It’s hard for me to work up enthusiasm. I mean, I love football and the Buffalo vs. Refs game today should be excellent. But still, without Purple and Black… it’s just… flaccid. I have been spending a lot of time in Buffalo (had dinner there last night with Prime, a sentimental Bills fan), and will confess that the enthusiasm and hope there is real, deep, and universal. People don’t say, “Hello,” they say, “Go Bills!” as a greeting.
That said, Prime gave me a Bills hat to wear during the game. “This looks so much better on you than that ratty old Ravens cap. It makes you even sexier!” As if that could manipulate me into wearing it. Oh fuck, it did. I am a weak man.
BTW, there’s an Easter Egg in the front page photo.
Birthdays today include a guy who returned as promised; Nancy Pelosi’s spirit animal; a chick who was far less hot than Julie Andrews; and speaking of hot, a froggy fiddler; a guy who lived in a van down by the River; a (((guy))) who would make my mother melt; a guy who despite being sick, sick, sick was a pretty fine cartoonist; a guy who fucked every woman worth fucking; a baseball player and punchline, all rolled into one; godmother of contemporary Jew-hatred who, of course, is an icon of the Left; a fine drummer who was featured in some of Kinky Friedman’s novels; father of a chubby guitarist; a nice young fella who has had a couple talk shows; an excuse for bad Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts; and a guy with novel taste in women.
And the bad news is… bad news.
Gorsuch bitterly disappoints me. This is absolute bullshit.
This didn’t go quite as planned.
Cheaper than any other alternative.
“I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock.”
Anonymous sources so you know it’s legit.
I’d guess that if it reaches the Federal level, 47 states would vote in favor.
Mahomes doesn’t cheat. Nossir. /rolls eyes
Sometimes, things are just perfect. This is one of those times. And the Old Guy has long had a particular love for Slam Stewart and his arco saw-and-jaw.
Happy birthday Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Everyone misunderstands Arnie… at the time his agent put him in that little “should have been a B movie”, he was seriously pushing for a biopic on European history — and really wanted to be a composer. So, hurrying through the police station scene while trying to work on his pitch to the producers of that movie — he of course mumbled his famous “I’ll be Bach!” line.
And the rest is history.
The sequel was even planned to be about the most prolific composer in history – Most Art.
Happy birthday Stephen Rea?
Happy birthday Hannibal Lecter?
Happy birthday Warren Beatty?
Gotta say, the more I learn about MacArthur, the more I dislike him. Very likely a sociopath, unquestionably a narcissist, not nearly the grand strategist of his self-portrayal.
Oh, I started typing quite the rant on him… but didn’t think anyone would care, so didn’t bother. Suffice it to say, I think he was a decent politician (though he misjudged Truman in the end). May have been okay in WW1 (Pershing’s staff, I think?). The rest of his military career does not impress me — and I certainly think he let his pre-WW2 position in the Philippines go to his head.
The best thing he did was to help transform Japan from an bloodthirsty expansionist empire into the relatively peaceful economic powerhouse it became. Getting the clans to trade military conquest for economic conquest. He wrote their current constitution. Only he could have done it, the Japanese would not have respected any other post-war head of occupation the way they did him.
Also, SDF-7, I believe he was a division commander in the Great War, and was frequently at or near the battle line. Vainglorious death-defying bastard, but a pretty decent tactician.
One wonders what might have happened had his brother Arthur (who went in the Navy and was advancing rapidly) had not died young.
Marshall was a MAJ on Pershing’s staff – after he had told Pershing the truth that his division commander was dissembling about.
I guess it’s not Jesus, then?
Given the community center name/location on the banner behind on the ladies (on Firefox at least, you can right-click and “open image in new tab” which makes it easier to see), I certainly have my guess. But I’ll decline stating it to avoid spoiling the fun for the rest of y’all.
Is today the actual Superbowl or more preliminaries? I confess to be in the “don’t care” space about football (pro and college) for years now… so honestly don’t know. I thought the Superbowl had migrated to February for some reason… but no idea.
Hope your Bills cap served its purpose for fun times — and that your prior cap will not be doomed to sit upon the closet door, sitting forlornly on that closet door (beneath the bust of Pallas, doubtless!)….
I’m trying to figure out why they have an Easter Egg at the Jewish Community Center. 🤔
Its after Easter. They either got them free or at wholesale.
Yep. Also very much a bureaucratic mindset of competing against the other services.
There was really no reason the return to the Philippines. The Navy and Marines were already going straight for Japan.
His fuckups is Korea were spectacular and almost cost us the entire war.
That was his personality – he had deep family/personal ties to the country after spending a considerable amount of time there earlier- and they practically had to drag him onto the PT boat for LT Bulkeley to smuggle him past the Japanese to Australia. There was an element of pride, but also an element of owing the people who he had promised to come back for.
Once again, Army is forgotten in the Pacific War.
