Good morning! Only, why is it so damn dark outside at this hour? Oh, that’s right. Some dickheads changed the time on us. Well, that’s not gonna stop me from providing some sweet links for you to get your week started right. At least I hope not.
No! Fuck you, go be productive in the private sector.
- President Trump’s budget expected to seek largest reduction in federal workforce since end of WWII Let me repeat that: THE LARGEST REDUCTION IN THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE SINCE THE END OF WWII.
The cuts Trump plans to propose this week are also expected to lead to layoffs among federal workers, changes that would be felt sharply in the Washington area. According to an economic analysis by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, the reductions outlined so far by Trump’s advisers would reduce employment in the region by 1.8 percent and personal income by 3.5 percent, and lower home prices by 1.9 percent.
HALLELUJAH!
- Is the issue-oriented nonprofit about to get killed by disclosure requirements? Free speech advocates fear it might be. Because, you know, nothing is worse than letting someone use their money to support a cause without the federal government knowing about it.
- Raise your hand if you’re as shocked as I am when you find out that the California Supreme Court is Republican-controlled, but will lose that control when the Pete Wilson-appointed Kathryn Werdegar retires in August. Finally, the ceaseless, progress-killing GOP obstruction can end! (No word yet on adoption of a hybrid Bear Flag with a Venezuelan color scheme.)
- Anheuser-Busch jumps on the GRRRRRL Power bandwagon.
“In our world, women have been important to us for a long time,” explained Selena Kalvaria, senior director for Lime-A-Rita. After all, women are statistically 51 percent of the population and according to surveys they make 85 percent of consumer purchasing decisions.
Whatever. You dicks went political and dropped Bud Bowl for Amy Schumer and some story about a legal immigrant. Besides, have you tried this stuff? It’s worse than Bartles & Jaymes.
DIVERSITY!
- A couple of Charlotte area charter schools plan to set aside seats for poor minorities to achieve diversity that otherwise isn’t happening.
- Lastly, you’ve got just a few days to get in the Glibertarians Basketball Thingy (Password: Podesta). and the logo contest ends tomorrow at noon central.
- Peace Frog
9) I think the problem with the constitution is that people today are kind of dumb and can’t understand it. I wonder if it would help to have a plain language constitution that’s pretty much the same, but in idiot-proofese.
For example:
First Amendment: People can say, write, worship, and believe what they want. No government can tell them not to. People can hang out with whomever they want.
Second Amendment: People can have guns, whatever guns they want, of whatever caliber they want, in whatever amount they want.
Commerce clause: The federal government can regulate commerce among the states and with foreign countries. The federal government has no business regulating commerce within a state, nor transactions between individuals that have no effect on wider markets.
I don’t know why that’s listed as #1. I’m not rebooting yet again. It should be JATNAS #9.
::good edit faerie floats by::
Thank you sir.
I don’t know if you are the right person to tell. Anyway, I noticed an issue with the site. Yesterday, I left a tab open for the front page, and refreshed the page to see if there were Sunday morning links. I opened it around 7 AM, and quit the browser around 10:30. I didn’t see them, but last evening I noticed they were posted around 8 AM. So maybe there is a problem with the page reloading.
I don’t understand. Stuff loaded an hour late?
Or it might have been somebody came in and manually updated the time yesterday.
Sorry, I meant that I didn’t see they were posted until I went back yesterday evening. When I quit my browser around 10:30 AM, they weren’t visible. So it looks like the front page might not update if the page if left open.
Weird. Ok, I’ll let the smart people involved know. Thanks for the heads up.
Did you refresh your browser to get it too pull in new content? Just because stuff was posted doesn’t mean you will see it unless the site has an automatic refresh or you hit F5.
People can have guns, whatever guns they want, of whatever caliber they want, in whatever amount they want.
-What are people? Are robots people? Are genetically-engineered sex dwarves people? Are Ganymedean slime molds people?
-What are guns? Do lasers count? What about particle beams or gravity weapons? What is “want?”
-Caliber or calibre?
-Amount? Like weight?
With enough bad faith, you can read anything written as plainly as you can manage into nonsense; or, derpers gonna derp.
Deconstruct that biotch.
I’m channeling Heinlein here – Just say “we really fucking mean it!” at the end of each Amendment and start shooting assholes who play word games with them.
I think that was Peter McWilliams?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
This is a good article about it:
THE MYTH OF THE RULE OF LAW
http://faculty.msb.edu/hasnasj/GTWebSite/MythWeb.htm
I don’t think the problem is the lack of plain language, much as I like the idea of plain language.
The problem is there there are powerful people who want to do stuff which the constitution doesn’t allow.
But on the other hand, I grant that a lot of disagreement over the constitution has been in good faith by people who sincerely “raise issues” about the language. Such people could be influenced by plain language laws.
But on the other hand, I grant that a lot of disagreement over the constitution has been in good faith by people who sincerely “raise issues” about the language. Such people could be influenced by plain language laws.
No they can’t. Because there is enough companion writing out there to understand the intent of the BoR. Anybody that is arguing about the language being ambiguous and using that to stifle rights cannot be influenced by different words. They’d already be influenced by the other writings of the founders that explain what the amendments mean if that was the case.
My reply was Janus-faced.
There’s people who don’t think the words matter, they already have their preferred meaning.
And there are people who actually take a look at the words.
Yes. I think to understand the constitution, you have to study it, and how it is constructed. Then understand how case law has interpreted the articles (and bill of rights) as well. Because that’s how Con Law works. And that takes time and patience. People doesn’t have time and patience.
People make assumptions about the Big C (what I called it in Con Law) based on how they think it should work, or based on how it sometimes actually does work, which isn’t the way it originally did or was meant to work.
Yeah, but what does Frank think about this?
Jesus. Poor Frank.
Has he railed against the oppressive free marketers again today?
He has! And it’s specifically about us!
