Thursday Morning Links

Hopefully the flooding from yesterday is done and I can get on with my life.  Just as soon as I clean the frogs out of the pool.  Looks like something biblical happened in my back yard.  And I don’t mean that in a good way.  So let me get these links out so I can address the hellscape.

The nose knows.

Is the day finally here where men won’t have to pray the words “it’s ok, I’m on the pill. I can’t get pregnant.” are spoken in earnest?  If some Indian university students are right, it might be.

He must have gotten a look at their viewership.  Also, his nose looks like a penis in the accompanying photo.

Who is to blame for the jump in anti-semitic attacks and vandalism in the wake of the Trump election? Well, its probably not the guy whose daughter married a Jewish man, converted to the faith and is raising their child Jewish. Much to the media’s dismay.

Nothing says justice like prior restraint. (thanks, OMWC) I guess we can dispense with the rest of the Constitution in the Ninth Circus now.  They’ve already gone out of their way to destroy the First Amendment.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Speaking of the Ninth Circuit, it won’t be long before they get this ruling in front of them.  The Hawaiian federal judge has extended his blockage of the Trump travel ban on the grounds that it discriminates against Muslims and “hurts Hawaii’s tourism industry”. I guess he doesn’t have access to a map that shows the ban doesn’t impact about 85% of Muslims on the planet.  Or he can’t open up a law book and see that the right has always been the executive’s and that it was done as recently as the last president.

Former Dallas Cowboy and fan of beating up women left it to the fans to vote on whether an indoor football team would sign him. It did not end the way he would have liked.

I wish more of our “leaders” felt this way.

Comments

390 responses to “Thursday Morning Links”

  1. Mike Schmidt

    Good morning

    1. It’s only the two of us. I say we hijack this comment thread and take it to Cuba!

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        *mopes, kicks pebble*

        1. Mike Schmidt

          OK Scruffy. You can come too!

          1. ::cough cough::

            You can’t hijack the links. I’m the pilot and the door is barred shut.

          2. Mike Schmidt

            Well, LH. Dad said NO, now what?

          3. I guess we hijack the drink cart!

          4. bacon-magic

            Pilot of the Sloop John B?

          5. Mike Schmidt

            In teh vein of some other threads here, I will declare that Sloop John B is the Beach Boys best tune. We’ll tied for first with with Barbara Ann

          6. KSuellington

            If you can dig up the vocals only version of Sloop John B I highly recommend it.

          7. Mike Schmidt

            I know I’m necro-posting, but…

            Vocals only version

      2. You can make it if you try?

      3. Suthenboy

        Nah, I am here. Having more coffee trying to kick-start my brain.

        No thanks on Cuba. I am not a big fan of the aroma of open sewers or of being bitten by mosquitoes that recently dipped their lips in those sewers.

        1. Volren

          Yeah, but then you can tell them how much better off they are there than in capitalist hellholes like the United States and watch as they pretend to agree.

  2. This robotic octopus tentacle isn’t creepy at all
    The robotic tentacle is able to pick-up, hold and then put down items

    “The gripper consists of a soft silicone structure, which can be pneumatically controlled,” Festo writes in a PDF describing the bot. “If compressed air is applied to it, the tentacle bends inwards and can wrap around the respective item which is being gripped in a form-fitting and gentle manner.”

    The robotic tentacle has two rows of suction cups and is made of silicone. To show the pneumatic system could work the company, which is based in Esslingen am Neckar and has a history of making unique robots, used its own ‘motion terminal’ to control the movements.

    Surprisingly not made in Japan…

  3. It’s turtles all the way down.

    See the cyborg system that lets humans control turtles with their minds

    The turtle wears a “cyborg system” on its shell that consists of a camera, Wi-Fi transceiver, Raspberry Pi control module, battery, and a blinder that swings from left to right to obstruct the turtle’s view. The human operator wears a brain-computer interface system that picks up signals from the brain to move the blinder accordingly.

    By watching a feed from the turtle’s camera, the human operator can guide the turtle simply by thinking about moving. The system picks up on the three mental states of left, right, and idle movement. If the human operator thinks “left,” the blinder will swing to the turtles right side, causing the turtle to move away from the obstruction.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      This is how the world ends

    2. Count Potato

      Was there some sort of turtle-herding problem?

    3. straffinrun

      I can already do that with my sphincter and a turtle head.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        You can make it turn?

        You’re a frickin’ miracle worker!

        What does it cost in underwear?

    4. Agent Cooper

      Are they teenaged turtles?

    1. That’s debatable. And by “debatable”, I mean worthy of a dedicated thread.
      My favorite is probably “Gimme Three Steps” because it dispenses with the macho never back down bullshit and speaks honestly: when a big ass dude is gonna whip your ass for dancing with his girl, get the fuck out any way you can.

      1. Mike Schmidt

        Yeah, that is a pretty damn good one as well. And it reminds me of some situations I put myself in back “in the day.” I think know they have tons of great tunes. There is just something about Curtis Loew that I really dig.

        The one song I really don’t care for is Saturday Night Special. But my dislike for it is grounded in politics and not the musical merits of the tune.

        1. Funny, I hate the song because it sounds like shit. It’s hard to listen to the music start and stop so many times.

      2. Michael

        Debatable, absolutely. Here’s my all time fave, if only for the guitar:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2HRrjpiM7Y

    2. Jefe Hayek

      Gimme Back My Bullets, I Know a Little, and Call Me the Breeze (JJ Cale with the assist) have to be in the mix for number 1

      1. Chipwooder

        Yes, Call Me the Breeze would be my pick.

    3. But seriously, I’m just glad people occasionally open my last link.

      1. straffinrun

        You’re just a simple man.

      2. Mike Schmidt

        Honestly, I open you last link far more often than the links above it.

        1. I don’t quite know whether to be happy or not about that comment.

          1. Mike Schmidt

            Yeah, that didn’t come out right. I meant to say I don’t always open every one of the above links. But I almost always check out the song you linked to.

    4. robc

      Yes.

      1. robc

        Although Simple Man is damn close.

        1. stilljustcarol

          Driving home from my first meeting at Moffitt Cancer Center Simple Man came on the radio. My son reached over and held my hand. Sweetest moment in my entire life.

          1. straffinrun

            Wow. That was unexpected and wonderful.

          2. stilljustcarol

            Yeah, it is easy to get aggravated with adult children because you forget that they have their own lives but my son has been an absolute rock during my illness.

          3. Tundra

            He was raised right.

            Pulling for you, carol.

    5. Tundra

      The best is finally lifting the needle off the Skynard record, putting on

      Eat A Peach

      and hearing this.

        1. Tundra

          Yeah, love that one.

          Looks like an Allman Brothers morning for me.

    6. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

      Skynyrd did a lot of good. But they also did the grabbers anthem… so torn. Catchy tune though.

  4. Immigrants Are Going Hungry Because They’re Worried About Being Deported

    In late January, the Washington Post obtained a leaked draft executive order suggesting that the Trump administration would target noncitizen immigrants who use social services and create standards to determine “whether an alien is deportable…for having become a public charge within five years of entry.” Currently, asylum seekers and green-card holders can apply for food assistance via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps); undocumented immigrants cannot. Still, even though Trump has not signed the executive order, advocates say many authorized immigrants have preemptively canceled food benefits like SNAP—and fear that it’s part of a larger retreat to avoid interacting with federal immigration officials.

    The Alameda County Community Food Bank, one of the largest food banks in the San Francisco Bay Area, recently sent out a mailer to nearly 100,000 households that it had determined were eligible for food stamps. The response rate was about a quarter of that in previous years. A food bank spokesman says they had heard similar reports from other facilities; the ACCFB estimates that the refusal of these benefits has resulted in a loss of $361,972 to the local economy, since the money from food stamps isn’t being spent.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      the ACCFB estimates that the refusal of these benefits has resulted in a loss of $361,972 to the local economy

      *tries not to audibly curse*

      1. straffinrun

        Try doing it audibly. Autostart is fine.

      2. With thinking like that, it’s astounding that these people can’t centrally manage a robust, healthy economy.

      3. Agent Cooper

        ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOT BALL knows nothing about economics!

        1. Bobarian LMD

          Or football!

    2. Count Potato

      It’s just like the anti-semetic bomb threat thing. If this article is true, then these people are responding to media hype. A “a leaked draft executive order” is most likely bullshit. There is no reason to believe that anyone wants to deport legal residents.

