Thursday Afternoon SPeedy Links

by | Apr 1, 2021 | Daily Links | 309 comments

It’s my own fault. I stayed up on the zooms way too late last night and I’ve been trying to catch up all day.

But it was fun!

So, let’s take a super quick look at what’s going on in the world.

 

Justices uphold FCC’s easing of local media ownership limits

Covid Surge in Michigan Alarms Health Experts

Yellowstone treasure hunter sentenced to prison for digging up graveyard

 

OK, I’m off! Have a great rest of your day, kids!

About The Author

SP

SP

I've got an idea! How about we just stick to the Constitution as written and then the government can leave me the fuck alone.

309 Comments

  1. limey

    Pregame show is on. First pitch on the way. I’m glad that baseball is back on time this year.

    • The Gunslinger

      First place Tigers are 1-0. Will they be the first team in MLB history to finish a season undefeated? Stay tuned to find out.

      • Count Potato

        Comet, asteroid, giant meteor, it could happen.

      • The Gunslinger

        Beggars can’t be choosers.

  2. Not Adahn

    DETROIT — In a rural stretch of Michigan along the shore of Lake Huron, coronavirus outbreaks are ripping through churches, schools and restaurants where the virus has infected line cooks and waitresses.

    The dog that’s not barking here tells me that MI must still be under lockdown and/or mandating masks.

    • UnCivilServant

      Governess Gretchen Would never loosen her grip. Of course they’re still imprisoned.

    • grrizzly

      But MI is not under a super-serious lockdown like France. That would have definitely helped.

      • hayeksplosives

        I’m super cereal!

        —Al Gore, Hunter of Man-Bear-Pig

      • Ownbestenemy

        Man-Bear-Pig is real, I saw it in Imaginationland

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Excelsior!

      • Ownbestenemy

        By the way…how is Mr Splosives? I thought I saw an update last night but I was beat.

      • limey

        I think I read something about Borg nanoprobes successfully repairing an aneurysm. Good times.

      • DEG

        I saw the update after the thread died. I hope he is doing well.

    • Lord Humungus

      It’s obvious that the right-wing cretins here in MI just aren’t masking enough! And are out cavorting with each other like the social animals they are.

      Obviously some rounding up and camps for these wrong think people are in order.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Bring it on, I’m cleaning the Boating accidents right now, She never lived in the Mi. Sticks, these people are packing big time,
        I like it,

  3. l0b0t

    I’m of the opinion that the sort of consolidation for which the legacy media companies are barbering will actually hasten their demise; I full support them in that endeavour.

  4. leon

    RE: FCC. Just in time for a Democrat chair to reverse the previous FCC chair’s decisions.

  5. UnCivilServant

    Health “Experts” are so easily alarmed, I’d rather just hear when they finally get their shit together and calm down.

    • juris imprudent

      Don’t you understand how serious the end of the world is? Super serious!

    • Tonio

      The sad thing is that, like the boy who cried wolf, they have damaged their credibility to the point that if there ever is a *REAL* pandemic that they won’t be believed.

    • Bobarian LMD

      So… never?

  6. Count Potato

    “But if any place offers a glimpse at the threat of a new surge, it is Michigan.”

    It’s almost like witchcraft doesn’t work.

    • R C Dean

      Michigan is getting hammered. Highest per capita rate in the country right now. The only that’s close is NJ, followed by NY.

      Well, I guess that’s what happens when you are all laissez-faire about the Death Virus of Death. Maybe now they will try lockdowns and mask mandates.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Will they wear armbands with a simple, easily recognizable logo?

    Seeking to overcome vaccine hesitancy, the Biden administration on Thursday stepped up its outreach efforts to skeptical Americans, launching a coalition of community, religious and celebrity partners to promote COVID-19 shots in hard-hit communities.

    The administration’s “We Can Do This” campaign features television and social media ads, but it also relies on a community corps of public health, athletic, faith and other groups to spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the three approved vaccines. The campaign comes amid worries that reluctance to get vaccinated will delay the nation’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic — and is kicking off as the U.S. is anticipating a boost in vaccine supply that will make all adult Americans eligible for vaccines by the beginning of May.

    ——-

    A White House official said Harris plans to take on a larger role in promoting the uptake of vaccines, in addition to her efforts selling the president’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill and working to address the root causes of migration driving an increase in unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. along the southern border.

    The focus on trusted validators stems from both internal and public surveys showing those skeptical of the vaccines are most likely to be swayed by local, community and medical encouragement to get vaccinated, rather than messages from politicians.

    It’s like herding simpletons.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Is there anything that Harris can’t do? Or is she going to back out of this also in a couple of days like she did regarding being the point-woman for the border?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      I calculated that it works out to $15 per simpleton.

      • Swiss Servator

        Can I get $20? I’ll just nod along to whatever they say.

    • Lord Humungus

      >>to address the root causes of migration

      free welfare goodies?

      • Tonio

        Their shitty, third world, hellhole countries? Yeah, good luck fixing that. But don’t worry, in a few more years we’ll also be a third world hellhole and they will stop coming.

      • Count Potato

        Many of them do come here to work.

      • Atanarjuat

        During the Democratic primaries, the moderator asked which candidate believes illegals should receive free health care, including gender reassignment surgery if they need it – all of them raised their hands. So maybe it’s a wave of pre-op trannies who want free shit.

      • Hank

        In most cases, it’s probably them thinking they can get better jobs in the U. S. than in their homelands. Which is probably the case. Though I doubt the free public services hurt.

        But with immigration, citizenship and voting joined at the hip, admitting immigrants isn’t just an economic decision, it’s a decision to change the electorate.

        A certain political party has (except for a 40-year interval last century) been all about getting immigrants off the boat/plane/cage and into the voting booth, to vote for the party of course.

        And since this certain political party wants to do bad things with the support of its new voters…well, what are we going to do about it?

