Hoi zäme! I might have been working a bit too hard lately *eyebrow twitches/nervous tic* … so I am taking a few minutes off to do the Afternoon Links. Unfortunately, I cannot get things Swiss off my mind. So you all get some lovely Swiss links. Hopp Schwiiz!
- I think they forgot to say “If you have a pile of francs.” Warning – another one of those surveys that might be a bit … cherry-pickish.
- Could not outrun a glacier?! Note, they were found with identity papers on them…how Swiss.
- HAHAHAHAHA! I am sure this is unrelated.
- Hmmmm. What could be causing this?
Well, back to the fondue mines for me. I get a bit of a break, starting tomorrow – I might even do some Xtreme-nerd reporting from the WBC.
I enjoyed switzerland when I vacationed there, not using the Euro made it less punishing to buy things there.
Everything in Switzerland is expensive…even a *narrowed gaze* costs extra!
*makes Glibs donation*
It’s been about a month since donations were announced, time for second round!
First!
nope.
I’m such a disappointment
Now that I’m home and painting, I figure I should ask the tabletop wargamers their opinion on This color scheme
The alternative would be to submit to the Ultima Heresey and give them The chapter standard color scheme
Okay, heres my opinion:
You are a giant nerd with no life.
I looked for a suitable video to mock you but the best I could do was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQqBMz70iM
Your projection is noted.
That’s pretty close to the 7th Reich Nazi Space Marine army I painted in my table top gamin youth 20 years ago. Mine had a few more swastikas of course. I actually got kicked out of two different game night tournaments things because of hurt feelings. Because somehow Nazis are too dark for the fucking 40k universe….
I was thinking it looked a little much like Black Templars.
I like the first color scheme. Red helmets don’t look as cool with the red pauldrons. I like the black helmet with white matching the trim on the pauldrons better.
The tactical marines are supposed to have gray helmets Like the beakie here, but the first terminator model looked unpainted with a gray helmet. Which is why termies went red.
I meant it when I said I was painting. I got This guy done while posting on the links.
I’d wait for Gilmore the fashion guru to chime in before I committed.
Don’t fire until you see the whites of their pauldrons!
I knew I shouldn’t have repainted the Terminators’ roundels white…
You ever go to any of the cons, like BGGCon or GenCon? If so, you’ve probably seen the squeeze at on or the other. He sits in my den (when it’s not so fucking hot) and paints his little dudes, like Steve Carrell
I never know when cons are going to happen, because I don’t pay attention. So I’m afraid I’ve never attended any.
But if you put a computer off to the side, that’s more or less me today too…
He bought me this for a gift one time. One of my favoritest presents ever!
Goddammit.
https://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/visions-in-fantasy-piggy-the-cheesecake-pug.html
🙂
And on a second look, I realized that’s a chainmail bikini on that pug…
…okay, I’ve managed to wrap up laughing. (Not at you, there’s just no way that was not meant as a humorous mini.)
I will be at BGGCon!
No shit? The squeeze is involved with one of the vendors there, so he goes sometimes on their dime. He’s a fellow libertarian and a gun nut, so you should strike up a conversation if you see him! And be sure to bring up manatees at some point. Like, a manatee non-sequitur.
Damn, I think I found my new hobby. If I ever get a chance to slow down enough to do something besides work that is.
Careful it gets expensive.
I did 40k in high school. I hate that my friends didn’t warn me on the expense
I ended up giving my chaos to a friend so his gf could play. I can’t believe I gave them away for free
About 5 years ago my mother told me that they were cleaning out the basement and there was a box of my old D&D stuff. They’d throw it out if I didn’t want it. I took it and have been storing it in my basement since.
About 2 months ago I found out that the kid programmers in my office had started a weekly D&D game. I got in on the game and have had fun playing with them again. During my last visits I’d bring in a few of the old lead figures I had and they all now think I’m King Nerd. Fuck yeah!
I lost my old RPG stuff in a housefire 🙁
You’re all a bunch of NERDS!
Also, I never played this. Ever.
Nerds.
Always wanted to try a tabletop RPG – never been in the right place/right time….I did print up a copy of the original fan Fallout PnP about 15 years ago (still all in one binder). No idea if an official one ever came out.
I should get that out of the box in the front room… ait, I don’t have the tablespace to host a game for the several months it takes to complete…
I teach Latin in highschool so I’m doing a Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars class with armies of HaT miniatures. Will be giving extra credit to anybody who can beat me in the Battle of Alesia next fall!
How are Cornelia and Flavia doing?
Lesbians actually. Or that’s my (more fun) interpretation of the passages.
*Sigh* The things I have to tell myself to keep it interesting sometimes.
No doubt an apology will be forthcoming
A United States appeals court threw out the convictions of two former London-based traders at the Dutch bank Rabobank on Wednesday, in what had been the first American criminal case to arise from investigations into the manipulation of the interest rate benchmark known as Libor.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan also dismissed the indictment against the two men, saying that their Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination had been violated.
The jury verdict on conspiracy and fraud charges against the two, Anthony Allen and Anthony Conti, in November 2015 represented the first criminal convictions in the United States stemming from the scandal over global banks’ rigging the London interbank offer rate, or Libor.
The decision to void those convictions is the latest setback for prosecutors on each side of the Atlantic as they try to pursue criminal charges against individuals related to Libor. Eight former traders have been acquitted of criminal charges in Britain in the last two years.
I wonder if that was Preet’s baby. No biggie. A scalp is a scalp.
I wonder if that was Preet’s baby.
Almost certainly was – time and location are right, and it fits the pattern of his high-profile prosecutions getting overturned.
Everyone’s favorite Swiss tennis player.
That’s not Martina Hingis.
Yes, but Hingis wasn’t batshit crazy like Patty Schnyder.
Schnyder also had a relationship with an orange juice guru.
Note, they were found with identity papers on them…how Swiss.
Wait, don’t we all carry ID when we’re in the wilderness? I’m not worried about park rangers, I just want to be identifiable if I go over some falls like a soap opera heroine.
“Dude doesn’t look a thing like the picture on the ID.”
“He’s a skeleton”
“Exactly, the card is probably fake.”
Hehe
Probably not when you’re just going up to the meadow to milk a cow.
I dunno. Glaciers are sneaky, conniving things. They can just dip in and scoop you up and take you away. Fast like coyotes.
×
*blasts alpenhorn at jesse*
Needs more alphorn.
How about some alpenporn?
Go on…
The guys in my fat old man’s b-ball league have a joke about being so slow that you have to worry about being hit by a glacier. Are you saying that the premise of our joke is wrong?
More euphemisms.
Especially if you’re taking a hike in the alps during world war 2. Never know when a random Nazi will demand some papers, please.
You see what happens, Larry? You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?!
+0, Smoky.
The best TV edit line ever.
Agreed, although I’m also still partial to “flip you, melonfarmer!” from Repo Man.
I read that as “finger a stranger in the Alps” and wondered if her yodeling triggered an avalanche or something.
+1 “How Green Was My Valley”
Well it was during WWII even though they were in neutral territory probably a good idea to carry them. Just in case they crossed into “Ihre Papiere bitte” land.
Whoops looks like Caput beat me to the post.
Yes, but you included authentic Nazi speak.
Yes a little known fact that the Nazis actually called Germany Ihre Papiere bitte Land, instead of the traditional Deutschland
I noticed a bottle as well. Maybe ‘milking the cows’ was a euphemism?
I noticed that too – “We finally got away from the kids, whee!”
I just want to be identifiable if I go over some falls
That would be your final problem.
I don’t want to be remembered as having inconvenienced folks.
But if they can’t identify you, they won’t know it’s you inconveniencing them.
Just remember to leave a note.
That’s what tattoos, piercings, and dental records are for, innit?
I continue to be unable to trust the Swiss.
It’s all those narrow gazes isn’t it?
Did you notice the like/dislike bar. That’s some next level trolling right there.
I was expecting this, especially since John T hasn’t fulfilled his CanCon quota this month.
I POSTED THAT @ 3:44 PM!
If it weren’t for CAGW, then it’s likely they would never have found these poor souls. God bless CAGW.
Careful what you wish for.
Nazi zombies. So original.
I might even do some Xtreme-nerd reporting from the WBC.
Note to others: It’s the World Boardgame Championships, not the Westboro Baptist Church. Highly disappointing.
I thought it was the World Baseball Classic.
I was thinking World Bowling Congress
I mean how much more nerdy does it get than Bowling?
“Wow, it’s kind of intimidating to be in the presence of so many great athletes.”
Not Word Bearers’ Chaplain?
I was holding out for the WPCBCN
I see that on my bus. Just yesterday — white dude dressed in ghetto attire, pants sagging, baseball cap backwards, slouched in his seat with his arms folded. I’m thinking, Dude, you’re on a bus full of black folk. You’re not fooling anyone. I remember years ago when I worked with homeless kids, two black girlssaw a white guy with dreds and the just laughed the asses off for the longest time.
The appropriate nomenclature is “folk of black”. What you said is racist. Don’t you even social justice?
I had a pair of Fila shoes in 6th grade. Cherise Lowe took one look at me and said “that white homeboy got some Filas on!”
i thought it was the World Boxing Council.
I thought Wiley B. Coyote.
Have you not seen this avatar on these here pages?!
Soooo-per gee-knee-us.
“Have Brain. Will Travel”
*re-orders business cards*
I clicked the link and saw that. I assume they give trophies for even attending that event. I hope Swiss includes a picture of his with his reporting.
I took 2nd in Republic of Rome last year – nuthin’. At least the guy who won was a good fellow.
what a gyp. Steal something then.
1998 called and wants its website back
Heh
SP, It ook years for them to give up the US Mail….the fellow that ran the tourney for the last 40 years just retired. GROGNARDS.
So I’ve mentioned before that my sister is finally divorcing her abusive asshole of a husband. Surprisingly (I’m somehow the only one in my family who saw this coming) he’s dragging out the divorce process and refusing all settlement offers. Hearing isn’t until February (stupid fucking Maryland divorce laws), and he’s got rich parents and my sister doesn’t, so he’s trying to drag this out until she runs out of money and he can strongarm her into a shit settlement.
So what I’m asking is… Maryland glibs, do any of you know where I can rent a woodchipper?
If not I got couple crab traps that need bait
I’m sure that you mean for the tree branches piling up in your back yard in a totally unrelated statement to you having a litigious asshole BiL.
I was using hyperbolic speech that can in no way be viewed as being a “true threat” according to the Supreme Court’s decision in Watts v. United States, 394 US 705 (1969). The speech also does not meet the test spelled out in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 US 444 (1969).
It’s ok. Preet has been canned.
True threat detected!
How big? You asking for large and messy, our small and slow?
For yard waste disposal, of course.
What are the contested issues? What does he want?
It’s been a long day at work I guess. I read your comment and Pat’s comment at #11 was right under it. I thought demanding OJ’s release from prison was an exceedingly odd request to put in a divorce decree.
Really?
I think it would be an excellent example of using an outrageous demand to leverage a better deal; they give you something you want to make you give up on it.
Alimony (he doesn’t want to pay it), child care issues (he wants to force the kids into a hyper-expensive private religious school til 12th grade, sis wants more freedom on that), and other parental control issues (like, say, the kids can’t see their cousin (my daughter)) because she ain’t Jewish.) More than that, but those are the big ones. She’s accepted 50/50 physical child custody even though it’s bullshit and he couldn’t care less about the kids
Man, that sucks. How old are the kids?
hi JB, sorry to hear your sister is dealing with this. I am licensed in Michigan, and actively practice family law. Re: possible issues: Spousal support is not a given in many cases, but is often a “triable” issue. Michigan law requires consideration of factors like: length of the marriage, health of the parties, need of one party to receive spousal support, and the ability of the other party to pay. Child care: Where the kiddos attend school can’t be “forced” in Michigan, so if the parties share legal custody, then the school attendance has to be consented to by both parents. Who the kiddos associate with and the religious persuasion isn’t something he should hold out on, because it won’t be something he can dictate (eventually, even if he doesn’t like it).
My take on this is that he’s hired a “hard ball” divorce attorney who will bill as much as possible in the case, and attempt to strong arm the other side.
Your mileage may vary depending on make, model, and use of the vehicle in question.
Dammit, I wish you practiced in California. Or were willing to transport a woodchipper there. Not for my ex-wife who got lifetime alimony. Heaven forbid that thought. No, no, for a bunch of branches out near Mad Scientist’s property. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket.
SO MANY DAMN BRANCHES!
One of the best divorce decrees that I ever heard of was in a small town in Texas. Kids, 50/50 custody, but the judge actually went the extra mile for the kids.
He said that forcing the kids to change households every week was not in their best interest. So, the kids stayed in the house, and whoever had custody that week would move in for the week, and the other parent would move out.
So, if your strategy involves making outrageous demands so that you can be bargained down from them, try that one.
That can be a bad deal.
