Good morning, all you happy people! I’ve been sparse of late, having spent a week with a houseful of guests, then another week catching up with work, where all is chaos. But sad to say, I’m back, so are weekend links, and there will even be a Return To Jewsday. Let’s see how fucking crazy everything is:
Here’s a story that gets weirder and weirder. Or perhaps not- maybe it’s heading where we all knew it would. Whatever, everyone involved is worthy of hate. It’s too bad that these people have spawned and added their contribution to the human gene pool.
The steepness of the pyramid increases, as inevitably does the onset of the day of reckoning. I have my own idea of the solution, but it’s ideas like that which keep me from ever having politics as a career.
Stories like this make me unaccountably happy. This confirms the suspicion that I am fundamentally not a nice person.
Here’s some superb viewing if you enjoy watching insufferable academics get their asses handed to them. Charles Cooke is the best argument I have about the value of immigration to our country.
As bad as Chicago is, we really don’t have many incidents like this happening at our sports events. I can wear an Orioles hat to a Cubs game or a Ravens cap to a Bears game, and the worst that will happen is some good-natured ribbing. We’ll see what happens when I wear my Ravens gear at Lambeau, but I suspect it will be much the same- people here are fanatic about their sports, but totally cool about “outsiders.” Unless you wear a Packers shirt, in which case, expect to be shot. But that’s only reasonable.
When I put my Giant Meteor 2016 bumper sticker on during the last election, I got a lot of honking and thumbs-ups from other drivers. They’ll be delighted to know that, despite not winning, he’s not done yet.
Oh, and delightfully, the Steinbrenners lost last night, with my personal highlight being a demonstration of Gonzalez’s future as a pitcher- that throw to the plate from left field was not only dead accurate, but clocked in at 94 mph. The only thing better would have been something like the two run strikeout play that the Cubs pulled on Thursday.
And for this week’s Music That Y’all Ignore, one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands from my youth. I saw these guys live twice and have to admit that I only retain bits of memory from the occasions. I attribute that to the methaqualone and THC that of course I would never ever have ingested as a teenager. Nossiree, I was a clean kid who said Nope To Dope and Ugh To Drugs.
Comments
312 responses to “Saturday Morning Links With No Clever Title”
Guess we have some serious, long-lived retirees out there.
Oh, and you might promise a “solution”, but we don’t need anymore temporary fixes…the next solution needs to be final.
It’s important to accelerate the collapse. Much like getting drunk and going with the flow when you know you’re inevitably going to hurl.
But do you have a final solution?
The train is leaving the station, better hop on!
Heading East, is it? I hear there is work that way.
Well, that’s how you” become truly free.
*lights oven*
What? I’m just baking a cake.
*applause*
Don’t leave it out in the rain.
Not really. It’s *hired* after 1983. If you started working in 1977 at 30, you’d only be 70 today.
Ich bin deiner Meinung.
Second.
…correct.
Don’t any of you people wake?
Woke?
*narrows gaze, yet applauds as well*
Wank?
That goes without saying, here.
Sure we do. But some people are lazy and think they get to sleep in just because it’s Saturday.
up at 5:15. At work by 6:30. Have things settled down enough to play on the internet by 8. I’d say that’s not too bad for a Saturday morning.
Eventually I woke up. I gotta eat then mow the lawn. What fun.
& bake?
Wtf is that roasted rodent? Doesnt even look gutted or cleaned. Disgusting.
Guinea pig. Delightfully reminiscent of road kill.
I never did get to eat cuy when I was in Peru. One of my few regrets.
It’s not too late. Go forth to Petco, and make your own regrets no more!
See? That is proactive thinking!
I need the expertise of the Inca. Fun fact: the locals only eat guinea pigs for special occasions, like birthdays and divorces.
My wife ate cuy while at a restaurant for her bodyguard’s daughter’s Quinceañera. This was in rural Peru. The family had been saving money for years, and there was no way my wife could refuse without seeming extremely rude. She doesn’t appreciate it when I suggest we go to Petco to get some cuy for dinner.
…her bodyguard’s daughter’s Quinceañera.
I think you buried the lede.
In that case, I heartily approve. Only good use for a guinea pig is food.
*sounds of snakes hissing in approval*
With avocado. Ipecac available for any customers who haven’t puked yet.
My guinea pig from overseas
TW: Deutsch
Many supporters of the group, which spearheaded the record-setting marches around the U.S. to protest President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, were outraged that conference organizers would pick a white man to address a convention meant to elevate women of color.
Wait, what?
#Wheydewhitewimminat?
“Oh boys…look at what I got here.”
I love the smell of cannibalism in the morning.
Hey now, let’s not rush to judge. The kids may grow up to hate and resent their bumbling oaf parents. Like Francis Bean Cobain does with Courtney Love.
In all fairness, I think everyone who has ever met Courtney hates her. I worked lollapalooza in… summer of 95, I think? I was working second stage so I didn’t have to deal with her, much, but one of my best friends wound up having to do a lot of her setup, and… well, there’s being a perfectionist when you have some idea what you’re talking about, and then there’s being a total cunt when you don’t. Courtney Love did not fall into the first category.
Mallory acknowledged that inviting Sanders was a controversial choice. “Some people just don’t want to hear from Bernie Sanders,” says Mallory. “There are some people who don’t believe that a man has a place at a women’s convention.”
But don’t worry. These picayune hysterics will forge a broad, rock solid electoral coalition guaranteed to sweep the troglodytes from office and bestow upon us a thousand year reign of peace and tranquility based upon mutual respect and unquestioning love.
Meh- the scary thing is that the pendulum always swings in American politics, at least at the national level. That’s, IMHO, a good argument for moderation, but I guess we’re past that point now. These lunatics will be running the country in three to seven years.
Heading East, is it? I hear there is work that way.
Affordable housing, too!
[insert large blinking arrow]
Free showers!
Bob Bland, an entrepreneur and Women’s March co-founder, said she was surprised by the controversy about Sanders’ role at the convention
Once upon a time, I might have said to myself, “Bob, huh. That’s a cute nickname for a girl. Maybe she got stuck with some ancestral cognomen, like Roberta.”
Now, I have to go through a bunch of mental gymnastics about tranny politics and chromosomal betrayal. I hate the 21st century.
It’s like how BET was started by Jews. You identify a source of
graftrevenue and youexploitdeveloped it.Cute name or a laugh plot in a Blackadder episode.
“Thanks, Bridesmaid. Like the beard. Gives me something to hang on to. Woof!”
Considering that “Bob” is a generic guy name, and the last name is “Bland,” I’m wondering if she is trying to be funny?
If trying to be funny is wrong, i don’t want to be right
Fun fact: the locals only eat guinea pigs for special occasions, like birthdays and divorces.
In one of the churches in Cuzco, there is a depiction of the Last Supper in which guinea pig is on the menu.
We saw that when we were there.
“…and on the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took the guinea pig, gave the traditional blessing and said…take, eat, this is my rodent body broken for you…”
…
Nah, just doesn’t have the same ring.
Judas had to go and order the surf and turf.
They had menus at the Last Supper? What would Jesus tip?
I love the kitschy, over-the-top Catholic churches in Latin America.
