Tuesday On Time LInks

Hey, look. I’m on time and the only person writing links this afternoon. All is right with the world!

Statues of people who were bad people, down. White polos, out. Buying a Hugo Boss suit or VW? Meh. *

Washinton Post argues with a straight face that Free Speech is only good when it doesn’t hurt liberals or the media. You think I’m exaggerating, but (emphasis mine):

It was one thing to defend the American Nazi Party’s right to march in Skokie, Ill. in 1977, when the liberal establishment and mainstream media were still intact and American Nazi Party was a marginal fringe group. The group was offensive, but neither its actions nor its ideas posed a threat to the political or social order, which was stable. The situation is different today, with an erratic President Trump in the White House, elites in disarray and white nationalism on the rise. In this situation, and against this foe, it may be worth remembering that our constitutional rights are not unchanging abstract principles,

Russians and crypto-nazis and tensions on the Korean Peninsula and new ICBMs? If we’re going to live the 50’s over again, can we at least get the rocket-cone bras back?

I say, pshaw! I once worked for a guy who had implemented a pretty accurate chemical process simulation software in Excel. Now that was a fucking spreadsheet.

*Given how actual fascism works, I understand that every German company now that was a German company then was a collaborator of lesser or greater extent.

Let’s have a little folk rock.

EDIT: Banjos brings the most brutal headline of the day.

Comments

393 responses to “Tuesday On Time LInks”

  1. Vhyrus

    FIRST FIRST FIRST AHAHAHAH!!!

    1. No reference to link. DISQUALIFIED.

      However, your #2 Comment IS a first. So….congratulations….this time.

      1. Vhyrus

        Are you saying my #2 is #1?

        1. 2 is #1! 2 is #1!

          /Chants, sportsfan style while waving giant foam #1*

          1. Wait a minute.

            Am I entering HM territory?!

          2. SugarFree

            Are you turning Japanese? I don’t think so.

          3. Mad Scientist

            Needs more gibberish.

          4. I will NOT summon the Cummybot!

        2. Mad Scientist

          Who does #2 work for?

          1. SugarFree

            RIVEN!

          2. *feebly tries to stand up after falling on ground during 2 minute hysterical laughter outburst*

          3. Number.6

            /me gives MS the stinkeye for stealing xer lines

        3. You are #6.

          1. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own!

            Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go get my Social Security number and renew my State Driver’s License and Passport.

          2. Number.6

            Hey, where do I file an application to have a Glib Sensei catbutted for plagiarism?

            Y’all stealing my thunder, and the trend is ON THE RISE!!

          3. Slammer

            You need to grow some Bulldog Skin

          4. Tundra

            I would, but I am a Tree.

  2. Vhyrus

    Polo shirts are racist? Casual friday hardest hit.

    1. Brett L

      Casual Friday is white privilege.

      1. Vhyrus

        Disagree. When you’re unemployed, every day is casual friday.

    2. F. Stupidity Jr.

      Only the w****e ones.

    3. But that VW in your driveway looks nice.

      1. Tundra

        Shit, I have two of them.

        *looks around nervously*

    4. mexican sharpshooter

      * realigns cufflinks *

      You’re goddamn right they’re racist.

  3. Gilmore

    White polos, out.

    (looks)

    I honestly think they’re trying to re-elect Trump now

  4. I don’t want the rocket cone bras back…I want the sweater girls back, however.

    https://irinaleontina.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/sweater-girls-of-the-50s/

    1. John Titor

      You could take an eye out on a date with one of those things.

    2. Chafed

      Those rocket cone bras were terrible. Talk about unnatural. And what JT said above.

      1. Tundra

        I’d take my chances.

        1. DEG

          I would too.

  5. Gilmore

    that bane of office workers everywhere — the spreadsheet

    …. but…. but….

    i love spreadsheets (hugs excel 2003 – pre-ribbon excel is best excel!)

    1. ChipsnSalsa

      I have a spreadsheet to select meals for camping. Then it will turn that into a packing list broken in to dry / cooled food stuffs.

      Spreadsheets are fantastic.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        You just gave UCS a woodie

    2. I also love spreadsheets. *cradles financial spreadsheet going back to 2008*

      That goddamn ribbon, tho.

      1. The Last American Hero

        Did the assholes who came up with the ribbon actually use Excel or Word in an office environment? I doubt it. Those programmers should have been tied up to the Microsoft sign in front of the campus and left for the crows of Redmond to eat – so as to serve as an example to others.

        1. Gilmore

          Did the assholes who came up with the ribbon actually use Excel or Word in an office environment? I doubt it.

          My exact thought the day i first encountered it. it suddenly made ‘one click’ menus into a 2-3 step process. it was the opposite of “productive”.

          another fun excel plug = it takes whatever version you run, and allows you to use a non-ribbon menu

          http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

    3. Tulip

      Spreadsheets are awesome! This, this … person…. who doesn’t like spreadsheets, doesn’t actually DO any work.

    4. DTX

      Excel = goodness
      Power Point = evil. Like, Trump evil

      1. JaimeRoberto

        Power Point can be evil when used for meaningless blather. On the other hand, as I explain to my boss, it’s useful for making things so simple that even a manager can understand it.

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Did you use a slide deck when explaining it to your boss?

        2. R C Dean

          I’ve done a couple of PowerPoints lately with kind of a TED Talk flava – the PowerPoint slide is just a phrase. Since I ad lib my presentations anyway, it works for me.

          People who read their slide decks should be receive the bastinado. Ten strokes, each foot.

          1. Speakers should always be more animated than their slides.

    5. Number.6

      Warning to the wise.

      If you love your spreadsheet, do not leave it alone.

      Back in Olden Times, the days of the Kaypro 8086 ‘portable’ PC, I built a spreadsheet in collaboration with a dairy farmer, to manage milk yields in his herd. The software I used was Perfect Calc, a head-to-head competitor with Supercalc. This model was genuinely a thing of rare and mythic beauty, that I’d love to run today, …. but can’t, even if I could BSTAM the files off the 5.25in floppy disk it’s sitting on.

      Same thing with a billing app I built in Lotus Symphony and some smaller ‘apps’ built in Lotus 1-2-3. Some of these products wouldn’t even run on XP, even if you could find the media to read the disks.

      So, don’t be like me. Don’t abandon your old friends unless you know, fer shure, that you’re happy to never see them again.

      1. Brasidas

        Excel’s default format is a xml file to avoid this. You can open them up in notepad.

    6. wdalasio

      Spreadsheets define my career. Unless everyone wants to switch over to R, you’ll take my Excel from my cold dead hands.

    7. Gdragon

      Spreadsheets for everything, always. Every aspect of my life would be a shambles without them.

      1. R C Dean

        Spreadsheets are for math. And there is no substitute.

        If there’s no math, don’t use a spreadsheet. Otherwise, its like trying to type on a calculator. Drives me fargin’ nuts when I get lists and other documents WITH NO MATH as an Excel document.

        /Peeve OFF

        1. Gdragon

          You might be assuming that there are things in my life that don’t involve math somehow that I give a shit about 😉

        2. mexican sharpshooter

          People only do that because the table function in Word is too hard to use. No, seriously that’s what they tell me.

          1. Word sucks. Excel is useful, even without math. I use spreadsheets to organize information for photo and video shoots.

          2. mexican sharpshooter

            I don’t disagree. I’m just repeating what Office illiterate coworkers told me.

        3. trshmnstr

          Hands off my Docket spreadsheet! Excel’s date handling is better than most calendar apps (not to mention outlook).

          They really need to get full integration and customization of OneNote done. I use oneNote every hour of every day, but I can’t customize the damn thing to my liking.

        4. Unreconstructed

          Nah – they’re also handy for turning columns of data into SQL. That’s my favorite use of Excel lately.

    8. BakedPenguin

      I once took over for a statistician at an energy company who created the most complex spreadsheet I’ve ever seen. It computed variables in weather, gas prices, and gas inventory to estimate prices in several different locations across the country. 5 tabs, 4 of which ended past the 15,000th row. I made a few copies of it, so that if one got messed up, I wouldn’t have to hunt for the mistake.

      The most complex one I ever created was for an insurance company. It calculated experience rating for property/auto/liability claims (basically how much do we raise rates on companies that make claims). 5 tabs (user page, 3 coverages, one for state variables). It also had VBA code to read the date and insert any dates since the last time it had been used.

    9. Gilmore

      For anyone who does stock/equity market research…. i encourage you to try out this thing w/ excel.

      http://ogres-crypt.com/SMF/

      there may be easier ways to get the same functionality w newer versions of excel, but i like this simple plug in + formula approach

    10. mexican sharpshooter

      (hugs excel 2003 – pre-ribbon excel is best excel!)

      I take back everything negative I ever said about you.

