Friday Morning Links

The Astros won a day game. The Twins lost to the Sawks. The Dodgers won  and a Yankee blew out his patellar tendon in his debut…plus the pinstripes lost. Not much else happened as far as actual games yesterday. The Wimbledon draw is set and Federer is the #1 seed and faces a tough slate if he is to win.

In basketball news, expect there to be an NCAA investigation into Kentucky basketball soon. No other explanation exists for Calipari asking the Knicks if they’d like him to come coach them. And Carmelo Anthony would like to become a Cavalier.  But I doubt Cleveland wants to deliberately catch cancer, so I can’t see them wanting him.

Football is coming soon enough, thank God.  Until then, I’m gonna struggle to bring you sports in advance of…the links!

The House passed a tough new law affecting illegal aliens. Lots of Democrat defectors to vote with the GOP on this one. Let’s see if the media portray them as evil Nazis too.

Jose Arizmendi

In other immigrant-related news, a Houston, TX federal judge has revived the naturalized citizenship of a child rapist. He revoked it because the guy didn’t disclose it on his citizenship application. And apparently the INS didn’t cross-reference state criminal records when they were handing out citizenships in 1996.

An interesting, and bluntly critical, look at the Ossoff campaign’s terrible messaging strategy. Something like this belonged more on QVC than a highly-covered election.

Travel ban Temporary halt on immigration from a few countries is back after the Supreme Court unanimously struck down orders from the 4th and 9th Circuit Courts that halted it.

Greta Van Susteren

Greta out at MSNBC after less than six months. I guess that square peg didn’t fit into that round hole.

I’m throwing y’all a bone with my final link of the week.  A federal judge has kicked the gun-grabbers in California square in the nuts.

Scandalous!

Have a great day, friends. And a better weekend.

Comments

584 responses to “Friday Morning Links”

  1. Just a thought not a sermon

    39) My kids are highly concerned with what’s fair. My goal is to break them of this habit. When they push against what they are given, I go the other direction. “Dad, my brother got a bigger cookie than me!” I take a bite of both cookies. “There, now it’s fair.” It hasn’t gotten rid of the whining completely, but it helps. I’ve told them dads don’t care what’s fair.

    It’s not really true. I actually go to some effort to make things fair, not that they notice. I mean, I try to make things fair for them in life. Providing opportunities, giving them a chance to grow up with talents and habits that will help them in decades to come. I think a big element of that is not doing a lot of stuff for them. Letting them figure things out on their own. Sending them out into the neighborhood to go to the pool, other kids’ houses, or a couple nearby stores on their own. Giving them chores. Making them speak for themselves when an adult is talking to them. Because I won’t always be looking out for them to make sure the world treats them fairly, they need to learn to do it on their own.

    I get the sense many other parents do very little of that. Other kids strike me as being coddled. In some ways, my children’s peers superficially seem better adjusted than my kids, especially my 12-year-old son, who has a lot of emotional problems. Yet I’m proud, because I think my kids are more independent than most of those other kids. In past generations, this wouldn’t be remarkable, but it is now. They can do things on their own. They won’t always get the cookies other kids get, but they’ll be able to make their own cookies.

    1. Brett L

      I just want my sons to understand that hugging each other with their teeth is an activity that requires affirmative consent from all parties.

      1. leonadasiv

        Ahhh you got a biter too. Our youngest bites her sister all the time, though it’s the only defense she really has against her.

        1. Brett L

          Its actually the older one. He bites whatever frustrates him. Often his brother. So far, he has not done it to any kids he doesn’t share a mother with.

        2. Chipwooder

          My seven year old, who hadn’t bitten anyone in several years, has inexplicably started doing it again out of nowhere. That girl is such a strange combination of aggressive mulishness and compulsive conformity.

          My nine year old, on the other hand, has picked up the habit of flipping me off from one of his less respectable friends.

          1. Drake

            Sounds like you have a couple of libertarians on your hands. My condolences.

          2. Chipwooder

            I only wish. My daughter’s compulsive conformity I was talking about? It manifests itself in frantic to-the-letter adherence to institutional rules. I was having a talk with my son recently about run-ins he was having with this kid during recess soccer games, when the other kid kept “accidentally” knocking him down. Told the boy he needed to respond in kind, and that I would never, ever punish him for defending himself. If that kid hit him, I wanted him to hit the other kid in the nose as hard as he could.

            At that, my daughter got hysterical. “NOOOOOOOOO, you can’t hit! If Alex hits Joshua, then Alex is a bully!” The school has been pumping the kids full of “bullying” propaganda that teaches them they can never hit anyone ever for any reason, even if it’s in self-defense. Fortunately, the boy has more sense than that.

            Not enough sense to stop announcing to the world when he’s farting, however.

          3. Drake

            Maybe the kind of libertarian who likes the old place.

            I was a rules follower in my youth but also had that “aggressive mulishness” you mentioned. Eventually those 2 aspects conflicted. Now I analyze rules before deciding if I’m going to obey them or not.

          4. ArchieBunker

            I don’t know if raising kids towards libertarianism is a good thing. I’d almost like for my son not to be as cynical as we all are, maybe b able to watch the news without throwing the remote at the screen and all that. But too late for that.

          5. Number.6

            I don’t regret it at all. TLSD is a pretty solid minarchist and has been evolving into that from about 12.

            #6.2 is just about to turn 16 and is still struggling with a “there oughtta be a law” mentality, but is solid free market economically.

            What you call cynicism, I’d call a healthy level of suspicion.

            I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to engage in an almost-adult conversation with a son or daughter who have a solid understanding of their views, the reasons they hold them, the rationale that drives the decisions. And all this while all their peers are playing Pokemon Go!

          6. ArchieBunker

            I do agree with you and have raised a kid that will undoubtedly be a libertarian. But ignorance is bliss and it kinda sucks to be outraged at every damn thing the gov critters do. And nobody wants to root for a team that never wins.

          7. Number.6

            They’re largely immunized from it (cynicism) . If we put $1 in a bottle every time someone in the family rolled their eyes at something they saw on TV or on the internet, we’d have a lot of money in that bottle, and an equal amount less in our piggy banks and wallets. We don’t tend to ‘do’ outrage. Why be outraged at that which we cannot resist. if it’s important enough, get involved and take action, or enable someone else to do so. If it isn’t, just add it to the list of social follies we see each and every day, sack up, and get on with it.

            We’ve been very upfront with our kids that a parents’ job is to turn a child into a self-sufficient, self-actuated human being, capable of holding their own. It’s an abstruse concept when they’re pre-teen, but they catch on real fast in middle school.

        3. TripodKat

          When I was a kid (the youngest of 3), I bit my brother cause he was 4 years older than me and he’d pin me down when we got in fights. I had no choice, it was the only option, and damn it, I was gonna use it.

          1. ElspethFlashman

            I bit my sister once in the inside of her elbow. I am sure it hurt really bad. For once, I was seriously punished, because I think I broke the skin (she was a bit of a bully, and 5 years older than me). So I was sent to my room, no supper. I was so mad that if they were going to shut me in, I was going to make it so they couldn’t get at me. Thus I pushed the bed up to the door so it couldn’t be opened, kicked against the wall for hours, and fell asleep super mad.

    2. Pine_Tree

      “Fair is a 4-letter word.” – from another parent at camp one year when a kid was starting to complain.

    3. PieInTheSKy

      Well the Dilbert guy did say fair is for idiots and children. So he has some chance to grow out of it, depending on the breaks.

    4. straffinrun

      So the kid with more cookie is the bourgeoisie and the kid with less cookie is the proletariat. That makes you Stalin.

      1. leonadasiv

        No Stalin eats the cookies and then when the kids starve people talk about how you can’t blame JATNAS because how could he control how many cookies the factory makes.

        1. straffinrun

          Hey, Jatnas, shouldn’t you be using a knife to split that cookie and not an ice pick?

          1. leonadasiv

            -1 Trotsky

          2. Technically it was an ice axe…

          3. straffinrun

            Trotsky was the victim, so that would still make Jatnas Stalin. Mutter, mutter.

          4. Chipwooder

            So who is Molotov in this scenario.

          5. straffinrun

            The other kid trying to get everybody to sign a non aggression pact?

    5. ScoobaSteve

      I get “He’s not sharing his toy” to which I reply “He doesn’t have to, it’s his”

      1. AlexinCT

        Yeah, this forced sharing shit always pissed me off.

      2. Number.6

        Well, that’s why you do a ceremonial burning of “Rainbow Fish” and explain why.

        Also, grow a Ron Swanson ‘stache.

        1. ScoobaSteve

          I got that book as a hand me down with a bunch of others from my sister’s kids. The first time I read it to my kids (not knowing of it beforehand), I stopped in the middle to say “What is this shit?” or something to that effect.

          1. Number.6

            It’s worth reading because you can talk about real and fake friendship, the foolishness of ‘buying’ someone’s affections, etc., My son was given the book at 2. We read it a few times, and put it away until he was 4 of 5 and let him ‘find’ it.

            Subsequent brainwashing ensued.

    6. Number.6

      IANAP, and it’s not clear if you do this, but start talking ‘adult things’ with your son. TLSD had a lot of problems in middle school because she was excluded (quite brutally) from the “cool kids” team, and my wife and I spent a lot of time with her trying to simply increase her sense of self-worth. Kids – as you know – can be savage.

      What finally brought her out of it was us giving her some harsh truths, gently. We had to demonstrate that the ‘cool kids’ are prone to factionalization and schism – someone’s always being cast out, and life itself is like that (SJWs at the moment, for example). All she needed was a Few Good Friends, but she’d have to go make those friends, if necessarily, outside of her school circle. The whole process was undertaken on the basis that she’s on an ‘adult program’. Gave her some Tony Robbins tapes (this is how adults who are in a far worse situation than you pull themselves out of it) – she came back and for some bizarre reason said she wanted to take up crew, in an 8. As it turned out, she only really did that for about 6 months, but all her friends going into high school were also crew, many at different schools, who were a couple years older than her.

      In some ways, she lost a few years of her adolescence, because it made her mature to the point that at 15/16, she was socialized and behaviorally more like a high school graduate.

      Anyway, executive summary, sometimes it’s not a bad idea to thrust not just chores and ‘independence’ on your kids, but to treat them as full adults, far earlier than you might have wanted to. Some of them respond very well to the respect they think you’re giving them.

      1. Agent Cooper

        I just show my kids the Rocky Balboa speech on a loop to brainwash them.

        1. Number.6

          That works.

          In my/our case, the pivotal thing was to to treat them as semi-adults as soon as possible, and let them know in subtle ways that they are. The more responsibility (and for that matter ‘adult respect’) they earn, the more they get.

          Being a kid is fun no matter how old you are. But being an adult, when you’re a kid, is exciting up to the point where you have to pay taxes and cover a mortgage.

    7. Homple

      +1 Ron Swanson

  2. Tundra

    Oh so ’80s.

    Isn’t she married to McEnroe?

    1. Jeez, had my music selections been off so bad lately that i finally made one worthy of a comment?

      Serious question.

      1. Haven’t listened to any of it, so I don’t know. (combined lack of work audio, and a general policy against following Glibertarian youtube links)

        1. Rhywun

          Also a generally “no”. Unless I know what it’s going to be like this one.

        2. Badolph Hilter

          and a general policy against following Glibertarian youtube links

          Seconded/confirmed.

          1. Bobarian LMD

            Coward!

      2. Tundra

        Not at all. I’ve enjoyed the diversity. Spotify is definitely having trouble keeping up!

      3. Just a thought not a sermon

        I don’t listen to stuff at work as it would annoy the hell out of people in the cubicles near me. Occasionally if your teaser is interesting, I’ll follow the link just to see what the song is.

      4. JD

        I’ll open the YouTube links to see what the song is but rarely listen to it.

        Didn’t everyone have a crush on Patty Smyth of Scandal?

        1. They did unless they were gay. Or a straight chick.

          1. Badolph Hilter

            Meh, she’s no Tawny Kitaen.

          2. Number.6

            Neither is 2017’s Tawny Kitaen
            *brrrrr*

      5. TripodKat

        I don’t click on YouTube links while at work.

      6. bacon-magic

        I can’t listen at work so…I click link to see who it is. You’re doing fine.

      7. Agent Cooper

        She is good at the white girl dancing thing.

  3. Just a thought not a sermon

    “The House passed a tough new law affecting illegal aliens.”

    Kate’s Law. Uggh. I mean, the law is fine, sounds reasonable. But do we have to name these things after people?

    1. INSTANT SURVEY QUESTION:

      Name the worst law passed named after someone.

      1. Brett L

        “Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act”

        1. robc

          Winner!

      2. Brady Bill was the first that sprang to mind.

        1. Chipwooder

          The first and the best answer

      3. straffinrun

        Gay–Lussac law?

      4. straffinrun

        How about worst “War on…”? Considering every time they do this, they get more of what they’re having a war on. Let’s have a “War on Peace”.

        1. AlexinCT

          War on titties?

      5. Drake

        Smoot and Hawley got it done.

        1. straffinrun

          The original MAGA boys.

          1. Oooh! I think you have a movie or TV series idea and title there!

            The MAGA Boys

            Original MAGAs

      6. Can we count the Monroe Doctrine?

        1. robc

          Is there a problem with the Monroe Doctrine?

          1. commodious spittoon

            The Island of Doctrine Monroe was pretty bad.

          2. FreeSociety

            Someone get this guy a narrowed gaze

          3. It was kinda the first thing we formally stated that stuck our nose in everybody else’s business.

          4. WTF

            Partly that, but mostly a warning to Europe to keep their noses out of “our” hemisphere.

