Many thanks to everyone here at Glibertarians.com for picking up my slack this week. There’s still no power at my house but I had a dead squirrel, some duct tape, and an old TV antenna and I managed to splice into working cable in the next trailer park over. Seriously, though, it seems like everyone has checked in and did okay, so let’s talk about something else.
Although this site does not give financial advice, usually a dip is a good time to buy. In this case, bitcoins. ” J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called the cryptocurrency a fraud that was “worse than the tulip bulbs” and that ‘won’t end well'”. So it probably bad for their business for BTC to succeed
This Mnuchin guy, he’s going to go far.
I think I shared that a pair of young men were walking around my neighborhood offering to help with cleanup on Monday. Here’s another young man who did an even better thing in Houston during Harvey. And yes, my use of “young man/men” is deliberate.
I thought I wanted to be a stay-at-home dad, but then the oldest started talking. I mean, I do stay at home, but I go to work and close the door. Thank goodness!
Monster Magnet mixed with the best parts of Requiem for a Dream. Video may be NSFW.
“Bitcoins”
Saw an app that will allow paying bills with cryptocurrency with no transaction fees. Pretty spiffy.
I still have a couple of bitcoins – I bought them years ago as a curiousity. I think my basis was around $200 – I sold several when the price hit $1,000. Best investment I’ve ever made.
Was there any tax implication on the profit? It was that unknown that kept me from buying one or two a few years ago.
Profit? What profit?
In theory, you have to pay cap gains.
I’ve been audited before – back when I had nothing but bank accounts and could file a 1040A. So I get a little skittish about cap gains that I might not report.
I still kick myself now and then for not buying a few hundred/thousand when they were .20$ each.
I’ll take things that don’t surprise me for a thousand Alex.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/politics/poll-constitution/index.html
So, in other words, the lefty education system is working exactly as designed.
And CNN does nothing to remind people of their rights under the constitution and continues to defend the public schools that aren’t teaching people about their rights under the constitution. Not to mention the media’s praise for people that are willfully ignorant of the constitution.
A free and ignorant press
C’mon. They also mention the three branches (the other element that was used to illustrate lack of knowledge) but don’t explicitly call them out. CNN is pretty trash but they’re not as bad as you’re saying.
That’s really fucked up.
In 2017 America, speech is literally violence, and free health care is a “right”. So I’m not surprised either.
Like this dumbassery by NBC? Or maybe it was intentional I don’t know
https://mobile.twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/908349522954280960
Florida has two senators, one a dem named bill Nelson is up for election in 2018
The number of comments agreeing with NBC seems to bear out the truth of AJB’s study.
Umm, even if the guy was correct in that Trump thinks he should run against Rubio…. so what? Is Trump not allowed to say that because Rubio is from Cuba? Dumbassery is the correct term here.
Incorrect, the First Amendment bans the government from restricting those activities in any manner whatsoever.
Well, acshually..
The First Amendment just recognises those rights. The lack of a constitutionally enumerated power is what bans the fed gov from restricting those activities.
It’s not a trivial difference imo. It’s the difference between a natural right and a privilege.
Congress shall make no law…
Seems a little more than recognition to me.
Congress shall make all necessary laws to promote the general welfare and regulate commerce. How did I do?
Congress shall give free ponies to everyone! (except white, cis-hetero shitlords; you have to pay for them)
Sure Americans know about the Constitution. They know it’s like 100 years old and was written by rich white guys who owned slaves, probably written on the skin of slaves, with slave blood. So it’s old, it’s racist, no one can understand it because it’s 100 years old, but it’s racist.
A friend of mine actually believes this, and he’s a hard right GOP drone continually bashing liberals for inventing meanings into the Constitution based on words that aren’t there, but he swears that the founding fathers really meant citizens when the Constitution uses the word ‘people’ and ‘persons’.
Him: “How can the Constitution have jurisdiction over non-citizens? How does it grant them rights?”
Me: “The Constitution does’t grant anyone rights, it forces the federal government to recognize rights that already exist. The Declaration of Independence says rights are endowed by our creator, not any government.”
Him: “Semantics. If the government decides to take away your rights, you effectively don’t have any. How can the Constitution apply to non-citizens?”
Me: “Because it directs the government on how it is obliged to handle people within the borders of its jurisdiction.”
Him: “People who are citizens!”
Me: “If it worked that way there’d be no cold cases. Tired of trying to figure out what happened to Jimmy Hoffa? Just find someone on a student visa — not a citizen– and kill him for murdering Jimmy Hoffa. Non-citizens apparently don’t have a right to a trial, or protections from cruel and unusual punishment, right? Plus you solve the Hoffa case! Win win, right? Bonus points if the murderer you found was born after Hoffa’s disappearance, because you torture the design for his time machine out of him before you execute him!”
Him: “Now you’re just being ridiculous. That hypothetical person is legally allowed to be here.”
Me: “So what? He’s not a citizen, and therefore has no rights, correct?”
Him: “Whatever.”
A majority (53%) believe the Constitution affords undocumented immigrants no rights.
I wonder how much of that is due to the bastardization of “rights” into code for “entitlements and handouts.”
It could also be that some of those realize the Constitution affords rights to no-one. Though I doubt it.
If CNN or almost anyone (hello Bill O’Reilly, aren’t millennials da da dum?) polled me on this, I’d pretend not to know anything, for the lulz and also fuck you.
Not going to click, but I assume it’s just four minutes Jennifer Connelly’s character earning her crack.
a2a?
A2M?
NEVER go A2M!
/Dante
Always go A2M!
/Human Centipede Dude
Touche!
Pretty much.
Un-ban John. NOW.
John is banned? Since when?
Was he ban-hammered?
Did he even get a single cat-butt first?
Turn over 5 of your finest orphan slaves to Glib management and they’ll consider your request.
No can do. I’d be left without sammiches.
Orphans are not for sammiches, that’s your women folk.
Don’t tell me what I can do with my property.
??
If they banned John, I’d be upset. I don’t agree with him all the time, but I have fun reading his comments — there are always so many!
Did I miss something big? When did this happen? Why?
No shit, WTF? How did I miss that?
Please don’t ban John, make him do an article on bulletproof vests.
Or the merits of refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding based on freedom of association versus freedom of religion.
There is a difference between freedom of association and freedom of religion. A significant difference. I don’t usually agree with John (particularly with regards to his remarks on Islam), but he is right on that matter
He was banned. It’s in the Reason AM Links.:
http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/14/am-links-trump-and-democrats-talk-daca-d#comment_6963920
I just went back to the last time he posted and I can’t find any reason he would be banned. This is very concerning if that is the case.
Is it possible he made it up?
It is, but I would like to hear an official story from the brass about this.
That’s why I asked about the cat-butt upthread. I would have thought they’d do the standard procedure first.
What is the standard procedure?
I believe it involves a catbutt, then remedial SF reading, then Warty reeducation session prior to banning.
If that is the standard procedure, then I’d take the ban, too.
I assume the standard procedure involved a cat-butt with warning or two before banning. The SF and Warty thing is either for more serious offenses or premium members, I can’t remember which.
Then I remembered to refer to the site itself for answers:
The SF and Warty thing is either for more serious offenses or premium members, I can’t remember which.
Both, the former just pay a “Fine”, the latter a “Surcharge”.
Do you really think John could restrain himself from posting?
*sacrifices orphan, summons site gods*
He gets a little combative at times, but I don’t see him as a troll.
I’ve gotten into several arguments with John, mostly years ago, over our foreign intervention, but nothing that got out of control. I like the guy, I’d like to know what happened.
It’s very possible, even likely, that if he said something banworthy that it was
memory-holeddeletedmoved into moderationI have inside access and I can see comments in moderation. Unless they were completely wiped (which I am sure is possible) there is nothing from John in the queue.
Ahh. I either didn’t know or forgot you could do that.
This again, eh?
Did I say anything untrue?
My guess would be this exchange between John and jesse.
Seems like pistols at 20 paces is called for more than banning.
That is fairly tame by glibs standards. The previous incident was way worse than that and no one got banned.
There it is. Shoulda just cat-butted him imo.
I kinda skimmed that one. I believe John’s last comment ended thusly (addressed to jesse):
Seems more like a catbutt than a banhammer, to me. But, hey, not my site.
I skimmed kinda quick as well, but if I read it correctly, Jesse started the name calling.
Those two have been going at it forevah…I think both would date if met face to face.
To be fair, I think Jesse also called John a prick. Not taking sides here, mind you. And I also did not read the exchange in it’s entirety, so I might have missed the something that caused John to get banned. This is unfortunate, as was the Eddie debacle.
On the bright side, I hear that John,Eddie, and the naked reclining dude are gonna start up their own site.
I think both would date if met face to face.
I suppose I am on the chunky side.
He does like ’em chunky. Hey wait a minute…I’m super chunky. *checks to make sure hair is straight*
wait, this is all about peanut butter???
John and Eddie would take like 5 minutes to get into a fight on the first thread. Someone send me the URL when it launches, I want to see this.
wtf
This is pretty bad. Reason had one great plus: they almost never banned anyone. The staff just didn’t care enough comments and commenters. It’s better that way than banning and kicking out people right and left.
Reason does the passive-aggressive thing by whining on twitter about their own readers who go off their reservation.
John’s really been pretty well-behaved, I thought. He’s gonna kinda hot and name-cally a couple of times, but nothing I thought was remotely close to the line. Not that they have an obligation to tell us, well, anything, but if he’s been banned, I’d like to ask the admins to let us know, and let us know why.
I agree.
Before I comment. Not a fan of banning people; especially for what I’ve seen which I don’t think warrants his banning. It takes two to tango at times. I like when people get passionate and that’s what I took it for.
Reason knew the value of it’s commentariat. They admitted as much. But cocktail parties and impressing lefty millennial dicks who hate them, was more important.
To save you clicking through to Reason, here is his post:
It’s funny that he was banned from National Review. And at the same time, it makes sense. He’s probably a John Bircher
Wrong.
I suspect some of the commentariat asked him over. I doubt any of the founders did, though.
I was one. I promoted until I found out there was no monetary value in my site slinging.
*cooks up more nazi pepper*
Correct.
A couple of people in the Reason threads, if memory serves me right, did ask him if he’d been over here.
I saw that.
Wow, I could have sworn he was here yesterday. What the hell did he say?
He’s always been one of my favorites. I was happy to see him come over this way.
The schisms never end. Bring John back. Otherwise there is no further right person to scare me away from conservatism. I feel an urge to listen to Ben Shapiro’s podcast all of a sudden
The Founders have set up this site as a place to have conversations around many issues that cannot or will not be civilly discussed elsewhere. All are welcome to visit – no specific invitation has been issued by the Founders since about week three – but there are some very basic rules.
Civil behavior is expected. Civil behavior like: not calling people names (except in jest and you all know that when you see it); not lying about matters that take place on the site; not carefully selecting portions of conversations and threads to paint others in a poor light; not cussing out the commentors or Founders; not mounting personal attacks.
