Thursday Morning Links

by | Mar 27, 2025 | Daily Links | 237 comments

The Sweet 16 gets underway today. The New York Giants are signing every washed up QB they can find. UGA would win the Fulmer Cup this year, if it was still a thing. Maybe the last two years, actually. 25 arrests since the 2023 season ended is quite a feat. Club soccer gets back underway this weekend. And Liam Lawson is out as the Red Bull #2 driver after only two races and would be replaced in Japan by Yuki, which the hometown crowd is gonna go apeshit over. And that’s it for sports.

Good. Money is fungible and the government shouldn’t be paying for that shit.

Wow, what a great opportunity. The rest of the world can take note of this study and gain a bunch of so-called “soft power” by funding this work and saving all those lives. Right? RIGHT?!?!?!??!?!?!

The government should not be in the news business. This isn’t controversial. If they’re so important, they can raise money another way and keep going without my tax dollars.

I hope he’s proud of himself. He was funny in Me, Myself, And Irene though. I’ll give him that.

This will be interesting if it’s true. I’m somewhat skeptical, although the assignment of these cases sure looks a bit questionable.

Speaking of judges, this one might actually be starting to understand what a jurisdiction is. But we’ll have to wait and see what he does.

“Used to work with” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. That’s like saying I “used to work with” anybody who’s ever bought anything from me at auction and shipped it to Iran through an intermediary in the UAE. Which may have happened more than once without my knowledge.

Tell me something I don’t know. One would almost think he was a scammer if his motives weren’t so pure, lol.

Damn, they cut 13 items? That must have pared the menu down to just under 200 things, by my estimation.

God bless these people. Finally some sanity in the grocery shopping experience.

The one hit wonders don’t get any love here. That changes today. Maybe I should do this more often. This couldn’t get made today. Both are really fun songs. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Thursday, dear friends.

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

237 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    Is that Morgana the kissing bandit?

  2. Pat

    Money is fungible and the government shouldn’t be paying for that shit.

    But then where will those 6 women who got an ultrasound and pap smear at Planned Parenthood last year get their medical services going forward?

    • Nephilium

      Back alley clinics no doubt.

    • Common Tater

      Same way they do mammograms without mammography machines.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Ask me to give ’em a squeeze?

      • Pat

        “I’m not a gynecologist, but I’ll take a look”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Time to break out the ole FBI shirt?

  3. Common Tater

    “The New York Giants are signing every washed up QB they can find”

    Last year, they should have released Jones and kept Barkley.

    • Nephilium

      Are the Giants perhaps interested in a QB that is available? Wouldn’t even take up a roster slot, could just sit on IR all year…

      • Jarflax

        Don’t get greedy, they are already helping you out by taking bad QBs before your front office offers them contracts.

  4. Pat

    The government should not be in the news business. This isn’t controversial.

    It shouldn’t be, although every western country has either an official state broadcaster, or one so heavily subsidized that it’s effectively state owned.

  5. Common Tater

    “Cox allegedly claimed to be a different person and provided a false name during his initial interrogation with police.”

    If my name was Demarqeyun Marquize Cox, I would have done the same thing.

    “The 5-foot-2, 449-pound driver left noticeable damage to the front driver-side door, owner Virita Carstaffin told the outlet.”

    He’s wider than tall.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Chode is a word that needs to make a comeback

    • R C Dean

      Before I even looked at the article, I saw that picture and said “That’s gotta be 450 pounds”. And that was before I saw that he’s only 5’2”.

    • Not Adahn

      The 33-year-old allegedly spotted the electric vehicle sitting in the parking lot of a Golden Palace Chinese buffet

      YOU GO NOW!

  6. Pat

    US judge questions his power to reinstate federal workers nationwide

    Just do it anyway. I’ve been reliably informed that in our system of checks and balances, there is literally no possible legal check on judicial power. Including impeachment.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Even in his reasoning and mussing in that article said hes going to do it anyway.

  7. Rat on a train

    a service animal handler does not need to provide certification for their service animal

    Licensing service animals would solve so many problems. That or letting businesses exclude all animals.

    • Jarflax

      “Service animal” is a great example of a motte and bailey argument. When people hear that you want to kick out a service animal they picture a poor blind person and their seeing eye dog. Meanwhile your tenant or ‘customer’ has a completely uncontrollable, untrained, abused Rottweiler/Wolf mix and a letter from an online shrink explaining that Cujosaurus Maximus is an vital emotional support for their recently diagnosed depression.

      • Sean

        Cujosaurus Maximus

        lol

      • sloopyinca

        It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this.

        My dad’s charity (shameless plug for LFWMH.org here), gives away multiple services dogs every year to wounded vets. And a lot of those guys are suffering major depression and show few physical symptoms if any. The training is extensive and the dogs are legit. I think it costs something like $50k each before they’re put in service. And those guys would be hard-pressed to get through the day without their dog by their side.

        So while I get your criticism of people with depression running around with untrained pets and a note from a head-shrinker saying it’s a services animal, there are plenty of people out there who do need a service animal to help them deal with their depression.

      • Jarflax

        I personally come down on the all well behaved dogs are welcome in all spaces side. But the ADA and all the nonsense it has brought need to go away. Once you mandate compassion it ceases to be compassion and becomes tyranny. Businesses have to have the right to exclude animals that cause problems and the current situation puts you in legal limbo when a problem animal shows up. You are potentially liable if the animal you allowed in savages someone, and potentially liable if you exclude the animal and the owner sues you for violating the ADA.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s amazing how quickly people go from tolerance to “hey buddy, stop doing that” when it’s their pet issue.

      • Ted S.

        Kevin would (should) be liable if he mowed you down in his motorized wheelchair.

        By the same token, there should be legal liability for people who can’t control their undisciplined “service” dogs.

      • Not Adahn

        Is that not currently the case?

      • Jarflax

        It is (with a massive caveat that dog bite cases can get surprisingly complicated) already the case that you are liable for your dog’s bites.

      • Sensei

        Is that not currently the case?

