Good Odin’s day, fair commenters. I bring you the freshest of links pulled from the sea and slapped down–still wriggling–on your monitors.
As if American flights weren’t bad enough already.
Taiwan moved up six spots on the World Press Freedom Index to #45! Oh, wait. It’s just because everyone else got worse this year, not because they actually improved. For reference the US is #43 (full list here). North Korea is unsurprisingly dead last.
If he pulls this off I’ll eat my hat.
Nissan outfitting its cars with tinfoil hats. Protect your phones from prying spooks, buy Nissan. TW: Autoplay video because CNN.
Comments
303 responses to “Wednesday Afternoon Links”
TAIWAN NUMBAH ONE.
IRAN NUMBER ONE
USSR NUMBER ONE
USA HACK PHOOEY
Funny and true story: When I was in elementary school in the mid-1980s, we went on a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg. While touring something or other there, our class bumped into The Iron Sheik, Ivan Koloff and the Great Kabuki. Truly awe-inspiring for a 10 year old.
Not it.
Will the cage protect the engine components against EMP?
No? Not interested.
I’m going to buy this car. That or turn my phone off.
I’m going to buy it, and then drive with my phone out the window because I changed my mind.
I was assured they were a free market now.
God damn it Taiwan just beat Romania. I somehow doubt the validity of the rankings though. I mean I’m pretty sure you can get in a lot of trouble saying the improper thing in Sweden or Denmark
Doubt the Netherlands is much better
Don’t worry, you’re definitely showing Malta and Botswana a thing or two.
I’ll just be up here, chilling at the 22nd spot for no real reason.
The CBC is free to say whatever the government permits them to say?
That press freedom list is 100% bullshit. Just look at all the reporting restrictions re: migrants or anything related to Islam. They get in hot water all the time – if they even bother to try publishing it. Of course…I suppose if you just take the government’s line on every single crime story, you’ll never get blocked. As long as you refer to SDP as ultra-rightwing nazis you’ll be great.
That the US with the 1st Amendment isn’t #1 by default is a total joke. Of course people get mad about stuff here – but the fact is, compared to the UK with their travel libel laws and all that BS – we’re top of the heap.
Trump Voter Feels Betrayed By President After Reading 800 Pages Of Queer Feminist Theory
https://www.facebook.com/TheOnion/videos/10155397968279497/?autoplay_reason=all_page_organic_allowed&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=2&app_id=2392950137&live_video_guests=0
https://twitter.com/smod4real/status/859842132852457472
Almost funny enough to listen to the whole thing.
Fairly funny.
I thought the Onion was in the tank for Hillary?
Yo.
Don’t any of you work?!
Well the clock next to me says 23:06 so… no
You don’t want to know what time my clock says. Ungodly hour.
Alarm clock
Look, Rufus. Maybe you can work all day. But I have to deal with both ruling the world as a libertarian and ruling the world as a Jew. That’s pretty tiring. Got to take some time off.
Look (((venile)))Bluster, just cash your dividend checks from the global zionist conspiracy and go flog your orphans. You don’t have to humblebrag man.
define work first.
The displacement of mass due to the application of force, with the displacement occurring in the direction of the application.
not much going on here then. my mouse is pretty light and not much force needed to move these keys.
You got me beat. I’m a trackball guy, so I don’t have any displacement.
well…could be a dot product
what does curry have to do with this?
You racist!
I lol’d
Of course. If I were at home I wouldn’t have time for this stuff.
Ditto!
It’s funny cuz it’s true. In the privacy of my home, very different searches going on.
So you can “beat your orphans,” as it were?
That’s so disgusting, I’m kind of sorry.
NO. Nor do you.
I spend less time here when I’m not working. My previous levels of browsing took place while waiting for SQL queries to finish.
As if American flights weren’t bad enough already.
It would appear that American is testing Zeno’s paradox with moving chairs halfway each time.
Just as shipping containers revolutionized shipping, I think it is time to talk about converting air travel to a similar system.
Instead of sitting in a chair, why don’t airlines sell “pods”? Each pod would just be a container that had so much space. A traveler would buy the pod that best fit their needs and climb on in. The pod would then be sealed and stored on the airplane. When you got to where you wanted to go, you would simply be offloaded.
You could have whatever you wanted in your pod (except bombs) and wouldn’t have to be hassled by TSA because you would be sealed in your pod. You wouldn’t have to talk to any annoying people in the next seat. You could buy a big pod if you wanted to travel with your family. You wouldn’t need any attendants because everyone would be locked in the pod.
The only reason this isn’t an option is because the FAA would stomp all over your dreams.
Do you bring your own pod? Because if I get on a LA to NY flight and get stuck using the one Warty turned into a sex dungeon on his NY to LA flight, I might want a refund.
Other possible reasons:
1. Airplanes are extremely weight-sensitive compared to container ships
2. Emergency exit procedures would be much more complicated
3. Electricity, HVAC, plumbing etc. are tightly controlled on an airplane
C’mon, you gotta put your thinking cap on.
1) In addition to volume, you’d put weight limits on it too.
2) Everyone is dead in an emergency anyhow, so don’t sweat it.
3) Containers are isolated from everything. You bring your own batteries, you bring your own little john
But I don’t wanna be a Son of Odin today. *Stomps feet*
Aren’t you on Thor’s day already?
