It’s Saturday evening, so it must be links!

by | May 8, 2021 | Daily Links | 293 comments

Yes, I’m drinking beer today.

 

Howdy kids! Let’s depress ourselves, shall we?

 

THE FUCKING MOUSE THAT BUILT THE COMPANY IS BLACK!!!

 

If you want to see the future, read old sci-fi.

 

UMass Amherst is asshoe.

 

“Looking for love in all the wrong places.”

 

We lost her. What a rollercoaster life.

 

RIP Tawny.

About The Author

Spudalicious

Spudalicious

Survey says I’m a Paleolibertarian bitches. That means I eat “L”ibertarians for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Soave tastes a little fruity. Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound quite right…

293 Comments

  1. Sean

    Wow, that mask story…So fucking stupid.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      From the dead thread:
      Let’s hear your take on the Sig fanboys.

      The only fanboys with grayer hair shoot 1911’s

      Ruger: Bill’s dead so now we can build anything, including Kel Tecs!
      S&W: At least we’re not Colt
      Colt: I can’t hear you complain over this pile of DOD contracts.
      Beretta: The cops said I was too dumb, the Army said I was too fat…or…I wish they issued me one in Afghanistan.

      • Sean

        ?

      • Not Adahn

        KelTecs with Ruger build quality and customer service? Where’s my R-KSG dammit!

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Right?

      • pistoffnick

        I am very much a Ruger fanboi.

    • TARDis

      It’s infuriating, but if you keep bending over and spreading your ass cheeks, you will keep getting it good and hard.

      Went to a nearby popular Tapas joint for the first time last evening. They were half- full 20 minutes after the doors opened. By the time we left, people were lined up for an hour wait. Not.one.mask.in.sight. First time I’ve seen that since April 2020.

      • slumbrew

        Even here in progville, demand is sky-high – waiter at the Mexican place next door said they did 350 covers last night, which is impressive given how much they had to reduce their inside seating (they have tables both in front and out back now too).

        Still, most everyone is wearing a mask outside – I keep shaking my head at the number of people walking by themselves, wearing a mask.

        I’m hopeful people will unclench as the weather continues to improve, but I dunno.

      • rhywun

        I’m hopeful people will unclench as the weather continues to improve, but I dunno.

        It should. It happened here last summer.

        Unless people are more beat down than I thought.

      • grrizzly

        Last summer the governor’s edict on mask wearing outdoors was exactly the same as today: not required if you can distance yourself. Still 95% of locals wore masks everywhere outside last summer. Now it’s starting to get better: this share went down to 80-85%. This is the first time it happened in the last 12 months.

      • rhywun

        In my Brooklyn neighborhood it was down below 50% last summer.

      • rhywun

        There are Trump strongholds nearby and Dem strongholds too. My immediate neighborhood is about 50/50, and a mix of recent immigrants and lifers who never went suburban. But a lot of both groups are sick of this crap. The true believers are in the trendy neighborhoods which this one is not.

    • grrizzly

      I’m not terribly surprised. I read about these rules for college students last summer. All Tufts students here have been wearing masks constantly everywhere.

      • rhywun

        Another example of the state getting its nominally independent organs to do their dirty work for them.

    • westernsloper

      So fucking stupid.

      You can say that again.

  2. Winston

    Disney is colluding with Chinese genocide abroad and advocating for destructive policies at home. The civilizing effects of free trade everyone!

    • hayeksplosives

      I am becoming skeptical at the power of free trade to spread a more free and tolerant way of life.

      Some people don’t want freedom. Some don’t want individualism.

      And some people are asshoe.

      • TARDis

        Some? Goodness, you’re too kind.

      • Winston

        The main argument as far as I can tell is that prosperity it good, we need creative destruction for prosperity to occur and we need freedom for creative destruction to occur properly, ergo prosperity leads to freedom.

        But what if people don’t like prosperity or think that we can prosperity with freedom? The Chicoms appear to have done the latter while many modern politicak movements don’t like the former.

      • Winston

        *can get prosperity without freedom*

      • The Last American Hero

        appear being the operative word.

      • zwak

        This comes up a lot, but I think there is a very important step that gets missed, especially when we talk about a place like Afganistan or China.

        They never had democracy, and the concept is quite foreign to them.

        But, if you look at a place like Inda or Hong Kong, where a group like the British were in charge for a very long time and instilled a lot of basic ideas, albeit they didn’t go the full mile, the totalitarian ideas of CCP or the Taliban come to a lot closer to what they have always had; tribalism or feudalism. It’s why Russia didn’t become a libertarian paradise after the Soviets were done. They went from serf to communist and had no idea how a truly free electoral system worked. They were just too used to a strong man of some sort a la Putin.

      • Winston

        Like I have said before it is really is an overgeneralized and overly simplistic analysis of English and Dutch history. And overlooks the US influence on Taiwan and South Korea post-WWII as well.

      • zwak

        Then lay it out. What, in your opinion, keeps so many of these places back, vs. ones who can make the leap?

      • Winston

        Enough people who support freedom?

      • zwak

        And how do you get them there?

        Follow-up question; why Hong Kong and not mainland China? What is the driving factor?

      • Winston

        I do agree with your remarks about China and Afghanistan. Hong Kong being under British colonial rule for 150 or so years did give it a British influence that did not happen mainland China.

        Another big reason China dif not democratize is that the rich urbanites fear the rural and urban poor who outnumber them so they don’t want democeacy and instead support the party that supports their interests.

        And how do you get them there?

        That’s the rub. I don’t know?
        The public school system and the universities were supposed to but they didn’t.

        Did the memories of the wars of religion and a specific brand of English nonconformist dissident Protestantism that arose in the 17th century help explain it?

      • zwak

        Well, those specific memories are part of what I think motivates it, and you can see the differences in the various colonies and the relationship they have to free enterprise.

        Another factor in this is that we, along with Britain, are backsliding. And this is the general bitch hereabouts. And this beggars the question of why? What is the force that encourages a regression to the mean of history? There is always going to be a trade-off between freedom and security, and capitalism and its driving force, free enterprise, while dynamic can lead to great losses, which terrifies people. And this leads to the greater loss of rights to the Leviathan, State.

