Tuesday Morning Links

by | Jan 10, 2023 | Daily Links | 501 comments

Forbidden in soccer

Man, that should have been us in SoFi Stadium last night demolishing TCU. I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it. The NWSL has a problem, I get the sexual harassment one, but what the hell is verbal abuse and a toxic work culture? It sounds like they fired most of these people for being mean to professional athletes. What a joke.  Also, I apologize for putting this in the sports section, as it’s obviously not a sport if you can’t yell at players. Mind your own business. You’ve got more important things to worry about than somebody else’s personal lives. And that’s it for sports. And “sports” too.

This is concerning. Not only because it would be a clear overreach, but more importantly because it’s fucking retarded.

King shit

This headline is misleading. They are only determining if there should be charges, not determining his fate. That would happen at trial. Do better, ABC editors. Also, I hope, and expect, this guy walks.

This is sad. That account was always entertaining. She will be missed.

I remember when the entire left lost their shit over something similar. Let’s see how they react to this one.

Promise made, promise kept. Not that the Senate will do anything, even though they’re not going after rich people like they said they would.

“So scary.”
-pussy ass Illinois legislators

Another year, another unconstitutional gun law. Sadly, this will stay on the books for a couple years until the SC gets their chance to strike it down. Which they all know, but don’t really care about. When that happens, they’ll just repeat the process.

I hope everybody is ok. That’s one hell of a storm. Stay safe, friends.

This will be fun. The whole session will be, really. But this will be an enjoyable part of it.

Here’s some rockabilly for you. What an underrated song. And here’s something a bit more traditional. Enjoy them both.

And enjoy this lovely Tuesday, dear friends.

 

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

501 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Is that a link to a lion?

    • sloopyinca

      Did I screw something up with my first links of the year?

      • Count Potato

        “Lionks”?

      • SDF-7

        Ruh-roh, Shaggy!

      • sloopyinca

        Ah. It’s fixed.

  2. Count Potato

    A lifetime ban sounds pretty harsh if that’s what you do for a living.

    • UnCivilServant

      Are you saying you need a new career?

    • Brochettaward

      It’s ridiculous. Where the hell is the line between tough coaching and emotional “abuse?”

      Something tells me that the behavior in question wouldn’t be in question if they were coaching men.

      • SDF-7

        “Where ever we say, MAN!”

      • Brochettaward

        I was hoping this would be video of that hack Tom Hanks yelling at the female baseball players in that movie. The one they are remaking which was already PG13 but needs to be made more diverse and with a less abusive white guy in the lead role as head coach.

    • Pope Jimbo

      A good friend of mine was recruited to coach the first ever girls’ high school hockey team in his small town. He’d been a Gopher hockey player and did one year in the juniors so he had some street cred. He’d also coached some of the boys’ teams years earlier.

      He quit after after 1 year. He told me that he couldn’t figure out how to coach girls.

      “You’d have some girl come up and start crying because I clearly favored Kim over her. I’d ask her why she thought that and she’d say ‘Well, in practice yesterday you told Kim great job, but when I did the same thing you only said good job'”

      According to my buddy, the girls would analyze every single thing he said and would come up with all sorts of odd interpretations based on how they felt it. With the boys teams the parents were the ones who were a pain in the ass. With the girls, they were the problem.

  3. Count Potato

    “it’s fucking retarded”

    Yes, and they’ll need a carve out for restaurants.

    • UnCivilServant

      No, they’ll need to carve up the morons who pushed for this, plus their masters.

    • SDF-7

      Well, if there’s anything that’s changed since industrialization it is that humanity has never, ever had cooking fires anywhere near our living spaces. And when we have, they’ve always been with much cleaner burning things than natural gas, after all.

      (/sarcasm off)
      Force people onto an unstable grid where it is easier (and practically mandatory) to throttle their usage due to “climate” or “stability” or whatnot… no, can’t possibly think what agendas might like that and have this as an ulterior motive…. so nice that society is being driven by “progressives” that are inherently trying to regress most of humanity.

      TL;DR — fucking slavers. I’d say die in a fire, but they want to make that impossible…

      • sloopyinca

        Yep. This is about control, not climate.

    • AlexinCT

      Laws are always about helping the corruptocracy make bank from their power to pick winners & losers….

      • R C Dean

        Pretty much what critical legal theory says. Welcome to that little tributary of neomarxism!

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Public universities should not have tenure, period.

    Private universities can handle employment however they want.

    • UnCivilServant

      Public universities should not have tenure exist, period.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

      • UnCivilServant

        Always push towards the end goal. Take the little wins but don’t accept the medicore as a place to stop. Abolish tenure, abolish public funds for this that and the other, require less than 10% of the employees to be non-instructional staff, put a cap on faculty remuneration, ban political activities by faculty and students at schools recieving public funds. Punish them every increment until they close.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That’s fine, but you’re not going to get your end goals all at once. The Fabians have been winning for a reason.

      • Count Potato

        I think having state schools (spending on the supply side) is better than handing out student loans to anyone (spending on the demand side).

      • AlexinCT

        At this point, I agree w/ UCS here. Tax payer money has basically been funneled to enemies of the people to brainwash the young into a cult of self immolation. It needs to end. If you want to spend your own money to be made dumber, go for it. But don’t waste the the productive tax payer’s money doing this sort of evil shit.

      • Homple

        Yes. Tenure does exactly the opposite of what people claim it should.

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

      They absolutely should have tenure. The push to end it is as stupid and shortsighted as Pelosi’s kicking conservatives off of committees.

      The whole point of it is to enable professors to do research and not be worried about political ramifications. The real issue, and one that desperately needs to be addressed at the governmental level, is the failure to hire actual diverse viewpoints. We need both sides, left and right, to have actual debates and move forward research in all fields. Instead, what this will do is allow the Dems cover for putting in their lackies and lickspittles, while further removing any conservative voices. University provosts and presidents need to be forced to open up hiring to anyone who will further the stated goal of pursuing knowledge, and not bow to current liberal pieties such as DEI and CRT.

      • UnCivilServant

        Tenure does nothing to encourage free research.

        Research is controlled by the grant process, which is inherently political. Tenure is also being used as a political reward, not a protection from politics. It was at best a half-baked idea and it is definately past its usefulness.

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

        Not all research involves grants. Yes, a lot of STEM does, but the humanities does not.

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

        Those grants are nice, but nothing will stop a person from going to the library and cracking a book.

      • UnCivilServant

        If they were going to do that, they’d do so anyway, since at that point it’s a question of opportunity costs.

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

        you do understand what free money means, no?

      • R C Dean

        Tenure covers one end of the faculty life cycle – termination. It does nothing to cover the other end – hiring. With the leftists now in full control of hiring (annd firing the non-tenured) and practicing “entryism” to ensure a very narrowly ideological and obedient faculty, tenure only cements that narrowly based faculty in place. As things currently stand, non-leftists don’t have a prayer in academia. I don’t see getting rid of tenure making things any worse.

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

        Which is why I mentioned that we need actual diversity, and not the BS we have now. As I said, provosts and presidents need to have their feet held to the fire and schools need to have the shit sued out of them for discrimination in hiring via DEI and CRT.

        Getting ride of tenure will make it easier to cashier conservative professors, nothing more.

      • Lackadaisical

        Beyond that, the left isn’t a monolith.

        So, it’s any dissenting voice that could be attacked. See the story just from the other day about the professor who got fired for showing a picture of Muhammad. It’s unlikely the person was particularly conservative, just trying to teach their class how they saw fit.

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

        This is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We don’t want to remove 4th and 5th amendment protections just to get some drug dealers off the streets, they are far more important than that. Likewise, the few conservative professors that remain need these protections, indeed they give a reason to sue schools that violate them, which is a necessary step to ending this idiocy. Tenure is a part of a professors hiring contract, and official actions that violate it are grounds to sue.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The tenure debate wouldn’t matter if millions of kids weren’t forced to pledge fealty to the deranged ideologies of these professors in order to obtain the credential required to get a career type job.

        Tenure is orthogonal to the issue at hand. Tenure didn’t create the problem and tenure (or no) won’t fix the problem. Personally, I think it’s a kinda stupid idea. For every Galileo, there are 100,000 Professor Commie McFuckheads out there fucking up the minds of impressionable 18 year olds with no accountability.

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

        There is a whole slough of problems with the current structure of academia and industry, especially in how they both interact with the government post LBJ, and to a lessor extent FDR. And, much like Affirmative Action, the knock on effects of all of this are really starting to become clear.

        Tenure, as you say, is not the start of this problem, and ending it would not solve this problem.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Firing the tenured too. It’s a speed bump, not absolute protection.

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

        No, it isn’t. But it does force the the person doing the firing to stay within a certain set of boundaries. IE if a tenured faculty member beats a student, no problem with termination. But if a tenured faculty member starts doing research into why colonialism was a good thing, then you better have all of your ducks in line, as firing them breaks a specific part of the hiring contract, that they have guaranteed protections for this type of action. The schools do not have to provide a class to be taught in this field, only that they cannot stop the professor publishing and doing research in this field.

  5. Count Potato

    “Let’s see how they react to this one.”

    LOL

  6. AlexinCT

    This is concerning. Not only because it would be a clear overreach, but more importantly because it’s fucking retarded.

    Leftard: It is a great idea! You now use electricity, and electricity, since it comes out of a wall is GREEN!

    The only logic I see behind this idiotic move, is that government is looking at an electric stove racket to help steal more money from people. And think about it. Unless you are on their grid, you can’t cook…. Be careful pissing them off, cause they will contact the electric companies and tell them to stop the service to you.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’ve started leaning more towards the Tom Luongo theory that this is the Davos/Soros faction actively trying to cause a civil war in the US. There’s no political gain to be had by banning natural gas stoves. It actively pisses off a huge swath of voters.

      Aggressively pit the feds against Henry Homeowner and let it play out. Set the college educated against the working class. Set the urban areas against the rural areas. Etc… I think you can safely assume that the pols who support this type of move are on the payroll of somebody who wants the US to unravel at the seams.

