It was a very good year…
For all the disappointing slop the NFL put on display for MNF this year, they made up for it last night with an absolutely entertaining spectacle. The Lions won, but only because somebody had to. What a fun game. The CFP quarterfinals start tonight. I’m gonna watch, obviously, but tomorrow is where the real action is. I’ve got my fingers crossed for the Buckeyes tomorrow. Should be four entertaining games. And meanwhile, across the pond, Chelsea shit the bed again, this time losing on the road to lowly Ipswich. But not to be outdone, ManUre also stunk the joint. What a great day it was in Old Blighty. And that’s it for sports.
I’m shocked! Shocked it took them this long. Now if only the US would follow suit. And close all of the ones employing men as well. Just to be sure.
I’d hope the Supreme Court doesn’t need time to wait. It’s clearly an unconstitutional move that violates free speech and free association rights.
The hits just keep coming. At this point, she should be begging to not be disbarred rather than trying to cling to the case that can’t even be heard for four years.
Nobody likes a quitter. Except me. This guy was a damn joke.
I’m shocked (again)! I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to fleece taxpayers even more to keep this gravy train for retired pubsec workers rolling. But the federal bailout they were probably counting on ain’t coming down the track this time.
What could possibly go wrong? Hopefully this is struck down as unconstitutional. If not, it’s gonna create some really large security deposits and end up making it even harder for some people to rent.
Henry Ford tweeting from beyond the grave? It’s at least as plausible as the hacker claim.
I’m shocked (one more time)! OK, I wasn’t shocked on any of them.
I’ve seen this one before. I wonder what reason it won’t pass this time.
Gonna go out on a high note. Might as well rock our way into the new year. So here we go. Enjoy them both.
And enjoy this lovely last day of the year, dear friends.
I just want to thank all of you for making this year a great year. The joy I get in participating on this website with all of you can never be properly put into words. It’s been a pleasure for several years and I want to thank all of you for making it that way. I can only hope we’ve managed to entertain y’all as much as you’ve entertained us, or at least me, during this latest lap around the sun.
I hope you’ve all had a great year and I look forward to spending a good part of the next one in such joyful company. Have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and may 2025 be a happy, healthy, and prosperous year for each and every one of you.
Thanks for everything TPTB do to keep this place going. I’m not a frequent commenter, but this place is my most visited site on the Internet and there isn’t really a close second.
Please know you all are appreciated.
Thank you, and the Glibs core team, for keeping the site running, and providing content for slackers like me.
You are good enough, smart enough, and, doggone it, people like you Sloopy!
Even if you are an Inca.
(thanks to you, and all of the other Glibqueens and Glibdrones. And the Cult is Awesome!)
I wouldn’t belong to any cult that would have me as a member!
+1
Largely shitty year for reasons but I stay sane here.
Next year promises better things. 🤞
Backatcha. I’m happy for this oasis of sanity amid an intellectual desert.
It’s a good and sane place to go to when I wake up. My thanks to all the horsepower and to all the commenters.
/Grateful in the woods
Intellectual desert. That is a mouthful. If even a dummy like me can see it then that desert doesnt even have cactus.
Thanks for entertaining and informing us! I truly enjoy clicking on this site.
Thanks for keeping a place going where I like spending time.
And thanks for the links. Spending enough time online to find these things is not something I could handle.
The things… the terrible things it has done to my newsfeed.
+1
Ditto
Hear hear!
*Bangs computer on table
*Breaks it
You too, Sloop.
And thanks for the great musical close. Love those dudes.
One more for good measure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g6h1vI4Xv0&ab_channel=TheArkive
Same same.
In b4 the the next article.
whaddup doh’
GO BUCKEYES
I’m cautiously optimistic after the Tennessee game. Let’s see which version of Chip Kelly shows up for play calling and whether or not Ryan Day has decided to step up in a really big game yet.
::fingers crossed::
As a kid, I worked on this lawyer’s estate on the French Broad. In honor of his undergraduate work, he (I) kept a buckeye babied below the lawn proper in a happy glen. It was a wretched twig, very unhappy with its moorings, and I very much doubt it survives….probably some species retrieved during a trip back that had no business in our climes.
Meanwhile, all over Tennessee, yellow buckeyes thrive; I know of one that is over 100 foot.
No, really, Buckeyes. Just go, already.
Sorry, sloop, but I’ve held a grudge since I lived in Madison and the Badgers and the Buckeyes played every year. LIKE IN A PROPER CONFERENCE, YOU BIG 10 FUCKS!
Mmmmm… Buckeyes…
2025 resolution for tOSU: play every game as if opponent was coached by James Franklin. Resolution for tPSU: figure out how to steer an asteroid strike to hit Columbus.
