Thursday Mourning Links

by | Jan 30, 2025 | Daily Links | 252 comments

Sorry to be a bit maudlin this morning, but there are certain days which just do it to me. This is one of them. As much entertainment that my dating adventures have been, as much as my body count has expanded (my coping mechanism), and as delighted as I am to be getting involved with Prime, the reality is that my life as I knew it and treasured it ended almost 3 years ago. I’m getting by, but this is not the life I wanted or imagined.

SP would be 61 today.

My apologies for being a downer rather than my usual Catskills one-liner comic self.

That was the climax, now the denouement: other less important birthdays today include the role-model for modern politicians; the second-worst president in US history; the guy who taught Dizzy what’s what; a delightful writer and the author of one of my favorite lines: “After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening—on a lucky day—without having encountered more than one or two of these phenomena.”; a far greater man than the aforementioned president; an actor, who despite great talent and great Yiddish, I will always think of as “that guy I saw on Star Trek”; a guy who would never pick his feet in Poughkeepsie; a guy who showed us what an ideal politician is; a slightly less insane Bobby Fischer; founder of a disgusting dynasty; the best second basemen I ever saw play, and whose firing told me everything I needed to know about the future of the Orioles; an insane woman who had a unique and interesting life; and a guy rumored to be a crypto-Jew.

And as a distraction, here’s some Links.

Russian plot? And seriously, this is my nightmare. I was going to ask the over/under until Trump gets blamed, but it’s likely happened by the time this posts.

Darwin Award.

Surprising no-one.

Climate catastrophe. Women, minorities, and Cheloniini hardest hit.

Cougars vindicated.

Look, I’m strongly pro-immigration (acolyte of Julian Simon), but FFS, cry me a river.

Buh-BYE! Cunt.

If TNR says it’s false, it’s almost certainly true.

Mike Judge was far too optimistic.

Religion of peace. Note that these guys were about to get prosecuted by their oh-s-liberal government.

And herewith, SP’s favorite song, and one that’s perfectly appropriate. No, I’m not crying. Must be someone else you hear.

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.

252 Comments

  1. Ownbestenemy

    The system I work on, STARS, the automation portion, did it’s job. Was alerting CA/CA for at least 4 ‘sweeps’ (we don’t have a radar sweep anymore, it’s 1-second updates).

    https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1884827088437264387/

    Controller audio isn’t good either. What a fuck up all around and for the lost souls.

    This eerily reminds of Ozzys latest story

    • WTF

      Yeah, I don’t know if Ozzy is around but I would be very interested to get his take on this.

      • Ozymandias

        I saw it and immediately thought of the one that just posted.
        I don’t have any more insights than anyone else other than that corridor of airspace along the Potomac is busy AF with helos and aircraft landing into Reagan, as well as all of the other military fields that dot the Potomac for POTUS to use, like Anacostia, etc.
        I haven’t looked at any of the maps for that area in a long time, but I know they’ve closed and consolidated bases and changed that airspace after 9/11. TO what extent any of that factored, I have no idea. The video is horrific.
        I could say a lot more, but it won’t add anything or help anyone. A terrible tragedy.

      • WTF

        Thanks Ozzy. I was also reminded of the story you just posted, and wondered if some of the same factors might have come into play. The video really is horrific.

    • Nephilium

      What about the beeps and the creeps?

      • Ownbestenemy

        They were jammed

      • Rat on a train

        jammed?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Given the raspberry…

    • Ownbestenemy

      CA/CA is the automation system prediction collision. It’s a visual and audible alert. Unfortunately, in heavy helo ops areas, they go off often and are ignored from my experience.

      • juris imprudent

        As I understand it, some times the warnings have to be ignored, e.g. flying into Lindbergh Field, San Diego. The landing approach will alert the ground is too close because it is bouncing off a building near that end of the runway.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yes true.

      • Ownbestenemy

        In that instance, it would alert a LA (low altitude) warning and typically are filtered out for helos

      • Ted S.

        Who doesn’t ignore ca-ca?

    • trshmnstr

      I’m surprised that they didn’t have the traffic vertically deconflicted. Maybe there’s not room or ability to do so for that particular approach, but “punch right through the approach corridor of an active runway, just make sure to look both ways” seems more 1975 than 2025.

      • trshmnstr

        After reading some comments on the blancolirio video, it sounds like the route was vertically deconflicted (ceiling of 200′ agl), but the speculation is that the helo was above that ceiling.

        Still, a 150-200 foot separation (collision happened at or slightly under 400′) is not very comfortable.

      • Ozymandias

        When I flew that corridor back in the early 90s, it was 300′ AGL and below for helos. I remember after 9/11 when I was working as a prosecutor at MCB Quantico, old buddies from flying days mentioned that the airspace setup had changed. 200′ and below sounds right.

        FWIW, New York’s Hudson River had a similar corridor 300′ and below for all of their traffic to deconflict with LaGuardia and Kennedy and all of the helo traffic.
        I flew that one coming in off of the coast in a T-34 in 1992 for my cross-country: turned in at the mouth of the Hudson coming up from NJ coast, then straight past the Statue of Liberty all the way up to about West Point (over all of the bridges) and then hang a right at the federal prison on the CT side and head east to New England.

        Helos should be close to the ground. As noted in the story I posted, one guy too high by 100′ and one guy too low by 150′ and you get dead people – lots of ’em.

  2. UnCivilServant

    Buh-BYE!

    “You can’t fire me!”

    “You quit?”

    “No! You just can’t fire me!”

    • robodruid

      According to a post here:
      https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/

      Non career EPA employees are being warned that they could be let go at any time.
      This is consistent with a verification of employees in my area of responsibilities.
      And i understand that Fed’s have a horrible reputation. But i believe a better approach would be to remove some of the red tape we have to deal with.

