Thursday Afternoon SPring Cleaning Links

by | Apr 8, 2021 | Daily Links | 260 comments

OMWC and I hate cleaning. I mean, it’s tedious, boring, sometimes frustrating, and even when you do a good job, you are just doomed to repeat it ad infinitum.

Well, the Old Guy will be off carousing with Spud this weekend, and I am hoping that having him out of the way will make cleaning easier he will have a good time while I clean. Also, the Wonder Dog needs very badly to be bathed. (BTW, speaking of Wonder Dog, this is the best vacuum cleaner I’ve ever owned.)

While I hate cleaning, I do love “having cleaned.” So, I shall see what I can accomplish.

Let’s see what needs cleaning up in the news, shall we?

 

Here’s a mess that needs some attention.

Need to find actual monkeys? Just track the messy trail of destruction and flung poo. No, OMWC, everything is not better with monkeys…which doesn’t seem to be a problem in this story.

This mess couldn’t possibly be politically motivated. After spending all this time and money and energy, they will have to come up with something to justify this bullshit.

An artist whose life was a mess continues to cause messiness.

Should this be “not this mess again?!” Or does it really hold some promise now?

 

 

And, a little music. Have a good one, friends, and if anyone in the PHX metro area wants to come help me groom the pup, email me!

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.

260 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    Thanks for the reminder, I’m in the middle of cleaning the front room.

    The boxes of shelving have cluttered it a bit so it looks worse than when I started, despite being objectively more orderly

  2. Rebel Scum

    SPring Cleaning Links

    *Looks around at messy work space*

    *sighs*

    • UnCivilServant

      Don’t get me started on my workspace.

      *turns, causes avalanche*

    • pistoffnick

      I was on a jobsite in China and they had a strict 5S policy (some fancy Japanese business idea – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_(methodology).

      Everyone had a taped off area on their desks. One for the coffee cup. One for the calculator.

      I used to randomly move things just to piss them off.

      • UnCivilServant

        I can’t work like that.

        Not to someone else’s lines.

      • Not Adahn

        That’s a sure sign of someone who doesn’t have this slightest understanding of 5S and is just cargo culting Toyota.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Cargo culling is the foundation for 99.9% of methodology fads.

      • Tonio

        You’re an asshole. I like that in a person.

      • Tres Cool

        /joke writes itself

        “Arent you a homo?”

      • TARDis

        umm… we’re all homos.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I may not be overly “clean” but I am tidy. My work area is impeccable. Just don’t turn around to see the piles of boxes that I had to move to the other side of my spare bedroom to make room for it.

  3. Count Potato

    I still think anyone who keeps five pet monkeys is probably an asshole.

    • Claypoolsreservoir

      Still? How many pseudo zookeepers do you know?

      • UnCivilServant

        Look, those monkeys are for living projectile development studies.

        I got cited when I used orphans.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        I thought pig was the best alternative to human viscera? Or are the squealers just more politically correct?

      • UnCivilServant

        You’ve got me wrong. The projectiles are living. The occupant is supposed to steer and… it’s still not working.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        Interesting! Have you contacted Uber? Or wait, are the projectiles meant to survive in the end?

      • UnCivilServant

        The grant money ran out, so we never reached that stage of development.

        Something about “Unconscionable cruelty” and “war crimes”. I don’t get it.

      • Swiss Servator

        Most of them got out of the monkey keeping business after that unfortunate face eating incident a while back.

      • Count Potato

        It was posted this morning.

        Anyway, a long time ago, a friend of mine knew a group of friends who were vegan/animal rights people that wanted to free a pet monkey they knew someone had. As far as I can remember, they just wanted to let it loose. Which sounded like a terrible idea.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        That is an absolutely horrible idea, that’s almost destined to end in the death of said monkey.

        Unless the goal is saving it via killing it.

      • Not Adahn

        Is it a pseudo zoo if there are actual monkeys?

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        Great question. If tickets are sold, it’s no longer pseudo.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      What’s the proper number of pet monkeys? Is five too many or too few?

      • Count Potato

        Well, in 1935 172 monkeys escaped from a zoo in Long Island, NY.

      • Count Potato

        Unfortunately, no.

      • rhywun

        That is a lot of monkeys.

      • Count Potato

        Zero.

      • Old Man With Candy

        12.

  4. UnCivilServant

    Should this be “not this mess again?!” Or does it really hold some promise now?

    We’re getting closer, now it’s always nine years away!

    • The Other Kevin

      It will be 9 years away as soon as we get done bending the curve for 2 weeks.

    • Agent Cooper

      Which comes first?

      A) Fusion
      B) The end of the earth due to climate change

      • UnCivilServant

        Commercial Fusion power.

        Which will then face stacks of regulation because it threatens to make people’s lives better.

  5. Urthona

    It’s refreshing to see someone finally doing something about the scourge of… *checks notes*…. stabilizing braces.

    I feel safer already.

  6. Count Potato

    “Spanish auction house Ansorena pulled the painting from a Thursday auction, where it was estimated to sell for less than $1,800 — if it is indeed a Caravaggio, its true worth could be as much as $180 million if sold to a private collector, Italian art critic and politician Vittorio Sgarbi told reporters this week.”

    Wow.

    • Urthona

      Whoa.

      That’s more than I make in a year.

      • UnCivilServant

        You’re living on less than $150/mo?

        Oh, um…

        *drops quarters in Urthona’s cup*

      • Urthona

        I was referring to the $180 million.