In this most recent kerfuffle, there was a gradual escalation of unappreciated behavior. The Founders attempted to ameliorate the situation off the site, in private with the individual concerned. That worked, for a time. However, when it became increasingly apparent that it was not going to work and some new, even more blatant, attacks were launched, the individual was indeed banned.
Because they like to follow their own rules of civil behavior as much as possible, this is the only statement that the Founders will issue about the situation.
That’s a fair enough answer, and I respect that decision.
Your site, your rules I guess. I woulda just liked to see a bunch of cat-butts, because, well, cats and butts. But I’m just a cat, so oh well..
Sigh…fine, TK. Just for you.
TK pr0n
*Returns to dead thread when no one is around*
*Purrrrrrrrrr*
*shoos TK away*
The dead thread is like a little sunbeam, warming a serene square of floor through TK’s window.
I consider name-calling to be civil behavior. Words are not physical violence unless you are Antifa or something.
I’m fine with a cooling-off period, which is probably a better way to handle it than extreme authoritarianism.
Fair enough, SP. Your site, your call. Sounds like John’s claim that it was without warning or explanation is, what’s the term?
Oh, yeah. An “alternative fact”.
John excels at those. His idea that the founders “begged” him to comment here is particularly rich.
Certainly he violated the terms. So he basically banned himself.
I’m sortof a pushover in that I’d let people cool off but I do get that implementing something like that is more work, more hassle, and someone will always test the limits of the system. The site operators aren’t pushing obtrusive ads so keeping it simple is understandable.
I would like to say some words about my hosts. I expect not to be asked to leave, because that is the way the world works.
Ahem.
You swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. I wager you couldn’t empty a boot of excrement were the instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won’t go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you. Try to edit your responses of unnecessary material before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to readers, but they will be able to access it more rapidly.
You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs. You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You’re a fool, an ignoramus.
And what meaning do you expect your delusional self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have to us who think and reason? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake? You are a waste of flesh.
You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed , drooling meatslapper. You smarmy lagerlout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oik artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill.
You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away. I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I’m sorry. I can’t go on.
This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don’t have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half-baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh. I mean, really, stringing together a bunch of insults among a load of babbling was hardly effective.
True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us “normal” people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are “challenged” persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known, that this was your case then I would have never read your post. It just wouldn’t have been “right”. Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.
You’re an idiot. A moron of the highest order. You’re so stupid it’s a wonder and a pity you can remember to breath. Intelligent ideas bounce off your head as if it were coated with teflon. Creative thoughts take alternate transportation in order to avoid even being in the same state as you. If you had an original thought it would die of loneliness before the hour was out. On an intelligence scale of 1 to 10 (10 corresponding to the highest attainable IQ) you’re rating is so far into negative numbers that one would need to travel into another quantum reality in order to even catch a distant glimpse of it.
Your personality is that of a rabid Chihuahua intent on destroying its own tail. Your powers of observation are akin to those of the bird that keeps slamming into the picture window trying to get that other bird it keeps seeing. You are walking, talking proof that you don’t have to be sentient to survive, and that Barnum was thinking of you when he uttered his immortal phrase regarding the birth of a sucker. You are, at varying times, tedious, boring, and even occasionally earth shatteringly hilarious in your idiocy, routinely childish, moronic, pathetic, wretched, disgusting and pitiful.
You are wholly without any redeeming social grace or value. If God ever decides to give the planet an enema you’d better run like the wind because anywhere you stand is a suitable place for The Insertion. There is no animal so disgusting, so vile that it deserves comparison to you, for even the lowest, dirtiest, most parasitic member of the animal kingdom fills an ecological niche. You fill no niche. To call you a parasite would be injurious and defamatory to the thousands of honest parasitic species. You are worse than vermin, for vermin do not pretend to be what it is not. You are truly human garbage. You are a fraudulent, lying, predatory charlatan. You are of less worth than a burnt-out light bulb. You will forever live in shame.
You have nothing to say, and Godwin’s Law does not apply when writing about you. You are the anti-Midas, for all that you touch becomes valueless and unusable. Mothers gather their children close when you appear. You are an aberration, a corruption, and a boil that needs to be lanced. You are a poison in need of being vomited. You are a tooth so rotten it infects the whole body. You are sperm that should have been captured in a condom and flushed down a toilet.
I don’t like you. I don’t like anybody who has as little respect for others as you do. Go away, you swine. You’re a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, and a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon. You are a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. Meaningful to no one, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts that sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.
I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I wretch at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, and the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell? Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won’t have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot. You are a waste of flesh. On a good day you’re a halfwit. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.
You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away. I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, study, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us “normal” people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. It just wouldn’t have been “right”. Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.
You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libellous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystrophic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, abrasive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, and socially-retarded.
Shut up and go away lest you achieve the physical retribution your behaviour merits.
Thank you for your kind attention to and expected cooperation in this matter.
*cuts and pastes for upcoming employee evaluations*
You’re a true vulgarian, aren’t you?
YOU’RE THE VULGARIAN, YOU FUCK!
That was a lot of effort.
Bah. It was the transcript of his exit interview.
Last day is tomorrow. But nobody is going to be in the office tomorrow, so it sounds to me like my last day is today. In fact, I think I’ll leave the office right about…now.
“Suck a dick, dumbshits!”
Have you seen the whole new season yet or doggie doggie what now?
I’m two episodes in. I’ve got half a mind
I can’t wait until you see the end. Can’t. Wait.
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth.
I am trained in gorilla warfare
Glocks out for Harambe.
A little late, but you deserve a nod for this one.
Warty’s displaying his privilege here.
This is what happens when you become a comic book hero.
64)
Jatnas = Warty confirmed.
*narrows gaze*
I numbered it right…
The twist is if these were all copypasta from John comments on Reason.
I just assumed they were.
… Are they not?
TL;DR
Cheater, you repeated an entire paragraph in an otherwise epic smackfest.
Yeah, but its just copypasta, it not like he wrote it himself.
I didn’t even read it, to be honest.
/Copy pastes. Sends to Trudeau.
This… this is like reading a newly-discovered Gilgamesh epic.
AWESOME.
Nice, I’ll have to shrink, screenshot and save for my twitter hot-takes!
I read this in the spaceship’s voice from Alien: Covenant.
I read it in the voice of the drunk officer who shoots himself in Dances WIth Wolves
The one who shat himself at his desk?
Yep
Thank you for the explanation SP.
Also, thank you for a new vocabulary word:
ameliorate (əˈmiːljəˌreɪt)
vb
to make or become better; improve
I appreciated the (correct) use of the term “kerfuffle”.
I agree. It’s been a while since I dropped that into a conversation. I’ll have to keep it in mind.
You added “correct.” Have you heard it used incorrectly?
Many will use it in place of something more serious or aggressive – attack, fight, etc. I rather like the connotation conveyed in “kerfuffle”.
Ahh, yes. I guess I have heard it used that way.
Thanks Swiss! I love our talks. Don’t you? ?
ameliorate (əˈmiːljəˌreɪt)
vb
to make or become better; improve
No shit? I thought it had to do with melting butter stages when making a roux.
If glibs sets up a secret santa program, can we rig it so the result is MikeS just gets a pile of Word of The Day calendars?
I can’t say that I would be completely disappointed if that were to happen…
You run this site, so it’s your call. But it certainly makes glibertarians less interesting to visit.
Us monkeys will dance harder.
Ahem. “We”.
Youse rite.
Ah. Forget my comment up site.
Yukon Ho!
And thanks for the explanation SP. You didn’t have to but you did. That’s class for you baby!
I like John, though I disagree with him on a bunch of things.
I like him for his perspective on things. I’ve learned much from him, and he has definitely forced me to grow intellectually.
With that having been said, if he has one flaw, it’s his wrath. When he encounters someone who doesn’t agree with him on something he feels passionately about, he frequently resorts to personal abuse. And, if one takes it personally, it can take the conversation to very bad places.
*I* never took it personally; his abuse was chump change compared to what I had to put up with from my ex-wife.
It saddens me that he was banned. But, given the active role he often played in turning Reason’s comment section into a sewer, I can understand why. If he is reading this, I would love it if he were to come up with a new handle, a new email, come back, and argue his positions without the wrath – at least towards the others on the site. Wrath at people who have earned an all expenses trip through a running woodchipper should still be OK.
I wrote how I felt John’s knowledge is impressive and did educate me but erased it. So I’ll do it here.
It’s a lost in my view. Same with Eddie. Two solid thinkers and in Eddie’s case, contributor.
Ditto
It’s sad, about Eddie also, that is a serious loss for the site, IMO.
Except he would be immediately indentifiable just from his writing style.
I used to argue with John on TOS. It would typically be a good exchange even though we were in strong disagreement on the topic. I remember a couple of times having to just let it go because John sort of gets into this mode where he apparently has to ‘win’. We eventually stopped fighting and got along pretty well.
Yeah but he could learn too.
I’ve seen him adjust his positions in response to well reasoned arguments
That isn’t how it works, tarran.
That isn’t how any of this works.
The belligerence isn’t noteworthy, not here least of all.
What did bother me about that last exchange is that John brought up an old fight into a new thread.
That’s just starting drama for the sake of… whatever, I honestly don’t know.
SLD, not my site, etc. yadda yadda, Yul Brenner.
I do hope this place doesn’t turn into a circle jerk tho.
I like John, but totally agree with SP.
Civilty is very important, and John can get an arrogant mean-streak in him with a lot of name calling.
Too bad he was banned before he got to use his favorite: “you fucking half-wit”
“The Founders”
All hail!
John is a mendacious asshole, so I don’t care about that, but you guys can be awfully thin-skinned. FreeSociety’s sports-links comment, Eddie’s hot-headedness.
I’m just a lurker, so I know you don’t care what I think—nor should you, really—but it’s not a cute look. It’s verging on TOO censorious. Yeah, at Reason the trolls took over and eventually ran the nuthouse, but this site isn’t even close to that. Block those who are merely out to cause grade-school arguments (Tony, Buttplug), but maybe let a few people lose their cool every once in a while? Usually people apologize and work things out in a few days anyway. No need for a top-down immediate anvil to drop.
Can this myth please die? It was never about sports-kvetching.
Never mind, I just remembered that FreeSociety wasn’t banned—he got butthurt over the cranky response to his comment, whined and left.
I’m still wary of this “ban without notice or warning” business. But if you guys just want this to be a narrow club of your friends and don’t care so much about the lurkers and other readers (or the not-universally-liked contributors like Eddie), that’s fair, I get and respect that. It’s just disappointing. I was wishful for a cleaned-up, improved H&R. Alas, some things cannot last.
I wasn’t present when the John thing went down, so I can’t give you an insight to what went on “server-side”, but I think you’re being extremely unfair. If it wasn’t commonly-known before, the fact that John and jesse had history is known now. John rubbed jesse’s face in it just to be an asshole. Bad faith arguments just for the sake of being contentious is the quickest way to get banned here.