        It is only when people see their specific rights being torn away that they start to worry. So, yes, to your last part. The further we remove ourselves from a great conflict which directly affects us, the more we allow the concept of rights to fall away. And, along with having a strong tradition of rights, this is a deciding factor. But foremost is that history of rights.

    • Ted S.

      Free trade certainly didn’t make Winston any less of a raging asshole.

  3. Winston

    They still name themselves after Amherst?

    • slumbrew

      Well, the town hasn’t renamed itself so far.

      But Jeff himself is right out.

  4. egould310

    I’m the firstingest firster that ever firsted. In first place. What joy I feel!

    Tawney Kitaen. What kind of last name is Kitaen? Sounds made up.

    • creech

      Johnny Crawford, who played Mark on the “Rifleman,” died too. There were 168 episodes and some researcher once counted that Lucas killed more than 200 people during the run of the show. I wonder what kind of wacked out adult “Mark” would have been after seeing his Paw kill that many people.

      • Plinker762

        There is a kill count video on YouTube.

  5. slumbrew

    Insty dubbed her “Jaguar’s best salesperson”.

    That video probably sold more than one.

    • Spudalicious

      Sadly, she thereafter put a Jaguar worth of cocaine up her nose.

      • Chafed

        When I read about her divorce from the baseball player I knew she was in trouble. She had to be a major problem for him to file for divorce.

      • C. Anacreon

        She was super hot as the star of a movie called “The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak” which came out in the early 80s. Some stoner buds and I actually went to see it as a lark on a Saturday matinee the weekend it opened. It’s actually not a bad movie for the genre, some good laughs, and a lot of full frontal Tawny.

  6. hayeksplosives

    That story about the macaw makes me sad.

    I know I shouldn’t anthropomorphize animals (they hatethat) but I can’t help it.

    Poor lonely critter.

    • TARDis

      they hatethat
      Thass just the wuns wut can’t reed gud.

    • Chafed

      It’s very sad.

  7. Winston

    https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-its-hard-hard-times-in-newfoundland-and-it-doesnt-look-hopeful?fbclid=IwAR3oaHIUjyYLENbydmCUSXUbptc6EOFMSdY2htFjlgjdZ69P25LxJORScGQ

    Newfoundland is gutted. It is on the splitting table. If — to change the metaphor only slightly — it does not chop all future budgets for years to come, decimate public services, and bend to the imperatives of the financial markets, its situation is desperate. I cannot think of a more devastating moment in Newfoundland public affairs since the collapse of the cod fishery

    Bleak? Bleak doesn’t do it. One of the notes in Greene’s report is quite shocking when you step back from it. It is that Newfoundland and Labrador has escaped the skeleton hand of bankruptcy thus far only because the federal programs to combat COVID-19 brought new cash into the province. It is not a good thing when a pandemic is the reason a province is not in bankruptcy.

    Her prescriptions are brutal. I don’t think she left anything out except perhaps selling Signal Hill and the rock on which it perches, and transferring Gros Morne National Park to Bill Gates or Elon Musk for a handful of their billions. I can just hint at a few, there are so many. New taxes on almost everything, slashing the provincial budget for years to come, selling off Nalcor Energy, selling the provincial liquor corporation, cutting university funding, increasing fees on everything that moves … it goes on and on. The summary state of Newfoundland comes in one compressed statement that “the province also has the oldest population, highest unemployment, highest per capita health-care spending and the poorest health outcomes in the country.”

    First goes the Newfield then the rest of Canada

    Don’t forget the main reason Newfoundland joined Canada was Free Shit. Hell pretty much free shit, taking Indian land, and not being America are the only reasons Canada was created for in the first place and still exists at all.

    • hayeksplosives

      That’s bleak indeed. Sounds a lot like the old coal towns in Appalachia that now have no industry and no jobs.

      Should they be propped up by welfare and thus allowed to continue living there?

      Or is it better to let it collapse and thus force people to move out? One-time Fed benefit of free use of a moving truck and crew.

      Maybe turning it into a tax haven and regulations free zone would bring back investment and jobs. HAHAHAHAHA.

      • Homple

        “Or is it better to let it collapse and thus force people to move out? One-time Fed benefit of free use of a moving truck and crew.”

        Where would they go and what would they do when they got there?

  8. Ownbestenemy

    End of day now and got the smoker rolling at 190 degs for some hot smoked bacon. Kids at work and wife and I look around and think…what could two grown folks do at this time?

    The answer is nothing. Its quiet and stressfree. Nothing is the answer

  9. hayeksplosives

    I went to a comedy night Thursday at the local golf place whose kitchen recently reopened under new management. The chef appeared on a couple of chef Ramsey’s shows and she charges top dollar, which is a bit out of place at this location.

    Anyway, there were three warm-up comedians (including the emcee) and the main act. Only the second comedian was good: funny, fast on his feet with incorporating real time events, etc.

    The main guy was apparently a hopeless liberal fresh down from LA. His team failed to relay to him the information that San Diego North County is not a blue stronghold. His jokes (which presupposed the audience was pro-mask, anti-“racist”, pro climate change) fell flat and eventually even the polite applause died down.

    This little corner of Commiefornia is not going back to face masks. They ARE getting more political. We’re still outnumbered but I can dream.

    • Winston

      which presupposed the audience was pro-mask

      I assume the comedian was wearing a mask and the whole audience was too?

      • hayeksplosives

        No one but the servers had masks on. He put his on when it was meet snd greet time afterwards.

        I wanted neither to meet nor greet so we left as soon as the show was over.

    • Sensei

      There are a surprising number of people at my workplace that have let out the secret signs that they aren’t going to ago along with the progressive utopia.

      Surprising me given out NYC office I’d say roughly 40% of my team is non-believers. However, it took years to figure out until the the plague hit. It became obvious quickly at that point.

      • Nephilium

        Unfortunately, my work place (IT) is still full of Branch Covidians. Rarely does a conference call go by without someone announcing their newly vaccinated status, and questions about parts of the world are always coached in the thoughts about the vaccination rate.