      1. But Enough About Me

        I’ve had multiple opportunities to switch to newer, “better” versions of Office (including Excel) and have steadfastly refused. Office 360 and its Excel implementation made Baby Jesus cry and my wife spitting mad, it was so craptacular.

        1. mexican sharpshooter

          Our IT made us switch. One Monday I booted up, and found out everything was in the wrong place.

          “Where the fuck is Text to Columns!? Goddamnit! Why can’t they just leave this shit–oh there it is.”

    11. Brasidas

      My opinion of spreadsheets rose quite a bit when I figured out how to have VBA call stuff from the command line.

      I turned all my spreadsheets into GUIs for CPLEX and python scripts.

      I would constantly run into problems otherwise.

      1. Gilmore

        spreadsheets aren’t databases. as people who manage database are constantly reminding everyone.* they’re like vegans that way.

        1. BakedPenguin

          You probably already know this, but I’m going to be a dick and say it anyway. (If only so you can throw it in their faces) Pivot tables need data set up in the same manner as SQL databases to function.*

          Also, it cracks me up that MS Access still cannot support Union queries. That was the reason I learned SQL back in 2002.

          *AFAIK, anyway. If I’m wrong, let me know.

    12. whiz

      Speaking of complicated spreadsheets, I heard that Nate Silver had a massive one to calculate his PECOTA predictions for Baseball Prospectus, and when he left BP to start 538.com, the BP people had to translate it into something else. That year the BP predictions for team wins were not very good, perhaps because they screwed up the transfer of algorithms. I think they got it straightened out eventually.

    13. Brasidas

      I liked the ribbon.

      If I wasn’t quite sure where something was, it made it easy to find it.

      I also like deep dish pineapple pizza.

    14. DenverJ

      You ever see a pre-computer spreadsheet? Like a map that just keeps unfolding. Pretty impressive, but looks difficult to write plug-ins for…

  6. KibbledKristen

    Werner Von Braun FTW!

    I grabbed a JS snippet for an accordion page on our site (because our CMS doesn’t have a functional accordion tool! YAY!) and I told my colleague it was just a test to see if the CMS would allow inline JS in a content field. I told her the functionality was bugged, but that was easily fixable.

    She comes back with “It doesn’t work. The accordions don’t stay expanded”.

    WHAT DID I JUST SAY, MOTHERFUCKER?

    1. Brett L

      She heard: “It pretty much works” which is semantically equivalent to “it works” in most non-computer people’s minds.

    2. Um

      Sprechen Sie Englisch?

      1. Dr. Fronkensteen

        NAZI?

        1. Ja,

          I did not see!

    3. Vhyrus

      Rule #1: Don’t show anything to anyone that doesn’t understand your magic until it is 100% ready.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Unfortunately, the project we’re doing hinges on the ability to add inline JS and use an accordion, so I had to show it to her before we proceeded further. I suppose I could have just told her we’re good to go, but folks around here always want to see a screen shot or a preview or some shit.

        1. Number.6

          What’s wrong with jQuery UI’s accordion widget?

    4. DTX

      function cussdumbcoworker (coworker) {
      alert(“WHAT DID I JUST SAY, ” + coworker);
      }

      cussdumbcoworker(“MOTHERFUCKER”);

  7. Spartan Dad

    Militia member speaks about group’s role at rally
    http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/militia-member-speaks-about-group-s-role-at-rally/article_e6765d00-85f9-11e7-82cf-3baf6f9c497a.html

    Since the Charlottesville thing started, I’ve held the position that some of the people there were not associated with the alt-right and were just trying to defend the constitution and the confederate flag. The local media, if not the national, has finally done their job and reported that not everyone there was Nazis or Communists. Finally, an article about the militias.

    It’s actually a good article and worth reading. It turns out there were two groups of militias, on opposing sides, and some credited them with keeping the violence from getting even worse. I think this is who Trump was referring to as the very fine people on both sides.

    “I think [Nazis and nationalists] hated us as much as they hated anyone else. They designated us ‘oath cucks’ and said we were ‘fence-sitting LARPers,’ whatever that means. They kind of have their own language and it’s hard to understand them,” Ross said.

    ….

    “I feel in some ways that, if we weren’t there, things may have been worse. Many people appreciated it and many people didn’t,” Ross said. “We don’t like Nazis. We don’t like Antifa. But they both have the right to speak, and that’s what we defend. We wanted to support the Constitution and help keep things peaceful.”

    Also, just read a WSJ op-ed that noted the two troopers who died in the helicopter crash were on their way as standard guard duty for the governor’s motorcade and was unrelated to Charlottesville. Still waiting to see all the corrections but am not holding my breath.

    1. John Titor

      It’s rather hilarious to have white nationalists whine and mock people who have actually served their country.

      1. Spartan Dad

        Yea, the guy estimated 80% of his militia group served in Afghanistan or Iraq. He also said the opposing milita group were good people even though they disagree politically, an unusually decent thing to say especially in that political climate.

    2. John

      Yeah. I think you will be waiting a while for that correction.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      We wanted to support the Constitution and help keep things peaceful.

      FASCISTS!!!!

    4. Chipwooder

      So what you’re telling us is that you’re a Nazi? That’s what I’m getting from your post, anyway.

      1. Spartan Dad

        Nazi/Libertarian/Person who doesn’t care about race but does care about character/Person who just wants to be left the fuck alone and leaves others alone…

        Does the left see any difference?

    5. antisthenes

      Wait, so instead of their deaths somehow being the fault of the evil Nazis for… holding a rally, or existing, or whatever, they’re actually dead because of Governor Chaos?

      1. Chipwooder

        Terry McAuliffe embodies the adjective “oily ” like no other human being can.

      2. Spartan Dad

        Finally found the article:
        https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-extremist-show-is-just-starting-1503092033?tesla=y

        The press would cite two more victims, police who died in a helicopter crash, though they had actually been on their way to provide support for Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s motorcade.

    6. Pomp

      I wonder when NPR will issue a retraction/apology about how they characterised the militia contingent as “white nationalist.” Thank for the excellent link, SD.

      1. R C Dean

        If they named any militia members, I think that a defamation lawsuit for accusing them of being white nationalists would be in order. The militia members aren’t “public figures (in all probability), so they wouldn’t even have to prove NPR’s knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard.

        If NPR called me a white nationalist, I’d be sipping G & Ts on my private island within a year.

  8. Just Say’n

    Look who took time away from virtue signaling on Twitter to comment at Reason:

    Nicholas Sarwark|8.22.17 @ 2:52PM|#

    As a Maricopa County business owner and resident, I am glad that my tax dollars are no longer being wasted paying for Sheriff Arpaio’s unconstitutional bigotry.

    I just wish that the President could pardon the Sheriff and/or endorse the chemtrail lady from back in Washington, instead of snarling traffic in my city.

    1. KibbledKristen

      MMM. Wow. Ain’t he special!

    2. John Titor

      Hey Sarwark, maybe you should be more focused on your party’s fading relevancy rather than spending all your time writing snide remarks on the internet.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Libertarian Moment©!

        1. KibbledKristen

          Does this thing allow superscript HTML?

          Let’s see…

          ©

          1. KibbledKristen

            Nope© 🙁

    3. Vhyrus

      He lives in Phoenix. Can I challenge him to single combat for the throne of the LP?

        1. bacon-magic

          That is the best highlander fight.

          1. The Last American Hero

            No lover for Highlander 2?

            /ducks

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            The TV show was the best.

          3. bacon-magic

            Um…nein.

          4. Gustave Lytton

            Yes.

            Alexandra Vandernoot

            *drops mic and walks away*

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Can I challenge him to single combat for the throne of the LP?

        Just how good are you at penis jousting?

  9. KibbledKristen

    This pretty much sums it up, non?

    1. Just Say’n

      *Does not compute- narrative fail*

    2. F. Stupidity Jr.

      “That poor elderly African-American man, suffering so from false consciousness.”

    3. Gilmore

      There needs to be 200 people with cameras pointed at them shrieking “FIGHT!!!”

    4. Tundra

      You made my day.

      Thank you.

    5. xenophon

      That is just the best.

    6. Fatty Bolger

      Wonderful. Just wonderful.

    7. Chipwooder

      Reminds me of a jackass I know who, when a Navajo friend of mine told him that most Indians don’t give a shit about sports team nickname, huffily retorted that it didn’t matter because HE, the benevolent white leftist, was offended on behalf of all native people. “Just because you can find an Indian who says he doesn’t care doesn’t erase the racism!”

      1. KibbledKristen

        THat would be the “White Savior Complex” noted on the Pyramid of Racism. You should show him that.

      2. mexican sharpshooter

        Isn’t there a high school on the Navajo Reservation with the team name Redskins?