It’s a few strawmen. Jesus, and poorly written. Plus it looks like his myriad followers (myriad means three, right?) are as stupid as you’d expect hard-leftists to be.
Just don’t cross that Elizabeth. She’s not as nice as Frank.
That’s alright. I’m not as nice as Frank either (and I’m a lot bigger and smarter)
I may know something about this Elizabeth character. There are two women who spend a lot of time hanging out in the comment sections of let us call them the “asshole skeptic” bloggers, white knighting whoever the Aspie in chief is on that particular blog. I believe their names were Science Mom and Elizabeth. But I haven’t checked in a while.
Withdrawn-the names were Science Mom and Katarina. Elizabeth should jump in for a menage though.
I have no idea who Frank is. But he sounds like an idiot.
So his whole post is about how libertarians don’t agree with him… Why is that profound.
I love also the section titled, “the libertarian answer to bigotry: nothing”
Why does their have to be a single answer, and why does that one true answer have to be brought by force?
I’ma help out Frank here:
“The Libertarian Answer to Bigotry: Don’t Associate With Known Bigots”
There has to be an answer to bigotry because otherwise how can you achieve utopia?
Utopia, the gift that keeps on giving.
As opposed to the leftist answer to bigotry: Force.
And remember, the leftist answer to racial tolerance was also force, which led to Jim Crow laws and the ‘Separate but Equal’ legal doctrine that punished businesses for not segregating customers by race.
You can never eliminate bigotry, just drive it underground where it becomes more dangerous and cult like. The closest “answer” to bigotry is to openly debate bigots and expose their shitty ideas.
That is the point. If you don’t see it the problem it is as good as solved.
That article is ripe for parody.
Wow. That was sparkling in its sophomoric sophistry.
Such pretty prose.
FRA-ANK! You gave me a sick headache.
who is that?
“The cuts Trump plans to propose this week are also expected to lead to layoffs among federal workers, changes that would be felt sharply in the Washington area. According to an economic analysis by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, the reductions outlined so far by Trump’s advisers would reduce employment in the region by 1.8 percent and personal income by 3.5 percent, and lower home prices by 1.9 percent.”
So all this federal reduction would take DC housing prices to the point there were at oh, about, three months ago?
That’s doesn’t sound like a massive layoff.
I liked the hover-text.
I want “Fuck-off parasite” to become part of the popular lexicon.
“Lime-A-Rita”
True story: I thought Zima was pretty cool as a senior in high school. Then I went to college and realized people make fun of you for that shit.
And what’s with the dissing of Bartles and Jaymes?
*hooks box wine bag to IV*
With the sad passing of Bartles and Jaymes Orange, the exquisite Piledriver faded into obsolescence.
New ad slogan: “Bud is for Bitches.”
Bud is for Broads?
“Let me pour some piss in this woman’s mouth”
Hell, R Kelly is probably free to do the ad campaign.
Looks like you’re in luck, JATNAS. I blame the millennials for this.
Man… can we get a preview button here?
Kicks rock, looks outside at darkness.
We don’t need it, we have benevolent edit faeries.
I still can’t figure out what went wrong.
UVA can restock for their tailgating events!
Really? I was there at some tailgates in the early 90s. Alls I can really remember is a lot of Mickey’s Big Mouth.
Its a meme from one of the GT boards.
That and referring to them as “The French”.
Zima is what sexual predators used to use to lure victims.
TrueFact: Zima, so cool its JDM only.
get 60-70F degree weather in February… and 20-30 degree weather – with snow – in March. Thanks, Michigan!
I figure global warming is so powerful it has completely reversed the seasons.
I have a co-worker who has made this argument. All weather that deviates from the average by more than a few degrees/inches of snow/MPH of wind, whateer, is due to AGW
I guess the concept of variance went over his head?
WAY over
Japan’s giant wooden penis parade: Newlyweds gather for truly bizarre festival
What a bunch of dicks.
“Huge crowds flocked to the western Japanese city of Nagaoka Sunday to take part in a bizarre annual festival that sees women ride through the city streets on a giant wooden penis.”
I know what happens next. They lock the city gates and go to bed, and in the middle of the night a lot of seamen sneak out of the giant wooden phalluses.
Paging SugarFree, SugarFree to the white courtesy phone…
At least it isn’t the same day as Tango no sekku, the festival for 3 to 5-year-old boys.
The Japanese really are the kings of fucked-up.
Todd Nickerson approves
“praying and touching the giant penis will ensure good fortune”
Sounds legit.
And yet that line has never worked for me
A lot of traditional religions use phallic symbols…and they tend to use them in connection with fertility.
Modern pagans look down their noses at such crudity…they would rather watch cable TV programs dedicated to dick jokes.
Alien: “Ok, we get the penis religions, but why’d you nail your god to a stick?”
I try to say something nice about traditional paganism and this is what I get. 🙁
I always thought it was some coincidence that Jesus was killed in a way that makes a such a good religious symbol. If they just cut off his head, would there be swords on top of churches? Would priests and nuns wear necklaces with little swords dangling on them? Did the Romans have meeting where they decided, “we need to execute this guy in the most geometric way possible”?
It was an in-your-face symbol. Crucifixion was a way to combine the death penalty with the maximum amount of public shame. Pilate didn’t think Christ *deserved* the honor of a regular beheading by an honorable weapon like a sword.
Christians took this and threw it in the Romans’ faces. It’s shockingly paradoxical and countercultural. The fact that the symbol caught on is…one might say miraculous.
Troparion of the Holy Cross
Wasn’t Pilate’s choice in the matter. Jesus wasn’t a Roman citizen, only citizens got beheadings (Paul the Apostle, having citizenship, got the block). Civil unrest, which is what Jesus was effectively charged with, warranted crucifixion in Roman law.
Certainly, though one could argue that as a backwater provincial governor, Pilate might have gotten away with stretching the rules. Recall that in the Gospels, he was going to let Jesus off with a whipping, until the crowd said he was being soft on sedition (“no friend of Caesar”)
Nailed it.