I mean, I work for the income, so if I were getting income for not working, I’d work less.
Guarantee half my income and I would quit working.
Same. I’d just go on long walks, read and generally enjoy myself.
Yep. Ambition, never had much, give me cash on the barrel head, and I will have less.
As a beneficiary my workload didn’t decrease, it moved into a more personal direction. I must admit though, fishing greatly improved my mental health so that’s a plus.
In theory I could support a UBI that replaces all other government support. No more food stamps, welfare, etc. But pretty soon we’d get sob stories about starving children whose parents drank the money away. And it would be a handy tool to buy votes.
I can’t even support a UBI in theory. The notion that everybody should get a check just for breathing is fundamentally wrong and damaging.
R C Dean:
Heinlein (of all people) argued for a “national dividend” in his earliest couple of books. It’s an interesting to me concept, but I think you need to get into a post-scarcity economy for it to really work. We aren’t there yet.
Agree with RC since a UBI requires centralization of surplus. No good can come from that.
Centralized surplus would be disaster. It would immediately be used to enslave everyone.
Another bill signed Monday raises the age limit for individuals testifying at trial who can use a support dog from 16 to 18.
As a juror, I would be skeptical of any testimony from someone with a support dog.
In 2022, retirement benefits and debt service accounted for 43 percent of the city’s budget.
Government is a welfare organization that provides limited additional services if funding is available.
At some point, pandering to the people who fund your campaign at the expense of everybody else is gonna bite everybody in the ass.
I hope they are unable to find a solution and they have to BK in federal court. Perhaps then the corruption in that city will be exposed.
Exposed….and then?
The court will declare “I’m shocked! Shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here!”
The voters of Chicago will simply ask “where is ours”.
Hopefully Chicago’s scheme falls apart soon. OMB might tell the city “No Federal dollars for you.” and make it stick. A Dem controlled Congress and/or White House won’t be able to shovel money their way fast enough. After all they need to set the precedent before Cali’s budget meltdown.
I hadn’t thought of this before: Given the evil and stupidity of our current FedGov it is no surprise that they used war in the ME to launder money. Did the long history of failed campaigns in those places influence their choice? More interestingly, did all of the historical catastrophes in those areas come about the same way? Were they all feckless crooked govts that never had any intention of winning those campaigns?
It was before a time when I paid much attention, but I have to surmise that, for example, the CCCP had more non-laundromatty “interest” in Afghanistan than we ever did, being adjacent to it and all.
Well, yes. The USSR was having a lot of trouble with jihadis hiding in Afghanistan going across the border and causing death and mayhem. They went there to root out those evil fucks.
We were on the wrong side in that one. The USSR was after all a fake boogey man used to frighten the American public into submission.
There are two entities commonly referred to as ‘America’ and they hate each other having diametrically opposed motives and ends. First one is the American people, their ideals, values and culture. The second is the FedGov and to some extent state governments.
Oh, I think a significant number of Americans are on the “wrong” side of that divide. Not to mention, we keep sending a supermajority of “business as usual” politicians to Congress, as well.
Russia has wanted a warm-water port for centuries, before Lenin or Marx’s grandfathers had even been conceived.
True…and that’s what I was told at the time…but it’s a long way to the Iran coast even after you take Kabul.
Logic is probably a poor lens through which to regard history, but I think Afghanistan was just another neighborly venture by the commies to prop up their buddies, the sort of little thing that murdered eight figures or so in the last century…just housekeeping, really.
Crimea……….Gallipoli…..all these same places still haunting us.
eightnine figuresRussia has been going at it in Central Asia for centuries at this point. Yes, jihadi’s have been going into Moscow for a long time, but that applies to every Muslim polity in the (former)USSR; Russia is a non Muslim country that is, to a greater or lessor degree, in charge of them. And, like Israel, is full of Jews. See Chechens, Azerbaijanis, etc.
A warm water port would be nice, but that isn’t the real reason they are pushing to take more Central Asian land. As a society grows, it expands, and Russia, since Peter the Great, has been growing. Thus they are gonna move into any lands nearby or are conquerable.
Russia, since Peter the Great, has been growing
Communism put a stop to that! Russian ethnic population is shrinking (like most other industrialized countries).
That’s what I thought and also, they already have rather lots of space to play with east of Moscow if needed. Unless and until China nabs it.
The USSR was having a lot of trouble with jihadis hiding in Afghanistan going across the border and causing death and mayhem. They went there to root out those evil fucks.
🤦♂️
They propped up the the Soviet puppet government that overthrew the modernist monarchy.
And what the Soviets did in Afghanistan certainly qualifies as evil fucks themselves.
