Sunday Morning Headache Links

by | Jul 24, 2022 | Daily Links | 194 comments

I can’t really blame the alcohol, I didn’t drink that much. I can’t really blame the late night hours, my sleep has been shitty for years. I can’t really blame over-doing it for exercise yesterday, my legs and cardiovascular system felt great, and I beat WebDom in our intermittently good-natured fitness competition. I can’t really blame the kid with the guillotine because he didn’t ask me to lay down and try it out.

You. I blame you. You’re all bad influences.

It’s not a particularly rich day for birthdays, but still there’s a guy who was the Maduro of his day; a guy who proved that if you write pulps in French, people think of them as literature; someone who was a false alarm; the Jewish version of Frederica Wilson; a woman made famous by Kinky Friedman; a guy who demonstrated that when science meets religion, stupidity is inevitable; a white guy who is enthusiastic about watermelon; a guy who blew up a long and successful career in about 20 seconds; a guy who cloned himself from Dizzy Gillespie; a piece of shit of no particular distinction; a guy who had more juice than Anita Bryant; and some chick who must be famous because I recognized her name (but couldn’t tell you the name of anything she’s done).

Let’s get to the Links.

 

Because they’re poopyheads.

 

Does the Big Guy know about this?

 

I’m still getting over the idea of an airline having this name.

 

This is absolutely shocking.

 

Also shocking.

 

Fucked if you do, fucked if you don’t.

 

Because this will change everything, right?

 

Old Guy Music reflects how I feel this morning: old, old, old. But what a great damn song and performance.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

194 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “Wizz Air”

    LOL

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Big Pink Missile seems more apropos.

    • Trigger Hippie

      “Grab a seat and enjoy pissing in the wind.”

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I accept the blame willingly.

    Can you tell I’ve been married for a couple of decades?

    • Gender Traitor

      Good boy.

  3. Sean

    Happy national tequila day!

    • TARDis

      Hmmm, it’s both National Parents Day and National Cousins Day? Weird.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Not so weird in Arkansas.

      • Chafed

        Lol

  4. Count Potato

    ““The Republican Party, now led by MAGA extremists, wants to control you,” the draft letter starts. “They want the government and politicians involved in every aspect of your personal life from your health care decisions, to whom you can marry, to what you can read and say. They want to overturn and override the will of the people, to rule only for the wealthy few.””

    That’s some projection.

    • Tonio

      “what you can… say”

      LOL. Yeah, Republicans aren’t the ones trying to criminalize speech (“hate speech” laws), and suspend/expel students and fire teachers for misgendering or dead-naming.

      And I have yet to see twenty-first century Republicans try to keep works from being published, as they did in the Reagan/Meese era. Removing objectionable books from taxpayer-funded libraries, and preventing the use of taxpayer funds on those books, is a very different thing.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah, but South Carolina sure wants to hand them back that talking point. Idiots.

      • Mustang

        The author of that bill happens to be my rep. I wrote him an email on Friday outlining some of these concerns. He wrote me back Saturday and said he’d like to chat over the phone as soon as it’s convenient. Not all hope is lost.

      • Seguin

        Wow! GJ Mustang, hope he listens.

      • Chafed

        Wow! I hope you are able to talk some sense into him.

    • juris imprudent

      That’s some projection.

      It is what they know best.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      A good watermelon fresh out of the fridge is one of the best things on the face of the planet, especially on a hot day.

    • SDF-7

      White girl who likes watermelon (just slowly). And shapes.

  5. Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

    My body has decided that 4:30 is now the time to wake up. I have been fighting this for a few weeks, but, fuck it. I am with you on the sleep front OMWC, always been shitty.

  6. Ted S.

    This is absolutely shocking.

    I’d page OBE, but it’s early out in Vegas.

    How much is other government action — especially the long-term effect of covid shutdowns — contributing to the problem?

    • Grosspatzer

      The article does mention this:

      The jump in flight delays and cancellations — stemming from surging demand in an industry that shed tens of thousands of employees during the pandemic

      That might be a problem.

      • SDF-7

        Mmmmmm…. could be… could be… just crazy enough of an idea to be true. 😉

      • TARDis

        There is no ‘might be’ to it. It is a huge problem.

    • rhywun

      That was my thought.

      The airlines were cajoled into firing the unclean – WTF did people expect to happen?

  7. Not Adahn

    Replying to dedthtred.

    No, Lily is staying at the same place where most of her dog park friends go to daycare. I can’t trust her around shooters nor have gotten her used to eye and ear pro.

    A mike is a miss. Other than getting disqualified, it’s the worst possible thing that can happen when you pull the trigger. Well, other than shooting a white guy.