      • hayeksplosives

        Does that have to do with the fact that most IT people are barely functional socially and would rather never have to talk to a live human again if they could help it?

        Or are they actually afraid of the covid?

      • Nephilium

        Hey… I resemble that!

        Too many for my tastes have bought in to the fact that this is the worst plague ever, and only vaccinations and isolation will save us. These are mainly North and Central American workers for the most part. Those in other places haven’t really brought it up.

      • rhywun

        The guy I mention below who is a true believer lives in southern Florida. He must be freaking out.

      • rhywun

        There’s very little of this in my (also IT) world. Only one guy who has brought this crap up more than once.

        And no, most of us are pretty normal. That one guy is probably the only one who matches that stereotype.

      • Sensei

        Most of my team did get vaccinated. I’m only unsure on one person.

        Part of the reason I did so was less crap from my family and so I didn’t get BS at work. Given my location, public transportation, etc I did the risk calculation and was OK with it. I think others came to the same conclusion.

        Our only work discussions about it came about finding locations when it was scarce for elderly relatives and the like as well as side effects until we got better data.

  10. rhywun

    UMass Amherst is asshoe.

    So enraging but I’m almost blasé about the creeping totalitarianism at this point.

    • Winston

      The kids will grow up when they hit the real world.

      • hayeksplosives

        Students on campus say the rules have been tight this year but for good reason. “Maybe a little harsh but like I understand it because you’re not supposed to be doing that,” one student told WBZ Friday night.

        “Hey, buddy: stop doing that.”

        That student is ready for his/her next dose of indoctrination.

        I do commend the journalist for writing down the word “like” in the published quotes. They shouldn’t try to make these airheads sound more reasonable than they are.

    • Sensei

      OT- they still want to drag you back to the office or have they backed down?

      • rhywun

        Still June 1st as far as I know.

      • Sensei

        Sept for us. Likely not full time.

      • Nephilium

        No date at all for my company (or the one I support), and the longer it gets pushed out, the less likely we’ll need to go back into offices at all.

      • rhywun

        Oh, one new twist is that they said all the desks are “more than six feet apart” so you don’t have to constrict your breathing all day.

        I see a handy excuse to tell people to stop bugging me. Of course, the last time I was in that office – almost three years ago as I was carting out my belongings – they had already canned almost all the IT folks. There is only one person I will likely interact with, and that happens to my new boss, same as the old boss.

      • rhywun

        More than one coworker bitched “why couldn’t it be after summer?”

      • rhywun

        How’d that get here?

      • Sensei

        Lol!

  11. Nephilium

    It’s a Saturday, and I’m down to just a minor sleep debt.

    So, have a link to the Zoom/Happy Hour/Attempt to deflect work for tonight (and most Fridays and Saturdays). I’ll kick it off at 20:00 Eastern.

  12. Mojeaux

    Watching Coming 2 America? I ❤️ Wesley Snipes. He can do anything.

    • Nephilium

      Except pay his taxes. 🙂

      • Mojeaux

        ???My hero???

      • Nephilium

        Glad the smirk and wink came through correctly. It’s been a long day.

      • rhywun

        LOL

      • commodious spittoon

        Isn’t it strange that we all know OJ Simpson’s lawyer and his family, but Robert Barnes, a true American hero, is relegated to doing vlogs with some Canadian.

    • slumbrew

      Snipes is easily the best part of that meh movie.

  13. Plinker762

    Is The Mouse being black the cause of Disney being against ((them))?

    • Count Potato

      Mickey Farrakhan?

  14. Plinker762

    Helicopters on Mars, a plan to keep the planet Marxist free?

  15. hayeksplosives

    The Libertarian Party of California has its convention next weekend. I read the platform.

    Most of it is pretty solid libertarian fare. They get a bit too crunchy granola here and there, but it’s California.

    What will become problematic is how much depends on private companies doing certain tasks. For example, the LP wants to prevent the government from regulating a business or travel security etc. But the way it’s phrased is that private companies or corporations can best self regulate.

    But as long as the govt is in bed with corporations, they are going to do the govt bidding. I certainly don’t want Disney and Facebook determining censorship.

    • Winston

      But as long as the govt is in bed with corporations, they are going to do the govt bidding. I certainly don’t want Disney and Facebook determining censorship.

      This is a problem. Libertarians for a long time assumed Big Business would never support totalitarianism. Corruption and cronyism yes but not totalitarianism. It was assumed they would oppose totalitarianism out of a sense of self-preservation. You know a totalitarian government would likely nationalize them and try to expropriate their wealth so better support freedom.

      • Winston

        And big business would never support totalitarianism is a key plank of the “free trade will liberate China” belief. What pray tell were the Rich Chinese Businessmen and their Western trading partners supposed to think about the Chicoms after all?

    • westernsloper

      I certainly don’t want Disney and Facebook determining censorship.

      That train has sailed.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I don’t have a problem with their ability to engage in self-censorship or the censoring of their users although I think it’s wrong, I do take issue with collaboration with each other and the government to crush those alternative platforms that don’t censor. I’d say they can follow their naive principles into irrelevance but as Cali Libertarians they’re already irrelevant so no harm done.

      • The Hyperbole

        My concern is the solutions I’ve seen to these nebulous threats to freedom of speech are bigger threats to freedom of association. The trade off isn’t worth it.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        You have a point and I struggle with the balance, there are certainly trade offs either way.

      • Q Continuum

        My bigger problem is what to do with the “anti-competitive” coordination. I’ve always had a problem with trust busting as a strict free market principle, but the past couple of years have shaken that in me.

        We hear over and over “go make your own platform (or TV channel or newspaper or whatever)”. But that’s exactly what happened with Parler and the SV totalitarians coordinated to destroy it right as it was getting traction. Not sure what to do about that in which the cure isn’t worse than the disease but I don’t like it one bit.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I like the idea of trying something different, seeing how it goes, and punting if it’s worse because what’s happening now is problematic to say the least.

      • Ted S.

