Thursday is here. Let’s get down to business.
People who don’t understand the First Amendment are accusing Donald Trump of shutting down part of the First Amendment. James Rosen, oddly enough, wasn’t made available for comment.
We all love the sober analysis that E.J. Dionne gives us, right? I mean, there’s no way he’s a completely unhinged nutball engaging in character assassination because he has no idea how to cover an unconventional politician.
Traffic deaths exceed 40,000 for the first time in over a decade last year. Must have been all those high-capacity vehicles with the thing that goes up out there.
“Our complacency is killing us,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president of the National Safety Council and former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. “Americans believe there is nothing we can do to stop crashes from happening, but that isn’t true. We lag the rest of the developed world in addressing highway fatalities. We just haven’t been willing to do what needs to be done.”
Don’t get offended. It’s not real.
That doesn’t sound good coming from a government bureaucrat (or even a former government bureaucrat). Perhaps the answer is as easy as STOP TEXTING WHEN YOU’RE BEHIND THE WHEEL.
Remember the Women’s March? One of their concerns was taxes on tampons and how unfair they were. Well, two Ohio legislators have proposed a bill to eliminate all taxes on feminine hygiene products. (Question: when was the last time two Democrats proposed a bill lowering taxes?)
The Revolutionary Black Panther Party is planning a $400 million lawsuit against The Milwaukee Police Department and several specific officers.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green accuses Knicks owner, and idiot extraordinaire, James Dolan of using a “slave master mentality” in situation involving former player Charles Oakley. I’m sure referring to an owner that doesn’t want to give free courtside tickets to a former player that is criticizing him during games is exactly what men like James Somerset and Frederick Douglass believed they were fighting for.
And a note: we have added two tabs to the top of the site. One is for leads and submissions. This is for you guys to send in stories you’ve done, leads on things you’ve found that you think would make for an interesting piece. It’ll help us generate more content for y’all to criticize and/or comment on. The second is a contact button. This is there for those that have any questions pertaining to the site. If you want to understand the registration process before pulling the trigger or leave us feedback or anything in between, that’s the place to go and do it. Or you can always air your grievances or express appreciation in the comments, you guys know we all read them.
Now, go out there and have a great day, friends!
In this dark moment, we can celebrate the vitality of the institutions of a free society that are pushing back against a president offering the country a remarkable combination of authoritarian inclinations and ineptitude.
When I think of the institutions of a free society, I think of the CIA.
Are you going to be our Fist?
I don’t have nearly the bowel control that he does. So probably not.
…and kicks him in the nuts.
What’s the secret html sauce? My first attempt at italics failed.
Italics are “em” instead of “i.” Don’t ask me why.
EM is for “emphasis” and the reason for the tag was to decouple the idea of presentation from the device rendering it but still preserve the semantics. They did the same thing with “strong” instead of “bold.”
So, for example, you have a device for rendering web sites for the blind. They can’t see “italics” but probably want to know you’re trying to emphasize something.
That’s my understanding of it all, anyway.
I’m going to be testing this out on a couple of my WordPress sites before I can recommend it… but it looks pretty good:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tinymce-comment-field/
Dammit!
https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/html-allowed-in-comments-2/
Before succumbing to my usual gin-fueled nightmares, I started watching the documentary 1971 about the break-in into a regional FBI office. I only got a few minutes in but was interested by the anti-war protests, and specifically the burning of draft records. This movement – and there were several instances where draft records were burned – was something I read about before but got little detail on. The doc also touched on the Catholic Left.
Will report more when I have a chance to watch the rest.
the Catholic LeftA documentary about my in-laws then.
okay time to read the markup style guide…
You know who else was a sour kraut?
btw this is a good resource on html in WordPress:
Comments: allowed HTML
but it seems that the second examples work while the first don’t.
example: em instead of i for italics. And strong instead of b for bold.
but it seems that the second examples work while the first don’t.
If so, this post will look like it should.
And now I’m curious: $$\sum_{n=0}^{N}e^{2 \pi i k n / N}$$
We lag the rest of the developed world in addressing highway fatalities. We just haven’t been willing to do what needs to be done.
How about a ticket for $423 for exceeding the 100 k/h speed limit by 14 k/h in South Australia? Is it a highway robbery or what?
Those units of measure are foreign to me. Can you repeat them in American?
I meant km/h. So, 14 km/h is like less than 9 mph.
Oh, HA! I didn’t even notice the “m” was missing from km/h. I was just making fun of the metric system in general when we already have a perfectly serviceable unit of speed here with MPH.
Sloopy’s car gets 40 rods to a hogshead, and that’s the way he likes it.
There are two types of nations in the world: those that use the metric system, and those that have put men on the moon.
*Sigh* NASA used both systems (which interestingly enough makes their reports a goddamn mess).
John – I know that, it’s a joke.
@WTF My bad.
It’s harder for foreigners to separate jokes from MURICA FUCK YEAH.
And those that crash space vehicles into planets because of the metric system…
Hey, I like the metric system. I think it might be the one time the rest of the world actually gets it right, and we get it wrong. (OK, calling soccer “football” might be one other time they get it right). Unit conversions are so much simpler in metric.