    3. Suthenboy

      “…the ACCFB estimates that the refusal of these benefits has resulted in a loss of $361,972 to the local economy, since the money from food stamps isn’t being spent.”

      Huh. Looks like Trump is going to solve the deficit problem after all. How soon before people start telling illegal alien jokes along the lines of ’90s Ethiopian jokes?

    4. Chipwooder

      Again – I have been exhaustively told and told again that immigrants rarely use welfare.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          That’s about $80K a year for running a baby mill?

          Sounds like good work, if you can get it.

          1. Tundra

            Did you note the 10 bank accounts?

  5. Count Potato

    ‘Federal and Kentucky officials told The Huffington Post that they knew the move against prescription drugs would have consequences. “We always were concerned about heroin,” said Kevin Sabet, a former senior drug policy official in the Obama administration. “We were always cognizant of the push-down, pop-up problem. But we weren’t about to let these pill mills flourish in the name of worrying about something that hadn’t happened yet. … When crooks are putting on white coats and handing out pills like candy, how could we expect a responsible administration not to act?” ‘

    http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/dying-to-be-free-heroin-treatment

    Because inaction is never an option?

    1. Spartan Dad

      Denying pain pills to people in pain is one topic that really pisses me off. These assholes have no idea what chronic pain feels like. Better 10 patients live in excruciating pain than write a scrip to 1 person who just wants to get high. Also better that all patients live in excruciating pain than be able to function normally by taking a small pill every day.

      1. Count Potato

        Yes, it’s just cruel. And does nothing to prevent addiction.

      2. SugarFree

        Break their knee with a pipe, give them a Tylenol and tell them to walk it off.

      3. Juvenile Bluster

        My mother has MS and other health issues that cause chronic pain. Thanks to these kinds of actions she can’t get anything decent to help herself.

        Fuck these people and fuck every person who supports these actions.

      4. Chipwooder

        Every single article I’ve read about the so-called “opiod epidemic” always shovels that bullshit. It’s always easy for someone who isn’t in pain to minimize the suffering of those who are, as if it’s their fault that others just want to use painkillers recreationally.

      5. mindyourbusiness

        Yeah, the people who want stupid regulations like this are immune to pain…someone else’s…

    2. Agent Cooper

      It’s the stupid Punish Everyone methodology.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Well, it’s only fair…

  6. Karen Pence is the vice president’s ‘prayer warrior,’ gut check and shield

    He did, just a month later, as the two were feeding the ducks at a local canal. He hollowed out two loaves of bread, placing a small bottle of champagne in one and the ring box in the other for her to discover as she tore off pieces, according to local news reports. (They later got the bread shellacked, as a keepsake, a local paper noted).

    The Pences were married in a Roman Catholic church in 1985 but later became evangelical Christians.

    In 2002, Mike Pence told the Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Shades of Billy Graham

      1. More like Fifty Shades Of Billy Graham.

    2. John Titor

      Well, at least this round the whipped guy is the Vice President instead of the President.

    3. Drake

      The Lefties are attacking Pence for being loyal to his wife.

      They just keep grasping at straws. The Russians bought your influence! (no wait, that was us). You abuse women! (shit, that was the Clintons too)
      Your loyal to your wife! (Ha! Can’t accuse Clinton, JFK, LBJ, FDR of that!)

  7. speaking of tentacles:

    Meet Ripple: A tentacle-shaped wearable device for flirting

    This new wearable device is supposed to make meeting people easier. Called Ripple, the device was designed by students at the Royal College of Arts in London.

    Using two built-in cameras, the device monitors the environment around you, sending you a signal when someone’s gaze lingers on you. After helping you identify your admirer, Ripple’s tentacles will start moving flirtatiously if it senses there’s a mutual attraction. You can see Ripple in action in the video above.

    1. Number.6

      Cthulhu’s minions approve.

    2. DiegoF

      Great but overdesigned. Isn’t the real work being done by the social technology of having people wear a pair of jellyfish epaulets signifying that they are DTF?

    3. I’ll just go on record and say that if “rippling tentacles” is a phrase associated with you, no amount of charm or physical attractiveness will convince me to come closer than 20 yards.

    4. Agent Cooper

      Of course they put it on the Asian woman. So triggered right now.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        ‘Triggered’ is obviously a euphemism for ‘engorged’.

        1. OneOut

          I came from the factory with standard equipment that stands up and points when I see a woman thst I am attracted to.

  8. straffinrun

    A new birth control method for men has the potential to win as much as half the $10 billion market for female contraceptives worldwide

    Half? Has this guy ever been on a date with a real woman?

    1. India’s reversible procedure could cost as little as $10 in poor countries,

      Why wouldn’t it cost the same everywhere? Oh that’s right. There’s no such thing as a free market.

      1. Agent Cooper

        $10 in a poor country is like $200 in less poor countries.

  9. Jefe Hayek

    A similar version of that Indian injectable vasectomy is working its way through clinical trials here in the good ol’ USofA. Vasalgel looks promising. Except the FDA will require billions of dollars and years of tests (and drive the price up 1000 fold) to prove what has all ready been demonstrated.

    It looked promising that this would be out before I wanted to start having kids, allowing we to spread my seed all willy nilly. But it’s been tied up for a few years and only recently got a kickstart.

    Still hopeful

    1. Suthenboy

      “injectable vasectomy”

      You lost me there. I dont even want to know details.

      1. Jefe Hayek

        I mean, it beats the hell out of “slice your ballsack open” vasectomy.

        Plus, it’s reversible

        1. Number.6

          The reversible aspect is great, but you don’t have to have your nutsack sliced open – hasn’t been necessary for years.

        2. mexican sharpshooter

          Slicing? Try puncture your jewels with forceps and pull out the plumbing.

      2. “Hold still; you may feel a little pressure.”

        1. “A little pressure” always seems to precede stabbing pain, in my experience.

        2. Vhyrus

          In my days I have found ‘a little pressure’ is code for ‘prepare your anus’.

          1. Just like this guythis guy.

      3. stilljustcarol

        Did you see the article about the “doctor” who was arrested for injecting a combination of silicon and fix-a-flat in women’s asses? It is like that. Feel better?

        1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

          But did it work? Had they become THICC?

    2. Bobarian LMD

      allowing [m]e to spread my seed all willy nilly. But it’s been tied up for a few years

      There seems to be a phrasing thing going on here. Sounds like a Maplethorpe photo…

      1. Jefe Hayek

        It’s actually an excerpt from a collaboration between myself and SF

  10. ESPN Has Seen the Future of TV and They’re Not Really Into It
    As more fans cut the cord and go mobile, the network is busy protecting its cable-TV money machine.

    “I’m really tired of being painted as some sort of failing, sinking ship,” SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt told the Washington Post in September. “It’s not like we’re losing money, we’re just not making as much. It’s a giant difference.”

    ESPN still towers over its rivals in cable programming. Short of criminal enterprise, few business models in the world have been as lucrative. A typical cable (or satellite) bundle costs about $100 per household. In simplified form, when a customer sends in a monthly payment, the cable company sends a cut to each channel included in this bundle. Some channels get paid more than others, and ESPN gets the most. Carriers pay an average of $7.21 per month for every customer who gets ESPN as part of a bundle, according to Kagan. Fox News, by comparison, gets $1.41; Bravo, 30¢.

    1. Spartan Dad

      ESPN also has their contracts set up so their channel has to be included in the lowest premium package offered to consumers. I think it was Verizon who offered customers different bundle choices… you got basic channels and then selected two channel packages (movies, reality-tv, sports, action, etc). ESPN sued them for breach of contract because they allowed customers the option of not selecting the sports channel package.

      I look forward to the demise of cable and cut the cord a long time ago.

      1. RBS

        We didn’t subscribe to a cable package when we moved last year. Everything anyone in my house watches can be found elsewhere…

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Who watches ESPN?

      I can’t stand that shit.

      1. RBS

        I watch actual games on ESPN. Even then the coverage is pretty terrible. They manage to consistently put the most irritating people on the air. If it’s Clemson I’ll mute it and listen to the radio guys.

        1. Drake

          This. But it’s been that was forever. My Dad used to watch Celtics games with the TV muted and Johnny Most on the radio.

          1. Chipwooder

            I would do that with Yankee games….but then I’d have to listen to John and Suzyn. No thank you.

