Saturday Morning Unemployment Links

by | Dec 14, 2024 | Daily Links | 145 comments

So many things happening here that it’s hard to know where to start.

First, both NPR Lady Prime and Retread are out of town visiting family, so I’m all alone here this weekend. This is probably not a bad thing.

Second, the Dean called me into his office. “We will not have you teaching next semester because of ongoing student complaints about comments you make.” “Really? Can you give me an example?” “Ummm, no… but I’ll give you some specifics next week if you want.” After a brief discussion of the details, he offered that I’d still be getting paid for the remainder of my contract, a wise move because Retread is a shark lawyer who was a fearsome litigator and knows NY employment law inside and out. And my other lawyer, Swiss, has killed human beings for less. So I am free to do my research and other diversions, free of onerous responsibilities, with the Chemistry department picking up the tab. Now I know how suspended cops feel.

Third, after a lot of consideration and an impending deadline (New Years Eve) when I would be expected to be in the company of one of the two women orbiting Planet OMWC, I have made a decision. Which I will not reveal yet.

Other considerations are birthdays, and today’s include a guy whose career ended up cratering; a guy who actually did a lot; a guy who was a buddy to one of the birthday boys from yesterday; a guy who was Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and They Might Be Giants, rolled into one; a guy who proved that mumbling can be the way to fame and fortune; a perfect crazy chick who was actually two of a kind; and a prime candidate for the woodchipper.

Speaking of which, Links.

When you put your ear up to his head, you can hear the ocean.

The gay agenda has gone too far.

“We can’t have anyone honest or principled here. What good could come of that?”

Your tax dollars at work.

Some people get a sick pleasure out of watching two tards fight.

Give the man two Nobels for this.

He found information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of Hillary Clinton.

Goyim ruin everything.

Honoring a birthday boy, the Old Guy notes that this song has everything. Including a singing midget who does impressions.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

145 Comments

  1. Pat

    “We will not have you teaching next semester because of ongoing student complaints about comments you make.”

    Boo!

    So I am free to do my research and other diversions, free of onerous responsibilities, with the Chemistry department picking up the tab.

    But actually yay!

    I’m nearly certain it’s some political bullshit, and that’s a bummer, but enjoy the remainder of the contract, and whatever comes afterwards.

  2. Sean

    More no show jobs.

    How do I get in on that grift?

  3. juris imprudent

    Now I know how suspended cops feel.

    I’ve never imagined you giddy.

  4. Gender Traitor

    a guy who was Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and They Might Be Giants, rolled into one

    My first musical hero!!! 🥰 I was raised on an LP of his called “Thank You, Music Lovers” (kind of a “greatest hits” collection, I believe,) which may explain a lot about me.

    • juris imprudent

      I suppose he also could’ve said “the inspiration for Dr. Demento”.

      • Gender Traitor

        Maybe even more so for Weird Al.

  5. Gender Traitor

    Sorry about losing the gig…I guess? Maybe just as well?

    The pressing question in my mind is…do the two NPR ladies know of one another’s existence?

    • SDF-7

      If they do — you know some variation on “timeshare” or “threesome” is going to be the next question.

      • Pat

        The Old Man will eventually have to regale us with his confessions.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        “The Old Man will eventually have to regale us with his confessions.”

        Dear AARP, I never thought this would happen to me…

    • Old Man With Candy

      God, no. And they’re in two separate cities, which minimizes the chances of accidental encounters when we’re out and about.

      • Gender Traitor

        Hope you’re ready with a halfway-plausible-sounding excuse if The Broad Not Taken asks about NYE.

      • Old Man With Candy

        I’m trying to think of a gentle way to break things off. With Tomb Raider, I let *her* conclude that’s what we should do. She was a bright one, but these two women are *smart*, so that approach is unlikely to work.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        “I’m gay.”

      • creech

        “It’s not you. It’s me.”

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        With Tomb Raider, I let *her* conclude that’s what we should do.

        OMFG I hate when men do this

      • UnCivilServant

        I let *her* conclude that’s what we should do.

        I hate when men do this

        Assume I am and antisocial introvert and am overlooking the nuance – can you elaborate?

  6. juris imprudent

    I have made a decision.

    “You think it’ll work?”
    “It’ll take a miracle!”

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Assume I am and antisocial introvert and am overlooking the nuance – can you elaborate?