Greenery day. No, not that greenery.
Looking into the rankings, I’m not sure how they come up with this. Look at some of their methodology for defining press freedom:
1 / Pluralism
Measures the degree to which opinions are represented in the media.
2/ Media independence
Measures the degree to which the media are able to function independently of sources of political, governmental, business and religious power and influence.
3/ Environment and self-censorship
Analyses the environment in which news and information providers operate.
4/ Legislative framework
Measures the impact of the legislative framework governing news and information activities.
How do any countries with vague hate speech laws qualify positively with this criteria?
What magical fairyland exists where the news is “able to function independently of sources of political, governmental, business and religious power and influence.”?
Perhaps that simply means “the wrong influences.”
Question for the “scientists”:
I went solar, grid tie in. I’m producing way more electricity than I’m using, and I only get a few cents per kWh from Edison. I’d like to store a few days worth, sort of like the Tesla power wall, but with more capacity. I’ve heard rumors of people buying used Nissan Leafs and repurposing the battery array….
Where am I going to get the most cost effective storage?
Neat. Playa wants to put a bomb in his house. Interesting….
Sounds like you need a power converter. I think they sell them at tosche station.
You can waste time with your friends later!
Waste is right. Tosche station was a disappointing podunk hole-in-the-wall.
The girl in that scene is Koo Stark.
I have an SMA Sunny Boy Inverter/Sunny Home Manager.
Sunny Island is the SMA product to manage the battery interface with your inverters.
+1 Luke is a whiny bitch
i.e.:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=17879
Why not just let the neighbors run an extension cord over to your house ?
Short answer: Lead Acid is the best $$/KWH storage medium, Deep cycle batteries since you need to drain them at night. Your grid tie inverter needs to also handle the charge/discharge/grid balance… There are other issues with the ganged 12V batteries (Zener diodes across the individual ganged batteries to protect against overcooking an individual unit.)
The better solution? Net metering.. the Grid should be your storage facility.. you put power in during the day/summer, and take it back out at night/winter. The power company doesn’t pay you for the power, but lets you bank it… and you size your system to just balance out over 12 months on average.
You really only want local battery storage if you want grid independence.
Yeah, I have NEM 1.0 and Net Metering. My concern was more for a prolonged blackout. The CA grid sucks.
I don’t know how often you really loose power, I use a diesel tractor/generator for prolonged outages and a medium sized UPS for 5-6 hours of server/network stability. As above the Sunny Island is your integrated solution, cost the solution vs your real backup needs. will you go whole house, or only a sub-panel? Fancy LI batteries are for weight savings, a permanent home system doesn’t care what it weighs.. so it is just amp-hour vs $$.
In rural NJ (seems that I’m in Drake’s corner of NJ) I usually loose power once a year, and was on the generator after Sandy for 10+days.
The downside of the grid tie systems without the battery island is that the solar shuts off as soon as the grid goes away for safety reasons.
A generator+sub panel is a cost effective solution..
CA is taking a lot of base load offline in the next few years. They’re shutting down Navajo, among other things.
It will not end well.
Yup, a shitload of deep cycle lead acid batteries would be your best best. They’ll last a lot longer than Li ion and be much less expensive. A lot heavier of course, but that shouldn’t matter for a non-portable application.
Do you have enough knowledge and experience with electricity to not kill yourself or will you need a service tech for maintenance? Do you have a ton of room to spare (garage or basement)? You will need an inverter and some kind of battery storage. You probably already have an inverter due to the solar panels. Lead acid batteries are cost effective and don’t require an expensive BMS like Li ion. Li ion is more expensive but takes up less room. Down side of Li ion is its flammability an unreliability.
Sort of. I was going to have an SMA certified electrician have a look before I flip the switch.
Do it yourself. I believe in you.
*looks up term life insurance policy prices
Flipping the switch is the most exciting part of doing your own electric work. Will it work? Will your house burn down? Who knows!?
My dad was an electrician. I don’t think he’d like it if I sent him this sub-thread. 😉
Pallet Jack Drifting
Would you like to talk about pallet jacks?
What’s your favorite thing about them?
Drifting. Duh.
Yeah, I thought he was pretty clear about that
I prefer pallet jack jousting. I do not recommend using a pallet jack to skitch a ride on a forklift.
Forklift jousting is better.
The warehouse I once worked in only had one forklift. Dammit.
A wise choice by management, it would seem.
They way the roll so smoothly
That pallet jack is Poppy.
I’m more of a forklift drifter myself
Are we walking manual pallet jacks or the kick-ass ones with big batteries in them?
I never did any drifting, but I was involved in more than one pallet jack race in the back room of the grocery store I worked at.
I really don’t see the left media as neutral but …
http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservative-the-eternal-struggle/
It’s always those Wiley conservatives who hate facts.
So for example, there used to be a relatively fair media in which both liberals and conservatives got their say. But Republicans didn’t like having to deal with facts, so they formed their own alternative media – FOX and Rush Limbaugh and everyone in that sphere – where only conservatives would have a say and their fake facts would never get challenged.
He discusses this idea of ‘fake facts’ just before talking about trickle down economics, an economic theory that doesn’t exist and is really just a left-wing meaningless buzzword.
