Monday Afternoon Links

by | Dec 19, 2022 | Daily Links | 179 comments

Uh…Fröhliche Weihnachten?

 

One more set of links from me before Christmas. Next year, I will be handing off to another one of TPTB. I am going to stick with editing and occasional pieces, which is where we need more effort. So here is one of my last regular Monday efforts.

  • I know people don’t like HOAs or Condo boards, but come on! Also, I thought gun control prevented this in the Great White North?
  • Regulation has NO negative consequences, ever!!!!
  • We have investigated our decision and have cleared it!
  • Edmond Fitzgeraldesque.

Christmas music. Warning, may induce seizures.

The comments are yours.

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.

179 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Advent?

  2. Count Potato

    “Next year, I will be handing off to another one of TPTB. ”

    HM?

    • The Other Kevin

      Wait I thought that stood for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

      • SDF-7

        Teenage Pubescent Turtle Bastiches? Lesser known Lobo crossover….

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Testy Pun Thread Breakers

  3. Lord Humungus

    >>Regulation has NO negative consequences, ever!!!!

    It’s in everyone’s best interest for us to suffer. 🙁

      • Lord Humungus

        One of my favorite movies!

    • Chafed

      Brexit is looking smarter and smarter.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        If they can keep it

  4. Lord Humungus

    >>Responders were searching waters in the Gulf of Thailand Tonkin

    • The Other Kevin

      The Gulf, it’s said
      Never gives up her dead
      When the gales of November come early

  5. SDF-7

    Huh… I guess we know where Dr. Seuss came up with the town of Whoville?

    • DEG

      His parents were descendants of German immigrants to America. His mother’s family was from Bavaria. I’m not sure where his father’s family is from. Bavaria is culturally different from Switzerland, but close enough geographically that it’s possible his mother’s parents might have stories about celebrations like that.

      • Swiss Servator

        Switzerland and Swabia are mutually unintelligible.

      • DEG

        Swabisch is Allemanic like the Swiss dialect.

        Austro-Bavarian is a different family of German.

        I know they’re not mutually intelligible, but the places are geographically next door to each other. I can see some folk traditions or stories of them crossing the border.

      • DEG

        “they’re not mutually intelligible” – Austro-Bavarian dialects and the Allemanic dialects.

      • DEG

        And I can’t even spell Alemannic right.

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        Neither are Lederdeutsch, with is the bastard version my father spoke. Talk about unpronouncable.

  6. Rat on a train

    Clearly the EU needs to nationalize medical device manufacturers.

    • Lord Humungus

      Step Two, Comrade! Right after we get our soccer football bribes.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Au contraire. The smaller companies just need to be bought up so the few large firms can have a nice symbiotic and profitable relationship with the government. I wonder if that kind of system has a name.

    • Fourscore

      Money in black market medical devices. Chinese/Mexican cartels gonna get busy

  7. Lord Humungus

    The stories I hear about neighborhood associations… makes me never want to join one.

    My own neighborhood – in 1961 – had an association of sorts; for the shared pool. The first residents here could be part of the pool… or not.

    60+ years later and the second/third/fourth owners of those original homes (that declined to be a member)… still can’t be voting members on the pool board and have to pay full price to get access.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      HOAs have a few very particular benefits. If you obsess over property value and love that uniform cookie cutter look, the HOA will gladly enforce the restrictions required to maintain that feel and prevent your 30 year old neighborhood from acquiring “character”.

      Beyond that, they’re nothing more than overpriced country clubs with ridiculously invasive stipulations that more often act to assuage the OCD or petty biases of “that neighbor” than to actually maintain a particular ambiance.

      • Fourscore

        HOA with 1 member

      • Rat on a train

        Fortunately my HOA hasn’t been intrusive and dues are only $67 per month. It would cost $35 per month just for curbside trash pickup.

      • hayeksplosives

        My HO’s primary benefit is to keep streetlights and other bright overhead lights banned so that we can keep our awesome night skies.

        Also prohibits houses over one story for much the same reason: retains our views of the mountains.

        In my experience, a fairly cheap HOA ($300/yr) isn’t big and powerful enough to really mess with people unreasonably.

      • Tundra

        Our last one had a couple of shitheads on the board so we took it over and all was well.

        I guess I’d just go rural if I couldn’t live with it.

      • Rat on a train

        Yikes. I lookup it up. Multiple sites state the average HOA dues are $250 per month.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      My first home had an HOA that was pretty good. Only about $30-40/month. Paid for a pool, tennis courts, basketball courts and a park. A couple normal neighbors kept getting elected to the board in order to keep the crazies at bay. I suspect that HOA was the exception to the rule.