        Where do you want to draw the line? Barking in the middle of the supermarket is annoying, but nobody is legally “injured”. Frightening my two year old son to tears with the barking and standing up on the leash? Possibly I can find an ambulance chaser, but that’s harder and much more gray.

        If there wasn’t the ADA issue that Jarflax noted this would be easier to put on the business owner to determine.

      • The Other Kevin

        I second what Sloopy said, I have been around a lot of service animals with my hockey travels. They take a LOT of training and testing, and are expensive. OTOH, I have an ex-teammate who brought a completely untrained Rot to a tournament, asked random people to watch her, and ended up putting her behind the bench with our coaches. Both of whom she bit. There is not shortage of people who will ruin things for everyone.

    • Tonio

      Theoretically, but would also create new ones. Who would do this licensing? If government then we have an expansion of the size and scope of government and the institutionalizing of the whole “service animal” scam. If private industry, then you institute a pay-to-play scam, much like “medical” MJ.

      And while there are some legit service animals, such as seeing-eye dogs, there are vastly more “service animals” performing trivial, or ill-defined, tasks, such as one man who claimed that he had a bad back and needed the golden retriever with him at all times in case he dropped something and needed the GR to pick it up off the floor for him (pick stick, anyone? how often do normal ppl drop things? or maybe just ask random people for help on those rare occasions?).

      Then there is the whole “emotional support animal” thing which ppl try to smuggle in as “service animals.”

      • Rat on a train

        I imagine a DMV like office. Just waiting for your number to be called would be a significant test of their behavior. Then take them on a road test. They can offer vanity dog tags for an additional fee.

  8. ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

    Marshal Crenshaw is not a one hit wonder, except maybe in MTV land. Dude was solid, even if it was Old Sad Bastard music.

    • sloopyinca

      I knew that would be controversial. But I went with it anyway.

      I actually had a few other one hit wonders in mind last night before I went to bed but forgot them. Guess I’m getting old.

    • Drake

      I was thinking that too.

  9. Pat

    God bless these people. Finally some sanity in the grocery shopping experience.

    Hear, hear! Your damn dog will survive your half hour grocery run at home, douche.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Its not the dog I worry about..

      • R.J.

        My jar of emotional support hornets has to come with me everywhere!

    • EvilSheldon

      You have no idea how beneficial it is to my emotional state, to have a King Cobra who’s trained to bite people I don’t like…

  10. SDF-7

    UGA would win the Fulmer Cup this year, if it was still a thing.

    Sigh… You go 100+ on the Atlanta perimeter (I-285), not the Athens Bypass, dude….

    [I’m not entirely kidding — there have been several times I’ve had to drive 80+ in the right lane just to stay with the flow of traffic and not get run over on the Perimeter… Atlanta drivers are loons!]

    Don’t they cover this stuff in orientation for the poor kids these days?

    • sloopyinca

      Seriously, they might want to use that NIL money and give everybody on the team a MOKE to ride around campus on.

  11. Not Adahn

    Re: HEB,

    Kaylee Warner, an 18-year-old personal shopper for curbside

    a peon-level highschooler employee doesn’t get to make policy decisions.

    “I have witnessed pets attacking service dogs in H-E-B, I have witnessed pets peeing on displays in H-E-B, I have witnessed pets even peeing on guests in H-E-B, I have witnessed a small dog bite a child inside of H-E-B,” another response claimed.

    Considering the amount of money that can be grifted from wet bathroom floors, I call absolute bullshit on this.

    • Not Adahn

      “Right now, there’s no certification that shows that they’re a service animal,” Warner said. “I think they’d make businesses and workers’ lives a lot easier if they had paperwork showing an animal is a service animal. Right now, you just have to take their word for it.”

      Papieren bitte.

      In the meantime, when Warner sees an animal in the store, she tries to steer clear to prevent any unnecessary confrontations. “If I see a dog, I just walk the other way,” she said. “I try to avoid it.”

      When you can’t flex your authoritah, you’ll MYOFB? Mighty white of you.

      • Pat

        Because a private company asking you to show some evidence that you’re not bringing in a fleabag animal where people are purchasing open produce and meat to eat is exactly like Nazism 🙄️

      • Not Adahn

        Someone fantasizing about making people show their papers is an indication that they’re an Elsa wannabe, yes.

        What you wrote has nothing to do with anything I wrote, or anything that was written in the article.

      • Jarflax

        The problem with this take is that it has the situation backwards. The objection to a licensing regime is that it gives the State the power to make what should be a private decision between the parties as to what animals are allowed/barred. But the current situation is not that the parties get to decide; it is that it is illegal to exclude service animals, but there is no certification process, so once someone claims their animal is a service animal the burden of proof is on the business owner to show that the animal does not qualify, and the penalties for not proving that to a court can be significant. This is worse than a licensing regime.

      • Not Adahn

        No sure which take you’re talking about — but the article isn’t about HEB banning dogs. It’s about a teenaged girl bravely and heroically submitting a petition to make HEB ban dogs (or rather enforce an existing state mandated ban).

        My personal take agrees with yours, but then again, I believe that businesses should set all their own policies, whether that includes dogs, guns, smoking, shoes, pants, or perfidious zionists.

        Now I’m wondering if strip clubs that serve food have a special exemption about shirtlessness.

      • Grummun

        I saw Perfidious Zionists open for the Challah Back Boys at the Newport Music Hall. The Hassids can mosh, now.

      • Pat

        What you wrote has nothing to do with anything I wrote, or anything that was written in the article.

        You responded to a quoted statement indicating it would be easier for businesses if there was a certification process for service animals by implying having to show documentation of said certification was akin to Nazis asking for papers, which I think is rather a ridiculous overstatement.

        I believe that businesses should set all their own policies, whether that includes dogs, guns, smoking, shoes, pants, or perfidious zionists.

        I’m not asking facetiously, but if a business had a policy of no animals in the facilities, with exceptions made for service animals with a valid certificate from a private certification organization, would you be alright with that? Because the practical implication is literally exactly the same.