Not in my browser. And I gave up pretty quickly trying to find the image source in the code, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Awww, c’mon, give it a shot.
But still, without Purple and Black… it’s just… flaccid.
Didn’t Joe Flaccid win a Super Bowl with the Ravens?
Sometimes it’s hard to remember.
So did Trent Dilfer. But Flacco actually had a great performance. Dilfer merely didn’t make mistakes and let the defense win.
As I Giants fan, I remember seeing Ray Lewis run down Tiki Barber early in that game and knowing the game was over. I think the Ravens could have had Daniel Jones at QB and still won easily.
“This looks so much better on you than that ratty old Ravens cap. It makes you even sexier!”
There are things that can make you sexy?
I believe that’s a pretty standard assertion from Corvette dealerships at the least.
Cover your bald spot, physically or metaphorically?
Happy birthday, Adam?
Ok… now I’m glad I didn’t get that next cup of coffee before hovering over that link or I would have needed a new monitor…
BTW, there’s an Easter Egg in the front page photo.
Which one of those three is OMWC?
I’m sure once he’s had a chance to discuss it with Queers For Palestine he’ll see the error of his ways.
Gives a whole new meaning to digital currency.
Heh. Nice.
They do know that “crypto” isn’t real money in the banlieus, non?
I think I read somewhere that it isn’t the complete bit of fuckery that it seems on first glance (I don’t remember where and I don’t remember the justification beyond a vague “the law might not be enforced” or some happy horse droppings…), but yeah — that’s my gut reaction as well.
On the first level — all the crap the feds have done to hurt small business and contractors (while amazingly, surprisingly helping their huge billionaire/corporate donor class — what a shock!) needs to be reversed if we’re going to be serious about getting the economy back on track. This crap just keeps pushing this country into being one big company store (with a limited set of companies)… which gosh — seems awfully like keeping the number of sticks you have to bundle together as a government so the country is “stronger” more limited to make that easier… can’t imagine why they would be pushing that over the last 20 years… (assholes)
On the second level — all the “money laundering” pre-crime post Patriot Act crap has obviously only grown and been abused, and ripping it out root and branch may hurt law enforcement fee-fees… (and I’m more pro-law enforcement than some of y’all, believe it or not… but I want it done right, not “try to guess patterns and restrict people in advance which can only be abused… oh and make IRS reporting more onerous!”) but it needs to be done if we’re ever to get privacy from the state and businesses back.
That said — while OMB came out against “de-banking” in his Davos conversation (and I love how X shut down BofA’s attempt at “Who us?” subsequently) — he’s always seemed to me to be pretty pro-policing regardless of the methods. So if they pitch this at him solely as anti-money laundering, I don’t expect him to do much about it or care. Which of course sucks… but that’s the state we’ve been in for a while.
I reserve the right to be pleasantly surprised… but it would be one hell of a surprise. Maybe with the more populist forces roiling in his base he’ll not want to screw small businesses — but I’m not holding my breath.
pushing that over the last 20 years…
20? More like 75 – they’ve just been turning up the dial, slowly. Didn’t choose our enemies carefully enough in WWII.
Sounds like a Congressional issue most of all. Anyway, how can you object to this without obliterating damn-near everything hanging upon the Commerce Clause?
I think that is the main source of issues here; this is something that should be handled by congress, as it isn’t unconstitutional, at least not from the angle it was attacked at.
We seem to want SCOTUS to save us from ourselves, when we really need to step up and take care of it legislatively.
The Supremes stayed the injunction, they haven’t ruled on the law yet (it’s not even in front of them yet).
There’s still hope.
Gorsuch, in particular, just hates lower courts making nation-wide stays (looking at you, random Hawaiian judge).
the Supreme Court should “go a step further and … take this case now to resolve definitively the question whether a district court may issue universal injunctive relief.”
The Covid policies alone seemed to have the main intent of killing off small businesses.
Not a terrible plan from anyone except Egypt and Jordan’s pov… maybe all those years of bribes will be enough to get them to take them. If they do, I’d damned well keep an eye on them and probably settle them on the opposite side of the country from the Israeli border or something.
No. It’s a terrible idea.
Egypt is already full of Sudanese refugees. Members of our church just got back from a mission trip there. They are tolerated as long as they keep a low profile. The government has been adamant that they have no room for more refugees and the Palestinians have caused trouble there in the past.
The King of Jordan is already under intense pressure from his population for letting Israeli use their air space and the raids and settlements going on in the West Bank. If you dump a million Palestinians there, just go ahead and rename it the Kingdom of Hamas.
Yeah, I haven’t noted Egypt since Arab Spring much — aren’t they still effectively under the control of the Islamic Brotherhood? That’s partly why I didn’t think it would matter all that much — those folks struck me as very much “You will do it our way…. or else” and would keep the ex-Gazans from stirring things up.
Assumed Jordan was already pro-Hamas for some reason (hence it wouldn’t matter), but if it does really mean they’d basically get larger territory, more resources and effective control — well, point taken.