“911: This call is being recorded.”
“Asshole ex: Could you send an officer over to 1234 Main St? My son told me that he said he saw my ex wife snorting white powder last night and that she hides it in the linen closet. I looked and there is a box with powder in it.”
If your ex is sociopathic and determined to destroy you no matter what the cost …
So, assuming the ex-husband actually planted cocaine in the linen closet and the ex-wife isn’t on coke, then this ends with
(a) the wife passing her drug test
(b) the son saying he said no such thing
(c) the ex-husband getting arrested for filing a false report, and likely
(d) the ex-husband getting arrested for possession of cocaine and child endangerment, for leaving coke where the kids could get it, resulting in
(e) the ex-husband being stripped of his parental rights
Sounds like a pretty good deal for the ex-wife, to me.
1) Mom gets arrested.
2) Mom gets arraigned.
3) Dad requests emergency hearing that ends mom’s physical custody.
4) Case languishes for months while mom is pressured to accept a plea deal.
5) In the meantime, dad is free to work the kids over to get them to level false allegations.
6) Maybe dad gets lucky and the tests from the lab come back positive (google MA state crime lab scandal).
7) Until the criminal stuff is resolved mom doesn’t see the kids. She possible loses her job. And anything short of an improbable vindication results in the judge thinking she’s a druggie who just hasn’t been jailed yet and is a bad influence on the kids.
I wouldn’t be so sanguine about how well these things turn out in the legal system. Thanks to my ex wife, I have *waaaaay* too much experience with how the probate courts and the criminal courts work to have any illusions that right usually wins out.
1) Mom gets arrested.
and gets drug tested on booking per usual, passes the drug test and is released as the original report is now falsified, and we return to my scenario. I basically assumed Mom would get arrested.
Remember, they both have access to the house. The cops have no way of knowing which parent brought the coke in. Mom passed her drug test and Son lets cops know Pops lied. Who do you think the cops are going to land on next?
You forgot about the dogs getting shot.
Drug tested at booking per usual? What county do you live in?!
Where I was an Assistant State’s Attorney, they would have arrested first, asked questions later. It probably would have come out later, but if ex is a psycho, it would end up really hurting Mom first.
After arrest, while booking, drug tests are pretty routine, and mandatory for drug arrests.
Yeah, mom would get hosed, but I like her chances of coming out on top.
Wow I love that ruling
+ eleventy “The Wisdom of Solomon”.
As a former marylander, I have but one bit of advice: The bay is large, and full of terrors.
OJ Simpson to be freed from Nevada prison
The Juice is loose.
Gaze upon him, ye white folks, and despair.
I can’t wait for him to do something else criminal so we can get OJ trial 3: The Juicening.
A line of cops chasing him in his wheelchair down the 405 in five years? That’d be a sight.
He plans to hit the golf courses again in search for Nicole’s real killers, just like he used to do before the unfortunate incident that landed him in jail.
whats the over-under on him fucking up and going back?
1 year?
Under.
He’s on parole now, so if I understand correctly he’s basically at the mercy of whatever the cops want to do to him. Search his house? They can do that. Stop him and fuck with him for no reason? They can do that to. I’ve never been to prison (knock on wood!), but I’ve always wondered if there are ever cases where people pass on parole so they can just be freely released without a bunch of conditions being imposed on them. Seems like every cop in Florida is going to have a hard-on for the Juice though.
My understanding is that there is no such thing as free and clear when you are released. You are always released on parole or to a halfway house or some other short leash.
Not true. Its just that 99.9 percent take parole. Then get themselves a BOP
Had a buddy that spent an extra year in because he didnt want strings attatched. Which was smart cause he woulda wwnt back
What kind of dog is in your avatar?
Pfffft, I bet he can’t even do a cartwheel anymore
I hope he can make it on Norm MacDonald’s podcast.
Have some Switzerland. I’ll throw in Sebastien Loeb at no additional charge.
An incredibly beautiful place.
Wow. And his wife is his co-driver?
Great video – thanks, Brooksie.
Is she telling him to take out the trash, wash the dishes, and stop drinking so much? Driving faster isn’t shutting her up.
Chester Bennington: Linkin Park vocalist ‘took his own life’
And because it’s never too soon: In the end it doesn’t even matter.
But he tried so hard and got so far!
Damnit, that was wrong. RIP guy.
In the end it doesn’t even really matter. Took his own lyrics too strong.
#nolongercrawlinginmyskin
he had to fall to lose it all
Hang hang? Or Carradine hang?
*touches nose*
He took on Scott Weiland’s responsibilities, too.
That much heroin abuse will kill anyone.
Depression sucks. Guy had a life that by many accounts would be considered a life hack; rock star, tons of adoring fans, more money than he could spend, married to a Playboy model, gaggle of kids. The black dog can rear its ugly head at any time.
I sure hope Lou Reed never does something like that.
*flips a 1 gram silver pamp suisse to Switzy*
What is that in dogecoin, bruh?
I wuvz puppies! I need to donate to you guys too. I also have some cool silver that I’ll donate if you guys ever do any giveaways or auctions type stuff.
“No really! you can hardly tell the difference! just comb your hair and we’ll go right out to dinner, as is”
Is the Edit Fairy like Beetlejuice? Can you summon her by saying her name three times?
it was the picture of the “Perfectly Preserved” couple
What do you have against the Bituminous People of Central Europe? They’ve been persecuted for so long…
aha…..well, “perfectly preserved” is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
See what happens when you don’t use Ziploc bags? Major freezerburn.
Or in the Jelly Jar.
In Herbert Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, he mentioned some ethnic group in Egypt (if I recall correctly) that had a custom of interring the recently deceased in a tomb, but bringing their corpses out every night and seating them at the dinner table with food in front of them, then putting them back in the tomb. They would repeat this for seven days or so.
I found this socio-psychological analysis of the rapiness of Afghan refugees to be fascinating and well-thought-out.
yeah, i think instapundit linked to that last week and we talked about it at length.
(starting around #28 – which reminds me, does anyone know how to link to comments here? I’ve seen people do it once or twice but never figured out how to extract the link-suffix)
Afghans are old-fashioned. Rape, along with slave-raids, is how the original Islamic terrorists got people to submit to Islam.
Yep, Hindu Kush don’t mean “Hindu Friendly Handshakes.”
Sad but true.
I really wonder if Europe will put up with this forever. I get the feeling that there’s a lot of discontent brewing over the Muslim immigration issue. Their governments and media are trying hard to suppress it and portray this type of immigration as a wonderful thing, but I think it could boil over in a very ugly way. As for the “tolerant” Europeans, we’ll see how they like it when their precious welfare systems
startcontinue straining under the weight of all these migrants.Trump is cutting off the CIA program that arms anti-Assad rebels in Syria. This is almost certainly part of his collaboration on Syria with Putin. What’s the point of pushing for a serious attempt at a ceasefire, on the one hand, when you’re arming one of the parties, on the other?
Meanwhile, the limited ceasefire appears to be holding. One of the big concerns going in was that Russia didn’t have as much pull with Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and Assad’s forces as Putin claimed, but to whatever extent holding down a ceasefire for nigh on two weeks in a limited area demonstrates that Putin could deliver on what he promised, that’s what the ceasefire shows.
It should be noted that Assad’s and Iran’s goals are being met with this. Their primary concern is keeping Assad in power. So long as Trump’s ceasefire cements that victory for them, it’s no wonder if they’re on board for peace–or concentrating on wiping out ISIS anyway.
Let’s hope the ceasefire continues to hold, that the ceasefire spreads to other parts of Syria, that peace comes to all of Syria once ISIS is defeated, and that the United States can extricate itself entirely from the Syrian conflict.
It should also be noted that this is one of the main reasons why the FBI, the CIA, et. al., which some have referred to as “The deep state” opposed Trump every step of the way. Trump just effectively changed the CIA’s job description to take away its Syrian responsibilities–and that funding. They and the FBI knew that if Trump let Putin and company take care of ISIS in Syria, then they would lose those responsibilities and funding.
Meanwhile, John McCain’s necon dream of invading Syria like we did Iraq is fading if not already gone.
I’m not fond of Trump’s rhetoric on immigration and free trade, but I don’t necessarily judge people’s actions by their rhetoric. Trump keeps doing smart things, smart things I haven’t seen presidents do in at least 16 years. If he keeps this up, he may get himself reelected.
Trump seems to be doing the right thing for the wrong reasons at times, but I’ll take what I can get.
What wrong reason?
He’s Putin’s puppet, dude. Don’t you even Colbert?
Having had ridiculously incompetent presidents for at least 16 years has, I think, left a lot of people thinking that the decisions we make about what to do or not do are all just a big joke.
But it really does matter.
Some choices and strategies lead to success. People have forgotten what that looks like.
It’s sort of like my fellow Redskins and Caps fans, where for a lot of them, they seem to think it doesn’t matter what we do–we’re going to lose anyway.
Actually, starting a project, getting it done, and winning is a matter of making a series of competent decisions. The universe trends towards entropy. Superpowers don’t maneuver themselves out of Syria by accident.
Obama wanted to get Syria off his hands, I’m sure. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t make the series of competent choices necessary to make that happen. Trump’s strategy may not work either–but so far I’m impressed.
And he campaigned on doing exactly what he’s done with Putin and Syria.
This almost makes up for the Sessions property confiscation fiasco.
Almost.
then they would lose those responsibilities and funding.
Some responsibilities maybe, funding hahahahhaha.. and so on….
They may switch it around in the books as to what is going where, but there will be no loss of funding.
If they aren’t distributing arms to Syrian rebels anymore, they aren’t getting the funds to distribute them anymore.
If they are no longer responsible for what happens in Syria, they aren’t getting more funds in the future because of any expanded role in Syria either.
I’m sure the bureaucrats at the CIA understand that a reduced role means less funds than they could have justified otherwise. That’s why bureaucrats seek to maximize their responsibilities.
If they don’t throw that money at problem “A”, they will just throw more money into hole “B”. Get back to me when the CIA/FBI budget is truely cut and I’ll admit that I was wrong.
If my choice is cut budget in total, keep budget but get out of ME shitholes, keep budget and stay in ME shitholes, I’ll take the first two over the second. Plus, the money saved on Syria can go towards making sure Felix can help James deal with SPECTRE.
I discovered some arcane Swiss gun-geek stuff today.
Because of Swiss laws against arms exports, SIG was broken up into separate companies in 2000. Sig Sauer, Inc. New Hampshire sells all the SIG products here in the U.S. including the new Army handgun.
Swiss Arms in Switzerland makes the SG550 for the Swiss Army. I found all this out because I couldn’t understand why Sig Sauer is trying to sell me a really expensive M4 looking rifle instead of the SG 550 (which I would buy in a second if the funds were available).
I recall seeing a video on Youtube where some canadian guy explained why they were allowed to get Swiss rifles like the 550 there, but for whatever @()#*()$ reason the same thing was banned in the US. can’t remember anything about the details, but i bet a half dozen people here could give a lecture on it.
922R. I’ll let you work yourself into a lather googling that clusterfuck.
that’s the thing that says that all imported weapons have to have a certain % of US-made parts, correct? I know about that bit.
That’s correct. It’s a massive pain in the ass.
I thought that was specific to military style/sporting/assault/Sturmgewer rifles.
I believe it’s anything the ATF does not deem to have “sporting purpose.”
I wonder if Sig Sauer still has the patents? Could they just make them in NH instead of the AR knock-offs?
Sig does sell the SIG556 here which is extremely close in design to the 550.
Okay apparently they’ve stopped making those as of May. I’m sure you could still find one if you wanted it.
Okay – that a bit more like the 550.
Here’s a 556 xi currently sitting at just over $600 on gunbroker.
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/669808621
Ahh. Too many evil features for NJ.
I am sure you’ve heard this before but a libertarian living in NJ is not unlike a Jew living in Austria circa 1938.
I plan to flee in a couple of years
I have fond memories of travelling through the mountains of Italian-speaking Switzerland, and in the tiny historic villages, every other store window was filled with guns and knives. Don’t fuck with the Swiss was the lesson I learned.
I just want an actual Swiss SIG 210.
…so pretty…
It’s long been rumored that the Swiss keep all the best chocolate to themselves, and only export the garbage suitable for dirty foreigners to eat. What’s the inside scoop, SS? Any truth to this?
He can’t talk. Too busy stuffing chocolate in his face.
Mumph! ummph…!
*shakes chocolate stained fist*
….MAYBE.
https://www.lindt.de/produkte/pralinen/zum-teilen/kirschstengli/
Haven’t been able to find them outside of the CH.
*shifty look*
Bro do you even Köln?
Best Swiss chocolatier is a relative newcomer — Christophe Berger. You’re welcome.
This guy’s shop was on my way home from work when I lived in Wisconsin.