If you like that sort of thing, check out the baroque churches of Southern Germany. Balthasar Neumann’s Basilika Vierzehnheiligen near Bad Staffelstein is a good example. Monks nearby brew beer and there’s a little restaurant right by the church where you can eat schnitzels and such stuff and drink the beer.
Why would anyone with properly fastened brackets in their head take their family and go to a remote part of Afghanistan to help isolated people in danger?
Is that couple retarded? I’m afraid we have to share this one, America given one half of these two is American and the other Canadian.
Jesus how much more irresponsible can one be? You can do a whole lot of good volunteer work servicing people here. Safely.
Slightly reworked. “I’m afraid we have to share this one America, given one half of these two is American and the other Canadian.”
And they had kids while in captivity.
Yeah but who was the father?
Don’t we all.
*rises to begin thunderous ovation*
Well food and housing was free, so having kids wouldn’t affect their budget
Yeah. this reminds me of the kid the Norks tortured to death a few months ago. What kind of person thinks it’s a good idea to go to North Korea or Afghanistan.
“Freed Taliban hostage says captors raped his wife, authorized child’s killing”
No shit? What did you think was going to happen when you brought your vulnerable family to a land of savages well known for doing exactly that? If this dude was my son-in-law I would shoot him in the face.
There are useful idiots and then there are USELESS idiots.
I’m not convinced he’s not Taliban, or at least a Taliban wanna-be and they turned on him. He originally married into an al-Qaida family. The CNN article barely mentions it but this one gives more details.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/10/15/haqqani-captors-killed-child-raped-wife-canadian-ex-hostage-says.html
His wife wears a headscarf and refused to speak. This guy took the opportunity to trash the State Department in his statement. I understand disagreeing with the State Dept, I’m sure every single one of us on this board does, but to do so in your statement upon being rescued? It’s strange. Finally, he refused to fly into America because he thought he might be locked up in Guantanamo Bay. There’s more to the story here, this guy isn’t some lost hiker or an idealist college student.
Uh huh. This doesn’t pass the smell test.
No shit. His daughter named “Martyr”?
Also, his ex-wife being connected to Al Queda- maybe the Afghanis took her side of the divorce in the gossip train.
gossip train.
Umm, what kind of train, again?
The parallels to Bergdahl (who is overdue for a firing squad, IMO) are pretty remarkable, right down to the group that “captured” them. I’m leaning toward the theory that he went there hoping/conspiring to be “captured” and ransomed because he is some kind of freakazoid wypipo jihadi. Didn’t his wife pretty much play the OG Islamic wife role during the press conference – scarf, didn’t say a word?
Sometimes I think we could leave this blank and no-one would notice.
The equivalent of my wife saying, “You don’t love me.”
Great musical choice BTW.
No, no! “If you loved me, you would read my excerpt text.”
We love you, OMWC…well, not in that way…
“How can the movement amplify the voices of specific groups—especially women, immigrants, and people of color—while embracing white men as full participants?”
“Many supporters of the group, which spearheaded the record-setting marches around the U.S. to protest President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, were outraged that conference organizers would pick a white man to address a convention meant to elevate women of color.”
Hahaha lefties. This is why identity politiking is a losing strategy.
And the voice they want to elevate was…..
wait for it……
Maxine Waters.
No lie. They really think that Maxine Waters, as a woman of color, has a message that needs elevating. Holy crap, people are stupid.
The Women’s March Invited Bernie Sanders. Then the Trouble Started
Don’t invite a douche to your summer’s eve march.
??????????
I’ve been really enjoying RBCF. Thanks for the recommendation!.
Glad you like it. I’ll be adding to Jangle Noise over the weekend. Trying to get it over 6 hours.
Weekend listening; new albums by Protomartyr, Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett. And of course, WFMU’s Michael Shelley Show, Fools Paradise, and Todd-o-phonic Todd.
I dig Courtney – chick can really write.
Check out Katie Ellen if you haven’t. Some good stuff there, too.
Thanks. Katie just made the list. I HAVE A LIST!!!!
Shameless plug for my Spotify playlist Jangle Noise https://open.spotify.com/user/egould310/playlist/20QahoaMym4xptW1UNzNpk?si=thg2yP1N
5.5 hours of guitar based rock n roll. From jangly and sweet to noisy and screeeeeeech!
Testimonial:
Jangle Noise has made me taller, stronger and more attractive to women. 10/10
Whats RBCF, all I found was this
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever https://youtu.be/ZEnSnJrOWVs
Full length coming out soon, I hear!
Nice. It does remind me of the Go-Betweens like someone commented.
Ah, thanks. giving it a listen, not really my bag but ‘sallright.
What’s your bag?
*whistles, stamps feet, applauds*
Well played, sir. Well played.
?❤️???
Charles Cooke is the best argument I have about the value of immigration to our country.
He’s a gem, isn’t he? As I spend a great deal of time on the road, I listen to many a podcast; Mad Dogs and Englishman is always a treat. Charles and KDW are also both fabulous writers, as well as having great public speaking skills.
Speaking of podcasts, may I enquire with The Commentariat what they delight in jamming into their ears?
Wet Willies. Draw the line at cigars, though.
Wet Willy, or STEVE SMITH?
STEVE SMITH ALL HOLES QUALIFIED!
STEVE SMITH HOLD EXPERT BADGE WITH MISSILE & FIELD ARTILLERY BARS. NOT ABLE TO FIT SMALL BORE PISTOL IN THIS CYCLE.
STEVE SMITH HOLD PERMANENT QUALIFICATION WITH BIG BORE PISTOL IN ALL CYCLES, IF YOU KNOW WHAT STEVE SMITH MEAN. (HE MEAN RAPE.)
They are pretty old, but I love listening to the commentaries of Robert Lefevre.
Jesus, this lady Cooke is debating is a mendacious liar. How is any minority group today being prevented from speaking at Universities? The Universities have fetishized minority groups for decades, and this chick is outright stating that they have no voice because Free Speech. What the actual fuck.
Titties?
No, but the moderator – WOULD
YES.
Depends on your interests: science, politics, conspiracy theory, anti-conspiracy theory?
I’ll take science and politics for $400 please, Alex.
Big Picture Science (host tends to be too trusting in government, but it rarely comes up).
Exposing Pseudoastronomy: focuses on debunking but there’s some good science in the process (the host has a PhD in astronomy)
AstronomyCast
On politics, I subscribe to all these but I don’t listen to everything they put out: Cato Daily & Cato Event, City Journal, Banter (AEI), Free Thoughts (Libertarianism.org), Mises Weekends, So to Speak (FIRE).
Oh, I’ve also got a list of sports & histroy if you’re interested.
I listen to the Cato Casts and Free Thoughts; been meaning to get around to the one put out by FIRE.
Speaking of those astronomy podcasts, what is your opinion on Star Talk? Setting aside all of the known problems with NdGT.
Be careful with science podcasts: It’s very easy to get wrapped up in conceptualizing the theory under discussion to the exclusion of paying attention to driving, which is far more important. I used to listen to Leonard Susskind’s lectures on quantum theory while driving until I almost ran a stoplight to t-bone a car in an intersection. I highly recommend Susskind’s undergraduate lectures on quantum theory, but only if you’re listening at home.
I’ve run over missing and loose orphans while listening to Allan Watts. It happens.
I’m amazed at how well he keeps his cool when debating insane academics spouting inanities.