How very ‘neutral’ of him.
That quote is Alexander’s description of what the Vox piece’s point of view is. He’s not writing it as his own opinion, although he is a self-admitted liberal.
Ah, my mistake, his formatting is a mess.
Yes, yes, this is certainly based in reality.
Welp, that certainly was lots of formatting. By labor theory of value, the above is a supremely well-formatted post.
How the hell is a ‘pretense of neutrality’ when you deliberately push an agenda a good thing? You’re openly admitting that the news media is lying to you and pretending it isn’t.
The cocoon is much more comfortable when you’re just told what to think. Grateful for the manacles.
The idea that any media has a monopoly on honesty or factual accuracy ought to be rejected on its face. Institutions change, people change, circumstances change. Even the best media outlet should be treated with “trust, but verify”. The minute you accept that an institution is axiomatically right is the minute it is ripe for capture by dishonesty or at least standards slippage.
Above comment is more of a general musing, not meant as a direct reply.
Indeed, one of the things I appreciated the most about comments back on Reason, is that my god you people are the whinest pricks on the planet when it comes to the media that is theoretically ‘on your side’.
Yes, CNN leans liberal, but it’s not as liberal as FOX is conservative, and it’s not as open about it – it has a pretense of neutrality that FOX doesn’t, and although we can disagree about how realistic that pretense is I think few people would disagree that the pretense is there. Nor is there a liberal version of FOX that lacks that pretense of neutrality.
Honestly, I had to stop after just this. First of all, yes, there is a liberal version of Fox (not all caps) that lacks a pretense of neutrality – MSNBC. It’s a miserable failure. But, it is pretty openly liberal. Secondly, I don’t see how you can say that a pretense of neutrality from a biased news source is superior to being honest with one’s biases. The former is just plain dishonest. The latter at least offers the audience to consider alternative interpretation from your take.
Honestly, Fox tends to give the lefties a mostly fair debate, and most of their hosts don’t shout those lefties down or cut the feed once they start talking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdYRN8Clddw
Oh you should see Robby’s write-up of this. You see, the right-wing lives in an echo chamber just as much as the leftists because clearly right wing people are not inundated with leftist viewpoints from elementary school to university to home on the couch watching ESPN. Oh and the NYT is a generally neutral source of news, nevermind the recent feelgood shout-out to 20th century communists….unlike the ever tribal and toxic Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Breitbart which right-wingers invented so that they can lie about the supposed evils of liberalism and promote welfare schemes that only benefit white people.
I hope Robby has an intern regularly clearing out his old emails because he is going to be drowned in cocktail party invites.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/05/03/conservatives-spaces-are-often-tribal-an
Hmm. I guess I kind of get when Coloradans complain about Californians moving to escape CA and then trying to make CO just like it.
That’s a real problem in Montana, too. I mean, I don’t move to New York and try to change their gun laws, do I?
I remember the bumper sticker when I lived in the Flathead Valley: “Don’t Cali-fornicate Montana.”
Dude, hear hear.*
*My dad is from California…but he moved to actually get away from the insanity in that state.
Biggest problem in the Flathead was Californians paying outrageous prices for lake front property, driving up property taxes which forced many locals out of their houses.
I grew up in the Noth Central part of the State. They haven’t been moving out to the prarie have they?
“but he moved to actually get away from the insanity in that state.”
I was at UPS one day and some guy was railing on the woman behind the counter. After he left she told me that he was pissed off because the truck driver had driven up his 1/4 mile uphill snow covered driveway to deliver a package. She then told me the complainer was from CA and had moved to MT to “get away from the big city.”
Morons.
Damn, “pissed off because the truck driver HADN’T…”
Just goes to show you–folks who leave other places, complaining the whole time about it, can’t help but gum up the works in their new destination…
The Californians beat me to “the Bozone” by 12-18 months. When I was looking to buy a house the prices had jumped by at least one zero in the last year. The prices were not in touch with reality. Luckily I decided to rent because Gallatin County housing was hit even before 2008 and were torched then.
I do sometimes miss walking to fantastic trout fishing and I loved the hunting.
When it comes to the press, I thought the alignment was Neutral Evil vs. Neutral Stupid?
If you haven’t seen The American Gods premiere, knowing that Wednesday is Odin’s day is useful.
I read the book ~15 years ago. No spoilers, dude.
I’m still ashamed I didn’t get the wordplay for Mr. Lyesmith on the initial read.
Sorry, I didn’t think that qualified as a spoiler.
Like I said it’s been 15 or so years since I read the book, I don’t recall how quickly they make that reveal (or how fast they do it on the show).
My “no spoilers” was mostly teasing though…mostly.
I figured that was why you started off the post that way. I watched it with someone who isn’t familiar with the old gods, but some people remember.
I didn’t get to see it yet. Is it worthwhile? The story would be brilliant in the right hands. However, It’s going to be hard to make it REALLY work.
Stuff like that works better animated.
I thought it was pretty good. The CGI seems dated even though it wasn’t really needed in my mind. The actors they have lined up look like they’ll play well together.
It’s going to be a whole lot of WTF for anyone not familiar with the universe. The books were written that way, explaining things later or not at all, but I don’t know how well that plays on TV.
Are their high-tittied women in it? Because some of those gods have needs.
