All guaranteed to be Kosher. A bit fleishig, definitely not parve.
I could swear that this was an Agatha Christie story. Couldn’t they make it disappear?
Know what would be a really great idea? Inserting ourselves even deeper into a shitshow that has no end.
One thing I can say for my town- the shooting is at least getting more efficient. And this is certainly going to improve things, amirite?
This was the last meeting of the Glibertarian editorial staff. We’re famous!
If this is true, I’m gonna live forever, if I don’t shit myself to death first.
Enjoy your shabbat. Me, I’m going to thank the good Lord for bringing me the Ultimate Shiksa. I’m lookin’ at you, SP.
Absolutely haram.
Islamic physicians’ oath: First, do no haram.
*converts to Islam just to issue a fatwa for that joke*
Jihad to point it out.
*issues second fatwa*
Hmm, this is better than being Judge Bao…
You mecca Groovus angry
*issues a Salman Rushdie*
Taqiyya your time on that fatwa, Groovus.
I am taking a dhimmi view of this, bacon… wait, bacon?!?!
GAH! GHYR NAZIFA!!!
FATWA!!!! FATWA!!!!!
All-bacon, snackbar. *ululates*
Old Man With Candied Bacon-Magic
I’ll take glib Venn diagrams for reasons I’d get into a van with you for $1000, Alex.
Allah these puns are just awful.
TRAYF.
You’re an applesaucer, aren’t you? Tsk, tsk…
On latkes? Absolutely. Sour cream is nearly as pus-like as mayo.
SP’s home-made applesauce on latkes is close to the most perfect food item ever.
That sounds really good, actually. Alas, I am but an adherent to the sour cream, especially of the artisinal variety.
Adherent? Being married to Mrs. Dr. G you are required to use sour cream. That and dill, lots of dill. And pickles. But mostly sour cream.
Incidentally, you and her need to watch Chefs Table Season 3, Episode 1 I think. It is the Russian guy. Mrs. Bandit found it very interesting and I guarantee your wife will too. It is almost a political commentary on Russian vs. soviet cuisine.
Puss-like is the best description I’ve ever heard for mayo. I’m stealing that.
Plus, anyone who puts mayo on a hamburger is obviously a commie.
I like to spread a very thin layer of mayonnaise on the bun before grilling it. Mayo has a higher smoke point than butter and will give you a nice crispy toasting on the bun. Mayonnaise is also the condiment into which one should dip French fried potatoes; tomato ketchup/catsup is foul poison.
Talk about a way to ruin good frites. “I know, these taste great so let’s dip ’em in pus!”
There’s a little frites stand in Amsterdam that turned me on to dipping them in sambal oelek.
French fries in mayo is an abomination. What’s really good is some Sriracha in ketchup, mix it together real nice. That’s good stuff.
I’m a mustard all the way guy on my burger, though.
Lightly salted fresh fries are like a good steak. Don’t adulterate them with sauces because they should stand alone.
OK, some basics here folks…Yes mayo has a (moderately higher) smoke point than full butter, but you don’t use butter. You use clarified butter. Which has a very high smoke point. AND you still get the butter flavor. I make jars of the stuff every week. It keeps till WWIV. Not required to be in fridge (the fat is incredibly stable and does not oxidize very much).
SO, when doing burger buns on grill, grilled cheese in cast iron, garlic bread in the oven, use clarified butter (Indian’s call it ghee, the lazy amongst us can buy it).
How to make:
Take butter, VERY SLOWLY heat it (veeerrrrryyy slowwwwwly), pour oil off top and leave milks solids and water in the pot. Profit.
“Mayonnaise is also the condiment into which one should dip French fried potatoes”
In Murlan, they put malt vinegar … rather they dip fries in malt vinegar. Yes, this is a real thing.
Mayo is wonderful stuff for sandwiches. I put mayo and tartar sauce on cheeseburgers. But for fries, the only thing that should ever be put on them besides salt, is ketchup.
and it is FABULOUS
but Mayo/Aioli is spectacular for any number of dipping situations. Make you own (like SF does) but add canned chillies in adobo (chop up in food processor first) for an excellent spicy mayo, add chive oil and scallions for a fantastic sauce on almost any vegetable. There are endless possibilities.
Next week we will be discussing Hollandaise.
Are none of you from the mid-west? How has this discussion gone on this long without talk of the king of condiments?
I’m speaking, of course, about ranch.
Disagreed. BBQ sauce, ranchup, ranch, and horseradish sauce are all great on fries.
You all revolt me. I’m sure you put A.1. on your steaks. Barbarians.
These. These are my triggers.
Ok
I’m gonna do this right, this time.
@trshmnstr. Ok, I concede the point on the sauces. The Arby’s sauce, whatever it is, is good on fries or almost anything.
A1 is another thing that’s good on anything. Why not, here in Mulan, we put old bay on everything. I mean everything. There’s now an Old Bay beer. God, that sounds fucking awful, I’m not even trying it.
OMWC, Vleminckx, perhaps? Their knoflook sauce was good enough to drink.
Where else? I’ve stood in that line many, many times.
God DAMN, we have the best commenters on earth.
Ranch is a sure sign of yokel retardation. My only question is, cause or symptom?
I make a fry sauce with ketchup/mayo/mustard and spices. Best of all worlds.
@ Old Man With Candy
Cause, the ingestion of ranch causes women’s antibodies to attack the neural tissue of the fetuses they carry within their wombs.
It’s a disgusting, loathsome, socially obnoxious habit.
OMWC, Father-in-law lived in A’dam for many years and turned us on to some wonderful food on our visits. There was a place on Lijnbaansgracht called Castell that had no tables, just giant, overstuffed chairs, couches, and loveseats; they serve one on big cutting boards in one’s lap. They even served me a rare pork chop; it was amazing.
Some of us would just leave off the “like”.
“Are none of you from the mid-west?”
Is Ohio the midwest?
This threading is crazy.
I’m actually not sure where Montana “is” regionally. We definitely have some midwestern tendencies but sometimes we get lumped in with the pacific northwest… And sometimes we just get called the north.
I consider Montana west or western mountain, lump it in with Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. Once you get west of Central WA, you’re in another universe, with the Portlandians.
anyone who puts mayo on a hamburger is obviously a commie.
Only a fascist would deny that sriracha mayo is divine on hamburgers.
Cheese, mayo, tartar sauce, pickles, and lettuce. That’s the best hamburger.
Oh, and New Mex style red chili sauce is pretty much the universal sauce. Awesome on potatoes, among other things.
If y’all are nice, I might put up Grandma Dean’s New Mex recipe.
Please do! SP does red and green, and has very particular ideas about it. It will be interesting to hear her take on it.
I’ll have to dig it up. Much turns, as you would expect, on the chili peppers (only New Mex will do). Grandma Dean used to start a batch by taking a bunch of peppers off the ristra hanging in her house.
Trigger warning: lard.
We have lard work-arounds. We also have many pounds of NM chiles. We get a bushel of green shipped here every year when it’s the season, and SP roasts and freezes them. Ditto dried red.
She is also smart enough to have taught me why “Hatch” is a ripoff.
Excellent.
I drive through Hatch periodically, so I’m pretty sure when I get Hatch, it’s Hatch.
Here’s the thing about Hatch: they’re Big Jims, by and large, and if you get Big Jims grown nearby or without the “Hatch” licensing, they’re just as good or better AND cost less.
Wait until Eddie shows up to make a mountain out of a mohelhill.
Hebrew his coffee as we speak
/prepares the cat butthole for Slammer…
I was hoping you’d say that; I haven’t seen a good smiting in, well, it’s been a few moons…
These euphemisms.
What a cutting remark.
That’s what the mohel said.
Um, yes, that was sort of the point of the joke.
You’re not allowed to trim on Shabbat, but a mackerel snapper wouldn’t know that.
He was in his underwear, with a bag over his head and apparently hanged himself.
Without more details, I’d say there’s one other option rather than suicide.
The first rule of autoerotic asphyxiation, is always have a spotter. It’s important kids. Don’t choke yourself and jerking off alone. Bring a friend and know your safe words.
Not a suicide. He died doing what he liked best. Hope it was worth it.
One thing I can say for my town…
It’s really unfair that Chicago does all the work and Detroit gets all the credit.