            I’m not sure there’s ever been anyone worse at his job who still held it for 30 years like John Sterling has.

          2. Slammer

            I’m a born and raised Yankees fan. John Sterling is a complete farce.

          3. BigT

            I loved listening to Johnny Most. Here in CLE we could only get his broadcasts occasionally due to ‘atmospheric conditions’ and they would be pretty noisy, but he was great.

            “Havlicek stole the ball!! It’s all over! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!!”

          4. Drake

            Was listening to him when Bird stole the ball – he went berserk and so did we.

            I loved it when the Celtics played the Pistons or the Bullets you just knew Most was going to lose his shit.

        2. Count Potato

          The announcers for Monday Night Football suck ass.

          1. Slammer

            I mute every NFL game I watch, and don’t put on the radio. I don’t need it. I turn the volume up for the ref announcements.

          2. Chipwooder

            What I wish I could have is the game audio without the announcers. I don’t like muting the broadcast because I want to hear the sounds of the game. I just can do without the inane commentary. A few times I’ve watched games where technical difficulties cut off the drivel from the booth but the field mikes were still working – that was heaven.

          3. Slammer

            Yes. Also choosing which camera feed to watch. In the NFL the all-24 camera that the teams use for film study would be great to watch a live game.
            I don’t need closeups of QBs and coaches faces.
            And the follow the ball cam doesn’t allow you to see the receivers and the corners

          4. Count Potato

            They could probably do that with SAP or whatever it’s called. If I remember correctly, I think it was CBS that tried an experiment where it was just the sound of the game (including the refs) and fans didn’t like it.

            Also, networks use the announcers to promote programming. So networks are unlikely to get rid of them.

          5. egould310

            I watch Ohio State games on streaming services provided by European gambling concerns. A couple games last year were ESPN broadcasts, without the play-by-play or color voiceover. Fucking glorious. Just crowd noise and helmets and pads rattling. Also, some crazy camera angles that are never, ever broadcast.

            My guess is it was a feed directly to the SportsCenter director/editors so they could quickly edit highlights for the show.

        3. We did this for Redskins games last season. The television announcers are godawful, but the local station has Sonny Jurgensen. He was a Redskin in the day and now he’s old, a little punch drunk, and surly. Listening to him grouse about plays reminds me of watching games with my grandfather when I was a kid.

          1. TripodKat

            I’m thinking about not being a Redskins fan anymore after seeing how the draft went..

      2. Slammer

        They turned sports viewing into video games re-creations withgraphic overlays.

        But the biggest turn off for me goes like this (and other sports networks have followed suit):

        Two or three people havimg a decent conversation about a player, cut to sped up highlights of player on repeat while cranking shitty music that is actual louder than the continuing conversation. Same thing when people are talking and they cut to a screen with stats. Why do STATS need shitty music? If it’s the NBA the hightlights will be a hip hop thump beat.

      3. Football and PTI, and the latter only occasionally. The rest of it is terrible, and I’m on the fence about football these days anyway so there’s not much draw anymore.

    3. Agent Cooper

      “It’s not like we’re losing money, we’re just not making as much.”

      Oh, semantics, ye are a squirrely mistress.

    4. Agent Cooper

      Their politicization of sports has nothing to do with it, either, I’m sure.

      1. Rasilio

        This is definitely a thing.

        I used to listen to a lot of ESPN radio in the car, basically anytime I was the only one in the car it was all I used to listen to but I just can’t do it anymore. I still tune in to Mike and Mike who remain steadfastly non political and can tolerate Russilio and Kannel but LeRetard, Bomonte the angry black man, and Jalen and Jacoby have turned it into an all day discussion about race. Even Jamell and Michael A, who I genuinely liked injected race into the disucssion WAY more than I care to hear in a sports show

  11. Scruffy Nerfherder

    He’s baaaaaaaaccck

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dammit

      Former Vice President Dick Cheney described Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election as “an act of war.”

      Cheney gave a speech Monday at Economic Times‘ Global Business Summit, where he discussed “the rising number of threats” facing the world, reported Business Insider.

      The former vice president said some of those threats — and Russian President Vladimir Putin — threatened “globalization movements.”

      “Not long ago, Gorbachev was in power and the Soviets went out of business … but the situation has changed dramatically under Putin,” he said. “I think he has designs on the Baltics … We know he wanted Crimea — he took it.”

      Cheney said Putin had interfered with the U.S. election as part of his worldwide destabilization efforts.

      “There’s no question that there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic fundamental democratic processes,” Cheney said. “In some quarters, that could be considered an act of war.”

      1. You know who else had worldwide destabilization efforts…

        1. Michael Bay?

        2. Mike Schmidt

          The United Nations?

        3. Number.6

          SMERSH?

        4. straffinrun

          Mercator?

        5. Number.6

          Ender Wiggin?

        6. Chipwooder

          Hank Scorpio?

        7. ChipsnSalsa

          Dick Cheney?

      2. Count Potato

        I don’t think that anyone has proved that Russians were responsible for the Podesta fishing and DNC leak. For all we know, it was some kid from 4chan and Seth Rich.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Cheney should be hiding under a rock somewhere.

      3. John Titor

        We know he wanted Crimea — he took it.

        “Russians wanted Russian land, we don’t understand basic history or local motivations and want to make it look like they’re monsters.”

      4. Suthenboy

        Funny coincidence – all of the people banging on the Trump-Putin drum are democrats or former never-Trump’ers.

        Keep digging motherfuckers. I can still see the top of your heads. Keep digging.

        1. Slammer

          The Russian investigation will go nowhere, because the Dems all have Russian links, too. Cheney might be trying to encourage the investigation because he knows it will eventually lead to Clinton?

        2. BakedPenguin

          A lot of them are also neocons. I’m sure that’s coincidental.

      5. Emmerson Biggins

        So Cheney, Schumer Hillary and McCain all agree.

        I don’t need any more info. Case closed.

  12. DiegoF

    Ahem. Wouldn’t it be more proper to say that Ms. Trump-Kushner *is* Jewish? She did convert. And it was an Orthodox affair, so not one that anyone questions. (Unless you’re the Israeli Rabbinate. Or the Syrians in Brooklyn. Never mind.)

    I do imagine that many eyebrows need to be raised against their rabbi for granting them permission to ride in a car on Inauguration Erev Shabbos. (They were not allowed to walk for security reasons.) On what stretch of the imagination did they need to attend the various inaugural parties? Who the fuck is this corrupt motherfucker?

    Help me out here, Chosen Libertarians. Any ideas?

    1. SugarFree

      Shabbos ends at sundown. Even an atheist knows that.

      1. DiegoF

        Indeed it does. And so does it begin at sundown. On Friday. The day of the 2017 inauguration.

        1. SugarFree

          Dammit, I mixed up my sundowns. OMWC is going to disinvite me to his horrible vegan Passover.

          1. Old Man With Candy

            Our passover is vegetarian, not vegan. Vegans are pains in the ass Puritans who hate food.

            In any case, the rabbinical argument is “the law of the land is the law,” so if it was required for her to ride, then it’s jake with Yahweh.

          2. SugarFree

            Marrow bone or gtfo.

          3. DiegoF

            Fine, but what law of the land compelled her to do this? You can’t just throw that argument whenever it suits you. (Not unless you have the right rabbi, apparently.) And she’s not taking Shabbos to pass a vote, or attend a White House meeting, or even attend the inaugural itself. She’s riding around in a limo to attend *dinner parties*. Give me a fucking break.

          4. SugarFree

            She was honoring her father.

          5. Old Man With Candy

            I have the right rabbi.

          6. DiegoF

            Let me clarify: I’ve seen the point you’re making addressed that way in the Forward, Tablet, and other places discussing the issue. They all focus on what you did: that she was “compelled” to ride *rather than walk* because the Secret Service said so. THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE. Their PR people are doing a great job distracting people, even normally hostile sources, onto this red herring. The issue is what is compelled her to attend these dinner parties in the first place.

          7. John Titor

            It seems really goofy and dumb to try and beat the divine with legalese.

          8. Old Man With Candy

            That’s exactly what the Talmud is.

          9. DiegoF

            That’s exactly what the Talmud is.

            And as a Catholic, that’s one of the reasons I love Judaism so much. It’s not for nothing that our faiths are so overrepresented among the best religious philosophers and legal minds. They’re the bestest religions for intellectuals.

