Monday Afternoon Links

by | Jun 28, 2021 | Daily Links | 217 comments

These represent all the new files, marching to my desk.

Is it the weekend yet? I am getting buried by my Swiss Masters. All the while I keep hearing about how they are hiring hundreds of new people to help!* But no mere avalanche of work can stop the afternoon links, nosiree! So here the links be, in all the glory you would expect…

  • Suuuure they did. What else could they say?
  • New York, New York it’s a Hell of a town….crime is up, and morale is down!
  • I am just hearing about this now?! Well, Kristol and Boot are happy now.
  • Maybe Paris is as bad as NYC?

 

*by the end of 2023.

About The Author

Swiss Servator

Swiss Servator

Currently serving at the pleasure of a Swiss multinational. Previously a Soldier, rugby player, lawyer, bouncer, bartender, substitute teacher, risk manager, and cubicle mushroom. Will work for raclette.

217 Comments

  1. DEG

    Prison wardens found the body of software mogul McAfee hanging in his cell on Wednesday in what appeared to be a suicide, his lawyer Javier Villalba said last week. read more

    Now it’s McAffee didn’t kill himself?

    • Tonio

      This was foreseen.

    • Bobarian LMD

      They used him as a test run for Ghislaine Maxwell methodology.

  2. DEG

    The chaos at the Greenwich Village greenspace resulted in the arrests of eight people, including a woman charged with biting an NYPD lieutenant, cops said Monday morning.

    But no busts were made in the alleged beatdown of the 65-year-old vendor, who was attacked at Fifth Avenue and Washington Square North just before 11 p.m., according to police.

    Maybe the vendor should have become one of the King’s Men.

    • Grosspatzer

      I think the local constabulary are allowing this in order to frighten the scions of the elite who attend nearby NYU into buying their weed elsewhere (where the mafia government will take their rightful cut). The “vendors” at the northwest end of the park will need to find another way to make a living.

      • rhywun

        Feh. It’s more than that. Deblasio and the DA are deliberately allowing the chaos to spread, in line with lefty mayors and DA’s across the country. It’s all ideological.

      • Grosspatzer

        Well, they’ve certainly got my attention. Our return-to-cube farm day is in September. Don’t think I will be going back to my lovely Soho office given the current shitshow. Not sure how my employer will handle this, I suspect I am not alone.

      • rhywun

        *shrug* Stay away from Washington Square Park, you’ll be fine.

        I’m reducing my trips to the office to once or twice a week but only because I’m lazy and WFH is a lot more comfortable.

  3. DEG

    “Protecting the military heroes who defend our freedoms is a sacred priority,” she said in a statement.

    Even those with unwoke opinions?

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Even those with unwoke opinions?

      “Well, no. We need those ones to die in a firefight whilst protecting some U.S. embassy in some far-away foreign shithole. Then we can ignore their opinions and lionize their ‘sacrifice’ for the rest of us.”

  4. trshmnstr the terrible

    Continuing the multifamily suburban thread from the past two articles:

    I just read through a few articles on suburban multi-family development, and there are a few undercurrents that come through.

    One is that they’re benefitting off of the extended good economy by putting economically unstable families into extravagant units with the expectation of actually getting a return.

    Another is that culture has changed due to millennials who want the urban feel (it strokes their eco boners) in the suburbs and immigrants who want a feel more like back home, but without the urban safety issues.

    Yet another is government incentives.

    The suburban multifamily trend isn’t a covid thing, no matter what TMITE says. It’s a push that started after the 08 recession. It strikes me as a very precarious deal, because they have to charge relatively high prices for rental/purchase of these lavish units, and, frankly, theyre charging very economically unstable people an arm and a leg, hoping that their income/credit doesn’t run out.

    • waffles

      FWIW, I am not seeing an end to these suburban multifamily projects coming across my desk at work. Some townships put up some resistance, most don’t. The one’s that do resist get warehouses as punishment.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Pretty much. They’re all done with HUD money, which is distorting the market severely.

      Obama had a real hard-on for this stuff and slid a bunch of perverse incentives into the market when nobody was looking.

      • Rat on a train

        Yep. They really started showing up around here about 5 years ago. 3-4 floor apartment and condo buildings without road improvements or new schools. The cramped single family housing developments were bad enough.