        (I won’t pretend to have THE ANSWER, because there actually are equities on both sides, and I don’t even know if the competing claims can be reconciled at all)

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Decouple normalization of illegals from citizenship. Give them a special permanent residency that has no path to citizenship.

  8. Not Adahn

    Huh. Unlike the last two snowfalls this week, this one is pretty legit.

    • Nephilium

      Yeah. We’ve got a couple inches on the ground here. It’s kind of sticking to pavement, it’s been melting and getting covered again throughout the day.

      This may put a damper on my plans for a long training ride Saturday.

      • Not Adahn

        Whoever said that OH drivers are the worst is full of shit.

        On the way back, made it through Cincinnati in really heavy traffic in good time.

        Arkansas drivers (and the part of East TX near AR) are the worst.

      • Nephilium

        Oh, I say that OH drivers are terrible all the time. At least in the areas I’ve driven in, they’ve been the worst (and I live here).

        Hope you were able to stop at a couple of places that you enjoyed and the new puppers is settling in.

      • Not Adahn

        She is amazing. However, the housetraining and appropriate-chewing training is not yet showing results.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I’ve always been impressed by drivers in the DC to Boston corridor as the ultimate in combined shit-assery.

      • slumbrew

        Can confirm that drivers from Boston to NY are fucking terrible. Except for me, of course.

  9. Plinker762

    Interesting to see comments about BLM & AF getting less punishment than the treasure hunter.

  10. Ownbestenemy

    Was pulling out a whole fryer chicken from the freezer in the garage and it slipped and landed square on top of my foot, up near the ankle. Other than swelling immediately, no feeling of broken bones….yet.

    I for one cannot wait for Gattaca to become a future history lesson for my great grandchildren.

    • limey

      Is Gattaca any good? I’m a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which apparently makes me an ardent communist, according to at least two glibs, so bear that in mind. If it has any of those free markets, or any of that voluntary cooperation, and emergent order. That would trigger the hell out me.

      By the way, I’ve just realized that the Google keyboard insists on capitalising “communist”. Is that the new Black?

      • Lord Humungus

        >> I’m a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation

        /blocked

      • Not Adahn

        Gattaca is divisive. I liked it, but the people that hate it have valid complaints.

      • limey

        I’ll give it a try.

      • Not Adahn

        I have a few quibbles with Jude Law’s self-cleaning shower.

      • rhywun

        Gattaca is very good. Do not hesitate to watch.

      • zwak

        Gattaca is one of the better, more thoughtful SiFi films of that era. It isn’t a shoot-em-up, and that throws a lot of people who want a Battlestar Craptacula type thing.

      • Nephilium

        I’m a big fan of Gattaca. If my recommendation adds any weight, I’d give it a big thumbs up as well.

      • db

        Mine autocorrects to “fucking shitstain commies” now that I have corrected it.

    • The Other Kevin

      Gattaca was awesome.

      • slumbrew

        ^^^ This is true. ^^^

        You should watch Gattaca.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Ditto.

    • Bill Door

      That’s a good story. Brings a smile to my face.

  11. Not Adahn

    Craythorn was reportedly in search of the buried treasure of New Mexico art dealer Forrest Fenn

    Indictment of the Fenn estate for criminal facilitation in 3… 2… 1…

  12. westernsloper

    It’s my own fault. I stayed up on the zooms way too late last night and I’ve been trying to catch up all day.

    This here is why I don’t zoom on school nights.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Is this a recent development in the community outreach office of Glibertopia? Midweek Zooms?

      • Nephilium

        SP has taken up the mantle for midweek Zoom.

        There’s a limit as to how long I really want to be sitting in front of my PC every day. 🙂

        As a heads up for those interested, this weekend will be when we mark one year of weekend Zoom calls.

      • Tonio

        With extras!

      • Ownbestenemy

        Well now I must give it a go next week.

      • Tonio

        Oops, that was ambiguous. I don’t do the midweek Zoom.

        Let’s just say that Nick is hoarding dollar dollar bills, yo.

      • pistoffnick

        A dolla makes ya holla, Honey Boo-Boo

      • Ownbestenemy

        Back off Nick

      • Tonio

        Now, boys… There’s enough of me to go around.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Walter White has a sad

    • Plinker762

      Looks like I will be inspecting the Sandia Peak Tramway in June. (Unrelated to the pot story)

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        You gonna hotbox the gondola?

      • slumbrew

        a.k.a., the ganjala

    • rhywun

      NY too.

      Freedom!

      And coincidentally, tax revenue!

      • Bobarian LMD

        Mostly that second one.

      • Not Adahn

        Don’t forget “disarming the populace by having them fail their 4473!”

      • l0b0t

        Didn’t NYC ban CBD just a couple years ago?

      • rhywun

        No idea. I see signs for it in every bodega window. ?‍♂️

    • slumbrew

      If it’s like Mass, they will throw so many barriers in the way of recreational shops actually opening that people will continue to just buy it on the black market.

    • WTF

      Nothing like a good old Soviet unpersoning.

      • Count Potato

        More trailer park, less librarian.

    • leon

      I’m really curious what that would have to do with the case?

      Unless it was like a Perry Mason style crackdown.

      • pistoffnick

        Drugs are bad, leon!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They’re trying to establish that Floyd died from an OD and it was a pattern of drug usage.

        Of course, that has little bearing on Chauvin’s responsibility to take care of Floyd once he was restrained.

      • kinnath

        It has a bearing on negligence versus intent to kill.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He’s going to get manslaughter.

      • R C Dean

        Probably not wrong, given that he didn’t held Floyd down for as long as he did even after another cop suggested they shift him.