Our old next door neighbors were from Switzerland. The husband and the two boys just showed up this week to visit. (The husband still works in North America a lot and the kids are on their school break). They boys have been staying with us for the week.
They brought fancy Swiss chocolates which are fine, but the husband did not bring me any Swiss schnapps (not fine at all).
“Go back, and return with Kirschwasser or Williams spirit!”
On the other hand a few years back several Swiss (of the German persuasion) complained to me about how all the good cheese is exported since it fetches a higher price abroad.
“Marcelin Dumoulin, 40, was a shoemaker, while Francine, 37, was a teacher. They left five sons and two daughters.
“It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion. She was always pregnant and couldn’t climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier,” Udry-Dumoulin said.
“After a while, we children were separated and placed in families. I was lucky to stay with my aunt,” she said. “We all lived in the region but became strangers.”
Man, that’s sad.
Switzerland’s tourism motto:
We’re neutral!
“It was the first time my mother went with him on such an excursion. She was always pregnant and couldn’t climb in the difficult conditions of a glacier,”
I have 2 CHF that all those kids were conceived on that glacier and pops had one too many hard thrusts on the last trip when it landed them in a crevasse.
Evil, thy name is reddit
Every day, thousands of people who are consumed by the nation’s opioid epidemic connect on the popular discussion website Reddit.
They swap advice on getting high and offer encouragement to those who have managed to stay clean or are teetering between recovery and relapse. Addicts lament the deaths of fellow users who have suddenly stopped posting. And until last week, buyers and sellers could easily find each other, relying on coded messages that communicated their intent.
Reddit banned the forum, known as opiaterollcall, last week but would not disclose what led to its closing. Another forum to buy opiates quickly sprung up to replace it; Reddit banned that one, too.
They were just small parts of one of the world’s largest online communities. But the dispatches left behind tell a surprisingly intimate story about the tenacity of the crisis, the trajectory of the addicted and Reddit’s role in facilitating access to drugs tied to the mounting toll across America.
That’s it. Shut ‘er down.
Let me once again wish bone cancer on every person complicit or even just supportive of reducing painkiller availability to those in need. Those fuckers have no idea of the evil they propagate.
Actually they do, they just don’t give a shit.
I think the politicians know and just don’t give a shit since they can always take care of theirs. I think most doctors have no idea what true pain feels like (makes childbirth seem like a trip to Disneyworld) so they keep to practicing paternalistic medicine. I’ll grant the recent legal pressure bearing down on them doesn’t help either.
Ill second this
I had to sit through a meeting on Monday where our CEO went on and on about all the great ways that EMR software can “help” doctors limit the “opiate crisis” by refusing to prescribe more than a week of painkillers at a time, or by playing music immediately after surgery.
I have never actually hated her before, but boy I did then. I wanted to scream “You have your appendix burst mid surgery and see how much you feel like music helps you after week 2 of agonizing recovery.”
Christ, what a pontificating bitch.
by playing music immediately after surgery.
WTF? Did she seriously expect everyone to buy that?
Yes.
I’m not entirely opposed to it as an additional pain coping mechanism, but as the sole coping mechanism? Or even the main one? Fuck that, I’m not an idiot. Music doesn’t do anything compared to modern pharmaceuticals, and if you want to rely on it to take the load of major pain, you are a monster.
And yet the room full of millennial twats just ate it up.
Apparently he took a few too many steps closer to the edge.
Chester Bennington dead at 41; Suicide.
Did he have something on Hillary?
OK, that was fucking funny.
I might be a few days late on this one
STRAY FROM THE PATH – Goodnight Alt-right
it’s inspired a new drinking game: take a shot every time you cringe.
If the lead singer is interested I hear Linkin Park may have a recently vacated position for him.
You can say anything, but don’t say goodnight alt-right.
For a second I thought the blonde guy was Steven Crowder and that this was parody.
I saw that the other day. I thought, “Cuckcore” was a cute term for it.
Any F1 fans around? It looks like the FIA is forcing through the http://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-greenlights-controversial-halo-for-2018 for 2018. This might be the final straw for me (if it actually happens).
I knew I’d fuck up that link.
Ah, I mixed up the link and the text.
It’s hard to be an F1 fan and an American, you know.
Fucking races are on in the middle of the night.
That halo is absurd. I think I’d get a headache looking past that post.
Vettel drive with it for ONE lap and said it made him dizzy.
Actually, that was the Shield. The Halo is the one that looks like a thong.
Ah, that’s right. Even so, the whole thing is a crummy solution. Last time someone suffered a traumatic brain injury it was because they drove the car under a giant loader in a gravel trap. And Massa’s whack from that errant spring wasn’t going to be stopped by a halo. The halo wouldn’t have stopped Senna’s broken suspension from spearing him either. And Schumacher managed a brain injury without being in the car at all.
I agree completely. It’s a typical “solution in search of a problem”. Apparently, nine of the ten teams voted against it, but the FIA forced it through anyway.
I torrent the Sky broadcasts and watch them the next day. It’s not ideal, but I’ve been watching for several years that way and it usually works out well.
It’s hard to be an F1 fan
Doesn’t help that its a sport thats waaaaaay more fun to play than watch.
How the hell are you supposed to see with that thing in the way? My impression of F1 is that it that the cars are so wildly expensive and the rules so crazy, that the racing is kind of boring and doesn’t reflect driver skill.
They couldn’t have made two posts that come down behind the mirrors?
+1 Rally
Tributes flood in for landlord of award-winning Plymouth pub
I can’t shake the feeling that this is a trap.
STEVE SMITH win awards for pub, STEVE SMITH win awards for rape.
But STEVE SMITH not dead.
STEVE SMITH WOULD LIKE THANK THE ACADEMY. CANNOT DENY THAT STEVE SMITH RAPE YOU! RIGHT NOW! STEVE SMITH RAPE YOU!
I have an interview with an alcohol distributor tomorrow. I feel like I’d be working for the great crony capitalist Satan.
But it is exactly what I want to be doing.
Southern Wine + Spirits? (or its myriad affiliates)
Yes.
At least it is selling a product people really want.
I used to know some executives there. 10 years ago now.
as someone who’s worked on the periphery of the booze business for a long while, i think its generally a very good industry with smart, friendly people.
Good to know. Smart and friendly is a good combo.
I’ll see how it goes. It would require a move to a higher housing cost area, but it would be close to my parents and in laws.
Best job I ever had! Going bar to bar for the distributor as an anonymous tester to ensure they were displaying product and serving it properly. I’d make a note in my journal about each place and return it to the company the next day.
I had 48 entries when I drove the company car into the bridge abutment.
Man! I miss that job!
My neighbor is an accounts/sales representative for a craft beer company. Sometimes he gets quantities of new beers before the release date, which he shares with us at his monthly neighborhood beer-drinking get-togethers.
He’s a pretty damn good neighbor.
Gina Rodriguez: Used To Feel Guilty For Masturbating
Gina Rodriguez is on the cover of Bust’s August/September issue — and she’s here to explain why “everybody should be a feminist.”
At least the Jehovah Witnesses fuck off when you tell them to fuck off.
Those numbers are low. It’s more like 99.99% and 99.99%.
(It’s not 100% since there are some people physically paralyzed and unable to masturbate.)
+1 T-Rex
one study found that as many as 11% of women and 5% of men have lied about masturbating in surveys.
/FIFY
Any F1 fans around?
I would think that goddam halo thing would be a severe hindrance in seeing out of the cockpit.
I’d rather watch
GP2F2. Or F3.At least they decided to *not* go hybrid for the next generation F2 car. We dodged that bullet.
Student who ‘graded’ girlfriend’s breakup letter won’t be suspended from college
Hah
That’s great.
The CBO released its estimate of the latest version of the Senate ObamaCare replacement plan.
One highlight: It still cuts $756 billion from Medicaid spending over ten years.
—-CBO
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52941
That’s what smaller government looks like. Anyone who’s against this should never, never say, “Fuck you, cut spending” again.
If Rand Paul is against this because of libertarianism, then this libertarian says, “Fuck Rand Paul”.
If I have to choose between voting for a self-described libertarian in the primaries, who won’t cut medicaid eligibility, on the one hand, and a guy with bad hair who makes no such claims about being libertarian but is eager to cut Medicaid eligibility, on the other hand, believe you me, I ain’t voting for the guy everybody says is libertarian just because he says he’s libertarian.
Bear in mind that according to the CBO scoring of the ACA, we should be saving about 200 billion a year right now that never materialized. And that no current congress can hold any future congress to a given rate of spending. If you think those cuts will ever materialize I’ve got a health care bill to sell you.
So, you’re saying the Senate shouldn’t cut Medicaid now because some future congress might reinstate that spending in the future?
That only makes sense to Peter Sudeman.
Are there any other spending cuts we shouldn’t make now just because some future congress might reinstate it, or is Medicaid spending unique in this way?
I think he’s saying those spending cuts you are touting aren’t actually spending cuts at all but illusory ones; as spending cuts to medicare almost universally turn out to be.
Yeah, pretty much. Deciding who to support for congress based on whether they did or didn’t support mostly theoretical cuts (better understood as reductions in the rate of growth) to Medicaid rather than their overarching philosophy on the role of government seems penny wise and pound foolish to me.
The only thing that will make these cuts theoretical is they aren’t passed because Rand Paul opposes them.
Right Ken. Lucy won’t move the football, the check’s in the mail, and they won’t do it in your mouth.
Let’s also just hand wave the other million provisions of the AHCA that a person might reasonably oppose even if the cuts to Medicaid actually materialized. Saving 75 billion a year on Medicaid while you’re imposing a couple hundred billion dollars of economic dead weight loss via regs might not necessarily work out to be a great deal on net. But hey, at least the trains run on time.
You think these spending cuts are illusory for what reason?
You realize there’s no third party supernatural force at work here, right?
When ObamaCare increased the eligibility for Medicaid, the spending increases were not illusory.
If the Senate passes this bill to cut that Medicaid eligibility and Trump signs it as promised, there’s no reason to think the savings will be illusory.
You sound like Tony. You sound like you and him are on the same side, too. Are you in favor of keeping Medicaid eligibility expanded?
Dang! I thought we were days away from psychological projection making its appearance. I guess I was wrong! 😀
Are you or are you not in favor of cutting Medicaid eligibility?
I’m in favor of burning the fucking US government to the ground.
Of course I’m in favor of cutting medicaid eligibility. Unlike you, mr “I’m not a socialist but you are” I’m in favor of cutting it to 0.
Now, are we done? Are you going to answer my questions below? Or should we walk away both thinking “that guy sure is willfully blind!”? In the later case, *one* of us will be right. 😉
If you’re telling me you’re against cutting Medicaid eligibility because we’re not cutting it all the way to zero, then I’m going to suggest that maybe you’re actually just supportive of Rand Paul.
I supported Rand Paul in the past because I thought I could count on him to vote to cut Medicaid eligibility. If I can’t count on him to do that, then why should I support him?
He can make speeches without being president. I want someone in the White House who will sign legislation to cut Medicaid eligibility.
At least Kenny isn’t going to call you a blithering idiot like John would.
I’m not against cutting medicaid eligibility. Kenny, I think that your assumption that I am is even more evidence that you are focusing on one element of the calculus to the exclusion of all others and then raging at those who analyze the problem using a different calculus than you do.
I note you still haven’t answered my questions below. You really should take the time to craft an answer, and contemplate the implications (assuming you answer them objectively; the motivated reasoning you’ve been vomiting on these threads makes that proposition an uncertain one).
The reason to vote against that pos is that it legitimizes that govt has a role in health insurance.
If the Senate passes this bill to cut that Medicaid eligibility and Trump signs it as promised, there’s no reason to think the savings will be illusory.
Past behavior isn’t a perfect predictor of future behavior, but it’s usually pretty good.
Do you honestly think both houses of congress will be run by Republicans for the next 10 years during which those savings are supposed to accumulate? Do you think the number of Medicaid beneficiaries under the AHCA eligibility reforms will remain static? Do you think the estimates of the number of beneficiaries under the AHCA eligibility reforms is even accurate? More importantly, are the savings to that one program worth the potentially offsetting costs imposed by other regulations imposed or continued by the entire piece of legislation, since it’s a unified bill? The coverage mandates, eligibility mandates, community rating, refundable tax credits, direct payments to health insurers… could any or all of that potentially mitigate the savings from the Medicaid cuts?
Future congresses can always undo what’s been done in the past. Because some future congress might reinstate spending is not a good reason not to cut spending now.
If we only cut spending when we’re sure no future congress will reinstate it, then we will never cut spending.
I will continue to argue against expanding Medicaid eligibility in the future–even if we cut that eligibility today. In fact, I’ll be arguing to cut the eligibility even further–and move even more people into private insurance with subsidies until there ain’t no Medicaid no more.
This is the road to eliminating Medicaid entirely–sure as letting people opt in to Medicaid is the road to single payer.
