SugarFree
Read another John Ferris novel, Fiends, a good take on the admittedly small psychic-Iceland-elves-take-over-a-small-Southern-town-and-skin-hippies genre. A shame really. Iceland elves are metal af. Despite the synopsis on Goodreads, the elves, The Unwashed Children of Eve, are not vampires at all, but Huldufólk. (“Elf” is apparently a pejorative, and Huldufólk is the polite term. I assume “elf” gets thrown around a lot on Huldufólk rap albums.)
Next was A Grin of the Dark, by Ramsey Campbell. It is a clown-based twist on the book/film/book that kills you/drives you mad/compels you to murder idea. Tubby Thackeray’s silent films are almost impossible to find and even his name has been almost completely erased from film history, only a few mentions of a court case where the philosophy professor-turned-grotesque-clown was charged with inciting a riot after a screening of one of his films. Our protagonist, saddled with unemployment and a girlfriend whose parents might actually be from hell, hopes to revive his career by digging up Tubby’s lost body of work. It doesn’t go well. If you have clourophobia, avoid this, it’s all ghostly laughter and greasepaint, IT meets The Ring. But there is an internet troll in the plot that I swear is modeled on Tulpa at his most wound-up and the awful in-laws are hilariously awful indeed.
And finally, I read The Haunted Vagina, by Carlton Mellick III. This is my second work by Mellick after being drawn in a year or so ago by his prosaically titled Baby Jesus Butt Plug. The Haunted Vagina is, as you might infer from the title, about a girl with a haunted vagina. Steve tries to learn to live with the ghostly voices from Stacy’s vagina because otherwise, she is perfect. But when an epic bout of 69 causes an adult human skeleton to crawl out of Stacy’s vagina and Steve is forced to beat it to pieces with a night table, he decides he has had enough. But the seductive Stacy convinces Steve to explore her haunted vagina, and he finds an entire haunted world. Short, to the point, and surprisingly sweet, I really liked like this novella. With such evocative titles as Satan Burger, The Faggiest Vampire, Zombies and Shit, The Menstruating Mall, and Razor Wire Pubic Hair, I will be reading more Mellick in the near future.
Riven
I’ve not made any progress, again, on The Skinner by Neal Asher. I’d make excuses, but I don’t have any that are good. I can’t even promise I’m going to get serious about reading next month, either, now that I have a Zelda game to play again. *And no one ever saw Riven again*
SP
I am simultaneously reading three very different biographies of Sir Richard Francis Burton.
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography by Edward Rice (1990)
A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard & Isabel Burton by Mary S Lovell (1998)
The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton by Fawn M Brodie (1967)
Since I’m typing this on my phone in the dark so I don’t miss the morning deadline, I will share some commentary below later on. (I’ll also add links to save you having to enact your own book-acquiring labor.)
Brett L
I started 3 or 4 trashy urban fantasy “series” on Kindle unlimited. I just have to face the fact that I’ve reached the Sturgeon Limit on LitRPG and Urban Fantasy. The rest are crap. I did read Pianist in a Bordello, a debut novel that is an all-in-good-fun romp about a budding politician discussing his growing up around an often-absent (except as deus ex machina) lefist radical father and California Republican Senator grandfather. Despite the cartoonishness of his politics, a good read.
Also, I listened to Adm. William McRaven’s Make Your Bed, which is an expansion of the great commencement speech he gave to the University of Texas’ graduating class of 2014. Still a short book, a quick listen, and great for gearing yourself up for the New Years’ resolutions and setting yourself up for the inevitable failure and disappointment.
Old Man With Candy
Because I cheerfully flaunt my nerdhood, I will confess to having received an e-book version of the classic Art of Electronics by Horowitz and Hill and am digging my way through. This is the 3rd edition, and it’s about double the size of my previous copy- and the additions ain’t filler. If you love electronics (and I do), this is the Torah.
Web Dominatrix
I’m nose deep in two great but distinctly different books right now. The first is Good Manners for Nice People who Sometimes Say Fuck, which was a delightful Christmas gift that explores how we became so rude and what we can do about it. And, after my usual Christmas Eve tradition of watching Hogfather, I’m back on a Terry Prachett kick that usually lasts til mid- February. I’m also reading his book Making Money.