      • R C Dean

        It also goes to causation. Did Floyd die from restraint, or from a drug overdose? From what I have read, the autopsy is somewhat ambiguous, but lands on restraint (and supposedly the ME did the autopsy without having seen any video). The defense lawyer’s job is to argue that there is reasonable doubt that Floyd would have lived absent Chauvin’s restraint of him, and parlay that into an acquittal – “How can you convict a man for killing someone who had a fatal overdose on board, etc.”

        I think a jury would be justified in saying there is reasonable doubt, but I think this trial has been politicized enough that Chauvin is a goner.

      • The Hyperbole

        the autopsy is somewhat ambiguous

        So are the reports that he had enough Fentanyl in him to kill a horse wrong, or is it a matter of opinion on how much that would take?

      • R C Dean

        Something like “he had a crapload of fentanyl on board, but we’ve seen a few people survive that”. I think they landed on restraint as the immediate cause of death.

        The defense can also argue that the restraint wouldn’t have killed him if he hadn’t just swallowed a ton of fentanyl, and Chauvin had no way to know that. So that, based on what Chauvin knew, the restraint wasn’t unreasonable.

        But there’s no freakin’ way they acquit, absent some major new info. Minneapolis is very likely to get riots even with a manslaughter conviction.

      • The Hyperbole

        Thanks, I figured with the rhetoric from both sides being so extreme and such opposites that the truth was probably somewhere in the middle area, I just haven’t bothered to do my own research.

      • Suthenboy

        Maybe, but the truth is like hen’s teeth these days. I doubt we will ever know and to honest I dont care.

        I am tired of hearing his name and sick to death of the leftist narrative. If I hear “…in these trying times” one more time I am going to shoot a hole in my TV.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        If I hear “…in these trying times” one more time I am going to shoot a hole in my TV.

        Do it. You won’t regret it.

  13. westernsloper

    Covid Surge in Michigan Alarms Health Experts

    New lock downs incoming.

    • Lord Humungus

      …because they worked so well over the past year.

      Of course what all this fucken social distancing did was extend the time before herd immunization.

      But remember, Biden gets positive poll numbers for his great Covid response!

      • westernsloper

        Ya, I called my “all the BS will end when Biden is elected” prediction way wrong. The fuckers are doubling down.

        As to social distancing I am a big fan because I am one of those people who have a natural personal space of 6′ unless you are a stripper and I paid for a lap dance.

      • rhywun

        Ya, I called my “all the BS will end when Biden is elected” prediction way wrong.

        I called it the other way and I was right 🙁

      • Suthenboy

        I called it wrong. Apparently making predictions is hard, especially about the future.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You sound like a yogi.

      • db

        +1 Pic-a-nic basket

      • Bobarian LMD

        have a natural personal space of 6′

        BO?

      • westernsloper

        I wish. More a personality trait. You want to talk to me? No prob, stand out of my fucking face. Ya, 6′ is a bit excessive but I think 3′ is no where out of line except for close friends/family/significant others. I will always stick with 6′ for those not in one of those groups after this idiocy. How do I know they don’t have an unknown virus?

      • R C Dean

        3′ is no where out of line except for close friends/family/significant others

        Now that I have been paying attention to this, nobody can stay 6 feet away during a conversation – they just naturally drift in. 3 feet (arms reach, basically) feels about right for people around here.

      • Spudalicious

        The former head of the FDA admitted that six foot spacing was wrong. They assumed Covid would spread through droplets, like influenza. So six feet is appropriate. Unfortunately, it transmits through aerosols too, making the distancing meaningless.

      • westernsloper

        So I should stay away from all people in public? I am good with that.

      • Spudalicious

        Ditto.

      • The Hyperbole

        ^^ These guys get it.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Lockdowns didn’t just do that.

        They also massively increased evolutionary selection pressure, resulting in more and more new “variants of concern.”

        We did this to ourselves.

        Or, more accurately, the politicians and their feckless Medical Officers of Health or equivalent did this to us.

    • Pope Jimbo

      The Health Experts were unanimous, though, that worse than a surge would be the virtual elimination of Covid through a combination of vaccines and herd immunity.

      “It would be terrible! A return to the bad old days where no one listened to us, or even knew our names” said Michael Osterholm.

    • leon

      I thought the LA Kings was the name of a gang… I feel very dumb now.

      • Count Potato

        That’s Latin Kings.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Excuse me, that’s the Latinx Kingx.

      • Tonio

        [aplausos de golf]

      • Not Adahn

        Latinx Gender-Neutral-Monarchs!

      • Not Adahn

        Non-Imperialist monarchs, you understand.

      • Tonio

        Butterflies!

    • Not Adahn

      Dude. Gang units disproportionately target PoCs and are therefore racist and must be disbanded immediately.

    • rhywun

      You really have to wonder how much damage all those Soros-funded DA’s around the country will manage to do on their way out the door. I guess double-digit increases in violent crime aren’t enough.

      • Hank

        “their way out the door”

        I’d love to see that, but are we getting ahead of ourselves? Maybe they’ll get re-elected on a “crazier than thou” platform.

    • Rat on a train

      I went to events at the Coliseum. The surrounding neighborhood has many homes with barred windows and caged doors.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Oh the irony of Ted Lieu, complaining about stupid bills. He should be reminded he introduced a bill requiring a psychiatrist in the White House…well only when its OMB or a Republican of course.

    • Plinker762

      Next video: Taking zinc and drinking tonic water.

      • leon

        I thought you could get the same effect drinking Fish Tank cleaner

      • Ownbestenemy

        Drinking pennies in baking soda diluted with water is what I hear…

      • The Hyperbole

        Anything ever happen to the woman everyone thinks poisoned her husband?

      • Ownbestenemy

        My guess, quietly charged and dismissed…once it no longer serves a purpose, the media, even local, don’t care to report on it.

      • Tonio

        Tonic water is part of my regular warm-weather health regime. You know, for the Malaria, and all. But the stuff tastes so terrible I find myself having to pour it over two fingers of gin to be able to drink it. #writerproblems

      • westernsloper

        ?