One of the many reasons it is probably good my opinion on these matters is irrelevant.
People I talked to felt like the military runs the place and is very conservative – in the sense that they don’t want trouble or conflict. The Christians don’t cause trouble and are building hospitals, so they get the visas and permits they need. The Palestinians bring nothing except trouble, so not welcome.
Jordan has no interest in taking in a buch of Palestinians again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September
The Arab world strongly supports the plight of the Palestinian people, just not enough to solve it in any way that doesn’t involve the destruction of Israel.
Meaning they’re in favor of it.
Off to Qtar it is then!
Maybe Trump could carve out a New Palestine territory in Greenland. Half kidding about this, but only half.
Michael Chabon could write a liberal best seller called The Hamas Policeman’s Union, reimagining that
Israelall of the Intifadas never happened.Hah! First thing I thought of.
The problem is that the Palis bring nothing good, and a lot of bad. There is no reason for any country to accept them in any way. I’m afraid they are going to continue to be a suppurating sore in Gaza pretty much indefinitely.
The central problem is that there are two competing groups, Jews and Palis, who both think that the area now occupied by Israel is theirs. No one else really wants anything to do with this conflict except use it for political points, and thus keep prolonging the inevitable; total regional war.
Maybe they should be dumped into the interior of Libya – the deep interior.
Nobody seriously thinks the Sudeten Germans have a right of return. Somehow, people think the losers of the Israeli War of Independence do, and the UN has been actively fueling that delusion.
Their plight is that they have been distilling down into a resentful core of hate for generations at this point. Accepting them into your nation is voluntarily accepting responsibility for the care and feeding of terror cells.
So much this. It will take a complete cultural change or total war to achieve peace.
Or Koninberg.
The culture of welfare recipients with AKs and Katyushas.
Crap… that’s what happens when your brain gets ahead of your typing. That was supposed to be quoting the “I can get you a toe” link, if it wasn’t obvious. I should drink that coffee now.
At least the officials are (this time) implied to be EU weenies.
But in general, I think several nations including our own need to come down very, very hard on flunkies thinking they can leak everything to the press (or in some cases to their possible gay date that’s really with O’Keefe apparently… never have gotten over the things people will apparently brag about thinking it will impress their New Gay Lover ™ ). Diplomacy and negotiation needs some room to work outside of the public purview so you can take hard line positions (that you don’t intend to actually do, just negotiating tactics) or which may involve security, etc.
This constant “Here’s what was discussed and how!” shit is ridiculous. No one would run an organization that blabbed like this in any other walk of life… they need to crack down on things.
Regarding the NYT article on Sarah McBride (link to archived version to avoid paywall).
“at a time when L.G.B.T.Q. rights are under assault”
Nope, NYT, try again. Because I’m not seeing any assaults on the rights of LGB ppl, who comprise the vast majority of that population.
“[…]Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican saw an opening and marked her arrival by introducing a measure to bar transgender individuals from using women’s restrooms and changing rooms in the Capitol complex.”
Again, nope. The resolution applied to all persons, not just trans-identified, and required that people use the restroom designated for their biological sex.
restroom designated for their biological sex
Hear me out – what if we designated restrooms on the basis of mental illness?
I keep stumbling over the concept that you have the “right” to both redefine reality at a whim and force others to go along with it. I’m not thrilled with the first — I’m adamant that the second is evil.
The other letters need to kick out the T’s – they are fundamentally incompatible.
Most of the letters are all about who you want to do – the T’s are all about what they want to make you do. They never should have let them into the party in the first place.
Would they dare ever add M for MAPs to the alphabet? And would anyone who questioned it be labeled a bigot? This won’t happen now, but say Newsome or AOC are the next President?
At one point there was a dark side online group that included pedophilia, zoophilia, necrophilia and other unacceptable practices in its acronym. It may have been created by trolls and I forget what the acronym was.
The Trans, Nonbinary, and Genderqueer (don’t ask, IDK either) pretty much own the movement now. There is no reclaiming it. There are some LGB people trying to push back, groups like gays against groomers, but they have even less traction than TERFs.
I honestly don’t see the need for an LGB political movement anymore. Sodomy is legal. We have same-sex marriage. We can adopt.
And, most importantly, society accepts the people VP Vance described as “normal gays.” Sure there are still a few Westboro Baptist (“God Says Kill Fags”) people out there, but they are a vanishingly small minority.
ARV, the pedos tried to attach themselves to the movement back in the seventies, but were evicted. They are now trying to worm their way back in.
And I suspect that there are people who are trying to invite them back in to deliberately create a situation where society once again turns against LGB people. IOW they want to keep ppl like me on the reservation by eroding society’s acceptance of us.
Genderqueer = Fag Hag
Bro1 and his wife are very anti-only 2 genders/sexes thing, so defining gender/sex via biological reality is, indeed, assaulting T rights.