Yes, but Imperial conversions are so much better scaled. Especially in temperature.
Soccer is not football. Football is a real sport. Appropriating that name to legitimize some Third World knee-grabbing ground-flopping wuss-fest in short pants is not even vaguely “getting it right.”
Well, when one sport has the players almost exclusively hitting the ball with their feet, and the other has the players almost exclusively holding the ball, I think it makes sense to call the first one football, not the second. I’m not saying anything about the games themselves. I find both bore me to tears.
I found a dumb thing while seeing where this site is on a google search.
Includes the phrase “You think corporations have rights, but children don’t.”
For the record I always bet on the Cylons.
Sounds like the plot for Rambo III.
I wonder if they ever released that in Russia.
I wonder if they ever released that in Russia.
From Mental Floss:
From what I can find, Rambo III did not get a theatrical release in Gorby’s Soviet Union, but it has been translated, both dubbed and subtitled into Russian for DTV release, as well as bootlegs a plenty. It’s largely regarded as an action comedy of sorts (not unlike the original Red Dawn), considering the result of Russia’s War with Afghanistan.
So, Afghanistan doesn’t exist?
No gorillas. Not here. No way.
That is… remarkable.
No, Dry Erase Boards are remarkable.
That’s not how it works! That’s not how any of this works!
+1 FB Wall
That’s like a bathtub still for stupid. Put a mash of stupid in, get pure stupid out.
I honestly don’t believe that any of these people are arguing in earnest. The left is terrified of us to the point where they’ll pay anyone to fill up the Internet with nonsense like this so that we have a mountain of horseshit to move at educating people about what we really believe.
And it’s almost always the irrational fear of the corporation at the heart of it all. The corporation: an invention of the state and protected by its labyrinth of regulations that little competition can assail without substantial start-up capital and effective legal representation. Compared to a company which is just a group of people working together relatively unhindered, for the good of the prosperity of those who participate in it.
One can understand the skepticism about competition being a force for lowering prices and improving working conditions. They’ve never lived in a time where a real free market existed or competition wasn’t stifled by bureaucracy.
I also turned that up looking for this place last night. The last several make it clear this is just some guy who’s got an ax to grind with some Republican he knows who misuses the word “libertarian.” The comments even go on to discuss how this list doesn’t *really* have anything to do with libertarianism. Sad that almost nothing actually libertarian comes up when you search “glibertarian.”
Is it sad? That means it’s a keyword without a strong connection for the machine learning algorithms at Google to find. By purposing it and tying it to writing about actual libertarian topics, this site should emerge much more quickly from the din and rabble.
“Emerge”?
Sirrah, we are din and rabble!
There is a signal in our noise. Make more noise!
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: How ‘La La Land’ Misleads on Race, Romance and Jazz
(severely clipped blockquote – read it all if you want via the link)
I’m not saying Ol’ Skyhook doesn’t have something of a point, but I must point out that no less an icon than Nat King Cole came up as a jazz man then switched over to easy listening pop later, ie, “sold out”.
Heck, the other day YouTube fed me a 1977 funk/jazz album by Prince – did anyone complain about him turning to pop/rock? (Granted, his music usually kept at least one foot in his roots)
Yes, that’s the problem with Hollywood today, not enough SJW virtue signaling.
Awww. Love the avatar. What’s his/her name?
That is Gunther, my very large German Shepherd.
Mine has been gone for more than 9 years now. Greatest dog ever.
*sniffs*
I have had a lot of different dogs over the years, but Gunther is my first GSD who we got as a rescue 6 years ago. The greatest dog I ever had, and that’s saying a lot. Just an amazing breed.
Tweet:
The Right Tweet
I think Kristol just won the 2017 Authoritarian of the Year Award.
“But if it comes to it, I prefer the KGB to Yeltsin.”
-Villem Kristolov, 1991.
*standing ovation*
Hey, my first one here at the new site!
Krist, what an asshole.
*narrows gaze*
Thanks for alleviating my withdrawals.
All is right with the world.
This site is now complete.
I missed narrowed gazes.
You know, the Intelligence Community is going to fuck up. They are going to fuck up and get run down to 1/10th of their current size and 1/100th of their current power and nothing bad is going to happen because they aren’t as important as they think they are. None of the attacks on America in the 20th century were due to a lack of intelligence, they were due to a lack of synthesis. I can’t wait for them to get their tits in a wringer.
Brett, I agree wholeheartedly. The CIA has been nothing but a jobs program for Ivy League nit-wits since its inception.
Actually, BYU is their most fertile recruiting ground. They LOVE getting Mormons- generally, no sexual or drug issues in the clearance process, they will have gained fluency in a foreign language during their missionary days, and an obedience-to-authority mindset.
Fascinating. I have family (previously) in the casino business and they prize LDS as employees for the same reasons.
Let’s see, the executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch.
Hmm. I still only see three branches that the Constitution establishes. I don’t see anything in there about an “Intelligence branch” or a “bureaucratic branch” where letter agencies filled with unelected agents are given the power to run the country.
I do see something in the Constitution forbidding the legislative branch delegating its powers. Fancy that.