      • Not Adahn

        I responded to a quote from 18 year old Kaylee lamenting that she had to trust people and would rather she be allowed to demand her employer’s customers do things to prove their words are true and “make [her] lives a lot easier.” It’s not at all unusual for teenagers and retail workers to go off on power fantasies, but that doesn’t mean I have to ignore what they’re doing. Why you insist on pretending she’s a serious policy analyst I shall not speculate.

        I have not problems with business owners setting their own policies but that is not what this article was about. Context. It’s a thing.

      • Pat

        I responded to a quote from 18 year old Kaylee lamenting that she had to trust people and would rather she be allowed to demand her employer’s customers do things to prove their words are true

        Speaking of context, according to the article, H-E-B already does, in fact, have a policy of only allowing service animals and not pets. Presumably the employees are tasked with enforcement. The relevant quote is from the employee who launched a petition because it’s presently not practicable to differentiate between a service animal and a pet. As infringements on liberty go, some 18 year old kid wishing they could ask the owners of unruly dogs in the store at which they work to provide documentation that the dog is actually a service animal in compliance with store policy doesn’t really raise my Nazi alarm. If you read into that any suggestion that I thought a bag girl at H-E-B was a policy analyst it was a misunderstanding on your part.

      • Not Adahn

        Your quote:

        Because a private company asking you to show some evidence that you’re not bringing in a fleabag animal where people are purchasing open produce and meat to eat is exactly like Nazism 🙄️

        At least now you’re willing to admit the article had fuck-all to do with a “private company” Because in context you were either treating Kaylee’s tantrum as if it were a representation of HEB, or as is vastly more likely you were looking for a justification for your kneejerk “tut tut, don’t make Nazi jokes” biddyism.

      • Pat

        At least now you’re willing to admit the article had fuck-all to do with a “private company”

        That’s another misread on your part. H-E-B is, indeed, a private company. One of their employees was interviewed regarding a petition she launched. The article quite literally *only* concerns a private company, its employees, and its company policies. Even the quote you objected to doesn’t reference any specific authority. It’s just a store employee who gets smoke blown up their ass wishing it was easier to enforce the store’s policy by asking people for proof that their animal is actually a service animal rather than a pet. As I pointed out, said certification could conceivably come from a private agency. ASTM certified goggles, for example, are required at any reputable paintball facility as an industry and insurance standard.

        I also give zero shits whatsoever about Nazi jokes or references, so shove your biddyism up your ass, with all due respect. Thinking the analogy was stupid under the circumstances wasn’t because I’m uptight about the joke.

  12. SDF-7

    And Liam Lawson is out as the Red Bull #2 driver after only two races

    You’re kidding me!

    I mean yeah — it was pretty obvious he was having problems with the car and wasn’t performing up to speed… but he’s a rookie, had good F2 results — and maybe, just f’ing maybe Red Bull — you might try tuning the car away from Max’s style to one of your other drivers before you “wash up” the entire other f’ing field? Just sayin’….

    Just seems a damned shame.

    • sloopyinca

      I’m not so sure anybody can drive that car aside from Max. So why not just develop a completely different aero package for the second driver?

      • Jarflax

        They need to just clone Max.

      • SDF-7

        That’s what I meant, sorry — I definitely don’t think they should detune Max’s car… but surely they can work out a less aggressive / on the cusp of instability package for the second car? I didn’t think the regs forbade it… and if they want any points from their second driver, it sure looks to me like they should.

        And no offense to Yuki… but he’s always seemed like a solid mid-field driver to me. Not in Perez’s class, much less Max’s. Maybe he’s just needed a better car to shine — we’ll see this weekend. Japan sure as anything isn’t the track I’d want to tackle first if that car is as close to the edge as it seems — those sector 1 curves (much like CotA) can really mess you up if you’re even slightly off… okay, that’s based on my lame ass driving in the video game, granted… and yes he should know the track well… just saying the car might surprise him).

      • sloopyinca

        That’s what I meant, sorry

        I know what you meant. I was just heaping on my agreement with you.

        There has to be a work-around. I know I’ve seen cars with different front and rear wing configurations from the same team before. Hell, Sky Sports showed a side by side of two noses at Australia on the Mercs and they were totally different. Why RBR isn’t doing so with both front and rear is beyond me.

    • The Last American Hero

      Not totally disagreeing, but the dude was qualifying 19th and 20th and struggling to pass anyone on the track, including the bottom feeders.

  13. Ownbestenemy

    Trump being Trump endorses Lindsey Graham.

    I get supporting your party, but come on man…

    • Sean

      Yeah. I’m disappointed on that one.

    • Jarflax

      He’s just trying to prove he isn’t homophobic.

      • juris imprudent

        That ain’t going to convince Tonio or Rhywun.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Graham was pretty good getting Trump’s judicial nominations through. Trump is probably repaying him for that.

  14. SDF-7

    The rest of the world can take note of this study

    Honestly… and I know this isn’t all of the diseases that crop up… but I’d just appreciate the rest of the world not screwing monkeys or cattle or birds or whatever it is they’re doing that cause these odd cross species transfers/hybrids in the first place.

    And bring back DDT if the whole “bird egg shell” thing was BS like I seem to recall was reported to get the mosquito population back down to reduce that vector.

      • SDF-7

        Yup… given the quality control and times they’ve had to “roll back” how effective it is and how massive the side effects are — if that doesn’t fucking terrify every non-medical-bureaucrat I don’t know what will.

        Mass forced medical experimentation with no notice or option. What could possibly go wrong?

  15. SDF-7

    although the assignment of these cases sure looks a bit questionable.

    I can forgive a lot, President Trump — but someone really needs to sit you down about now and explain the difference between “statistically impossible” and “statistically improbable“.

    If there’s something hinkey going on with the assignments — yeah, ton of bricks time. (I just assumed there were so many of the damned lawsuits filed this bozo-in-a-robe couldn’t help but get more of them on his plate, personally..) But I’m pretty sure it can happen and you sound like the gamer kid insisting everyone else is using aim-bots or something now. Not a good look.