          5. We share the Northern Hemisphere with them…

          6. Zunalter

            How about “eastern” vs “western” hemisphere instead? That line of demarcation almost gets all of Europe in it.

    2. Per House clerk, 24 Democrats voted in favor of HR 3004, Kate’s Law. Only one Republican, Rep. Justin Amash, opposed it.

    3. Agent Cooper

      When they gunned down her husband in cold blood over a land dispute, she has nowhere to turn but herself for frontier justice.
      Meredith Baxter-Birney is Cowboy Kate McGranahan in Kate’s Law

      Thursdays this fall on CBS!

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        I think it was a Lifetime special starring Lindsay Wagner.

      2. Badolph Hilter

        I assume this is a parody, but I’m not sure. So well done.

      3. Zunalter

        Are we sure that isn’t the Magnificent 7?

  4. Male Feminist Arrested For Child Porn

    A former moderator on one of the internet’s most prominent gaming forums, NeoGAF, has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.

    Thirty-two-year-old Christopher John Goldberg, who went by the name “Amir0x” on social media, was a male feminist who often took to Twitter to express his hatred at “sexists” and Trump supporters, in vocal support of the Women’s March. He was active during the GamerGate debacle that took the gaming world by storm in 2014, taking the side of feminists.

    The Tobyhanna, Penn. man was charged this Wednesday with 64 counts of child porn possession and one count of criminally using a computer to download the illicit materials. Goldberg told police that he believed the pictures were not illegal if they didn’t depict sexual acts, but the police didn’t buy his excuse and issued the charges against him.

    1. What is the comparative statistical differential in sex offenses between the general populace and “Male Feminists”. Because I don’t want to rely only on the anecdotal stream of cases suggesting it’s disproportionatly high among the latter demographic.

      1. Count Potato

        For one more data point you could google this asshole:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Schwyzer

      2. commodious spittoon

        “Youtubers” is probably the class to look out for, not just male feminists. Seems to be an intersection between notoriety-obsessed emotional nutjobs and murderous psychos.

    2. Just a thought not a sermon

      “Goldberg told police that he believed the pictures were not illegal if they didn’t depict sexual acts”

      Struggling to figure out how this point isn’t true. So these are just pictures of kids naked taking a bath, or what?

      1. Pope Jimbo

        I have a friend who had a graduation party for his son last month. He and his wife are big time pic takers, so they have a ton of pics of their kids. At the party he had a slideshow going with pics from his son’s life. A few of them were of him in a bath tub or running around naked at their cabin as a tiny kid.

        He said he had two different people come up to him at the party and try to warn him that he could get in trouble for child pr0n because of those pics. Neither of them knew each other. He was completely stunned that anyone would even think that.

        When he asked me what I thought (because he knows I’m a crazy libertarian who is probably going to be tazed at some point), I laughed and told him that he is completely in the right, BUT yes some crazy nut job probably could make his life hell. I felt bad for him because he has very libertarian tendencies but still is more normal than us. He just couldn’t quite grasp the fact that today, some subjects will totally fuck you even if you are as pure as the driven snow.

        1. ChipsnSalsa

          totally fuck you even if because you are as pure as the driven snow.

          1. AlexinCT

            Yes, this…

        2. Tulip

          This reminds of a time I was talking to a male co-worker about how my neighbor likes to mess with my cat through the window. Makes faces, taps on window, etc. From out of left field, and seemingly perfectly serious:
          Co-worker: Well, that’s not right, I mean what if were a kid. You’ve got to wonder about a guy like that. Too much interest, you know.
          Me: :blink: blink :blink: It’s a cat.
          Co-worker: Yeah, its a cat, but still. I just always wonder about guys who show too much interest in kids.
          Me: (just to mess with him) Its an adult cat.
          Co-worker: oh, ok.

          I still wonder who was messing with whom (who, whom?? whatever)

          1. AlexinCT

            WTF? You are making that shit up. How does someone go from you talking about a cat to discussing perverts? What even possess an individual to make that connection? Or did that coworker have some hidden agenda?

          2. Tulip

            I work with all PhDs and have lots of bizarre conversations (and once witnessed a near physical altercation over a math proof. I myself have gotten into a screaming match over a math proof – we take that shit seriously.) But that one conversation really stands out in my mind as weird. He had a very odd sense of humor so I am not sure if he was messing with me (and I then messed with him) or not.

    3. Agent Cooper

      Whoops.

    4. Badolph Hilter

      The headlines will be that he’s a prominent male gamer.

  5. I’m throwing y’all a bone with my final link of the week. A federal judge has kicked the gun-grabbers in California square in the nuts.

    And there was much rejoicing… yay.

    (More seriously, the 9th is going to overturn this, then we’re going to get a wishy-washy response from the supremes and it’ll be enforced with or without judicial stamps of approval)

    1. Florida Man

      Did you write “Shadow Boy”? Because I bought it thinking you did.

      1. Which one did you buy? This is the one I wrote. The title was more common than I expected…

        1. Florida Man

          Yup. That’s the one I bought. Does it matter if it’s paper or digital, profit wise? I bought the paper back.

          1. Purchases have about the same royalties for me in both formats (a matter of pennies of difference between the two.)

          2. Florida Man

            Cool. I’m taking it to read on the plane to Ireland next week. Looking forward to it.

          3. Let me know what you think.

        2. ron73440

          I bought the 4 book edition and just started it last night.

          Interesting premise and very entertaining so far.

          1. Thank you. With any luck that will still be your opinion at the end.

          2. AlexinCT

            That’s what she said..

    2. No way. This is DOA. They’re criminalizing the possession of something legal everywhere else and that tens of thousands of people already have in that state without incident. I’d actually be surprised if the Ninth overturns it, knowing they’d get their asses kicked by the SC.

      1. straffinrun

        The ninth seems to enjoy getting their asses kicked by the S.C. Why would that stop them?

        1. Because they want to keep low enough of a profile during the Trump years that he doesn’t break their little progressive club (Koskinen excepted) up and neuter their influence.

        2. Stinky Wizzleteats

          Whip me, beat me, make me write bad decisions.

          1. *motions for Webdominatrix*

            “We got a live one, over here!”

      2. Drake

        I keep waiting for the gun laws in NY, CA, NJ, CT, and MA to take a crushing blow because they are so ex post facto / retroactive.

        I got me permit and bought a gun in Massachusetts in 1990 from a licensed dealer. A few years later, the state decided my HK91 was in fact, illegal. NJ did the same with many guns including commonly owned ones like the M1 Carbine.

        1. WTF

          Every time (so far) a blatantly unconstitutional gun law like New Jersey’s de facto ban on any kind of carry comes up, SCOTUS refuses to grant cert and lets it stand.

          1. Drake

            I keep hoping – while keeping a low-profile so I’m not the test-case.

      3. FreeSociety

        The 9th Circuit can theoretically and in reality should have it’s territorial jurisdiction reduced to the confines of the building(s) that houses it, if not out-right disbanded. The cumulative damage wrought by that court is immense.

        1. WTF

          Plus the prog shrieking and tears would be epic.

  6. Google Is Killing Me
    A feminist writer’s struggle with the search engine.

    While many people have the same full name as me, there is one person who bothers me more than others, both personally and professionally. As a feminist, I feel intensely frustrated sharing a name with an extremely conservative Mormon woman. From here on out I will refer to her as Petunia. I feel that Petunia is a more fitting moniker for her than her actual name.

    Petunia regularly preaches via blogging that being a wife and mother are roles that are necessary for a woman to be fulfilled. I believe marriage and parenting can be extraordinary experiences, but I don’t believe they are the defining elements of womanhood. Women don’t have to be wives and/or mothers to be full human beings.

    On her blog and public Facebook page, Petunia questions if dinosaurs ever existed, and often writes about avoiding Satan as if Satan were the teenage pothead next door. Petunia recommends looking at pictures of snakes as an activity to stay away from pornography. (Umm…) In the same post about pornography, she quotes someone who wrote about not “petting” a snake. (For real.) She has also defended polygamy, stating that while it might not be for everyone, there is nothing wrong with it. I personally believe that much of Mormonism is made up and cult-like, similar to Scientology.

    1. The Elite Elite

      Feminist upset that she shares name with someone who is the complete opposite of her. Then she rants about it as though anyone should care.

    2. RBS

      Jesus Christ. Talk about looking for something to complain about.

      She has also defended polygamy

      I should be able to live my life how I want, but fuck you.

      1. Negroni Please

        Whoah I didn’t know RBS was a polygamist.

        1. RBS

          What? Fuck no, one is plenty.

          1. RBS

            *Insert Standard Libertarian Disclaimer.

          2. Tundra

            Right? I dig my wife, but I don’t think I could survive another.

          3. Even in my little corner of Afghanistan I was in had funny reactions to anyone who took a second wife. One local goon did, and all the older wiser guys were rolling their eyes and making our interpreters laugh with their wisecracks. I asked what they were saying, and the interpreters all but gave us a 10 minute standup routine.

          4. Bobarian LMD

            If you define bigamy as having one wife too many, then I’m guilty.

    3. straffinrun

      As a feminist, I feel intensely frustrated…

      *Interupts* Where’s my sammich?

      1. leonadasiv

        As a feminist, I feel intensely frustrated

        But you repeat yourself

        1. Badolph Hilter

          CNOL

          (chuckle, not out loud)

    4. Narcissist googles self. Thinks she’s better than others with same name.

      What kind of asshole googles herself and then openly criticizes people with differing views? Doesn’t she realize that she’s the one that ends up looking like an asshole? On more than one level.

      1. AlexinCT

        People that desperately need attention?

      2. Zunalter

        Doesn’t she realize…

        No. Unequivocally no.

    5. PieInTheSKy

      Why do collectivist like to label themselves so much? As you know an individual I don’t give a shit.

      1. RBS

        I don’t know why but they do. Everyone mid 30’s progressive person I know is now calling themselves whatever the made up generation between X and Millennial is.

        1. Negroni Please

          I believe they are called Xennial Warrior Princesses

          1. straffinrun

            Applause or narrow gaze? Lucy Lawless was hawt, so applause.

          2. PieInTheSKy

            But did she get paid the same as Hercules?

          3. straffinrun

            Got me. *Shrugs*

          4. She got to sleep with Gabrielle. What did Hercules get?

          5. Number.6

            Fluffed?

          6. CPRM

            I’m sure she got treated better on set than Ted Raimi.

          7. Badolph Hilter

            No, she wasn’t hawt per se. But add her little blonde sidekick and there was something workable there.

          8. *reluctant applause*

            OK, I’ll give you that one.

        2. Pat

          It’s important to have your own personal brand, especially in fields where you’re a cog utterly indistinguishable from anybody else.

        3. wdalasio

          Everyone mid 30’s progressive person I know is now calling themselves whatever the made up generation between X and Millennial is.

          Sounds fitting. Their bullshit made the rest of humanity think they were unmitigated assholes. So now they have to have a new moniker to fuck up. Sort of like they did with the term “liberals”.

    6. Agent Cooper

      “As a feminist, I feel intensely frustrated sharing a name with an extremely conservative Mormon woman.”

      FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        Too bad we can’t change the font size, Cooper’s “fuck you” would have looked better in 40pt

        1. *baffled look*

          Apparently that is one thing I cannot do, quickly.

          :EDIT FAIRY HANGS HEAD IN SHAME:

      2. Drake

        As a normal, I don’t care one bit about your feelings.

        1. As a paranormal, I care deeply – I am drinking the wrath, on ice. Keep it up, rage-y feminist… ahhh!

        2. TripodKat

          You’re anything but normal Drake, just like the rest of us.

    7. Pat

      Take some solace in the fact that literally nobody besides you has ever google’d your name. If they had, your search ranking would be a lot better.

      1. juris imprudent

        And there you have the heart of the complaint – no one is paying attention to MEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

    8. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Could only manage to scan that narcissistic bullshit but unless I missed it Petunia wasn’t talking shit about the author who should just fuck right off.

    9. leonadasiv

      . I personally believe that much of Mormonism Femenisim is made up and cult-like, similar to Scientology.

      Interesting how it can go both ways. Honestly tho, it shows her ignorance of the subject. But anything to denigrate those who want to lead a different life than you.

      1. AlexinCT

        As someone already pointed out previously during these discussions about these hags: feminism is just marxism with tits these days.

    10. commodious spittoon

      Sometimes when I’d write up drivel for required humanities classes, I’d flip to a random page in the chapter, point at a random paragraph, and extemporize in five hundred words of plodding blather using pull quotes to tie it together.

      I’m convinced this is what internet feminists do: “I’ll google my name, look for someone whose views disappoint me, and pretend to have serious thoughts until I make word count.”

    11. 0x90

      “As a feminist, I feel intensely frustrated sharing a name with an extremely conservative Mormon woman.”

      I’m sure it’s all just peachy for her, too.

        1. AlexinCT

          Samir Na.. Hag.. Neg… Notgonnaworkhereanymore

    12. wdalasio

      As a feminist, I feel intensely frustrated sharing a name with an extremely conservative Mormon woman.

      That sounds like a pretty serious situation. I know of a surefire solution to your predicament. Change your name to “Asshole Breath”. I can guarantee that then you won’t share your name with any conservative Mormon women.

  7. straffinrun

    The Internet Is Obsessed With These ASOS Models’ Stretch Marks

    Some of ASOS’s featured models also have birth marks and acne scars — because guess what? Those can be just as beautiful, too.

    1. Tundra

      No, they really can’t. It’s why God gave us the airbrush.

      1. WTF

        Seriously, why must they insist on constantly defining down “beautiful”? I guess it’s just another form of everyone the same, cogs in the collective machine, because if everything is beautiful, then nothing is.

        1. Tundra

          That picture of your puppy makes me smile every time. Gunter, was it?

