Monday Afternoon Links

by | Oct 3, 2022 | Daily Links | 281 comments

A movie for our time?

Been a lot of doom and gloom out there lately – I mean, just look at the Chicago Bears’ offense! Wait, don’t…I don’t want you all hurting yourself laughing or puking. But let us see if it is doom or

🤡

Let us begin:

  • Starting in Switzerland, a bit about money…hmmm. Seems a mix of ARGH! and *honk, honk*
  • Ah, some irony. More ARGH! and *honk, honk*.
  • How do you *honk, honk* in French?
  • War stuff. I think that automatically is ARGH!

So it looks like a tie – the world appears to be a 50/50 mix of bad and clownish.  This calls for upbeat music!

The comments are open and belong to you.

About The Author

Swiss Servator

Swiss Servator

Currently serving at the pleasure of a Swiss multinational. Previously a Soldier, rugby player, lawyer, bouncer, bartender, substitute teacher, risk manager, and cubicle mushroom. Will work for raclette.

281 Comments

  1. Shiny Nerfherder

    How do you *honk, honk* in French?

    You just need to add some tongue to it.

    • SDF-7

      Oie canadienne

      Détestez les oiseaux, les oiseaux qui détestent.

      (Google translate, so may be non-sensical. Thou Hast Been Warned).

      Second story in a row where Da Bears cause problems, apparently…

      • Tonio

        It’s what we do.

    • Timeloose

      Ask Jerry Lewis.

      • C. Anacreon

        Jerry Lewis singing his big French hit “You’ll Jamais Walk Alone”.

  2. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Never would have thought Russia would lose the military war and win the economic war. Will the 300K called up tilt the balance back again? Fuck if I know…

    • SDF-7

      If we don’t end up with a nuclear exchange, limited or not I’m frankly going to consider this gorram situation a win overall. It won’t be for lack of trying by the idiots-in-charge.

    • R C Dean

      The problem with the mobilization (initially 300K, but I read that the fine print is much larger) is that you have to train, equip, and integrate them. It’s unlikely they will show up and make a difference before next year’s campaign season. If then.

      • Drake

        The assumption they are back-filling for Russian regulars who will be sent to the Ukraine.

      • Atanarjuat

        That’s what Col MacGregor said on his last appearance on Judging Freedom. Also he said the Russians will continue to fight during the winter. Tanks will be fine once the ground freezes.

      • Drake

        Seems like there were very few Russian infantry units fighting on the ground during the summer. It was mostly the local militias with the Chechen militia being the fire brigade – backed up by artillery. Now that this referendum and annexation are complete (and the militias are pretty beat up) looks like we are going to see the Russian Army there in force. We’re going to keep pouring in money and gear so this thing is going to drag on for a while unless the Russians regulars really kick-ass in a hurry.

      • R C Dean

        I’d be interested to know the order of battle on the Russian side. I know they have some militia (notably the famously barbaric Chechens), but I’ve heard a number of references to what sounds like regular army formations.

        For militia, they sure seem to have a lot of heavy equipment. Well, had a lot of heavy equipment.

      • Lackadaisical

        From what I’ve heard these are all former military members, so training may be abbreviated. No idea on equipment.

  3. Shiny Nerfherder

    Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Putin leader of Russia’s Chechnya province who commands a personal army, demanded the commander of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine be stripped of his medals and sent to the front line.

    I like his style. Why can’t we do that with ours?

    • Atanarjuat

      Mark Milley is too fucking fat to actually patrol.

    • Ted S.

      He also called on Putin to use nukes, but pointing that out would put the lie to the idea that it’ll be America’s fault if Putin uses a nuke.

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        Personally, I’ll be blaming Mexico for not being successful in brokering a peace soon enough.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Manana, manana.

      • Drake

        Heard the Mexican UN delegate had to things to say about losing territory to annexation in the vote a few days ago.

  4. Yusef drives a Kia

    Its DOOM!!! All they way down, let’s watch it burn

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Fuck that, I’ll grab a garden hose and you grab that fire extinguisher over there.

  5. Cowboy

    Of course I just make a post in the other thread. I should have known better.

    Anyway, HEB hatch chili season has some tasty foods. Enjoy thrm before the food shortages really begin in earnest.

    • SDF-7

      You can’t trust the other thread. You can only trust yourself, Cowboy.

      • Cowboy

        Trust myself?

        I dunno that guy’s pretty shifty.

    • Timeloose

      I’ll be around an HEB and Central Market next week.

      It’s a chain, but I still love the Hatch Green Chili sauce at Chuys.

      • Cowboy

        Ah cool, I replied to you earlier. If you’re visiting Texas, there’s much better food than just a great grocery store, but stock up on the heb store made tortillas, anyway.

        First time visiting, or is coming here old hat?

      • Timeloose

        I visit nearly every normal year for about a week to visit friends and go to a music festival. I also used to live in TX for a few years. Just excited to be heading there again.

        I’ve got my favorite places in Austin and surrounding areas for Mexican, BBQ, and chicken Fried steak. Plus what ever new places my friends suggest.

      • Cowboy

        Nice, well welcome back and enjoy ACL.
        Not a lot in their lineup for me this year, although I wouldnt mind seeing Spoon, Sofi Tucker, and The Midnight. A lot of the bands do shows in Houston right before, since they’re in the area, but I didnt get the opportunity to see any of them.

      • Timeloose

        The lineup stinks this year. We go to meet and keep in touch with my good friends.

        I’ll see if there are some surprises in the bands I don’t know. I come away with a few gems each year.

      • Pat

        Although I should have suspected as much from the handle, I didn’t realize you were a Texan. If you don’t mind my asking, what general region of Texas? I’m leaning very strongly on moving on there within the next few months if possible.

      • Cowboy

        Nice try, fedboi!

        Jk I’m considered Houston area, but more rural and coastal. I’d much prefer the hill country, but it’s overpriced, and thats not where the industry is. Here is very hot, and humid, and full of mosquitos.

        On the plus side, Houston has plenty to do, a great food scene, the Astros, and a Microcenter.

      • Pat

        I’m looking mostly in the Tyler-Longview area, but also around Lubbock, Amarillo and Abilene. Coastal humidity would likely do me in after living half my life in the Mojave desert. I’m basically just waiting until a little further along in the probate process here to figure out if I’m going to be able to add anything to my total budget.