It’s worth noting that in both Eddie’s and John’s case, they flooded our mailboxes with unhinged hate screeds for the first couple of days après-ban. I’m comfortable with the decision of my colleagues in both cases.
Duly noted. I wasn’t aware. Doesn’t sound like how Eddie seemed to me, so I believed his claims. (And I didn’t see the original JT–Eddie argument anyway (which voyeur-me regrets).)
Yeah, I know John’s tendencies and history, which is why I don’t care too much. Even if this instance wasn’t ‘bad enough,’ he surely would’ve reached another of his mind-reading and misrepresenting peaks eventually anyway. I guess I just fear a potential ‘slippery slope’ that may not actually have any solid basis, I realize in looking at the individual cases again.
Per Eddie mail, the only time I’ve read anything that used the term “cocksucker” more frequently was the script of this movie.
Wow really? OTOH I have been on the receiving end of his Mr Hyde side on a couple occasions so yeah.
*clicks link*
OMG LOL
The premise of that fine film is that the guy wanted to surprise his wife by hiring a chef to cook for her—which amounted to the chef making her .. a salad?!—and he was shocked to find out that the chef was ‘The Naked Chef.’ (Spoiler: He overcomes the shock and slides into happy acceptance.)
If someone actually wrote out a script to that scene ….. and got paid for it?? I’m jealous.
*opera applause*
“Per Eddie mail, the only time I’ve read anything that used the term “cocksucker” more frequently was the script of this movie.”
That’s unreal. I guess I never saw that side of the guy.
Yeah. Read what you want into the fact that he obviously thinks its the worst thing to call someone.
Yeah. Read what you want into the fact that he obviously thinks its the worst thing to call someone.
Meh, sounds like the shit I get from true believers if I use “God Damnit” or “Jesus F’ing Christ” when I fuck up/injury myself/read something really stupid/ etc.. Just because i use the term doesn’t mean I somehow believe in th supernatural basis behind it. Cocksucker, and mother fucker etc, likewise is a knee-jerk response, most people aren’t thinking it through to it’s literal meaning,
Yes, but he’s not “most” people, is he?
Most people aren’t most people, that’s individualism 101 no?, doesn’t mean some generalities don’t not apply. I don’t keep score as well as a lot of you do, I can’t tell one Tulpa from another, Maybe John’s use of Cocksucker is just one out of many exemplars of his hatred of gays, if so mea culpa.
Brilliant.
@Hyperbole
I was talking about Eddie, actually.
Ah missed that, be that as it may,whither John or Eddie, my point is valid, valid and unimpeachable, beyond reproach even.
I was wishful for a cleaned-up, improved H&R.
I’m honestly interested to hear how you define success here. What does a cleaned up/improved H&R look like to you?
Eh, I rescind my complaint. Maybe I’m just a ‘messy bitch who lives for drama,’ and you guys are keeping things too damn orderly!
He had all kinds of notice and warning:
This passage sounds very creepy. Actually, revolting.
Aren’t you being a tad dramatic?
As dramatic as the mix the Title IX Diversity Vice Dean speak with Animal Farm.
mix of
Would it make you feel any better little goil if
they was pushed outta windasSP wrote “We told John that he was out of line, John said ‘fuck you’ so we banned him?”Yeah, actually. A lot better.
But it doesn’t really matter.
Actually, yes. By her our admission, SP didn’t follow HyR at all. For her John is just “the individual concerned.” On the other hand, some of us have been visiting reason.com to find out what John has to say for the last 10-12 years. He’s way more interesting than any single one of the founders. You should have sucked up an occasional bout of anger from John and let him post.
If “interesting” is a euphemism for “churlish.”
I mean, yeah, occasionally John was interesting, but he was as disingenuous as even Tony was. Nothing steamed me more on H&R than to read people resorting to ad-hom and imputing beliefs to people that their words did not insinuate at all, and then yammering on and on with those claims as premises, as if they were simply the truth. Only the actual trolls did this more than John. He would attack strawmen constantly but real people were their proxies.
Like, if from time to time he realized he did this and had apologized, I wouldn’t mind it.
I stopped taking John seriously years ago as his rage and Fear of the Homocaust turned him into a caricature. It was more fun to poke and prod him to see what kind of reaction you could get. I almost had him voluntarily re-enact the iocane scene from The Princess Bride, once, until someone screwed it up. He was so tone-deaf that he never picked up on it.
I wasn’t involved in the decision to ban him, but I also didn’t care enough to object after the fact. Some of the peanut gallery likes him well enough, hell I even like him in a weird, manly way, but his contributions had become moot, as his personality and biases overwhelmed any sense of rationality.
FWIW, I was banned from Ars Tecnica a million years ago, for going toe-to-toe with Caeser, the site owner. I told him to pound sand after a childish tantrum on his part and he didn’t take that well. Bam, banned. Was it right? I didn’t like it, but it was his site. He could do what he wanted to do with it. Looking back, it was probably for the best. I eventually found better things to do with my time.
https://glibertarians.com/about-us/
^This is what it is about.
Agree.
“Novelty of new man wears off”
You mean, being a feminized limp dick wasn’t so great after all? UNPOSSIBLE.
–“Men feel that they are only valued for their work role.”–
Hmm, and why would that be?
Maybe because that actually IS all they are valued for?
I wouldn’t bet on a significant rise in Bitcoin just yet. Maybe a bounce, but nothing more for the time being. China’s outlawing of it will make it more attractive for other countries to follow suit.
Pet peeve: when a colleague says they’re in a hurry to get something done, you produce your part of their urgent situation, then they don’t respond to emails asking if it needs changes, or if it’s OK to go.
Similar: Colleague gives me a list of part he needs made for a “hot” project he’s working on. I and a couple others rush the items through the shop. Said parts sit on a pallet for the next two weeks.
And you’ll hear back, maybe, sometime next week.
If this be the pet peeves subthread, here’s mine:
MOTHERFUCKER I ALREADY SAID I WOULD YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY PLEASE AFTER THE FACT
Related: I’m doing something that’s not easy, but it’s well under control.
GODDAMN YOU
I worked with one person, for a couple of years, who would send an email and every time start it out with ‘Dear [Hyperion]’. Keep in mind that this is a person who I talked to in person every day at work. I got to a point, I just wanted to type STOP FUCKING DOING THAT ALREADY!
Is your meat space name John ?
What even in the fuck are you talking about?
I used to work with a guy who would hold a meeting that was:
1) I just sold a project that is the most important project ever for our start up
2) I said it would be done next week. Here is the guy on their end you should contact for details
3) I’m going on vacation starting tonight for the next two weeks.
In actuality, though, it was for the best. When he stuck around he was an inveterate information hoarder. So when he would leave, we could talk directly to the customer and get things done. Still tickled us though when he’d tell us how important/urgent this was and then that he would be gone.
This is every sale at my company. Shit, it’s every RFP from every sales monkey at my company.
Sales monkey?
I thought they were sales weasels?
They can walk on two feet for over 100 yards so I give them at least a grade of “simian”.
Ah, you’re an engineer?
For some reason, that reminded me of this:
A major healthcare system had a major breach of its IT systems. Turned out it was actually three breaches, hundreds of thousands of records, etc.
When they discovered it, their CIO was on vacation. While they worked through the crisis, he stayed on vacation. As far as I know, he still has his job. I can’t think of any acceptable explanation for a CIO to not cancel everything and come running when there is a major breach. This would be like me not bothering to come to work while the FBI tossed our files.
Even more baffling is why the board didn’t fire his ass. Not necessarily for the breach, but for staying on the beach while his department burned.
Well considering he is still employed it seems he chose…… wisely.
Bob 1: Do I need to come back there and handle this?
Bob 2: Don’t worry about it, let the peons handle it. It’s going to the lawyers anyway. Bring me back some duty-free cigars.
Wow. Did they get our old CIO?
“I hired the best talent available and stayed out of their way while they handled the problem”
Not baffling to me. If the board holds someone accountable, someone may eventually hold board members accountable.
We all know that if the FBI tossed your files, you’d be making a run for the rooftop helipad.
We actually do have a rooftop helipad for air ambulances. I had been thinking more along the lines of a high-speed run to the border, but I like this plan better.
*cracks electronic medical record system, creates fake transfer orders for helicopter ride to trauma hospital, puts it on a shortcut, closes EMR*
Thanks, Last!
By contrast, we had a virus infection that took down some shared drives (yes, our system is state of the art for 2003) for about a week. The IT director worked his ass off to get it fixed, then was canned for allowing it to happen in the first place.
He was all class, though. “Yes, I deserved to be fired and probably would have resigned anyway.”
Black man from IT opens my office door: Where is the “segregation matrix”?
Me: The what?
IT: The “segregation matrix”–the thing, you know– on Excel–you can have one key but not this key–or use them both if you have them.
Me: Oh, that. I sent that to the ISO last Tuesday. He should’ve sent you the violations that came up on the report and the list of keys to revoke.
IT: Listen, I need–I need it now.
Me: I guess I can run the report again, but in the middle of the afternoon that makes the server slow. Slow by VA standards. Did you ask the ISO, did he respond?
IT: I did–last Tuesday I think. I need that “segregation matrix.”
“Black man from IT opens my office door: Where is the “segregation matrix”?”
When I read that line, I thought you were starting your own SF type novel.
You’re lucky you still have a job.
Why, I did my job and the other guy’s job?
I have one colleague who almost never answers an email. No matter if you need a quick response or not. Then if they email you about something, they will follow up in 10 minutes with ‘Did you get my email?’. This causes people to not like you.
Did everyone get the memo about the TPS reports?
If I need something from a co-worker– usually something very simple that will take them 30 seconds to print-off/email –I go to to their office in person and politely ask them for it. I don’t have time to fucking wait on shit while people play Minecraft. I’m at work to work.
In my company, we literally have TPS reports.
Or kids are annoying, and it’s worth moving to a dual income just to afford to pay someone else to deal with the little shits.
Don’t like kids?
Some. I generally like kids more than adults, since children at least have a reason to be dumb, but they’re still generally annoying.
This seems more a case that the guys in question wanted to social signal and were shocked to discover that the world doesn’t exist for their personal fulfillment. Want to work from home? Fine. But, the guy showing up every day is going to get more face time and have better access to information. Want to let the wife be the breadwinner? Okay, but that means there’s a good chance you’ll have to cut back on your lifestyle.
I think I found a solution to shrinking numbers of observant Catholics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banquet_of_Chestnuts
“prizes were announced for those who could perform the act most often with the courtesans”
You can’t bait Eddy into cooking back that easily, Q.
Anti-Catholic trite
You know, saying “We’re not as fun as the lies people tell about us” is probably not a good recruitment system.
You’re all wrong. This is obviously the best MM song, because breasts. Also, very NSFW.
That featured chick is hotter than newly-fused atoms. Festus’ dearly departed Lab gives her FIVE tail thumps!