“Narcotics and narcotic sales is the thing that allows the buying of guns,” Riccio said.
Huh. I wonder if there is some way to end the profitable drug black market?
I’ve got it! We pass even more stringent laws!
And we would have if it hadn’t been for you meddling libertarians!
*rips off Gimp Mask*
“Why, it’s
Old Man JenkinsSen. Viagra MacWarboner!”*group laugh*
Age and Political Party Shape Americans’ Attitudes to Russia
Where’s the option of “Putin will pursue what he sees as as the self interest of Russia.”
There’s some of that there nuance that political commentators and pollsters are always warned against.
Never thought I’d live to see liberals in America become the pro-Cold War faction.
They’re not commies anymore, so it’s okay to hate them now.
I wonder what those stats for the Democrats would have looked like a year ago.
I remember in 2012 Mittens said something about Russia, and all the lefties had a good laugh about stupid Republicans stuck in the 80s.
I think on the right, especially among the young hawks and the Trump supporters, they see the big threat as an Islamic state or alliance of Islamic states willing to use conventional force in their sphere and sponsor deniable terror on a strategic level. Russia is a natural ally in combating that threat, not an enemy. They’re also seeing through the big lie that is NATO in 2017.
Well I’m tired… rest and relax day.
Last night I watched a doom ‘n’ gloom National Geographic documentary called “Collapse” where we follow a group of future archaeologists who are trying to determine how our current civilization died.
The usual suspects:
1 – lack of water / drought
2 – peak oil
3 – global warming
so therefore we need more government oversight (and choo-choo trains!) along with wind farms and solar energy.
They also mentioned our extreme debt and the future battle for resources. Many interviews with Jared Diamond of “Guns, Germs, and Steel Fame” since the doc concept was based on his latest book.
There was a lot of weak parallels drawn between current events and past civilizations. History is obviously important, but, for example, Rome’s fall had to do with a lot more than income equality. Also the end of Rome, in the long run, did more to advance freedom than if it had continued to stay around.
Also this Neo-Malthusianism, or whatever you want to call it, is very short-sighted. Humans are very adaptable to changing situations. We can move to different locales, create new technologies, or do whatever we need to do to survive.
Trump didn’t even make the list? I guess the proggies are about to start a boycott of National Geographic, then.
it was from 2010ish – library has free DVD rentals which is cheap entertainment
Our neighborhood skews rather old for NYC so our local Queens Public Library branch is the dumping ground for the, now deprecated, VHS collection. It is delightful; they have a complete run of Dark Shadows, a lot of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and enough PBS documentaries to last a lifetime.
If they have Mary Hartman, do they perhaps also have Fernwood 2Night? God, that was a brilliant show. Fred Williard is a genius.
lol income inequality was what they blamed for the fall of Rome?
Nothing about, UK I don’t know, a large border crisis, where refugees fleeing the Huns poured in?
Yeah the decadence of the Roman state, their decline in civic virtue, the fiscal irresponsibility, none of that is real either.
This argument is, not surprisingly, recent and only popped up a couple years ago. And it’s, also not surprisingly, based on nothing but the projection of modern people as to what they consider ‘issues’. Ignoring the fact that they have no actual records on income groups or any kind of economic data to support their conclusion, Rome survived centuries as a state largely driven by slave labour, but somehow ‘income inequality’ suddenly became an issue in the 5th century.
You could make the argument that wealth and slaves from late Republican conquests created a massive disadvantage for lower class Romans (slaves take all the work, the aristocrats take all the land because the middle class owners die in wars, etc.) and a huge advantage for the aristocrats (Senators build giant palaces and plantations from war booty in the East) that helped to necessitate the transition to the Empire, but ‘income inequality’ has absolutely nothing to do with the Western collapse (not to mention that somehow the Eastern Roman Empire survived another thousand years of evil ‘income inequality’).
Related: What Happened To Normal People When The Roman Economy Fell Apart?
Also this Neo-Malthusianism, or whatever you want to call it, is very short-sighted
It’s a money maker. Doom, gloom, and hysteria sells.
It is an apocalyptic, secular religion. Same thing as always. I am embarrassed by how many conversations I have with people who will declare the earth is going to die from overpopulation.
Something has to explain why Paul Erlich still has a job after being spectacularly wrong, again and again, for so long.
And Julian Simon is dead. Life is unfair.
On his tombstone is etched “See? I was right!”
He actually DID put on horns for one of his press conferences. Endeared him to me forever.
I liked Guns, Germs, and Steel. Not saying it is 100% but it raised some very cool effects of geography. I think it deserves more scientific scrutiny.
Obviously he is not an economist though.
Guns Germs and the Steel is the whole “Africa is shit because the continent is North-South, Europe developed because East-West” thesis, right?
yup
thats and starting resources: average calorie/grain and number of species, number of domesticable animals
the up/down left/right thing comes into play with migration, being easier along similar lats due to species compatibility
Does he address Rhodesia vs Zimbabwe in the book?
I thought G,G&S was a very interesting book, marred by only a moderate level of multi-culti virtue signalling. I almost gave up when he wrote early on that primitive South Pacific islanders were “at least as” intelligent as us white debbils, but I hung in and it was worth it.
I almost gave up when he wrote early on that primitive South Pacific islanders were “at least as” intelligent as us white debbils
Could you maneuver through a complex and thick jungle dozens of kilometers wide, without a map, based on memory? That’s Diamond’s point, intelligence is not the sole indicator of technological advancement. It’s the classic modern narcissism, “oh we’re so much smarter than those backward Medieval types, they must have been so dumb not to figure this out.”
Could you maneuver through a complex and thick jungle dozens of kilometers wide, without a map, based on memory?
If I grew up there, sure. I have no doubt that intelligence is multi-factoral and its an error to assume that someone who grew up in a more advanced society is more intelligent than someone who didn’t. It was the condescending multi-culti “at least as” that hacked me off. No, the left end of their bell curve for intelligence does not start at the right end of the white debbil’s bell curve for intelligence. They are not at least as intelligent as us, they are just a intelligent as us.
I agree completely, BTW, that moderns, especially proggies who believe in the inevitable march of history, are dead wrong when they discard all tradition and respect for the past because we’re just so much smarter now, dang it.
I think Dean was getting at the “at least” part. As in at least, if not more intelligent as westerners.
I agree with you that technological advancements are not the some indicator of intelligence, or even a valid indicators that one society has smart people than another. Technology is really about accumulation of knowledge and capital.
It was the condescending multi-culti “at least as” that hacked me off.
Ah. Got it.
I’ve got a problem with some of his thesis, and a lot of his early New World conquests arguments are total nonsense because they’re not based on actual history. Diamond sees it as a small group of Europeans fighting massive native empires and winning, when in reality most of the time it was a small group of Europeans and a massive collection of native allies, pissed at said native empire. Biological advantage and geographical determinism do play a large influence but I think he over-stresses them.
In Thomas Sowell’s latest (probably last, sob) book, he says the lack of navigable waterways has had a lot to do with Africa’s pace having been so far behind Europe. Europe has wide and level rivers and huge natural ports. Africa has narrow rivers with frequent altitude changes, waterfalls, rapids, etc. that make them impossible to use for trade. There’s also an amazing difference between the two continents in the actual land-sea interfaces, Europe having lots of nooks and crannys so that everyone is getting oceanfront — not so much in Africa.
That was (and is, I guess) a particular problem in the tsetse zone – if you can’t use draught/pack animals, and you can’t use the waterways very effectively, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of options prior to railroads.
Not to mention that most North American Indians were wiped out by disease, not by fighting Europeans.
He does cover that, and has an entire section covering how Old World urban centers and trade lead to widespread disease exposure. But his breakdowns on stuff like the conquest of the Inca by the Spanish are extremely inaccurate.
One of the disappointments of this modern age is the number of institutions that have been captured by the proggy/SJW/totalitarian left. And I definitely include both the Smithsonian and Nat Geo in that list.
Academia, entertainment, and the mainstream media. You would think that’s enough to completely take over any nation. Only the American left could fuck up an opportunity like that.
What do these dying institutions all have in common?
Hitler?