      • SDF-7

        I just figure the morons in the Biden administration look at every stupid thing California has done over the last 10 years and gotten away with (unfortunately) and figure “Hey, we can push that nationally!”. The underlying reasons can be evil (as mentioned), but I don’t give this admin credit for rubbing two neurons together. Their logic seems to be If not TRUMP era – go to DO NOW; else if CA did it – go to DO NOW; else if Deplorables.pisses_off() – go to DO NOW; else if Nation.USA.aids() go to NEVER_DO(); to me.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Maybe, but I cannot see any political gain to be had from this. Pols may be stupid in general, but they’re usually smart about how not to piss off broad swaths of their own electorate.

      • Sean

        “That doesn’t matter anymore.”

        -Dominion

      • SDF-7

        This assumes the electorate matters anymore. Not to get all black pill in the morning — but their actions speak much louder than words that they don’t believe it does.

      • AlexinCT

        I would think by now that most people would realize a lot of these “elected officials” know that they have to worry a lot more about the gatekeepers that choose who can be a candidate for an elected office and who counts the votes than they need to do about the vote casters….

      • sloopyinca

        Oh, the politicians will be immune since this will be carried out by the administrative state and not a law. They will be able to say “wasn’t me, but we have to respect the decisions made by the executive departments” and Biden can say “listen Jack, I don’t have time for this when there’s so much to worry about in the world” and nobody will press him on it.

      • SDF-7

        And the very idea of the elected representatives controlling the administrative state continues to be whispered heresy… sigh.

      • juris imprudent

        Are you programming Artificial Insanity?

      • Michael Malaise

        Yes — wasn’t there going to be a federal version of the horrific AB5?

      • Rebel Scum

        It actively pisses off a huge swath of voters.

        I hope they (the feds) go through with it.

        Aggressively pit the feds against Henry Homeowner and let it play out. Set the college educated against the working class. Set the urban areas against the rural areas.

        Word.

    • banginglc1

      The logic is making a step towards eliminating natural gas. Stoves are a much smaller thing than a gas furnace that heats a home. So they go after that first. It’s another click on the ratchet.

  7. Count Potato

    “As last-minute wrangling occurred in Springfield, a group of Chicago doctors convened with a plea to pass the assault weapons ban.

    “The damage from assault weapons is not like from other guns,” said Dr. Sheena McKenzie, a pediatrician in Highland Park Pediatrician.

    Dr. Omar Lateef with Rush University Medical Center called gun violence an ongoing “public health crisis.””

    SCIENCE!!!!!

    • SDF-7

      That sounds awfully like Biden and his “AR-15 rounds leave holes like 40mm cannon” or something.

    • waffles

      I don’t get this “not like the other guns” thing. Well, I do get it, it’s just deliberately misleading. I guess they are just saying that it’s easier to treat injuries from handgun rounds than rifle rounds. That’s it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      a group of Chicago doctors

      Who killed more people in the past year? Doctors with vaccines or kids with guns?

      • SDF-7

        Ouch… that one should leave a mark if they have any remnants of a conscience.

      • Count Potato

        In Chicago? People with guns. Although almost entirely with handguns that were already illegal.

      • R C Dean

        It would take a pretty small increase in excess mortality due to the vax for the docs to take the W on that one. Even in Chicago.

      • Count Potato

        It’s also a matter of certainty. I don’t think anyone knows what the excess mortality of the vax is, but GSW are pretty obvious.

      • banginglc1

        Look . . .they saw what happened with Al Capone and his Tommy gun. We can’t let the St Valentines day massacre happen again this year!

    • sloopyinca

      I wish there was a way for the SC to declare these laws unconstitutional before they even get passed. And to threaten legislators with contempt actions when they simply rewrite the law again with a few different words. Until these people face consequences for their deliberate subversion of the constitution, they’ll just keep doing whatever they want and the people will only be able to legally exercise their rights for short periods of time until replacement laws, which are equally unconstitutional, are put in place.

      • SDF-7

        Completely agree. There’s no good feedback system (especially given the lag between enactment and court processing) to prevent this sort of repeated “We’re gonna do it anyway, nyah nyah!” behavior. Personal liability for knowingly passing unconstitutional laws might be one option… at this point, I’d almost favor declaring state governments null and void and reverting to Territory status until they reformed… but since the Fed is more f’d up than the states, that would be a very bad idea.

        Fast track Supreme Court process for “Hey buddy states! STOP DOING THAT!” somehow needs to happen, I suppose. And consequences of some kind…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Punishment for government actors who knowingly pass unconstitutional laws.

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

        This is one issue that needs to be addressed. Watching NY repeatedly and knowingly enact unconstitutional gun laws will only stop when people are held personally responsible.

      • Count Potato

        The SCOTUS didn’t overturn the federal assault weapons ban. It expired on its own.

      • Count Potato

        There is always going to be a lot of gun murders unless someone invents a better way to kill people, or drugs are legalized.

      • EvilSheldon

        The feedback system was always an assumption that government actors would obey the law. Pretty silly, looking back.

    • PieInTheSky

      So AR 15 have lower diameter bullets but higher velocity. Would it be better to be shot in the leg with an AR 15 or with like a 44 magnum or Desert Eagle (point five oh)? Or take a shotgun with buckshot to the thigh?

      • Sean

        None of the above.

      • Count Potato

        Depends where it hit and from how far away. 44 magnum has better terminal ballistics. Which is why it’s OK for deer hunting, but .223 isn’t.

      • R C Dean

        Couldn’t really say on AR v high caliber handgun. A load of 00 buck would do the most damage, I’m pretty sure.

      • EvilSheldon

        There are a shitload of other variables. But in general, I’d take the order ‘nothing, .44 magnum, 5.56mm AR, 12ga. 00 buckshot’. There’s a huge gap between the first two options.

    • Rat on a train

      At least 5.56 doesn’t blow a lung out.

      • Rebel Scum

        Assault 9mm…

    • Rebel Scum

      a group of Chicago doctors convened with a plea

      For something having nothing to do with medicine. Fuck off.

      The damage from assault weapons is not like from other guns

      “Science”, indeed…

      • banginglc1

        If I thought this was some genuine thing derived from them seeing gunshot victims in the ER, I could have some sympathy, I still wouldn’t agree, but I could understand why they saw things the way they did. But that’s not why for these people. They are leftists first and use being a doctor to further their goal. They are evil.

    • Penguin

      Dr. Sheena McKenzie, a pediatrician in Highland Park

      She’s not a punk rocker anymore

      Sorry, but it had to be said.

      • Nephilium

        Well, she’s probably not a head banger either.

      • Michael Malaise

        Does her baby talking the morning trainL?

      • Michael Malaise

        JFC. That formatting. I’m losing my edge.

  8. Drake

    The big difference between the Biden docs and Trump’s will be lost on the mainstream as they sweep it under the rug – as President, Trump can and did declassify anything he wanted. As VP, Biden didn’t have that authority. He literally stole highly classified docs and left them at a college like a laptop full of self-incriminating evidence.

    • AlexinCT

      You got this all wrong because you assume they are coming at this from a point of some sort of logic or reasoning. No. This is about coming up with some reason, any reason, to give the criminal and despicable end goal they have a veneer of legitimacy. They don’t care that you catch that they are being duplicitous and outright are lying either. It’s about power. For them. At any cost. And fuck you and everyone else that gets in the way.

      If the FBI & DOJ are willing to just play defense for the revelations of corruption and criminality that the Hunter laptop exposed as indefensible & irrefutable, why would you think tat they can’t just slow walk this Biden revelation into non-existence while still hypocritically keeping the lie going that Trump is a criminal. We already know they lied about the docs having nuclear secrets with serious defense/security consequences too. But that lie is still floating around, and more importantly, the fact that they told yet another despicable lie has not impacted their credibility with the people cheering on the criminal machine because it looks like is currently aligned with their team.

      • sloopyinca

        Exactly.
        I’m already seeing excuses made and statements like “since they voluntarily turned them in, it’s not a crime” and “since Biden is now President him having those docs wherever he wants is perfectly legal.”

      • Drake

        What happens depends on whether they want to fake-elect Biden again, or are they done with him and looking for a way to dump him.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, I would not be surprised this becomes a “scandal” and Biden, at a minimum, is not on the ticket in 2024. And it won’t be Kama-LOH either. I thought they would throw her under the bus first… To me it looks like the machine wants to bring in that charismatic charlatan that has sold so much snake oil to Californians to lower the level of fortification that would be needed to put the candidate of their choice into office.

      • Rat on a train

        What? No 25A in 10 days?

      • Rebel Scum

        It’s the same level of nuance as “but her emails!”.

        Yes, Dems, she literally committed a felony every time she clicked “send” while conducting public, state dept business on a private server.

      • R C Dean

        Well, guess who isn’t a “reasonable prosecutor”.

      • juris imprudent

        Mostly because he isn’t a prosecutor?

      • R C Dean

        Neither was Comey.

    • Brochettaward

      They all take classified documents with them when they leave. Some have them on unsecured email servers, even.

      They simply decided to go after one guy for it and none of the others. And this story will be memory-holed in short order.

      • AlexinCT

        You mean the one about Biden also having classified docs (and remember, he was NOT the president, but the VP, when he took them so the rules are different for him vis a vis Trump)? Because they will never let go of the bullshit story about that raid. It is one of the things that gives the team blue lemmings the biggest and hardest boners, because it satisfies them that government power is used against those they have been told are the enemy.

      • waffles

        the walls are closing in on trump this time.

      • juris imprudent

        Don’t get too spun up about being VP. The Obama EO on classified material holds the Office of the President (which is more than just the one person) has immunity from mishandling the materials.

        The reason Trump’s search warrant was predicated on the Espionage Act was to avoid that little complication with the Natl Security Act of ’47.

      • sloopyinca

        See also: contempt of Congress.

      • Rat on a train

        Holder is still laughing.

    • juris imprudent

      This all results from the over-classification that is rampant because the IC (and DoD) never wants anyone to legally see what they are up to. Ever.