It’s most definitely NOT about gay rights anymore.
Definitely would want to get out first (hopefully that will happen this year). Given the ineptitude of the state government…. how their taxbase is fleeing (because they design it to fleece the minority and gift the majority even more than the Feds) and oh… the multi-billion deficit they’re running with pensions looming…. well, “Good luck with that” if it happens is the best I can think.
I’d also bet the insurance companies wouldn’t bother making “new nation” affiliates. So really, extra good luck with that ya commie bastards.
(Honestly, if it did make it to the ballot — I doubt it would pass.)
Of course not. The illegals would vote against it. They didn’t come here to live in California as such, they came here to live in the United States.
Also, with the wildfires and whatnot*, they know they need the rest of the US to help out right now. There will be no succeeding from the union at this point.
*mudslides are going to be hitting the hills in about 3… 2…
Think how much NV, UT, CO and AZ could make selling water at market rate to that new country!
Heh… it might get even worse — without the structure of the US and the whole problem with other state and Congress and all… the state of Jefferson would more likely than not split off and do a West Virginia-stay-in-the-Union, I’d bet. Imagine if all the northern state snow pack runoff is charged as well!
STEVE SMITH approve of plan. FREE CASCADIA!
despite being sick, sick, sick was a pretty fine cartoonist
Happy Birthday Ted Rall!
He wrote “fine cartoonist”. Not talking about something that looked like a mental patient drew with their own feces.
Rall was no Marquis de Sade!
I was going to guess CPRM’s birthday.
/ducking
What NYC really needs now is a true progressive who will stand up to OMB and double-down on the policies that have been so successful at driving out productive folks since the Deblasio era.
Ve vill acheive ze purity ve must have!!!
https://nypost.com/2025/01/26/world-news/costa-rica-drug-kingpin-luis-manuel-picado-grijalba-arrested-by-dea-because-of-wifes-social-media-posts/
😂😂
I am impressed they stopped staring at her tits long enough to figure out where the snaps were taken.
Another great man brought low by a pair of tits.
Now that’s not fair! She might give really good blow jobs too.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14326379/LA-real-estate-Josh-Altman-Pacific-Palisades-fire.html
I think we can just start calling it West Detroit.
My bet is they build more “multi-family housing” (aka apartment complexes at best, tenements at worst) “near mass transit” (i.e. pack everyone closer to urban centers) and let the former housing areas “return to their natural state”.
Very 15-minute city of them… a chance to “fundamentally transform the LA car culture” and “move away from the environmentally devastating suburban sprawl” or somesuch.
Here’s a crazy idea – fuck zoning and let people build what the market wants. Both of the ideas you mentioned have been mandated by zoning over the years.
I was going to say I don’t know, it’s too winding for that. But honk my hooter: Sunset Boulevard is in fact a bus route.
“If you’re a rational thinking person, you have to at least consider the possibility that G-d hates these people.”
-Dave Chappelle
Signing the Declaration of Independence eh? Not sure who screwed that pooch – SNL or The Hill.
The SNL writers must feel like pigs in shit now that the devil is back.
And yet, they still cannot make it funny.
Amen to that. Maybe once every few years SNL produces one funny sketch. This is not it.
We are being condescended to by our inferiors.
I suppose the riposte would be “we’re comedians, not historians”!
To which I would reply – you have all the humor of historians.
DNRFA and have no plans on watching the show. I just assume they are doubling down on not being funny.
What? Baldwin wasn’t available?
You’d think he’d be eager to give it another shot.
Probably didn’t want to go off half-cocked.
Odd, as he is #1 with a bullet.
Burr wasn’t in this picture?
“surprise guest Melania” was worth a chuckle.
I think all of the countries in the region have taken the Palestinians in at one time or other and then expelled them. They are poison. They are solid communist revolutionaries whose sole purpose is to upend everything, grab total power and put the population under the lash. No one wants them.
That is why no one in the region wants the Palis to actually win against Israel. They want Israel to keep the lid on.
If more than just one Hamas fighter had preferred to stay in prison I would think there is at least a glimmer of hope for them but there you have it.
“Trump calls to “clean out” Gaza and move Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan”
Almost like Trump’s been reading my comments.
Classic American stupidity about other countries.
I’d love to hear your idea then because the two-state solution ain’t gonna happen. Destruction of Israel ain’t gonna happen. One-state solution ain’t gonna happen because the Palis won’t live peacefully in Israel.
The only other option is forced relocation (or I suppose no-kidding genocide but that’s not a real option).
It isn’t in their own interest for either Egypt or Jordan to accept the relocation of Palis into their respective countries. We certainly can’t force that either. Now with Syria being the mess it is – that might be the closest you get to an option. They already have a bunch of very distinct sub-populations, which are probably going to be at each other’s throats now that they aren’t focused on Assad. What would one more be?
Egypt and Jordan have experienced what happens when they take palestinians. They have both spent a good deal of money on border security to keep from experiencing it again.