      • Bobarian LMD

        That went exactly where I thought it was going.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Don’t forget the lime. Or lemon. You must never forget them. They died for YOU!

  14. Count Potato

    “A bill meant to lift the decades-long ban on yoga in Alabama public schools has stalled in the state senate as it continues to face opposition from Christian conservative groups who believe the practice will promote Hinduism.

    The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee failed to overturn the ban after a vote on the bill ended in a tie on Wednesday. The ban has been in place for 28 years…

    If passed, the bill would allow yoga to be taught as an elective to students- but there would still be restrictions, particularly on the language and poses.

    ‘All poses shall be limited exclusively to sitting, standing, reclining, twisting, and balancing. All poses, exercises, and stretching techniques shall have exclusively English descriptive names,’ the bill said.

    ‘Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited,’ the bill specifies.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9427847/Alabama-lawmakers-deadlock-bill-lifting-ban-yoga-Alabama-schools.html

    OFFS!!

    • Ownbestenemy

      If it is an elective why would you need restrictions? Never mind, I know the answer to that.

    • Tonio

      It’s Alabama, Count.

    • rhywun

      To be fair, I would be uninterested in a yoga class that included all that claptrap.

      But yeah, OFFS!

      • Count Potato

        Well, the mudras and Sanskrit names are helpful, imho.

      • Count Potato

        Although, I’m guessing the gyan mudra has been cancelled.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Everybody knows that Downward Dog leads to sinful temptations.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Stepping into OMWC territory…careful.

      • kinnath

        leapfrog

    • pistoffnick

      *chuckles to himself while imagining high school phys ed Coach Moe (with the drill sergeant voice and the flat-top haircut) calmly calling out yoga pose names *

      Now if some of the dance team coaches were leading yoga, I would enthusiastically participate watch!

    • R C Dean

      A timely reminder that idiocy isn’t limited to the left.

    • Hank

      If yoga were associated with Christianity, it would be federal courts which would be drawing these distinctions and worrying about whether it was an establishment of religion.

      Is it really much a stretch (ha!) to connect yoga exercises with Hinduism the way the Supreme Court connected anti-Darwinism to Christianity?

  15. DEG

    Even as the pandemic appears to be waning in some parts of the United States, Michigan is in the throes of a coronavirus outbreak that is one of the largest and most alarming in the country. Infection levels have exploded in recent weeks, in big cities and rural stretches alike.

    Whitmer, after getting slapped down by the state Supreme Court, re-issued her restrictions through other means. So, I guess what is going on is, if the court hadn’t slapped her down, this outbreak never would have happened? SCIENCE!

    • Not Adahn

      It’s all those filthy vermin from TX and FL coming up and coughing on everything.

    • Suthenboy

      That is bullshit. Complete bullshit.

      Worst Governor – Whitmer or Cuomo?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Whitmer in my book. Cuomo runs it like he is a pretend mafia Don, so you have a certain understanding of how he operates. Whitmer is just a vindictive bitch.

      • db

        Wolf

      • Sean

        Given the competition, Wolf didn’t even get into the top 3. (I still hate his guts.)

        Whitmer
        Cuomo
        Murphy

        Y’all can argue the order.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        What’s Newsom, chopped liver?

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Thinking about it further, a party with Newsom would at least involve some quality hookers and blow. With Whitmer she’d probably just be dressed as a dominatrix. On this count, Whitmer is the worse governor.

      • DEG

        With Whitmer she’d probably just be dressed as a dominatrix. On this count, Whitmer is the worse governor.

        I think she’s secretly a sub.

      • Pope Jimbo

        King Walz is going to be so mad he was passed over.

        Back to his dials!

      • Swiss Servator

        Baron Harkonnen, er… Governor Pritzker feels left out.

      • Chipwooder

        Don’t forget Coonman!

      • Not Adahn

        Bashear was the only one to put his name on the signs “welcoming” you to thestate.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Yeah, fuck that guy! If the AG and the Legislature had let him, he would have been tops on the list.

      • DEG

        PA governors used to have their name on the “Welcome to the state” signs.

        I don’t remember if Wolf has his name on those signs.

      • db

        Actually, Wolf was the first in a very long time to remove the Governor’s name from the welcome signs. So at least he has that going for him.

      • DEG

        Whoa.

      • db

        I suspect that he thinks that if people have to read his name on a sign to know that he’s the Governor, he’s not governing hard enough. 🙁

      • Nephilium

        Is DeWine out of the running already?

      • Suthenboy

        Apparently the competition is pretty stiff.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      Half-Whitmer is doing her best to duke it out with Grisham (Dipshit-NM) for the title of “Worst Governor”

      • R C Dean

        NM has had crazy restrictions, but its such a backwater nobody cares what goes on there.

  16. Lord Humungus

    The local watering hole I frequent here in Michigan:

    I had a talk with the owner, asking him how business was with the 50% capacity and the closing at 11PM. Which sucks with March Madness, etc going on.

    He told me about the previous weekend when the place was packed (well beyond the 50% capacity) and how a couple complained for 5 minutes straight since the place was “too busy”.

    Him: well I will pay for half of your meal if you want to leave right now.

    Them: Nah, we’ll stay for another beer.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Our local here in Vegas is still going above and beyond, even though most bars are open and you can sit at the bar and whatnot. We told our bartender friends, if you want our money, tell your boss that not allowing ‘non-gamers (gambling)’ to sit at the bar is hurting your business. They all agreed and next time we go, we have a nice little spot reserved for us.

      • Nephilium

        When I went to a wing place last week for dinner, they were slammed to the point of 45-60 minutes for pick up orders with a 10-15 minute hold time on the phone before they could even take the order. It took a while to refill a beer one time, but they still got me my food and beers sitting at the bar area.

    • Suthenboy

      Some people live to bitch and control others. I dont get that….but there it is.