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

        On a side note from that, I am still wondering why they (and it really was up to them) the sale of Twitter went through? I could have been handled by telling Twitter execs “no, you cannot sell this” or getting the SEC involved early. But, it happened, and it is giving the IC fits. No matter how much they try to down play it, it is not working out in their favor, too many people are seeing it, and it is, albeit slowly, getting out there.

  9. AlexinCT

    Promise made, promise kept. Not that the Senate will do anything, even though they’re not going after rich people like they said they would.

    Now defund that entity, and the FBI, even more plz. They are enemies of the people.

  10. PieInTheSky

    On gas stoves and asthma color me suspicious.

    I like my gas stove but would willingly give it up if the electricity was cheap enough to warm the house with electricity and so give up all nat gas for the apartment. As long as my heating is nat gas I will keep the stove as well

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s horseshit. You know what else is horseshit?

      Your next cooking fuel.

      • AlexinCT

        You don’t need fuel to cook the insect gruel rations government will be issuing you, serf!

      • juris imprudent

        Issue? Are you kidding me? Some corporation has the IP on that and you’re gonna pay buster. You’re gonna pay AND be thankful!

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

        Subscription model.

    • AlexinCT

      Heating w/ electricity will never be cheaper than using the energy source to create the electricity (which has an efficiency loss) and then transmitting that electricity (with more losses) to the consumer, directly. But these crooks count on people being illiterate about the basics of energy and efficiency.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Absolutely. Electricity is the most expensive way to deliver heat.

        I eagerly await our new energy-efficient heatpump stoves.

      • PieInTheSky

        I am hoping nuclear gets cheap enough.

      • SDF-7

        If we keep poking the Russian bear we could have abundant nuclear heat. Capturing it will be a problem, though.

      • AlexinCT

        The greens don’t want nuclear. Nuclear, especially the new gen5 stuff, would allow unlimited power generation (so if forced to do it, they will regulate it to a crawl like they do today) which would/could make energy cheap. The end goal is to control people through energy access. Cheap and easy energy access would allow people to make choices those that pick winners & losers might not want.

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

        One of the earlier greens, not Ehrlich but that generation, was lamenting the fact that nuclear would give cheap power to the underdeveloped world, who would then become consumers like the the West. I wish I could remember who said that though, as it showed just how racist and classist the movement had become.

    • UnCivilServant

      Don’t be silly, the goal is to make sure you are cold and starving – no heat, no stove, no nothing.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Dependent. They want you dependent.

        A completely permission-based society where they can withdraw your ability to thrive on a whim is their goal.

      • UnCivilServant

        You misspelled “dead”

      • SDF-7

        “All right, all right! Most of you dead, and the rest dependent.”

        “And a fanatical devotion to abortion!”

        “Yes, yes…”

        (spam spam spam spam…)

      • AlexinCT

        Gulags and labor camps to deal with the rebellious, kulaks, and wreckers, are a thing of the past. A past where people were far more self reliant. I don’t think that the masses have the understanding that today all the cancellers need is to make you dependent on them, and then remove your ability to live a normal live without their say-so.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        👆👆👆

      • R C Dean

        Pretty much faux libertarian “nudge” theory in action.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Cass Sunnstein looms large.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Fuck him and his R2P potato wife.

      • pistoffnick

        Fuck him and his R2P potato wife.

        Not my thing but I won’t judge.

      • Lackadaisical

        Is she a mammy nun? With a head like a potato?

      • Drake

        Probably right. Some basic math around the electricity requirements for converting to electric cars (without adding in any additional requirements for homes going electric versus gas).
        The Coming Future Of Electric Vehicles: Something Here Does Not Add Up

        My next house will have a woodstove because I prefer my house heated and my food cooked.

      • SDF-7

        And Fed-CARB (see above aping California by these morons) will offer bribes to your neighbors to turn you in for that.

      • EvilSheldon

        Plenty of ways to deal with informers…

      • AlexinCT

        Watch possessing wood – other than a approved member of the cabal sporting one for kids – becomes more criminal than drugs or guns…

      • Count Potato

        “During the Second World War, almost every motorised vehicle in continental Europe was converted to use firewood. Wood gas cars (also known as producer gas cars) are a not-so-elegant but surprisingly efficient and ecological alternative to their petrol (gasoline) cousins, whilst their range is comparable to that of electric cars. Rising fuel prices and global warming have caused renewed interest in this almost-forgotten technology: worldwide, dozens of handymen drive around in their home-made woodmobiles.”

        https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-cars.html

    • Michael Malaise

      I switched from electric to gas for cooking in our renovated kitchen and I will never go back.

      DeWine actually did something useful by decreeing NatGas as green.

    • Galt1138

      Cheap enough being the operative phrase. Given the way govt regulates energy, it’s highly doubtful electricity will be cheaper than using natural gas. It’s expensive to heat a home using electricity.

      Plus, electric stoves suck compared to gas stoves. It is known.

  11. PieInTheSky

    I remember when the entire left lost their shit over something similar. Let’s see how they react to this one. – I mean is anything still classified at this point?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The JFK files

      • sloopyinca

        And most of the video from 1/6.

      • juris imprudent

        Wonder when they’ll claim that ALL video, even if in private hands now, is classified and verboten?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They already try to do that to some extent. How many times has the FBI shown up to seize material for ongoing investigations only for it to never see the light of day again?

      • Brochettaward

        They only wish they could have done that with Hunter’s laptop, but alas…they were too late to get all copies of that hard drive.

      • R.J.

        Moon landing files
        Real UFO files
        Cryptid sitings
        The teal story about ZARDOZ

      • SDF-7

        The teal story about ZARDOZ

        ZARDOZ is getting sad? You’d think all the agreement lately that the penis is evil would cheer him up.

        Or is it more that the grain is somewhat teal these days?

      • R.J.

        Real. Dammit.

  12. SDF-7

    ‘Orning ‘ordles — as long as we’re having threads on things that suck and all. Exhibit A: Me.

    Daily Duotrigordle #314
    Guesses: 36/37
    Time: 03:43.05
    https://duotrigordle.com/

    Daily Quordle 351
    3️⃣9️⃣
    6️⃣7️⃣
    quordle.com

    • rhywun

      Got lucky on TR.

      Daily Quordle 351
      3️⃣6️⃣
      5️⃣4️⃣

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 351
      3️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣

      Not bad.

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 351
      5️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣

    • Sean

      Daily Quordle 351
      7️⃣8️⃣
      5️⃣6️⃣
      quordle.com

  13. Necron 99

    “The assailant collapsed near the front of the restaurant before the patron who shot him got up, stood over him and fired one more time point blank, the video shows.”

    Man, I didn’t know he delivered a coup de grâce, then left before police showed up. That sure changes the optics of what happened. What he did is not in line with any self defense class, CHL class, or any other authority on self defense shootings I have heard, but does it change the facts of the case?

    • Drake

      It’s off-camera so he can claim the guy was still trying to aim the fake gun at him.

      • db

        It’s obvious the gun was dropped after the first set of 4 shots. It goes clattering away to the left of the fallen man.

    • UnCivilServant

      That last shot when the assailant was already down and no longer an active threat is past the bounds of justifiable force. It dramatically changes the facts of the case. He’s guilty of some grade of murder for that.

      • juris imprudent

        Not if the guy was dead already!

      • UnCivilServant

        The duelling pathologists would make for an interesting trial.

      • Necron 99

        Abuse of corpse…

      • EvilSheldon

        Unfortunately, that’s not the law. The shooting is going to be considered a single act, and if any part of that act invalidates the claim of self defense, then the whole thing becomes murder.

      • sloopyinca

        “He moved his right arm toward the weapon. You can’t see it because the film is grainy. He was still a threat to me and the other people there.”

      • SDF-7

        I thought that defense only counts if he’s also shouting “STOP RESISTING!”

      • Ownbestenemy

        “Hey, only state’s men can use that!” /local PD

      • EvilSheldon

        Convincing the jury of that is pretty much the only way this dude stays out of jail.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Meh, so what? Is he really supposed to care for the well being of a guy who just put everyone else in the diner in danger?

      • UnCivilServant

        While I have no sympathy, denying the criminal the defense of the law is bad precedent.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I’m fine with the precedent being guy who threatens deadly force on innocent people ends up dead and case closed.

      • UnCivilServant

        How far can you chase them?

        Can you gun them down the next hour? day? week?

        Can you gun down the guy trying to gun down someone they accused of threatening deadly force?

        The line was drawn at “no longer an immediate threat”.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        The line was drawn at fuck around and find out.

      • db

        You guys are talking about the difference between your opinions of what the law is and what the law should be.

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

        In philosophy that is referred to as the Is/ought problem.

      • Rebel Scum

        “He died of lead poisoning.”

      • pistoffnick

        Is he really supposed to care for the well being of a guy who just put everyone else in the diner in danger?

        According to my training (just last year), in Minnesoda, if you can render aid, you must render aid.

      • db

        What? Really? That’s crazy.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        He probably rendered aid to the best of his abilities.

      • R C Dean

        I’ve been advised not to. It just gives the perp/the perp’s family one more thing to sue you for.

        There’s no obligation to stick around. Tactically, it’s a bad idea, if the perp wasn’t alone. And who needs to risk what the cops will do when they roll up?

        In my mind the last shot is the problem. And it presents a dilemma. If he was dead, it’s not a shot you can charge him with murder for. If he was alive, then maybe the threat wasn’t ended yet.

        I doubt I’d convict, though. Jacking somebody up because you thought maybe they used one or two too many bullets on an imminent threat seems a bit much.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Jacking somebody up because you thought maybe they used one or two too many bullets on an imminent threat seems a bit much.

        He deserves the Kyle Rittenhouse treatment. Then justice can be served.

      • juris imprudent

        Rittenhouse was more restrained (and effective) than a lot of cops.

      • EvilSheldon

        In general, it’s better to stay at the scene of the crime. If you don’t, make sure you have a simple and convincing explanation for taking off, that the cops and the jury will understand.