How about “Comic book publishers” and “sports networks” (ESPN)
It’s even gotten into the science fiction world, contributing to my falling desire to read much of anything new.
Larry Correia is a good read. His Monster Hunter is just plain pulpy fun with libertarian bent (and man, does he love guns). Or Son of the Black Sword, which is more fantasy (or is it?) and damn, I couldn’t believe it was same author as MHI.
David Drake still does solid work. Unlike Webber, Drake’s “Royal Navy in SPAAACE” series hasn’t turned into self-parody yet. Maybe because he’s using a superior template (Aubrey-Maturin books instead of Hornblower).
Papaya you would love Larry Correia IMO. Also John Ringo and Tom Kratman.
PanZag, Have you read Larry’s Grimnoir series? If not, do so.
I was tempted by it, especially after Larry posted the super-badass French cover. Will probably start it once my current kick (Poul Anderson, whom I haven’t read before three months ago) is done.
It’s got even stronger libertarian themes than MHI does, and it’s just plain cool.
Agree on the Grimnoir series. I got them through the local library, and the last book I got on CD, narrated by Bronson Pinchot, of all people. I was really surprised how good a job he did with it.
Hmm. I’m thinking an article on sci-fi, and probably a separate one on fantasy, would be well-received.
For sci-fi, I mostly work the military and space opera books, which seem fairly uncorrupted at this point. Amazon suggests books similar to what I’ve read, so I’ve probably got a very agreeable confirmation bias loop going with Amazon. I can confirm that Correia and Drake continue to be reliable (although Correia is more fantasy, IMO).
Fantasy seems to have gotten dark lately. Really dark. Which is fine. If you like your fantasy in large containers, I can recommend the Malazan Cycle and its various spawn. The Raven’s Shadow series by Anthony Ryan is first rate, as is the Broken Empire books of Mark Lawrence. The second set of Broken Empire Books is actually a clever riff on the Flashman books.
You cannot go wrong, BTW, with David Gemmell (RIP).
Game of Thrones drives that I think.
I read The Powder Mage trilogy a while back, quite liked it.
Song of Ice and Fire and Terry Pratchett’s death took fantasy in direction I’m not interested in at all. Reading Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions for the first time clarified what’s missing in standard extruded fantasy product.
Although, I mentioned it before, if you are into Arhturian myth (particularly of Malorian bend), J.C. Wright’s “Swan Knight’s Son” and sequels are spectacular. He finally put his crazy, pre-Renaissance Catholicism to good use.
Although, The Witcher books, while being pretty dark, have the advantage of more interesting setting and a superb sense of humor, so I can recommend trying them even if you are tired of the current Dark Fantasy wave. Sadly, first story collection is not available as e-book for some reason, and last book in the series is not out in English yet (couple more weeks to go).
Here’s my claim to fame: I lived in the same neighborhood as Larry and got to know him a bit. A few years ago he did a shooting event on my father-in-law’s land. Nice guy.
I love his blog. He has excellent advice for writers.
I went for a hike this morning. On a cliff about 80 feet above sea level, there was an ancient coral reef. But somehow, alleged sea level rise will kill us all.
You stupid libertardian, clearly Trump or his rather, one of his Russian lackeys, put that coral there to fool you into ignoring the threat of Global Climate Change THESCIENCE ISSETTLED.
The arid, desert like, Permian Basin in west Texas is full of sea shells. It is also one of the largest deposits of oil and natural gas in the world.
People working on the drilling rigs get to see some nice examples of very old sea shells pulled up by the drill bit. Mostly broken bits but occasionally a larger piece.
…specifically caters to magicians and illusionists.
Wizards hardest hit!
I once read an article written by a professional magician about how cutthroat, backstabby, and bitchy the magic scene is. I’ll see if I can dig it up. It was a good read.
Yeah, that’s why Gob Bluth was kicked out of the Magician’s Alliance.
“I don’t do tricks, mom, I do illusions. Tricks are what a whore does for money.”
Or candy!
“Illusions dad illusions. You don’t have time for my illusions.”
Justice and “Social Justice” Are Two Very Different Things
Good article. I’ll have to dig around that site a little more.
Lots of people (some Catholics included) have hijacked the perfectly good Catholic concept of social justice:
“IN BRIEF
“1943 Society ensures social justice by providing the conditions that allow associations and individuals to obtain their due.
“1944 Respect for the human person considers the other “another self.” It presupposes respect for the fundamental rights that flow from the dignity intrinsic of the person.
“1945 The equality of men concerns their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it.
“1946 The differences among persons belong to God’s plan, who wills that we should need one another. These differences should encourage charity.
“1947 The equal dignity of human persons requires the effort to reduce excessive social and economic inequalities. It gives urgency to the elimination of sinful inequalities.
“1948 Solidarity is an eminently Christian virtue. It practices the sharing of spiritual goods even more than material ones.”
As for the elimination of sinful inequalities, does not a system of free commerce and rule of law create the climate in which the poor can become better off, and people in general have extra money to give to voluntary charitable causes?
Furthermore, it takes taxing and government spending, and cops, to support a justice system in which both the rich and the poor have a fair shake.
Good article. One objection though.
The “right” to a jury trial is not a positive right. If anything, it’s closer to a negative one. It’s a prohibition on government from punishing a person without a jury trial. As an individual, I’m free to punish people who deserve punishment without affording them due process (rarely a good idea, but not wrong). The government voluntarily waives that right in order to discourage abuse of its much greater power.
A jury trial is only a positive right if you misinterpret the Constitution as granting the power to forcibly impanel a jury, as the government does.
OT: Does any else watch Criminal Minds? I was watching the latest episode last night and noticed Penelope had small “pussy ear” hair decorations in all show. Two different styles that I noticed. So woke. Although, I guess I’d much rather have some unobtrusive visual TDS than listen to some soliloquy on it.
I gave up after season 8. I was a bit surprised when I saw it was still going the other day.
Zing!
Brutal.
Savage af
Definitely gonna leave a mark.
Rekt.
Ohhhhhhh snap!
Ah, Sargon and his muse…
Shrekt.
Illegal Clinton fundraiser makes secret videotape as insurance against assassination
TW: DailyFail.
Recipient is a perfectly good word.
He’s a judge, so command of the English language is not a given.
Democrats hope for quick end to DNC chair fight
This ended up being far less interesting than the headline promised.
“The Minnesota congressman’s obstacle is that the anti-Ellison vote remains strong, especially among a sizable number of DNC voting members whose bitterness toward Sen. Bernie Sanders runs as high as ever and feel that they’ve been attacked by Ellison’s supporters for being part of the establishment.”
So, it’s not that Ellison is a radical who has endorsed anti-Semites like Farrakhan and unconvincingly tried to walk it back when it threatened his political ambitions.
No, it’s that he criticized the Dem establishment.
My advice – go ahead and elect Ellison. And I’m not at all biased by my wish for the Democrats to fail miserably.
Alan Dershowitz says he’ll leave the Democratic Party if Ellison becomes head of the DNC.
Chair fight:
And Bernie from the top rope crashes Warren and Ellison through the table!!! It’s CARNAGE!
Warren’s up, she’s getting up, folks! What is she doing… It’s not… Yes it is! She’s performing smoke signals, and you all know what that means! We’re about to see her hit Sanders with a Tomahawk Chop!
The crowd loves it!
You betchyer ass!
Reposting this from last night’s beverage thread.
A GOP plan to repeal Obamacare was leaked to Politico
http://www.curejoy.com/content/new-study-says-glass-red-wine-equivalent-hour-gym/
That’s why I’m built like Warty.
Do they say how much vodka’s worth? I’m hoping it’s a lot.
If scotch got a multiplier, I’d be like unto a god.
NAACP calls for boycott of North Carolina over voting, bathroom laws
“The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Friday said it would not hold its convention in North Carolina and urged other organizations to boycott the state in protest of laws adopted by the Republican-led legislature.
“The civil rights groups described the move as the first step in an economic boycott that could be expanded in North Carolina and replicated in other states that enact laws limiting voting rights and protections for gay and transgender people.
“NAACP leaders asked artists, religious groups, educators and sports leagues to join the effort.”
NAACP leaders asked artists, religious groups, educators and sports leagues to join the effort
No Salvation for those dirty barbarians!