      3. Tundra

        Shit. I worked on several reservations early in my career. I can assure you that fucking sports team nicknames are waaaaaaaay down on their list of things about which to give a fuck.

    8. compgrokker

      That actually made me laugh, thanks.

  10. Just Say’n

    Washington Post in January: Trump is a threat to free speech!

    Washington Post in August: Free speech is bad, ok!

    1. Vhyrus

      You see, in January they were in control of the speech, now they’re not.

    2. John Titor

      The amount of media types going “we need to restrict speech, because people we don’t like are in power” is both hilariously transparent and amazingly stupid. The mental gymnastics required to go “the people in power are evil, therefore let them police speech” would make the East Germans blush.

      1. Trigger Hippie

        Now if only they would reach the conclusion that it’s a bad idea for ALL elected officials to have the power needed to implement NAZISM in the first place…hey look! A leprechaun!

  11. Gilmore

    sidebar of excel article:

    Video
    0:43
    Horny rhinos engage in a ‘devil’s threesome’

    I thought Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse” performance during an eclipse was a sign of the End Times. This might be the second sign.

    1. Notgonnaclick, Notgonnaclick, Notgonnaclick, Notgonnaclick, Notgonnaclick, Notgonnaclick, Notgonnaclick, Notgonnaclick, nope.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        You really should

        1. Sean

          More amusing than I expected.

          1. Oh, yeah – Like I am going to take the word of two Glibs commenters!

            *lifts chin pugnaciously*

          2. RBS

            It’s pretty good.

      2. Gustave Lytton

        So Swiss is more an En Vogue fan. Huh.

  12. John

    https://www.spectator.com.au/2017/08/big-data-finds-the-medieval-warm-period-no-denial-here/

    Apparently the earth was warmer during the middle ages than it is today.

    1. F. Stupidity Jr.

      This is clearly more evidence in favor of the Donald Trump, Time Traveler theory.

    2. kinnath

      Greenland was pretty fucking green when the Vikings settled there. Then it wasn’t, and the Vikings were gone.

      1. Enough About Palin

        So it’s Vikings that cause the warming. We must kill all of the Vikings!!!

    3. The Last American Hero

      Slightly OT: If scientists had predicted that yesterday’s eclipse was going to occur in 2014, be visible in Antarctica, last for 3 months, and forever change life as we know it, people would be more skeptical of their ability to do astronomy correctly.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        That sounds like astrology.

      2. Enough About Palin

        That sets me to thinking. There likely are solar eclipses in Antarctica. During summer, the sun is always up. Would that mean that it would be possible for tere to be an eclipse every 24 hours?

        1. Mad Scientist

          Only if the moon’s orbit is changed to pass between the earth and the sun every day instead of approximately once a month,

        2. Brasidas

          The moon’s orbit is not inclined enough for there to be eclipses in Antarctica. The moon must be

    4. Drake

      I was a history major and new about the Medieval Optimum many decades ago. Vineyards in England, farms in the Alps where there are now glaciers, etc…

      1. Pomp

        Why you son of a bitch. You’re supposed to cry when somebody shows you a mini-doco about a glacier melting.

  13. Chafed

    That’s an oped in WaPo. Dickinson professor who wrote it is responsible for its totalitarian content.

    1. Chafed

      Damn autocorrect. Dickinson = dickish.

    1. PBRstreetgang

      Who?

      1. Not an Economist

        I think he was the guy who pointed out Scalise was a Nazi.

    2. Fatty Bolger

      And one of the commenters proves the point:

      jazzquipster • 5 hours ago
      Hodgkinson hasn’t gone to trial yet and I assume that you would like to see him convicted for this crime. I would like to see him convicted. The Wall Street Journal is a conservative publication, but it is also a responsible one, unlike, say, the Daily Caller. Being responsible, the WSJ follows the established rules of journalism in order to not establish grounds for a mistrial. They don’t call someone accused of murder a killer until that person is actually convicted of the crime. Oh, but you probably knew that, you just couldn’t resist the opportunity to feed your audience another heaping helping of outrage.

  14. Juvenile Bluster

    Statues of people who were bad people, down. White polos, out. Buying a Hugo Boss suit or VW? Meh. *

    Kid wore a white polo shirt as part of her school uniform today. How am I going to deal knowing that she’s a white nationalist?

    1. Just Say’n

      I’m sorry, but clearly your child is a bigot

    2. Brett L

      Obviously, you should send her to school in a t-shirt that isn’t white to protest.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Maybe have her wear a brownshirt?

        1. DenverJ

          I thought it was common knowledge, at least among the educated people here, as well as the mini ice ages, year without a summer, etc.

          1. DenverJ

            Internet is hard today. Need drink moar

    3. bacon-magic

      Have her wear a red armband so it breaks up the white polo.

    4. Chipwooder

      The funny part is them acting like this is something new. Polo-style shirts, particularly the Fred Perry brand, were long a staple of skinhead fashion. Some (not all, but some) of those skinheads were Nazis.

    5. Pomp

      In a couple weeks my daughter’s gonna have to sport a white polo with a fleur de lis. Half-Asian French white nationalist? Shit’s getting confusing real fast.

  15. Gilmore

    France’s Macron heads east to tame flow of cheaper workers

    WARSAW, Poland (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for tighter European Union rules to protect workers in France and other prosperous countries in Western Europe from cheaper labor

    Strangely, you don’t see the AP cheerleading this sort of thing when the labor is brownish and spanish-speaking

    1. John

      Letting in hard working Poles and Slavs is a threat to French workers. Letting in lazy illiterate Arabs who only want to go on the dole and preach the Jihad is affirming what Western Civilization is all about.

    2. KibbledKristen

      It’s not racist or xenophobic when the Europeans do it. Europeans are incapable of racism or xenophobia. On account of them being super-enlightened n shit.

    3. Wasn’t the EU threatening to throw half of Eastern Europe out for not sufficiently supporting “free movement of peoples”?

      1. Just Say’n

        Yes, I distinctly recall our national media informing us that Poland and Hungary’s government were basically Nazis for not taking in refugees.

  16. Dr. Fronkensteen

    Between the Cos-play Nazis and Civil Rights LARPers. I’m going to have to go on a media fast pretty soon.

  17. Juvenile Bluster

    Washinton Post argues with a straight face that Free Speech is only good when it doesn’t hurt liberals or the media. You think I’m exaggerating, but (emphasis mine):

    That paragraph originally stated that the ACLU was defending the KKK’s freedom to speak, not the American Nazi Party’s. At least they put an editor’s note at the end. And this is a chair of the History department.

    1. SugarFree

      Herstory department.

      1. Xerstory Departxent

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      It’s also nice to see that she believes in free speech for people who have the correct thoughts.

      At the same time, however, colleges and universities need to recognize that their liberal critics of, say, diversity policies or Title IX excesses are not political foes and should not be subject to censorship or censure. One reason the right has been able to so effectively exploit “free speech” is because campuses have become places where the free exchange of ideas has been curbed by peer pressure, self-policing and a self-righteous call-out culture, as described by Jonathan Haidt, Jonathan Chait and Mark Lilla. Until university presidents offer real leadership in reconciling the liberal critique of “identity politics” with a new generation of diverse students, faculty and staff for whom such politics represent progress, they will be unable to protect their institutions from conservative attacks.

  18. The Other Kevin

    white nationalism on the rise

    I absolutely fucking hate the phrase “on the rise”. It’s just a scare phrase that means nothing. If national KKK membership went from 100 members to 101, it’s “on the rise”. It’s just as bad as using statistics as a percentage, like “There was a 100% increase in deaths due to ___!”, which usually means 4 people died from it last year, and 8 died from it this year, and either way it’s still statistically insignificant.

    1. John

      It is just meaningless bullshit. I hate that phrase too.

    2. trshmnstr

      You know what else was white and on the rise?

      1. SugarFree

        Your mom’s penis?

        1. Being gay can be a problem, it’s true
          But being straight can have its problems too
          I met this girl and she’s just great
          But the problem is that I am straight
          You ask: “How can this be?”
          Listen and you will see…

          She’s got that style
          She’s got that smile
          She’s got the talk
          She’s got the walk
          She’s got that zing
          There’s just one thing
          She has a penis

          She’s got that flair
          Knows what to wear
          She’s got that face
          That girl is grace
          She’s got pizzaz
          Too bad she has
          A penis

          1. Enough About Palin

            You listen to some weird tunes, Swiss.

        2. John

          My mom’s dick is bigger than yours.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        *beams proudly*

      3. Vhyrus

        The Stay Puft marshmallow man?

        1. … uh oh, I think you are right!

    3. Viking1865

      My go to “calm the fuck down” factoid is that there are roughly 1.8 million people who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and also believe he is the Antichrist. There are under 10,000 KKK members in the country.