    • Not Adahn

      I thought that it was SOP to give a judge related cases since they were now an “expert” in the subject?

      • SDF-7

        I thought it was supposed to be a random rotation within the Circuit… :shrug:

    • Pat

      and you sound like the gamer kid insisting everyone else is using aim-bots or something now

      I mean sometimes that headshot % do be a little sus though…

    • Swiss Servator

      There are not that many suits. This is a hilarious “coincidence”. But, with the DC Circuit, you have shitbirds galore, and 75% will do anything TEAM BLUE wants anyways.

  16. SDF-7

    One would almost think he was a scammer if his motives weren’t so pure, lol.

    I’ll say this for Gore and ole HorseFace Kerry…. they must give hope to AOC that she can run for President eventually…. she’s just about as smart and capable, after all!

  17. Sensei

    Is Jimbo still in Korea?

    Even a $14,000 Government Handout Can’t Get South Korea’s Singles to Marry

    https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/singles-dating-marriage-fertility-birthrate-south-korea-bdb40c7b?st=CHRQSm&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    Saha-gu, a district in South Korea’s second largest city of Busan, offers singles who match at its events around $340 to spend on dates. Those who get married receive roughly $14,000 upfront and are feted with housing subsidies and more cash to cover pregnancy-related expenses and international travel. No participant has claimed the prize for marriage.

    • Derpetologist

      Men are the gatekeepers of marriage. If they’re avoiding it, there are reasons why, and the situation won’t change until the incentives change.

      Also, good morning, all. Off to the wondrous land of VA soon.

      The Wizard of VA
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QH5LcmfyLI

  18. Sensei

    Never underestimate Trump’s ego. This morning we have the whole tariff debacle coming to a head on North American automobiles and we get this gem!

    U.S. Prosecutors Probe Tip About Timing of Pfizer Vaccine
    Claim came to the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan via Pfizer rival GSK

    https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/pfizer-covid-vaccine-2020-election-probe-2f3ec247?st=ii7Hee&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    A senior GSK scientist, who formerly worked at rival Pfizer, had told GSK colleagues that Pfizer delayed announcing the success of its Covid vaccine in 2020 until after that year’s election.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Ya wasnt that the theory anyway? That the drug makers were holding out/off announcement for a more favorable and possibly forced use of their drug?

      • SarumanTheGreat

        Possibly. I think it was more to not give Orange Man Bad a victory that might positively effect his election chances.

    • DrOtto

      I thought that info came out in that long form “fortified election” article some years back. They openly bragged about holding off till after the election.

    • R C Dean

      The thing is, the vaccine wasn’t successful. For one thing, there were no valid clinical trials to demonstrate it was successful (they were all terminated early, around December 2019/January 2020, if memory serves). Amazingly, they were terminated just before the results dropped below the 50% efficacy number that is the floor for a vaccine. So this wasn’t Pfizer sitting on some trove of clinical data, this was Pfizer making a PR campaign.

      • Sensei

        That’s my memory too. Plus the 50% threshold is always universally ignored by “science believers”.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Hence the belief if they hold out for a new admin, it will be forced and $$$ will pour in.

      • Ted S.

        That’s some Freudian slip being off by a year. :-p

      • R C Dean

        And the dynamic of views/likes/attention whoring that is the essence of social media drives a retardation spiral.

      • Pat

        Avon ladies of the new age.

    • Pat

      “Ok, so we can’t technically require a license for parenthood, but let’s see how close we can get…”

  19. Common Tater

    I’m still not buying that Signal story. How can they accidentally add some TDS reporter from the Atlantic, and then no one noticed he was in the group?

    • Sensei

      I’ve never used Signal. Does it anonymize participants in some way? Only reference them by ID or phone #?

      I can tell you I’ve had some MS Teams meetings with 10+ participants and I’ve not exactly pursued who was included on the chat.

      It doesn’t seem that farfetched to me.

      • Not Adahn

        How would you randomly add someone to a Teams meeting? Fat-fingering an email address isn’t going to make Jeffrey Goldberg appear. If someone is outside my org, I have to actively confirm that this outsider is supposed to be there.

      • Sensei

        It’s on the organizer/originator. So if Goldberg is in my personal address book plus 9 internals the chat is going to start.

        It would be up to me to see why and with whom I got included in the time suck.

      • Common Tater

        Everyone else was either the Vice President or the head of an agency. Seems like a rather exclusive group.

      • UnCivilServant

        @NA – It depends on how your application is configured.

        Teams/Outlook on my system will happily suggest autocompleted for people I’ve communicated with outside of the state along with anyone in the GAL who matches the string thusfar typed. A single tab or enter will add whoever was randomly selected to be the top of the list.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Unciv has this correct. Especially for gov configs. I can easily add Mike Huntz from NOAA or FAA or local airport authority without any confirmation with a simple tab/enter combo

      • Not Adahn

        UCS: The obvious follow up question is why/how Goldberg (or any other journalisimist) was on that list to begin with.

      • Jarflax

        I can easily add Mike Huntz

        Hmm, I hadn’t categorized you with the polyamorous Glibs.

      • Nephilium

        Not Adahn:

        I’ve seen at least one headline claiming that Waltz (IIRC) had “lots” of journalists saved to his phone.

        Still find it hard to get worked up about this story.

      • Not Adahn

        Neph and ES:

        I am not surprised by this. I expect that the government is corrupt and the media is a wholly owned propaganda arm.

        But why is nobody else running with this angle? I don’t mean the MSM, but the loopy fringey branches? I don’t go too deep into that world, but those that I do aren’t taking that tack, they’re full-on-cope “nothing to see here!”

    • sloopyinca

      The whole thing stinks like yesterday’s garbage.

      Somebody needs to lose their job for including that guy. But the hyperventilating in the media is absurd. It’s not like they released the D-Day plans on the Nazi News Network. They were bombing a bunch of idiot pirates who had no ability to do anything with the info one solitary reporter may have had access to.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Trump and others arent really helping though. Waltz says he takes responsibility and then they all run out floating things like ‘it was a staffer who added him….’