      This was a risk, still voted for him. Moving way faster than i expected.

      • UnCivilServant

        Changing red tape is a slower process. I expect it is in the pipeline, but this is still the shock and awe period to try to demolish The Resistance™

      • R.J.

        Many friends I have are going to have a hard time too. This needs to happen if the government is ever going to be cut back.
        I have dealt with layoffs and threats of layoffs my whole career, over 40 years of working. Stability is an illusion.

      • robodruid

        As a Fed. I have been RIF’s twice. It does happen out there as well.

      • R C Dean

        Red tape, as in red tape imposed on the little people, or red tape protecting pubsecs?

      • Tundra

        Stability is an illusion.

        Small business guy my entire career. This is the truest of true statements. While I can empathize from a basic human standpoint, I’m not sure why I should give a fuck. Where were all the feds the various times that my industries were being bombed? Oh yeah, they were behind it.

      • Jarflax

        A recession is caused by some particular sector or industry, which has grown beyond its proper size, experiencing a sudden exodus of capital as lenders and shareholders discover they are invested in a bubble. It always hurts those in the particular sector or industry, but the reallocation of resources, even with some losses, will tend to fuel a growth spurt in other sectors. We have protected and pumped up the FedGov sector bubble for almost a century, it’s time for the lancet.

  3. robodruid

    Never met her, I wish i did. Everyone has had amazing stories about her.

    • UnCivilServant

      Every time my planned road trip would have gotten me close enough for a meetup – they moved across country so as to avoid me

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Yeah, my one interaction with her was solid.

      • rhywun

        Same

        RIP

    • Ownbestenemy

      Beautifully played and sung song. The few times I talked with SP I can see why that song was a favorite.

    • Nephilium

      Think of her every time you’re on the site. It wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for her.

      • Sensei

        Same. I remember emailing with her when I started writing articles for the site.

    • Necron 99

      I only interacted with SP when I first registered, she told me to “fuck off, Tulpa.” But then she welcomed me with open arms and made me feel at home. Wish I could have met her.

    • Not Adahn

      Same.

    • Jarflax

      Same, and I regret not being around when she passed. When I came back and saw OMWC posting about his adventures in dating I was afraid to ask about SP.

    • Ozymandias

      A superb lady. Very sorry, Old Man. We all miss her.
      The good news is that she’ll be there when you get there.

    • bacon-magic

      She rocked and I’d like to believe she’s still rocking up there.

      • Not Adahn

        Is there a shuttle service between Quaker Heaven and Jew Heaven?

    • Cunctator

      Condolences OMWC

      • dbleagle

        I am sorry for your loss OMWC, but on the bright side she was in your life and all the good things that brought.

        I agree with the rest, every one of my few interactions with her was a demonstration of her good humor and graciousness as a wonderful human.

    • ron73440

      Can’t believe it’s been almost 3 years already.

      I never met her either, but when I wrote my first article here, she was very helpful and funny.

      Happy Birthday, SP.

      Still sorry for your loss OMWC.

  4. ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

    Now, why would someone be sneaking into Israel right now?

    As Rachel Maddow would say, isn’t it interesting?

    • Drake

      A real lack of details in that story.

  5. Nephilium

    Reading through the low review of our deportation policies, this caught my eye:

    He said he was upset that U.S. officials used metal handcuffs. Immigration officials have said that handcuffing deported migrants is longstanding policy to prevent outbursts on planes.

    Don’t they know we’re supposed to be reducing our use of single use plastics in order to save their country from vanishing under the ocean?

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      If we just allow plastic handcuffs into the ocean, the sea turtles will start getting into bondage while on their cocaine binges from the plastic straws. Save the turtles.

      • Jarflax

        Of Age Master Nasty Turtles probably goes on a different shelf at the video store.

  6. Pat

    Never any need for apologies, Old Man. Days like that are tough. Nothing I could say is going to improve anything, obviously, but you have my commiseration and condolences. Sometimes you just have to feel bad for a while, and stay hopeful that it won’t last forever.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Thanks for the kind thoughts. It will not last forever, but it will last until I’m gone. She did leave me an odd souvenir, though (glances at WebDom).

      • juris imprudent

        And in the not too distant future, another present!

  7. Pat

    the role-model for modern politicians

    Happy birthday Nero?

    • Pat

      a guy rumored to be a crypto-Jew

      Happy birthday Adolf Hitler?

    • Pat

      founder of a disgusting dynasty

      Happy birthday Joe Kennedy?

      • Rat on a train

        Richard and Esther Shapiro?

      • Pat

        Lol, nice

  8. Fourscore

    OMWC, I share in your sadness. Maybe not the same but it seems the memories are always there.

  9. juris imprudent

    Mike Judge was far too optimistic.

    Oh I think the Senator ranting about the onesie was proof enough.

    • rhywun

      Saw a “state report card” yesterday. Would it surprise anyone to learn that $36,000 gets declining results?

      • DrOtto

        Needs m0ar moNie$!!11!

  10. juris imprudent

    Colombia is nominally a U.S. ally – why would we accept anyone from there making an asylum claim?

    • Jarflax

      Refugees from an insufficiently generous social welfare system.

  11. Not Adahn

    RM program update:

    There is an exercise in “how would you handle the following scenarios” with varying degrees of plausibility.

    Some of them I’m having trouble coming up with responses other than “kick the shooter off the range, fire the RO, and resign.”

    • R C Dean

      Is “summary execution” an option?