      • Ownbestenemy

        The development near my house is out of control. Adding insane inventory of single-family housing AND multi-family housing butted up against the nicer areas that up until 2 years ago, made it feel you were never really in Las Vegas.

        The only positive I have going for my area is a massive HAAS plant is getting built nearby and all the Raider staff driving the prices up so I can plan my exit at the peak of desirability hopefully.

        But like your comment, they have put barely any infrastructure with that growth. I think one additional school, no shopping center (we have a single market for the whole area without driving down the hill), etc.

        When the great panic of 2020 and papered goods hit us, it was impossible to shop at our local store because its something like 30,000 people for that store between two zip codes that have ease of access.

        It was not that way when I bought merely 4 years ago this month. That is how insane it is.

      • TARDis

        Most construction in my area has been 55+ duplex crackerboxes or assisted living facilities. Apparently rich fackers in the area want to move their elderly relatives close, but not too close. I think this will eventually backfire as they pay reduced property taxes and those will get passed on to the proletariat. School system goes from bad to worse, und so weiter.

        When I moved here, minimum lot size was 20,000 sq.ft. Now it’s all variances. Fucking crooked pols, and the greedy developers sucking their dicks.

      • blackjack

        Avocados or milling machines?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Milling. 2.5 million square foot plant.

      • blackjack

        Cool. The company headquarters is down here in, I think, Camarillo.

      • kbolino

        Loose credit did its work too. Single-family units aren’t much more expensive than townhomes, and townhomes aren’t much more expensive than multi-family dwellings. Most people will choose the extra couple hundred a month (less than a car payment) if they can afford it for the benefit of not sharing 1-3 walls with obnoxious neighbors.

    • C. Anacreon

      And when not using the racism angle, developers and their government and media sycophants claim that homeless camps are due to the lack of high density luxury apartment buildings in the suburbs. Really, I see it all the time in the Bay Area. As if that person with the shopping cart shooting heroin is only there because they couldn’t come up with the down payment on a starter home.

  5. DEG

    Hundreds of homeless crack addicts have been grouped in a park in northeast Paris in a bid to keep them from roaming the streets, a decision that has inflamed tensions between drug users and local residents as authorities grapple with a spiralling drug problem. FRANCE 24 reports from Paris’s crack kingdom.

    Seems more like Philly to me.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Ah, les banlieues. Where you can gaze into your lover’s eyes every night by the burning light of hundreds of torched cars set on fire by Paris’ many “guests,” most of whom are under 25 years old and have names that are variants of “Mohammed.”

      Otherwise known as “Paris’ shitholes.”

      (TBF, many of les banlieues are fine, but some are so bad even the gendarmes won’t go in them without craploads of armed personnel.)

      • Not Adahn

        variants of “Mohammed.”

        The lab group here has three different spellings, and unsurprisingly each is of a different ethnicity. The only one who reads Le Figaro is from Cote d’Ivoire.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        The only one who reads Le Figaro is from Cote d’Ivoire.

        Bien sûr!

      • slumbrew

        some are so bad even the gendarmes won’t go in them without craploads of armed personnel.

        I have been assured by Top Men that is a right-wing myth.

      • juris imprudent

        Top Men that have craploads of armed personnel.

  6. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Unlike Epstein, McAfee likely did kill himself. Seventy five years old, all his money gone and his assets seized, and pretty much caught dead to rights on sizable tax evasion. He was effectively facing life at his age and decided he wanted to go out on his terms as much as he was able. At least we don’t have to be subjected to seeing him paraded in front of cameras and having to kiss a judge’s ass.

    • Pine_Tree

      I also think he probably did kill himself.

      And did so knowing that all of his previous “I did not kill myself” messaging would be there to stir the pot forever.

      • Sean

        That’s what they want you to think.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, the mindfuck from beyond the grave.

    • Raven Nation

      I’m still holding out hope for the kill switch story.

    • TARDis

      I not accepting this. Yes, he was done for but he could have dished out some verbal shit here in the Banana Republic of America before checking out. You can kill yourself anytime, anywhere. “Oh, I’m going back to the USSA? I must kill myself right this second.”