        As Mae West said in Klondike Annie, “Between two evils, I like to pick the one I’ve never tried before.”

      • Homple

        There hasn’t been freedom of association since the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

      • The Hyperbole

        Granted , and this was a thing that libertarians use to bitch about, now they use it as an excuse to force people to accept their vision of ‘free speech’ enforcement. “They did it so we should to”, is a horrible argument.

  16. robc

    To me, Tawny will always be the girl that screws the boy in a bubble.

    • Nephilium

      She’s the one who printed the card to say “Moops”?

      • robc

        “Crystal Heat”, 1986.

      • robc

        Heart not Heat.

      • Nephilium

        Just making the obvious Seinfeld reference.

      • robc

        I know the Moops thing, but dont get the connection.

      • Nephilium

        Apparently a failed attempt at a joke.

        You mentioned screwing the boy in the bubble. The misprint of Moops on a card screwed over the boy in a bubble in that episode, hence my poor attempt at a joke.

      • Plinker762

        I got it.

      • Nephilium

        Thanks Plinker762, I appreciate it.

    • limey

      Like Rebecca De Mornay will forever be the girl who had sex with Tom Cruise on the “L”?

      • robc

        Yes, exactly like that.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        She was hot in that one but she was good in, well…I can’t remember the names of any of the other ones. I guess you’re right.

      • Count Potato

        Hand That Rocks The Cradle is great.

      • rhywun

        +1 so nineties

      • limey

        Oh man it’s been many years since I’ve seen that. I’ll have to find it again. I barely remember it.

      • Count Potato

        That baby who was sucking Rebecca De Mornay’s boobs is thirty-years-old now.

      • Hank

        Thank you so much for that news, O harbinger of mortality.

      • hayeksplosives

        I remember Q (ST:TNG, not our beloved purveyor of boob pics) played a creepy rapey OB-GYN who had to off himself after being publicly disgraced.

        The rest of it was basic predictable thriller pap.

      • Ted S.

        Rebecca De Mornay is the one who meets Geraldine Page on the trip to Bountiful.

      • limey

        Any good?

      • Ted S.

        I think so, but it might not be the sort of movie people here like. It’s one of those “little” movies.

  17. The Other Kevin

    My kid has another volleyball weekend, this time in Amish country (Indiana). This is the first place I’ve been where 90% are not wearing masks indoors. It is fantastic.

  18. Count Potato

    “NYC teacher caught sucking topless man’s nipple during Zoom class

    A spicy slip of the tongue led to a Spanish teacher being yanked from her classes after investigators found she performed an “inappropriate sexual act” during a Zoom lesson.

    As students at the prestigious Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science, and Engineering remotely watched a “live” class, Amanda K. Fletcher, 37, “appeared to suck the nipple of an unidentified topless male” while “gyrating” or “rocking back and forth,” according to the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools.

    Before that, students watched Fletcher “eating spaghetti” with the shirtless man behind her, the SCI says in a report, dated Oct. 29, 2020, obtained by The Post.

    After taking her mouth off the man’s chest, Fletcher “resumed teaching and discussing a worksheet,” a student told probers.”

    https://nypost.com/2021/05/08/nyc-teacher-caught-sucking-topless-mans-nipple-during-zoom-class/

    que?

    • LJW

      No video of the incident in the article? Come in NY post do your job!

      • rhywun

        I’m sure Daily Mail is working on it.

      • LJW

        Come on* stupid autocorrect

    • Ted S.

      What would be an appropriate sexual act?

      • Q Continuum

        If he were sucking her nipples.

      • SandMan

        Dude sucking her nipple.

      • SandMan

        Should have refreshed page, obvious response.

    • Spudalicious

      The teacher they need, not the teacher they want.

    • Hank

      “a Spanish teacher”

      Well, say no more, guv’nor.

      I heard a Latin American author confide that though she used English for some things, she made love in Spanish.

      • Not Adahn

        I speak French to men, Italian to women, Spanish to God and German to my horse.

  19. Fourscore

    Freedom or democracy.? Neither is like the other.

    We often hear politicians link them together, talking heads as well.

    “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

    He forgot “I’ll take democracy for $200, Alex”

    • hayeksplosives

      This bugs me too, fourscore. Democracy without protections for individuals’ basic rights is just mob rule.

      Much like antifa.

      I’ll pass.

  20. robc

    Charleston let the mask mandate expire today.

  21. LJW

    Why aren’t lawyers lining up to sue these woke companies? Telling emoyees they have white privilege is text book discrimination.

    • Winston

      Who funds these lawyers? And what will their law schools and the bar associations say?

    • Q Continuum

      Dean said a while ago that in a blind justice system it’s a slam dunk hostile work environment suit.

      Unfortunately we don’t have a blind justice system.

      • Chafed

        It also requires a willing plaintiff. Eventually, someone woke will get screwed, have an epiphany, and then file a lawsuit.

      • The Last American Hero

        Judge Hero: Your case was well argued and legally sound, but you brought this shitshow on yourself with your woke nonsense. i find for the defendant. Reap what you sow, bitch.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s nice but I’d rather have a 2017 Toyota Corolla.

      • Sean

        Eeeeeewwwwww. Weirdo.

    • Sensei

      I don’t miss my turntable for an instant.

      OTH, the loudness wars damned near wrecked the CD.

      Now we have both the loudness wars and lossy compression for the death of hifi.

      And let’s talk about autotune…

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Give Tidal a try, if you can stand the price it sounds damn good.

      • Sensei

        Agreed. My issue at this point is the source material.

        I have something like 500 plus CDs I’ve ripped to FLAC. So old albums I’m generally covered and new ones the mastering and studio processing drive me nuts.

        Hence my love of classical and going all in on J Pop. If I’m going to listen to music processed within an inch of its life from someone with minimal talent at least she will be cute and the music and lyrics written by professionals.

      • Ted S.

        Or lyrics you don’t understand.

        That overprocessing is part of why I can’t stand K-Crap. Well, that and the cookie-cutter nature of it and the foppish, androgynous guys trying to put on a phony attitude.