My favorite although MM” target=”_blank” >The lead singer has really let himself go
Good news for fellow gun nuts.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/bill-silencer-reform-protections-gun-owners-passes-committee/
Cue up the people who think silencers work like they do in the movies and people will be able to hide in the shadows and shoot with a “thwip” sound that nobody can hear.
In February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives told the Washington Free Beacon there are currently 1.3 million silencers registered in the United States and it has only recommended prosecutions for 44 silencer-related crimes per year over the past decade. That means about .003 percent of registered silencers are used in crimes each year.
too bad it’s going to die in the Senate. /jinx
Beat me to it. No fucking way do the Dems tell their Repub minions to pass this bill in the Senate.
Kind of sad that the minority party still holds all the power eh?
Yea. I think that is why trump goes around them to show how useless they are
The hope is by embarrassing them enough they will actually stop dragging their feet
Hey now, they get the important things done, like telling the President to condemn Nazis.
The Rs can’t whip as well as the Ds, so they’ll need a much larger majority than +2 to get anything positive done. If, as is likely barring a complete rout, they pick up seats in the Senate in the midterm, it will be interesting to see if they can actually do anything worthwhile.
If, as is likely barring a complete rout, they pick up seats in the Senate in the midterm, it will be interesting to see if they can actually do anything worthwhile.
*consults crystal ball*
Nope.
They are failures now, not because they lack the votes so much as because they lack the desire. More votes won’t change that. If the Repubs had sixty Senators this session, I honestly doubt they would have done anything more than they have.
Brainwashing masquerading as education.
http://freebeacon.com/culture/sdsu-professor-teach-black-minds-matter/
Democrats basically tell minorities ‘hey you’re too dumb and weak to accomplish anything or your own, you need us white progs to help you’, and all of their voters agree. And they get away with this racism.
I don’t use bitcoin. Wouldn’t even know how to. Does anybody here us it? If so, why? What am I missing out on? I mean other than cool points with millennials.
Try this guy for a more in depth look.
https://freetheanimal.com/2017/09/cryptocurrency-nature-modern.html
Looks like I have a lot of reading to do. I’ll bookmark it for the weekend. Thanks!
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2011/04/on-monetary-restandardization.html
You should read Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. That’d be somewhat of a long-form answer to some of those questions.
I got into bitcoin when I won an online poker tournament and ended up with more money than I wanted to leave on a questionable poker site that is hosted out of Latvia and ostensibly incorporated in Panama and owned by some First Nations tribe in Quebec. Unfortunately, the only way to cash out in dollars was to give them my bank account number, which I did not want to do. So, I set up a Coinbase account and cashed out in bitcoin. It was easy, and so far quite profitable. When bitcoin spiked, I decide to cash a fraction of one bitcoin to buy a smart TV over at Overstock dot com. That, too, was easy. Eventually, I drained my balance entirely from the poker site and replenished with bitcoin. That, too, was easy. Overall, a quite profitable decision to go with bitcoin. For online poker, it really is better than cash since you don’t have to use your bank.
I miss Neteller. Cash in pocket frequently within an hour of cashout. Good thing the government ended that… and my associated livelihood.
Yet another reason to hate Preet.
The best article ever on bitcoin even though it is a bit verbose:
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2011/04/on-monetary-restandardization.html
Yes, it’s dated 2011 but it holds up well.
Here is what I consider to be the best article I’ve read on bitcoin. The writer is verbose and it was written in 2011, but I think the reasoning is sound.
Unfortunately, I did not follow his advice back then.
I recommend an article by the always verbose Mencius Moldbug, “On monetary restandardization”, which is really all about bitcoin. It dates back to 2011, but I think it holds up well. For some reason, I can’t post a link here, but you can google for it, maybe adding “unqualified reservations” in the search terms.
Moldbug accepted that bitcoin is a superior basis for money, and for that reason, he expected that the US government would eventually shut it down such that reason. However, on the off-chance that it takes off, one should own a few bitcoins (then about $1 each) because they could make one a fiat dollar millionaire. The prediction isn’t nearly as interesting as the reasoning that got him there. That’s why I think the article is so good.
Unfortunately, I later spoke with some friends I thought were really tech-savvy, and they told me that bitcoin was a scam pure-and-simple. So I didn’t buy ten or twenty bitcoins for a dollar each in 2011. Instead, I got a couple for $800 each last year.
There was/is a quite sizable contingent of people who reacted with sneering disdain and smug dismissal because, essentially, libertarians are icky, some libertarians are interested in bitcoin, therefore bitcoin is icky. No further intellectual examination was performed even among otherwise intellectual and technical people.
I never got into it beyond very casually, but a friend of mine did (and it ended up paying for a fair bit of his fucking house). I just remember all the mocking about “buttcoins” and laughing at the cranks, despite the fact that the value kept increasing and the narrative and reality increasingly clashed.
Isn’t that why they came up with Dogecoin?
Eh, I feel pretty scammed from Bitcoin. Invested on the Bitfloor platform in 2012, wired a grand to some account in New York like a schmuck fresh off deployment money with too many cute ideas. A few months later they got hacked or somebody inside compromised a bunch of accounts, and damned if I can figure out how to get ahold of anyone to get my money back.
But there are probably smarter ways to buy into it…:(
A hopefully working link
Hmm, I tried posting a link but it too never appeared.
Yo. I just checked the spam auto-filter and it has way more stuff than there should be. I’ll free your link from it’s processed meat prison, and check with SP why we’ve had stuff go to spam instead of moderation.
With my power situation and all, wasn’t able to watch this week’s Rick and Morty til last night.
Holy shit. Might’ve been the best episode of the series.
I don’t know, man. Oh, Jeeze.
Oh man, it was pretty depressing, wasn’t it? Oh, jeeze.
*BEEEEEEELCH*
Except for the mermaid puss! Go Morty C-137!
I thought I wanted to be a stay-at-home dad, but then the oldest started talking. I mean, I do stay at home, but I go to work and close the door. Thank goodness!
I had to lead two teleconferences yesterday that couldn’t be rescheduled with a 102 fever and bundled up like it was winter. My kids usually take my absence as the signal to unleash something resembling a cross between the Thunderdome and chaos incarnate on the house and each other. They can utterly destroy the house in 15 minutes and wait for the second that door closes to begin. I don’t know why, but they took pity on me and sat nicely side by side for 90 minutes watching youtube videos of strangers opening toys. Surprise egg opening videos are some weird shit but I’ll take it.
Unfortunately, by the time they’re old enough to safely pump full of benadryl and nyquil, they should also be old enough to not act like such barbarians so that’s not much help.
JFC, my son would watch those for hours if I let him.
For me, the novelty of children in my presence wears off after about 30 minutes.
I like mine. Other people’s? Meh.
That’s so you change their diaper and feed them instead of killing them.
Children should be seen working but not heard crying about it.
You actually allow them in your presence? I have lackeys to crack the whip for me while I’m on Monocle One flying to Fiji.
I’m a poor glibertarian. *looks down at shoes with scuff marks from kicking orphans*
My kids are great now that they are firmly into adulthood. There were previously some difficult years. Read: decades.
(Don’t tell webdominiatrix I was talking about her.)
Well I see this as a win-win. You get rid of some Nazi shitlord and gain a totes woke tranny that uses easily as many emojis as words in xer Twitter feed (no joke, go look for yourself).
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/350684-top-former-cia-official-resigns-as-harvard-senior-fellow-in
meh. fuck all the self-appointed “future leaders”.
Manning is not a shining beacon for freedom.
Not sure what’s worse, than manning has a twitter feed or that people actually follow it.
Honestly, I can’t say I blame him. The truth of the matter is that Manning never struck me as particularly comparable to, say, Snowden. Snowden was revealing government wrongdoing and pretty scrupulously scrubbed his releases to prevent giving away any intelligence assets (i.e. risking getting CIA people killed). Manning did a data dump that revealed nothing we didn’t already know in broad terms in a fit of pique. The fact that someone like that is being lionized would piss me off if I worked in intelligence.
I was wondering what is the difference between what those two did.
???
You’ll have to forgive me. My sarcasm meter is on the fritz.
I do think there’s a difference between someone who puts our intelligence agents at risk and someone who takes care to make sure that doesn’t happen.
You misunderstand. I literally did not know what is the difference. If your description is accurate, then I agree, that is a difference.
Here is the background on Snowden. I’ll see if I can find the background on Manning.
Buried in this story is the fact that Wikileaks went to the U.S. government looking to see what could be printed without endangering U.S. agents, Manning didn’t do the scrub. That’s supported by this piece that indicates that the releases did have U.S. Afghani intelligence sources listed.
Name anything that Manning dumped that lasted in the news more than 5 seconds. the best i can recall was some helicopter footage that showed that the US shot a tv reporter, which i think was already known and hardly reported on because it was a stringer for some non-major-US-media outlet… and it happened at a time when the press were seen as less than sympathetic characters. Basically it provided about 5 mins of viral-video footage for teenies who don’t read the pappers.
and hardly anyone ever mentioned that the really important shit manning dumped were diplomatic cables from various state dept functionaries which basically destroyed careers and probably got covert sources killed. Diplomats are professional liars who do huge amounts of less-than-visible stuff we’d rather not be publicized, and while it didn’t provide anything on the order of a ‘juicy story that would make Bush/Cheney look bad’, it was certainly the most interesting stuff released from the POV of hostile nations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contents_of_the_United_States_diplomatic_cables_leak
The disturbing thing to me is that this guy decided he’s a woman to get off easier, and it worked. He learned it from Bruce Jenner. This is disturbing behavior and sets a very bad example for society. Ok, someone can tell me I’m wrong about this, but I won’t change my opinion, it’s set.
Hopefully he learns Jenner’s other lesson, don’t not be a leftist. The same hordes that are willing to work tirelessly doing things like scrubbing Jenner’s manslaughter from his Wiki page won’t continue to carry water in that case. Once Jenner transitioned from stunning and brave to Republican, that mysteriously showed up again and stopped getting deleted.
Teflon Don confounds Democrats
What an uplifting article! It almost restores my faith in the American voter.
Like comrade sanders claiming he would help pay for it by eliminating exemptions from pay roll tax and income tax on employer plans…this would raise 420 billion a year which is 15 percent of current revenue.
However is Medicare for all gets rid of employer plans and is a gov paid monopoly so how is he going to now tax these employer plans as income that no longer exist
It will take more to pay for it here than it does in European countries. What does it take there? About a minimum 45% income tax on payroll and a 20% vat tax. This is why it’s a pipe dream, the cost is ginormous. Bernie’s a fucking liar, he knows what this will cost, he just doesn’t care. He wants to turn the US into Europe. He just knows that once you pass something like this, it never goes away and that’s all that matters.
I disagree and think that Bernie doesn’t know: he might have some very vague misgivings about the costs but in his heart of hearts he truly believes that we can provide unlimited free space-age health care to everyone, because the “rich” and the kkkorporayshuns are hoarding everything.