      • blackjack

        Jail actually has a pretty good record for inciting suicide. It’s a shitty place and there are lots of people who just can’t stand it, literally. That’s just one of the reasons we should be more careful of who we send there.

  7. trshmnstr the terrible

    Maybe Paris is as bad as NYC?

    This feels like a legacy of the postmodern revolution to me. Western civilization decided to ignore junkies. Not that the previous regime of institutionalizing them was any better.

    • zwak

      It’s something I cannot wrap my head around, but the left, in any country, have this weird idea that all of life’s ills stem from authority. The church, conservative gov’t, police, it doesn’t seem to matter, nor be explained to me in any sort of coherency, but they honestly seem to think that if they just let people go and do their own thing, BS like this won’t happen.

      And every. single. time. you get the same results. But, they have to build on top of the previous fuck up, and it only gets worse on the back end, more convoluted, more machinations, and so on. I know these people haven’t heard of the Pilot Program Problem, but you would think they would strip out the old before building the new at least.

      • zwak

        Yeah, but links don’t.

      • slumbrew

        Bah, that was supposed to just be italics.

    • Urthona

      I’m not convinced they shouldn’t.

      • kbolino

        I’m not convinced there’s any reason for people with divergent views on what should be done to live together under one set of rules. Liberals, conservatives, and libertarians all have divergent views on this question. Who gets their way? Who pays for the consequences?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’d consider shitting up the local public spaces and accosting passersby to be NAP violations.

        Yeah, maybe it’s a “not all junkies” type of situation, but the ignore the junkies stance seems to be to ignore the annoying NAP violations and increasingly to ignore the substantial NAP violations.

  8. Gustave Lytton

    Have the proponents/opponents of Iraqi and Syria air strikes flipped yet with Trump no longer there?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I can’t even keep it straight anymore. All I know is that there are far too few opponents left.

    • Ownbestenemy

      They all are proponents in government in the first place that always want the war machine to churn along, they all agree this action was proper with a handful of voices they can easily drown out.

      The opposition is mere politics for elections and they have fortified that now; even for their cross-aisle critters.

  9. Animal

    I am getting buried by my Swiss Masters.

    Could be worse.

    You could be getting burned by Dutch Masters.

    • Grosspatzer

      Ernie’s wife preferred Muriel

  10. Rat on a train

    Biden directs Pentagon to hit sites in Iraq, Syria belonging to Iranian militias
    Fortunately Iran only has F-14s.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      But they are working on Nukes remember,Biden does,

    • db

      Yeah, they need F-15s to compete.

    • Chafed

      I saw Top Gun. I don’t know if there is an Iranian Maverick of Iceman but those F-14s are pretty kickass.

  11. Not Adahn

    colleagues handed out face masks, bottles of water, injection material and clean crack pipes to users at the edge of the garden.

    Que? Are they worried about a mono outbreak?

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Mono, stereo, or whatever else the next variant of the ‘Vid will be called.

    • The Other Kevin

      I think Big Glass is behind this.

    • R C Dean

      injection material

      Heroin?

      • Grosspatzer

        STEVE SMITH HAVE INJECTION MATERIAL!

    • Sean

      More white supremacists.

    • rhywun

      I may have shopped in that store a few decades ago.

      Angering.

  12. TARDis

    Kristol and Boot are happy now

    Don’t get on Zoomie with them anytime soon, they’re probably metoobin all over themselves,

  13. Not Adahn

    Well, OMWC was wrong, I wasn’t being RIF’d, I got promoted!

    Into a new title band, with a bump in salary. No longer am I a “Principal Engineer,” I’m a “Member of the Technical Staff.”

    Theoretically, there are engineering ladder ranks that pay as well a SVPs, but they are literally political (as in, to qualify for the highest “Fellow” title, you have to be on a Presidential commission and write some legislation that benefits the company).

    Also one of my junior engineers (I think her title was just “Engineer, or maybe “Senior Engineer,”) jumped to management. That was pretty much inevitable — she was a desired demographic, neon hair, and photogenic.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Congratulations. I remember when we used to have MTS series before it was shitcanned.

    • kinnath

      I’ve been in the same band for 19 or 20 years now.