I understand that you are narrowly focused exclusively on the issue of cutting Medicaid eligibility to the exclusion of any other meaningful reform of the existing clusterfuck of a health care system we operate in this country, including a byzantine system of often self-contradictory incentives erected over half a century to include direct subsidies under Obamacare. I’m suggesting that possibly other people who are equally as libertarian as you are not as hung up on that single issue and perhaps view the package of reforms more holistically. And shutting them out of the conversation because they don’t support a bill that violates their beliefs despite reducing spending on one particular health care program (on paper) – by offsetting it to another, mind you – is short sighted.
Basically you’re pissed off because Rand Paul is a pricier date than you are. Which is fine enough. But it’s not as if there’s no other principled opinion on the matter. You’re plenty old enough to have seen what incrementalism has won over the last 50 years and why some might not be as enamored of it as a strategy.
Actually, I wrote an entire piece about how there is no solution to our healthcare problems that doesn’t include cuts to Medicare and/or Medicaid. If you want to retread those arguments, read the piece again and look to my responses in comments.
https://glibertarians.com/2017/03/why-youre-wrong-about-healthcare/
Nobody wants to relive old threads.
I’ll only mention the following:
1) Medicare and Medicaid are the ultimate source of almost all the problems with our healthcare system.
2) ObamaCare was basically an expansion of Medicaid eligibility with a bunch of bells and whistles attached (like the individual mandate) in an attempt to shield insurers from the damage caused by that Medicaid expansion.
3) Repealing ObamaCare necessarily requires rolling back that Medicaid expansion.
4) Rolling back that Medicaid expansion is currently a vote or two short in the senate. What’d you expect me to talk about–Ukrainian chicks?
5) In addition to rolling back the Medicaid expansion, both the AHCA and the senate bill kill the individual mandate and the employer mandate, the latter of which forces employers to either offer their employees health insurance or cut their hours to 29 a week or less. The Medicaid rollback is the best reason to vote for the senate bill, but it’s not the only reason.
6) If Rand Paul won’t vote to roll back Medicaid eligibility, repeal the individual mandate, and repeal the employer mandate, then he’s a dog that won’t hunt. If any random establishment Republican would sign legislation as president and Rand Paul wouldn’t, then why should I support someone who’s weak on the issue of socialism in the primaries.
If Rand Paul won’t vote against socialism, then fuck Rand Paul.
7) $756 billion they’re gonna cut from Medicaid over ten years–and that’s the watered down Senate version.
Government spending predictions are totally accurate when Ken wants them to be.
This is obtuseness.
Is it because of Rand Paul that you guys are acting like this?
I’m not willing to pretend that increasing eligibility for Medicaid won’t mean more cost in the future.
Why should I pretend that cutting eligibility won’t mean less cost in the future?
There is no fifth dimensional invisible entity that somehow makes cutting eligibility more expensive.
There’s congress voting on whether to increase or decrease eligibility.
This is the weirdest obtuseness I’ve seen around here. It’s almost like a form of insanity. You guys seem to have lost all perspective of cause and effect.
Congress kicking millions of people off of Medicaid won’t mean lower costs in the future–because . . . ?
Again, this is like Tony telling us that adding millions more people to Medicaid won’t cost us more in the future.
It’s almost like Orwellian newsspeak.
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Shrinking the Government Expands it
Cutting Medicaid Eligibility Means More Cost in the Future
Ken, I strongly encourage you to consider the possibility that you are as wrong on this issue as you were in your vociferous support of the Obama admin’s illegal and highly counterproductive attack on Libya.
Because the thought process is very similar: focusing on one element of the calculus to the exclusion of all others and then raging at those who analyze the problem using a different calculus than you do.
You think I’m wrong about socialism?
You think I’m wrong about Medicaid being socialism?
You think I’m wrong about Medicaid’s distortion of the healthcare market?
And you think this because of Rand Paul?
You should consider the possibility that Rand Paul is wrong to oppose this on libertarian grounds just like his father was wrong to oppose free trade agreements on libertarian grounds.
I think you’re wrong because I think the odds are this reform won’t ultimately circle back to what we have now, only worse and bipartisan. Passing a reform like this locks Repubs in to defending and “saving” OCare as problems continue to arise, and forecloses any possibility of a broader reform and even repeal (which are remote possibilities now, but after reform will be utterly impossible). I also think the Medicaid reform is a shell game, moving people from one government-funded bucket to another, only with more cronyism.
And the next round of “bi-partisan” reform to the now-“bipartisan” OCare program will be on the Dem’s terms, because bipartisan reforms always are.
But, we are discussing the likelihood of different hypothetical scenarios, on which reasonable people can differ.
“I also think the Medicaid reform is a shell game, moving people from one government-funded bucket to another, only with more cronyism.”
Can you describe a realistic means to cut Medicaid in some other way?
I’ve often said that moving people from Medicaid to private insurance with subsidies is exactly like moving students from public schools to private schools with vouchers.
One of the ways they’re the same is that the support fromvoters will all break down if you just decide to close public schools for poor kids and give them no alternative. In order to shrink the public school system,you have to give those kids vouchers–but those vouchers should cost less than educating that student in a public school.
It’s the same with Medicaid–simply leaving poor pregnant women to squat their babies out in the street is politically impossible. Shrinking Medicaid by giving people the choice to buy into the private system is vastly superior to that in every way–especially because it’s politically possible. And I don’t want to retread the arguments here about how Medicaid distorts the market with shifting, etc–but giving people subsidies that cost us less than Medicaid would be a great idea even without addressing Medicaid’s market distortions.
If you want to talk about political psychology, let’s talk about what would happen if someone actually cut eligibility for a federal entitlement program–and the world didn’t fall apart.
What if things actually got better because of it?
We really are talking about socialism when we’re talking about Medicaid–it’s using the coercive power of the state to collect resources from each of us according to our ability to pay and distributing those resources according to other people’s needs as determined by government bureaucrats. That system has all sorts of problems associated with it, and opposing that system is the beginning of what being a libertarian capitalist means to me.
If Rand Paul refuses to cast the vote needed to strike the very first blow against that system ever, then he can say he’s libertarian all he wants, but being a libertarian politician isn’t just about what you say in speeches or speaking out against the progressives on TV. If I can’t tell the difference between Rand Paul and a progressive on an important vote against socialism, then don’t expect me to support him in the primaries against Donald Trump–not if Donald Trump will actually sign a bill to cut Medicaid eligibility.
And that’s what we’re talking about.
Some of you seem to have internalized Suderman’s rhetoric about how cutting eligibility won’t necessarily lead to cost savings for whatever reason. This is like a cognitive distortion–hard to address because it doesn’t seem to have any basis in reality. The fact is that future costs are a function of eligibility–and we’re talking about cutting eligibility.
So here’s a thought experiment, Kenny. Which of your above statements does Rand Paul think is untrue? Incidentally, I am not going to waste my time responding to any comment that doesn’t answer these questions with a simple yes or no.
Do you think Rand Paul is claiming that socialism works as the reason why he is opposing the bill? Yes or no, Kenny.
Do you think Rand Paul is claiming that Medicaid isn’t a form of socialism as the reason why he is opposing the bill? Yes or no, Kenny.
Do you think Rand Paul is claiming that Medicaid isn’t distorting the health care market as the reason why he is opposing the bill? Yes or no, Kenny.
All we need is three terse words.
For you Better Off Dead fans out there…..“It’s DERP! THIS IS PURE DERP! Do you have any idea what the street value of this column is???”
These people are going to have a problem when reality comes crashing into their brain like a truck through a crowd of infidels.
I think these sorts of people are doing everyone else in the country a great favor. The more they moan and whine about how a Hillary presidency would have been utopia, the more dismal and disillusioned and depressed they make their peers. It makes the bernie wing froth with anger, and makes the establishment wring their hands in confusion = which to pander to? either way they’re going to piss someone off.
Its delicious, frankly. If only the GOP weren’t so retarded.
“Damn shame people be throwin’ away a perfectly good white
boygirl like that.”I think that author drank the gasoline, but didn’t light a cigarette.
My response to these links.
I REJECT SWITZERLAND AND THEIR NEUTRALITY.
Also, bewbs.
http://archive.is/dBSMG
Holy shit! I think I recognize number 7!!
22 and 31 look like escaped mental patients.
Is 19 Maitland Ward?
Also, 18 is probably violating some health code regs somehow
Also, 18 is probably violating some health code regs somehow
Are bikini baristas a thing in the rest of the country, or was that just a WA state thing?
She can violate any regs she wants.
Digging #11 because she looks really natural
*My reaction*
Who doesn’t love tits really? Even gay men and straight women do deep down.
This makes me want to buy stock in Dow-Corning.
…because they manufacture semen sample specimen cups? I got nothin’.
OMWC isn’t a transhumanist.
One of his flaws.
One day that will be correctable by nano-robot technology.
Because he likes his 8 year olds with implants?
1, 16, 26, 34 please
#11 and #16, for reasons I know not. My subconscious wants to breed them.
Plus #19. Ginger. God, I love those Blondes from Hell.
Yeah, those are all nice choices
I’m going to focus on the negative here. 9.. yeesh!
And a bonus, all because of numbers 3 and 78.
http://archive.is/sW4SJ
34. Damn.
She takes her vitamins.
Tupping hell, OJ has been in prison for nine years? I would have sworn it was, like, three. Right? Am I crazy? That whole robbery escapade was just a couple years ago.
For you Better Off Dead fans out there…..“It’s DERP! THIS IS PURE DERP! Do you have any idea what the street value of this column is???”
I’m just going to assume he uses some sort of speech-to-text appliance, since typing in a straitjacket would be problematic, at best.
From the tax fraud story:
“the loss to US tax coffers could be anywhere between $3.5 million and $9.5 million”
So 10% of what we spent on the investigation.
Even so, the whole thing is a crummy solution. Last time someone suffered a traumatic brain injury it was because they drove the car under a giant loader in a gravel trap.
Don’t forget Justin Wilson. A lot of people freaked out over that. I’m surprised Indycar hasn’t mandated something similar. I’m certain they’ve been working on it.
The Cajun Chef?
I garruntee!
Don’t know if this has been linked yet, but if not, here you go.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-milo-yiannopoulis-interview-milo.html
BLUF: NPR are mendacious, partisan fuckburgers that use soft-toned, mellifluous reporters to create a patina of even-handedness.
NPR listeners would assplode if a lengthy interview was broadcast.
Have you listened to the NPR interview? trying to make my mind up whether to listen to Milo or 5th column.
Listen to the NPR interview, you won’t be disappointed.
Anyone know where i can download the file? I want to load it up for the bus ride home, not stream the whole damn thing.
get one of those extensions that allow you to download youtube videos
e.g.
https://www.techjunkie.com/download-save-youtube-videos/
i’ve used this one in Opera and it has lots of format options, incl various audio-only codecs.
http://addoncrop.com/youtube_video_downloader/
If you don’t want to install an extension, you can also just type “ss” in front of “youtube” in the YouTube URL you want to save. E.g., if you were viewing this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atf5jaihxd0
You would type: https://www.ssyoutube.com/watch?v=Atf5jaihxd0
That’ll take you to savefrom.net and let you download from your browser in a few different formats.
That’s cool. I’ve been using Net VIdeo Hunter with Firefox.
Cops find $2M in liquid meth in mom’s car during traffic stop
What say ye, Glibs? Would or nah?
WAS IT BLUE METH?
Also, sure, why not.
Yeah, but I have the feeling it would be a quickie.
People on meth dont tend to have quickies. They tend to rock it till both are totally wrecked.
How you know when you’re old = When you haven’t even *heard* of the kinds of drugs that are now common.
Liquid meth? Do they add a little Listerine and fluoride to help with the tweakers dental…. issues?
Holy shit I would impregnate her.
Those above the neckline selfies are always suspect.
Unless she’s an octopus below the neckline I would.
Ya, unless there is another head protruding from her chest yelling at you, good to go.
Once I get over $1 million worth of drugs in the car, I don’t exceed the speed limit by more than 5 mph. That’s my rule.
That’s suspicious. Only drug mules are that careful.
*calls for backup, warrant-on-a-leash, and hits the lights and siren*
My dad used to get pulled over for driving at exactly the speed limit. The staties thought it suspicious that he didn’t speed.
Yuh. Even if she wasn’t a mule.
So tomorrow I have a thing I have to go to involving four of my least favorite things, combined into one hellacious nightmare: work, heat/humidity, teamwork, and alcohol. Just fucking kill me now.
A barn-raising?
alcohol… least favorite things….
I understand these phrases separately…
You hate alcohol? Who even are you?
I only drink on vacation (you can’t go skiing and not have 1 or 6 bloody marys). Had a long-term relationship with a drunk, who died at 41 because his liver exploded. That kind of turned me off to the whole booze thing.
If I were an asshole I’d make a more for us joke…. good thing I am.
I’m a libertarian, man. You do you. You can have my portion and more!
