Sunday Florida Man Links

by | Mar 6, 2022 | Daily Links | 164 comments

Yesterday’s tree/ropes course was pretty cool. Its probably exactly what young kids should be doing – building confidence in being strapped into technology beyond their comprehension by competent people and trusting their lives to it. Kidding, sort of. I meant learning how to navigate scary and new situations.

The Bee comes strong.

This was my nightmare scenario with this pregnancy.

SpaceX is selling trips to the Moon, NASA is offering to write your name down and shoot it into orbit around the Moon sometime maybe in the future.

From Wikipedia, proof that boiling meat is the oldest English tradition. Both recipes translated start with “put meat in boiling pot of water”.

Continuing with the old-school Austin singer-songwriter… 19ish years ago I used to sit in my apartment and get absolutely lit to this album. Nine years ago, I played this song for my then girlfriend and she dug it. Now I listen to it after the kids are in bed, waiting for the fourth baby with that lady. Time is a motherfucker.

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

164 Comments

  1. Homple

    Is this thing on?

  2. slumbrew

    I know folks who had triplets right out of the gate, in their 20s. Quite a bit more work than they were planning for.

    • Ted S.

      Mr. and Mrs. Dionne, being devout French-Canadian Catholics, had three more kids after the quintuplets.

  3. The Late P Brooks

    A local couple got the surprise of a lifetime last year when they found out they were pregnant with triplets.

    Yesterday, mom gave birth to three baby boys.

    Oops.

    • Ted S.

      Technically, only the mom was pregnant with triplets.

  4. Sean

    “Hooked By Hookers”

    ?

  5. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

  6. Timeloose

    Bob Schneider, great pick for music.

    I have fond memories of listening and seeing the Scabs and Lonelyland bands.

    Scabs at Antones and Lonelyland at the Saxon.

    • Tres Cool

      I remember seeing Mason Ruffner at Antone’s in Austin.
      At the time, I was dating his neice.

      • Tres Cool

        /niece

        She was really, really, nice. For a niece.

      • Ted S.

        My nice niece Denise from Nice has nice knees.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Cash for clunkers redux

    The Biden administration is holding talks with Poland about a possible deal to help provide Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine, a White House spokesperson said.

    The deal would involve Poland donating its old Russian-made MiG fighters to Ukraine, and then replacing them with the purchase of U.S.-made F-16 jets.

    Everybody wins!

    • SDF-7

      Especially Lockheed.

      • Grumbletarian

        Did they buy out General Dynamics?

      • Grumbletarian

        Wikipedia says yes. Huh.

      • Timeloose

        Think of the 30years or more of replacement parts they could sell.

      • Chafed

        Dick Jones certainly has.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      No
      No
      No ducking way

    • Ghostpatzer

      Give me a break. Just write a check to Lockheed and be done with it. At least no Ukrainian pilots will get slaughtered flying obsolete fighters in combat.

      • LCDR_Fish

        well, technically obsolete fighters that are comparable to their current/recent assets and should be manageable by their pilots with little to no retraining.

      • Ghostpatzer

        I probably should stop commenting on military matters, of which I know little to nothing. But I don’t think a few more fighters will turn the tide.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Surprising number of Russian planes still being shot down – still no air supremacy. Looks like reserves are starting to be mobilized from Vladivostok, etc.

      • Rat on a train

        Can we scrounge up some Su-25 to send with those MiGs? A-10 pilots are crying in frustration right now. Also send more MANPADS.

      • Chafed

        I get the impression if Ukraine had A-10s the Russian armor would be in deep trouble.

      • Don escaped Texas

        if Ukraine had A-10s

        evergreen

        my version: if Squanto had a case of Marlin 22LR semis, I’d be typing this comment from Aberdeen

  8. The Late P Brooks

    The spokesperson said there were “a number of challenging practical questions,” including how the planes would get to Ukraine.

    No.

    • Not Adahn

      They don’t fly?

  9. Ghostpatzer

    I don’t want to do this ever again

    What, Florida doesn’t have birth control?

  10. Ghostpatzer

    “The Boke of Cokery”

    Hunter’s cookbook?

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Be vewwy vewwy quiet. Wew’e hunting dictators.