There’s tits…
For the baseball fans.
The Blog title alone made me lol.
Yeah, that was damn funny.
Aewsome. “You gotta be fuckin’ shittin’ me!” must have been original pine-tar incident words.
My favorite Brett story is the “I shit my pants” story told at Spring Training
“I shit my pants” is definitely NOT my favorite Brett story.
That’s great!
Ol’ George and Will ‘the thrill’ Clark were my favorite players as a child(I batted lefty).
Looks like a Juve-Real final is brewing.
How many offside goals for Cristiano Ronaldo in the final?
Not only that. How many red/yellow infractions will they get away with? How Ramos and Casemiro haven’t been cautioned over the last two ties is beyond me.
Yep, I’m out. Could not care less between those two.
Are you guys still talking about pasture hockey?
Fuck you, Nissan.
Take out all the silly screens and ‘driver’s assist’ garbage and I’ll believe you care about distracted driving.
Seriously. What’s next? Galaga?
/looks for quarter.
That I would buy!
He was better on the subject when he supported the one-state solution. Since the Mandate of Palestine was already divided into two widely recognized sovereign states, the two state solution has already come to pass. Give the West Bank to Jordan (secret Palestine) and Gaza to the Egyptians. The Palestinians have done nothing if not repeatedly affirm they are either incapable or unwilling to govern their own country without the pre-requisite requirement that all Jews must die.
West Bank to Jordan
“We want more Palestinians in our country.”
-Said no Jordanian ever. You’re just shifting the Palestinian problem to Jordan instead of Israel, and they won’t accept it.
I believe they formally renounced their claim to it 20 or so years ago, which is reasonable given their experiences during the twenty years they controlled it. And right after they lost it.
Jordan already has demographic problems with Palestinians, and hate them in the typical Middle Eastern tribal way. There’s huge issues in Jordan right now in regards to things like how Palestinians get citizenship because locals are worried they’ll end up a Palestinian state.
It’s like looking at the cartel issues in Mexico and the worries of some American southern states about being overwhelmed with Hispanics, then deciding the best course of action is to give the U.S. northern Mexico and fifty million new Mexicans who will probably want citizenship at some point in time.
No one wants them in their country. But if anyone is going to endure them, it might help if the host society had similar culture, same language, identical religion. And I don’t mind characterizing the Palestinian people as a problem, but do you? And I thought you were an open borders guy? Maybe I’m remembering.
*misremembering
it might help if the host society had similar culture
…and punched in the face by a Jordanian for even suggesting that.
Again, your idea fails right out of the gate because, regardless of how brilliant you think this idea is, Jordan does not want the West Bank.
So you’re saying that a country that doesn’t want to import some particular group of foreigners doesn’t have any obligation to do so?
Maybe you should actually read what I’m writing rather than turn this into a childish immigration whine.
This is about trying to give them territory they have explicitly renounced and want nothing to do with. It’s like asking America to run Iraq as the 51st state.
I don’t mind your insults. Use all the crutches you need. You literally said:
” “We want more Palestinians in our country.”
-Said no Jordanian ever.”
So I wonder, why does it matter what the Jordanians prefer?
Because you suggested that giving the West Bank to Jordan was a solution, and I explained to you why it wasn’t. And rather than accept that, you instead want to take the opportunity to whine about ‘MUH IMMIGRATION’ despite it not actually being that relevant to the diplomatic reality. I don’t care about your views on immigration, I’m explaining why your ‘solution’ fails.
You explained that Jordanians don’t want more Palestinians in their country. They, and surrounding Muslim countries steadfastly prevent Palestinians from emigrating from the Palestinian territories, in order to perpetuate the problem. But if such a desire is morally illegitimate, then why respect it? Just do what Turkey does and usher the refugees on to their new homeland let Jordan deal with it.
I certainly don’t see how it’s Israel’s duty to govern their ungovernable neighbors or how it’s their duty to make a solution possible.
My deepest apologies for not rolling over and accepting your premise at it’s first utterance.
But if such a desire is morally illegitimate, then why respect it?
You’re kidding right?
Diplomacy is not about morality. It is about national interests and how nations pursue them. In the case of acquiring, or refusing to acquire territory, the reasons why a nation does is not a matter of morality. It could be Chernobyl or a toxic waste site or a territory claimed by another immediate and stronger military power. The reasons why Jordan doesn’t want the West Bank doesn’t matter in diplomacy, the reality is they don’t, and so trying to hand it to them will not work or be a ‘solution’. Morality does not factor into it at all, and you constantly whining about it is entirely and utterly ineffectual.
Ok, so theoretically you think their position isn’t ‘morally legitimate’. What are you going to do, force them to take the territory and administrate it? Please, give me a full breakdown on how you’ll force them to control the territory and how it will have zero negative consequences, o brilliant foreign policy master who doesn’t seem to understand the basic concepts of diplomacy. Oh yes, “let Jordan deal with it”. Which will never, ever turn into things like “arming Palestinian groups and letting them lose on Israel, and making them ‘deal with it’” Truly, a great solution.
Well if morality is irrelevant, then clearly it’s in the national interest of Israel to deport the Palestinians to Jordan. Despite all your pissy little put downs and overwrought sarcasm, I doubt that you’d be singing the tune of morality’s irrelevance in diplomacy if deporting the entirety of the people calling themselves Palestinian was on the table.