    • Spudalicious

      I watched the whole thing. Although I’ve never even come close to that level of craftsmanship, I do miss woodworking.

  22. Chafed

    I can’t wait until Disney’s wokeness makes its way into the Parks. That will cost them real money.

  23. limey

    Peccary + armadillo = peccadillo

    • Spudalicious

      Another one with no pictures.

      • Hank

        Once more: Sun readers don’t care who’s running the country…

      • rhywun

        He looks like he hasn’t eaten a meal in two years either.

      • grrizzly

        He looks fine. I wish there were more guys with his BMI. This country would have lost fewer people to COVID.

      • rhywun

        It was a joke 😛

  24. Scruffy Nerfherder

    ‘Disney says America has a “long history of systemic racism and transphobia.”’

    Yeah, all those 18th, 19th, and 20th century trannies. Who could forget them?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The whole world has a record of transphobia, nothing unique about us. Come to think of it, that holds true for racism (or bigotry at least) as well.

    • hayeksplosives

      America has a “long history of systemic racism and transphobia.”’

      Much like…the world?

      People complaining of American attitudes from 100-300 years ago don’t bother reading enough history to know that all of life was pretty damned difficult back then.

      And the assertion that America was built “on” racism is just laughable.

      I wish that Americans could turn back time and not have participated in the slave trade. But we can’t and we did.

      There are a lot of African Americans aggrieved today about things that happened in America not to them but to their ancestors. Do they imagine they’re worse off here now than they would have been in the Ivory Coast or Nigeria?

      The really tragic part is that some of these descendants of slaves started out life happy and hopeful, and it took the leftist institutions to strip them of agency and the sense that they could make it in America.

    • Sensei

      Well I know what my conversation with my friend who lives close to where he did will be tomorrow.

    • Q Continuum

      More:

      “Real estate mogul Kosuke Nozaki claimed in his autobiography that he had spent US$27.5 million on wooing 4,000 women in his lifetime”

      That’s $6875/woman. The women aren’t the only ones getting screwed… hey-ohhh!

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He got a better deal than Gates or Bezos and I’d bet a fair number of them were good looking.

      • Q Continuum

        At the same price/woman, Bezos would have sex with 14 million women.

      • Sensei

        Let me help you. Put this in your image search engine of choice.

        須藤早貴

      • Tejicano

        My guess? She had done the math and saw that she was giving him a better price-per-shot over time than the random pay-4-play pick-up he was used to so she terminated his contract – with prejudice.

    • Count Potato

      “She has white skin with a firmness that repels water”

      I think something got lost in translation.

  25. trshmnstr the terrible

    Can somebody more plugged into TMITE than me tell me what the latest covid panic is that made me the only person at the grocery store not wearing a mask and that caused wal-mart to switch back to masks Required?

    Just 2 weeks ago, masks were getting increasingly rare.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Probably India, they have a variant you know…

    • Q Continuum

      Who knows? Don’t take behavioral cues from sheep.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Certainly not. Just surprised that we’re backtracking here in TX.

      • rhywun

        You have failed your governor and must be taught a lesson.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Screw that guy, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

      • Q Continuum

        Don’t be rude, the guy’s on a roll.

    • Count Potato

      Walmart could be a nationwide policy.

      • Chafed

        This makes the most sense.

  26. Aloysious

    “Looking for love…”

    I thought that story was going to be about STEVE SMITH.

  27. creech

    splosives says “Most of it is pretty solid libertarian fare ” in reference to the LP of Cal. platform. I thought the general consensus is that the LP has drifted far from libertarian principles (or never espoused them to begin with) and wasn’t worth supporting? Sure, everyone of us would change some particular platform plank, or tell a candidate to emphasize another issue or decide the LP has become much too radical for the average voter or too pragmatic for anarchocapitalists to support.
    I think that, over the years, the LP has done a pretty good job of walking the line between too radical and too concerned with realpolitik (and the slogan “the Party of Principle” hasn’t really ever applied.) That it will ever average 5% of the vote in meaningful races is a pipe dream, but if it could, then one or other of the big parties will seek to co-opt libertarian policies.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      The platform of the national LP isn’t half bad either. Of course, whenever one of their leaders open their mouths, woke shit tends to come out. When the rubber meets the road, the LP shacks up with the prog-fascists.

      • Tejicano

        …other wise known as being coy

      • hayeksplosives

        Yep, this is it in a nutshell.

        Tom Woods had a recent episode where he and his guest discussed the horrible state of the Nevada Libertarian Party. The LP openly mocked the non-aggression principle (!!) and made other very un libertarian stands.

        Then a new batch of “Mises” Libertarians swept into power just in the last week or so, so that is a good sign.

        I agree the LP won’t win major elections but the LP can at least influence discussion topics if they don’t sell out and become Leftist Lite.

        The big L party’s near silence over the stripping of our liberties in the name of Covid has been a major disappointment.

  28. Fourscore

    So Mickey was Walt’s token black friend? Did Donald et al go to Walt’s exclusive parties while the Mickey didn’t get an invite? Did Pluto and Goofy ever get it on? Were Walt and Scrooge McDuck neighbors?

    I loved those simple comics as a young kid. I attribute my love of reading and reading skills to comic books, especially the simple and easy to understand kind.

    I really feel sad for those people whose life depends on destruction and hatred. Some day even their cell phones won’t work in their Luddite world. Consumption depends on production.

    Even the Chinese don’t work for free.

    i really feel sad

  29. commodious spittoon

    I wore a chin mask to the grocery store. Nobody said a thing. We’re still 95% mask compliant in this city, everyone’s an obedient masker, but not confrontational about it, I guess. Nobody has the courage to take off the fucking mask, and nobody has the courage to scold me for taking it off. Bunch of fucking pussies.

    • Tejicano

      Sorry to hear this as your neck of the woods is the area I generally spend my time in the US and I would like to hope (dream?) that they would be a little less proggy/more independent after this year+ of authoritarian over-reach. Bleah….