*narrows gaze*
Phallic symbols are beautiful.
WTF? Who thinks up such things?
That’s on RT, so it must be fake news. Besides, we all know there are no large penises in Japan, except on US soldiers.
Yea! An all JATNAS comment section!
Wait, am I the only left? Has everyone else been through the woodchipper? Oh God, am I the only one left?
No, you were the test subject for the ‘Shadow isolation’ system whereby a proscribed commenter would only see their own comments.
Ive been thinking about the whole logo thing. Ive concluded this place needs a mascot like Smokey the bear. Maybe Larry the glibertarian gorilla?? Look how famous that Harambe got.
Maybe an orphan holding a porridge bowl, and about to get a beat-down.
wow
I nominate Casey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLwH1CJE5Ws
Great Rufus, give them more Canadian TV/my childhood for the Americans to mock.
Joke’s on them. Mr. Dress Up was American!
YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH, MR. DRESSUP IS A NATIONAL TREASURE.
eh… I nominate the Captain…… Captain Kangaroooooooooo
You have to click it to believe it.
They didn’t put much effort into Mr. Moose’s voice did they, eh?
Rufus, do you have any interest in writing a piece on the intrusive Revenu Quebec?
Not sure. WHY? YOU WORK FOR THEM?!?
/narrows gaze.
Ever since you mentioned the point of sale “black box” that restaurants have to deal with, I just thought it would be interesting and give a sense of perspective and appreciation to others that live in jurisdictions with much less aggressive revenue collectors.
Ah. Yeh it would be. The question is…do I have the energy?
I’ll look into it.
The question is…do I have the energy?
Isn’t that always the question? *cocks eyebrow*
“Cocks head?” Is that a reference to the Japanese Phallic ceremony upthread?
Any time that I cock the hammer on a revolver, it’s just sexual innuendo all the way down.
That voice was obviously dubbed. The moose’s lips didn’t even synch with his voice!
A wookie waving a Gadsden flag seems most appropriate.
Winner
Make sure nobody mistakes it for Pedobear. Just sayin’.
I know any publicity is good publicity, but let’s just wait until we find out who’s replacing ole’ Preet.
I thought the mascot was a porcupine. Porcupine under the Gasden flag?
I like this.
Hm, not bad. Makes me think of Riggby from the Regular Show.
A porcupine wielding a Galil, a joint tightly held between his lips. He sits upon a golden throne carried by sad-looking orphans.
Has a SQUIRREL been found on Mars?
More likely, he snuck in when a contractor left the door open to the soundstage they were repainting red from the gray they used when they staged the moon landing.
Then the little guy ran out of food and died.
Looks like a turd to me.
At least with the Face of Mars and the pyramids you can just scan the location later with better cameras and show it’s pareidolia. It’s not like we can stick another rover there and go “look, it’s a rock idiots.”
It’s not like we can stick another rover there and go “look, it’s a rock idiots.”
Why not?
You willing to pony up 2 and half billion dollars to put a rover in the same place as Curiosity just to point out a rock is a rock?
No, but we COULD do it.
Meh. Old news to those of us who know the truth: https://exopolitics.org/whistleblowers-claims-he-served-17-years-at-secret-mars-military-base/
Well, it is a squirrel like rock.
Or it’s a fucking rock like everything on Mars.
WaPO:
Peeling an apple doesn’t shake it to its core.
when you become extremely just absolutely violently woke over the course of a few hours
Hey know what would be funny? Making this into a cartoon. Come to think of it, they should make cartoons with animals who talk! Like a hare or a duck or a coyote or something.
Man, that would be awesome. It’s like we don’t have a sense of humour anymore.
I’m curious is woke used unironically lately?
I thought it started out being unironic
Kevin Williamson: Illegals ‘Living in Fear’
Yeah. And how Americans “feel” about illegal immigration led to Trump being elected.
Look, all 6.2 billion people in the world have an absolute civil right to immigrate to America, and they can not be denied that right without due process proceedings for each and every one of them. I learned this from the news.
That guy who wrote in the Weekly Standard is worse than Rico Suave:
“Existing laws and regulations already place strict limits on the extent to which tax-exempt charities and private foundations may spend money on elections and lobbying efforts. Public charities are required by the IRS to submit donor lists with their tax returns, though these lists are not (as yet) made public….The rules currently strike an appropriate balance between independence and accountability in the charitable sector.”
Tax exemptions are either good public policy, or they’re not…a group’s exercise of its First Amendment rights doesn’t make the tax exemption any better or worse. So, whether they get a tax exemption or not should be *unrelated* to how they exercise their First Amendment rights.
Everything is worse than Rico Suave, so I don’t really understand your comment.
It’s the nickname some people use for Robby “to be sure” Soave.
Oh you’re referring to the lesser Suave. That makes sense now.
So how long until the CIA figures out how to strangle you with this?
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/03/project-jacquard-hands-on-a-classic-levis-jean-jacket-with-a-google-touch/
So how long untilWhen did the CIA figuresout how to strangle you with this?Let’s just hope they don’t make smart jeans. Castration by zipper can’t be fun.
That whole article was gibberish.
Wouldn’t grrrl power be to get women drink scotch neat not lime-a-rita, which looks as stereotypical girly as a pink tutu.
At least I don’t see a situation where I would drink lume-a-rita, although I don’t know what the target is so it may not be girly. Anyway.
And is so sweet I’m surprised it doesn’t pour like taffy.
“You just described how to force a woman to succumb to the patriarchy, shitlord. Just because a man drinks scotch neat doesn’t mean a woman should have to. Lime-a-Rita is about feminism as much as it is about letting our hair down and partying like men have exclusively done for centuries.
But if a woman has one too many of these to make good decisions, don’t accept her invitation back to her apartment for a one-nighter. Because if you do, you’re also a rapist.”