Tom Clancy is rolling in his Orioles themed coffin! Sad!
How Puzder fell
The labor nominee was hurt by a lack of support from some of the president’s top advisers.
We lag the rest of the developed world in addressing [insert pet cause here].
I can’t help but giggle when people deploy this argument. It’s as overused as “for the children!!!!”
Also, if cops were spending less time extorting money from Johnny Leadfoot for going 10 over and more time pulling over and citing Mandy Makeup for swerving out of her lane when her mascara brush falls between the seats, Tony Texter when he has to emergency brake because he wasn’t paying attention, and Luis Lanehopper for playing frogger in 75mph traffic, maybe people would be incentivized to stop driving like shit.
The most devastating crashes I have see have been due to distracted driving and obviously reckless driving. Let’s crack down on that before going back to a national 55mph speed limit
Oh, and while I’m ranting… vehicular deaths/year is a meaningless stat. Vehicular deaths/100 million miles driven is much more useful. (Here is an extension of that data to 2015)
Now wait just a minute – we drive a shit-ton more than anyone, and that has some sort of effect on accident numbers?!?!?!
*head explodes*
Not just more, but farther. At least it seems that way every morning when I do this stupid commute.
Back when my commute took 45 minutes – each way – there was at least one close call a day. There was one stretch of road – narrow but two lanes on each side – that was prone to all sorts of derpy driving behavior. Now my drive only takes 10-15 minutes and is mostly one lane, 25-45 mph zones. But still…
2 hours each way for me since the company decided to relocate last year.
Dammmm…. I would be looking for a new job. Or telecommute a lot, like I’m doing today.
I can’t help but giggle when people deploy this argument.
It also inevitably “hints” that correlation implies causation.
U put your “science” magic away mister. I shall never compare apples to apples when my narrative is on the line.
/cagw priest
This is just a bureaucratic form of the Peter Principle: States rise to the level of their own incompetence.
It’s kind of like the Special Olympics, except none of the participants are enjoying themselves, and after the medals are given out, everyone’s a loser.
The Goal of Socialists Is Socialism — Not Prosperity
Socialism is the ideal in the ideology. End unto itself, since it magically produces equality.
Unionization effort fails in Boeing SC plant.
As I recall, Boeing went to SC to escape the union in the first place. The union lost the vote 74/26 with over 90% of the workers voting on the measure.
And they say Southerners are stupid. They are at least smart enough to know what their competitive advantage is.
and they say Southerners are stupid. They are at least smart enough to know what their competitive advantage is.
The continued employment of Lindsey Graham would be evidence to the contrary.
/tarheel
You know I had a post up about this earlier this morning. Are you anti-semitic???
No, of course not, I love kugel!
Suuuure you do.
IME, goyim hate kugel. And I make a mean lukshen kugel. Both the savory and the sweet kind.
The NY Times, always on point:
Chicago Reels as More Children Become Victims of Gun Violence
I, for one, have had it with all these guns taking our children’s lives. How incredible that in the year 2017 we are so far behind all other industrialized nations in this way. And, of course, when the only tool you’ve got is a hammer:
Black Lives Matter will no doubt applaud this measure.
Loosen the gun laws and let their parents shoot back?
spasms of gunfire
giggity
I mean, there’s no way he’s a completely unhinged nutball engaging in character assassination because he has no idea how to cover an unconventional politician.
EJ Dionne is a shit-flinging ape who hasn’t had an original thought since he made the WaPo Editorial page. If I ever want to know what the current id of Washington insider Democrats is currently feeling, I can read EJ Dionne.
Anyone seen this? Backwards bike. They showed it at a company function (IT Company) and several people were surprised at the quote, “sometimes welders are smarter than engineers.” In fact, some may have taken umbrage. I, on the other hand, once watched a guy with a high-school education and 25 years experience tell a young structural engineer, “quit making shit hard on us and expensive. Why don’t you just do a,b, and c?” Engineer does some quick calculations… “Oh yeah, that works, too.” Smart and educated ain’t the same thing as smart and experienced.
You can’t outsmart ignorance. That’s why experience is so valuable.
Is it ridden by Backwards Men?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p_x9IN6894
Nice work on the site. I’ll be checking in here regularly. I have nothing productive to say right now.
Say hi to Andy Williams…
Pull up a chair! Stay a while!
*cracks open a beer and hands it to Bronson*
Trigger warning: Vox
Robert De Niro and RFK Jr. have joined forces to push vaccine nonsense
I just love that DeNiro is connected to this after all the shit he was talking about Trump during the election.
I thought RFK Jr. was dead?
These Kennedys just keep popping up out of nowhere!
It’s like whack-a-mole with that family. Thankfully now they’ve been reduced to inconsequential nutters with no real influence.
This is going to be like Ken Ham’s “prove evolution for $100k!” challenge.
It’s easily provable. We know this. We have thousands of studies that prove it. But De Niro and RFK Jr. will keep moving the goalposts. What they want is something that can’t be done ethically (a double blind study, which essentially would mean doctors, parents and kids wouldn’t know if their children were actually being immunized)
Perhaps the answer is as easy as STOP TEXTING WHEN YOU’RE BEHIND THE WHEEL.