      • EvilSheldon

        Completely untrue. There is never a legal obligation to render aid to anyone, unless you are a medical professional who is on-duty at the time.

        There is a huge amount of bullshit about self-defense floating around out there, and sadly, some of it comes from CCW classes.

    • db

      Andrew Branca and Steve Gosney did a good analysis of this shooting.

      Interestingly enough, it may be possible to argue that the last shot was “abuse of a corpse,” but that’s a pretty thin cover.

      The coup de grace is really bad optics. The first four shots were obviously enough to neutralize the threat, especially because the guy dropped the gun when he hit the floor.

      The argument could be made “I saw him reaching for his waist” to justify the second set of 4 shots, but that’s a weaker case.

      The last shot came after the shooter had actually picked up the other guy’s dropped gun.

      The gun turned out to be an Airsoft, but that has nothing to do with whether the initial shoot was good.

    • Pine_Tree

      So I totally expect and understand all the hand-wringing about something like this. Yes, if the threat’s over then you’re supposed to not shoot. The navel-gazing to find a way to call this guy guilty immediately after the situation is to be expected.

      If a DA or court wants to press it, I might listen to them if they’ve established their cred by doing things like charging cops who mag-dump on already-fallen suspects. They can start there.

    • DrOtto

      It’s not illegal to defend yourself in TX. Why can’t he leave?

      • db

        It’s reasonable to leave if you, for instance, fear that the person you just successfully defended against has friends nearby who might want to harm you. There’s no requirement in the law to place yourself in danger after defending yourself.

        If they decide to charge you, however, the prosecutors can enter your flight as “consciousness of guilt” evidence, although apparently that’s becoming less common for them to do so.

      • EvilSheldon

        You can leave. It just looks bad.

        The perception of your actions, by the cops, the jury, and the ever-present ‘reasonable man’ standard, is going to have a big impact on whether you catch a case. Not to mention how much you end up paying your lawyer…

      • juris imprudent

        And if the DA decides it was a PSK.

    • slumbrew

      Adorbs. Thanks, your Holiness.

  14. rhywun

    This will be fun.

    I don’t like the idea of telling the eggheads what they can and cannot teach. Why not just pull public funding instead?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Why not? They’re employees.

      • rhywun

        Hm. You have a point.

    • R C Dean

      I think we’re past the point where the eggheads aren’t told what they can and cannot teach. The only questions are who tells them, and what are they told.

      • Lackadaisical

        Exactly.

      • Lackadaisical

        Let me clarify my level of agreement.

        They’re being told what to say, the question is what should be done to counteract that. There is an ideal libertarian solution, imo, that will never happen, or at a more balanced approach where the pressures put on faculty is lessened. But yeah, the phone call is coming from inside the house, academia is sick.

  15. Pope Jimbo

    For the want of a follow up question, Gaia was lost.

    Gov. Tim Walz jumped aboard the first Minnesota-made electric firetruck at the state Capitol on Monday morning for a short ride around the parking lot in front of the building.

    The truck was made in Wyoming by the international division of the Austrian-based Rosenbauer LLC, and the governor called the electric trucks the “future of firefighting” because they are environmentally friendly.

    Rosenbauer has trucks on order from municipalities throughout the country and Canada, but so far, no Minnesota municipality has placed an order. The upfront cost for the electric trucks is significant, nearly double the $800,000 to $1 million cost of traditional diesel trucks, according to Mark Fusco, CEO of Rosenbauer America.

    But Fusco said the savings are immediate because the trucks cost thousands less per month to operate than the current diesel ones.

    Can no journalo do basic math in their head? “So let’s say it cost $800K more for this electric firetruck. Now let’s say – generously – that it really does save $5K/mo. It will be 13 or 14 years before it is even close to paying itself off. If it was only a $2K savings, you are looking a 33 year payoff. How sure are you that this really is a wise economic choice?”

    I’m sure the thousands per month savings is also complete bullshit.

    • AlexinCT

      They count on the public education system creating morons so they can get away with shit like this…

    • Sensei

      Fine print:

      “Does not include the cost of the diesel generator at the stations for use during periods of prolonged power outages during disasters.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The batteries will be done in seven years. So limit your savings window to that.

      • AlexinCT

        Wait until you are not only presented with an insane replacement cost for the battery, but an even crazier disposal fee for the one you are getting rid off. Note that you will not have the option of just buying a battery as the expectation is that you are doing something illegal if you try that…

    • juris imprudent

      Now, when the lithium batteries on the firetruck catch fire (as can happen with exposure to water) – who’re they gonna call?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Self licking ice cream cone.

      • juris imprudent

        Kind of a trick question because there is no good way to extinguish such a fire, you just have to let it burn itself out.

    • Grumbletarian

      At least it never gets cold in Minnesota. I hear EVs don’t do well in colder climates.

      • DrOtto

        My ex-BIL, who lives in MN, got about 100 miles out of a used Fiat 500E he had just bought when the battery died from a freeze. Chrysler ended up buying the car back because it was still under warranty and replacement was going to be over $28k. Ford is apparently going through the same thing with the F-150 electric right now.

    • Not Adahn

      Gov. Tim Walz jumped aboard the first Minnesota-made electric firetruck at the state Capitol on Monday morning for a short ride around the parking lot in front of the building.

      The truck was made in Wyoming

      Mighty fine journalisming there Lou.

      • UnCivilServant

        In the town of Minnesota, Wyoming?

      • UnCivilServant

        Or is it the town of Wyoming, Minnesota?

      • pistoffnick

        Wyoming, Minnesoda

        It was our favorite McDonald’s on any roadtrip south

  16. AlexinCT

    This sucks. They needed to use a cock-rocket…

    • PutridMeat

      Cock Rocket

      or

      COCK ROCKETTTTTT!

      Use freetube to avoid age login for the later. Oh, and NSFW, known to the omnipotent State of California to cause cancer, etc.

  17. Sensei

    And nothing else happened.

    The White House Covid Censorship Machine

    On April 9, Mr. Flaherty asked “what actions and changes you’re making to ensure . . . you’re not making our country’s vaccine hesitancy problem worse.” He faulted the company for insufficient zeal in earlier efforts to control political speech: “In the electoral context, you tested and deployed an algorithmic shift that promoted quality news and information about the election. . . . You only did this, however, after an election that you helped increase skepticism in, and an insurrection which was plotted, in large part, by your platform. And then you turned it back off. I want some assurances, based in data, that you are not doing the same thing again here.” The executive’s response: “Understood.”

    • juris imprudent

      Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.

  18. Rebel Scum

    “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg. The report said the agency plans “to take action” to address the indoor pollution caused by stoves.

    Something that has been safely utilized for decades upon decades? Something even safer than using some form of wood stove or fire place? Go fuck yourselves. Who could’ve guessed the next revolution would be because the gov’t was trying to dictate, not only what people can eat, but how they can cook it?

    • rhywun

      When will they do something about the indoor pollution caused by gasbagging authoritarians?

    • Brochettaward

      There will be no revolution.

      I don’t know if it is democracy that has given government the authority to do things that would have been considered absolutely tyrannical if done by monarchs who actually did try to sell the notion of their absolute authority, or if it’s just that capitalism has made everyone too fat and stupid to even contemplate armed rebellion. Maybe a mixture of both.

      But the tree of liberty will not be watered in our lifetimes.

      • juris imprudent

        But government is just what we all do together!

        [I actually use that line back at the people I’ve heard it from whenever there is some really egregious civil rights violation that appalls them.]

    • Ownbestenemy

      “According to a 2020 report by the NFPA, households with electric stoves reported fires at a rate 2.6 times higher than those with gas stoves.”

      But hey, the spurious link between childhood asthma is more important. Gas stoves you can immediately remove the source of heat, electric you cannot.

      • Lackadaisical

        That’s really surprising. A literal open flame is safer?

        I wonder how induction stoves compare.. They shut off even easier than gas and have less waste heat.

      • slumbrew

        Induction cooktops have to be safer, but the oven still needs to be a traditional electric heating element. I assume they’re talking about cooktop fires?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah cooktop. It would be interesting to get the demographic statistics and infer what we probably already know…lower income households hardest hit.

      • Lackadaisical

        Agreed.

        Though I don’t get why that would be the appliance of choice if you’re poor. Much more expensive to run.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I would suspect its more about the choice of apartments, especially in poorer neighborhoods, not the actual person.

      • Lackadaisical

        I was wondering why they did the ovens that way. Why couldn’t you have an induction heated element to heat the stove?

      • slumbrew

        Induction doesn’t heat the air, like a heating element does in an oven – the induction current in the metal pans heats up the pans themselves.

      • Lackadaisical

        I know, so why not have a metal plate heated by induction (and then that heat transferred to the same…) rather than direct resistance elements?

      • slumbrew

        I’ll defer to physics-types, but would that be any better? I’m guessing less efficient? I dunno.

      • Lackadaisical

        Now that I think about it, that does sound more complicated and expensive with questionable benefits.

      • Lackadaisical

        Yeah, it’s doing the same thing with extra steps.

        I’m imagining how fast my own heats now compared to a normal electric stove, but there isn’t a direct element (a pan) to heat.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I would suspect the visual aspect, better awareness training by parents and children, etc. A coil should glow red when heated but can have ‘dead spots’ that are still hot, but aren’t glowing red anymore.

      • Lackadaisical

        I think that has to be a factor. Harder to not notice you left a big ring of flames going.

        I know most fires are electrical, so I was wondering if there are shorts or something related to the 240v line or socket/plug phone.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Especially on glass tops. Except for the warning indicator, there is no way to know that the element is still hot. I’ve left an element on before because it wasn’t glowing and I had it on 50% power so the dial looked to be in the off position.

      • Mojeaux

        #metoo Glad I don’t have small children around.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        My 2 year old is a bit too cavalier about climbing up on a stool to help with cooking. I’ve seen her fingers get perilously close to an active burner as she tries to get up to see.

      • slumbrew

        I had a plate crack from the heat that way – had no idea the element was still on.