      • Cowboy

        Sorry for your loss. I really dont know much about the panhandle, other than it’s flat and there’s nothing there. I guess it gets cold in the winter and snows sometimes? Texas Tech is up there. That’s all I’ve got.

      • Pat

        Thank you. Sounds about right, from the research I’ve gathered. After the COVID bullshit I’m actually kind of wanting to avoid the larger cities, and I already live in the middle of nowhere, so I’m used to that.

      • R.J.

        Tyler/Longview is quite nice. Lots of good countryside around there. Also the scary weather tends to play out before it reaches that area. More affordable than hill country.
        Sadly, I would visit you. But I usually bring beverages of at least middling quality.

      • Pat

        Oh nice, I didn’t realize you were a Texan either. Any place I can afford will necessarily be a dump outside of city limits, but any glibs willing to brave it would certainly not be shot.

      • R.J.

        Look around Kilgore. Not directly in Tyler/Longview. Very nice affordable properties.

      • Pat

        I’ve actually got a few homes in Kilgore bookmarked. I have MLS searches set up pretty much all over the outskirts along county lines. Hopefully I’ll get lucky.

  6. Animal

    Swiss, I just dumped a ten-parter on whoever of TPTB is editing today. Wheee!

    • Swiss Servator

      Tonio covers weekend stuff, I do weekdays (and get help from Riven)…and I have already set and scheduled the first 4.

      Thanks!

      • Animal

        Je vous en prie!

    • Tonio

      You are a machine, Animal. Thanks.

  7. Shiny Nerfherder

    Clearly, the negative interest rate was indispensable for us during this period. If we had not introduced it, the interest rate differential with other countries would have been smaller, and the pressure on the Swiss franc would have become much stronger. We would have had to buy more foreign currency, inflation would have dropped significantly into negative territory, and the economy would have suffered much more.

    Ah yes, the horrible specter of deflation which we should never ever ever ever ever allow to happen, because it would turn gays straight, and fire and brimstone would fly out of toilets everywhere,

    • SDF-7

      It would certainly expose the Ponzi scheme of ever increasing government budgets — which is why they’ll fight so damned hard to keep us in Permanent Inflation mode.

    • Swiss Servator

      “It’s turning the gay frogs straight!”

      /Senoj Xela

  8. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

  9. DEG

    Loesch, who also rescued several dogs and cats, told the outlet he did not want to bring up his imminent discharge during the call with the commander-in-chief.

    “It just sucks that he thanked me yet the vaccine mandate is what’s kicking me out,” he told Breitbart. “I just love my job and I’m really good at it. It sucks. I feel like this is the job that I was born to do.”

    If it were me, I would not have been able to refrain from bringing it up.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      It was a perfect opportunity that he wasted. He’ll regret that one.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah, I definitely think it was the time to mention it.

    • Timeloose

      If he did bring it up, Brandon would have just told him that he was about to discharge too.

      • Tonio

        Phrasing?

    • Pope Jimbo

      This one is on Biden’s staff. How the fuck don’t you vet someone you are going to use in a photo op?

      They probably checked to make sure he never posted any racist crap in Jr. High but forgot to discover he was a dirty anti-vaxxer.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Those fuckups will probably have a photo op tomorrow where Biden laments the death of a different rescue worker. Only to discover that that rescue diver – while fully vaxxed and boosted – died of a mysterious heart attack while trying to save people.

      • Lackadaisical

        Hopefully desantis hires him as soon as he’s discharged and has a little press conference that we don’t fire heroes in Florida.

    • Atanarjuat

      Burning gasoline to drive to a forest to collect branches to burn seems a bit silly, but that’s the situation they’re in.

      The way different Western countries manage forests is interesting. I think she is a bit misinformed about “public” forests in the US. You can’t take a single acorn out of a government forest preserve (legally). Apparently in Austria, as well as the UK, you can walk through privately owned land to your heart’s content, but not here. In Scotland, not only can you walk wherever you please, you can actually camp on someone’s farm, as long as you don’t stay more than a few days.

      • DEG

        You can’t take a single acorn out of a government forest preserve (legally).

        That depends.

        PA State Forests allow logging. The state auctions off logging rights. You win the auction, you can log a section of the forest. You log without having won the auction, you’re in deep shit.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        My wife owns a small bit of forest in the old country. I’m hoping to see a bit of profit from the increase in demand for firewood, but I suspect the management company will end up finding jobs for their friends and relatives and suck up all the profit.

      • hayeksplosives

        The part about walking across some privately held land and camping overnight was true when I was in Sweden.

        I found the concept very odd, but I did enjoy pitching the tent and made damned sure I didn’t leave any trash behind.

        I had found a nice little spot where the grass was tamped down and pitched the tent. Woke up a few hours later to the sound of weird grunting and humpfing. It was a moose, and apparently the grass was tamped down because it was his favorite nap room. I was scared to death he was going to kick in the tent and run me over, but he humpfed and snorted and walked away.

      • Lackadaisical

        Sounds like you got lucky.

      • hayeksplosives

        No shit! He could have damaged me easily without even trying.

  10. Certified Public Asshat

    Women said coronavirus shots affect periods. New study shows they’re right.

    One major limitation of the study is the fact that it included only those who were not on birth control, had regular cycles before getting vaccinated and were between the ages of 18 and 45.

    The study also didn’t answer all of the questions raised by people about vaccines and periods, including how the shots affect trans men and nonbinary individuals.

    This is a very serious newspaper.

    Moar:

    Sammi Beechan, 32, of Hammond, Ore., said they used to have a “blessed, beautiful cycle” that came every 28 days “like clockwork” and resulted in mild cramps and only four days of light to medium bleeding.

    After a Johnson & Johnson shot in April 2021, nothing changed, but after getting a Moderna booster that October, Beechan noticed that their period started to come every 24 days with more than four days of heavier bleeding, more-painful cramps and extreme mood shifts. Doctors have ruled out endometriosis and other potential health conditions as the cause.

    Beechan said that getting vaccinated against covid is worth it but that they wish more information about period side effects had been provided ahead of the vaccine rollout.

    Come on ladies, how bad can periods be if you would let them be more painful in exchange for…well, apparently nothing.

    • Atanarjuat

      My ultra-lefty feminist Covid cultist cousin posted about that issue, after 2 years of mindlessly parroting the Fauci line. Her take? “At least someone finally listened to women long enough to take note of their health issues.”