    • Spudalicious

      Our local watering hole never really played the game. What’s interesting is that people tend to naturally socially distance. As it gets busier, space fills in. It’s almost like we know what we’re doing.

  17. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Oh yay, looks like my kidney stones are starting to move.

    Now where’d I stash that Percocet?

    • Ownbestenemy

      The shipping canal opens up and Scruffy has movement…coincidence?

    • Count Potato

      Yikes! Hope you are OK.

    • Tonio

      Bro, hope they pass quickly and as easily as possible.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        One of the stones is too large to pass, so let’s hope it doesn’t hit this weekend or it’s going to be a loooooooooong weekend.

      • UnCivilServant

        Are yours the sort they can break up via ultrasound, or do they need to operate?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They can blast them. Wish I had known that before they went after the last one.

      • Tonio

        Hoping the sonar works.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Humble brag…acceptable for what you are experiencing.

    • Ted S.

      Sticking it up your dick isn’t going to help.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Now you tell me.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Buttchuging on the other hand…

    • DEG

      Ouch.

      Best wishes.

    • slumbrew

      I clenched up a little bit just watching the video.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      No thanks, I like the ground, it ‘s closer when you fall,

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, I’m Hazmat and getting EMT this year, but there’s a reason I haven’t signed up for Technical Rescue training.

      • Swiss Servator

        And I know plenty of fools who volunteered for Airborne or Air Assault.

      • Rat on a train

        I was voluntold for airborne. Fortunately the flight surgeon did not circle-X me. It didn’t bother me flying in military aircraft, but I did not want to jump out of one.

      • slumbrew

        I have and they make my sphincter clench.

        Oddly, the heights thing is comparatively recent for me – they only started bothering me w/in the last 10 years.

      • db

        The strange thing for me is that heights don’t get to me consistently, and never when I’m in an aircraft. It can be an closed cockpit, open, inverted, erect, paraglider, doesn’t matter. It’s only when there is a visible means of support around me that I’m standing on that I feel funny with heights. The worst was standing on a grating platform in the dark when the floor 110 feet below was well lit. I could just make out the shapes of things around me and feel the solid floor, but could see right through it except for the grating. Glass floors don’t do that to me, oddly.

      • westernsloper

        never when I’m in an aircraft. It can be an closed cockpit, open, inverted, erect, paraglider, doesn’t matter. It’s only when there is a visible means of support around me that I’m standing on that I feel funny with heights.

        Word. This is why I, at a time, wanted to try out paragliding. That and the coolest dude I knew was into paragliding.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I used to Free climb, but stopped when the kids arrived, and it’s the exposure that freaks me out, the height isn’t so bad, but hanging in the air? no,

      • Suthenboy

        My cousin (74) told me the same thing, that he had developed a fear of heights recently. I replied…holy moly, me too! What is that all about?

        My suspicion is that we age our inner ears work less efficiently and even a small reduction in balance destroys our confidence, thus the fear. It is very disappointing to a guy that used to climb to the top of a 120 foot tall oak on a hill top to sit for an hour or two just watching the horizon for the fun and scenery.

        I prefer to have my feet firmly planted on the ground these days.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Absolutely and 20 years ago I would have gladly went up.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I wish I had jumped on the chance to do SPIES/FRIES training when I had the chance.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Him: well I will pay for half of your meal if you want to leave right now.

    Them: Nah, we’ll stay for another beer.

    No. Seriously. You’re done. There’s the door.

    • slumbrew

      Legit laugh-out-loud. I would love to know the backstory there – did the owner paint that on themselves or was it some sort of revenge for some slight?

      • Count Potato

        I’m thinking the latter.

    • Sean

      Nice.

    • Hank

      Hmmm…so (s)he discriminates in the provision of services based on national origin? Sounds like an equal-opportunity investigation is in order.

  19. Pope Jimbo

    There are worse reasons to be digging in a graveyard

    On a night in September 2006, Alexander Grunke, his brother Nick and friend Dustin Radke went to the St. Charles cemetery in Cassville, Wisconsin, intent on digging up a 20-year-old woman’s body who had died the week before in a car wreck.

    First, they went to a store to buy condoms, according to the police report.

    • R C Dean

      Because they didn’t want to get her pregnant?

      • Pope Jimbo

        In testimony in Grant County court, Radke said his friend had long wanted to have sex with a corpse, according to a report on KCRG-TV’s website.

        “Nick said numerous times over the years how he’d love to have sex with a dead body because he wouldn’t want to have a woman to come home to holler at, or complain or nag at him,” Radke was quoted as saying.

      • db

        And his natural reaction was to call up a buddy to help him dig up a corpse for his brother to fuck?

        yikes.

    • B.P.

      Assuming a public defender was involved, high-five for the decision to take this to a jury trial.

    • Hank

      Follow-up, July 2007 – the defendants (as it were) got off:

      “We conclude that the more reasonable interpretation is that § 940.225(7) was intended by the legislature to allow a sexual assault charge to succeed where a defendant sexually assaulted and caused the death of his victim and the sequence of events is unclear, *rather than to criminalize necrophilia generally*.” [emphasis added]

      https://caselaw.findlaw.com/wi-court-of-appeals/1363639.html

  20. Ownbestenemy

    I have been watching Snowpiercer the TV show. I have enjoyed it so far and of course, Jennifer Connelly is great and an actor that doesn’t show up until the end of season one is always awesome.

    • slumbrew

      I hated that movie, can’t imagine I’m going to like the show.

      I started to watch The Punisher on Netflix (need something while I row) but may go back and watch Daredevil first – I’m told it’s not strictly necessary, but you’ll get all of the Punisher backstory.

      • Ownbestenemy

        The show is the beginning, so deals with class, gulags, and revolution…and how they don’t always go the way you want.

      • slumbrew

        That sounds like it would indeed be more interesting than the movie.