    Like the Cold War, countries are being forced to choose sides in a clash that President Joe Biden and European leaders describe as a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, between the rules-based order set up after World War II and the “law of the jungle” where might makes right.

    “Any nation that countenances Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association,” Biden said in his State of the Union address last week.

    We’re the good guys. Just ask Joe.

    • Sean

      “struggle between democracy and authoritarianism”

      We can bomb Australia now?

      • Ghostpatzer

        Plenty of authoritarianism in DC, Trenton, Albany, Sacramento… America first, Australia can wait.

    • rhywun

      Which one is the democracy?

      • Chafed

        The Orange Revolution says Ukraine.

      • kbolino

        A country’s democracy score is in direct proportion to how much money it can launder for American politicians and their affiliates.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh, you mean the one that over-turned the result of the preceding election? Yes – extremely democratic!

      • Gustave Lytton

        The Maidan Revolution did that too.

        Whatever happened to the chick with the Princess Leia hairstyle?

      • Chafed

        Holy cow. Yes she is.

      • Chafed

        The very likely rigged election, yes. Call me crazy for believing a populace that wants a free and fair election is democratic.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Pepperidge Farms remembers the opposition to W and his “with us or against us” stand.

      And the wholesale support for China.

  12. Sean

    4 6
    7 8

    • Ted S.

      37
      54

      • The Hyperbole

        No one likes a braggart Teds

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        36-24-36

  13. The Late P Brooks

    His speech carried echoes of past presidents during the Cold War, who also vowed to lead the “free world” against the threat from Moscow. And Biden’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, also employed similar rhetoric that recalled the Cold War years.

    “With this brutal invasion, we, our European allies and partners and people everywhere are being reminded of just how much is at stake. Now, we see the tide of democracy rising to the moment,” Secretary of State Blinken said on Friday in Brussels.

    Pay no attention to those “insurrectionists” behind the bulletproof curtain. We’ll tell you what qualifies as authentic authoritarianism if and when we think you need to know.

    “What’s that you say? Your checks have all started bouncing, even though you have money in the bank? We had to put a hold on those accounts until you can prove you came by that money legitimately. That’s how DEMOCRACY! works.”

    • kbolino

      There is a pathology here that I do not fully understand. I’m not talking about the leaders in this case, their motives I think I get. Rather the average person buying into this bullshit. A lot of these people giddy about re-enacting the Cold War just yesterday hated the classic Cold Warriors. Is Reagan a devil or an inspiration? Shall we go march off to Vietnam Ukraine for LBJ, Westmoreland, and Kissinger once more? I thought those were bad people who did bad things?

      It all looks like a trap to me, but people are willingly jumping into it. And so soon after COVID hysteria, they are ready to be whipped up into another frenzy.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

        They’re distracting us while they continue to consolidate control over every aspect of our lives.

      • juris imprudent

        Rather the average person buying into this bullshit.

        Ah yes, the average voter. Churchill had a quote on point. You are talking about people that can wax non-stop on either sports or celebrities but couldn’t find Ukraine on a map if you put a gun to their head. Same people that say drugs have to be illegal because otherwise other people might take them; it isn’t a law they need to stop themselves.

        In a choice between elite opinion and public – the better bet is on the elite (not that a bet right now in this country is anything other than a sucker bet).

    • creech

      This morning’s prayer was basically the pastor imploring God to wake up and stop the atrocities in Ukraine. By His grace, and in His wisdom, of course.

      • Chafed

        +1 Divine intervention

  14. The Late P Brooks

    “There were times during the Cold War that were more stable than we see today,” said Thomas Wright, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution think tank.

    “This feels like a very dangerous moment, especially given the personality of Putin. That might be the biggest difference” between the current crisis and the U.S-Soviet contest, Wright said. “So much of this seems to be about Putin personally.”

    Could this be in some way related to the unrelentingly personalized attacks on Putin by our political class and their media scriveners?

    • kbolino

      It is very hard not to see this conflict as oligarchy vs monarchy. Putin is one man leading a country. This is anathema. Countries must be run by committees, the structure of power must be opaque, the functioning of the nation shrouded by modern-day mysticism. Putin strips all of that away, or at least appears to do so to Western eyes, and this they cannot tolerate.