I think it’s way more than that. The ‘infotainment centers’ are a joke. Taking your eyes off the road to adjust the fucking climate control doesn’t make any sense.
Also, the blind faith in 42 airbags and crumple zones, particularly as cars are getting heavier. Physics doesn’t care about your safety features.
I enjoyed this, though:
Wrong. This is how you save lives.
The hell you say! Making driving more engaged and less an autopilot activity? Why, who would ever think that behavior would change if people felt like they had to actually watch the other people on the road rather than follow a set of rules that become deeply embedded to the point of not needing consciousness.
Maybe that’s why I don’t get in accidents, driving on North Houston highways and Florida surface streets, anything can and does happen. Its just like not having road signage.
“A Florida driver..”
Between Canadians who drive the speed limit in kph, and Florida (wo)men who drive like the methheads they probably are, and people just randomly crossing 4-6 lane roads, it takes a lot of focus to keep your car from looking like an extra from Days of Thunder.
Driving here always feels the most dangerous from October to March/April when the snowbirds are down here. At least half the time when I see someone doing something stupid on the road they have a Quebec license plate.
We thank you for taking the Quebec drivers off our hands.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20170215/news/170219309/
You can’t fix stupid.
I think the pavement just did.
And when he dies
and when he’s gone
there’ll be one tard born to carry on, to carry on.
But sometimes Nature meets out the maximum penalty.
The right way to handle a possible campus sex assault?
These Washington restaurants will close for the ‘Day Without Immigrants’ protest
And what of the workers at those restaurants? Something tells me most of them aren’t getting paid.
Is this anything but a way for white middle and upper class people to signal?
Of course. The immigrant-owned restaurants, on the other hand, will be open (and full).
I have dinner plans in DC tonight and the restaurant we’re going to is not on the list. It might be more crowded given this news but so be it. A lot of these spots are, unsurprisingly, hipster type joints.
If they really had guts they would’ve done it on Valentine’s Day.
The left seems to still be shitting their pants over the Russian spy ship.
When I was in the Navy in the 80s we used to see and track them off the coast of every US Navy port. They would try to disguise themselves as “fishing boats” — except for the huge antennas and satellite dishes. We would just moon them. lol.
Didn’t every Tom Clancy novel have Russian trawlers in them? People act like this has never been done before Trump.
As a Tom Clancy loremaster, yes
A spy ship 65 miles off the coast is a big deal? The subs used come a lot closer, and the US subs in the 60’s had a reputation for pushing the envelope of how close they could get to the shoreline.
I read Blind Man’s Bluff years ago. Pretty interesting book.
This is a test to get the statutory moderation out of the way and to see if my avatar works.
Apparently it does work.
Nah, it doesn’t work; it’s just sitting there.
And an additional note on the new “contact” feature: I am the sole member of the complaint dept.
*shudders*
So you’re saying all complaints will be locked in your dungeon?
Or Warty’s, depending on the level of annoyance.
Clears all location cues from user profile.
smart.
“After this conversation, you will be put in contact with Warty, our customer care advisor.”
“You’re not on the phone with us, we’re on the phone with you!”
Does he subcontract out to STEVE SMITH at peak busy periods?
*obviously Indian accent*
HELLO, THIS IS STEVE SMITH FROM . . . PUHOENIKS? I, STEVE SMITH, LIKE THE RAPE OF THE PUBLIC BUS RIDER . . . I MEAN, HIKER.
*stand to applaud vigorously*
OK, so now that the world is all right again, when do we invite Stossel?
Along those lines, look for a familiar face later in the day. Not Stossel. This person never had a mustache so fine, and yet was well-liked anyhow.
You were predicting I would show up?
*begins narrowing gaze, shrugs and starts to applaud instead*
Y’all know I’ve posted, a lot, about the weird, crazy, and just plain dumb things my prog friends post.
Over the last few days I’ve made an effort to stop going to the discussion board we hang out on, as well as avoiding going to Facebook very often.
I’m finding I’m a lot happier this way.
Think of FB as a mine where you can extract delightful material to post here. Since half of my friends there are communist folksingers and the other half are artists, it’s an embarrassment of riches for me.
I gave up on following day-to-day politics so closely. I’ll still go to Drudge and a political site or two, but it’s amazing how much your quality of life improves when you’re not being bashed over the head with the crisis du jour from every single media outlet.
Seconded.
After the exhaustion from the presidential campaign, and a short term re-engagement with a frustrating continuing project with a local non-profit organization; turning the news off, not visiting a former website ( as much) and beginning reading non-fiction again has been a real return to sanity.
You “glibs” are now my guilty pleasure. Thank you to all who have contributed to this new site.
Hey boyz. Mind if I hang out a bit?
I think this place is “pants optional”.
Down with pants!
Last time I did that, I got an angry call from your husband.
Up with skirts!
Pants are pants.
“Pants optional” aka “business casual”
Welcome!
Right on.
Tell your Reps to co-sponsor H.R. 899.
So, out of habit I went to the ML this morning (I have an RSS feed). First article is a Chapman one. First sentence…I mean, I have never quit had a decision of mine justified so fully and so quickly as me deciding to not comment there anymore…I mean DAMN!