          1. WTF

            Gunther, yes. His ears are out to the side because he’s so big his head is pressed against the top of the SUV he’s sitting in.

    2. PieInTheSKy

      I don’t get all this articles. How do hot women look without makeup/photoshop/whatever. Usually the answer is still hot. In this particular case would, would, would.

      Anyway since when do men like fake photo-shopped women? I don’t get it.

      1. Since Thicc Thursday.

    3. Just a thought not a sermon

      This is why Michelangelo, Botticelli, Goya, and other great artists always depicted people with stretch marks and acne.

      1. straffinrun

        The birthmark craze was intended to contrast with the natural beauty of the model. I doubt a huge zit would serve the same purpose.

      2. WTF

        And fupas.

    4. AceDroman

      stretch marks on a woman’s ass turns me into a poon-wolf

  8. Count Potato

    “A federal judge has kicked the gun-grabbers in California square in the nuts.”

    California has too many nuts.

    “That changed when 63% of California voters approved Proposition 63 in November. That initiative, and legislation adopted at the time, bans the possession of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.”

    1. Remember when the people in the southern states voted overwhelmingly to peacefully secede from the union?

      1. Count Potato

        Remember when we bought Alaska? Maybe we could sell California to Mexico.

        1. Drake

          Or Russia! They had a claim on the West Coast for a while.

        2. The Last American Hero

          Why would they buy the cow when they can get the milk for free?

    2. Agent Cooper

      So I just need to bring more than one magazine to school/the mall/cinema/gun-free-zone-of-your-choice with me? Okay.

  9. Just a thought not a sermon

    “Temporary halt on immigration from a few countries is back after the Supreme Court unanimously struck down orders from the 4th and 9th Circuit Courts that halted it.”

    “Grandparents, aunts, uncles and others were said to lack the necessary “bona fide” relationship, angering advocates for immigrants.”

    So they’re upset because it’s being limited to actual immediate family, rather than vague family ties that would in effect render the ban toothless?

    1. So they’re upset because it’s being limited to actual immediate family, rather than vague family ties that would in effect render the ban toothless?

      “But it’s my barber’s cousin’s friend’s nephew! You can’t keep him out!”

      1. creech

        And he makes $1983 per hour on the internet?

        1. Not yet! But he will after he immigrates!

          1. Then he can finally get that Subaru Impreza!

    2. Viking1865

      SLD applies, but if you’re gonna have a family immigration thing, it should be spouses and dependent children only. Not parents, not siblings (unless the sibling is a dependent child), not aunts, uncles, nephews, cousins.

      You know something about all this “Muh refugees!!!!” thing I was wondering. A citizen can still sponsor a foreigner to come here, right? Like all these super caring progs who make more money then me, because they’re so much smarter and more educated then me, they can take a Syrian “teen” into their home by going through the proper channels, right?

      1. spqr2008

        It’s all about how they can import more people who will become dependent on the state, since the left does not want immigrants to acculturate to the American way of life (SLD applies here too). They don’t actually want to live near “these” people, unless they are the “right” kind of people. One of the things they’d be quite comfortable with is the idea of Banlieues of separated, even walled segregated communities for “those” people to enjoy their own culture, without being appropriated.

  10. The Elite Elite

    I’m throwing y’all a bone with my final link of the week. A federal judge has kicked the gun-grabbers in California square in the nuts.

    Nice to see it’ll be temporarily stopped. Wonder who those people are that actually turned their mags in? Wouldn’t you just say “Hey, those magazines were stolen, and since they’re now illegal I figured why waste time reporting it?”

    1. Brett L

      “You see, the problem here is that my little brother this morning, got his arm caught in the microwave and uh my grandmother dropped acid and she freaked out and hi-jacked a school bus full of penguins so you see it’s kind of a family crisis so…come back later? Great. “

      1. Tundra

        “I WANT MY 2 DOLLARS!”

        1. Chipwooder

          It’s an awesome spectacle. An officious display of seething opponents, once again parallel in an obstinate attempt to prove superiority of the roads, unequaled in our lifetime.

          1. Tundra

            Two brothers… One speaks no English, the other learned English from watching “The Wide World of Sports.” So you tell me… Which is better, speaking no English at all, or speaking Howard Cosell?

          2. ::inserts oddly unnecessary claymation scene::

          3. DOOMco

            Unrelated, Everybody Wants Some is a pretty good movie.

          4. Tundra

            Have you seen Better Off Dead?

          5. DOOMco

            Nope, but I see it’s on youtube. I’ll give it a go!

          6. Chipwooder

            You absolutely should. Best teen comedy of the ’80s.

            “Gee, I’m really sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.”

          7. 0x90

            This is pure snow! It’s everywhere!

          8. CPRM

            A few years ago when I looked up the director, Savage Steve Holland on IMDB, I found it kind of nuts he’s done a lot of kids shows since “One Crazy Summer”.

  11. PieInTheSKy

    The American South Will Bear the Worst of Climate Change’s Costs

    https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/global-warming-american-south/532200/

    How could one possible know that, one may wonder? Models baby. Hot models. Everyone likes hot models after all.

    “The study, published Thursday in Science, simulates the costs of global warming in excruciating detail, modeling every day of weather in every U.S. county during the 21st century. It finds enormous disparities in how rising temperatures will affect American communities: Texas, Florida, and the Deep South will bleed income in the broiling heat, while some chillier northern states gain moderate benefits.”

    Yes because we can totally do that. I wonder if they can model this day next year with any accuracy.

    “Overall, the paper finds that climate change will cost the United States 1.2 percent of its GDP for every additional degree Celsius of warming, though that figure is somewhat uncertain. If global temperatures rise by four degrees Celsius by 2100—which is very roughly where the current terms of the Paris Agreement would put the planet—U.S. GDP could shrink anywhere between 1.6 and 5.6 percent.”

    Not that much really given the potential growth in 83 years without stupid regulations

    “Yet beyond its initial findings, the paper represents a major breakthrough for the field of climate economics. Previously, the best financial forecasts of climate change approximated damages for the entire country at once. This new study worked from the bottom up, building its model from dozens of microeconomic studies into how climate change is already affecting regional economies across the United States. Every algorithm in the model emerges from a previously observed relationship in real-world data.”

    Right. Well I’m sold.

    “The study also doesn’t account for the increased likelihood of “tail risks”—that is, unlikely events with catastrophic consequences” – it is obviously going to be worse. It alweays is. We need reasons to panic in the future as well.

    Anyhoo you can read the rest in the article. It’s a long one I am sure you will find individual reasons to start panicking.

    1. simulates the costs of global warming in excruciating detail, modeling every day of weather in every U.S. county during the 21st century

      And yet they can’t reliably tell me if it’s going to rain more than two hours out.

      1. WTF

        Exactly what I was going to say. They can somehow model “every day of weather in every US county during the 21st century”, but accurate 10-day forecasts are out of reach.

      2. mexican sharpshooter

        I thought they said weather wasn’t climate? Hard to keep up with this.

      3. The Last American Hero

        I don’t like this particular line of reasoning. I can tell you what temperatures will be next spring at my house with pretty good accuracy. I can’t tell you if it will rain on March 30 or how hot it will be.

        I can also tell you that raising the minimum wage to $50 an hour is going to have catastrophic long term effects on an economy – what I can’t tell you is how many jobs will be lost in November if you pass the law in September.

        We’re better off attacking the lies, obfuscations and failed prognostications.

    2. modeling every day of weather

      Yeah – I can’t even get a 10 day weather forecast that’s reasonable.

    3. Viking1865

      “The study, published Thursday in Science, simulates the costs of global warming in excruciating detail, modeling every day of weather in every U.S. county during the 21st century.

      They put in temperature data for the 1920s, and it successfully predicted the 20th century, right? Right?

      This is the modern equivalent of reading tea leaves or Tarot cards.

      1. WTF

        Look, just because the models failed spectacularly over the past 20-years doesn’t mean it won’t be true this time!

      2. Pope Jimbo

        This is my rejoinder all the time. If the models are valid, you should be able to move the start date back to some point in the last century and show that the model predicts what actually happened.

    4. american socialist

      Spend trillions now to try and save 6 pct GDP when everyone currently advocating this is dead?

      Seems like a scam to me

    5. Agent Cooper

      DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN.

      1. Agent Cooper

        Also, Hillary has a 98% of winning the election.

        1. nw

          The fact that she lost doesn’t preclude that statement from being true.

      2. straffinrun

        Yoofamism?

    6. westernsloper

      modeling every day of weather in every U.S. county during the 21st century.

      Buullll Sheeiiit.

    7. FreeSociety

      the paper represents a major breakthrough for the field of climate economics.

      Climate economics…… climate economics? I shudder to think of who the leading minds in that “field of study” might be. Perhaps some sort of hybrid of Bill Nye and Paul Krugman…

    8. wdalasio

      Overall, the paper finds that climate change will cost the United States 1.2 percent of its GDP for every additional degree Celsius of warming, though that figure is somewhat uncertain.

      Somewhat uncertain as in, the researchers fucking pulled it out of their ass.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    The study, published Thursday in Science, simulates the costs of global warming in excruciating detail, modeling every day of weather in every U.S. county during the 21st century.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

    Now, that’s funny.

  13. KibbledKristen

    Well, the Tour day France starts tomorrow – there’s a whole 3 weeks of sports to cover!

    Read an article yesterday about the thin American herd at the Tour. They completely ignored the obvious reason for the decline in American cycling. Not one mention of that elephant in the room.

    1. The French take three weeks to get one Day of tour work done?

      1. KibbledKristen

        I wish someone would put together a montage of Bobke Roll saying “Tour day France” and “Tour dee France”. Nowadays he pronounces it the French way (Tour duh Frahnce).

        1. FreeSociety

          I’m ignorant about all sports. What is the elephant in the room?

          1. straffinrun

            Hint: It only has one ball.

          2. Tundra

            Hitler??

          3. DOOMco

            WNBA?

          4. straffinrun

            That was a good one.

          5. Tundra

            *applause*

          6. FreeSociety

            I don’t get why Mr One Ball would result in less Americans in the Tour de France. I mean I could see how one American in particular wouldn’t be attending but to have an overall drop because of that, why? Are Americans persona non grata? (anymore than usual)

          7. KibbledKristen

            His shenanigans kind of destroyed enthusiasm and interest in the sport over here. He gave the sport a bad reputation in this country. When you look up to someone and hero-worship them, then they turn out to be a lying bastard who deliberately tried to destroy people’s lives, you might lose interest.

          8. WTF

            I’m guessing it’s because US companies and institutions are much less interested in sponsoring teams thanks to the bad publicity associated with Armstrong.

          9. FreeSociety

            Okay. Both of those response kind of make sense. Thank you for your patience.

          10. KibbledKristen

            There is one American that has an outside chance to be successful (Tejay Van Garderen), but he’s not racing the TdF this year for whatever reason. But he’s pushing 30, so his time is limited and he’s got to compete with Quintana and Froome, which is kind of an impossible task.

            I don’t think you’ll see very many Americans competing at the One-Ball level for many years. If someone comes out of the woodwork and can get over the many hurdles (first you have to find a top team willing to hire you, then that team has to invite you to the TdF, then you have to prove yourself enough to be considered the “leader” of the team), then maybe we’ll see renewed interest in cycling among young people.

            But One Ball and Floyd Landis did a lot of damage. I don’t bear a grudge against Landis, because he fessed up in rather short order and didn’t try to ruin people who criticized him.

          11. ChipsnSalsa

            8 year olds dude.

    2. PieInTheSKy

      America needs better steroids

    3. Agent Cooper

      If I were wealthy and didn’t care where my money went, I would sponsor a Cycling Tour that was wide open. Put whatever you want in your body to enhance your performance … that way you ensure a totally level playing field.

    4. Brett L

      I’m boycotting until they just admit that everyone dopes and stop testing.

      1. KibbledKristen

        I wish they would do this. Better yet, UCI can just provide the drugs. Boom. Level playing field. (of course, some teams would try to find newer, better drugs outside the UCI)

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        Wasn’t there one year where they were going to take the trophy away from the winner because of doping but they had to go to like the 23rd place finisher to find someone who wasn’t associated with doping?

    5. Atanarjuat

      Not enough bike lanes in our cities?

    6. westernsloper

      Matching a two-decade low from two years ago, only three American riders will race in cycling’s marquee event. It’s even worse for Canada, with zero representation.

      What up Canada? You couldn’t find one guy that could pass a piss test?

    1. Tundra

      Damn. I love it when hotties stay hot.

      Thanks, CP!

    2. PieInTheSKy

      If they were brave they would not use photoshop, as we learned in previous links

    3. straffinrun

      $46 bucks for a black marker to draw a unibrow?

      1. The Elite Elite

        *applause*

  14. Count Potato

    And if you are a multi-millionaire you can dress like a homeless person:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4652598/Kristen-Stewart-Stella-Maxwell-similar-style.html

    1. Just a thought not a sermon

      Where have you been hidin’ out lately, honey?
      You can’t dress trashy till you spend a lot of money

      1. +1 blue Continental

        1. leonadasiv

          Meh… It’s still rock and roll to me.

          1. Chipwooder

            Even if it’s old junk?

    2. straffinrun

      Ah, the old Boulder, Co style.

    3. Drake

      She looks like a 13-year-old boy.

  15. PieInTheSKy

    A measure aimed at boosting female employment in the workforce may actually be making it worse, a major study has found.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-30/bilnd-recruitment-trial-to-improve-gender-equality-failing-study/8664888

    Leaders of the Australian public service will today be told to “hit pause” on blind recruitment trials, which many believed would increase the number of women in senior positions.

    Blind recruitment means recruiters cannot tell the gender of candidates because those details are removed from applications.