        Just acknowledge it, adjust for the future and move on.

        Though, I guess moving back off defensive to offensive for the news cycle is Trumps playbook.

      • sloopyinca

        My buddy in Germany messaged me yesterday and said something along the lines of “your military top brass and Trump put the world in danger by releasing the attack plans early to the world.”

        Then we talked through what had actually happened and he backtracked a bit but said Trump is still embarrassing the US on the global stage because he can’t get along with other world leaders. Which led to a very interesting follow-up conversation about the types of cretins running Europe and more than a few admissions from my Kraut friend about what a shitshow things have become in Europe over the last few decades.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Sounds like your Kraut friend was just sour, Sloopy.

      • SarumanTheGreat

        Did anybody in the Biden administration get canned for the Afghanistan withdrawal? Did any Bidenista lose their job over anything they did or didn’t do other than for the luggage thief?

        Until I see really convincing evidence, I suspect intentional sabotage. If I were included inadvertently on a chat like that I would have told the other participants right then and now ‘hey, I don’t think you meant to include me on a national security conference!’

      • ron73440

        a few admissions from my Kraut friend/

        Sour friends like that are the wurst.

      • Swiss Servator

        *narrows gaze*

        Don’t think I didn’t see that, Zwak.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, something stinks. At this point I default to “sabotage” unless proven otherwise.

        The way that guy & The Atlantic are giddily running with it speaks volumes.

    • R C Dean

      I saw a claim (uncorroborated) (here, I think), that the guy who added him is married to a J6 prosecutor.

      This fits the profile of an IC/Deep State dirty trick. Especially since Goldberg seems to be lying about what was on the chat.

    • EvilSheldon

      If you think it’s in any way unbelievable, or even surprising, that a Trump staffer had an Atlantic reporter as a phone contact, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

      In DC, everyone is in the sack with everyone else, regardless of race, sex, orientation, or affiliation. The entire city is one big incestuous gang-bang.

      • Pat

        If you think it’s in any way unbelievable, or even surprising, that a Trump staffer had an Atlantic reporter as a phone contact, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

        I’d be more inclined to think the causation ran the other direction, and no Atlantic reporter would taint themselves with the stench of a Trump staffer, but anything for a story I guess.

        The most surprising thing about this whole affair is that Jeffrey Goldberg was ever able to secure employment again after peddling the lies he peddled about links between the Hussein regime in Iraq and al Qaeda.

  20. Sensei

    Of course.

    Possibly Britain’s oldest conservation society, the SBT has now succumbed to the newest vice in museum management. It has decided it must “decolonize” its holdings. The process began in 2022, when decolonization was all the rage, but the story slept like Bottom in Titania’s bower until March 16, when the Daily Telegraph described the now-familiar inanities.

    In 2022, the SBT asked Helen Hopkins, a postgraduate researcher at Birmingham City University who had inspected the trust’s archives for her doctoral thesis, to draw up the indictment. Ms. Hopkins advised that the trust “recognise the role Shakespeare has been forced to play in establishing and upholding imperialistic narratives of cultural supremacy.”

    https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/theater/much-ado-about-decolonizing-shakespeare-93631ff2?st=SiXw6V&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    • Jarflax

      Great art is culturally superior to crappy art. This is detrimental to those who produce crappy art. Once you accept equity as a moral rule, you necessarily end up having to find ways to tear down great things to make them equal to crappy things. Harrison Bergeron’s world is our world.

      • Ed Wuncler

        Equity has never been about equality. It’s about tearing down the stuff that makes society successful and free to build a world worthy of their utopian dreams.

      • Pat

        Prager U did a short but decent video on that.

      • The Other Kevin

        That video’s great. He mentions Art Renewal Center, which has a fantastic web site. Their contest winners are great.

      • juris imprudent

        Disagree Ed, and I base that on Lasch’s and Nisbet’s work dating back to the 70s. Equality does not have a limiter (as we would like to think). Equity is a predictable outcome of that.

    • juris imprudent

      Oh the expectations were never about the Houthis, it was about the bottom line at Lockheed (and friends).

      • Swiss Servator

        Believe it or not, we do care about them jacking the shipping lanes up – it ain’t all bombing orphanages, hospitals and weddings.

      • The Last American Hero

        Europe and China ship way more through that route. Let them drop the bombs.

      • Nephilium

        Last American Hero:

        My opinion on the Houthi bombing is that we should bomb the hell out of them shortly after any attack on a US flagged ship (and potentially any allied nations that ask us for help). Other than that, leave them alone.

      • UnCivilServant

        Europe has no bombs, they spent it all on healthcare for Jihadis, and Chinese bombs, being made in China, are often unfit for purpose.

      • juris imprudent

        a US flagged ship

        You’re gonna bankrupt the MIC with that kind of qualifier.

      • Nephilium

        juris imprudent:

        Foreseeable consequences are not unintentional.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Write a letter to the editor at AP and dont use their styleguide, then turn around and claim suppression of free-speech when they reject it.

      • Not Adahn

        Be sure to call a transwoman rapist “him.”

    • Nephilium

      Isn’t it nice when the adversarial press wakes up from their naps?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Crazy disc golf story you posted the other day, Carp!

      Good Valley Girl soundtrack, Banjos. If Marshall Crenshaw wasn’t on it, he should have been.

      • sloopyinca

        Good Valley Girl soundtrack, Banjos.

        ::kicks pebble::

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        ?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Sorry, Sloop. Like, totally.

        In my defense, I am really stressed and not myself.

      • CatchTheCarp

        I have a few more disc golf related stories involving the same person I will share at some point. This person managed to get hit by a train and later on was thrown in jail in for 30 days in Michigan. Not while playing disc golf, but after playing. This guy is a legendary for making poor decisions.

    • Grumbletarian

      Something has changed.

      It might be the direction my breakfast is going.