      1. John Titor

        There are more people in the United States who believe the major leaders of the world are Reptilians from another planet than there are KKK members.

        1. John

          Yeah but the thing about Reptillians is true.

          1. The Last American Hero

            Sounds like something a Grey would say to deflect attention from The Truth.

          2. trshmnstr

            There are four letters capitalized in your comment. One is a duplicate, making three. There are three sides on a triangle. Illuminati confirmed!!

      1. Pomp

        What I really want to know is: who is Bobo in the subtext?

    4. Waterfall Insurance

      If they all get in an elevator they are on the rise.

    5. Pomp

      OPIOID CRISIS

  19. KSuellington

    So I was reading Fatty Bolger’s comment in the earlier thread about Dalton Trumbo blocking Darkness at Noon from being made into a film and I wanted to see if it would be mentioned in Wikipedia. It used to be, but some enterprising commie made sure to take it out.

    Commie Shithead:
    “I removed a sentence citing Trumbo bragging that in the Daily Worker that he and other “communists” had squashed Darkness at Noon as well as other anti-communist projects. My objection is not the accuracy of the statement, but…”

    …but it really didn’t look good. And we can’t have that now, can we?

    1. John

      That needs to be a movie today, though I am sure leftists would watch it and think it was about Trump.

    2. Vhyrus

      So put it back. And add a little line saying “fuck you stop trying to rewrite history to your narrative.”

      1. KSuellington

        I will do so tonite when I have a bit of time. At least the Wikipedia entry let me know that there is a Japanese movie made from DaN. I will have to see if I can find it.

        1. Somalian Road Corporation

          Good luck with that. You’ll probably get it reverted for vandalism with no hope of appeal, unless you want to spend at least a few thousand man-hours fighting the good WP fight.

  20. Chafed

    Wow. Banjos brought the pain with that headline.

  21. EDIT: Banjos brings the most brutal headline of the day.

    Oh fook…I just realized – that ain’t funny. If my kid had enlisted at 18, he actually could be going to the same FOB I worked out of…

    *needs drink*

    1. The Last American Hero

      We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.

    2. DEG

      I’ve expanded my booze stock. Need anything?

  22. John

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mizzou-suffering-brutal-long-term-impacts-of-2015-protests/article/2632126

    The university of Missouri still suffering brutal effects of 2015 garbage baby protests. SJWs destroy anything they touch.

    1. grrizzly

      Nice to see the consequences.

      Incidentally, is it possible to make a Brave browser extension for glibertarians? I switched to Brave from Chrome almost two weeks ago and actually like it. But it’s one of the few things that are missing.

    2. bacon-magic

      When I see a Mizzou bumper sticker my brain categorizes it with the coexist and Obama stickers.

      1. Raven Nation

        Well, Missouri should never have been admitted to the union: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM3NSTbi4OQ

    3. wdalasio

      SJWs destroy anything they touch.

      I’m not sure that’s entirely true. I think the better formation might be “SJWs destroy anything that gives in to them. I recall a story from last year where the University of Ohio told the SJWs to get the hell back to class or face expulsion. Notably, they aren’t having these problems.

        1. wdalasio

          You’re right. My bad. Glad the girlfriend didn’t catch that.

    4. Pomp

      What the FUCK, not only does that article have auto-play video, before the content I’m blasted with the fucking Trivago Uncle to boot.

  23. Gilmore

    Something i heard anecdotally in multiple places…

    …was that ‘radical islamists’ – or muslim terror suspects in *most* cases… and in particular ‘failed suicide bombers’….

    …. are incredibly easy to interrogate. That – again, in most, not all cases – they pretty much spill the beans on everyone/ everything in the wake of their capture.

    (*the exception being the Al Q organizational die-hards; the closer you got to leadership, the more loyal they become)

    I think the first time i heard it was re: Israeli secret-service/mossad or whatever… who said that Arabs were just fucking terrible at keeping secrets. it wasn’t even about torture or coercion… they basically would immediately blame everyone except themselves for their situation, and do anything possible to minimize their own punishment. I think they suggested it was some tribal behavioral facet: that they basically always try and ingratiate themselves to their immediate sources of peer-approval, and shit all over anyone not in the room.

    of course the idea may only apply to people who don’t actually have any valuable intelligence, so don’t really feel the need to clam up in the first place, so maybe its a misconception. But i think in the case of these european, self-styled ISIS supporting jihadis… they’re more of the “Four Lions” variety.

    1. John

      The smart terrorists don’t blow themselves up. You didn’t see Bin Ladin flying any planes into buildings, did you? The smart terrorists get the dumb ones to blow themselves up.

      1. Gilmore

        I don’t think that’s actually true, and maybe just something projected onto the idea of ‘terror networks’; that somehow its about people “pushing buttons/pulling strings”, when the command-control aspects are actually pretty minimal. I don’t think Abu al Baghdadi or whomever the hell runs ISIS does any operational planning the way KSM did. He just runs a middle-eastern Jihad-mafia. The european suicide attacks thing i think is largely inspired by Imams or jihadi literature which praises people for killing infidels…. not some cabal of Big Brained Masterminds.

        the 9/11 hijackers were mostly all reasonably middle-class, well educated types. Mohammed Atta wasn’t stupid. Many of these suicide types aren’t ‘dupes’; they’re egomaniacs who feel that they’re unappreciated.

      2. Gilmore

        e.g.

        ..Yet the ranks of high-profile terrorism suspects also boast plenty of middle-class, well-educated people. The would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shehzad, boasts an MBA and is the son of a senior Pakistani air-force officer. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who stands accused of lighting a makeshift bomb on a transatlantic flight in the so-called “underwear plot”, had a degree from University College, London, and is the son of a rich Nigerian banker. The suspected suicide-bomber in this week’s attacks in Stockholm had a degree from a British university. Are well-heeled terrorists representative or are they exceptions to the rule?

        Social scientists have collected a large amount of data on the socioeconomic background of terrorists. According to a 2008 survey of such studies by Alan Krueger of Princeton University, they have found little evidence that the typical terrorist is unusually poor or badly schooled. Claude Berrebi of the RAND Corporation compared the characteristics of suicide-bombers recruited by Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the West Bank and Gaza with those of the general adult male Palestinian population. Nearly 60% of suicide-bombers had more than a high-school education, compared with less than 15% of the general population … Mr Krueger carried out a similar exercise in Lebanon by collecting biographical information for Hizbullah militants. They too proved to be better educated and less likely to be from poor families than the general population of the Shia-dominated southern areas of Lebanon from which most came.

        1. wdalasio

          Well, yeah. I’ve always kind of worked on the assumption that what’s motivating these guys is that the West, by its very existence, is a threat to these guys’ social position within their societies. That motivates them more than anything else.

  24. Rufus the Monocled

    Watching SJW is both compelling and repelling at the same time. I was particularly pulled in with the cute derp between the 2m and 7m mark. Notice how they don’t know how to argue. Also, note how she casually just threw in ‘I was raped’.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tpVYeCS5po

    1. Drake

      I noted how nobody believed her or bothered to pretend to care.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        The smug was hard though.

      2. Gdragon

        I love how the one girl seems to think that “when was America great?” is some unassailable point that wins her the argument rather than simply a meaningless catch phrase just like the one she’s criticizing. Holy fuck man.

  25. Suthenboy

    “…our constitutional rights are not unchanging abstract principles,”

    They most certainly fucking are. For journalists you dont seem to know what words mean. Jesus goddamned fucking christ is it possible for these evil fuckwits to be any more execrable? Now I am too pissed off to think straight. Goddammit I hate pinko sacks of shit.

    1. This Machine

      *nods aggressively, reaches for rifle and cleaning kit*

    2. John

      They are not unchanging abstract principles. They are whatever your betters tell you they are. That is all she is saying.

    3. R C Dean

      our constitutional rights are not unchanging abstract principles

      They are until they are amended.

      But he’s not talking about that, is he?

    4. wdalasio

      our constitutional rights are not unchanging abstract principles,”

      When I hear shit like this, there’s a little part of me that wishes, just for a couple of moments, I could force these fuckers to live in a world governed by their principles.

      Man in Uniform: Please come with us, Professor. Your comments have been deemed hateful toward Christians and white males.
      Professor: Surely, there must have been some sort of mistake. These laws weren’t put in place to protect them.
      MiU: (drawing truncheon) Nevertheless, you’ll have to come with us.
      Prof: You can’t do this! I have righ…. (takes truncheon to the side of the head and collapses)

      Of course, then I remember that I’m supposed to be a decent person and that visiting a world like that on her would impose it on the rest of humanity.