    The trial found assigning a male name to a candidate made them 3.2 per cent less likely to get a job interview.

    Adding a woman’s name to a CV made the candidate 2.9 per cent more likely to get a foot in the door.

    1. Viking1865

      I just wonder what world people live in sometimes. HR and C suite types all over the country are hammering diversity, they’ve been doing it for 20 or 30 years at this point. The idea that its’ harder for an ethnic minority or a woman to get their foot in the door is fucking nonsense.

    2. Can’t let that fact get out and spoil the narrative that it’s a misogynist system in uberfeminist Oz.

    3. leonadasiv

      Did no one stop to think how this seems to be evidence against the reigning belief that there is sexism in hiring?

      Or were the people who mentioned that shot?

      1. “Disappeared and Unpersoned”

      2. R C Dean

        If the numbers came out the other way, it would be proof of anti-woman discrimination, so isn’t it proof of anti-male discrimination?

        1. WTF

          It absolutely is, but nobody will dare admit it.

  16. No way is Bigfoot going to touch Rob Lowe. Not in Oklahoma, anyway.

    The locals probably got you all worked up about the “wood ape” because it’s kind of cool to say their version of a ghost story got Rob Lowe scared.

    Storytelling is something Oklahomans do pretty well. Bigfoot. Spook Light. Hex House.

    I’m not sure what happened on that night in the mountains, but it wasn’t Sasquatch.

    With as many hunters around those parts, one would have already been nabbed and mounted by now.

    Also, no way will a hair on your head be harmed by a Bigfoot in Oklahoma. That would be a crime against nature.

    1. ElspethFlashman

      Ahem? STEVE SMITH TOUCH WHO HE WANT, WHEN HE WANT.

      1. commodious spittoon

        CONSENT FOR STEVE, NOT FOR THEE

  17. Pope Jimbo

    Play with cops, get killed with impunity like everyone else.

    A Minnesoda woman was down in FL and was part of a shoot/don’t shoot training exercise with FL cops. The concept of blanks vs live rounds was a bit too difficult for one of the cops who shot and killed woman (like there will ever be a no shoot situation).

    The chief of police that was overseeing that silliness was just acquitted. I can almost feel for him. After all, why would you think you needed to tell all the officers you were training to “put away the live rounds. Blanks only today.”

    1. leonadasiv

      but did they shoot the dog?

      Honestly this lady seems, just as stupid as this guy shoot through a book by his girlfriend.

      1. Honestly this lady seems, just as stupid as this guy shoot through a book by his girlfriend.

        Holy shit. That’s the funniest thing I heard all week.

  18. Just Say’n

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/06/29/wrestlings-new-greatest-villain-progressive-liberal/

    The greatest wrestling persona ever? A man wrestles as ‘The Progressive Liberal’. He has quickly become one of the most popular villains in this Kentucky wrestling league.

    1. Raston Bot

      Appalachian Mountain Wrestling is now the greatest small-promo amateur wrasslin league in the whole county.

  19. Go Ahead, Michiganders, Warm That Car Up

    A local law enacted to prevent vehicle theft was the reason behind a $128 ticket issued to Roseville resident Taylor Trupiano back in January. A police officer handed over the civil infraction notice after seeing Trupiano’s car, with keys in the ignition, engine running, and doors unlocked, sitting unattended in the driveway for an extended period of time. The owner claimed he was simply warming up his car for his girlfriend and two-year-old son.

    Eventually, the matter ended up in court. While Trupiano eventually lost his case — he was unable to prove that his driveway wasn’t easily accessible to the public — state lawmakers took notice.

    Bill 4215, signed into law yesterday by Governor Rick Snyder, amends a 1949 law concerning the care of motor vehicles. While the portions pertaining to leaving a vehicle unattended on the side of a highway remain the same (brake applied, transmission in park, ignition key gone and wheels turned to the curb), owners needn’t fear their own driveways.

    This assumes, of course, their vehicles contain a remote starter.

    1. Agent Cooper

      FREEDOM!!!

    2. Private Chipperbot

      I’m going to start mine up and put a brick on the accelerator to hold it at 5000rpms for 30 minutes. Then it’s go time.

    3. Mad Scientist

      So it’s meaningless to the guy the original case was about. You can now start your car with a remote starter and leave it in the driveway. Taylor had to use his ignition key to start the engine, so he’d still be ticketed.

      1. Number.6

        That’s what a 2-year old kid is for.

      2. Agent Cooper

        Unless the police watch you start it, how would they know?

    1. straffinrun

      So the Russians finally got to the Times, too? This shit is getting scary.

      1. Just Say’n

        Natalie Portman seems very *happy* to see Clinton in your photo.

        1. R C Dean

          Natalie, God bless her, seems happy a lot in other pix, too. Its just how she rolls.

    2. Stinky Wizzleteats

      The accelerated legacy media death spiral over the past couple weeks has been interesting to watch.

    3. westernsloper

      I am sure Hillary will correct herself for the record as well, and we will never hear the “17 agencies” line again.

    4. spqr2008

      As I put it to a good friend that consults for the State Dept., the NYT staff are the Knights who claim SNIE.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Blind recruitment means recruiters cannot tell the gender of candidates because those details are removed from applications.

    They should just delete all applicant info, especially that pertaining to education and actual job skills, and do all hiring randomly.

    Then shall we have true justice!

    1. ChipsnSalsa

      right on comrade.

    2. Pope Jimbo

      Pretty much what happens now if you are trying to hire an Indian developer for a contract gig. Especially during the first few interviews if they are on the phone.

      I have had several good interviews with an Indian developer on the phone only to be followed up by an in person interview with someone who is blatantly not the person I talked with earlier. One of my good developers is from India and this makes her wild. She says that anyone with very good English skills can make some $$ doing phone interviews for other Indians who can’t speaka da language very well.

  21. TripodKat

    From the New Republic article about Ossoff campaign emails: “Until a future Congress resurrects serious campaign finance reform, Democrats must stay afloat in a system rigged to defeat them.”

    Then no explaination given on how the system is “rigged to defeat” democrats specifically. Ossoff raised around $50 million from costal elite liberals and their pet organizations. Pure hogwash.

    1. tarran

      This bit caught my eye:

      “When the Ossoff campaign and DCCC run a churn-and-burn program like this, it sullies the pond for every other Democratic cause. When people get turned off by fundraising emails, they tune out. Not just from the bad programs, but from the good ones. Everyone from Elizabeth Warren to UNICEF is going to feel that.”

      I note that he didn’t name any good programs.

      1. TripodKat

        What kind of programs is the author even talking about? Fundraising programs? This article is garbage all the way down – it contradicts itself and peppers in completely useless and confusing statements.

    2. TripodKat

      From later in the article: “Ossoff outraised Handel”

      SMH, fuck off, New Republic.

      1. tarran

        But there’s no denying that the churn-and-burn strategy gets results. Ossoff did raise a lot of money. His fundraising helped him remain competitive with Handel, who benefited from her own massive out-of-state network. Until a future Congress resurrects serious campaign finance reform, Democrats must stay afloat in a system rigged to defeat them.

        Oh yeah, the system is rigged against the Democrats. /rolls eyes

        1. WTF

          Well yeah, other than the money advantage, and the media being Democrat party organs, and the voter fraud including illegal aliens voting, and control of the federal bureaucracies, the system is totally rigged against them!

          1. Clearly! Otherwise they’d win all the elections!

          2. WTF

            I think some of them actually believe this. That’s why their answer to electoral failure is always to just prog harder.

      2. KibbledKristen

        Yep – noticed that too. Which is it?

  22. Old Man With Candy

    Not much else happened as far as actual games yesterday.

    Bullshit. Ubaldo Jimenez shut out Toronto.

    Old time Batimorons will remember Dennin “Tacohead” Martinez, who was the same sort of pitcher- he would just absolutely fuck up game after game, then just as he’s about to be sent down or cut, he’d throw a gem. Everyone would get their hopes up, then Tacohead would get shelled his next 5 or 6 starts. Rinse, repeat.

    What’s Spanish for “plus ca change, plus la meme chose”?

    1. What’s Spanish for “plus ca change, plus la meme chose”?

      I don’t even know what that would be in english.

    2. Agent Cooper

      El Presidente > Ubaldo.

      245 career wins. A perfect game.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Give Ubaldo 22 years to fuck up his teams and he’ll equal that.

      2. Chipwooder

        He was one of those oddball pitchers who didn’t really get his act together until he had already been in the league for ten years or so. His best seasons by far came in his mid-30s to early 40s.

        1. Agent Cooper

          Steroid Era.

          That’s why I get flustered with people who rag on Bonds but never consider the fact that some of the pitchers he was facing were on PEDs as well.

    3. Certified Public Asshat

      The triple A pitching is apparently so terrible, that trotting out Ubaldo is sadly the best option.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        SP likes to say that the Orioles are masters at the late inning come-from-ahead.

    4. WTF

      Cuanto más cambian las cosas, más permanecen iguales.

    5. libertarianjoe

      I love my O’s, but they’re a tough team to watch, this year especially

  23. Certified Public Asshat

    Have we heard from Jimmy Kimmel on the Charlie Gard story?

    1. leonadasiv

      Jimmy worries about when people don’t have the money. If people have raised money to privately take care of their kid, fuck em.

  24. straffinrun

    Since it’s Friday, Slap!

    1. Shouldn’t that have been posted at the end of thursday as the new day rolled around?

      1. straffinrun

        There’s a 29 hour time difference between here and where you are. Don’t you science?

        1. Eastern is the one true time zone.

          1. straffinrun

            I agree. Tokyo.

          2. The Elite Elite

            EasternPacific is the one true time zone.

            FTFY.

          3. Are you applying to be the new NYT editorial staff by “Fixing” something to be counterfactual?

    2. WTF

      *SLAP!*

  25. KibbledKristen

    Great can always do a show at Scientology’s fancy new production facilities.

    1. KibbledKristen

      LOL *Greta

    2. Rhywun

      I’m not seeing this channel on my system. ?

    3. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Scientology TV is going to be aired by the company that used to be Time Warner. It’s amazing to me they can still manage to find suckers who take them seriously.

      1. KibbledKristen

        “is going to” are the keywords.

        i.e. they’re not going to do jack shit. Every project Scientology touches is delayed years and years.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    He’s offering the world order

    State Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra argued in court papers that the ban on large-capacity magazines is justified because they have been found at the scenes of mass shootings at an Orlando nightclub, Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School and in San Bernardino, where two terrorists in 2015 killed 14 people attending a holiday party.

    “These large-capacity magazines are disproportionately used in crime, and feature prominently in some of the most serious crime, including homicides, mass shootings, and killings of law enforcement officers,” Becerra said in his written answer to the lawsuit.

    In a statement released Thursday night, Becerra vowed to defend the state law.

    “Restricting large-capacity magazines and preventing them from ending up in the wrong hands is critical for the well-being of our communities,” he said in the statement. “I will defend the will of California voters because we cannot continue to lose innocent lives due to gun violence.”

    Sure.

    1. Have you disarmed your security yet, Xavier?

      1. Chipwooder

        Of course not, peasant.

    2. Drake

      I had to read to the end to figure out that “large capacity = more than 10 rounds”. That isn’t large capacity, just normal.

      1. spqr2008

        I keep reading “Large Capacity” and my mind goes to the Drum Mags that are used with a Thompson Sub Machine Gun.

        1. Drake

          That I was thinking too. That people were going to bring in 100-round drum mags and content themselves with mere 30-rounders.

      2. ChipsnSalsa

        Compared to a muzzle loader, as the framers intended, it is.

        1. FreeSociety

          I’m going to assume this is not a claim that the 2nd Amendment only guarantees a right to bear antiques.

      3. WTF

        Yes, 30-round mags are standard capacity, not large capacity.

      4. Number.6

        Not even ‘normal’. If you purchase the same firearm that the US military uses as a sidearm, it contains 17 rounds of 9mm, without extending out of the heel of the grip. I’d consider there’s a very good case that in terms of design, the rounds that can be contained in a magazine that fits within the design constraints of the standard gun for which the magazine is designed, is a far more rational way of determining ‘normal’.

        But the ship has sailed on that one,

        “Large Capacity” == enough rounds that a cop could count them without removing his socks.

        1. LT_Fish

          15+1

    3. So….they’ve “shown up” at crime scenes four times in the last 25 years?

      Go suck-start a 12 gauge, Becerra.

      1. Tundra

        You know, cops show up at virtually every crime scene. Maybe it’s time to consider a ban…

        1. Drake

          With magazines loaded with more than 10-rounds! You are right!

    4. R C Dean

      These large-capacity magazines are disproportionately used in crime

      Not sure what this even means, but I doubt seriously it is true. “Disproportionate” is a relative term, so disproportionate to what? The rate of large cap magazines owned by the general public? Owned by law-abiding citizens? What’s the data say?

      Oh, there’s no data? This is just something he made up for feelz? Well, I never.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        Will Nazi Doogie Howser be heading up these corps?

    1. KibbledKristen

      Interesting. So what would happen to a facility like Vandenburg, i wonder? Since it’s heavily space-focused, would the AF give up that prime piece of real estate to a space force? Somehow I think that would be a fight.

      1. mexican sharpshooter

        If they organize it in the same way as the USMC falling under the Navy, the Air Force would still control the Space Command bases like Vandenburg. The AF would probably just set up a tenant unit to run the Airfield.

        AF Space Command is Peterson AFB, CO, Schriever AFB, CO, Vandenburg and I think there is one more big one, but most of it is a bunch of tiny installations scattered in remote places like Clear AFS, AK, Thule AB, Greenland and my personal favorite, “Tampa-stan.”