      But I cannot believe the stupidity of our own empire’s leaders. Everybody is racing to block Russians from accessing global commerce. Yet commerce is the empire’s greatest weapon. All of this soft power is being discarded, almost literally overnight, for what? The slim chance that the Russians are going to “rise up” in service of American Empire and overthrow Putin so they can get their PornHub back? A people who were already among the world’s best video game pirates are going to revolt because Steam cut them off?

      Now MasterCard and Visa. I don’t like to underestimate my enemies, but what idiocy is this? Culture, credit, finance, these are the tools of American imperialism. But they work slowly. Their effectiveness is measured by their use. To cut people off from them is a massive gamble with slim odds of success. Putin has been laying the groundwork to build alternatives, and now “we” have handed him the opportunity to commit to that endeavor on a silver platter.

      The message is: if you want to opt out a little bit, you are going to be forced to opt out entirely. Where there is strong-man rule left in the world, and it is in more places than just Russia, that is not so much a threat as a tempting promise.

  15. hayeksplosives

    Man, Mark Steyn’s latest is sobering if he’s right. By year 2100, there won’t be Ukrainians, Russians, English, or any other European ethnicity. We’ve collectively quit reproducing for the most part.

    Ukraine population was 50 million 10 years ago and is 40 million now. They just pretty much gave up on the future.

    I hope that couple’s triplets will “be fruitful and multiply.”

    • Urthona

      I did my part. 3 kids.

      I’m tired.

      • Chafed

        I’m starting to understand your avatar.

      • Rat on a train

        I only produced two and they are mixed race. I will at least raise them with a healthy distrust of government.

      • hayeksplosives

        Right on, right on.

        I fear that what we quaintly call “Western civilization” is going to collapse this century, so your brood will have to carry on and establish what happens next.

      • Fourscore

        Two wives, two kids and me

        I’m at a -1. Sorry, folks

    • Don escaped Texas

      What should we really worry about losing? My grandchildren can wiki up the recipe for haggis, but is that the important part? Is paper-thin skin covered in moles an attribute that I selfishly need to make sure survives the centuries? Kilts? Well, right, whiskey, but that seems to be internationally respected and taken care of.

      Most of western civilization is gone or not worth worrying about. Surely the power of the state ala Rome, Carthage, and Sparta aren’t goals. No one goes to church any more. Do we want Henry VIII and Louis XVI back?

      We’re left with the Enlightenment and one serious question: WHERE will my rights will be defended…and with whom? I learned from Glibs that a large dent in American freedom came from the loss of the frontier: there’s nowhere left to hide.

      I don’t really care about Ukraine. It’s fraught the way eastern Europe always has been. Like covid, it’s the residues and the overreactions that matter, not the thing itself. I wish everyone autonomy, but almost no one gets to have it….why should Ukraine be any different? My culture is subsumed by the English, whatever that even means, by their language whatever it has become; even my murder-for-hire heritage has fairly played out since fencing off Ulster for Cromwell and killing most of the Muskegon…for, well, I suppose, me.

      What is ethnicity? What is authentic? What is meaningful and worthwhile?

  16. The Late P Brooks

    In what could be a long struggle ahead, the U.S. would do well to draw on the lessons of the Cold War, including the need to support resistance fighters against troops sent from Moscow, said Sarotte.

    Historians say the U.S. won the Cold War by containing the Soviets, building a more prosperous economic model and by cultivating a vast network of alliances.

    We’re doomed.

    • juris imprudent

      We won! And dammit that means we are in charge!!! [DC stomps feet and throws tantrum]

      “containing the Soviets”

      Gosh – what message could that possibly send to the Russians (particularly when the Soviets were acting on historical Russian interests).

    • kbolino

      1. Fight the big nations by creating insurgents
      2. Fight the insurgencies you created
      3. ???
      4. Profit!

  17. juris imprudent

    I hadn’t heard the singer/songwriter before – great stuff. I have a favorite from Austin from maybe just a little earlier.

  18. Not Adahn

    This Ukraine thigs sounds like exactly the sort of thein that UN Peacekeeprs should be doing. Send in the Blue Helmets!