–“I’m a libertarian, man.”–
I KNEW there was no such thing as a libertarian woman
Commas, how does that shit work?
Well if you put a comma before the exclamation point she keeps having periods
Aw, jeez. Yeah, that’s not a good look.
I wonder whether alcohol abuse is purely sociological or if there’s a sexual component to it. All of my male friends but one drinks much more than their woman-counterparts, and the one who doesn’t is also married to an abstinent wife. None of them are drunkards or abusive, but their wives and girlfriends simply don’t partake to the same extent. I wonder why that is.
I wonder why that is.
I don’t.
*Hurriedly shuts browser as Mrs. Dean walks in*
My mom is a drunk. She’s gotten better and gotten worse over the years, but she still puts the beers away. Dad, he complains about his drinking, but he has two or three drinks in a sitting. My dad is no lush, especially compared with his ex. My parents are the odd ducks in my boozy wonderment.
My mom had her struggles with alcohol (her dad was an alcoholic and an early AA member), but it was less severe. THe only time I kind of went “WTF?” was when I was about 9 or 10 and found a glass of wine in the cabinet in the middle of the day. I knew that was weird, even at that age. But she quit drinking 100% in the last 15 years of her life, as she had bad liver numbers. I wouldn’t be surprised if my dad had also threatened divorce.
I’ve a friend, one of those in my small sample, who was diagnosed with pancreatitis a couple months ago. It’s gotten to be a bit of a superstitious rite in our group, bringing it up. He can’t drink! But that’s all we have.
My gf drinks like a fish, and while I did drink fairly heavily before 21 once I hit legal age I dialed it back significantly.
My delirious drinking didn’t start till my mid-twenties. I think I got smashed maybe once before I was legal.
From the time I started drinking at around 17 until I hit the legal age, I would drink as much as I could get my hands on (which was not usually very much because I had trouble finding 21-year olds to buy for me). When I turned 21, I got blackout drunk every night for about five months, then wised up and cut it back to just weekends. Even on the weekends, I’d drink way too much, but I’ve cut it back in recent years. I’d eventually like to be one of those people who just has three or four drinks and calls it a night.
Yeeaah, baby!!
(reads rest of comment)
oh. that’s not what you… ok.
sidebar to the topic = i think weed would actually help a lot of alcoholics severe alcoholics reduce their drinking. i have limited exposure to people its helped, but generally i think for people who are prone to addiction, they can transfer the habit to weed and reduce the damage.
THey also have antabuse now, which I think is fairly effective.
I knew a guy who was on that. The guy I replaced as receptionist in a law office.
Always bugged me how wistful my boss got when talking about the guy I replaced, who was a drunkard, and who refused to take his antabuse. Thanks, man. Glad to know where I rate, somewhere below the guy who wouldn’t show up for days at a time due to his bender.
Maybe your boss just liked to party.
Most addictive behavior starts at a young age. It starts out as just having fun however it impedes the development of a healthy coping mechanism. Any stress, no matter how small ends up triggering the unhealthy behavior in response. We’re creatures of habits, good and bad.
It’s maybe worth noting that the one who doesn’t drink has by far the happiest marital situation. And they’re religious. And she makes all the money, he looks after their four children. And they still, despite all that, see a counselor to work out their grievances.
That makes it sound like low testosterone doesn’t go with drinking.
My wife doesn’t drink much and I’m fine with that because she is a mean drunk. I drink lots, but I’m a happy, the world is my friend drunk. It is also nice to have a ride home from parties.
I also wonder if there is a regional effect. Every Minnesodan I know is a drinker. I’m thinking that long winters stuck in your sod hut weeds out the non-drinkers. (I’m sure a chart would show that abstinent Norwegians chopped up their families at a far higher rate in February than their drunkard neighbors).
I’m a Minnesoooodan, but I was a little chillun when we moved. The squeeze is a born-and-raised Austinite (as in MN, not TX) and doesn’t drink a single drop. But he said he quit all substances when he was about 19 or 20 because he’d already been there, done that. Like, literally tried everything, all the time.
But you seem like you picked up some strange affinity for the ViQueens. Did your parents move because Child Welfare was after them for making you like them?
When the Patriots were in the SuperBowl playing for the perfect season, my boy was rooting for the Giants, I asked him why and he said “Because I want the Vikings to be the first team with a perfect season.” I felt so ashamed that I had raised him with such an unreal expectation of the world.
I dunno – I was a Minnesodan in the 70’s, so the Vikes were actually something then.
And Rochester in the 70’s was all about IBM, and IBM stands for I’ve Been Moved. At least we didn’t end up in friggin Endicott (we moved from MN to VT).
My dad is from the boroughs of NYC, but he hates NY, so he was a Bears fan in college, then moved to MN after my dad finished grad school, so he took on the Vikings.
Now he’s a Panthers fan. PANTHERS. Fuckin-a.
Dang… that must have been something else. Took me into my
thirtiesearly forties before I could say that.Married to an abstinent woman?
We have two upcoming company outings. I scheduled vacation days for both.
The worst, absolute worst part about my first job as a bank teller, even aside from the angry customers, was the one day the credit union scheduled for a company-wide meeting, when they’d bus in everyone from all the out-of-town branches for an all-day meeting on President’s Day. I don’t think vacations or sick leave was strictly forbidden (how could it?), but they Heavily Frowned Upon anyone who didn’t show up. It was a company-wide superstition about missing the meeting.
Yeah, I’m sure I don’t do myself any favors by not going but I don’t really care:)
Honestly, I think the worry was unfounded. It was a goddamn lark for management, a reason to spend gobs of cash on this supposed team-building horseshit.
Did the word “behoove” get tossed around? As in, “the commander cannot require you to attend the holiday party, however it would behoove you to be in attendance?
I’m taking the day off to spend around the pool. It’s supposed to be 92 and humid as hell so I may just stay indoors and keep the AC on.
Good but not good enough.
Facebook was where Pakistan could debate religion. Now it’s a tool to punish ‘blasphemers’
Christ what a giant douche. The guy stands for absolutely nothing.
Mealy mouthed, capitulating statist. He would make an excellent republican.
Which is weird, because he supports the Dems.
Not true! He stands for Mark Zuckerberg!
Nonsense. He stands for maximization of profit and market share for his business empire. He’s just a smarmy little dickhead who likes to pretend otherwise because a substantial number of the idiots who use his service actually believe that he’s an altruistic demi-god who just wants to connect all of humanity for our mutual benefit.
He stands for maximization of profit and market share for his business empire.
Yep. I would respect him if he was honest about that. Instead, well, he can go fuck himself.
What, him constantly sucking up to the PRC to try and get a heavily censored version of Facebook in China didn’t give it away?
–“Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has defended the company’s willingness to comply with government censorship requests by advancing “a single guiding principle:whatever generates the largest quantity of product for our customers (aka users for advertisers)”–
Fixed it for them
Uffda!
That woman who got shot in Minneapolis? She is a fucking saint. She saves baby ducks.
Noor better have video of him saving orphans or something.
I am pretty sure ducks trump orphans, at least as far as these optics are concerned.
If this dude does not fry they are going to have one hell of a grenade in their hands.
A cop would have shot the ducks. They’re a fucking menace.
Not even a traffic ticket or a bad conduct report in 5th grade that the cops can point to?
Fuck. They *are* in trouble.
Meet Seedfeeder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seedfeeder
Anonymous illustrator for many of the sexually explicit drawings on Wikipedia. He (she?) says the inspiration for many of the illustrations are those airplane safety placards.
I have a suspicion it’s someone on this forum.
Initial link SFW, going down the rabbit hole of the illustrations most definitely NSFW.
A depiction of a facial featuring a black man ejaculating onto a white woman prompted criticism, with some users claiming that the image was racist and promoted violence against women.
Fucking what.
I bookmarked this. Not sure why…
OT: Any glibs have a recommendation for a good primer on libertarianism? My fiancée has finally come to terms with the idea that liking guns and thinking that health care shouldn’t be regulated into the ground makes her a poor fit with modern liberals (fortunately, I’ve never heard her refer to herself as a “progressive”), but does make her a decent fit with libertarians, even despite her hippy tendencies. She wants to explore libertarian ideas, but doesn’t want to keep pestering me (also, as we all know, no two libertarians agree on anything). I’ve recommended Bastiat, and she’s found The Law to be interesting but a bit difficult to get through given the translation and the amount of time between now and when it was written.
She wanted to start reading here, but I thought that jumping into that without some sort of formal introduction would be a touch dangerous – like wandering in the woods wearing nothing but chaps and a sign that says “I HEART STEVE SMITH”. At that point, you’re just asking for it.
Economics in 1 lesson
Here is the full text for free…
https://mises.org/system/tdf/Henry%20Hazlitt%20Economics%20in%20One%20Lesson.pdf?file=1&type=document
That one’s on my list for her, just as soon as I’m done reading it. So far, it’s confirmed my view of modern economics education as being way, way too complex. A basic understanding of economics really doesn’t need anything more than the ability to think events through to their ultimate consequences (contrary to that dipshit, Keynes – “in the long run we’re all dead” indeed, you moron). Graphs and equations can help the expert, but the novice doesn’t need them to have a decent base level understanding.
Yeah Hazlett was just an update to Bastiat. Simple timeless concepts.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html
I also think Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” is a very good book which – if not doctrinaire philosophical libertarianism – helps clarify:
1) why economic freedom is inseparable from ‘social’ or civil-liberty and
2) why sectors like education and healthcare in America are so expensive and fucked up, and how market-reforms are really the only sensible way forward.
i like it as a book for ‘non-libertarians’ mainly because it is simple to read and doesn’t really hammer them over the head with any philosophical claims, but rather just looks at the modern mixed-economy we live in, and shows how and why a libertarian would go about improving it.
Its great for destroying the idiotic cartoon-view that all “libertarians are anarchists who want no govt” or “they’d rather the poor all starve” or that “libertarians don’t understand the ‘real world’ and are just idealists without any practical solutions” etc.
Fortunately for me, she’s already beyond the stereotypes and into the gleeful lands of “muh roads” beyond. However, “here’s what a libertarian would do to improve things” is definitely a better use of her time than listening to me crack jokes about orphans.
Not a better use of her time than drawing my wonderful new avatar, which is perfect in every way.
Your avatar is excellent.
It took her less than half an hour. I laughed for about a minute straight on seeing it.
I have picked the right woman.
Yeah, that Avatar is the bomb
For God’s sakes keep her away from here! Lol
“Anarchy, Utopia and the State” by Robert Nozick.
“We the Living” by Ayn Rand
“Anarchy, Utopia and the State” by Robert Nozick.
Great book. Pretty heavy for a beginner though.
We the Living is one I’ve wanted to read for a while anyway, so I think that’ll be on there.
Learn Liberty on youtube has some easy stuff to get into on a bunch of topics.
If she might like a few 3-6 min videos.
I’ll have to have a look – I haven’t seen any of those videos myself.
This is an awesome little coffee table book about why government makes everything worse. It’s nice because each chapter is like separate little article that you can read in 5 minutes. Each one gives a nice lesson about the foolishness of trusting government to do anything right.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0817996125/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_M1sCzbHP2R4DQ
Hmm. Interesting. My amazon cart is getting expensive.
This, long but broken into easily digested chapters.
Also as someone pointed out last time it was brought up, the liberty themed quotes on each page are fun.
There’s some good recommendations for beginners in the FAQ under “Resources”.
Nice list. Popper should definitely be on there.
The Open Society and Its Enemies https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691158134/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jdtCzb4G1TAT5
That list is exactly what I needed, and also a good reason to stop browsing on my phone.
Thicc Thursday.
She is bi…
Glibs will turn her omni.
also, “On Doing the Right Thing” by Albert J. Nock
sample quote- Clearly, a great crime had been committed against this boy; yet nobody who had had a hand in it — the judge, the jury, the prosecutor, the complaining witness, the policemen and jailers — felt any responsibility about it, because they were not acting as men, but as officials. Clearly, too, the public did not regard them as criminals, but rather as upright and conscientious men
Send her every nut punch article you read. That’s a good start.
I’ve been sending her the occasional one, but maybe it’s time to step it up.
As well as stuff like this. NY and CA provide endless examples of government idiocy.
http://reason.com/blog/2017/07/20/nyc-requires-license-for-dog-sitting#comment
Jesus CHRIST. That is just pants-on-head retarded.
Fortunately, that was her reaction too.
I would definitely start with government is fucked up and immoral lessons. Digging into fixing problems before people know they exist is pointless.
What does she like? Reading (short-ish articles essarys or longer books), audio (podcasts and such), or video (interviews, documentaries, etc.)
Does she enjoy laughing at MSM/SJW stupidity/meltdown videos or more serious discussion/philosophy?