  8. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “Liz Cheney braces for primary loss”
    Couldn’t happen to a nicer lady. Don’t worry about her though, she’ll land a lucrative commentary contract on one of the news networks advocating war, censorship, and all of the other garbage the sellout shitbags advocate.

    • Sean

      Put her on The View.

      • Tonio

        [golf clap]

      • TARDis

        She likes war. Send her to Ukraine.

      • Tonio

        “Cheney for President: We Need Another War”

    • R C Dean

      “But as primary day approaches, there is also a pervasive belief among Cheney’s team that her unorthodox strategy in 2022 may put her in a stronger position for the 2024 presidential contest. “

      *outright, prolonged laughter*

      • Tonio

        Yeah, her “team” wants the gravy train to keep running as long as possible. They wouldn’t have their jobs if they told her to quit before she suffers the embarrassment of defeat.

        It’s going to be delicious when she both loses both the senate primary and fails to capture the nomination for president.

      • TARDis

        Although in another timeline though, it would fun to see her get shredded by those who are currently lauding her for her stunning bravery.

  9. Grosspatzer

    “There’s no way that Joe Biden, who has been in love with Republicans his whole life, is ever going to aggressively fight back against them,” Uygur asserted. “He would rather hug a Republican than fight one.”

    Republicans have the best hair.

    • Gender Traitor

      It smells like cash.

  10. Trigger Hippie

    ‘a piece of shit of no particular distinction’

    Not so! She’s remembered by many in my area as one of the most corrupt prosecutors in Jackson County history.

    • Chafed

      So she’s got that going for her. Which is nice?

  11. Count Potato

    Stupid internal server errors.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    “The Republican Party, now led by MAGA extremists, wants to control you,” the draft letter starts. “They want the government and politicians involved in every aspect of your personal life from your health care decisions, to whom you can marry, to what you can read and say. They want to overturn and override the will of the people, to rule only for the wealthy few.”

    The Democrats are totally down with protecting your right to be left alone.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “They’re banning the wrong stuff!”

    • Sean

      Tell me again about vaccine mandates and masks…

    • TARDis

      The Republicans are not much better. Just a different boot with different priorities.

    • Mustang

      ‘Member the debates about Obamacare and centralized healthcare? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

  13. Count Potato

    Fuck.

    • rhywun

      An accurate summation of world affairs.

      • Count Potato

        That too.

  14. Grummun

    I like Dumas. Recently read Queen Margot for the first time, loved it.

    Lopez starred opposite George Clooney in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Out Of Sight, which was great, even if they changed the ending.

    • EvilSheldon

      Out of Sight might be one of those rare-as-hell instances where the movie was even better than the source material (and the source material was really fucking good. Elmore Leonard’s stuff is all great.)

      I mean, JLo actually *acted* in it. How did that happen?

      • Count Potato

        Was she playing a no talent ass clown?

      • EvilSheldon

        That’s not fair. Developing that booty took some talent.

      • Not an Economist

        Figuring which people to sleep with to get ahead is also a talent.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The one let down was the Temptations’ Get Ready wasn’t used in the soundtrack.

  15. Sean

    Daily Quordle 181
    7️⃣6️⃣
    4️⃣8️⃣
    quordle.com

    Meh.

    #waffle184 4/5

    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    🔥 streak: 10
    🏆 #waffleelite
    wafflegame.net

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 181
      5️⃣6️⃣
      4️⃣3️⃣
      quordle.com
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

      Some lucky guesses today.

      • Sean

        Nice.

      • SDF-7

        My usual crappy guesses. ;P

        Daily Quordle 181
        6️⃣5️⃣
        8️⃣7️⃣

    • Tundra

      Daily Quordle 181
      6️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣5️⃣

    • Grosspatzer

      Daily Quordle 181
      6️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣5️⃣
      quordle.com

    • TARDis

      This was maddening: Double Chump
      Daily Quordle 181
      🟥5️⃣
      4️⃣🟥
      quordle.com
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      However:
      #waffle184 4/5

      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩⭐🟩⭐🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      🔥 streak: 33
      🥈 #wafflesilverteam

    • whiz

      Daily Quordle 181
      8️⃣3️⃣
      7️⃣5️⃣

      Damn, my alternate seed words would have done better, even with maximal missed guesses.

    • The Hyperbole

      Daily Quordle 181
      5️⃣4️⃣
      7️⃣6️⃣

      Daily Duotrigordle #144
      Guesses: 36/37
      Time: 04:30.96

      A new personal best.

