113 Comments

  1. Ted S.

    Apparently Slavoj Žižek expropriated Eben Moss-Bachrach’s suit.

    • Fourscore

      Explained so well even a caveman can understand it.

      That’s why I don’t understand the protesters, regardless of their ideology. Why aren’t they working or in school? Somehow they eat without producing anything.

  2. Beau Knott

    Clean up on link 5! Link 5 (repeats link 2)

    • Riven

      Be thankful you got anything.

      • Beau Knott

        Oh, I am, I am! But a double dose of that fraud Zizek is a bit much

      • Riven

        Maybe I liked that link twice as much as any of the others. Did you think of that?

        No. You only think of yourself.

  3. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Insurrectious usurpation

    The statute “effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme by imposing criminal penalties for violations of federal provisions on unlawful entry and reentry into the United States … and by authorizing state judges to order the removal of noncitizens from the United States,” wrote Brian Boynton, a top official in the Justice Department’s civil division.

    The letter was first reported by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News.

    The state law makes “illegal entry from a foreign nation” into Texas a crime and allows the state to charge migrants with a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail or a $2,000 fine. It is set to go into effect March 5.

    The Justice Department argued that the law violates the Constitution, which gives the federal government — rather than states — responsibility for controlling international borders. It also wrote that the Texas law “undermines the United States’ foreign relations.”

    How dare they?

    I have also seen several articles in which the authors do an outraged bait and switch, in which they imply local cops will be accosting anyone with brown skin anywhere in the state of Texas, no matter how far from the border, demanding to see their papers.

    • R C Dean

      Does the law actually allow Texas to deport people? The DOJ toady says it does, but I don’t see that in the description of the law.

      Does the law actually affect the federal government’s control of international borders? How? I wonder, for example, if CA has any laws that affect products that cross international borders, but are in the US lawfully (or even unlawfully). If so, why does the federal government tolerate that?

    • rhywun

      gives the federal government — rather than states — responsibility for controlling international borders

      Oh, that’s cute.

    • Rat on a train

      But I thought states could enforce federal laws now, like for insurrection.

      • hayeksplosives

        Good point! And no due process needed, just a Secretary of State.

    • Tres Cool

      The poutine stuff looks worth the drive from here.

      • Ownbestenemy

        It’s top notch. The chef fronted us his small batch gumbo….like we were in Louisianna man

      • Tres Cool

        I was in Baton Rouge not too long ago. I make a decent étouffée but it tastes so much better when someone knows what they’re doing does the cooking.

      • Spudalicious

        For Idaho, I had a quite fine chicken gumbo today.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        We found a breakfast sausage here in Oregon that was actually spicy. Spicy enough that other Oregonians stopped buying it.

        Quite the treat.

    • DEG

      That looks good.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Really good and good bartender/geneal manager. Watched her give a lady some biscuits who looked troubled.

    • westernsloper

      Would

      • Ownbestenemy

        They’d even serve your likes…city slicker

  5. The Late P Brooks

    Texas has until Jan. 3 to confirm that it will not enforce the new law; otherwise the U.S. “will pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Texas does not interfere with the functions of the federal government,” the letter said.

    How can they possibly have standing to file suit against a law which has not taken effect and has not harmed them or anyone else?

    I crack myself up.

    • Not Adahn

      Texas declares that Biden isn’t eligible to be president under the 14A, then they don’t have to obey anything from the DoJ or any other part of the executive branch!

      Easy-peasy.

  6. hayeksplosives

    I am faced with the difficult decision of who’s going to enact my labor? The labor in question is who’s making my lunch/dinner? Cuz it ain’t gonna be me today.

    Since the cat is all thumbs (or no thumbs?) I suppose I’ll resort to the wonders of commerce to sort it out.

    • Fourscore

      It’s already made and resting comfortably in the refrig, most likely. Only have to liberate it.

    • R C Dean

      Sounds like the cat is your role model, what with demanding to be fed and all.

    • Tres Cool

      Want me to dash you something?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Grub hub is your friend

    • rhywun

      Curmudgeon on:

      I preferred when potheads were more or less underground to today where they’re everywhere. And there isn’t even legal sales where I live yet.

      • Spudalicious

        NYC is obnoxious.

        The Oregon cow town on the Idaho border does $90-100 million in sales a year.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Manistee was doing 3 million a week last time I was there

    • Aloysious

      Those regulators sound like communists. Why not throw them out of the nearest helicopter? Would that be bad?

    • Spudalicious

      My guess is the state doesn’t count reservation sales, given that no sales taxes are collected. That’s a significant chunk.

    • rhywun

      I don’t see Kotex being successful in any effort to clean the streets of thieving junkie bums. There are just too many “activists” on their side.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        It will take removing money from the whole shebang. And we aren’t there yet.

        Yet.

  7. DEG

    These ultra-rich corporations are owned by individuals. How did Bill Gates become so rich? He monopolized our commons. If we want to communicate, we have to go through his products.

    I haven’t used Microsoft products for day-to-day use in years. I know the FEE author is quoting a moron, so it is not the FEE author, but I’m still going to tap out of the article here.

    • Ted S.