      • R C Dean

        9 years for me. Of course, its a band with one (1) job title – mine.

    • slumbrew

      Congrats!

    • DEG

      Congratulations!

    • db

      heh-heh! Yeah!, “member.”

      Shuut-up, Beavis!

    • db

      And, of course, Congratulations!

    • Grosspatzer

      Congrats, especially on the “bump in salary”. Titles are nice, but…

      • Not Adahn

        In this case, there’s an added benefit (for me): you have to be MTS level to transfer from your current job to the staff that opens up a new fab. I loved getting this place off the ground, and was unhappy that I couldn’t open the one in Chongqing. Although that turned out to be a blessing in disguise what with how much of a clusterfuck that turned into.

      • Grosspatzer

        Nice! I never cared much about titles but this one actually means something. Good on ya.

    • Chafed

      I’ll bet the stars didn’t see that one coming! Congratulations.

    • Bobarian LMD

      “Member of the Technical Staff.”

      Is a really good euphemism.

    • EvilSheldon

      Congratulations, nice work!

    • wdalasio

      Congratulations!

    • Gender Traitor

      Mazel tov!

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Niiiiiice.

    • Sean

      Great news. Congrats!

    • Count Potato

      Congrats!

    • Mojeaux

      Wow! That’s so awesome!!! Congrats!

    • Surly Knott

      Congratulations, you impeccably dressed rat.

    • Not Adahn

      Thank you to all!

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Printers, man. I hate them.

    • Bobarian LMD

      “PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean!?”

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of housing/development, the Deep Thinkers in Bozeman are trying to go all in for “infill”. We need to get everybody packed like sardines into the city footprint. No expansion.

    We’re just about out of room, here in the Big Sky Country.

    • Chafed

      Is there anything stopping development of Bozeman’s suburbs?

      • juris imprudent

        Nimbys enjoying the appreciation in their property?

    • kbolino

      Wouldn’t the rotunda be a better example of cultural appropriation? It’s not like the wypipo who built it hailed from Rome or Athens.

      • CatchTheCarp

        “The summary of the report detailed examples of “structural racism” including “legacy descriptions that use racial slurs and harmful language to describe BIPOC communities.” The list includes racial slurs and terms such as “elderly,” “handicapped” and “illegal alien.”.”

        Elderly, handicapped and illegal alien are words that are on par with racial slurs?

      • Chafed

        I’m genuinely surprised by that. I shouldn’t be, but I am.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Waiting for the spin on how the records fire was an example of white supremacy.

  16. DEG

    Not Adahn, on the last thread you posted this question:

    What happens if they refuse to let you back in? Do you have to go to the consulate and appeal? Does Canada have to give you citizenship?

    I had a vague memory that eventually Customs and Immigration have to let a US citizen enter. I did a little digging and found this document on court cases related to US citizen’s Right of Entry to the USA.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      I thought Right of Entry was some concept promulgated by the usual tall foreheads at the UN back in ’48 or thereabouts which all Right-Thinking-Nations had signed on to.

      • R C Dean

        STEVE SMITH HAVE RIGHT OF ENTRY!

      • Animal

        STEVE SMITH CLAIM RIGHT OF ENTRY. AND BY RIGHT OF ENTRY, MEAN RIGHT OF ENTRY FOR PENIS IN HIKER. AND BY ENTRY OF PENIS IN HIKER, MEAN RAPE.

      • R C Dean

        Great minds, Animal. Great minds.

      • Animal

        Indeed.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Australia says “hold my Fosters”.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Yes, you do have the right to enter (eventually) when you present yourself at the border or port of entry. The US can also prohibit you from using transportation to exercise that right such as the no fly lists.

  17. Gadfly

    From the sidebar of the UPI website with the Iraq attack story: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says federal marijuana laws may no longer be needed. FTA:

    “A prohibition on intrastate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach,” he wrote in dismissing the appeal of a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary that was denied federal tax breaks.

    “Suffice it to say, the federal government’s current approach to marijuana bears little resemblance to the watertight nationwide prohibition that a closely divided Court found necessary to justify the government’s blanket prohibition [in 2005],” he wrote.

    “Whatever the merits of [the 2005 case] when it was decided, federal policies of the past 16 years have greatly undermined its reasoning,” he wrote.