      • commodious spittoon

        I don’t think we’re terribly progressive, just obedient. And in fairness, this is a university part of town. But yes, it’s pathetic. I’ve mentioned before seeing joggers at the UNM golf course wearing masks, and it hasn’t changed since the CDC relented on that bit of nonsense. That they even needed to be told not to wear a mask while jogging alone hundreds of yards from anyone and they’re still abiding by the old conformist position tells me that it’s nothing but fashion for these twerps. The rest of us, we’re going along to get along.

      • Tejicano

        I probably have a skewed perception of the area due to my ultra-proggy step-mom, who lives there, and her circle of friends who end up being the largest chunk of people I get to meet when visiting. She moved there when my Dad retired from working in DC for decades and she has done her level best to meet and retain friends who mirror her political values.

    • commodious spittoon

      Weird cameo from George Lucas.

    • Sensei

      Any of our more knowledgeable folk want to define WTF a “stateless” vessel is?

      • Tejicano

        I would say that means it didn’t have current registration with any nation. Possibly it was purchased by one entity and physically changed hands without that entity filing the paperwork to establish registration.

      • slumbrew

        this is interesting. The key bit:

        [T]he international community depends
        upon a specialized jurisdictional system to maintain public order on the high
        seas: the law of the flag. Under the law of the flag, a ship has the nationality
        of the country whose flag it is entitled to fly. This country is often referred to
        as the flag state. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and
        customary international law provide that, with a few notable exceptions, the
        flag state has exclusive jurisdiction over its vessels on the high seas.

        [S]ome ships have no
        nationality at all. Ships without nationality, also called stateless, flagless, or
        unregistered vessels, undermine the law-of-the-flag regime. Because stateless
        vessels do not have a flag state, no state can exercise control over them on the
        high seas or provide diplomatic protection on their behalf.

        It’d be like renouncing your US citizenship without having some other citizenship. In theory, it sounds cool, in practice you have zero recourse if anyone starts messing with you.

      • slumbrew

        Maritime law is incredibly interesting to me – my sister briefly worked for a maritime law firm and mentioned this case:

        A container ship was delivering cargo from San Francisco to Tokyo. However, they planned to first head to South America (Peru?) to fuel up – it was so much cheaper it was worth the extra time and distance and they could still make it to Tokyo within the agreed time.

        They hit a huge storm heading south and end up losing a bunch of cargo that was lashed to the deck.

        Are they liable because they didn’t head directly west to Tokyo? Or is that that just an act of god while they’re following a routine operational course?

        (I don’t know how that ruling ended up)

      • hayeksplosives

        I knew 3 stateless humans in Stockholm. They were part of the same electrical engineering program I was in.

        2 Latvians and one Lithuanian. They were born in the aforementioned Baltic states but were born to Russian parents.

        After the fall of the USSR, Russia wouldn’t give them Russian citizenship, and Latvia and Lithuania wouldn’t grant Baltic country citizenship.

        They had UN passports. They were pretty cynical about life, politics, and patriotism at the tender age of 22.

    • Sean

      Goals.

  30. Festus

    Just went out to start the mower. Success! A little brake cleaner in the carb and vroom!

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Hooray!

      • Festus

        One pull! *dusts fingernails*

      • Sean

        Phrasing?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Huzzah! Spent the afternoon in the backyard and it was good therapy.

      • Festus

        Always burn or drain the excess from the tanks in the Fall.

  31. Gender Traitor

    Spent a delightful evening eating BBQ and listening to excellent live music in Richmond, Indiana, just over the state line from Ohio. IN’s statewide mask mandate has ended, so it’s now up to counties and municipalities to decide whether to require them. As far as I can tell, Richmond is NOT forcing face diapers – at least there was no sign to that effect on the door of our destination. I think perhaps only the hostess who seated us was wearing one – purple with sequins. (Stylin’!) Saw several friends and got to reconnect with them face-to face!

    • westernsloper

      Did you bring back a gun?

      • Gender Traitor

        Wrong end of the state! 😀 All the guns in IN are crammed into the NW corner just to brazenly tempt the peaceful, upstanding citizens of Chicago. 😉

      • hayeksplosives

        I’m reading a book “How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying Too)”.

        There’s plenty to quibble with, as the author makes some bold assertions and is clearly writing from a Judeo-Christian point of view.

        But there is also plenty worth reading and considering.

        This gist is that most great civilizations reach a point where they simply quit reproducing. They get comfortable, lose their religious faith, lose cultural confidence, and commit slow cultural suicide.

        With Islam, the author points out that they are going from women having 4-6 kids on average to fewer than 1 in a record short time, just a few decades. This will lead to desperation and instability, which will affect the rest of the world.

        He also points out the importance of the thirty years war in European and thus world history, and of the failure of early Christian missionaries to fully evangelize the Europeans. This left the “lightly baptized” Europeans able to retain some pagan traditions and to form Nation States that rivaled or co-opted their new faith.

        The only western cultures still reproducing at replacement rate or more are Israel and the United States.

        An interesting read for sure; just be prepared for an editorial, not a dispassionate accounting.

      • Festus

        Just read an article about that book. Probably the same one.

      • slumbrew

        I thought the US reproduction was below replacement rate & the only think keeping us from circling the drain was immigration.

        A quick search shows multiple source citing the U.S. at < 2.1 children per person, but perhaps I'm looking at the wrong things.

  32. Festus

    Anyone about?

      • Festus

        Hello, Friend! I get that reference, by the way…

    • slumbrew

      Nah (to be read in The Critical Drinker’s voice).

      Actually, yeah, but probably not for much longer.

    • hayeksplosives

      Sorta. I thought you’d all be on zoom.

      I don’t feel like getting dressed and acting civil so I’m not.

      • Gender Traitor

        Who says you have to do either? (In all seriousness, you don’t have to turn on the camera.)

        But it’s midnight here in EDT Land, and I got up early, so I’m going to bed. Nighty night, all!

      • Festus

        ‘Night, Red!

      • Festus

        Had to take a call and wasn’t feeling up to Zoom. It’s one thing to type and quite another to react in real time. I’m too fecking tired for the latter.

    • commodious spittoon

      Third of a bottle in, so yes.