      • Lackadaisical

        My fees are about that high with essentially no benefits.

        I tried hard to find a place with no HOA, but I had no luck. Not crazy rules and lowish fees was the best I could find.

    • Sensei

      I just saw a headline the shooter was 73.

  8. Shpip

    Police sources say the shooter was in an ongoing legal battle with the condo board of the building

    I guess a couple of Karens found out what happens when you pick on a guy with zero fucks left to give.

    Sadly, no lessons will be learned.

    • MikeS

      Love the seasonal avatar.

    • Fourscore

      Wasn’t a handgun, I hope. Perp would have been in big trouble

  9. Ted S.

    Christmas music. Warning, may induce seizures.

    And people complain about my music suggestions.

  10. Lackadaisical

    “I am going to stick with editing and occasional pieces, which is where we need more effort. So here is one of my last regular Monday efforts.”

    Sorry to hear, I’ve always liked the Swiss links. I wonder if this leaves more time for dispensing (swiss) cow butts.

    • Swiss Servator

      “I wonder if this leaves more time for dispensing (swiss) cow butts”

      Seems likely.

      • Shpip

        Swiss will be seen but not herd.

      • Plisade

        A silent but deadly partner, then.

      • Michael Malaise

        He’s clearly not in the mooed.

      • Animal

        It could hardly be udderwise.

      • Tundra

        How long do you think we can milk this?

      • Penguin

        Until the cows come home, Tundra.

  11. Lord Humungus

    Completely 100% OT but tomorrow is EF’s birthday. She’s been rather glum lately – Xmas holiday brings back the memories of when her dad died.

    Money is a little tight right now – my own self-employment hasn’t been all that great with the bad economy – but I managed to buy her a bottle of Bollingers, along with a (used) Burberry scarf. I carried that $90 bottle of champagne with the same care of a newborn. I’m planning on having two of our neighbors to stop by tomorrow night to share the bubbly; anything to cheer up the scourge of the legal world.

    • Lackadaisical

      Enjoy the birthday celebration. Everyday with your family is a gift.

    • Tundra

      Please wish her a happy birthday. This is a tough tie of year for a lot of people.

      • Fourscore

        The Holidays aren’t always a happy time. The champagne is a nice gesture, friends will be welcomed.

    • DEG

      Happy birthday to EF!

      I hope your celebration goes well.

    • Count Potato

      HBD2EF 🙂

  12. Lord Humungus

    I’ve figured out that my 9 month old cat and my 8yo dog are working together.

    An example: Cat takes my shaving brush off of the bathroom counter. Carries it downstairs. And the dog proceeds to chew it up, leaving nothing of the wood handle.

    • SDF-7

      The kitty cat version of “I don’t have to outrun the bear….” ?

      • Lord Humungus

        Well the two got into a tussle yesterday… and it was the dog who yelped and ran for it to hide behind EF. I assume their pact is more of the MAD variety.

    • Tonio

      Kittehs love to knock things off of tables, counters, etc.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I had a cat that loved to grab a particular pen out of the cup I had it in and run around the house with it. I never found out why he liked that pen, but I’d find it in random locations around the house.

        This was also the cat that liked grabbing the monkeys out of my barrel of monkeys, so I shouldn’t be too surprised.

      • Penguin

        Excellent.

        When I was let out of the hospital in February, I didn’t have the greatest state of mind. Fortunately, I went on Glibs and watched a vid about Cats Puking to Techno that Scruffy linked. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Thx, Scruffy, and thx, Swiss.

      • hayeksplosives

        That is worth several LOLs.

  13. Rebel Scum

    Responders were searching waters in the Gulf of Thailand on Monday for dozens of navy sailors still missing after their warship sank overnight, officials said.

    The HTMS Sukhothai corvette sank about 20 miles off the coast of Bang Saphan district, central Thailand, early Monday.

    That’s a spicy story.

    • The Other Kevin

      I hoped we could send Swiss of with a pun thread. Nice to see you rice to the occasion.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’d participate, but I’m not punny enough. I’d just be posting to pad Thai numbers.

      • The Other Kevin

        That’s using your noodle.

      • SDF-7

        He’s not going to be doing the Monday links, but he says he’s still satay around.

      • Fourscore

        Ladies and boys will have a sad.

      • B.P.

        Phuket. Let’s send him out with one last skewering.

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        Phucket? Do you think he needs to go down with a Bang?

      • The Other Kevin

        Hopefully we can still curry his favor.

      • Plisade

        I’m not pho-nny enough, either.