    • Grummun

      4 6
      7 5

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 181
      8️⃣3️⃣
      5️⃣6️⃣

    • JG43

      Daily Quordle 181
      8️⃣4️⃣
      5️⃣9️⃣

    • MikeS

      6️⃣5️⃣
      7️⃣3️⃣

  16. The Late P Brooks

    “We fell short in passing much of our intended agenda in 2021 and 2022. Why? Because of a razor-slim Senate majority, fierce opposition from MAGA Republicans determined to block the will of the majority of Americans, and a flood of money spent by corporate lobbyists defending the interests of large corporations over the needed change for the American people.”

    The Enemies of the People must be hunted down and destroyed.

    • SDF-7

      Yeah, that’s part of how I read it — “Hey moderates, our long knives are ready for you too! Better stop hindering us!”

      And yes, morons — barely winning control of the Senate doesn’t give you a mandate. And the “majority of Americans” (which I don’t grant actually agree with you, but even if they did…) don’t get to dictate to the rest of the country. There is no popular vote, there is no majority rule. It is rather one of the founding precepts of our federal republic. Please go find a 7th grade civics class that you haven’t turned into “Hug a Trans Furry Time!” and pay attention this time.

      • Don escaped Texas

        the mob that burns down our homes will not be toting civics books: the majority don’t care about anything but their feelings and urges inside their incestuous echo chambers

        the American way is rationalization, confirmation bias, and insulating ignorance; this mix and its frequency will be fatal to the Great Experiment sooner or later

      • juris imprudent

        Funny you should say that because it sounds a lot like what was fermenting in our culture prior to the Revolutionary War (per the Franklin biography I am rapidly chewing through).

      • Don escaped Texas

        I think the D of I describes much more serious challenges than “we have a very slim and temporary majority in democratic republic”

        Not that I’m turning in my passport, but my people couldn’t be bothered with the Revolution: they were an order of magnitude richer and freer in the hills of the Carolinas than they had ever been in Ulster. The road from taxes to pamphlets to insurrection to republic is fascinating: why did the typical colonist take up arms against fellow subjects?

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        the American way is rationalization, confirmation bias, and insulating ignorance;

        Is this somehow different than human nature in general?

      • Don escaped Texas

        Fair point, and let me answer partially yes: most humans are driven by tidy religious, nationalist, or ethnic collectivism; they spend almost none of their day rationalizing their demographic postures.

        Americans are much, much less likely to inherit and propagate dicta than others; to wit, racism and church attendance largely evaporated in a single generation in the US. Americans reject old stuff to free themselves to dream up new stupid stuff more quickly than any other people. This requires a certain mindset and tools: the likelihood of moving away from family and culture, taking on new friends, reading new thought leaders. Belgian strikers choking the streets are exactly like their parents and their grandparents: they need adapt to nothing; they need explain nothing; you knew them before they were even born.

      • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

        Just like black people aren’t guaranteed to vote Dem, just because they are in the senate with a D next to their names doesn’t mean that they are gonna vote for your agenda. Manchin and hooker boots are actually representing their states, just like they are supposed to. They want to keep their jobs, not butter your bread, assholes.

  17. Count Potato

    “‘They heard the screams, they heard the gunshots – and nobody stepped forward.’ Al Gore says climate change deniers are as bad as the Uvalde cops who let school massacre unfold

    In a Meet The Press interview that will air on Sunday, Gore told Chuck Todd: ‘You know the climate deniers are really in some ways similar to all of those almost 400 law enforcement officers in Uvalde, Texas, who were waiting outside an unlocked door while the children were being massacred.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11042761/Al-Gore-says-climate-deniers-bad-Uvalde-cops-let-school-massacre-unfold.html

    CWAA

    • Grosspatzer

      I give him props for finding a creative way to stand on a pile of corpses. Gun control is so yesterday.

    • Grosspatzer

      A reduction in bullshit from Ottawa would be a good start.

    • rhywun

      He hates you and wants you dead.

    • Tundra

      Sri Laka crashed in less than 18 months after they did their stupid fertilizer ban. This is some breathtakingly evil shit.

    • Count Potato

      “This is a tacit admission that any attempt to lower admissions by reducing nitrogen fertilizer will consequently lower crop yields over the next decade, hurting the Agriculture sector and, more importantly, hurting farmers.”

      Not only that, but plants sequester carbon.

      • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

        Not just hurting farmers, but causing global hunger. What a complete piece of shit.

        I swear to god, these people think food comes from the same place energy comes from. “It’s automagical!”