      • Not Adahn

        that’s prohibited under 10.6.2 “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

  12. Pat

    Is the horror of child transitioning finally coming to an end?

    hether you love or loathe Donald Trump, there are occasions when you have to admire his candour. The US president’s latest executive order, titled ‘Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation’, will prevent federal agencies from supporting the ‘gender affirming’ model of healthcare for minors. ‘Across the country today’, it reads, ‘medical professionals are maiming and sterilising a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation’s history, and it must end.’ Talk about getting straight to the point.
    _
    One of the core tenets of faith in the woke movement is that of ‘gender identity’, the notion that we each have an innate ‘essence of male or female’, as one trans campaigner explained to me, which may be misaligned with our anatomy. This patently religious belief has formed the basis for medical policies throughout the Western world when it comes to children who are expressing confusion about their sex. Since the publication of the Cass Review by NHS England last April, the idea that there is any evidential basis for the prescription of puberty blockers has been discredited. Yet children around the world are still being medicalised for what is clearly a problem that requires a psychotherapeutic approach. Trump’s executive order has specifically blamed the influence of WPATH (the World Professional Association for Transgender Health) for the ‘junk science’ that currently prevails and has done so much harm to children and adults alike.
    _
    It’s not just about puberty blockers, which, given that 80 per cent of young people desist from feelings of gender dysphoria through puberty, are effectively blocking the cure. Almost all young people prescribed these experimental drugs advance to cross-sex hormones. In some cases, surgery follows. The Manhattan Institute found evidence that, in the US between 2017 and 2023, around 6,000 girls under 18 underwent ‘gender-affirming’ double mastectomies, although the true figure could be much higher. Shockingly, at least 50 of these children were 12 years old or under.

    • R C Dean

      “the notion that we each have an innate ‘essence of male or female’, as one trans campaigner explained to me”

      See, that’s how you Science(tm).

      • Nephilium

        Look, they can trans you by adjusting your chakras with some healing crystals, but they need someone to watch your aura while they’re doing it in a vortex to make sure they don’t introduce too many thetans into your soul.

        It’s like you don’t even science man.

      • Ted S.

        How does homeopathy deal with transness?

      • Jarflax

        How does homeopathy deal with transness?

        First you take the sex you want to transition from and grind it up really small. Then you titrate it, diluting it 100:1 at least 30 times. I think to properly do this you will need to have SpaceX go out and gather that giant cloud of water NASA saw in space. Once the titration is complete you simply have the patient drink the result, this will stimulate the patient’s immune system to activate transitioning them from the old sex to the new. In this case Homeopathy and Allopathic medicine yield equivalent results.

      • Beau Knott

        “the notion that we each have an innate ‘essence of male or female’, as one trans campaigner explained to me”

        This is what makes the T an existential threat to the LGB. There is simply no possibility of accommodating homosexuality as a real ‘thing’.

      • Pat

        This is what makes the T an existential threat to the LGB. There is simply no possibility of accommodating homosexuality as a real ‘thing’.

        It’s amazing how quickly we went from the national controversy of banning gay conversion therapy to protect gay children from their homophobic parents (and gay adults from their internalized homophobia, I guess), to proclaiming that little boys who like to play with dolls and little girls who like to climb trees must be chemically prevented from going through puberty and have their genitals surgically altered so that their anatomy matches our collective expectations of masculinity and femininity.

      • Jarflax

        genitals surgically altered so that their anatomy matches looks like our collective expectations of masculinity and femininity.

      • juris imprudent

        genitals surgically altered so that their anatomy matches looks like mocks our collective expectations of masculinity and femininity.

        Considering the actual surgical results.

    • rhywun

      “core tenet”

      This.

      It’s very much going to cause the most rheeing out of all the recent action.

    • Beau Knott

      TBH, Pat, I’m less surprised at the “broader culture” — the T’s are resurrecting an essentialist view right out of the 40s & 50s (and before); one that never entirely vanished.
      What horrifies me is the acceptance by the LGBs.

      • rhywun

        What horrifies me is the acceptance by the LGBs virtually everyone.

        FTFY

        I have a completely unproven suspicion that L’s and G’s support this junk at lower rates than your average wants-to-be-modern hetero. If only because the T’s are a direct threat.

      • juris imprudent

        The problem for the Ls and Gs is they pretty much got everything they wanted. So those activists needed something new to feed their activism habit, and the Ts just happened along.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Not if this Jeopardy champion has any say in it!

      If you’re concerned about trans women playing women’s sports because they’ve been through male puberty, then have I got good news for you about puberty blockers— Amy Schneider (@Jeopardamy) January 29, 2025

      So, @elonmusk is arguing that children should not be allowed to have any kind of surgery at all. If a child needs a heart transplant, well, too bad, they can’t consent to it. Or else he just thinks that no child should get surgery without consulting Elon Musk first🤔 — Amy Schneider (@Jeopardamy) January 29, 2025

      • Jarflax

        By this logic if you support vaccination for kids you must also support lethal injection for kids.

      • WTF

        I’ll take “False Equivalencies” for $500, Alex.

      • Nephilium

        It’s the year 2025, and Amy has never heard of Christian Scientists or Jehovah’s Witnesses and their beliefs around medical treatment.

  13. Drake

    Trump will probably have to recess RFK. Maybe Gabbard and Patel too. Sanders and Warren acting deranged for their pharma overlords was a sight yesterday.
    https://x.com/TracieB81868463/status/1884739149577752664

    4 years ago, most Republicans voted to confirm a fat dude wearing a dress.

    • juris imprudent

      And don’t forget the skinny guy in a dress that was pushed on the SES so that he didn’t have to get confirmed.

    • rhywun

      RFK is kind of a crackpot so they can have that win.

    • Chafed

      They aren’t acting. They are deranged.

    • The Other Kevin

      Walter Kirn got into yesterday’s hearing, and had a really good seat. He live Tweeted it. He was completely disgusted with the Dems behavior. As were the rest of us. They are still performing, but for a shrinking audience.

    • invisible finger

      The Dems are all going to vote against RFKj because they blame him for Harris losing.

      But the Dems should be careful what they wish for.

  14. juris imprudent

    Now that is pure, unadulterated Francis Urquhart.