      1. Suthenboy

        How did Hillary put it? The second amendment rights are subject to reasonable restrictions just like all of the other rights?
        Those in the press that didn’t cheer her were just silent. Idiots will be idiots. I wonder how many over at TOS voted Hillary and wont admit it.
        These kinds of idiots never think the boot will come down on themselves.

        “We are going to crush news agencies that have no right to exist.”

        Just think about that for a minute. Not a peep out of any writers at TOS.

    1. John

      Why are linking to midget porn Gilmore?

      1. Gilmore

        midget porn Gilmore

        This was my nickname in grade school

  26. This Machine

    In this situation, and against this foe, it may be worth remembering that our constitutional rights are not unchanging abstract principles

    *urge to smash things….. rising…. rapidly….*

    1. DesigNate

      That right there is the money quote.

  27. John

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkm6E14Y-yI

    Fun fact; Steely Dan was the name of a dildo in Naked Lunch. And My Old School is about Bard College where both Becker and Fagan attended and met.

    1. Chipwooder

      Is liking Steely Dan something that just sort of happens when you turn 40? My parents were big fans, so I had to hear them all the time growing up. Hated them. Recently, though, I’ve realized that….I rather like them.

      1. John

        I have always liked them. I can remember liking Deacon Blue when I was seven. They are not my favorite but I have always liked them.

        1. Tundra

          I’m with you. Fagen is an OCD asshole, but damn can he write great songs.

          Do you own The Nightfly?

      2. PBRstreetgang

        Weird. I have had the exact same experience with Steely Dan since turning 40. Deacon Blues, Peg, Josie, etc. Good stuff

        1. F. Stupidity Jr.

          I’m 42, and my regard for Steely Dan hasn’t changed a lick. “Peg” is a good song, “Reelin’ In the Years” is solid, and I HATE HATE HATE “Do It Again”. They’re just another band far as I’m concerned.

          1. Yusef drives a Kia

            MU Major Chords for the win, that’s Fagen

          2. Gilmore

            They’re just another band far as I’m concerned.

            Actually, they’re just 2 guys who keep hiring great studio musicians, but whatever. steely dan is like musical marmite.

  28. american socialist

    The kkk is a bunch of federal agents spying on each other

    1. bacon-magic

      So…it was a Fed Op?

    2. LT_Fish

      The Man Who Was Wednesday

  29. Gilmore

    more AP headscratchers

    Afghanistan vets reassured by Trump reversing calls for exit

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Many veterans who fought in America’s longest war say it’s reassuring that President Donald Trump reversed his past calls for a speedy exit from Afghanistan and won’t pull troops out under a strict deadline.

    They don’t want the sacrifices they’ve made to be in vain,…

    How many people did they have to interview before they found the ones that were *nostalgic* about the US wasting billions and billions on a stone-age shithole?

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      It was easy, Sean Hannity is their official spokeperson.

      1. F. Stupidity Jr.

        You’re a Great American, Scruffy.

    2. american socialist

      To be fair I suspect if he had just left, then it becomes an isis type place for which we then go back in for a heavier conflict

      The screw ups of bush and obama made this a bad play either way.

      At least now the plans won’t be telegraphed

      1. Gilmore

        it becomes an isis type place for which we then go back in for a heavier conflict

        Given that our approach to other “ISIS type places” is… ‘policing by drone’…. i fail to see the problem

        everyone knows and has known that Afghanistan will go right back to war with itself the second we leave. spending bazillions on trying to turn the ANA into something other than a joke …. “diminishing returns” doesn’t quite encompass it, imo.

        1. Bobarian LMD

          And that is basically what Bush did with Afghanistan near the end of his term. We left enough snake-eaters there to ensure that AlQ/Taliban couldn’t regroup, but otherwise said fuck it.

          BO declared it ‘the good fight’ and then killed more Americans there in three years than Bush did in 7.

        2. pedantic

          How much of the decision to stay in Afghanistan is down to its value as a training ground for coalition forces conducting counter-terror ops? Plus we get to try out all of the latest NATO toys, and a certain contingent of troops is more than happy to pick up some deployment money. From the Pentagons perspective, so what if regional stability is a pipe dream?

          1. Gilmore

            How much of the decision to stay in Afghanistan is down to its value as a training ground for coalition forces conducting counter-terror ops?

            that… doesn’t make any sense to me.

            being there is the opposite of ‘training’. Its dangerous even to be around our afghan “allies”. Its not a controlled environment. and i’m not sure fighting with TTP or Mehsud’s various militias, or just any random group of pissed off pashtuns, is really “anti-terror”. they aren’t international jihadists. they’re local yokels.

          2. pedantic

            To the extent that the coalition is clearing routes, patrolling towns, dealing with regular rocket attacks, etc, I’d say it can be called training.
            Now that doesn’t make it good training. It’s practice for more of the same, which is not in our long term strategic interests. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we found ourselves in the next iteration of Afghanistan somewhere else soon.

    3. The Last American Hero

      Probably 4. There’s a pretty large contingent on the hawkish right that considers pulling out a dishonor to the blood and treasure spent so far.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        An additional 4K troops ain’t gonna cut it. Let’s install Qadaffi’s son as dictator and get out.

      2. Suthenboy

        So honor for them is throwing good money after bad.

        *facepalm*

    4. Juvenile Bluster

      I will say that my cousin (Air Force, going back to Afghanistan later this year for his 3rd or 4th tour) and his buddies seemed pretty happy with Trump’s speech last night.

      1. Bobarian LMD

        Fucking Air Force goes there on tax free vacations. Of course they’re happy.

        1. Juvenile Bluster

          I was waiting for someone to reply like that.

        2. Pomp

          More like Chair Force, amirite?

      2. Zunalter

        Yea, in the air force you are on the base or firing on targets from thousands of feet up, what’s not to like?

        I wonder if the crews in charge of clearing IED’s off the roadways feel the same way.

        1. LT_Fish

          AFAIK, AF EOD has the worst survival rate (or at least most catastrophic incidents)….but that might be a service-related thing due to the incidents I’ve read involving them.

          1. Zunalter

            Would definitely not surprise me. Especially considering how shoddily some of those IED’s are constructed.

        2. mexican sharpshooter

          That’s not so cut and dry anymore. With the way they are integrating the services many Airmen are finding themselves embedded with Army units. For my first deployment they had me train at Ft. Lewis for convoy ops. I had to get certified for rollovers, CLS, driving up-armored HMMVs, qualify on M240, M249, but not the M2 because the Army is a bunch of assholes.

          1. RAHeinlein

            Are you Air Force?

  30. R C Dean

    I’m on time and the only person writing links this afternoon.

    That’s what you thought yesterday, too. How’d that turn out?

  31. LT_Fish

    BTW – WTF happened to the SNES Classic pre-orders? Amazon never sent out emails and the page looks practically dead. Nintendo’s getting good at shooting themselves in the dick if this goes the same way as NES Classic (which I’d also love to pick up if they ever re-issued). They were handed a license to print money and they cockblocked themselves.

    Is it really all about making an arbitrary release date? Or what?

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      You can pick up the NES classic for the low, low price of 220 bucks on Newegg.

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      It’s exactly like the NES Classic. Nintendo’s shooting themselves in the dick for no apparent reason.

      1. LT_Fish

        It’s not as though they get a cut from the scalpers. Hopefully the early date this fall means that they re-focus efforts on stocking the stores before the holidays…..who knows at this point.

    3. jamrogie

      From what I can gather, limited as it may be, the page where you (and I too) signed up for email updates from Amazon was not the actual page that the preorder went up on. It was a totally separate/new page and of course sold out within minutes during the wee hours of last night. My last dying hope, ’cause I ain’t gonna pay a scalper, is that the Toys’R’Us webpage actually goes live with a preorder option. I believe all the other big name retailers are accounted for and sold out, but of course I have no idea if Toys’R’Us will at some point have it available or not.

      1. jamrogie

        AND… Toys’R’Us just announced via the twitter that they will not do pre-orders for this.

    4. Just get yourself a nice little Raspberry Pi setup and forget about it 😉

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        I’m going to look for one, but if I don’t get a SNES Classic I’m just going to make a Raspberry Pi setup like you said. I have a decent enough collection of ROMs.

        1. Mr. Riven set one up for me as a birthday present earlier this year. <3 I love it to death–helps that he also loaded Kodi/Exodus on there, too.

          I wonder if he knew just how repetitive the Bubble Bobble theme was when he was putting it together…

      2. LT_Fish

        Got SNES 9X on my computer (passed on and on from machine to machine since college) – but never found a decent controller – although I guess there are some now. I’d just love to sit in front of the TV (large screen) and play.

        1. That’s what I do with that Raspberry Pi. I don’t know how to set one up, sadly, or I’d help you out.

          But plenty of Saturday mornings involve me sitting on the floor like a little kid in front of our large TV, with a legit SNES controller, playing classic Zelda or what-have-you.