In the debate over whether or not to have a bill of rights recognizing specific rights the listing side won out. They won out because the specific rights listed are the ones always and everywhere under violent attack. Nothing has changed.
I’ve always shared this concern.
I haven’t studied the lexicon of libertarianism, so my best self-description has been as natural rightist and hopeful constitutionalist. From this latter perspective, I adore the American experiment as the best hope, but I don’t think there is strong promise of any devoutly, constitutionally free country: we get lucky sometimes, like the recent spike in gun rights, but, in the main, most of our neighbors don’t believe in freedom, and we are governed by convenience and exception, not on principle.
And 9A isn’t enough: it’s a zombie amendment that is hand-waved away when inconvenient…which is always. And history is no help because there was never much consensus anyway: notice the states’ legislatures ratified federal documents with mere majority, not overwhelming enthusiasm. The same men who ratified the Bill of Rights promptly wrote the Aliens and Sedition Act: we are all sad, inconsistent machines that jump timing, wear out, and sail off on bad tacks.
I just want to be left alone, but 300M Americans agree that half my income should be taken and every detail of my life be dissected and recorded. There is no way this was the founders’ intentions, but here we are.
A challenge to Don specifically but applying to everyone else: Write a better one.
I will give it a go and submit as an article.
a better constitution? that’s quite a bit of homework
** sets coffee down shakily **
I also contend that the product of the continental congress never before, at the time, nor any time after existed in reality. We are a people with failings trying to live up to the right ideals with spotty success. That is damning with faint praise but goddamned if it doesnt make us a universe away from everyone else.The rest of humanity now and always was slaves and slaver scum.
I was never satisfied with the definition of the word ‘civilization’. Even in grade school when we started talking history I knew it was off somehow. The working definition then and now applies to any culture, many of which are very decidedly NOT civilized as I understand the word.
To me civilization is when parties come together voluntarily and cooperate for mutual benefit. Barbarism is when one party uses deception or coercion to take what they want from others. Through that lens there are no civilized societies at all, it is only on the individual that is civilized. Will there ever be one? We try, or most of us do. Better to try and fail than never try at all.
I said this to my son and he scoffed a bit. “Yeah, but dad in reality that’s just not how it is.” My response – “I know. We are just a bunch of monkeys staring at all of the other monkeys to see what they have and waiting for the slightest opportunity to snatch it away from them.”
*flings poo
I should have tossed in a Robert E Lee quote: “Slavery is the greatest evil of our time. It morally debases both the slave and the slaveholder. As an institution it must be destroyed. ”
Dont get distracted with an ad hominem. Lee may be the best example of flawed humans failing to live up to their own ideals. The words are true and apply to all times everywhere.
This will also be submitted as a short article. Why do we have slavery and how can we get rid of it?
Re civilization: O. Holmes had it backwards. Taxes are what we are forced to pay because we aren’t civilized.
.
Creech: another planned ‘article’ is a discussion on what constitutes ownership. It is kind of an important concept.
If only someone had already written on this. Are we going to end up like the old guys around the campfire, just calling out the numbers for the jokes, and laughing (at the unsaid punchlines)?
313
🤣
“…just calling out the numbers for the jokes, and laughing (at the unsaid punchlines)?”
What do you think those guys were doing? The founders were the old guys sitting around the campfire in that parody.
I’ll take the flip side just for argument’s sake. Once you declare that this {set of rights} may not be touched, you implicitly declare that everything else is fair game.
The better way to have framed it would be a prohibition on the general police power, including to the states. Crimes (against person or property) are still in essence torts, and should be the requisite condition for any exercise of police power if we must have it. The one obvious danger there is the one that existed in England – criminal defamation where we only allow defamation as a civil action.
That was the debate at the time thus the addendum acknowledging inalienable rights not listed are included as protected.
Exactly what they predicted has come to pass: First attack those not listed and once the population has become conditioned to that go hard after the ones listed. The catch they are running into is that their attacks on the ones not listed is hampered about by the explicit listing of the second amendment….one actually listed. They have a bit of conundrum. To be successful they will have to get rid of the second amendment right first. They know that and have been going after that full guns (so to speak) since day one.
The recent victories against their assault on the second amendment have been victories for all inalienable rights.
I dont know what powers the Georgia State AG has and why he is just now stepping up.
At this point Willis should be running a register at the local Quickie-Mart.
Why would you trust her to handle cash?
Willis should be running a quickie service behind the market.