    Former CIA Director John Brennan has speculated that Gabbard may deliberately “withhold” or even “skew” vital intelligence in briefing President Trump.

    The three witches from MacBeth?

    Echoing a charge first lodged by Hillary Clinton, Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Elizabeth Warren have spread innuendo that Gabbard is a “compromised” “Russian asset” who has been “in Putin’s pocket.”

    • Drake

      Wow. Project much?

      • WTF

        It’s not projection, it’s this:

        “Accuse your opponent of what you are doing, to create confusion and to inculcate voters against evidence of your own guilt” -Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals.

    • Pat

      I still get a giggle out of the people who spent half a century defending communism and squealing MCCARTHYISM suddenly seeing Red Dawn everywhere they look.

      The ’80s called, they want their foreign policy back. Hurrrr durrrrrrrrrr

    • The Other Kevin

      From what she says, the Dems were pissed because she questioned whether Obama and Hillary should bomb someone (Syria?). And then she backed Bernie over Hillary. I’m surprised she hasn’t fallen backwards onto 6 bullets yet.

  15. Tundra

    I’m very sorry for your loss. It’s funny, I was going through some old emails recently and found some of hers. Since I know her real name, where did SP originate?

    I kept them, btw.

    • Old Man With Candy

      “Site programmer.”

      • Tundra

        Lol.

        I was expecting something more entertaining.

        Happy birthday, Site Programmer!

      • rhywun

        Ha!

      • Not Adahn

        Hmmm.

        In my earlier internet life “SP” would have stood for “suppressive person” which was someone skeptical of or an ex-Scientologist.

  16. R C Dean

    I know Sloopy is a Porsche guy, but this Mercedes will be on the block soon. He should think about taking a run at it.

    https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/tt25/

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      I love how they list the different languages the client services agent speaks, as you know that they are both serious about that, and that there is a real need for it.

    • Tundra

      Very interesting. Thanks!

      In South Africa, infrastructure is crumbling and the unemployment rate for blacks was nearly 40% last year.

      And the government just approved blanket eminent domain. So add famine to the bingo card. Morons.

    • Drake

      The easiest way to purge the most radical liberals from the government.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Just did another security in-briefing a few weeks ago…all those questions are still on the list – and they’re pretty serious about it.

      • Drake

        I’m doing the annual batch of compliance training in my civilian job. All mention of DEI has been scrubbed.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t expect any change in my manditory waste of time, as the “We Be Racist ’cause We Wants to Be Racist” amendment got crammed into the state constitution.

    • juris imprudent

      Wasn’t attendance mandatory?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ya that part makes no sense. I’m forced to do DEI type training…what does that have to do with anything.

  17. tarran

    My condolences, OMWC.

    In the few interactions I had with SP, she was always gracious and humorous, and I miss her.

    The thought of losing my wife fills me with horror. It’s been on my mind of late because her sister and one of her first cousins both have been diagnosed with cancer in the last two months. For the cousin, it’s a death sentence and he has only a few months to live.

    • Pat

      Sorry to hear about your wife’s family. Genetics isn’t necessarily destiny, but knowing those risk factors provides the opportunity to at least be vigilant with screenings and that sort of thing.

      • juris imprudent

        You got that right, both of our parents died of lung cancer just past age 60 and yet my 76 y.o. brother still smokes like a chimney.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      I am in the same boat: the wife dying is a horrible thought, and yet I make plans of what I would do on an almost daily basis if it did happen. See, she had a pretty serious heart attack scare not too man years ago, and her father had his first at the same age. So it is something on her mind, and mine.

    • DEG

      Condolences about your wife’s family.

  18. tarran

    Follow up on the stranded astronaut kerfuffle. It appears Elon was trolling the media:

    Musk posts a silly tweet saying Trump wants SpaceX to rescue the Starliner astronauts and the press goes stupid again

    Since a Dragon capsule for bringing these astronaut back to Earth is already docked to ISS and is scheduled to return in April, there is nothing really new about Musk’s tweet. Moreover, that April return was delayed an extra two months because of SpaceX, not Boeing or Biden. The company had requested that extra time to prepare the next crew capsule for launch, because it is a new capsule never used before.

    So essentially, their return has all been arranged. I guess the space suit issue is resolved (maybe they return in shirt-sleeves).

    I am of the opinion that only fools listen to the news media about anything. Apparently yesterday I was one of those fools.

    • Pat

      The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

      • tarran

        Word

      • Pat

        Thomas Jefferson.

      • juris imprudent

        Now there was a president with a contentious relationship with the media of the day!

    • The Other Kevin

      I have 7 dozen in my fridge right now. My mother-in-law found them for a decent price.

      We also have a friend with chickens, and she sells us fresh eggs for $3 a dozen. That’s a bargain these days. And any time I bring this up, Mrs. TOK reminds me that she wanted to get chickens last year, but I said no. Sigh.

      • UnCivilServant

        Shockingly, it’s perfectly fine to keep upto four chickens in the city I’m currently in.

        I didn’t have anywhere to coop them up.

      • The Other Kevin

        My objection is that like most men, any animals would default to my care. Over the years we had 2 dogs, many cats, and still have a turtle, and I ended up doing most of the work. But if we put the coop near the house I might be be convinced.

      • juris imprudent

        We have one neighbor that just shares eggs with us and another who sells them very reasonably, so even in the before times we weren’t buying many at the store.

      • The Last American Hero

        If you don’t think the country is in decline, consider this – 48 years of my life nobody in the middle to upper middle income suburbs where I’ve lived entertained the idea of having chickens in their yard. I knew exactly one person that did – an old Italian immigrant woman that was used to raising chickens and rabbits.

        Now, half the people in my neighborhood are googling what’s involved in raising chickens.