      Man wants to break up with woman, but strings things along until she does it.

  7. SDF-7

    a guy whose career ended up cratering

    Heh… I got it — so it must be too easy.

    Sorry about the Dean, Old Man. From our limited perspective you did seem to be enjoying the teaching — and in a STEM field “Toughen up, buttercup” never used to be bad advice (Because “physics and facts don’t care about your feelings” was the rule, after all). Can’t imagine how touchy the student bodies (no… not like that!) can be nowadays if what I read on the internet is any indication….. (wait a minute….)

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Toughen up, buttercup

      You must be one of those white supremacists.

      How DARE you?!?

    • Ted S.

      Sorry about the Dean, Old Man.

      RC can be a bastard, can’t he?

      /jk

  8. Pat

    a guy who proved that mumbling can be the way to fame and fortune

    Happy Birthday Mike Judge?

    • Pat

      a perfect crazy chick who was actually two of a kind

      Happy birthday Sally Field?

      • Pat

        a prime candidate for the woodchipper

        Happy birthday Preet Bharara?

      • SDF-7

        She was nun of a kind, really.

      • Ted S.

        and a prime candidate for the woodchipper

        I was going to guess Marin Mersenne.

      • Ted S.

        a perfect crazy chick who was actually two of a kind

        I was thinking Olivia Newton-John.

    • Drake

      I was expecting Eddie Vedder.

  9. Muzzled Woodchipper

    I can’t imagine the suffering and anguish OMWC is going through not having to stand in front of a bunch of idiot kids and pretend he too is a leftard.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Isn’t he going back to the coffee shop? Seems like a higher proportion of nuts there.

    • Sean

      Cancel culture claims another victim.

  10. Translucent Chum

    My daughter goes to school in Michigan and has a professor who Zooms from Hawaii. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      My daughter goes to school in Michigan and has a professor who Zooms from Hawaii.

      Nothing left to cut.

    • Sean

      That’s messed up.

      • Pat

        Other than labs, what difference would it make? There’s 100% online unis. I attended one back before that was popular, but nowadays even east bumblefuck university offers online programs. There’s nothing particularly crucial about a lecture hall where you park your ass to listen to a professor speak.

      • Translucent Chum

        Yeah. It’s not one of her engineering classes. She likes remote for the required gen ed stuff.

      • Sean

        I have an intense hatred for all things Zoom.

        Perhaps due to its association with Covid tyranny.

        Also, get off my lawn.

      • Gender Traitor

        If it weren’t for Zoom and other services of its type, I’d have to attend my employer’s Board meetings in person instead of writing up the minutes from the recording.

        I just realized how much I love Zoom.

      • R C Dean

        I always had a strict rule against recording board meetings, even ones on Zoom. In my opinion, doing so just unnecessarily creates discoverable evidence. I never had a Board chair argue with me on it, even when it meant I was stopping an existing practice.

        As for Zoom-only classes, it’s going to be hard to justify charging the much higher rates for a brick-and-mortar program when the classes are indistinguishable from the cheaper on-line programs.

        BTW, I, too, believe that Zoom provides an inferior experience compared to in-person, but I, too, am an old person. So nobody cares what I think.

      • DrOtto

        I just sat in on a Zoom court appearance for my daughter for a speeding ticket she got in Amarillo (9 inconvenient hours away). I wasn’t a fan until then. Unfortunately, when we move for jury trial, they won’t Zoom that. And no, she isn’t paying it. Lazer is inadmissible in TX and she didn’t incriminate herself during the stop, so suck it Amarillo.

      • UnCivilServant

        why is laser inadmissable in texas?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        I know our local uni, an R-1*, has had all student growth take place in online programs. And while RC is correct about discovery issues, that shouldn’t apply to a classroom environment and might be a positive in any case. Which includes student/teacher one-on-ones. It does make lab classes harder, but I can see a move to localized labs used by many institutions at once, basically a practicum with proctors holding forth.

        It is the way the world is moving, at least in forum type situations like this.

        *OMWC will know what this means. But essentially a top ranked research school.

      • R C Dean

        To be fair, I find Zoom to be inferior for what are supposed to be interactive meetings (which includes board meetings). For didactics/lectures, it isn’t as lacking.

  11. juris imprudent

    Biden did sorta deliver, finally, on Obama’s red line. I’m just still amazed at the casual reporting on our military presence there, as though we had every right in the world to be.