      • Pope Jimbo

        (need something while I row)

        I would think re-runs of Dirty Jobs would be perfect for that.

    • limey

      I thought she committed herself to retreat into penitent solitude, never darken our screens again, after that godawful Hulk movie with Eric Banana.

      • Count Potato

        I’m more mad about the breast reduction.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    I realize being a narcissistic sociopath is pretty much obligatory in our hereditary mandarinate, but this Hunter Biden “autobiography” is truly stupendous effrontery.

    I’d rather read John Wayne Gacy’s Tips for Serial Child Rapists.

    • Bobarian LMD

      “How to get blood stains out of a clown costume.”

      • db

        Pertinent to this discussion

        “Okay, guy watching us from the bushes, you ‘make us into men.’ Should I get some lotion, or do you wanna use blood and clown paint for lube?”

      • db

        Pertinent to this discussion

        “Okay, guy watching us from the bushes, you ‘make us into men.’ Should I get some lotion, or do you wanna use blood and clown paint for lube?”

  22. Pope Jimbo

    Rand Paul is back tormenting Fauci again

    Dr. Fauci, great news! T cell immunity after natural infection shown to include variants. Do we still need to wear multiple masks after we’ve recovered or been vaccinated?

    So basically all of Fauci’s wailing about “variants” when Rand called him out for double masking turns out to be complete BS.

    • Ownbestenemy

      And only us will read that and say..huh, look at that, scientific backing. The other media will spin that shit as a ‘so-called doctor’ undermining our national hero.

    • Suthenboy

      I bet most of the ‘experts’ giving us orders about the cootie bugs can’t even tell you what a virus is.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Depending on the degree of mutation some immunity to variants will be seen. The idea that variation returns us to a square one condition is nonsense.

    • LJW

      There’s a limit to how many times you can blame it on the dog before the wife figures it out.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Has Hunter been in the WH yet?

  23. Count Potato

    “Mathematx (pronounced “math-e-ma-tesh”) is the brain-child of the critical mathematics education activist Rochelle Gutiérrez, who holds no degrees in mathematics (see also, critical pedagogy). She describes it as “a living mathematx” and recommends it as a new, revolutionary approach to teaching and doing mathematics (see also, ethnomathematics). It is billed by the author as a means to “reconsider our definitions of mathematics in light of our current state of global crises.”

    Even with a detailed reading of Gutiérrez’s paper, it is difficult to ascertain what “mathematx” is meant to represent. It is clearly an attempt to reimagine mathematics and mathematics education in accordance with the “insights” from ethnomathematics, among other things, but it also indicates that mathematics and mathematics education should be reformulated by incorporating unexpected “knowledges,” as the author has it. On the one hand, there is the argument to include “Indigenous knowledge,” meaning some of the various ideas about mathematics had and used by indigenous peoples (though it seems to escape Gutiérrez that this is anthropology of mathematics, not mathematics or mathematical pedagogy). On the other hand, she advocates directly that we learn mathematics from “other-than-human persons,” including plants. (“I underscore with examples from biology the potential limitations of current forms of mathematics for understanding/interacting with our world and the potential benefits of considering other-than-human persons as having different knowledges to contribute.”) She also advocates getting away from the problem-solving orientation of mathematics in favor of “play” and “joy.””

    https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-mathematx/

    We need to find who is funding this [nonsense], and re-imagine the knowledges subjugated by he “real” intent of mulching equipment.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As I mentioned earlier, a fan of hers is going to speak at my sons school.

      • Suthenboy

        Speaking and spouting gibberish are two different things.

        “…getting away from the problem-solving orientation…” <–This is the goal of all of the marxist gibberish, not just this one. People who cant solve problems cant defend themselves, their families or their country.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Meh. Just another fancy new way of teaching math by some shyster. Like the “whole math” and other folks, it ain’t nothing new.

      Learning math is a lot like dieting, no one ever went broke selling the idea that there is an easy painless way to do it. Unfortunately, they almost never work.

      You need to do a lot of worksheets full of simple addition/subtraction problems. Then you move on to a lot of worksheets with simple multiplication/division problems. If you don’t get that down in your rote memory, it becomes impossible to do other forms of math.

      The key to learning math is doing a lot of repetitive homework to drive home the basics. It sucks when you are doing it, but you need it to retain how to do it.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Discipline is an aspect of white supremacy.

      • l0b0t

        Please come join me in yelling this at my kid’s teachers. Rote memorization of multiplication tables up through 12 x 12 is, to me, something that every person should possess.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        To 25, my algebra teacher said.

      • Tulip

        Why? You can just double. Most useful math book I had as a kid was one of my Dad’s called Mental Math. It was written in the 1920s and explained how to do math in your head. My dad made us kids do the exercises.

        I used to astound people by knowing how much the tax (or the tip) was without a calculator and often faster than the register. It’s why I can keep a running total in my head (exact, not an estimate) while grocery shopping. Don’t ask me to explain though.

      • rhywun

        *slowly backs away*

    • Not Adahn

      other-than-human persons

      As opposed to a fetus, which is an other-than-person human.

    • juris imprudent

      I am reminded of the absence of 0 in Roman math and suddenly her Latin heritage makes so much sense.

  24. grrizzly

    Ontario, Canada is going under hard lockdown on Saturday.

    Ontario declared a four-week state of emergency after hitting a record for the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care, driven by virus strains that are more contagious and dangerous.

    The order imposes restrictions on businesses and residents across the Canadian province of 14.7 million people, beginning April 3. Restaurants won’t be allowed to serve customers except for takeout and delivery orders; indoor public events are banned, with a few exceptions. Supermarkets and pharmacies will operate at 50% capacity and other retailers at 25%.

    Toronto and some other regions are already under similar rules. The government’s move tightens them further and extends them throughout the province, including Ottawa, Canada’s capital.