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They know exactly what they’re doing. It’s comforting in a way to think this is driven by ignorance and incompetence but I don’t think that’s what this is.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Food shortages coupled with fertilizer bans from Sri Lanka to the Netherlands to Canada: What the fuck is going on? A blind man can clearly see this is a straight up crazy idea and what’s with the stressing of nitrogen all of a sudden?

      • PutridMeat

        Why the focus on C02? It’s a pretty weak greenhouse gas. That’s why the models are so… flexible. One needs feedback loops and knock-on effects to get appreciable warming from C02. The historical correlation between CO2 and temperature seems to have an inverse casual direction where discernable. So why focus on CO2 rather than say water vapor which is a much more formidable greenhouse gas? IMNSHO, there’s not a lot of money or control in controlling water vapor. CO2 gives you a direct pipeline to controlling peoples behavior and increasing your power. It gives you direct control over the engine of human progress, well being, and individual autonomy and independence. That’s what the collectivists have always wanted and it’s the just the latest tool in their tool kit. Same with nitrogen – gives you the ability to control food production – though with nitrogen and fertilizer one does have the issue of stripping soil health and damaging downstream watershed health. But that can be addressed more fruitfully with agricultural practices; and maybe even getting rid of government policies that have the effect of encouraging destructive Ag practices. But where’s the fun in that?

    • Not an Economist

      Start hoarding food.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Orban’s alright for a pol even if he does look and sound kind of like a cartoon villain. If Schwab can overcome that handicap why not Orban?

      • Penguin

        I wouldn’t entrust the care of the pets of someone I dislike to Schwab.

        I would to Orban.

  18. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    Sorry about the melon. I’ve got a bit of a pinger myself, but I shall endeavor to persevere.

    …(but couldn’t tell you the name of anything she’s done)

    Out of Sight was legit good.

  19. rhywun

    Fucked if you do, fucked if you don’t.

    Scientists have found a great paradox in nature – clean air is enhancing global warming, while pollution keeps our planet cool.

    Or, just maybe, Gaia does whatever the hell it wants regardless of our puny actions.

    • Not an Economist

      It is not a paradox. Most pollution is soot, which decreases the amount of energy the atmosphere absorbs. Scientist still don’t have a handle on how soot effects global climate change, despite being a big player in controlling temperatures. They don’t understand clouds either.

      Good thing the science is settled.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    I stumbled across this interesting little film last night.

    Lies, misery, deception, mass murder, political expediency, it’s got it all, including degenerate bacchanalia at Walter Duranty’s house.

    • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

      I heard about that. Nice to hear that is worth my time, I will check it out!

      Also, nice little clip about the R5 Turbo yesterday. That is the car that turned me on to rally, as I saw a street version back when I was a kid.

    • Seguin

      Lady Z and I watched that a while ago, it’s very good. Two recs then.

  21. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh
    yo whats goody yo

  22. robc

    On topic: went to Frontier Days yesterday (when in Rome…). It is the least woke (0%) sporting event in America.

    One person walked thru crowd with a large Liz Cheney sign. No reaction…not a single cheer or boo.

    • R.J.

      It fits the rule of laws for thee, not for me. In this case “transparency for thee, not for me.”

    • Don escaped Texas

      if only Californians would, instead of looking at this as one bad idea that needs to be voted/hooted down, see this a typical overreach signalling the need to pare back government, oh, 70 or 80%….if only

    • rhywun

      Because companies aren’t fleeing the state fast enough.

      So fucking stupid.

    • Fourscore

      I love tomatoes, I’d eat ’em in my oatmeal if they didn’t get all squishy.

      Asian prepared food (in the privacy of one’s own kitchen) can take some unusual twists but I don’t complain. I don’t cook and so far don’t do dishes.

      • Old Man With Candy

        As they come into season here, I’m doing an almost exclusive tomato menu at home. Gazpacho, panzanella, tomato tart, caprese, tomato risotto, bruschetta…so far. Next up is the Chinese egg and tomato stir fry, done in a spicy, inland style.

      • PieInTheSky

        Gazpacho – mine is better

        caprese – that is just tomatoes and cheese

        bruschetta – that is jut boring ass bread

        panzanella – I don’t get how this is considered a special dish. it is just a standard salad.

      • Old Man With Candy

        This attitude about those wonderful simple ingredient-driven dishes is why mine is far far better.

        Wife 2 was a complete food heathen. I took her to dinner at a 3 star near Lyon where she got a Poulet de Bresse en vessie. Spectacular presentation. She frowned, poked at it, and sourly remarked, “It’s boiled chicken.

  23. juris imprudent

    Long form Bee.