“A Second Working Paper Shows That People Who Receive a Guaranteed Income Tend to Work Less”
We have a dangerously high percentage of people in this country who have no understanding of human nature. Most of these people live in some sort of fantasy that humans can be whatever their imagination dictates. Then there’s a small group of people who actually understand this will never work but support and push it anyways because it’s really just a means to achieve control. The evil misleading the ignorant on the promise of free shit, it just never ends…
Appropriate…
A large number of those “ignorants” are Christians who think coerced compassion is doing the Lord’s work. That they are actually thwarting His desire does not occur to them.
Under any Christianity the ideal has to be the less time in this world, the sooner to the better. Be rid of all ego and attachment – it’s almost zen like.
But UBI will free up everyone to create great art, unfettered by the petty demands of “earning a living”!
Scads of Marxist inspired free verse and oh so clever works mocking Christianity and Judaism but never the Prophet CBUH.
never the Prophet
CBUH.C[ause] I don’t want my throat slashed. Don’t ever give them more credit than that.I don’t think it is all due to fear. I think it is mostly ‘soft’ racism, because Islam = brown people and therefore you have to excuse their behavior since the poor benighted savages cannot be expected to behave well, while Christianity = white people and Judaism, well they are (((JEWS))).
Weirdly, the best artist I now (art school grad, has put on gallery shows) manages to make great art while working for the IRS of all people.
Someone should explain to him that he should be supported by other people while he makes his art because, uh, reasons.
(There are taxpayer-subsidized artist’s lofts around here. For some reason, the taxpayers don’t get a cut of any sales those artists make. I guess “privatized profits, socialized losses” is only bad when it’s other, icky businesses).
*know, not ‘now’
I vaguely remember it was George Mason? that complained the checks and balances designed in the constitution did not go far enough to restrain the judiciary.
It is remarkable how prescient the founders were, how sound their reasoning and how liberty minded they were. Reading through lists of their quotes sounds like they are seeing us today. Also, we seem to have ignored all of their warnings and instructions. I am not casting the first stone here but they sure dropped the ball a few times.
I sometimes wonder if we’re worse now than what they rebelled against 250 years ago.
My people found British America a paradise and would have never considered independence.
The average tax rate in colonial America was between 1 and 1.5%.
And they still do.
Often what is right in front of your nose seems worse than the past. If you dig into the details, no, it was just as bad then. The problem is now that the govt has more tools at its disposal.
I didnt read but in the pope hat link from last thread there was an article entitled “This power must be used for good”. I didnt read it because what immediately popped in my head was “Who the fuck is he kidding? ‘Do no evil’, where have I heard that before?”
Yeah, it was just as bad then as now.
Humans don’t change in their essential nature. Any human caused issue that exists today existed before and will exist in the future. The one difference is that we have pretty thoroughly conquered nature and become astonishingly wealthy and comfortable which freed up a lot of time for busybodies to busy themselves and curmudgeons to get annoyed by the busybodies.
Forest in 2nd. 😂🤣
What a wacky season.
I thought about you while discussing with NewWife my joy at Forest’s progress.
I’m a bent fellow whose prejudices and ignorance don’t make for an ideal or consistent fan, but I love the idea of any power in the league shifting north, specifically away from London. I love the idea of little towns taking some joy and unity from supporting their side…places like Sunderland, Norwich, and Sheffield. I like watching the stands: all these weird shapes and flavors of folk aligned and fired up.
A lot of my fannery is for reasons other than sport. I became a Forest fan simply because my company has an office there and some of them visited us here one time.
As for London… hm, I have nothing against the place but I don’t like any of the teams there.
I have long wondered at a place like NYC having at most two (or three if you count the Devils) teams. How does one hope to even score a ticket at a reasonable price? NYC should have a couple dozen baseball and football teams, at least.
Is rather amused at the notion of NYC’s answer to Millwall FC.
You’re in luck – ttheyhey have been in existence for 75 years already.
I dont know how much cherry picking went into the production but I did see a few videos of ‘man on the street’ style interviews where Palestinians were asked what solution they would prefer to the problems between them and the Israelis. The impression it gave of the average Palestinian was not pretty to put it lightly. All of the neighboring non-Jewish states around there that refuse to accept the Palestinians clearly know what they are doing.
Good Riddance to 2024.
Its been nothing but pain, loss, despair and bills.
Maybe 2025 will be better.
Thank you all for bringing the snark, its been a lifeline.
It’s also brought nudity.
/ducking
Not enough nudity.
😉
robodruid:
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Just… uh… not necessarily around me, alright? 🙂
See, I was thinking of Mrs. Robidruid’s protest.
Update:
Next week we have to go to court for arraignment for the 6th time.
Yes they have arraigned her 5 times already.
I submitted an article just yesterday asking that very question. Two, actually.
Question: This submitted paper showing that result, how much tax money was used to subsidize the study?
Doesn’t that depend on how many NGOs do the laundering?