    • IRBE

      I found this web site PANDA with some good data on Covid.https://www.pandata.org/. From the data there no benefit to lockdowns. Guys who runs it is Nick Hudson. YT just took down a talk he did earlier this month.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        See Tom Woods podcast on Tuesday.

    • Suthenboy

      Extra more dangerouser.

      How long can they get away with this shtick?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Pelosi? Her bones would shatter and turn to dust if she tried that.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Demons are much tougher than you think.

  25. LCDR_Fish

    The more things change, the more they stay the same. Excerpt from “Eugenics and Other Evils” (1922)

    Now before I set about arguing these things, there is a cloud of skirmishers, of harmless and confused modern sceptics, who ought to be cleared off or calmed down before we come to debate with the real doctors of the heresy. If I sum up my statement thus: “Eugenics, as discussed, evidently means the control of some men over the marriage and unmarriage of others; and probably means the control of the few over the marriage and unmarriage of the many,” I shall first of all receive the sort of answers that float like skim on the surface of teacups and talk. I may very roughly and rapidly divide these preliminary objectors into five sects; whom I will call the Euphemists, the Casuists, the Autocrats, the Precedenters, and the Endeavourers. When we have answered the immediate protestation of all these good, shouting, short-sighted people, we can begin to do justice to those intelligences that are really behind the idea.

    Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them “The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females”; say this to them and they will sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them “Murder your mother,” and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same. Say to them “It is not improbable that a period may arrive when the narrow if once useful distinction between the anthropoid homo and the other animals, which has been modified on so many moral points, may be modified also even in regard to the important question of the extension of human diet”; say this to them, and beauty born of murmuring sound will pass into their face. But say to them, in a simple, manly, hearty way “Let’s eat a man!” and their surprise is quite surprising. Yet the sentences say just the same thing.

    ……

    I had thought of calling the next sort of superficial people the Idealists; but I think this implies a humility towards impersonal good they hardly show; so I call them the Autocrats. They are those who give us generally to understand that every modern reform will “work” all right, because they will be there to see. Where they will be, and for how long, they do not explain very clearly. I do not mind their looking forward to numberless lives in succession; for that is the shadow of a human or divine hope. But even a theosophist does not expect to be a vast number of people at once. And these people most certainly propose to be responsible for a whole movement after it has left their hands. Each man promises to be about a thousand policemen. If you ask them how this or that will work, they will answer, “Oh, I would certainly insist on this”; or “I would never go so far as that”; as if they could return to this earth and do what no ghost has ever done quite successfully—force men to forsake their sins. Of these it is enough to say that they do not understand the nature of a law any more than the nature of a dog. If you let loose a law, it will do as a dog does. It will obey its own nature, not yours. Such sense as you have put into the law (or the dog) will be fulfilled. But you will not be able to fulfil a fragment of anything you have forgotten to put into it.

    Along with such idealists should go the strange people who seem to think that you can consecrate and purify any campaign for ever by repeating the names of the abstract virtues that its better advocates had in mind. These people will say “So far from aiming at slavery, the Eugenists are seeking true liberty; liberty from disease and degeneracy, etc.” Or they will say “We can assure Mr. Chesterton that the Eugenists have no intention of segregating the harmless; justice and mercy are the very motto of——” etc. To this kind of thing perhaps the shortest answer is this. Many of those who speak thus are agnostic or generally unsympathetic to official religion. Suppose one of them said “The Church of England is full of hypocrisy.” What would he think of me if I answered, “I assure you that hypocrisy is condemned by every form of Christianity; and is particularly repudiated in the Prayer Book”? Suppose he said that the Church of Rome had been guilty of great cruelties. What would he think of me if I answered, “The Church is expressly bound to meekness and charity; and therefore cannot be cruel”? This kind of people need not detain us long. Then there are others whom I may call the Precedenters; who flourish particularly in Parliament. They are best represented by the solemn official who said the other day that he could not understand the clamour against the Feeble-Minded Bill, as it only extended the principles of the old Lunacy Laws. To which again one can only answer “Quite so. It only extends the principles of the Lunacy Laws to persons without a trace of lunacy.” This lucid politician finds an old law, let us say, about keeping lepers in quarantine. He simply alters the word “lepers” to “long-nosed people,” and says blandly that the principle is the same.

    …..
    England has forgotten the Feudal State; it is in the last anarchy of the Industrial State; there is much in Mr. Belloc’s theory that it is approaching the Servile State; it cannot at present get at the Distributive State; it has almost certainly missed the Socialist State. But we are already under the Eugenist State; and nothing remains to us but rebellion.

    • db

      I first read that title and wondered what Elvis had to do with eugenics.

      • Not Adahn

        If you visit Graceland, make sure to see his basement genetics lab.

      • db

        I thought he traded it all in for a porcelain monkey?

      • db

        Song starts here

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      interesting,

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Thanks. Good read

    • wdalasio

      Anyone know if the rest of Chesterton’s stuff is as good as that? That was just great!

      • LCDR_Fish

        That’s pretty early, but most of his stuff is excellent. If you follow the link you can read nearly all of his major stuff at the Guttenberg project.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Aside from all his essays, articles, books (near-daily newspaper columns), look for his novels like “The Flying Inn”, “Manalive”, “The Man Who Was Thursday”. He’s also got some really solid poetry. One of my favorites is: http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/Ballad_of_St_Barbara.html

        And of course his apologetics like “Orthodoxy” and “The Everlasting Man”.

    • limey

      Hail Eugene!

  26. Muzzled Woodchipper

    The city of Youngstown, Ohio, is cracking down on a company that touts itself as the maker of the world’s first self-chilling beverage can, saying it hasn’t lived up to its pledge to hire workers and bring economic development to the city’s long-suffering East Side.