        If it’s a real Caravaggio that baby can be turned into 100,000 Caravaggio knock offs and I’m a big fan of those.

      • rhywun

        Me too.

    • hayeksplosives

      Fiona Bruce hosted a documentary called “Fake or Fortune?” about the high stakes world of distinguishing art forgeries from the real thing.

      It was a disillusioning show. It’s a bunch of “experts” reading tea leaves at times. Some examples I was left with the distinct impression that the painting was genuine but was a victim of being labeled fake and the experts in question being too stubborn to admit to an earlier mistake.

      Other cases I thought were fraud just based on the lack of artistic competence, but they got the Top Men stamp of approval so they sold for millions.

      Crazy world, and not for a naive investor.

      • UnCivilServant

        When I buy art, I buy directly from the artist for the sake of the image.

        Even the most expensive commission hasn’t exceeded $600.

      • prolefeed

        I’d guess the majority of the original paintings / montages in our house are ones that I painted or assembled myself (we have a lot of arts). I think the most we’ve paid so far for an original art work was around $250, the least was $10.

        The count is complicated somewhat by the fact that several of my paintings have been original works that I bought just for the frame, and then I painted over the canvas.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve commissioned book covers including buying the rights off the artist so I can use them commercially.

  7. Rebel Scum

    The U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled, in what is known as the McGirt decision, that Oklahoma lacks jurisdiction for crimes on tribal reservations in which the defendants or victims are tribal citizens.

    Odd situation. Can these “nations” conduct foreign relations? Levy taxes? muster an army?

    • grrizzly

      What happens to these murderers when their conviction is tossed? Are they released from prison?

    • Grummun

      I have to assume that the only reason we still have “Indian Nations” is because there is enough grift in the status quo. Either in the BIA, or among the tribal elders, someone must making money on the way things are now.

      • R C Dean

        Especially since the advent of casinos, there is excellent graft in tribal “governments”. Considering the crushing poverty and utter dysfunction of most reservations, you would truly have to be a soulless scumbag to do what they do.

        Note: above comment based on limited personal experience. I will note one of those experiences was meeting the tribal ‘elders’ and the no-kidding Chicago mobsters running one of the WI casinos.

      • Gadfly

        The US was in the process of integrating the Indian Nations (by dissolving the governments and divvying up the land among the tribal members, as well as giving the members US citizenship) but FDR turned that around, and here we are. A lot of things FDR did just never got reversed, either do to ideological preference or institutional inertia.

  8. Count Potato

    Fusion is always ten years away.

    • Urthona

      Actually I can remember when it was 15 years away 30 years ago.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s Nine years away now!

      • Urthona

        Fuck. Time to buy stock.

      • Not Adahn

        The technology is getting closer asymptotically!

      • Bobarian LMD

        That last 15 minutes is gonna be a bitch.

    • Tonio

      ^This.

      And I fear the enviro-luddite left would be against it once they do get it right, because teh new-clearz. They really want to push the “renewable” energy sources, because feels.

      • Count Potato

        More than that, unlimited energy would almost eliminate scarcity.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, and it would not lead to their end goal which seems to be “fewer humans”.

      • R C Dean

        They really want to push the “renewable” energy sources, because feels graft.

  9. Not Adahn

    Cleaning constantly with the pup. And even so, the house smells like dog.

    • UnCivilServant

      You’ll go nose blind to it sooner or later.

      • Not Adahn

        Hopefully in four months the yard will be fenced, she’ll be housebroken, and I can get everything steam cleaned.

      • rhywun

        I need to steam clean. If there is one substance you cannot get nose-blind to, it’s cat pee.

    • Tulip

      Need more pictures!

      • Not Adahn

        Very difficult to get. She’s decided that the phone must be the greatest toy ever and she must have it.

    • Plisade

      “ Cleaning constantly with the pup.”

      Like, as a cloth?

  10. Tonio

    Old Business: I’d like to commend Hyperbole for his mid-day post which I just read. Much thought-provokingness.

    • Count Potato

      I disagree.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Get out of your echo-chamber Tonio

    • R C Dean

      Concur.

      If I had to pick one comment (other than my own, of course), it would be the observation that the core group sits right at the Dunbar number.

      • Ownbestenemy

        For funsies, if we had a huge influx of newbies, would the core group try to reorient itself back to the Dunbar number, splinter off, or move on with life.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        My guess.

        The Forums would get more traffic as people settle into new groups separated by interests while some core group would represent on the main discussion board.

  11. Rebel Scum

    A former FBI forensic accountant key to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is one of several accountants working on the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into the Trump Organization, people familiar with the matter say.

    I’m sure this is not a politically motivated investigation.

    • Claypoolsreservoir

      He’s a plant by the Trump team. No one better to waste time and money on a baseless witch hunt than to bring a member of the Mueller investigation on board.

  12. Rebel Scum

    Go to hell, double-barrel Joe

    “They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers, members of Congress, but they’ve passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence,” Biden said. “Enough prayers, time for some action.”

    Biden detailed proposed gun control bills during an appearance in the Rose Garden of the White House, after announcing limited executive actions on gun control. …

    “I know this has been a hobby horse of mine for a long time,” he said. “Got it done once. We should also ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country.” …

    “If I get one thing on my list, the Lord came down and said, ‘Joe, you get one of these,’ Give me that one,” Biden said. “Because I tell you what, there would be a come to the Lord moment, these folks would have, real quickly.” …

    “No matter how long it takes, we’re going to get these passed,” he said. “We’re not going to give up.”