Speaking of podcasts, Tom Woods and ContraKrugman are often entertaining. EconTalk is usually covers an interesting topic.
I listen to KontraCrugnutz on occasion. I like Woods, I’m not a fan of his radio voice or his …. schtick.
Repeat rapist given joint custody of victim’s son
STEVE SMITH has rights, too.
“But Tiffany has a different story. “I was receiving government assistance and they told me if I did not tell them who the father was that they would take that away from me,” she said.”
This is what happens when you let the state into your life. The government giveth amd the government taketh away.
Yeah, but when government giveth, it giveth…good and hard.
STEVE SMITH SAD. WASHINGTON MAKE STEVE SMITH FEEL…INFERIOR.
I don’t know who I have more blood thirsty contempt for. Federal district Court judges or family court judges. I hate them more than cops.
Does it matter? They’re all equal in the woodchipper.
Note to Preet, et al: that was a joke.
National Propaganda Radio sends their intrepid factcheckers out to PWN the gun nutz
Quibbling over exactly what part of the U.S. is No. 1 in terms of gun-law strictness, however, isn’t the most compelling part of Sanders’ statement. She also said that having gun regulations “certainly hasn’t helped” in Chicago.
That’s a much more controversial claim — and it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
It’s important to remember here that Chicago is very close to two states that have relatively weak gun laws: Wisconsin and Indiana. So while it’s easy to pick on Chicago (or any other high-crime city) for its ugly statistics, says one expert, taking bordering states into account weakens this gun-advocacy talking point.
[blah blah blah]
All of this might suggest that criminals will just go to whatever lengths necessary get their hands on guns, regardless of whatever laws are in place.
But that’s the wrong way to think about it, Cook said.
“No one’s in a position to say that Chicago’s various special regulations and Illinois’s regulations are doing no good,” he said, “because we don’t know what the homicide rate would be in the absence of those.
Just think how bad it would be without all these magical incantations and violence-repelling rocks!
Are there any tigers there, Brooks?
Sure…Lincoln Park Zoo!
“All of this might suggest that criminals will just go to whatever lengths necessary get their hands on guns, regardless of whatever laws are in place.”
Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner.
No no no. State borders are permeable, but national borders are rock solid. Just look at the lack of illegal immigrants!
“because we don’t know what the homicide rate would be in the absence of those.”
Yes we do. If the good people of Chicago could arm themselves for defense the rate would be much, much lower. Fucking gun grabbers are liars.
It’s nice of them to actually admit that they don’t know what the homicide rate would be, though. Usually they just have a bunch of fancy-degree’d hucksters come up with some “scientific model” of what the crime rate would have been if their beloved 2A violations were not in place. SCIENCE!
If only there were similar cities without draconian gun laws for comparison…
We don’t know what the homicide rate will look like in the absence of all these laws and regulations, but we can say for sure that more laws and regulations will prevent gun violence. Derpety-doo!
Tigers? Just tame ones, who jump through flaming hoops.
Fucking cost benefit analysis- how does it work?
Aided by the lawyers in the room (and others, including high-profile and high-profiting alumni of the tobacco wars, such as Joe Rice and Steve Berman), 10 states and dozens of cities and counties have sued companies including Purdue Pharma, Endo, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals—beginning in 2014 but mostly in the past few months. (Forty state AGs have launched preliminary investigations as a way to gauge the viability of litigation.) The suits allege that the companies triggered the opioid epidemic by minimizing the addiction and overdose risk of painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Duragesic. Opioids don’t just cause problems when they’re misused, the suits argue: They do so when used as directed, too.
The opioid epidemic cost the U.S. economy $78.5 billion in 2013, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a quarter of which was paid by taxpayers through increased public costs for health care, criminal justice, and treatment. The industry, the suits contend, should bear the financial burden of this wreckage.
Let’s take pain medication off the market. Better safe than sorry.
Epidemic.
“Epidemic.”
Fuck you.
America has an epidemic epidemic!
We need a War on Epidemics!
“a quarter of which was paid by taxpayers through increased public costs for health care, criminal justice, and treatment.”
Quit prosecuting people for putting substances into their bodies.
Quit subsidizing healthcare.
Problem solved.
Where’s my cookie?
Hahahaa! You crazy libertarians and your complicated schemes. Good luck creating Utopia!
But if you legalized heroin, everybody would be addicted, and then they wouldn’t be able to get treatment because not subsidizing healthcare is the same thing as making it illegal!
/statist
“Let’s take pain medication off the market”
I’m sure this thought is seriously being considered. Better that 10s of millions suffer in agonizing pain than a few thousand ineffectively try to self-medicate thier miserable lives.
Most of us know the unemployment statistic is bullshit. That the participation rate is more accurate. That it shows millions of men have “disappeared” from the workforce . If these men had jobs… As in a job that could pay for rent and food (not a fucking part time job at Starbucks), these men would not be so miserable and try to medicate thier way out of it.
FBI are lying fuckwits.
Shocking, I know. Then there’s this:
Six weeks? I wonder what those docs will look like in six weeks.
This?
Or this.
This?
They will look just like the documents that were FOIAed in relation to operation fast and furious. In other words, not produced.
Trouble in paradise
In multiple interviews, former and current employees told this news organization little or no warning preceded the dismissals. The workers interviewed include trained engineers working on vehicle design and production, a supervisor and factory employees.
Workers estimated between 400 and 700 employees have been fired. Tesla refused to say how many employees were let go, although the company expects employee turnover to be similar to last year’s attrition.
The spokesman said most of the dismissals were administrative and sales positions, and outside of manufacturing. Tesla employs about 10,000 workers at its Fremont factory.
Workers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals from the company. Employees said the firings have lowered morale through many departments. Several said Model X, Model S and former SolarCity operations seemed to be targeted.
Don’t worry. Everything is going according to plan. Nothing to see here.
Tinkerbell has a minor case of the sniffles, but as long as you keep clapping, she’ll be okay.
This on top of a recall yesterday. If history repeats the stock should go through the roof on Monday.
Still, though, I think it’s nice of all of Tesla’s customers to pay for the privilege of beta testing the cars for Elon. Think how far behind he’d be if he went through the same boring test protocols that every other manufacturer does. So 20th century…
I remember Apple stock would tank every time they announced another quarter of record profits, so yeah. Makes sense.
This is what Jaguar used to do – use their customers as testers. And then not fix things.
A successful business man looks at another field assumes it is easy, has lots of problems — film at 11.
He brushed aside the Pringle’s crumbs from his Addidas jumper, pulled the coffee table as close as his distended gut would allow. He would show that therapist that could treat himself. Pen in hand, he began to scribble on the complimentary notepad the facility had provided:
“Sure, I like pussy. Sue me. People look at me like I just won the Oscar for Best Supporting Pervert, but why am I to be judged by losers?. These girls come from around the globe, hauling around the only talent they have. Sucking a mogul’s cock. They want me to make them a star. Make them a shit load of cash. Make them famous. Yet, they don’t want to pay the price of admission. This isn’t a fucking charity.
You may think this is immoral, but you aren’t an artist (and yes, I am an artist. I pay the motherfuckers). My cum is the lifeblood of this entire industry. My cum is the fertilizer that causes tremendous growth. You call me a degenerate, but you don’t understand. Call me “sick” if you want because I have no choice. I have this magic elixir inside of me and I have to let it loose on any living organism within arm’s reach.