          10. John Titor

            I’m reminded of that story Pan always tells about the Salon article by the secular Jew who reads the Torah and sympathizes with Yahweh because every time he makes an order, the Jews try and weasel around it so way or another. Divine patience may be overrated.

          11. SugarFree

            It seems really goofy and dumb to try and beat the divine with legalese.

            Bah. People love to argue the rules of arbitrary systems. Ever seen nerds arguing over D&D?

          12. John Titor

            Ever seen nerds arguing over D&D?

            Yeah but that’s a system where even the most asshole DM still exists in a framework of pre-set rules. Even if he’s trying to fuck you for pissing him off, a twenty is still a twenty.

            This is like arguing with a DM who makes the rules and suddenly decides every twenty is actually two so rocks fall and everybody dies.

          13. robc

            Luke 11:37-54

            Jesus’s answer to legalese.

          14. robc

            This is like arguing with a DM who makes the rules

            You ever play Paranoia?

          15. straffinrun

            Ecclesiastes 1:4 The Dude’s legalese.

          16. SugarFree

            The key is to always understand that the DM is not worth worshipping.

      2. Chipwooder

        Shomer fuckin’ Shabbos.

        1. Slammer

          She don’t roll on shabbos!

    2. I changed it. Just for you.

    3. Number.6

      Ohev Sholom’s mission statement includes

      We are committed to upholding and practicing the tenets of halacha while remaining open and welcoming to all Jews regardless of their practice

      So, superficially, the Kushners could be typical Reform jews and still be part of the congregation. From anecdotal evidence, it looks like they’re more observant than many of the New York jewry I know. They might even eat Chinese food and go to the movies on Christmas day.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        “Chinese food” is the Jewish code words for “trayf.”

      2. Agent Cooper

        I tried to get my family to have Chinese Food on Christmas Eve (we are Christian, so we celebrate Christmas) since we were staying in town and not seeing extended family like we normally do. She recoiled in horror. I thought it would have been fun.

        1. Number.6

          Last Christmas, we had Indian for Christmas Lunch. We normally host the family – but this year, we all decided we’d do our own thing. Absolutely perfect solution.

          All you can eat buffet, lashings and lashings of Kingfisher beer, home for Christmas Pudding, hard sauce and brandy.

          Probably do that again in 9 months’ time.

        2. Bobarian LMD

          Everyone should do it at least once just because of ‘Christmas Story’.

        3. Mike Schmidt

          For the last few years at the in-laws’ Christmas we’ve been having Tex-Mes; taco’s, rice, re-fried beans, etc. It’s a nice change of pace after having turkey or ham for decades. Not to mention it’s easier to prepare and clean up.

  13. Six jobs are eliminated for every robot introduced into the workforce, a new study says

    Job-stealing robots aren’t some distant scenario that’s unlikely to cause problems for another “50 to 100 years” from now, as Donald Trump’s treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said in an interview last week.

    New research released from the National Bureau of Economic Research yesterday shows that between 1990 and 2007, when one or more industrial robots were introduced into the workforce, it led to the elimination of 6.2 jobs within a local area where people commute for work.

    The report, which was authored by economists Daron Acemoglu of MIT and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University, found that the wages of workers also declined slightly as a result of robots entering the U.S. economy. Wages dropped between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent per 1,000 employees when one or more robots came into the picture.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m just going to leave this here.

    2. Negroni Please

      I guess the robots are making other robots, and repairing them, and programming them, and shipping them, etc etc. Wow tech really is advancing quickly

      1. bacon-magic

        Skynet confirmed.

    3. Trolleric the Goth

      to arms, general Ludd!
      water frames power looms threshing machines robots need breaking!

      1. Trolleric the Goth

        ugh hit strong instead of strike

    4. Headline:

      Six jobs are eliminated for every robot introduced into the workforce, a new study says

      Body:

      …when one or more industrial robots were introduced into the workforce, it led to the elimination of 6.2 jobs within a local area where people commute for work. [emphasis mine]

      OK, then.

      If the findings from this study represent a trend moving into the future, then job loss could increase as more robots are introduced into the U.S. economy.

      It could also make it financially viable to re-shore manufacturing, increasing jobs. It could also make everything dramatically cheaper and make jobs less relevant. Who knows?

      Why has freaking out about “robots” become so popular lately?

      1. Number.6

        Anticipated (and actual) increases in minimum wage laws.

      2. leonadasiv

        It’s The angle for a universal basic income. Therefore the public must be inundated with ‘evidence’ that robots steal jobs.

    5. Agent Cooper

      Insert Ron Paul “It’s Happening” GIF here.

    6. Rasilio

      Wait, I think I see the problem in their research. It’s right here….

      –“when one or more industrial robots were introduced into the workforce, it led to the elimination of 6.2 jobs within a local area where people commute for work.”–

      Yes I understand that restricting the before and after comparisons to just that local job market makes the calculation EASIER the problem is there is no valid reason to assume that additional jobs that would be created by the automation would have to exist in that same metropolitan area. Automating a factory in Poughkipsie is likely to result in depressed employment in Poughkipsie but create additional spread all over the country through a variety of mechanisms

  14. SugarFree

    For fans of our culture’s sadlarious decline:

    The subliterate midden behind the “Cash me outside, how bow dah?” meme is getting her own TV show.

    She was approached by seven different production companies. There was a bidding war.

    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a duckface.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I must be old. I have no idea who that is.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Jesus, I have an employee who’s niece (mid-20’s) talks just like that. She’s a functional retard with 2 kids by different dads on welfare.

          1. Count Potato

            That’s a low bar for “functional”. Unfortunately, not that rare, either.

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          Dr. Phil did his job.

          Now they need to get her on ‘Bull’.

        3. leonadasiv

          My understanding is that She just had a thick accent. She never wrote those words.

      1. Chipwooder

        At least I wasn’t the only one who was in the dark on this one!

    2. Jefe Hayek

      “The 13-year-old became Internet famous…”

      Umm, 13, uh?

    3. Count Potato

      Is that a 13-year-old with fake boobs?

      1. Negroni Please

        no it’s a fake 13 year old with fake boobs.

      2. if those are real at 13…

        1. SugarFree

          I think she’s wearing two push-up bras. Or is already pregnant.

          1. Rufus the Monocled

            Prediction: It won’t end well for her.

          2. Number.6

            Could just be a couple of chicken filets.

      3. Jefe Hayek

        They *look* real, but I can’t look at them long enough without being ashamed of myself

        1. +1 It’s like staring at the sun

        2. Old Man With Candy

          I feel your shame.

          Actually, no, I don’t.

        3. SugarFree

          There’s a quote I read somewhere, but I can’t find right now… but to paraphrase:

          “It is common in the lower classes for youth to simulate beauty, at least for a short while.”

        4. Bobarian LMD

          The good news is she just supposedly turned 14, so you preverts is OK.

    4. straffinrun

      I’m not talking about 13 Y/O girls with tits. Those would’ve freaked me out in junior high.

    5. RBS

      I predict a lot of people complaining about how trashy she is while watching her show.

    6. bacon-magic

      Is this show on porn hub?

  15. Trials and Trippelations

    There is a new gun in our schools even more dangerous and plentiful than the Pop-Tart the STICK GUN!

    http://www.wral.com/5-year-old-hoke-county-student-suspended-for-using-stick-as-gun-during-recess/16613911/

    Grammar is not my strong suit, but wouldn’t the headline stating a stick used as a gun suggest that the stick actually did gun like things such as shooting bullets and having a trigger to pull?

    1. Count Potato

      “It is our duty to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Therefore, we respond to all threats in a serious manner and take appropriate action,”

      Translation: “I’m an idiot who doesn’t know what words mean.”

      1. Chipwooder

        That’s funny, I would posit that treating a stick held by a kindergartener as if it were a firearm is anything BUT serious. Money quote:

        In a letter sent to Miller, Assistant Principal Brooke Griffie stated that Catlin was suspended for one day for “turning a stick into a gun and threatening to shoot and kill other students.”

        Holy shit, the girl actually turned a stick into a gun? That girl is a sorcerer!!

        1. Old Man With Candy

          Sorceress. Please, let’s not misgender the poor little thing.