Jezebel editorial team member
Do you write for Jezebel under a pseudonym? Because that is shockingly accurate.
Ideological Turing Test. A useful exercise.
Can a Lime-a-Rita actually get you that drunk. I don’t know, and I don’t know anyone actually willing to make that experiment.
Sugar high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwcRJyEY5n8
My wife drinks them every now and then. I have drank one of hers. I think if I drank enough to get drunk, I would be sick as a dog. They are extremely sweet. Think crushed up sweet tarts in water with alcohol.
How else are you supposed to drink scotch?
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES.
WITH ONE ROCK.
Ok. Zardoz gets to have one rock in his scotch… But only because he’s special. Everyone else is a candy-ass.
Millenial Monday
That’s a hefty number.
Teaching in this country is also fun.
“Hey, you want a job as a teacher? Well the boomers will never retire so enjoy working on a reservation idiot!”
Oh, so you’re saying teaching the children of First Nations communities is some kind of undesirable assignment?
No one gets the jobs on the nice reservations like Osoyoos or Cornwall. Instead you work in the dirt poor northern ones like Attawapiskat in the middle of nowhere. Most are almost completely off the grid, no plumbing infrastructure, badly managed, rampant poverty and unemployment, corrupt tribal leaders, etc. I mean, I grew up around native communities like that(slightly better admittedly), but imagine being a twenty-four year old woman from Toronto who just went through teacher’s college and that’s all you can get.
I see…well, sounds like the assignment the idealistic graduates would be looking for, right?
There are too many engineers. Some idiots listened to the idiots telling them to get Engineering degrees.
Pro-tip, by the time your idiot uncle knows to tell you to major in something, it’s too late.
Plastics.
As someone that had to get a masters degree in engineering just to get a bachelors level job, this guy speaks truth. Go be a welder.
the oil sand industry is in the shitter, no surprise the engineering industry has a glut of unemployment
Now that makes sense. So the answer is to move elsewhere.
Scotland to hold a second independence referendum
Good for them.
Go for it. You know if it passes, they’re going to go full retard.
Better for the rest of the UK.
Not a sure thing that the EU would have an Independent Scotland. Might give too much encouragement to Basques and others around Europe not fond of their rulers.
[“all your Basques in one exit” joke deleted]
I foresee an independent Verona and Catalonia in Europe’s future as well. Not to mention a dead EU.
So, basically, they’re tired of being part of the UK and want to be a province of Europe instead?
Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but what if there were a *real* independence referendum?
Could Scotland afford to be independent any more than Quebec or California? On day 1, they would be the most indebted country in the world.
Since when have minor things like that prevented people from creating independent countries?
A lot of the pro-independence people in Scotland seem to think they’re going to inherit trillions of dollars in oil revenue and haggis licensing in a world of $50/barrel crude and quinoa fetishism.
The slightly more sane are considering a huge export duty on scotch whisky, ignoring the fact that the industry is going thru’ the same transformation the wine industry underwent in the 70’s to 80’s.
Adam Smith must be imitating a spit roast in his grave.
I was with you till that last paragraph.
Modern usage of “spit roast” being what it is, I had a hard time with it.
Paging Warty …
Part of the thinking is that Scotland would get the revenue from the North Sea oilfields which would make it rich. Of course, Britain-and the price of oil-may disagree.
They do have dreams of being Norway or something.
Explo in the North Sea is almost nonexistent, many of the fields are over their peak production, extraction operations are expensive, and nobody’s interested in exercising options on currently undeveloped fields. Plus uncertainty over Scottish independence.
A perfect storm, one might say.
Islay should become independent. They’d be filthy rich if you count population/whisky revenue
Jura too, I’d think.
You have voted with Wallace…now vote with Grommit
Isn’t Scotland a net taker from the UK? Probably great for England. “Hey, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.”
Scotland’s upset because they’re going to lose their free bag of goodies from big daddy EU.
For those who enjoyed (or hated) the start of my series on the SLT, here is my plan for the rest of the series.
Part 2 will be “Some Practical Matters”
Part 3 will be “Philosophical Argument”
And that will probably be that. I am saving the philosophical argument to last so that I can rebut some specific anti argument being made in the comments. There are two in particular I know I will target for sure.
I like the Sunday afternoon release schedule, I hope the editors will stick to that. I will try to get part 2 in early enough this week to make that happen. Thanks for the images added to part 1.
For those that missed it, Part 1 was entitled “An Appeal to Authority”.
And here’s a link.
Everyone knows that the Fathers of the Church laid down the duty of the rich toward the poor in no uncertain terms. As St. Ambrose put it: “You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich.” — Pope Paul VI
This quote didn’t make my final cut, but I considered including it just for you.
How does the Pope reconcile this idea of his with the commandment to not steal?
If the earth”belongs to everyone”, then you can’t really say that the rich man is “giving the poor man his own thing back.”
“How does the Pope reconcile this idea of his with the commandment to not steal?”
I. THE UNIVERSAL DESTINATION AND THE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF GOODS
“2402 In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits.187 The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race. However, the earth is divided up among men to assure the security of their lives, endangered by poverty and threatened by violence. The appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his charge. It should allow for a natural solidarity to develop between men.
“2403 The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise.
“2404 “In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself.”188 The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.”
“Render unto Caesar” is the “Fuck you that’s why”/commerce clause of the Bible.
Strictly, it was render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God’s.
Now, in the context it was clear that the tax money belonged to Caesar, whose face was on the coin.
But on other issues the statement could be seen as a masterpiece of ambiguity.
No it’s not. Because your pact with God is entered into voluntarily. Your pact with Caesar isn’t.
True enough, but at the time the choice was submitting to Roman rule vs. rebelling, not government vs. anarchism in the abstract.