    2. The Last American Hero

      If you thought the F-35 budget was out of hand, wait until you see the bill for the Veritech fighters and Destroids.

      1. Number.6

        You have to delve pretty deeply into the paperwork for the DeathStar appropriation.

      2. Agent Cooper

        Saw an F35 flight at the Dayton Air Show. Cool, but probably not worth the dough.

        The F-18 was still impressive.

    3. LT_Fish

      SECAF just said she didn’t want them to do that. The joint system is already working out really well and this is just going to create a lot more complications.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Have you disarmed your security yet, Xavier?

    I’m sure the cops will gladly return to using S&W .38 six-shooters.

    1. Tundra

      +1 Model 10

      1. WTF

        I have one of those. It’s a perfectly fine gun.

        1. Tundra

          I got rid of one many years ago. It was a wonderful gun.

          1. Bobarian LMD

            A revolver is the perfect night-stand gun.

            You know exactly what it’s going to do.

          2. Number.6

            It served Sondra Locke damn well in a certain movie I watched last night.

  28. robc

    If have been reading criticism’s of the MacLean book on Buchanan all week on other sites.

    Mike Munger wins:

    http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=9115

    It is long, I haven’t finished yet, but he utterly destroys her.

    1. tarran

      Jesus Christ! That should be a career ending takedown. It won’t be. Like Naomi Oreskes and Naomi Klein, she’ll find her fictions will continue to sell well and everyone will congratulate her on her speaking truth to power.

      1. Gilmore

        (sigh)

        this is what i get for never reading other comments before posting. yes, exactly.

    2. Chipwooder

      Well, I’m going to be petulant and point out that you could have been reading them here because I’ve been posting them the last few days. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have pouting to do….

      1. Chipwooder

        Oh, and the most ridiculous statement I’ve seen from that shitty book remains calling William Kristol a libertarian.

        1. Gilmore

          Its only the most ridiculous because its the most-obviously incorrect to even a layperson.

          nearly everything else in the book is on the same level. this was particularly bad =

          https://medium.com/@russroberts/nancy-maclean-owes-tyler-cowen-an-apology-e6277ee75eb3

          her response is basically, “i say what i want, you don’t like it, ptttttpppppppppp”

    3. Gilmore

      I was up until 3am last night reading all the takedowns in different locations

      its pretty brutal. her book sounds like its both flat-out-factually-wrong in its very core-premise (Buchanan had zero connection to calhoun whatsoever), and her attempt to drag various other libertarian people and institutions (e.g. George Mason) through the mud are also based mostly on misrepresentations or flat-out-falsehoods as well.

      it would be the sort of thing that would destroy a person’s career as an academic if it were done about anyone ‘important’; because its libertarians, she’s basically free to lie without consequence.

    4. Gilmore

      NONSENSE!!! HE LOVED THE BOOK
      PROOF ==

      As I hope has been clear, as a book Democracy in Chains is well-written, and the research it contains is both interesting and in many cases illuminating

    5. Raston Bot

      “speculative historical fiction”

  29. Count Potato

    “Forget the stupid tweets: There’s big news on Trump’s Russia connections — and he doesn’t want you to read it”

    http://www.salon.com/2017/06/30/forget-the-stupid-tweets-theres-big-news-on-trumps-russia-connections-and-he-doesnt-want-you-to-read-it/

    1. Mookman

      What a coincidence, if it’s on Salon then I don’t want to read it either.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        Here’s the gist:

        Some guy who kicked the bucket in May allegedly said something that might or might not incriminate an associate of Flynn’s.

        I wish I hadn’t bothered to read it either.

        1. FreeSociety

          I understand. In death an anonymous source of Project Misinformation has a name. His name is Peter Smith. His name is Peter Smith. His name is Peter Smith.

    2. leonadasiv

      I Remember when there were things a politician didn’t want us to read, and the journos assured us that doing so was illegal.

    3. That’s not a story Salon wants to gain traction if they know what’s good for them. Dems have been running oppo research against opponents since forever. The fact that a Trump surrogate might have been trying to get the “lost” (or rather deliberately deleted) Clinton emails is politics as usual.

      Unless they want to admit that she deleted sensitive state department emails without authorization. Which is a crime.

      Also “Russian hackers” supposedly never got her emails, remember? They were safe and sound in her closet. Well, not according to James Comey they weren’t. But that’s the narrative the media are still peddling.

  30. Rufus the Monocled

    Tucker is worse than Kennedy.

    But wasn’t that guy from California making a fair point that more bureaucracy isn’t necessarily a good thing?

    1. Just Say’n

      Jeffrey Tucker or Tucker Carlson? Because Tucker Carlson’s show is just conservative porn now. I liked him in 2008 when he was a Ron Paul guy. Now he’s got MAGAgitis of the brain.

      Jeffrey Tucker is solid, though.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Carlson.

  31. OK you lot – I am taking a few days off. Since I will be in quite remote parts (scouting for Glibertarian Lair/Post-Apocalypse HQ in the mountains), I am not sure of net access.

    Don’t let STEVE SMITH get you or ZARDOZ go off the rails again. If SugarFree posts another piece, DON’T read it backward in a mirror….trust me on this.

    See you after the 4th!

    1. Tundra

      Safe travels, dude.

    2. straffinrun

      Enjoy yourself. We’ll hold the fort down. Psst, anyone have the key to Swiss’ liquor cabinet?

    3. Juvenile Bluster

      Woohoo! We can post terrible puns with out fear of the glare!

      1. robc

        I thought the glare meant you had won.

      2. Bobarian LMD

        Have you got something against the gaze, you homophobe?

    4. KibbledKristen

      Since you’re the one going into the backwoods, I think you need to be on high STEVE SMITH alert!

    5. ChipsnSalsa

      The puns are going to get out of control now… If only I was good at making them.

      1. straffinrun

        Nacho thing?

        1. The Elite Elite

          *narrows gaze*

          1. straffinrun

            It was corny.

          2. westernsloper

            Cheese, that didn’t take long.

          3. Whey to go and start complaining.

          4. There might be a kernel of truth to that.

          5. Gustave Lytton

            All of the posts will be peppered with puns.

          6. Number.6

            Possibly augmented with alluring alliteration!

          7. Floridaman

            Don’t be so salty about it, Gustave.

    6. Rufus the Monocled

      Enjoy.

      /narrows gaze. Unnarrows gaze.

      1. robc

        Swiss with gaze narrowed.

    7. The Elite Elite

      Don’t let STEVE SMITH get you or ZARDOZ go off the rails again.

      So, in otherwords you’re going nowhere, you’ll just be posting as your other two profiles? Enjoy your “break.”

      1. Note to self: don’t invite Elite Elite to roleplaying couples night

    8. Old Man With Candy

      We didn’t damage you enough last weekend?

    9. Raven Nation

      Here’s a little rugby news to take with you (if you’re still reading):

      http://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/40448854

  32. Ken Shultz

    A number of senators have proposed simply repealing ObamaCare after the Fourth of July break if Mitch McConnell doesn’t have enough votes for the senate healthcare bill by then, and Donald Trump just tweeted full support for the idea.

    Very smart!

    If you’re a moderate Republican who doesn’t want to support the senate healthcare bill and you’re forced to vote on whether to repeal the ACA–with no moaning about what it’s replaced with–your concern about being reelected is no longer driven by what moderate voters will do to you in the general election for voting for the senate bill. Your concern is driven by what angry Republicans will do to you in the primaries if you vote against the repealing the ACA.

    Good coaches don’t worry about winning the Superbowl until after they’ve made it to the playoffs. The primaries are the playoffs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fjDS0jKiE

    Yeah, the reelection rate for incumbents is extremely high–assuming they make it to the general election. Ask all the Republicans who lost in the primaries to Tea Party candidates in recent elections how that works out.

    Short version: For moderate Republicans, threatening to make them vote on whether to simply repeal the ACA without a replacement makes voting for the senate plan now the path of least resistance.

    1. Drake

      Only took 6 months of failure to do what they promised and what they should have done from the start.

      1. Ken Shultz

        All healthcare legislation gets bogged down by what to replace things with.

        That’s what happened with HillaryCare.

        That’s what happened with ObamaCare, which is why they pushed it through without anyone knowing what the hell was in it.

        The analogy I’ve used in the past was when Cortez scuttled his ships in the New World. There’s no way back guys! Only way is forward.

        When you’re doing the right thing, sometimes that’s the right thing to do.

        Regardless, this is a whip, not a carrot. The purpose of this threat of simply repealing the ACA is just posturing. They’re just trying to get moderate Republicans on board the senate bill express before the Fourth of July.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzYOq8WGUxQ

    2. The Elite Elite

      Yeah, I’m not going to hold my breath that an actual vote for full on repeal, no replace would ever happen. It’s pretty clear at this point Obamacare is here to stay, and it’ll only get watered down at best.

      1. Ken Shultz

        Honestly, I think the threat of being forced to vote on a bill to simply repeal the ACA may be more than sufficient to get the moderates on board.

        I have no doubt that McConnell could bring a bill like that to a vote, and I have little doubt but that a lot of moderates would feel compelled to vote for it for fear of what would happen to them in the primaries if they didn’t.

        Again, of the 20 Republicans who voted against the AHCA in the House, 16 of them were either from moderate states like New York or New Jersey or they were from swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, and I think that’s a useful guide to where the Republican resistance to the bill in the Senate is coming from. Facing a Republican primary in Ohio isn’t like facing general election. If you voted against repealing ObamaCare, you’re done in the Republican primaries. You may as well have voted for gun control.

        This is sort of the American version of what the British prime minister does to get the backbenchers on board with important legislation. There, it’s even worse because the MPs don’t have to be from the districts they represent, so the higher up you are in the party, the safer a seat you’re assigned. So the more moderate your constituency, the more reluctant you are to support controversial legislation–because come election time, you’re the one most likely to lose your seat–not the prime minister.

        So when the backbenchers get too far out of line, the prime minister (who is also like our speaker of the house), will threaten to call an early election. All the backbenchers stick their fingers in the wind, and if they think they’re likely to lose, they all fall in line behind the prime minister.

        That’s basically what Trump, McConnell, and the conservative Republicans in the senate are doing now. I don’t think it’s a bluff. I think those conservatives and Trump would rather vote to repeal the ACA sans a replacement than face the primaries without having done anything, and I think the Senate Republican moderates would rather vote for the Senate bill now than be forced to vote on simply repealing the ACA.

        1. Urthona

          I don’t know. Starting to believe they won’t actually do anything.

          1. Ken Shultz

            Because why?

    3. The Other Kevin

      If only. Then there would be at least some chance they could do what they should have from the beginning – identify specific problems with health insurance (pre-existing conditions, etc.), and pass individual laws to address each problem. This whole “we have to pass an enormous, complicated law written by lobbyists that remakes an entire industry” approach never works.

      1. Ken Shultz

        Trump came out against simply repealing the ACA at the time, and that was a big mistake.

        He understands that was a mistake now, and he understands why.

        Spilt milk at this point.

    4. Urthona

      I don’t think this will really happen, but it’s making my pants tight.

      1. Ken Shultz

        It isn’t meant to happen. It’s just a negotiating tactic.

        And if it did happen, chances are they wouldn’t replace it with something better than what they have in front of them right now.

        It’s not a libertarian congress. Their constituencies back home are not libertarian.

        It is amazing that the Senate and House health bills are as libertarian as they are.

  33. Rufus the Monocled

    Bah. I just visited Trump’s Twitter account for the first time to see first hand what he Tweets.

    He seems bent on keeping people informed of his actions. The media seems to focus on the ones that attack them but they make it sound like that’s all he does. So for every 10-15 tweets he zings them.

    Bottom line is they say something stupid or lie and he reacts. Good or bad, that’s what’s happening.

    Anyway, that’s just a quick cursory interpretation.

    1. Drake

      The media is the cat. He’s the guy with the laser pointer trying to get the cat to jump off a ledge or get stuck in a corner.

      1. WTF

        So far he seems to be pretty successful.

      2. R C Dean

        Chase the red dot. CHASE IT!

        Whether its intentional or not, I couldn’t say. Either way, he keeps getting them to beclown themselves on a very regular basis.

    2. Ken Shultz

      Trump has 33 million followers on Twitter.

      It makes sense to speak over the heads of the media to your supporters, especially when the media hates your guts.

  34. Pomp

    A  day ago, The 1A, a new show on NPR that replaced the Diane Rehm Show, ran a program about the Illinois budget crisis, and it was surprisingly refreshing in that it wasn’t a complete wallpaper job.  Check this amazing comment from the website:

    Gordon Wildera day ago

    It is not only California. Minnesota raised taxes on the rich by just 2% and in less than 4 years they were out of debt and economy was great. There were other progressive things done, women got same pay as men etc.

    Cool story bro.

    A few days ago, they also ran another program about the $15 minimum wage, and they had actually invited Veronique de Rugy of The Mercatus Institute.  So far the host Joshua Johnson is doing much better than the intellectually bankrupt Diane Rehm. I am glad she retired.

    1. Drake

      Wow. Most comments = Prog harder!

      1. westernsloper

        Ya, I liked this one

        Everybody Has One • a day ago
        Illinois does not have a financial problem — they have a political problem. The state has the power to tax, but lacks the political will to do it.
        Exhibit A: Kansas

        Glad to hear that bat Diane Rehm retired though. She was about ten years late.

        1. straffinrun

          That’s just creepy. Maybe we are in a bubble.

          1. Pomp

            It is difficult thing to fathom. Illinois is a dumpster fire the scope of Puerto Rico without the option of bankruptcy. These listeners are incredible.

        2. WTF

          Yeah, they’re not spending too much, they’re just not stealing enough!