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        OFFS

        I’d have a hard time not saying something rather impolite in response.

      • Atanarjuat

        Her sister is getting married. Over half of the family isn’t invited because we’re either unvaxxed or boosters aren’t up to date. Yep, there are people who still care about that shit and will cite CDC guidelines at you. (Although I think they might just be excluding us because they see us as deplorables.) I’ve given up being rude or trying to convince them of anything, they’re family after all, and am content to just let them exist in their echo chamber.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Just tell them you refuse to get vaccinated until you find out how the shots affect trans men and nonbinary individuals.

      • Count Potato

        “Over half of the family isn’t invited because we’re either unvaxxed or boosters aren’t up to date.”

        So ridiculous.

      • Pat

        I wonder if they’re also inquiring about the guests’ tetanus boosters and varicella vaccines. Can’t be too careful, you know.

      • SDF-7

        Now I’m going to picture you as Al Franken doing that, Swiss.

      • Zwak. who's suit is as ragged as his nerves.

        Has she never met an OB/GYN? There is a whole damn field of medicine just for her.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      including how the shots affect trans men and nonbinary individuals

      This reactionary wave is going to suck.

    • rhywun

      Fun with pronouns – guess the antecedent and win prizes!

      • Atanarjuat

        extreme mood shifts

        Yeah, considering this is a person who insists on unconventional pronouns, I am not convinced the mood swings are 100% caused by the clotshot.

    • Lackadaisical

      This happened to my wife. She took the clot shot because she was on immune suppressants. I don’t know what is up with those shots but I’m glad I never got it.

  11. JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

    “just look at the Chicago Bears’ offense!”

    It could be worse. It could be the Niners’ offense.

    • Nephilium

      Or the Browns defense.

  12. Pat

    How do you *honk, honk* in French?

    Hon hon hon

  13. Shpip

    Well, it’s not like those houses in southwest Florida are going to re-roof themselves:

    Scores of Venezuelan migrants in New York City are hopping on vans to head down to Florida for Hurricane Ian clean-up, they told The Post.

    The migrants had scant information about whom they would be working for, but they still piled into vans in Queens that they said were headed to the Sunshine State over the weekend.

    • Atanarjuat

      If they’re unskilled they’ll probably be ripping out insulation and drywall and carpets and picking up branches and waterlogged junk* rather than actually roofing. Hopefully some of the men will get on a crew and learn a valuable skill.

      *Books that have been soaked in water seem to be the perfect substrate for mold.

      • Count Potato

        I did roofing with very little training.

      • Tonio

        Yeah, It don’t take much talent to shovel the old stuff off the roof, or to carry the new stuff up. And it’s easy to learn the install part.

    • Pat

      OMG! They were human trafficked in unmarked vans!

      • Tonio

        It will be interesting to see if people demand investigations for fraud and misrepresentation as they have for the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard.

    • rhywun

      “They want us for hurricane cleanup, we’d get paid $15 an hour, overtime and $15 for food daily, I think,” said Javier Moreno, 37, noting that a woman named Camila “from an organization” approached him with a flier.

      Seems legit.

      Make sure to provide HR with a photocopy of your SS card and license, guys.

    • R C Dean

      I thought it was illegal for people for people to work while waiting on their asylum claim to be adjudicated.

      • slumbrew

        Pffft, you and your “legal”/”illegal” distinctions.

  14. Aloysious

    I vote clown world.

    We always need moar STEVE SMITH jokes.

    And ZARDOZ in a cowboy hat.

      • Count Potato

        I think Richard wrote three articles on how to resize pictures.

      • Tonio

        Those articles were about how to get the aspect ratios for featured images, correct which is a whole ‘nother thing than scaling embedded images in a comment or post. Richard is truly blessed for taking that on.

      • Count Potato

        Sometimes I can be too subtle.

      • SDF-7

        Now Swiss will have to blend that with Clint Eastwood and he’ll have his perfect utilitarian jpeg… Narrow Gaze, You Disappoint Me Mortals, Gift of the Gun — all in one.

      • Aloysious

        Larf.

  15. Nephilium

    Well, it looks like Cleveland Beer Week has recovered several of the beloved events that went away while they were dealing with restructuring (the previous person in charge of the event was arrested for embezzling from the org). Tickets have been purchased for the kickoff collaboration call, a four course pork themed beer dinner, and the big Night at the Brewseum event.

    Planning on going to one of the brunches, and potentially a tap takeover or two.

  16. Count Potato

    It’s mad angry clowns.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Still less frightening than sad hobo clowns

    • SDF-7

      Huh… so all those Killer Clown panics in 2016 were right… we just didn’t realize they weren’t in the forest… they were in the government. Explains a lot.

    • SDF-7

      What. A. Fucking. Idiot. (Assuming any of it is true).

      Have a child, don’t get married (moron).

      Cheat on her, surprised when she dumps you and leaves (extra moron)

      Try to woo her back — surprised when she’s turned the tables on you (Moron with Extra Special Moron Sauce).

      I know I’ve always leaned conservative so I’m biased and all — but will there ever come a day when people realize that there are 4000 years or so of social conventions in human society for a bloody reason? That maybe, their generation isn’t the first to think they can bed hop and treat each other like trash with zero consequences? That maybe, just maybe — getting to know a person and building a solid relationship before you hop into a physical relationship that could produce a child and will (at a minimum) produce some interesting brain chemistry might just be an idea worth considering?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBS_Ukbe2Vk

      • Pat

        Eh, history is replete with debauched societies as well. Nothing new under the sun and all that.

        Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

      • Lackadaisical

        I think that was his point, just that those societies sucked.

      • Gustave Lytton

        getting to know a person and building a solid relationship before you hop into a physical relationship that could produce a child

        I’d say that too is a modern Western invention.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Yup.

        The ageless constant seems to be “you fuck, you’re married”. Everything else is culturally relative.

      • juris imprudent

        Exactly – the real tradition was marriages were arranged for mutual benefit to the families, for politics and/or economics. You want new-fangled and probably not working all that well – try that romantic shit out.

  17. Pat

    The dangers of a woke NHS

    What makes someone a good nurse? Knowledge of biology and medicine, for sure. Practical skills like dressing wounds, measuring blood pressure and administering medication must be high up the list, too. How about more personal attributes and values? Composure, patience and sympathy are no doubt useful. But a belief that ‘whiteness’ is a problem? An understanding that society is systemically racist? I’m not convinced.