    • Fourscore

      Clicking on the pictures gives the number of ‘like’ votes. Nothing surprises me anymore

  21. Common Tater

    “Waters made the remarks Saturday in Los Angeles during a demonstration against the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its cost-cutting measures. She accused Trump and Musk of undermining the Constitution, saying, “We are here because we are not going to let Trump, we’re not going to let Elon Musk, his co-president, or anybody else take the United States Constitution down.””

    Maxine Waters, Constitutional Conservative

    https://thepostmillennial.com/maxine-waters-calls-to-investigate-melania-trump-for-deportation-says-we-dont-know-whether-or-not-her-parents-were-documented

  22. Common Tater

    “Reyes added, “Gender dysphoria is not like other medical conditions, something Defendants well know. It affects only one group of people: all persons with gender dysphoria are transgender and only transgender persons experience gender dysphoria.”

    https://thepostmillennial.com/federal-judge-again-denies-pentagons-military-trans-ban-after-ask-to-dissolve-order

    Wrong. There are also transgender people who didn’t have gender dysphoria.

    • ruodberht

      The conditionals in that quote are logically equivalent. They meant to invert one of them. Your counterexample is a counterexample to the one they forgot to put in.

    • The Last American Hero

      We’ve all had way too much experience with it for the last decade or so…

    • creech

      Well, I did make the front page of the WSJ once. It was way back in 1970, but I’m sure my influence is still felt!

  23. R C Dean

    Well, this is a puzzler. That PA state Senate race that flipped a seat? Turns out there were more junk mail ballots for the Dem than junk mail ballots requested by Democrat voters. Now, this isn’t impossible, of course, but it seems odd that a lot of Repubs would flip while the Repubs are riding high in approval ratings.

    https://x.com/realLizUSA/status/1905068425019293771

    I guess the questions are:

    How many junk mail ballots requested by Republican voters, and how many counted for the Repub? Same question with non-aligned voters. Line up those data points, and this might just go away, or it might look even worse.

    • R C Dean

      Finally got the image to open.

      Turns out there were a total of 11,487 ballots returned by Dem and Repub voters, but weirdly the total counted is 12,416.

      One more question: not sure what the data source is, but if this is accurate, nearly a thousand junk mail ballots were inserted into the counting process.

      • UnCivilServant

        Of course, it’d be silly to expect prosecutions for electoral fraud.

      • Grumbletarian

        173 mail in votes wen to the Libertarian candidate, but that still leave 756 mystery votes.

      • creech

        The Attorney General of Penna. is a Republican, Dave Sunday. Maybe, just maybe, the GOP will persuade him to look into ballot fraud?

      • juris imprudent

        Just a little reminder, Lancaster county is run by Republican officials, so it’s a little difficult to imagine them perpetrating a Democratic operation. Perhaps this is more indicative of general governmental incompetence than conspiracy.

      • UnCivilServant

        I am fine with prosecuting incompetence.

      • R C Dean

        “Just a little reminder, Lancaster county is run by Republican officials, so it’s a little difficult to imagine them perpetrating a Democratic operation.”

        So is Maricopa County. Which engaged in no end of pro-Dem shenanigans, because the Repubs in charge were (are?) anti-Trumpist eGOPers. The local flavor is McCainite.

        Regardless “Run by Repubs” doesn’t mean “won’t sink the “wrong” Repub candidate”. Hell, I sat in meetings in Texas years ago where the eGOPer bigwigs were pretty openly conspiring against Tea Party candidates and elected officials.

        And if 173 votes went to the “L”, doesn’t that make the gap between ballots received and ballots counted even bigger?

      • juris imprudent

        Incompetence isn’t a crime.

      • juris imprudent

        RC granted the Republican schizophrenia on Trump – this election had nothing to do with him, so it’s a little difficult to spin this in that direction.

      • UnCivilServant

        Incompetence isn’t a crime.

        Untrue, it depends on who gets hurt and how bad.

        For example, criminally ngligent homicide is a crime. Official incompetence should be treated as malice.

      • juris imprudent

        UCS you are talking civil liability, not crime, for injury due to incompetence. Gross negligence is a mitigating factor to what is otherwise a more serious crime (i.e. done with intent).

      • Grumbletarian

        And if 173 votes went to the “L”, doesn’t that make the gap between ballots received and ballots counted even bigger?

        Could it mean that 173 registered Rs or Ds requested mail in ballots and then voted L? The graphic only shows vote totals received by Rs and Ds. Maybe 756 people voted for Snow White or NOTA.

  24. Common Tater

    “Private Contact Info and Passwords of Trump’s Top Security Officials — Including Mike Waltz, Tulsi Gabbard, and Pete Hegseth — Reportedly Found Online via Hacked Data and Search Engines

    Now, with Der Spiegel admitting they used hacked data and people search engines to obtain personal contact info—including Signal-linked numbers—of officials like Mike Waltz, a new and disturbing possibility arises.

    If Waltz’s compromised number was linked to Signal—and used to access the chat group where national security discussions were taking place—it raises the terrifying scenario that a foreign adversary or Deep State actor could have inserted Jeffrey Goldberg’s number into the conversation.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/private-contact-info-passwords-trumps-top-security-officials/

    Wouldn’t the app have a log showing who added him?

    • R.J.

      I use Signal for some communications, it works better than texting especially when you have people out of country. Two things I can say about it:
      1. You can create a group, name the group, and clearly see how many members and specifically who is on your chat. That is a given.
      2. If you have somebody’s credentials, meaning name, password, and PIN, you can just log in as that person and gather their chats. I have Signal up on my phone and also my PC. Signal doesn’t tell me I have it up on two systems. with a flag or anything obvious. So conceivably, you could set up a PC and just listen in easily, But you would have to have all those credentials. Seems a stretch but if that is out there on the dark web you absolutely could do it. The spoofed person would only know there were other devices able to read their texts if they bothered to regularly go into their profile and check their “linked devices” to see where the chats were visible.