And that bitch, Hillary? I helped her get millions of women to pull the lever for her and she can’t overlook having a few pull mine? My jizz has created more stars than the big bang. I’ve put the wood in Hollywood and you motherfuckers judge me?”
Something didn’t feel quite right to Harvey. He hurled the note pad at the wall. Something was wrong. There it is; his cock had been rock hard the entire time he’d been writing his manifesto. The Arizona sunset coupled with his pent up rage had resulted in a purple, throbbing pecker. He got up, went into the bathroom and shed his clothes. The complimentary cotton robe beckoned him to slip into it. Perfect. It only circumnavigated three quarters of his bulging gut.
Semi robed, Harvey peered out into the hallway. Where the hell was that Mexican maid? Panic washed over him as he realized he would be wasting his life enhancing potion on the cotton robe. He burst into the hallway, pecker ramrod hard, searching for something alive to squirt into. “There! By the elevator!”. He ripped his robe off and ran toward the elevator. There was the fern he had eyed on his way to his room earlier in the day. As he rigorously pumped the juicy nectar from his shaft, he reached down to stroke the luscious plant. A giant howl of soul crushing pain escaped Harvey’s mouth right as he busted a nut. “Nooooooooo. Fucking plastic.”
Sugarfree-esque.
*shudders, then tentatively applauds*
Homage to the master.
Sugarfree must have a Warty -like dungeon. You get invited over for dinner, only to come out blinded by the sun you haven’t seen in three months and start writing like this.
?
Part 2: The Weinstein semen actually transforms the fake plant into a real one a-la Pinocchio.
Well done, sir.
Well done. Not quite as disgusting as SF, but close.
I like it.
http://imgur.com/dG51owC
Excellent, would read more.
But I wanted a clever title! *pouts*
May I make you jealous? AP decided to send me their top of the line analyzer to replace the one I’ve had on semi-permanent loan. “Well, you need to be able to test Bluetooth equipment.”
I figure you’re the only one here I can taunt with this.
test Bluetooth equipment
Pretty obscure euphemism, OM.
In sporting news, two ranked college football teams lost. In the Clemson-Syracuse game, the Clemson coach took the blame for the loss. In the Washington State – Cal game, the game was delayed shortly before halftime when a woman ran onto the field and sat down with her stuffed pig. And the Cal quarterback scored a touchdown with an intentional front flip. While he landed on his feet, he did not stick the landing.
As Dabo should. Every season he has a game where he can’t stop trampling on his own dick long enough to realize certain players have no business being on the field. Credit to Syracuse, they showed up ready to win.
That photo doesn’t do it justice, but Peruvian food can be great–guinea pig aside.
I could go for some lomo saltado with a side of platano right now.
South Americans love them some steak. I’ve never been to Argentina, but the national dish is steak, the national wine, Malbec pairs with it nicely, the women are gorgeous and the speak Spanish with an Italian accent.
If only it weren’t for Argentina’s penchant for inflation and authoritarianism . . .
Still, steak, women, and vino would make the rest of it go down easier. Long flight, though. Maybe I’ll just get some lomo saltado instead.
P.S. Guinea pigs are rodents, but shrimp are the cockroaches of the sea.
The observatory I worked for in grad school was in Argentina; took numerous trips down there. Everything you say is true. I’d like to go back.
I used to go there regularly on business. Didn’t care for it at all. Their cuisine barely went beyond grilled hunks of meat (there’s creativity for you), the women were obsessed with plastic surgery, fashion, and jewelry (they would put on dress clothes and full makeup just to take out the trash), and they had a racial/ethnic arrogance that was intense enough to offend even me.
I much preferred Chile. Fun people, lively food, far less pretension.
Only flew through Chile, though I’d love to check it out. Brazil too, though that’s a completely different animal.
My parents went to Chile earlier this year. They absolutely loved it.
Wan’t Waffles down there recently?
Yeah, he was skiing down there. Quite the adventure it looked like from the youtube videos.
Chilean Waffles, next week on Toast with Tundra
I’d like to visit both places though I have a preference for Chile.
Two out of three of those things sound great to me!
If an Argentinian complained that American food was insufficient in the grilled hunks of meat category and American women simply won’t dress up . . .
Hunks of grilled meat and women who still dress up . . . that doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me.
In all of Latin culture, there’s a stronger sense of family–and that can be off-putting to me, anyway, sometimes. A culture steeped in the Protestant work ethic means nepotism is a bad thing–my brother wouldn’t even offer me a job because that would be insulting. What, you think I can’t make it on my own?!
In Latin culture, I think hiring a stranger over family seems like a massive betrayal, and there’s a bold, clear line between friends and family. Your friends are your cousins and if you’ve got friends outside of the family, they’ve typically been friends and acquaintances of your family for a long time. This can make people seem . . . standoffish to Americans.
But then Americans are known world wide for seeming overly familiar with strangers (even the Brits think so). To us, it’s called being “friendly”. To them, it’s walking around naked in public.
In a lot of Latin culture (maybe not in Mexico as much since they’ve been influenced by and more exposed to American culture), if you’re not trying to get in their pants and you’re not already a friend of the family, then what the hell are you trying to do in getting to know them so well–and sharing so much of yourself?
We had a receptionist from Argentina one time. On her first day, we had a conversation that went something like:
Ken: “If you want to go to lunch, I can find someone to cover the phones for you”.
Receptionist: “No thank you, I’m married”.
Puzzled, I’m looking at her trying to figure out why she said that. I’ve been shot down in flames before, but I wasn’t even trying for that . . . Then it hit me!
Ken: “I think you may have misunderstood. I’ve already been to lunch. I just came back! If you would like to go to lunch–by yourself–I can find someone to cover the phones for you while you’re gone”.
I hadn’t had much interaction with her before then. I’m not sure she even knew who I was. Why should I care if she gets to go to lunch? I must be trying to get in her . . .
There are many restaurants with innovative cuisine in Buenos Aires. We were there a few years ago, when you could still take advantage of the black market exchange rate. Everything (including fancy restaurants) was so cheap.
One of the most beautiful women I ever saw in my life was an 18-year old college intern from Argentina. Her father was Argentine and her mother was Malaysian. She was also an incredibly nice person.
I might have gone after her, but she was about 10 years younger than me, religious, and already in a relationship, so that probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.
Every desirable woman on the face of the earth is already in a relationship–once you get out of, say, high school, and probably before that.
If you want a desirable woman, then you’re going to have to take her away from someone else.
If she just came to the area for a job or school or for whatever reason . . . she’s got somebody back home. There are no desirable women without attachments. You may need to play it a little subtle at first, but don’t ever deprive yourself of something you want because a girl already has a boyfriend.
If the idiot didn’t put a ring on her finger, she’s in play. If they don’t have any attachments, it’s only for while. A desirable woman in trouble is a very temporary thing.
P.S. Ten years younger can be a positive quality, and religious can mean honest and devoted–it can be a positive quality, too. A lot of guys say that women seem like they’re unaccountable, but church going women hold each other accountable like nothing guys ever experience.
I agree, and I would have absolutely no problem dating a religious woman… But 9 times out of 10, they’ll have a problem with me.
Becuz bewbs.
http://thechive.com/2013/12/20/i-like-girls-because-squishy-45-photos-2/
Better link for those with ad blockers.