If he were more cynical and less innumerate, he’d be enjoying the fruits of more graft. You know, beyond the three houses that obviously every proletarian with the best interests of Gaia and the world community needs.
Don’t leave out the lifetime six figure pension.
Yeah, we don’t really give a shit about that. Believe it or not, its still about the economy. How’s my wallet? Not good, then fuck you for talking about Russia all the time instead of the economy.
Voters are also generally unimpressed by claims that Trump exaggerates or lies made by people who exaggerate and lie as much as he does
FTFT
The Democrats are currently in a battle with themselves over whether they should be talking about the economy or talking about identity politics. Even the ones that agree on focusing on the economy, they get it badly wrong. They talk about free college, $15 and hour minimum wage, free healtcare. Those are all things that will hurt the economy and badly. The Democrats have no message on the economy.
The only reason “free” college works in some countries is because they severely restrict it. Democrats don’t seem willing to face reality there.
“Free” health care will work the same way.
I think Dems take “free college” to mean “free college for non-cishitlords”
Hell, some places don’t even guarantee that you get to go to high school. So sorry, you’re too dumb, take up a trade.
… that came out way more elitist than I intended it to
In Germany – the country I had in mind – the training for a trade is “free” too. But the major point is they don’t push college on kids who won’t benefit from it, like they do in the US. So yes, it’s a bit “sorry, you’re too dumb, take up a trade” but it’s also more reflective of reality IMHO.
That’s the way it worked in the US 100 years ago. After 8th grade you had to choose between academic high school, trade high school, or getting a job – a system that was in place at the same time Social Security was enacted. Then the job option was eliminated because returning veterans. Then the trade high school option was eliminated because unions. Now it’s stay out of the work force even longer because minimum wage. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer people pay into Social Security for fewer and fewer years and the system becomes a de facto pyramid scheme.
The lethal combination of erecting more systems/institutions while continuing to legislate in a vacuum.
Technically, SS has been a pyramid scheme since day one. It’s just that the pyramid had a much wider base when it was new.
Not only is it restricted, it isn’t as free as people think. No, I’m not talking about how taxpayers subsidize it. I’m talking about room & board and maybe books. In Europe those aren’t “free”, though I don’t get the sense that they have big swimming pools and climbing walls, so the cost is lower.
I find it amusing how Schumer and Pelosi believe they’re found a new buddy and how the media have eaten it up. Trump is up to something and you can bet that it only benefits Trump, not the democrats.
And they’d be right. An article I read in the Atlantic said the Bernie plan would progressively outlaw private provision of anything provided though the government “medicare-for-all” socialist pipe dream.
The article:
Rep. Franks Predicts Awans Will Get Immunity For “Significant, Disturbing Story” About Wasserman Schultz
Always and forever. Good economy = re-election.
“Hi, my name is Gilmore and I’m a thread fucker.”
Always and forever. Good economy = re-election.
The God-King brings the rains.
We are so much more sophisticated than our ancestors.
Well, while do you have a point, in this case, while Trump isn’t exactly the libertarian messiah, I readily submit that his policies, rhetoric, and beliefs are generally more business-friendly than President “You Didn’t Built That”.
You are right. A government can do a heck of a lot to ruin an economy, so by inverse showing restraint is doing something that will help the economy (and in fairness, there are even a few things that the government can do that are positive). I just made the comment because it amuses me how many people draw a simple correlation between the state of things and the man in office, since such simplification bears a remarkable resemblance to the deification of the kings of old. Some people today actually even blame the president for the weather, and many of these people actually think they are smart to do so.
The only reason anyone has any favorable feelings toward Clinton the First is because a lot of money was made.
I would just predict that this is going to be a very significant story
I suspect we will see some top-flight journalism out of this.
“Journalism is about covering important stories-with a pillow, until they stop moving.”
This. The story is going to have to be really huge to escape the media suppression.
Ya I think wife coming back is pretty telling
This give me an idea; let’s ban the 4th of July! We’ll go straight from the 3rd to the 5th!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4882838/Another-town-scraps-Australia-Day-drawing-government-ire.html
Turnbull Derangement Syndrome
SMDH
Why was John banned? #resist
Banning John is something that Nick Gillespie would do
(too far?)
Someone above linked to a back-and-forth between John and jesse which looked like it violated the terms of use. Sad to see him go, but he can’t resist getting the last word in which winds up being his undoing. Not every stupid assertion by a poster requires a comeback insult, sometimes letting the dumb post go ignored is a more effective insult.
John calls bullshit on jesse’s blind spot about the ASS-SEX leg (phrasing!) of the three-legged libertarian stool (phrasing again!).
Sure, whatever you say, pal.
You seem upset. You could have just not replied, yeah? Instead of the completely empty, fuming response.
Lol, k.
If chopping up my comments to make me sound like a fascist when I was describing what is rather than what should be is “calling bullshit” then I guess we can all live in your unicorn and fantasy world.
I wonder if someone could PS the cooked batter into a tophat. Or Trump’s severed head? Oooh! A bag of milk to appeal to the important Canadian demographic!
If chopping up my comments to make me sound like a fascist
So you’re not a Röhmite like Underzog called all of us at the old site? 😉
Seems like I hit a nerve, huh?
At Least 11 Mayors Accused Of Child Sex-Related Crimes Since 2016
A sample from the list:
I think the second paragraph is the more important one. How often do little people get that deal?
To be fair, the overlap between midgets, mayors, and molesters is a pretty small number of people.
Bureaucrats are doing God’s work. And taking Holy Orders implies a little kiddie diddling now and then as part of the deal.
A copy of the indictment said Walker engaged in sexual contact with a child younger than 17 years of age
That seems a rather broad category. While I agree with having the age of consent in the upper teens, I do think the criminal charges should be broken up into at least 2 categories: teens and children. The crimes in my eyes are not the same level of severity, and I think it muddies the waters by grouping things together.
this guy gets it.
I was gonna post this for you over at MU, but since you’re here.
As the Marque is Revived, A Look Back at TVR’s History and Cars
Long, but a nice history. Your dad might dig it as well.
Nice! I’ll pass that along too, I bet he would like it.
What a legend.
That’s fucking awesome.
Hell yeah!
Somebody is not getting his deposit back.
I came across this report this morning, it won’t make the news. Administrative Investigation – Alleged Improper Physician Performance Pay, Veterans Health Administration
They paid $150k in bonuses to 14 physicians for doing such exemplary work.
1.5% for attendance at required meetings. We should all be so lucky.
Urge to kill rising…
Good…Good….
It’s almost like there’s a trend or something.
the LP
The LP wouldn’t do that. “The tea baggers (both the original and the most recent incarnation) was a bunch of hetero-normative racists or something”
Well, I mean they did culturally appropriate First Nations culture in order to commit a crime…
“First Nations”? That sounds like Canada talk to me. We ‘Mericans call them Native Americans or ‘njuns.
“First Nation” sounds a little too Reich-y for me.
“First Nations” also is a funny term, since they aren’t actually the “first” nations but rather whichever ones happened to be in existence when the Europeans showed up. I’d bet a lot of the “first nations” actually destroyed the real first nations, or the nations that destroyed the nations that destroyed them, or some such. But I guess it’s as accurate as all the other descriptions, since none of the “Indians” are from India and a whole lot of people are native to the Americas who have no “Native American” ancestry.
Siberian-Americans or Siberian-Canadians, since they came here via the land bridge from Siberia.
The correct anthropological term is Amerindians, you Philistine.
Bostonians have always been racist AF.
– Nick Sarwark
So brave.
Saw nj senator Corey booker gave bob m 20k to help with legal fees
Birds of a feather?
more fake news.
http://cavemancircus.com/2016/01/27/hot-instagram-babe-of-the-day-shony/
Instagram girl……………………
https://www.barstoolsports.com/barstoolu/barstool-u-thursday-morning-smokeshow-skylar-from-university-of-arizona
……….or Barstool Sports college girl. The correct answer to follow.
Model.
You’re not very good at this game
Fuck you, prick!
(did I do that right?)
Uh oh, someone is getting banned.
You didn’t call him a liar…
NO!
Lighten up, I got it right in the Grant Hart thread.
The game needs a “hooker” option.
It already has Instagram girls.
I wouldn’t piss off HM like that if I were you.
Obligatory, IMO.
Lol.
“in the whole wide room…”
“You could be a part. time. (instagram) model…. “
I love how every one of these little narcissists is a ‘model’.
Hey Riven, if I become an Instagram model, will you please reply ‘would’ to each of my posts?
dammit. that’s a good idea.
Won’t we all?
I’d fucking well hope so! It’s would do more for my ego if at least one chick did.
You know I…
(•_•) / ( •_•)>⌐■-■ / (⌐■_■)
…would.
I can do ‘Tundra or college girl’ next time
*digs out Speedo and oil*
That’s it. Rub that synthetic 20W-50 racing oil all over you. Yes. Yes! You have my vote!
The high zinc really gives quite a sheen!
*puts on gloves to put cat litter on oil mess*
………Ewww?
I’mma go with ewww.
FOTC is the bees knees.
I have this in my head whenever the model or not question comes up.
I… I have never seen this before! It’s gold!
I can’t tell which one looks snootier. Still…would.
The answer is: college girl.
Let me just point out that the college girl is from my alma mater. She is a fine representative.
A very fine representative
I figure the answer is pretty obvious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgk-lA12FBk
I’m not into either. Man Fail.
Apropos of nothing, just one more telling indicator of her state of mind that Hillary writes a tell-all book and her name takes up more space than the title.
Old man talks about the normies on the internet.
I can’t decide if you messed up the link or are being very funny.
Doom is very meta.
so, it worked well but that was not the link i was looking for.
I was going to ask which one of you old guys this is.this is the video
If he wasn’t so white I would assume it was HM.
You and your damn stereotypes, HM could be mostly white in another dimension.
Like one of these guys?!
My wife would never let me have facial hair.
Your wife is a totalitarian. Divorce her and find a woman who appreciates manliness.
The beard must be free.
lol
Young woman talks about normies on the internet
Apples and Knives posted it this morning, but I will repost for those old people who missed it:
RIP Grant Hart
Fuck cancer.
Saw that today. Too bad. Any rock band that uses foreign letters in its name is alright in my book (yes, even Blue Oyster Cult)
Don’t you mean “especially” instead of “even?”
I would, but there are a lot of Blue Oyster Cult haters out there. Didn’t want to arouse an argument, because my last remark might be “fuck you lying prick!”
But, yes, I like me some Blue Oyster Cult
but there are a lot of Blue Oyster Cult haters out there.
Meh. They’re alright, I guess. I just think they need more cow bell.
I think you mis-spelled “mescaline”.
Why not both?
Fuck you lying prick!
(ok, that has to be right!)
This calls for at least a *narrows gaze*. Swiss is really slacking today
It’s “Fuck you, You lying prick”
You need to separate the insults, ‘fuck you’ is distinct form the ‘lying prick’ part, your way blends the two into just fucking a lying prick, which isn’t the intended derogation.