I find Bastiat to be a difficult read, and just plain boring. Plus I already “get it”, Bastiat may have profound lines but meh… These days I prefer the mischievousness of Milo, for example. But that’s because I already experienced my “shedding” of prior beliefs between 2008 and 2012, with the most passionate years during Ron Pauls 2012 presidential run. His “what if” speech and the debate between him and Giuliani re: 9/11 are classics for me. I also adore Rand Paul and watched every single minute of his ~13 hour filibuster.
I may be able to help with recommendations with a bit of insight into what she likes to see, hear, or read.
She would probably prefer shorter essays. She’s coming to libertarianism from the left, especially socially, so SJWs and their ilk tend to make her depressed more than amused, and it was my passionate defense of negative rights and economic liberty that brought her over. I imagine she’s looking for what you went through during Obama’s first term, as this is a transitional period and she’s looking for information and additional perspectives rather than entertainment.
Think these have been shared here before, but these are two I like to share with lefty friends that I know are too smart for the dogmatic religion of progressivism.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/
To avoid the 2+ link delay, there’s another by same author on same website titled: “YOU ARE STILL CRYING WOLF”
John stossel. It goes in depth libertarianism but does it with real examples.
I mention this with some trepidation because (a) I’ve only read pieces and (b) CATO seems to be losing their mind at the moment, but David Boaz’s “The Libertarian Reader” is aimed at newbies. It’s a 2015 update of his 1997, “Libertarianism: A Primer.”
Just give her a printed out copy of the U.S. tax code.
I don’t want to go broke buying paper, man.
If you want something shorter, give her a printed out list of countries where big government gave up power without violence.
I think some of the Tom Woods Show podcasts on YouTube can be good rundowns of the libertarian philosophy. Search on YouTube for “Tom Woods” + almost any political topic, and you’ll probably find some good material that is easy to understand (for people who have not yet slogged through Human Action or Man, Economy, and State).
I would say that some of Tom’s later episodes are not as good. Some of them are basically advertisements for his various affiliate marketing projects. But he has many good episodes in the archives. His talks at Mises University are also very informative.
There’s an episode where Tom interviews the head of a private “police”/security force in Detroit that I highly recommend. Too lazy to dig it up, but some of the tricks this guy came up with struck me as brilliant. (obligatory: #3 will SHOCK you!)
Could a kilogram ingot of platinum orbiting at geosynchronous orbit be distinguished as such, and not be confused with a platinum coated brick of styrofoam, by an amateur astronomer with decent equipment?
A kilo of platinum in orbit probably couldn’t be spotted by anybody at all. On account of it would be less than three cubic inches.
But it’s shiny!
How did a kilo ingot of platinum get in orbit?
Elon Musk shot it out of his taxpayer funded gold plated ass.
Maybe he can get a government backed monopoly on gravity.
Assuming you had a good enough telescope to image a 1kg ingot of platinum (just a guess but around the same size as a baseball) in geosynchronous orbit yes.
follow it as it moves from daylight to night and track how quickly it loses heat. While it is in the sunlight it will heat up quite a bit, when it moves into the earth’s shadow that heat will be radiated back to space until it reaches the equilibrium temperature for that region of space. The rate at which it will lose heat will be determined by the specific heat of the substances it is made up of. Styrofoam has a much higher specific heat and so will radiate much more slowly (that is what it makes a good insulator) .
You wouldn’t know necessarily that it was Styrofoam inside but you would know that it was not solid Platinum.
That said I highly doubt an amateur astronomer could realistically get their hands on equipment that could image, track and measure the radiated IR signature of an object that small in a geosynchronous orbit
Thank you for the thoughtful answer. I had inking of an SF premise. I guess, one ton ingots would be better?
Wouldn’t the density be theoretically possible to calculate if it’s orbiting?
Not really, too small to exert any measurable gravitational pull and without knowing how it got into earth orbit you couldn’t really learn anything about the mass by observing it’s orbit.
You would honestly have no clue whether it weighed 1 ton or 1 lb just that it’s surface was Platinum and how big it was
Wtf? Lol:)
Is this for a story? Or did that just pop in your head?
Yes.
Shock: Abraham Lincoln probably used a ghost writer for a letter commiserating with a woman who lost five sons in the Civil War.
I hope Trump does the same. Can only imagine getting a letter. “Your son was the best soldier, nobody was better than him. His comrades called him the Donald because like me he was great at everything he did. My use of the word comrades has nothing to do with Russia.”
[Chinese Communist] Party members told to give up religion for Party unity or face punishment
“…”Party members should not have religious beliefs, which is a red line for all members … Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey Party rules and stick to the Party’s faith … they are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion,” Wang Zuoan, director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) wrote in an article released in the Qiushi Journal on Saturday, the flagship magazine of the CPC Central Committee….
“Wang also stressed the need for a firm political direction in managing religious affairs. “Religions should be sinicized … We should guide religious groups and individuals with socialist core values and excellent traditional Chinese culture and support religious groups to dig into their doctrines to find parts that are beneficial to social harmony and development,” Wang wrote.
“”Some foreign forces have used religion to infiltrate China, and extremism and illegal religious activities are spreading in some places, which have threatened national security and social stability,” Wang added.”
That dude is such a fucking wang.
(Asian names are so easy to make fun of!)
The commie god is a jealous god.
Maybe I have too much faith in being correct that Marxism is a disaster but I never worry about the “OMG China will take over” because I’m sure the marxists will fuck it up.
And even if they invade, we can use The Ledbetter Effect.
“Hey Wang, whaddya taking pictures for? It’s a parking lot!”
So, I have been having a weird feeling like I have a lump in my throat lately. Yesterday I went and had an ultrasound on my throat. They got back to me today and told me they found a 1 cm nodule in my throat.
From 1 to cancer how fucked am I?
I’m no doctor but Web MD says most nodules are benign. A rare time they don’t say it’s cancer. Anyways I hope it turns out good for you.
Either way I hope they cut the fucker out cause it constantly feels like someone has their thumb in my adams apple. It’s rather uncomfortable.
And if it’s cancer…. well I was losing my hair anyway and I needed to go on a diet.
Hope you’re ok. But like Haybob said, most things like that are benign.
That sucks. Hopefully it’s nothing serious.
Best wishes for something totally benign.
Could be nothing. Get a biopsy, and don’t worry about it until the doc tells you to worry about it.
Can I have your guns if you don’t make it?
Just kidding pal, best wishes to you! Sounds uncomfortable, cut that shit out asap and get better for us, you’re a wealth of knowledge.
I would like to hear your thoughts on entry to mid priced optics, specifically for my AR. (M&P Sport that I picked up on sale a couple years ago). I understand that the optic may cost around the same price as the gun 🙂
I like just the plain “dot”, is that good/bad? Just a preference? Does it need to be red? So many questions!
You definitely get what you pay for when it comes to optics. You have a lot of options for an AR. A lot depends on what you’ll use it for and in what environment. If it’s strictly for close quarters defense a Red Dot (some folks prefer green) or no optic at all would be fine. If you want a further reach you could go with something like a 2-7x which I think is a pretty popular range for that platform. I’ve been hearing pretty good thinks about Vortex as far as quality for the price. Burris is also know for being a good value. But like I said spend as much as you can afford on it because you’ll definitely notice the difference in quality.
Okay, so before I go any farther on this, know that I am notorious, dangerously cheap, and this goes double for rifle optics. The most expensive optic system I have on any gun is $300 total and I cried like a baby paying that much. Also, none of my optics are combat tested. If you are going to be scuba diving out of chinooks with your gun, get a trijicon.
Now with that out of the way, I have 3 suggestions for you. 1) Primary Arms. They make the absolute best budget optics I have ever found, and they have a bulletproof warranty. They replaced a scope that broke like 6 months after I bought it, no questions asked. 2) Holosun. Holosun actually makes the red dots for Primary arms, so 1 and 2 are technically the same thing, but Holosun branded optics usually cost a little more and give you more features. 3) Bushnell TRS 25. The TRS 25 is by far the best optic under $100. I have bought them for as little as $60 shipped off amazon. I have I think 4 of them and I have never had a problem with them, not even on my VEPR 12, which shook 2 other $50 red dots to pieces within 10 minutes. All of these brands are available on Amazon or primaryarms.com. If you don’t want to break your bank these are the only brands I recommend.
If you want to go a little more expensive, look at Vortex or Aimpoint. Aimpoint is more expensive but better. Vortex is more consumer focused but still considered very good. And if you have thousands of dollars you just can’t keep any longer, get trijicon.
Cool, thanks for the info. In the past few years, I only get my long guns out maybe 2-3 times per year for plinking, so cheap suits me just fine. I do just fine with iron signs, but just want the optics.
I love plain red dots (or whatever color). A 3 MOA dot works just fine from close in to 100+ yards. Get the trick of using it with both eyes open (can be done with low power magnification) and the dot floats in an unobstructed field of view. Awesome.
I love my Vortex SPARC II. It wasn’t terribly cheap, but it was easy to adjust, it holds zero, and it’s put up with being banged around in transport and my general lack of care for it.
That said, I also figured I was buying something decent from a company with a headquarters I could complain to in person, worst case.
Your first mistake was going to a doctor.
Bonnie Tyler got her distinctive voice from an operation to remove nodules on her vocal cords, and she’s still going strong 40 years later.
Having some scotch in your honor, mate – here’s to it being totally benign.
Time to write your will.
I’ll do it for you, free of charge.
/bwahaha
Oh yes, I’m just sure this will be full of nuanced balanced discussions about states’ rights and the supremacy of federal authority.
As was stated before, if they were working off of something like Turtledove’s Southern Victory series, it could actually be good. But because it’s the two Game of Thrones hacks with their ‘own idea’ it’s bound to be pretty dumb.
Was this posted before? Been absent for the last few days.
Yeah, I posted it last night and I think someone posted it this morning. The key to the whole thing is that they seems to be less interested in an alternative history where the Confederacy survived and more interested in the ‘slavery in the modern day’ angle, which is retarded, especially in the context of the Confederacy, for numerous reasons.
Of course I suppose they lack the balls to do a show about, I don’t know, the actual slaves that work in Qatar and the U.A.E. nowadays.
Oh yeah, I would be shocked to see a historically accurate Civil War movie/show come out of Hollywood period, much less some kind of nuanced alternate history one.
I eagerly await shallow social commentary about how it’s “JUST LIKE IT IS TODAY OMG” for the culture journalists to fawn over while at the same time making sure that every even slightly attractive female slave actress has to get naked for sex scenes that totally aren’t the writers fetishizing slave-rape or anything.
“Come on, think of the social significance this will have for our viewers!”
I’m OK with this.
“this Act…is a usurpation by Congress of powers not granted by the Constitution, and an infraction of rights secured to the States…”
– Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, speaking against the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
“What is a federated state?
“By a federated state we understand a league of sovereign states which band together of their own free will, on the strength of their sovereignty; ceding to the totality that share of their particular sovereign rights which makes possible and guarantees the existence of the common federation.
“In practice this theoretical formulation does not apply entirely to any of the federated states existing on earth today. Least of all to the American Union, where, as far as the overwhelming part of the individual states are concerned, there can be no question of any original sovereignty, but, on the contrary, many of them were sketched into the total area of the Union in the course of time, so to speak. Hence in the individual states of the American Union we have mostly to do with smaller and larger territories, formed for technical, administrative reasons, and, often marked out with a ruler, states which previously had not and could not have possessed any state sovereignty of their own. For it was not these states that had formed the Union, on the contrary it was the Union which formed a great part of such so-called states. The very extensive special rights granted, or rather assigned, to the individual territories are not only in keeping with the whole character of this federation of states, but above all with the size of its area, its spatial dimensions which approach the scope of a continent. And so, as far as the states of the American Union are concerned, we cannot speak of their state sovereignty, but only of their constitutionally established and guaranteed rights, or better, perhaps, privileges.”
– Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
“[Antislavery hostility] has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.”
– Mississippi’s declaration of reasons for secession
“The citizens of each State…shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.”
– Confederate Constitution, Art. IV, Sec. 2
“The slavery exception to otherwise robust support for states’ rights was a recurring feature of antebellum Southern politics.”
– Prog historian Eric Foner
Oh hey, as “Hilary Won!!!!!” shows and movies are slowly clearing the pipeline, time for TRUMPOCALYPSE in visual media to get going.
Enjoy the next four years!
Did you tell the producers that Trump was impeached?
Was That Racist?- published by The New York Times, a former newspaper
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/was-that-racist.html
***
Not So Black and White
A barista had just finished preparing an order and then called out “tall, black Marques; tall, black Marques.” Marques, a 6-foot-2 African-American man who works for a demolition company based in Colorado, stood bewildered by what seemed to be a racially charged incident inside a Starbucks.
After realizing the misunderstanding — “tall, black” was referring to the coffee, not the person ordering it — he laughed and defused the situation with a joke: “That’s me, tall black Marques!”