    Evidence of the crisis in the NHS is everywhere we look. People struggle to see a doctor, face lengthy waits for an ambulance and unbearable delays for routine operations. Yet rather than focusing on improving frontline patient care, an ever-expanding, highly paid managerial elite is wasting its time and money promoting woke values to Britain’s largest workforce.

  18. rhywun

    Someone is behind the scenes orchestrating this shit.

    No way it just happens to infect every country in “the West” at the same time.

    • rhywun

      Squirrel-brooksy. That was supposed to be a reply about the woke NHS.

      • Count Potato

        Identity politics is to divide the people to protect the powerful.

    • Zwak. who's suit is as ragged as his nerves.

      The greatest trick the Soviet Union Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he died didn’t exist.

      • Zwak. who's suit is as ragged as his nerves.

        Well, that didn’t work…

      • Count Potato

        What are the rates in Asia?

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        Twenty bucks. Same as downtown

      • Atanarjuat

        I LOLed.

      • Lackadaisical

        Thailand is getting expensive then.

      • Pat

        It just occurred to me you probably meant consumption rates, not diabetes rates. Either way, the same correlation exists.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Have you seen Indian menus? Fried starches and pulses with rice and naan. Mm, Indian food.

      • Shiny Nerfherder
      • C. Anacreon

        There’s a saying to keep from obesity and diabetes, avoid foods that are white (sugar, rice, pasta, bread, etc). Thank goodness the FDA is still pushing high carb, low fat diets as “healthy” despite all the contrary recent evidence.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Except cauliflower and green peas, obviously.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Because it was just a suggestion.

    • Lackadaisical

      I don’t buy the just as bad as candy line, I used to eat a pound of pasta a day, and it died me no harm as a young un… But yeah, they’re probably not great for you, especially if you sit around all day.

    • rhywun

      It’s OK when they do it.

    • C. Anacreon

      No matter what you might think about her, you can’t deny that Candace Owens is hot.

  19. Lackadaisical

    People were discussing organic chem being a gate keeping class. I think it is just legitimately difficult, also, some people deserve to be weeded out if they can’t hack it. Sorry, not sorry. Same with physics, statics, dynamics… If it’s too hard, find an easy major.

    • Pine_Tree

      It’s the filter vs. pump thing. Some classes (and some degree programs, like medicine or Engineering) are supposed to be filters, not pumps. Programs get screwed up when people try to reverse that. And/or when admissions lets in a bunch of unqualified folks who’ve been pushed through their whole lives by a series of pumps, and are now hitting the first filter they’ve ever seen.

      • robc

        It is part of my issue with USN&WR rankings. Schools that are primarily filters (or were, anyway, back in my day) like out alma mater, used to get screwed over by the ratings, for being (relatively) easy to get in, but hard to get out. That hurt both ways.

        GT has changed both, it is much more difficult to get accepted than 35 years ago, not sure I would get in today. But easier to graduate too. Still not as easy as the Ivies, but easy than in my day.

        The school filters were Chem I and Calc I. If you couldn’t hack them, you transferred. The engineering filters was the Physics series. Especially EMag. That drove a lot of people to Management.

      • hayeksplosives

        Ah, EMag. That’s when I came into my own and for the first time really knew I’d picked the right major for me. The professor used the top score of the exams to be the max so he could “set the curve” for the other students.

        He had to start throwing my score out and taking the 2nd best score to set the curve, due to popular demand (i.e., whining). This was in the 90s, so there weren’t really a lot of snowflakes back then.

        I started tutoring other students in electromagnetic field theory and kept going after I’d finished those courses so it would stay fresh in my head.

        I do kinda wish I’d held the humanities courses in less disdain. From my middle aged perspective, I see the value in having a “universal” education.

        I use that stuff to this day. No regrets.

        One a

      • UnCivilServant

        There should be no ‘pumps’ of any kind. If you aren’t meant for brainpower, there’s plenty of work you can be doing.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Certainly some people deserve to be weeded out. There really shouldn’t be a curve on exams. The mean course grade should be about a C. That weeds out a lot of people who can’t hack it.

      I was talking about courses where the mean class grade on exams was regularly in the 30-50s and then curved up 30 or 40 points so that 95% of the students don’t fail. That’s not a case of some people not hacking it. Those are poorly run courses by professors intentionally trying to fail students for their own egos (since the profs just curved up after the slaughter each exam).

      • robc

        I have no problem with a curve, as tests should be reasonably open ended, IMO.

        I think something like a 60 avg with a SD of 15 is perfect. Then you curve to whatever GPA you want. My dynamics prof curved so the avg score was the B/C borderline. That leads to a class GPA of 2.48. I thought that was reasonable.

        Filter classes can curve to the avg as mid-C, so you get a GPA of 2.0. But even the B/C borderline method is a good weed out if a D has to repeated.

      • robc

        Details: curve to avg of B/C borderline with a letter grade being one standard deviation is size. So A was +1 SD. B was 0-1. C was -1-0. D was -2-(-1). F was below -2 SDs.

      • kinnath

        I had a Calc professor that said he wrote the tests so that the average score would be 50%. Equal opportunity to succeed or fail.

        He also said he didn’t bother to learn any names until after the free dropout date because half the class would be gone by then.

        He was actually one of my better teachers.

      • robc

        I have no problem with 50 being average. If I had become a prof, I would have aimed for 60, not sure why, just feels better to me.

        The score doesn’t matter, it is how you scale the score than matters.

      • Tundra

        It was a rude awakening for my kids when they got to school to go from usually perfect to being thrilled with 60%.

        Engineering appears to still give a fuck about learning.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It’s a difficult thing to balance. Too easy, and you have a bunch of people clustering in the high 90s. Too hard and you have a bunch of people clustering in the 20s.

        What’s the purpose of grading? Is it to assess proficiency or is it to rank you in relation to your class? Curves are hot garbage if you are assessing proficiency.

      • robc

        Yeah, that is my thing, you want a nice wide range of scores. I would want the best student in the class struggling to get near 100%. And the worst students hanging out around 20-30%. And a nice spread in between.