They learned the hard way.
I believe you mean “Judea and Samaria”. You know, Judea, the place where Judeans are from.
True. The pallys have repeatedly had everything they asked for save one; death to all jews. That is the only thing they want. Everything else they ask for is just bullshit. Palestine has a completely dysfunctional culture of hate and murder. They should all thank allah on a daily basis that I am not making the calls.
What kind of hat is it? One of those lumberjack wool caps? That would suck.
Pussy hat?
It’s Jesse tho
Sweet Borsolino, then.
He’s cough up a furry ball.
You kids are funny. I only wear minimalist paper skullcaps like the ones you get when visiting (((holy sites))). Good fiber, tastes great with teriyaki.
Welcome, to Vhyrus’s afternoon links. Time for an obscure little ditty called Play With Bootsy featuring Kelli Ali formerly of the sneaker pimps.
*applause*
TH approved, well done.
RyanAir experimented with standing flights.
I wish the busses in my city would remove most of the seats on rush hour express busses. But gubmint.
If you run a couple wire cables length-wise, you can have people stand asshole to pecker and harness them to the cable with a hook.
No need for stop-overs, either, just a low pass over the airfield.
Take all your commands from the
jump-masterstewardess.stewardessjump-mistressSo I just met something I thought did not exist: a legitimate anti-gun gun guy. Guy owns guns, shoots guns, knows about guns, but says that 95% of all concealed carriers has no business owning a gun, that he would rather throw a gun into the ocean than sell one to someone he doesn’t know, and thinks that the NFA is perfectly legitimate and we have no business legalizing sbrs because ‘short barreled rifles are just as deadly as rifles but easier to conceal. AR pistols are a loophole and making them harder to aim makes them less deadly.” Also suppressors shouldn’t be legalized, because… reasons? I don’t know I need an aspirin right now.
Liberty is really only for the right people, Vhyrus. You know that.
Is his attitude more “I got mine, screw everybody else” or “my personal values should be upheld by force of law”?
Well it’s convenient that he trusts himself to own a gun.
Is he a cop?
Lol.
Nope he’s a rocket scientist.. legitimately. He works in the office with me.
Something about being an expert in one field makes some people think they’re an expert in all fields?
A DeGrasshole?
I’m just shocked that a guy that owns and shoots guns and admits to being a gun owner says shit like “It’s easier to get a gun than a car in this country.” and means it as a negative. It’s like a fat person saying “There’s just too much damn food everywhere!”
It is easier to get a gun than a car in this country. And it’s easier to get a car than a house. And easier to get a house than a yacht. Generally speaking cost factors pretty heavily into what I can purchase at any given time.
He wasn’t referring to price, he was specifically referring to the amount of paperwork and red tape one has to go through.
Bad news – your friend is a slaver.
Not a friend, just a co worker. #sad.
Bullshit. Last car I bought, I signed a title and gave the dude a certified check. Last gun I bought, the state had to give me permission via a background check which didn’t take that long, (20 mins?) but still pissed me off. I waited longer for the gun than I did the keys to the car.
It does sound like he believes he is smart, skilled, and responsible enough to have a gun; but everyone else is a dope and should not have the same rights as he.
Is he a:
1) progressive and feels guilty of his past adoption or upbringing with shooting?
2) have a long history with guns from child hood, but “things are just different with (kids, rednecks, terrorists) today” The old man get off my lawn argument.
3) Is he a snob when it comes to guns. “If you don’t have the skill to shoot 2″ groups with your hand gun at 25yds you don’t have any business owning one”
1) maybe a progressive but hes a current gun owner so doubtful on second part.
2) Not at all old so doubtful but possible.
3) Also a maybe but I don’t know him well enough to find out (not going to either).
“It’s easier to get a gun than a car in this country.”
Well, a car is usually more expensive, if that’s what he means.
If you’re applying for a loan for your car, it SHOULD be easier to buy a gun!
I haven’t had a car loan in at least 15 years.
“It’s easier to get a gun than a car in this country.”
Cars kill a hell of a lot more people per year. Given that total number of cars on the road and guns in private possession are on the same order of magnitude, it ought to be harder to get a car than a gun if we’re pricing lethality in.
They’re out there. I used to see quite a few of these types in the shotgun games.
Sounds like you work with Mark Kelly.
Man flushes his friend’s ashes down ballpark toilets across the land.
I sent that to my dad this morning. Haven’t heard back yet.
Why not put them in the urinal? It’s far more realistic.
You pissed your life away!
If it’s a road game, would the toilet throw the ashes back?
“Take me out to the ballgame…pee on my ashes and flush it jack, I don’t care if I ever come back!” – ashy Larry
Roy Reigel?
Who’s his sidekick?
From Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on CNN today: “it is none of anyone’s business what someone who is a member of the private sector decides to accept in terms of compensation.”
Oh really??
Does that include the Internal Revenue Service?
Yes. I am also surprised about this. They seemed pretty torqued about Michael Flynn accepting money from Russia Today as a private citizen.
…. and the minimum wage, the gender pay gap, CEO salaries, so forth and so on.
Oh, they would reply that minimum wage workers would “decide to accept” a lot more than they’re getting.