        2. leonadasiv

          Another case of taking something you don’t understand and attributing magical abilities to it. ‘Guns are dangerous, we can’t let kids have them at school’, ‘OMG that girl has a stick pretending it’s a gun that is just as dangerous as a real gun!’

          The ability for humans to believe fantastical things about what they don’t understand is amazing.

        3. mindyourbusiness

          It probably had a branch that went up.

    2. Agent Cooper

      Nah.That’s a phaser. And maybe it was just set to stun.

      1. Number.6

        Hey, Cooper, how did your invoicing issue work out?

        1. Agent Cooper

          Not done yet. I’ve had prelim discussions with lower boss, will talk to upper boss on Monday. Reached out to a wonderful colleague in Accounting but haven’t heard back. Upper boss may have a job or place to put the cost while we utilize the service.

          I’m also prepping a ‘deck’ that basically tries to sell the service to our heads of New Biz, Strategy, Innovation and Medical so that the cost could be shared by each. Actually used the service to pull at 90-slide dossier on a subject that is important to a video project we are working on that would normally cost a non-subscriber $250.

          Last resort is me dishing out $$$ for anything.

  16. straffinrun

    Cosmetic Brand ‘Lipslut’ Debuts ‘F*** Trump’ Lipstick To ‘Fight The Patriarchy’

    “Like many women in America, Katie felt deeply upset after Donald Trump was elected as president,” reads the Teen Vogue piece. “So she racked her brain as she tried to decide what she could do to change things and make the situation better … Thus, Lipsl*t was born.”

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The stupid part is people will actually buy it.

    2. SugarFree

      As if Trump has a problem with lipsluts…

    3. DiegoF

      Good for this young capitalist. More dollars safely diverted to virtue-signaling and her sorority dues from organizations that might actually have the donors’ desired effect on society.

    4. John Titor

      You can probably make a lot of money over the next four years selling some dumb bullshit to equally dumb motherfuckers. Antifa alone is probably doubling the Che t-shirt market.

      1. RBS

        Literally all you need is a slogan with an expletive or two and “Trump”.

      1. straffinrun

        BTW, you’re wise not to watch Jack Reacher. It sucked. I’m gonna watch Morgan tonight after the sick kiddo falls asleep.

        1. Count Potato

          OK, as much as I love Kare Mara, I can say that Fantastic Four was awful. Captive wasn’t bad. So I’m probably not too biased in liking Morgan.

    5. Chipwooder

      One thing Glenn Reynolds nailed – some insanely wealthy non-leftist should buy one of these chick mags because they’re nothing but leftist indoctrination.

    6. Volren

      Is that a serious ad? I mean I get she’s probably not that smart but using the name and likeness of a guy to sell your product without his permission isn’t a good business practice even when he’s not known for vindictive lawsuits.

  17. French man attempts to hatch chicken eggs by SITTING on them for nearly 24 hours a day for a month

    Abraham Poincheval, 44, aims to become a ‘human hen’ by sitting and laying on the eggs inside a glass vitrine at a Paris modern art museum until the chicks emerge.

    The performance, called ‘Egg’, could last three to four weeks, with the artist getting only a half-hour break every 24 hours to keep him from cracking.

    He is also on a special diet rich in ginger so he can keep the eggs at a minimum of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

    1. Count Potato

      It seems like there is a slippery slope.

    2. Hammercorps

      Got nothing clever to add, so I’ll just make an egg-straordinarily bad pun.

      1. That was horrible, you cock.

        1. Hammercorps

          I can keep going, I’m not chicken.

          1. You’d have been henpecked all morning if you would have posted this a couple hours ago.

          2. Hammercorps

            I usually just wing these things, sometimes they come to me late. I’ll think of some good yolks soon.

          3. Mike Schmidt

            This whole thread has been very fowl

          4. Omelet you finish this thread on your own.

          5. Hammercorps

            If you leave, it’s going to get very hawkward.

  18. Mysterious ‘Gollum-like’ being caught on tape in Aceh forest

    The mysterious figure — which appeared just as startled as the riders —immediately ran off down the dirt road in superfast speed, slipping into some bushes and disappearing into the middle of the forest.

    The video has since gone viral and has garnered more than 5 million views in just over a week, with some users sharing theories about what the figure could actually be.

    One such theory is that the figure is likely a member of the mythical Mante tribe, which according to local urban legend, are said to be forest dwellers much smaller than the average man. They’re also said to be elusive and flee from human contact.

    Last year, Indonesia was also shaken up with video footage of another mysterious being, said to be a possible sighting of the legendary Bigfoot walking through a waterfall and mountain range.

    1. DiegoF

      That’s a lot of pagan superstition for the place known as the epicenter of radical Islam in Indonesia.

      1. CatoTheElder

        Yeah, you’d think that they would have surmised the mysterious being to be a djinn.

        After all, the Quran is explicit about the djinn and the possibility of their assuming physical form.

    2. John Titor

      STEVE SMITH JUST WANT PRIVACY TO SHOWER AFTER GOOD TIME, IT NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK.

      1. Hammercorps

        STEVE SMITH WELCOME GOOD COMPANY IN SHOWER THOUGH.

  19. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Snapchat kills

    A Utah girl was shot in the head and left for dead after two boys in her school became annoyed that she was messaging them too much on the popular Snapchat app.

  20. KibbledKristen

    Why does DC hate NYC food classics such as pizza, deli, and bagels? And I don’t want to fucking hear “there’s this one place in Gaithersburg that has decent ___”. Fuck that. Why aren’t there a variety of choices? It’s not like we’re lacking in New Yorkers down here.

    1. KibbledKristen

      Also, I really want a bagel with lox, capers, & cream cheese right now.

    2. DiegoF

      Bah, New York bagels have gone to shit. There are like five places with decent ones now. Also, what is this food classic named “deli”?

      1. Chipwooder

        Stuff A Bagel in Massapequa. You’re welcome.

        1. DiegoF

          Oh, God, who the fuck is going to go out there? I said five, not zero! But you know I love bagels enough to make a trip to try it out. And if it’s better than the little place in the city I go to (or when it and all my other favorites close–I’m not delusional enough to say “if”) it won’t be the last time.

          1. DiegoF

            In other words, thanks!

          2. Chipwooder

            All I know is that whenever I’m back on Long Island to visit the family (well, the few who haven’t fled NY yet, anyway) I always make sure I stop by there to pick up a dozen on the morning I’m leaving so I can have some fresh, quality bagels. Hard to find such things in Central VA.

      2. KibbledKristen

        The town where my Pa lives in bumfuck Western NC has one of the best bagel places I have ever eaten at. Joey’s. Joey is from NY, of course.

      3. l0b0t

        Any of the La Bagel Delight locations in Brooklyn are fantastic. Also, All American in Broad Chanel, Queens might be the best in the city.

    3. There’s a kickass pizza place at the bottom of the hill below Huntington station. Shit, I can’t remember the name but it can’t be more than a few minutes from you.
      It’ll come to me.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Do. Not. Say. Old. Shitcago.

    4. Old Man With Candy

      There really isn’t any decent pizza there? I’m surprised, especially because we can even get decent pizza here in Chicago, home of the Deep Dish Abortion.

      1. KibbledKristen

        I’ve found one place that has a decent approximation of NY pizza, and it’s in the middle of nowhere. By the Fairfax County Government Center. Like, who goes there?

      2. DiegoF

        Deep Dish is not the everyday pizza of Chicagoans, just the one most famous to outsiders. It’s that thin crust deal, the one that’s normally cut into squares. Not that that’s much less of a travesty for New Yorkers. I actually like deep dish better because it is not really pizza at all, just a big greasy mozz casserole that can readily be appreciated on that basis.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          The “thin crust” is an abomination. Cutting into squares should trigger the death penalty. But there’s great pizza to be had here if you know where to look.

          Deep dish is not the everyday pizza because IT’S NOT PIZZA. But judging by the lines at Malnati’s and Uno, I’d say it pretty much is the everyday thing here.

          1. DiegoF

            Those lines at Uno are all tourists (there because they’ve seen the–now unrelated and Boston-based–Uno chain in their hometown and want to see the real thing). Uno is like the Carnegie in NYC or Pat’s and Geno’s in Philly. Malnati’s is loved indeed loved by locals, but I did not say Chicagoans don’t *like* deep dish “pizza”; I said it’s not their everyday pie. Those people (besides, Malnati’s and every other place serves thin crust too) are going out to a popular restaurant for a popular dish; that doesn’t take away from the number of folks ordering thin crust for their movie nights and kids’ parties all across the city. You might as well say Italian sandwiches are Chicagoans’ favorite pizza because you saw crazy lines at Mr. Beef!