          I used to use an emulator on my PC, but this is miles better, I promise. And I don’t think it’s too expensive…? I’m not sure about that, but if you’re tech-savvy, I bet you could figure it out.

          1. Juvenile Bluster

            I’ve found a few guides on how to build one. I already have a USB SNES controller. I’m tech-y enough to put one together.

            Still want the real thing though.

    5. Sean

      My GF picked up one of these:
      http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-FC-POCKET-Nintendo-Famicom-Game-Console-Game-Boy-Advance-BYO-472-Games-Gifts-/262691978973

      For the money, it’s pretty cool. The d pad response could be better. She’s happy with it though.

  32. John

    https://www.propublica.org/site/author/lauren_kirchner

    Meet Lauren Kirchner. This is the leftist thug who got jihad watch kicked off pay pal for being a “hate group”. I guess she is too homely to worry about being an Islamic sex slave.

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/08/22/tech-blacklisting-counterjihadists-muslim-brotherhood-seeks-sabotage-hands/

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Is that a little green Ho Chi Minh shirt she’s wearing? Also, she’s not that bad looking but my standards have declined precipitously as I’ve gotten older.

      1. Drake

        It’s her expression more than her facial features that make her repulsive.

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      Jihad Watch has been restored to PayPal. Idiotic that they were kicked off in the first place, but wholly unsurprising.

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/08/robert-spencer-overreach-paypal-bans-jihad-watch-then-backs-down

    3. Raven Nation

      The continuing assault on language. ProPublica is “independent” but independent does not equal unbiased.

    4. Juvenile Bluster

      They also banned, then restored, Pam Geller’s group.

      https://pamelageller.com/2017/08/excelsior-paypal-restores-afdi.html/

      1. Pan Zagloba

        Man, you Americans are so racist, even your Jews are Nazis!

    5. Michael

      Her expression has “overly concerned NPR voice” written all over it.

    6. antisthenes

      So, what line would one of these would-be censors have to cross to be personally liable for damages from loss of business? I’m assuming it would be easier to go after an activist than a for realz journalist, but beyond that, what approach would work? Libel? Would a false allegation of a TOS violation be considered tortious interference?

      I mean, I guess they’re somewhat safe since the allegations are inherently vague and subjective…

  33. Juvenile Bluster

    How Mic.com exploited social justice for clicks, and then abandoned the staff that believed in it

    I’m laughing at everyone in this story. Especially the people that wrote for the site.

    For about five years, Mic.com was a place where readers could go to get moral clarity. In the Mic universe, heroes fought for equality against villains who tried to take it away. Every day, there was someone, like plus-size model Ashley Graham, to cheer for, and someone else, like manspreaders, to excoriate. Kim Kardashian annihilated slut shamers, George Takei clapped back at transphobes. “In a Single Tweet, One Man Beautifully Destroys the Hypocrisy of Anti-Muslim Bigotry.” “This Brave Woman’s Horrifying Photo Has Become a Viral Rallying Cry Against Sexual Harassment.” “Young Conservative Tries to Mansplain Hijab in Viral Olympic Photo, Gets It All Wrong.” “The Problematic Disney Body Image Trend We’re Not Talking About.” “The Very Problematic Reason This Woman Is Taking a Stand Against Leggings.”

    The site had an unfiltered voice that spoke on behalf of marginalized individuals. Breitbart called it “SJW Central.” “I think a lot of people in today’s day and age want to know, ‘What are we supposed to be outraged about?’” a former Mic staffer who left the site earlier this year told The Outline. “It seemed as if we were trying to position ourselves as, ‘We are the definition of woke, and this is how you break down this narrative or fight the mainstream.’”

    But after laying off 25 staffers last week, Mic has a new mandate: pivoting to video. According to a memo that was sent to staff, the site’s new mission is “to make Mic the leader in visual journalism.”

    In retrospect, it looks like Mic’s commitment to social justice was never that deep — which surprised and disappointed many of the young ideologues who went to work there. (The Outline spoke to 17 current and former staffers who requested anonymity due to nondisclosure agreements.) Mic chanced upon the social justice narrative, discovered it was Facebook gold, and mined away. Now the quarry is nearly dry.

    1. RBS

      Outstanding.

    2. Gilmore

      n contrast to their staff, Horowitz and Altchek seemed to embrace the idea of being an activist website without really understanding the issue

      as though their staff “understood” anything about “the issues” other than the wokest-posture

      In some communications, Horowitz and Altchek emerged as tone-deaf to the diverse staff they had cultivated. In 2015, when a TV news reporter and a cameraman were fatally shot in Virginia during a live broadcast, Horowitz and Altchek ordered pizza for the office and sent an email to staff letting them know that they could take time off if they felt traumatized by the news. In response, a group of employees of color wrote an email pointing out the fact that the site frequently covered shootings of black people by police and those writers had never been offered pizza or a personal day.

      Solution: no pizza and time off for anyone, ever!

      employees said that Mic had become a content factory

      That moment when you actually discover what it is that pays your salary. Its not “had become”. Its “always was, always will be”.

      The site had “no plan” for a Trump win on election night, multiple former employees told me, and improvised by pulling queer people and people of color out of the newsroom, putting them in front of a camera, and having them talk about how they felt.

      which is pretty much what everyone else did too.

      1. Gilmore

        Mic had already exhausted its outrage vocabulary by the time Trump’s election supercharged civil rights violations.

        Delusions, meet conventional-wisdom. Oh, you already know one another? great.

      2. Gilmore

        it’s clear from both the list of laid-off writers and the site itself that Mic is moving away from advocacy. Its headlines now resemble the neutrality of traditional outlets. The pieces that do take a stand are labeled “opinion.”

        smdh

        the author seems to think this is a bad thing…

        Mic says this is because it is raising its journalistic standards. It brought in Kerry Lauerman, formerly of Salon

        (spit take)

    3. Chipwooder

      The feel-good story of the year!

      1. DTX

        Seriously. I’m literally in a better mood having read this

  34. Zunalter

    Washinton Post argues with a straight face that Free Speech is only good when it doesn’t hurt liberals or the media. You think I’m exaggerating, but (emphasis mine):

    Couldn’t get more than 50% through, so much historical revisionism my brain was melting.

    Example:

    Schlesinger understood there weren’t enough communists in the United States to actually foment revolution. But there were enough to divide progressive forces and thus create an opportunity for conservative Republicans to take power and repeal the New Deal, which he believed would in turn destabilize American capitalism and possibly tilt the balance of international power to the Soviets. Liberals would be chumps to let a principled commitment to “freedom of speech” undercut the pragmatic goal of political survival, which was the only way to ensure progress in civil rights and social welfare

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      If everything in her story was true, wouldn’t the left want to protect free speech so the right would fracture itself on similar lines?

      1. Zunalter

        This is very reminiscent of those “Hey, everyone would love you republicans if you only did these things…” from the left, like you idiots actually want republicans to be liked and re-elected.

      2. Stinky Wizzleteats

        The media beating the drum for fucking speech laws, censorship, and deplatforming really is a new low for them. If they succeed the nation truly is in trouble.

        1. DesigNate

          In a just world, their stock prices would plummet immediately and they’d have to fire house sale everything down to the last Swingline stapler.

          1. Stinky Wizzleteats

            I hope it’s just the last gasp of a failing industry but now the tech firms are taking up a similar stance. Nonlefties desperately need to develop their own platforms.

          2. Juvenile Bluster

            But then you run the risk of those platforms being banned anyways, because “progressive” firms are more or less the gatekeepers for the entirety of the internet. See, for example, Google banning Gab (virtue signal: Gab was a bunch of /pol/ trolls and pepe memes, and it was dumb. But still.)

          3. Caput Lupinum

            Non lefties would be better off generating their own protocols. Replacing Twitter was doomed to fail, if done directly. Creating a protocol for short push notifications that could piggy back off of RSS or SMS, could have legs. Then anyone could create their own front end for it, so non leftist would never be able to control any centralized platform.

            The key to fighting the left isn’t to build another control point, but to decentralize as much as possible. Collectivism is their guiding principle, so break the collective, don’t build another collection.

        2. antisthenes

          On the plus side, with their track record, if they actually succeeded they would all be rounded up and shot within a week of banning free speech. I’m not sure seeing the entire worthless media apparatus eliminated through their own lust for power would be worth the loss of free speech, but it would be a close thing. I mean, if we got free speech back after a month or so, we’d probably come out ahead.

  35. LT_Fish

    Replying to a comment Brasidas made in the morning links:

    There are a lot of issues with legacy airframes, ships, etc. Once you get up 30, 40, 50 years from construction – there’s only so much going around (we’re not talking about legacy WWII rifles and jeeps) – but circuit cards, custom transistors, etc. A lot of companies have gone out business or been sold to the Chinese….manufacturing equipment is in mothballs or no longer operable. Operators are retired or dead… That is one reason we do need to keep looking forward – or looking at manufacturing alternate replacements for certain parts – off the shelf is nice in some circumstances, but due to security requirements, it’s not viable in most military equipment.