I’d like a show of hands, who is surprised that DWS is a flaming hypocrite?
You don’t have to bring it’s sexual orientation into this
Obviously this was in reference to Obama’s speaking fees, but yeah she is a comically absurd hypocrite for this and many other reasons.
Have I ever mentioned that DWS is my congressperson thanks to redistricting?
*sobs*
That means you can vote that cunt out on her ass. Get on it.
I tried. I actually voted Republican for only the second time in my life (not counting registering Republican for primaries; only other general election time is when I voted against Hillary in the 2000 Senate election when I lived in NY) to vote against her. She’s beloved down here.
I feel you — I was in Jane Harmon’s district.
Even corporate CEOs!?
Wait. What?
So why do they want to see Trump’s tax returns from the time he was a private citizen?
So Huma Abedin was forwarding classified e-mails to her husband so he could print them out for her.
But the FBI can’t prosecute because they can’t prove criminal intent. *This* is a case where they remember that mens rea actually exists.
They seem to apply that principle rather liberally when it comes to government employees.
No no no. We don’t want to establish a bad precedent do we? This is a case of no womyn’s rea
Never get into an argument with a woman when intent is on the line.
Consider that stolen.
Comey should be fired..
Wait, what? Distribution of classified information specifically excludes mens rea. It says, “knowingly or unknowingly distributes classified information”
I think he’s saying in this case they apply mens rea when they shouldn’t, but in a zillion other cases where they should/could, they don’t.
That’s precisely it.
aka fucking Spillage!
That’s right Brett. What is your point prole?
So let me get this straight?
Clinton had no clue how to use a computer to get emails herself, so she asked Abedin to print out her emails and deliver them to her.
Abedin had no clue how to use a printer so had to get Weiner to print out the emails for her.
My Mom, who is five years older than Clinton and **NOT** a lawyer (or a college graduate) has figured out email and printing.
Abedin wasn’t an adult when Netscape came out, she has no excuse.
Why would anyone want these people in any sort of executive position?
“Why would anyone want these people in any sort of executive position?”
Because if they were in positions of authority, they wouldn’t pursue harmful policies.
How do we know this?
Because either the policies won’t be harmful or they won’t be their fault. The media will set us straight if we have any questions.
I’m in hell. Out camping in Nagano with a half dozen families for golden week. Basically, I’m the fucking baby sitter while the “men” tend to the fire and the wives fuck around the campsite doing god knows what. They’ve brought every convenience possible with them and have the entire site clutter with city people shit. I love the kids, but pawning them off on me while the adults do the adulty stuff is BS. I’ve spent weeks by myself in the boundary waters in Minnesota, the Rockies and elsewhere. They are ruining this trip with their over preparedness.
*thread fail
^^ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
I read that as “I’m fucking the baby-sitter”
That would be a better deal.
“Joel, get off the babysitter!”
In the past, when relatives have stupidly left me with their kids and assumed I’d watch them, I’ve simply left. They no longer leave their kids with me,
I introduce them to Fire and show them where the breakables are.
That’s what I did last night. Just went to bed at 8 which is why I’m up at 5 am. One of the boys came in at 10 last night and jumped on me as I was dead asleep. Straight out of Raising Arizona and Mr. McDuunah’s car.
this is the correct method.
Another one is, “OK KIDS EVERYONE GRAB A STICK, WE’RE GOING TO PLAY STICK-FIGHT NOW”
As of right now, they are playing with a hatchet. Seriously. I’m putting as much real estate between myself and the soon to be mishap.
Nah. Proper use of a suture kit is a life lesson.
You’re saying I should let them play with the rape kit?
Just say within earshot of other parents
“Hey, kids. Ever hear about Battle Royale?”
I didn’t know there was a square inch left in japan that would qualify as a camping spot.
He said he wouldn’t file charges because *no reasonable prosecutor*.
That just means he knows there is no way you could get a DC jury that would convict regardless of evidence of a crime.
Prosecutors don’t take cases they know they can’t win.
Mark Zuckerberg fires up his Presidential campaign
Mark Zuckerberg isn’t old enough to be President.
There is no age limit on RUNNING for president. I remember there being a court case about that in the 1980s (I think).
yeah he is…. He’s 33. And the next election isn’t for a few years….
Just saw something I didn’t know. Biden was 29 when elected to the Senate. However, he turned 30 between election day and the start of the new congress, so everything was fine.
In a similar way, I was 17 when I voted in my first primary election. It was legal, because my 18th was before the general.
He was born in 1984, so he’ll be 36 by the 2020 elections, which means he’ll be old enough.
“I got a great idea, let’s run a guy who’s probably autistic!”
Well, at least all the opposition has to do is run clips of The Social Network.
Let’s shatter the Aspie ceiling! I mean, you have an autist in a negotiation, all the experience and tricks the other side brings to the table are instantly neutralized!
A comment from the Slate Star Codex piece about media-bias which i thought was maybe relevant to a discussion we were having the other day re: Brian Caplan’s Libertarian Purity Test….
where i mentioned that what “libertarian” means for many many people isn’t necessarily at all related to Brians assumptions about ‘ideological-orthodoxy’
(basically, that very few people are even interested in ideological consistency. most people don’t ‘politics’ that way in the first place)
anyway, the comment =
Other than Somalia bit, that’s unusually…inspiring? Hope-bringing?