      My PC has been Linux Mint since 2016.

      Forced to use MS at work.

  8. UnCivilServant

    I got my breadboard kit working with the RaspberryPi. So far, I’ve done a sound test and decided to go into their structured lessons. Lesson 1 – make an LED blink.

    Annoyingly, it’s all in software, the hardware is one resister and one LED.

    This might have been the wrong starter kit to learn circuit logic. We’ll see in future projects.

    • Ownbestenemy

      What are you trying to build?

      • Sean

        Don’t open any packages from him.

      • UnCivilServant

        The ultimate goal is to make something (I’m thinking clock/thermometer combo) with a nixie tube output. I want to do it by understanding how it works and not simply soldering together someone else’s kit.

        Since I’m starting at effectively nothing, I have a lot to learn.

        What I have learned so far – it is impossible to read the color bands on resisters and I can’t figure out which way the current is supposed to flow – or are resisters bidirectional?

        Now that I think about it, there’s no reason for directionality in a resister. Else there’s no reason for a diode.

      • UnCivilServant

        These tutorials skip the information I want to know.

        At least I have the rest of the internet to look up python operators.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Er…resistors are bidirectional. Most the US follows voltage unless you’re Navy then you follow current

      • R.J.

        Excuse me, resistors have a whole rainbow of directions now. Ask for their pronouns, pig!

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        Resistors are bidirectional, diodes are unidirectional.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        If you don’t know which way current flows or how to read resistor color codes then you are a very long way away from the project you describe.

        I would suggest Grob.

        I used the Second Edition back in high school and Version 7 when I taught at the University.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        er, 7th Edition.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t have the colors memorized. the real problem is that the bars are too small for my eyes to tell what color they’re supposed to be.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Why not a simple light array so you can learn? Then build up to clock then onto weather station

      • UnCivilServant

        I am currently coding a single RGB LED.

        I am not leaping to the end goal

        Right now, it’s python that’s giving me issues.

      • UnCivilServant

        *headdesk*

        After fixing the code, I found a hardware issue with my jumper wires not being in far enough and one in the wrong spot…

      • UnCivilServant

        To clarify – When I said “Ultimate goal” I meant “What I want to do with the knowledge”

        At the moment I’m running through the starter tutorials for the breadboard kit I bought – Because I know I don’t know anywhere near enough to do the ultimate goal.

      • UnCivilServant

        ROFL.

        I moved on to an LED bar (ten LEDs in a frame) and the tutorial says the lights should light up in turn when the code is run, but I’m getting them turning off in turn… I think I have the module in backwards.

      • UnCivilServant

        Nope, turning it around made nothing work (duh, it’s a Diode

      • UnCivilServant

        So… why does the delivered code have the inverse effect?

      • UnCivilServant

        Because their code is wrong.

        From the blinking LED tutorial:

        while True:
        print (‘…LED ON’)
        # Turn on LED
        GPIO.output(LedPin, GPIO.LOW)
        time.sleep(0.5)
        print (‘LED OFF…’)
        # Turn off LED
        GPIO.output(LedPin, GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(0.5)

        From this module:

        def allLedBarGraph():
        for i in ledPins:
        GPIO.output(i,GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(0.3)
        GPIO.output(i,GPIO.LOW)

        Whoever wrote the tutorial code got the high-low pin values backwards for which turned the LED On.

      • UnCivilServant

        Oh, fer fuck’s sake, even their own comments state the correct value and the code is wrong:

        for i in ledPins:
        GPIO.setup(i, GPIO.OUT) # Set all ledPins’ mode is output
        GPIO.output(i, GPIO.LOW) # Set all ledPins to high(+3.3V) to off led

      • Ownbestenemy

        Well…depends on the component and design. Some require a low to activate depending on the circuitry.

        For instance: An alarm light might be lit when it is an active low because it is receiving the output of a NAND gate.

      • UnCivilServant

        I first ran with their delivered (inverted) code to make sure I had the wiring in correctly. I wasn’t expecting it to be bugged.

      • Ownbestenemy

        But you are correct. For this example it should be

        try:
        while True:
        GPIO.output(led_pin, GPIO.HIGH) # Turn on the LED
        time.sleep(1) # Wait for one second
        GPIO.output(led_pin, GPIO.LOW) # Turn off the LED
        time.sleep(1) # Wait for one second

      • UnCivilServant

        I wasn’t going to assume I knew what the component ran on, but the lights didn’t lie.

      • UnCivilServant

        No, the first sample was working, The LEDs here light on low.

      • Ownbestenemy

        https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/

        I am sure you know resources but at least it is a RaspPi community. My goal next year is to develop a Christmas light ‘show’

      • UnCivilServant

        Sounds like an interesting project.

        Let us know how it goes. I hope it works.

      • UnCivilServant

        I wrote a code to turn the LED bar into a binary counter and when I tested it all the lights went on and stayed on. I was worried my logic was messed up – but I simply needed a delay. It was cycling so fast that the changes were not visible.

        Now it’s counting up as intended.