Orgy.
Shoot, forgot to do that.
28 looks nice.
More Tesla
Eric Peters riffs on the origin of Tesla’s fawning media coverage.
Spoiler: it’s graft!
I guess some of the old ways are still aces in Elon’s book.
Eric Peters does great work. I wonder how he would rip on a Tesla if he got his hands on one.
Feel good story of the day.
https://www.voanews.com/a/ethiopian-refugees-journey-to-american-dream-dishwasher-to-millionaire/4041584.html
The world needs
dishwashersmillionaires too!Good for him, but let’s not forget that there are significant incentives and benefits in being a minority-run company when dealing with state and federal bureaucracy.
This and this and of course, lots of others.
He only got that rich by exploiting the little guy.
ASS CANCER BECUZ TEH GHEYZ!
(no really…)
https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2017/09/28/anal-cancer-new-gay-epidemic-media-wont-talk/
This seems like another bogus moral panic.
Well, it really is kinda obvious. Put something that may be carrying a viral load of HPV or some other oncovirus up your ass, you have a higher probability of getting cancer.
The more you do it, the greater the statistical risk. How do you avoid it happening? Don’t put things with oncoviruses up your ass. Someone should have told Michael Douglas not to eat so much pussy either.
Because no straight couple ever goes anal.
I personally blame anal sex in Montana.
I see what Farrah Fawcett was up to.
Reasonable
What we need are tougher and smarter rules that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, while still allowing law-abiding, rule-following people to arm themselves. Perhaps the most startling fact about the Las Vegas shooter’s means of mass murder is that he stockpiled 33 firearms in 12 months, “most of which were rifles.” Why is this legal? I’m not talking about why we don’t require reporting multiple sales of long guns to federal authorities (which we don’t). I’m not talking about the bump stocks the shooter used to make his semi-automatic weapons fire like machine guns. I’m talking about why people are allowed to own more than, say, two firearms without a really good reason.
What sort of depraved fanatical gun fetishist would complain about that?
And when I ask if that means the police will need to come and conduct an inventory of my gun safe every six months, they’ll tell me I’m a mouth-breathing paranoiac.
Hey, Pennington, nice collection of Paper Mate rollerballs you got on your desk – say – why do you need so many to exercise your 1st amendment rights?
You can only shoot one rifle at a time.
“I’m talking about why people are allowed to own more than, say, two firearms without a really good reason.”
First off the governmemt doesn’t allow me anything. It can try to stop me from doing things, but I don’t ask it permission for anything.
Also I have a really good reason to own more than 2 firearms. Because I want to.
The whole fixationon the number of guns is stupid. He could have produced the same amount of carnage with two. When are the media going to finally ask some tough questions about how someone can go over a hour and a half shooting in Las Fucking Vegas with no one stopping them?
And just to show they’re willing to compromise…
Let me put that another way: Why shouldn’t we require someone who wants to own more than two firearms, and who isn’t legally in the gun business, to file an application? Send some paperwork to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; submit fingerprints and a photo; and send in a $200 fee along with the make, model, and number of additional weapons you’d like to purchase (and eventually their serial numbers). You would agree to undergo a thorough criminal, domestic violence, and mental health background check, knowing that if a permit to purchase additional firearms were granted, such a background check would be performed every six months (to ensure the applicant hadn’t fallen into a prohibited category of gun owner). Finally, and most important, the reason for requesting additional firearms would be stated on the application.
What would qualify as a legitimate reason? Maybe you own a huge ranch in Wyoming and need to supply your staff members with bolt-action rifles. Maybe you own a courier business that ferries valuables for clients and you need to arm your guards. As long as they’re all properly trained and vetted, and safe-storage precautions are taken, certain business exceptions like these probably make sense. You can likely think of other potential reasons. How many of these outweigh the public safety purpose of preventing someone like the Las Vegas shooter from amassing a personal arsenal? I suspect the answer is “very few.”
Who could possibly object to being put on a national spree-killer-watch database? Only someone with something to hide.
What made this guy do it was how many guns he had, not his intent to kill lots of people. If he only had one or two guns, this never would have happened.
Or maybe my reason is fuck you, I’ll own however many firearms I want you fucking power-hungry piece of shit?
“What would qualify as a legitimate reason? Maybe you own a huge ranch in Wyoming and need to supply your staff members with bolt-action rifles. Maybe you own a courier business that ferries valuables for clients and you need to arm your guards.”
Maybe you figure that one day the government will finally take it too far and you need to be able to arm yourself and your friends and go agent hunting.
I just love these Op-Eds written by people who have probably never held a gun. Trump is 100% about one thing, the media is by-and-large completely dishonest scum. I would never consider myself qualified to write an Op-Ed about equestrian steeplechase because I’ve never done and know nothing about it; but that certainly won’t stop these lying, shitstain gun-grabbers.
What would qualify as a legitimate reason?
Any reason that isn’t legitimate. Why don’t you make a list of those, and then we can talk?
Any reason that isn’t illegitimate.
Stupid keyboard.
That sonofabitch Keuchel can’t pitch every night. No one else Houston puts on a mound scares me – I think the Yanks light Verlander up tonight.
What’s really galling about last night is that the Yankees actually hit Keuchel harder than the Astros hit Tanaka – the two run rally only had one well hit ball. Altuve got on via a fucking infield dribbler that he beat out and Gurriel hit a weak ground ball with eyes. If Judge didn’t hit his single so damned hard, Bird scores regardless of the throw.
Sevy is going to be throwing lightning bolts tonight.
Admit it- when Tanaka got hit in the nuts by a line drive, Aoki-style, you laughed. I sure as hell did.
Not as much as when Sanchez took a foul tip off the cup and David Robertson had the best reaction possible.
Keuchel is a great pitcher.
But he benefits from getting Strikes called that are in between the bottom of the knee and ankles.
If the ump is gonna give him strikes that are at your fucking shin, then you have to swing at his splitter.
It was a terrible send by the third base coach. You have Sanchez up next with the bases loaded.
baseball talk-radio is retarded
baseballtalk-radio is retardedI suppose that’s right. maybe i shouldn’t even blame the radio-people. its the listeners who need to get a life.
Here’s today’s news, with a side of guinea pig.
When I visited a cousin of mine and her husband in Ecuador, I told them I wanted to try Cuy. Unfortunately, with all the other stuff I wanted to see/try, and the stuff they introduced me to (pig roasts are common where they lived), I didn’t have time to have some Cuy.
The story about the family kidnapped by the Taliban is quite bizarre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Joshua_Boyle_and_Caitlan_Coleman
The guy’s first wife was the sister of of Gitmo Detainee? He was obsessed with Islamic terrorism? I question their true motives for being in Afghanistan (not that they deserved what happened to them), but the whole thing is very odd.
The article said the guy was highly interested in Islamic terrorism, was converted to islam (took prayer breaks at work) and was backpacking in Taliban controlled Afghanistan
I’m gonna say that this wasn’t just some innocent who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The media sure are asking us to swallow some baffling narratives lately.
RE: Absurd bumpstock ban.
If this makes it through Congress and then Trump vetoes it, it might be the ideal scenario. That would endear Trump to his base while simultaneously rallying them to primary out the RINOs that voted for it. Might be a two-for-one.
