Monday Afternoon Links

According to the CDC website, the most recent published estimate of lifetime HIV treatment costs was $367,134. That’s just one of many things to keep in mind as Jerry Brown signs a bill downgrading the punishment for knowingly exposing someone to HIV in California to a misdemeanor. WTF? I’m all for decriminalizing behavior that doesn’t have a victim. This is NOT one of those cases.

 

As people struggle to assign a motive to the Las Vegas shooter, this seems to be a very promising lead. He does, in fact, seem to be evil and crazy. FTA:

The woman, who spoke anonymously, said she would spend hours drinking and gambling in Sin City with Paddock, who she described as ‘paranoid’ and ‘obsessive’.

If he hit a winning streak, he would take her back to his room for ‘really aggressive and violent sex’ including living out rape fantasies, she said.

 

Spot the bullshit: Las Vegas Killer Had Better Rifles Than the U.S. Military. How many falsehoods can you find? I only got halfway through, and I’m already in double digits. I’ll get the ball rolling: “Paddock also outfitted his weapons with some of the best optics available to the public.” Hey, there, goalposts!!! Get back here!!! Available to the public???? Lemme run that through my lying liar translator: The military has much better optics.  Let’s see how many more of these we can find. I’m betting at least 20.

 

All of the news emerging about Harvey Weinstein is horrifying and disgusting, except for this little gem…  Judi Dench has a Harvey Weinstein tattoo on her ass.

 

 

 

Comments

713 responses to “Monday Afternoon Links”

    1. Hyperion

      Hey, he could have been on marijuana. What if he shot up like 10 pots? That stuff even turns old ladies into the Hulk.

    2. 0x90

      “Don’t tase me, son!”

      1. *opera applause*

  1. Vhyrus

    Lets see… owned guns, anti social, liked rough sex, interested in hookers…….

    Nope, not at all like anyone I know. Excuse me.

    *readies himself for ritual seppuku*

    1. bacon-magic

      Should we just mass suicide?

      1. Chipping Pioneer

        I’ll set out the chocolate pudding cups.

  2. R C Dean

    How many falsehoods can you find?

    Well, the headline seems to be a lie. Most of the features that are called out follow a pattern in this article. “Paddock had X. The military also uses X!” The only exception seems to be free-floating barrels, which of course the military also uses, just not in “base” issue rifles.

    Of course, the main feature Paddock lacked was true full auto. Which he tried to work around, and the workaround caused several of his rifles to jam.

    1. tarran

      Reading the Judi Dench article. It appears the tattoo isn’t actually a tattoo:

      “I got my makeup lady to actually write Harvey’s name. Then I brought it up at lunch and said: ‘You know, I do have it on my bum,’ and then I actually got up and showed him. I’ve never seen a man more embarrassed and I’ve never let him forget it. Perhaps I should have it done and really shock him.”

      Just a very silly prank.

      1. John Titor

        I still think my point stands, dammit.

    2. Drake

      He keeps saying “free-floating” the way At Gore would say “lock-box”. It makes a rifle slightly more accurate – then he put bump stocks on them to make them way less accurate.

      This guy went and found them the only circumstance where a bump stock actually helped a shooter in the real world .

  3. Mythical Libertarian Woman

    So I went to Sonoma State and worked in Santa Rosa for a couple years after graduating. EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE. 99% sure my cousin’s house in Kenwood is gone, which I’m really upset about because she has my great-grandma’s photo albums and I wanted to scan the photos for the family but she’s been dawdling getting them to me. There’s a chance they’re still in her storage unit in Moraga and I’m really, really hoping that’s the case.

    1. KSuellington

      I hope so. Waking up this morning in the City there was more smoke and ash than I had ever seen.

  4. Lachowsky

    “Inside a free-floating barrel, bullets travel without interference from micro-vibrations. Conversely, a bullet fired from a fixed barrel can be thrown off its intended trajectory by these external vibrations. The difference can be as much as 50 percent more accurate.”

    This is relevant information because in order to rapid fire into a crowd of 20000 people, bullets fired out of a rifle without a free floated barrel would have been so inaccurate that the shooter wouldn’t have been able to hit anyone at all.

    1. Zunalter

      I can’t imagine there was much actual aiming, especially with a bump stock jostling things around.

  5. Q Continuum

    “I’m all for decriminalizing behavior that doesn’t have a victim”

    The way I see this, there most definitely is a victim in that the “receiver” does not know he/she is being exposed. I don’t understand the logic behind this.

    1. DOOMco

      What was it before? A trial? The only thing I can think of is if the person was told, and didn’t care. if you withhold that information, it makes no sense to claim there’s no victim.

    2. Playa Manhattan

      “This is NOT one of those cases”.

    3. Playa Manhattan

      There IS a victim, and knowingly giving someone HIV is much worse than your run of the mill felonious assault.

      1. Florida Man

        I, for one can’t understand why Playa wants to decriminalize giving people AIDS.

      2. jesse.in.mb

        Exposing someone and giving someone HIV are different. There was a case recently where a porn star hooked up with an underage guy (who had repeatedly misrepresented his age to quite a few guys), the pornstar was HIV positive but consistent with his treatment regimen and they didn’t use a rubber. He was (rightly) under the assumption that transmission was impossible or extremely improbable under those conditions, but the prosecutor used knowing exposure as an add-on just because they could.

        A recent CDC statement on the topic:

        “Across three different studies, including thousands of couples and many thousand acts of sex without a condom or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP),” the statement continues, “no HIV transmissions to an HIV-negative partner were observed when the HIV-positive person was virally suppressed. This means that people who take ART daily as prescribed and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.”

        1. Lackadaisical

          I hadn’t considered something like this, but given that the chances of contracting HIV is then 0, are they really knowingly exposing them to the virus?

          Sounds like an edge case and something a jury/judge should throw out.

          1. jesse.in.mb

            Well the CDC literally just came on board with this within the last three months, and his case was a year or two ago, but part of the problem is that how HIV Is handled by law and policy hasn’t really kept up with changing patterns of treatment and management. On top of that when you look at Hyperion’s comment below, you wonder if even someone bright and well informed can be 35 years out of date in their understanding of HIV transmission, what hope is there of a rando jury not being convinced by an overweening prosecutor that “effectively no risk” isn’t zero risk and blah blah blah.

          2. Lackadaisical

            Right, maybe the law should be rewritten, given this new (relatively, as I assume the CDC didn’t jump on board when the first study came out suggesting this) knowledge to exclude such cases.

          3. Hyperion

            I’m not at all ignorant of what you’re saying, Jesse. I was merely saying that when someone has a contagious disease and they knowingly go donating blood without informing anyone of it, that to me seems malicious. It’s very rare, but it does happen.

            HIV from blood transfusion

            And no matter how good testing is, humans make mistakes. At hospitals, they make some doozies sometimes. My comment also had nothing to do with any policy about profiling gay men who want to donate blood, which I of course think would be bad policy.

          4. jesse.in.mb

            The only recorded case of HIV transmission from a blood transfusion in the last eight years

            The CDC estimates 14.6 MILLION donations per year. That case is the last recorded time that someone got HIV from a blood transfusion and the last time before that was 2002.

            Back of the napkin math: 15 years * 14600000 = 218999999 safe transfusions to 1 tainted one. That’s a spectacular track record.

          5. jesse.in.mb

            Also a bit of context:

            During the proximate period of FY2008, there were 54 reported transfusion related and potentially transfusion related fatalities, with subsequent reports of 66 in FY2009, 64 in FY2010, and 58 in FY2011.

            Worrying about HIV in the blood supply is like walking down the middle of the street and opining about how dangerous flying is. TRALI, the leading cause of blood transfusion death where your lungs fail sounds AWFUL as a side note.

          6. Hyperion

            Flying is dangerous, if there’s a mishap, your chance of living through it is pretty much zero.

  6. Juvenile Bluster

    Today’s fun fact about “OMG GLOBAL WARMING WORST HURRICANE SEASON EVER”

    This season has been hyperactive in the Atlantic, and will probably end up as one of the top 5 seasons ever in terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy, or ACE (currently 220% of normal). But the rest of the world has been far below normal. By ACE, this season has only been 85% of normal in the Eastern Pacific and 50% of normal in the Western Pacific. Total, worldwide ACE this tropical season has been 95% of normal.

    It’s almost like weather happens all over the world and not just in the western hemisphere. Or is this one of those things that’s simultaneously “weather isn’t climate” and “this weather proves climate change”.

    1. Hyperion

      We just got spoiled while the light bringer was in office and the seas were calm like he had commanded. It’s all our fault for not making him emperor for life.

      1. SimonD

        By that logic, the God/Emperor is so petty and vengeful that He cursed us with a plague of hurricanes for not throwing out our entire legal history and making him emperor for life.

        Obviously, we should have had a more…permanent…solution.

        (PS: This is just a rhetorical statement based on an obviously impossible scenario, so you can fuck off, Preet)

    2. Zunalter

      Also, top 5 means we have been here before, regardless.

  7. Q Continuum

    Who here smoke Menthols and why is that so rare? I feel like I’m the only one.

    1. bacon-magic

      Vape bro. You can do eeet.

    2. John Titor

      They banned them up here this year.

    3. Florida Man

      BLack people smoke menthol and there are no black libertarians. You’re welcome.

    4. SugarFree

      I did, back when I did. Mostly because no one bummed them off of me.

      1. DOOMco

        your avatar is very fitting in this comment. it made me laugh.

        1. SugarFree

          That was just at first, later it was just what I liked. They didn’t leave as much of “an ashtray shit in my mouth” taste the next morning.

    5. Mad Scientist

      Heroic Mullato smokes half menthols.

      1. Lachowsky

        Camel crush were designed for mullatos.

    6. I didn’t know you were black.

      1. jesse.in.mb

        He could be a highschool girl.

        1. Q Continuum

          Don’t doxx me Jesse! Soon I’ll have all these pervs trying to DM me and asking for titty pics!

          1. bacon-magic

            2.7.33

        2. Lachowsky

          Bollucks. There are no high school girls on the internet. If you think you are talking to a high school girl, you need to start looking around for the dateline news vans.

      2. Gilmore

        i really should look up sometimes

    7. Gilmore

      “Where Q Continuum Reveals He is Actually Black”

      1. Hyperion

        He sure acts like a white dude, privilege and all. And white girl titties.

    8. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I had one once. It was after two bottles of red wine and I bummed it off a friend. I turned about five different shades of green.

      1. Hyperion

        Maybe we should all be buying up all the Napa valley wine we can get.

    9. 0x90

      Kools. Other smokes taste like dirt.

      Also, SF’s reason. A bum who hasn’t had a smoke in three days will turn down a Kool.

    10. Somalian Road Corporation

      I used to occasionally smoke Nat Sherman Hint of Mints as a change of pace from Black and Golds, but the federal government top men and their friends in Big Tobacco decided that real mint was doubleplusungood and only disgusting fake mint was legal.

      Quit almost a decade ago, though.

    11. Trigger Hippie

      I smoked Newpimps back in my early twenties/raver days. I just liked the taste while I was rolling for some reason.

      I tried smoking them regularly for about two weeks before I started hacking up black shit in the morning, then kind of quit altogether(unless really drunk) for a few years.

  8. bacon-magic

    I escaped the RAPECAGE™! I had fun and hope to eat and drink you out of stock again.

    1. Brett L

      Good think you only ACT like an 11 year old, eh?

      1. bacon-magic

        No kidding…it’s not an act. I am that immature. I’m a bunch of kids stuffed in a big ol’ gunny sack.

        1. Hyperion

          Well, you’re here on this site, so as much was assumed.

  9. Lachowsky

    They are the equivalent of the U.S. military’s standard service rifle, the M-16

    I’m pretty sure the m4 is the standard service rifle in the U.S. military.

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      I think they both are, IIRC (too lazy to look it up right now) but that the Army and Marines have switched exclusively to the M4.

      1. Drake

        Marines have not got me exclusive. The M16A4 is still the standard service rifle.

    2. Playa Manhattan

      That, and the AR is NOT the equivalent of either.

      I’ll take a 2 for 1 on that lie.

      1. dbleagle

        One of the few good things that GEN McCrystal was doing in Afghanistan was starting to transition infantry units back to the M-16 from the M4 since the average engagement distances were longer than in Iraq. He was also giving unit marksmen M-14’s. After he was relieved those efforts largely halted.

        I tried reading that article Playa, I really did, but I could feel my anger rising and my IQ draining away so I got the hell out of there.

        1. Number.6

          They also weren’t ‘normal’ M-14s.

          The re-issues were often the rebuilds as the M14-EBR, one of which I’d love to add to my small collection.

        2. Playa Manhattan

          I think the most angering part was that it was written by somebody who should allegedly know better.

          1. R C Dean

            Unless something has changed, they don’t hire Marines for their brains.

  10. John Titor

    All of the news emerging about Harvey Weinstein is horrifying and disgusting, except for this little gem… Judi Dench has a Harvey Weinstein tattoo on her ass.

    The evidence that the classical world was right about the status of actors continues to mount.

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      Agreed: they’re disgusting fakirs, a couple of rungs below those who work with garbage and leather tanners in my opinion.

    2. Gadfly

      The evidence that the classical world was right about the status of actors continues to mount.

      You mean that they were held in low esteem, along with prostitutes? It make sense when you think about it, as the most skilled people in both professions tend to be very good liars. Which makes their services more valuable, but their opinions less so.

      1. Drake

        Non-productive scum who play dress up and generally find creative ways to avoid any sort of real work.

  11. Microaggressor

    One of the best FEE pieces I’ve read.
    No, I Won’t Disavow My “Racist” Friend

    1. John Titor

      If anything, the number of people who have been talked out of various white nationalist causes (see all those guys online with their ‘I was a white nationalist’ books or that black guy that collects former KKK robes) shows that the number one way to actually combat it is to actually engage these people. Isolating them just puts them in a hugbox where their views are constantly reinforced.

      It’s the most moronic part of the ‘punch a Nazi’ rhetoric. Ignoring the violent insanity of the whole thing, it’s been overwhelmingly shown that talking to white nationalists is a far superior way of actually addressing the problem.

      Unless, of course, it’s less about actually dealing with white nationalism and more your own petty sense of having some degree of power.

      1. 0x90

        The latter. This “discussion” is like a debate between flat-earthers and hollow-earthers.

    2. Gilmore

      Tucker had a little hissy fit the other day about people joking around w/ helicopter memes. “Not cool and unlibertarian!” he insists.

      https://twitter.com/jeffreyatucker/status/917103990789287941

      I have no pony in that discussion, but my thought was, “being a humorless moral-scold is sort of ‘the other guys’ thing”

      1. John Titor

        No, it’s about discouraging so-called libertarians from cheering things like political violence and genocide

        Ok Tucker, I’ll bite: how the fuck is helicopter memes related to genocide? Leftists are a race or ethnicity now?

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          In general usage, many people use the term “genocide” to include “democide”. I don’t think it’s such a great sin.

          1. John Titor

            In the age of people whining about ‘white genocide’ because race mixing I’d say misuse of the term is a pretty great sin.