St. Robert Bellarmine (and his canonization was delayed because of this) taught the legitimacy of rebelling against unjust rulers, so rendering unto Caesar (at least in the Catholic tradition) wasn’t read to mean putting up submissively with everything the government throws at you.
As Eddie notes, it’s an ambiguous statement out of its context. It’s telling that people have come up with the complete opposite interpretations of it (as a justification for tax resistance, and a submission to authority).
Without saying that the Founders consciously took their philosophy from Bellarmine, I’ll simply note that Jefferson had read some of Bellarmine’s key passages about human government coming from the consent of the governed.
This article provides some discussion.
The part of the article which is most interesting to me is that Jefferson had a copy of Filmer’s book defending the divine right of kings. We know Filmer as the guy John Locke wrote to refute. But who was Filmer refuting? Filmer was writing against Bellarmine, and his book contains numerous citations to Bellarmine’s work (like a blogger quoting excerpts from an author he’s going to *totally destroy*).
Jefferson had lots of marginal notes in his copy of Filmer’s book, indicating that he would have been exposed to the Bellarmine passages Filmer quoted.
President Trump’s budget expected to seek largest reduction in federal workforce since end of WWII
Too bad it’s morning – playing a drinking game based on media/Democrat reaction to this news would have been fun: “Draconian”, “reckless”, “working families in Washington”, “punitive and irresponsible”, etc.
I’ve found the Democrat candidate for 2020.
Jessica Farrar
Don’t have a problem with this part of it.
I really don’t want an angry or reluctant doctor operating on my balls.
I thought we already had bill that did that. It’s called “The First Amendment”!
If you took a bill like that to court in California today, they’d say the First Amendment was unconstitutional.
I dunno, there are a few conjunctions, verbs and nouns in there that were also pretty good.
What an ass.
I’ve got an idea: rather than outlaw masturbation, why don’t they just put a picture of her in the wall of every Texas bedroom? That would cure the desire to rub one out better than legislation.
Well, she’s doing it for the lulz, but from personal observation, if the law was enacted and applied to both sexes (or all genders) equally that hetero women would probably suffer a lot more – but I guess a load of anecdotes doesn’t necessarily replace data.
I think she is already discouraging masturbation. No need for a law.
Stuff I didn’t know about?
Check.
Things that make you go hmmm . . .
Check.
Funny stuff?
Check!
Sloopy links are the bestest links in the whole wide world.
Well. Someone’s lobbying to win the logo contest.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES.
IS BRUTUAL KEN SURE OF THAT POSITION?
THE WHITE HOUSE IS OFFICIALLY CALLING THE BILL THE
AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT AND NOT AS MANY PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA
HAVE BEEN CALLING IT, TRUMPCARE…
HOW BAD DOES SOMETHING HAVE TO BE FOR TRUMP NOT TO WANT HIS
NAME ON IT? THIS GUY ONCE PUT HIS NAME ON A PONZI SCHEME. FOR THIS HE’S LIKE, I DON’T WANT TO TAKE ALL THE CREDIT. THAT WOULD BE LIKE IF KANYE’S
NEXT ALBUM WAS CALLED “BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME.”
OT: I’ve decided to start refreshing myself on history and was wondering if anyone here has any recommendations for good history books? I’ve started with “The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World’s Greatest Empire” and also plan to read “The Twelve Caesars.” Any good books on Roman and Greek history? Or quiet frankly, other nations and groups that don’t get quite the attention Rome and Greece always do. Perhaps something on the Goths or the Huns.
Anything by Howard Zinn.
*ducks*
Well, any history book that has a title that starts “A people’s history of…” is always a great resource that totally isn’t radical leftwing revisionism.
On a more serious note, “The Nazi Seizure of Power” is a good read and different from most history books that focus on the overarching narrative. It details the history of a single town from 1922 to 1945.
The small city is Northheim. My wife’s family is from that stadt and the family haus was the synagogue for several hundred years. Today that is where the Holocaust memorial is.
The book is fascinating. I had read the book years before I connected it with a family history. We had a pleasant visit to the city a few years back, but kinda creepy knowing your spouse’s family fled the place to save their lives.
Also, Civilisation by Kenneth Clark
The Ascent of Man by Bronowski
Both are from the golden age of BBC and have accompanying video series.
I thought civilization was by Sid Meyers.
Everything I needed to learn about how a phalanx could defeat a AEGIS-class Cruiser, I learned from Civilization.
Rise and Fall Of The Third Reich and Berlin Diary by William Shirer.
When I said Huns I meant the Attila ones. But I’ll keep those two in mind for down the line. Really want to refresh myself on ancient and medieval history right now. WWI & WWII will come later.
I’m remembering a few from back when I was a history major in undergrad, but some of them are pretty technical.
A good one on not-very-often explored parts of Greek History is “Thundering Zeus : The Making of Hellenistic Bactria.” Description via Google Books:
Another one is “Greece in the Making: 1200-479 BC.” Apparently there’s been a second edition since I read it in college. Again, via Google Books:
I need to think if I can remember any on Roman history.
Oh yeah. I actually read this one *for fun* when it came out in 1998.
“The Lord’s First Night : The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage”. It’s basically a study into the completely untrue myth of primae nocte. It’s not really what you’re talking about, but it’s still a good read.
I thought that everyone was pretty much clued in on the fiction of prima nocte. I guess it’s a testament to the persistence of appealing (and false) narratives.
It was clearly the perfect bogeyman when combined with the (also largely mythical) concept of knightly chivalry in the Middle Ages.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll keep those in mind.
For me, Will and Ariel Durant are still the gold standard.
The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire
The Great Game
Awesome. The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire is one of my favorite military history books. For some reason I had no idea Luttwak did a companion piece on the eastern empire. Thanks for the heads up TR
It’s a nice way to learn about the forgotten half of the empire.
Those sound good. I’d love to get some more knowledge on the Byzantines, since Rome always gets all the attention.