    Remember Julia from the Obama campaign years? As she’s aged, she’s been the Democrats’ secret weapon. She is hip to the crisis du jour. She is educated, frustrated, and an agent of societal destruction. Julia champions the leftist life cycle, such as it is, and has created chaos. Death followers her wherever she goes. Julia is the perfect Democrat.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s brutal, but true.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Food shortages coupled with fertilizer bans from Sri Lanka to the Netherlands to Canada: What the fuck is going on? A blind man can clearly see this is a straight up crazy idea and what’s with the stressing of nitrogen all of a sudden?

    The modern face of Stalinism.

    • juris imprudent

      If fate won’t provide a crisis – manufacture one!

  25. Count Potato

    “Cannibalism has a time and a place. Some recent books, films and shows suggest that the time is now. Can you stomach it?”

    https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1550864590560546816

    Can we all agree that’s worse than pineapple pizza?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      First eat the bugs and now this. Anybody got some good Soylent Green recipes?

      • Rat on a train

        Isn’t New York City supposed to be 40 million people by now?

    • PieInTheSky

      journalists need clicks

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Yes

      I know I’m capable of it and willing in the correct circumstances.

    • Penguin

      Between this and the assault on farming noted above – I think Paul Erlich is these assholes’ God, and they are determined to see his prophecy come true, no matter how many die.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    First thing we do, let’s kill all the farmers.

    • PieInTheSky

      eh they were gonna die out anyway

  27. PieInTheSky

    Wizz Air is not that bad I flew several times with them

  28. Tres Cool

    Whats the opposite of irony?

    Wrinkly.

  29. Old Man With Candy

    Props to l0b0T, who found me a copy of my favorite documentary, a sadly obscure 1995 film which has been unavailable for many decades. It’s pure Schumpeter, a story of an upstate New York blue collar town, dominated by jobs at a paper clip and staple manufacturing company, which itself is the remnant of a now-obsolete defense manufacturing plant. The town economy is suddenly upended again when a digital imaging company builds a new HQ there and the town is overrun by urbanized IT types building a technology that is inevitably going to eliminate paper. Economics and culture clash in an eerily prescient way. The film itself is something Michael Moore might do if he were considerably more intelligent and creative.

    “Dadetown.”

    • rhywun

      *googles*

      I figured there was a reason I never heard of that town.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Yesterday I went to Lowe’s to get a new kitchen faucet. While I was there, I picked up one of those high output “corncob” LED bulbs for the shop. It cost thirty bucks, but holy mackerel, it puts out some light. I’ll have to get another for the second socket.

    • Trigger Hippie

      The American Gods series doesn’t inspire immediate confidence in the quality of this venture.

      • PieInTheSky

        The first season was OK. The second I did not watch the first episode somehow lost me

      • Zwak doesn't know what to ignite and what to extinguish

        Well, to be fair, Neil Gaiman doesn’t inspire confidence.

      • PieInTheSky

        I generally like his writing.

      • Trigger Hippie

        I as well. At least the stuff he wrote twenty plus years ago.

    • Tres Cool

      Id like to know what the breakdown or ratio of Scientology with the affluent actor types vs. common folk.
      It seems to be more the thing in acting havens like LA or NYC.

      Its a small sample size, but Ive never been in Tulsa and met a Scientologist. Or ever, for that matter. I only seem to read about them.

      • hayeksplosives

        I used to go to San Jose a lot for work, and our regular hotel happened to be near a Scientology center.

        A group of us (4) were walking from the chinese restaurant to the hotel and were way-layed by a bunch of enthusiastic teenagers (maybe 20s–they all look alike) carrying clipboards. They pitched their offering as a free personality test, but I very quickly discerned that they were Scientologists trying to lure us into their pyramid scheme.

        Most of us sharply declined, but one coworker decided to have some fun with it. He nearly ruined that poor girl with his answers to her questions. It was hilarious. I hope he made her rethink her membership in Scientology.

        The “celebrity” thing with Scientology is very real. They recruit actors heavily and then lavish praise and luxury on them, while treating normies like absolute shit.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, they put out a monthly magazine called “Celebrity” FFS.

        Long ago I was working a hotel in downtown Buffalo and a pair from the “Sea Org” used to stay regularly. They dress up like fanciful naval officers. I didn’t know WTF was up with them until years later.

      • Penguin

        Yeah, they definitely go after celebs. Joe Rogan’s interview with Leah Remini is good regarding that as well as some actual secrets of Scientology – Remini’s mother was (is?) high, high up in Scientology. Worth watching if you’re interested and have a couple hours to spare.

      • Penguin

        Oops, looks like I linked it about halfway through. Sorry about that.