    …Can they direct deposit my Peace Prize cash, or do I have to go to Oslo topick up the check?

    • kbolino

      I’m not sure how adding rape and cholera to the picture will help, but I’m sure somebody who writes for the NYT can find a way.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    As a lot of people have pointed out, it is astounding to see the close quarter bird flocking behavior currently on display. There is a term (which I cannot remember) for when hundreds of birds in flight change course in unison, which is what we have seen. From plague to Putin in a heartbeat.

    Salvation will come to us if only we follow the collective will. Join the team. Fight the [_______]. Be saved.

  20. Not Adahn

    The RSO class was a horror show.

    From the dude that was there to “pick up chicks,” to the Scott Ian lookalike wearing digicam pants and a RealTree jacket over a Pip-Boy T-shirt to the Prison Guard who’s every answer was to “lay down the law” my respect for the NRA as an organization has sunk even lower.

    However I can now work matches at this shiny new private range complex owned by the blue gun shop owner, so I’ve got that going for me.

    • Sean

      “Pip-Boy T-shirt ”

      ?

      • Not Adahn

        The best part of the class was the clearing stoppage practice on the wierdest guns they could come up with.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Clear? You mean the practice isn’t just to point the weapon in a safe direction until it cooks off or until the heat death of the universe?

  21. kbolino

    Also, I just found the Glibs Twitter account. I don’t know who’s running it, but I would just like to say, lol.

    • Ted S.

      You didn’t see the link at the top of the page? :-p

      • kbolino

        I haven’t checked in on it since the early days.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    It all looks like a trap to me, but people are willingly jumping into it. And so soon after COVID hysteria, they are ready to be whipped up into another frenzy.

    They yearn for meaning, and the tent show revivalists tell them what they want to hear.

    Salvation Through Unquestioning Devotion.

    • Ted S.

      You’re not calling them STUDs, are you?

      Believing Expert Technocrats’ Arbitrariness would be more appropriate.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    If Hillary Clinton were just starting the second year of her second term as President, none of this would be happening. It would be business as usual for the vast lattice of the shadow world government.

    Chew on that for a while.

    • kbolino

      I think Russia would still invade Ukraine, but it’s possible nobody would give a shit, like the last time they did it.

      • Brawndo

        Maybe. Biden and his circle have clear ties to the regime in Ukraine as a result of the shenanigans in 2014. I’m wondering if this overreaction is driven by fear that Putin will either show the world what’s going on (doubtful) or cut off his gravy train (more likely). I don’t know what Clinton is involved with there, but she is generally more hawkish than Biden. I dunno

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Hell, Trump is bragging that he told Putin he would bomb Moscow if he invaded the Ukraine. Sanity is not in vogue.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Her proposed policy was to set up a no fly zone in Syria which would have led to direct conflict with Russia and almost certainly to Ukraine being invaded but with a very heavy hand. As bad as this is, well it could be worse.

    • whiz

      Chew on that for a while.

      *Spits it out* No, it would have already happened in 2018.

  24. Q Continuum

    Oh goody.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-warns-west-as-report-promises-to-resolve-taiwan-question/ar-AAUER9N?li=BBnbfcL

    Since the world seems to well and truly be falling apart, I’m forced to re-examine some of my beliefs vis-a-vis American leadership/exceptionalism, free market absolutism and peace through strength. In the late 20th/early 21st century, the world seemed to work best when America encouraged ethical free markets and subscribed to “speak softly and carry a big stick” ideology. Unfortunately, both of those tenets have been abandoned and now things are going to shit. Corrupt American elites and businessmen perverted the ethical part of free markets and started trading with and enriching regimes that use slavery and are explicitly dedicated to anti-freedom, anti-human agendas. Speaking softly and carrying a big stick requires humility and self-restraint, neither of which the aforementioned corrupt elites have any of; thus, we spent obscene amounts of blood and treasure fighting utterly pointless wars in MENA for two decades and now the Emperor with the big stick has no clothes. Finally, ignorant ideologues and lunatics are carelessly discarding soft economic power by insisting on green energy fantasies and defenestrating wrongthinkers from American cultural and financial institutions. This may give them some cummies in the short term, but it’s not as though Russians (or American Deplorables for that matter) will live without banks, payment processors, insurance or utilities forever; it may take time but the undesirables will eventually get alternatives. The corrupt elites are voluntarily walling themselves off from the world and discarding their greatest sources of influence because they believe “DAMMIT THE RIGHT PEOPLE ARE IN CHARGE AND IT’LL WORK THIS TIME!”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Sure, it’s interesting that American (and other) political “undesirables” might end up finding a refuge in whatever parallel system the Russians build as a response to this. This was already done on a small scale vis a vis political content creators who were worried about being axed from Patreon and moving over to the Russian run Subscribestar. Just don’t criticize the political power structure in Russia too harshly and you’re golden.