There was some mealy mouthed discussion earlier on tv about the Ukraine ‘aid’ money. I dont really know what the gibberish meant. Soft peddling bullshit.
How about this? Trace every fucking penny from source (congress votes and admin support) to where those pennies are today, every step of the way and I guarantee that almost every person involved belongs in prison.
Wishing all of you a happy new year and a large thanks for keeping this site running / a fortress of sanity for me.
Long time no see. Hope the home reactors are glowing brightly for you.
Another gift from Soros? I hope this guy takes with him all the other trash that guy paid for. Bragg et al.
“…why it wont pass this time?”
It will pass when the state gets enough control and the right people get paid enough.
*falls out of chair*
You know Johnson is a crackpot when he can’t get a tax hike past a big city, one-party city council. I’m assuming the council is a far-left cesspool like most of them lately.
The City Council realized that they were the ones that would be paying the tax. The poor, the homeless, the street people and off-the-books workers would go about their business as usual.
It’s likely the City Council’s taxes would have increased too much. Surely there’s a few evil millionaires left in Chicago to squeeze?
By evil millionaires, you mean the ones not on the City Council?
Why not go the NY state route and bill corporations for global activities that “harm” the city?
Fair enough guys, I wasn’t considering it’s property vs income taxes.
Even my crazy town shot down an overly aggressive property tax increase for the schoooolz.
Cheers, Sloopy, and the rest of you Glibules, too.
Here’s hoping for a few less(!) bumps in the road.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Hannukah and wish you all have a Happy New Year! We live in interesting times and will continue to be for the forseeable future, and it’s nice to have a site where many different experiences and opinions can be read and seen. I appreciate it!
well here is to an at least okay new year.
I signed up despite my better judgement to a 100 person singles party for new year where I do not know anyone. I had a knot in my gut for the whole day and my social anxiety is kicking into high gear. I wanted to force myself outside my comfort zone and boy it is working cause I aint a least bit comfortable.
Good luck!
Look at it this way, Pie:
Nobody there knows you, and that’s a good thing. No baggage, no history, no seeing them after the party. It’s a rare opportunity to just truly be yourself. If it doesn’t catch with someone, well, so what?
Good job on getting out of your comfort zone, too.
Glibness confirmed.
You’re with fellow travelers, Pie
Take a deep breath and relax. You dont know anyone there so you cant spoil anything. Go, get a glass of wine and find a place to sit down. If nothing else just people-watch. You dont have to approach anyone. If a woman approaches you she is going to be just as nervous as you are so make it. your job to put her at ease. Let her talk about her. Just sit there, make eye contact and nod your head in agreement no matter what she says.
If that doesnt happen at least you had some wine and got to people watch. You can then go back to your lair and enjoy peace and privacy.
A cute Libertarian activist once told me she always could get laid on New Years Eve just by going to a party.
Unfortunately, for me, it wasn’t NYE.
A cute Libertarian activist once told me she always could get laid
on New Years Evewhenever she wants just by goingto a partyto a bar.FIFY
Are they at least having a 50:50 split, or is it 80% straight guys, 15% gay guys and 5% women?
they are aiming for close to 50 50 what it is i don’t know
Sausage fest?
Fresh blood!
That’s…actually a good idea. I have a tradition of never doing anything for New Years’, but now I’m wishing I’d done something like this.
Last year, the girlfriend and I got a table at one of our favorite cocktail bars, as they were offering a (reasonably priced to me – under $200) open bar NYE party. They had small plates for food, their wonderful cocktail menu, noisemakers and hats, and were on top of table service. We got a hotel room around the corner, and had a great time. Unfortunately, they aren’t doing anything of the like this year, so we’re staying in.
I’m doing nothing at all.
I work tomorrow morning at 7am.
Probably a good idea to wear your kidney blocker 2000.
*sadly narrows gaze*
Artist’s depiction of Pie’s night
Excellent. Have fun, dude!
Minor hiccups
Hayden AI says those programming errors have been fixed.
“Anytime there’s a large program, there are going to be bumps along the road,” said Hayden’s Charley Territo. The problems in New York “had nothing to do with the AI or the technology. It was really a configuration issue.”
There’s supposed to be an additional level of human review, where someone from the NYC Department of Transportation looks at each video of an alleged violation before deciding whether to issue a ticket.
The DOT declined to comment on why those human reviewers did not catch hundreds of erroneous tickets for cars that were legally parked.
The important thing is to make life miserable for people who don’t want to ride the bus.
If there is anywhere that needs clear bus lanes, it’s NYC.
Fuck the asshole double-parkers and fix the bugs.
I do wonder if the AI has been trained to filter out the numerous cops and other protected classes.