  12. Gender Traitor

    (And belated but sincere thanks to whoever corrected the scheduled time for this post! I always look forward to the weekends’ Tales from Butlerville.)

  13. SDF-7

    When you put your ear up to his head, you can hear the ocean.

    Obligatory. He’s right that the Assad regime probably fell due to Iran being weaker and unable to prop them up — but that’s despite his best efforts to block Israel from disrupting them (to weaken Hamas and Hezbollah) and feed them pallets upon pallets of cash (aren’t they sending them another billion? Oh… wait.. make that 10 billion… — yeah, you’re so weakening them PPP…)

  14. SDF-7

    The gay agenda has gone too far.

    That’s what happens when you want something otter than her beaver.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Are we going to have to bear with all of the jokes coming from this?

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        If so, I might need to go outside for a fag.

  15. Ted S.

    Third, after a lot of consideration and an impending deadline (New Years Eve) when I would be expected to be in the company of one of the two women orbiting Planet OMWC, I have made a decision.

    Threesome?

  16. SDF-7

    “We can’t have anyone honest or principled here. What good could come of that?”

    Alternate headline: “Who knew chasing a woman into a bathroom and screaming at her because she didn’t vote our way might come back to haunt us?”

  17. SDF-7

    Your tax dollars at work.

    1) No one doesn’t know beans are a protein source as well as fiber if they’ve been paying any attention. And if they’re that clueless that they don’t — they aren’t going to pay attention to this stupid report, the FDA, their health class or however they think this might disseminate.

    2)

    “We advised that meat, including lean meat, should be moved to the end of the protein list,” he added.

    There it is… “Eat ze bugs!” didn’t work out — so let’s try an alternate tack to get the proles to stop eating our steaks and be miserable!

    • PutridMeat

      beans are a protein source

      I wonder if they address the quality of the protein, bio-availability, and how much one has to eat to get anywhere near the equivalent high-quality protein of a 12oz steak?

      Obviously can’t be bothered to go do my own research – we know only semi-literate anti-science types do that.

      • Sean

        I didn’t see any steak sales at either of my preferred grocery stores for this week. 😕

      • PutridMeat

        I didn’t see any steak sales at either of my preferred grocery stores for this week.

        This is why you have a dedicated meat freezer – not a euphemism – that gets stocked when things are on sale. Though the times between stocking seem to be getting a bit longer, and the lows a bit higher…

      • Grummun

        that gets stocked when things are on sale you take delivery of your side of beef.

      • PutridMeat

        take delivery of your side of beef.

        Was doing that for several years, starting in 2020 to ensure I had meat if the assholes really pushed things too far. The problem is that, at least around these parts, that’s become pretty prohibitively expensive. A large fraction of a 1/2 or full is going to be hamburger, bones, etc and I’d rather not pay $10+/lbs (in some cases with a very big +) for hamburger and bones. Granted, it is artisanal hamburger… insert eye-roll emoji

    • rhywun

      It’s almost like this is a political initiative; another parting gift from Team Joe on the way out.

    • Suthenboy

      “We advise….”
      The vast majority of human effort is to subjugate their fellow man. I will decide what I like to eat and they can fuck right off.
      What kind of freak sits around fretting over what other people are eating?

  18. Pat

    A lowly vegetable rises to stardom in newly released dietary advisory report

    Perhaps in the sequel he’ll be elected president.

    • Fourscore

      Already been done.

  19. SDF-7

    He found information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of Hillary Clinton.

    Hmmm… something that might impede the takeup of a technology that expressly scrapes through all of your private data (to “help”! Can’t tell you about that picture you saw last week if AI doesn’t know all your pictures, contacts, locations and documents! Can’t help you remember what you were working on if we don’t screenshot you every minute and scrape that with image-to-text!)… the tin foil part of my brain is torn between “Big Money, Big Business” and “NSA” frankly… yeah, the NSA *can* get most of this already — but AI scraping (since it would dump it all in the Cloud because the datacenters full of APUs are colocated there so you need it for efficient processing.. the local stuff is just the chatty front end) would package it so conveniently and easily!