Hey, Chapman’s sins, though they be as scarlet, don’t come close to that level of reckless irresponsibility. If his opinions are dangerous, as I think they are, they are also well within the protection of the First Amendment. For him to be invited to write for Reason is exactly what freedom of expression is supposed to include.
Is one supposed to italicize the text equivalent to photoshop? I don’t want to take credit for this bit of prose.
Er, the whole rest of the media world essentially belongs to the Chapmans of it. They really don’t need a platform in all the minor publications too, just to be fair.
If the media becomes upended and regains interest in objectivity and does start to give a platform to us, even if they disagree, I might be inclined to revisit the statement I made just prior.
Actually, it’s a direct quote from the Chapman article, with a few words changed. I realized in retrospect that it might have been too subtle (at some point, parody is indistinguishable, right?), but yeah, this is why I’ve all but quit reading H&R. I have only a certain amount of time to devote to this hobby – this site is all crabmeat and no filler (crabmeat that has been left out for a week at room temperature is still crabmeat, right SugarFree?)
Oh, I can usually detect such an article from the title alone. I’ve only actually ever read a couple of them, thus I wouldn’t recognize a quote, paraphrase, or parody of any of them.
Speaking of idiots on the mainland, has Shikha been back since her credulous retweeting of Mary Stack?
wait what?
this sounds like a good story.
I sign up and get treated to a EJ Dionne link? Ugh.
You got a SugarFree story. Don’t bitch.
That isnt a positive either.
says you. Good to see ya robc
Just screwing around on the site. Good stuff and well done, Sloopy. よくできました。おめでとう。 And we can post non English!
Hi Y’all,
1st time poster long time lurker on H&R since the days of Joe. I like others have been hanging on to H&R for the occasional article. I actually used to like the variety of opinion and articles by the H&R team. Increasingly I found more value in the comments section as far as content. I was not content with the recent quality of H&R articles or reporting on tweets as news. So here I am.
I like what you created and will attempt to contribute more actively here as compared to H&R.
So as a first action, here is self proclaimed Libertarians pushing for regulation of the burgeoning IoT tech space. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/15/libertarians_call_for_govt_regulation_iot/
Regulation will stifle any new technology like the Internet of Things (IoT), there has not been time to create industry standards or have early adopters learn about the potential risks. These early adopters should be taking risks and the suppliers should be quickly predicting and addressing problems with security. Once these security issues are taken care of and customers find usefulness in the new IoT enhanced products then there will be wide spread adoption.
Regulations at this point would lock in assumptions and use with the current state of the art and prevent growth and creativity.
Sincerely,
Timeloose
Uh, yeah… no
One, the industry is far more fractured than the auto manufacturing segment was in the 50’s. Two, I don’t drive my web connected refrigerator to work. Three, liability laws exist.
Actually, the car example isn’t bad but Schneier got the wrong idea from it. Regulations to require seat belts or air bags weren’t necessary. And in some cases, like passenger side air bags, made things worse.
Schneier is usually smarter than that.
Schneier had his own TDS episode. I don’t know if he got it out of his system or not.
To his credit, he was consistently up Obama’s ass about the growth of the surveillance state too. I just don’t understand how he could turn around with fresh eyes and new fear at more-of-the-same.
Delighted to see you and thanks for the link to an interesting story.
What the hell are they talking about? A whole cottage industry has sprung up for IoT firewalls, not to mention Microsoft Azure.
On the one hand, he’s dead right about the security quality of IoT devices. I own none of them. They increase the attack surface of your network. They’re often filled with opaque binary blobs. They’re largely the result of rush-to-market garbage and nobody should use them unless they come from reputable vendors.
The solution is not regulation. It is consumer reporting. We need a few geeks to formulate a reporting agency on the security quality of these things.
There’s a problem, however. The DMCA makes reverse engineering software illegal (not that it stops people), so it actually stands in the way of creating such a consumer reporting agency that people can trust because the people doing the actual work would have to operate in a fly-by-night area of dubious legal footing.
Hooray for government being the problem looking to solve itself.
I liked this from the article:
Alex Gantman, VP of product security engineering at Qualcomm, said that in his career he’d never seen a law that made IT equipment more secure
Driving open sourced standards should be the way to progress until a few large market movers drive a eventual standard. It’s already happening with Amazon and Google’s products. There are serious privacy and hacking considerations that the consumer needs to be conscious about, but the IoT suppliers should recognize the risk of litigation and bad press before releasing products with shit security or poor support. It’s not much different from the early days of the internet based Business to Consumer company. Trust must be gained by the consumer before the industry can take off. Before that there will be early movers that are more risk adverse and companies less concerned about security. Mom and Dad won’t activate or purchase devices like smart thermostats, appliances, or entertainment devices unless they are easy to use and don’t feel scary to them. Government regulation is a sure way to make everything harder to do, more expensive, and slower to take hold. Let the ghost hand do its job.
By the way thanks for the welcome all.
I use raspberry pie for everything
/awesome nerd.
I think you highly overestimate the amount of fucks Shenzhen has to give.