      • Shpip

        Come for the informative commentary. Satay for the clever wordplay.*

        * For certain values of informative. And clever.

      • Shpip

        / looks upthread, goes to the box for two minutes, feels shame

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      He’s just one among the way too many terrible congresscritters. He is a lot more pussified than most of them though.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      LOL

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      Cryzinger.

    • SDF-7

      My contribution — seems to be a Brit thing that every band has to put out at least one Christmas song.

      Moichendising!

    • Lord Humungus

      something something seizure

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Sadly, no lessons will be learned.

    The lesson, as always, is “TOO MANY GUNZ!”

    • R C Dean

      “An armed society is a polite society. I’m armed, so do the math.”

  15. Sensei

    We have investigated our decision and have cleared it!

    Procedures were followed!

  16. trshmnstr the terrible

    So, uh, now that it’s all but confirmed that we live in a literal fasco-authoritarian state where the government will happily shit on your enumerated rights and rub your face in it, what’s everybody having for dinner? I have a couple of ButcherBox sirloin in the sous vide.

    • Sensei

      My wife is a big fan of the price v quality tradeoff with ButcherBox.

      • R C Dean

        We liked Butcher Box. But Tucson is not conducive to shipping frozen meat. 😔

    • Tundra

      Meeting some friends for dinner, so I have no idea. I’m guessing meat and/or fish.

    • DEG

      I plan to head out for a burger night special at a local place.

    • grrizzly

      Insanely overpriced hot dogs* at TD Garden.

      *Maybe something else but it will be insanely overpriced anyway.

      • slumbrew

        Nice, enjoy the hockey.

      • grrizzly

        Thanks.

    • Fourscore

      Just another day of winter. Kids/grandkids grown up and gone. Review the seed catalogs and dream.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        My wife told me the other day that “you better contact your internet friend and get some more of his honey, because it’s delicious and it’s almost gone!”

        I concur on it being delicious, and I’ll send you an email. 😊

    • Lackadaisical

      Homemade paneer and rotis.

      • Lackadaisical

        In my defense, I will be roasting a rack of lamb at another date.

    • slumbrew

      Shrimp Caesar salad, I think. Not too much in the house but we’re leaving Thursday.

      • slumbrew

        Aaand that all too predictably turned into “delivery”

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      Food. With sauce.

  17. DEG

    So here is one of my last regular Monday efforts.

    Thanks for them.

    The independent investigation confirmed that the malfunction was caused by a defect in a network switch. The network component did not have the latest version of software.

    Oops.

  18. Rebel Scum

    Go fuck yourself.

    Gene Simmons: “You don’t have as many rights as you think … Shut up, be respectful, and get a vaccine.”

    • Sensei

      That’s both depressing and unsurprising.

    • Swiss Servator

      Not very Rock n’ Roll.

      • Tundra

        Just like his band.

      • MikeS

        Boom!

      • Michael Malaise

        Other than Rock and Roll Over and maybe Destroyer, their catalog sucks.

      • Lord Humungus

        Yeah… when I was exploring old dinosaur rock again, I picked up a KISS double LP (two albums in one set) and uh was thoroughly disappointed. It sounded well low brow. And not in a fun way like the Dictators.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5rqaEzYcY

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        Handsome Dick Manatoba!

    • MikeS

      Absolute piece of shit. Fuck you, Gene Simmons.

    • SDF-7

      I could understand that attitude up to the point where it became abundantly clear that the government and Pharma were lying about the “vax”:

      + Doing jack/squat to keep you from being contagious if you contracted COVID
      + Doing jack/squat to keep you from contracting COVID in the first place

      and that hospitals are “overloaded” and you’re “burdening the health care system”.

      At this point, cult mentality is all that can explain it to me. Alternate reality they live in and all.

      • B.P.

        Was thinking the same. You’re a bit late to the guilt trip, Gene.

      • The Other Kevin

        So it’s not just me? I see stuff like this, and that “unvaccinated have more car accidents” story, and it just seems to me like they’re 6 months late.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        You can’t completely extinguish the fire and expect it to relight on demand. If you keep the embers glowing, it’ll roar up into a fire when you need it to.

    • Lord Humungus

      is the Church of COVID still a thing?

      I don’t even think about it anymore.

      • DEG

        Yes.

        I’ve noticed an uptick in face diaper wearing at the grocery store I go to and the gym I go to. Though this morning at the gym was wonderful – no one wearing face diapers.

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        I have noticed this too. Especially when I head over to the college town. And how fucking sad is that?

      • creech

        Philly just announced all public school kids will have to wear masks beginning in New Year for two weeks to smooth the curve of the tripledemic. And in New Jersey, kids can’t return to school unless they’ve gotten flu shots.