      • Gender Traitor

        Bless Leah Remini for all the work she’s done to expose that evil enterprise.

      • Trigger Hippie

        My anecdotal experience: The current leader of the KCMO chapter of Scientology is business partners with my current landlord. He’s a very affluent man. He also tries to pinch every penny possible and tries to renegotiate the terms on work done on his properties after the original scope of work has been completed; costing my employer hundreds of extra dollars in materials and labor. *Basically, he’s a cunte.

        *This is not exclusive to Scientologist. That type is sadly very common regardless their beliefs.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      I don’t know. Claiming to be raped in the middle of long term relationship with Masterson and then continuing to date Masterson for years after the alleged rape… it just sounds bizarre to me. I think it’s a similar scenario for most/all of the accusers.

      I think Scientology is intervening because all of the accusers are former members in addition to Masterson.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yeah, it’s fishy. Regret does not equal rape. However, Scientology has been known to aid and abet some pretty screwed up behavior. They probably should all just thank their lucky stars they’re alive and move on.

      • Tres Cool

        I wonder if their legal team are Scientologists themselves. Or just some national group on perpetual retainer.
        I see it like a business; after all L. Ron said a church was an awesome way to make tax-free money. Masterson is an employee (whether or not he realizes it) and is entitled to legal representation as part of his “dues” or “tithes” he provides.

    • rhywun

      Apparently the ladies in question are ex-members. That outfit is notoriously litigious about its reputation and I bet that’s what’s going on here.

      • Trigger Hippie

        “I’ve done Christian bashing, Muslim bashing,… I’ll do Scientology bashing when I have a stronger legal team”

        /Doug Stanhope

  31. The Late P Brooks

    One thing I will concede about LEDs- they put out a lot less heat.

    • Rat on a train

      Old easy bake ovens hardest hit.

    • PieInTheSky

      Perhaps I am just giddy – well stop that right now

    • Sean

      Nice.

  32. PieInTheSky

    If Cali-based startup EarthGrid has its way, downed power lines and faulty electric transformers may soon be a problem of the past.

    Science and tech pub New Atlas explained the company’s patent-pending process on Thursday and said the plasma boring robot it’s developing can dig underground tunnels as much as 100 times faster than the competition, all while costing about 98 percent less.

    “Imagine a robot with ten light sabers on the front, vaporizing through rock and soil,” founder Troy Helming said in a short video that shows off the bot’s plasma-boring capabilities.

    https://futurism.com/the-byte/robot-plasma-tunnel-earthgrid

    they are now moving wires underground in my neighborhood and dam it is slow takes for weeks for a not very long street

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      How does that get rid of transformers?

      A few other considerations:

      Underground lines are more expensive and difficult to maintain.

      Underground lines are harder to tap.

      Underground faults take longer to find and outages typically last longer.

      A new boring technology would be fantastic, but it’s not a cureall.

      • SDF-7

        Well the Decepticons are mainly aircraft and wouldn’t do well underground. Insecticons should be fine…

      • Gustave Lytton

        Underground lines are not immune to damage either, both natural and manmade.

  33. PieInTheSky

    Inside the Woke Meltdown at One Domestic Violence Organization

    Women Against Abuse discouraged black domestic abuse victims from calling the police. Yes, you read that right.

    By November 2020, the organization, which is ostensibly devoted to “serving all survivors,” was offering to pay “BIPOC” employees more than their white counterparts and discouraging black abuse victims from calling the police. Its employees were also at war with each other, bickering over whether Jews are a persecuted minority group and whether there is such a thing as a non-racist white person.

    https://freebeacon.com/culture/inside-the-woke-meltdown-at-one-domestic-violence-organization/

    • rhywun

      It was just two months after the death of George Floyd that one of the largest domestic violence nonprofits in the United States, Women Against Abuse, brought in several diversity consultants to conduct a racial-equity audit.

      LOL I think I spotted where things went off the rails.

  34. PieInTheSky

    lex Jones says, “the attack had begun, we are now being murdered.” He says the US is a “2nd Atlantis” founded by Francis Bacon and controlled by globalists who are descendants of Count Dracula aligned with the CCP to put nanotechnology in food to wipe out 90% of the population.

    https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1550654636582895616

    don’t drag old Vlad into this

    • Negroni Please

      That was very compelling. My eyes have been opened now

    • Tres Cool

      If it were Rob Zombie and Dragula Id pay more attention.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP like the marching boots of an occupying army

    Trump will have plenty of help keeping the pot boiling this fall. There will be more hearings, and Cheney promised there will be still more revelations because “doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break.”