I’m glad I stumbled upon this place! I was a Reason lurker, but I can’t take the constant equivocation anymore. Here’s to the smartest comments and appalling fan fiction on the inter webs!
The amount of butt hurt being expressed by one commentator at the other site is quite funny.
Excluded from this site, or just unhappy with the revolt and subsequent diversion of commentariat wit from the place?
Since its a lot people he labeled as secret Reps or Trump supporters I understand his anger. I think your second observation is the reality. The overall quality of posts has dropped dramatically.
lots o salt.
Link?
Playa’s comment in the PM yesterday started a bit.
Crusty Juggler – #2|2.16.17 @ 10:48AM| block | mute | #
Does Robby Soave scare you? Me too! I found a Soave-free safe space just for people like us, and it’s called Glibertarians.com.
He can’t hurt us anymore
One of several in AM links today and about 20 yesterday. I forgot how to link to the actual comment
Aw man, that is….disappointing.
I usually like Crusty’s posts, and I don’t scorn Robby’s posts like some people do (but I do find them to be frequently banal and flavorless—though they always garner the most comments, and thus sometimes even the best discussions/arguments/fracases), but I’ll go where most of the commenters (and certainly the best ones) go, period.
Some of us tried to explain that the commentariat is a big draw, even if most of us are feckless bastards.
Got laughed down. *shrug*
Even when I didn’t read the articles or feel like commenting myself, there’s almost always been something to laugh at or think about in the comments.
I don’t think that some people get the lurker phenomenon.
Anyway, see you around the place. 😉
forums in general have that problem. I go on ih8mud for a lot of my landcruiser issues. somewhere on the site is a count of who’s on and breaks down the people with accounts vs guests. guests win most of the time. but they are there only to read what others have posted. They need people posting pictures of how they put some transmission in at a slight angle, how someone wired something or what they did when the heater cable broke while on a trip somewhere. There are experts there that only offer feedback about the dash, and others that rebuild carbs.
I lurked for a long time before posting. then did some handle changing and lurked. I laughed daily in the comments. I learned so much. Historic facts, pool chlorination, space travel, medical tips, good booze, guns to look at, and cultures that I’m not a part of.
Pool colorization…who can forget that thread.
😉
Ive lurked for many years. Just started to randomly post. But I lurked for the comments not the articles.
I was going to scold you for looking like a suck up with the “smartest comments” bit, but you redeemed yourself with the recognition of “appalling fan fiction”…
Welcome.
Thanks. Smart is a relative term, maybe “least retarded” is a better description, what with all the attempts at basic grammar and a lack of the phrase “cuck”.
There is value in the word “cuck.” It pisses off all the right people.
It was high time that the right learned that language is a potent weapon and turned the left’s favorite blade back on them.
We don’t have much need of it here. We’re pulling in the same direction, even if we don’t all agree on the finer points, and we’re sufficiently acerbic to frighten away most of the safe-spacers anyway.
We’re on the internet. you should already be in a safe space. My room is pretty safe.*checks lock and window*
It’s useful for arming intellectually deficient believers with some form of rhetorical weapon. I agree that it’s effective, but I still check out of the debate as soon as I hear it because I can safely assume the depth of the intellect who would use it.
I agree. As soon as any version of “cuck” is used my eyes glaze over and I scroll down to the next thread.
Mmmmmmm….. glazed donuts
You’d probably be surprised to learn that there are a lot of very bright people using it. “Politics is downstream from culture” is the rallying idea. They seek to win the culture war specifically by provoking the nastiest, most vile reactions from the left. They want people to see the left as the enemy it truly is, and they’ll grab any weapon in their arsenal to achieve that end.
So, really try not to assume the intellect of the user.
There is a joke about two communities: Reddit is full of idiots pretending be intelligent. 4chan is full of intelligent people pretending to be idiots.
4chan is the Infinite Improbability Drive of the Internet. It doesn’t make sense to anyone, but it is working better than one might predict. It is an incubator for some really clever ideas. People laugh when they see yet another media outlet fall victim to them, but that is actually extremely important as a teaching tool so people wake up to the fact that the media mostly does not know what it is talking about.
If people think that they’re upset that Pepe was deemed “racist” iconography, they’re wrong. That is a desired outcome, a perfection of the craft. If you can convince powerful people that a poorly drawn cartoon frog belies a much deeper network of closeted racists than they imagined in their wildest fever dreams, you can convince people of fucking anything.
Touche’. I understand exactly what your saying. I guess my final point would be that form of discourse appears to be a race to the bottom, at least from my perspective.
It absolutely is a race to the bottom, but I can get why people choose to participate. As an intelligent person, you’re not in the position to substantially affect the level of discourse in society, but you are certainly in a position to be harmed when society bypasses your higher level of discourse for a more base argument. Recognizing that society reacts more strongly to the base arguments, and supplying them with base arguments supporting your position can be quite pragmatic.
Yep, you’ve got the notion. The left has really just poured out the worst cultural garbage. They change every word relentlessly, wringing all the meaning out of them. They push art, music, all the social “science” the media will swallow. And the tactic wins. It’s degrading.