          2. Heroic Mulatto

            But is it a misuse? Yes, in its original coinage, it specifically meant the mass killing of an ethnic group, but the meaning of it has expanded to include democide and politicide. For example, people regularly refer to the “Cambodian genocide”; whereas, by strict definition, only a small group of those killed by the Khmer Rouge were targeted due their ethnicity or religious affiliation.

          3. John Titor

            By its very definition, yes, it is a misuse. And considering the politically charged nature of its use as a term it’s fundamentally dishonest to use it in that context. Throwing around the term ‘genocide’ broadly is just as moronic as throwing around the term ‘Nazi’ broadly. All does is degrade the actual discussion.

          4. Heroic Mulatto

            Of course, this is all assuming Tucker was only referring to the helicopter rides meme and not the closely-related Pepe/Hoppe/Feels Good Man/Trump as Nazi officer operating the gas chambers meme.

          5. Hyperion

            Meh. Why does no one think of the Neanderthals?

          6. Heroic Mulatto

            Because (((Denisovians))).

          7. Hyperion

            Why are you othering the Floresiensis, HM?

      2. wdalasio

        You know what? Fuck Jeffrey Tucker. People joke around about helicopter memes because they’re frustrated by the fact that the pieces of shit Jeffrey Tucker wants libertarians to cozy up to are okay with initiating political violence while the assholes who ostensibly speak for libertarianism do their damnedest to make libertarianism not about liberty. People who use the memes are mostly joking.

        And honestly, who here doesn’t think Tucker wouldn’t be the first in line to announce his boycott of Shaffer’s friend’s restaurant?

        1. John Titor

          the pieces of shit Jeffrey Tucker wants libertarians to cozy up to are okay with initiating political violence while the assholes who ostensibly speak for libertarianism do their damnedest to make libertarianism not about liberty.

          Tucker’s not actually that bad in comparison to say, Reason, from what I’ve seen. I don’t think he was anywhere near as transparent as they were when they declared that we suddenly had to ally with the Left in the Reign of Drumpf. He does view right-wing populism and collectivism as a legitimate problem for libertarianism, which is why he’s discussing it pretty often now. But he’s not acting like some garbage hack like ENB and Gillespie and trying to unperson libertarians due to them being ‘alt-right’ or Nazis or whatever, in fact he’s specifically been arguing against guilt-by-association and disassociating racists.

        2. tarran

          Jeffrey Tucker doesn’t want libertarians to cozy to the nutty left. In fact, he says liberalism cozying with the left is why “liberal” now means raging socialist, and that the dominant political movements are all statist.

          Seriously.

          He wants to stop cozying to the nationalist/statist right because he says its going to end up just like cozying with the left did.

          1. Heroic Mulatto

            Stop it. You’re making the nationalists and statists who think they’re libertarians feel bad.

          2. Vhyrus

            *walks by whistling nonchalantly*

          3. John Titor

            Please, HM, the term is ‘cultural libertarians’. By which they mean ‘shut down Shakespeare plays that make fun of Dear Leader, even when they don’t’.

          4. wdalasio

            What if we just want to make fun of badly done Shakespeare plays that botch the implications of the actual play?

          5. John Titor

            Then don’t stand up in the middle of it and scream like a jackass?

            But I have a hard time believing Jack Posobiec has read Shakespeare out of high school anyway.

          6. wdalasio

            Honestly, I had to look up who Jack Posobiec even was. It doesn’t sound like he even claims to be a libertarian. And mock him to your heart’s content. He sounds like an idiot.

          7. John Titor

            Posobiec’s one of those guys who claims to be a ‘cultural libertarian’ in the vein of Breitbart’s concept of the term a couple years ago. When in reality a lot of the time ‘cultural libertarian’ just translates to ‘I don’t like the left’.

          8. Tundra

            I don’t get it.

          9. wdalasio

            Okay, I’ll take the defense of Tucker. His name just always seem to come up when all the rot going on at TOS and Cato is on display. And getting his panties in a wad over helicopter jokes strikes me as ridiculous. Maybe I haven’t given the guy a fair enough hearing.

            That said, it strikes me that some of this paranoia over the nationalist statist right somehow infiltrating libertarianism is a little overblown. Libertarians don’t hate on cue. That’s one of the things I really prize about libertarianism. And that means when people tell us we should hate people because they’re nationalist or alt right, we’re going to naturally ask why we should hate them.

            And, no, laughing about throwing communists out of helicopters isn’t a sign libertarians are about to start advocating political violence. That goes against what libertarianism is about. It still doesn’t mean libertarians are somehow exempt from the very natural human urge to want to see bad things happen to evil people.

      3. antisthenes

        So, now they’re saying that the guy shot the casino security guy before he starting shooting the crowd? So… if there wasn’t someone shooting up the crowd, what was the security guard doing up there, anyway?

        1. dbleagle

          The paper says he was checking a report of a door left ajar.

          http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-vegas-shooting-20171009-story.html

          The paper says the Fuckstick fired 200 rounds through the door- wounding the security guard- six minutes before he opened fire at the concert.

          The wounded guard was still there when the police arrived.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    If he hit a winning streak, he would take her back to his room for ‘really aggressive and violent sex’ including living out rape fantasies, she said.

    “Hey, ten bucks is ten bucks.”

    1. Jefe Hayek

      From the quoted NYT piece:

      That may have made sense in the 1770s, when breech-loading flintlock muskets were the primary weapons tyrants used

      They don’t know shit and expect people to believe them when they say they won’t unintentionally (or intentionally behind a veil of purposeful idiocy) ban entire classes of guns they say they won’t

    2. John Titor

      Hmmm, how long before they pretend the Taliban/the Afghanistan Quasi-war is exactly the same as gun owning Americans/a civil war?

      Ah paragraph six. So at least I know he’s militarily illiterate.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    “Paddock also outfitted his weapons with some of the best optics available to the public.”

    It’s too bad he wasn’t wearing night vision goggles.

  14. Q Continuum
    1. ChipsnSalsa

      Not surprising, there’s only two or three real people here commenting.

      1. Zunalter

        You would say that, wouldn’t you…Tulpa.

    2. TK

      One of those 22 million comments is from me, saying no to net neutrality in a 4 paragraph comment. I went through a few pages of the comments, most were those canned-responses that you get suggested to you by some email or news outlet. The ones where you just click 3 links and the full 20 paragraph comment goes to the FCC page.

      “Please, your help is URGENTLY NEEDED save INTERNET FREEDOM threatened by Trump! You don’t need to type anything, we will tell you what to say, just click the link below! Time is of the essence!”

    3. 0x90

      “How can you be against neutrality?”

      1. Mad Scientist

        “What makes a good man go neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?”

        1. 0x90

          “A man like Ringo, got a great, empty hole right through the middle of him. He can never inflict enough neutrality to ever fill it.”

    4. Somalian Road Corporation

      You know, I’ve basically read this headline more than few times before… screaming that 80-90% or whatever of all anti-net-neutrality comments were botted.

      Bots all the way down. Russian ones, I’m sure.

    5. SimonD

      Well, I know the front page of Firefox has been a ‘send a canned comment because Trump is giving the internet to oligarchs’ link for two weeks.

      Therefore, this doesn’t surprise me.

      1. DEG

        Change firefox to load a blank page.

        1. The first thing you should do is set the new tab and new window pages to about:blank. Why would anyone not banish the delay of having to load unrelated content before browsing?

      2. Rhywun

        Well, I know the front page of Firefox has been a ‘send a canned comment because Trump is giving the internet to oligarchs’ link for two weeks.

        Ugh really? Now that I think about it, I recall O’Reilly and like-minded “open-source” ideologues being all into that shit. Fuck the lot of ’em. It’s their “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.

  15. Lachowsky

    The 27-year-old woman said Paddock, 64, would often rant about conspiracy theories including how 9/11 was orchestrated by the US government.

    So, he was a truther.

    1. Playa Manhattan

      The truther is getting truthed. Ha ha.

    2. tarran

      So how do you discredit a truther?!?!? You commit a false flag atrocity and blame him for it!

      WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!!!

      1. Somalian Road Corporation

        I need to reread Robert Anton Wilson and up my drug regimen to get my mind limber enough to deal with that one.

    3. Hyperion

      Well, now it comes out that this guy actually talked about stuff with people? Shocking. Someone knows about what he was going to do because you can bet he talked or hinted about it for a long time before even planning it. It’s what people do.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    This season has been hyperactive in the Atlantic, and will probably end up as one of the top 5 seasons ever in terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy, or ACE (currently 220% of normal). But the rest of the world has been far below normal. By ACE, this season has only been 85% of normal in the Eastern Pacific and 50% of normal in the Western Pacific. Total, worldwide ACE this tropical season has been 95% of normal.

    So- Zero Sum Hurricane?

    Haha, just kidding.

  17. Hrm. Bought a projectile weapon, shot something, drank bourbon, baked a cake I celebrated Columbus Day in a suitable way.

    1. Florida Man

      But did you lift today, bro?

      1. Not yet, but that’s between 6 and 7pm on the schedule.

        1. Florida Man

          Nice.

    2. DOOMco

      Is trebuchet ownership regulated?
      Asking for a friend.

      1. Not that I am aware of.

      2. Q Continuum

        Flamethrowers aren’t. Check out the XM42.

      3. Lachowsky

        I’m going to wait until my son is few years older, but Little Lachowsky and I will absolutely be constructing a trebuchet in the future.

        1. DOOMco

          I built one in high school after the physics teacher challenged me to throw a tennis ball out to the lacrosse field.
          We also had a school project involving giant crossbows. we had a war in the soccer field hurling tennis balls at each other.
          Good times.

        2. Tundra

          I was out for a drive in the country the other day and noticed one in a field. A big one, too.

          A nice reminder that Minnesota is more than the Twin Cities.

          1. 0x90

            You prompted a search, which yielded this… pretty entertaining.

          2. Tundra

            So much awesome in one small column. Thanks!

            I want meat Hugo, though, which means there are more loonies out there. Thank G_d.

          3. R C Dean

            They must be gearing up for pumpkin hurling season.

          4. Tulip

            I went to ‘punkin chunkin’ one year when it was still in Delaware. Good times.

    3. I had to work.

    4. bacon-magic

      If you didn’t spread Old World diseases to the New World and vice versa you didn’t celebrate hard enough.

      1. I don’t want your diseases.

        1. bacon-magic

          Yes. You. Do.
          *helicopters bacon bits in front of UCS*

    5. Chipping Pioneer

      But was it a Nazi wedding cake?

      1. Somalian Road Corporation

        A Nazi marijuana wedding cake, baked while held at gunpoint by Gary Johnson.

        1. Close… but no weed.

    6. Tulip

      What kind of cake? I tried your beer bread. It turned out great. Thank you.

      1. Well… I’m still writing up the article, so it hasn’t gotten Glib editorial approval.

  18. Ken Shultz

    I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten a lot more attention in the national media.

    Mac n’ Cheetos is now available in your local supermarket.

    http://www.hellthyjunkfood.com/mac-n-cheetos/

    Yes, they’re large Cheetos (outter shell) and when you bite into them, it’s filled with fried macaroni. Then you take them and dip them into, of course, cheese sauce.

    Do you have any idea how long it will take them to find a new place to put more cheese in a Cheeto?

    1. Ken Shultz

      I wish they didn’t just sell them at Burger King. Other restaurants should get on board.

      . . . I’d like to try them with Chipotle.

      1. Playa Manhattan

        Of course you would.

        1. Ken Shultz

          It’s deep fried macaroni in a cheetos batter dipped in cheese.

          Chipotle has this new thing they call “Queso”. Cheetos and “queso” might go well together.

          It’s better than tortilla chips and salsa or guac. You’ve already got all that stuff in your burrito. That’s not a proper side dish.

          That’s like ordering a cheeseburger with a side of sliders.

          Eventually all fast food in America turns to deep fried stuff and cheese.

          You know why people like bacon?

          Because it goes well with deep fried stuff and cheese.

          1. bacon-magic

            You know why people like bacon?

            Yes I do.

          2. Q Continuum

            Because it’s magic?

          3. bacon-magic

            ^^^

          4. That’s like ordering a cheeseburger with a side of sliders.

            How do you know what I’m having for dinner?

          5. Gadfly

            I tried the Chipotle queso the other day, since I like chips and queso and had heard that Chipotle’s offering was “polarizing”, which intrigued me. I was not a fan: something about their choice of seasoning didn’t complement the cheese flavor.

          6. I’ve never had the Chipotle queso because I find Chipotle food to be a sin against God and man. Baja Fresh, my usual go-to, has queso that’s kind of mediocre, but Moe’s, which has crappy salsa, has absolutely magical queso. It’s like actual queso fundido. I think it’s made with asadero cheese.

  19. Derpetologist

    ***
    The Russian Orthodox Church glorified him as a patron saint of the Russian Navy in 2000. His relics are preserved in Sanaksar Monastery. He was also declared the patron saint of Russian nuclear-armed strategic bombers in 2005 by Patriarch Alexius II in the Cathedral of St. Theodore Ushakov.
    ***

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

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Anybody named Fyodor Fyodorovich has got to be a cool dude.

    2. 0x90

      “patron saint of Russian nuclear-armed strategic bombers”

      Thanks, that is the best thing I’ve heard in awhile.

    3. I’ll stick with St. Barbara of the Artillery Corps

      They are firing, we are falling, and the red skies rend and shiver us,
      Barbara, Barbara, we may not loose a breath—
      Be at the bursting doors of doom, and in the dark deliver us,
      Who loosen the last window on the sun of sudden death.

      From “Ballad of St Barbara by GKC. (http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/ballad-of-st-barbara/1/)

      1. Homple

        Barbara is also the patron saint of miners. German miners celebrate her feast day, December 4, in a big way with a lot of speeches, food and beer. At midnight, everybody gets a little porcelain cup full of schnaps to knock back, then sing the miners’ song.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwg8YM56Fw

        You get to keep the cup.

  20. dbleagle

    General purpose military has serviceable firearms designed to operate with not much love and a great deal of abuse. Special Operations has the really good stuff because they train enough to be able to get the performance intended and treat the weapons with the value they have. Fuckstick in Vegas had weapons and used them against a caged up population with a plunging “beaten zone”. By the nature of his firing patterns it was not aimed fire.

    In a way it was good that he was using 5.56mm. With some estimated distances: 400yds distance and 100yds up his plunging fire was around 500yds from barrel to point of impact. Even with energy conserved by falling, the ft/lbs of energy has fallen from 1263 at the barrel to 474 at point of impact. If he had been using 7.62 NATO (or .308 Winchester) his rounds would have had around 3000 ft/lbs at the barrel and around 1418 ft/lbs at point of impact. The carnage would have been much worse.

    The Founding Fathers in the text of the Constitution addressed the control of private navies and they had just beaten the World’s most capable military with private artillery batteries, militia and a handful of “regular” units. The militia were using the best rifles available in the world versus Brown Bess smooth bores. Madison knew exactly what he was saying in the 2A. I do wish he he been more succinct: “The ability of all citizens to arm themselves with whatever firearms and weapons they choose shall not be infringed.” Not that clear language would be an obstacle to those who wish to disarm others.

    1. Q Continuum

      I think 7.62 would have stymied his desire to use bump stocks and pseudo-auto fire. 5.56 is hard enough to control with a bump stock, 7.62 you’d be spraying all over the place.