“NAACP says blacks are too stupid to obtain even free photo IDs, therefore any photo ID requirement to vote is racist.”
Not just the NAACP. This one *never* gets old…
Yeah it really doesn’t.
“I hear a lot, black people don’t know how to get to the DMV.”
“It’s over on 25th street *points*”
NPR is concerned about the Constitution
“For more than a decade, Kuwait’s ambassador to the U.S., Salem al-Sabah, has held a gala event every Feb. 25 to celebrate his country’s national day….
“The Kuwaiti embassy canceled a “save the date” reservation with the Four Seasons and booked instead with the Trump hotel, a few blocks from the White House, for 600 guests….
“Norm Eisen, an ethics expert at the Brookings Institution, says Trump is also violating the Constitution — which says a president cannot accept gifts or benefits by a foreign country….
“Trump’s attorney, Sheri Dillon, said at a press conference last month that the president has a way around that.
“”He is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the United States Treasury,” she said.
“NPR sent requests to the White House and the Trump Organization asking how they plan to account for the profits from events involving foreign governments, and how donation to the U.S. Treasury will be documented. The NPR requests received no response.”
I think it’s creepier that he is using his business as a form of revenue for the government.
The early American government was a pauper state. They were always begging wealthy benefactors.
I think it’s a reasonable precaution to stay within the Constitution.
Federal officials can’t take gifts/presents/emoluments from foreign governments. I don’t think this would include bona fide commercial transactions, but sometimes foreign governments go beyond bona fide commercial transactions and steer their business to companies that happen to be owned by American officials they want to influence. Or they pay inflated prices, etc. Such *non* bona fide commercial transactions would certainly be within the Constitutional ban.
So as a precautionary measure, Trump says he’ll at least not profit from “foreign government payments” to the Trump hotels.
Now, I suppose the foreign governments can get around this by having their people stay at Trump hotels and giving them expense accounts so the payment won’t be from a foreign government but listed under the name of the specific foreign government employee.
In this particular case, I suppose the payment will come directly from the Kuwait government, in which case Trump’s assurance means it will go to the Treasury.
I certainly admire the vigilance shown by the MSM to foreign bribes, given that they were fairly blind to the matter when Hillary was the bribee.
The Clinton Foundation is a beacon of light, justice, hope, and unity. The Trump Organization is darkness, cruelty, greed, poverty, and despair.
I agree that it the ethics laws should stay in the Constitution. It’s just they something about promising to send those proceeds to the Treasury seemed off. It could be nothing upon further inspection.
There’s a loophole in that if the payments are in the name of individual foreign government employees, how will their accounting reveal that the ultimate source of the money is an influence-seeking foreign government?
I suppose they could pledge the money to a private charity or something, but saying the money will go to the Treasury (their thinking may have been) sends a clear message that they’re not going to touch the money beyond giving it to its true owners, the American people, or something. Bear in mind they’re not libertarians.
Of course, an emolument is a gift, not payment at market value for goods and services received, so there really is absolutely no Constitutional issue whatsoever with foreign governments doing business with Trump businesses, as long as they pay market rates.
The funny thing is the amount of cognitive dissonance required to bitch about the emoluments clause while supporting good ol’ Hillary “Clinton Foundation” Clinton.
Of course if I had read Eddie’s post to the bottom, I would’ve seen that he already made that point.
Apparently no one at NPR ever heard of this esoteric thing called “accounting”.
I think that’s pretty clear, V.
I mean, seriously, this is a fucking no brainer. You write both expenses and revenue to one account, and then when the event is finished (all vendors paid, all staff paid), you take whatever is in that account, and you cut a check to the US Treasury.
Is NPR so dishonest that they knew that and still wrote that line, or are they so ignorant that they don’t believe that a business would be able to do basic accounting.
See, at NPR, you write your expenses to an account, and if there isn’t enough money to cover them, you get money from the government. I can see how they made the mistake.
One day, I’ll see if I can find a Yes, Minister reference to every story….
Oil-state bribing officials angle, not politicians making money with his business, granted.
600 guests? So who gets an invite to the Kuwaiti ambassador’s cocktail party? Did NPR breathlessly report the list of free food and drink bribees?
The town I live in made national news!
Bob Cook has a punchable face.
The punchable-est
So, you’ve never seen Sadbeard or Patrick Kennedy?
Wow. I really had never seen Patrick Kennedy. I concede that he has the most punchable-est face.
He’s punchable for a lot more reasons than his face…
‘I got addicted to oxy, so I’m going to fight against legalizing a non-addictive drug!’
Christ, what an asshole.
“‘I got addicted to oxy, so I’m going to fight against legalizing a non-addictive drug!’”
And now he has in place the AG of his dreams.
And then he opens his yap and the face becomes 100x more punchable.
Well….
I wish I knew more about the “issues” at the games. My guess is that they had a lot of stumbling drunk fans.
I grew up next to a big reservation and we played two schools from it in various sports. Drunk fans were a big problem anytime we played them. I know it is a stereotype, but unfortunately it is all too true in real life. All too often a stumbling drunk relative would make their way down to the court/field and cause a scene.
Stereotypes exist for a reason. I’m not going to get too far into the weeds, but suffice to say, our experiences are similar.
Your Eminence. *kneels*
I know it is a stereotype, but unfortunately it is all too true in real life.
Having spent most of my life in OK, and dealing with the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, & Muscogee Nations, Cherokee in particular (did time at Cherokee Nation Hospital in Tahlequah), it’s not a stereotype, sadly enough. Spend any time on a reservation, and you’ll see it pretty quick, and these are amoungst the richer Tribal Nations. The ones who seem to avoid that fate best are the ones who move away from the reservations.
Even those whom one might consider a “moderate drinker” tend to be have low tolerances to the firewater in terms of intoxication, and WRT Teh ‘BEETUS, well it gets even worse. I would go so far as to say that if one has an appreciable level of Native American heredity, I would strongly suggest to them to avoid alcohol consumption, though that exact level and combination of heredity vis a vis alcoholism is still a current body of research, trying to pinpoint where and why some demographies are more at risk for alcoholism.
/Dated an Injun who is a Type I Diabetic and she drank like a fish
My grandma is adopted from back in the days when “no records” really means no records. She and my father are both very dark skinned. My father often gets mistaken for an indian himself. If he shaved his goatee he’d have no problem passing at all on the res.
My mother has often warned my sister and I about our drinking because she is sure that we have enough native blood in us that that hereditary link that you talked about is something we need to worry about.
We call her a racist and point out the alarming number of drunks from the known white eyes in the family. We probably do have a hereditary predisposition to being a drunk, but her Irish blood has about as much to do with it as anything. That should teach her to stop bitching about our drinking.
All too often a stumbling drunk relative would make their way down to the court/field and cause a scene.
Would reason magazine write a story about that?
I am not going to comb through all those Brickbats, but it would not surprise me in the least if at least one of them in the last coupla few years didn’t have one featuring a case of public drunkenness, though none of their articles in 2016, circa May onward that I remember featured anything WRT public alcohol intoxication.
I grew up near the Papago reservation west of Tucson. (Tohono O’Odham today) The closest place to the Rez to get alcohol was a store at Three Points (basically a road junction) and nobody but nobody would drive that road at night close to the 1st and 15th of the month. Even the people working at Kitt Peak Observatory would adjust their schedules to avoid the road. The reason? All too often Papagos would buy alcohol at Three Points and fall asleep near the road. The desert gets awful cool at night and the asphalt would hold the heat so they would sleep near the shoulder. Drivers would crest a small bump for a wash and there would be a sleeping person in the road which all to often ended in tragedy. A classmate of mine driving less than a year after getting her license had that happen to her. She tried to turn away and just injured the sleeping person but crashed straight into a mesquite jacking her up pretty badly. She was still a mess mentally when we graduated.
(gasp) NO!?
Wow, didn’t know you live in Billings! I’ve been doing some consulting for the Billings Clinic, but haven’t had the good fortune to visit the city yet. Most of the work has been done over videoconferencing.
Is it worth me trying to press the issue so I can visit your fair city?
Billings? Heck you live in Montana’s banana belt.