When you’ve got your base seriously convinced that half the country is a bunch of racists who hate women, the environment, the worker, the common man, etc. then it’s time to fight back.
We try as hard as we can to assuage. We want to guide people into libertarianism. There is nothing wrong with that strategy, except that it alone hasn’t caused us to grow. We still need to keep doing this. What we don’t need to do is open our arms lovingly to the shrieking idiots who will never listen to us, who will use us like toilet paper to get into power again, and flush us the second they no longer need our help.
There are other libertarians (and anarchists) who have transformed themselves into pit fighters. They confront the left on culture and they’re eliciting all the screaming you’re hearing. They want the moronic left to think there are literal Nazis hiding in every bush. They want the left to false-flag and get caught. They want the left to completely delegitimize itself and to wither away in this blubbering fit of impotent, childish rage. And most importantly, they want everyone to see how the media avoids covering it, how social media is moving to put in ever more stringent censorship to regain control of the narrative. They want the left’s implosion to be brutal and public and at its own hands. And they’re fucking winning. The left in America is the most dangerous adversary we face, and it needs to die before liberty can be reborn from its ashes. Then, and only then, should we focus on reclaiming whatever good people we can from its destruction. Currently it does not yet see that, and those who might come to us now while still in the process of defeat are not our friends.
I don’t mean to imply that the Republican party isn’t its own form of utter shit. Of course it is, but we’ve got to focus on finishing off the predator bleeding out at our feet. The Republicans are weak prey that can be hunted down later and converted or annihilated if necessary. If you can’t bear to watch as the jackals do their work, turn away if you must. But right now, we’re seeing results.
This thread is likely dead, but Zero do you believe the current movement by the “alt right ” troll army is principled? No sarc. I just assumed boiler plate anarchy or even nihilist. I assumed this was a loose confederation with many competing objevtives with one overlapping desire to watch it burn. Now, I don’t know how I feel about that, but that’s how I read it. Thoughts?
I think it’s more likely than not enough that they lean toward liberty given the environment in which they have evolved. What do you mean by principled?
Maybe principled isn’t the right word. Are they striving towards a goal?
A goal beyond tearing it down, that is.
Individually I am sure they have goals beyond tearing everything down. To what extent you can model a collective goal beyond that is a more difficult exercise. From a cognitive sciences and behavioral economics standpoint their expressed preferences will, especially in this case, be different from their empirically revealed preferences. Even avowed nihilists, unless they have a really really abnormal brain, aren’t actually nihilists. We’re just not built that way. To tie into HM’s point made here I think their goal might actually be a rectification of names. From this it follows that they’re actually looking for ‘better’ law. Or at least more intelligible law. As to whether that will ultimately entail more liberty I cant say, but in the short run plain language law would be a net increase in liberty.
There are a lot of us lurkers, I’ve no doubt. Don’chu forget about us, commenters! Thanks to Fist for posting a link to this yesterday, else I’d not have known about this site.
*Oops, it was Playa, not Fist.
OT: Has anyone read any books by Ron Bailey. I’d like to get some perspectives from this group before I check it out.
I haven’t, but I’ve not been impressed with his columns, by and large. The writing is good, but his lack of scientific training and experience often shows. If his books are outside of science, they might be worth a shot.
I have not, and I disagree with Ron on quite a few things BUT some folks really don’t like him and that I don’t get. He is, in my opinion, intellectually honest and often challenges his own world view with his articles. He would respond to commenters with facts and references directly. I respect him for wading into the H&R shit pool more often than most and with substantive contributions. I would read one of his books BUT I can’t just yet. I told my father to read High Desert BBQ (2 chili’s book) as it was highly recommended. He did. He STILL CANT STOP talking about it years later. He fucking loves that book. And here I am, the guy who recommended it, and I haven’t read it yet. SO when I get that out of the way I will buy a Baily book.
What do you guys disagree with him on?
When I’ve tried engaging him on science issues where he says questionable things, he stops answering as soon as it’s evident to him that he’s talking to someone who has professional competence. My last incidence where he cut off communications was on some claims he made regarding toxicology in an area in which I’ve done some pretty intensive research, and it was clear that he really, really didn’t understand what he was talking about.
^ This.
He’s good on science *for a reporter*. That’s an important qualification.
He’s good on science *for a reporter*. That’s an important qualification.
Nothing pisses me off more than reading a scientific article, clicking through to the source material, and seeing a disclaimer refuting the exact conclusion the article made. Is it too much to ask for the journalist to read the first 3 pages of the source material? (not saying Ron has ever done anything that bad)
“Nothing pisses me off more than reading a scientific article, clicking through to the source material, and seeing a disclaimer refuting the exact conclusion the article made.”
And this describes so much CAGW reporting.
That’s the thing I’ve liked about him. He doesn’t present the consensus view of topics like diet, overpopulation, and climate change. It’s a nice change of pace.
That seems like a pretty rare thing in the reporting world. He doesn’t seem to try to bury evidence. He has his slant, that’s ok.
He actually tries, and he gives a shit. That’s a big leg up over the competition.
I think his faith in a technological afterlife is sci-fi hocum, and I think that it leaves him predisposed to an apocalyptic bias (see the preppers article the other day for discussion of a similar phenomenon).