    Interesting stuff. I know we have a lot of lawyers and court-watchers here, does anyone thinks this portends anything or is Thomas likely alone in his thinking?

    • Bobarian LMD

      Does anyone thinks this portends anything?

      Probably just a matter of getting the right case in front of the court…

    • R C Dean

      The reason is an IRS public policy provision that bars such deductions for companies dealing in controlled substances.

      I’d rather have seen them take up that case in order to strike down “public policy positions” by federal agencies that are given the force of law.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      The controlled substances act is an unconstitutional power of the federal government. There is no enumerated power to ban products or services. The feds can regulate in interstate commerce and thats it. Regulation does not mean banning.

      Even the prohibitionists knew that they needed a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol.

      Once americans let the federal gov bans stuff, it was all down hill. Feds cannot ban guns, drugs, or alcohol (anymore).

      I dont think any justice follows the constitution to the letter, which is a problem. Thomas at least tried to follow some of the constitution. I dont think even thomas thinks the 2A prohibits all gun control.

      The fact that america cant even agree on the basics of constitutional powers and protections, is one of the greatest problems america faces. Most of our current tensions arise from this.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Is there anything stopping development of Bozeman’s suburbs?

    The caterwauling of champagne socialists and limousine liberals.

    • juris imprudent

      I read that in that fuck Robin Leach’s voice. Thanks.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      To be (a bit) serious for a moment, perhaps Bozeman’s running into the same problem as Calgary did, to wit, water rights.

      Can’t expand into the surrounding territory in a water-restricted area without ’em.

  19. rhywun

    Maybe Paris is as bad as NYC?

    Paris was a shithole when I visited decades ago. Of course, I was a wide-eyed country bumpkin back then but I was still a little green when I moved to NYC 20+ years ago. My conclusion is that Paris is worse than NYC.

    • Urthona

      Uh yeah. Paris is way worse than NYC.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    A little snippet of a headline caught my eye. “Racism against people of African descent.”

    Which reminds me of a conversation among two black couples near me in a restaurant in Indianapolis, one day. One of the men suddenly said, “I’m not African American. I was born and raised in Indianapolis Indiana.”

    How many generations does it take before you get to be of American descent?

    • Spartacus

      We’re all of African descent, if you go back far enough.

      • Animal

        We’re all of Pangean descent, if you go back far enough.

      • Gadfly

        But some of us are less African (and therefor technically less human) than others, given the interbreeding of the homo-sapiens who left Africa with the Neanderthals and Denisovans.

  21. Certified Public Asshat

    ‘Luca’ proves Disney’s Pixar wasn’t brave enough to fully commit to its first queer animated film

    Luca is immediately taken by the free-spirited Alberto when he meets a fellow sea monster off the coast of Portorosso.

    They’re casually physical with each other, sleeping side by side under a star-filled sky, wrapping their arms around each other’s waists, and watching the sunset together. In fact, they spend a lot of the film embracing each other — teasing that their relationship could blossom into something more.

    Their relationship matures further during the end scene, when Alberto chooses to stay behind in Portorosso while Luca gets on a train to leave for school. Their touching farewell handshake lingered a bit.

    All friendships are based in wanting to fuck one another.

    • Urthona

      I saw the movie. It wasn’t a gay story.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I saw it too. I didn’t pick up on anything that this article claims, but I guess I can see “queer identity” as a metaphor with the sea-monsters turning into humans angle if I squint.

        Of course, Luca also heads off to school to try and bang the red headed girl was my take of the ending.

      • Urthona

        I mean people hiding your nature until you are comfortable does work for gays. or like a million things humans experience.

      • Gadfly

        Yeah, it was clearly a story about friendship, but I could see how people might think something more was coming from Alberto’s side of things. The idea that any western company isn’t “brave” enough to embrace “queer” stories is especially laughable during Pride Month, what with all the major company logos blurring into a rainbow. The only hesitation behind making gay films is that it might limit the audience appeal, which is a question of profit, not bravery.

      • Urthona

        Actually I do think it would be costly for Disney to make a gay kids movie. They would make less money.

        They are absolutely motivated to try and appeal to a large audience. And should be.