Adam Corolla had the idea of moving the important buildings and the top 3 inches of soil from Israel to Baja. In 2 generations, Mexico would be a clean, efficient, economic powerhouse, and we wouldn’t be sticking our dick into the wasteland known as the Middle East.
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/pineapple-pizza-debate-heats-up-uk-pizzeria-sets-100-pound-price-tag-2025-01-24/
I can’t even imagine what a big failure the average British pizza is.
Pizza Express (large chain) isn’t bad.
“Isn’t bad”
High praise, indeed! 🤣😂
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/pizza-express-chain-restaurant-closing-branches-love-ode-best-prince-andrew-a9677766.html
It’s reliable? Heh, I remember the Veneziana.
I had Pizza Hut in Belfast once. It was overshadowed by events.
“As pizza has become popular globally, foreign innovations in toppings have often left Italians perplexed and aghast.”
Wait, I thought pizza was an American invention. Granted, by Italian-Americans, but still.
Pizza is Italian – Fish is now in its ancestral home. Neapolitan pizza remains my favorite style.
New York style pizza is its own (delicious) thing, along with the other regional variations.
Spaghetti and meatballs, OTOH, is pure American.
Posted pics on Friday. Definitely needed a knife and fork for the local style – crust was so thin in the center you couldn’t eat it the way we do in the US. Tasty enough – and a LOT of variety in toppings, etc around the area from the menus I’ve seen. Although I guess the “original” is just marinara and some leaves – amount of cheese is variable.
Picking it up marks you as a tourist ;-). Pizza is a knife and fork affair there.
AVPN will “certify” Neapolitan pizzerias
https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/En/
and it’s the two classics they focus on: the marinara you describe and the margarita. But all the variants are delicious.
Ate at Pizza Hut in Antwerp. We weren’t paying attention to other diners. We ate pizza as one does—with one’s hands. We finally noticed other diners were looking at us horrified.
If California is so rich and independent they shouldn’t need any assistance from the rest of the country to “rebuild”.
Yeah, I swear I’ve seen no end of stories about how Blue States, on account of being smarter, richer, and I suppose better looking, subsidize Red States in various ways.
Slutty Sunday luvs hourglasses.
https://archive.is/hvTzQ
Hey Nineteen
I have purchased one of your american rye whiskies and it is not awful. Smeels kinda nice.
We always try to achieve good Face Smeel.
Which one?
I was overserved some delicious rye last night (Blue Run).
The downside of knowing the owner; I really gotta start alternating with water when I go there.
This
https://www.kentuckybourbonwhiskey.com/whiskey/willett-family-estate-4-year-rye/
The Chiefs hatery is MAGNIFICENT!!!
The QB will throw 5 pick 6 this game. I do not know whay a pick 6 is but the internet says it is noy good
I will treat this seriously.
A touchdown is 6 points. If the QB throws the ball to his runner, and the opposite team catches (intercepts) the ball instead, and runs the ball back down the field the other way and gets a touchdown, the catcher/runner is said to have gotten a “pick” (picked the ball put of the air) for 6 points.
In other news, Spags can clean up any mess Nagy makes.
So on an interception with not score i assume iy is just a pick
Yes.
Only the Kurds know Whay.
Is it a nose pick if the nose tackle intercepts?
It will always mean choosing 6 consecutive winners to me. That league of bullies stole the language of my dwindling tribe…there are no doubt fewer than 100 of us who follow horse racing year around.
What’s next, calling a game with two brilliant coaches a chess match?
Also real writers like george rr martin support two different teams at once why do you support only one?
George R. R. Martin also can’t finish a story.
I heard Mahomes is being forced to wear flag football tags. You can’t tackle him, but it counts as a sack if you can snag a tag. Is that true?
” a nice young fella who has had a couple talk shows”
I laughed.
She’s evidence that the gay movement succeeded (it was a semi big deal when she came out, but now nobody cares if you’re gay).
The very worst thing that can ever happen to a movement – success. Every single person committed to a movement, loves the movement more than the actual cause.
^^^One million percent this.
Feminism is probably the best example of this IMO.
Oh yeah. I was going to add that but figured with this crowd, that was understood.
That’s a problem. Much of the QUILTBAG has a very LoOk At Me!!!! mentality.
The activist types definitely. Most of the gay people I’ve encountered in my day-to-day are just regular folks making their way through life.
Bro2 spent his life in the closet (he thinks, because a marginally tuned gaydar could’ve spotted it when he was still in single digits—I know, because I did), so now that he’s “out” and proud, he makes sure everyone knows it. It’s half amusing and half wearying. I mean, I’m mostly glad he’s living his best life and I did worry about his intractable depression before he just said “fuck it,” but it’s quite honestly childish. Dude, you’re 48. We all know the score.
She made it a semi-big deal. No one actually gave a shit, it was the opposite of a big deal, but hey, milk it for publicity.