I’d be surprised if Trump vetoed a bump stock ban. His views on gun control (warning: Auto-play video) changed when convenient. He supported more gun control after the Newtown shooting, then when he ran for president, became the NRA’s man.
Trump is not going to veto: the NRA endorses the bump-stock ban.
I really don’t care about it. The bump stock is really a pretty useless item for a well-regulated militia. Though it’s not going to happen, I’d be happy to compromise for legalization of a three-shot burst automatic in exchange for the bump-stock ban.
the NRA endorses the bump-stock ban.
Have they endorsed the garbage bill that lays the groundwork for going much further than banning bump-stocks?
I see that one of my reps is a repub sellout on the ban. I have long believed him to be too squishy for the job. This confirms it.
Maybe time for someone else to take a crack at it.
Paulsen has always been an empty suit. He was one of Ramstad’s butt boys who got the nod when he retired.
I agree that it would be great to see him primaried out of the seat. My only fear is that I think he was supposed to run against Dean Phillips who sounds pretty terrible. Dean’s worst sin though is that he comes from the Phillips liquor dynasty. I have had too many hangovers from drinking various Phillips produced booze to ever vote for him.
Yeah, fuck that guy. We don’t need any more proggies.
Any state level peeps look interesting?
i have not really cared about the bump stock regulation being thrown around, assuming that the NRA would throw a sacrificial lamb in front of congress and let them satisfy the generally-retarded public with some minor pretend-regulation that no effect on 99.99% of gun owners….
…but i have been convinced otherwise by some of the people i view on youtube. i guess that’s why i view them in the first place: to care about stuff i’d otherwise shrug about
MAC makes some good points here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCLoIorYguU
Yeah, the issue of making the action of a gun cycle rounds faster than the manufacturer’s design impermissible in some way puts us in the realms of Harrison Bergeron.
About 75% of my dry fire practice at the moment is purely optimizing my trigger release so that my short reset works. I can empty a mag about 30% faster than I could 3 months ago. Does my improved control of a firearm make me less safe to be around?
it would criminalize gunsmithing, the aftermarket parts industry, and would enshrine terms like “standard rate of semi-automatic fire” into law, when there is in fact no such thing as any ‘standard rate’, etc.
its a backdoor that’s framed a mile-wide
I just know that if they passed a ban on bump stocks and other devices that simulate full-auto, they would come back in a year or so complaining that their well-intentioned law is being hamstrung by a “loophole”, namely the fact that you can fire a semi-auto really fast without any kind of modifications.
If this passes Congress, I will actually make the first voluntary (that is, not “suggested” by my employer) political contributions to Repub primary challengers.
If Trump signs it, I will donate to whoever is running against him that causes me the least revulsion.
This far, and no farther.
List of Repub sponsors:
Could be more by now.
I’m liking Costello as a primary victim – his district is rural PA. Meehan also, maybe – his district is suburban Philadelphia and rural PA.
Charter Spectrum might drop all of Viacom’s channels, including Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon. Might be time to permanently cut the cable cord. Seriously, fuck cable and its bill-inflating sports channels (apologies to Sloopy and the other sports Glibs).
http://www.keepviacom.com/
Oh, Viacom owns BET? Maybe throwing some “racist!” bombs at Charter Spectrum would work…
One might ask why sports channels are so expensive.
With streaming services where you can just watch whatever shows you want, I think television is going to go the way of the radio (e.g. something that is mostly used for background noise while you get ready for work).
Seems a lot like a Glibs meetup.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/style/john-waters-camp.html
A former roommate of mine met John Waters once. My former roommate got Waters to autograph a copy of one of the JFK autopsy photographs.
The night I met Waters (premiere of Serial Mom), I got Mink Stole to autograph my hand. Waters and I chatted for a few minutes about The Diane Linkletter Story. SP and I have gone to several of his one-man shows and she adopted a quote from him as her personal credo: “If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.”
John Waters is fantastic. he’s also a pretty funny writer.
Talking about William Castle and Macabre
Don’t get me started on Godard and the way he treated Truffaut over Day for Night.
Artists claim that art is supposed to be “transgressive” and “challenging”, but the only want it to challenge white cishetero shitlords. Truffaut, in Day for Night made a great but conventional movie, and Godard couldn’t stand that he was the one being challenged and not the shitlords, so he basically unpersonned Truffaut.
“Mr. Waters slipped out the back door and stood beneath the pines, elated. “It’s like Jonestown, but with a happy ending,” he said.”
Funny shit. It looked like everybody had a good time.
I would put money in a GoFundMe account for some kid to actually wear this “My Che shirt is in the wash” t-shirt on some campus.
I’m tempted to buy that.
Nice. I would wear it.
I actually like to see idiots walking around in Che t-shirts. They think they’re being super edgy and subversive, but they’re just lining the pockets of some American clothing corporation that outsourced the labor to Bangladesh.
Theory:
in any debate, the person speaking more slowly is correct.
Exception which proves rule: Henry Kissinger.
i don’t know if that’s an exception at all. when he was wrong (e.g vietnam), the people he debated were probably wronger.
and… independent of that example, i’d revise the original comment slightly
the slower speaker has the better argument. which isn’t necessarily the same thing as ‘correct’. as any smart-enough person can win a debate and make a better argument for a worse position. all it requires is for your competition to be stupid.
people who speak slowly are able to frame their argument in terms that more of the audience will instantly understand. people who are talking faster use more words because they aren’t 100% certain of the version they’re articulating in the first place. their own lack of confidence in the case is explicit; if they understood their own position better, they’d be able to simplify it.
its a subset of the “shorter sentences are better sentences” rule, basically.
*derivative of this argument:
twitter will get dumber
ifwhen it ups the character limit to 280That’s actually Al Franken’s trick- he says remarkably stupid and banal shit veeeerrrry sllloooowwwwly, carefully enunciating each word while peering over his glasses. We call this “gravitas.”
if the trick works, it works for a reason.
saying stupid shit slowly also makes it very easy for any other person to quote and rebut the stupidity. Franken’s speech-making trick probably only works because he’d never try it in an actual debate.
But that doesn’t mean you’re getting the trophy
https://youtu.be/fmO-ziHU_D8
Alternative strategy = “talk so fast that all anyone hears is progressive buzzwords”
maybe another formulation:
some people do deliberative speech; other people do performative speech
the former intend you to think about what they’re saying, be able to deconstruct it, and abstract further ideas from it.
the latter do not. they’re simply mashing various ideas together to create a superficial impression and emotion.
i think in the short run, performative speech is appealing. the problem is that people can’t quite remember what the point is because there isn’t one. they can try and recreate their own versions, but it usually amounts to babble, and they’re frustrated when other people don’t “get it” just because they’ve touched all the correct buzzwords.
deliberative speech has a more-lasting potency and actually changes minds.
Counterpoint: Ben Shapiro talks fast than Cenk Uygur.
fair observation. he also seems to shoot himself in the foot on occasion.
he might be correct more often, but i’d argue his patter probably undermines his ability to convince skeptical people.
After Camille Pagilia came to fame, she took speech lessons to learn to speak more slowly, because she tended to get rapid fire and out of control.
Twitter tardery:
proceeds to then explain how he will silence more of them.
LOL what horseshit
Love his tweet-stream or whatever you call that. Perfectly woke af.
That’s why it’s called Twitter.