      • Rebel Scum

        “shall not be infringed”, “shall make no law”, “shall not be violated” are all extremely ambiguous…

      • Bill Door

        “Well obviously this only referred to the firearms that were available at the time.” /jackass who thinks the Constitution is a “living document” except for the 2A

    • Urthona

      We are the laughing stock of the world because we flagrantly allow people to stabilize guns.

    • Agent Cooper

      IF IT’S SO BAD, REPEAL THE AMENDMENT

    • EvilSheldon

      “Because I tell you what, there would be a come to the Lord moment, these folks would have, real quickly…”

      Real quickly what, Joe? Finish your thought, if you can manage it without drooling on yourself…

    • R C Dean

      “They’ve passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence”, Biden said, before proposing new federal laws that would not reduce gun violence.

  13. J. Frank Parnell

    The monkey story is pretty shocking.

    • UnCivilServant

      Wait, they’re electric Monekys!?

    • Agent Cooper

      Did it happen on Salisbury Hill?

      • Not Adahn

        If looks could kill they probably will.

    • The Other Kevin

      I heard one of them has gone to heaven.

    • TARDis

      I think the monkeys just wanted to be in a creepy LH video.

  14. Count Potato

    “EXCLUSIVE: What WASN’T in Hunter Biden’s book: How he got unauthorized Secret Service protection, begged Joe to run for WH to salvage his own reputation and made porn films with prostitutes. Forensic experts prove laptop IS President’s son’s

    The bombshell cache of 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails, more than 2,000 photos and dozens of videos are packed with revelations conveniently missing from the memoir, including:

    How he begged his father to run for president in 2019 to salvage Hunter’s own reputation
    How he repeatedly dodged police action against him, despite constantly dealing with drug pushers and prostitutes and having multiple run-ins with law enforcement
    Hunter was guarded by a Secret Service agent while on a 2018 drug and prostitute binge in Hollywood, despite not being entitled to protection at the time and amid denials from the federal agency
    Joe Biden was afraid his text conversations with Hunter were being hacked even as they discussed his White House bid
    How Hunter’s laptop is brimming with evidence of apparent criminal activity by Hunter and his associates including drug trafficking and prostitution”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9445105/What-Hunter-Biden-left-tell-memoir-revealed.html

    Gosh, if only someone reported on that before the election.

    • Count Potato

      “Hunter’s laptop is a pandora’s box of shocking revelations, explicit photos and intimate communications.In the following days, DailyMail.com will publish more shocking stories from Hunter’s laptop, including:

      How Hunter blew hundreds of thousands on prostitutes, drugs and luxury cars, leaving him scrambling to avoid jail for $320k in unpaid taxes
      How five members of the Biden family have been to rehab for drug or alcohol abuse – and a stunning admission by Joe to his son
      The OTHER Biden family member planning to buy and cook crack, after falling into the disastrous addiction with Hunter
      Hunter’s unconventional and unlikely relationship with his well-known psychiatrist
      The whispered bedroom conversation with a prostitute caught on Hunter’s webcam, in which he confesses he had a previous laptop stolen – by Russians for blackmail”

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        in which he confesses he had a previous laptop stolen – by Russians for blackmail”

        See, Russian disinformation. Trump colluded with the Russians to make all of this up. Nothing to see here.

      • UnCivilServant

        There is a saying “You can’t blackmail an innocent man”. It’s not strictly true, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to blackmail a guilty one.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Wow. Thousand yard stare on that dog.

    • The Other Kevin

      Well, they didn’t know about it before the election.
      * kicks Washington Post article under rug *

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Look over there, a racist.

  15. Rebel Scum

    Contributions such as terrorizing our shipping, prompting the US to engage in its first armed conflict after its inception?

    The culture of Arab Americans will be honored this month, with the designation by the State Department of April as Arab American Heritage Month, reflecting the group’s contributions to the US “are as old as America itself,” a spokesman said.

    “The United States is home to more than 3.5 million Arab Americans representing a diverse array of cultures and traditions. Like their fellow citizens, Americans of Arab heritage are very much a part of the fabric of this nation,” Ned Price, a spokesman, said in a video statement on April 1.

    “And Arab Americans have contributed in every field and profession, many of them, in fact, serve here at the State Department and throughout the interagency.”

    • UnCivilServant

      They incited the Whiskey Rebellion?

      • UnCivilServant

        Happened years after the rebellion, so not the first armed conflict.

        Now if you said first external armed conflict…

        (And yes, I am familiar with the barbary wars)

      • Rebel Scum

        first external armed conflict

        I figured this would be inferred.

      • UnCivilServant

        We have a posse of pedants around here.

    • Hank

      In defense of everyone who (starting at least with Bush II) took great care to distinguish between Arabs and Muslims* who are terrorists and those who aren’t…

      A good multicultural message helps with the public diplomacy. It won’t convert any terrorists or jihadists, but it might work on fence-sitters.

      This doesn’t mean catering to every organization which *professes* to speak for Arabs or Muslims. Some of these outfits are not moderate at all.

      *And these are of course not always overlapping categories – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-EfW7gYzns

    • rhywun

      I wonder what the definition of “Arab” is. Because I bet the vast majority of those 3.5 million are not from the country with “Arab” in its name or even the peninsula.

      • Gadfly

        A lot of the peoples conquered by Muhammad’s successors assimilated into the Arab culture and identity. The Arab League contains a host of nations outside of the Arabian peninsula.