I am still working my way through the first volume of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. It’s 1000 pages of small print written in slightly unfamiliar language. But it’s great. I got the second volume for Christmas. I need a 2 week beach vacation so I can finish these.
I didn’t like Sherlock Holmes. Too often the key peice of evidence would not even be mentioned ontil Sherlock pulled it out of his ass in the last scene. This made it impossible to actually solve the mystery before the reveal.
So…you think Doyle was supposed to make whodunits for readers to solve?
smh
I think giving the reader the chance would have been more sporting – and more entertaining.
Poor guy, if only he had followed your advice, he might have made it as a writer…
I don’t get why people react to a statement of personal preference as if there is always an implied “and you should agree with me”.
It is a mystery.
That deserves a narrow gaze in the mirror.
More of a Donald J Sobol fan?
That was one of the bits in “Murder by Death”, that murder mystery writers pull stuff out of their ass at the end to wrap up the story.
One of the truly great made-for-TV movies.
One of the more entertaining aspects of the later stories (mostly in Case-Book iirc) is the inclusion of barbs that Holmes throws at Watson as literary critique, including this. By that time Doyle was tired of it all for the second time and wrote in lots of the criticism that was already being leveled at the canon.
You’re right, he does do that sometimes. But I do enjoy the old-timey language and the descriptions of how things were in 19th century England.
Off the top of my head, I’d think about half of the stories have clues that you could use to get ‘close’ to the conclusion.
“Six Napoleons”, “Speckled Band”, “Silver Blaze”, Hound of the Baskervilles and “Red-Headed League” were all pretty ‘easy’ resolutions, but I’ll concede that some of the others relied on literary sleight of hand.
I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes a lot when I was a kid. Over the years my love has waned quite a bit – mostly because the solutions are a bit pedantic. Something darker / evil(er) – or (I know, not likely given the era of the writing) even supernatural would be more interesting. But yes, I do enjoy ’em for the background and feel of history.
I aped my own version of Holmes with supernatural elements, just set in America.
Have you read A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman? It’s a short story that seems to be right up your alley.
Most excellent! Was going to make that same recommendation. Nice twist at the end.
There are some very nice annotated versions which are remarkably enlightening about late 19th century terms, technology, transportation, and British geography.
Baring-Gould’s 2-volume set called “The Annotated Sherlock Holmes” is my favorite.
I have Llama Llama Red Pajama, but havent started it yet.
I love those books.
Knuffle Bunny and the sequels are good. We had to replace KB at Christmas because the kids had read the cover off of the old one.
Walter the Farting Dog. It is actually pretty hilarious.
Has your household been infected by Captain Underpants yet?
No, he watched the movie, thought it was funny and that was pretty much it.
My kids play the Whoopie Cushion Symphony (or whatever it’s called) every night before dinner. We’re headed towards a total ban.
I think it’s too late to ban your children.
You’ve clearly never met Playa.
Tedd Arnold’s “Parts” series is pretty good.
Llama llama too much drama.
I saw this one at a bookstore several years ago and it’s still my favorite children’s book cover. That llama looks so pissed, it never fails to crack me up.
“The Stinky Cheese Man” makes my grand kids laugh and brings me a smile.
In the Night Kitchen was a favorite. I picked-up age-appropriate books whenever I traveled abroad – my boys loved Var Är Lilla Annas Hund?
I am reading – “Red Card”, by me; “Liberator”, by me; and “Dark Imperium”, by Guy Haley.
I am about 3/4 through Artemis by Andy Weir (The Martian). Reads like vintage (pre-Stranger) Heinlein, replete with exposition of libertarian principles. Highly recommend.
oooh. Thanks for that!
I received it for Christmas. It’s my next book to read.
i red an interview about it on reason … thats all i got but sounded interesting
Pie, there’s an interview with Weir in Writer’s Digest, if you can lay hands on a copy.
It’s a fun read and Weir shows his work. The dramatic ending is caused by bit of plot idiocy that annoys me.