        Same goes for missing items on store shelves. It went from “virtually never” to “not uncommon”.

      • rhywun

        half the people in my neighborhood are googling what’s involved in raising chickens

        I do wonder if the reaction to latest round of bird flu is overblown. I find it difficult to believe that now we’re in some unique situation the requires the entire fucking species to be annihilated across the country.

    • rhywun

      LOL was just in the supermarket looking at eggs. Passed.

  19. Sensei

    I think this made the rounds, but it’s worth repeating.

    We have always advocated for whole-person health and we interpret that quite literally. As oral health professionals, we cannot beg for the mouth to be proverbially put back into the body, and then ignore when the mental, physical, and bodily safety of our communities is threatened.

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/notable-quotable-oral-health-justice-progressive-gender-dei-trump-executive-order-d022dac4?st=1PJpvM&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Pat

      As oral health professionals, we cannot beg for the mouth to be proverbially put back into the body, and then ignore when the mental, physical, and bodily safety of our communities is threatened.

      What?

    • Jarflax

      My lived experience is that wokeness and competence seldom coexist.

      • Not Adahn

        My new dentist shows symptoms of autism. I approve.

      • dbleagle

        I am DblEagle and I approve of Jarflax’s message.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        My current hygienist spent time in rural communities, far outside the college town she grew up in.

        I approve.

    • juris imprudent

      Dental Public Health

      Well you got horseshit from a horse’s ass – astonishing.

    • WTF

      News accounts say yes.

    • Ozymandias

      I recognize the possibility of autonomous drones, but it is hard for me to imagine that a computer program can fly a helicopter.
      That would be my Turing test – can a computer hover off the back of the ship? I fucking doubt it. It is impossible for me to do justice in describing the “feel” it takes to hover.

      I’m reminded of the old “What’s my Secret” with Ray Kurzweil in 60s where his secret was that he had programmed a computer that composed a piece of music.
      The guests – the female guest, in fact – was able to suss out that a computer had “composed” the music.
      AI has come a long way – and I’m a huge fan of E.T. Jaynes’ work on the “optimal processing of incomplete information” – but I still do not think that a computer could make helo pilots obsolete. It is in many ways the equivalent of trying to get a computer to play in a jazz quintet. You need “feel” for the other players that a computer just can’t replicate. Ditto for balancing all of the competing forces that are at play in normal helicopter operations, much less when things get sticky.

      • Not Adahn

        See, I’d think that this would be one thing that computers are really good at — interpreting the accelerometer and servo data and responding faster than a human can.

      • LCDR_Fish

        The K-Max worked really well for the Marines in Afghanistan – which is why I can’t believe it didn’t make it into mass production for a pilot-less delivery vehicle for food/water/ammo to remote sites with minimal crew risk.

  20. Pat

    Don’t mention the Jews

    There was certainly no shortage of commemorations of Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday.
    _
    On ITV’s Good Morning Britain, one of the presenters earnestly explained how the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was an opportunity to remember how ‘six million people were killed in concentration camps during the Second World War as well as millions of others, because they were Polish, disabled, gay or belonged to another ethnic group’.
    _
    Then there was UK deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. She tweeted a photo of herself looking terribly serious as she lit a candle, ‘to remember all those who were murdered just for being who they were and to stand against prejudice and hatred today’. Fellow Labour MP Sarah Champion, seemingly wearing the colours of the Palestinian flag, joined in. Of the Holocaust, she wrote: ‘We must ensure that it stays at the fore of our national consciousness: we must never forget.’
    _
    Elsewhere, the message from Newham Council in London captured the sentiments of most local councils in the UK. It said it was marking Holocaust Memorial Day with a ‘moving event honouring the millions lost’, before adding, ‘we stand united against hatred and work for a future of peace’.
    _
    You might have noticed one thing was missing in all these statements, so I am just going to say it: Jews. Time and again, public figures and institutions simply failed to mention the name of the actual victims of the Holocaust.

    • rhywun

      None of them can probably utter the word without spitting.

    • Ozymandias

      That’s the thing – it’s not about response time. It’s about anticipation. (Hence my analogy to jazz).
      If you’re “responding” you’re already behind… and getting behind-er with each passing moment.

      • Ozymandias

        Well that’s a thread fail – this is in response to NA’s comment just above.

    • UnCivilServant

      My only hypothesis is that they did an internet search for wavelength diagrams, slapped two into the slide and didn’t pay attention to the fact that they were set up opposite each other and created a confusing mess by juxtaposition.

      • Not Adahn

        Undoubtedly. Which means they shouldalso be shamed for stealing images.

    • Jarflax

      Is it supposed to show different ways of describing the spectrum? Or did someone use ChatGPT to draw a slide?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Maybe they were on a different spectrum?

    • EvilSheldon

      Fuck.

  21. tarran

    On the mid air collision over the Potomac, this is what I’ve heard so far:

    1) The Helo’s transponder indicated it was 200′ lower than it was actually flying. This could be because they set the reference pressure on their altimeter incorrectly.

    2) The CRJ was originally supposed to land on runway 1. But in order to increase the rate at which planes could land, they requested (and the pilot agreed to do) the plane circle visually to land on runway 33. A plane took off from runway 1 as this was happening, and the plane behind the accident aircraft was lined up to land on runway 1.

    3) The helo was flying a corridor that is well established (route 4, but might have been slightly off course).

    4) TCAS was disabled on both aircraft by design; it’s inhibited at low altitudes in the vicinity of airports because it would go off spuriously.

    It appears to me that neither aircraft saw the other. Because they were on a collision course, until the very last few seconds, each one would have seen the other’s navigation lights as looking like flashing lights that were attached to the ground. The helo pilot likely thought that all the traffic was inbound to runway 1, and because he was well clear of that runway that he had nothing to worry about. The pilots of the passenger plane were focused on the landing with the pilot flying focusing on his line up and the pilot monitoring managing the radios and watching the instruments.