          2. bacon-magic

            Shut your mouth about thin crust. ;p

        2. Rufus the Monocled

          Square pizza is just as legit as round. It’s called a focaccia or sfincione. Pizza prepared this way is a tradition of Southern Italy.

          1. Rufus the Monocled

            OMWC, takes no prisoners where pizza is concerned!

          2. DiegoF

            It ain’t square pizza. There’s a NYC version of that too–“Sicilian” (not the real stuff served in Sicily), which is bigger in the suburbs but has come to NYC too (though not as big as it was a couple decades ago, I think.) This is a round pie *cut into* squares. “Party cut,” they call it. It is not a slice culture.

            In New Haven they serve an amorphously shaped, overcooked wood-oven pie with parm instead of mozz. They cut it into fucked-up irregular slices.

          3. Rufus the Monocled

            Ah!

            Ha.

          4. Agent Cooper

            I believe he is referring to the ‘tavern cut’ in which you take a thin-crust round pizza and cut it into tiny useless squares. It is an abomination and is rampant here in Central Ohio.

            These losers are the prime purveyors of terrible “pizza.”

        3. Jefe Hayek

          Can we all just agree that St Louis style pizza is a pile of abortions. Hell, I’d rather eat deep dish every day than that tripe. Hell, I’d rather eat tripe every day than that shit. Hell, I’d rather eat shi… you see where this is going

          1. KibbledKristen

            Had to look it up. NO YEAST IN THE CRUST? So they’re essentially serving pizza on saltines?

          2. DiegoF

            That’s not the half of what is gross about it, from my recollection. I’ve blocked it the trauma of that memory, even though it was just a memory of reading the description.

          3. Jefe Hayek

            It’s a saltine crust, with a ketchupy sweet sauce, and a made up cheese product that is basically impossible to melt. Think the consistency of cold Velveeta or american cheese while actually being 1,000,000 degrees.

            It’s just awful all around. Provel cheese is the Devil’s smegma

          4. DiegoF

            Ah, there it is. That is honestly the most disgusting fucking thing I have ever heard of described as food. I would totally at least try that fermented shark thing in Iceland. But not what you just described.

          5. Chipwooder

            I’ve never been to St Louis so I’ve never experienced this firsthand, but the descriptions of it do send a shiver down the spine.

          6. bacon-magic

            I hate you all. *takes bite out of pizza cracker*

    5. Haybob

      Not New York food, but by chance have you been to the Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ in DC?

      1. KibbledKristen

        Nah…we have OK BBQ in Alexandria. Rocklands. But I normally wait til I go visit my Pa in NC to partake of smoked pig.

        1. Haybob

          Just curious if it’s popular out there. It’s a staple here in KC.

          1. KibbledKristen

            Food in general is not a “thing” in DC. It’s not a great food city. There are pockets of great cooking here and there, but food here is a socio-political affair, not an eating affair. That means we’re lacking in just about every great cuisine style.

          2. DiegoF

            Can’t be any worse than Boston. Glasgow is probably better for food than Boston.

          3. Count Potato

            Boston had great food, back in the 80’s.

          4. Rasilio

            Yeah there used to be a lot of good places in and around Boston back in the 80’s and 90’s but they all seem to have either died off or turned into garbage tourist joints.

            Last year when I lived up there I had to go all the way up to Portsmouth to get good seafood (The Beach Plum on Rt 1 just south of the Traffic circle, check it out, it’s worth the drive)

          5. straffinrun

            You cook, right? With YouTube, I’ve cut my eating out by 80%. Okonomiyaki tonight was excellent, if I do say so myself.

          6. KibbledKristen

            I cook a lot. I don’t cook bagels or pastrami, though. Don’t smoke my own salmon. And my oven isn’t hot enough for pizza.

          7. straffinrun

            If want to know some easy to make Japanese food, just say “Hai”. I’ve managed to work in about 10 to 15 dishes that can be prepped in under 30 minutes. Healthy. And I love dried squid.

          8. Count Potato

            The first time I had okonomiyaki, it was cooked by two Japanese hippy girls in Puerto Rico.

          9. commodious spittoon

            And my oven isn’t hot enough for pizza.

            But the box says 350.

          10. Number.6

            Curse you, Red Baron!

          11. Rasilio

            There’s a few good Ethiopian and Korea joints in the area but none actually in DC that I know of.

            Then again pretty much the only thing I ever go into DC for is to hunt Pokemon (my wife is still desperately trying to catch a Lapras)

    6. RBS

      Does Pizza Bolis (sp?) still exist? I used to pick up a slice on my home from the Ugly Mug when I lived in Eastern Market. Weird flavored wings though… Or Jumbo Slice? For the record, I was intoxicated most of my time there.

      1. KibbledKristen

        There’s a Pizza Bolis near me. It’s not all that much better than Pizza Hut. IIRC their dough is soft & cakey, which is apparently how DC people like it.

      2. Rufus the Monocled

        In Delaware it does. Jam packed. Went once. Meh. Never went back. Don’t see the fuss.

        I prefer America’s Pie at the Beach up the avenue.

        https://www.facebook.com/AmericasPieatthebeach/

        1. KibbledKristen

          Pizza Bolis was jam-packed? A chain with pizza barely better than Papa John’s? WTF, Delaware?

          (BTW, DE is home to a 1/2 way decent pizza joint called Grotto. They recently expanded into the DC metro area.)

          1. Rufus the Monocled

            Yeh, like, long wait times.

            Grotto’s is fine. They certainly cornered the pizza market. Don’t get me going on their ‘gelato’.

            But again, I find America’s Pie superior. They’re out of Philadelphia.

          2. Rufus the Monocled

            Grotto.

          3. F. Stupidity Jr.

            WTF, Delaware?

            Joe. Biden. Says it all in just two words.

      3. Pizza Bolis not only exists, but they deliver Ben & Jerry’s in addition to the usual stuff. It’s basically geared towards drunks and stoners.

    7. Bobarian LMD

      You know, McDonalds serves bagels, right?

      1. Number.6

        “Bagels”

  21. robc

    Since Mikey started it:

    The best Joe Walsh song

    1. Jefe Hayek

      Walk Away

      Love his James Gang stuff. Joe Walsh is severely underrated. If you can make the Eagles at least somewhat listenable, you are the man

      1. Chipwooder

        A friend of mine posted that version of Walk Away on Facebook recently. It’s killer.

      2. robc

        Amazing in concert too.

        Where I sat I could see a bit backstage. He was changing guitars 2-3 times per song, with the tech retuning during songs. It was an outdoor concert, no one but Joe could tell his guitar was slightly out of tune after 2 minutes of play.

        He had two of each guitar he used (and he used a bunch of different ones) so that 1 of the pair could be retuned while he was playing the other.

    2. Mike Schmidt

      Hate to disagree after you backed me up on Skynyrd. But…here’s Joe’s best tune

      1. robc

        I saw an interview with him where he said he realized he could either be a great guitarist or a great lyricist, and he chose to concentrate on the former.

        Seemed appropriate here. Although I love many of his lyrics too.

        If you wear clothes, you got to pay the dues.

      2. Bobarian LMD

        Holey shit, had not heard that before.

        My favorite Joe tune

        1. Mike Schmidt

          Holey shit, had not heard that before.

          Yeah, for some reason it never has gotten much radio play.

  22. BigT

    Self-awareness fail.

    When people think about climate change, they probably think first about its effects on the environment, and possibly on their physical health. But climate change also takes a significant toll on mental health, according to a new report released by the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica entitled Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance.

    Climate change-induced severe weather and other natural disasters have the most immediate effects on mental health in the form of the trauma and shock due to personal injuries, loss of a loved one, damage to or loss of personal property or even the loss of livelihood, according to the report. Terror, anger, shock and other intense negative emotions that can dominate people’s initial response may eventually subside, only to be replaced by post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Maybe belief in AGW is the more serious mental illness?!!

    1. Suthenboy

      I am guessing that they didn’t cite anything specific.

  23. Suthenboy

    Question heard yesterday to Senator digging into the TrumPutin affair: “You dont have any evidence that Trump colluded with Russia but can you rule it out 100%?”