      1. Number.6

        At least one of the photos I saw of the room included a bipod.

        A 30-caliber semi auto with a bipod is quite manageable. Fortunately, that was not his choice.

      2. Drake

        NATO 7.62 would left more dead and fewer wounded as he would less capacity and as you said, it’s not fun out of a rifle after a while.

        1. tacticalpillow

          Put a brake on it, you can shoot it all day.

          That crowd is very lucky the asshole didn’t choose to aim 30 cal projectiles and instead fired haphazardly with 22 cal projectiles.

      3. Vhyrus

        I know Im waaaay late but he did use a 7.62, not with a bump stock. They found at least 1 at the scene.

    2. Lackadaisical

      FYI, should be ft*lbs, not ft/lbs for energy.

  21. Ken Shultz

    In other fast food related news, some of you may remember me pointing out that McDonalds was bringing back Szechuan sauce because of the huge response from the mention of it on Rick and Morty–for one day only, October 7.

    It was a disaster for McDonalds.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41543636

    At some stores, fans camped out over night to be first in line to get Szechuan sauce, but many stores were only sent seven portions each. When the people who came looking for sauce found out there was no more room in the inn, things got ugly. It ended in tears.

    From the link, you can see angry Rick and Morty fans chanting, “We want sauce!”. The police had to get involved in some locations.

    There’s now talk of organizing a national boycott of McDonalds.

    Rick and Morty fans are not to be trifled with, and now they’re being pulled into Evil Morty’s orbit. Do you know what happens then?

    1. Q Continuum

      You know who else wanted to boycott McDonald’s?

      1. PBRstreetgang

        The McDonald brothers?
        (I watched “The Founder” over the weekend. Kroc comes off as an ass. Keaton did a good job portraying it.)

    2. Trolleric the Goth

      Rick and Morty fans are the new bronies.

      actually probably the same bronies who realized it was retarded and glommed onto a new thing to find meaning

      1. Ken Shultz

        Rick and Morty has a few episodes that if . . .

        If I were teaching a survey of philosophy class, I’d start the existentialism introduction with a viewing of the Meseeks episode.

        I don’t know that “No Exit” or Camus’ early work resonate for average people today like they used to, but the Meeseeks hit it out of the park in a way people can relate to.

        There’s one writer there, and the episodes he writes aren’t just nerd-awesome. They’re awesome awesome.

      2. Jefe Hayek

        The couple of episodes I watched were very funny and revolved around interesting ideas. I don’t think I saw anything in those episodes or what I’ve read of subsequent ones that would make me think it is this other wordly intelligent that only super genius can comprehend.

        Most of my friends are big R&M fans and they talk about it like it’s Aquinas or Descartes. I jus mus b a regalar ol dumdum

        1. Trolleric the Goth

          To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Rick’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick’s existential catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. ?

          And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid

          which is why things like this spread like wildfire

          1. Mad Scientist

            Please tell me that’s a joke (which is going over my head).

          2. Q Continuum

            Copypasta.

          3. Vhyrus

            The short answer is yes. The long answer is maybe.

          4. Trolleric the Goth

            yeah, it’s transcending satire slightly

          5. Trolleric the Goth

            it’s called a “copypasta”

            here’s another example of the rick and morty fans meme
            meme

          6. xenophon

            I assume it’s something Heroic Mulatto wrote.

          7. I once saw Nothing Personnel Kid open for Hüsker Dü. They sucked.

    3. Ken Shultz

      Angry crowd chants “We want sauce” as police force them back. 1000+ people camped out to get #szechuansauce but McDonalds had 70 sauces….

      It’s like a Rick and Morty episode come to life.

      Seriously.

      Truth is stranger than fiction.

    4. Vhyrus

      My gf waited for 2 hours only to find out that schezuan sauce actually means rick & morty posters in mcdonaldian. She was not happy.

      1. Ken Shultz

        They just didn’t expect there to be a significant response.

        1. Vhyrus

          So let me get this straight: McDonalds simultaneously thought there was enough response to restart a sauce recipe that had been dead for 25 years but not enough to make more than a few hundred packets? That is a level of stupid that I would assume would preclude you from making upper level management decisions on a fortune 500 company.

          Fun fact: Dan Harmon, creator of Rick & Morty, didn’t get a sauce packet either.

          1. John Titor

            Dan Harmon deserves anything awful that happens in his life, ever. Except maybe cancer.

          2. Vhyrus

            This week on ‘Get Off My Animated Lawn!’ With John Titor….

          3. John Titor

            His animation is fine, him getting shit faced on podcasts and talking about punching supposed Nazis is not.

            I’m tired of this and drawing a line. Anyone who advocates for political violence and ends up getting fucked in the ass by life deserves it.

          4. Vhyrus

            That’s very strange he leans that way because I detect an extremely libertarian vibe throughout the entire show. Rick is basically Ancap prime of the universe.

          5. John Titor

            Harmon has psychological issues, and if he knew better he wouldn’t be getting drunk and flapping his mouth off about things he knows almost nothing about.

            Instead we get shit like this spewed from his Twitter.

          6. DOOMco

            I think lot’s of shows or writers characters end up being that. Firefly. Frank of IASIP. Rick.

          7. John Titor

            Also, while Harmon seems to criticize the more extreme aspects of social justice culture, he still seems fine kowtowing to aspects of it. While Roiland just doesn’t give a shit because he’s a weirdo.

          8. Playa Manhattan

            The sauces are made by Golden State Foods, and they probably had no idea what a Rick & Poochy was.

    5. Mad Scientist

      I went to a couple McDonald’s and had no luck finding the sauce. However, I fail to see why anyone thinks McDonald’s owes them szechuan sauce. Fuck off, slavers.

      1. Vhyrus

        McDonalds doesn’t owe anyone anything, just like no one owes mcdonalds business. It’s simply a very bad business move to overpromise and underdeliver on a large customer base.

        1. Mad Scientist

          I don’t think they over-promised. McDonald’s website stated very clearly that most locations would only have 20 packets of sauce. All the news stories I saw hyping the event didn’t bother to mention that though.

          1. Vhyrus

            The place my gf went to had ZERO packets of sauce. She was first in line and got nothing.

          2. Mad Scientist

            Did she go to one of the locations participating in the promotion? I had to pass 3 McDonald’s to get to the nearest one participating. They were out. 🙁

          3. Playa Manhattan

            NERDS

          4. Vhyrus

            Yes she looked it up online and everything.

      2. Ken Shultz

        I think it’s alright to be upset with a business that doesn’t deliver what you want to buy.

        They did a bad job with this, and their customers should feel free to tell them about it.

        I also think that with a generation of kids who grew up with movie tie ins and millennials with their never ending adolescence, McDonalds might start thinking about doing movie tie ins with adult movies and things, too.

        They had a 1,000+ customers camping overnight to buy their product–and they had no product to sell them?

        You know who should be mad?

        The shareholders.

        If I were a shareholder at the next shareholders’ meeting, I’d be sure to ask the CEO what they learned from this mistake and what they’ve done to ensure it never happens again.

    6. John Titor

      Fandoms of any kind tend to be the worst.

    7. How embarrassing.

      Can we talk about how disappointing this season was? The premiere was great and set my expectations quite high — but all the other episodes were either just OK or flat-out sucked. Especially “Rickmancing the Stone”.

      1. John Titor

        I actually lost interest halfway through and just stopped watching. Might get around to it later but it definitely feels like there’s been a decline in the standard.

      2. Ken Shultz

        I thought it was a disappointing season, as well.

        Some of the best episodes–“Auto Erotic Assimilation” with Unity–and “Meseeks and Destroy” were written by Ryan Ridley.

        He seems to have moved away from writing and become the show runner.

        They should find another show runner and get him writing again.

        1. Ken Shultz

          I mean, some of the best episodes from prior seasons were written by Ridley.

          In Season 3, he apparently became the show runner.

          I don’t know if it’s the Peter Principle or just more time show running means less time writing–but they need to reverse the polarity on that system.

  22. TK

    Someone hit-and-ran my new car in the parking lot. This happens to me way too often, even though I park so far away in order to avoid this. I filed a police report and asked my apartment complex if they have any security cams.. but no luck.

    I fuckin’ hate people sometimes. Brand new black car, scuffed up with white paint.

    1. Q Continuum

      That sucks. Had a car totaled that way once (not that the car was worth very much, but it still pissed me off).

      1. TK

        I’m happy its not totaled. That would be terrible. My general response once the car gets hit is first to be pissed off as hell… then to say “fuck it”, get it buffed out and just drive around without getting the panels replaced. There’s too many cars around here to be constantly fixing it every time it gets scuffed. :/

    2. DEG

      Sorry.

      Someone hit-and-ran my previous car when it was parked in a Cambridge, MA parking lot. Smashed the tail light.

  23. Gilmore

    He does, in fact, seem to be evil and crazy

    as the occasional corrector of misconceptions regarding the mentally ill, i’d suggest these are actually unrelated and – depending on your definition of “evil” – mutually exclusive.

    – i.e. if you’re ‘crazy’, you’re not capable of determining right from wrong, or objective-reality from an imagined one. The system used to make rational judgments is broken.
    – if you’re evil, you know right from wrong, and you choose wrong, because you enjoy inflicting pain + killing for its own sake.

    If you’re evil, you make preparations to conceal your intent and understand how people will react adversely when they confront you. If you’re crazy, you don’t even understand what you are doing, much less rationally understand how others are supposed to respond.

    *i know the OP statement was just a common expression… its just something people were talking about the other day, and i thought i’d repeat the point:

    – actual ‘crazy’ people – schizophrenics – are actually very very rarely ‘more violent’, or more likely to be intentionally cruel, sociopaths, or have misanthropic tendencies as a consequence of their illness. Its a misconception born of this idea of the Virginia Tech / James Holmes / Jared Loughner “type”; its not really a type at all. I’d argue that all of these people probably had capacity for violence prior to and independent of their illness…. and that their behaviors were less a reflection of an illness like schizophrenia (which all seemed to have symptoms of), and more a reflection of other, pre-existing personality disorders.

    of course, you could say those personality disorders are the same as “fucking crazy” to begin with. But that’s the thing about people with the capacity for evil behavior: that its not really an ‘illness’ in any definable sense. Some people are perfectly healthy, in the medical sense, and still “broken”, in terms of socialization and moral reasoning. its not crazy.

    1. Playa Manhattan

      Common usage. By your definition, evil and crazy are at odds with one another.

      1. Gilmore

        yeah, i know it was used in a colloquial way. i was taking the opportunity for disquisition anyway.

        By your definition, evil and crazy are at odds with one another.

        i don’t know if i’d go for any 100% mutually exclusive definitions…. just that you can’t take a pre-existing, sane-and-good person…. and then make them evil merely via illness

        iow, ‘illness’ can’t create evil. you’d have to be an evil SOB to begin with, and the ‘crazy’ part would simply be a super-duper enabler + justification for acting out your medieval impulses.

        I also think i’m using a specific notion of crazy which disallows the whole “personality disorder spectrum”. Specifically, “crazy” for me means the sort of cognitive disorder/disassociative effect of severe schizophrenia.

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          Part of the problem is that some people need to pathologize everything. Someone can’t just be “evil”, they have to have some sort of disorder to make them act that way.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            +1 Free Will

          2. Q Continuum

            I’ve heard just about enough from someone with Mixed-Melanin Attitude Adjustment Disorder.

          3. Vhyrus

            He’s MMAAD as hell, and he’s not gonna take it anymore!

          4. Gilmore

            Part of the problem is that some people need to pathologize everything. Someone can’t just be “evil”, they have to have some sort of disorder to make them act that way.

            that’s more than part of the problem: its pretty much the essence of what i’m talking about.

            i think people forget that “evil” is an independent variable, and can be a quality that “sane” people actually have. merely being evil isn’t a sign of ‘illness’.

            my point about mentally-ill people being less-prone to evil – due to inherently-disordered cognitive processes – is maybe a distant secondary issue.

  24. Q Continuum

    Not really sure what point the author is trying to make here, but I’m pretty sure it’s BS whatever it is.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/452063/hugh-hefner-gangsta-rap-emerging-moral-majority

  25. Lachowsky

    “In an ideal world, a man like Stephen Paddock, who spent his time and money getting perks at Vegas casinos would be disqualified from this burden of citizenship, on account of his manifestly dissolute and aimless life.”

    This is some statist horsehit.

    1. Vhyrus

      yeah that whole article left a very bad taste in my mouth.

    2. Number.6

      If you can’t justify your value to society, George Bernard-Shore will happily send you off to the gas chambers.

    3. Playa Manhattan

      He declared $5 million in winnings a few years ago and paid taxes on it.

      I would gladly give up “the burden of citizenship” if I didn’t have to pay taxes.

    4. Q Continuum

      What the hell? He should have his rights stripped because he’s a dissipated hedonist? WTF.

    5. The Other Kevin

      I think I just figured out how to solve all our budget problems. Just deport all the retirees who are traveling around the country in Winnebago’s and frequenting casinos in their manifestly dissolute and aimless lives. We will save a fortune on Social Security and Medicare.

      1. TK

        But who will take them?

        1. Brochettaward

          Mexico. We’ll make them.

      1. Vhyrus

        You know who else advocated property confiscation and denaturalization of certain groups?

        1. Q Continuum

          Hillary Clinton?

        2. bacon-magic

          US National Park Service?

        3. Heroic Mulatto

          Michelle Malkin?

          1. Lachowsky

            +1 knowing your history. Good one swiss.

        4. MikeS

          Columbus?

        5. DEG

          Stalin?

          1. Rhywun

            Christ, what an asshole.

      2. John Titor

        Owen Jones is such a utter little scumbag. He’s never met a person he disagrees with that he didn’t want to crush with the power of the state.

      3. Number.6

        It’s not really much of a mask. More like a gauzy veil, made of fairy wings.

        Sometimes, I wish Owen’s could have his way and experience what would come of him the moment “his people” got control.

  26. Hyperion

    ” Jerry Brown signs”

    Yeah, we were discussing this a little in the last thread and I brought up the fact that this also pretty much removes any real punishment for donating blood while knowingly having HIV. That’s the definition of insanity. Needing some blood in Cali is liking playing Russian Roulette now. Do these people EVER think?

    1. jesse.in.mb

      Yeah, we were discussing this a little in the last thread and I brought up the fact that this also pretty much removes any real punishment for donating blood while knowingly having HIV. That’s the definition of insanity. Needing some blood in Cali is liking playing Russian Roulette now. Do these people EVER think?

      Wait, what?

      Blood has been rigorously tested in the US since the ’80s with a pooling schema which is very effective. There’s virtually no chance of contracting HIV in the United States from blood transfusion.

      1. Number.6

        And yet, they don’t want my blood.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Can you blame them? It probably smells like Cumberland sausage.

          1. Number.6

            They should be so lucky. Good Cumberland sausage is like ambrosia.

        2. jesse.in.mb

          Too much English beef in your life?

          1. Number.6

            I spoke to a nurse, and my sense was that while CJD is a concern, they’re actually more worried about tuberculosis.

          2. Q Continuum

            Number.6 has Mad Cow! Everyone point and laugh!

          3. Number.6

            MOOO!