      • UnCivilServant

        Proficiency. If you objectively don’t know the material but are in a class of similarly ignorant students, you shouldn’t advance any more than if you were amidst people who did absorb it.

      • R C Dean

        This here. Are you trying to see if people have a handle on the material, or are you trying to rank order your students? Since I thought the point of teaching a class on a given subject was to impart knowledge about that subject, I would have thought the former.

      • Gender Traitor

        The only time I recall being aware that a higher ed course was intended to be graded on a curve was when I took a few grad-level business courses at the local state university. The Microecon prof confided to me that I had messed up his curve by scoring too high, so I may want to refrain from mentioning to my classmates how I’d done grade-wise.

        Curves strike me as antithetical to education. Set your standards. Set your grading scale accordingly. Teach your ass off, offering as much assistance to struggling students as you can manage. Then test them and don’t screw around with your grading scale just because some students can’t hack it.

      • Lackadaisical

        Okay, I’m just not sure what that has to do with the topic though. As you say almost everyone passes, so they don’t we’d anyone out, and probably wouldn’t do a good job if they did. I hated those courses as well, and the curving is silly.

        (my grade once went down because everyone did well on a final that I didn’t bother studying for because I had the best grades in the class, well between grading in a curve and replacing every score in the class with the final grade I got screwed…)

    • Pope Jimbo

      Every fall the halls of the engineering building would be full of cute freshmen women who want to be an engineer. A couple weeks later, as the Drop date approaches all of them would disappear. Sexism? Misogyny? Nope, they just figured out (like a lot of freshmen guys) that engineering was really hard. They’d also see that their room mate who was majoring in English or something was getting pretty good grades despite never studying and partying every night.

      Since I was already married, I could take the laid back view of an observer and laugh at the antics. The young ladies were like salmon trying to swim up stream against the current and all the upperclassmen were the bears who were doing their very best to gorge themselves during this short time of plenty.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      If it were just limited to shame, it wouldn’t be so bad.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      And why is “senile” in quotes?

      It doesn’t need any qualifiers.

      • grrizzly

        Probably because it’s a quote from Haaretz.

      • hayeksplosives

        Wouldn’t it be (((these))) instead?

  20. db

    Ukraine link:

    Access Denied
    Our apologies, the content you requested cannot be accessed.

  21. Lackadaisical

    ‘The judiciary accused Dupond-Moretti of a witch-hunt.’

    ‘That’s our job’, they added.

  22. grrizzly

    Bank error in your favor. Collect $30.

    A bank sent me a check for $30–international ATM access fee rebates. For something that happened about 4 years ago. The bank has only figured it out now. I’m pretty sure I got all the fee rebates back then; I don’t forget this stuff.

    • Pat

      IIRC there was a pretty big class action lawsuit a little while back regarding ATM fees through Chase, Wells Fargo, and another financial institution. I ended up getting a check from it as well. You may have been an automatic class member.

      • hayeksplosives

        One nice thing about living in a gambling-heavy state is that you can take out $500 or more from the ATMs with the same flat fee ($2.25 at my fave) as youd pay for a $100 withdraw plus $5 fee at an airport.

      • creech

        Margera’s parents sold their house to a flipper a couple of months ago. I walk by the house almost everyday and they are making good progress now. Word is the flipper paid $300 K for the small ranch house and has completely gutted it.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Out with a bang, indeed.

    • Gender Traitor

      Libertarian Wild Rover?

      Oh, I’ve been a wild rover since long, long ago
      And I spent all my money on hookers and blow…

  23. Atanarjuat

    Researchers Use GMO Mosquitoes to Vaccinate Humans in NIH-Funded Malaria Study
    The National Institutes of Health funded a malaria vaccine trial study that used genetically modified mosquitoes to “vaccinate” humans. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has close ties to the research.

    This kinda seems like a way to avoid the “problem” of people who choose not to get vaccinated.

    • slumbrew

      Do you want Reavers?! Because this is how you get Reavers!

    • Pat

      There were nutsos actually advocating precisely this type of measure for precisely that reason during the height of COVID hysteria.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      You want to get shot? Because I can see people shooting others over that.

    • The Last American Hero

      My body my choice.

      Plus what are the effects for a fully faxed person who gets chewed up by mosquitoes? Just keep pumping them full of this shit.

      • UnCivilServant

        They are removed from the excess population as per the intent.

      • juris imprudent

        a fully faxed person

        The original or the facsimile?

    • Lackadaisical

      That’s horrible.

      ‘Of the 14 trial participants exposed to malaria, seven contracted the disease. For the remaining seven, the protection conferred by the “vaccine” did not last more than a few months and eventually dissipated’

      Success! / COVID vaccine developers world wide

      • UnCivilServant

        Doesn’t HCQ and Ivermectin already deal with Malaria cheaply and effectively?

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        “Cheaply and effectively”

        Therein lies the problem.

    • Swiss Servator

      Maybe they just don’t want chunks of their country handed to someone who invaded them? We’ll leave out the rewarding killing, stealing, torture, rape, etc.

      • Tres Cool

        Or for them, just another day that ends in a Y.
        Other than the brief time with a consolidated USSR, has there been a time when they werent invading each other?

      • Atanarjuat

        Musk’s proposal would only hand Russia territory that voted to be part of RF, with the exception of Crimea.

      • Pat

        Fine enough, but they ought to be prepared to pay their own way if they are going to reject anything short of unconditional surrender by Russia. That’s the disadvantage of war-by-committee. Don’t sell the equity if you don’t want to give up control commensurately.

      • Swiss Servator

        I sure as shit don’t want to pay for this…I have been quite clear on this. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

        But I can see that Putin wants the Empire back, and if costs a whole shitload of people their lives, their property or their liberty – tough shit for them. Georgia, Ukraine, or anyone else in Russkiy Mir, you are the property of Moscow.

      • grrizzly

        If Canada had announced in 1985 that it was going to join the Warsaw Pact and already had military advisers from Czechoslovakia, East Germany and the USSR all over the country training the Canadians, the US tanks would have started rolling in the direction of Toronto and Calgary in no time. The Americans would have been talking about liberating Canada from the menace of Communism instead of invading a sovereign country.

      • Atanarjuat

        liberating Canada from the menace of Communism

        Still may need doing someday.

      • UnCivilServant

        Today.

        Sadly, there is no one who can get past us to save them.

      • Drake

        We are the country that told the old powers they weren’t allowed to mess anywhere in our hemisphere.