Big pharma limiting access to drugs in developing world
“There seems little to stop the pharmaceutical companies from charging steep prices”
Stop? The government obviously has nothing to do with this, so let’s focus exclusively on the evil corporashunz.
Pharmaceutical companies are more profitable than the media? Yeah, that sounds fishy. /sarc
“in 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals increased the price of Daraprim, which treats the toxoplasmosis infection that can afflict AIDS and cancer patients, from $13.50 to $750 per pill.”
Holy shit! It’s almost like government-enforced monopolies lead to higher prices!
… Nah, that can’t be. The answer is clearly more regulation.
Always “fun” when they point to an outlier to talk about how out of control an entire sector is.
Plus how are they calculating profit margin? Cost of manufacture versus cost of sale? Because, when it comes to pharma, that really, really doesn’t work.
Yeah it’s always fun trying to explain that the cost of Drug A has to pay for all the costs of failed Drugs B, C, D, E, F, G, etc. Most progs just refuse to believe that for some reason.
Exactly. The target gross margin at the tech company where I work is 80%. On some dock-to-stock products it’s 1000% (the customer is paying for convenience; being able to buy in small quantities, for example). But the vast majority of the profits are invested in R&D. If the owner’s entire personal income (it’s an unusually large private company) was eliminated, the prices wouldn’t budge.
“Always “fun” when they point to an outlier to talk about how out of control an entire sector is.”
It also cracks me up when they point to problems in the healthcare and finance industries as “market failures” and “the terrible results of unfettered capitalism” when these are probably the two most heavily regulated sectors in the US.
A little something for everyone.
Political assassination, cute asian chicks, massage parlors and nerve gas. Just another day at the Daily Mail!
There’s a universe where Kim Jong-nam got the top job in North Korea and the country became only as shitty as, say, Cuba or Burma.
They have the best photography of any newspaper
How you doing Tundra? Bumming about missing out on the snow?
I’m urinated off because I just bought a new Lowrance fish finder for ice fishing and ever since it has been raining or too warm. My Loser Aura strikes again
Hiya Holiness!
I’m torn on the weather. I love winter, but it’s pretty amazing to see 60s in February!
Too bad about the Lowrance, but be glad it wasn’t a snowmobile…
I went out on the ice yesterday. I got about 10 feet out on it (and it looked like it was still 4-5″ thick) and was about to go further when I looked around and didn’t see one other fool, so I went back and dug up a friend to drink beer with.
Forgot to tell my wife about the change in plans and got a panicked call around dark. She was worried I had fallen through. Nice to know she still cares.
Pope Jimbo, your wife’s concern couldn’t have anything to do with needing to know to file the life insurance claim?
“So how do we kill him?”
“Hire a couple of hookers, tell them it’s a prank?”
“That’s…brilliant!”
I mean, if it’s stupid and it works, it’s not stupid, I guess…
I had a fun night out on the town tonight. Got to meet a big ole traditional lefty. “You know, in the society I advocate for, you could be a communist, socialist, capitalist etc… I don’t care. The only thing you wouldn’t be able to do is point a gun at people and tell them how to live their lives.” He agreed. Guess I just have to hammer out the details.
like ‘private property’
the whole, ‘respect for plurality of ideas’ is nice and all, but its when they start appropriating the product of your labor (or forcing you to labor in the first place) that the disagreements tend to arise.
“He agreed”. With a few exceptions, I’m sure
Baby steps, Slammer. Baby steps.
Simple, common sense, exceptions. Like roads, and medical care for everyone, and guaranteed housing. Little stuff, to be sure.
Congrats on at least exposing him to a non-mainstream view.
In my experience, it’s easy to get lefties to agree to some broad tenets of libertarianism, but they have some core beliefs that are totally incompatible with it. We have to show them the error of these beliefs to have any chance at all of converting them. Some of these beliefs include:
– The people will either be ruled by government power or corporate power; if government gives way, corporations will simply step in and fill the power vacuum.
– Making a profit is a form of exploitation of workers and customers. Huge profit margins are a sign that there is an injustice going on.
– The correct price of a given good should be determined by the [em]fairness[/em] of the transaction, and the government should always step in to enforce fairness in economic exchanges.
– Private property exists, but it can be voided when the amount of property held by one person (usually in the form of money) exceeds what is necessary or appropriate.
They’re going to balk at libertarianism or any idea of human freedom until you can rid them of these beliefs.
I had a similar conversation with a San Fran lefty not long ago. I asked her to imagine a world where taxes were capped at, say, 10%, and the regulatory burden was a fraction of what it is now. All the investment capital left in private hands, and all the opportunities created, would result in a much wealthier society, no? [she had to agree] With all that new wealth, would the problems of “redistribution” she was obsessing about be nearly as large or beyond the scope of all those wealthier people to manage voluntarily? [silence, mostly]
Yep, particularly with computers, if there’s going to be a welfare state, we certainly don’t need a massive bureaucracy to administer it. A negative income tax or UBI system doesn’t actually need bureaucrats at all. Hell, you don’t even need fraud police, a simple bounty for the reporting of people who work for cash off the table but claim their UBI payments would work just fine.
SLD applies of course.
My understanding of UBI is that it doesn’t matter whether you work or not, you get the same amount. The entire purpose is to make marginal tax rate on low income genuinely low, rather than have that point where “I’m working for about the same as I could make off welfare, and until I start earning a lot more, I’m basically an idiot” occurs.
Fraud would be, having dead/non-existing people collect the income. That would be the only fraud I can imagine if UBI is truly U (i.e. everyone, including the guy who just got off the plane 30 minutes ago, is eligible).
I usually see it pitched as a sliding scale, to smooth out the huge dip in the curve.
I get a lot of shit for this, and maybe rightfully so. But I would basically trade our current welfare system for a UBI. But it has to be a complete removal of the current welfare state and all the bureaucracy. Just write everyone a check for the same UBI. If you want more, work for it. If you don’t, shut up, drink your breakfast, and watch your soap operas. Just stay out of trouble.
And vote for me next election, because I will raise the UBI more than my opponent!
#MUBIAGA
Eh I will say that short of Peter Thiel inventing an FTL drive and us all emigrating to set up Planet Libertopia in the Trappist system, we’re going to have some kind of redistribution in this society.
Well, yes. That’s the problem. And in real life, they call that Democrats.
“short of Peter Thiel inventing an FTL drive and us all emigrating to set up Planet Libertopia in the Trappist system”
Progs: Good riddance glibertarians! And don’t come back.
Progs one month later: Hey, wait, come back here, we’re all in this together!
[tries desperately to not say anything about bullet-points; fails; starts drinking]
Razorfist does have some good pol-commentary, but his best work is his movie reviews. I almost pissed myself laughing.
His 80s action-movie reviews are his best work, and i’ve said so many times.
Commando, Cobra, Invasion USA,
Death Wish IIIthe entire Death Wish series, Universal Soldier, etc…. my #1 favorite would have to be Out for Justice. I liked the review more than the movie. hell, i watched the movie again just because the review gave me a new outlook on it (as “misogynist-comedy”)You may be sufficiently clinched for the obligatory 80’s action crescendo, but I guarandamntee you your buttocks are incapable of the majesty you’re about to witness. Malone.
Wouldn’t have found it without you G.
Burt’s crushing his intestines in those jeans
re: Cynthia Gibb
I felt like she was ubiquitous as the “tomboy-sidekick to shitty action-movie hero”, but actually she only did 1 Van Damme movie, plus that Reynolds.. thing….
I think she stuck in my memory as a cast-member of Fame, plus “Short Circuit II” or some other 80s movies i’ve since repressed.
She was good in Salvador – or at least, it was a decent movie; she played the same role of ‘savvy-but-innocent young lady’ who i think was gang raped and murdered in that one.
I think she stuck in my memory as a cast-member of Fame, plus “Short Circuit II” or some other 80s movies i’ve since repressed.
How could you forget her role as Shelly, The Eager Young Space Cadet-type with a penchant for May-December relationships in Northern Exposure?
jesus, that was like a theme in all her roles, wasn’t it? a creepy pairing of her with some older guy.
oh, a quick look – i think you’re talking about Cynthia Geary, not Gibb.
This was her as the young nun in Salvador She was always this very-moral, innocent person who nevertheless was attracted to worldly, damaged types.
oh, a quick look – i think you’re talking about Cynthia Geary, not Gibb.