Yesss, I’ve been wanting to read this one. Good endorsement.
I am reading a Romanian sf novel. So far it is mediocre. The conceit is a alien race with no sighted by using sound and echolocation for everything. The have nations name symphony and sonata and such. A marriage has 2 males (one dominant one secondary) 2 females(one dominant one secondary) and a neutral. This is all required for reproduction. But the weird aliens have very human like issues problems relationships arguments. Seems to me like a missed chance do do something special instead of a male and female arguing about money or not having kids.
The world is called Ceòl Mór which I think it is gaelic or something so didn’t even make up the name. Also there is some thing about stupid people not believing in climate change on the world.
Could be Gaelic. Could be Welsh Could be Galician, Basque or Catalan for that matter.
well according to google in gaelic it means Great Music or something like that which fits with the book
Given the accenting, it’s more likely to be Gaelic/Welsh than any of the others
A marriage has 2 males (one dominant one secondary) 2 females(one dominant one secondary) and a neutral. This is all required for reproduction.
Someone’s read Lilith’s Brood.
Sounds like a combination that would have been weeded out by natural selection.
Who engineered the species to be that way?
The Oankali.
meh he tried to do something I guess that is what I occasionally buy romanian sci fi but it is rarely good
“I am reading a Romanian sf novel.”
There’s vampires, amirite?
I keep reading that as a Romanian sugarfree novel, so I’m thinking time-travelling vampire dwarves, with rape-y accoutrement.
Currently reading Generation of Swine.
HST collections are variable. That one is middling IMHO and the Great Shark Hunt is prime, again IMHO.
Yeah, I feel the same way.
One must read for me every presidential election year is Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. It has faithfully dropped any scales that may have been forming in front of my eyes every POTUS cycle since 1980.
And finally, I read The Haunted Vagina, by Carlton Mellick III
You can promote your own work without pretending that’s not your pen name.
His reviews have….revealed some of why SugarFree is…the way he is.
*shudders*
Listened to Jamaica Kincaid’s 1988 (book length) essay on Antigua A Small Place. It was both delightful and infuriating, and some of the delight was in being scolded and mocked as a frequent tourist.
About 1/3 of the way through the first book of The Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes, but I’ve gotten shamefully little reading done this month. I suppose I’ll resolve to do better next year and/or three days from now.
I’m reading “Why the West Rules – For Now”. I think the author’s social development score reeks of cherry-picking, but there are some interesting factoids in the book.
I finally finished Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. I’m still evaluating whether or not it was a worthwhile slog.
I took up The Decameron by Bocaccio. Some of the stories have been pretty funny so far.
Still working on Human Action by Mises.
I ordered a copy of Joseph Plumb Martin’s narrative; it’s a journal of a Revolutionary War soldier. It should be interesting to get a perspective from the average soldier.
I’m listening to Mark Levin’s Rediscovering Americanism. I’m not a huge fan of Levin’s radio show, but I’ve enjoyed his writing. So far, this is a must read.
I’m reading Zero Hour by Craig Alanson. It’s a bit juvenile for my taste, but it’s fun light sci fi.
OT: You know who else like Mercedes?.
Just started “Rocking the Boat” by Ha Jin.
amazon says The Boat Rocker Suspicious. Are you just pretending to read it so we think you read other things than tits?
I also believe that Q only reads tits. NTTAWWT.
They’re braille for “sexy times ahead.”
https://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/girls-flbp-cleavage-36.jpg?w=500&h=670
Q only reads tits that say “KCCO”.
I’m reading this article. And before that I was reading morning links. Does that count? I read the label on a bottle of bourban also, a few days ago.
Approved. All three.
Misspelling Bourbon is a capital crime. You probably put Coke in it too, you shitlord.
Or, he’s still drunk.
Well, I’ve been drinking bourbon. Coke? Not only no, but hell no. I don’t even drink coke by itself, or any soda. Woodford Reserve, Angel’s Envy, Blanton’s (gave that one away), and Pitu Vitoriosa (cachaca not bourbon) . All on rocks. I just put a couple of ice cubes in the glass, but don’t mix anything with it. Now vodka and gin, I will mix, because you know, it tastes awful if you don’t.