Yeah – and that’s one of those “understand a little about science but not a lot” scenarios.
IME, the “medical science will conquer death” people don’t think about the overpopulation problems we’re going to have if no one ever dies. To the effect that, if “no one ever died,” people would be dying of starvation and disease left and right. It would be a state of permanent disaster and desperation.
Unless, of course, they’re imagining that once we conquer death we sterilize everyone, so that the current generation becomes the Eternal Generation. Which is starting to sound like a weird dystopian novel and not something to aspire to.
Your Malthusian arguments ignore completely the existence of markets.
Doom saying is a big league market
“Your Malthusian arguments ignore completely the existence of markets.”
No it doesn’t. It recognizes the observable fact that space on the earth is finite.
“No it doesn’t. It recognizes the observable fact that space on the earth is finite”
You’re not thinking in three dimensions. All you’re arguing is that living where you want to live will be more expensive, assuming everyone wants to live on the surface of the earth. Again, a greater demand for food or living space will cause people to pay more. People who want money will go satisfy that demand and lower prices presuming that there are no physical (as in the laws of physics prevent the development of a technology) or governmental (as in people apply force) limitations to entrepreneurship. If what you’re actually arguing is, at the limit conditions, the universe is a closed system then you might have a point. However, based on what I’ve read I don’t think there is enough evidence to accept that as a premise.
I should add, sterilizing people is not morally justified on the basis that living where you want to live will be more expensive.
It also ignores the reality that current medical science isn’t exactly extending the bounds of age. Sure, getting rid of biological, physical, and nutritional dangers has raised the average lifespan. However, we’re not seeing people live to 140 all of a sudden. You can replace certain organs, but eventually the ones you can’t replace start to go. Even if we could do some Futurama-style brains in jars thing, the brain starts the downhill slope in the late 50s. Even if computers were somehow able to scan your brain and replicate your neural patterns exactly, it’s still not allowing you to live any longer.
Whether uploading is hokum I see as separate from the issues that Malthus raised. If we assume, for whatever reason, that human lifespan is now effectively indefinite it simply does not follow that we will all be starving and dying and thus the government must sterilize us.
To your point I agree. Medical technology to date has not actually altered the natural lifespan of humans, it has only alleviated environmental conditions which result in premature death. Chiefly though, this is because we have historically lacked the tools to actually tinker with our own machinery. The difference now is we are developing tools and techniques to fundamentally redesign the machinery.
As to uploading, assuming it works, your argument sounds to me like a philosophical one.
As to uploading, assuming it works, your argument sounds to me like a philosophical one.
It is… I believe there is more to “personhood” than a particular organization of neurons and synapses firing in specific patterns.
we have historically lacked the tools to actually tinker with our own machinery
I think the machinery analogy is a good one for explaining my skepticism. I can know the ins and outs of my laptop computer, every device, every line of code, and I won’t be able to rewrite the software to make a second screen sprout out the side of it.
Similarly, we may be able to modify the human genome so that people live to the age of 200 on a regular basis. However, I’m really skeptical that 500 or 1000 years is within the scope of genetic modification. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe some scientist will find an aging factor and turn it off. I doubt it, though.
The quest for the fountain of youth has enticed people for thousands of years in thousands of cultures, and it always ended in disappointment. I don’t see any evidence why this one will be different.
I’m really skeptical that 500 or 1000 years is within the scope of genetic modification.
That’s the right kind of skepticism. Please correct me if I’m wrong, what I’m hearing is that ‘true’ immortality is improbable. I think I agree with that. Some of the language in this area tends to be imprecise, I’ve always viewed it as more of an engineering challenge to achieve a ‘functional’ immortality. The problem you present is one of those that need to be overcome or understood. Arguably, cells can replace themselves indefinitely since normal cells die and are replaced all the time and we also have observed cancers. Cells will always individually do wear out and die – can’t overcome entropy, but my hunch is with a complete understanding of the cellular machinery we can solve those issues. If there are hard physical limits on genetic manipulation only allowing for X years of functionality whats the next step? Is there one? I’m sure there is from a functional perspective.
Alas, all this effort to move and still no edit button
My thing is there is a deal of critical research that has been done on CO2 NOT having greenhouse properties in the open system of Planet Earth. A terrarium we are not. And this simple but all important assumption underlies all of CAGW. It should be tested and re-tested.
HELL, in physics class EVERY DAY we re-test our most basic assumptions. Like pendulums, and the speed of light, and wave interference.
Science is not really about obtaining an answer. That implies finality. It is about finding the next more informed and intelligent question to ask. Ron accepts certain base assumptions as final that I don’t, like CO2 is a greenhouse gas with respect to earth’s ecosystem. As I said before though he is a stand up guy and argues in good faith so I will continue to engage with him happily.
Yep, can’t always agree with his analysis, but the man is stand-up and has the moxy to defend himself against critics (as long as they argue in good faith).
I mostly agree with that however I have seen what OMWC describes above. He will disengage when someone with more knowledge than him starts asking him questions.
Overall hes a good writer but his blind faith in man made AGW makes me question everything he posts as fact filled science