    Now…the advent of 3D printing is a very good option for future designs, but new designs would need to be tailored for that from the initial stages – probably too late for F35 for most elements at this time. Many technicians/enlisted/seniors, etc are good at workarounds, etc – but when you’re talking about operator safety, etc. There’s a limit to the risks that would be authorized excepting critical wartime emergencies.

    1. Bobarian LMD

      Tanks and some airframes can go through PIP (product improvement process) and be significantly upgraded and extended, but I imagine major end item things like ships where there are only a small number of individual items are a lot harder and more cost prohibitive to do that with.

      1. LT_Fish

        There’s a limit to how much you can do it – and not so much the airframes, but the internal components wear out/burn out/etc – with no replacement. B-52/U-2/KC-19/etc – going on 60+ yrs. Enterprise was decommissioned after 50 years, First Nimitz class will probably be coming up in a few years IIRC…might not surprise me if they get an extension beyond that.

        1. Private Chipperbot

          I find it fascinating that platforms last 50 years. Compare to warships built just before WW1 and were obsolete before they made it out of drydock.

  36. Mythical Libertarian Woman

    Turned on Twitter to do my requisite book shilling for the week. Overrun with demands to Amazon to stop selling in the name of hate. Turned off Twitter and began bashing head into wall repeatedly.

    1. Tundra

      You know what? She’s absolutely right! Amazon should dump the undesirable books. As a matter of fact, they should burn the fucking things! Yeah! That will fix everything!

      Fools.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        The left has entered a moral panic and has become unhinged. I actually miss the Russian hacking delusion.

        1. Tundra

          I hope it’s just the final freakout of a totally discredited and lost cause.

          But I doubt it.

          1. Stinky Wizzleteats

            From what I can tell Amazon advertises on Breitbart and they want them to stop. The tweets, as many as there are, aren’t clear though.

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            I say call their bluff. What are they going to do, shop at Walmart?

        2. Mad Scientist

          They’ve been unhinged forever. It’s only the desperate panic that’s new.

      2. Suthenboy

        Only if we can come wearing spiffy uniforms with some nifty armbands

        1. Tundra

          *gets Hugo Boss on the phone*

    2. Pomp

      Oh look, it’s Mira Sorvino. She sort of disappeared after The Replacement Killers.

      1. Sean

        She ended up on Psych briefly.

        1. Tundra

          Psych must have been really drunk.

    3. Private Chipperbot

      Can you link your stuff? I have a daughter that is a voracious reader and we’re running out of stuff to give her

      1. Mythical Libertarian Woman

        I can email you my stuff if you promise not to post my name publicly lol. I basically am nervous about people being able to Google my pen name and this site coming up and then getting career-assassinated for wrongthink.

        1. Private Chipperbot

          That would be great! I’ll try to catch you in a live thread tomorrow.

  37. mexican sharpshooter

    Joe Arpaio was not pardoned by Trump.

    President Donald Trump will not pardon Joe Arpaio during Phoenix visit

    Or at least he didn’t pardon him at Phoenix Trumpfest2.0

    1. Vhyrus

      Good. Maybe he is smarter than he lets on, at least on some things.

    2. Vhyrus

      I kinda wanna go down and join in the shitshow but I won’t even make it till after it’s over probably.

      1. mexican sharpshooter

        It would be entertaining, I’m just going to avoid it all together.

        1. Mad Scientist

          You guys should just meet at the Four Peaks Brewery, drink some beers, and then SAY you went to the shitshow.

          1. mexican sharpshooter

            I think they closed the freeway that I would have to use to get to the Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe on account of Trump’s motorcade.

            There’s one in Scottsdale too, but I don’t think it would be safe to bring Vhyrus there. I’m not sure its safe–for Scottsdale.

          2. Vhyrus

            So… you’re saying I need to bring TWO guns?

          3. mexican sharpshooter

            Yes, and pop the collar on your white polo.

          4. westernsloper

            I was going to say fuck that and go to The Grind. A simple search to make sure I had the name right says it closed. I hope you guys ate there before it closed. The sweet and sour burger was top notch and always on my list of things to do when I was in Phoenix.

          5. Pomp

            Eh. At least you can go hit up a Schlotzky’s after a short spell of driving whenever you feel like it.

          6. westernsloper

            Schlotzkeys are everywhere. The Grind was special.

        2. Somalian Road Corporation

          Yeah, fuck that shit. Every time I’ve tried to get around when a President is in town it’s been utter misery, and that seems even more likely to be the case here. Staying the hell away from downtown tonight.

  38. Slammer

    Did anyone else check out the latest Celebrity Jihad nude photos?
    I am guilty

  39. F. Stupidity Jr.

    I just joined Gab (@lawndarts).

  40. Pomp

    I ordered a stromboli for dinner and they deliver a large calzone. The only reason I am not pissed is because it’s a really really really stuffed-full calzone.

    1. Tundra

      I. Love. Stromboli.

      Make them bring you the right thing, but for tomorrow night.

      1. Pomp

        Best stromboli I’ve ever had: genoa salami, capicola, banana peppers, and oil-cured black olive slices. Gurgle.

  41. Juvenile Bluster

    I’m not going to link to the latest drek Shikia wrote over at TOS. The first paragraph is enough.

    One big danger with modern-day presidents has been that they are too eager to improve the nation’s moral health. They either hector the country to atone for its past sins (Barack Obama). Or they aggressively push it to the promised land of moral perfection (Teddy Roosevelt who declared that he would do “battle for the Lord” to improve mankind during his term). But President Trump’s antics since the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville confirm that with him we face the opposite danger: He will destroy the moral progress this country has made over the last 250 years.

    1. John Titor

      Dalmia make a dramatic, tone-deaf and extremely stupid statement about the moral status of a nation? Never!

      (I still remember the time she decried the Modi regime as the worst period of Indian history. You know, unlike that time Muslims and Hindus were murdering each other or that other time the government declared martial law and started chemically sterilizing the lower classes)

      1. F. Stupidity Jr.

        I particularly enjoyed one argument she made in favor of immigration: so that the army would have more cannon fodder. God, I wish I’d screenshot that article because it got edited in short order.

    2. mexican sharpshooter

      I think I know what her problem is. That broad needs to get laid.

      1. John Titor

        I don’t think getting laid can cure active delusions, hyperemotionalism and a severely inflated sense of self-righteousness.

        Also the bigotry.

        1. mexican sharpshooter

          It might keep her from writing about it.

    3. kbolino

      He will destroy the moral progress this country has made over the last 250 years

      She could have at least stopped at 50 years (Jim Crow), 90 years (women’s suffrage), or 160 years (slavery), but nope apparently by this time in 4–8 years we’ll be a slave state where women can’t vote or own property.

      1. R C Dean

        Yes. Go on. . .

  42. BigT

    Global warming is not so hot. Apparently the Medieval Warming Period was hotter than it is now. Those Medievals must have had some HOT periods!

    1. KibbledKristen

      Those Medievals must have had some HOT periods!

      Yeah, join the fucking club, Medieval bastards.

    2. Suthenboy

      “Most of the Recent Warming Could be Natural”

      No. Shit.

      There are no weather events or climate changes or sea level rises that are statistically abnormal. We are on the tail end of the last ice age. Eventually all or most all of the polar caps will melt. Then after another extended warm period we will enter another ice age.

  43. BigT

    As if you needed another excuse to masturbate. LINK.

  44. KibbledKristen

    My Ma would have been 76 today, if not for bladder cancer.

    Anyway, she was kind of a fraidy cat when it came to things like thrills and speed. She did not cotton to skiing, at all. She was terrified every time we climbed mountains. She really detested Mt. Washington with a particular vigor. But she was usually game for most things. And she DID climb Mt. Washington, but not in stoic fashion.

    We went to Disney World when I was about 18. We managed to coax her onto Space Mountain. I want to remind you, this is Disney – the happiest place on earth. Full of delighted little children and fluffy, innocuous characters.

    As we were going up the lift hill (I think Disney needs to switch to a linear induction for this ride, if they haven’t already), I could hear her panic rising.

    When the ride finally begin in earnest, all I could hear was my Ma shrieking “Fuck you, Bill [my Pa]!! Fuck you! I want a fucking divorce, Bill! I’m divorcing you tomorrow!”

    She wanted to go again when the ride was over. And she went on Little Thunder Mountain Railroad twice in a row! (they let us do two rounds, because we got trapped on the lift hill for about 30 minutes)

    1. Tundra

      *raises a glass to a wonderful woman*

      Cheers, Kristen.