Drat! You’re right. Shouldda checked your linky first. Still, as you pointed out, appropos for both actresses.
The pilot chick on that show is a self described Real Libertarian Woman though.
The pilot chick on that show
AKA Janine Turner, who has aged really well, actually. More Conservatarian, along the lines of a Dana Loesch, if we are concerned about accurate taxonomy here. I dig ’em both.
His metal summaries are good, too.
I’m pretty sure I know him from a metal forum…hes definitely a shit stirrer there. But that’s because it’s a hive of SJW scum who are aspies when it comes to metal discussion
His videos on The Shadow are superb. Fuck complaining, he’s at his best when he’s fanboying over stuff.
Although he’s just flat-out wrong on The Witcher ripping off Elric, except maybe at most superficial levels.
Razorfist can be petty as fuck on weird issues. Witcher’s a good example, but he also complains about Montreal undercutting everyone else in the video game market, because tax breaks, to the point where he thinks its in violation of World Trade Organization rules.
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Did you even sleep????
Bacon doesn’t sleep, it sizzles throughout the day & night. *disappears in a pan flash*
bullet points don’t do anything by themselves any more than bullets do.
do not belittle my religion.
Sorry Gilmore. It’s monocle’s new update. I can now do bullet points and other nifty things but I can’t freaking see my text or know whether it will post or not.
does it self-update? i don’t see anything new about monocle. you mean it will simply recognize bullets?
• Test
1. Testing
Testaroony
as for features…. yes, preview would be helpful, as would simplifying the html linking (i strip out the ‘target’ and ‘title’ and it seems to work better for me)…. and maybe making “Cite” do something *(not sure what its supposed to be – an unbolded version of ‘blockquote’?), etc.
test
I can’t reply with monocle on…yes I saw it auto update last night. It now won’t let me see my text or cursor when I try to reply.
a quick look at my Greasemonkey… *(which sounds perverse)….
it says 1.12, last updated Feb 19th, for me.
Mine says 2/24/17. You might want to disable updates until it’s tinkered with.
From the link:
“A Hollywood police spokesman told the Daily News that employees at the club discovered the 61-year-old magician dead inside a closet, wearing only his underwear. He had a bag over his head and appeared to have hanged himself, the spokesman added.”
I think the coroners sometimes use certain default terminology to describe things in consideration for the friends and family of the deceased. Maybe this guy really committed suicide. On the other hand, . . .
When people die from an autoerotic asphyxiation accident, it’s virtually indistinguishable from suicide, and, technically, if the death was attributable to autoerotic asphyxiation, the victim killed himself. Still, I suspect the coroners often default to suicide because they think it’s less embarrassing than autoerotic asphyxiation. And what the coroner mostly cares about is a) whether there was a murder and b) not provoking friends and family to contest findings or suing.
The death of Michael Hutchence (INXS) has long been rumored to have been autoerotic asphyxiation. I don’t judge anybody for taking their own life (independent of other circumstances), and I wouldn’t knock somebody for dying as the result of an accident like that either. But I’d hate for my loved ones to think I abandoned them if I wasn’t actually trying to kill myself. So if anybody ever finds me with a . . .
Just kidding. I would never. . . not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But I’d hate for my loved ones to think I abandoned them if I wasn’t actually trying to kill myself.
Having experienced the suicide of someone I loved, it leaves a wound that never heals. Never.
The brindle on that Mastiff is pretty awesome.
He’s a British Staffordshire (or Staffordshire Bull) Terrier. Yes, he is quite the handsome fellow.
I agree, and don’t fault them for that. But if this coroner is trying to shield the family from embarrassment, he should have left out the bit about “wearing only his underwear.”
Yeah I had a loved one kill themselves, but I’m not sure if it went on the official reports as a suicide, due to the circumstances.
Did they place themselves on a ship, set it off to sea, and then set it ablaze?
Nah, it was my grandfather. He was in a lot of pain due to medical issues, and he took his own life. I have not looked into whether or not the authorities reported it as such.
Pisses me off that we allow people to needlessly suffer in pain just because someone somewhere might abuse a drug.
He had plenty of pain meds, he didn’t like them. Plenty of full bottles of different pills were on his dresser.
It wasn’t so much the pain I think, as it was his eyesight going, and him being more of a burden on my grandmother. He couldn’t drive anymore, couldn’t see well at all which meant he couldn’t do any of his hobbies at all. He made a choice that his quality of life had declined past the point that he was willing to tolerate it.
That sucks. I dread thinking about ever getting to that point. I would probably do the same thing.
You’re not the only one. It’s what made his death much easier on me then I had thought it would be. I took a lot of comfort in the fact that he was in control of his life all the way through, my grandmother had a tough time with his choice, lot of guilt.
We had identical twins in my high school. One of them died from autoerotic asphyxiation. It was horrible when I visited home and my mother had to tell me all about it. You never want to hear about that sort of thing from your mom.
Of course meeting the surviving twin at the class reunion was also awkward.
I didn’t have anyone in my family, but I had a couple of friends–both of them doctors in the hospital where I worked (we became friends outside of work). I saw the impact it had on their families, and I always thought that if I ever did that, there wouldn’t be a note and everyone would think it was an accident–probably a motorcycle accident on a deserted mountain road with a steep drop to the road below.
Then again, there was so much anguish involved in those guys’ respective circumstances, they couldn’t possibly have been thinking clearly about their loved ones.
I read one time about a transparent jellyfish surfers sometimes are exposed to in the South Pacific. The neurotoxin is supposed to cause the most intense pain humans are capable of experiencing, and it lasts for hours. In Australia, they say victims will often beg the ER doctor to kill them, and when that fails, they’ll start begging their friends and family to kill them.
Well loved, successful, wealthy, popular people can’t conceive of the impact their actions will have on the people they love when they’re in that state of mind. In other words, when they’re in such a state of mind that their self-preservation instincts fail, trying to get them to see how other people who love them feel would be like trying to persuade a blind man to see. At that point, they are physically incapable of seeing that.
The guys I knew weren’t who they were the moment they died. They cared deeply about the people around them. It was just one moment out of 35+ years. Far as I’m concerned, they couldn’t have done it intentionally because at that moment they weren’t themselves. They just made a mistake.
When I was young, I used to lose my temper and do crazy things when I was “seeing red”. I’m lucky nothing I did had permanent consequences–just lucky. But if I hadn’t been so lucky, those few moments wouldn’t have been who I am. I love my friends and family! Those few moments would say just as little about who I am as they do now–whether there were permanent consequences is beside that point.
A saturday morning links? Sweet, sold me. Fuck that other site. I hadnt come over here until today, i just assumed thered only be about 10 of you over here hate fuking old copies of reason magazine. Anyway, hello to all. Long time lurker there, will probably get involved here.
Good to have you!
I too was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the discussion here.
They just prefer plain old fucking old Mad magazines.
I would question the sanity of anyone not into that ?
Likewise, long time lurker convert from the other site, seduced by breakfast links. I suspect many more will follow. Quality site, thanks for putting this together.
“Homicides in Chicago outpacing last year”
This why we can’t have nice weather. Be nice if people could stop being dicks.
Chi-town: the Windy City because of all the bullet holes.
Yeah, there is always an uptick in shootings here when the weather warms up. We have similar weather to Chi-town and it’s been unseasonably warm this year.
Same here, I live near St. Louis. *puts on thug-life glasses*
Brooklyn or Venice, IL?
*runs*
“Seafood City is ‘definitely the wildest place on City Island.'”
Must not have a Chucky Cheese
I actually had to look at a map to remind myself where City Island *was*
I’ve heard it mentioned a few times in the last few years, because “it used to be nice” back when my dad was a kid (the 1950s); people my dad’s age would talk about the NY Athletic Club resort thing there.
Its not really even within the bounds of “The City”. Its like a tumor growing on Pelham, which itself like a “ukraine” buffer area between the Bronx and Westchester.
Actually, City Island is part of the Bronx.
I think according to Zip-code, yes, but unless you swim, i’m pretty sure you have to go through pelham to get there.
Nah. Well within The Bronx.