      • Sean

        Kids are the worst and deserve to be bullied. Most of them are just little commies anyway.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Just think Mike Rowe did a loving tribute or one of those “rest of the story” pieces on his ma doimg what she needed to get through and survive the Nazis.

  19. Sensei

    In the U.S., His Site Has Been Linked to Massacres. In Japan, He’s a Star.

    (Paywalled NYT, but you can get around it searching the title in Google and clearing cookies.)

    The tone is amazing. They are basically just PO’d they can’t call the Asian who runs 4chan a “white supremacist”.

    By endearing himself to young Japanese who feel oppressed by their country’s rigid rules, Hiroyuki Nishimura has become wildly famous in Japan, a celebrity entrepreneur, author and commentator so ubiquitous that people simply call him Hiroyuki, a name roughly as common as Adam in the United States.

    In some two dozen books and hundreds of magazine columns, he has encouraged his fans to be more selfish, to stop caring about what others think, to work less and to game the system by obeying the law’s letter while flouting its spirit. Initially famous for his role in building two of Japan’s most popular websites, he has since become a national antihero by raising a giant middle finger to mainstream society, expressing his many contrarian views as unapologetically and publicly as possible.

    But there is one thing Mr. Nishimura is much less eager to talk about: his ownership of 4chan, the anonymous online message board.

    • R C Dean

      “a name roughly as common as Adam in the United States“

      I don’t recall ever meeting someone with that name.

      • Sensei

        Funny off the top of my head I know two. One Jewish and one Christian.

        East coast thing?

      • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

        I have known a few Adams on the beast coast.

      • slumbrew

        Suckers they be saying they can take out Adam Horovitz

  20. Tundra

    Thanks for your Monday lynx, Swissie. Enjoy the break!

    • MikeS

      ditto!

    • Fourscore

      You da man, Swissie!

      Thanks for the memories…

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Ban it?

    Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on Sunday said federal agencies need to address the cryptocurrency market and “maybe” ban it after the high-profile collapse of cryptocurrency market FTX last month.

    Brown, the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd that the Treasury Department and “all the different agencies” need to get together and assess any possible action related to the cryptocurrency market.

    “Maybe banning it, although banning it is very difficult because it will go offshore and who knows how that will work,” Brown said.

    The U.S. is seeking the extradition of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried after the collapse of his cryptocurrency market in November.

    Federal authorities charged Bankman-Fried with taking customer funds and using it to fund a lavish lifestyle and investments in his trading firm Alameda Research.

    The collapse of FTX alarmed regulatory agencies and spooked investors, raising renewed fears about the future of the digital currency market.

    As a medium/means of exchange, I can see it. As a store of value on its own? Nope.

    Of course nearly all the government arguments against it have at bottom to do with taxation, as far as I can tell.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Yeah, this was inevitable. It’s almost like the coverage of FTX has intentionally been orchestrated to get to this point.

      • MikeS

        That’s crazy talk!

      • Sensei

        Next thing you will say is that something like $100k worth of FB ads disrupted an election and required FedGov to go all in on monitoring social media.

      • Brochettaward

        Or, the entire fraud perpetuated by FTX was to get to this point.

        Are they that clever?

      • Brochettaward

        What I do know is that no one behind this scheme was First.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    “I’ve spent much of the last eight years and a half in this job as chair of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee,” Brown added “educating my colleagues and trying to educate the public about crypto and the dangers that it presents to our security as a nation and the consumers that get hoodwinked by them.”

    Our security as a nation translates as “shielding assets from the prying eyes of the IRS.”

    • Michael Malaise

      ” the consumers that get hoodwinked by them.”

      One nation under educated.

  23. Lord Humungus

    The past becomes the present… and the future?

    Mussolini: “The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity. The Fascist State with its corporative conception puts men and their possibilities into productive work and interprets for them the duties they have to fulfill.”

    • creech

      This is one of those quotes that people will applaud or denounce depending on whom you claim said it, or change the word “fascist” to “progressive.”

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Somebody needs to have her sarcasm detector calibrated

    Days after Elon Musk revealed that a person followed his 2-year-old son, Mr Musk’s mother Maye Musk reported a “gun with two bullets’ ‘ threat to the tech billionaire. Reacting to his mother’s report, Elon Musk tweeted, “It’s fine.” This came after Larry Elder, in a tweet, said, “If Adolph Hitler, Mao Tse Tung and Elon Musk were walking down the street, and you gave an American lefty a gun with two bullets—he’d put both in Elon Musk.”