      • Common Tater

        “1. You can create a group, name the group, and clearly see how many members and specifically who is on your chat. That is a given.”

        Yet apparently a bunch of intelligence experts didn’t notice this Goldberg guy?

      • Nephilium

        Common Tater:

        You think Goldberg being in a ME chat group would stand out?

      • Common Tater

        From what I’ve read, it was a very small group.

    • Pat

      This makes a fairly good case for, you know, not holding security meetings via a fucking messenger app in the first place.

      • R.J.

        Absolutely. WTF were they thinking? No messenger app is truly secure.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Not if it had been programed to not show that info…

  25. Rat on a train

    It’s beginning to look a lot like spring break and dad can hardly wait for school to start again.

  26. Sensei

    An Egyptian tourist submarine might make me think twice about boarding.

    Who: At least six people are feared dead, with nine injured and 29 rescued, sources tell the BBC. All passengers on board are Russian, according to Moscow’s embassy in Egypt.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/live/clynd93449kt

      • Rat on a train

        Ukes?

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Do you think it will show you YOUR tomb?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        The Egyptian Boat of the Dead.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      If you can’t trust an Egyptian tourist submarine, what can you trust?

  27. Common Tater

    It looks just like last week, there is no movie post scheduled for tonight.

    • Rat on a train

      Snow White is in a cinema near you.

      • Common Tater

        Maybe RJ hasn’t written it yet?

      • Pat

        If he keeps missing deadlines like this, I think we should stop his salary.

      • ron73440

        If he keeps missing deadlines like this, I think we should stop his salary.

        I got my regular pay for last week even though I missed my submission.

        Shouldn’t R.J get the same courtesy?

      • UnCivilServant

        Ron, I expect that was done in error and your next will be docked to reflect the discrepancy.

      • cavalier973

        I recommend “Safety Last” with Harold Lloyd.

        https://youtu.be/ZRzX4uxHU4k?si=4HugFYhYJPFjjpFI

        You’ve likely seen the image of him hanging off the tower clock (there is a sort of cameo of this scene in the beginning of Back to the Future). Find out how and why he got there.

        Short synopsis: a country boy goes to New York City to make it big. He has a fiancé back home that he writes letters to, describing his fantastic career in business, while he really is only a clerk in a department store. When she shows up because of his letters, he has to figure out a way to “make it big” for real.

      • Swiss Servator

        Everyone gets the same Big Bucks that I get editing, writing and such!

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        “I got my regular pay for last week even though I missed my submission.”

        I think we found the FED.

      • ron73440

        “I got my regular pay for last week even though I missed my submission.”

        I think we found the FED.

        It’s a fair cop.

    • R.J.

      I didn’t even write it yet. I am very far behind, won;t be able to catch up until Sunday. I won’t even write it until afternoon.

      • R.J.

        It will be Beware! The Blob. I have a schedule to June, I will get somewhat of a break Sunday and should be able to crank out two in advance and get back in the groove. This home base move has been very disruptive.

      • Swiss Servator

        Take care of your own business, R.J. If you need time off, just let me know.

      • R.J.

        I just hammered out a draft, will submit by 2 CST. I will make it. R.J. does not miss deadlines unless he is dead.

      • R C Dean

        *stone-faced stare at subordinate*

        “It’s called a “dead”line for a reason.”

      • R.J.

        SIR! DRAFT SUBMITTED FOR POSTING, SIR!

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Marshall Crenshaw? One hit wonder? Pfffft.

    • kinnath

      What? They can’t call in Amy?

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        You jest…

    • rhywun

      I’m baffled by the whole thing. Chuck did something completely unremarkable and the junior high cheerleaders that run that party are going apeshit for reasons that escape me. Is it because he isn’t rEsIsTaNcInG hard enough?

      • UnCivilServant

        Is it because he isn’t rEsIsTaNcInG hard enough?

        Yes.

        These are not deep thinkers. They were put in place for dedication to the party and ideological purity.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Derailing the “science” gravy train

    Universities and the communities they support are reeling as Trump and Musk move to cancel funding for scientific projects focused on climate change, diversity or other topics they have derided as wasteful and “woke.” The administration is also trying to shut down scientific programs at EPA, NASA and other agencies that work to advance the nation’s understanding of climate change.

    While Washington currently spends around $142 billion more per year on research and development than Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party was already narrowing the gap before Trump’s moves began reverberating through the American scientific system.

    “U.S. leadership is clearly being compromised by the Trump administration on the false prophecy of saving money,” said Craig McLean, who served as research director at NOAA during Trump’s first term and sparred with the White House over the president’s erroneous hurricane claims. “This will cost the United States money and opportunity, and endanger people’s lives and property.”

    McLean and Linda Birnbaum, who led the North Carolina-based National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 2009 until 2019, both cited immediate risks the cuts to scientific agencies and programs are creating for farmers, fishers and coastal homeowners.

    False prophecy, indeed.

    • Rat on a train

      We can’t allow the Chinese to dominate DEI research.

      • Jarflax

        Chinese DEI research has concluded that Han Chinese are superior to all the other vaguely human shaped monkeys around the world and that women have an equal right to obey the commands of the Party hierarchy.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      Rum, Sodomy, and the Timeshare?

      • Not Adahn

        Enlistedfolx timeshare bunks in the navy, don’t they? (ISTR this from my Boy Scout days taking tours of warships).

      • Rat on a train

        The Navy does timeshare (hot bunk).

  30. DEG

    “We should be expanding health care to low-income people rather than trying to kick off these people who rely on us for health care,” Ringer said.

    Huh. Somehow I think Ringer isn’t using her own money to do so.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    McLean, the former NOAA research leader under Trump, rejected the notion that there is a significant amount of wasteful spending on U.S. scientific work, describing it as “asymptotically close to zero.”

    To the Trump administration and its allies, studies that are “different from their political view is waste, or fraud, or the abuse of federal dollars,” McLean said.

    Laserlike focus on scientific advancement of humanity. Trump wants to put us back in the Dark Ages.