        3. Chipwooder

          That person is totally right. Illinois’ position as the state with the fifth highest tax burden is wayyyyy too low.

          1. WTF

            New Jersey laughs at Illinois’ tax burden.

          2. Chipwooder

            And Mao laughs at Pol Pot.

          3. Chipwooder

            bah…should be “As Mao…”

        4. Just Say’n

          Anyone who says that Illinois’ problem is due to lack of taxes has obviously not looked at the State’s financial position. Pensions aren’t what is bankrupting the State, either. Medicaid is dooming the State, as it has been hurting other states as well. The difference is that Illinois never addressed its Medicaid spending imbalance, unlike other states

      2. straffinrun

        Everybody Has One • a day ago
        Illinois does not have a financial problem — they have a political problem. The state has the power to tax, but lacks the political will to do it.

        Our government hates taxing us!

        1. Juvenile Bluster

          What in the hell would Illinois’ state tax rate have to be if they were going to balance that budget (and for the sake of this conversation we’ll ignore the pension deficit, because they’ll never close that). These people do realize that you can’t just raise taxes on the rich (and not only because the rich people will move to Wisconsin) to close the deficit, right?

          1. DOOMco

            math is hard?

          2. straffinrun

            At least it will be more equal suffering. No, it wouldn’t even do that.

          3. Old Man With Candy

            WI has really shitty taxes. That’s one reason SP and I don’t move the few miles north of where we are.

          4. R C Dean

            What in the hell would Illinois’ state tax rate have to be if they were going to balance that budget

            Doesn’t matter. No matter how much they collect, they will spend more. Its damn near an Iron Law.

            True fact: the federal budget would be in surplus right now, today, if spending was at the same level as in 2008, and would damn near be balanced if spending was the same as in 2009, when we had the stimulus outlay.

          5. ChipsnSalsa

            Don’t make me cry on a Friday.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    I assert, therefor I am

    Meanwhile, taxes that fall mainly on a tiny, wealthy minority would be reduced or eliminated. These cuts would be big in dollar terms, but because the rich are already so rich, the savings would make very little difference to their lives.

    More than 40 percent of the Senate bill’s tax cuts would go to people with annual incomes over $1 million — but even these lucky few would see their after-tax income rise only by a barely noticeable 2 percent.

    So it’s vast suffering — including, according to the best estimates, around 200,000 preventable deaths — imposed on many of our fellow citizens in order to give a handful of wealthy people what amounts to some extra pocket change. And the public hates the idea: Polling shows overwhelming popular opposition, even though many voters don’t realize just how cruel the bill really is. For example, only a minority of voters are aware of the plan to make savage cuts to Medicaid.

    I thought maybe they had finally institutionalized Krugabe in order to provide him with the professional help he so desperately needs, but I guess he was just on vacation.

    1. WTF

      So, letting people keep a little more of their own money is cruel? Holy shit, what a moron.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      They’re OBSESSED with taxes. They should focus on growth – that’s where the real money is.

      1. Look, Rufus, the pie don’t get no bigger, you just redistribute the slices

        /proglogic

      2. Pomp

        Envy and State worship are both a hell of a drug. Efficiency is only a secondary or tertiary factor.

    3. Rhywun

      OK, where are the studies “proving” that O’care saved 200,000 lives?

      1. straffinrun

        Um, Vox?

      2. WTF

        For God’s sake, man, didn’t you see the bodies stacked like cordwood in 2009 before Obamacare took effect?! Look at the bones!!

      3. commodious spittoon

        Dismantled here.

        And now we even have data from the ACA itself. As I have shown, the nation’s mortality rate stopped decreasing and actually increased when the ACA was implemented, and matters were worst in the states that accepted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. A new working paper at the National Bureau of Economic Research likewise finds no significant improvement in self-reported health.

        I suppose we can look forward to the post-bailout defense: “Sure, mortality rose, but we have no idea how many more people would have died without the ACA.”

        1. FreeSociety

          Suddenly the left realizes that the concept of “the unnseen” is a thing. Even if they apply it in all the wrong places.

      4. Q Continuum

        Wikipedia. DUH!

    4. american socialist

      The cuts in Medicaid which really means not quite as big increases

    5. R C Dean

      More than 40 percent of the Senate bill’s tax cuts would go to people with annual incomes over $1 million

      So, roughly proportional to the percentage of taxes paid by people with annual incomes over $1 million.

      1. mexican sharpshooter

        Funny how a tax cut directly affects people that pay the most taxes.

  36. Jefe Hayek

    Question for my fellow glibs:

    What’s the best way to handle this situation? My company owes a vendor money (way past due) and I have been the only contact for them, so naturally they are calling me wanting to know where their damn money is. Thing is, I have no control over payments and my boss (owner of company) is paying at his own pace , which also has not been explicitly stated to me to pass on. I feel like just giving the vendor my bosses number is passive aggressive AF and will just get me chewed out, but I also can’t keep saying, “Oh, that hasn’t been paid yet? Umm, I’ll check on it..?”

    1. Chipwooder

      Have you addressed the problem with the boss? If you have, and he just keeps letting you take the heat for this, then I’d have no problem giving them his number.

    2. “You didn’t hear it from me, but you might want to take him to small claims court…”

    3. Tundra

      Your boss is being a coward. Are things tight all around, or is he just being a dickwad? If it’s the former, you need to push him to contact the vendor directly and lay out the situaiton. If it’s the latter, you may want to start looking for something else to do. If he is so cavalier about fucking over a vendor, he won’t have too many qualms about fucking you.

      1. Jefe Hayek

        Things are somewhat tight, and this vendor’s service were an unexpected cost. I honestly have no worries about my job security as people have stolen and lied and fucked over my boss and they’re still employed.

        That said, I still don’t want to push it and get on his bad side if I can avoid it. Looks like that chance is fleeting, at this point.

        1. Rhywun

          people have stolen and lied and fucked over my boss and they’re still employed

          That’s… worrisome.

          1. I concur. Get yourself a different employer as soon as you can.

          2. Jefe Hayek

            I don’t want to be naive or stupid, but I honestly say 90% of the issues with the company are due to getting to a decent size, but still being operated like it has 5 employees. I know that doesn’t cure the issues, but I don’t attribute any level of maleficence or malevolence to my boss. It’s very good ol boy

          3. Pope Jimbo

            I have worked for a bunch of small companies and startups, and my magic number is 6. You can get 6 smart people working together as a team and things go well. As soon as you go over that, someone hires a friend of a friend and all of a sudden everyone is resentful. One of the seven guys is now not pulling their weight, one guy (who vouched for the laggard) is embarrassed and five guys are resentful.

            Now, sometimes you don’t even get to six before things go bad, but I’ve never seen more than six work well.

            Even if you have 8 people that are smart hard workers, the group is getting too big to coordinate on a basic level and politics starts up.

            The holy number is six.

          4. Chipwooder

            Papal bull issued

          5. Number.6

            <fx: blushes modestly>

    4. creech

      Depends on if you want to keep your job. Don’t give them the boss’ number, give them Accounts Payable. Let the bean counters deal with it! Vendor should be more proactive too:
      surely they have a set of escalation letters -“pay by July 15 or we will put out for collection agency that reports to D&B, etc.”

      1. It sounds like this company is too small to have an “Accounts Payable” office.

    5. Ken Shultz

      It’s not just passive aggressive to give the vendor your boss’ number. It’s a betrayal.

      Do not do that.

      Your boss is paying you to take that heat, and he needs to know he can depend on you.

      You can keep saying that you’re doing everything you can. You really can. You can keep saying it every day until the cows come home.

      And the vendors can keep yelling at you on the phone. So what? It’s just yelling.

      Eventually, the vendor will take action of his own. That may be cutting you off of future service. That may be going to collections. That’s their call.

      Just keep telling the vendor you’re doing the best you can and grow a thick skin.

      Your boss is paying you to get yelled at, so that he doesn’t have to. If you can’t take getting yelled at, then he can find someone else who will.

      If he can’t depend on you not to stick it to him, then he’s going to have problems sleeping at night as long as you’re on the payroll.

      1. Jefe Hayek

        Thanks Ken

      2. commodious spittoon

        Ditto this. Your problem is getting them off the phone, not getting them paid. Getting paid is their problem. But don’t make it your boss’s problem. That’s their problem, too.

      3. Tundra

        Your boss is paying you to take that heat, and he needs to know he can depend on you.

        No way. I am the boss and there’s no way I would dodge a vendor by dumping it on an employee. Boss man can solve this in about two minutes.

        1. bacon-magic

          ^THIS
          *DROPS GLOVES AND TRANSFERS CALL TO BOSS’S CELLPHONE*

      4. Number.6

        Can’t emphasize enough, try and find a reason to make sure that some of the notifications to your boss are via email. You need a paper trail to avoid the inevitable blamestorming session.

        1. Number.6

          In fact, if the vendor hassles you at all via email, forward the email with a covering explanation.

          If they aren’t hassling you via email, tell them next time to just drop you an email, and you’ll be able to forward it to your Accounts Payabo’ people.

          1. spqr2008

            Let the vendor know that the way the boss can audit you actions in this case is by e-mailing you instead of calling and mailing invoices. At one of my jobs, all invoices for high ticket items get e-mailed to me, so that I can be held accountable for making sure they are received, and the packing documentation as well as the physical invoicing gets to the Accounts Payable department to be confirmed for records. The reason for this is simple. My boss and his colleagues (head of Receiving and Accounting, respectively) have the ability to pull up my e-mails from IT’s side if I forget to CC them, and therefore if I’m not here at the time (I work 25 hrs a week at this job), and I forgot to send the physical invoices to the Accounts Payable office, we have a record that the item was received in good condition, and that the vendor can be paid as is appropriate.

    6. Just Say’n

      If your boss is shirking his obligations in paying a vendor, I’d be worried. Are there financial problems at the business that your employer is not informing you about? And if he is willing to forgo paying a vendor, what is to say that he won’t cheat you as well?

      1. AlmightyJB

        “I’d be worried. Are there financial problems at the business that your employer is not informing you about? ”

        This. Even if the financials look ok, that doesn’t mean the owner isn’t pulling cash out of company for whatever reason. Unless there is some legitimate rational for why he’s not paying that vendor I would be updating my resume. Been there before. That’s a sign of problems. You should be worried more about your own financial situation than the vendors. The vendor can either put up with it or stop providing goods or services and sue. Not your problem.

        1. AlmightyJB

          If your not sure what to say to the vendor, all your boss what he wants you to tell them. Then you can say, yeah I talked to the boss and he said….

      2. Ken Shultz

        Some large, successful companies pay vendors three months late as a matter of policy.

        Lots of contracts will give you a discount for paying on time–and those companies still pay three months late as a matter of policy.

        Things happen in business. Sometimes you get stiffed by a customer–and you have cash flow problems. Sometimes plans change and things are lean during a transition period.

        Getting paid late and planning ahead for that is part of being in business. Giving your customers extra time to pay is part of being a good entrepreneur, too.

    7. Private Chipperbot

      What does the service agreement/contract say? I run into the same issue with several vendors to the tune of about $1 million over 90 days past due. I can’t get our people to issue the damn payments. Fortunately for us, I didn’t allow any penalties to be added for late payment, but the vendors do the absolute minimum to get the job done. It sucks.

    8. No caller ID on your phone?

      1. Jefe Hayek

        Ha! Yes. I haven’t done that yet, but I do have off the entire weekend and Monday, so if they call today I might make an exception

    9. Old Man With Candy

      “We don’t have it. Now it’s your problem.”

    10. tarran

      I believe we have an obligation to behave ethically towards everyone; the vendor deserves to be paid; and your boss needs to pay him. Right now your boss is using you as an obstacle to block payment and if I were in your shoes that would be the big source of discomfort for me.

      Decline to be the obstacle. You can either tell your boss you ain’t doing it; advise the vendor on how to penetrate the bureaucracy; or explain to the vendor what’s happening.

    11. Suthenboy

      I remember the in the late ’70s Parsons, the largest mining company in the world at the time, had a company policy of not paying bills until the creditors threatened to sue. They had a cork board that they pinned all the bills on. When the threat came in, usually after 6 mod or so, they would take the bill down and pay it. Since we are talking millions here I always figured they were putting the money in interest bearing accounts until they were forced to pay.

    12. bacon-magic

      Having same issue at my company…I’m the only one that answers phone. Yay. Yes, I can talk on the phone and read Glibs is why I’m still at this job.

    13. R C Dean

      As a last resort, you could just tell them the truth, Jefe.

      “Look, I have no control over payments. The owner of the company does, and he’s paying this at his own pace. Want me to set up a call with him?”

  37. straffinrun

    Chris Matthews complaining about Trump’s nepotism. With as straight a face as he can muster, no less.

    1. Suthenboy

      I think Tingles already suggested that Trump kill Jared Kushner.

      The masks are off. Thank you Trump. This is the greatest thing you have done.

  38. “a Houston, TX federal judge has revived the naturalized citizenship of a child rapist.”

    I didn’t see that in the article. It said he was denaturalized.

    1. LT_Fish

      probably meant ‘revoked’

  39. Progs are freaking out over this – “OMG Trump wants your voter records!”

    The fire behind the smoke is they’re asking for the last four digits of voters’ social security numbers – that is actually an all-too-common piece of information in databases.

    1. Of course, the info will be put in a “secure server.” I’d like to hear the progs mock that, though it’s mockable.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Minnesoda has 61 “security” people manning the IT walls.

        A lot of heavy breathing, but most of it is directed at “Why don’t we SPEND MOAR?” and not even entertaining the question “Why are we collecting so much?”

      2. The Last American Hero

        What if it was put in the basement bathroom at Mar-a-lago?