      • Q Continuum

        I don’t mean to say that Russia’s alternatives will be widely adopted, only that Russia may come up with the alternatives first out of necessity. I see a more decentralized system in the future (which would be enormously beneficial).

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They’re not walling themselves off. They’re walling us in.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Are they though? It looks like they’re just flailing around (mostly) mindlessly to me.

      • Q Continuum

        I think you give them way too much credit. They’re suffering from severe Dunning-Kreuger while simultaneously greatly underestimating their adversaries. If they were half as brilliant and competent as they think they are, they wouldn’t be constantly outmaneuvered by Putin and Xi.

      • Brawndo

        It’s a cliche and a dumb line from Star Wars but “the tighter you close your fist, the more star systems slip from your grasp” or something like that.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Let’s hope so. I’m not certain. They’re going to continue to turn up the heat until it boils over.

      • Brawndo

        And what’s left unsaid by Princess Leia is that it really REALLY sucks to be in a star system that *doesn’t* slip away.

    • Gustave Lytton

      There’s a lot of bells that are going to be difficult to unring. The credit card and financial system cutoff is the one that worries me. That’s not a temporary thing that can just be turned back on when this Ukraine war is resolved. It’s not just Russian businesses and persons affected. It’s effectively locking out (non-large/connected) western businesses and individuals from traveling or working there.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This scares the shit out of me. Those weapons will be turned on us. There is no question about it. They desperately want to do so, just look at Trudeau.

        International trade with Russia will be forced through a third currency like the Yuan, damaging the dollar’s reserve status.

        My only hope is that it forces the development of an alternative in the West that is not fiat based. Crypto is going to come under heavy attack now. I’m hoping it survives.

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        TBF, crypto is also “fiat-based”; just not government fiat (in other words, crypto, like precious metals, is a democratic fiat currency, declared so by the people rather than their governments).

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Not-Fascism

    McDonald’s and PepsiCo are among brands facing calls from political figures to cut business ties with Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine

    In a letter Friday, Thomas DiNapoli, New York state comptroller, urged companies to rethink their Russian business operations because they face “significant and growing legal, compliance, operational, human rights and personnel, and reputational risks,” Reuters reported.

    He added that suspending or ending business in Russia “would address various investment risks associated with the Russian market” and play a key role in “condemning Russia’s role in fundamentally undermining the international order.”

    ——-

    British politician John Mann called for similar action to DiNapoli. In a tweet, he said: “If Mcdonalds and Starbucks continue to sell in Russia then an international boycott of their products should be instigated.”

    Nice little business you got here. You’ll do what we say, if you want to keep it, right?

    • Gustave Lytton

      I remember when both McDonalds and Coke doing business with the totalitarian USSR was seen as a sign of success.

    • rhywun

      “China’s where the money is anyway.”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      And yet I’d imagine they’re perfectly happy to not make a peep about selling nice refreshing diabetes water in Saudi Arabia and other American approved despotic countries. For the most part, certain military technologies accepted, the movement of goods should be apolitical and amoral.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Fascists are out in force now.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    I think Russia would still invade Ukraine, but it’s possible nobody would give a shit, like the last time they did it.

    Skids were greased.

    • Tulip

      Nice! I plan to start mine today.

      • Sean

        Big hardware upgrade this year. ?

        I hope yours goes well.