Maybe i was thinking of glen island. regardless, if you’re past the throgs neck bridge, you might as well be a foreign country.
I’ve never even been to the Bronx (outside of a traveling vehicle). I’m just a geography nerd.
Is this thing on?
We begin bombing in 5 minutes….
“Is this thing on?”
You better make sure. We don’t need any baby Warrens running around.
This Machine and other interested parties: I’m going to drop the big modern death metal list here this afternoon.
I’ll do it in this thread.
Should give you a good starting base to what’s going on now in DM.
All of the list IMO is above average to outstanding.
Don’t forget Pat Boone
His album covering hard rock/metal songs is a thing of beauty and terror.
What was great was how upset he was that no one took him seriously. Unless he was an earlier version of Andy Kaufman which would explain a lot and would make him a comic genius.
It was supposed to be serious? Man, I assumed he had a great sense of humor and wasn’t afraid of poking fun at himself. I guess I gave him way to much credit. Whatever, it’s still great for some lulz.
Although, from time to time I curse his wretched soul when I’m trying to jam out to Paradise City and all I can hear is Pat Boone in my head.
Pat Boone’s “in a Metal Mood” is, in my opinion, a terrible sad mockery of both Boone and his subject-matter. It does neither of them justice.
By contrast, Paul Anka’s “Rock Swings”, which features renditions of Soundgarden, Nirvana tunes, etc. is actually worth listening to for more than a laugh. Its on the same level as Johnny Cash’s/Rick Rubin-records.
Cash’s cover of Hurt still gives me the chills.
Thanks for the heads up on Anka. I’ll check it out.
Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face”
whether you’re a fan of swing crooners or not, you can’t help but admit that its actually an inspired translation of a song, and admirably performed
I just listened to a few of Anka’s tunes from Rock Swings. You are right about the differences between Anka and Boone.
Anka sounds like a gifted performer writing serious interpretations of rock songs. Boone sounds like some lounge lizard trying to entertain a bunch of drunks who aren’t really listening to him
I like the movie.
Mike = exactly
i think there’s a place for both types of thing. “genre-flipping” as a humor-entertainment thing has a long pedigree. Jazz people have done half-mocking/half-serious versions of tunes since… forever.
I am reminded suddenly of Dread Zeppelin
The “reggae versions of Zeppelin” i understood. Why they had an Elvis impersonator as their frontman, i didn’t.
I bet there’s a YouTube version of Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis doing the Flintstones theme.
Why, yes. Yes there is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMrv9aXOCnA
I clicked on it and now my ‘next video’ thing is a stream of Johnny Cash songs.
Which I’m absolutely OK with. Thank you!
It may have originally been a NiN song, but Hurt was totally stolen by Cash. Far superior to the original.
The lead singer of NIN has said the first time he heard Cash sing “Hurt” it was like seeing somebody kissing your girlfriend. He also said in a different interview that Cash totally owned the song since he got to where they only attempted to get to.
Thanks again for the Anka tip Gilmore. Just listened to his cover of Wonderwall. IMHO, better than the original. Of course, it’s pretty easy to best the brothers Gallagher.
DO ANY OF YOU PEOPLE WORK?
You with the IRS?
Unions.
Work is an outdated concept now. We are now in the decadence stage of the fall of the republic. *takes toke and lays back, with mind on money and bacon on mind*
Why the fuck you work Rufus? Don’t you get free medical care?
I thought medical care was the only reason we had to work for our corporate overlords.
I’m working on a buzz. does that count?
I dont think anyone works here. Thats why im pretty sure we all support a universal income. This is the new gawker site, right…
Working right now. Been at the office since 6am.
Breakfast…Kosher? Does this mean no bacon? Cuz’ I’m looking at some commenter made of bacon brandishing a magic wand in a threatening manner.
*Just finished my bacon, egg, toast and coffee.
I have an athame. *brandishes*
Have you tried an inhaler?
I think that’s why Slammer thinks I was up all night. *looks thoughtfully down at mirror*
Are you neglecting the strippers?
Oh no, they are too high class for mirrors. *puts substance on genitals and belly*
Wow, classy strippers. You go all out.
Note to Preet:
The substance I’m referring to is bacon grease. No need to send the dark horde after me. You are busy so I suggest you narrow your inquisitions down to politicians and bureaucrats at this time.
The wand in my picture is just a phallic symbol and glitter cannon.
“bacon, egg, toast and coffee.”
That’s my ‘go to’ plus milk. Occasionally home fries as well. I could eat that every meal actually.
My brunch: Lovely whitefish salad and smoked salmon sandwich on everything bagel + tomato and red onion, and meat knish. Kosher as fuck.
Here’s the modern Death Metal list:
Abyssal- Denouement (2012)
Artificial Brain- Labyrinth Constellation (2014)
Asphyx- Deathhammer (2012)
Autopsy- After the Cutting (2016)- Compilation
Behemoth- The Satanist (2014)
Beyond- Fatal Power of Death (2013)
Blood Incantation- Starspawn (2016)
Bloodbath (Sweden) ANY album
Bolt Thrower- ANY obviously
Bolzer- Aura (2013)
Cannibal Corpse – A Skeletal Domain (2014)
Carcass- Surgical Steel (2013)
The Chasm- Farseeing the Paranormal Abyss (2009)
Chthe’ilist- Le denier crepuscule (2016)
Conan- Horseback Battle Hammer (2010) NOT death metal but heavy as fuck
Cruciamentum- Engulfed in Desolation (2001)
Dead Congregation- Graves of the Archangels (2008), Promulgation of the Fall (2014)
Diocletian- War of All Against All (2010)
Disma- Towards the Megalith (2011)
Dragged into Sunlight- Hatred for Mankind (2009)- amazing
Funebrarum- The Sleep of Morbid Dreams (2009)
Grave Miasma
Immolation- Providence (2011), Atonement (2017)
Incantation- ANY (favorite death metal band)
Mitochondrion- Parasignosis (2011)
Morbus Chron- Sweven (2014)
Nile- any
Portal- any… Extremely weird and heavy
Repugnant- Epitome of Darkness (2006). This is the singer in Ghost’s death metal band
Sarpanitum- Blessed be my Brothers (2015)
Sludge- Weird dm about giant snails
Spectral Voice- Necrotic Doom (2015)
Stargazer- A great Work of Ages (2010), A Merging to the Boundless (2014)
Suffocation (obviously)
Teitanblood- Seven Chalices, Death
Tribulation- ANY. Highly recommended
Ulcerate- Any. Death metal from New Zealand, incredible drummer
Vader- Classic Polish DM… Welcome to the Morbid Reich (2011), Tibi et Igni (2014),
Vermin Womb- Permanence (2014)
War Master- personal favorite, Bolt Thrower worship done right…bad assery from Houston, Texas…Pyramid of the Necropolis (2011)
There goes my boner. Frigging metal nerds.
HA! Well done.
There’s no Ricky Martin in that list. SAD.
Dispatches from the Libertarian Moment:
Scene: viking1865 discusses Obamacare repeal with a proggy acquaintance at a bar.
“How can you support repealing Obamacare, look at all these people who love it!”
“People who get free money from the government love getting free money from the government. Should we not cut defense spending because Lockheed Martin employees will suffer?”
“REEEE!!!!”
Conservative overheard us talking and jumped in
“Cut defense spending? Do you have any idea how thin the US military has gotten under Obama? We need to increase our defense spending!”
“When is it enough? We’ve got the largest and most effective Navy by an enormous margin, the most effective nuclear arsenal, the most effective ground forces, the most effective air forces, enormous reserves of trained troops, and lead the world in in overall quality in most, if not all, fields of military effectiveness. ”
“DERPPPPP!!!”
I don’t even know how to respond to these levels of derp.
“Bartender! One more!”
My dad is retired Air Force and he’s in the camp of “OMG OUR MILTARY ARE DEPLEETED!”
And I go, “Who in the world do we have to fear? A gaggle of goat farmers in a third-world shithole of their own making on the other side of the planet? Are you that scared of them?”
But I turn it around and say, “The best way to take care of our veterans is to only put their lives on the line when there’s really a dire threat to the country, not when we have to continue propping up Lockheed and Boeing with contracts for military toys.”
Fortunately he’s as highly critical of the F-35 as I am, so I’m still in the will.