I can drink vodka neat, but bourbon and gin disagree with me.
My issue with drinking bourbon neat, is that the good stuff is typically more than 40% ABV. Which tends to give enough of a burn drank neat that it distorts the flavor. Yeah, I’m aware that many will disagree with me, but I find it better with 2 cubes in the glass.
A splash of water is required to open the whiskey’s flavor. An ice cube meets the purpose, but not quite as well.
Best answer: Chill the glass and splash the water.
“Branch Water” is just limestone filtered drinking water.
It’s SCIENCE!
Yeah, my son-in-law does that. I’m remaining fiercely independent with my cubes until I’m convinced otherwise.
Vodka should only be drank for breakfast.
I’m no fan of Woodford. There is something a little off to my taste. I have both Blanton’s and AE on my bar right now. Jefferson’s and Four Roses Small Batch are delicious and my typical go-to.
Banker’s Club is my new favorite bottom shelf bourbon.
Have never tried cachaca. Sounds like rum, which makes me stupid.
I gave away my bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel also. Woodford is really good, imho, for the price. Blanton’s is great. I was looking at the Jefferson’s. I’ll have to pick up a bottle.
The Pitu Vitoriosa is fantastic, smooth as silk and will put a serious buzz on you.
I’m drinking a bottle of Henry McKenna 10 year old bonded that I was able to pick up the last time I was in NH. Great bourbon and not very pricey.
You should give the Colonel EH Taylor small batch a try. I really like it.
My girlfriends current favorite is Basil Hayden’s bourbon. It’s good, but not my first choice.
I’ll look for that one.
I’m going to visit our top shelf store when the holidays are past and grab another bottle of Blanton’s. Also would like to find a bottle of Elmer T Lee and Rock Hill Farms single barrel.
I’m rereading Ender’s Game.
When I can make it to the library in the next town, I’m reading Caliban’s War, the second Expanse book. I’m two or three visits away from finishing.
Next up is Andy Weir’s Artemis.
I started reading Ender’s Game once. I just kind of… stopped. Didn’t deliberatley set it aside, but never picked it up again either.
If you didn’t read it between 10 and 15, it isn’t that good. If you did, it’s life-changing. I don’t know why.
Kid Power!
It’s a bit like an SF version of Roald Dahl’s books. You get to see the mendacity and idiocy of a society built by authority figures, while reinforcing the importance of independence and agency in a rigidly maintained hierarchy.
At its heart, it’s subversive.
At least for 12 year old me, it was very easy to relate to large parts of Ender.
The thing I like about (some) of OSC’s books is that he doesn’t use conventional sci-fi magic. In Ender’s Game, there isn’t any FTL travel, and relativistic time dilation is a thing (as is compound interest). In Pastwatch random things are always random, so going back in time does to allow you to predict anything (He also includes conception as a random event, so by going back in time, you eliminate the existence of anyone conceived after the reinsertion point).
library ? how very unlibertarian…
The original libraries in the US were pretty “libertarian”. Often built and stocked by that noted shitlord, capitalist slaver, and all round nogoodnik, Andrew Carnegie.
Though heaven knows why a man like that would be motivated to give his money away instead of filling swimming pools up with $100 bills and wallowing in them.
He only did it for the tax breaks, duh. Without the charitable deduction no one would ever donate to charity.
Benjamin Frankin’s original lending library was open to subscribers only.
I know a librarian who works for a public library that wants to bring back the subscription model because it keeps out the riff-raff.
Then where will the bums have to jerk off? Your librarian friend is a monster.
Isn’t Kindle Unlimited essentially a modern subscription lending library in digital form?
The SJWs went berserk when it came out for that reason. “Omg, a library that people have to pay to use! What about REAL libraries?!”
$100 bills? Pshaw, in Carnegie’s day there were $1,000 bills in circulation.
The first batch of sequels to Ender’s Game was just strange… I much preferred the Shadow series of books.
I agree.