Everyday life brings awkward moments for everyone, but some of our daily stories are infused with added tension, especially if one or more of those involved perceive that race is a determining factor.
We collected three more experiences from colleagues — on the sidewalks of New York, at a restaurant in Kansas City, Mo., and in the business world. Each case carries a different degree of clarity, and what took place can be a matter of perception.
That’s where you come in.
Have you ever been left wondering whether an experience was racism? What is the right way to respond if something like that happens?
Separately, have you ever been in a situation where you worried about being perceived as racist? Share your perspective and stories using this form.
By Greg Howard
In New York, so much of my life consists of walking in and through crowds. I am, I think, a good walker. I don’t dawdle, and even when walking at high speeds, I’m courteous — always willing to sway to one side, change speed in traffic or even take wide berths around large, lost, child-toting or otherwise compromised gaggles of pedestrians.
There are many times in a day when a person is walking toward me and in my path. In these situations, we both generally make minor adjustments upon our approach. Sometimes, and especially with pedestrians who are black, as I am, there’s eye contact or even a nod. Almost always, we shift our bodyweight or otherwise detour to make the pass easier for the other. Walking courteously doesn’t take much, just soupçons of spatial awareness, foresight and empathy. In seven years of living and walking here, I’ve found that most people walk courteously — but that white women, at least when I’m in their path, do not.
Sometimes they’re buried in their phones. Other times, they’re in pairs and groups, and in conversation. But often, they’re looking ahead, through me, if not quite at me. When white women are in my path, they almost always continue straight, forcing me to one side without changing their course. This happens several times a day; and a couple of times a week, white women force me off the sidewalk completely. In these instances, when I’m standing in the street or in the dirt as a white woman strides past, broad-shouldered and blissful, I turn furious.
I turn furious because in these instances I feel small. I always get out of the way, because I was taught at a young age not to bodycheck random people. But I also get out of the way because, as a black man, I’ve learned that bodychecking, bumping or even rubbing against a random white woman can be personally hazardous. So I acknowledge other pedestrians, and reroute. White men and all people of color do the same to me. They offer some form of acknowledgment that we are in each other’s path, that I am there at all.
After these encounters, I’m always left with questions. Why only and specifically white women? Do they refuse to acknowledge me because they’ve been taught that they should fear black men, and that any acknowledgment of black men can invite danger? Do they refuse to acknowledge me because to alter their route would be to show their fear? Do they not see me? Can they not see me?
I wonder, too, why I always get out of the way. Why haven’t I ever just walked headlong into a rude white woman? What lessons tug at me, force me off the sidewalk, tell me that my personal space is not necessarily mine? Because explicit in every white woman’s decision not to get out of my way is the expectation that I’ll get out of theirs.
There have always been white women in my life, and I’ve counted them as friends and sisters, mothers and lovers. Whenever I ask white women I know why they don’t reroute for black men, they invariably express ignorance. Whenever that happens, another question always arises: Wait, am I crazy? But then I ask black men. Invariably, they know what I’m talking about.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked an Asian friend if he had the same experience of white women not getting out of his way. He said no. For whatever reason, white women see him just fine. The people who don’t, he said, are white men.
By Lisa Godwin
I was eager to share the journey of my career with the world, via Jopwell, a diversity hiring start-up. As a woman of color holding various leadership roles in technology, this is something I take great pride in. I am often contacted by recruiters and asked to share my network of colleagues as an aid in placing people in tech roles, and have at times been pitched for jobs because my resume and experience are aligned with the position they are trying to fill — at least that’s what I thought.
The day my Jopwell article was released, I was approached with many positive comments and remarks, especially from recruiting agencies I have not met stating, “Nice to finally meet you,” or “Congrats on all your success.” But amid all my joyous remarks and comments, one email from Hire Talent reversed the entire day. The email was addressed as “Hello Black” and proceeded to pitch a job to me for employment. I was immediately bewildered. I just sat and glanced at the computer for a few minutes in complete disbelief that this was happening to me, as I have never been confronted with racism directly. Once I gathered my thoughts, I replied to the email asking, “Is this how you address potential employees for your clients? By race?” Their instantaneous reply stated that this was a technical error and offered many apologies and various phone calls.
Photo
Well, one thing you cannot do to a person with my extensive tech background is blame a technical error and expect me not to investigate. Of course, this led me to do some digging into their creation of their email templates and how they import, sort and organize the data, and my findings brought a bigger issue to light. There did, in fact, happen to be a technical error in how the template had generated the email that was sent to me — but what was not an error was that each candidate in their database is categorized by race.
What seems to have taken place is that they saw the article and filled in my race (or what they think I identify as) into their spreadsheet, and instead of my “NAME” being populated into the email, the “RACE” category did. This experience has made me wonder if all candidates seeking employment have the same fair opportunity at getting hired if agencies are categorizing and profiling as such, or am I being contacted only to fill company diversity quotas and not because of my history of accomplishments? I am left puzzled yet inspired.
The writer is a creative technologist at The Times.
By John Eligon
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — This might seem like just a story about tortilla chips, but I assure you it’s much deeper than that. It is — I think — a lesson on racial and cultural alliances.
As a black man, I usually feel a deep kinship with other racial minorities, even those who are not black.
Sure, there are deep-rooted tensions between black folks and Latinos, and black people and Asians. But I have always felt that our shared struggles in a white-dominated society trumped our differences.
But a recent trip to my favorite no-frills Latin American restaurant here has me rethinking this.
It’s a place where the chicken tacos are chargrilled to perfection and almost everyone speaks Spanish. My black wife and I are usually the only diners there who are not of Hispanic descent. Nonetheless, I’ve always felt like we belonged — I even got one of their punch cards that rewards five visits with a free meal.
After we ordered our tacos recently, the waitress, unsolicited, told us that they were out of chips and that she therefore could not give us any as they usually do.
Yet a short time later, a Latino couple was seated, and their waitress brought them chips. Same thing with another group after that.
“Hmm,” my wife said, “seems like they fried some more chips.”
So as we were our eating tacos, I asked our waitress if they had chips now. They don’t, she told me, but right at that moment a waitress walked out from kitchen carrying chips for another table. Our waitress’s eyes went wide. She asked her co-worker something about chips in Spanish. (We don’t speak Spanish.)
The second waitress responded in Spanish, and the only thing I caught was “un poquito.” Yet our waitress turned back to us and repeated that they were all out of chips.
We were now officially baffled, and the staff seemed to be getting nervous. A manager kept coming by our table to check on us, and giving a pained expression at the same time. Our waitress offered us churros. We declined, but she came back offering a different dessert, and we took it.
As we were preparing to leave, another party of Latinos showed up, and their waitress brought them — you guessed it — chips.
Now, the manager standing behind the counter appeared super anxious. He offered me a beer. I declined. He insisted. But I declined again.
We honestly didn’t want chips that bad. But what was going on? They offered us free dessert, free beer, but they drew the line at the (cheapest option) chips? That made little sense to me.
Had I miscalculated my status at this restaurant and my bond with the fellow racial minorities who ran it? The best theory that we could come up with was that they were running out of chips and wanted to save them for the Latino customers. Being black, we were left out.
I went back to the restaurant a few days later and posed that theory to the manager who was there that night, Alex Hernandez.
“Oh no, no. No. No. No,” Mr. Hernandez said when I asked if our race had anything to do with our not receiving chips. “That’s, like, discrimination.”
What happened then?
When we arrived, Mr. Hernandez said, the restaurant was out of chips. By the time our food had come out, they had fried more chips. But because we were already eating our tacos, they did not bring us any chips, he said.
But what about when I asked the waitress for chips?
Mr. Hernandez said that he didn’t know why she did not bring us chips, and that if he had known that we wanted them, he would have brought them to us. At the same time, however, he said that he had offered me the beer because he felt bad that it had taken a long time for our food to come out (it was a really busy night) and because we did not get chips. But if he did not know that we wanted chips, why did he feel bad about that?
Mr. Hernandez did not really have an answer, other than to reiterate that he felt bad for us and that if we would have asked him for chips, he would have brought them. He apologized profusely.
The tacos and pupusas I ate satisfied me just fine. I would like to believe that this was nothing more than a misunderstanding, just a case of poor service.
Yet I can’t help but wonder now, in the larger universe of racial alliances, how do our teams actually line up?
***
Story 1: You assume it’s cause you’re black cause you view everything through a racial lens. Next time a group of ‘white women’ does that do you, follow them and see how many other people they do it too. I’ll bet you a hot meal that they do it to other people, too.
Story 2: Gee, they classify potential hires by their race? That couldn’t be because people like you force them to conform to diversity quotas, could it? NAAAAAAHHHH!!!
Story 3: Yes, they didn’t bring you chips cause you’re black, but they offered to comp you with beers and desserts worth 5 times the cost of all the chips they had made that day combined. Excellent work Columbo. *HEADDESK*
You are right about 1. Some people are assholes, and often they are white women.
You are right about 2. I find it funny she has just figured out quotas.
3? I don’t know. I call bullshit on the management story. (no, not because I hate Mexicans as you seem to think we all do here in the region I live) A taco shop running out of tortillas to fry? No way. If his story is accurate, I don’t buy it.
Just to clarify, I don’t think everyone on the western slope hates minorities. It was very clearly a socio economic divide. Poor white people hate minorities because they view them as a threat to their livelihood, and that certainly is not unique to western Colorado. I just happened to notice it more there, maybe because it was a smaller, poorer town than what I had lived in prior.
Getting back to story 3, people crave rationalization. If something doesn’t make sense simply calling it coincidence or bad luck rarely satisfies people. They want an explanation. Racism is an extremely convenient explanation, because it simultaneously absolves you of any wrongdoing on your part and logically satisfies nearly every random slight encountered in modern life. This is why it is so common to hear racism accusations nowadays.
People do crave rationalization. But in my experience, the most racist beliefs I have witnessed were between south americans and people who were black or darker skinned, as well as the different tints of black in the few parts of Africa I have worked. I didn’t get it, but I did not grow up in a south american country, or in Nigeria. I would totally believe that a dude from Honduras on the fryer said he would not fry tortillas for the black couple. Maybe I am being a reverse racist.
You experienced something different in western colorado in the the poor neighborhoods than I did. I read what you posted about your sister. I was poor white trash in the trailer parks back in the late 60’s early 70’s as a pasty white scrawny red headed kid and I had no problem with the brown kids and went to birthday parties. They couldn’t have cared less that I did not speak spanish. Maybe it is different now. As to the idiots who you remember here, if people can’t articulate how the government imports people into a community it does not mean they don’t realize it is not an honest situation.
To finish that last sentence…..Historically, it was an honest situation as the government was not involved other than allowing normal immigration. That changed at some point over the past thirty years.
Thanks for the article Derp, but I think a link would have sufficed:)
I thought I would give y’all the option of reading without giving the vermin any clicks.
Ah, makes sense.
You can’t fool me, that’s an Abbott and Costello bit.
Or Top Secret! – “I know a little German. See, there he is over there” *points at a midget in lederhosen*
That’s how I know you are not Mel Torme.
SMDH
They need to rename the series: “Inside the Minds of Assholes“
Here’s from the blurb about this Jopwell place
Sounds like her company is literally in the business of serving that thing she hates.
Lol, fuck these people are idiots.
“Only I can bite u, only I can grab your nipples.”
I don’t know what it is with the handsy, bitey Latino footballers.
Who wants to play slap ass?
How to sell single payer health care: It’s a great policy, but has a huge political drawback
Workers are not going to want to see employer-provided benefits disappear right as their taxes go up
by Amanda Marcotte
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/20/how-to-sell-single-payer-health-care-its-a-great-policy-but-has-a-huge-political-drawback/
***
The good news is that there are ways to address these voter concerns. The first step, however, is admitting that tax raises are a real problem.
Polling data shows this. The majority of California residents, 65 percent, say they want a single payer system, but that level of support drops to 42 percent if it will require a tax raise.
….
I say it’s time to get freaky with it. My proposal: Write the bill so that it requires employers to compensate their employees who lose their health care benefits with a raise in their paycheck. Then the plan could be marketed as “health care for all, plus a raise at work.” Higher taxes go down easier if you’re getting a raise to cover them.
***
Stupid people make me sad
Jesus tapdancing Christ, this woman has NO concept of basic economic realities. I’d say it’s unbelievable, but since it’s Amanda Marcotte, I can believe it. She is a nexus of derp.
Are you saying that employers’ bank accounts are not just infinite wellsprings of money that the government can commandeer and use to pay for bread and circuses?
Single payer is not happening here. It’s just a Dem talking point to get the progs to vote for them. US citizens will not stand for the level of taxes that Europeans pay. Currently the avg payroll tax for the middle class here is about 20%. It will take raising that to 40-60% right of to fund it. And keep in mind as well that Europe has a VAT. Europeans are used to paying sky high taxes and high prices for everything, and having a lower standard of living, which the NYT, etc, will tell you is actually a higher standard because they have free shitty healthcare. It is absolutely not feasible here and it’s never even getting to a vote.