            (I feel like Patsy Byrne now)

          4. one true athena

            I’m also restricted just because I lived in the UK in 91-92 and I *might* have been exposed. (or at least I was still on the “do not donate” list as of 10 years ago, I haven’t bothered to try recently)

            Mad Cow Fist Bump! lol

          5. Number.6

            It’s more likely to be an udder bump.

            ::starts getting ready to reveal his sweater tortoises::

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      They’ve been testing all donated blood for HIV for a while now. This just makes it so the person who has HIV can perform an empty virtue signaling act with no consequences.

      1. jesse.in.mb

        Eh, there’s still a prohibition on sexually active gay men donating blood in the US, even if I show up with recent blood tests showing no HIV or Hepatitis and knowing full well they’re going to test it. I gave once right before I lost my virginity and that’s been that, which is a shame because I bleed exceptionally well.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          I thought that was over a while ago.

          1. jesse.in.mb

            They changed the policy so that men who had been celibate for a year or more can donate now. I like sharing my life-giving essence with the world, but not enough to nut into a dirty gym sock for a year…

          2. Scruffy Nerfherder

            How can you share it with the world if you’re storing it in a sock?

          3. Playa Manhattan

            So… you’re sharing your essence in other ways?

          4. Q Continuum

            What if the gym sock were clean?

        2. DOOMco

          I thought the red cross was looking at changing that. is it law or just policy?

        3. Playa Manhattan

          Your gayness shows up on the blood test?

        4. I gave once right before I lost my virginity

          So you gave blood and fucked the nurse who pricked you?

          1. xenophon

            Or he pricked the nurse who fucked him. I don’t know how that works.

          2. Q Continuum

            He nursed the prick who fucked him. Get it right.

          3. xenophon

            I knew it was something like that.

          4. jesse.in.mb

            It wasn’t quite that immediately.

          5. C’mon Ted nurses are female, do you even patriarchy?

        5. Lackadaisical

          Tests aren’t 100% effective. I know the rate is small, but there are false negatives.

          1. jesse.in.mb

            I’m not sure that matters in this context. You’re still going to get donations from people who are untested and unaware of their status containing a potentially very high viral load, which will then be screened through pooled-testing. The point of declining blood from men who have had sex with men at this point is to lower the chances of infected blood being in more pools and increasing the testing load and cost. If a bunch of HIV+ folks showed up to give blood it would still be a vanishingly small chance that poz blood ended up in the donation supply but subtesting all of the groups that were flagged positive would be expensive and time consuming.

          2. Lackadaisical

            Even discounting false negatives as you suggest (and I’m not sure why one would, there must be many millions of blood donations every year), unless there is a blood shortage, it doesn’t make sense to accept blood with a higher chance of being infected. There is no reason *not* to try to keep costs lowered, correct?

          3. jesse.in.mb

            I’m not sure I necessarily care about the blood ban other than it seems unnecessary and anachronistic at this point. Why explicitly forbid a group of people from participating in an accessible type of direct personal charity because they belong to a group that posed a brief, but serious danger to the blood pool a generation ago?

            Why not at that point ban college students from donating? When I was a student I knew people who used donating blood as a convenient, free, and less-embarrassing-than-talking-to-their-doctor form of STD testing.

          4. Heroic Mulatto

            But there is a blood shortage, currently. A major one. Serious enough to force some people to cancel elective surgeries in which they might have needed blood transfusions.

          5. Lackadaisical

            Why explicitly forbid a group of people from participating in an accessible type of direct personal charity because they belong to a group that posed a brief, but serious danger to the blood pool a generation ago?

            As you pointed out, the costs of testing can be increased. Men who have sex with men comprise about half of all HIV cases, while making up something like 5-10% of the population.

            Why not at that point ban college students from donating? When I was a student I knew people who used donating blood as a convenient, free, and less-embarrassing-than-talking-to-their-doctor form of STD testing.

            At certain points of supply and demand, that could make sense, though I would think older adults would have higher overall STD rates- though they may also be aware of their status and thus decline to donate.

          6. Lackadaisical

            But there is a blood shortage, currently. A major one. Serious enough to force some people to cancel elective surgeries in which they might have needed blood transfusions.

            Maybe they *should* lift the ban then, or start paying people to donate – depending on relative cost effectiveness.

            As an aside, I wonder what the mechanics of a blood shortage are. As in, what are the contributing factors, and how are they solved? There must be some sort of leading indicator, you’d think they could get in front of before they have to start cancelling surgeries.

          7. jesse.in.mb

            Testing cost and effort is currently dropping with automation, At what point does a diminishing cost fall below the benefit of having more people available as donors generally, or especially if something happens and there’s a pressing need? And as Hyperion’s article noted above the person who was the sole HIV transmission in the past 15 years through the donor system was getting “intoxicated” and fucking around with men and women indiscriminately and then denied he’d had sex with men.

            I would think older adults would have higher overall STD rates- though they may also be aware of their status and thus decline to donate.

            I’m not sure why this somehow wouldn’t be true for MSM for as well. Why not have a ban on people who engage in unprotected penetrative sex instead of the overly broad MSM standard?

          8. Lackadaisical

            t what point does a diminishing cost fall below the benefit of having more people available as donors generally, or especially if something happens and there’s a pressing need?

            I assume that would depend on the relative costs of testing (plus downstream infection costs, though I concede they seem to be low) versus the cost of not meeting the increase in need. Since MSM (is that the acronym?) make up 50% of HIV cases, as well as about 50% of new cases, you’re talking an ~100% increase in the secondary testing costs for an approximately 5% increase in blood supply (assuming MSM give at similar rates as the general population).

            I’m not sure why this somehow wouldn’t be true for MSM for as well.

            I would assume, and hope it is true (that those infected would not attempt to give blood), but also acknowledge that not everyone knows their HIV status. In that regard I would think openly gay/bi people would be significantly less likely to be HIV+ and not know it than men who are on the down low, or in denial (but that is just my conjecture).

            Why not have a ban on people who engage in unprotected penetrative sex instead of the overly broad MSM standard?

            I would think the pool of people who engage in unprotected sex is a bit larger than MSM,. If you meant MSM who engage in unprotected sex, that would probably be a good revision to the guidelines, assuming those that have protected sex have a low risk, which makes sense.

          9. Heroic Mulatto

            @Lackadaisical

            I am 100 percent for allowing blood donors to be paid. Thailand is one of the many countries that allow donors to be financially compensated, when I was there, I didn’t see piles of exsanguinated dead homeless people in front of Red Cross centers.

            As for the mechanics of blood shortages, in the case of the US, I would wager it has a lot to do with a lot of old Baby Boomers and not enough young people willing to donate blood to meet demand.

          10. Lackadaisical

            @HM:

            As for the mechanics of blood shortages, in the case of the US, I would wager it has a lot to do with a lot of old Baby Boomers and not enough young people willing to donate blood to meet demand.

            Thats what I was thinking as well, which would point to the problem exacerbating in the future, if other factors can’t nudge things. If they started paying I might donate, but I’m not sure that’ll ever happen here.

          11. I sold plasma 2x a week for a couple years in college – $25/shot for a hour of sitting in the clinic and reading. I guess if they really need whole blood….but you’re only allowed to donate 1x every 4-6 weeks. I generally don’t hear that there are issues with shortages immediately after most issues here – people like to come out and volunteer – depending on location/timing/etc.

            Now, if there’s an issue with a specific blood type (RH-, etc) – then sure – allow compensation if you’re trying to prioritize.

          12. Spartan Dad

            I might be too late for this, but this is sort of my industry. Men who have had sex with other men are definitely considered a significantly heightened risk factor for HIV and other pathogens. No judgement here, I could care less who sleeps with who, but that doesn’t change the risk factor for donated tissue and blood.

            Other risk factors includes having certain types of tattoos, previous incarceration, intravenous drug use, and travel to certain countries.

            Serological testing left a large open window that let through a number of transmission cases. Now we have NAT testing which greatly closed that window, but it is still not 100%.

          13. Spartan Dad

            *or couldn’t care less for the grammar pendants

          14. Playa Manhattan

            I used to work for TBI. My contemporaries work for Lifecell or One Legacy. I have no idea what the policies are.

    3. Ken Shultz

      They make you sign a form at the hospital acknowledging that you might contract HIV from the transfusion anyway.

      I believe it takes your body 45-90 days to create enough antibodies before HIV become detectable. I don’t believe they sit blood around for 90 days unused and then test every pint for HIV.

      Regardless, public perceptions of the blood supply are important, even if they’re based on erroneous information.

      See anti-vaxers for examples.

      1. Ken Shultz

        So they sent me to the ICU, and they told me that I don’t have narcolepsy. The reason I’m falling asleep mid sentence and the reason my feet have fallen asleep and won’t stop tingling is because I’ve lost 70% of the blood in my body. They’re amazed that I can stay awake at all, much less walked into the ER, but, oh, since I’m awake, I need to sign this risk of HIV acknowledgement form before they can give me a transfusion.

        That was a shitty weekend. I was working on a deal that was either going to make or break my company and my life. In the meantime, I was bleeding to death internally–and didn’t know it. I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea I’d lost that much blood. Once the contract was signed, everything suddenly caught up to me. It was more than adrenaline keeping me going. I think there might be something real called “spirit”. It makes people do the only thing that could happen to win the game at the last second–despite an injury or whatever. How often does that happen? It happens all the time.

        Incidentally, you can donate blood to yourself if you know you’ll need it for a specific surgery ahead of time.

        But they can’t test blood for antibodies that haven’t had enough time to create a detectable number of them. If someone was infected 30 days before donating blood, then there’s no way, say, in an emergency like the one in Las Vegas, that they didn’t use all the blood they had in storage and put out the call for all their regular donors to come out and donate more.

        I think they’ve managed to secure the blood supply to the extent they have by restricting high risk populations from donating–keeping out Mormons, teetotalers, and . . .

        Actually, I think gay men and intravenous drug users are considered to be at higher risk of infection–but gay men and intravenous drug users benefit from having access to a safer blood supply, too.

        Are they going to stop screening out high risk populations from donating–or are they just refuse to prosecute them for donating despite knowing they’re HIV positive?

        I suppose those are two different things.

        And I hope people can still, at least, sue somebody for knowingly harming them.

      2. jesse.in.mb

        9 days. There is a 9 day window with NAT testing, the current point of care “rapid” testing is 45-90 days, but donated blood uses NAT.

        A few years ago a Canadian student rejiggered an existing test to get NAT accurate results with point-of-care convenience testing, but I have no idea when something like that would come to market.

        1. Ken Shultz

          Are they testing every single pint?

          1. jesse.in.mb

            Yes, and have been for 30 years. The efficiency and accuracy has gone way up now with more automated assays. Literally only 1 known case of HIV transmission due to transfusion in the past 15 years. You’re (much) more likely to get the wrong blood type administered.

  27. Rufus the Monocled

    Tough day for Wales.

    1. Rufus the Monocled

      So close to qualifying (or at least to get into the playoffs to qualify) since 1958.

    2. Number.6

      Like any other then.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        This time they were damn close!

        1. Number.6

          Horseshoes, hand-grenades, etc ….

          1. Q Continuum

            They can always comfort themselves with some sheep-lovin’.

          2. Caput Lupinum

            In fairness, have you seen the average Welsh woman? They’re like English women, but more depressed and they have even worse accents.

          3. Number.6

            Yes, but some of the outliers can be … stunning.

            Probably the scions of some raiding Irish celts, but the girl I dated in college was Gwynedd thru’ and thru’,

        2. 34 minutes plus stoppage time. It’s not as if they gave up the critical goal in stoppage time.

      2. Caput Lupinum

        Pe byddai’n poeni ni, byddwn ni’n newid.

        1. Number.6

          I actually had to cheat with that one.

          1. Caput Lupinum

            I don’t insult you every time. Got to keep you on your toes.

  28. Hyperion

    “Spot the bullshit: Las Vegas Killer Had Better Rifles Than the U.S. Military.”

    Yeah, the last time I was in the international terminal of an airport, the cops had some pretty damn impressive looking scary guns they were carrying around. So, no, this guy didn’t have better weaponry than even the cops, let alone the military.

    1. The Other Kevin

      Didn’t you see how scary his guns were from that picture? I think they ALL had that thing that goes up.

      1. 0x90

        Did they have this thing which tells time?

    2. Lachowsky

      select fire is a thing, and none of his rifles had it.

      1. Hyperion

        Bump stock is the new scary. Now be scared!

    3. Bob

      Military rifles are selected for many purposes anyway. Being the “latest technology” would require outfitting millions of rifles every year. Still he didn’t have selectable fire meaning they lacked a feature the military has had for around 50 years.

    1. one true athena

      Reaching me up the coast from you, too. Light was definitely getting an orange tint from smoke in the late pm.

      1. Rhywun

        You can have some of the moisture from here.

        An envelope of extremely moist air around Nate will merge with a frontal system to produce what could be some the highest amounts of atmosphere moisture (precipitable water, or PW) ever recorded in October over parts of the Ohio Valley and Northeast.

        It’s been hideous today.

      2. jesse.in.mb

        I cycled to work this morning and it was sunset orange from 1pm on. Remember kids, don’t exercise in apocalyptic hellscapes, ash gets in your eyes and your lungs turn sepia-toned.

  29. Dr. Fronkensteen

    Don’t know why I’m telling you soulless sharks. I was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Not taking it very well right now.

    1. Vhyrus

      type 1 or type 2?

      1. Dr. Fronkensteen

        Type 2 at least that is how we’re treating it for now until I find out more

        1. Vhyrus

          It would be callous and wrong of me to type ‘lose weight fatty’ so I’m just going to say you can beat this.

          Now where did I put my candy bar?

          1. Dr. Fronkensteen

            Thanks, And ironically enough I dropped 43 lbs over the course of a year and kept it off for the past 2 years. Not much weight left to lose.

    2. Number.6

      Controllable? Get it under control.

      Not controllable, fuck .. that sucks. Sorry to hear it, man.

      1. Vhyrus

        All diabetes is controllable. My mother has had type 1 since she was a child and is still alive 60 years later.

    3. Brett L

      That sucks. Did your pancreas rot away from the corruption of your brain like SugarFree’s did?

      1. Dr. Fronkensteen

        I believe so. Or at least reading his “fiction” rotted my soul which left my pancreas open to be rotted.

        1. SugarFree

          People blame me for everything. It’s like being on a blog with my mother.

          1. You don spread the dia-beetus?

    4. DOOMco

      Sorry to hear, mate.

    5. bacon-magic

      I have type II under control currently. You can do it without much sacrifice.

      1. Vhyrus

        Bacon is supposed to be glucose free.

        1. bacon-magic

          I eat all kinds of bacon. Funny thing is Diabetes.org prefers you to go vegan. High protein/less carbs has been effective enough for me. I like veggies but no substitute for bacon.

          1. John Titor

            Cannibal.

          2. bacon-magic

            You eat maple syrup…

          3. John Titor

            Contrary to popular belief, Canadian bacon IS PEOPLE, not maple syrup.

          4. Q Continuum

            Canadian bacon is Soylent Green?

          5. Tundra

            Nope. Ham.

        2. Playa Manhattan

          Bacon should be cured with at least a little bit of sugar.

          1. bacon-magic

            I get cured with thc and alcohol.

          2. Number.6

            No, like God intended.