    Moreover, the stream of literature that continues to highlight the worst aspects of Trump’s effect on the American body politic shows little sign of abating. Next up is Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, whose book due in August will argue the last 25 years of Republican Party politics set the stage for Trump and Jan. 6.

    Waiting on deck are some other heavy hitters who have been assessing the Trump phenomenon. They include the formidable team of Peter Baker (New York Times) and Susan Glasser (The New Yorker), whose book is due in September, and the Times’ Maggie Haberman, the reporter perhaps best known for her long-running contact with Trump through his career.

    What more can these books tell us? We will await their appearance. But beyond adding to the pile of Trump tomes, they will be expected to add to the pyre that will be burning through the fall.

    Former President Cartoon Villain looms over the political landscape. Why won’t he leave us in peace?

    • rhywun

      It is going to be hilarious when the entire establishment media and political gargantua fail to stop the Dems from getting their asses handed to them in November.

      • Count Potato

        The Dems probably will get their asses handed to them in November, but entire establishment media will continue on as always. They’ll just blame racism, again.

  36. Count Potato

    “Dr. Deborah Birx: “I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection and I think we overplayed the vaccines …”

    Claims vaccines “protect against severe disease and hospitalization” before saying that 50% of those who died via Omicron were older & vaccinated.”

    https://twitter.com/SKMorefield/status/1550586541239635969

    • Gender Traitor

      First-time unemployment claims among truffle hogs skyrocket in the third quarter.

    • Count Potato

      RACIST!!!!!!

    • Rat on a train

      In the case farming brings the price down to commoner level the rich can still eat gold.

  37. Tres Cool

    To be fair, I dont think I’ve ever seen a slide Dobro played liked that to Hey Joe.

    • Gender Traitor

      That was cool, and an appropriate theme for a semi-bluegrass number. Lots o’ killin’ in them old mountain tunes, a tradition brought over from the old country.

    • kinnath

      More Hey Joe

  38. The Late P Brooks

    An oldie but a goody

    A surge in strikes and other labor protests is threatening industries all over the world, and especially the ones that involve moving goods, people and energy around. From railway and port workers in the US to natural-gas fields in Australia and truck drivers in Peru, employees are demanding a better deal as inflation eats into their wages.

    Precisely because their work is so crucial to the world economy right now –- with supply chains still fragile and job markets tight –- those workers have leverage at the bargaining table. Any disruptions caused by labor disputes could add to the shortages and soaring prices that threaten to trigger recessions.

    That is emboldening employees in transportation and logistics -– which spans everything from warehouses to trucking — to stand up to their bosses, according to Katy Fox-Hodess, a lecturer in employment relations at Sheffield University Management School in the UK. She points to already-tough working conditions in the industry after years of deregulation.

    If we just had more government regulation we could get the global economy ticking like a Swiss watch. Wage and price controls are the answer, along with more comprehensive work rules.

    Utopian fascism, FTW!

    • Ted S.

      Now do truck drivers in Canada.

    • Don escaped Texas

      Ignoring the regulation angle, I’d observe that threatening industries is an odd take: one doubts the author has spent any time defending industries.

      I love the fight. Strike. Quit your job. Start your own firm and blow your old firm out of the water. Everything we have was borne of change, of dissatisfaction, of necessity, of vanity, against poverty and disease. Find a better job; prove to someone that you overcame their undervaluing you. Whatever: get on with your better life; sell me a better mousetrap.

  39. PieInTheSky

    Eléonore de Moffarts’ artworks are made with bronze, wood and terracotta. They frequently express geometric and physical agility and lightness, some of them even seemingly challenging physics itself [more artworks: https://

    https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1550917361494118401

    • Don escaped Texas

      I feel sorry for an artist whose grasp of extrusion, casting, welding, machining, and assembly is limited to the esoteric.

      There is nothing more satisfying than designing and building something that works: to go from goal to concept to sketch to prototype to test to production is glorious, especially the part where you see your lines and curves and surfaces survive from a notion in isometric to manifest in real working material. I’ve seen my designs snapped and bolted together and working all over the world; I’ve seen them 100 feet up thriving in the gale; I drive past almost week process equipment still chugging along a quarter century after I installed it. The materials a beautify because the form follows function. They work; they keep working.

      I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a carburetor.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I have had the joy of retiring HVAC systems that I installed 25 years prior, I love to build and watch it work.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Stick to the script, dammit!

    If Trump’s Latin American-style authoritarianism rang out from the hearings for scholars like Levitsky, a more vexed question is whether it similarly pierced the consciences of the wider American people. It is in their hands that the fate of the January 6 committee’s prime objective now rests: ensuring that a head-on assault on US democracy never happens again.