    2. Gustave Lytton

      Your Ma sounds awesome and I’m laughing my ass off at her divorce outburst. I’m sorry for your loss.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      Sorry to hear but sounds like you have a lifetime of great memories.

      My mother never came to watch a single soccer or hockey game I played. She couldn’t handle all the injuries. And she’s getting worse and worse. Try driving in a car with a woman who gulps and hisses at every move. Ironically, she still drives all over the place.

    4. Sorry to hear that your ma has already passed, KK. Cancer is a real sumbitch. (Got ahold of my dad, but he’s still kicking.)

      She sounds like she was really a hoot. Did you all go to Universal, too, while you were in the Mouse’s Domain? Just wondering what she thought of those roller-coasters, if you all went.

      1. KibbledKristen

        HHmm…I’m gonna date myself and say Universal didn’t exist when I was 17/18.

        *checks Wikipedia*

        Yep. They opened in 1990, the year I turned 18. I think we may have gone to Epcot, though. I also distinctly remember when Epcot opened, when I was 10.

    5. DEG

      I’m sorry.

  45. Juvenile Bluster

    Alright, I have absolutely no clue about the veracity of this story, but…

    ESPN pulls Asian announcer named Robert Lee off UVa’s home opener to avoid offending idiots

    1. Suthenboy

      Wasn’t the shooter at UVa Asian? I was guessing that was the reason. No, it is his name. Leftists are repulsive but at least they are dumb as rocks.

      1. Viking1865

        The shooter was at Virginia Tech, not UVA.

      2. Chipwooder

        That was Vippy Sue, better known to most as Virginia Tech

    2. KibbledKristen

      Dafuq?

      *checks Ancestry for any controversial people with my name*

      Whew!

      1. John Titor

        “Kristen Kibble, She-Wolf of Auschwitz”

        1. wchipperdove

          I think I used to rent that on Betamax.

  46. Juvenile Bluster

    Your shocking, completely unforeseeable article of the day

    Michael Solomon is a regular for hoagies at Bruno’s Pizza on Cheltenham Avenue. He also loves soda.

    But since Philadelphia’s tax on sweetened beverages went into effect, the 33-year-old West Oak Lane man has stopped buying soda with his sandwich. Instead he crosses the street and hits the Fresh Grocer, where he can get a two-liter bottle for as little as 88 cents, about a third what it costs in the city.

    “People around this area will just go to the market over there,” Solomon said one afternoon last week, pointing to the other side of Cheltenham Avenue as he stood at Bruno’s waiting for a hoagie.

    Solomon is not the only one to cross the city boundary to avoid the 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax, according to a report released Tuesday.

    Catalina, a Florida-based digital marketing firm, said its review of sales data from nearly 1,000 stores in the region found soda at franchised grocery and drug stores dropped 55 percent inside the city after the tax went into effect this year, while sales spiked by 38 percent at stores just outside the border.

    “Many shoppers are now traveling outside the city to buy their sweetened beverages,” the report concluded.

    1. Suthenboy

      This is why socialism/progressivism must be imposed world-wide. People, given a chance, will avoid Utopia. They must not have the opportunity to escape.

      1. westernsloper

        *lights a candle, kisses his hammer, rubs a stone across his sickle and says amen comrade.

      2. Gustave Lytton

        Always need a wall.

        *nods knowingly*

    2. Pomp

      hoagies

      My favourite Pennsylvanianism

  47. westernsloper

    Stephen K. Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos and Richard Spencer — have all articulated that they seek to destroy liberal cultural hegemony, which they associate with a bipartisan, globalizing, multicultural, corporate elite,

    First off, Bannon is not a white supremacist. He is super Hobo. Milo apparently prefers dark meat, and we all know Spencer is a dick. Remove multicultural from that sentence and who does it describe?

    1. Suthenboy

      I love how they lump everyone ‘not them’ together, cuz Spencer and Milo are exactly the same.

      If you aren’t with us you are against us.

      1. westernsloper

        It is fucking idiotic. They have lost all common sense. When I logged in this afternoon, I got stalled in the latest SNP episode, (which was awesome thanks BP), by a link in the comments by BP that then led me to numerous links and then to a link where this guy made my chuckle a few times especially when the antifascist said fuck you on saturday and some dude in the crowd said, “There’s free bowlin on saturday”…….too funny. They are a bunch of fucking morons the antifacists and they need to be mocked until they go back to their dorm rooms.

        As to the journalists who write this shit. They need to be mocked too. I am just not sure how that can be done yet outside of small circles.

        1. Suthenboy

          Of course it is idiotic. The ‘with us or against us’ is an attempt to oversimplify and dichotomize complex issues to in idiot’s favor. There is only one correct choice, everything else is wrong. I seem to recall quite a bit of screeching when GWB did it so I cant really believe they dont know what they are doing.

          1. westernsloper

            Very good point. There is a GWB/antifa meme there somewhere.

      2. westernsloper

        And sorry for bringing it up again, but the link BP had of whacko guy running against Warren, (I was so disappointed he is a bit nuts) but the few times the camera person panned the crowd around them was frightening. Those few people standing up for free speech, with slightly weird views or not, had nothing to do with fascism and the crowd surrounding them would have beat them to death in an instant had they been given the chance. That is the shit that has gone totally sideways.

  48. Trigger Hippie

    I apologize if I was overly talkative this morning and acting douchey towards anybody. My blood was up and I wasn’t in the best frame of mind. Again, sorry.

    1. Pomp

      Someone threatening to kill you will do that to ya.

    2. Tundra

      Fine, but what’s the excuse the rest of the time? 😉

    3. westernsloper

      I miss all the good stuff.

  49. Q Continuum

    This is old and long, but I just found it and it’s so funny it’s totally worth it.

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/030008.php

    1. Tundra

      What happened to Ace? That was fucking hilarious! He and SF could do some damage together.

      “Shut up, I’m almost done,” I said. I flopped my dork over his upper lip, giving him a sausage-moustache, a dirty little manuever I like to call “The Nasty Adolf.”

      1. westernsloper

        I was going to click the link until I read that.

        1. Tundra

          Don’t be a coward! Q is right, it’s really good.

          1. westernsloper

            TLDR but I bookmarked so it can be found when I am murdered by communists later.

  50. DEG

    On this day in history, Ida Siekmann died. She is the first person to die at the Berlin Wall.

    1. Suthenboy

      The Berlin wall? See, Antifa told us that Nazis were the worst.

    2. Winston

      Anti fascist barrier you mean.

  51. Winston

    The left is increasingly opposed to freedom of speech, even with Trump in the white house. How’s the alliance with the left on social issues working eh cosmos?

  52. Winston

    I’ve mentioned the lack of libertarians on local offices before for several reasons. First of all that’s where the socialists started and it gave experience and voting bases for higher office. In Italy and France commies won local elections which gave them a lot of credibility.

    Also the cosmos and left-libertarians gush over how cosmopolitan they are so why can’t they get the votes of those people?

    And in many of those cities the Republicans are practically non-existent so it’s not like they have run as one and deal with the baggage of being one. Plenty of room to get the gays, blacks and Mexicans and yutes to vote for you. So why not?

    1. CPRM

      federal and state policies make it difficult to implement a lot of libertarian ideas on a local level, at least in my opinion.

      1. Winston

        You know who else said that their ideas needed to implemented nationally?

      2. Winston

        There is some room. Demunicipilization of the garbage services and all.

  53. westernsloper

    Who was it that said, “If you chuck Eddie, Winston will just take his place?”

    I preferred Eddie. That is all.

    1. Tundra

      Eddie will return.

    2. Winston

      So you think i’m going to talk about sedevacantism and papal infallibility?

    3. Bobarian LMD

      I was gonna say that we all prefer Winston’s Mom, but really she just prefers all of us.

  54. KibbledKristen

    Marcellus Williams’s execution was stayed by the MO governor.

  55. Somalian Road Corporation

    Channel 12 in AZ is huffing and puffing right now with a self-selected poll about how 84% of Republicans wouldn’t support Trump for a second term like it’s actually meaningful.

    1. KibbledKristen

      Yeah, they’re probably all pissed off he’s not pardoning Arpaio. They’ll forget about it soon enough.

  56. CPRM

    SYFY (formerly Sci-Fi) ran an add about their anniversary, implying that they were going to reshow the things that got them an audience. But, I didn’t see any ‘The Powers of Matthew Star‘ clips, nor any clips of ‘Voyagers!’.

    1. CPRM

      because the two link rule, ‘Voyagers!

    2. LT_Fish

      You mean Farscape (5th final season guaranteed then canceled), The Invisible Man, The Chronicle, etc, etc – all canceled by the evil Bonnie Hammer.