  16. Rebel Scum

    *President Puppet Potato strikes again.

    President Biden: “It is reassuring to see that for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The stolen bases and presumptions in that statement are rather staggering.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      And to support them, I will lift the restrictions on Delta for one week so everyone can fly on Delta without showing their ID’s. Since we all know that showing ID’s is racists.

      • UnCivilServant

        Fly without showing ID, or a ticket, or proof of payment, or proving they even exist,

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      Invoking Jim Crow is real unifying.

      • Gadfly

        It’s just an extension of their claim, without evidence, that white supremacy runs rampant in this country. Their language has been extremely divisive lately, despite the empty calls for “unity”.

    • rhywun

      Wow, America sure is getting a real look at this guy. I don’t remember him being such an asshole in his previous “jobs”.

  17. db

    I spent last weekend cleaning the barn and filling a dumpster. The GF cleaned the house and filled the dumpster. We “have cleaned” and it feels good; now we can get on with more interesting things.

    • Hank

      Antiquing?

  18. Pope Jimbo

    help me groom the pup

    Kids and their euphemisms these days

  19. Mojeaux

    Well I just got an interesting book in to quote: Lyme Disease and the SS Elbrus: Collaboration Between the Nazis and Communists in Chemical and Biological Warfare. This oughtta be good.

    • Count Potato

      I hope reading it doesn’t tick you off.

      • Mojeaux

        I format, deer, so I won’t be reading anything but random snippets.

      • TARDis

        Fine for you, I plan to fawn.

      • Gender Traitor

        As long as you make a buck.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Doen’t count on it.

  20. Rebel Scum

    Imagine my shock.

    Speaking at an event at the Norfolk waterfront, Northam said McAuliffe was a “visionary” with tireless energy who is best suited to lead Virginia out of the economic recovery from the pandemic and cement the transformational changes Democrats have implemented since taking control of state government.

    “Let’s all get behind him. Let’s keep Virginia blue, and let’s win in November,” said Northam, who under Virginia law cannot seek a consecutive term in office.

    McAuliffe, the presumptive front-runner in the five-person Democratic primary, to be held in June, has been methodically locking up and rolling out an unmatched number of endorsements and said he was honored to have Northam’s.

    • Hank

      “lead Virginia out of the economic recovery”

      Huh-huh, huh

    • Claypoolsreservoir

      I hate this state and the parasites that make up its majority.

  21. Tundra

    SP!

    You have my deepest sympathy. New/old dog sheds like she’s at least four dogs. After 13 years of a non-shedder, it’s quite amazing.

    Whoever invented the robot vacuum is my hero.

    Thanks for the lynx and have fun cleaning!

  22. Brochettaward

    Where the white bitches at?

      • SP

        This actually made me LOL.

    • Rebel Scum

      The Blanche Kovid Karens are hanging out at a Tropical Smoothie sitting ass to ass and complaining about “covid deniers” as they prepare to don their masks and get into a Dodge Caravan together to carpool back home.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I would think house Chardonnay at Applebee’s would be Karen’s go-to.

    • Hyperion

      Only imaginary white bitches round here today.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      That’s no way to talk about your mom. Winston’s mom on the other hand is fair game.

  23. KSuellington

    When I lived in Brazil my Italian buddy had a couple mico monkeys, about 8-10 inches tall. He bought them from a street fair there because he felt sorry for them locked up in tiny cages. He released them to the giant mango tree in his backyard and they loved it. One of them really liked us and would hang out on our shoulders and go on car trips with us. He was awesome. One time we took him up to a beach town fifty miles up the coast in our VW Bug. The town had a turtle reserve and so when we were walking down the Main Street of the town we ran into a biologist lady who got super pissed at us for having it (they aren’t legal as pets in Brazil). She wanted to take it and said she’d call the police if we didn’t hand it over. There is no way we wanted either to happen so I guilt tripped her about how she would be forever removing it from its family in the mango tree behind his house and it worked. She told us to get out of town and not come back with the mico. From that time on he just hung out with us when we smoked joints in the backyard.

    • Sean

      ??

      • KSuellington

        Praia do Forte. An hour or so above Salvador.

    • Ted S.

      Did the monkey smoke joints too?

      • KSuellington

        The monkey was naturally high.

        So cool to watch those guys interact up close. The facial expressions were something else.

  24. Grummun

    Me: This is the vacuum that a woman who owns a Great Pyrenees says is the best vacuum she’s ever owned.

    Wife: Buy it.

  25. Count Potato

    “Marin County’s Discriminatory ‘Universal Basic Income’

    Only ‘mothers of color’ will be eligible for payments of $1,000 a month.

    Some 125 residents in Marin County, Calif., can expect to begin receiving payments of $1,000 a month starting in May—no strings attached. It’s an experiment providing a “universal basic income,” or UBI, to low-income Americans.

    In conjunction with the Marin Community Foundation, which plans to contribute $3 million to the effort, the Marin County Board of Supervisors has allocated $400,000 in public funds for the experiment. The program is similar to one recently completed in Stockton, Calif., but one major difference sets the Marin experiment apart: race and sex discrimination.

    The Stockton UBI experiment provided payments to 125 residents of neighborhoods at or below Stockton’s median household income. The Marin regime will do the same, but beneficiaries must be “mothers of color.” That term is undefined, but it’s clear that fathers and white mothers are ineligible to participate. A similar race-based scheme has been announced in Oakland, Calif.