      • Drake

        “To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
        — Henry Kissinger

        That has been life in the Donbas since our State Department pulled a color revolution in 2014. What Blinken did last year with the NATO talk made this war inevitable. Russian and Chinese bases in northern Mexico would elicit the same response from us.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Maybe they just don’t want chunks of their country handed to someone who invaded them? We’ll leave out the rewarding killing, stealing, torture, rape, etc.

        Add back in the killing, rape, and torture of civilians with a touch of actual Nazi idolation and it sounds like your talking about Mariupol under the Azov.

      • R C Dean

        I get it. The Ukrainians are assholes. But unless you are willing to sign onto “responsibility to protect” as the casus belli for war, it makes no difference. Russia invaded a neighboring country. It doesn’t matter that the assholes who run the US would have done the same thing to Canada if blah blah. Invading a neighboring country is a massive human rights violation, about the biggest there is short of the kind of genocide the Russians, Turks, Germans, and Chinese have committed at various times.

        The Russian invasion is unjustified, and every discussion of the war in Ukraine should start from there.

      • Ted S.

        But Klaus Schwab!

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        The Russian American invasion is unjustified, and every discussion of the war in Ukraine giving Native Americans their land backshould start from there.

        Countries/nations/states change hands and borders continuously. Russia and Ukraine have been at war since at least 2014. No one in America, including myself, really began paying attention until February 2022 because that’s when the media wanted us to start noticing. Ukraine may appear sovereign on paper, but it’s essentially a vassal state to the US that’s been using to fight a proxy war against Russia. This entire conflict has been orchestrated (i.e., funded) by the US and Western Europe.

        Bro made a very good point the other day about how modern sensibilities require war to framed as a crusade of good versus evil. But that’s all utter bullshit to justify that wars that are strictly about nations’ interests. Ukraine vs. Russia is not a war of good versus evil or the plucky underdog fighting off the unjustified aggressor. It’s about the US and NATO seeing an advantage in sending American treasure to spill Ukrainian conscript blood in a bid to weaken Russia. And in Russia seeing their nation’s interest to end or at least prevent further expansion of NATO’s presence in Ukraine.

      • R C Dean

        I think you are seriously underestimating the expansionist/nationalist element in Russia.

        Russia, let’s not forget, agreed to Ukraine’s borders after the USSR breakup. Russia then seized and annexed Crimea, and is seizing and annexing the Donbas. Again, anyone who cites Ukrainian treatment of ethnic Russians in the Donbas needs to address the fact that they have signed onto “responsibility to protect” forever war.

        And if this is just cold calculation of national interest, what difference does Ukrainian treatment of anybody make? From where I sit, Russia saw land it wanted to take and people it wanted to rule, and sent in the army to make it so. Russia’s attempted annexation of the Donbas, and annexation of Crimea, puts the lie to any other purported motive, in my opinion.

        I think this is a solid conclusion regardless of the relentless propaganda of both sides. And looking at it this way does not drive the conclusion the US should be involved in any way.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’m not saying that Russia is the victim. But I’m also not willing to label them the primary aggressor. I don’t have to like or root for anyone in this conflict. The stuff Swiss said about Russians killing, raping, etc is just a bit hypocritical when the Ukrainians are doing that to their own people.

        And if this is just cold calculation of national interest, what difference does Ukrainian treatment of anybody make? From where I sit, Russia saw land it wanted to take and people it wanted to rule, and sent in the army to make it so.

        Russia could use the hatred of the civilians living in the Donbas against Ukraine to aid Russia’s expansion into Ukraine. My point about Native Americans was intentional. Constant fighting of tribe against tribe until we conquered. The destruction of the Apache and Aztecs were aided in part by many of the tribes they had brutalized. It’s not difficult to see the same thing happening in Ukraine with the people they’ve been brutalizing in the Donbas. I don’t think we’d consider the colonial era Americans and Spaniards motives justified in destroying the Aztecs and Apaches. I also don’t think we’d shed any tears over it either. That’s how I see Ukraine. Except for our involvement in funding the slaughter.

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        But we are involved, and we have been for a very long time. You cannot remove that fact and judge the situation independently of it.

    • Shiny Nerfherder

      Everybody seems to forget that the Donbas region broke off years ago after Kiev started outlawing the Russian language and taking other oppressive steps.

      After two Minsk agreements that Kiev ignored with our complicit silence, or possibly urging, and eight years of shelling along with talk of final solutions for ethnic Russians, the situation was already a crime against humanity.

      From the West’s point of view, it was designed to be a Catch-22 for Russia. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Or should they have sat and watched Kiev line up the Ukrainian army to massacre civilians? Because that was what was going to happen.

      And we stand by like holier than thou Bible thumping assholes while feeding the evolving disaster for our own purposes. There’s no talk of a peaceful settlement here coming from the progressive West, it’s just blood thirst and meaningless talk of ideals and international laws that we ignore anytime it suits us.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Or should they have sat and watched Kiev line up the Ukrainian army to massacre civilians? Because that was what was going to happen.

        It sounds like it had already had started. I read Kiev increased shelling on villages in the Donbas from 20 shells/day to 2,000 shells/day in the week preceding Russia moving in.

      • Shiny Nerfherder

        The reason the Biden administration was running around telling everyone Russia was going to invade in January was precisely because that was the situation the Biden administration had intended to force. It’s an open secret in DC.

        Worth a read.

        https://www.algora.com/Algora_blog/2022/04/29/michael-brenner-american-dissent-on-ukraine-is-dying-in-darkness

        “ And then they crystalized that this was going to happen soon, and the final blow came when the Ukrainians began massive artillery barrages on cities in the Donbass. Now, there had always been exchanges over the past eight years. On February 18, there was a 30-fold increase in the number of artillery shells, five from the Ukrainians into the Donbass, to which the Donbass militias did not retaliate in kind. It peaked on the 21st and continued to the 24th. And this apparently was the last confirmation that the assault would be coming soon, and forced Putin’s hand to preempt by activating plans which no doubt they’d had for some time to invade. I think that has become clear.”

    • Atanarjuat

      I’m gonna say it: teachers shouldn’t have hand and finger tattoos.

      Also, this dude should not be alone with children.

      • Atanarjuat

        *Because of the F*** you parents, I love you stuff. That screams groomer.