  19. Q Continuum

    ‘“This is a purge,” he said. He said all the fired professors were “Democrats or liberal in our thinking.”’

    Goose meet gander.

    • sloopyinca

      I hope that quote is accurate.

      • juris imprudent

        A right-wing purge, you lose your job; a left-wing purge, you lose your life.

    • AlexinCT

      I still remember the angry marxist in the 60s & 70s rioting about having the ability to be marxists without consequences, because the machine was hostile to that evil cult. They won on the first amendment, and as Lenin pointed out in that quote about a capitalist selling him the rope he plans to use to hang said capitalist with, are now denying that same first amendment to their opponents. That cult is about power. Lying to get/keep that power is just par for the course. For these people that boot must end up on our necks.

      • Night Watchman

        “When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.” — Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

      • Galt1138

        “…Lenin pointed out in that quote about a capitalist selling him the rope he plans to use to hang said capitalist with…”

        According to Michael Malice’s new book, that quote is apocryphal.

    • Q Continuum

      More:

      “The pushback follows decades of declining rates of tenured faculty. According to the AAUP, 24% of faculty members held full-time tenured appointments in fall 2020, compared with 39% in fall 1987.”

      Sounds like higher ed is doing a pretty bang up job on its own of eliminating tenure. I’ve long been opposed to tenure, not on ideological ground but from simple observation that it doesn’t do what it was designed to do: namely promote academic freedom. It seems mostly that it’s a golden ticket which allows profs to stop producing anything; there was a prof I knew of in grad school who produced some ground breaking shit early in his career, got an endowed, tenured position and then literally stopped. doing. anything. He would come in about once per semester to clean his office; no teaching, no research, nothing.

      Though I agree with DeSantis that most places seem now to be using tenure as a litmus test for leftist orthodoxy since you have to comply with all the DEI/QUILTBAG stuff to even be considered.

    • Brochettaward

      I think it’s funny that he doesn’t even stop to ponder why he is so intimately familiar with the political leanings of his colleagues. I’d love to see what fields those people in. That cunt was a journalism professor – the only one at his school which I’ve never even heard of. Here’s a hunch – there weren’t a lot of students lining up to study journalism at Emporia State College.

    • Michael Malaise

      All of the fired professors were “Democrats or liberal in our thinking.”

      Fixed it.

  20. Rebel Scum

    Diamond of the pro-Trump entertainers Diamond and Silk has died, the former president as well as the duo’s verified Twitter account announced Monday night. She was 51.

    I’m relatively familiar with their material from back in about 2016. RIP.

    • AlexinCT

      Ugh….

    • Lackadaisical

      That’s crazy, didn’t know they were nearly that old, black don’t crack.

  21. PieInTheSky

    What are the biggest and smallest muscles in the body?

    https://mennohenselmans.com/what-are-the-biggest-and-smallest-muscles-in-the-body/

    The quads are by far the biggest muscle group in the body, both in men and women. I’ve seen many claims that the glutes are the largest muscle group in the body, but in men the quads are about twice the size of the gluteus maximus

    when including the glute medius and minimus, the glutes are much bigger, so we can say the glutes are second largest and the calves come third. Then we have the hamstrings, before we get to the upper body, which has far smaller muscle groups than the lower body.

    The delts are the largest upper body muscle group. The biceps is by far the smallest. In between those, most muscles are roughly the same size, including the traps, pecs, triceps and lats.

  22. Rebel Scum

    I remember when the entire left lost their shit over something similar.

    It’s different because Brandon is a Democrat.

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

    Joe Biden Think Tank. Now that is a joke right there!

    Also, rickrolling us with the Sheatles is a hate crime.

    • Michael Malaise

      “It’s just an empty room!”

  24. Rebel Scum

    The Illinois Senate has voted to pass an assault weapons ban six months after the Highland Park tragedy that claimed the lives of seven people and injured dozens more.

    Curiously this violates both Bruen and Heller.

    • juris imprudent

      What a time to reply “independent state legislature”.

  25. PieInTheSky

    Although it is commonly thought that the highest UK Income Tax rate is 45%, there is a quirk in the system which means that UK taxpayers with income between £100,000–£125,140 (2022/23 rates) fall prey to a 60% tax rate.

    https://www.buzzacott.co.uk/insights/exposing-the-60-income-tax-rate

    Most UK taxpayers are entitled to a part of their income tax—free, in other words a personal allowance, which for 2022/23 is £12,570. However, if you have an annual income exceeding £100,000, you lose £1 of your personal allowance for every £2 of income above £100,000. 

    two comments. One, this must be the extreme Tory libertarianism I keep reading about ion the guardian. And two how shitty and excessively complicated, if you have a tax free allowance just leave it be for fuck sakes.

    • Not Adahn

      It’s so quirky.

    • Lackadaisical

      It’s okay because no one there makes that much anyway. 😀

  26. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. Minnesoda pols about to become the first state to lose money on pot

    The bill is similar to the bill that passed the House in 2021 but has some changes, including fixes to the hemp-based edibles language that was included in a large omnibus bill last spring. That bill made intoxicating edibles, vapes and drinks legal and created a new and mostly unregulated and untaxed industry. The new bill brings that system into the recreational marijuana system under a new control board.

    Backers of legal marijuana worry that if governments try to collect too much in taxes on marijuana products, they won’t be competitive with the entrenched black market that has existed for decades. The revenue from the bill might not even be enough to pay for the regulation, enforcement and economic development efforts contained in the measure. Among them are loan and training programs to help lower-income and people of color — historically the targets of laws prohibiting marijuana — become part of the new business.

    I’m actually happy that they aren’t trying to make $$$ via taxes. But maybe if the revenue won’t pay for all your goodies, you should trim the list of goodies?

    My other hope is that a lot of kids will be red pilled when they discover that they can no longer buy edibles anywhere they want (like they currently can) and that when they do find some it will be much more expensive because Uncle Gove is “protecting” them.

    • UnCivilServant

      I thought California was already losing money on weed

    • juris imprudent

      I’m pretty sure that both OR and CA have already proven that usurious taxes can actually fail to produce the revenue bonanza anticipated with legal pot. With the bonus of facilitating a new black market!

    • Brochettaward

      You don’t need to allocate money to train black dudes to sell weed. They already have the weed and you just need to let them do what they’ve been doing already.

    • SDF-7

      I’d say he gave her a solid state drive at least, probably some RAM as well.

      • juris imprudent

        Just no fumbling around with USB insertion.

    • SDF-7

      See also — his repair command sequence:

      touch; strip; mount; fsck; unmount; shutdown

    • AlexinCT

      Computer repair MILF?

      I call bullshit unless there is a pizza delivery guy watching too…

    • Michael Malaise

      “Have you tried turning her on?”

  27. PieInTheSky

    “when more people want to live somewhere than there are houses for them, they will compete for those houses on price, raising rents” is both a) so obviously true you need to perform mental cartwheels to avoid believing it and b) supported by almost every single economic analysis

    https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma/status/1612185479193178114

    • PieInTheSky

      : The only YIMBY group in NYC has come out in support of universal tenant protections. Bad day for libertarian-YIMBYs and good day for left-YIMBYs who correctly believe in helping tenants survive in the current system while fighting for a better system

      https://twitter.com/aaronAcarr/status/1611431908344483840

      • PieInTheSky

        a libertarian behind every bush

      • rhywun

        OFFS.

        Here is what is really happening.

        TR;DR – “protecting tenants” doesn’t work.

      • PieInTheSky

        All I see there is greedy landlords refusing to get with the program for ze comon goo . Should have their apartments confiscated.

      • juris imprudent

        Poor people can regale us all with the glories of collectivized (public) housing.

    • Brochettaward

      I think I pointed this out before, but supply and demand is pretty much an iron rule. It is backed up by far more science than a whole host of things the left believes and slaps the approval of science on top of. And they kick and scream and throw tantrums anytime someone tries to point that basic reality out to them.

      • PieInTheSky

        But have you heard there is a new generation of leftist female economists turning economics on its head? there were tons of articles about it

      • SDF-7

        If these people don’t recognize basic thermodynamics and entropy, more esoteric economics laws are certainly beyond them.

      • juris imprudent

        What a joke they ever called themselves the reality-based community.

    • PieInTheSky

      a reply to this

      “wanye
      @wanyeburkett
      ·
      Jan 9
      A really deep problem for leftists is that they think markets are an ideology when, of course, they are a description of observed economic relations. It’s like believing that gravity is an ideology.”

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        To be fair, they seem to believe that many basic truths of reality are ideologies.

      • PieInTheSky

        everything is a social construct. including plate tectonics one would assume

      • juris imprudent

        Gravity is oppressive, it holds us down!

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        You forgot the “maaan!” at the end of it. The left is really just a bunch of navel gazing college dropout grievance study major potheads, aren’t they?

      • banginglc1

        To be fair, they seem to believe that many basic truths of reality are ideologies.

        I don’t know what you are talking about. I am a woman if I say I am.

      • banginglc1

        Now let me go somewhere to play with my shenis.

    • R.J.

      It’s all fun and games until someone sticks their dick in the mashed potatoes.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Isn’t that the classic mistake? Pouring coals in Newcastle?

    • EvilSheldon

      That was pretty solid.

  28. UnCivilServant

    Culinary Glibs, I’m brainstorming ideas to use a pound of ground lamb that I ended up not using in the dish I’d initialy bought it for.

    • PieInTheSky

      Moussaka. shepherd’s pie. Or fry it with some onions and peppers and put it into a wrap.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Pie gots this right..

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Kofta

    • Count Potato

      Burgers

      • slumbrew

        ^^^ lamb burgers are great ^^^

    • UnCivilServant

      Bouncing from work topic to work topic and arguing law upthread, I haven’t had a lot of time to think about the suggestions yet.

      I do appreciate them, and wanted to make sure no one thought I was ignoring them

      • Brochettaward

        Whatever you do, I can only assume that you are going to overcook it and make it next to inedible.

      • juris imprudent

        *golf claps*

    • Pope Jimbo

      No matter what, use up the ground lamb soon. If you don’t, no matter how you use it, you will say “Ewe!”