      • Raven Nation

        “he idea that any western company isn’t “brave” enough to embrace “queer” stories is especially laughable”

        Don’t forget that all American universities continue to refuse to hire qualified people of color because of systemic racism on the part of academics.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        “Mangia!”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Sex and sexual preference is all there is.

      Sex and sexual preference are unimportant.

      Is it any wonder they’re nuts?

      • Urthona

        Comprehensive list of all Pixar movies in which a character even has a sexuality:

      • Urthona

        Oh I guess in “up” the main character is married for a long time. Damn.

      • kinnath

        By that measure, you have the Mr. and Mrs. Incredibles with three kids.

      • Urthona

        Oh yeah; forget my bold statement. I’m an idiot.

      • R C Dean

        The marriage was a sham in Up. The movie is about an elderly pedophile grooming a Boy Scout, fer cryin’ out loud.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Grooming? Hell, the old guy was trafficking the kid.

      • kinnath

        Cars had a love interest between Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I can’t remember, was that ever actually implied to be romantic?

      • TARDis

        Tried to find the old fahrvergnügen meme where one V-dub was stoinking another, but it seems to have disappeared. “Fahrvernookie”

        Before memes were a thing, I think.

    • wdalasio

      Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but maybe there’s a segment of our society that doesn’t think sexuality, any sexuality, is really a great topic for a children’s movie to deal with?

      • Sean

        Nickelodeon – “Hold my beer.”

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The problem is that sexuality has been inextricably linked with family. You can’t show a family in a family movie without getting a tally point against inclusivity.

        (Just like the commies planned it)

    • Agent Cooper

      Let’s be honest – gluttony month is every month.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Somebody up the hill from me has been bringing in truck after truck after truck of gravel, or fill, or whatever. Big freaking dump trucks that barely fit on the road.

    Maybe he’s putting in a landing strip for his Gulfstream. Who knows?

    With any luck, I’ll be gone before the convoy of concrete trucks shows up.

    • Sean

      Maybe he’s building an underground bunker.

  23. juris imprudent

    So from earlier today there was that short discussion on Judeo-Christian connection on our modern concept of rights. That sent me down a rabbit hole on the Magna Carta, and the Charter of Liberties (from Henry I). Neither of these were distinctly Christian, but instead seemed to draw more on Anglo-Saxon tradition. The Magna Carta was actually annulled by Pope Innocent III who threatened ex-communication to king or baron for holding to it. So the claim of dependence (our contemporary rights) on religious tradition/thought is pretty tenuous.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I base my argument on the fundamental role that Aquinas and Locke played in developing the concept of natural rights and their outsized influence on those that followed. Both ground their arguments in decidedly Christian terms, even though they laid the framework for a secular justification of those ideas at a later time.

      • juris imprudent

        Aquinas I’ll absolutely grant you as developing theory in service and compliance with Christianity. Locke I’m not quite so sure. He made a great case for tolerance, which could be more pragmatic than anything I suppose, given the religious turmoil he had lived through.

    • wdalasio

      Well, rights are an ethical concept. I don’t think you can really talk about Western ethical concepts outside of the context of the Judeo-Christian tradition. To say that the Catholic church didn’t behave in ways that were unethical by those standards doesn’t really mean that those standards weren’t a function of the ideas promulgated by the church.

      • juris imprudent

        The ancient Greeks and Romans were as equally committed to understanding ethics, without input from Judeo-Christian sources. In the case of the Greeks more flowed from them than to them as regards all of Christianity.

        None of the rights asserted in the early English statements on such draw from particularly religious sources, so far as I can tell. Parts of them seek to protect the Church from royal abuse, just as much as protecting the ‘rights’ of the nobles (and to a much lesser extent free men). On the other hand, it seems the Pope opposed these assertions since they didn’t conform with Church dogma (or were perhaps perceived as forerunners of other challenges that would be made on Papal authority).

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe he’s building an underground bunker.

    A missile silo, I hope.

    • R C Dean

      I still wish I had the money to buy the old Titan missile silo that was for sale outside Tucson. Not so much the purchase price (which I don’t recall), as the truly staggering sum of money it would take to fix it up.

      And mount the remote controlled chainguns for “greeting” visitors.