    For me the baffling thing is ATC’s role in this. That tape is pretty damning. The whole point of ATC is to avoid precisely this sort of problem.

    • R.J.

      They will blame Trump for laying off DEI staff. Just wait.

      • Tundra

        That started last night.

        Why didn’t the Blackhawk respond?

      • Jarflax

        It was a Blackhawk.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Charlie Cooke’s take.

        https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/air-travel-is-astonishingly-safe-and-this-accident-was-no-politicians-fault/

        The new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, was asked this morning whether air travel in the United States is safe. He said:

        “Can I guarantee the American flying public that the U.S. has the most safe and secure airspace in the world? The answer to that is absolutely yes. We do.”

        This is unequivocally true. There hasn’t been a fatal commercial aviation accident in the United States in nearly 16 years. This is despite around 800 million passengers flying every year, on more than 16 million flights, that spend about 25 million hours in the air. The numbers fluctuate, so you can’t extrapolate perfectly, but, at a conservative estimate, since the last crash in 2009 more than 10 billion passengers have flown in the U.S., on more than 150 million flights, that spent more than 225 million hours in the air. What happened yesterday was a terrible tragedy, but it was an aberration. The death toll as a result of commercial aviation in the United States since 2009 is 67. The death toll from wasps over that same period is more than one thousand. Commercial aviation is a miracle, and it’s because it’s a miracle that we are so shocked when things go wrong.

        I mention this in part to add some useful context, but also because I simply do not understand what the handful of journalists and Democratic politicians who have rushed to blame Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, or the new administration in general think that they are doing. As with gun-control, it is incumbent upon anyone who makes a causal claim to take his thought to its logical conclusion. None of those who tried to politicize last night’s accident have been able to do that. Within hours, New York‘s David Freelander tweeted out, “Eight days ago Trump issued an executive order freezing the hiring of air traffic controllers.” Okay. And? Finish the thought for me, David. “Eight days ago Trump issued an executive order freezing the hiring of air traffic controllers, which means . . . ” what? Last night, a military helicopter crashed into a passenger jet in crowded airspace. What is the mechanism that linked this mistake to Trump’s pause on federal hiring? Trump froze future hiring, and then . . . what? Did our existing collection of air traffic controllers — a group that has thus far been totally unaffected by this order — become less diligent in response to its announcement? Were the pilots so angry about it that they no longer cared if they lived or died? Did an angry God try to interrupt the policy by wiping out 67 people? The whole thing is nonsense and superstition and monomania. The last time we had a plane crash in the United States, in February, 2009, Barack Obama had been president for just over a month. Was it his fault? The idea is stupid.

        We already treat our presidents as mystical talismans whose mere presence in the Oval Office makes things better or worse. To start imbuing them with the power to keep planes in the sky would be to make this much worse. It was stupid, back when he was president last time around, for Donald Trump to try to take credit for the lack of air disasters, and it is stupid, this time around, for his critics to do the opposite. This was a terrible accident — nothing more, nothing less. Not everything is about our personal political obsessions.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Blackhawk? That is Helicopter of Color, thankyouverymuch!

        Shitlord…

    • EvilSheldon

      Links in the chain.

    • Ownbestenemy

      TCAS will work and does work in and around an airport, just won’t provide a RA below 1000′.

      That side-step procedure is demanding so yes, you are correct, those pilots were busy and focusing on that task.

      One note, the military was probably on UHF. Commerical flight on VHF.

      ATC monitors both but doubtful that either aircraft had the other tuned to at minimum listen in.

      Towers also typically have a separate helo position to free up the frequencies.

    • The Last American Hero

      Has anybody seen or heard from Kash since the crash?

      *adjusts tinfoil hat*

  22. DrOtto

    Re: the RFK, jr story – wait, so we’re still pretending that Lyme’s disease was not a cold era military lab concoction? I thought it was generally accepted that it was something we cooked up to introduce to the Soviet’s livestock, but accidentally got released here instead?

    • Tundra

      Of course we are. Every biolab on the planet should be razed and the ground salted.

    • creech

      Odds seem to have shifted on RFK getting confirmed. Fetterman now very skeptical.

      • R C Dean

        I wonder if Trump still has his deal with McCarthy to put the House in recess so Trump can put the Senate in recess and do his remaining slate as recess appointments.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Shades of PSA 182.

      Re Domino’s with pineapple, my mom wanted it.

  23. The Other Kevin

    Happy birthday SP. I heard her voice once on a Zoom, near the end, and she sounded feisty as hell. That’s someone you don’t just replace. I hope you have a glass of very expensive wine tonight. Take care Old Man.

    • R.J.

      Indeed. Happy birthday.

      • R.J.

        I found out there is banana curry pizza in the world. The pizza Overton window has moved.

      • EvilSheldon

        Banana curry pizza? I’d try it. Maybe call it something other than pizza, but the combined flavors don’t sound horrible…

      • Nephilium

        R.J.:

        I’ve terrified some coastal people by saying that nearly every pizza place around me has a chicken bacon ranch pizza on the menu.

  24. The Other Kevin

    The Kash Patel hearing is on. This one should be fun. Kash investigated the Russia Collusion Hoax and has the receipts on all those liars. Of all the people to push back, I’d expect him to be the pushiest.

    https://www.breitbart.com/ (scroll down a bit)

    • The Other Kevin

      Dammit, Tulsi’s hearing is this morning too. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!

      • rhywun

        Get a life?

        😜

    • Drake

      The Gabbard hearing is on too. More pontificating by assholes questioning her judgement.

    • The Other Kevin

      Kash is pretty sharp. He’s having none of their BS. But he hasn’t been questioned by a screeching Dem woman yet.

      • WTF

        And by “questioned” I assume you mean “shrieked at like a lunatic”.