      • UnCivilServant

        Baah, I knew glibs couldn’t resist the opportunity to flock to a pun thread.

      • Pope Jimbo

        It’s about to get wild and wooly with puns

      • SDF-7

        Mutton wrong with that.

      • juris imprudent

        I’ve herd that myself.

      • Michael Malaise

        Past-dated meat is certainly baaaad for you.

      • PieInTheSky

        I would not like a gyro with ground meat.

      • UnCivilServant

        All gyros have ground meat. Souvlaki uses chunks.

      • PieInTheSky

        no proper gyros has ground meed. Sliced meat. Not the same at all.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s ground, then formed, then cooked, then sliced.

      • PieInTheSky

        It’s ground – maybe in the US, you do weird shit

      • PieInTheSky

        and you people claim to have good food in the country of yours.

      • UnCivilServant

        We do, you’re the one using the wrong animals.

      • Mojeaux

        Gyro meat is a mix of lamb and beef. You mash it all up with spices, like sausage (without the casing), form it, cook it, then slice it.

      • PieInTheSky

        traditionally pork, but sometimes lamb, chicken, beef or mix. Usually not ground though. Placed on a huge spit and sliced as it roasts. But you do not start with ground meat.

      • UnCivilServant

        Where are you getting your bootleg Gyros?

      • Mojeaux

        So I went googling for images of how we here in the U.S. do gyro meat on a spit, and found a whole bunch of images on what (I think) you’re talking about, so I’m seeing the disconnect.

        U.S. spit, U.S. sliced

        Europe, apparently

      • Lackadaisical

        I’ve had gyro or similar in Austria, it was really good… They did it similarly to your picture there.

      • Lackadaisical

        In my limited experience, food in Europe was generally of a higher quality than what you’d find in the US. Which isn’t the same as saying there isn’t good food in the US…

      • Ownbestenemy

        One thing that bothers me about meats in the US, especially chicken, is the water weight and content. I have so many old recipes from my grandma that just don’t come out right like they used to. Or she made them correctly and I am not.

      • UnCivilServant

        The industrially produced chicken is grown as large and as fast as they can from the breeds that grow to slaughter size fastest.

        That produces more water and less flavor than an old roaster, but gets the most revenue for the least input. Keeping chickens fed for the time it takes for the more intense flavor to develop is costly.

      • Michael Malaise

        “In my limited experience, food in Europe was generally of a higher quality than what you’d find in the US. Which isn’t the same as saying there isn’t good food in the US…”

        One upside to the smaller infrastructures in Europe is time-to-market is much less and as a result, you’re probably getting more local fresher stuff.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah I have never heard of the ground version. Even when I make it at home, which I don’t have a upright rotisserie spit to roast it, I usually place a metal skewer through a pie tin and layer the thinly sliced meat to roast

      • slumbrew

        You’re correct – it’s not ground meat. There are “homemade gyros” that kinda _taste_ like gyros using ground meat, but that’s all I’ve seen.

        (my father loved greek food, it was one of the few things we would go out to eat)

      • Mojeaux

        I have never heard of the ground version.

        You’ve never been to a gyro shop like in a food court? I’ve never seen it any other way.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Seen yes, examined closely no and never have eaten Greek food that wasn’t from a Greek restaurant. However, maybe in the back it is ground meat compressed…not sure. I always assumed it was as the old country…

      • Mojeaux

        They come in 5- and 10-pound cones from the food vendor pre-ground and formed, and are roasted on a vertical spit. Strips are sliced off and grilled.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Learn something new everyday. I still prefer to make it at home though. Its a challenge and the kids liked building the meat mound with me when they were younger.

      • Not Adahn

        Traditionally pork? How do the Turks eat it?

      • PieInTheSky

        gyros is the greek version.

      • PieInTheSky

        maybe in the US, you do weird shit 🙂

        I assumed people were talking of the proper thing

      • Mojeaux

        Now I want gyros. Maybe I will make a run to Arby’s.

      • Not Adahn

        Dammit!

        One of the many treasures of OU was Greek House.

      • slumbrew

        Maybe I will make a run to Arby’s.

        It makes me sad that is your gyro option.

        *eyes gyro place down the block*

      • Lackadaisical

        They’ve got the meats.

        Actually surprisingly tasty, I like Arby’s recently.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah…no dirty Greek joint near by or a food truck? Not knockin Arby’s, just…seems there would be better options, especially for the tzatziki…

      • Sensei

        slumbrew,

        I’ve got 3 street vendors within a block of where I’m sitting. I can get it as gyro, over rice with a salad, or my usual preference as mix with chicken or falafel.

      • slumbrew

        yeah, not knocking Arby’s, just surprised there’s no actual Greek option.

      • slumbrew

        I’ve got 3 street vendors within a block of where I’m sitting. I can get it as gyro, over rice with a salad, or my usual preference as mix with chicken or falafel.

        👍

        There were 3 different Greek places in my hometown growing up. There’s at least two places in walking distance here.

        Now I want some spanakopita.

      • UnCivilServant

        My go-to source was a food truck run by a greek family.

        I don’t know if they’re still in business after the lockdowns. The other sources aren’t as good.

      • Mojeaux

        It makes me sad that is your gyro option. … just surprised there’s no actual Greek option.

        no dirty Greek joint near by or a food truck?

        Not unless I want to make a run into downtown KC, which I do not. I live in a far-out suburb, much Karen, so mcmansion. Arby’s is as far as I’m willing to go for a gyro, which doesn’t taste any different from a food-court gyro.

    • Aloysious

      I recently made a vegetable and barley stew with some left over lamb last week. It turned out quite well.

  29. trshmnstr the terrible

    Promise made, promise kept.

    Something something voted to repeal Obamacare one bazillion times.

    • juris imprudent

      Speaking of Republicans, and what defines them as such (from NR, sans link since MM bitched).

      Gonzales had warned for days that he planned to vote against the rules package because of a reported agreement by McCarthy to vote on a ten-year budget that would cap spending at fiscal year 2022 levels, effectively reducing defense spending by about 10 percent. However, the proposal is not included in the rules package itself. The package instead offered a first chance for Republicans to express concern for the perceived lack of transparency in the negotiations.

      “This has a proposed billions of dollars cut to defense, which I think is a horrible idea,” Gonzales said during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “When you have aggressive Russia and Ukraine, you’ve got a growing threat of China in the Pacific — you know, I’m going to visit Taiwan here in a couple of weeks — how am I going to look at our allies in the eye and say, I need you to increase your defense budget, but yet America is going to decrease ours?”

      Representative Nancy Mace (R., S.C.) wavered on her support ahead of the vote on the rules as well, telling CBS she did not want to see defense cuts and expressing concern about what “back-room deals” the GOP defectors might have won in their negotiations with McCarthy. However, Mace ultimately voted for the measure.

      We cain’t never cut no defense budget!

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        These people are all Muppets, and not the good kind like me.

      • Lackadaisical

        ‘how am I going to look at our allies in the eye and say, I need you to increase your defense budget, but yet America is going to decrease ours?”

        Explain to them that we are spending plenty for our defense and they should do the same? These people are ridiculous.

      • juris imprudent

        These are real Republicans, not the ones some seem to imagine exist.

  30. PieInTheSky

    BREAKING: Prosecutors are telling lawyers connected to @SBF_FTX
    fraud investigation the case is so sprawling that it could exhaust resources of the southern district since it includes potential bribery, campaign contribution violations, market manipulation on top of theft & fraud

    https://twitter.com/CGasparino/status/1612449174225551361

    • R.J.

      So they’ll just give up instead. Better that than get exhausted.

      • Sean

        ^^ Ayup.

      • Not Adahn

        Well, you don’t want to detract from their fundamental purpose of getting Trump.

  31. PieInTheSky

    Will Stancil
    @whstancil
    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again l: the Twitter anti-vax community is enormous, has powerful links to the mainstream, and it is fueled by a deep well of reactionary resentment toward that blames COVID shared sacrifice on lower-status social groups. A growing menace.

    https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/1612552245299519509

    @FalseSimplicity
    @whstancil
    Huh? Definitely not a ChatGPT tweet.

    • Brochettaward

      I don’t think I’ve ever heard any anti-vaxxer blame the gays or blacks for the ‘vid.

      There are probably a number greater than non-zero who suspect the Jews. I will have to do more research.

      • Not Adahn

        Cuomo blamed the Jooz for it though.

    • Rebel Scum

      reactionary

      People reacted to bullshit from the government. Color me shocked.

  32. Brawndo

    “The letter – Sen. Corey Booker and Sen. Elizabeth Warren among its signers – argued that Black, Latino and low-income households are more likely to be affected by these adverse reactions, because they are either more likely to live near a waste incinerator or coal ash site or are in a home with poor ventilation.”

    Ahh, there it is.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Being cold, broke and hungry is also an adverse reaction.

    • Gustave Lytton

      a home with poor ventilation

      Like pretty much every modern energy efficient sealed home?

      • rhywun

        OMG when all my windows are closed it’s like suffocating in a gas chamber or something. Thank goodness I have white privilege and don’t live next to a coal ash site (?!).

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Here’s a tidbit of SCIENCE that they routinely ignore.

      In their efforts to make everything energy efficient, they routinely reduce the outside air intake in public buildings like schools and tighten the building envelope. After all, that’s just cold or warm air that they have to condition, which takes energy.

      But that reduction of air intake/exchange is causing CO2 levels in classrooms to spike into the 2000 to 3000 ppm range or above. Kids get sleepy, their brains don’t work as well. As a result they don’t learn as gud.

    • Rebel Scum

      Naturally, POCs hardest hit.

  33. The Other Kevin

    It’s the youngest TOK kid’s 18th birthday today. I somehow shepherded all three of them into adulthood.

    • juris imprudent

      Woot!

      Man, when my boy was 17 I wasn’t sure he was going to live to 18.