    • Fourscore

      I going to wait another week or two. My apple trees look about like your top rack, Sean. A lot haven’t popped up yet, they take a long time to germinate and some may not be viable. I have about 10 growing, probably enough anyway.

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        I finally had two (of about 15) lemon seeds sprout. It took 4 weeks of them being in a zip lock bag with a moist paper towel to sprout.
        I planted them in potting soil yesterday.
        Too early to start peppers here, but I’m itching to.

      • Fourscore

        Apple sauce and lemonade, Nick. You’re hoping for global warming, I’m on the cooling side. We’ve got the market cornered which ever way the world turns.

    • MikeS

      And the reporter doesn’t think to ask (or is told not to print) why charges are being filed in 2022 for a crime that occurred in 2014-15.

    • rhywun

      Check out the side-linked story about the FBI grooming a proggie teen to turn in his dad because “insurrection”.

  27. Don escaped Texas

    Is it the Johnny Mercer song?

    NewWife and I go to Bonaventure every Christmas after brunch to check on Johnny: he hasn’t gone anywhere but seems annoyed that Lou Reed is in the band now.

    • Gender Traitor

      Not that you asked, but here you go.

      • Don escaped Texas

        killer chord progression

        our song covered by the great Ray Charles

    • Homple

      “Russians are bombing children’s hospitals.”

      Heard that one before, bailed.

      • Homple

        Heard that one before, elsewhere several times. Bailed.

      • limey

        It hadn’t escaped me. It’s a shame you dismissed the rest of it over one line because it’s a worthwhile listen. I guess that’s what people do now.

      • Homple

        I’ve watched half a dozen other ones and, smelling propaganda, gave the rest of this one a miss.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Not-Fascism pt 2

    Oil major Shell has sought to defend its decision to buy a heavily-discounted consignment of oil from Russia, saying it would commit the profits to a fund dedicated to humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

    On Friday, Shell purchased 100,000 metric tons of flagship Urals crude from Russia. It was reportedly bought at a record discount, with many firms shunning Russian oil due to Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor. The purchase did not violate any Western sanctions.

    Shell said in a statement late Saturday that it had been in “intense talks with governments and continue to follow their guidance around this issue of security of supply, and are acutely aware we have to navigate this dilemma with the utmost care.”

    Fucking incentives- how do they work?

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Big hardware upgrade this year.

    Such euphemism.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The financial system is almost fully weaponized. All that’s left is a digital currency that they can turn off at will for specific types of purchases, like guns. And they’ll be outlawing any alternatives to their system shortly.

  30. Don escaped Texas

    old-school Austin singer-songwriter

    No objections: he’s NewWife’s favorite, so I took her to see him in the open air out Bee Caves maybe 2014. It’s all good, but I’m more Texan than Schneider; I think his clans are from Michigan. Gary Clark is native and is cool, but really Austin is a dry hole; Willie, SRV, Lucinda got there, but nobody’s from there. Throw a 50 mile rope out from Fort Worth and you’ll hit the greatness.
    Steven Fromholz is from out west a piece from AUS.

  31. westernsloper

    Once again a weekend of FL Man music being far superior to Old Guy Music.

    • Fourscore

      You leave my OMWC’s music alone!

  32. The Late P Brooks

    I see a more decentralized system in the future (which would be enormously beneficial).

    I’m all in favor of this, but I think we are much too far down the path of, “If you do business here, we regulate you here.”

    Not to mention our own American Exceptionalist version: “If you do business anywhere, we regulate you everywhere.”

    I, for one, would like to see a lot more nose-thumbing directed at American regulatory overreach. I expect none.

    • Don escaped Texas

      I, for one, would like to see a lot more nose-thumbing directed at American regulatory overreach. I expect none.

      this

    • Don escaped Texas

      I’d like to see Fvalues plotted on a map as larger or darker dots, but this is the best I could find

      • MikeS

        The cool thing about that one is it -I assume- shows the path, also.

      • Don escaped Texas

        One of my favorite visual methods is to plot big solid circles on a map to help people understand their clients and their suppliers with circle areas congruent to profit or revenue or content or whatever meaningful scalar. Once you have a map set up, new versions are easy. I’m sure there’s a software that does sales by zip code, but I usually just do everything myself in Excel.