      • juris imprudent

        Klobuchar answers the bell!

    • R.J.

      According to Dershowitz, RFK did great yesterday. He is slightly biased as he hates Warren with the passion of a thousand suns. I don’t think RFK is going to make it though. It was far too easy to find all kinds of comments he made in the past that upset our overlords.

      • Tundra

        It depends on the shrewdness of the overlords. I think some understand that it would be a really bad idea to vote no.

      • The Other Kevin

        RFK is popular. The audience was cheering for him. And some people have threatened to primary people who vote against him.

    • The Other Kevin

      Kash is getting friendly questions about the Steel Dossier and Crossfire Hurricane. Now the Hunter laptop. We’re getting into some shit now.

      Dems are all about January 6. But he’s holding his own.

      • Drake

        These hearings all remind me that I don’t hate Democrats and politicians in general nearly enough.

      • The Other Kevin

        It’s getting to the heart of Dems vs Repubs and the weaponization of the justice system.

      • juris imprudent

        Well when you’ve been crafting a weapon, you damn sure don’t want it in the hands of your enemy!

    • Pat

      “Promoted to customer,” my dad used to say.

      • Suthenboy

        I like that.

      • Fourscore

        “Being given an opportunity to use their education in a more meaningful way” was my standard

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Damn, what ever happened to “spending more time with their family”?

      • R C Dean

        “Spending more time with their cats” just doesn’t have the same ring.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Freed from the toil and drudgery of serving the public.

    • Not Adahn

      Funemployment!

      • slumbrew

        Think of all the time they’ll have to create great art now!

  26. Yusef drives a Kia

    Condolences OM, when her and I spoke she was funny and gracious, she will be missed.

  27. Sensei

    Welcome to (((shenanigans))) NJ style.

    N.J. school district says it’s broke, can’t pay teachers without emergency loan
    https://www.nj.com/education/2025/01/nj-school-district-says-its-broke-cant-pay-teachers-without-emergency-loan.html

    For background:
    https://njedreport.com/5-million-in-six-years-nice-gig-for-lakewood-lawyer-and-too-bad-hes-not-the-only-one/

    Lakewood is 60% Orthodox per Google. They don’t generally send students to public schools. I’ll leave the exercise of connecting the dots to the reader.

    • WTF

      The school district in the predominantly Orthodox Jewish community has long struggled with the cost of providing busing and special education costs for students who attend private yeshivas in the area.

      Why is the public school district providing money for private education? Shouldn’t that be the parents?

    • Suthenboy

      Ol’ Zuckerburg once gave 100M to a school district in NJ, I believe the district with Camden in it. A year later he went to see what happened and *poof* the money had disappeared. Every penny up in smoke. No one knew where, how or who. Not one single penny could be accounted for.

      The complaints I have heard from many jews are that the orthodox are horrible welfare queens who game the system every way they can.

      I suspect this is one of those stories where all of the players are bad guys and they all deserve to lose. That is just my impression, I could be wrong.

    • Drake

      Yes – Lakewood is infamous in NJ.

      Last year there was a big panic in the town where we used to live (Allamuchy, NJ). An Orthodox billionaire was buying up land and businesses with plans to give it the full Lakewood treatment. Would have destroyed the town’s tax base and schools.

      Then he got busted for a giant COVID billing scam and the whole thing fell apart.
      https://www.labpulse.com/compliance-regulation/funding-finance/fraud/article/15677650/covid19-testing-operation-accused-of-massive-doublebilling-scheme

  28. Suthenboy

    Fell back asleep. That was nice.
    Skimming……
    Re: Tundra and the pub sec workers whining. They are complaining about job security…are they appealing to the public for sympathy? They have been the cause of so much job insecurity and job loss in private employment they have the temerity to expect us to now support them?
    Fuck that.

  29. SandMan

    “I’m getting by, but this is not the life I wanted or imagined.”

    I also suffered a great loss 2+ years ago, that sentiment rings true with me also. I thought I’d get to some “new normal”, but now it seems like I’m just coasting towards death, what a horrible feeling.

    • Jarflax

      It’s probably cold comfort, but as someone who has never married, had children, or even had a great love reciprocated, it feels the same, just without the memories.

    • Drake

      “coasting towards death” is a bit grim. But I am getting to the point of having more friends and loved ones in the next world than this one.

      Hopefully it will be a nice reunion.

      • Suthenboy

        Ya know how some people develop a kinship with others they do not even know because of shared experiences? Heavy shit like combat vets, trivial things like common ownership of Jeeps (it’s a thing, really) and everything in between?
        If there is an afterlife I would imagine we will all feel like a reunion for everyone that had to live.
        We are all born the same…naked, screaming and trying to figure out what the hell is going on around here. You have to figure it out on your first go, you dont get a practice run. They whole time you are trying to learn while playing catch-up life is beating the shit out of you. It is a bit traumatic.
        It will be a reunion for all of us.

  30. Mojeaux

    SP ❤️❤️❤️

    • Old Man With Candy

      Seeing you guys just absolutely clicking at dinner made my year.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Boo hoo hoo

    Commenting on X, Musk laughed at a specific aspect of the offer, writing, “Hit ‘Send,'” accompanied by a screenshot of the letter to employees describing how to submit their resignation via email.

    Musk’s attitude as he works to enact sweeping changes across the federal government — potentially impacting hundreds of thousands of career employees who have spent their lives working behind the scenes — is not lost on some workers, who told ABC News that the Trump administration and Musk’s tone have been “cruel” and “demoralizing.”

    “It feels like the new administration thinks we are dirt and do nothing for the country,” said one 20-year federal employee who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution. “This is heartbreaking.”

    Who could possibly think government employees are a bunch of useless timeservers?

    • WTF

      Hell, doing nothing for the country would be an improvement over the damage they actually do.