“Bean” was a far more interesting character. I would have shivved Ender and fed him to that stupid tree if I’d have had to deal with him.
Once he started getting into those stupid Portuguese pigs, I gave up on it.
I liked the film.
LSD’s comment:
If no one here has even read The Journeyer, Aztec, or Incas by Gary Jennings, then do yourself a favor if you like historical novels. Those are great novels, The Journeyer is my favorite novel ever. It’s about Marco Polo’s journeys. The guy is (was) a fantastic writer.
A book about a European colonialist? PROBLEMATIC.
Milfs were nailed?
When my in-laws were visiting, my son-in-law got bored I guess and starting checking out one of my bookshelves and started reading Foundation by Asimov. It’s been a long time since I’ve read that, but when he started a discussion about it with me, it started coming back.
I’ve just finished “The Wee Free Men” and am starting “A Hat Full of Sky”. These are Prachett’s entry into YA that tie into Disc World.
I greatly enjoyed this one, but it is bittersweet due to Prachett’s recent death. I got the 4 Tiffany Aching (the protagonist, a 9 yr. old witch) novels to give to my grand-daughter, who’ll be 9 in a few months, but am reading them first.
Lots of LOL moments.
If you’ve read the discworld stuff and enjoyed, don’t miss these.
Consider the Artemis Fowl series too. The first 3 at least are the kind of thing you might expect if Terry Pratchett wrote a Die-Hard-like Bond Movie script for kids.
Hmm… kindle has the first one for free for prime members.
Something to remember when I get home.
Premise:
Leprechauns exist. But humans are stupid. Leprechauns are actually “LEPrecons”. Lower Elements Police Recon Division.
So, if a kid decides a way to get his family fortune back is to kidnap a leprechaun and demand a pot of gold as a ransom, you know there’s gonna be trouble. Especially when the leprechaun you select is the one Artemis selects.
I enjoyed the series, but haven’t read the last one yet The Shepherd’s Crown
I finally finished Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. I’m still evaluating whether or not it was a worthwhile slog.
If you haven’t already read it, Tristram Shandy is absolutely worth it.
Let me see – recent books:
Hidden Warbirds: the stories and recovery of wrecked WW2 airplanes, including the famed Swamp Ghost B-17. The writing is a little amateurish, sometimes reading more like a detailed blog post, and the pictures are a little small but overall a good bedside book.
Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell – a story with so much action and twists ‘n’ turns that I stopped reading 100 pages in. Okay, it was actually pretty tedious, especially since many of the plot points and characters are readily familiar to anyone who had read Cornwell’s other historical fiction pieces. Oh yes, it something temple something tribal war book set in pre-historical Britain. I’ll probably start reading it again to help me with falling asleep.
The Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brian. Hey, remember that cool movie with Russell Crowe? This book is nothing like that – at all. The writing style of O’Brian is um… interesting. Most of the time I have no idea where they are, who is doing what, or why something is happening. There are some, needless to say, logical jumps in narrative that I found off-putting. Maybe it’s an intended effect to sound more period correct or else I appreciate prose that’s a bit more steadfast. Plot? Something chasing an American Whaler something trials tribulations of the crew.
One of the things with O’Brian is that even with Maturin as the recipient of all the ‘asides’, it still assumes some man-on-the-Clapham-Omnibus knowledge of Royal Naval/Imperial history, which is often not easily translated outside of the UK. Furthermore, if you haven’t read all the preceeding ones, where Maturin is developed from being a naval naif into something approaching a sea-dog, you won’t have learned things like the dangers of lee shores etc unless you’re actually a mariner. FTR, The movie was a poorly combined pastiche of two of O’Brian’s books, which it was considered to be necessary because in the books, Aubrey was hunting down a perfidious American, and we can’t let that happen, can we?
Kerguelen Island really is that desolate.
The first book in the series, alone, might be a more rewarding experience.
I enjoyed The Far Side of the World the more I read it, but at first it was hard going for my sleep deprived brain. I suppose I’m more of a C. S. Forester fan.
Both authors are good but 6 is correct that reading OB is best done sequentially in order to obtain enough working knowledge of the language. CSF use of specialized language is more measured so it is easier to jump in anywhere along the Hornblower series.