      • juris imprudent

        In my mind it was a question of was I going to do it, or someone else. Thankfully he matured.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Mrs. Holiness and the Altar Boys butted heads much more than I did. I remembered how dumb I was back in those days and laid back and waited for them to come to their senses.

        Mrs. Holiness couldn’t figure out why her darling boys wouldn’t listen to her anymore and escalated every argument to a ELEVEN! I was often the referee and had to send everyone back to their corners.

    • PieInTheSky

      congrats on doing your part to destroy Gaia via overpopulation

      • The Other Kevin

        I didn’t make any of those kids, we adopted them all, so I’m calling that “carbon neutral”.

      • PieInTheSky

        what difference at this point etc… 🙂

    • Count Potato

      Congrats!

    • Pope Jimbo

      No matter how old they get, they will still be the little toddler in your mind.

      But congrats!

      • The Other Kevin

        Years ago, in my phone, she changed her name to “Favorite Kid”. I told her I’m not changing that to “Favorite Adult”. She said she’d change it for me. I gave her the side-eye emoji.

      • slumbrew

        Dawwww…

    • Ownbestenemy

      Huzzah! Teen #1 is up in a couple of weeks followed by Teen #2 in a couple of months. Having two 18 year olds is a PIMA

  34. PieInTheSky

    Tom Nichols joins the chorus of people complaining in real time that CNN is being too hard on Grandpa Joe.

    https://twitter.com/neontaster/status/1612805270610092032

    “Tom Nichols
    @RadioFreeTom
    I noticed this as well. The differences between the Trump and Biden document stories are pretty obvious right up front – an accident, as opposed to a willful f*** you to the DOJ – but CNN has been hammering on it anyway”

    • AlexinCT

      They do not like it when the bubble of idiocy they live in gets punctured?

    • Rebel Scum

      Biden hiding documents is in no way an “accident”.

      • juris imprudent

        He’s old and forgetful, stop being mean!

    • banginglc1

      Alternative Theory: They want him to get in trouble for the documents. Just another step to keep him from a second term.

      I doubt that theory, but in this fucked up world, who knows.

  35. AlexinCT

    Who would have thunk it?

    Best comment I saw about this sort of idiocy recently: “We’d all be a lot better off if we didn’t devote so much time, energy, and creativity to solving problems that aren’t problems.

    • rhywun

      IT’S THE YEAR 2050, and humanity has made massive progress in decarbonizing. That’s thanks in large part to the negligible price of solar and wind power, which was cratering even back in 2022.

      😂🤣 Pull the other one.

      • AlexinCT

        It’s all fantasyland with these idiots…

        And when their idiocy produces nothing but disaster, pain, and suffering without ushering in the end of poor Gaia, they blame the wreckers for it…

      • Fatty Bolger

        That should get us by until the unicorn fart and rainbow plants come online.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I put that crap in the same category as biofuels like ethanol.

    • R.J.

      Klaus and the Clintons will be there.

      Say, that’s a great band name!

    • PieInTheSky

      Hows the pussy in the satanist community?

      • AlexinCT

        I thought this would be a picture of Lizzo…

      • db

        Hairy.

      • Not Adahn

        Highly chased.

      • juris imprudent

        LOL, if you actually say that instead of just reading it, it sounds like chaste.

  36. PieInTheSky

    The federal government also is doing its part to infuse DEI into the sciences. The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the nation’s largest sponsor of the physical sciences.

    It recently announced a new DEI requirement for grant solicitations.

    https://twitter.com/JohnDSailer/status/1612463047443873794

    • PieInTheSky

      Today, @uscsocialwork
      sent out this letter announcing that they will no longer use the word “field” (as in “conducting field work”) because it’s perceived as racist. Is this with merit or empty virtue signaling?

      https://twitter.com/houmanhemmati/status/1612635584539033603

      • Ownbestenemy

        Cause practicum is so much better.

      • Grumbletarian

        Willie Mays is probably the best center in baseball history.

  37. AlexinCT

    I wish this principle be applied to all government entities as well.

    • Lackadaisical

      … And then they will be hauled out of their offices for waste, fraud and abuse?

      Sorry, it isn’t a dictatorship when you stop the state from wasting money on propaganda.

    • R.J.

      Her statements (direct quotes?) are hilariously bad.

      • Lackadaisical

        She sounds nice.

        Also, paid for 2 years for doing nothing, not a bad gig if you can get it.

    • rhywun

      When cancel culture bites back.

    • Lackadaisical

      I thought you were joking about the shoulder thing.

      +1 disability claim

  38. PieInTheSky

    the year is 2024. canadian high schools have determined that the most cost-effective way to improve standardized test scores is a health outreach program assisting low-scoring high schoolers in getting access to MAID

    inventive bureaucrats quickly begin identifying additional savings opportunities. lifetime expected taxpayer value is computed for each canadian; tax credits are offered to the most negative LTV populations if they attend MAID counseling

    .@R_Thaler
    and @CassSunstein
    release an updated edition of Nudge lauding the practice, and suggest making MAID a default option for many Canadians. “If someone is too stupid to read the fine print it’s really for their own good, isnt it? Anyway this is consent, strictly speaking”

    Nudge. Nudge. Nudge. Nudge. Nudge. Nudge. Nudge.

    https://twitter.com/eigenrobot/status/1612650898731241472

    lol

  39. Tundra

    Good morning, Sloop!

    I turned that abortion of a game off at the half.

    This is concerning.

    Yes. When I was looking for a place out here, I had very few absolutes. but gas cooking was one of them.

    Government is nothing more than a demoralization campaign.

    • Mojeaux

      BUT WHO’S HOLDING THE CAMERA?!?!?!?!

      • kinnath

        Drone.

        They can track the user and follow at a set distance.

      • slumbrew

        Watermark says it’s one of these:

        https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-onex2

        On the end of a selfie-stick attached to the back of his helmet/gear – the camera auto-remove the stick itself from the video. You can sort of see it as the snow starts coming down.

      • Mojeaux

        They can track the user and follow at a set distance.

        I figured it was a drone, but, like, who’s operating it, what kind of range does it have, and where is the person located?

        So I didn’t know that. That’s neat!

      • Count Potato

        Rudolph?

    • Ownbestenemy

      I at least guessed it was the Bee…but really wasn’t sure at first glance.

      • Lackadaisical

        I wouldn’t have known without your comment.

    • Michael Malaise

      Lovie was always a bridge coach in Houston anyway. Unless he went to the playoffs or won the division, he wasn’t coming back.

  40. Rebel Scum

    Congressional oversight is a threat to our Democracy.

    “I don’t know what it takes for people not to understand that this is a democracy. This is a body of the Congress that we are trying to maintain credibility with, and we’re not going to do that by opening up all kinds of suspicions about the institutions in our society. I know a little bit about the institutions not being trusted. We need to build trust in these institutions, and you cannot do that by opening up investigations into the investigations that are, in fact, taking place. That’s exactly what they’re talking about doing. They want to investigate the investigations that are underway by the Justice Department that ought to be independent of all that we do here. That is part of the administration, and we ought not be interfering with the Justice Department doing its work.”

    Fascinating. Go fuck yourself.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Can we just get them to come out and declare that their word is without contestation as if they are God-Kings? We know they see themselves as such, just finish the mask removal and declare us your subjects already.

    • The Other Kevin

      “We need to build trust in these institutions, and you cannot do that by opening up investigations into the investigations that are, in fact, taking place.”

      It’s common sense, the way to build trust in institutions isn’t by transparency and accountability, it’s by them doing everything in secret and actively shutting up anyone who criticizes them.

    • juris imprudent

      I can only think of Cromwell’s dismissal of Parliament when you read that kind of hackery.

  41. Count Potato

    “IndieGoGo cancels ‘cancel culture’ comic book artist after successful fundraiser, offers no appeal

    “IndieGoGo has provided no information whatsoever, except the emails I screenshotted. No contact information or appeal process.

    On Friday, the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo canceled a campaign by cartoonist, comic creator, and gender-critical radical feminist Nina Paley after the project had exceeded full funding. IndieGoGo told Paley that her work, titled Agents of H.A.G., did not comply with their “Terms of Use” without further clarification.

    Paley posted on Twitter, “I successfully raised 150% of my comic book goal on @Indiegogo. The campaign officially ended Tuesday. I just ordered books from the printer. IndieGoGo just canceled the campaign, and refunded the donors, with no appeal. All the money, funders, orders, gone.””

    https://thepostmillennial.com/indiegogo-cancels-cancel-culture-comic-book-artist-after-successful-fundraiser-offers-no-appeal

    • Not Adahn

      To be fair, RadFems are unable to create anything “comic.” If fraud was against the TOS, then the refunds were justified.

      • UnCivilServant

        Lexical drift has made ‘comic’ also mean any form of sequential art.

      • Not Adahn

        THAT’S NOT FUNNY

      • UnCivilServant

        Demanding I be funny is oppression!

    • R.J.

      I don’t care what sides she is on. That promo sucked. Unfair that the campaign was cancelled, but the donors must be up for throwing money at anything.

    • Michael Malaise

      This is stupid. People wanted something. Gave money. You may hate it or think it’s horrible, but that’s what happened.

    • R C Dean

      Well, its finally happened, then. People have been predicting the Internet of Things would be rife with hacking, and at last they have an example they can point to.

      • Lackadaisical

        Same thing happened to ring doorbells, right?

        I’m sure there are other cases.

    • UnCivilServant

      “Lets do it the more complicated, less efficient way!”

    • kinnath

      So an EV with a dedicated generator.

      This is smarter than a dual-drive hybrid. But that doesn’t make it smart in any real way.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Nothing outside the narrative

    After a protracted and pointless catfight, Republicans elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. McCarthy immediately announced that the first order of business in the House would be repeal the vast majority of funds (in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022) for the Internal Revenue Service: “You see,” he said, “we believe government should be able to help you, not go after you.” On Jan. 9, the House approved the repeal. The legislation is almost certain to die in the U.S. Senate.

    Gutting the IRS has been a high priority of Republicans for quite some time. Influenced, perhaps, by the ubiquity of vicious IRS jokes, they seem to have concluded that attacking the agency with misleading claims is a no-lose proposition.