If names aren’t going to come out now then they probably never will.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/13/maybe-time-take-look-corey-feldman-saying-years/
Encouraging news from Chile
The Chilean politician Jose Antonio Kast has defended the right to carry guns as six out of the nations eight presidential candidates presented their programs on justice and crime to Supreme Court judges.
Kast said that “any Chilean” citizen should have the right to “carry and use guns” if the legal requirements were met, despite sparking a controversy a few days ago when he said he would shoot a delinquent if one broke into his house.
Assuming the legal requirements are better than in New Jersey, anyway.
sparking a controversy a few days ago when he said he would shoot a delinquent if one broke into his house.
Why the hell is that controversial?
Chicago’s homicide rate is 28.7 per 100,000.
For Indianapolis, the rate is 17.1
So the city in the state with looser gun laws has a lower homicide rate than the city in the state with stricter gun laws.
The progs claim that the violence in Chicago is caused by looser laws in Indiana. If that’s true, shouldn’t Indiana have a higher homicide rate? If the claim is that loose gun laws lead to more homicides, that effect should be strongest in the places with the loosest laws.
Newark’s homicide rate is even higher than Chicago and Newark is in a state with gun laws even tougher than Illinois.
Bloomberg was blaming gun laws in Georgia for violence in NYC:
***
SMYRNA, Ga., Dec. 5 — In Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s campaign to remove illegal guns from New York City’s streets, he sued 27 out-of-state gun dealerships last year over what he said were illegal sales. Most agreed to settle, while others chose to take their chances in court.
…
Mr. Bloomberg announced the first federal lawsuit, against 15 dealerships, with great fanfare and emotion at a City Hall news conference in May 2006, calling the gun shops “rogue dealers,” “the worst of the worst” and “a scourge on our society,” according to court filings. The second suit, against 12 dealerships, was announced last December. John Feinblatt, the city’s criminal justice coordinator — who is also named in Mr. Wallace’s libel suit — accused the dealerships of having “New Yorkers’ blood on their hands.”
***
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/nyregion/09guns.html
Bloomberg is a piece of shit. I hope his priggish nanny mug dies in excruciating chronic pain.
“I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
-Bloomberg
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/16/michael-bloomberg-ive-earned-my-place-in-heaven-fo/
Chicago. Baltimore. Washington DC. California.
That should tell you everything you need to know about gun laws and crime. The idea that 2A rights lead to violence is a fucking joke; the only way the gun-grabbers get away with saying otherwise is by presenting “studies” loaded with statistical buttfuckery (like ignoring the rate of total violent crime and instead measuring “gun deaths” which, of course, includes suicides and justifiable shootings by police and citizens).
Mozambique: 16 dead as Muslim gunmen attack police stations
Somalia: Muslims set off truck bomb in Mogadishu, at least 20 dead
Same old, same old
Rutgers won’t give back $100K Harvey Weinstein donation
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/37881/
***
The Daily Targum reports the donation is “part of a campaign to raise $3 million for the Gloria Steinem Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies,” which — ironically — benefits the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and “addresses the intersection of feminist studies and media culture.”
The university’s defense for keeping the cash comes amid Rutgers’ dating/domestic violence awareness-raising “Turn the Campus Purple” week, and shortly after Rutgers President Robert L. Barchi stated the school remains committed to “protecting students from sexual violence, discrimination and harassment” following Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s rollback of Obama administration Title IX guidelines.
Director of University News and Media Relations Dory Devlin said that while the Weinstein allegations are “appalling and indefensible,” there remains work to be done to “advance women’s equality” and the Weinstein donation “will help those efforts.”
***
i spit a little coffee there. “turn the campus purple“?? SJW’s are not good at PR.
Rutgers’ dating/domestic violence
So we’ve moved on from “all sex by men is rape” to “all dating is violence”?
lol.
presumably they meant “domestic-violence/date-violence” but its just a stupid formulation in either case. how about simplifying it to ‘relationship violence’? but they’re idiots, so that’s expecting too much.
Or just violence?
i think the qualifier of “relationships” attempts to explain why its violence that is otherwise kept hidden.
regular violence, done by antagonists, is quickly reported. when people who mutually care about one another get to a-slappin’, they hide their behavior. but… that’s wrong, because y’all bitches need respect and shit.
fwiw, i’ve never laid an unkind hand on a girl in my life. i’ve been slapped +clawed @ by many. i suspect my situation is not what they’re concerned about.
The only reason a testosterone- poisoned male aggressor would date a woman is to rape her. And all men are testosterone- poisoned male aggressors.
So, yeah, all dating is violence.
Hilarious. The Gloria Steinem Chair on Wokeness Studies is funded by one of the scuzziest abusers of women around.
Money being fungible and all, I’ve never understood the demands to return donations by the object of today’s 5 Minute Hate (assuming there is no quid pro quo that needs unwinding also). But I still laugh at these holier than thou types never releasing their iron grip on cash in hand.
Money is fungible, but most likely this is a gift to RU’s endowment fund, not to the general operating budget. It means it can’t be used for anything else. But, it also means that the position isn’t being entirely funded from the general budget. So giving back 100k could mean having to delay or cancel creating the position.
My eyeballs can’t roll up any further at all of that. Holeee crap.
Here’s the thing. The media has been told for years about the abuse in Hollywood, and has refused to publish. Even when they do publish accusations, they redact the names. Even when the police are told by an alleged victim, they refuse to investigate.
There is no reason not to name names. The report “Feldman named the following as child rapists” – would be 100% truthful, no defamation claim against the publication possible. Ponder, also, the bone-deep corruption (in every sense of the word) of cops who are informed about a child predator ring and do nothing.
The Daily Targum reports the donation is “part of a campaign to raise $3 million for the Gloria Steinem Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies,” which — ironically — benefits the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and “addresses the intersection of feminist studies and media culture.”
“I didn’t ask you up here to make a speech, Hon. Do you want the goddam part, or not?”
I was reading one of my favorite history books the other day: One Bloody Thing After Another.
Massacres are nothing new nor do they require fancy weapons. In 265 BC, Ashoka conquered the kingdom of Kalinga. 100,000 were killed. in 1265, the Mongols sacked Baghdad. 100,000 were killed. The Taiping Rebellion left about 20 million dead and the weapons were mainly swords, spears, bows and arrows. More recently, about 800,000 Tutsis were massacred in Rwanda. That took 3 months and most of the killing was by machete.
As long as there are pissed off people, there will be bloodshed. Only the dead have seen the end of war.
The War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage by Keeley is a pretty comprehensive journey through the archeological evidence of human violence. Spoiler: Humans have always loved to kill the shit out of each other. We are now living through an incredibly peaceful time in human history.
From Guns, Germs, and Steel:
***
For example, I happened to be visiting New Guineas Iyau people at a time when a woman anthropologist was interviewing Iyau women about their life histories. Woman after woman, when asked to name her husband, named several sequential husbands who had died violent deaths. A typical answer went like this: My first husband was killed by Elopi raiders. My second husband was killed by a man who wanted me, and who became my third husband. That husband was killed by the brother of my second husband, seeking to avenge his murder. Such biographies prove common for so-called gentle tribespeople and contributed to the acceptance of centralized authority as tribal societies grew larger.