            Salt, sodium nitrite and smoke.

          3. Playa Manhattan

            Let’s agree that you’re wrong.

        3. And gluten free, I think.

        4. Hyperion

          It’s gluten free too.

        5. I hear it’s also gluten free.

          1. Hyperion

            Water is gluten free also. But they have to put a label on it so you know, because no one would ever figure it out otherwise.

        6. Q Continuum

          Hey guys, does bacon have gluten?

          1. Mad Scientist

            I heard somewhere that it’s actually gluten free, which means it’s been cooked.

          2. Q Continuum

            I wonder where you heard that?

          3. Tundra

            I heard it depends on what kind of pig it’s from.

          4. Mad Scientist

            No, the rule is if it’s been cooked it’s gluten free, and if it’s raw it’s vegan.

          5. Hyperion

            The lite bacon doesn’t have any gluten.

    6. Q Continuum

      That sucks. Just be prudent about checking your sugar and watch your diet and you should be ok.

    7. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Bummer. Pretty soon you’ll be penning filthy fiction.

    8. wdalasio

      For what its worth, you have my sympathies. My mom just got diagnosed with it a couple of weeks ago.

    9. 0x90

      My mom has had it for over 20 years, and she’s a wuss. Best of luck — you can manage this.

    10. DEG

      Sorry.

  30. Q Continuum

    Harvey Weinstein fucking Judy Dench…

    Hmmmm…. ok, have some eye bleach.

    http://archive.is/rTwRN

    1. DEG

      Excluded from the orgy: #12 (bull nose piercing).

      1. dbleagle

        Number 6 looks like fun. Number 1 is classic tourist on windward side Oahu pic- pass.

  31. Iceland qualify for the World Cup, without having to go through the playoff.

  32. DOOMco

    bruins lost to the avs. My roommate should be a joy this evening. maybe I’ll go to the bar.

  33. TK

    Anyone gonna watch the Caps vs. Lightning tonight?

    Aren’t the Lightning the only team that did some anthem-protesting crap? I hope we wipe the ice with them.

    1. Who’s “we”? Not everybody here is a Caps fan.

      1. TK

        “We” is obviously anyone that thinks correctly and properly, which would make one person a caps fan, obviously.

        1. Ken Shultz

          Let’s go Caps!

          I tell myself I won’t watch until the playoffs again this year, but I always do.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    .In an ideal world, a man like Stephen Paddock, who spent his time and money getting perks at Vegas casinos would be disqualified from this burden of citizenship, on account of his manifestly dissolute and aimless life.

    Far as I got.

    Fuck

    off.

    1. Hyperion

      What qualifies one to get this citizenship perk? Getting a bullshit degree and fighting statues of dead guys?

  35. Lachowsky

    So. I found out a little funny info at work today. One of our newest supervisors is one of the guys featured in this video.

    https://youtu.be/2O79I9GoLe0

    1. Gilmore

      He graduated college like… a handful of years ago, and he’s your supervisor?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        White supremacists dude, white supremacy

        1. Q Continuum

          8-year olds, Dude.

      2. Lachowsky

        He’s not my supervisor. He worked in the metallurgy lab and apparently knew what he was doing. He just got promoted a few weeks ago. He stays in the lab. We don’t let college age punks make decisions of consequence when it comes to dealing with the equipment.

    2. Hyperion

      See, there are Nazis all around us.

    3. You’ve got a supervisor who’s that young?

  36. Rufus the Monocled

    ESPN suspends Jemele Hill.

    Too bad it wasn’t for shitty sports writing but it’ll do.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/sports/football/jemele-hill-suspended-espn.html

    Twit.

    1. bacon-magic

      Good.

    2. Q Continuum

      Lack of talent – No prob.
      Calling the POTUS a white supremacist – A-ok
      Calling for boycotts of the sports that keep her employer in business – not so great

      There are some lines even MSESPN won’t cross.

      1. Vhyrus

        I noticed that as well. Virtue signal all you want, but fuck with the money and you gots ta go bitch.

      2. Rasilio

        Not boycotts of sports, boycotts of ADVERTISERS, may of whom also advertise with ESPN.

        When you piss off the customers (and the advertisers are ESPN’s customers not the viewers) then they got no choice but to punish you

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      She’s a moron. If she thought she could encourage advertising boycotts against an NFL team and not catch hell for it, she’s an absolute moron.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        It’s to ‘foster change’!

        C’man.

    4. R C Dean

      “Change happens when advertisers are impacted,” she tweeted. “If you feel strongly about JJ’s statement, boycott his advertisers.”

      So, she was calling on the pro-kneeler crowd to do exactly the same thing as the anti-kneeler crowd: boycott the NFL/its advertisers.

      Genius.

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        WHAT PART OF ‘FOSTER CHANGE’ DON’T YOU PEOPLE GET?!

      2. Playa Manhattan

        “See??? We’re having an impact!!!”

        1. “Change was fostered”

  37. F. Stupidity Jr.

    Crusty Juggler is Matthew Yglesias?! The incredibly boring reason Trump is on track to win in 2020

    Crusty had this little pose he’d do…he’d disapprove of one side of a KULTUR WAR pissing match, but he wanted to appear as though he was above it all, so he’d declare himself bored by the whole thing.

    1. Gilmore

      One should also take any prognostications from the author of a June 2016 article declaring that “The 2016 election is already decided. History says Clinton wins” with a grain of salt.

      Physician: heal thyself

    2. Hyperion

      I knew it!

  38. Brett L

    Astros Win!

  39. The Late P Brooks

    What qualifies one to get this citizenship perk? Getting a bullshit degree and fighting statues of dead guys?

    I think that was a National review link, so more likely going to mass regularly and voting for people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham. And kicking mendicant hobos whenever the opportunity arises.

  40. Gilmore

    more in: Mass Media attempts at discrediting social media

    People say shit on Youtube and Facebook that isn’t true: ergo, more corporate censorship needed

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      When do we start censoring major news outlets and government officials?

      1. Brett L

        Let’s start by censoring politicians and government officials.

    2. Hyperion

      CNN says shit that isn’t true every day on TV, like thousands of times. Should be ban TV?

  41. The Late P Brooks

    ESPN suspends Jemele Hill.

    “After careful study of the available fedback, it has become obvious nobody reads or listens to you. Clear out your desk. The security guard will collect your pass and escort you to your car.”

    1. Hyperion

      That pizza place should be shut down for allowing those bears to eat poisonous people food! Bear abuse!

      1. Mad Scientist

        I can’t believe Estes Park doesn’t have a law preventing bears from breaking and entering.

        1. Hyperion

          Obviously the Pizza place is at fault for not installing the proper level of bear control.

          1. DOOMco

            There’s a $100 fine here for not using the bear proof trash cans on the hill. It might have gone down to 50, but it stacks, and it’s the property owners responsibility.

    2. Vhyrus

      First its guys with assault rifles and now bears. JUST LET THE KIDS GO ALREADY!!

    1. Hyperion

      I’m going to make a wild guess that his crimes are probably relatively mild compared to the people he would work with if he wins. Once he wins, he can make the big time criminal scene and not get into any trouble for it.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    She’s a moron. If she thought she could encourage advertising boycotts against an NFL team and not catch hell for it, she’s an absolute moron.

    I’m sure she considers herself to be some sort of “whistleblower” and is more likely than not shopping for legal representation as we speak.

    1. AlmightyJB

      Lucky for her she has “protected” employment status.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    If that prissy douchebag from the National Review thinks Paddock lived a manifestly dissolute and aimless life, he’d probably go into cardiac arrest if he spent any time looking over my shoulder.

    1. Vhyrus

      How dare he make money legally and then spend it the way he likes!

      1. Q Continuum

        The Politburo gives the people wide latitude on how they will spend the money allocated to them, however there are limits comrade.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Was it French? Because that sounds like French.

      1. Mad Scientist

        No, if he’d been French that congratulate him for his ennui, instead of deploring his aimlessness.

  44. Gilmore

    There was an interview in the Atlantic mentioned here a while back… with a woman writing a book about ‘consent issues’ on college campuses.

    we tore the living shit out of the article. I recall using the phrase “she sounds like malibu barbie after a few wine-coolers”. She made comments like, “Yeah, sure maybe guy’s rights aren’t 100% protected, but i mean, like, so what? a little imperfection is the price we pay for less-rape” (without ever demonstrating that said policies produce less rape, etc.)

    Anyway, so now Nick has interviewed the same person. I have not watched/read. I can only assume he doesn’t bother prodding any of her stupidest ideas.

    1. Lackadaisical

      The first 20 seconds was too stupid to continue listening to.

    2. Vhyrus

      As usual, skipping the article entirely and going straight to the comments tells me exactly what I need to know. And yes, he softballs the shit out of her. Rape allegations incoming, Nick.

      The good news is the commenters are tearing the shit out of the interview.

      1. John Titor

        There’s a reason why I say the best thing Gillespie could do for libertarianism is retire.

    3. Rufus the Monocled

      I don’t get that line.

    4. Rufus the Monocled

      So I went and listened to it (I ignored it earlier today) and found a bit but one minute in interesting about her saying along the lines, ‘we don’t care what you 45 year-old suburban mother thinks is consent or 55 year college president think is consent this is our bodies and this is what we say it is’ as she waves a pen around.

      So much for the collective wisdom of our elders imparting knowledge on the less experienced.

      I watched 10 minutes and heard enough.

      When you pull the chord does she giggle and say, ‘I’m just a girl’?

      She’s an awarding winning journalist? /face palm.

      Last, Nick classifying Mattress girls as ‘he said she said’ is quite prickish. I thought it was proven FALSE.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        You can’t prove a negative. This is the entire basis of the rape “crisis”.

        They have sex. She claims rape. Rape, now being defined as a lack of consent, becomes impossible to disprove as it involves verbal interaction only and not physical force. Regardless of the legal outcome, the public belief that a rape occurred carries on because it is an article of faith.

      2. Lackadaisical

        ‘we don’t care what you 45 year-old suburban mother thinks is consent or 55 year college president think is consent this is our bodies and this is what we say it is’

        That is the quote that made me shut it down. The level of stupidity inherent in that statement is beyond measure.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Yeh, epic in its absurdness.

          Why did Reason interview that twit?

  45. Gadfly

    Trump supposedly to issue an executive order on Obamacare this week. Rumor is it will loosen regulations on individual and short-term plans. Will be interesting to see if that’s the case.

    1. Q Continuum

      Can’t he just do his best Obama impression and nullify the whole law by EO? I mean, separation of powers, responsibility of the legislative branch, blah, blah, blah but I figured we got to the point in which we no longer wanted representative government and just had a monarch right?

      1. Lackadaisical

        Hey, congress hasn’t acted, and the people are clamoring for a solution. Therefore, executive order can be issued to solve the problem. /Obama-logic

      2. Gadfly

        The one silver lining for Congress continuing to abdicate their lawmaking authority by delegating the specifics of rule making to the executive branch is that all rules propagated by the executive can be repealed by the executive. It’s a terrible way to make law (and unconstitutional, IMO), but for the moment it’s the way things are.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Anyway, so now Nick has interviewed the same person.

    “Were you always so brave and fabulous, or have you grown ever more wonderful as a person as the years have passed?”

    1. AlmightyJB

      Yeah, Nick has just become sad and pathetic. He doesn’t even try to back his assertions anymore. Very bush league.

  47. Lackadaisical

    How is it that this Kraft brand Mac-n-cheese is disgusting, but my 33cents/box Aldi brand stuff is delicious?

    I demand answers!

    1. Q Continuum

      #Smackncheese

    2. Mad Scientist

      The truth of the matter is that ALL mac and cheese is disgusting, and you’re clearly in the pocket of Big Aldi.

      1. *narrows gaze, clutches Aldi bag*

    3. AlmightyJB

      I find that if I’m very very hungry any mac n cheese taste good. Not as good as homemade mind you, but good.

    4. copious amounts of MSG.

      1. Lackadaisical

        I did just read the Kraft package and it says no artificial flavors or colors. That must be why. I want my chemicals bitches, need my fix.

        1. Water is a chemical.

  48. Q Continuum

    Kind of unusual to have a rattlesnake death in North America.

    http://kdvr.com/2017/10/07/hiker-dies-hours-after-a-rattlesnake-bit-him-in-mt-galbraith-park/

  49. Q Continuum

    Ummmm…. not trying to start an abortion debate here, but giving a river “personhood” status? SMH

    http://gazette.com/guest-column-rights-for-a-river-an-effort-to-undermine-democracy/article/1612790

    1. Mad Scientist

      I’d be willing to give the river rights if it can petition for that itself.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Hopefully just gets thrown out. Cases like these are designed to subvert the concept of natural rights until they’re meaningless.

    3. AlmightyJB

      Your honor, I did not rape that river. It was already wet before I put my finger in it.

    4. Gerry Rigg
  50. Ed Wuncler

    A Feel good story

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-removes-nazi-swastika-tattoos-friendship/story?id=49496501

    “Kent, a former neo-Nazi, credits an African-American parole officer named Tiffany Whittier with helping him to see beyond skin color and changing his views about white supremacy.
    “If it wasn’t for her I would have seeped back into it,” said Kent. “I look at her as family.””

    This is much more effective than punching a Nazis in the face or throwing feces on them.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      How do you know she didn’t punch him?

      1. Ed Wuncler

        Hahaha. It didn’t exactly say that but you never know. She might have beaten the racist out of him.

    2. Mad Scientist

      There’s a huge gulf between people who actually want to make a difference and people who want other people to think they want to make a difference.

      *Edit Faerie giggles and helps*

      1. Mad Scientist

        stupid auto-correct. s/gold/gulf/

        1. Here I was thinking it was Jew gold.

      2. DEG

        Edit faerie, what’s your phone number?

        1. MikeS

          1-800-HAH-AHA!

          1. DEG

            Godfuckingdammit. That’s not even the number of a local Domino’s!

            A former roommate of mine after chatting up a woman at a bar, asked for her phone number. She gave him a phone number. A few days later when he called the number, the voice at the other end answered, “Domino’s pizza, how may I help you?” He hung up. He looked up the local Domino’s Pizza, and discovered that the number the woman gave him is the number of the local Domino’s Pizza.

          2. MikeS

            That would suck. But he did dodge a bullet. Domino’s sucks.

          3. whiz

            Maybe she worked at Domino’s….?

    3. AlmightyJB

      Sounds like the movie American History X which I recommend if you have not seen.

      1. straffinrun

        I highly recommend skipping it because of one scene. That curb stomp is forever etched in my memory.

        1. Playa Manhattan

          Lies. You like the ass rape scene.

          1. straffinrun

            I would call it “rape” rape. That inmate uniform is basically asking for it.

        2. AlmightyJB

          Yeah, that was brutal.

      2. Somalian Road Corporation

        Oh, that tangentially reminds me of seeing Sisko get blackwashed out of history in order for SJWs to claim that Star Trek: Discovery is breaking new racial ground. Because, you know, it was only white people in that fictional universe before.

        1. John Titor

          I don’t think that’s a case of Sisko getting deliberately blackwashed out of history, I think that’s normie hack journalists who know nothing about Star Trek just applying their standard moronic social justice take onto everything, i.e. “it must be new, stunning, and brave because minorities and/or women”.