    I would have paid good money to hear this answer “We also dont have any evidence that you are a pedophile”

    1. Drake

      The old “when did you stop beating your wife” line of questioning.

      1. Suthenboy

        I cant remember who asked the question because it was one after another with the same shit.

  24. The Numbers Are In: Volkswagen Butchered its ‘Fixed’ Diesel Engines

    Owners of the vehicles have complained of units lacking their former oomph, shuddering, stalling, and even being difficult to restart. While not every driver reported identical problems, the majority agreed Volkswagen had ravaged engines’ ability to make power. At the time, nobody knew exactly how extensive the losses were. But, as the powerband-sapping solution closes in on North America, those numbers have come in.

    Swedish researchers from the country’s preeminent motoring magazine, Teknikens Värld, conducted back-to-back testing of 10 cars from Skoda, VW, and Audi before and after the fix. The findings, at the very least, indicate Volkswagen Group may have broken its promise to returning the corrected cars in the same state as before. While some of the vehicles became thirstier and made more power, most became significantly less impressive. Engines saw up to a 10-percent decrease in performance with a new torque curve biased toward higher engine speeds.

    1. Chipwooder

      It’s a damned shame, too, because those TDI Volkswagens were nice. When my dad used to work for VW, he had a Passat TDI. Loved that car.

    2. Drake

      My brother is taking the money for his diesel Jetta and the discount for a new GTI.

    3. Trolleric the Goth

      not a surprise – if they could truly get the same power/torque/economy and be compliant, why would they cheat in the first place?

  25. RBS

    So, did that Cards Against Humanity woman buy Congress’ browser history yet?

    1. DiegoF

      Oh, God thank you! My novenas have been answered! I have been fuming about that shit for five years now, and following it closely. I’ll avoid being my usual too-verbose self here, because I rant about it to whomever I encounter. I never saw this coming. Totally shocked. Biggest surprise since Albany overturned the plastic bag fee. I’m on cloud fucking nine here. Fuck the MTA still, though.

      1. l0b0t

        Now reopen the damned bathrooms in the subway stations!

  26. straffinrun

    Lemmy solo album due out later this year

    You know who else wasn’t killed by death? *Lights Eddie signal*

    1. Suthenboy

      Vlad Tepes, of course.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      Lemmy sings from the dead.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

      Good on Napolitano for not backing down.

    2. straffinrun

      Anonymous sources are bad. Or was it good? I’m getting confused.

      1. Drake

        If only some British and American spies would go on the record, we could sort the whole thing out.

        1. Number.6

          Very, very unlikely any limeys will go on record.

          That gets people killed and put in luggage.

          I don’t doubt GCHQ is implicated. The US provides a lot of funding under the guise of “subsidies”.

          1. Drake

            A keen cyclist and maths expert, Mr Williams would not even talk to his family about his true line of work. Before joining GCHQ he had studied for an MA in maths at Cambridge but had dropped out after failing an exam.

            Going out on a limb here but I’m going to say he was a computational magician working for the Laundry.

          2. Number.6

            HMG takes the Official Secrets Act very seriously, is very willing to prosecute breaches of it, and when they elect to use other means of enforcement, they have far greater latitude than other nations we could mention.

        2. straffinrun

          Some Democrat congressman was on Tucker Carlson’s show claiming they want an independent prosecutor for the Trump-Russia connection just so “we could put this behind us.” I literally lol’ed. Yeah, that’s why you want that.

  27. Chipwooder

    Shameless stolen from Instapundit……YOU GO GIRL!

    “I agree with Ayaan Hirsi Ali that western feminism needs to stop focusing on ‘trivial bullshit.’ I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy for women who feel traumatized and excluded by scientists’ shirts or video games.”

    1. John Titor

      So aware of Western imperialism having trampled on other cultures historically, Western liberal feminism now embraced their most patriarchal aspects. A Western liberal feminist can, on the same day, take part in a slut walk to protest Western women being judged by their clothing and accuse anyone criticizing the niqab of Islamophobia. She can demand the prosecution of a Christian baker for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same sex-couple, and condemn the planning of a Gay Pride march through a heavily Muslim area as racist.

      Liberal feminists are now more libertarian than the Libertarian Party candidate.

      1. Suthenboy

        Yeah, pretty low bar.

      2. SugarFree

        Yeah, thank Jeebus that asshole wasn’t elected.

        1. John Titor

          I don’t expect third parties to be electable, I expect third parties to articulate a position or philosophy that resonates with the population discontented with the status quo. Johnson’s “I need them Bernie Bros and to come off like a lame moderate” strategy is the absolutely dumbest way to run a third party, which should be fiery, ideologically stubborn organizations.

          1. SugarFree

            I still side with the far, far, far, far, far, far lesser evil.

            But the Libertarian Party will always be an election or two behind. I imagine the next LP candidate will be a celebrity retard with a hot take Twitter account who will get 0.05%.

          2. Number.6

            Danielle Bregoli then.

          3. SugarFree

            From your lips to God’s ears.

          4. John Titor

            Sure, siding with the lesser evil is fine, but who in their right minds thought running candidates who said favourable things about the establishment candidate in the most anti-establishment election of recent history was a good idea? Who thought having libertarians talk about a carbon tax was a good idea?

            They weren’t going to be elected, so they were free to push their ideology front and center to see who it appealed to and throw their positions into a ring where people were desperately looking for alternatives to the current system. The way to get that 5% this election was to be doctrinal, not a soft Democrat/Republican hybrid that everyone could find something to hate. Fucking hell, a lot of the NeverTrumpers alone should have been an easy catch this election but they still managed to screw it up.

            I get that organizing libertarians is herding cats, but this are basic strategic decisions that should be obvious to any political junkie.

          5. Chipwooder

            And who thought that putting a blue-blood Massachusetts Rockefeller Republican who loves the shit out of the drug war and gun control was a good idea, either?

          6. KibbledKristen

            This last election is why I’m not going to engage with any Libertarian or libertarian politician anymore. There are many reasons why electing big- and small-L’s is a wasted effort. Even if you get one elected to Bumfuck City Council, there is almost no impact. You’d have to get a critical mass to influence legislation.

            That’s why I think the future of the libertarian ideology is in the judicial branch. Libertarians can argue a good Constitutional case and be successful at a very high rate. When you win in the courts, you win in society at large. When you get a court to say “licensing for [insert skill/business here] is illegal and unconstitutional”, you’ve just done more for libertarianism than all the libertarian politicians have ever done, combined.

            So, anyhoo…all my charitable $$ will be going to IJ and their ilk. No more libertarian candidate bumper stickers for me!

          7. DiegoF

            I think McAfee had the right idea when he ran for the presidential nom just to denounce the very idea about giving a shit about doing so.

            GayJay’s plan was to win one state and throw the election to the House, which would make him President, because GayJay is a fucking moron. But even though he laid it out plainly, some people seemed to be in denial and thought he was there to be good publicity for libertarianism, or even to become the de facto Republican candidate for the rebellious center. In fact he was a piss-poor ambassador for libertarianism, ruining the only good he could have done–helping future local opportunities.

            But again, people are delusional even when it is spelled out for them straight from the horse’s mouth. These people are the LP version of the Dems who thought 2000 Nader was some kind of disgraceful traitor for taking votes away from a candidate he repeatedly said he had no desire to help win.

          8. Count Potato

            https://twitter.com/Kmele2020

            (Neither a celebrity nor a retard)

          9. SugarFree

            Then he’ll never make it.

          10. Count Potato

            He might get nominated. Of course, he won’t win.

          11. Bobarian LMD

            Kmele2020

            Crowdsourcing for Lasik?

          12. Count Potato

            I voted for him. But some of his gaffes made better points against using marijuana, than any PSA.

        2. leonadasiv

          I was assured that he was a much better libertarian then some Republican Congresscritter

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The third wave feminists are going to hang her in effigy.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      Are there enough independent used book shops, boutique artisanal cafes and Mongolian scarf kiosques to employ all those people?

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        *Mongolian scarves are lovely.

    1. Bobarian LMD

      ^Best reason to cat-butthole Carl.

  28. Juvenile Bluster

    My favorite restaurant closed 🙁

    The restaurant, located near Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, has been popular with locals and tourists alike for generations. Ernie’s was known for its rooftop patio, live music and quirky libertarian expressions on the walls that railed against taxation and international bankers, vestiges of founding owner Ernie Siebert.