    No matter what one thinks of UBI as a policy matter, the use of public funds in the Marin scheme is legally dubious. The California Constitution’s equal-protection clause, like the federal one in the 14th Amendment, applies “strict scrutiny”—the highest possible level of judicial scrutiny—to racial classifications. California courts, unlike federal ones, also apply strict scrutiny to sex classifications. In Connerly v. State Personnel Board (2001), a California appeals court made that clear in invalidating both race- and sex-based affirmative-action programs…”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/marin-countys-discriminatory-universal-basic-income-11617832570

    • Hank

      “That term is undefined, but it’s clear that fathers and white mothers are ineligible to participate.”

      There’s always a trans workaround for the “mother” thing, but self-identifying as a different race still isn’t cool.

      • Mojeaux

        self-identifying as a different race still isn’t cool.

        “I may look white, but my DNA analysis says ‘not completely’.”

      • Gadfly

        Is Neanderthal white?

    • Mojeaux

      Only ‘mothers of color’ will be eligible for payments of $1,000 a month.

      How “of color” does a mother have to be?

      • UnCivilServant

        You’re too translucent.

      • Mojeaux

        That’s racist.

    • Bill Door

      Ah Stockton… The city that less than a decade ago filed for chapter 9 bankruptcy. Never change your ways.

      • Ted S.

        +1 Fat City

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      The fallacy of “race”. My standard comment for issues like this: For what level of “black”? If you have one white parent are you still “black”? Grandparent? Is there some sort of reverse “one drop rule”? Because if you go back far enough everyone is the same “race” As little as 60k years ago all homo sapien sapiens were Africans.

  26. grrizzly

    Naomi Wolf: Can’t BELIEVE I am retweeting this but it’s true. And seeing what has happened to the people of unarmed democracies worldwide absolutely terrifies me.

    Yes, widespread gun ownership seems like a key factor correlating with the degree of the brutality covid tyranny in the West. But how is it possible that she was a political advisor to Bill Clinton?

    • Hyperion

      Well, the response by Noem is spot on. At least part of it:

      “Shall NOT be infringed.” #2A

      So, Guv Noem, when are you going to cement that in to SD law? And I mean in the literal sense. Shall not be infringed means what it say, and that includes background checks and prohibition from firearms for felons. If they’re too dangerous to own a gun, they’re too dangerous to be out of prison. Besides, it’s tyrannical to deny anyone the right to self defense.

    • Count Potato

      She was a smokeshow back then.

    • Gadfly

      Yes, widespread gun ownership seems like a key factor correlating with the degree of the brutality covid tyranny in the West.

      As a successful politician (and revolutionary) once observed: “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. The question of who should own arms is in part a question of who should rule. A nation is only a true democracy, wherein the people rule, if the people are permitted to be armed.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s a twitter link.

      You post them all the time, why should it counfound you?

      Did you make the mistake of following it?

      • Count Potato

        It means it’s something I can’t quote such as a picture, video, etc.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Imagine being so willfully blind that you can write this, while believing it’s (((white people))) who are the racists in the narrative.

      • Count Potato

        Even worse it’s a prayer.

  27. R C Dean

    I’ve been dodging “cleaning” the garage for weeks. Pretty soon I will be in the zone of “its too hot”.

    Target number 1: the gun safe and misc. bags and boxes of gun stuff.

    Target number 2: the high shelves, which is where my stuff winds up. Somehow.

    Not a target at all: Mrs. Dean’s stuff.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I’ve been dodging cleaning a few areas as well. There’s a shelving unit in the garage, the home office, both cars, and even the backyard needs some rearranging.

      I’ve really struggled, over my marriage, with the lack of unilateral control over my surroundings devolving into a lack of giving a shit about the cleanliness and tidiness of said surroundings. Not to pigsty levels, but, for example, there’s a basket of clean laundry in my closet from 2 weeks ago. Wouldn’t take but 10 minutes to hang up, but it doesn’t come front of mind when I have free time.

  28. grrizzly

    Thomas Sowell: Of all ignorance, the ignorance of the educated is the most dangerous. Not only are educated people likely to have more influence, they are the last people to suspect that they don’t know what they are talking about when they go outside their narrow fields.

    TRUTH

  29. wdalasio

    I’m probably late on this story, but apparently Ta-Nehisi Coates has written the new Captain America, casting Jordan Peterson as Nazi-demon, Red Skull. I guess that makes all the sense in the world. I mean, when I think of Nazis, the first thing that comes to my mind is messages like “The world is a terrible place and the only way to deal with it is by taking responsibility.” or “Every human being has inherent worth and a spark of the divine.”. Yeah, that’s totally what the Nazis had in mind.

    Seriously, at this point I don’t even know if these lunatics believe the garbage they’re peddling.

    • The Other Kevin

      If there’s anything Captain America has always stood against, it’s keeping your room clean and being nice to people.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It’s almost like they’re intentionally flipping cultural icons on their heads out of spite.

      • Ted S.

        That *is* the point.

        People must not be allowed to have the cultural touchstones they like, but only the ones the woke think they should have.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s the destruction of common culture to atomize people and replace the feeling of kinship or at least a shared point of reference with the state.

    • Hank

      Coates is promoting discrimination against someone for the color of his skull?

      • R C Dean

        Why not? He is a stone cold racist, after all.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Later, Red Skull shows up with an army of lobsters, but is defeated when when Captain America sneaks into his hidden base and unmakes all the beds.