Speaking of people freaking out over Trump, there is unintentional comedy gold on TOS. Best part is half the articles complain that he’s a dictator, and the other complain he hasn’t come through on a promise yet.
Yeah, I saw Jonathon Capehart say the same thing this morning, that he hasn’t kept his promises yet.
Dude, it has been a week, the economy isn’t going to turn around that fast.
I saw a Hakeem Jeffries tweet mocking Trump because prices had not come down. I think it was on Wednesday. Now I have little hope that Trump will do anything to stop inflation, but 48 hours seems a tad short.
Hah! Hilarious. Week one the guy kept more promises than most presidents do in four years. If they are complaining about the economy, that stuff takes time. He can’t remove government tentacles even half as fast as Milei did.
It’s a mystery
Now, fires are obviously devastating in terms of lives lost, people hurt, disruptions to business, and so on. And for people who don’t have insurance, they cause huge financial losses. But — at least in the period the economists study, when, for the most part, there were functioning private insurance markets that offered full coverage and generous payouts — it seems like fires were actually a financial win for the average insured homeowner who lost their home. They were also a win for developers and construction companies, which rebuilt the homes. And they were at least partially a win for municipalities because rebuilt, more valuable homes meant higher property taxes, offsetting the tremendous taxpayer costs of fighting the fire and cleaning up afterwards.
Of course, there was at least one huge financial loser in all of this: insurance companies. They had to foot the massive bill for home reconstructions.
In normal insurance markets, that’s fine. People pay premiums, and those premiums are estimated based on the probability of losses. When those losses materialize, the insurance company pays. It’s the whole game.
But, Wallace says, something funky began happening in California’s insurance markets, and the state’s insurance system ended up breaking down.
First, the state has had restrictive regulations on what insurance companies can charge. Wallace says that a big force behind that was Proposition 103, which was championed by Ralph Nader. Back in the 1980s, Nader and other consumer activists argued that insurance companies should be strictly regulated when setting their premium rates. This ballot initiative, which was narrowly approved by California voters in 1988, required insurance companies to get rate hikes approved by the California Department of Insurance, and it introduced a bunch of measures that made rate hikes much harder to impose.
In this post-Prop 103 regulatory scheme, for example, the state prevented insurance companies from using forward-looking estimates of risk — so-called “catastrophe models” — when setting their rates. Consumer advocates saw these kinds of models, which use computers to forecast an uncertain future, as a Trojan horse for price-gouging. The state forced insurers to only use backward-looking estimates of risk.
Long complicated article about how California destroyed the insurance market and created the coming economic disaster. Worth reading.
Look destroying markets is a noble goal and there may be some broken eggs here and there
I don’t think I need to read the whole thing to learn “price controls destroyed the market”
The joke about leftists treating books like 1984 and Atlas Shrugged as instruction manuals isn’t really a joke anymore.
Keep in mind, this isn’t just impacting California. In order to stay in California, rates for everyone else have to go up. So TX, LA, everywhere gets rate increases to cover losses in CA. It’s insidious. Very few companies were able to build a structure like in NY where the market was isolated from the other states, and kept losses from spreading.
Losers complain about the refs/umps.
Looking forward to the gracious concession to the Bills from the nation’s heartland today.
Last January, I drove through MO and stayed in KC overnight. What a nightmare. And youse people make fun of NYC.
It would be funny to see the Cheefs pull a UT over this.
Wait, what? We were a nightmare??? We’re usually very nice!
And are often correct. One of the things thay made me not watch sports anymore is shitty refs. it is ridiculous to claim that games in many sports were not wrecked by the refs.
Not calling “travelling” in b.ball counts too.
This is tame compared to some of the shit our education overlords push around here.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/love-sex/nursery-teacher-marries-adult-film-34483054
If a woman marries a porn stsr she must do anal right?
I mean, that’s part of the test drive before you buy the car right?
The Chiefs hatery is MAGNIFICENT!!!
I don’t consider myself a hater, but if I were a Bills defensive player, I’d be willing to risk a fifteen yard penalty early in the game to send Mahomes a message about his cutesy “Don’t hit me, I’m a quarterback!” antics.
I’m not disagreeing with this. However, if all the other QBs exploited the rules the way Patrick does, then it would become de rigeuer
Sport without sportsmanship is less appealing to me. It’s not just Mahomes and the Native Americans of Status, but they have become the symbol of it this year. Flopping, fake slides, taunting opponents, and flashy choreographed celebrations are not to my taste. It’s ok, many things other people like are not to my taste, and I hope you get a lot of enjoyment, although I’d prefer the Cowboy Minstrils win.
I’ve said, for the last three seasons, that they play sloppy. My husband’s like, take the W. Well, no, I can’t do that very well. I did NOT like that toe-on-line win and the other near-misses. Stop playing sloppy, geez. (I blame Nagy.)