“I say it’s time to get freaky with it. My proposal: Write the bill so that it requires employers to compensate their employees who lose their health care benefits with a raise in their paycheck. Then the plan could be marketed as “health care for all, plus a raise at work.” Higher taxes go down easier if you’re getting a raise to cover them.”
Is she 10 years old, or just retarded?
Why can’t it be both?
I mean, we can definitely falsify the first option. Not sure about the second. That statement lends powerful credence to the idea that she has suffered some serious mental damage.
In strange circumstance many people fired just before law goes into effect.
Nathan J Robinson sinks to a new low.
Politics is a Contest of Domination
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/07/politics-is-a-contest-of-domination
***
Leftists should absolutely want to make sure their values dominate the other side’s values. That’s because the other side’s values are that people should struggle for subsistence in a miserably unequal, sexist, and racist economy. There is no degree to which this value should be accepted; it must be driven from the earth.
…
You don’t have to be a dirtbag, but you’ve got to fight dirty if you’re going to win. And if you care about what happens in the world, decimating the forces of oppression is precisely the point of politics.
***
He’s going to have to remove more than 10% of us to start winning elections.
I would love to see team blue suddenly go on a gun buying spree. It would actually be the first smart thing they have done Ever
The left’s problem… ok, one of their problems, they have many, is that they are losing in the marketplace of ideas. Most people are just not buying what they’re selling. Oh, there will always be some who buy the idea that the government can just hand out everything for free and make everyone equal. But for now, they’re getting beaten like a red headed stepchild.
He seems to struggle with realization of the fact that if something is so great, you don’t have to force it on people. There would be no struggle. Everyone would want it. But for some strange reason, they keep voting against it.
Weirdo creepy sociology major projecting sex fantasies onto politics, news at 11.
And, as Kratman liked to point out, Mr. Robinson doesn’t want to play the ‘fight dirty’ game, because it ends with him in a shallow trench with a gun to the back of his head.
why is it these people who claim to be “libertarian socialists” seem to be nowhere around whenever actual ‘libertarian’ issues are raised?
I honestly think these people simply slap the label onto Socialism because it sounds good. When it comes to any question of actual *liberty*, like self-ownership, this very same motherfucker was arguing that the state should have the right to FUCKING APPROPRIATE YOUR ORGANS sans due process….. so, forgive me if i question their libertarian bona fides.
Basically, i hear people call themselves ‘Left Libertarians’ and instantly i think, “no, you’re just a fucking pretentious lefty”
Actually the term libertarian in the context of ‘libertarian socialism’ predates actual modern libertarian ideology. In fact, outside of North America and some parts of Europe the term is still used in its original, rather than current form.
It’s one of those ‘you stole our word’ scenarios like liberal. Amsoc used to whine about all the time (while completely ignoring the fact that most of his positions were ‘libertarian socialist’ either).
And the same is applicable to Mr. Robinson, the man who dreams of ‘dominating others with libertarian socialism’ while also demanding the right to involuntarily harvest the organs of others for his grand social engineering scheme.
It’s not Nathan’s fault there are so few Falun Gong practitioners in this country.
Mr. Robinson is certainly making an argument in favour of Chinese-style repression, just not in the way he wants.
*Weren’t ‘libertarian socialist’ dammit.
The one thing that might save us is most people would see that as immoral. Or you could let people sell their organs. Problem solved.
Good to know that libertarian socialism is full on for organ harvest though. Is North Korea a libertarian socialist regime?
Wait, what the fuck? All my internal organs belong to the state now?
Don’t organs need to match?
Why, yes they do. They’ll probably have some kind of registry and a lottery by type. As a Type O- I will be among the first to have their organs harvested in prison, since I will be responsible for the death of a harvester that drew me or one of my kids.
The shallowness of this politics amazes me. These people really believe that people’s wealth and money is a matter of voting.
“Why don’t we vote to make people wealthier, because the other side wants people poor.”
Yes, there’s no costs to these policies. Every government in the world could have voted away scarcity but they forgot or were sabotaged by kulaks.
When it rains, it pours.
For A Luxury Leftism
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/01/for-a-luxury-leftism
***
The problem with limousine liberalism, then, was not the limousines, but the liberals. Radicals should be chic, revolutionaries should drink excellent wine. Anarchist flophouses, abounding in filth and with defective plumbing, present no kind of vision for the future society. Any political movement that wishes to win people over must at least seem like it’s having a good time. The left’s suits must be well-tailored, its pastries must be fattening.
Never laugh, then, at the perfumed leftist. Would you wish them abominably scented? Gandhi said that we must be the change we wish to see in the world. I wish to see lovely libraries and comfortable chairs. Thus I have built myself a library and I am ensconced in a comfortable chair. There is nothing shameful about this. It could instead be called downright visionary.
There is still no excuse for stinginess, there is still no justification for inequality. One should still care about others as much as one cares about oneself. Many of the goods and services traditionally favored by the leisure class are tainted by inherent injustice. Blood diamonds and furs should revolt the soul. Nobody should employ a butler. Et cetera. But the fundamental principle must be this: things ought to be nice, and if they are not nice, then they are not leftist.
The left frequently seems to embrace an unappealing and Spartan set of aesthetic values. It stands for minimalism, sobriety, and self-abnegation. The left is Swedish, i.e. boring. This is no good. Our values must be toward joy, indulgence, and a pleasant time to be had by all. We will build cathedrals, we will wear incredible jewels, we will throw delightful parties and everyone will be invited.
***
“and everyone will be invited.”
Uh-huh
Just like in Venezuela. Haven’t you seen those scenes of everyone in the country enjoying lobster and champagne at Maduro’s estate?
Well I’m sure they’ll have one of “each type” like a Pepsi commercial so everyone can see how open minded and cool they are. This is my black friend Tyrone. He was in a gang, now he braids hair. This is my Mexican friend Maria (says Maria with exaggerated trill), say something Mexican Maria, isn’t she adorable.
“You get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car….”
And by “car”, you mean Trabant and by “get” you mean in 10 years or so.
“Ten years from now? What time?”
“What does it matter?”
“The plumber is coming that day.”
“If socialism isn’t about giving people nice things and good times, what on earth is it about?”
It’s about making everyone equally poor, dummies.
Yes, and this is why it’s important for pigs to have milk and apples. Everyone will be given milk and apples in the glorious future, of course. But for now, pigs need them to lead us there.
You can’t expect pigs to do important things without giving the impression of importance.
Interesting presentation at work recently. Medium – Large Corporation.
Employment lawyers from Corporate HQ come in, discuss that Federal bureaucrats have our company in crosshairs for expensive and exhaustive audits. After attempting to fine company 1+ BILLION for alleged discriminatory hiring practices in just one local market, the feds have since provided guidelines stating that the company’s employee demographics in any given city/market should resemble the local population demographics. And if it doesn’t then company must demonstrate that steps have been taken to attempt to hire employees specifically from that under represented demographic.
Company lawyers pointed out the obvious catch-22, that federal law prohibits hiring based on race & gender, but at the same time, we need to be hiring based on race & gender.
For some perspective, I am almost always interviewing/hiring for my department. Out of every 4 in-person interviews scheduled after phone screening, only 1 out of 4 typically shows up. If the person seems not completely retarded and can pass background/drug screening, they’re hired. Literally don’t give two shits about race or gender and it rubs me the wrong way that I have to even think about these things, at least according to company lawyers.
If I was president, I would make a point to visit every federal office throughout my term and just walk from desk to desk. “What do you do?” “Mm..hmm, interesting, you’re fired”, next person: “What do you do…. you’re fired” Go to boss/manager: “Sell this building”. Rinse and repeat day after day.
Report: It Takes At Least 170 Days to Fire a Government Employee
Then they can appeal!
http://freebeacon.com/issues/report-it-takes-at-least-170-days-to-fire-a-government-employee/
***
Federal agencies have two procedural options when faced with firing a poor worker: chapters 43 and 75 of title 5 of the United States Code, and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) implementing regulations.
Chapter 43 takes between 170 to 370 days to complete, and includes “counseling sessions” for the worker. The employee also gets a chance to improve their performance, which can last up to 110 days.
Throughout the process the government agency must consult with the Human Resources department and their General Counsel before the worker is informed of their dismissal and their “grievance rights.”
After dismissal, the employee is then given the opportunity to appeal, which itself takes an average of 243 days to complete.
***
Oh, it gets even better when they try to fire someone currently under indictment for, say, embezzling from the agency they are employed by.
Paid leave for the years it takes the case to finish or be settled. The smart scum drag it out and take a plea, never serving time.
Every idiotic rule regarding travel, expenses, and ethics is because it directly addresses a federal scam artist’s scheme.
That’s outrageous.
But lo, a ray of hope:
Trump plans to fire feds faster
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/21/trump-plans-to-fire-feds-faster/?utm_term=.b770b043e387
***
Let’s begin with an acknowledgment that firing federal employees can be long and cumbersome because of civil service procedures. Let’s also acknowledge the importance of procedures protecting civil servants from being fired at will, like a contestant on a Trump reality show.
The public is the main beneficiary of civil service laws that also protect employee rights.
***
Oh, get bent.
Look, an experienced civil servant is a government employee who opposes his or her Republican boss.
A bureaucrat is a government employee who opposes his or her Democratic boss.
Out of curiosity, what industry? It seems not being completely retarded and able to pass a background/drug screening is a pretty low bar.
Researcher at a bioweapons lab.
/just a little joke
That Swiss banker is a hero for helping Americans dodge taxes.
“But a pizza by another other name is still as savory – and sometimes sweet.”
Has anyone mentioned this news item yet?
(contains autoplay video)
This guy keeps getting out of trouble. It seems like his problem is staying out.
I heard a clip on the news and part of his argument for parole was that he had not used a weapon in the robbery. He went on to say, “No one has ever accused me of pointing a weapon at anyone.”
The Spectator posts the first speech of a newly-elected Conservative MP and former Speccie journalist
Preach it, lady!
Oh, I can think why.
That would be a laugh line, yes.
You should see the desperate games the Tories and Liberals play up here to get people like Tim Uppal or Navdeep Bains into every photoshoot possible.
That’s an EXCELLENT speech. I’m going to be keeping an eye on her.
random thought
It seems govts always try to fix economic problems with policies that cause even more problems. First, they increase the minimum wage. That causes inflation, so they set price controls. That leads to black markets so they crack down on them. That leads to shortages so they set capital controls and official exchange rates and print more money. All that makes the inflation, unemployment, and shortages worse. Then they just start confiscating things and pretty soon there’s nothing left to loot.
That’s what I always try to explain to “progressives”. They say that regulations are the only thing standing between us and dystopia. I tell them that almost every regulation passed today, if not outright cronyist in purpose, is just trying to paper over a problem created by previous regulations.
It’s like if a patient went to the doctor with a minor condition that could have been eliminated by some lifestyle changes, but the doctor promised instant results from this new medication. When that medication failed to cure the condition, the doctor told the patient that he hasn’t been taking enough and doubled the dosage. When that led to some unpleasant side effects, the doctor prescribed another medication that he said would take care of them in no time. Once again, that medication did nothing, and the doctor doubled the dosage. Meanwhile, the first medication has still not worked, and the doctor has been increasing the dosage. Pretty soon, the patient is taking a hundred pills a day and feeling sicker than ever, but the doctor just keeps promising that one more pill will take care of everything once and for all.
That’s why pointing out flaws only encourages them. They think we’ll just pass a law to stop that, and so on, and so on. It shouldn’t be difficult to sit down and realize that patching these holes eventually requires so much control over the people to prevent them from getting around the flaws that you have a totalitarian state. Hell, that’s why socialist places are totalitarian. But they seem to have supreme confidence in their own intellect to solve problems.
I think intelligent people are drawn to command economies because they like solving problems. Except they’re not intelligent enough to realize figuring out what everyone wants isn’t a “difficult” problem, it’s an impossible, intractable problem.
Man… my AC is struggling. “Heavy thunderstorms” are on the way. Please hurry.
Learn to deal with heat and humidity. 😉
That Guy T goes to a strip club and experiences philosophical self-discovery
i like this guy. even if i don’t agree with him sometimes, he’s still my favorite youtube libertarian (*Razorfist is a close second)
“We started counting numeros. I only made it to 24.”
I empathize.
One finger, two fingers, three fingers…
Great points. Reminds me of a conversation I had once about hookers. I was doing the empathy thing T mentions there, and my buddy said he had that conversation with a friend of his some years ago. His friend said, “ya, they may need the money, they may like to go out to eat or hang out in your hotel room for a shower and a clean bed, or, ya know, some girls just like to fuck”.
Good find. Subscribed.
Lincoln died again and the Juice is out. You guys were busy while I was asleep.
When did Lincoln become alive? I missed that one.