Help me here, my vocabulary is strangely bereft of optimism-related words.
encouraging? heartening? cheering? reassuring?
in any case, the point of that example was to note that Caplan’s approach…. which was basically that people (should?) form political opinions based on adoptions of axiomatic formula like the NAP, and then reason forward from there… isn’t just false, its just like trying to measure temperature with a speedometer. I think it misunderstands the nature of political reasoning. I think it would also suggest that trying to spread libertarian ideas via some cookie-cutter application of the NAP would backfire horribly.
this isn’t the first time this point has been made.
but as for your point, yeah, i’m similarly encouraged. I see a bit of it here and there from people who are otherwise lefties and are starting to come around to the idea. What those people will not abandon, however, is the tribal affiliation with the left. Even if they start to adopt libertarian arguments about stuff, they will still identify as Blue… just “dissatisfied Blue trying to fix Blue from within”… because they don’t want to sacrifice the social benefits that come from identifying with that Team.
I agree that libertarians could do with a little more of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. That having been said, just as Less Wrong-ers, like Alexander acknowledge cognitive bias exists, yet don’t throw Bayesian inference out the window, libertarians can acknowledge that cognitive bias exists..and appeal to it, without throwing away the philosophical axioms undergirding their thought.
No one said anything about throwing stuff away.
My point was about better understanding how most people think about politics – which is “less like an engineering problem” which the right formula will solve.. and more like a buffet of “priority issues”.
As that person noted, he wouldn’t give a toss about libertarian ideas “for their own sake” if the government he lived it were already doing a swell-job (eg. Singapore). He’s only interested in them because it appears to him that they might actually be correct in the specific areas he happens to see problems in.
the mistake would be trying to sell that guy a Cadillac (a philosophy) when all he wants is the ashtray. (a policy fix)
I disagree. I read “That doesn’t make von Mises my guru, it just means libertarianism is a general idea that improves on the current problems I’m worried about.” As a statement of support for consequentialist libertarianism as opposed to deontological libertarianism. (Ironically, von Mises was a consequentialist.) If you’re arguing for libertarianism from a pragmatic standpoint, then you are, by definition, throwing out things like natural rights or any other normative principles.
I don’t believe its an either/or proposition.
Arguments from a pragmatic standpoint might help me lower taxes. Arguments from a natural rights POV will help me win a debate in a classroom.
No one needs to throw anything out. Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Emerson was a homo.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
– Oscar Wilde (also a homo)
as a second point… re: “” the philosophical axioms undergirding their thought.””
what most people are interested in politically is (stated as broadly as possible) “improving their lives” (and/or their children’s lives)
very few are interested in ‘ideas for their own sake’…. and trying to apply those ideas *regardless* of whether or not they will actually improve their own lives, but rather because they better-adhere to some theoretical ‘moral principle’.
this observation might be mistaken as making a case that the argument of the moral-purist is therefore “wrong”. No. Its that being right or wrong doesn’t necessarily matter.
e.g.
– Telling someone that taxes should be lower because taxes are immoral is unlikely to convince them to cut taxes if they think those taxes somehow personally benefit them.
That this statement is true (according to the NAP) may seem important to the person making the case, but does necessarily make it so to anyone else.
– Telling someone that cutting taxes will vastly improve their own and their children’s conditions in life is far more likely to convince them to do so.
It has the added benefit of also being true. In this latter case, being true matters, because it is observably so rather than ideally so.
People might note that the argument here bears a strong resemblance to prior arguments re: “foreign policy realism”
I agree with you concerning how best to formulate political arguments to rhetorically appeal to the average person; the average person is unscrupulous and mercenary.
And so is every nation-state. Hence my point about foreign policy realism.
I like it because it’s literally where I came from.
My family was originally a Communist/partizan one (if you have to pick sides, and by god you did in 1945).
Then I got to experience this guy liberalizing economy just a little, and prosperity ensuing. Then Socialist beat him by partly robbing the state, and partly promising all kinds of welfare and workers’ rights. Then they started a civil war.
Compare and contrast, and little Zagloba became a Thatcheritte.
You notice how much the left likes to spread this notion that the reason we have all this “Wealth Inequality” is because of the horrible things Reagan did in the 1980s?
I always think its remarkable how successful they are with inverting these basic arguments for self interest… claiming ‘if we only made the rich more miserable, somehow everyone else will benefit!’. they’re basically making a self-interested argument that high-taxes will create more prosperity. Its idiotic, but it works. Mainly because their audience *wasnt fucking alive in the 1970s* and has no idea how bad those ideas are.
So that idiotic “controversy” with Hypatia Magazine mentioned this morning gets dumber. We’ve now come full circle. First, saying “black” was racist, so you said African-American. Then that was racist, so you said “person of color”. Apparently now “person of color” is racist and you should be saying “black”
I… I… give up.
Obviously, screeching at the Normo-Americans is the point.
Ah, I see the reason for the “controversy.” I had never heard of Hypatia Magazine before. Now I have. I still don’t know what it’s about or have any desire to check it out, but I have now heard of it. Mission accomplished.
Hypatia, you say? Sounds like an excuse to repost the takedown of Gibbon/Sagan/Agora version of her story!