***
Someone here recommended Empire of the Moon, about the last great Comanche warrior Quannah Parker. I’m just about 50 pages in and it is excellent. Some of the descriptions of what they would do to their captives would fit right into the goriest slasher flick about a crazed serial killer.
Many Indian tribes mutilated the bodies of slain enemies. They believed it would cause them to be deformed in the afterlife.
During the Korean War, many US units would use real skulls to decorate camp signs. They stopped doing that because Korean allies would run away when they saw the signs. Respectful treatment of human bones is very important in Korean culture. When they saw bones being desecrated, they thought the Americans were amoral barbarians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_rank_system
I don’t know if I recommended it or not, but I read that book several years ago
It’s very very good.
Someone here recommended Empire of the Moon, about the last great Comanche warrior Quannah Parker.
I grew up not far from Quanah, TX (yup, we cis-hetero shitlords named a town after an Indian warrior). I’ve also been to Adobe Walls, site of one of the last battles with the Comanche
[SPOILER ALERT]
Fun fact: Quanah Parker’s great-grandson Quanah Cox was my middle school Oklahoma History teacher (he was also a coach). Quanah Cox’s son is still a teacher in the same town, not far from Ft Sill where Quanah Parker is buried.
Quanah Cox was a good guy: good teacher & coach, an American veteran, as well as being an Elder in the Comanche tribe. He passed away in 2012, but many descendants of Quanah Parker remain in southwest Oklahoma.
Niall Ferguson’s, The War of the World, is a pretty depressing look at the 20th century.
Real nice mellow mix from Richard Dorfmeister.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eb7MXXNRlFY
SecDef Mattis on ISIS surrenders in Raqqa: “We’ll accept their surrender. All these guys said they were going to fight to the death, nah.”
[Nelson laugh]
explain to me why a battle against a few hundred dudes should take months.
When you need a positive ID and a signed confession before you will pop a jihadi, it takes time.
Booby traps and snipers can tie down lots of people for a long time, especially in urban combat.
i see your “booby traps and snipers”, and raise you “1 tank”
A lot of streets are too narrow for tank to get through. Plus a slow-moving tank is an easy target. Open window, drop molotov cocktail, scratch one tank.
***
Even though armored, tanks and mechanized infantry units also face dangers in confined urban areas due to limited all-round observation and restrictions to maneuver capabilities. This places them at an especially severe disadvantage when operating alone. During urban encounters by US armored elements in Iraq, troops reported several effective tactics used by insurgents, including sniping and dropping grenades from rooftops or upper floor windows, in an attempt to attack vehicle crews and commanders through open hatches. Other tactics included simultaneous attacks on both flanks from alleys, allowing the insurgents to fire RPGs from close range at these relatively weak areas of the tank’s armor.
Tanks and other armored vehicles are not invincible, especially in urban terrain, where they are vulnerable to attacks from close range by man-portable anti-tank weapons such as RPGs. Since the urban scenario has no “frontline”, attacks can come not only from the front, where the tanks are heavily protected, but also from above, and from the flanks or the rear, aiming at the vehicle’s weak spots. Attacks by IEDs and mines can also come from below the surface.
***
http://defense-update.com/features/du-1-06/feature-urban-armor.htm
still, if you can isolate said baddies in any small-enough areas, you don’t need to surgically remove them all 1 by 1, which seems to be the pretense. surround, pound to dust.
you yourself have made the case, frequently, that the SOP re: terry’s is dumb. scorched earth is not only practical approach to embedded dead-enders, its a permanent disincentive to people adopting the tactic in the future.
iow, replace ‘tank’ w/ artillery. wash, rinse, repeat.
identify, surround, bombard, mop up
yep. That’s the way to do it.
Indeed. But you can’t use your tank for much if collateral damage is unacceptable.
“”collateral damage””
collateral is over-rated. if you gave up your city to pajama wearing jihad mongers without a fight, expect it to be converted to rubble when you take the 3rd-party cure.
Meanwhile in Marawi:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marawi
***
The Battle of Marawi (Filipino: Labanan sa Marawi), also known as the Marawi siege (Filipino: Pagkubkob sa Marawi)[24] and the Marawi crisis (Filipino: Krisis sa Marawi),[25] is an ongoing armed conflict in Marawi, Lanao del Sur, that started on 23 May 2017 between Philippine government security forces and affiliated militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Salafi jihadist groups.[26]
…
The Armed Forces of the Philippines raided a Maute group safehouse, where they confiscated bags of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and related drug paraphernalia. Captain Eric Estrevillo of the 49th Infantry Battalion stated on a press conference that Maute group members use shabu to endure long battles, and in addition, looked “high” during combat.
***
The reason it’s taking so long is that the govt is trying to kill the bad guys without demolishing the city.
I’ve watched about half the Cooke-vs. “retards” debate at kenyon. It seems like he’s fully owned them by 45mins in. Is it more of the same after this, or are there some even better moments? asking because i need to go get lunch and am wondering if its worth coming back for.
German techno metal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aef8BskFo8
Has a Mortal Kombat vibe to it.
The problem with Justice League is the problem with the DC universe–the super villains are all more interesting than the super heroes.
I thought Aquaman was undoable. That part looks interesting because they made it seem to work in the trailer.
I just don’t give a rat’s about the other characters.
Superman – boring
Batman – boring
Lex Luthor – interesting
Joker – interesting
Hell, Harley Quinn is more interesting than Wonder Woman.
Marvel doesn’t have that problem.
Wolverine and Black Widow are as interesting as any villain in that universe.
The heroes are just far more interesting.
DC went in the right direction trying to make a film about the villains. They just screwed up the story and put in a star draw like Will Smith in it.
Should have made a better movie with the villains.
DC’s heroes are just so tired and worn out. If Aquaman is interesting it’s because he’s largely unknown.
^for clarity, i support his gayness and think they should portray him as a wildly fashionable and swishy superhero. its 2017 people. its time we accepted that the reason you all read comics as a kid was because you liked looking at muscley men in tight lycra.
also: he should sing show tunes
Just for the record, they made him incredibly manly.
He’s basically Poseidon.
He’s being played by the Dathraki Warrior guy that date-raped the smokin’ towhead on GoT.
Check it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX9ERBgTrAY
No, that’s not to the date-rape. That’s to the new Aquaman.
He looks like he could kick Batman’s ass no problem.
He’s covered with tattoos. They had to make him bad ass because . . . like you said.
Also, I think anybody can kick Wonder Woman’s ass. What’s she gonna do, make you tell the truth?
The villain being more interesting than the hero is not a problem limited to the Justice League or to comic books in general.
*notes that the history channel is 65% “hitler”
My bro calls it the “Hitler Channel”
Yeah, the Joker is more interesting than Batman, but why is Wolverine more interesting than Batman?
You know what’s more interesting than Superman?
Anything.
Christopher Reeve is more interesting than Superman.
On the other hand, the Marvel heroes are generally more interesting (to me anyway) than the bad guys in the Marvel universe.
They should stop trying to develop their least interesting characters–which are their heroes–and focus on the bad guys.
Does Marvel have an equivalent to Deadpool?
The correct answer is no.
Why try to torture another good story out of a tired character when they could focus on one of the interesting villains?
The best superhero thing I’ve ever seen is probably that TV show Legion that came out last year. That was awesome. No one had ever even heard of that guy before.
Why drag us up the same old hill?
Um….Deadpool is a Marvel anti-hero.