    Calling out Mr Elder, Maye Musk said, “What a hateful and threatening tweet. I hope you don’t have children or any family because they would hang their heads in shame.”

    Elon should explain it to her.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Elon Musk too shared his thoughts on a “gun with two bullets” threat in his signature style. Replying to Mr Elder, the Tesla boss wrote, “And, miss both times.”

    What a caution.

  26. Tundra
    • Rat on a train
      • kinnath

        The chainsaw is my favorite

      • Tundra

        It’s really amazing.

        I like the camera, too.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      huh, The conspiracy theory that the birds aren’t real and have been replaced is apparently true.

      • Lackadaisical

        Their origin story is definitely suspect.

        Really evolved from dinosaurs? come on.

      • R C Dean

        Watch a roadrunner stride down the, well, road sometime. You can absolutely see the dinosaur DNA. The body mechanics are exactly what you’d expect of a dinosaur. A couple orders of magnitude bigger, and you’re looking at something pretty raptor-like.

      • hayeksplosives

        Roadrunners got nothing on cassowaries. Those suckers didn’t even bother to evolve from dinosaurs. They even have the middle claw for unzipping their prey, just like velociraptors.

      • Animal

        Nitpick: Birds didn’t evolve from dinosaurs. Birds are dinosaurs. They are theropods, closely related to dromaeosaurids, troodontids and anchiornithids.

  27. Rebel Scum
    • hayeksplosives

      Impressive footage.

      Stay safe, islanders!

    • dbleagle

      Yesterday was very blech with 15 solid hours of rain and high winds. Tstorms overnight but things are clearing up now. After some more Tstorms tonight the rest of the week should be fine.

  28. R.J.

    Been out all day, it was my daughter’s birthday. Just saw that Swissy was passing the link torch. Your links will be missed, but I look forward to other content from you. Go Swiss!

  29. Count Potato

    “Next thing you will say is that something like $100k worth of FB ads disrupted an election and required FedGov to go all in on monitoring social media.”

    I was thinking about that. If their claim that “Russia hacked the election” was true, and elections are decided by the large cities of swing states, and Democrats run those cities, wouldn’t that mean the Democrats were infiltrated by the Russians?

    • Zwak, who has his own double cross to bear.

      And NOW he gets it.

    • R.J.

      Congratulations. You are now ready for Tinfoil Hat Theater Thursdays beginning in January.

      • Count Potato

        I’m completely wrapped in aluminum foil.

      • R C Dean

        “Tinfoil Hat Theater Thursdays”

        Excellent idea for a regular column. I don’t know how you’ll manage that and GlibFlick, but I’m looking forward to it.

      • Sean

        Lol

      • R.J.

        It’s GlibFlick. Nothing except movies about conspiracies all month! Really awesome ones. I am going to pick up the pace and start doing GlibGlub and GlibCar again. It’s been so busy here.

    • rhywun

      wouldn’t that mean the Democrats were infiltrated by the Russians?

      Not a stretch at all.

  30. Brochettaward

    During one of my deep dives into the Firstiverse, I discovered something unexpected. Something potentially cataclysmic which makes no sense. Approximately 12,800 years into the past, I ran into another version of myself. But this was not me. It was the anti-me. He was to seconding what I was to Firsting. He still had the power of The First, and the ability to travel across the Firstline. I was beaten back in my attempt to insert a key First. He has been at this much longer than I, inserting seconds to counteract the Firsts that I insert to counteract his seconds.

    How could this mutilated version of me exist?

    • Sean

      Clearly, Putin had you cloned.

      They can’t allow a firster gap.

    • R.J.

      Did he have an eyepatch and a little beard?

      • Brochettaward

        It was a beastly version of me rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed The Great Firster.

    • Rebel Scum

      If you behead him do you get all his knowledge and power?

  31. juris imprudent

    Home safe and sound, no carnage, wonderful wedding. That is all.

    • Tundra

      Congrats across the board!

    • DEG

      🙂

    • Tundra

      Me too. RIP.

    • Count Potato

      RIP

    • B.P.

      Ugh. Bummer. They were great. They even toured the States three years ago.

  32. hayeksplosives

    I’m heading off to a charity raffle for the widow of a guy who died on the operating table during emergency surgery to remove a tumor. He was a long-haul trucker who happened to be in Texas when the tumor announced itself so they did the surgery there. His wife (here in Nevada) didn’t even have a chance to visit him. Very sad. 2 kids.

    I donated some stuff for the raffle; hopefully we will raise some money!!

    Also, if Baker Mayfield leads the Rams to victory over Green Bay, I will forgive him for all the games he played against Oklahoma State U.