Dammit.
I really suck at this.
Thank God I have the modeling career to fall back on.
Grumble…
*narrows gaze*
Fine, happy now??
*mutters into bowl of röschti*
There are two kinds of people in this world, JS. Those who like Blue Oyster Cult, and lying pricks.
A man after my heart
Note: I already had this open even before I read this discussion.
Goddam fucking fuckwad. This *mumbles vicious words*
I want to start a band called The Unnecessary Umlauts, with umlauts on every vowel, and a couple of the consonants while I’m at it.
So it wouldn’t be a metal band, then? Because those umlauts are vital!
Word of advice, OMWC. Umlauts are metal. That hippie music you like is not metal. If you make a band with a bunch on umlauts in the name, metalheads are going to show up to listen. You think they’ll go easy on you when you start playing hippy music? They will not! They’ll feed your Birkenstocks to your 12-string guitar and then they’ll shove that, your tambourine, and your flute straight up your ass. The medical bills will be very expensive, and SP will have to decide between living with a permanently disabled pervert who wheezes like the harmonica that couldn’t be removed from his throat, or not paying off your medical bills and moving to Mexico with the pool boy. Don’t put her through this ordeal! Let the band name go, man!
Hey, if it pays money, I don’t give a shit about whether it’s music I like. My Jewness exceeds my sense of esthetics.
Imagine Cookie Monster with a Yiddish accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKeH7JYE48
Quick story: Grew-up in PA. Big Husker fan. My first punk record was Metal Circus. Moved to Minneapolis in ’98. Honest to god, my second day here Grant Hart came up to me outside an SA and asked for the time (these are NOT euphemisms) I was like, “Holy Shit! If you live in MN the guys in Husker Du are just walking around!” Would eventually have many drunken conversations with him at the Turf Club/Clown Lounge. Very sweet and troubled guy. When he found out I was from Harrisburg he told me: “Wow. Three Mile Island! Our first real show was the night all that went down.” Bummed.
Don’t punish the guy just cause he’s multitalented!
http://archive.is/rhAYE
My friend ran the naked mile at UVM a few years back. he switched directions halfway through because he was “missing all the good stuff”
Shouldn’t this story be the “which of you Glibs is this” post?
Great news in my email today. Training class next week has a scent sensitive individual so no perfume, cologne or deodorant. It’s complete and utter bullshit and is just a way for this person to exert control over others. Everyone has to play along with the mental delusions of this person because they supposedly have a note from their doctor.
Apparently body odor isn’t a trigger.
You’ll hit the gym on the way to class, right?
don’t shower till then.
And treat the whole class to a breakfast of beans, eggs and beer.
“Full English Breakfast…and a pint!”
…but you repeat yourself.
*drunken applause, falls over on sidewalk*
3 CC
z–z, yhgfh hff,gud,Giffordxxf
Put on deodorant anyway.
If confronted, “I forgot and used it out of habit. I wasn’t completely awake”.
I was going to be half dick and put it on the night before. 48 hour protection and all that.
Well, 3/4 dick. I have some scented shower gel I was going to use.
If not confronted, confront the asshole and call him/her out for being a full-of-shit narcissist.
If you were in the south there would be some big haired woman pitching a fit.
Unscented Mitchum. The people around you will thank you for not smelling like a detergent aisle.
Did they say anything about scented candles?
Stinkbombs still available? Would that be murder if they went into a scent fit?
Find someone to write you a note claiming you have some disability that kicks in when you DON’T have
deodorant on
What really needs to be done to end the PC bullshit, is for every non-prog in every organization to make a bunch of outlandish claims about identifying as whatever and how any leftist speech triggers them and requires a safe space. Overwhelm the system and kill it.
^This is how you do it.
My boss wears some horrifying Axe crap but I let it slide. Or at least he did until recently. Maybe someone said something.
Wear Hai Karate.
Canoe?
Fun fact: There’s no ICD-10 code for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity because the WHO doesn’t believe it exists. It’s a psychosomatic disorder.
Way to mansplain, racist.
“Medsplain”
*golf caps*
I kinda dig the hippie salt stuff, unless I’m going to apocrine sweat because there’s no perfume to cover up the stress smell. That said I’d still be using Speed Stick regular if I didn’t start getting a blistery rash from it at some point.
Byyyy Men-nen!!
I’ll be a Degree Cool Rush man till the day they plant me.
If you don’t go on a diet of nothing but cheap beer and canned chili three days prior to that training class you will have let me down.
HM, did you make this?
I don’t know where you’re finding these but please stop making me bray like a donkey at work… they’re going to figure out I’m not actually working.
just for you.
This is how Europeans imagine every American.
Are they wrong?
Only in an undesirable world
It’s greatly exaggerated.
Don’t tell them. We don’t need any more commies.
This is true. I’ll continue to a sarcastic asshole with them and make them think it’s even worse.
I wish I did.
Re: post from this morning – new vid is out: “In China They Eat Dogs”. Hilarious Danish crime-comedy (very black humor) – highly recommended. I will definitely be reviewing the follow-up sequel/prequel “Old Men in New Cars” in a few months. Probably easy to find dirt cheap on ebay – dvd is OOP.
Will try and make a few more vids this weekend – one for comics, one for next review. Will try and continue audio testing – didn’t have time yet. Thanks.
Pls let me know what you think about integrating all the audio/video clips this time around? Shitty job, better than just trailers, etc?
Too long for my tastes, pacing is very slow.The commentary/clips ratio is fine, just needs tightened up, unless you’re gonna give the film school shot by shot dissertation on how the directors used weather and movement to set a tone ala Kurosara then five/six minute should be tops for a movie review.
Hmmm, I had some issues talking too fast the first couple of times. I’ll see about cutting some intro stuff and tightening up a bit more in future. Not trying to make it a dissertation – but yeah, I could probably continue with most of my reviews with just one or two small clips – this was definitely exceptional now that I’m not getting flagged (thankfully).
Thanks.
In retrospect…making shorter, more concise reviews would also let me make more of them…maybe more than 1 per week. Does it help to have the trailer or just a link? – if there is a viable trailer online – to give a better feel for a flick?
I like seeing some clip at least.
For my money showing the entire trailer isn’t necessary, a link would be sufficient, or start showing it then fade out as you start your review, snippets are fine, but extended clips turn me off. Similar to the ‘too much recap not review’ criticism I’ve made before, I don’t need to see all the good parts/know the complete story beforehand.
Ok. I definitely wasn’t a fan of the ICTED trailer format – none of the good dialog…I’ll try and be a little more judicious.
I like it. The backgrounds of some of the people involved is a nice touch, and the sound seems better in this one.
This movie looks up my alley.
BTW – got mystery team from netflix. Will try and watch this weekend – probably in the review hopper for the week after next.
Awesome! Hope you like it.
Hmmm, I was thinking about doing a “Seoul Station” review next week but there are lots of those already due to the theatrical release last year. Sooo, “Crying Freeman” French live-action movie it is!
This is for you guys, gals and lizards to use when you find out a friend of yours is a commie.
Seems kind of extreme, dude.
GODDAMMIT I DID IT AGAIN. no don’t drive by your friends.
this one.
We totally would have done the right thing anyways.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/09/14/salt-lake-mayor-unfortunate-perception-werent-going-handle-nurse-arrest-appropriately/
How else were they expecting the video to be perceived?
Well, to be fair, if it was up to them, it would never have been released.
Pelosi doesn’t want amnesty, just amnesty
I may be perceived as a prick for this, but I just don’t care. DACA is fucking bullshit, just end it. An earned path to citizenship? Earned how? By your parents sneaking you into the country? If you do immigration the right way and apply for a green card, you are NOT getting it if you sneaked in across the border. But now we’re going to take 800k persons, albeit no fault of their own, and put them in line in front of people who have applied legally? What we’re doing here is putting empathy, AKA feelz, above common fucking sense and the law. We’re setting a precedent, where we are effectively telling everyone that, hey, you sneak across the border with your kids, and maybe we’ll deport you, but the kids get to stay and sponsor you once they’re a citizen. Sure Democrats believe, correctly or not, that all of these new citizens are going to vote Democrat. This is the way to the 3rd world.
Agree with you 100%. Regardless of how anyone feels about immigration, it’s complete bullshit to give priority to people here illegally over those who followed the rules. If they *have* to stay, they get some kind of ID card that says you can stay and work as long as you don’t leave. If you ever leave the country, for any reason, you can’t get back in. And by accepting the card, you forfeit *ever* getting citizenship. If you want citizenship, you can go home and apply like everyone else.
“If you want citizenship, you can go home and apply like everyone else.”
Agreed, this should be their sole option, Q, just like every fucking other person on the planet.
I completely agree that citizenship for illegals should be completely off the table. There has to be a really good permanent incentive to prevent people from cutting in line, as it were, in front of law-abiding people who wait for years, decades to go through the process properly.
Similarly, the parents who sneak their kids over need to realize they aren’t doing their kids a favor by breaking the law, since the kid will never have citizenship. Rewarding the illegal immigration with amnesty repeatedly just encourages more of the same behavior.
Incentives, how do they work?
And it’s grossly unfair to the people who do it legally.
Did Mikhail Gorbachev actually write an introduction to a Bloom County collection? This can’t be real. In fact I’m 99% sure it’s not real, but everything that alludes to it online takes it as fact.
If this is real, it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read. But it’s not real.
Berke Breathed wrote that preface, and then the Cold War ended. That’s it, end of story.
I’m all for medics being able to carry guns but it’s pretty ridicules to say that cops won’t need to project the medics if they do. The medics are supposed to be focused on assisting the injured, not worrying about having to defend themselves.
http://nbc4i.com/2017/09/14/ohio-considers-bill-to-allow-medics-to-carry-guns/
Both the medics and the people they go to treat will be far safer if the cops aren’t there to “protect” them.
Happy.
Norks launch another missile over Japan just now. Media is freaking out. Nice morning commute. 🙁
Kim’s just a little ill these days. Typically, lead inserted into the skull at high velocity will solve the problem.
I’m honestly expecting that result at any time.
I’ve heard some people say we shouldn’t put him down because it might de-stabilize the country. I have to tell you after watching the bizarre documentaries on Netflix, I highly doubt that would be the result. The people are fucking terrified of this maniac to the extent of some sort of terror cult. The more likely result is that the people, from the lowest peasant in a gulag to the top generals will pause for a few moments of ‘what the fuck just happened?’ and then have a giant fucking party. Also, what happens if the overgrown toddler nukes Tokyo or Seoul? I bet that will cause a change of opinion very quickly. Seriously and I’m as much of a peacenik as you can get outside of self defense, and right now I’m thinking lead to the head solution is the only one.
I’ve been listening to BBC News reports from when the Norks did this in August. And, keep in mind, they were firing missiles over Japan. The Beeb’s take? Trumps incendiary words risk destabilizing North Korea situation. Un-fucking-believable.*
*Not meant to be an endorsement of Trump’s words.