Not history related at all, but Haruki Murakami’s new novel is out. Killing Commendatore. His books are a treat. 1Q84 was also fantastic.
I strongly recommend this book:
“Freedom: Volume I: Freedom In The Making Of Western Culture”
https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Making-Western-Culture/dp/0465025323/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489412393&sr=1-6
It argues that (oversimplification, of course) that our modern conception of freedom emerged as a reaction to and against slavery in the ancient world.
Think, “Fuck off, slaver!” is just a meme? You won’t think so after reading this book.
Pays a tremendous amount of attention to the conception of freedom as it arose among the Greeks. A lot about the Romans, as well. Highly recommended. I assumed the author was libertarian when I read it. Turned out he was just being honest.
I read the book when it came out, and have been looking forward to the second volume since–it’s never been published. I suspect the central idea is too controversial for a major academic today. If people originally conceive of freedom as the opposite of slavery, then to what do Americans owe their passion for freedom?
No wonder the second volume was never published!
For the prehistoric time, he goes with tribal societies. Tribal societies generally have very little in the way of social stratification. When you introduce slavery through conquered tribes, it bring a lot of tension into their society. Now slave owners appear to have more social status than those who don’t have slaves. Suddenly, where there was no social distinction between tribe members, where there was no middle and lower class, suddenly there is one. How to resolve that tension?
The correct answers are social stratification, on the one hand, or sacrifice and cannibalism on the other. Sacrifice makes the tribe members, first, all equal under the gods. With cannibalism, the whole tribe gets to share in the elevated status until the cause of the status anxiety is gone.
After that, it gets really interesting.
Many people liked SPQR when it came out last year. I thought it was more “Rome: A history for big kids” than a serious history. Adrian Goldsworthy puts out entire shelves of books about Rome. I recommend “In the Name of Rome: the men who won the roman empire” to get your head around the biggest military leaders and “Pax Romana” to understand Roman strategy, foreign affairs and overseas governance.
If you want to learn the Legions and the span of western military campaigns then “Legions of Rome” by Stephen Dando-Collins is the geek fest of books.
Why could Rome and the Jews not get along? Then I recommend “Rome and Jerusalem” by Martin Goodman. By the end you’ll understand why Titus chose to show the spoils from the Temple on his arch entering the Forum.
You should read up on one of the most important battles in western history. “Varus give me back my legions! was Augustas’s anguished nighttime cries after that. “The Quest for the Lost Roman Legions” by Tony Clum is by the British Army Major who re-discovered the Varusschlact battlefield after almost 2000 years. “The Battle that Stopped Rome” by Peter Wells approaches the battle differently. Many battles are important but Varus’s victory froze Roman expansion in western Europe. The lines that were set remain a linguistic, cultural, and even liquor border today.
Anthony Everitt wrote a series of popular books on major personalities that help you understand the late Republic (“Cicero”) the early imperial era (“Augustus”) and the height of imperium (“Hadrian”). These are in just about every public library system. I am hoping he writes about the later western era.
And of course a decently edited version of “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire” by Gibbons. More modern research has corrected or fleshed out Gibbons but if you want the west, east, Norse, early medievel he has got it all packed between the covers.
This should scratch the surface some. Getting a fascination for Rome is like falling into WWII or Civil War history. Too many great reads for one lifetime already with more coming about yearly. Have fun!
There’s a really good Australian podcast called the Emperors of Rome, which has since branched out to be stuff about important people of the Roman Empire period that I quite like. I’m pretty sure you can just search Emperors of Rome at Itunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here’s an interesting podcast on Rome. It occupied a half a year of commutes for me.
The Art Of The Deal by Donald Trump and Dreams From My Father by William Ayers.
I wonder if Presidential books will end up in the same status as the Commentaries on the Gallic War or On the Commonwealth in a millennia.
Warty Hugeman and the Doomcock of Doom
Rome is a bit far back to address the making of the British Empire.
Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples, maybe?
Goths, you say? Then you can’t go wrong with Wolfram’s “History of the Goths.” Just budget a few days…
Sounds like another good one!
It’s not Greek or Roman related, but I have read all the Bruce Catton books on the American Civil War and highly recommend them. They are very good.
Donald Kagan’s “The Peloponnesian War” was excellent, for what it is. I may have different standards for what a good history-book is compared to others. One of my tests is if i can remember all the main characters afterward, and can relate most of the important events and how/why they happened. Basically, “good history” imo manages to give you all the details, but still keep a strong narrative thread. Others might prefer the ‘reference’ value of text, or the way it might hone in on a single angle otherwise overlooked by others; not me so much.
Another good one about early Athens = IF Stone’s “Trial of Socrates“. Its more a ‘historicity’ type thing (where he analyses all previous histories on the topic), but very well-written and a great complement to reading anything else about that era.
I have read that book and agree it is good. My take away, Was there ever a more treacherous self serving bastard in history that Alcibaides?
I think Kagan doesn’t try and ‘explain’ his motives as much as other historians have, tho he may err on the side of giving too much benefit of the doubt.
He seems to present a guy who honestly believed he was the best person to be running Greece (and there is no doubt he was diplomatically talented); so whether he stayed in Athens and defeated his political enemies, or whether he switched to the Spartan side and defeated his former military allies, it made little difference.
I think we find a ‘disloyal’ character like him confusing to the modern mind, when in fact his frequent relationships-of-convenience (read: betrayals) may have been more the norm in ancient politics. We find him disloyal to his native ‘state’; forgetting that his native state wasn’t really anything other than a group of competing oligarchs in the first place. Power didn’t reside in the state itself – it resided in a small group of elite men and the loyalties they commanded. He reminded me of an over-paid, prima-donna executive who jumps from one CEO position to another at competing firms, never really achieving any grand accomplishments, but somehow still retaining the respect of his peers, if only for his ambition and tenacity.