      • Mojeaux

        LOL

    • Tundra

      Peterson should cut Coates in on the profits from all the extra books he’s gonna sell. What perfect timing.

      And the memes are glorious.

      • Spudalicious

        I may have to change my bio to, “Hail Lobster!”.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Why is he bothering so much with the tweety anyway?

      • Count Potato

        He has 1.8 million followers?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Well, if it sells books. But most of the traffic looks fatuous.

    • Hank

      Whether it’s stomping you with the left foot or the right foot, it’s still a Boot.

      …no, sounds too Canadian…

      If you want a vision of the future, imagine Max Boot stepping in it forever.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      A “Biden Republican” is just a fucking Democrat.

      • Hank

        “Why are all these Democrats &^%^ing my &%^$, don’t they know I’m a Republican?”

        (adapted from the Onion)

      • Urthona

        Biden is so moderate too. So very very moderate.

  30. Gustave Lytton

    I want off this world.

    Legal department at work is bragging about how they use race and other non-relevant and legally dubious characteristics to evaluate outside law firms including at least an informal quota system. Not bragging internally but on public forums about this.

    They go further and highlight the case of an outside counsel’s junior attorney that they pushed the person’s supervisors for better assignments because our in-house attorneys felt the person wasn’t being given opportunities and scut work is beneath a junior attorney. Now the usual way is if someone is being undervalued is to make your own offer and hire them away. Nope, our legal department inserted itself into that work relationship. Totally unprofessional, inappropriate, a continuing conflict of interest, sets that attorney up to be our puppet in the eyes of peers (along with at risk if, or rather when our fickle contracting decides to ditch the outside firm and hire another), and puts our company at risk of liability in a number of areas for being the de facto employer (we did after all determine what were appropriate work tasks for the person and her career progression at the nominal employer). It’s unbelievable.

    Sorry for poorly written rant. I tried to obscure a few details so it’s not too obvious for someone familiar with the situation.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Oh, and the jackass writing has a hipster douche haircut and wears clothing more appropriate for a night out partying in Portlandia, instead of the professional attire of a senior attorney.

    • Nephilium

      My work recently sent out a message from the CEO about the Georgia voting law. I was tempted to reply, but I enjoy getting paid, so I did not.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Ask him what specific part of the law he objects to. I bet he can’t answer.

      • Hank

        “The part with the Jim Crow in it.”

      • Tundra

        I thought it was Jim Eagle?

      • Nephilium

        Specifically: restrictions to early voting, voting access, “unreasonable” picture ID requirements, and handing out items (food/water) to people waiting in line to vote.

        At least they mention that it’s a privilege and not a right.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        So that tells me that he’s still ignorant. People who object to the ban on food and water really should learn how elections used to go. If you want to make the food and water issue irrelevant, shorten the wait time to vote.

        Which leads me to ask, why are there such long lines in some parts of the country? I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait more than about 15 minutes in CA. Is it that there aren’t enough voting locations? Not enough voting machines? Not enough people checking IDs? Long and complicated ballots? Idiots how wait until they are in the voting booth before they read the ballot?

      • Count Potato

        It not even that GA banned food and water. Voters can bring their own, and poll workers can set it up on tables.

        Handing out food and water to people in line is illegal in many states.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Exactly. Long lines should last once or less. Repeat indicates intentional incompetence.

      • rhywun

        I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait more than about 15 minutes in CA.

        ^white privilege

      • Gustave Lytton

        These stupid fucking Roperites are bound and determined to cut down every custom, more, and tradition to get at their devil.

      • rhywun

        It’s becoming more evident to me by the day that a prime requirement of entering the C-suite is a keen sense of how to debase yourself in public.

  31. UnCivilServant

    I am so glad my neighbors have no idea about my hobbies. I just spray-primed a stack of minis. I had an investment of over $250 sitting in a box on top of my trash can where anyone could try to snatch it.

    I mean I spent all that money a while back and I’m just now assembling and priming it.

    • creech

      Adam and Eve?

      • Hank

        Then where did Cain get his wife?

      • Mojeaux

        Sloppy seconds off his dad (Lilith).

      • UnCivilServant

        There was a shortage of options available.

  32. DEG

    The company isn’t generating energy yet, and won’t for the foreseeable future. The next goal for the company, according to Binderbauer, is to develop the technology to the point where it can create the conditions necessary for making energy from a fusion reaction.

    I thought I smelled bullshit in the fusion article.

  33. Count Potato

    “Breaking: Last week, shocking racist messages appeared on the campus of @albioncollege in Mich., prompting a large response from the administration. The FBI was even put on standby. Today, Albion police announced that a black student admitted to the crimes”

    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1380233116581761027

    Shocking.

    • Hank

      ‘“We know the acts of racism that have occurred this week are not about one particular person or one particular incident. We know that there is a significant history of racial pain and trauma on campus and we are taking action to repair our community,” college officials tweeted. “We will change and heal together as a community, because we are committed to doing the work.”

      ‘College officials are encouraging members of the community to care for one another and lean on faculty, staff and community members who are supporting them, according to a tweet.’

      They were working up this yuge outrage-boner and you can’t expect them to instantly detumesce.

      Meanwhile, the FBI, Michigan Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the “Delta girls are sluts” graffito that was recently discovered in a classroom hallway in the Women’s Studies department.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Detumesce. I learned a new word today.

      • Hank

        I learned it from William F. Buckley.