      • blackjack

        There was a prison for sale in, I think Colorado a few years back for around a million bucks. A whole prison. With all the stuff a prison has. You could rent it to studios and still live in it and have a pool, track, sports facilities etc. The possibilities were endless, like the time spent there by some of the people.

      • juris imprudent

        The one off 395 in California (going from SoCal up to Mammoth) was sold off as surplus property some years back as well. Interesting thing about it’s location was it was right next to a bunch of observation/sensor stuff that was part of either Edwards AFB or China Lake.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Yeah, it was clearly a story about friendship, but I could see how people might think something more was coming from Alberto’s side of things.

    “If I wanted a friend, I’d buy a dog.”

    • Urthona

      In order to stop them, we should employ the Obama era strategy of giving them a shit ton of money and then letting them build nuclear power plants. This will prevent them from ever getting nuclear weapons.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        If we could somehow make all their nukes fail spectacularly like Reactor 4 at Chernobyl, that might actually work. Ignoring the consequences, of course, as all good “international experts” would.

    • juris imprudent

      Funny, but the Iraqi Foreign Minister doesn’t seem too impressed with our attacks on allegedly Iranian-backed militia.

      • Swiss Servator

        He has to play to certain domestic audiences. The Iraqis were probably the ones diming them out…

      • westernsloper

        Is he Sunni or Shia? My experience has been that most normal people there don’t give a fuck but there are a lot of not normal people there. The Iraqi Kurds really didn’t give a fuck unless it was a PUK vs PDK thing but all that was still trumped by being Kurd. The PKK, well, that is another animal altogether. None of which I care about other than having made friends there. We have no business bombing anybody.

    • Sean

      Then what about the booster shots we keep hearing about?

      Didn’t click link.

      • Urthona

        Yeah COVID is basically nonexistent in Israel right now.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Not the thrust of the Twat thread referenced above, but whatevs.

      • Urthona

        Yeah what I’m saying is that thread is bullshit. No, the Israel data doesn’t suggest the vaccine doesn’t work.

        This crap is as bad as making people take the vaccine who don’t want it.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        The thread isn’t trying to say the vaccines don’t work, but as an adjunct to its main point, people with mRNA vaxxes in Israel are still getting the ‘Vid from time-to-time, which sorta punches a hole in the belief that the mRNA vaxxes actually confer “immunity.”

      • Urthona

        Well, it claims to confer like 95% immunity. So you gotta roll a ‘1’.

      • R C Dean

        Immunity isn’t a binary thing. It doesn’t mean any virus you are immune to immediately bursts into flame on contact with you. It means your immune system is sufficiently well primed to prevail against the virus. You will still get infections (that is, viruses reproducing in your system), but you’ll beat them, probably without even noticing it.

      • westernsloper

        Did it occur to anybody that due the the high false positive rates on the tests that perhaps that is why the CDC recommends not testing vaccinated people for reasons they tested everybody a few months ago? So is asymptomatic spread now the myth it has always been or is it cover for all the vaccinated people walking around with covid?

        Holy shit, I just channeled Winston.

      • TARDis

        I just channeled Winston

        Was his mom, busy?

      • westernsloper

        Was his mom, busy?

        She is always busy.

    • TARDis

      That cold I had when I was five? Still might have some protection against it. (Probably because that virus is ded.) Can you imagine how extinct life would be if we were still susceptible to everything we already had a few years ago, plus everything new too? I have not had a cold in like… 10 years. Thank you, daycare, aftercare, orchestra, and Taekwondo!

      Now about all the effing pollen….

    • DEG

      For the study, published on Monday in the journal Nature, the team recruited 14 people who received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

      Among them, eight people had previously has been infected with COVID-19.

      Huh.

      So only six of the studied people had no previous exposure to Covid. Those eight could have gotten their immunity from their exposure, not the vaccine.

  26. Timeloose

    My power was out since 3:00 EST. I have two window AC units to cool my house so only the bed room and living room get cool.

    97F today made my homecoming unwelcoming. I thanks the methane gods for the ability to cook on my stove, but Ready Kilowatt has let me down.

    The power just came back on….Let the cooling begin.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Crank those puppies to 11.