      Turns out you can over brine chicken. It’s velvety and tender as promised, but saltier than a good example of something that’s salty.

      • commodious spittoon

        It’s saltier than that scene from the end of that 90s movie Hocus Pocus where they bury the witches’ tome in a pile of salt, which I may be misremembering and makes no sense anyway, but I’m pretty sure happened.

        Also, the cat reinflation scene was creepy for a kid.

      • Festus

        Like last week when I drunkenly added soy sauce to Judi’s fried rice and barely peed for two days? That salty?

      • commodious spittoon

        Listen, if you’d pissed on these chicken tendies, it’d only have diluted the saltiness.

        And I’d be upset that you pissed on my chicken.

        I don’t know that I’d call the police, but I’d be angry and confused. I’d be irate.

      • Chafed

        Did that require a trip to the doctor?

      • slumbrew

        Saltier than Hillary voters in 2016?

        Over-brining is indeed a thing.

      • commodious spittoon

        It is, without a doubt, the highlight of my life that Hillary lost to Trump. Whatever comes, the nightmares we face, whatever new devilry Sean Bean has in store for us, I can at least smile and brace myself with the knowledge that Hillary lost to Trump.

      • Chafed

        I remember watching the election returns. I was just waiting for confirmation she won. Bit by bit it wasn’t happening. I remember the joy of knowing America had raised its middle finger and told her to get lost.

      • hayeksplosives

        I still look at compilations of that night on YouTube.

        That was when the lefties realized they’d need to step up their game for future elections, because clearly the basket of deplorables was deeper than they thought.

      • slumbrew

        My buddy, the only conservative I know, and I watched it at a local place, resigned to deal with the triumphant proggies around us – the idea that the returns wouldn’t be on in every single place was a non-starter.

        We started the evening resigned, then intrigued , then quietly giddy.

        Things like this still make me grin uncontrollably:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiWY0iRLV94

        (best part of that is the beginning with Gasparian’s totally-did-not-happen anecdote)

        I’ll enjoy that memory in the camps.

      • slumbrew

        I’ll note that the giddiness wasn’t because Trump won – neither of us voted for him – but Hillary was the personification of the authoritarian Left.

      • commodious spittoon

        I texted my reliably proggy friend “FUCK” because I was legitimately dismayed that Trump won. I was a Cruz fan, given that Rand got no traction. I really, really wanted the Trump train derailed. And I still regret that fucking turd was elected.

      • Festus

        The best part was when each of their foreheads grew ever more shiny as the night wore on.

      • Chafed

        I voted for GayJay and have no regrets. I have and had no love for Trump but Hilary was the worst.

      • Festus

        They can take everything from us but they will never take our salty ham-tears!

  33. Ownbestenemy

    As Festus so said…anybody about?

    • commodious spittoon

      I down a bottle a night. There’s 5/8ths of a bottle to go. You tell me whether there’s anyone about.

    • Festus

      *raises short can*

    • Tejicano

      About to make some more coffee.

    • rhywun

      Bedtime.

    • KSuellington

      *raises glass of pils*

      Watching the third season of the F1 show, Drive to Survive (cheers slum!), that is featuring the Finnish driver. The Finns are a funny bunch.

      Election night 2016 was indeed hilarious, even if I also did not vote for T Dog nor like him. Seeing that middle finger America gave to Hillary, The Dems, the media and the Hollywood elite, was wonderful. I have a feeling that it is not the last middle finger that will be given in this country. I know the past year has been utterly demoralizing for those of us who love human liberty. I know the prevailing sentiment here is that the Dems have managed to fix (fortify!!) the vote, but I have a feeling it is not going to turn out like they think. We may see a sea change in politics in the next handful of years. I doubt most of it will go our way, but I think the apparent stranglehold that progressivism has on our politics and culture is not as strong as they think it is. There is more than a chance that liberty hasn’t seen its best days.

      • Festus

        I admire your spirit and optimism! *empties short can*

      • Tejicano

        May all your dreams come true!

      • Festus

        Jiminy Crickets!

      • KSuellington

        *switches to pale ale*

        I’ll drink to that.

      • hayeksplosives

        One thing that is clear is that ordinary people going about their lives not wanting to think about politics all the time are really fed up with being told that they are racist, ignorant, sexist, transphobic, xenophobic, selfish (if they want to keep their money), and just plain stupid.

        Turns out that’s not a winning message.

        And it also turns out that voters don’t like candidates who act entitled to election victory.

      • Tejicano

        I wish there was a way to translate this to prog-speak. We could get rich selling a clue to the TDS-afflicted mob.

      • KSuellington

        Indeed. I think the Dems know that they are playing from a weak hand. They bought into the demographics as destiny line and are now seeing that slipping away.

  34. Chipping Pioneer

    I have seen Gretzky and I have seen McDavid. I will go on record that McDavid > Gretzky.

    • Chafed

      I don’t know. I think Paulina is hotter.

  35. commodious spittoon

    Kinda terrifying moment just now: the pet door is swinging, swinging, swinging, loud, loud, loud, I go to look and the cat is just staring at it, not moving. And there’s nothing outside.

    • slumbrew

      Raccoon.

      Or shoggoth. One of the two.

      • Chafed

        *cough* STEVE SMITH *cough*

    • Tejicano

      I’m sure it’s nothing a 12 gauge won’t take care of.

  36. Festus

    My company should be re-named Snake-In-The-Grass Inc. They took my overtime Friday shift away and then requested that my trainee do my job. She was hired on to do anti-commie coff stuff. Now she’s doing part of my job on Fridays at the same pay-rate as before. I tried to fire her up about it to no avail. So sick of their duplicity. The last two weeks have literally been one fecking thing after another.

    • Tejicano

      In my experience there are very few companies of more than maybe a half dozen people which are good to work for. I’ve worked for companies which often get those “best place to work for” accolades in the press and I always wonder how they find those few newbies who are still in their honeymoon phase. I have crossed paths with the regional HR head for one of those corporations – worked with her on a project for a few weeks – and she uttered a few things which stick with me to this day. Some of her expressed thoughts sounded like stuff from a script from some Hollywood movie about evil KKKorporations.