HOWEVER, I had for years enjoyed EVERYBODY’s end zone celebrations and it made me sad that they were outlawed. Then they sorta were allowed again. Yes, I know, “Act like you’ve been there before.” But the end zone antics added a little more flash and it’s a game and that’s part of the fun.
Johnny Unitas would’ve played to 50 if he got the treatment of modern QBs.
Help me step-burglar. I’m stuck.
I have no idea what this phrase is in refference to
A subgenre of porn.
An I thought this was a family friendly website !
Dude. Look at the last two Friday-night posts.
An I thought this was a family friendly website !
Fortunately the genre is all about friendly families.
The powers what be in California just can’t help themselves. They have already tipped their hand by pushing the “toxic waste” narrative. They will slow walk attempts to clean up and rebuild at every possible opportunity.
I’ve been telling everyone I know in the Mountain West to expect a fresh wave of Kali refugees
Which is fine with me, as both my houses will go up in value.
This might be the final excuse they need to repeal Prop 13?
I am waiting for the wailing from their department of equality about the loss of tax revenue from the outward migration. They are going to demand the rest of the country make up for it. How else will they pay their reparations?
Fuck California. They want to leave? Good-fuckin-bye.
Malicious compliance?
Donald Trump’s order halting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has led the US air force to suspend course instruction on a documentary about the first Black airmen in the US military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, a US official said on Saturday.
The famed Black aviators included 450 pilots who fought overseas in segregated units during the second world war. Their success in combat helped pave the way for Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948.
Another video about civilian female pilots trained by the US military during the second world war, known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or Wasps, was also pulled, the official said.
The air force did not directly comment on the decision, which was confirmed by an official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
See? Trump hates black people and women and wants to erase them.
So, ending DEI means halting work praising excellence? Because they’re black?
It does to the dooshbag lefty GOFOs who are bitter about being called out for their preference of Pride Month over readiness.
Trump/Hegseth need to do some epic house cleaning of the flag officers.
*taps the sign*
You don’t hate journalists enough
https://x.com/FreeBlckThought/status/1883417255708336307?t=UG9PeiSSxMBAnjQ7vCLxDQ&s=19
I note that the Guardian ostentatiously capitalizes “black” while deliberately leaving “Air Force” and “World War” in lowercase.
The individuals involved look about how you would expect.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/32974342/threesome-spice-up-relationship-throuple-getting-married/
I don’t think I need to read the whole thing to learn “price controls destroyed the market”
There’s also a hefty dose of “broken windows make us richer”.
We could buy Baha California from the Mexicans, give it the Jews, they can call it New Israel and build and operate the port that will replace Long Beach when California declares independence.
Seriously, California wants out? Good fucking luck. Do you not see Newsome begging for Fed money right now? Do you think you’re going to keep getting power and water from the western states? Do you think that all the remaining capital will not immediately flee? They’re like teenagers that want out from under the parent’s thumb, unable or unwilling to consider all the consequences.
Why don’t we give BAJA to the palis?* They are the ones in need of a home, not Jews.
*The Hamas Cartel wars would be epic.
Cabo Muhammed just doesn’t have the same ring. And La Paz? AYFKM?
If the Jews weren’t so attached to that particular piece of dirt, that’d be a win-win. Alas…
Adam Carolla recommended that a few years ago in one of his books. If it was just the land space it’d be a no brainer…but the Holy Land aspect is what makes it unique.
Magic rocks. SMDH.
Adam Carolla recommended that a few years ago in one of his books.
I knew I’d stolen it from someone.
I am semi serious about a port in Baha Mexico to compete with Long Beach. I’m sure I’m underestimating the capital required to build such a thing, and the necessary road and rail infrastructure to get goods to Arizona. And no clue how to overcome the corruption in Mexican government, such that a port could be operated efficiently and profitably. All that said, at some point California is going to price itself out of it’s status as a vital link in American import/export. If Trump had lost, we’d already be looking at a massive increase in the cost of getting goods from the coast out of the state.
By the way, this is like when you get a new neighbor, don’t like him for “reasons” and start shooting bottle rockets at his house for 75 years. And, all during this time that you were acting the asshole, the police keep saying to him “you better move out.”
Fuck that shit.
What about cock size?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14314073/Scientists-discover-men-evolving-twice-quickly-women-sexy-formidable.html
The opening of that article displays a complete ignorance of evolution, and idiot level conflation of improving individual health and species genetic change.
Researchers found that improved living conditions, such as better food, healthcare and fewer stressors, have resulted in men increasing in height and weight at faster rates, which carries on through generations.
If you want to accelerate evolution you would worsen conditions not improve them.
Welcome to ‘science’ today.
it’s not a bad article, but “evolving” is poorly chosen
Women, however, have not seen the same evolution, suggesting they are not as sensitive to environmental factors.
The patriarchy is keeping them from evolving.
I’ve said, for the last three seasons, that they play sloppy.
The Chiefs could very easily be an 8-9 team, but they somehow manage to bumble their way into the W column.