    • Pat

      An anarchist who works for the government and wants to “burn down the system” by appointed god-king for life…

      • R.J.

        Who is in Tulsa, in one of the most Republican states in the union.
        By the way, Oklahoma has some dandy properties too. Don’t rule out rural Oklahoma.

      • Pat

        Haha, I’ve actually got searches set up around OKC and Tulsa as well. Kind of prefer Texas for various reasons, but Oklahoma has been on my radar for a few years. Ohio’s an outside possibility as well. I know we have several glibs there, so I figure once they meet me it’ll drive them out of the state and I can scoop up their abandoned properties for a song.

      • juris imprudent

        If you like sinus headaches you’ll love eastern OK.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Huh, why is that?

        I had heard about the Okla. Terr. v. Indian Terr. Scotus decision, whatever that entails in the 21C.

      • juris imprudent

        Only place I ever had one, and I was told that as soon as I was on the plane home it would clear up – and it did. Sinus Alley they called it.

      • C. Anacreon

        I did a consulting gig in Tulsa a couple months back and was impressed. Cool art deco architecture and some great restaurants.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Filming site of UHF and The Outsiders.

      • hayeksplosives

        Texas has no income tax. Oklahoma does have income tax. So be sure to compare those states’ property and sales taxes as you make your decision.

        Edmond Ok is pretty nice. They rank high on Beat places to live, Most Educated population, blah blah. My sister lives there. Lots of medicine and tech jobs.

      • Zwak. who's suit is as ragged as his nerves.

        Yeah, I have an ex who always called herself and anarchist, but, somehow, was for gov’t health care.

  24. Atanarjuat

    What do you guys think of the Walther PDP? I have never carried concealed but am thinking about getting the license and a pistol soon.

    • Tundra

      Pedro really likes his.

      DOOM isn’t around, but I think that’s his flavor as well.

    • EvilSheldon

      Sample of one and all, but a friend of mine had endless problems with his. He finally returned it and went back to his old M&P.

      • Tundra

        Lol. I always think about getting something cooler than my M&P. Except in almost 8 years I haven’t had a single issue, even with garbage ammo.

        I guess loose tolerances are good for something, huh?

      • EvilSheldon

        M&Ps are majorly underrated guns.

      • kinnath

        M&Ps were on our short list when we bought our first guns.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Wish I had a p99c. My wife’s p99 is awesome.

    • hayeksplosives

      I have a little Ruger .22 pistol as my “kitchen gun”. It’s a fun little guy.

      (Fans of “Psych” will recall the importance of having a Kitchen Gun from the episode entitled “Lassie Did a Bad, Bad Thing”.)

  25. Fourscore

    Waiting for the next inflation shoe to drop. If inflation is still a problem then holding the rates steady will only prolong the pain. Today’s market activity are not an indication that all is well. Biden was busy today promising more cash to PR, in another day, Wednesday he’ll be dropping pallets of Benjamins from his helicopter in FL, with Harris’s promise of extra to the underserved neighborhoods.

    It cannot go on.

    • Tundra

      It won’t. I’m a little concerned about the landing, tghough. I took a beating in 2008 and I’m starting to think that might have been a butterfly kiss compared to what’s coming.

  26. Pat

    Supreme Court declines to hear bump stock cases

    Oct. 3 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear arguments over a ban on bump stocks that initially went into effect under former President Donald Trump.

    The court decided not to hear two cases attempting to lift the ban on the alterations to semi-automatic weapons.

    The Trump administration enacted a ban on bump stocks following the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas country show that left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured. At the time, all gun owners were required to destroy the devices or turn them over to authorities.

    A U.S appeals court ruling in December, left the bump stock ban intact. The 8-8 tie, which came in Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit, upheld the ruling of a lower court judge from 2019.

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives initially approved following the Las Vegas shooting.

    The cases the Supreme Court declined to hear deal with whether or not the Trump administration exceeded its authority under an existing law.

    SCOTUS still sucks.

    • DEG

      Urgh.

    • UnCivilServant

      They should have heard it, and Invalidated the NFA, saying machine guns are protected, so it doesn’t matter what bump stocks count as.

  27. creech

    I’m off in a couple of minutes to testify at a local government meeting regarding private land containing an historic black cemetery. The owner forbids anyone from entering the cemetery (which he purchased from a “squatter” in 1977 after it had been long abandoned), nor will he donate it (but will sell it for some outrageous amount.) There are the graves of 10 soldiers from U.S. Colored Troops buried there, and about a hundred other black folks from the 1820-1920s. There are state laws that require owner to maintain the cemetery and allow access, especially to veterans’ graves. On the other hand, it is private land and no one has squawked about lack of access for nearly 50 years. Should a libertarian turn to government action, in a case like this, or defer to the wishes of the private owner?

    • robc

      As I don’t believe in any natural law property rights to land, but it is a useful fiction, I side with allowing the state to put minimal reasonable restrictions, such as allowing access to cemeteries.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Access just sounds like a deeded easement. Not really controversial or unusual. There is a property near mine that has a private cemetery on it. The family has no connection to the property anymore but comes by every few months to maintain the cemetery. The value of the property is adjusted accordingly to account for a perpetual cemetery and deeded access.

      Now requiring the property owner to maintain the cemetery doesn’t fly. That’s requiring labor without payment. The original cemetery owners should have set up a trust to handle maintenance in perpetuity. Let volunteers or charity handle maintenance now. They should have no trouble raising the money to set up a maintenance trust for something like that.

    • Pat

      Strictly speaking, I wouldn’t see that as a NAP violation. The minarchist libertarian solution would probably be to either meet his exorbitant asking price and buy the property, or shut up and leave him alone. The anarchist libertarian solution might be to cut off his access to the private roads, pile up several tons of chickenshit on an adjacent property, and kindly let him know that if he so much as accidentally drops a gum wrapper on anyone else’s private property he will be shot, then buy the property after his asking price becomes more reasonable. But since this is real life and not a navel gazing libertarian thought experiment, follow your gut.

    • UnCivilServant

      Bury the private owner in a plot next to the other graves.

      If he managed to complain about your tresspass from inside the box, you made a mistake in the process.

    • Tres Cool

      So whats the end game? Do you want public access to honor the dead? Or is a new bypass going through? As a dick, Id immediately have him produce any documentation that he owns the land. To that end, the squatter before him.