          1. Rhywun

            Plus DS9 was like a hundred years ago.

    4. Q Continuum

      Thank you for this. It give me some hope.

  51. Playa Manhattan

    They have 12 aircraft on the nearby (formerly) wildfire.

    It doesn’t make any difference. It was almost dark at 2:30pm.

    1. Playa Manhattan

      And… we just swiped the 10 Tanker from Nor Cal.

  52. AlmightyJB

    Sounds like UWisc may go to a 3 strikes system for snowflakes. Not holding my breath that they will follow through.

    https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/09/university-oregon-students-shout-speech-schools-president/

    1. straffinrun

      He added, “Our demands will be heard. We will be heard…Expect resistance to anyone who opposes us.”

      Rapist logic.

      1. AlmightyJB

        It’s funny because they have no real power. The president could expel them all today and they couldn’t do shit about it.

        1. Q Continuum

          Their power comes from knowing that he won’t.

          1. Ed Wuncler

            Bingo. If these assholes knew that there would be consequences, they would probably stop this shit. But the odd thing that no one ever talked about is the role of these student’s parents. If I was shelling out a shit on of money for my kid to attend college and they acted in a manner like the students in the article, I would immediately stop paying for school.

            You’re not there to protest or start a fucking movement. You’re in college to learn a skill, expand your knowledge, and use both to gain a job.

    2. Wrong link, I think.

      1. AlmightyJB

        Halfway down article

    3. Brochettaward

      Yet today, our commitment to freedom of speech is being tested more acutely than at any time since the Vietnam War. Fringe groups use the openness of the university to spread ugly messages of hate, xenophobia, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and racism. They seek to incite a reaction which at some of our sister universities comes all too readily and violently.

      In other instances and at other universities, students seek to disinvite or to shout down speakers they don’t agree with…

      It’s sad to watch these middle age boomers signal how much they agree with the little monsters they created in some vein hope that they won’t turn on them.

      1. Brochettaward

        *vain

    4. Hyperion

      I seriously think they should let these mentally disturbed overgrown children run the place.

  53. AlmightyJB

    Be interesting to see how this plays out. Doesn’t seem like the sheriff’s have much leverage here.

    https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/09/california-sheriffs-openly-protesting-new-sanctuary-state/

    1. They just pick up the phone and make a call to ICE – who knows…?

  54. AlmightyJB

    Just made chicken and dumplings for dinner. Now the whole house smells like chicken and dumplings which is awesome.

    1. DEG

      Delicious.

  55. DEG

    Red Mo for tonight.

    1. AlmightyJB

      Nice. I love a good red.

    1. DEG

      I’m not sure which I prefer as I muck about on dating apps. Spam bots or people pretending to be something they are not.

      1. Q Continuum

        Go to one of the Russian bride site and you can add green card gold-diggers and Russian mobsters trying to shake you down.

        1. DEG

          You mean to tell me the women on those sites aren’t looking for love but are looking only for a green card?

    2. jesse.in.mb

      *Hurriedly changes Dropbox password AGAIN*

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        “Hey, Daddy!”

  56. Q Continuum

    It’s beeroclock and I have Dry Dock Oktoberfest. Revel in your envy.

    1. Q Continuum
      1. DEG

        Looks interesting.

    2. Tulip

      I am enjoying a Dale’s Pale Ale.

      1. Mad Scientist

        I just bought a keg of that and haven’t tried it yet. How is it?

        1. Tulip

          I enjoy it.

    3. Hyperion

      Do any of you guys work?

      1. DEG

        Yes.

        1. Playa Manhattan

          Only a liar would say that.

          1. DEG

            It all depends on how you define the word “work”.

          2. Hyperion

            Doing something that probably is not as fun as it was 20 years ago, strictly for money because otherwise you wouldn’t get out of bed to bother with it. That’s work.

          3. DEG

            Yep, I definitely work, except it was never fun. Not even twenty years ago. But, it is less fun.

          4. Hyperion

            How many people do you know who say they would still work even if they suddenly came into a fortune? Because those people are either liars or stupid.

            My wife sometimes will say that if she won the lottery she would still work. And I say ‘Well, I won’t and it’s easy for you to say because you ain’t working now’.

          5. By your definition of work, maybe not.

            I would still write if I came into a fortune.

            And I might take up a new career if it were big enough. (ie, buy up a big enough interest in a corporation and make the board of directors lives hell until they addressed certain problems in managemenet…)

  57. commodious spittoon

    You don’t want me as your lab partner. You’ll end up doing all of the work.

    Also, you’re disloyal.

    1. John Titor

      Oh sure, everyone forgets when we burned down Parliament, or lynched Asians, or the time Montreal cops went on strike and there was basically a gang war between taxi companies.

      1. DEG

        For those that want to read more.

  58. Rufus the Monocled

    Enjoy the quote of the day. From the ‘Bro science’ article at Patheos someone linked to this morning:

    “Shem the Penman Maximian • 3 days ago
    No one here, least of all me, wants to “replace the scientific method.” We’re just surprised that people have this idealized vision of science that doesn’t acknowledge the amount of bias and prejudice that it encodes, and how much skepticism we need to apply to its claims.

    We’re talking about the difference between the truth and our wishful thinking, that’s all.”

    1. and how much skepticism we need to apply to its claims

      Somehow I doubt they have so-called global warming in mind.

    1. Q Continuum

      How come I don’t get an origin story? Sadz.

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        Fine, I’ll let people know your origin story as well.

        1. Q Continuum

          How’d you know?

        2. DOOMco

          That is Q.

        3. jesse.in.mb

          I find that believable.

        4. DEG

          False advertising. I see no titties in that video.

  59. Any Miami Dolphin fans here?

    The video was first shared by Las Vegas model Kijuana Nige on her Facebook page, where her bio lists her as a “professional tease.” Sounds classy. Foerster refers to “babe” several times in the video, while commenting on how “crazy” it is to be doing drugs before his meeting. He adds at the end, “I wish I was licking this off your p—y.”

    1. Somalian Road Corporation

      https://www.facebook.com/starr.sherrod/posts/10159564954420089

      Kijuana Nige
      19 hrs · Paradise, NV ·
      The white people mad at me like I forced blow down this mans nose and like I recorded it on tha low ??‍♀️?
      No those are his habits and he recorded himself and sent it to me professing his love ?
      So quick to make excuses for him but will roast a minority player over an athem, dog fights, weed, domestic issues etc.
      But y’all keep saying ALL LIVES MATTER STFU‼️

      Another casualty of the culture war.

      1. Somalian Road Corporation

        Jesus, the emojis also get copy-pasted automatically now, eh? What a world.

      2. Brochettaward
        1. Too crazy to even look at the picture.

          1. Brochettaward

            Just make sure no recording devices are around.

        2. Ditto, but we’ll have to keep the convo away from topics like my skin color and my rescued pit bulls. And the fact that I think Kyle Kapernick isn’t a very good quarterback.

      3. Gilmore

        So quick to make excuses for him but will roast a minority player over an athem, dog fights, weed, domestic issues etc.

        Wait, what?

        She’s saying its hypocritical to say its OK for a dude to engage in harmless partying, but then ‘roast’ them because they beat their wives or abuse animals?

        1. Sounds like they live in a binary world – it’s either hate or laove, no nuance.

    2. Playa Manhattan

      That’s not smart. “Babe, let’s numb your clit!”.

      1. Q Continuum

        As if it matters whether she enjoys herself.

        1. Playa Manhattan

          I guess repeat customers aren’t part of your business model.

    3. Brochettaward

      Fuck the Dolphins.

      This skank is claiming this was done to support player anthem protests somehow. By showing how plenty of coaches are dirtbags. And supposedly excuses are being made for the guy who just lost his job.

  60. Brochettaward

    Security guard was shot before the Vegas shooting started, not after as previously claimed. Former cop finds way to throw hotel security under the bus. See how many of the details in this story don’t add up…to include said confusion over the timeline to begin with given the presence of security cameras and, you know, the security guard and a maintenance worker being present:

    Officials had previously credited Campos, who was shot in the leg, with stopping the 10-minute assault by turning the gunman’s attention to the hotel hallway, where Campos was checking an alert for an open door in another guest’s room.

    But officials said Monday that Paddock shot Campos before his mass shooting, and they now don’t know why Paddock stopped his attack on the crowd.

    …Police arrived after Campos was shot, but were not in a hurry to enter Paddock’s suite because the security guard’s arrival had halted the shooting, police said in previously describing the timeline.

    But on Monday, the timeline changed.

    “Mr. Campos was encountered by the suspect prior to his shooting to the outside world,” Lombardo said at a Monday news conference.

    Yep. And this took a week to correct. After the attention faded.

    1. Hyperion

      Wait a minute, so he shot the security guard first. Then it sounded like a short time later the cops show up coming out of the elevator? I thought it was 72 minutes after the guy started shooting when the cops got there? This whole thing is really fucked up, or seems like it.

      1. Hyperion

        One of the first comments on the article.

        “Security guard has a radio and cellphone like he didn’t radio in that he’d been shot? Then the security people didn’t call 911? Just the facts please?”

        Yeah, no shit, this is all sorts of fucked up.

        1. How long did the guards remain conscious after being shot? Wasn’t one dead and one seriously fucked up?

          1. Hyperion

            I thought that only one guy got hit and that he survived.

          2. I don’t know. I’ve not been too crazy about hunting down details.

          3. Brochettaward

            They say that the guard was able to protect a maintenance worker who arrived on the floor after. So…yea. Lack of detail, and then a quote throwing hotel security under the bus plus a week to correct a narrative they had to have known was bullshit a week ago leaves me more than a bit skeptical myself.

          4. Hyperion

            Wouldn’t hotel management know that a security guy was just shot and what door those shots came from, pretty much immediately? In fact, wouldn’t that be the most important part of security guy’s job? They carry those radios around for a reason. And does it typically take cops in a city like this 72 minutes to arrive after someone is shot? This thing is beyond fucked up, someone needs to get some shit straight here. I’ve seriously called 911 one time in 10 years here in Maryland. I was actually in Columbia at the time and it took them less than 5 minutes to arrive. I mean ok, in the middle of buttfuck nowhere West Virginia, maybe it takes 72 minutes. In Las Vegas?

          5. Brochettaward

            Even scratching the radio…they have security cameras all over the place. The official line here is that they really failed to inform the police for that entire time? Even after they knew an active shooter was in the area shooting down at a crowd from above?

            No, it all sets off my bullshit detector. The hotel would be opening itself up to serious liability here if they didn’t contact law enforcement.

    2. Playa Manhattan

      They didn’t throw hotel security under the bus. They threw themselves under the bus.

      1. Brochettaward

        It’s possible they are as incompetent as claimed. But, then again, when it took a week for the cops to correct their shooting timeline publicly when they probably should have had this information within hours…I’m not really in the mood to believe them on other things like not being notified.

        1. Hyperion

          Get ready to see military guys walking around with machine guns in hotel lobbies, like in Latin America, because it’s probably coming.

          1. Playa Manhattan

            I stayed at the Mandalay Bay in August. There was a lot of armed security. Everywhere. Even the guys in fluorescent green shirts riding bicycles in the parking structure.

          2. Hyperion

            Apparently the only time they don’t work is when a maniac is shooting up a concert from the hotel.

    3. Gilmore

      The timeline of the Orlando shooting was basically kept under wraps for a month because it was so hard to actually explain to the public.

      1. Brochettaward

        Someone should probably be making a bigger deal over the fact that these authority types tell you to shelter in place when this shit goes down and wait for help when reality shows that help won’t be coming in time.

        1. Hyperion

          72 minutes ain’t that long, you need to be more patient with our shining heroes. Maybe they needed to grab a bite to eat before heading over. What, do you expect them to work likes slaves at your beckoned call?

          1. Gilmore

            72 minutes ain’t that long

            police didn’t actually make any attempt to do shit for 3 hours. he started shooting @2AM. They breached @5AM and he shot more people while they continued to play defensive *inside the nightclub*. they didn’t kill him until he actually left the bathroom, having believed he already shot all his hostages in there.

            http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/pulse-orlando-nightclub-shooting/os-orlando-pulse-nightclub-shooting-timeline-htmlstory.html

            Fortunately, no police were harmed.

          2. Hyperion

            Shit, my bad, Gilmore, I was talking about LV, not Pulse.

  61. Q Continuum

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

    She’s a “singer” now.

    1. Somalian Road Corporation
    2. DEG

      That dirndl is not very traditional, and that’s OK.

  62. Derpetologist

    interesting tidbits about the scumbag:

    ***
    He was “raised mostly in California,” attending high school in the Sun Valley section of Los Angeles and college at what would become Cal State Northridge. He worked for a time as an IRS agent, then began to invest in real estate.
    ***

    ***
    He said he wandered about in black Nike sweat pants and had a favorite pair of size 13 black flip-flops — the pair he was wearing on the night of his accident at the Cosmopolitan in October 2011. He was on his way to the high-limit room when he slipped on some liquid and fell. He testified that he hurt his hamstring, which he said resulted in a lingering injury. An arbitrator ultimately ruled in the Cosmopolitan’s favor, according to two sources.
    ***

    http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/09/us/las-vegas-stephen-paddock-deposition/index.html

    1. Brochettaward

      None of it was very revealing. The Daily Mail story on his love of prostitutes and rape fantasies said more, frankly. He was a moderately successful weird asshole. I think some of the reports on his gambling exploits scream bullshit, as well, but we’ll see as time passes. The reporting on everything related to this has been pretty damn sloppy.

      1. Hyperion

        First his GF says he’s just a normal guy. Then she comes back and say he lies in bed moaning and screaming all the time. I’ll give 100 to 1 odds that she lies.

        1. She’s a woman. Isn’t that a given?

          (This is why there are no female libertarians….)

    1. Playa Manhattan

      I’m wondering if I should drop that on Facebook.

      1. Q Continuum

        I fully support you alienating more progs on Facebook.

        1. KSuellington

          Happy Che Guevara Death Day!

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      To leftists Trump is worse than Weinstein, Clinton and Che.

  63. Q Continuum

    Claim: General likability trumps competence in the modern workplace.

    Debate.

    1. Don’t tell me what to do.

      1. Vhyrus

        Now kith.

      2. Q Continuum

        OK. Debate please?

      1. I do not get how “debate” turned into “Spew buzzwords as fast as physically possible” instead of “make a cogent argument that refutes the other side’s position”.

        1. Brochettaward

          White guilt.

          1. Lackadaisical

            Bro wins this debate.

          2. But I have no guilt, white or otherwise.

          1. …I can’t argue with that.

          2. John Titor

            “Well I mean I don’t have sex with anyone because I’m Catholic.”

            “And no one has sex with him because he’s an animator! And a libertarian.”

            Priceless.

          3. Thanks for the followup reply to the young commie thread. Another question: is the concept of the material dialectic something that was extremely apparent to you as you had become an experienced commie, or was that just an undercurrent of the swindle?

    2. Brochettaward

      It always has and always will until the reptilian overlords or Skynet enslave us all.

    3. Vhyrus

      It certainly does for the interview process. An interview is basically “would I let this guy watch my kids?”

      1. jesse.in.mb

        That can’t be true, OMWC is gainfully employed.