Well, this is why we kicked the limeys ass and threw them out of the country.
But isn’t he surrounded by equally power mad relatives/military officers who would squabble to usurp his place immediately? Seriously, nobody in North Korea knows what a functional government looks like.
Can’t imagine it being worse than post Arab Spring type chaos though…
I haven’t dug into the North Korean hierarchy enough to judge, but there must be some general or member of the Kim family that we can ‘influence’ into becoming the leadership (read: assassinations). I get that the recent Kim murdered the best Kim for the job recently, but there must be some within the regime who realize “holy shit, the country almost collapsed with the starvation in the 90s, we need to pull our asses out of the fire now”.
Is it too late for you to move to Nebraska?
Lemme think about it, hmm. Living in a hyperactive quake zone with a busted nuclear reactor half day away and a pudgy cult leader lobbing missiles overhead OR Nebraska. Sorry Omaha, I’m staying here.
You’re somehow imagining that nuclear war is worse than Nebraska. Maybe you should spend a couple of month there first.
Don’t worry, Hentai Kamen will save you!
I know your pain.
Don’t you just get crammed in the subway harder?
Note to future drunken self:
Stop calling Jesse “Tortilla Man”.
Lol, I wouldn’t be too afraid of me. I’ve voted no any bans that weren’t obvious randos signing up to shitpost.
If you’ve ever wondered who is the kindest founder, it’s Jesse. He’s definitely a “water under the bridge” sort of fella.
I’m more of a scorched earth unholy bitch.
*scribbles notes furiously*
Euphemism?
Putting a target on Jesse’s back with that, Riven.
That’s certainly not my intention. I just mean that if I had kids, I know I could trust Jesse with them. Hell, I’d trust him with my dog, and I don’t even trust my folks with her.
Maybe Jesse would like a target on his back.
How many bans have there even been? Before today, the only major commenters that went missing seemed to leave of their own accord.
Or if that’s inside info, that’s cool, I’m just curious.
You Shall Know The Mods By The Trail of Faceless Dead That Lead To Their Doors
I love that band.
Shreek that I remember. Didn’t all the rest just leave of their own accord?
See, I totally forgot that he even came over from the other site. He must’ve been banned fast.
That also really reinforces the story of Jesse’s tolerance, as if he didn’t even vote to ban Shreek…
Shreek is a disingenuous asshole and insufferable dick to the extent that a human being can possibly be. I couldn’t even vote to not ban shreek. Not if he hasn’t even done anything to deserve it yet. He preemptively deserves it.
He’s responsible for the original cattbutt.
Robert too, I believe – he got multiple warnings.
It’s a potato pancake.
🙁
*reconsiders past life choices*
I thought it was a flour tortilla. I don’t get the symbolic meaning of it. Maybe there is none, Jesse just happened to be holding a flour tortilla like that when someone decide to take a picture.
Now, if he was holding both a tortilla and a blunt, well, then there might be some symbolism there…
IT. IS, A. CREPE! What is the matter with you people?!
What’s a crepe? Is that some sort of that frog shit?
Site founder is creepy, Got it.
I never even noticed it until just now.
Elon Musk might be a crony-capitalistic suck-teet, but his company has a sense of humor.
I was enjoying how cool this was, then I was dumb enough to scroll down to see the immediate screams to sacrifice to Gaia in the name of “science” or be damned as evil.
Breitbart has the right idea here: win the emotional rather than the logical argument. One of the biggest problems that anti-DACA people and the border hawks have is that they always argue that it is the right thing to do from a pure policy standpoint, but have no idea that it doesn’t win the debate with the general public. If the message starts to be “You clearly don’t care enough about people if you support DACA”, then you start to win the culture war.
Whenever someone starts telling me I don’t have a heart if I don’t support DACA, they’re going to get asked some very tough questions in return. Like ‘Do you support the war on drugs? What about legalizing heroin and other opioids? No? Then apparently you don’t have a heart because you want to take people who already have a serious problem and throw them in a cage with violent felons who will abuse and rape them. You don’t have a heart’. There is no comparison between telling someone to go back to their own country of origin and throwing someone in a rape cage. One of those things is much worse than the other.
I often wonder why the ‘They broke the law and need to go back to their own countries’ crowd never want to throw ‘them’ in jail first. The laws the law, from what I hear, in other countries illegal immigration gets you five years in the slammer, yadda yadda, why not round ’em up and imprison them for a few years then send ’em back. That would discourage illegal immigration no? just kicking them out so that they can walk right back in, not so much.
Well, in this case, they, at least the ones of them who legit were brought here as a small child, did not break any laws. Their parents did. It still does not in my opinion give them the right to bypass immigration law and go straight to citizenship. Like I said before, that sets a precedent for people so sneak in, get their kids safely here, so they can stay and sponsor the parents, cousins, brothers, sisters, etc, once they get granted magical citizenship, which doesn’t apply to anyone else on the planet who pursues residence the legal way.
“take the low road, embrace pathetic appeals, never sound too-smart”
– every politician ever
I’ll leave the feelz arguments to others – I can’t do it. The plain fact is I don’t care about those people one way or the other and frankly I don’t buy it from others who claim they do “care” – unless they have some immediate “skin” in the game.
“How can you break up families? These are human beings. I love all people. We need to learn how to forgive ourselves and realize no one is perfect. Just because a culture is different doesn’t mean it’s worse.”
*Someone says something they disagree with*
“STFU you @!!&*#er. RAcist POS! I hope you die!”
Hello straffinrun, I’m from HuffPo and I’d like to offer you a job.
So just channel my divorced sister who has empathy for people as long as it costs someone else money? I can do that.
” Just because a culture is different doesn’t mean it’s worse.”
Yeah, unfortunately that’s not true. I really like most Latin culture, a lot. Great food, great culture, beautiful women. They suck at politics and economy though.
Relevant
The social signalers feel exactly the same way as you do, Rhywun, they’re just shameless liars about it.
Probably. I’m a terrible liar FWIW.
I don’t care about them either. Other than they did not get themselves here by their own choice. I would support work permits. Green cards for life. No citizenship, no voting, no bringing in the rest of your family. Tell them to make the best of it. Have a nice day. 🙂 PS your parents if they have not became citizens over the 10 to 20 years you have been here, well you can go visit them once they are deported.
I get a bit tired of the US being the only country that should not have immigration laws. Can I go work in Mexico without a visa? Can I go work in Canada? Honduras? Anywhere?
My reading of the open-borders crowd is that they think the US is supposed to be “better” than that or some such. Which is not bad as far as it goes – the US is better than most countries on a lot of things. But I find the idea of open borders hard to recocile with the concept of nation-states, which is a concept I am rather fond of.
Why?
If you could get an interstellar ship and venture off to form your own nation-state a few thousand light years from here, would you do it? Or would you feel the need to go back and invite everyone in DC, including the IRS, who would like to come along, just to boycott the evil nation state?
No. Why would I form a nation-state anywhere?
Why?
Because everybody else seems to want to be a nation state? I am all for open borders when everybody else opens theirs.
I was informed over at TOS, that reciprocity is wrong. I mean it’s a fairly significant part of how modern society came into being, but all of a sudden, it’s bad. Ok.
That’s a tu quoque fallacy. That’s like saying “I’m all for free speech when every other country has it too.” Both the subsidizing of immigration and the prohibition of it involves the threat of force by the state against peaceable people. From the perspective of the NAP, this is immoral.
Agree with that, HM, it’s like saying that we have to have ‘healthcare’ or we have to have ‘gun control’ because everyone else has it, or not. That’s not reciprocity, it’s conformity. Reciprocity is more like a free trade agreement or saying that I will allow my citizens to freely visit your country, but you have to do the same.
We need a nation state because otherwise we’d be overrun by the barbarian hordes who would trample our ideals underfoot and subject us to tyranny. Keep in mind, they don’t respect the NAP. (this is just an example).
That’s like saying “I’m all for free speech when every other country has it too.”
At the risk of looking a fool, I am going to disagree there. We do have free speech now. Why would I argue we should not have it until others allow it? The only ones trying to stop free speech are the Marxists. As much as I would like to see open borders the world over, which is never going to happen, what do you think would happen to the US if we just opened it up and everyone who could get here was allowed in? Do you think it would remain the semi civil mess it is now?
I have typed four other responses…….and I got nothing. Which is ok. I have to get to my job at Arbys.
@Hyperion
The only way to defend one’s property is through the nation-state? What about contracting various PMCs? Even a miniarchist night-watchman state need not be a “nation”-state. (Nation-state here being defined as the triad of an imagined ethnicity, language, and geographic territory. e.g., ‘This is France, it is full of French people who speak French.”)
@westernsloper
Not much, to be honest.
HM, not sure how you differentiate what you’re describing from a a nation state. If I have an infantry, hired out or not, who are effectively defending our turf from… those other peoples, I think we are effectively a nation state. And in that case, I think we’d better be making sure those defenders are loyal enough. Maybe by making ourselves a nation state with laws which punish traitors?
Again, please point us to these historical or current examples of “non-nations” that provide such benefits at such low moral-cost
what do you think would happen to the US if we just opened it up and everyone who could get here was allowed in?
Pretty much what we had here a century ago, with people fretting about those damn Polacks and Jews, who would never really become true Americans.
A state is a polity, i.e., a community of individuals under the jurisdiction of a single government. A nation-state identifies this polity with a certain culture or ethnic group. What the difference I’m describing would be is that one’s choice to be associated with a polity would be voluntary and non-coercive. Inherent in that freedom of association would be freedom of movement. That is, I can’t exercise my freedom to not associate with someone if I can leave his or her presence.
@Gilmore
Zomia.
I don’t agree OMWC, it’s really not the same. All those years ago, immigration was a very harsh journey, undergone by rugged and determined individuals who were willing to undergo extremely dangerous journeys to accomplish their dreams through hard work. If you opened the borders like that today we would be swarmed by 10s or 100s of millions of 3rd world peasants expecting lavish benefits on arrival and who would vote for more as soon as they could. This is not their own fault. It’s the fault of Democrat scum who care nothing about anything except their own power gained through shameless pandering.
@Hyperion
Tammany Hall was around even before Ellis Island.
Besides that, your numbers don’t add up. It still is expensive to get here. Currently, we get about 1 million legal immigrants a year. More than half of that number are change of status (i.e., they’re already here on fiance or work visas). It is estimated that we get about 1.5 million illegal immigrants per year. Assuming we legalize all immigration, those illegals, plus let’s say .5 million who wouldn’t have made the trip before, would equal out to 3 million a year. It’s just not realistic to claim that all of Mexico is going to uproot itself and move here.
you have a vacation home there?
@Gilmore
The wife’s homestead is located in what most identify as Zomia, but I’m not living with my 11 siblings-in-law. The vacation home is 10 to 15 years out in the master plan.
I plan on raising chickens.
Why wait? you can always have a drug-smuggling franchise until you’ve raised the funds for the chicken farm. It seems a terrible trade-off to suffer the indignities of the nation-state simply to make enough money for chicken-start-up-funds.