        It’s not as dirty as it sounds. It was a Buckley column saying that the 1968 riots marked the political detumescence of Charles de Gaulle.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        JHTFC

        The FBI is investigating graffiti now.

    • Hyperion

      This is all so fucking absurd. I remember back a couple year ago when that Jussie shit was going on. At one of the local organizations here, someone saw a section of rope hanging at a construction site, which of course had to he a ‘noose’. and they immediately, without any initial investigation or verifying any details, sprang into action and got the feds involved.

      This country is doomed, it’s truly over this time. And for further proof, they are now canceling sports stars over perfectly normal shit like partying and consorting with the wiminz.

      Fucking luddite puritans wannabes.

  34. LCDR_Fish

    Re: the Trump twitter archives discussion this morning.

    Reminded me of this article about Clarence Thomas from a few days ago.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/justice-thomas-questions-censorship-power-of-big-tech/

    After all, although the case was mooted by a change in administration, it was also mooted by Twitter banning President Trump from the platform. Which begs the question, who has more actual power to suppress speech, President Trump, who excluded some users from his comment thread, or the company that evicted him from the platform permanently and cut him off from his 89 million followers?

    According to Justice Thomas, “If part of the problem is private, concentrated control over online content and platforms available to the public, then part of the solution may be found in doctrines that limit the right of a private company to exclude.” He cites historical regulations and requirements placed on “common carriers,” such as railroads and phone companies, requiring them to serve the general public, and similar laws governing gathering places such as restaurants and amusement parks. This is an open invitation for Congress to step in and rein in the power of Big Tech in the name of free-speech principles.

    But Justice Thomas leaves us with a tantalizing question — regardless of any congressional action, does the First Amendment already apply to Big Tech companies because they now have more power to suppress public speech than government? Per Justice Thomas, “If the aim is to ensure that speech is not smothered, then the more glaring concern must perforce be the dominant digital platforms themselves. . . . The extent to which that power matters for purposes of the First Amendment and the extent to which that power could lawfully be modified raise interesting and important questions.”

    Interesting and important indeed. Justice Thomas left us a clue to how this might play out by twice citing a case from 1980 called PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins. There, the Supreme Court held that California could require private malls to allow pamphleteers seeking to orderly distribute reading materials inside the malls without infringing on the free-speech rights of the mall itself. This means that if a court today, for example, required Amazon to reverse its ban on my EPPC colleague Ryan Anderson’s book on transgender policy, it would not be an unconstitutional forced endorsement of Anderson’s message because no one reasonably believes Amazon endorses the contents of any of the other tens of thousands of books it sells.

    • Hank

      Well, the boundary between “state action” and “private action” (and never the twain shall meet!) seems to get blurry when these companies get inundated by angry letters from Congresspeople of the ruling party, telling them they’re not censoring *enough.*

    • Urthona

      I’m not sure if I buy it and this isn’t just conservatives acting like Democrats — making up a rationalization to justify what they want.

      I will say, though, if the government is heavily regulating these companies — like the Democratic party wants — then yeah I have a big problem with their censorship.

    • Urthona

      The lawyer at the National Review has actually been giving pretty reasonable daily updates on the trial.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Yeah…but most of them are behind the NR Plus paywall and I don’t seem to get 5 free monthly articles per VPN login anymore.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Geragos can be a bit smarmy but I like the guy and he doesn’t seem to be very impressed with the prosecution or the media coverage which seems to be divorced from reality.

    • Hyperion

      Whenever I think of Carolla, I immediately think about him on some show I saw years ago where he was bitching about Cali traffic laws.

      He says something to the effect of ‘These pussy cops are sitting at the top of hill at 4am waiting for someone to run this ridiculously slow traffic light so that they can pounce. How do I know when I’m sitting at a traffic light at 4am in the morning, that it’s OK to go? Because there ain’t no fucking cars, you fucking pussies!’. LOL.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He can rant with the best of them.

  35. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Probably posted already but here’s a pretty sweet Covid freakout on an elevator by a girl who looks young enough to where she shouldn’t be so worried (but who knows though, I guess she could have some kind of condition but damn):

    https://youtu.be/MVBJT2zeSqs

    Her brain’s broken.

    • commodious spittoon

      I guess she could have some kind of condition

      Don’t get in a screaming match with a stranger if you’re that compromised, maybe.

    • rhywun

      If she has some sort of condition, she shouldn’t be in a public elevator. She should be locking herself in at home and letting the rest of us get on with our lives.

      This is the thing I hate most about the last thirteen months and counting. When did it become a requirement for the 99% to cater to the whims of the 1% or less? Yes, we can politely tolerate them and explain to them to kindly fuck off; but rearranging our lives around their neuroses is a bit much.

  36. westernsloper

    The music link was weird af and awesome!

  37. DEG

    GET BACK ON THE PLANTATION!

    Progressive activists denounced an Arab American Republican state Rep. as a “disgrace” to his race for supporting an anti-racism bill during Wednesday’s House session.

    The bill, HB 544, would prevent government employees and contractors from using “divisive content” based on the premise of racial or gender superiority, like Critical Race Theory (CRT). Several state school districts have made CRT part of their curricula, employee training, or both.

    The House voted down an amendment to remove the language from the budget by just a seven-vote margin. One legislator supporting HB544 was state Rep. Daryl Abbas (R-Salem), chairman of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. He spoke on the floor of the House about his family: His Italian Catholic mother and his Egyptian Muslim father; his Irish wife and his multi-racial son.