      2. Rhywun

        Guilty as charged. Except for me it’s “would I be able to work with this guy without blowing my brains out?”

    4. DOOMco

      Yeah, at least in some jobs. on the whole? no.

    5. DEG

      Yes.

      1. DEG

        To elaborate a bit: I’ve been at companies where we turned down job candidates despite their competence because we didn’t think we’d be able to work them. I think that was the correct decision. In a team environment, where the team is working on a product, you have to be able to work with each other. Beyond that, likability isn’t very important; however, lots of people put more emphasis on it than they should.

        1. Hyperion

          Well, at the interview, being able to come off as someone who gets along with people and works well with the team, is critical. We’ve also passed on candidates because although they seemed to be competent knowledge wise, they seemed off with people skills or communication.

    6. Hyperion

      Depending on what you’re doing. In technical work, skill is going to be critical. But likability is still important. I mean you may be able to get away with being a complete ass if your skill is at a very high level. But if you’re average then other average skilled guy who’s not an ass will be more highly valued.

      I used to work with a guy who left to take a job at a large engineering company and I later ran into him a tech conference and we had lunch. He told me he was in a meeting with some of the top brass and there was this one German guy who was a little unhinged but a brilliant engineer, one of the best they had. So they’re sitting there and someone asked about a certain person who hadn’t showed yet, and this German guy goes ‘Ah, who the fuck cares, she’s nothing but a stupid fucking whore anyway’. Followed by stunned looks around the room and silence. So I asked him ‘Did he get fired?’. And he said ‘No, he got a promotion’.

      1. Rhywun

        To be fair… I have only interviewed folks that were already vetted by the consultant agency we worked with (but even then a few duds slipped through). The first few, I tried to guess their skills but I’m not a manager so it’s not like I’m making the final decision or anything. Eventually I just gave up on that and make my decision based largely on “do they show any interest in this stuff” and yes likeability.

        1. Brochettaward

          Does a willingness to play gay chicken increase or decrease my likability?

          1. Rhywun

            I have a no frat boys policy – so, decrease.

          2. Hyperion

            You probably shouldn’t bring that up until after you’re hired. I’ve sat in on some weird fucking interviews. I guess that eventually happens after so many years.

            There was this one middle eastern guy (yeah I know, Islamaphobe) who got seriously hostile in the middle of an interview, just out of nowhere. He got pissed because of a question someone asked him, it was just a typical tech skills question. Fuck, I thought the guy was going to pull out a knife and start stabbing people. The IT manager ended that one abruptly and asked him to leave the premises immediately or he was calling security.

            The last weird one I remember, there was this guy who said he’d lived in Baltimore for 20 years, but he’d never heard of or been anywhere that was mentioned. Like the harbor, or Camden Yards. We were just sort of looking at each other like WTF? So I asked him ‘where in the city do you live?’. And he’s like ‘Oh… just outside the city’. That was fucking weird.

            Then we hired this Chinese dude and about 2 weeks after he started one of my co-workers on a project came to my desk, to apparently talk about something. And she was acting a little strange. So I said what’s up. That’s when she told me that the dude, whose space was right across from here had been sleeping at his desk most of the week. So then she sort of motioned for me to come over there and sure enough the guy was sleeping, lol. He must have been moonlighting a bunch.

          3. Brochettaward

            I don’t mention it. I just start playing.

          4. Rhywun

            Where I’m from (upstate NY) it’s pretty common for a “just outside the city” resident to have never set foot in the city, ever.

          5. Lackadaisical

            Yup, reminds me of my SIL’s mother. She was super racist and wouldn’t go in the city unless she absolutely had to. Can’t blame her too much on the latter part. What a shit hole.

      2. Lackadaisical

        I knew a similar guy (not german). He could have terrible manners, never followed dress code, he wore the same sweatshirt everyday and it had huge holes on the elbows of it. Also his coffee mug was stained black from years of use without having been washed. He was indispensable to the company. I always wondered how much he made.

        1. Derpetologist

          I got a minor scolding for wearing the same sweater 4 days in a row at the plastic bag factory. Unless it’s dirty or stinking, why not keep wearing it? I was making spreadsheets, not shoveling manure.

          1. Lackadaisical

            Yeah, but you didn’t wear it for several years in a row.

    7. Playa Manhattan

      Only an unlikeable person would say that.

  64. Lackadaisical

    Looking for a netflix show to watch with the wifey: any suggestions?

    We typically like detective shows, and period pieces. (Turn, Father Brown are two of our favorites)

    1. Hyperion

      I like detective stuff too, but only reality based. I’ve probably watched every single episode of unsolved mysteries and 48 hours.

    2. antisthenes

      Midsomer Murders, maybe?

    3. Ken Shultz

      Peaky Blinders!

    4. Playa Manhattan

      The new one about the Panama Canal.

      1. Lackadaisical

        I watched that one without her. I also posted a bit about it here.

        Did you like Carter’s explanation for why he gave up the canal?

        1. Playa Manhattan

          I don’t even think that Carter liked his own explanation.

    5. Q Continuum

      Forensic Files.

    6. Have you watched Longmire</em? modern westernesque police show, has some whodunnit-ish stuff, indians, and the chick from BSG with the nice rack.

      1. Ken Shultz

        Longmire is the bomb.

        I mean that in the best way possible.

        Absolutely excellent.

        1. In that case you say it’s the ‘Bomb-Diggity’

        2. Lackadaisical

          We’re trying this one. thanks to all for your suggestions.

          (tried posting this an hour back, but i guess it didn’t send)

    7. AlmightyJB

      I don’t know if you like true crime shows but I like Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer. Doesn’t hurt that I have a little crush on Linda Papadopoulos, one of the Psychologist narrators.

      https://www.netflix.com/title/80189451

    8. MikeS

      Have you seen any of the BBC’s Sherlock? I can’t recommend it highly enough. Not having Netflix, I don’t know if it’s available there or not… PBS has been airing it in the US.

      1. Sherlock is on Netflix, and yes it’s good.

      2. MikeS

        Other good BBC/PBS detective shows that may or may not be on Netflix: Endeavour (set in the 60’s), Inspector Morse, Foyle’s War (set during WWII), Wallander.

      3. Not Adahn

        It is good, until Steven Moffat shits it up completely in season 3.

        Why that man is allowed near anything that has an established continuity is beyond me.

      4. I was into Sherlock at first…good production values, but then it started feeling really inconsistent. This vid explains why. Hint: shares similarities with Dr. Who.

        1. Rhywun

          All the characters are gay and speak 100 MPH?

    9. AlmightyJB

      My wife really likes Person of Interest. It one of the few shows of hers that I’ll get into sometimes when it’s on.

      https://www.netflix.com/title/70197042

      1. Playa Manhattan

        Sometimes they get it, other times I want to permanently disable my TV.

    10. Not Adahn

      Suburra.

      It’s a mix of The Godfather, Trainspotting and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

      it opens with a Roman orgy. And a Vatican official ODing at same.

      1. Lackadaisical

        It looks really similar to Gomorrah, which I loved. I was interested in it but my wife tends to be put off by too much blood and sex.

  65. Derpetologist

    confused christian vs atheist
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuDgcOp7U2w

    I larfed.

    1. AlmightyJB

      People can find all sorts of ways to delude themselves when they want to believe something is true strongly enough.

      1. Derpetologist

        mundis vult decipi, ergo decipiatur

        the world wants to be deceived, therefore it is deceived

      2. Ken Shultz

        And thank goodness for that!

        We’re talking about great TV, I recently finished watching the first season of “The Man in the High Castle”.

        SPOILER ALERT MAYBE!!!

        Without giving anything away, the whole point seemed to be that the future we have is a function of the decisions people make given what they choose to believe.

        It seems like such a mundane observation, but it isn’t. There is a reason why the Americans defeated the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese and the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese didn’t take over America and split it between them. And it’s because crucial people did what they did because they believed what they believed.

        Yeah, there was a way out of Nazi America and Imperial Japanese America, and we all found it.

        In “The Man in the High Castle”, what people believe and feel made all the difference–it’s being able to transmit that. That’s what matters.

        Yeah, we can believe what we want to believe–and by informing our choices, that what makes society the way it is. The North Koreans may continue on throughout eternity as they are now, simply starving their people to death periodically. They’re bound by the same external realities of economics, etc. as the rest of us. The difference between us and them is what they believe and what they choose to do (or not do) because of those beliefs.

        Because we can make ourselves believe whatever we want, maybe that’s why there’s always hope that we can transform society into something better. All we need to do is persuade people to want freedom.

        Yeah, there’s a way out of Nazi hell.

        1. AlmightyJB

          Huh, I remember seeing some previews but lost track of it. I’ll have to check it out.

          1. I didn’t quite get it on the Ken level, but I found it to be an enjoyable alternate history/sci-fi/multiple timeline/action/drama thing. I’d say it’s a 7 on the 1-10 scale.

          2. Ken Shultz

            TOTAL COMPLETE 100% ABSOLUTE SPOILER ALERT!!!

            So, what did you make of the ending of the first season then?

            Why did he come out of his meditation with things the way they were?

  66. Rufus the Monocled

    https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/917175815430901760

    John Cardillo‏Verified account
    @johncardillo
    Follow
    More
    “Women’s rights lawyer” @LisaBloom planned to shame and discredit #HarveyWeinstein victims

    1. Brochettaward

      Lisa Bloom? Would.

      1. AlmightyJB

        She might devour you afterward and not in a good way.

  67. Brochettaward

    Rose McGowan goes after MATT DAMON for vouching for Weinstein in 2004. Calls him a “spineless profiteer. Silent on her own nondisclosure agreement/settlement with Weinstein after he supposedly raped her and her own willingness to take smiling pictures with him in the years after.

    1. Brochettaward

      I mean, this all feeds into the bullshit that narrative that a victim is somehow courageous just by virtue of being a victim. Yet she was pretty damn silent herself until she was absolutely sure Weinstein couldn’t sue her ass into oblivion. She’s done nothing but send out some tweets and attack people she barely knows for having worked with Weinstein.

      1. Rhywun

        Watching Hollywood eat each other up is pretty amusing, I have to say.

        1. Ken Shultz

          It seems to me that river runs both ways.

          I’m seeing people who might otherwise argue that prostitution should be legalized claiming that Weinstein should be treated like a criminal for offering women things in exchange for sex.

          Isn’t that like a tu quoque fallacy?

          1. Brochettaward

            I don’t think there’s any contradiction in believing prostitution should be legalized and believing that a man in a position of power using it to coerce women into sexual favors is unethical. There’s also the nature of how he went about it – which was apparently quite aggressive. You also have to consider that this is a guy who answers to shareholders who probably aren’t happy about him making decisions based on his dick rather than the bottom line. The NYT’s story supposedly killed in 2004 involved supposedly paying some Italian dude hundreds of thousands a year just to acquire him pussy.

          2. Ken Shultz

            “I don’t think there’s any contradiction in believing prostitution should be legalized and believing that a man in a position of power using it to coerce women into sexual favors is unethical.”

            He comes across like Leisure Suit Larry, that’s for sure. What he’s accused of doing is smarmy and unbecoming, that’s for sure.

            “You also have to consider that this is a guy who answers to shareholders who probably aren’t happy about him making decisions based on his dick rather than the bottom line.”

            Weinstein is famous for making blockbusters on a low budget. I bet the shareholders love him.

            If anybody’s thinking with their dicks instead of the bottom line, it might be the people who fired Weinstein.

            However, Weinstein and his brother own more than 42% of the company.

            Add those two things together, and I think it’s unlikely Weinstein was fired without his consent.

            Weingstein is still a shareholder. Giving up his annual salary isn’t a big deal. And if the heat goes away because they can claim in the press that he’s been fired, then that’s probably worth giving up whatever salary–just so they can go chase some more movie deals.

            Weinstein isn’t exiting the movie business.

          3. Lackadaisical

            Weinstein is famous for making blockbusters on a low budget. I bet the shareholders love him.

            I was thinking the same thing. The company seems successful, just based on the shear number of productions they seem to have, and I find I often like their films, so I assume they make money.

          4. Getting Weinstein out of movies can’t happen soon enough. The shitbag shits over every single thing he touches.

            He’s the reason we never get good imports stateside. ‘Shaolin Soccer’ came out in ’99 (IIRC) in HK (I had the first DVD) – took over 5 years to get a hackjob dvd release in the US without a theatrical cut.

            He tried to hold ‘Snowpiercer’ hostage with a US cut 20+ min shorter than the award-winning International/Korean version.

            Two examples off the top of my head – but given some time, I could dig up a LOT more examples.

          5. Number.6

            I think one of the differences might be that straight prostitution would be a simple exchange of a service for a direct monetary payment. The impact of an unsatisfactory transaction is limited in time and magnitude.

            Sell your body in exchange for a future career, and it’s no longer a simple transaction, it’s closer to entering into indentured servitude.

          6. Ken Shultz

            Are trophy wives in indentured servitude? Have you ever suffered through an episode of “Real Housewives of [ ]” People have entered into these kinds of relationships since forever–and it’s not just powerful men going after women. Ever heard of marrying the boss’ daughter? It’s a sure fire way to the top!

            Men pressuring women for sex isn’t a hate crime by itself.

            The last stats I heard suggest that gay men have sex more often than other couples.

            Heterosexual couples have sex less than them.

            And Lesbian couples have the least sex of all.

            Feminists have used this to argue that all the times women have sex with men–more often than Lesbians do–amount to rape, even within marriage. These are situations in which the women didn’t want to have sex but ended up having it anyway–under some kind of pressure.

            That kind of argument seems to miss the point that people can be persuaded to change their minds.

            Regardless, the point I’m making is that we’re suddenly all starting to sound like feminists talking about the Anita Hill case–why is that?

            Because it’s a Hollywood liberal this time?

            My position on these things doesn’t change because we’re talking about Weinstein instead of Clarence Thomas. The double standard is a river that flows both ways. Yeah, point out that Hollywood is using a double-standard when it’s one of their own, but if a woman turns you down for a date, it isn’t sexual assault just because she says no. He respected being rejected? That’s an important question to ask.

          7. Number.6

            No, I’m not attempting to conflate a marriage of convenience with a “casting couch” incident. I’m well aware of the transactional nature of many marriages, but that’s not what I’m seeing here assuming that the accusations against Weinstein are found to be true.

            Weinstein was one of a very closed ecology of gatekeepers in Hollywood. To decline his advances closes one of very few paths into an acting career, unlike Real Housewives of Beverley Hills, since the woman can just bounce her way down to some other rich guy.

            The issue isn’t that Weinstein is rich and liberal, it’s that saying “no” to him would have been to have effectively diminished an aspiring actress’ ability to pursue a career, and therein lies what I think is the distinction.

          8. Number.6

            That is to say that there’s the possibility of a far higher degree of coercion implied here than whether Brandi Glanville manages to hook that rich guy when their eyes met, looking across the ham sandwiches in the commissary at Bravo’s studios.

          9. Brochettaward

            This discussion needs to first make a distinction between whether we’re talking about laws or ethics. Most of the accusations the Times printed are of the harassment variety. So, is the question whether sexual harassment should be any form of a legal matter? That may be interesting, but it’s not really the point of the laughing most of us are doing.