Pretty much what we had here a century ago, with people fretting about those damn Polacks and Jews, who would never really become true Americans.
Maybe. Who knows now. I think being American has became a dirty word. One has to be hyphenated these days with some grievance. Which is fine. Maybe it has always been that way. At least we have all agreed no Irish.
This sounds flippant in the way that ‘Somalia’ is flippantly leveled at libertarians for criticizing aspects of the quasi-republican status quo. There are elements that this nation-state has which are inessential parts of the nation-state, and the nation-state is inessential to these elements, and yet it’s the case that these happen to be parts of this nation-state, and not some non-nation-state. Elements like, say, higher-learning infrastructure, of which HM is part. Maybe he wants to indulge in those elements for now, and something else later.
“@Hyperion
Tammany Hall was around even before Ellis Island.
Besides that, your numbers don’t add up. It still is expensive to get here. Currently, we get about 1 million legal immigrants a year. More than half of that number are change of status (i.e., they’re already here on fiance or work visas). It is estimated that we get about 1.5 million illegal immigrants per year. Assuming we legalize all immigration, those illegals, plus let’s say .5 million who wouldn’t have made the trip before, would equal out to 3 million a year. It’s just not realistic to claim that all of Mexico is going to uproot itself and move here.”
No, it would be an unprecedented event. If we were to just throw open the borders right now, with the current instant benefits on arrival, there would be a human line from the Panama Canal to the border that could be seen from space for years. Entire Central American countries would be emptied of most of their population in short order. It would only stop when the USA runs out of other people’s money, which would take maybe 5 years. It would effectively be the end of the USA as we have known it all our lives.
Well, the difference i suppose is that libertarians say, “perhaps we should *mildly reduce* the level of the state into our affairs”…
….and the response is that ‘anything less than the status-quo is toying with dangerous anarchy’ (aka = somalia).
whereas HM seems to be saying that border controls at all are a de-facto, unacceptable immorality;
iow, it wouldn’t matter if we had “better” border policy…. (*by which one could mean either, ‘less immigration’, or ‘more’, albeit legal, or any range of policies in between)…. that the mere existence of borders is an unacceptable condition for a person of principle.
so, its not actually me answering with a “reduction-to-absurdity” in response to a gentle-policy-change recommendation.
Its him insisting that the currently-existing alternatives (*a remote intra-border area rife with drug-traffic) are a legitimately valid trade-off for a person seeking a less-morally-compromised life.
and i’m sure every resident of Zomia lives their life according to similar principles, else why would they be there?
@OMWC
At what point in the past century, or even this century up until the 1990s, did the advocates of immigration argue that not-assimilation was a virtue and that constantly trying to undermine American society overall was a good idea?
The difference between then and now is not a product of immigrants, but of the native culture. And you have found to be lacking.
That is not a tu quoque fallacy. Stop being dumb, HM.
A state is a polity, i.e., a community of individuals under the jurisdiction of a single government. A nation-state identifies this polity with a certain culture or ethnic group.
And, therein, I think you make the best possible case for the nation state. Polities exist within the context of culture. And the range of acceptable coercive actions that are acceptable from culture to culture does vary widely. Some cultures will see banning alcohol as obvious while others will view it as abhorrent. Some will see protecting women’s rights as essential. Others will see it as madness. Limiting a polity to one culture, with shared values, taboos and social mores will tend to limit the downside of being on the losing side of the decision on what coercive acts the government is allowed.
It would undoubtedly be better if all governments restricted themselves to enforcing the NAP, in which case there’d be no particular need to worry about nation states versus city states versus one world. But, they don’t. And in that context, defining states beyond the level of a culture will likely be suboptimal.
Nation-state here being defined as the triad of an imagined ethnicity, language, and geographic territory. e.g., ‘This is France, it is full of French people who speak French
But, why would I want to move to France if I didn’t want to be French? It always struck me that the stereotypical loudmouthed American trying to overcome the language barrier with volume, saying “DOESN’T ANYBODY HERE SPEAK ENGLISH?!” is something we’d be better off avoiding in immigration policy.
A couple of the usual arguments are trotted out.
1. OMG, welfare! That’s an argument against welfare, not against immigration. And I’d agree with that, which is why I’m always careful to distinguish “allowing people in” from “bringing people in,” a distinction oft elided.
2. OMG, there people who oppose assimilation! Oppose it all you want, that’s what has always happened here and continues apace. I’ve lived in predominantly immigrant communities over the past four decades (in CA, it was Mexicans, in Texas, it was southeast Asians, here in IL, it’s Mexicans, with a smattering of Central Americans), and the pattern looks exactly the same- first generation never completely fits in, second generation does, third generation has completely forgotten the origin language and culture.
At least no-one made the dumb argument that America = Europe. Thank you all for that.
Geez, I’m not in a time or place where I can come up with either a concise, incisive quip or some long thought-piece on that. I will just say I think it’s the best arrangement we’ve come up with to-date.
That’s fair, but I wouldn’t call that feelings of “fondness”.
Because totalitarians, commies, and idiots outnumber us by a significant margin?
“”why?”””
Point to the currently-available alternatives, and i’ll be happy to provide a point-by-point analysis of the advantages,
As I mentioned to Rhywun, that’s a different question. Stating that the nation-state is the best of all necessary evils is different than claiming to have a certain “fondness” for the concept.
What is Superman’s origin story in your universe?
“Oh hey, we should take fictional characters as a reason for our position.”
-Every hack ever.
What is Superman’s origin story in your universe?
And look what we got out of that. Another hack liberal journalist meddling in people’s private affairs and acting like a government stooge.
Yep. Culture war is all about feelz. That’s what the alt-right is more than anything else (IMO). Yes, there is a fringe, however as far as I can tell, alt-right is just fighting the left using their own playbook. That’s why the DemOp-Media-Politico complex is so threatened by them.
That’s a rather charitable view, imo.
Alt-right is Jared Taylor, Richard Spencer, Vox Day, etc., i.e. actual racists that meet up with each other on Daily Stormer. Q is talking about the nu-Right (or what used to be called Alt-Lite), something that I very much support.
If you want to talk about the ‘alt-right’ as identified by the left, it would include everyone here.
Does Vox Day really belong in that same group with Jared Taylor and Richard Spencer?
Serious question. I’m not super familiar with him and a casual search is… well, looking a little smeary.
I had never heard of Richard Spencer until Charlottesville. And I’m a constant very prolific researcher of everything worth finding in the intertoobverse.
I find Vox an interesting figure. I don’t think he belongs in with Spencer or Taylor.
From reading him semi-regularly, and enjoying the stuff his publishing house puts out, I think that some of the smearing of Vox as a racist has to do with him being descriptive and not prescriptive. I also think people sometimes confuse when he is being descriptive versus being prescriptive. For example, when he asserts that based on his understanding of history and human behavior that conflict is inevitable if you put too many diverse groups in too close a geographic location. He observes that the modern US and Europe is at or reaching the point where there are too many tribal groups in too close a proximity and that the result is going to be expulsion, repression, or genocide. Seeing the first as the lesser of three evils, that’s the one he thinks is the least bad of three bad choices. I don’t think racist is the right word for him. I think he has called himself a race realist or something similar. And I know he’s been pretty derisive of the actual Nazi crowd like Richard Spencer, referring to them as the Alt-Retards.
He’s also kind of a bombastic dick on the internet.
Umm…”burn de coal, pay de toll” is pretty damn prescriptive in my book.
I’m such an innocent I’ve never heard of either of these.
The latter term was applied to me tangentially by some rando asshole on TOS back in the day.
You’re a white woman?!
Tangentially. Asshole was talkin’ ’bout my momma.
I think despite the histrionics of the website you link to, that is a perfect example of confusing descriptive with prescriptive.
He isn’t saying that white women that date black men should be beaten or that it is good when it happens, which would be prescriptive. He is claiming it is a predictable consequence of that decision and that the media is attempting to hide that reality because it doesn’t fit the narrative. Which would be descriptive.
I will not defend his claim as I haven’t the foggiest whether the premise it rests on is true My gut assumption is that it is not and that the odds of domestic violence are probably about the same as for white and black men, esp. if the woman doesn’t start shit she isn’t capable of finishing, but it does make a distinction I think is important.
When you reason from a specific case to generalities, you’re going from descriptive to prescriptive…that is assuming one is rational.
I see what you did there
The first time I ever read the term “alt-right” was in reference to Mencius Moldbug. So, like, “tech-savvy misanthropic nouveaux-monarchiens.” More ‘Top Men’ proselytizing. It’s been severely dumbed-down (even though I think the movement is based on idiotic premises anyway).
Alt-right wasn’t the correct term, it didn’t evoke enough revulsion and hate. Therefore, we’re all Nazis now.
The thing with culture wars with the left is human nature and the left’s never ending attempt to re-engineer human nature. People are still tribe like to a large extent. There is 10s of thousands of years of evolution behind this behavior and it doesn’t change overnight. You can easily see this in any company party you have even been to. You can put everyone together in a large group and as soon as the bullshit talk by the leader is over, everyone will almost instantly split into little cliques. People naturally congregate towards those they are familiar with. It’s the real problem with forced multiculturalism. That’s something that if it’s going to happen, it has to naturally evolve over long periods of time. When you force it, you make people uncomfortable and suspicious. I just wish that everyone would interbreed as quickly as possible and make it so difficult to identify race that politicians lose any advantage of race baiting and STFU already.
And although my wife is past breeding stage now, if there are any young fertile women who want to get some whitey in them, I am willing to do my part to save humanity. Just keep those brats away from me.
Does your wife know about your policy?
Of course I plan on asking her permission.
If she forces you to run the gauntlet, so to speak, in order to earn her permission, would you find that strength of will and exertion of authority sexy?
I’m writing a porno script.
“You’re black on one side and white on the other.”
“I am black on the right side.”
“I fail to see the significant difference.”
“Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side.”
That is my cat’s relationship with his neighbors.
There has been some real-world testing done on this, and the differences would have be be less (apparently much, much less) than the Hutus and the Tutsis, or sneetches with and without stars on their bellies. It would have to be South Park goobacks-level… and we all know how that episode ended.
Interbreeding is fun and good for us. We all know what inbreeding does *see British Royal Family*
Doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t try, though.
George Orr tried this already – it turns out gray people are boring.
Bullshit. They have never had a physically difficult job and could not even handle doing the laundry. Pussys!
So very much this. Anecdotally, I am a stay-at-home dad. My wife is a tax leech (public school teacher in NYC) and is required to work during the day so I have a full-time overnight job and a part-time evening job (and second full-time job during the summer… NYC is bloody expensive). Yet, somehow, I still manage to get all my chorin’ done: keeping a clean house, doing the laundry, mowing the yard, routine vehicle/house maintenance, cooking the majority of our family meals, etcetera. Bearing in mind that I am a very, very lazy man, I feel contempt for the fellow in the article; he should go to the box and feel shame.