      • Festus

        I’m old, I know this. I thought that after these many years we had gained some modicum of trust. Nope. Sorely disappointed. I’m wondering what the hell happens next.

  37. Tejicano

    I remember a number of discussions 15-some-odd years ago talking about a theory that democratization doesn’t work in nations that have a GDP of less than a certain number, somewhere around US$6,500 a year. The basic idea is that if the average person is not secure in his/her ability to feed his/her family for the next year or so they are not confident in putting their fate in the hands of some faceless political entity. They are more likely to stick with the hard authority of some local figure who they know something about rather than give that authority up to an organization which might not even know, much less care, about their personal plight.

    • commodious spittoon

      Is Mexico safe to flee to? I’m asking for a friend.

      A friend who lives in America and wonders whether Mexico is safe to flee to.

      • commodious spittoon

        I know some Spanish. Miercolas. And sabado. And ich kann ein bissien Deutch sprechen. You know, in case there’s some Germans around.

        I mean my friend knows those things.

      • Tejicano

        I don’t think it’s even safe to visit yet – outside a few, narrow bands around the resort areas which the cartels own which are a gamble as well – much less move to.

      • commodious spittoon

        I may need to move several people over the border, you understand.

      • hayeksplosives

        What about Belize? They speak English.

      • commodious spittoon

        Those belize girls

        Oh I’m not going to pretend

      • KSuellington

        Mexico can be as safe or as dangerous as the US. Totally depends on where you go and what you do. The murder rate, is of course, much higher, but that is mostly due to warring cartels. I’d recommend your friend bringing money, or having the ability to work as a digital nomad as most of Mexico is no longer dirt cheap.

      • Tejicano

        I would say that if you know your way around it can be as safe as anywhere in the US. But where it is really dangerous being an obvious Gringo will be more dangerous than anywhere in the US.

        And, yes, you will need money to maintain your safety. Maybe not more than you can afford but expect to be paying for safety. And have no delusions about being armed to defend yourself.

      • KSuellington

        I’ll be there next month, in a house a couple miles out of a small fishing town on the Sea of Cortez. It’s one of my favorite spots in the world. Hoping it’s relatively normal in town.

      • Tejicano

        Rocky point?

      • commodious spittoon

        My supervisor rented a house south of Cancun.

        It wasn’t at all like this. He said everyone was really friendly. But his wife speaks Spanish, so

      • hayeksplosives

        As a SoCal resident (for as long as I can afford it), I’ve been thinking of learning Spanish. I don’t think I’d regret it. Just a matter of how I want to spend my time.

        Of course I also used to think about learning sign language so I could teach the hard sciences/ engineering to deaf students. My brushes with the deaf community disabused me of that lofty goal.

      • Tejicano

        Let me second the idea of learning Spanish. You’re practically immersed in it already so it would come faster than you expect it would. Besides, it mostly gives you a respite from the Woke world – as long as you stick to first generation immigrants.

      • KSuellington

        Seconded. In SoCal you will use it as often as you want to. It’s a fun language, and about the easiest one to learn for an English speaker.

      • KSuellington

        Baja, the East Cape area between Cabo and La Paz, been renting different houses there with my wife and kids for the past decade. Ive been in Mexico a dozen times over my life, in different parts of the Baja peninsula and south of Cancun near Belize, and Mazatlan on the Pacific coast. Never been to Mexico City, but it is very much on my travel list, just not with little kids. Three years of my life in total in Latin American counties, and yes, you can get yourself in trouble quite easily if not careful.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Lots of Americans have already fled there with scattered to clumped ex-pat communities all over.

    • Festus

      Yep, hence the movement to beggar us all. Poors are more easily bought off and controlled.

    • Chafed

      +1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

      • Festus

        Thanks! I was searching my drunken brain for that but apparently there was a hole in the sieve.

  38. hayeksplosives

    I raise a glass of water and two diphenhydramines to you all.

  39. hayeksplosives

    Can any of you history buffs recommend a good book on the thirty years war?

    My questions go beyond the Wikipedia article.

  40. Fourscore

    5 AM, do you know where your kids are?

    Another day a dawnin”. I don’t sleep well at night, in spurts only 1 1/2-2 hours a a time, last night was a total of 6.5 but an hour of that was awake fiddling with the bed, trying to find a comfortable position.

    Good morning to all, in another hour I’ll get my first nap of the day. For now, catch up on the overnight happenings.

    • Not Adahn

      I’m awake when the pup is awake. We’ll see how long that’s sustainable.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Mornin’, Four!

    • Ted S.

      I told you last night, NO!

      — Homer Simpson

  41. Not Adahn

    I found a morel in my woods!

    Also some fiddleheads, but a) I don’t know if these are the edible kind and b) I don’t like fiddleheads.

    • dontreadonme

      That’s awesome! Morels are my favorite mushroom by far. I spend hours walking in the woods every spring looking for them on my property. Even if you don’t find any mushrooms it’s a great excuse to be out in nature.

  42. Not Adahn

    Heard a disconnect noise from the computer, came in to find the mouse cord neatly sheared in half. Lily is getting really efficient at this biting thing. I’ll have to head over to Best Buy after steel this morning.

    • Tulip

      Mix cayenne pepper, Tabasco sauce and dish soap together and smear on things you don’t want her to chew.

    • Ted S.

      She’ll learn when she starts getting electrocuted.

  43. Tulip

    Straff- did your wife like the cake?

  44. Not Adahn

    Yes, she was a pure hottie of her era, but do you think she’d be quite as famous or as memorable had she not been named Tawny Kitaen?

    • Sean

      Interesting point.

      Though, how do you square that with a bland name like Christina Applegate?

      • Not Adahn

        Well, first of all, she was on TV for years.

        Second, her name is also a charged one:

        Apple as in apple-bottomed
        Gate as in gates of heaven.

        Thus Applegate = someone who is best fucked from behind.

      • Sean

        *golf clap*

  45. Sean

    Happy day to all the moms here.