    The committee, led by its Democratic chair Bennie Thompson and rebel Republican vice-chair Liz Cheney, went to great lengths to make the hearings as digestible as possible for the TV, streaming and social media era. They employed the British journalist and former president of ABC News, James Goldston, to produce the events as tightly as a Netflix cliffhanger, which seems broadly, like a success.

    The opening primetime hearing on 9 June attracted at least 20m viewers, equivalent to the TV audience for a large sporting event. The following daytime sessions dipped to around 10m people, though ratings shot back up to almost 14m on 28 June when the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave explosive testimony.

    It is one thing to preach to the millions of Americans who are already horrified by Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy, but what about those who went along with it and internalized his lies about the stolen election?

    Here the evidence is less comforting. When you enter the right-wing media bubble, the vision of a South American coup leader suddenly vanishes.

    Over on Fox News, the opening hearing was passed over in favor of the channel’s controversial star Tucker Carlson who used his show to ridicule the proceedings as “deranged propaganda” and to shrink the insurrection into “a forgettably minor outbreak”. On Thursday night, Carlson again supplanted live coverage of the closing hearing, going on a rant instead about Biden and Covid.

    One does not heckle the players in a great Shakespearean drama. Suspend your disbelief, and immerse yourself in our wondrous spectacle. Truth is more real than facts. Believe.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    The further into the right-wing media jungle you venture, the more the narrative becomes distorted. NewsGuard, a non-partisan firm that monitors misinformation, reviewed output during the period of the hearings from Newsmax, the hard-right TV channel that is still carried by most major cable and satellite providers.

    The monitors found Newsmax aired at least 40 false and misleading claims about the 2020 election and 6 January. Several of the falsehoods were pumped out even as the live hearings were proceeding.

    “If you were watching only Newsmax to get information about the January 6 hearings, you would likely be living in an entirely alternate universe,” said Jack Brewster, NewsGuard’s senior analyst.

    The world as hall of funhouse mirrors.

    • rhywun

      the hard-right TV channel that is still carried

      Heavens to Betsy! How is that possible?

    • PieInTheSky

      non-partisan – they use unicorn farts to decide truth

    • Gustave Lytton

      The monitors found Newsmax aired at least 40 false and misleading claims about the 2020 election and 6 January. Several of the falsehoods were pumped out even as the live hearings were proceeding.

      Plot twist, the falsehoods we’re coming from inside the hearings that Newsmax was airing.

  42. db

    The canceled garden is part of a frenzy of counterintelligence activity by the FBI and other federal agencies focused on what career US security officials say has been a dramatic escalation of Chinese espionage on US soil over the past decade

    I’d suggest that it is a dramatic escalation of people officially noticing Chinese espionage on US soil in recent years.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, instead of officially pretending it doesn’t exist.

      • Gustave Lytton

        +1 Buddhist temple fundraising events

  43. db

    But multiple sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN that there’s no question the Huawei equipment has the ability to intercept not only commercial cell traffic but also the highly restricted airwaves used by the military and disrupt critical US Strategic Command communications, giving the Chinese government a potential window into America’s nuclear arsenal.  
    “This gets into some of the most sensitive things we do,” said one former FBI official with knowledge of the investigation. “It would impact our ability for essentially command and control with the nuclear triad. “That goes into the ‘BFD’ category.”      
    “If it is possible for that to be disrupted, then that is a very bad day,” this person added.     

    What’s their definition of “disrupted?” Are they concerned that the Chinese equipment might be able to jam US strategic internal comms, or to insert unauthentic communications? My guess is that it is more to the side of long term collection of such data for analysis, with the goal being to feed code-breaking efforts, or at a minimum, to detect patterns in those communications that might give them a tactical advantage in the case of a change in the readiness state of US nuclear assets, or even to detect a first-strike command before (as) it even arrives at the missile arrays.

    It’s one thing to detect a launch via satellite; it’s another thing entirely to detect preparations for a launch. Those extra seconds and minutes might be vital.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Then there’s the incentives for both non-Chinese* equipment manufacturers and service providers to rip out aging equipment and replace it with bright shiny new stuff paid for by FedGov.

      *which often have their own Chinese factories, contract factories, or suppliers of sub components

  44. Pat

    when science meets religion, stupidity is inevitable

    It’s a good thing nobody told Blaise Pascal, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Charles Babbage, Georges Lemaître, or Gregor Mendel.

    • cavalier973

      Isaac Newton wrote a commentary on the Book of Revelation.