    2. Old Man With Candy

      They’re also only asking for publicly available information.

    3. Just the last four?

      We’re lucky when we can talk them out of storing all nine.

    4. Rhywun

      Hell… I had to give my full SSN to open a cell-phone account.

      1. Pope Jimbo

        Did they do any validation?

        I have found that you can give them Richard Nixon’s SSN (567-68-0515) and they don’t give a shit because the number fits. However, if you bitch at them about how they aren’t supposed to be able to use the SSN as an identifier, then they give a shit and will hassle you to “prove” that is your number.

        1. Rhywun

          Did they do any validation?

          No idea. My personal approach to “security” is basically that “there isn’t any” so instead of worrying about things like SSNs and password, I focus my attention at the other end, where the money is.

        2. Gadfly

          When I opened a cell-phone account six months ago they required an SSN and proved that they verified it because their second step was having me answer questions over the phone to a security company that was determining whether I was who I said I was. The questions were multiple choice, where they asked something and then provided the right answer along with several false ones. It was kind of creepy how much information they already had on me.

          1. Number.6

            No matter how much you think they have on you, they actually have more. SWMBO works for an online liquor company, and attempted fraud is a real problm for a company selling $1500 bottles of tequila. YEP TEQUILA!

            They use two firms for simply credit checking, and she visited one of them and they showed her around. She didn’t take notes, but the stuff that the call center that does the verification has is very impressive, if you’re th kind of person who thought the Stasi were great guys. The coverage is variable, but for individuals with a long and varied credit history, who uses online purchases and isn’t cautious about what they expose, the detail is – in some cases – staggering.

            Imagine just how useful it would be to have 10 years’ worth of purchase history for a family that uses Amazon. Combine that with parts of your Social Security, Census, bank and FICA Details.

            Oh yeah, scary stuff.

  40. KibbledKristen

    Not a peep about Merkel voting against gay marriage on my Facederps this morning. Just like there hasn’t been a peep about Dreamy Justin’s various non-prog-friendly actions.

    1. Q Continuum

      Selective blindness must be miraculous.

  41. Pope Jimbo

    Oh, the cognitive dissonance!

    The evil Big Tobacco was nice to LGBT folk way before anyone else.

    Don’t get your hopes up that the writers realize that no one forced Big Tobacco to sell to them, instead capitalists realized there was a market and got busy making money.

    And don’t think it is all over. Big Tobacco is still using tricknology on the LGBTQ community:

    The tobacco industry is continuing to cultivate us too. Tobacco companies still advertise in LGBTQ magazines; they even place LGBTQ-targeted ads in mainstream publications today. They use social media to reach us (and to escape tobacco advertising restrictions). Unlike in the 1980s and 1990s, when their targeting was aimed mostly at gay men, today they are extremely aware of our communities’ scope, and advertise to multiple gender identifies and sexual orientations.

    Remember this part of our history. The tobacco industry is no friend to LGBTQ people. They have trapped so many of us. They take advantage of us, take our money, and kill us. Today more than ever, we must be aware of their influence – and resist it.

    How dare they be nice to us! And double how dare they be nice to us in public where everyone can see.

    There is also this gem: ” (A definition: When we say tobacco, we mean commercial tobacco, not the traditional tobacco used as medicines by some groups.)” Because everyone knows that tobacco is super helpful when used by Indians.

    1. Q Continuum

      Big Tobacco stoled muh soul!

    2. WTF

      They have trapped so many of us. They take advantage of us, take our money, and kill us.

      Because LGBTQ people have no agency and just stupidly do whatever some advertising encourages them to do. Is this really the message they want to run with?

      1. Q Continuum

        I saw a similar PSA on TV a couple of days ago, but it was playing the racial angle. “Big Tobacco advertises more in poor, black neighborhoods so they be racial profiling racist KKK racists!” Did it occur to them that perhaps people lower in socioeconomic status tend to smoke more often and urban low-income neighborhoods tend to be disproportionately black? Nope. The only explanation is Big Tobacco wants to kill black people with their cancerous death sticks.

        1. Q Continuum

          Nevermind the fact that nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to light up. Personal responsibility must be racist or something.

          1. CPRM

            Also; I’m pretty sure it’s the store owner that decides which things they advertise, not BIG TOBACCO slamming the store owner against the wall “Put up this sign or we’ll burn this place to the ground! AHAHAHAHAHA!”

          2. Number.6

            Yes, but how do they make that determination? They make it based on how to optimize their PROFIT!!!11!!Eleventy!!

            It’s a fuckin’ conspiracy, man!

            /prog

    3. The Last American Hero

      Wait, they were marketing fags to, well, um…

  42. The Late P Brooks

    “Elon Musk’s Chicago Tunnel Makes a Dumb Idea Even Dumber”

    You’ve got a bunch of reasons to be skeptical about the Boring Company as a whole. Musk’s belief that he can speed up tunneling technology by at least a factor of 14 is, perhaps, a stretch. (“I would put what Mr. Musk is saying today in the bullshit category,” Thom Neff, a civil engineer, told WIRED in April.) And no matter how fast they’re dug, tunnels are unlikely to reduce traffic.

    If you trust Musk anyway, you still shouldn’t want him tunneling around O’Hare. You don’t want anyone trying it. That’s because express services between downtown cores and airports tend to be expensive, wasteful, and of limited use to all but the wealthiest travelers.

    “When relatively fortunate people get together and start talking to each other about their own tastes, they can design something that’s very specialized to their own tastes that turns out not to work as mass transit,” says Jarrett Walker, a transit planner and consultant. “There turns out to not be enough people with those tastes.”

    What’s cooler than a fast train? A fast train in a hole in the ground.

    1. WTF

      Hooooooole Traaaiiiinnnn!

    2. ChipsnSalsa

      Totally what Chicago / IL needs, another boondoggle to sink some more money in.

    3. Gilmore

      What’s cooler than a fast train? A fast train in a hole in the ground.

      bzzzzzzzzzz

      actually its an “AirTrain

      1. Rhywun

        Imagine being a clueless tourist and hopping on the AirTrain at JFK only to find out it dumps you at the A train for a fun hour-and-a-half crawl to Manhattan.

        1. Gilmore

          The few times i rode the airtrain, i saw exactly that firsthand. Japanese tourists looking very confused as to why there was no one on the train with them, and why they were being deposited in Jamaica Queens without any multilingual explanation of what to do next.

    4. KibbledKristen

      I really don’t need Musk’s unconscious sexual metaphors invading my person space, TYVM.

      1. Q Continuum

        “Come on baby, let me give you a hyperloop”

  43. Chipwooder

    If you thought you couldn’t be any more disgusted and angry about the Charlie Gard story, I’m willing to bet that you were wrong.

    1. WTF

      I am disgusted and angry at your SF’d link.

        1. Q Continuum

          Where is the vengeful Old Testament G-d when we need him? Time to go Sodom and Gomorrah on the NHS.

  44. Q Continuum

    Gee whiz, why not have a few more chesticles?

    http://thechive.com/2017/03/20/its-the-flbp-breakfast-we-do-it-every-monday-38-photos/

    NB: #7 looks improbable.

  45. Q Continuum

    This has probably already been posted somewhere.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/23/nina-skye-porn-actress-claims-she-was-fired-christ/

    I don’t have a problem with their firing her; it’s a private school and very often these types of organizations have moral turpitude clauses. I sincerely hope she’s happy with her decision, porn is likely a lot more lucrative than teaching kindergarten. While her sexual preferences have nothing to do with her abilities as a teacher, her choice to get paid by filming those activities, in my mind, speaks poorly of her judgement and impulse control. That is why I would have an issue with her teaching my kids. Besides, it would be a crime to deprive the world of watching her get drilled.

    1. Chipwooder

      In the interests of thoroughly researching the topic, I looked her up. She hasn’t done much. I suspect she was trying to raise her profile in the industry.

      1. Q Continuum

        She just needs to open herself up more to penetrate deeper into the industry. With enough hard work, success will explode inside her.

  46. mexican sharpshooter

    Yes, we all know Starbucks coffee is shit.
    http://www.businessinsider.com/feces-bacteria-coffee-iced-drinks-2017-6

    In fairness though, I sent this over to the infection control guy in the cubicle next to me, and apparently this is actually really common since people don’t always wash their hands after using the toilet.

    1. I understand that you’re supposed to wash with soap and water in the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday.” Though hopefully not singing it aloud.

      Is this correct?

      1. ChipsnSalsa

        Sing it out loud for all I care, just wash your hands after wiping.

      2. mexican sharpshooter

        I don’t know. There are hand sanitizer stations all over the place, I just use those.

        1. Q Continuum

          Won’t work on bacteria that make spores. Another fun tidbit I learned from my C. diff debacle. Vigorous hand washing or bleach are the only games in town.

          1. Number.6

            Well, that’s the issue. It’s quite effective on active bacteria itself, but those spores are practically immune.

            Alcohol based sanitizers are always better than nothing, since they’ll always reduce the absolute number of pathogens on your skin, but sure, they’re not a 100% solution to the issue of personal hygiene.

          2. mexican sharpshooter

            interesting.

            We have a surgeon that outright refuses to wash his hands because the, “procedure is non-invasive.” Hopefully I’ll find employment elsewhere before that guy gets us in the news again.

          3. Q Continuum

            I hope that guy has good malpractice insurance.

          4. R C Dean

            He’s a government doc (right, mexican?). You’re his malpractice insurance.

          5. R C Dean

            Is this correct?

            Yes. And, as others have noted, alcohol gels are better than nothing, but not as good as handwashing. I vaguely recall hearing that there is some indication that alcohol gels can actually make hand hygiene worse because of the way they affect your natural biome.

            mexican, that surgeon should be fired, and should have his license suspended if not revoked. What a fucking idiot.

          6. mexican sharpshooter

            He’s a government doc (right, mexican?). You’re his malpractice insurance.
            Correct.

            mexican, that surgeon should be fired,
            Agreed.

            should have his license suspended if not revoked.
            The VA is a federal program thus the licensing laws of the Great State of Arizona do not apply upon entry of the hospital. Not that VA surgeons aren’t credentialed before hiring, but they don’t have to be licensed in any state. QSI has brought this up on multiple occasions, apparently it is a serious pain in the ass to find a replacement cardiologist willing to work for a below average to mid-market salary.

            And now you know why I drink.

          7. I’m no warmonger, but our veterans deserve like two thousand percent better than that.

          8. The Last American Hero

            Single payer FTW!

          9. R C Dean

            Not that VA surgeons aren’t credentialed before hiring, but they don’t have to be licensed in any state.

            I thought they had to be licensed in some state, but being a VA doc meant that license was portable inside the VA system.

            Do you have doctors that are actually completely unlicensed?

          10. mexican sharpshooter

            Do you have doctors that are actually completely unlicensed?

            I don’t think its the norm and I’m not about to dig up an example as its a good way to get my hand slapped, but yes that is possible. Normally they have one in the state they apply and it expires but they are still employed at the VA. Like I said, the VA does have it own credentialing standards so it’s not like they can lose their license for malpractice and apply at the VA.

      3. To be clear, I know handwashing is needed, it’s the one compulsion I’m not embarrassed by, I was just wondering about the happy birthday thing.

    2. Q Continuum

      I’m still fighting C. diff. So yes, people are disgusting, barbaric lowlifes. Furthermore, I always washed even before I caught this hellish fucking disease.

    3. Bobarian LMD

      All forms of tea have some form of fecal coliform in them.

      1. Number.6

        Even Nestea? Bwaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

    1. 0x90

      purkkaviritys‏ @purkkaviritys 5h5 hours ago
      Replying to @mikko

      it just means you are verified by CNN

    2. Q Continuum

      FAKE NEWS

    3. Number.6

      The thing I liked was a followup in one of the twits that said it was probably an accident and that it whoever had cleaned up the screencap probably had a photoshop layer with a Twitter “verified” logo and in this case, whoever it was ‘accidentally’ forgot to disable it when the graphic was cleaned up.

      Of course, the unasked subsequent question would have been “what reason would CNN have in having such a “Twitter Verified” graphic layer available at all?

      1. R C Dean

        Yeah, that seems to be an admission that they do that a lot.

      2. leonadasiv

        I’ve worked with Twitter’s Data before, and they are very specific about how you reprint what was on Twitter. You have to make it look just like the image. I imagine News Orgs don’t want to be showing crappy screen captures of tweets, they probably have a default layout to pipe the data into. So it doesn’t surprise me that they would have one that had a ‘Verified’ tag.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    I’m not going to link to it, because… I’m not. It’s a Tim Egan column, for crying out loud. He makes a big deal about the “negligible” tax burden on rich people represented by Obamacare taxes, and how stupid and evil the Republikkkinz are for trying to cut them. The usual folderol.

    Then, he conjures up a “tax planner” or some such thing, to say, “My clients don’t mind paying taxes, because Social Contract.” Taxes have no effect on behavior, at the margin. Sounds legit.

    Then, in this very thread, I see our very own OMWC saying, “Move to Wizzgonsun? Fuck that. Their taxes are crazy.” But he’s just a crackpot libertarian. Not a meaningful data point.

    However, I am also reminded of the big shiny shopping mall in Moscow, Idaho (Home of the U of I), just over the state line from Washington. That place was always full of shoppers from Pullman, Washington looking to take advantage of the substantial difference between Washington and Idaho sales taxes. So, to all those who say, “Taxes don’t influence behavior” I say, “BULLSHIT.”

    1. Chipwooder

      I used to live in Orange Beach AL, about ten minutes from the Alabama-Florida state line. We’d drive over to Perdido Key in Florida to do our grocery shopping because groceries are exempt from sales taxes in Florida.