    What’s sad is I can’t dismiss that part of my brain anymore… too much corruption and power grasping evident over the last few decades…

  20. Pat

    The mean-girl nihilism of Taylor Lorenz

    ’Tis the season to be jolly! Most of us are currently feeling joy because Christmas is around the corner. But if your name is Taylor Lorenz, it’s because a man was shot dead in broad daylight.
    _
    Lorenz, former columnist at the Washington Post and former tech reporter at the New York Times, has quite a knack for saying things that set normal people aflame in indignation, as well as a knack for crying fake tears and generally being loathsome. Just last week, she called people who don’t wear masks ‘dumb fucks’ who are ‘raw-dogging the air’ and ‘spewing… disease-laden breath’. I had no idea that people were still so terrified of breathing this many years after Covid.
    _
    This time, America’s liberal mean girl has really outdone herself, announcing on Piers Morgan Uncensored that she concurs with her fellow ‘progressives’ in celebrating the apparent assassination of a man, because he worked in an industry she does not approve of.
    _
    Last week, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on a Manhattan sidewalk. Now, I think that American health insurance, overall, does not work in the interests of the American people. But I am also against extra-judicial killings. Does that make me right wing?

    I’m not proud of this, but I’d laugh my ass off if that stupid bitch got raped to death in broad daylight in the middle of Manhattan.

    • Fourscore

      United Healthcare sounds like it’s a good stock investment. Is it too late to get in?

      /Curious in Podunkvile

    • juris imprudent

      broad daylight in the middle of Manhattan

      STEVE SMITH NOT LIKE NOISY STREETS, EVEN IF FULL OF MANY EASY TARGETS.

  21. Grumbletarian

    a guy who proved that mumbling can be the way to fame and fortune

    Happy birthday Tom Menino?

    • SDF-7

      Now they’re just panhandling.

      • juris imprudent

        Wind us up, blow the plain punchline.

  22. Pat

    Trump says GOP will push to eliminate daylight saving time

    And they tried to say this man was divisive.

    • Ted S.

      Wait until we get the fights over whether to stay on “standard” time or DST year round.

      (As I said yesterday, I’d prefer year-round DST. More people use the daylight after dinner than a 4:30 AM sunrise.)

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Peg sunrise to 6:00 am.

      • R C Dean

        Places where it gets light at 4:30 am in the summer also stay light until 10:00 pm, in my experience (far northern Wisconsin).

        Or, people who work outside do, in fact, to get to work by 5:00 am because they want to be done before it gets inhumanly hot starting around lunchtime (southern AZ).

      • Ted S.

        Sunrise here in June is around 5:20 with sunset a bit past 8:30, that being with DST.

        NYC would get a couple of weeks with dawn breaking a bit before 4:30 with year-round standard time, and dusk at 8PM at the latest.

      • Night Watchman

        I remember that they tried year-round daylight saving time during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. Parents were up in arms because their precious little snowflakes were waiting for the school bus in the dark in December. Sunrise here (the suburbs of UnCivil’s home town) was around 8:30am (sunset around 5:30pm).

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, school busses now pick up at the front door, so that’s no longer a factor.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Eat dinner ealier.

        Adjust.

      • KSuellington

        I’d agree with TedS’, I would vote for year round DST. But really, I don’t care all that much which way, just fucking eliminate the back and forth twice a damn year.

    • rhywun

      Watching the Dems defend DST, in unison, is going to be interesting. They’ll probably defend it with some debunked klimate nonsense.

      • R C Dean

        I think Trump is suckering them on this. Once the Dems also start singing out of their hymnal on DST, he will say “Fine, then you support going to DST year-round. So let it be written, so let it be done.” I suspect DST is the more popular option anyway.

  23. Jarflax

    You went with career cratering rather than taking the piss out of him about his nose?

  24. Shpip

    This was dinner before Gateway Southlake’s monthly Shabbat service, presided over by Pastor Greg Stone, who spearheads Gateway’s Jewish Ministry.

    Shofar, so good.

  25. UnCivilServant

    Morning glibs.

    Yesterday at the butcher’s I found corned beef tri tip.

    Just had my test taste. It is delicious.

  26. R C Dean

    Just watched the Witcher 4 trailer. Holy crap, has that kind of “cinematic” digital animation gotten good. I still don’t understand why its not used to make more movies.

    • UnCivilServant

      On a per minute basis it is, let me see, the technical term is “fucking expensive”. Plus you end up with a lot of uncanny valley incidents

      • R C Dean

        I’m not seeing a lot of cringey uncanny valley in that trailer (admittedly, on a small screen). Nobody is pitching these as “can’t tell it from live action”, anyway.