Steven Pressfield wrote a fictional yet largely historically accurate book called tides of war in which Alcibaides was the main protagonist. That books paints him in a light similar to what you describe. It’s a good book to.
Him hopping from Athens to Sparta and back may be justified somewhat as rebellion against the controlling oligarchy. His move to the Persian side can’t be construed as anything other than treachery. If I remember correctly, Alcibaides time is only a few generations removed from the United Greek war against Persian invasion. The city states were separate and often warred amongst themselves, but there was a Greek identity that united them against the persians.
I’ll keep those two in mind.
Caesar’s own recounting of the Gallic and Civil Wars were the last Roman histories I have read and I recommend them.
Thank you all for the suggestions. When I get home from work today I’ll be bookmarking this page for future reference.
How did Republicans go from repealing Obamacare to trying to save it? I’m not surprised or anything, it’s exactly what I would expect them to do once they have the power to actually do something. No one in Washington wants to actually make government smaller.
How can repealing the individual mandate be the same as trying to save ObamaCare?
They’re not repealing the individual mandate, they’re just changing who you have to pay a penalty to.
^this^
And they completely changed from repeal to replace.
That doesn’t make any sense.
Being required to pay premiums in order to get insurance is hardly the same as using law enforcement to force people to buy something.
If I opposed letting people pay a penalty to buy back into their insurance after they stopped paying their premiums, I would oppose it for being too good to the deadbeats. The government has no business forcing insurance companies to take people back–if they pay a penalty. People who stop paying their premiums should just lose their insurance benefits.
I certainly wouldn’t oppose that on the basis that requiring people to pay extra to get back on their insurance is the same as siccing the IRS on you for not buying insurance.
What do you mean by that exactly?
You don’t pay a tax to the IRS, but a fine to the insurance company, AFAIK.
The insurance company charges you extra for dropping off the program and coming back on?
Or the insurance company charges you if you don’t buy any insurance?
Those are not the same things!
AT ALL.
Are you saying that if you want to keep the subsidies you can’t skip payments and then jump back on the program just when you get sick?
Or are you saying that law enforcement (the IRS) will still come after you if you don’t buy insurance?
What are you saying?
I think that’s it’s changed several times, or I’ve been seeing conflicting reports. It could be that they will scrap the mandate. But regardless of what they do, not doing a just flat out repeal and letting this shit hang around in any form is a terrible mistake. As long as some sort of government plan is in place for healthcare, it will just keep expanding in scope over time until it becomes a massively costly bureaucracy that is so entrenched it will never go away, just like everything else the government does. Repeal, period, no fucking replacement!
I agree with doing the repeal first, 100%.
Trump came out against that, and I think they were taking his lead.
That being said, the Ryan plan has two good things about it.
1) It gets rid of the individual mandate.
2) It kills the ACA Medicaid expansion.
We should not tell our friends and family that the Ryan plan is ObamaCare 2.0 if it does those two things.
There were a number of excellent reasons to oppose ObamaCare. My two biggest reasons:
1) The individual mandate
2) The Medicaid expansion.
Repealing the individual mandate and killing the Medicaid expansion is not the same as instituting the individual mandate and expanding Medicaid.
I suspect there are a lot of people who still read over at the other site, and I think that’s where they’re getting a lot of these takes. The MSM has been big on ObamaCare 2.0 bandwagon, as well, but especially over at the site which shall not be named, we’ve got a funny relationship with them.
On the one hand, we know they’ve become full of shit over the past several months, but, on the other hand, we still tend to believe them–however subconsciously. What staff is saying over there about the Ryan replacement bill shouldn’t be taken at face value any more than you’d take what some of them write over there about Trump or immigration.
The Republican base isn’t surprised. That’s why every establishment candidate failed spectacularly last year. It came down to a Senator the rest of them hate (Cruz) and a complete outsider they all hate.
Daylight savings time. Looks like I overslept.
But what do you expect, it’s only Tuesday.
(just messing with you)
You’re only 27 minutes off.
Turkish FM blasts ‘capital of fascism’ Netherlands in speech in France
Can we stop calling people “fascist”? Just for a day? An hour? Until I finish this burrito?
Don’t tell me what to call people, you fascist.
How about a few “literally Hitler”s just to make you feel better?
One day “literally Hillary” will be the new standard. And it rolls off the tongue.
Burrito fascist!
YOU’RE NOT THE FUHRER OF ME!
Don’t tell me what to do, fascist.
It’s fascists all the way down, I’m afraid
Yes, yes we can, you Nazi!
Why is America the last country on earth to adopt a sensible energy policy?
Greener on the other side
Is this one of those “you know who else” questions?
And there you have it.
Sounds similar to the argument for single payer healthcare.
Yeah, but aside from that, what has Big Energy done for us? Eh?
Bernie Shakes his cane at stupid Asians.
Predictability and availability. Without those, your electricity market is going to suck big donkey balls.
Interesting anecdote about Surry Nuclear power plant, which is applying for another operational license extension, making it the first to get two in the US.
Each supplying plant puts in a sales bid on the market every day. The market takes the lowest bid first and continues to take suppliers bids until it has bought the necessary capacity for the daily load. The last winning bidder sets the price for the day and all suppliers get paid that amount.
Surry nuclear power plant has some of the lowest operating costs in the nation, so they bid zero dollars every day, guaranteeing they sell all of their capacity.
When Lime-a-Rita launched in 2012 it was a co-ed product, but in five years they’ve discovered that 65 percent of its customers are women. Perhaps, not that much of a surprise for a fruity alcoholic beverage.
See that, you fruity beer drinkers? You’re all girl-drink-drunks.
The only people who could launch a product like Lime-a-Rita expecting it to capture approximately equal market share by gender is just moonlighting – his real career is as a gigolo in a VERY gay dance studio. NTTAWWT.
if you factored out the underage drinkers chugging that shit because they can’t score any MD 20/20 or Night Train, the gender skew would be about 95%. The 5% of (presumably) cishet guys drinking it would be self-hating hipsters, or normies trying it out for the one and only time. I fall into the latter category.