According the NPR, the system checks the license plates, so assuming there are special plates for Citizens First Class, yes.
I absolutely love how a new automated system results in hiring MORE city workers than without it.
That seems to be the case with IT, generally, though. Hospitals basically traded their (paper) medical records staffs for larger and more expensive (electronic) medical records IT departments.
“Polar vortex heading for US sending temperatures plunging and making January the coldest for a decade”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14238675/polar-vortex-january-cold.html
I blame Al Gore.
We need it in Tucson. We have had persistent high pressure zones that have been keeping the cool air out and, more importantly, our winter rains.
Mrs. TOK had a skater on her team called Roller Vortex. She went on to be a meteorologist. I do love a good derby name.
One of our local teams is called the SufferJets. Love it.
The sky is falling again? Oh no, whatever will we do?
Any references to this being ‘unprecedented!!!’ ?
It did say coldest in a decade, or since the last polar vortex descended. It was nasty cold, for here at least, maybe not for folks nearer the 48th parallel.
Climate science assured me that children younger than don’t know what snow is at all.
Younger than ten, that is.
I like your comment missing the age a lot better, as it seems far more accurate a representation of the climate racket bullshit.
Nailing the coffin shut from the inside
Insurance companies that stopped providing home coverage to hundreds of thousands of Californians in recent years as wildfires became more destructive will have to again provide policies in fire-prone areas if they want to keep doing business in California under a state regulation announced Monday.
The rule will require home insurers to offer coverage in high-risk areas, something the state has never done, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office said in a statement. Insurers will have to start increasing their coverage by 5% every two years until they hit the equivalent of 85% of their market share. That means if an insurer writes 20 out of every 100 state policies, they’d need to write 17 in a high-risk area, Lara’s office said.
Major insurers like State Farm and Allstate have stopped writing new policies in California due to fears of massive losses from wildfires and other natural disasters.
That will help.
Such B.S. they stopped wiring because of artificial caps on the market from California government. You cannot demand a policy covering flood and fire for $5 a month. Insurance has to cover the margins. Blaming this on climate change is absurd. Look to your own government.
Clearing dead wood is illegal.
Thick, dead brush is habitat to something.
THICK DEAD BRUSH IS PRIME RAPESQUATCH HABITAT!
Good luck. NJ had decades ago had issues with unaffordable auto. Mind you it’s still awful, but not as bad as it was. The solution there was to mandate if you wrote homeowners’ you had to offer personal auto. HO in NJ was generally profitable. That didn’t work either.
Similar to FL, CA has lots of homes in fire prone areas with underpriced insurance. The solution is to allow the market to clear for properly priced insurance which will be significantly higher AND to allow for things to be rebuilt without tons of additional government requirements. Neither of these will happen.
Agreed. You get it.
A lot of my neighbors have had difficulty getting insurance because our area has been deemed high risk, which is BS. We are surrounded by dry grass, but grass fires are pretty easy to put out. I have to assume there’s government meddling which prevents to companies from offering insurance. USAA had been pretty good to us and hasn’t raised the rates much.
“We are surrounded by dry grass, but grass fires are pretty easy to put out.”
I’ve seen grass fires, with some but not much brush, that covered multiple square miles.
One stretched from Graham to Possum Kingdom killed a friend of a friend. I figure in California local topography is the trump card.
Unless there’s a wind on it, then you get to watch it leave.
Grass fires in a grassland state with 40 MPH winds, gusting to 50+ are exceedingly difficult.
It is California. I dont care. They love getting fucked, it is none of my business.
Future headline: “State Farm and Allstate to cancel all insurance plans in California.”
“Californians deserve a reliable insurance market that doesn’t retreat from communities most vulnerable to wildfires and climate change,” Lara said in a statement. “This is a historic moment for California.”
Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.
Californians deserve a commissioner who knows how the fuck “insurance” is supposed to work.
“The joy I get in participating on this website with all of you can never be properly put into words.”
This is nice to hear. I know it’s a big commitment doing links every day, and it’s good to know you are having as much fun as the rest of us.
This year has been quite a roller coaster. On the national level, and personally with they gym and my family etc. Twice we came within a day of not making rent for the gym, but we made it to our first anniversary. Our personal finances are a shit show, but we still have a roof over our head. And some of our kids (sometimes) talk to us. My FIL had a battle with cancer and won this round. It might be wishful thinking, but things seem to be trending in the right direction and I’m feeling optimistic about our country and our personal situation in 2025. Sometimes you have to pay your dues before you get to the good stuff.
Hope you all have a great 2025. I’m happy to have you all here to share in whatever comes our way.
Congrats on the anniversary! It takes balls of steel to do what you did and I’m proud of you guys.