      • hayeksplosives

        I grew up in Oklahoma, tornado alley. But the good thing was that they followed specific patterns and thus we had relatively few deaths; people knew they were coming and knew what to do. The great Gary England was a major part of that.

        What is undeniable is that the early tornado season (March-April) and Late tornado season (October-November) are when the anomalies occur. They tend to be outside “Tornado Alley”, either being much further East or in the South East. The tornadoes themselves last longer and are higher than average magnitude.

        Sadly, a higher death toll is inevitable.

      • Don escaped Texas

        I went up I-35 for the first time the year after Norman. Took me a day to realize what I had seen: looked like 100 D10 dozers had been lined up and just scraped the earth clean for several miles.

        Jarrell was the worse; not must to begin with, nothing left afterward.

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        I drove through a tornado on my way to work. Wichita, maybe 2001, I was driving the on ramp to the main drag. The wind and rain was intense.
        When I came home after work, I noticed the muffler shop and strip mall on the other side of the overpass were just…gone, completely gone.

  33. hayeksplosives

    I saw a post on Pahrump’s unofficial FB page of a company called “A Family Affair”. The concept is that the Dad wants to make his young sons do work, meet people, learn to shake hands, etc.

    So I messaged him that I had a bunch of big cardboard I wanted hauled off my property.

    He and his (maybe?) 13 yro son came and hauled out the giant cardboard from my patio. Then I got excited and told them to take away a hideous table my husband bought in CA, got them to take away the hideous Christmas wreaths he bought online, etc.

    I truly believe hubs won’t even notice it’s all gone, but man, my heart is lighter. And the kid earned his allowance today.

    • Don escaped Texas

      do work, meet people, learn to shake hands

      The patrol method, participation in outdoor programs, and adult association were Methods of Scouting key to developing just those skills. I fear these babies have been / will be thrown out with the bathwater.

      • hayeksplosives

        The Great Masking of the past two years has permanently damaged a generation.

      • PieInTheSky

        No more spitting in your hand before shaking is a good thing

    • PieInTheSky

      Is child labor not illegal? Should be

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Someone destroyed a beautiful car.

      Weep. Weep for humanity.

    • rhywun

      Bad face-lift

    • mikey

      And that was the last good-looking BMW.

  34. PieInTheSky

    Today we remember Josef Stalin, an incredible revolutionary that the world lost almost 70 years ago. His contributions and leadership improved the conditions of millions across the world.

    Stalin is one of the giants whose footsteps we are walking in.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/PortlandCPUSA/status/1500178281387085825

    • Fourscore

      Careful where you step, CPUSA, you’ll get shit all over your shoes

    • limey

      I knew this was coming. I’ve actually removed my degree from some job apps over the years.

      • limey

        *removed from CV, and not listed it on apps

    • Fourscore

      What? Have I been misled? Say it ain’t so.

      I hired a lot of liberal arts majors, some good, some were encouraged to move on where their education was better suited.

      • PieInTheSky

        But would you trust them with a bee hive?

    • PieInTheSky

      But if you average lifetime earning of people who went to.college 40 years ago…

      • PieInTheSky

        Then again there was 0 chance i got my current job without a degree

    • whiz

      This mostly applies to business, I think. In my field (physics), a degree was pretty much required.

  35. creech

    I noticed a letter in today’s paper from a group called “Marching Forward” that denounced Trump for calling Putin “so smart” and a “genius” and going on to imply then that Trump thought it was fine for Putin to take Ukraine. Nothing frosts me more than groups, left and right and even libertarian, taking words out of context and drawing false conclusions. I guess if one said Napoleon and R.E. Lee were “brilliant generals” it means one supports military dictatorship and slavery?

  36. Loveconstitution1789

    I wonder if certain folks here were going to do any articles about (1) the “neo-nazi units” fighting for Russia and (2) if Russia successfully takes over Ukraine, Russia’s Europe border will completely be NATO nations. Its funny because Russian apologists support Russias reason for war with ukraine because Russia doesnt want to border NATO nations at its SW region. Russia would border NATO nations of Romania, czech republic, and Slovakia that Russia doesnt currently share a border.