      • UnCivilServant

        def lightBar():
        for i in range(10):
        if byte[i]:
        GPIO.output(ledPins[i], GPIO.LOW)
        else:
        GPIO.output(ledPins[i], GPIO.HIGH)

        def loop():
        counter = 0x0
        while True:
        time.sleep(0.3)
        lightBar()
        counter += 0x1
        b = counter
        c = 0x0
        for i in range(10):
        c = (b & 0x1)
        byte[i] = c
        c = b >> 1
        b = c

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      You just scratched the surface, wait til multiplexing lights shows to sound, that’s tedious

      • Ownbestenemy

        See above. It is my goal.

  9. Mojeaux, font of all evil

    So glad I’m out of the school years, because DAYAMN. I’ve seen a lot of Gen Z asking Millennials how the fuck they’re raising their kids. Young teachers are like, “WTF is THIS bullshit?”

  10. Shpip

    This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.

    • R.J.

      It’s been out of control for a while. Another symptom of the leftist psychosis.

    • Rat on a train

      It should be prosecuted as attempted murder.

    • R C Dean

      10 year minimum.

      The problem is catching them. The ones that have three brain cells to rub together can make heavily spoofed calls.

      • R.J.

        I was about to say that. I hardly ever hear of one being caught.

  11. R C Dean

    OK, TPTB. I’ve been thinking about our discussion of driving fast earlier today, which is really, or at least can be, about how you deal with risky behavior consistent with individual liberty. I think it’s enough to hang a post off of.

    Yanno, I think our site is teetering on losing critical mass. Commenters/contributors have been drifting away, and too few new ones are showing up. And the content well is, if not running dry, getting shallow. I can’t do anything about the former, but I can do something about the latter.

    • Mojeaux, font of all evil

      Part of our newbie problem is that they can’t be approved to comment because of website issues.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, what’s needed in order to sort that?

      • R.J.

        Agreed. What must be done? It was an act of congress to add the last two I found.

      • Mojeaux, font of all evil

        In my opinion, what must happen is to back up the database and rebuild from the ground up, then restore the database, but that costs a lot of money and time of someone who is well versed in such things. I believe Slumbrew has offered, but the offer may not have gotten to the right ears.

      • slumbrew

        Indeed I did and the offer stands.

        Swissy has my personal info and was passing it on.

        To be clear, I’m not a WordPress pro, just a highly experienced Linux engineer.

        (I also need to figure out a non-PayPal way to send money to defray expenses).

      • slumbrew

        My handle at protonmail works, too, if anyone needs me.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I aint no full-stack engineer but I can type.

      • Swiss Servator

        DISCUSSIONS ARE BEING HAD, DECISIONS ARE BEING MADE.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        I thought WebDOM had them now?

  12. Trigger Hippie

    A few weeks ago I interviewed with a large property management firm with nearly seven hundred doors under their care with no expectations of actually being hired. Especially after they subjected me to a personality profile. Soon after the in person interview I smoked a bowl of Clementine and had a healthy, fiber aided dump(Thanks, Quaker Oats!), then the personality test was suddenly sprung upon me with little warning. Caught off guard an frankly embedded with zero fucks to give, I answered truthfully….
    “Characteristics of an Individualist
    Natural Strengths
    Self-confident
    Analytical
    Drives change
    Methodical

    Common Drivers
    Independence
    Opportunities to work with facts
    Flexibility
    Freedom from changing priorities

    Caution Areas
    Can be unorthodox in their approach
    May appear stubborn or opinionated
    Doesn’t like too much structure or direction
    Difficulty with authority'”

    For some insane reason the offered me a job that pays more than twenty thousand more a year than the current bullshit I’m putting up with…

    I love you all and Happy Fucking New Year’s.

    • Gender Traitor

      So…you DID take the job, right? When do you start?

      • Trigger Hippie

        I sign the paperwork Tuesday.

    • slumbrew

      Mazel tov!

      • Trigger Hippie

        Danke.

    • R.J.

      Excellent.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Thanks, man.

    • DEG

      Congratulations!

    • Tres Cool

      Good to hear.
      Ummm…..if property management is your bag, and you like tax-credit and section 8, even better if you have your CAS/COM certification…..

      Jugsy can hook you up.

    • Trigger Hippie

      I’m out for the evening. In case Sloopy is lurking: I get it. Missouri is facing a lot of backups because your best players are either entering the draft or the transfer portal. That being said: MIZ…

    • rhywun

      “Personality test” sounds like some DEI bullshit but they offered you a job so I dunno now.

    • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

      Heyo! Congrats!

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      Congrats. I was a handiman for a while, many moons ago. Not bad work.

    • Beau Knott

      Excellent news! You’re owed some after the last few years. I’m very happy for you, and hope this exceeds your best expectations.

    • westernsloper

      Most excellent TH!

    • hayeksplosives

      woot woot!

      When you decide to get into Nuclear Fusion, give me a jingle.

      congrats!

  13. creech

    Congrats. And wait a few weeks before subjecting your new colleagues to Glib political views!

    • R C Dean

      Nah.. Break ‘em in early. Hit ‘em on day one.

      That is massively good news, TH. I’m happy for you.

  14. westernsloper

    It took me too long to find “serenity now”