I agree with you. Most of this last year was either waiting, scrambling or just chaos. I am bullish on 2025.
Happy New Year!
I think you’ve beaten the odds making it through a while year with your new business. I hope you are into steady growth phase now.
Thank you to all TPTB for keeping this site up and running. I
wastespend a lot of time here and feel like I know a lot of you, even if I don’t post much. I enjoy reading the links and all the fiction posted, particularly Animal, Moj, UCS, and Derp. But it is the commentariat that keep me coming back for more. I really appreciate everyone who contributes in any way to the success of this site.2024 has ended for me on an odd note, and 25 is shaping up to be either a pain in the ass, or a postponement of that pain. My decision going into 25 is; should I do radiation therapy on my mouth or say “fuck it” and risk cancer recurrence. I had surgery and the pain and discomfort I had lived with for a year and a half is gone and my quality of life greatly improved. I am happy, pleasant to be around, and enjoying my little grandkids like I haven’t previously. Now they want to radiate my face, thus dropping me back into the suck, likely in some degree until I kick my air addiction. My other option is to say no and enjoy life, whatever I have left, to the best of my abilities. I’m on the cusp of 60, and have never believed I would make it to 70, does saying no just create a self-fulfilling prophesy? I am not looking for answers, just saying the questions out loud to better understand them myself.
Either way, I have the support of my family and friends, and that is what’s important. My wife and I were talking on the phone with my aunt yesterday, when she asked what my wife thought. My wife told her, “I am not going to make his decision for him, it isn’t my place. Instead I am going to support and love him whatever he decides, and help him through it the best I can.” I have never felt so loved in our 35 years of marriage.
So happy New Year to all you, may 25 be better than all the previous years. Thank you for the voice of sanity in this crazy world. -Peace
Will the radiation give you any superpowers or glow-in-the-dark body parts?
If it makes him turn green and grow when he’s angry, I need his number. There are people I need him to pay a visit.
If only! That would cinch it for me.
Hulk got gamma radiation, this is merely x-rays and proton beam.
Hey Necron,
Sorry to hear of your troubles, but damn that sounds like a fine woman you married.
There will be prayers for you whichever direction you choose. I hope 2025 breaks your way.
Best to you!
My FIL went through the same radiation to his throat. It sucked, but beat the alternative.
Good luck on the air addiction. We all know what that is like.
Happy to hear things worked out for your FIL, Sensei. Do you know what the side effects were and which ones were more permanent? My main objection is this is a low grade mucoepidermoid, so blasting me with radiation (5 days a week for 6 weeks) seems excessive. Of course, I have no frame of reference for my opinion.
I just want to be able to do the things that make me happy; I want to play with my grandkids, I want to go shoot skeet, I want to ride my motorcycle through the Rockies from Texas to Montana. If my face is fucked up from fibrosis, or I can’t eat and drink properly, or whatever side effects decrease my quality of life, I fear turning into an old sore-head who isn’t pleasant to be around, and I don’t want my wife, kids, grandkids, or friends to remember me that way.
My FIL had throat cancer with an unknown primary site so they nuked him pretty thoroughly.
During the actual treatment soreness and pain. Essentially a sore throat for 6 weeks or so.
Long term side effect was the destruction of his salivary glands. So perpetual dry mouth and related dental problems. That said he carried a water bottle everywhere and didn’t seem especially bothered by it. He kept his sense of taste and smell.
He was always optimistic in general and he seemed ok with the outcome given the alternative. We’ve since lost him to dementia likely hastened by the treatment. But it easily gave him 15 good years and 6 not so good ones.
Hope that helps paint a balanced picture.
Best of luck with your decision
You married well!
Thanks for sharing. One of the things I’m so impressed with is the vulnerability on the site: health, wealth, prospects…..I think it’s particularly healthy to share unhappy news.
Unhappy news is where Glibs shine: it’s an incredibly supportive and decent crowd….humane. We’re all just a biopsy away from playing the Big Odds Game, so I hope you’ll write about your journey. My best friend just came through chemo and radiation this year with the best results possible, but it was very tough, and he also went through a lot of little things that I had never thought of.
best wishes
—Callahan’s Law
The gang here in Glibs Gulch will be raising glasses to you for ’25.
I can think of no greater honor.
Happy new year for everyone. We are going to close it out watching some minor league hockey and probably run for the hills as they do ‘fireworks in the arena’.
Wood stocked up for plunging temps to come and possibly up to 6 or so inches of snow if the forecast holds. Probably won’t though.
Yes, that was a hell of a football game. I was prepared to bail early but damn if the Niners didn’t make a game of it. So fun to watch.