The military, particularly the Army, also serves as a jobs program. There’s an enormous amount of fat to cut, but if you did that you would expose even more IMO just how worthless the public school system is. I also think this is a big reason for the continual growth of the police and the prisons. The school system turns out millions of people each year who are not fit for even a mediocre college program, but have no usable skills because they killed votech as unseemly.
OT: I have a charcoal grey dress shirt. What color pants, jacket, and tie would it go with?
Its weird/”against the rules” for a shirt to be darker than a suit*
So… black or charcoal suit, basically. If you mean more of a slate-grey, something like this would work
*these ‘rules’ really only apply to normal settings (semi-formal occasions, dinner, etc). if its for hipster-art-gallery cocktail hour, or you’re performing in a new-wave band, go nuts and do whatever you want.
Any kind of rules on mixing a patterned shirt and a patterned sport coat?
Obviously, I’m no expert on fashion, but here’s the way I understand it:
You can do that as long as the patterns aren’t exactly the same or too close together. Also, you might want to ensure some contrast between the “loudness” of the patterns; in other words, if your jacket is a very bold plaid, wear a shirt with very subtle stripes.
Personally, I’d prefer that my shirt OR jacket be a plain color, but I’ve seen people pull off very nice outfits with patterned shirts and jackets.
^^this
if you must mix patterns at all, make sure they
1) don’t repeat the same thing (stripes on stripes, plaids on plaids, box-print on windowpane shirt, etc), and
2) make sure they aren’t both of the same ‘volume’ (if one is bold, make the other very low-contrast and subtle)
So I shouldn’t dress like stanhope?
i think the “big rules” (like “shirt lighter than tie/suit”) are few, and the rest are more ‘things to avoid’ rather than rules.
My opinion on patterns is “patterned shirt goes best with non-patterned suit/or jacket; and best with light or no-pattern tie” – similarly, striped suits don’t *demand* a single color shirt, but they’re best with it. A strong patterned tie (like paisley) should avoid striped shirts, etc
I think you get into “rule” territory when the patterns really start to painfully clash; like a box-print suit with striped suits and patterned ties. The madness has to stop somewhere. You can get away with 2…. maybe, but 3 is when it becomes a hate-crime.
I don’t own any patterned sport coats; i think if its a tweed pattern, you can get away with light-contrast, mild patterned shirts (small checks, box windowpane, or split stripes, etc), but not anything that’s boldly 2-tone or stark gingham type thing.
I’ m a ” two plains and a fancy” guy. Out of your tie, shirt, and jacket/suit,two should be plain and one fancy (brightishly colored, patterned, etc.
*alternatively…
normally shirts like that (i have a few) are really more ‘business casual’ work shirts. things you don’t wear w. a suit at all, and are just matched w/ jeans and maybe a sweater. or = Throw a black blazer on top and hair-gel and you’re now you’re a clubbing-cliche.
Soooo….we gonna get Fashion Fridays with Gilmore as a feature?
All us Aspie man-children could use some pointers targeted at our level.
No. i seriously never even thought about this stuff until i started busting Matt’s balls about his shirt-tie pairings.
i’m also passing out of that phase of my life where i actually cared about looking *like a boss*, and am now far more concerned with just ‘not looking like re-heated dogshit‘.
Go pantsless.
Its the next-level street fashion
Is there a way to fix the whole “once you get 5 replies deep into a thread the Reply button disappears” thing?
i don’t think its a “problem”, and is the way its designed (because as it indents further rightward, the button has nowhere to go). So instead you have to reply to the last post w/ a button.
it would be better, obviously, if it were underneath, and smaller.
Yeah now that I know what’s going on, it’s not really a problem.
Thanks,G
Meanwhile, in a discussion elsewhere about the job opportunity-limiting function of a minimum wage, I got this:
You are exactly the sort that the cudgel of the state should be applied to, including men with guns.
Me: Because I take the risk of running a business? Wow, you might want to adjust your mask, I think it slipped… off. Like all the way.
I’ve mentioned this before: “progressives” (and probably a lot of conservatives, to be fair) appear to believe in the Fairness Theory of Prices. This means that they consider the terms of a transaction, stare blankly for about 10 seconds, then pronounce it as fair or unfair. They can never show their work on this calculation, but they’re 100 percent certain that the minimum wage should be $X per hour, no more, no less.
When someone offers a good at a price that their crystal ball tells them is unfair, they see it as a form of actual aggression. This is kind of like the protesters who say that “hate speech” is a form of actual violence, and therefore, physical violence against the speaker is not only acceptable but imperative.
Much of modern “progressivism” is constructing excuses to use violence against people they don’t like.
I talked about how market-driven wages in an urban environment with excess of unskilled and uneducated labor would open more opportunities for shitty, low-paying jobs, but that’s better than $0.00 earned or a short life in gangs/black market narcotics/thuggery.
Apparently I believe in wage-slavery, have a typical greedy business man outlook, living wages!!!11!1 and should be ashamed of myself.
🙁
I’ve tried to explain the benefits of market-driven wages, too. It’s tough. I try to drive home the point that a minimum wage doesn’t actually translate into a raise for all the sub-minimum employees, but rather, amputates the bottom portion of the labor market. It’s like if I went into somebody’s garden, ripped out all the short flowers and threw them in the trash, then knocked on their door and proclaimed that I had devised a wonderful method for making all the flowers grow taller.
I’m usually successful in convincing them that a minimum wage is a huge disincentive to hiring marginal employees (such as those with unstable employment histories, criminal records, or a lack of experience and/or education), and they usually agree. It’s just that they follow it up with suggestions for some government program to “redistribute” money from CEO salaries to low-wage workers, or implement some kind of make-work program for these employees so that they can have job experience.
You are exactly the sort that the cudgel of the state should be applied to, including men with guns.
Well- honesty is the best policy.
A professor finds that Check Cashing establishments are neither threat nor menace.
The author states that check cashing places are popular because of “cost, transparency, and service”, even for customers that may have traditional bank accounts.
I’d add “immediacy” to the list. Many of her examples need the money now to handle bills, or business transactions, and don’t seem to have a buffer that would allow that in a traditional bank.
It’s a good read.
The opposition to check cashing and payday loan establishments is just one more example of how “progressivism” neglects root causes and instead focuses on superficial symptoms.
In this case, they think that the availability of quick but expensive credit for risky borrowers is a form of exploitation that causes people to become poor. They think that if they drive these places out of business, there will be less poverty. In reality, there will be fewer options for poor people who need some cash immediately.
Some people take a payday loan for a true emergency and pay it back on time with no problem. It’s not a terrible option if you A) need money and cannot get it from friends or relatives, and B) are 110% certain that you have a paycheck coming that can cover it.
There’s no doubt that financially irresponsible people will take out one payday loan after another, often times paying off previous loans with new loans, and find themselves in financial ruin. But this behavior is ultimately rooted in profligacy and a lack of foresight. Getting rid of payday loan joints is not going to save these people. The unfortunate truth is that some people are just really terrible with money, and there’s nothing “society” can do to save them. They have to learn on their own.
tl;dr: You can’t limit the choices of adults just because some people are idiots.
I’ve mentioned this before: “progressives” (and probably a lot of conservatives, to be fair) appear to believe in the Fairness Theory of Prices. This means that they consider the terms of a transaction, stare blankly for about 10 seconds, then pronounce it as fair or unfair.
This is something I have been contemplating quite a bit, lately; the simple, seemingly self-evident, notion that value is relative. I have in *my* head a rough approximation of the maximum price I would pay for Good X, but that is solely my valuation. In any random assemblage of people, there will be some whose valuation is higher, and some lower.
But there are apparently many, m,any people who believe prices have, or ought to have, some absolute moral point of origin. It’s baffling.
Is there a way to fix the whole “once you get 5 replies deep into a thread the Reply button disappears” thing?
You just need a bigger
boatmonitor.Not sure if it’s a setting, but I’ve noticed on Disquis, it’s less than that, maybe 3. You have to just use the reply button on the main comment. It gets sort of tricky.
“Disqus” for fuck’s sake.
I tried to post 2 comments today at TSTSNBN. The first one worked, the 2nd failed. I’ll try again on another day, maybe.