    “Money is nothing more than controlled digits,” one slogan read.

    Siebert, who sold the restaurant in 1976, reputedly kept a $250,000 stock of liquor in Bimini and would make rum-running boat trips to restock Dirty Ernie’s to avoid paying taxes, according to local legend.

    1. Drake

      My favorite restaurant in our town closed a few months ago because the chef got so fat he could’t stand up any more.

      1. Number.6

        Mr. Creosote’s Oyster Bar?

        1. Drake

          Close. The Prickly Pear with a picture of big Joe in his slightly leaner days. The crispy blue-cheesy potatoes that came with the hanger steak were referred to as “crack-potatoes”.

          1. Agent Cooper

            Maybe he was eating too many of the profits.

          2. Dr Mossy Lawn

            I drove past there last night, was surprised to see that it had closed.

    2. straffinrun

      Poisoned all his customers?

  29. Chipwooder

    Jeez, I just can’t figure out why the working class thinks Democrats hate them.

    1. leonadasiv

      People are disgusting….

    2. DiegoF

      I’m a Democrat, a politically active one who’s in a club and all that. And my party’s long march away from working-class politics to identity politics was the “gateway drug” to disillusionment that eventually opened my mind to liberalism. Never think that the only way for libertarianism to extend a welcoming hand leftward is through cosmotarian asskissing. There’s an alternate, almost diametrically opposed opening as well.

      1. Chipwooder

        Well said. Identity politics is absolutely poisonous.

      2. John Titor

        There are multiple ex-communists here (including myself). Cosmotarianism is not what attracts people from the left, instead it gives them an opportunity to try to absorb you into their own ideological bubble.

        1. commodious spittoon

          And dogpile you the instant you assert any of your own demands.

        2. DiegoF

          Really? I am very surprised! (Well, maybe not that you’re a commie, hoser. I just assumed…) Not that real ex-leftists make some of the best libertarians, of course. But that glibs is friendly to them. Just a few days ago I saw a comment that accused some figure of favoring liberty because statism fucks the poor, rather than for some more correct-thinking reason. I think it’s a damn good one! Again, I love this place, but that, and the general conflation of “leftward opening” with cosmoism (when actually “socially liberal Republican” is the *furthest* thing away from me), did give me some hesitation in “coming out” as one whose eyes were initially opened to liberty for (among others) exactly that reason.

      3. Gilmore

        Never think that the only way for libertarianism to extend a welcoming hand leftward is through cosmotarian asskissing.

        (rousing applause)

    3. F. Stupidity Jr.

      So HazelMeade’s real name has finally been revealed, huh?

    4. My god, what vile people.

  30. Juvenile Bluster

    Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

    The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!

    Trying to primary the Freedom Caucus? Sure, get rid of the only decent Republicans in the bunch so we can have more like Paul Ryan. Makes sense.

    1. Drake

      Those fuckers actually think we should keep campaign promises! Purge them!

      That should work out great in the primaries.

      1. straffinrun

        Watching Graham getting booed at his own rally was heartening.

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          And yet he keeps getting reflected.

          1. Stinky Wizzleteats

            reelected damnit

          2. Bobarian LMD

            Yeah, I don’t believe either him or McCain can cast a reflection.

    2. DiegoF

      Trump’s success as president could stand or fall on his ability to control this, the dumbest and most self-destructive part of his personality. He hates his “enemies” and only his enemies, a list you get on solely for emotional reasons, and centers his entire life around trying to destroy them. The FC has embarrassed him, and so it must be destroyed. But he overestimates his own power. He should graciously shift back into the vague status he had before, and try to make nice with all “conservative-minded” Americans and act like he’s generally on their side.

      I’m a Liberty Caucus man myself, though. Way the fuck better.

    3. leonadasiv

      F*** you Mr Trump… Should be a great response, it it wasn’t overdone already.

    4. Stinky Wizzleteats

      He’s angling to work with the Dems and the Rep moderates to sideline the conservatives in order to pass a renamed ACA. Not a great strategy but hopefully Bannon can and will rein him in.

      1. commodious spittoon

        “The fact that the big companies are run by white, middle-aged males who have the same feeling—that they would never do it—plays a major role,” said Herjan Coelingh Bennink, a gynecology professor who helped develop the contraceptives Implanon and Cerazette as head of research and development in women’s health for Organon International from 1987 to 2000. “If those companies were run by women, it would be totally different.”

        That’s… really not how it works.

        1. commodious spittoon

          Thread fail.

      2. Agent Cooper

        Bannon doesn’t like libertarians so I’m not sure what you’re hoping for.

      3. DiegoF

        I ain’t afraid of that ghost. Dems are now the party of no, and they’re down to their most hardcore Demmy areas. He’s going to need moderate Republicans, openly apostate Democrats, and utterly whorish FCers to bring him over a majority in the House *and* up to 60 in the Senate? If he finds someone who can draft that bill, he will have found the greatest strategist to walk the earth since Sun Tzu.

    5. Rasilio

      Lol So we are getting to the point in the ongoing Republican Civil War where it moves from back alley knife fights to open warfare in the streets?

      What Trumpkins fails to realize is that those Freedom Caucus Republicans are going to take a large chunk of the voting base with them, including control of at least a handful of states and if push comes to shove they have a VERY real chance of running a 3rd party candidate for President who can win against Trump and whoever the Dems manage to cook up.

      1. BigT

        they have a VERY real chance of running a 3rd party candidate for President who can win against Trump and whoever the Dems manage to cook up

        Hahaha!!

      2. Drake

        I keep saying it. If the Democrats keep flying leftward into obscurity – the Republicans split in two. A blue-dog center-left party with the Democrats 1988 platform led by Paul Ryan – and a Freedom Camus Party led by people like Rand Paul and Amash. Only having the Democrats on their left held them together this long.

  31. commodious spittoon

    Also, 98% effective. Better playing roulette with fifty barrels than six, but still.

    1. leonadasiv

      That means two in 100 men get F***ed (pun intended). Seriously though… Those kinds of odds times the cost of raising a child over a life, doesn’t really seem to be assuring.

  32. Zunalter

    Nothing says justice like prior restraint.

    Read through most of the comments, and every single comment that was anti-abortion was deleted from the thread. Seems oddly appropriate considering the subject matter of the article.

    1. leonadasiv

      Look we can’t have a free society if people are allowed to express dissatisfaction with our free society.

    1. Zunalter

      Talk about false advertising. Wisdom indeed.

    2. Agent Cooper

      Statism demands that you control the impulses and human nature of millions of people. That’s really hard to do. It requires force.

    3. leonadasiv

      Thanks for making me want to go punch a wall.

    4. That this is happening on reddit and none of the commenters seem to have any appreciation for the irony there is a perfect example of the intellectual measure of the modern left.

      1. Microaggressor

        Just take a look at the subreddit rules. Wrongthink is not allowed.

        Support for capitalism–and the political parties which uphold it–is strictly prohibited; comments showing support for capitalism and capitalist parties and politicians will be removed and the user punished at moderator discretion.

        Philosophy:

        This subreddit has its roots in broad-based anti-capitalist thought, with an underlying Marxist tendency that is steeped in intersectionalist Critical Theory.

        When it comes to proposed alternatives to Capitalism, it is the general consensus of this subreddit that the contradiction between Capital and Labour must be eliminated; the working class should own and control the means of production.

        Perhaps they should crack open the Black Book of Communism for some implementation ideas of their goals. The downside is, they might learn the outcomes. Better to stay ignorant and just ban anyone who attempts to bring them all those racist hatefacts.

        1. tarran

          It’s a safe space where they can pretend their ideas won’t result in famine, poverty and genocide.

  33. Enough About Palin

    You know, TSTSNBN has only 97 AM Link comments right now. This site, 354.

    1. Well everyone knows all the persons of quality left that site and came here.

      1. Zunalter

        There are still a few over there that I would like to end up here, but by and large, yea.

      2. commodious spittoon

        Hey, don’t leave me out.

    2. It’s all about the quality of alt text and music links.

      I gives the people what they wants!

  34. Zunalter

    Former Dallas Cowboy and fan of beating up women left it to the fans to vote on whether an indoor football team would sign him.

    Seems like a redundant description.