    • Suthenboy

      Any private citizen who has had to deal with regulatory agencies certainly know what ‘cruel’ and ‘demoralizing’ feels like. Are these people really trying to appeal to the public for sympathy?
      Many agencies have severed themselves entirely from direct contact with the public because so many people want to kill them. Now they want sympathy? Really?

      • Suthenboy

        As I recall the EPA, who has jurisdiction over ‘navigable waters’ was trying to claim jurisdiction over all land and water anywhere and everywhere because all land is part of one or other watershed.
        Some guy sells timber. Trucks and machinery moving about create a rut in an access road. Rain fills the rut with water (a mud puddle) suddenly the EPA appears, claims jurisdiction and fines you into oblivion.
        Want to build a house on a private lake? Tough shit. Have a house on a lake, river or seashore? You are fucked.
        Now they want sympathy? We are supposed to keep paying them to torture us and destroy our prosperity and any possibility of prosperity?
        Let me think on that for a bit.

    • juris imprudent

      do nothing for the country

      Like hell, we know what you do TO the country.

  32. DEG

    SP would be 61 today.

    RIP

    Sorry OMWC

  33. DEG

    The song video is good.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    “Absolutely do not resign. There is nothing that says that the day that you resign, that they can’t just let you go. They don’t have to pay you — there’s nothing that says they have to pay you till September 30,” he said. “This is nothing that has been done before. This is not in our regulations. There’s no regs about it. We’re not even sure if it’s actually legal. This is about trying to cut the federal workforce down, really kind of just breaking down these pillars of democracy.”

    Unprecedented perfidy. Pearl Harbor was nothing compared to this sneak attack on the cradle to grave job security we have come to expect.

    • WTF

      As though an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy is a pillar of democracy.

    • Suthenboy

      “This is about trying to cut the federal workforce down, really kind of just breaking down these pillars of democracy.”

      Because those are exactly the same thing.

    • Suthenboy

      I hope he is still living and gets out ok. Talk about shit luck…

    • R.J.

      Isn’t it a sinkhole full of sewage too? The guy is going to get fatally sick!

  35. Suthenboy

    Biolabs shenanigans: How often do we find out a biolab is working on beneficial work..engineering bugs to render harmful pathogens, parasites, illnesses harmless? Eliminate pestilence? I am not saying it isn’t going on, just that we dont hear about it much.
    It seems, perhaps because it is so noticeable and sensational, they always come to light working on weaponizing bugs against humans.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      “But we need to do gain of function research to create vaccines for potential pandemics.”

      “OK, so give me a list of successful vaccines from GOF research.”

      Crickets.

      • Jarflax

        I’m agnostic on the idea of gain of function research. It’s obviously dangerous, but potentially could provide insights that have value. But you don’t do your really dangerous, eminently weaponizable research in hostile countries with notoriously lax standards.

      • R C Dean

        I’m convinced “gain of function research” is just a euphemism for “bioweapons research”.

        Shut it all down. Make engaging in it a capital offense.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    GOTCHA!

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s military deportation flight to Guatemala on Monday likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant, according to data provided by U.S. and Guatemalan officials.
    That is more than five times the $853 cost of a one-way first class ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, the departure point for the flight, according to a review of publicly available airfares.
    It is also significantly higher than the cost of a commercial charter flight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

    Make ’em walk.

    • Sensei

      Unmentioned – still much less than supporting them here, right?

    • UnCivilServant

      Dare anyone point out that bullets are cheaper still?

      A one time cost to get them gone and deter other criminals and rent-seekers from sneaking in isn’t going to make me oppose the removal of the criminals and rent-seekers.

    • rhywun

      It’s nice to see the MSM caring about government expenditures.

    • R.J.

      My usual comment of “stop banning shit” will be modified into “Stop enacting labor.”

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Meanwhile, over at the EPA

    Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island called Zeldin the wrong man for the job.

    “We need an EPA administrator who will take climate change seriously, treat the science honestly and stand up where necessary to the political pressure that will be coming from the White House, where we have a president who actually thinks (climate change) is a hoax, and from the huge fossil fuel forces that propelled him into office with enormous amounts of political money and who now think they own the place,” Whitehouse said in a Senate speech.

    Trump is “under the thumb of the fossil fuel industry,” Whitehouse said, adding that the EPA administrator “has to be truthful and factual and support and defend our environment and our safety from climate change.’’

    He has nothing against Zeldin personally, Whitehouse added, “but the likelihood of him standing against that fossil fuel bulldozer that is coming at him is essentially zero. And in that context, this is very much the wrong guy.”

    Oogah boogah Big Fossil will kill us all!

    We can’t allow the EPA to focus on real threats and meaningful marginal improvements. That would be crazy.

    • Jarflax

      take climate change seriously, treat the science honestly

      I see a contradiction here.

      • UnCivilServant

        Climate changes, the current interglacial is proof. But the serious science indicates it’s not us driving the changes.

      • Suthenboy

        No contradiction. Same crap we have been hearing from them. “Trump needs to keep doing things business as usual. We need an EPA administrator who will continue pushing our agenda.”

        Guess what asshole. You lost. You dont get to keep running things.

    • UnCivilServant

      Wrong again – We need an EPA director who will gut the agency and burn entrails.

    • juris imprudent

      Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island

      Proof that Rhode Island shouldn’t be a state.

    • R.J.

      Nice of that person to point out they need an early retirement.

    • Suthenboy

      He left out banning trigger warnings? That’s retarded.

    • R.J.

      Fag.

    • R C Dean

      Democrats are still reskinning their old objection to freeing the slaves, I see.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    “I can’t wait until American women can’t get blueberries for their smoothies,” she said.

    Fat, spiteful and vindictive is no way to go through life.

    • Sensei

      But that’s what happens with no smoothies!