    “If it were true, as Critical Race Theory insists, that White people are inherently racist, my family wouldn’t exist,” Abbas said. “And I’m not going to allow anyone to teach my son that this mother is racist because she’s White, but his father isn’t because he’s not.”

    • Hank

      ‘a “disgrace” to his race’

      I thought Arabs were white – or is that only if they’re criminals?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Good Arabs are POC, bad Arabs are white.

      • rhywun

        “Like, Tibetans or something?”

      • Count Potato

        Remember that guy who shot Trayvon Martin was a “white hispanic”? The whole thing is a giant game of Calvinball.

      • UnCivilServant

        According to the census, Hispanics are overwhelmingly white.

    • Hank

      I just checked the definition part of the bill, and it sure looks anti-racist. And if you’re not anti-racist…

      II. “Divisive concept” means the concept that:

      (a) One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;

      (b) The state of New Hampshire or the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist;

      (c) An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously;

      (d) An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex;

      (e) Members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex;

      (f) An individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex;

      (g) An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;

      (h) Any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex; or

      (i) Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by a particular race to oppress another race.

      (j) The term “divisive concepts” includes any other form of race or sex stereotyping or any other form of race or sex scapegoating.

      http://gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/billText.aspx?sy=2021&id=714&txtFormat=html

      • DEG

        Yep.

        Democrats in the State House are howling mad. The Governor thinks this should be left up to local school districts.

        I didn’t look at the budget to see if the original text from HB 544 made it into HB 2 but I assume it did.

      • Hank

        I’m not sure what I think about (j) – on the one hand, human biology could be seen as sex stereotyping and the Holocaust can be seen as scapegoating the Germans. At least in the hands of creative school officials trying to sabotage the law.

        But without the general language of (j), educators could act like the Jansenists each time their doctrines got condemned – “we don’t teach these *specific* doctrines, so with a little tweaking we’ll go back to spreading our ideas which are totally unconnected to these denunciations!”

      • Hank

        Oh, workplace training by govt agencies and contractors

    • rhywun

      a “disgrace” to his race

      “Arab-American” is not a race. At least, I’ve never seen it listed on any form I’ve ever had to fill out.

      Because the government has never felt the need to cater to them/grovel/put them on a pedestal.

      Until now, apparently. And for political purposes – imagine that!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      My verbal filters are just about gone. It would best if I don’t encounter any of these pieces of human filth.

  38. DEG

    Ten digit dialing coming to NH

    In six months, New Hampshire residents will have to dial 10 digits — including their 603 area code — for every in-state phone call, state officials said.
    The change is part of the rollout of 988 as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, according to the Public Utilities Commission.
    The switch is necessary because some phone numbers in the Granite State begin with 988, the PUC said Wednesday.

    • Hank

      Yeah, I got a digit for them all right…

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Switched to ten-digit dialing probably around a decade ago here in Alberta. With most people owning cellphones these days, it’s just one programming effort with three extra keystrokes and then done. I’ve never found it to be an issue.

        BTW, since Alberta’s actually rolled back their opening plans ’cause of the ‘Vid variants, I’ve decide to rename Alberta as

        Hopeless, Fascist Medico-Authoritarian HellWorld™.

        It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, but for now it’ll do.

      • westernsloper

        “You people” are being ran by some hardcore tyrants. I have no explanation other than that. I am too lazy at the moment to decipher the data the province puts out. I also think Canadians are more compliant even than the weak ass compliant US population. The continent may well be doomed. I can’t wait until Biden calls the Trudeau to make arrangements to get rid of some of these covid kids crossing the border.

    • rhywun

      Well, that went in a direction I wasn’t expecting.

      Usually it’s because you got a new area code. Like the rest of us in real states got a decade or three ago. 🙂

      • DEG

        I remember when PA started getting new area codes.

      • Ted S.

        I remember when we got a new address because of 911. Before that we were “Route [number] box [number and letter]”, but since the 911 dispatchers needed street addresses to send emergency services to, all of the streets in the county got house numbers.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        One of the incentives for moving to the country was the absence of an address. The region where I previously lived I had one address, a PO Box, even though we moved five times. In contrast, our new home (35 years so far) we’ve had 5 different addresses despite only moving once.

  39. westernsloper

    I work very late tomorrow night which is way the hell off schedule but whatever. My plan is to drink my face off tonight so I can sleep in a good bit and then go whirlwind cleaning compound de sloper. Shit’s outa hand around this place. A dump run is planned. I hope to see another free range dildo at the dump.

    • KSuellington

      Seeing dildoes stuffed into tight enclosures one on top of the other is heart wrenching. They should be left free to gambol.

      • westernsloper

        If you joined the weekend happy hours more often you could have witnessed the first as my background. db labeled it the Landfilldo.

  40. Count Potato

    Oh, I went and looked. Those CDC graphics using the NPC meme are real.

  41. Gender Traitor

    OMWC and I hate cleaning. I mean, it’s tedious, boring, sometimes frustrating, and even when you do a good job, you are just doomed to repeat it ad infinitum.

    Truer words were never written.

    When you have two long-haired cats – one black, one mostly brown tabby – who constantly tussle AND off-white plush wall-to-wall carpet, vacuuming is an exercise in futility. Even so, I don’t mind using my Dyson cordless when I can’t stand it any more.

  42. Raven Nation

    Well, the story on the Manhattan DA’s investigation into Trump was interesting. Does anyone know the status of Vance’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Cyrus Vance didn’t kill himself.