any barriers to using transit because that’s an important part of getting people out of private vehicles and fighting climate change. The more people we can get not driving, the more chance we have in slowing down climate collapse.”

    Minneapolis is so fucked.

    • Pope Jimbo

      One of the “setbacks” on the light rail line was this story about two transgender people being assaulted.

      The women told police that while they were walking on Hennepin Avenue and 5th Street near the Warehouse District light rail station, they heard a group of six men making “derogatory remarks” towards them.
       
      The police report further states that when the two women confronted the group, a physical altercation took place.
       
      An Instagram post explained the situation further, saying the two women had transphobic insults directed towards them, and they received multiple injuries, including a broken nose.
       
      “These two women, newer to Minnesota as refugees from their home state that penalizes their identities, were utilizing public transport at the 5th and Hennepin Lightrail Station,” Minneapolis Trans Community, said in a statement.
       
      “As they exited their train, they were met with slurs, chief among them “Tranny”, from men standing on the platform. Scared and unsure, one of the women defended themselves verbally. She was then sucker punched in the face by one of the men yelling slurs,” the statement continues.

      “Refugees”. Thanks Walz.

      Given that there were no descriptions of the six men who beat them up, I’m going to say that they were all from our new vibrant, diverse, Somali neighbors.

      • R C Dean

        “a group of six men making “derogatory remarks” towards them.

        The police report further states that when the two women confronted the group”

        I think I see where they went wrong. I guess the entitlement and outrage is so strong with these people that they think nothing of walking up a bunch of men talking shit and calling them out. As one does when one is “scared and unsure”.

      • juris imprudent

        Residual toxic masculinity is what I would call it.

      • CPRM

        “…refugees from their home state that penalizes their identities”

        Que?

      • juris imprudent

        Only thing missing in that “confrontation” was one or both of them grabbing their crotches while they were across the tracks.

    • Suthenboy

      “…getting people out of private vehicles…”
      The money shot.

      • juris imprudent

        The money shot.

        PHRASING!

    • Fourscore

      “Minneapolis is so fucked.”

      Now do St Paul.

      St Cloud, anyone? Anyone?

      • Pope Jimbo

        People who live in glass fish houses shouldn’t throw frozen minnows Fourscore!

        Did you see my link this morning about Cross Lake getting all worked up about Big City folx coming in and building fancy pole barns? You need to clean up your own yard before you start throwing shade at St. Paul and St. Cloud.

      • Evan from Evansville

        What’s Sauk Centre? Pudunksville? Oh, yes. Yes, it is. The whole town has problems with basic phone/internet service, so I’m told.

        “Fuck Sinclair Lewis.” ~Munchkin.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Sauk Centre is a suburb of St. Cloud now.

      • Fourscore

        I did see that, late, but new to me. It’s been very , very good to me. There’s enough slop over that the noveaus are priced out of Crosslake and are having to settle for seconds.

        Prices are skyrocketing here. I may add on to my metal building, put in a game room with slots and hire a couple Real Americans to make it authentic.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Munch strongly disagrees, but she hates St. Cloud. (I, on the other hand, love hockey.) She’s a legal clerk for family services up in Todd County. I’m doing my best to lure her here. She’s on our page, though FAR more harsh than I. She seems around Suthen’s level of (deserved) apathy towards humanity.

    • Tundra

      Gorgeous.

      One of the best things about those old cars is that you could order them without all the shit.

    • Fourscore

      “He supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and then the 2007 troop “surge” pushed by then-President Bush”

      Of course he did and it worked out swell, unless you were an Iraqi

  18. Evan from Evansville

    “It is unclear when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will return to the U.S. as she recovers from hip replacement surgery after a nasty fall in Luxembourg.”
    Oh, li’l cupcake! I’m well-aware of how fun *that* is. I wonder how many screws they’ll drill in. My hip with two feels better than the one with a solitary screw. (Good band name; vending machine sex (also not bad); possibly a depressed prison guard.) And hon, don’t think your femurs’ll be A-OK now! I’ve broken each one post surgery as well, both via falls.

    The first one, the one I *really* broke, as in clean-thru – the titanium was the only solid structure left connecting the leg – was from a jackass sucker-punching me for legit no reason and I fell against a curb. (Koreans and expats hanging outside a 7/11 drinkin’ late nite – dudes were respectfully sparring, purposefully w/o contact. We’re all watching, having a good time. Then some fuck popped me from behind, in the Decisively Bad way. That was interesting punctuation for the evening.)

    I hope you feel that pain soon, Nance. Ya’ve earned it, hard as that is. It’s tremendously unpleasant, so please remember to savor each moment.

    • R C Dean

      $20 bucks says it costs 6 figures on a fully staffed military med-evac flight to haul her wrinkled old ass back to the states.

      • Fourscore

        My 16 mile ambulance ride was 7 Grand.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Maybe she’ll ask Luxembourg for asylum since Trump has vowed to lock up his enemies, allegedly. She can be Luxembourger Queen.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I worked with a kid from Serbia who had brain cancer. Kept coming back and he finally decided to move back to Serbia to be with family as he wasn’t going to last much longer. Had a stroke on the flight and died in midair.

      Imagine if Nancy passed away during the trip. Anyone want to take the chance she wouldn’t come back as a zombie?

      • Evan from Evansville

        (Much respect for that kid. That’s a heavy downer.)

        With Modern Left Art Couture being what it is, they’d dress Pelosi’s zombie-ass up, slice and serve her as fucking charcuterie to whatever fawning pawns remain at the trough. (*That* was an interesting fad. Presumably just as/more popular now, only no cameras allowed anymore.)

  19. KK, Plump & Unfiltered

    Grand Marnier or Cointreau for intense orange flavor?

    • Tundra

      Neph is your man, but my vote is GM. What are you making?

    • Nephilium

      Depends on if you want it to add sweetness, or just the orange flavor. I would also say not to forget about curacao as well. But Grand Marnier is the more potently flavored of the two.

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      I want to make a orange Milano cookie in cocktail form, and I found orange vodka is disgusting. So I was thinking Mozart liqueur, Grand Marnier/Cointreau, and either plain or vanilla vodka

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        (and no, I don’t want anyone to Google a recipe – I want to work it out for myself to my taste)

      • CPRM

        Well, the recipe I found on google says…

      • Pope Jimbo

        orange vodka is disgusting

        That is because you think orange vodka is doing a body shot off Trump? Especially because you are filling his belly button up with the vodka.

    • Old Man With Candy

      GM. My choice for crepes suzette as well.

    • Spudalicious

      Part of my soul just died. Given the piss poor state of most martial arts these days, it doesn’t surprise me to see a black belt around his waist.

    • Fourscore

      Walz rehearsing his return to governing. Sure glad I don’t live in the suburbs with the big shots from United Health.

  20. Mojeaux

    So XY is thinking about putting in an application as facilities manager for Chipotle, but it would require he move to Minnesota. Thus far, with regard to Chipotle, he’s made some decent decisions, so we encouraged him in that. And facilities (of anything) has always been where his heart lies.

  21. DEG

    Hornussen is actually one of three Swiss national sports – the others being Schwingen (wrestling) and Steinstossen (stone-throwing)

    No shooting?

    Hornussen looks neat.

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