        Expensive? Compared to what? A high 8 figure or 9 figure live action movie?

        If a six minute trailer for a video game is doable, I can’t imagine a 90 minute movie is out of line – seems like it would be about, let’s see, fifteen times more expensive. Probably less, because you can use the same character, costume and set designs for the whole thing.

      • UnCivilServant

        you can use the same character, costume and set designs for the whole thing.

        That depends entirely on the script.

        If you compare like for like in terms of type of movie, the CGI is still more expensive.

        In time, it may get cheaper, but if you stop paying SAG, WGA rates for mediocre talent, you can achieve better for less with real people in front of a camera.

    • LCDR_Fish

      After stuff like the Warhammer 40k Secret Level episode…we’ll see. Still a function of cost.

    • Nephilium

      It’s used in quite a few, but since animation is generally regarded as being for kids, there hasn’t really been a big push.

      • R C Dean

        I don’t recall many movies at all using the kind of cinematic animation on display in that trailer. Lots of CGI mixed into live action isn’t the same, and most animated movies these days follow the Pixar/Dreamworks template of, I dunno, more cartoonish presentations.

        I don’t have any idea what the cost is, of course – maybe it really does push $1MM/minute. And maybe there really is a resistance to uptake by the audience.

  27. PieInTheSky

    I’m all alone here this weekend – how are the escorts in your neck of the woods? Hopefully odds are low of encountering a student.

    • Old Man With Candy

      150kg minimum and three teeth maximum. 3/4 have penises.

      • R C Dean

        So, other than the lack of teeth, there are downsides?

      • Old Man With Candy

        Downsides? Well it IS often hard to tell if it’s Downs’ or just inbreeding.

    • UnCivilServant

      Ford Discontinued the Escort, so they’re aging.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Insufficient pantomime grief after the election?

  29. Evan from Evansville

    Unhappily, I am also once again unemployed. Kinda odd how they went about it on Thursday, 5.5hrs into my shift. Theoretically I didn’t pass their bar within 30 days of hire. I may indeed call HR to see if I can simply stay on as a tech instead of a phleb, for now. I did get paid yesterday, my first full 2-week check with ’em. So that’s kinda nice and also a kick in the balls.

    My biggest complaint to HR will be they didn’t DO any training. They only had me try venipuncture a few times with ’em, never explaining their SOPs, and then they kinda took me off those duties never to add me back on. I did fuck up the first time, the day with kidney stone rumblings, but the other 4 or 5 times went off without any hitch. It wasn’t a gig I meant to do more than a year, max two, but it would’ve been nice to keep getting money.

    I shall see what I can do. I don’t believe I’m wholly in the wrong realm of work, though my brain doesn’t react well to Factory Speed, I may have discovered. ‘Tis an interesting world, with plenty more discover and learn. I’ll see if any Dream Writing Gigs are available, but I like the long-term skill creation of the med field and what I had going. That reliability may be fairly crucial, ‘specially considering my odd record on the track.

  30. PieInTheSky

    The Thesis that Killed Academia?
    Sabine Hossenfelder

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewg2Mp_j-_g

    Many comments are along the lines

    “he problem with requiring researchers to show that their work has demonstrative value to taxpayers is that we often don’t know what kinds of research will lead to useful applications”

    “I always thought it was a sign of a vibrant society that we can do research on things that doens’t always “demonstrate value”. Knowledge and science is not always tied to progress; sometimes pursuing knowledge and insight is valuable just for the sake of it.”

    which sounds naively good but you cannot throw endless money at dubious research cause some may be useful. Also if you create a lot of research you end up losing a lot of it in too much data on dusty shelves. if to many useless studies appear it can render any meta analysis useless.

    • PutridMeat

      While somewhat true, the danger (inevitable?) with that sort of reasoning is that, especially in the era of Big Funding controlled by the state, research universities and institutions rapidly become welfare for the credentialed.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Just get the government out of any non-defense research. Problem solved.

      Sabine is a bitter old lemon-sucker with clenched teeth.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        This.

        Research should be an avenue of open inquiry. But taxpayers shouldn’t be funding research outside of defense. If it’s worth studying, someone will pay for it. It’s not the taxpayer’s responsibility to satisfy the curiosities of researchers.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    I’ll give you some specifics next week if you want.