    The move follows an investigation last year by The Business Journal, based in Youngstown, Ohio, and ProPublica, which found that little had happened after the city gave the company behind the Chill-Can a $1.5 million grant to help develop a $20 million research and manufacturing campus. It was one of the largest awards of its kind in city history.

    Officials also approved massive tax breaks for the property. And they spent an additional $360,000 to purchase and demolish the homes of roughly a dozen residents who lived within the footprint of the future Chill-Can plant. The project was expected to bring more than 200 jobs to a distressed section of the city.

    Great job, guys.

    Giving away $1.5m in cash to a company with no products, another $360k for eminent domain, loads more in tax incentives, and the result is exactly what one would predict.

    An empty lot with exactly dick to show for it.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/the-city-that-pinned-its-renewal-on-a-self-chilling-beverage-can-wants-its-money-back

    • l0b0t

      To be fair, I would prefer an empty lot to the Barclays Center, for which a neighborhood in Brooklyn was demolished.

    • Sean

      Suckers.

  27. Muzzled Woodchipper

    They just can’t quit him….

    The last time we checked in on the legal comings and goings of Donald Trump, things were not looking so hot for the former president of the United States. In addition to being the defendant in no fewer than 29 lawsuits, per The Washington Post, he was the subject of numerous criminal investigations, including one in which attorneys had obtained access to his tax returns—documents that for some reason he spent the last four years fighting tooth and nail to keep secret. Now, two and half months after leaving the White House, have Trump‘s legal fortunes miraculously improved? In a word, no. In three words, hell fuck no. In 19 words, the 45th president of the United States should probably just resign himself to the prospect of going to prison.

    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/03/donald-trump-legal-troubles?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “hell fuck no”

      Well, I’m convinced.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Top notch journalisming there

      • rhywun

        Super cereal!

      • Chipwooder

        That was a favorite of my senior drill instructor. In the setting of boot camp, it was appropriate and instructive. In a Vanity Fair article? Nah.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      The walls are closing in.

      • B.P.

        They’ve got him this time.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        It’s a tipping point.

    • Q Continuum

      Living in their heads rent free.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      90% real, 100% Hot, Wow! thanks Q, you know about me and the Ginger babes,

      • Q Continuum

        I had you in mind when I posted this.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        /Humble Bow to Master of Titties….

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        I’m a jack of all titties, master of none.

    • Count Potato

      Pretty sure #6 was a man.

      • l0b0t

        LOL… I thought the very same thing. Doesn’t matter #s 34, 43, and 44 are there to make it all better.

      • Chipwooder

        I’d say without a doubt. Look at the hands and the legs….that ain’t a female.

        Wasn’t much need to proceed past #2, who in addition to her overall beauty looks like a natural red. Not too many in that assembly are. #36 was delightful to view as well.

  28. grrizzly

    For the first time in recorded history the number of valid US passports went down in 2020.

    • rhywun

      Only 7 million passports in circulation in 1989?!

      Wow.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        The population was smaller. Travel was more expensive. Didn’t need a passport for Canada and parts of Mexico. Not as many foreign born citizens travelling back to their homeland to visit family.

      • Tulip

        Didn’t need a passport for Canada or Mexico until after 9/11

      • Chipwooder

        Well after 9/11. I used to cross the border to Algodones all the time when I lived in Yuma, 2004-06. No passport needed then.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I visited a half dozen countries with a DD form 2 card and no passport pre 9/11.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I think that chart can also put to bed the longtime trope that Americans don’t have passports except for a few right thinking elite.

        The other thing indirectly shown is the increased accessibility of international travel over the past thirty years. Well until last year. Used to be something like that was a once in a lifetime. I’ve gone to Tokyo to meet up with my brother for the weekend and booked the trip the week before when I found out. Really didn’t happen like that until recently.

      • Tejicano

        Heck, I remember travel before the internet, before ATMs were linked around the world, before you could send e-mail to a hotel on the other side of the world and make reservations, when you had to learn and remember some of the local language – or one that might be useful – to get by. In many ways 1989 was more like 1889 than it is like today.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yep. Travel agents and reservation systems served a very useful purpose but they would charge for that usefulness that put above the reach of most people on a regular basis. The other option was basically the youth hostel bumming around, which is below most people above the age of 30 with a wife that doesn’t want to sleep in a dormitory.

      • Tejicano

        I wonder how many people today know what traveler’s checks were – and why they were necessary? Or travel guides and how important they were back then.

        Funny how few people I run into who have any idea how different it was when I backpacked through China in 1988.

      • UnCivilServant

        I never could figure out what the supposed advantages of traveller’s checks were.

      • Tejicano

        When there was no way to use a credit card and there were no ATM’s to withdraw cash from your bank you had to carry as much money as you were going to need for your entire trip. Generally that would be a few thousand dollars. If that got lost or stolen you would be shit out of luck and on the other side of the world. Traveler’s checks – as long as you kept the voucher/receipt – could be replaced. They were basically insurance against loss or theft when you had to bring all the money you were going to need for everything from the time you left until you were back on US soil.

    • UnCivilServant

      Fake news.

      Us Passports aren’t valid.

    • Akira

      Cool as hell. I love culturally anomalous stuff like that.

  29. Gender Traitor

    It occurred to me just a little while ago that today is Maundy Thursday. The Presbyterian church of my upbringing always had a Maundy Thursday supper with a menu comparable to a seder. My strongest memory of one of those suppers when I was a kid was hearing a bunch of the high-school guys caterwauling their way through this little ditty appropriate to the occasion. (Sadly, no wine was served at these suppers – strictly Welch’s.)

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Aghh, Wendy always went to Church today, she taught me what today was,
      /Sad Yusef,

  30. Yusef drives a Kia

    Listening to Rogan and Jim Breuer, good stuff, B is a Glig, he just doesn’t know it, but their convo has convinced me to get a Yellow armband, seriously,

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      or maybe a Glib, I’m a terrible writer,