    2. Drake

      Everyone in northern MA goes to New Hampshire for no sales-tax shopping.

    3. R C Dean

      Then, he conjures up a “tax planner” or some such thing, to say, “My clients don’t mind paying taxes, because Social Contract.”

      Because its people who don’t mind paying taxes who hire tax planners, whose sole function is to minimize your taxes.

      Jeebus, how stupid do they think we are?

      1. Drake

        For some reason, the richest man in New Jersey moved to Florida in 2015 and blew a $100 million hole in the state budget.

        1. Number.6

          Same thing has happened in Connecticut over the last 10 years. Hence our fiscal malaise.

      2. On the other hand, tax planners benefit from the existence of tax laws, the more complicated the better.

    4. R C Dean

      So, to all those who say, “Taxes don’t influence behavior”

      I ask, so why do we have excise taxes on cigarettes? Why do we have a tax penalty on being uninsured? Why do we have soda taxes? I thought the reason for all those taxes (and many more) was precisely to change behavior, to get people to stop smoking, buy insurance, and stop drinking sugary stuff. Plus, these taxes are all regressive as hell – if they don’t influence behavior, shouldn’t we get rid of them, because fairness?

      1. Number.6

        The Ghost of Arthur Pigou would like a word with you, Tim.

    5. thrakkorzog

      Every year, about a week before school starts, Texas has a sales tax holiday on things like school supplies and kid’s clothes. It’s basically just a weekend where shoes and notebooks are exempt from sales taxes. I would love to invite anyone who says that taxes don’t influence behavior to visit the local Wal-Mart during one of these weekends then say with a straight face that taxes don’t influence behavior.

    6. ruodberht

      A tax planner who is violating their fiduciary duty? Yikes. Did he name any names? Is it an attorney he was talking about? That attorney might want to start preparing for the disbarment.

  48. 0x90

    Listening to traveling riverside blues on youtube, I happened to click the closed-caption button and was rewarded with this:

    if your Mangat person oh won’t you have your phone
    if your man get it boys alone won’t you have your phone
    let’s come on back ride for Mama well of all not
    waving in big burp clean on entertainers
    I got women in labor clean on into thin
    but my fried fight right now I’m all over me
    I got to stay no color twenty oh we go
    I’m going to say no man caliber of this aunty this clown
    she got a maggot on my phone another lino muscle
    I’m going to Road there don’t take my right up by my son
    I’m going to Rho D Rho Sigma premises
    we can still burn our city cousin on the Riverside
    how you can treat mild Emmentaler tears run down mama
    juice run down my lady you know what so
    you can sprayed my lemon tara is running down my baby
    that’s what I’m talking about
    but I’m going bad your bride funny Bobby rocking to my

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Finally!

    The Chicago police and federal authorities will announce Friday an effort aimed at cracking down on gun crimes in the violence-plagued city.

    Officials say this effort will combine police officers, state troopers, federal agents and state and federal prosecutors to target illegal guns and repeat gun offenders, which authorities in Chicago have long pointed to as causes of the city’s bloodshed. The announcement Friday comes at the beginning of the July 4 holiday weekend, typically among the deadliest periods in Chicago, which in recent years has struggled with surging levels of gun violence.

    Door to door searches? That would be awesome.

    1. Number.6

      Let’s have some bodycam footage, pigs.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Finally, the gun confiscation program progressives always wanted.

      “What do you mean they’re starting in Chicago and not Bumfuck, Texas?!”

    3. Q Continuum

      That’ll do the trick! We just need to crack down on guns! It’s not like we’ve done that 100 times before, but this time it’ll work!!

    4. Number.6

      I’m not unreceptive to the idea of a more muscular approach to dealing with illegal gun ownership, but I’m 110% skeptical of the Chicago Police’s ability to do it in a manner that is consistent with 2nd, 4th and 5th Amendment principles.

      1. Q Continuum

        “Illegal” as determined by whom? “He’s a brown person living in a shit neighborhood. Gotta be illegal, cuff him.”

        1. Number.6

          Even assuming that the Chicago Police somehow, magically managed to determine that there was a genuine, reasonable suspicion that individual X was in possession of a firearm while being a felon (or in some way should have clearly and reasonably been denied ownership of firearms in general, and that gun in particular), I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with that individual being Mirandized and detained.

          But we know it ain’t gonna work like that.

      2. mexican sharpshooter

        I don’t know, I think the police union will put the kibosh on it once a few cops gets shot in a raid.

        1. Number.6

          Yep. It’ll be a problem that solves itself.

  50. commodious spittoon

    Kurt’s no SugarFree, but here’s some decent political satire.

    A cheerful voice from someone in the front row cried out: “I got a new puppy! His name is Woofy!”

    “Yes, Chris, you’ve already told us all about Woofy several times,” sighed Zucker.

    “Woofy likes to bark at squirrels, and my brother is governor!”

    1. spqr2008

      I enjoyed this one too, since, growing up, I consistently thought that Mario Puzo was a Nom De Plume of Mario Cuomo.
      [“Sometimes daddy used to come home late at night with his special friends and they were all dirty and had shovels. They always took the cannoli,” Chris Cuomo said to John Berman, who got up and moved down three chairs.]

  51. Chipwooder
  52. The Late P Brooks

    How do you say guinea pig clusterfuck in Hindi?

    The new sales tax has four rates and numerous exemptions. Adding to the complexity, businesses with a pan-India operation face an arduous task of filing over 1000 digital returns a year.

    While higher tax rates for services and non-food items are expected to fuel price pressures, compliance is feared to be a major challenge in a country where many entrepreneurs are not computer literate and rely on hand-written ledgers.

    “We have jumped into a river but don’t know its depth,” said A. Subba Rao, an executive director at power firm CLP India.

    Poor implementation could deal a blow to Asia’s third-largest economy that is still recovering from Modi’s decision late last year to outlaw 86 percent of the currency in circulation.

    Larry Summers approves.

    1. Number.6

      They’re just implementing their version of the British Value Added Tax of the 70’s.

      See what benefits you gain as a former colony when you adopt the British bureaucratic model lock, stock and barrel?

    2. Q Continuum

      Yab yum?

  53. mexican sharpshooter

    So this morning I had a Skype interview. Where we got to the part were I ask them questions I asked about their current projects and such but I also went with one that always seems to throw off the interviewer which is, “If you wanted to scare me off right now, what would you tell me about this job to do it?”

    He replied very dryly, “You will have to work with millennials.”
    To which I replied, “How old do you think I am?”

    I don’t think they’re going to call me back.

    1. commodious spittoon

      “I’m not stuck in here with millennials. Millennials are stuck in here with ME.”

      1. mexican sharpshooter

        Damn. I wish I thought of that.

    2. Q Continuum

      Ha! I will have to remember that question next time I’m out job hunting.

      1. The Last American Hero

        Alternatively, beat them to the punch with the old “Where do you see me in 10 years?”

  54. commodious spittoon

    English education authorities threaten to close private school for orthodox Jewish girls: not teaching the secular gospel on homosexuality and gender reassignment surgery “restricts pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and does not promote equality of opportunity in ways that take account of differing lifestyles.”

    I wonder what they think about Muslim madrassas beating students and indoctrinating contempt for English norms and values, like, oh, tolerance of homosexuality and transgenderism. But something tells me shutting down private Jewish schools ranks higher than investigating Muslim schools.

    1. Q Continuum

      JOOOOOOOOOZ!

    2. Chipwooder

      And they have a helluva lot more Muslim schools than orthodox Jewish schools, I assume.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    RC’s comment, above:

    True fact: the federal budget would be in surplus right now, today, if spending was at the same level as in 2008, and would damn near be balanced if spending was the same as in 2009, when we had the stimulus outlay.

    We could actually grow our way out of the deficit, if the morons in Washington would stop growing the deficit faster than the economy. But any decrease in the rate of spending growth is depicted as a massive “cut” which will cause millions to die in the streets and eliminate vital government services.

    NO, FUCK YOU. CUT SPENDING.

  56. commodious spittoon

    Comfortably Smug
    @ComfortablySmug

    The more we focus on hrose shit like this Joe and Mika situation the more likely it is Ted Cruz’s dad will never be brought to justice

    1. Q Continuum

      Joe sez: “What Trump says wasn’t an insult, she *is* Crazy Mika… IN BED! Dropping fuckin’ load moddafogga!”

      …I need to spend less time here.

  57. Ayn Random Variation

    Speaking of football, I was watching the CFL and came across a team called the Redblacks. I guess because their uniform us red and black. Now I know Canadiens are boring, but that has to be the least imaginative team name if all time.
    I’m going to assume the team once had an offensive Indian name and was forced to change it to this. Any Canucks know the deal?

    1. Q Continuum

      “least imaginative team name of all time”

      More like the most racist one! They need to immediately change to the Rainbows and have a player diversity quota. 1/3 must be trans-midget-stump people.

    2. CPRM

      according to wiki, they just started in 2014, and that was their name from the start.

      1. CPRM

        Team name[edit]
        The team almost immediately made contact with previous Rough Riders owner Horn Chen regarding the Rough Riders name. The ownership group were well aware of the price they would have had to pay Chen for the Rough Riders’ logo and wordmarks.[30] The Rough Riders name still retains popular currency among football fans in Ottawa. The Rough Riders played for 120 years, during which time they won the Grey Cup nine times.[31] However, in July 2010, the ownership group announced that while Chen had sold the Rough Riders intellectual properties—including their trademarks—to his group, the Rough Riders name would likely not be returning due to the objections of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.[32]

        On December 6, 2012, the CFL opened voting for the name of the team, up until December 16, 2012, on http://www.nameourteams.com. It was speculated that the team would be called the Rush, but this was later debunked.[33] The Rush name was nonetheless included in a list of five potential names (Nationals, Voyageurs, Redblacks, and Raftsmen being the others) for the team in a focus group led by the team’s owners in January 2013.[34]

        Redblacks logo with wordmark in French.
        On May 30, 2013, the website Sportslogos.net reported that the ownership group had filed copyright protection for the nickname “Redblacks” (and its French equivalent, Rouge et Noir) with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.[35] On June 8, 2013, the team confirmed it would be known as the Ottawa Redblacks. On the same day, the Redblacks also revealed their logo, an italicized version of the block “R” that appeared on the Rough Riders’ helmets from 1975 to 1991 (with artistic ink traps) surrounded by a red outline inside a black saw blade.[36]

        Presently, the CFL does not consider the Redblacks (or for that matter, the Renegades) as the successors of the Rough Riders in the same way that it considers the three incarnations of the Alouettes to be one franchise.[citation needed]

  58. KibbledKristen

    What do you do when you’re on a conf call and the material is way over your head and way beyond your expertise?

    Me? Watch a plane crashed on a highway in CA, and look at real estate listings my colleague is sending.

    1. Ken Shultz

      Whenever you’re talking about something you know nothing about, it’s important to use the word “obviously” a lot.

      It scares people away from asking too many questions. Nobody wants to ask questions with obvious answers.

      That might make them look stupid.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Me no talk. Me listen to sys admins. Me no understand.

        1. Ken Shultz

          They may not know what they’re talking about either.

          I was hired to do support for a bunch of sys admins. They gave me the manual, let me read it for a couple of days, and then started sending me calls.

          My boss told me, “Just because they’ve been doing this for years, and you’ve never even used a text based terminal before, that doesn’t mean you don’t know more than they do. After all, you’ve read the manual, and they haven’t.

          P.S. Also, Civ V in a minimized window. You can select that in video opts.

          P.P.S. Hit & Run and Glibertarians.com. You come here when you’re on conference calls–especially when people are scheduling just to make themselves feel like they know what’s going on.

          The guy that’s talking right now knows less about this submarket than I do. I used to think that college was the only time you’d write something on a topic where your audience (the professor) knows more about it than you do. But there are people whose jobs it is to do this. They’re called “consultants”. Minority investors hire them to help them sleep at night, and then the consultants come to your office. You teach them everything there is to know about the submarket in question, and then they regurgitate it back to you in a report–and charge the minority investor for the service.

          It’s a fuckin’ racket.

          1. Number.6

            Consultancy is what happens when client wants to know the time, and doesn’t trust his staff.

            So he retains you, you then borrow the watch or smartphone from the most biddable member of his staff, who proceeds to show you how to read the time from the device.

            You then read the time, write it up into a 32-page ‘white paper’ with an attached project proposal, and then charge the client $15,000

      2. Ken Shultz

        E.g. . . .

        https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/assassinscreed/images/0/0e/Grigori_Rasputin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140903123745

        Rasputin is holding his hands like that–for obvious reasons.

        The more “educated” people are, the less likely they are to want to embarrass themselves.

        I have no idea why Rasputin is holding his hands like that. He could be shooing a fly away with a bellyache. But if it’s for “obvious reasons”, no one is likely to ask. And I don’t want them to ask–because I don’t know.

        1. It looks like he’s giving a blessing. He was supposedly a monk.

          1. Ken Shultz

            Or he could be reaching out to catch something thrown to him by his special friend–a six foot, invisible green rabbit named “Harvey”.

  59. KibbledKristen
    1. Number.6

      You want a discussion?

      Last time I was interested, Occam’s Razor still applied.

      Near-earth-object or somesuch. The article at Wiki is somewhat truthy, because the Chicxulub Impact off Yucatan was demonstrably greater in magnitude, and there’s a good chance that Earth has experienced many other higher-energy impacts.

      STEVE SMITH wasn’t even nearby.

      1. Chipwooder

        STEVE SMITH ALWAYS NEARBY, YOU JUST DON’T KNOW IT

      2. KibbledKristen

        OTD = “on this date”

        Discuss or not at your leisure. I think it’s a fascinating event that kind of passed scientists by, given its geographical isolation.