    Will the complaints be from students or faculty? Will Sugarfree contribute?

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      What is it with this trend of, “You’re fired, but we can’t tell you why until some later date”?

      • Old Man With Candy

        As long as the paycheck keeps coming.

        /rubs greedy Jew-paws together in glee

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Never enough

    Johnson called the bill’s passage in the House “an important win for our troops,” noting that it would provide pay increases to about half of enlisted service members and improve military housing, among other investments.

    “We also believe it’s important to refocus the Pentagon on military lethality, not radical woke ideology,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “This legislation permanently bans transgender treatment for minors, prohibits critical race theory in military academies, ends the DEI bureaucracy, and combats antisemitism.”

    However, some military families with trans children disagree that the provision regarding trans care will improve the military.

    One active duty member of the Air Force, who has served for more than two decades and has a trans daughter who is receiving treatment for gender dysphoria through Tricare, said the bill sends a “mixed message,” because it could help some military families while harming others.

    It sounds like some people have some decisions to make.

    • Common Tater

      Trans kids are usually the fault of the parents.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I think the parents don’t do enough to stop it, but I’m not convinced they start it.

        It’s social media. That shit is terrible and I’m quite glad to be off social media for the most part. It absolutely causes brainrot.

    • rhywun

      a trans daughter who is receiving treatment for gender dysphoria

      Well, which is it?

      I don’t think anyone is talking about eliminating treatment for gender dysphoria.

      • R C Dean

        We live in the Red Queen’s world – words mean what our many Red Queens say they mean, and that’s that.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Ford resurrects Mk1 Escort RS for limited-edition restomod costing nearly £300,000

    I like it but I’d rather have a Cosworth Escort.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    It’s unclear how many families would be affected by the provision. But Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the former Armed Services chairman who is now the panel’s ranking member, said on the House floor Wednesday that there are about 4,000 minors currently within the military health system whose care would be taken away by the restriction.

    “[B]lanketly denying health care to people who need it — just because of a biased notion against transgender people — is wrong,” Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “The inclusion of this harmful provision puts the lives of children at risk and may force thousands of service members to make the choice of continuing their military service or leaving to ensure their child can get the health care they need.”

    I thought the primary function of the “military’ is killing people.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Leave.

      If they want to serve their country, they need to pay for their child’s voluntary psychosis. Not having a sudden surge of patriotism to join the military so they can de-dick their sons is not on today’s agenda.

      “4000 transgender kids” in military.

      Bullshit, especially when there is no such thing as a transgender kid and true gender dysphoria is incredibly rare.

  35. Muzzled Woodchipper

    Senators bucking Biden?

    “Pathetic.”

    Senators bucking Trump?

    True Heroez!

  36. KSuellington

    Hey DenverJ, don’t know if you saw my comment at the end of the ded thread yesterday, but if you read this then I will repeat myself. Do not ever use graphite in lock cylinder, be they auto, moto, or house. It will work for a while and then capture moisture and turn into a gummy black paste and interfere with the wafers or pins and their springs inside the lock and will make it difficult to turn the lock. May not be what is happening with you, but clean it out before you resort to drastic means.

  37. Grumbletarian

    https://babylonbee.com/news/assassin-luigi-mangione-takes-lead-in-2028-democratic-primary-polls

    U.S. — Despite currently being in custody and charged with the murder of a health insurance company CEO, alleged assassin Luigi Mangione has now taken the lead in 2028 Democratic primary polls.

    Though more well-known candidates like Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, and Gretchen Whitmer remained in the running, Mangione had surged to the top of the polls in just a matter of days following his rise to stardom among Democrat voters after committing a cold-blooded murder.

    Not sure if satire.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Oh. goody. It’s sleeting outside.

    • Raven Nation

      Freezing rain last night. Have to go out later – might be a $50 Uber ride instead of my driving.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Good grief

    Not even inaugurated yet, the man who called Jan. 6 convicts “hostages” is already a dominant figure in courtrooms, a reality that feels like a gut-punch for the career prosecutors who have spent years trying the nearly 1,600 people arrested over a day of grotesque violence and threat.

    Indeed, as defendants and their attorneys take turns referencing Trump’s oft-repeated avowals to free any convicted offenders, it’s easy to believe that Trump has won — that the effort to bring to justice those who stormed the Capitol is doomed.

    Is there a Pulitzer prize for overwrought melodrama?