            I can on one hand as a libertarian argue for certain behaviors being legal while also condemning them on ethical grounds. You obviously know this. So, badgering a women to give you a happy ending until she cries, or demanding sex to further someone’s career aren’t things I can sign off on a persona level. Just like how I don’t frequent prostitutes even if I believe it should be legal.

            Weinstein is sleezy and a hypocrite. So, that’s really what this boils down to. He claims to be a champion of women. He cloaks himself behind feminism and left wing politics. So, yea, people are going to point and laugh at him. I’m not seeing many people around here demanding he be jailed or even lose his job (though, I’m fine laughing at it because, again, hypocrisy here is blatant).

            In this instance, you seem to be kind of tilting at windmills unless you have more specific objections.

          10. Ken Shultz

            I understand and agree, mostly, with what both of you are saying.

            If this keeps going, watch other people in the media talking about it.

            Watch for libertarians and people on the right to start sounding like feminists on this issue.

            Once that happens, feminism becomes the standard by which these things are measured in the public conversation–and I don’t think we should let that happen without a fight.

    2. Ken Shultz

      Just to be clear, Rose McGowan was “raped”?

      . . . or Rose McGowan was offered a roll on the casting couch?

      Who said McGowan was raped?

      Did she claim that herself and, if so, in reference to what?

      She took a payout for being harassed?

      Or she took a payout for being silent about her own rape?

      1. Playa Manhattan

        I’m just asking questions!!!

        1. Ken Shultz

          This is the first I’ve heard that Rose McGowan was raped.

          If Rose McGowan was raped, that changes my understanding of everything.

          Was she raped?

          That’s not a rhetorical question.

          “Silent on her own nondisclosure agreement/settlement with Weinstein after he supposedly raped her”

          Was there a claim made that Weinstein raped McGowan? Who made that claim?

          1. Brochettaward

            She has hinted at it in the past. Saying that her ex sold a movie she was in to her rapist…a movie sold to Weinstein.

  68. Derpetologist

    Gas, gas, gas!
    Upgrade to MOPP 4

    https://www.salon.com/2017/10/09/marvels-runaways-the-next-big-show-for-the-trump-resistance/
    Marvel’s “Runaways”: The next big show for the Trump resistance
    A new comic run and a new TV show revive Marvel’s story of kids who fight their supervillain parents
    Amanda Marcotte

    ***
    The story is a dark one. Warning, there are spoilers ahead: A group of high school students (and one 11-year-old girl) discover that their parents are part of a demonic cult called The Pride, which meets every year to sacrifice a teenager to their otherworldly masters in exchange for the financial and professional success they enjoy. Rather than live with this evil in their lives, the kids go on the run, eventually developing some superhero skills of their own that they use to battle their parents.
    Report Ad

    But while that sounds very romantic, Vaughan went to great lengths to portray the experience of the teenage runaway with surprising realism for a superhero comic. The kids start off as hyper-privileged, college-bound and moneyed, but swiftly have to learn to live with no money and on the margins of society, trying to survive without jobs, benefits or even a safe place to sleep much of the time. They go from lives of comfort, obsessed largely with high school kid problems, to living in terror all the time. Their old lives start to feel like a silly dream.

    It’s a story that feels incredibly timely in the age of Donald Trump, a wealthy wannabe who indulges in fascist behavior to shore up his personal power, who is only out for himself and is utterly indifferent to the sufferings he inflicts on the rest of the country. Even the theme of generational conflict feels relevant. The majority of people under 45 voted for Hillary Clinton, after all, and their parents betrayed them and their futures by voting for Trump.
    ***

    1. I wrote about a character whose proggy parents chastized the selfishness of their six year old after the only thing he got for his birthday was photographs of other kids getting his presents because the parents wanted to ‘share the wealth’. It was written in an exercise of absurdism, but the more reports from the heart of the infestation, the more it sounds like a realistic scene.

      1. Derpetologist

        I forget where I read it, but it was basically about how now there is an arms race among prog moms about who is the best at shielding their kids from anything remotely disturbing. One mom boasted of not letting her 10 year old watch Moana because she thought the beginning was too scary.

    2. Pan Zagloba

      Vaughn’s run on Runaways was dope, and if the writers shut up and use the first 18 issues for their series they’ll be fine.

  69. AlmightyJB

    Trump, Weinstein, Cosby, Stephen Paddock, Richard Spencer and I’m assuming every other man she doesn’t like is pretty much the same person. Seems like a perfectly reasonable viewpoint.

    https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/this-isnt-toxic-masculinity-its-sociopathic-baby-men.html

    1. Brochettaward

      So, Hitler is basically the left’s Tulpa?

      1. Q Continuum

        Blue Tulpa.

  70. Not an Economist

    There is a pretty good baseball game in Chicago right now. Cubs lead the Twins 2-0 in the second quarter.

    1. peachy rex

      This is the just the showcase we need to win back wavering fans! /NFL exec

    2. KibbledKristen

      Are you suuuuuuure?

  71. Derpetologist

    and the winner for this week’s tasteless joke award:

    https://globalnews.ca/news/3784697/las-vegas-shooting-whatever-happens-in-vegas-cartoon/

    Vermont newspaper apologizes for ‘Whatever happens in Vegas’ cartoon in wake of mass shooting

    1. Rhywun

      Our interpretation of Randall Enos’ cartoon was that little would be done with regard to gun control measures in the United States even after such an unprecedented tragedy.

      Jesus. Nice save.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Shorter fuckwit editorial board: “He’s hurting the agenda!”

    1. Tundra

      Really interesting. I need some time to read through it a couple times. Will report back.

      Thanks, Q.

  72. Number.6

    Just did Jordan Peterson’s “Understand Myself” analysis, based on the “Big 5 Personality Model”.

    The results. They are not good, but they explain why I’m here.

    1. How much did it cost?

      1. Number.6

        Just $10.

        I was going to Patreon him, and then I thought, fuck it, I want something for my money. (Not a surprise when you see my profile)

        https://www.understandmyself.com/

    2. Number.6

      Agreeableness: Low
      – Compassion: Moderately Low
      – Politeness: Exceptionally Low
      Conscientiousness: Moderately Low
      – Industriousness: Typical or Average
      – Orderliness: Low
      Extraversion: Typical or Average
      – Enthusiasm: Very Low
      – Assertiveness: High
      Neuroticism: Very Low
      – Withdrawal: Very Low
      – Volatility: Very Low
      Openness to Experience: Typical or Average
      – Intellect: High
      – Openness: Typical or Average

      The eyebrows were only raised for the Conscientiousness/Industriousness/Orderliness axis, but I’ll salve my ego with that being situational and possibly unrepresentative.

    3. Lackadaisical

      I saw the first part of the video of him hawking it. I considered it, but in the end, does it tell you anything a moderately introspective person doesn’t already know?

      1. Number.6

        Well, based on what you see there, I’m going to be the kind of person who thinks he’s capable of reasonably objective self-analysis, but other people’s mileage might vary.

        I’d like to *think* I’m actually more Agreeable and Open than the analysis provides, but then I take a deep breath and admit that no, I’m not agreeable.

        This comes from a guy who did a hard STEM course, but used to write horoscopes for in-house magazines for British Insurance companies. We’re all receptive to reinforcement via pseudoscience, to some degree.

  73. Gilmore

    Heh. He said “stain”, and there’s a picture of bill clinton. heh.

    probably worth a read. its more about the ‘why now?’ of the Weinstein story. the theory seems to be: progs now drive revenue for media, and clinton-power within lefty-media is now gone

    …of course people knew about Harvey Weinstein. Like the New York Times, for instance. Sharon Waxman, a former reporter at the Times, writes in The Wrap how she had the story on Weinstein in 2004—and then he bullied the Times into dropping it. Matt Damon and Russell Crowe even called her directly to get her to back off the story. And Miramax was a major advertiser. Her editor at the Times, Jonathan Landman, asked her why it mattered. After all, he told Waxman, “he’s not a publicly elected official.”….

    …there was a period when Miramax bought the rights to every big story published in magazines throughout the city. Why mess with Weinstein when that big new female star you’re trying to wrangle for the June cover is headlining a Miramax release? Do you think that glossy magazine editor who threw the swankiest Oscar party in Hollywood was trying to “nail down” the Weinstein story? Right….

    That’s why the story about Harvey Weinstein finally broke now. It’s because the media industry that once protected him has collapsed. The magazines that used to publish the stories Miramax optioned can’t afford to pay for the kind of reporting and storytelling that translates into screenplays. They’re broke because Facebook and Google have swallowed all the digital advertising money that was supposed to save the press as print advertising continued to tank.

    ….There are no more journalists; there are just bloggers scrounging for the crumbs Silicon Valley leaves them. Who’s going to make a movie out of a Vox column? So what does anyone in today’s media ecosystem owe Harvey Weinstein?

    1. Rhywun

      Saw that at the other place. Yeah, makes a lot of sense to me. It’s like, everyone knew. There has to be a reason the NYT of all places is telling it now.

      1. Gilmore

        My guess is that they learned someone else might run a story about it, and they figured they had to get the scoop to prevent looking like they were (too) complicit.

  74. Left Hand of Radar

    Minnesota Glibs: Long story… but I’m looking for a new job. I’m 43 years old. College educated. I have a high IQ– but admittedly I am a bit autistic. I’ve spent the last 15 years working with “people”. The first ten years of that were fine because I was playing in bands and going on tour and such. The last five years have been a stalled-out mess. Anyway, if any of you know of anything in the MPLS/STP area please give me a heads-up. Thanks, you sick fuckers.

    1. Number.6

      Welcome to early middle-age.

      Go buy yourself a bright red Mazda Miata.

      You’re welcome.

      1. Heroic Mulatto

        Actually, that’s a wonderful idea.

        Also, he should play Eurobeat 24 hours a day and consistently smell of squash air freshener.

        1. jesse.in.mb

          smell of squash air freshener

          I can’t even, what is this?

          1. Heroic Mulatto

            It’s Engrish. It’s a particular Japanese scent that smells, to me, like a mix of bubble-gum and a crisp gin and tonic with lime. It’s a big tuner/drifter car culture thing.

        2. Rhywun

          I hate music now. Thanks a lot.

          1. Heroic Mulatto

            Don’t tell Groovus that.

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      What is it that you do or can do?

      1. jesse.in.mb

        What is it that you do or can do?

        Fake Goethe quotes as explained by Glenn Beck, begin it.

        1. Lachowsky

          I’m gifted in the art of making snark comments. I need to find a market.

          1. Number.6

            Guest Writer for Taki’s Mag?

        2. Heroic Mulatto

          I’m more interested in penning a manga entitled Goethe 13.

    3. jesse.in.mb

      I am a bit autistic.

      Are you sure you’re in the right place?

      1. Rhywun

        Switch around a detail or two and that’s half of the commenters here.

        1. jesse.in.mb

          That seems like a gross underestimate.

          1. Lackadaisical

            You mean welcoming people by wishing them a hearty ‘fuck you, Tulpa’ isn’t normal?

            Spending the last few weeks with normies in the meatspace has been at times… challenging. People talk a lot, it wastes a bunch of time.

          2. jesse.in.mb

            You mean welcoming people by wishing them a hearty ‘fuck you, Tulpa’ isn’t normal?

            I think that depends on how narrow your demographic window is.

    4. Lachowsky

      First thing I would do is get out of Minnesota. No matter what else is going on, you will be better off.

      1. Left Hand of Radar

        I suppose I set myself up for that. Thank you very much for your support.

    5. MikeS

      Re-post this in the morning links. Pope Jimbo and/or Tundra will see it. (if they don’t see it tonight)

  75. Lachowsky

    So, It’s been more than a week since the LV shooting. I would have thought that I would have a clear idea of what happened by now. I don’t. As far as i can tell all the information is still nothing but speculation and narrative pushing. I expect that for a day or two. It’s going on longer than normal at this point.

    *dons tinfoil hat*

    This shooting is wierd amd has been wierd since I first heard of it. There is a serious cover up going on right now. What the gov is covering up, I’m sure I don’t know. But, I’m sure there is something to it that the “authorities” don’t want exposed.

    *removes tinfoil hat

    I hope it turns out the shooter was just crazy

  76. Slammer

    YANKEES WIN! THE YANKEES WIN!

    1. Playa Manhattan

      1. Slammer

        What’s her problem?

        She’s hot but a midget?

        1. Playa Manhattan

          She’s a Dodgers fan.

          1. Slammer

            Yankees Dodgers is a classic match-up.

          2. Playa Manhattan

            Back when I was a yute, It was Dodgers-Mets.

            When I was at a game where David Cone hit a home run, he was a Met IIRC.

          3. KSuellington

            I would love to see the Dodgers lose to the Indians in the World Series.

  77. Rhywun

    This season of “AHS” — dubbed “Cult” — centers around the election of Donald Trump and the fear surrounding his presidency.

    Chilling.

    1. Heroic Mulatto

      contains a sequence that some viewers might find traumatic

      Isn’t that kind of the point of horror?

      1. Rhywun

        Nothing could be more traumatic than election night was. Think of the poor viewers – you don’t want horror-overload.

      2. Pan Zagloba

        There’s horror, and then there’s election night 2016.

        Bonus points if you recognize the soundtrack.

        1. KSuellington

          That never gets old. I was watching MSNBC and CNN on election nite and enjoyed some serious belly laughs at the sad faces. The YT thing is hilarious.

  78. CPRM

    Damnit Supergirl! How is it that your writers prog harder than the writers for Arrow, when it’s an established part of cannon that the Green Arrow is a socialist?

  79. CPRM

    So…The actual trailer for Star Wars VIII came out today. I was so excited when Disney bought Lucas Film. I love what they’ve done with Marvel. But, I think I’m done going to see Star Wars movies in the theater. (says the guy who owns a life size R2D2, a Darth Vader Helmet, a Storm Trooper Helmet and has spent countless hours re-editing the prequels to make them watchable)

    1. Brochettaward

      It looks like they intend to just recreate the original trilogy note for note with a female lead and a black guy thrown in.

    1. Number.6

      Understatement of the day, at least.

    2. DOOMco

      holy cow thats bad

    3. Lackadaisical

      It amazes me how all the house are gone (I presume there were houses), and yet there are a few green trees still there.

    4. Gray Ghost

      It’s really bad. The Mercury News has some decent coverage of the disaster: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/09/napa-and-sonoma-wildfires-destroy-wineries-bars-and-hotels-force-wine-country-wide-evacuations/

      Per the article and feed, a bunch of wineries have gone up in smoke: Chateau St. Jean, White Rock, Paradise Ridge, Frey, Signorello. It looks like Chimney Rock might be joining them.

      There are a gazillion little tiny wineries in the Mayacamas Mtns between Napa and Sonoma, where some of these fires are raging. There are multiple fires, widely scattered, in an area that frankly just isn’t that big. The list is going to grow.

      1. Gray Ghost

        The Merc has this page: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/09/maps-napa-wildfire-santa-rosa-evacuation-area/ which has MODIS fire data, basically a satellite that finds hot spots. The number of hot spots, and their proximity to houses and structures in Napa and Sonoma, are heartbreaking.

  80. Lackadaisical

    I don’t see our family friendly icon around anymore, did we end up losing our certification?

    1. Number.6

      No, it’s still there. Still conflicted over whether it’s cosmic irony or pathos.