Giving up is the point. You are wrong. If you try to be right they just change what right is and you are wrong again.
The only proper response is ‘fuck off’.
So, what does everyone think of the Dark Tower trailer?
I think its going to be a fun fantasy movie with characters named but mostly unlike the books. I’m rooting for the Stephen King character to die in the movie.
It’s pretty clear from the trailer that it doesn’t really follow the book. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m skeptical.
More like *dork* tower, amirite?
my comment from previous thread
Looks interesting, but Im already worried that they screwed the pooch on this one.
Idris Elba is a fine actor, but he doesn’t look anything like the “man with no name” who Roland is based upon. Aside from the inaccuracy, there were some racial conflicts that were part of the storyline.
Roland reloading in the trailer looks like something from Equilibrium, not how it was described in the book. It doesn’t seem like a man who can magically reload two revolvers at once is going to experience the same difficulties in the future that are a major plot point.
Lastly, I always viewed the world as being more faded than vividly dark. I don’t think the JJ Abrams and Michael Bay had a baby look is going to convey the right tone for the series.
That’s my main concern, as well. Great actor, but nothing like Roland… And there’s huge racial conflicts that play out across a couple books… so… ? Not sure how they’re going to handle it; I’m guessing they’ll drop that aspect entirely.
I would write a (at least) ten-stanza epic poem (in decameter) if they leave the racial conflict in there and completely ignore the incongruity.
Hahahah! Well, then it would read a lot like the source material, wouldn’t it 😉
The series, as it was written, was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too bloated to ever fit into movie format.
This is gonna end up being something ‘inspired by’ the Dark Tower than what was in the actual books.
This is why all of King’s best screen adaptions are based on short stories/novellas. (Shawshank and Stand By Me) or inspired by (Kubrick’s The Shining).
I’m still sore that they didn’t follow Nicholson’s advice and cast Jessica Lange as Wendy Torrance. Instead, Kubrick went with Shelley Duvall, and then made her legit cry hysterically for at least one scene in the movie.
I think they dream of Harry Potter scenario – multiple multi-million movies, coming up on a reasonable schedule over the next decade or so.
Possibly with a Potter/LotR proviso of “just because it’s not on screen, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Is it based on the board game?
Wait a minute here. You can’t just start a great series with the 8th book of the series. What the hell kind of fucked up shit is that?
The first 3 are the best in my opinion, and I haven’t read the last one released. But anyway, who wants to watch that? If you’re going to do films, you have to start with The Gunslinger, duh!
As I mentioned in another thread, I really liked Herbert Lom in it.
Assange brings the funny.
OT: Zero, here’s a podcast I think you might like. It’s about WW2, and discusses the roots of meme warfare/
I accidentally showed this to John Titor instead of you earlier today.
I was wondering about that, I’m not the guy who sounds like a Metal Gear Solid villain talking about THE MEMES.
Yeah I realized just now.
Listen if you’re going to have an anime avatar all bets are off.
You have varying responses to them across different timelines. Interesting.
I knew some of this. I wonder how many people realize that Raiders of the Lost Ark at least had that basic premise right – that Hitler was sending people all over the world to try to find various artifacts like the Spear of Destiny because he believed the legends.
I would like to open this to a contest for “Best Snappy Headline-Translation”
the original =
FBI joins probe of bananas in nooses at Washington’s American University
My translation =
Federal Investigators Probing Banana-Hammocks on College Campus
FBI investigation at American University yields low hanging fruit.
“” low hanging fruit.””
well played.
Yeah. Can’t beat that.
This was all over the local news last night. On repeat. Students marched over it.
Hey, apparently effective trolling is effective.
False flag.
Somebody bet me. Anyone.
Of course it is a false flag.
Federal Investigators: No Noose, is good Noose.
+1 Gary Gnu
FBI Hunt for Sensible Priorities Proves Fruitless.
Other than Somalia bit, that’s unusually…inspiring? Hope-bringing?
Help me here, my vocabulary is strangely bereft of optimism-related words.
Rational? Self-aware?
“If he pulls this off I’ll eat my hat.”
Unpossible. When I was a wee lad, the old wisened ones from my tribe said that no one but the anti-Christ can do that. And only after the temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem. Last I looked, there’s no new temple. Also, the old wisened ones said that the anti-Christ will be a Jew from eastern Europe. So that all rules out Trump pulling this off.
he is a builder though, right ?
give him time
Give him time to become a Jew from eastern Europe? Well, I guess that’s possible these days maybe, all he has to do is say ‘I’m a Jew from eastern Europe’ and anyone who argues with that is a transJewite hater, or something.
Listen up, everybody. Essence Magazine has published its sure to become highly influential, culturally and philosophically important list of 100 Woke Women:
http://www.essence.com/news/woke-100-women#1127560
Maxine Waters is included, so whether “wokeness” includes the ability to walk and chew gum simultaneously is presently unclear.
Why ain’t they no white woman who be woke?
whether “wokeness” includes the ability to walk and chew gum simultaneously is presently unclear
seems clear to me, the one does not require the other.
re: Trump / Abbas
We’re, what, 4 months into Trump’s administration? and already he says stuff like, “I THINK WE COULD BE GREAT FRIENDS” and people are unsure if that means he’s going to invite you to the White House, or attack you with cruise missiles.