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      There can’t be. The submissions would be too many, even after you automatically reject the ones not from a BIPOC.

    • Shpip

      “I think it’s especially demoralizing here because the prosecutors who brought these cases were career prosecutors, and this was not ever something people got involved with as a political prosecution,” Loeb told me.

      Even by D.C. standards, that might qualify as Whopper of the Week.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      But more seriously, do these fucking people not have editors? If there are editors, they need to be fucking fired. I mean, who the fuck reads shit like this and says, “Yeah! Fight the power!”

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      a reality that feels like a gut-punch for the career prosecutors who have spent years trying the nearly 1,600 people arrested over a day of grotesque violence and threat

      Who shall mourn the poor prosecutors?

    • juris imprudent

      Don’t confuse the Poe’s-litzer.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    “I think it’s especially demoralizing here because the prosecutors who brought these cases were career prosecutors, and this was not ever something people got involved with as a political prosecution,” Loeb told me. “In the aftermath of Jan. 6th, there was a moment of consensus where the country was shocked by what happened and it didn’t seem like it would be a political issue when you’re talking about hundreds of people assaulting police and breaking into the Capitol. So the pardons represent the politicization of prosecutions that, for the folks who worked on them, were really just about upholding the rule of law.”

    They were doing the Lords’ Work. The treacherous rabble must pay dearly for their sins.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      UPHOLDING THE RULE OF LAW!!

      Yeah. That’s what they were doing.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    That includes the Winegeart cases: “Winegeart has failed to display any remorse for her actions, she has not accepted responsibility for her role in the attack, and she has not displayed any sense of appreciation for the harm or gravity that the January 6 attack had on our nation,” prosecutors wrote in a Nov. 22 sentencing memo about Winegeart. “Instead, she publicly blames the riot on public officials and government agencies, all while refusing to acknowledge her role and her actions on that day.”

    It’s a bit awkward to note, but that passage could also be describing their incoming boss, the president-elect.

    This irony horrifies a lot of permanent Washington, where remembering Jan. 6 has been a cottage industry that now also feels endangered.

    It’s fascinating to see them openly classifying this as prosecution of thought crimes.

    Professional victimhood is a growth industry.

    • rhywun

      “Permanent Washington”

      JFC

      • Evan from Evansville

        Yep. Talk about missing the entire point of (nearly everyone’s) frustration, let alone the decisive election results.

        “Permanent Washington” — I’d accept the maintenance staff at the White House; Capitol buildings; DC sewage and waste folk; perhaps a few archivists and personnel. I’d love a Congressional act forcing the elected to actually spend time in their fucking constituency, rather than getting ‘permanent’ offices in DC. End the Fame and publicity of being a politician, and far fewer would yearn to join the shitshow. Ya know, kinda as presciently designed.

    • rhywun

      Keep justifying cowardly murder, Democrats. It suits you.

      • Suthenboy

        They are socialists. It’s what they do. For the collectivist individuals are irrelevant and expendable. They are playing a game and people are just pieces to move about to suit them. Murder of an individual? For AOC it means nothing. Omelets…eggs.
        I will point out again that we have mountains of eggshells and are yet to see this fabled omelet.

  42. Tres Cool

    “Third, after a lot of consideration and an impending deadline (New Years Eve) when I would be expected to be in the company of one of the two women orbiting Planet OMWC, I have made a decision. Which I will not reveal yet.”

    The answer better be “both”

    • Evan from Evansville

      When so infused with lust and lore for the Old Man’s candy, a natural rivalry will form ‘twain the two in His presence. Surely they’ll compete like Romanian gymnasts vying to prove their worth on the coach’s ‘apparatus.’

      Lithe creatures oft underplay their natural talents. Don’t let ’em fool ya. Li’l Katya tried once, but my natural gymnastic repertoire overwhelmed her. At first she claimed “it is amazing after years of training how one can contort one’s body. Of course, it is only useful in gymnastics.” <– It was designed to inflame eroticism. (I encourage allowing it to. Creates great routines. Make sure to stick the landing (somewhere).)

  43. Suthenboy

    OFFS. The sun is shining or it isn’t. What the clock says is irrelevant.
    Throw a dart at a spinning globe. Wherever it sticks when it gets noon there set an atomic clock at 12:00 pm. Aside from synchronizing things the vast majority of our business can take place at any time.