    • Timeloose

      Shit. Spoke too soon. It’s out again. I got only 20 minutes. Hopefully they are just shutting it down to connect another leg.

    • rhywun

      I got the usual text from ConEd – “report any outages to us during the heat wave yada yada yada”. ‘K, thx.

      • Timeloose

        I’m back up. The local utility is pretty good at getting things done. It was a brief outage after the 3 hour one. Some kind of substation mechanical issue.

      • DEG

        Good your power is back.

  27. Raven Nation

    “I am getting buried by my Swiss Masters.”

    I presume they are now celebrating wildly in Zurich.

    • Ted S.

      Granit Xhaka, when the walls fell?

      • juris imprudent

        Benzema, the goal as wide open as Winston’s mom.

    • rhywun

      I laughed, I cried, and then I laughed some more.

      Now do Spain ?

      • Raven Nation

        Yeah, Croatia fucked their part of the fairytale.

      • rhywun

        Right?!

  28. Count Potato

    “I have the RIGHT to FEEL safe where I work
    I have the RIGHT to FEEL safe where I worship
    I have the RIGHT to FEEL safe where I live
    I have the RIGHT to FEEL safe sending my children to school

    Your right to own a gun doesn’t supersede my rights or feelings”

    https://twitter.com/mrs_lerner/status/1409224273282150402

    I have the RIGHT to FEEL you tossing my salad in counter-clockwise direction.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      No, but my right to feel safe by owning a gun actually cancels your right to feel safe by preventing me from owning a gun. Your FEELZ do not override mine.

      Competing rights in a Western small-“L” liberal democracy: how do they work?

    • rhywun

      Can you cite that in the Bill of Feelings?

      lolsnort

    • TARDis

      tossing my salad in counter-clockwise direction

      That’s really… specific. Is there some magic I’m missing?

      • Not Adahn

        Honestly, that’s only if they’re right-handed.

      • TARDis

        Got it. Right-handed for CCW. Left-handed for CW.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Or in the northern hemisphere.

    • juris imprudent

      After that head comes out of her ass, I don’t think even STEVE SMITH get traction in it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I had to look up the CJE in her title.

      Certified Journalism Educator

      That’s a mashup of the worst credentials I can think of.

      • TARDis

        And these people look down on RNs, automotive techs, plumbers, electricians, etc.

        Her title should be Certified Turd Polisher.

        Me: So, what do for a living?
        Twit: I’m a Certified Journalism Educator
        Me: Really? Hmm, that reminds me… I haven’t pooped today. Later.

  29. westernsloper

    Eight people were arrested, including Emily Hagan, 23, of Kips Bay, who allegedly bit a lieutenant in the fracas.

    Right in the mother fucking fracas she bit the guy. I hope he had some ice.

    • Animal

      I’ve never been bit in the fracas, but I’ve had my Schumer kicked once or twice.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      Once your fracas has been breached, you’re never able to have kids again.

    • rhywun

      Kips Bay

      Trust-fund kids. ?

    • C. Anacreon

      Is the fracas near the tuchus?

      • westernsloper

        Taint far.

      • Surly Knott

        I think ‘tuchus’ is Yiddish for ‘Schumer.’

  30. Jerms

    New York, New York it’s a Hell of a town….crime is up, and morale is down!

    I have a friend who left the city because his midtown neighborhood wasnt safe for his wife anymore and the real estate out here on Long Island is way up due to people getting out.

    • Gender Traitor

      “Pearls aren’t vegan!!!”

      • Ted S.

        At least they’re gluten-free.

    • Agent Cooper

      It will be a dead brand within 5 years. People will be switching to Mrs. Butterworth’s PAWG sauce.

  31. Gustave Lytton

    Some bright boy in IT decided to change the Sharepoint search from everything inside the company’s sites to entire web. Dumbass.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Does it have SafeSearch turned off?

      • Gustave Lytton

        I’m hoping so. I don’t see an option because Sharepoint is a POS and I’m not going to test it.

      • westernsloper

        Coward.

  32. Gender Traitor

    Diving into another hearty helping of UCS’s homemade Mac and cheese leftover from yesterday’s feast at Chez GT/TT. Soooo good! #NotGlibFit #Don’tGiveAShit