Shit, body-temperature Thunderbird isn’t THAT foul.
Beer is a girl drink, anyway.
Drink scotch or whiskey like a man.
sláinte!
All the girls I’ve ever known who were beer drinkers, drink light beer. Which as far as I can tell, has no alcohol in it.
Blech. If I’m going to drink beer, it’s going to be a porter or a stout–maybe a full-bodies lager.
But all things being equal, I’d much rather drink scotch. Neat. And if you put any junk in it, I’m going to judge you.
Nobody puts their junk in Riven’s drinks, OK?
Only Mr. Riven gets to do that. And that’s only if he wins 2/3 leg wrestling competitions.
+1 Scissoring
I typically drink Heineken or Stella, or some other similar Euro type lager, which everyone makes fun of me for. I hate IPAs, bitter awful crap. Stouts and porters are good when it’s really cold outside. Also like gin and vodka but don’t drink it very often.
Great bog, at least drop the Heineken in favor of Grolsch or Beck’s. That piss in the green bottle is toxic.
Heineken is a lot better than Beck’s. But I really do like Grolsch, which… comes in a green bottle, just like Beck’s and Heineken.
You guys are snobs. I drink Busch light, on the regular, unironically because it’s cheap and it works. Also, I’m a massive redneck.
Did you notice yet that there’s no alcohol in it? I bought a six pack of regular Busch just for nostalgia sake a few weeks ago. I used to drink the stuff all of the time when I was just old enough to buy booze but didn’t have much money. It wasn’t as good as I remember it being.
I will relate a story about tuna in response.
Several years ago I was visiting my uncle in pensacola. We went to a fresh seafood market called joe party’s (I think) We bought several fresh tuna steaks, took them home and grilled them. They were fantastic. The next afternoon, we took what was left of the tuna steak and made tuna salad sandwiches out of it. They were also fantastic. The drawback of this is than I now can no longer eat canned tuna salad. It’s just awful in comparison.
Extrapolate that to alcohol. My working theory for years has been to stick to the cheap stuff and I will never know what I’m missing.
Damn, that tuna stuff is making me hungry. I have to try making tuna salad out of tuna steaks, that sounds great.
I can still drink cheap beer and I do occasionally. I’ll even drink Natty Bo, which to me is better than or just as good as Budweiser. I’ll definitely drink either of those before I’ll drink the crappy American craft beers, which all seem to just be some variation of bitter IPA.
Then buy stuff that isnt an IPA.
There are tons that arent. Yes, there are “too many” IPAs (in the same sense that there are too many pizza restaurants in Louisville – ie, shut up and let the market work it out), but no one is forcing you to buy them. It aint that hard to pick up a craft beer that doesnt have the word hop in its name.
My experience is that there are many craft beers that claim they aren’t IPA. But in taste, that’s exactly what they are. They can call it a lager if they want. The best craft beers I’ve had are heffeweizens. Some of those are damn good. But I bought those in a growler from the breweries.
It aint that hard to pick up a craft beer that doesnt have the word hop in its name.
It kind of is in Brooklyn. There are 5-6 door coolers around where I live that have 1 section dedicated to crapy domestics (or polish) and non hoppy beers.
Well I do happen to have a bottle of Springbank 15 handy, if you insist …
Shiner and Zeigenbock say 😛
^^exactly^^
So do the myriad Karbach beers that are fucking delicious.
I need to try those sometime.
Fuck, I haven’t thought about Bartles & Jaymes in +20 years. *shudder*
Thank you for your support.
*prolonged applause*
Take one guess as to which faux “libertarian” journal will completely ignore the news about the proposed federal workforce reductions.
Yeah, but now Mark Cuban is a libertarian.
“At heart I’m a libertarian,” famous entrepreneur Mark Cuban said at a South by Southwest panel focused on disruption and government regulation.
But moments later, he said that while he believed many government regulations are bad, he had evolved on some healthcare issues and believed that America had taken on a liability and should guarantee that citizens have access for emergency or chronic medical problems.
Never, ever trust anyone who uses the bolded words.
I always translate that third word into “mutated”.
It always seems more apt.
Another substitute term might be ‘became an even bigger lying asshole’.
I’m confused, did the Republicans repeal EMTALA too?
That’s feral workFARCE redupeshons, right?
*slow emphatic clapping as single tear runs down face*
I must say, now that I’ve been coming here I rarely visit the old site anymore. When I do, I’m struck by just how laser-focused it is on bitching about Trump. When there isn’t a Dalmia article about how vile Orange Jesus is, it’s mostly filler stories to the effect of “Millenials are crowdsourcing heirloom tomato recipes, and that means we’re living in the Libertarian Moment!”
I just want to know what Secret Nazi President will do today.
I know that speaking of TSTSNBN is taboo and all that. But, the article that Robby published today is some incredible level derp. The fact that there are teachers that stupid actually teaching kids at colleges is just … I don’t even have words.
the wage gap will never die, and teachers should be fired for pushing fucking lies.
To me, telling a student to only cite feminist sources is beyond lunacy. That person does not deserve the title of ‘teacher’, more like loony biased hack.
According to an economic analysis by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, the reductions outlined so far by Trump’s advisers would reduce employment in the region by 1.8 percent and personal income by 3.5 percent, and lower home prices by 1.9 percent.
a) Mark Zandi can go die in a fire after eating a bag of dicks.
b) What are the odds the Center for American Progress and similar lackeys of the Deeeep Staaaaaate will spin the numerical reduction of the govt portion of GDP as, “Doom for Trump’s America: The Economy Is Tanking!”
Home prices in the DC area are inflated to around 300% of the actual value, so I don’t see a 1.9% reduction causing mass hysteria.
The entire links is a blockquote. Were they just a dream of Bob Newhart?