This is guaranteed to get a reaction here.
https://archive.md/z2q8s
My understanding is that this is part and parcel of Wizards Of The Coast ongoing campaign of shitting all over the D&D IP they bought.
Yes. Someone needs to put WoTC out of our misery.
There’s a reason that Pathfinder has been growing larger and larger.
Just keep (or buy) the old books on eBay and ignore the new stuff.
Even I find it jarring to hear them talking about “races” in nineties Trek series.
That change doesn’t bother me too much. Nobody uses the word that way anymore.
Back to normal?
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate, as of December 26, rose to 6.85%, according to Freddie Mac’s weakly measure.
In November, when those pending deals were made, that measure of mortgage rates was still a little lower, in the range between 6.69% to 6.84%.
Those rates are far higher than they had been during the Fed’s interest rate repression and QE, which included buying trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities. But that phase ended in early 2022. And in mid-2022, the Fed started shedding securities, including MBS, and has so far shed $2.1 trillion of its total holdings.
So mortgage rates are now back into the old normal range before QE, and the industry, including NAR and Fannie Mae, are starting to suggest that those extra-fancy low mortgage rates aren’t coming back, and that it’s time to get re-used to the old-normal mortgage rates.
I peruse the listings around here now and then, and I’m seeing a lot of “price reduced”. Also, a lot of properties on the market for an extended period.
Yep. Hoping that trend continues for another year or so. I should be able to put $75k+ down by then and have an affordable mortgage for my single income.
The mortgage company called the other day to ask if I wanted to get any money back out of my house. I told them I had a 2.5% mortgage and wanted nothing more from them at this point. Then I hung up.
Real estate prices are famously irrationally sticky. I recall in the Big Dump of ‘08 that a lot of people took a long time to adjust to the new reality. I fully expect that our house will lose 20% of its “market value” over the next year or two.
And I’m glad to see someone pointing out that interest rates are basically exiting a prolonged and unnatural excursion to the low side.
Profiteering greedflators!
Natural gas futures prices surged Monday, hitting a new 52-week high following reports of a colder-than-usual temperature outlook for January.
Natural gas February futures
rose around 15% during the session after an updated outlook by The Weather Co. and Atmospheric G2 released Sunday showed that the temperature forecast for next month is expected to be colder than average in the East, specifically from Florida to Maine as well as certain parts of the Great Lakes.
The Ministry of Plenty shall hear of this.
January comes about this time most years
It’s almost as if there is a connection between demand and price. Nah, can’t be that.
You sound like some sort of kulak with that kind of talk.
After I got fired in the Great Nonsense that was none of My Fault of 2008, I ended up less spectator than usual in the O&G game and was consulting with a dividend baby. I recommended selling his NG rights when Henry Hub was around $12; he declined; I begged him to let me hedge; he declined. I don’t don’t remember what the contracts looked like, but that paper would have been worth dozens of times what I could have got it for.
Those masters of energy policy, the Net Zeros, have a solution for this:
Outlaw natural gas.
So Trump declares that we are taking the canal back. Carter promptly keels over. The mission has started.
Don – the avatar is when we were removing a slotted wave guide antenna and motor from a 180′ tower in Las Vegas for their ASDE…Airport Surface Detection Equipment.
Nothing too fantastic of a story other than we made the new guy ‘sweep’ the dirt to restore the land as requested where the 200′ crane posted up.
ever know anyone like this: I can climb and dance all over anything I built, no cap on the height
but I creep and cry a little on the inside while climbing something someone else built
I have the same with driving…
I trust me. Nobody else. Is why I have not had a car accident in 45 years..
https://x.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1874062472384307315
Scott Jennings on Jimmy Carter.
Summit meeting at Glibs Gulch HQ tonight. Spud, 10b0t, WebDom (with WebDom 0.5), NPR Prime, me, and a shitload of food and wine. We’ll be celebrating another year with you misfits and knaves.
So a party like you read about?
In the police blotter?
In Penthouse Letters?
What’s up Glibronis???
Miss me?
Back from hopping around the world and here to wish you all a happy coming new year!
Fuck off, Tulpa! Oh wait, welcome back!
Well played!
Where’s Zwak?
It’s an ABOMINATION
I just can’t stop myself.
I watched that. It’s period so I think it’s ok. Plus it pisses off Jag people at the races. So I think that’s also a point in its favor.
That said I’d love to have a few 6 cylinder Jags including an E Type.
Back from hopping around the world and here to wish you all a happy coming new year!
I figgered you were in jail.
It was one or the other…
Fleeing the jurisdiction is a strategy . . . .
So I think that’s also a point in its favor.
I award major bonus points for using a 327.
It’s not they dropped an LS1 and stand alone FI in it.
Not like…