They’re the worst 1 loss team I’ve seen.
Sometimes, things are just perfect. This is one of those times. And the Old Guy has long had a particular love for Slam Stewart and his arco saw-and-jaw.
According to Frankie Manning, the dancing in the video is actual speed. The video wasn’t sped up for the movie.
Toxic
The chairman of Israel’s official Holocaust memorial has accused Elon Musk of insulting the victims of Nazism and endangering Germany’s democratic future after the billionaire addressed a rally for Germany’s far-right party on Saturday.
Musk, the world’s richest man, made a surprise virtual appearance at a campaign event for Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on Saturday, doubling down on his support for the group he has said can “save Germany” ahead of snap elections in February.
In an apparent reference to Germany’s Nazi history, the head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, whose smiling face was projected onto a vast screen, told a roaring crowd that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents.”
Musk wants to reopen the camps!
children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents
Well, when said to a people that believe the sins of the father are visited upon the sons…
Had a dream last night (was too logical, so I don’t know how asleep I was) that Cunty Aunt Susie was able to turn her whole congregation against me as the evil niece who wants to kill her sister and take all her sister’s money (thereby putting Susie out on the street homeless in the middle of winter).
Normally, I’m fine with being the villain of the piece, but some of these people have known me longer than they’ve known Susie. It’s not Susie versus Phyllis. It’s Susie versus Elizabeth because I’m the one driving this train, whisking poor Phyllis off to my house, filing lawsuits against Susie to take HER house. It’d be easy to roll my eyes if I also now didn’t know that Susie’s put up a good front in public as a bubbly social butterfly, instead of an abusive harridan in private. My mom and I have been down this road before with my dad’s mother after he died, and going through it again is just disheartening (and bewildering) for both of us.
To boot, her congregation’s leadership has inserted itself in it (probably not; Susie just called on them for help like she does everything else she doesn’t want to pay for) and calling me to the negotiating table. To negotiate for WHAT? All negotiations initiated on Susie’s behalf end in her getting her way. “We want to avoid litigation.” First, the property is in the court’s hands now. Second, all she had to do was wail about losing the house and then reluctantly come up with a plan to get Mom her half of the value of the property SO WE CAN PAY FOR HER LONG-TERM CARE (“That’s not my problem.”).
I (and now my mom) live in a different congregation, so that doesn’t really affect me at all. People from Mom’s congregation are visiting. I asked Mom if she wanted Susie to visit and she said no, because she can’t take Susie sitting there glowering at her for being a naughty girl and not doing what she’s told, as if getting sick was her fault. Mealy milquetoast mouthpiece Milly (other marginally cunty aunt) adheres to my rules for coming into my house (i.e., no Susie, no berating Mom, no begging her to go “home”).
Bro2 wants me to make Susie speak to me herself. I’m not sure that’s wise, but it would be amusing.
A friend from church (a litigator who does NOT want to get involved) did tell me that we did what any good lawyer would have told us to do in filing the motion to partition the property, so there’s that. He also told me to avoid litigation because we’ll spend all Mom’s money. Well, no, it doesn’t HAVE to be litigated. Susie just has to back the fuck up and let the court do the work she was going to have to do anyway if we DID litigate it.
We have the luxury of time now, though. Home health PT made the recommendation to get Mom to skilled rehab for a couple of weeks, then she can be at baseline and go to assisted living once the property is sold and she gets her share. She can’t pay for assisted living on her income alone.
My job is to protect my mom and carry out her wishes, whatever they may be, and that’s what I’m doing. I know it’ll all work out, but not without trashing relationships I’ve had for decades. Right now, I’m just really down in the mouth about the whole thing.
Sorry for the long vent.
Sorry Mojeaux.
I think you’re doing the right thing.
I don’t see the point in what Bro2 is trying to do with respect you and Susie talking. Given what you’ve said about her, I think that is a conversation that will go nowhere.
He wants me to completely eviscerate her for our personal amusement. Which, I CAN, but … I’d rather not even look at her, much less talk to her. A derisive glance is usually enough for me to get the point across to everyone. She’d have to push me pretty far for me to chop her off at the knees.
Whatever you say can and will be used against you.
He wants me to completely eviscerate her for our personal amusement.
Oh.
Doubleplusunwise.
Or what GT said.
Yes, exactly.
Bro1 approached this the right way. “How can we go about liquidating Mom’s portion of the property?”
Bro2 went all theatrical in a strategically unwise way/moment. “So you’re telling me you’re willing to steal a quarter of a million dollars from my mother.” 🤦♀️
I tried to explain the panic we were facing with regard to how to pay for Mom’s care, and then she said, “That’s not my problem.” Wellallrightythen. I will NEVER forget that as long as I live.
And where Susie ends up living is not your problem.
I occasionally get Spanish language commercials on streaming services. Today there was one that I believe was Vietnamese.
At least the millionaire didn’t use a retina scan for access.