  32. Suthenboy

    Just ducking in for a minute and tossing this in for fun – Heard 1000X “If it weren’t for cheating the Democrats couldn’t win an election for dogcatcher in roosterpoot”

    • juris imprudent

      Which pisses me off. There are Democrat voters and ignoring that REALITY is not a good look, on anyone.

      • UnCivilServant

        I still want to see a fraud-free election just once. For novelty’s sake.

      • juris imprudent

        Funny how no one sees fraud when the person they want to win does win.

      • Drake

        That would be interesting. Maybe surprising in some blue states.

      • UnCivilServant

        The person I want to win never does.

      • juris imprudent

        “None of the above” is not a person.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Schools in Democratic-controlled states have also been swept up in the widespread chaos caused by federal science funding cuts, which the administration’s critics warn could lead to a lost generation of scientists.

    ——-

    Democrats are outraged by the moves but mostly powerless to stop them.

    “The Trump-Musk administration is burning our future,” said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor. “We have invested in the education of tomorrow’s scientists for years, and to get to the point where the people who show the most promise for the breakthrough discoveries that will build our future get sidelined is beyond stupid. I just don’t have better words to describe this.”

    Universities have limited options to compensate for federal funding losses, said Matt Owens, president of the Council on Governmental Relations, an association of U.S. research institutes. “Unfortunately, all options to deal with federal research cuts are sub-optimal,” he said. “I hope policymakers will focus on building support for sustaining strong and growing research investments to out-compete China and other economic competitors.”

    McLean and Birnbaum — both of whom served for decades in Democratic and Republican administrations, including during Trump’s first term — lamented how the president and Musk are politicizing basic scientific research.

    Science good. Bad man no take science away. Make people sad.

    • Grumbletarian

      Universities have limited options to compensate for federal funding losses,

      Pay no attention to the multibillion dollar endowments behind the curtain!

  34. The Late P Brooks

    “I’ve never seen research as a partisan venture,” said Birnbaum. “The research isn’t being done to serve Republicans or Democrats. Science is done to advance knowledge and improve the well being of people and the planet.”

    Stop it. You’re killing me.

      • Rat on a train

        Only they can divine the truth.

      • juris imprudent

        They have Platonic credentials!

    • Rat on a train

      The research is done to push a cause. We encourage all parties to support it. If you don’t you are anti-science.

    • creech

      “If the planet is worth saving, it is worth saving at cost plus 20% for me, the DEI administrators, and the local pols who can brag about how much ‘they’ gave to the researchers.”

    • Pat

      Science is done to advance knowledge and improve the well being of people and the planet.

      Then surely the noble practitioners will carry on at their own expense, altruistically sacrificing personal comfort for the sake of their cause. Right?

  35. The Late P Brooks

    The ineffable value of higher education

    But the benefits to both individuals and society extend beyond the merely pecuniary. College fosters a transition to adulthood. By exposing students to new ideas and information, college challenges them to engage in deep self-reflection on their identities and inherited values and expand their sense of the world and its possibilities. Sharing this process with their peers fosters lifelong friendships, essential to a healthy and fulfilling life.

    In addition, university education and citizenship go hand in hand. College-educated Americans, especially those who take social science courses, are much more likely to vote. In addition, according to researchers at the American Enterprise Institute, Americans with college degrees “participate in associational life at high rates and have robust social and friendship networks.” They tend to attend church and other associations, volunteer and participate in community meetings and local events, and contribute three times more to charity—all integral to sustaining America’s unique civil society.

    All these benefits mean that with college, there is very little buyer’s remorse. About 75 percent of people who did not complete college wish they had more education rather than less. And very few people who took college courses or finished college wish they hadn’t.

    Ezekiel Emanuel swoops in to clue us in on the dire need for unquestioning support for our great institutions of higher learning.

    I just love this sort of insubstantial rhetorical froth.

    • EvilSheldon

      “College fosters a transition to adulthood. By exposing students to new ideas and information, college challenges them to engage in deep self-reflection on their identities and inherited values and expand their sense of the world and its possibilities. Sharing this process with their peers fosters lifelong friendships, essential to a healthy and fulfilling life.”

      OMGWHAHAHAHAHAHAHLOLOLOLOL!

      Oh wait, he’s actually serious? OMGWHAHAHAHAHAHAHLOLOLOLOL! *falls off chair*

    • Ted S.

      Work fosters a transition to adulthood even earlier.

    • juris imprudent

      America’s colleges and universities make America great. They drive innovation, prosperity, national security, and social mobility.

      Wrong right out of the gate.

    • Grumbletarian

      About 75 percent of people who did not complete college wish they had more education rather than less.

      What a worthless statistic. Who wishes to be less educated??

      About 99.9999 percent of people who earn under $20K per year wish they had more money rather than less.

      • UnCivilServant

        Who wishes to be less educated?

        “Ignorance is bliss” isn’t just a pithy saying.

      • Pat

        Anybody that wants it can have my diploma – it’s worth approximately as much as the paper it’s printed on.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Fixated on the nearly $100,000 per year of all-in college costs, the public perceives universities as unaffordable. In fact, the cost of higher education—even at the most elite universities—is more affordable than at any time in the last 35 years, and the benefits are greater.

    You can’t afford NOT to go!

    • Ted S.

      If it’s more affordable than any time in decades, why are so many idiots winding up horrendously in debt?

      • UnCivilServant

        Because they’re idiots.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    There’s much more. Our understanding of human decision-making radically changed with the insights derived from academic research into behavioral economics that started in the U.S. Historians have mined archives and advanced new understandings of the nation’s founding, the American presidency, slavery, the space program, the origins and consequences of the Cold War, and other seminal topics. And colleges and universities have catalyzed the arts, fostering the creation of transformative literature and other cultural contributions.

    We’re winning the war on objective reality. Don’t surrender now.

  38. J. Frank Parnell

    Dropped from the menu were the … White Chicken Chili

    Damn it, that was my usual order whenever I’ve been forced to eat there.

Submit a Comment