    “I work every day with people who still haven’t received their tax returns,” said Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) “And now we’re going to put a tax police out — 87,000 — who you know, they’re going to go after the middle- and lower-income taxpayers.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wondered whether the IRS is “going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small business person in Iowa?” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) warned job seekers not to apply to the IRS because “you not only need to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, willing, to kill them.”

    That said, the case for giving the IRS the resources it needs to administer a $4.1 trillion system for individuals, businesses and tax exempt organizations that file 263 million returns, is compelling, as a constructive public policy and maybe even good politics.

    Republicans cannot govern.

    • juris imprudent

      Tell me how that rescission fares in the Senate.

    • slumbrew

      That is both disgusting and almost true.

      • PieInTheSky

        fucking job – like that guy in brazil who was a professional brothel tester ?

      • AlexinCT

        Where do we apply for this sort of job?

    • Sean

      I use that car wash. 🙁

      • UnCivilServant

        Carefuly, pavement may be slippery.

        (Yes, I know you’re supposed to be in neutral and pulled along by the conveyor)

      • Sensei

        Not anymore. (For the next few weeks or months…)

    • Lackadaisical

      Of course he was 77… No offense elder glibs.

      • Mojeaux

        I like Bauhaus, too, so I think there’s a place for many different styles … except brutalism. That shit can go die in a fire.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        But without brutalist architecture how will you know you’re living in a dystopian future.

      • Not Adahn

        Black and red color scheme?

    • Tundra

      That’s a good thread, thanks!

      He believed ornamentation was a waste of money, time, and labour. It was irrational and ill-suited to the modern, industrial, machine age.

      He was wrong. The fucking Post Modernists wrecked everything. Bauhaus was hideous and soul sucking. The thread misses the Soviet-fellating Brutalists, too.

      This is one of my favorite sites.

      The last hurrah for beauty.

      • Tundra

        Bad link.

        Even worse architecture.

        But hey, there is something for everyone out there. My tastes will always gravitate toward beauty simply for the sake of beauty.

      • Mojeaux

        I love to look at pretty things. I think Farnsworth House is striking, if not pretty. Also, it appeals to the minimalist side of me. Lastly, the drapes (mind you, this is a decor thing, granted), I love likely because it hearkens back to significant buildings of my childhood. There is a nostalgia element to it.

        Also, I love midcentury modern. I wouldn’t live in it, but I love it, specially the Atomic Age. Also, Googie.

        However, just because I like (some) minimalism (Mies’s Barcelona furniture is awesome) does NOT mean I don’t like art deco TOO. Both things can be pretty. My Pinterest is chock full of pretty things.

      • UnCivilServant

        In terms of architecture, I like anything chronologically from Gothic to Art Deco, but everything after that just doesn’t agree with my eyes.

      • Tundra

        My tastes have definitely changed as I’ve gotten older. I was much more tolerant of minimalists at one time, but now I really find myself drawn to the more elaborate.

        There is something very inspirational about art and architecture that requires so much imagination and skill to execute.

      • UnCivilServant

        If I could afford it, I’ve love to have one room of the house done up in a baroque or rococo style.

        Most of the internal decor I’d lean towards gilded age sensibilities. Still sems elegant to me.

      • Mojeaux

        Baroque and rococo would drive me absolutely batshit insane. Way too much going on visually. Too cluttered and chaotic.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s why it’s only one room, not the whole palace house

    • Lackadaisical

      Communism.

    • Michael Malaise

      I’m not going to lie, and I do like the look of those buildings, but the extra work needed for those designs/effects seems pretty expensive.

  43. Rebel Scum

    Way to tone down the rhetoric.

    “Is it hyperbolic to say that what began on January the 6th is continuing today by different means? That is, what was perhaps on January 6 a violent insurrection against our democracy and an attack on the Capitol, but has now morphed to a political insurrection by those who were elected by those very same people, by that base?” MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin added.

    “It’s not hyperbolic because that’s exactly what’s happened here,” Bardella replied.

    “Now we’ve seen for the last four days, the Speaker of the House now, the leader of the Republican Party negotiate with the terrorists, give in to the terrorists. Imagine if after 9/11 our government was negotiating with people who were the architects of that terrorist attack. That’s what Kevin McCarthy has done and not only has he negotiated with them, he’s given them more power, more authority,” he added.

    It’s time to cancel the Republican party and send them to camp.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Only approved and controlled dissent is allowed.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The terrorists win when they have 72 hours to read a bill.

    • juris imprudent

      Kurt not only switched party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, he was most recently a Senior Advisor to the Lincoln Project

      So he likes kiddie-diddling.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Moreover, the Treasury Department estimates, conservatively, that every dollar spent on enforcement would return at least four dollars in revenue — and projects that payments to the federal government would increase by about $700 billion by 2031, and $1.6 trillion in the following decade, most of it coming from very wealthy individuals and corporations.

    And if that won’r convince you, we’ll tweak the model and run the numbers again.

  45. Sensei

    CNN:

    Biden and his legal team don’t know what’s in classified documents found in his private office, sources say

    Yet, somehow, last night CNN said there was nothing nuclear.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Just like they KNEW it was nuclear secrets at Trump’s location, they KNOW it isn’t at Bidens. Don’t you propaganda bro?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Actually, I think this is the tail wagging the dog. Set up a situation that is similar to Trumps, but small tweaks such as ‘self reported’, ‘turned in voluntarily’, etc so that you can go through the whole process of assigning a DA or a special council but clear one while championing ‘No one is above the law!” mantra.

        I am going with pure propaganda cause I have no faith it wouldn’t be the above.

    • slumbrew

      Call me old-fashioned, but that’s the best you could dress your kids for the occasion?

      • slumbrew

        (the daughter’s dressed fine, but the boys…)

      • Ownbestenemy

        “See everyday people with no fancy clothes can be anything!” The poor youngest wearing what I assume is his older brother’s clothes. Been there…

      • slumbrew

        “See everyday people with no fancy clothes can be anything!”

        No doubt it’s calculated theater for just that reason. But he just got a job making $175k/yr. They could break out the credit card at Men’s Wearhouse and gotten the boy’s dressed for under $200.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Oh for sure, he and she made sure they were dressed correctly. She is the power behind him anyway. I suspect she is worse than Hilliary.

      • Pine_Tree

        But if they did that, they wouldn’t waging the kulturkrieg against everything that even approaches decent, mature, respectful society.

        Every single aspect of what they do has to be openly grotesque and adolescent.

        And the girl’s not really dressed any better, plus her parents have deliberately neglected to teach her to stand up straight (their fault, not hers).

      • slumbrew

        There was a vague effort to ‘dress nicely’ with the girl, the younger boy at least has pants on but the older boy… c’mon.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Heh fun read!

  46. Rebel Scum

    You mean those things they should have been getting all along…

    J6 defendants sitting in the D.C. gulag are seeing a slight sign of hope.

    These political prisoners are now being allowed to receive face-to-face visitors, religious services, and more.

    This all happened after @RepTroyNehls visited the jail last Thursday.

    …Never mind the fact that no one should be held pre-trial for 2+ years for crimes amounting to trespassing.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    The terrorists win when they have 72 hours to read a bill.

    Theatrical nitpicking and partisan obstructionism will destroy DEMOCRACY!

    • Michael Malaise

      I’d rather have the 72 virgins.

  48. Sensei

    One of the Japanese traditions I enjoy is coming of age day. It’s a once a year celebration of everyone that reaches the age of majority (now 20, but it changed/will change) during that time.

    The young women usually rent kimono and tour the city and receive congratulations. If the weather is good the pictures are usually really enjoyable.

    Japan celebrates Coming of Age Day – in pictures

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Strangled

    The Biden administration is unveiling an ambitious new student loan repayment program today that will be more generous, flexible and forgiving than previous plans — but it’s unclear how or when the administration will be able to fully implement it.

    The U.S. Department of Education says proposed updates to its income-driven repayment plan would, among other things, cut loan payments in half for undergraduate borrowers, but its rollout could be complicated by the fact that the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) — the agency that oversees the government’s student loan portfolio — is in an unexpected funding crisis, created by a political fight between Congressional Republicans and Democrats, and the White House.

    Behind closed doors, officials at FSA and the U.S. Department of Education are surprised and angry, sources tell NPR, because they must now safeguard priorities like today’s announcement while also scrambling to find hundreds of millions of dollars to cut from other current and future programs.

    In December, Congress approved a massive, $1.7 trillion government funding bill known as an “omnibus,” but the bill did not deliver nearly enough money for FSA to do everything it has been asked to do in 2023 — by Congress, the Biden administration and even the courts.

    You can’t possibly expect them to prioritize their activities. Fund it all, and then toss in some extra rainy day money.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    A “big f***ing deal” is how one federal official describes the surprise decision, last month, to abandon a much-needed funding increase for the Office of Federal Student Aid.

    Another person familiar with FSA’s inner workings worries that the result, not just for the agency but for people with federal student loan debts, could be “catastrophic.”

    “There is a lot of work at FSA that can benefit students and borrowers that it simply cannot do now,” says a third government official.

    Here’s an idea. Fund your activities through revenue from servicing those loans.

  51. Mojeaux

    I’ve been in a crafty mood lately.

    Right now I’m experimenting with a new crochet pattern.

    • UnCivilServant

      Without the lights, I can’t tell that was supposed to be a wreath. With the lights it works.

      • Tres Cool

        Her crocheted condoms, while handy in winter, never really caught on.

      • Mojeaux

        Ouch.

      • Tres Cool

        You could have re-branded them as a Kielbasa cozy

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, without the lights it just is supposed to look like a big puffball. The lights aren’t very bright at night. I should have used white instead of blue.

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, it does look like a big puffball without the lights, so that succeeded.

    • Tundra

      Neat!

  52. Tres Cool

    One thing about you people- your (in)sanity keeps me more even-keeled as our world burns down, and reading the links keeps me occupied while I wait at my VA.