      Supply/Demand….if it’s not of consequence to the families of the interred, dont pay him a cent.

      • UnCivilServant

        I think Creech wants to put up an industrial park on the cemetary.

      • Tres Cool

        Kelo should be able to help him out. Even when the park is empty 2 years after construction (gov’t subsidized as I recall) is completed.

    • The Hyperbole

      Is he living on the land or using it in some way, I may question the legitimacy of his ‘ownership’. Buying long abandoned land from a squatter might be legit but I’d need more info to determine if it is so in this case.

      • Gender Traitor

        When the Rev. GT and I bought a house in Indiana, I recall getting a hard copy of the title search, which went back to the 19th century and included retyped documents that had the names of long-ago owners followed by “X”s labeled “His Mark” and “Her Mark.” A thorough title search might be in order to determine the chain of ownership as far back as records can be found.

      • UnCivilServant

        Words are such an ingrained part of who I am and how I think that I can’t even remember what it was like before I learned to read. The idea of navigating life illiterate is alien to me.

      • Gender Traitor

        Yup. I don’t really remember not knowing how to read – just faint recollections that I was highly motivated to do so, as Mom would read to my next-older sister and me from Winnie the Pooh or The House at Pooh Corner and let us each read one character’s dialogue lines, so by golly I was going to do that!

        (I was also reportedly the kind of kid who, at the grocery, points to every product on the shelf and ask, “What does that say?” I was probably lucky to be allowed to survive to adulthood.)

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I presume your beleaguered parents realized you’d be amusing yourself soon enough.

      • Pat

        Same. My mom, god bless her, read to me constantly when I was young. Even before I could read words, I could recite the words on every page of my kiddie books because I memorized which ones went with which pictures. She had me reading long before I started school.

      • Fourscore

        Most significant thing I’ve ever done in my life…

      • Sensei

        Learn a language without roman characters as an adult.

        It was and remains a huge hinderance to fluency.

        When written with proper kanji my guess is I can read only 30 to 40 percent of words I can use in conversation.

      • The Hyperbole

        That may be the legal way under are current system, but I was thinking from a more libertarian/anarchist angle, Once abandoned (and we can argue what constitutes ‘abandoned’) the chain of ownership is immaterial.

      • The Hyperbole

        I should clarify, the chain of ownership prior to the abandonment no longer matters.

    • Tres Cool

      Oh, I just RTFA.
      If there are documented dead soldiers interred there, get the VA and the Federal Gov’t involved. Again, documentation is key, but get on the right side of some cranky bureaucrat and they’ll blow through $300M erecting a reflecting pool, unfettered entrance, and a butterfly grotto.
      Hell, contact Biden.

    • Zwak. who's suit is as ragged as his nerves.

      I would ask to see the deed of sale from the squatter, and if he can produce something, I would disintern the graves. No deed shows up, he needs to given a stern talking too about how the letter of the law doesn’t care what he thinks; i.e. tough shit, Bro, you weren’t there first.

      Libertarianism doesn’t mean lawlessness.

  28. R.J.

    OT: It’s only October 3rd. If I have to watch The ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ again I am going to shiv a kid.

    • R.J.

      There! I said it! That movie is like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for DVD players.

      • Zwak. who's suit is as ragged as his nerves.

        But only if you play it on a two deck player.

    • UnCivilServant

      Any particular kid, or just whichever one is in shivvin range?

      • R.J.

        I think I’ll just black out and start stabbing.

    • Pat

      I’ve never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas, although I was pissed when I visited Disneyland once and they had the Haunted Mansion done up in that theme.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        If you like Tim Burton and Danny Elfman / Boingo, then do.

      • R.J.

        It is not a horrible movie. It’s a classic for a reason. And it deserves to be a classic. But after having to watch it 1,000 times…
        It becomes ‘Stairway to Heaven.’

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Listen now! You don’t understand… 🎵

        /ducks

      • juris imprudent

        Stairway to Heaven antidote.

      • Ted S.

        That always makes me think of this video.

      • hayeksplosives

        Play Free Bird!!

    • Cowboy

      That was, and still is, my favorite halloween film. For personal reasons, but also because I really like classic Tim Burton, and musicals. Back when ai worked in the video store I had it on constant repeat the entire month.

  29. DEG

    Oktoberfest 2022 final report

    Oktoberfest 2022 is coming to an end – and despite the rather mixed weather, those responsible, festival hosts and showmen are satisfied with the 187th Oktoberfest. Here is the preliminary final report with all the facts and figures:
    The 187th Oktoberfest attracted a relaxed, good-humored and young crowd, despite the almost continuously wet and cold weather. Nevertheless, the mood on the festival grounds was good. The guests mainly headed for the indoor establishments, first and foremost the gastronomic ones. As soon as the weather improved just a little, the streets and the carnival stores immediately became much busier.

    • R.J.

      I was thinking of Octoberfest when I added a cartoon to this week’s post about beer consumption post-prohibition.

    • Cowboy

      Any rumblings you hear about this upcoming fortified election are just the works of russian propaganda. Obviously.

      • Cowboy

        They shouldn’t be a reply to you. Thanks, mobile view.

    • UnCivilServant

      And a short life it is.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Right up there with tentacle porn and seppuku, no doubt.

  30. Shiny Nerfherder

    Hey look, an autopsy of a post-vaccination death. How’d that happen?

    https://open.substack.com/pub/nakedemperor/p/spike-protein-from-vaccination-found

    “ SARS-CoV-2 antigens were looked for in both the brain and the heart. In the brain, they detected the Covid spike protein in many areas and in the cells of vessel walls. They also detected the spike protein in the heart, specifically cardiac endothelial cells that showed lymphocytic myocarditis.
    Lesions in the brain causing the necrotizing encephalitis, as well as the small blood vessel inflammation (in both the brain and heart) were associated with abundant deposits of the spike protein. In fact, spike protein could only be demonstrated in the areas with acute inflammatory reactions (brain, heart and small blood vessels). This strongly suggests that the spike protein may have played at least a contributing role to the development of the lesions and the course of the disease itself.
    Perhaps this was caused by a Covid infection? The authors of this case study think not. The reason being that they could not detect the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein anywhere.”

    • hayeksplosives

      I am never submitting to a shot again. I simply have zero trust that that won’t have smuggled in some mRNA poison.