I have sailed for decades and I have to grab for a specialized dictionary from time to time for OB. FSotW description of the storms around Cape Horn do a good job of capturing the power of the ocean down there. I took an overnight trip to Cape Horn while vacationing in Ushuaia and the conditions on a good day were scary and the water frigid even in the summer.
Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. The Star Wars we need, but apparently don’t deserve.
One nice thing: after TFA came out and viewed like one giant, expensive fan film written by Melllvar, I wanted to re-read the Zahn books but felt too depressed because everyone around me was gushing so hard over TFA. Now everyone hates TLJ and I can chuckle to myself and cheerfully read my books, knowing that Disney’s monstrosity is now even more hated than the prequels.
Thank Zod there are only three Star Wars movies and none of them have numbers in their titles.
If you want to get in on it, I’m going to be posting links to my fan edits of the prequels as soon I find a good hosting site.
Awesome, I will keep my eye out for it!
Last night I was watching videos on YouTube and thinking how I would like to have the Despecialized Editions of the original trilogy, but with the 1997 ending for Return of the Jedi. “Yub-Yub” is just so painful to me, and I love the new music Williams did for the special editions that Lucas then fucked up by adding Gungans and Hayden Christiansen. Sometime when I have time and space on my computer I might try to make it.
Well, with Disney buying Fox the release of the original films may be possible, if Disney sees the dollar signs there, which I’m sure they will. (Until now Fox owned A New Hope, and distribution rights for the other two, so Disney had no incentive to do much with them)
Disney now owns the distribution rights for the original trilogy, so there’s once again rumbling that the original standard edition of Star Wars may be released on DVD at last.
That’s been my hope ever since Disney bought it from Lucas. God bless the greedy hearts of bean counters. Now if only they would release Song of the South…
Here is a decent copy; Nick Stewart and Hattie McDaniel are awesome.
Let’s try this again. https://www.reddit.com/r/megalinks/comments/5ibfu0/movie_song_of_the_south_1946dvdrip_xvidthc_139gb/
I am in your debt sir!
First, it’s “Yub–Nub“, which is Ewokese for “freedom”.
Second, YOU SHUT YOUR GODDAMN WHORE MOUTH!
The Zahn books were awesome. The Expanded Universe had so much hope and then Kevin J. Andersen, ruiner of other people’s work, got a crack at it. I never picked up another book.
Hey, does anyone know if it’s possible to get a digital version of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? Last time I tried, a couple of years ago, I couldn’t find one. I really prefer reading on my Kindle. In fact, it’s been probably around 7-8 years since I’ve read a hard copy of anything.
My annual tax harvest took about 5 minutes. Slim pickings.
Thanks, Trump!
Get pissed. Call your state Rep. Tell them that if you have to pay like this much longer you are going to put his testicles in a jar on your mantle. It isnt Trump’s fault he has to slay the beast.
Tax harvesting is when you comb your portfolio for unrealized losses to offset realized gains.
I don’t have any losses. Nobody does.
I have a few individual stocks that performed badly – all are rated at “hold” or “long” so I’m back-and-forth on whether to sell or not.
Unless it looks like they’re going to change their bad habits, cut your losses. If they’re liable to right themselves and ride the recovery, hold.
You’re right – thanks for the push.
I saw a headline that trumps tax plan was an assault on blue states. I thought, yeah and increasing illegal immigration was just good policy and not an attempt to increase the blue voter roles.
Of course it is an assault on blue states. A justified assault. What percentage of income do NJ, NY, CA, and Il resident pay? Some residents are paying over 50%. It’s rape. It’s absurd. It must come to an end or we will end up looking like all of the other shitholes in the world; Palaces for apparatchiks surrounded by cardboard cities.
This is just a confirmation that I was right to never buy property in a blue state. Now people are going to feel some pain from the high taxation and overly inflated property prices. That’s not hardly Trump’s fault. It’s greedy fucking Democrat’s fault. The fuckheads here in Balmer are collecting all this property tax and can’t even fix the damn roads or infrastructure. The roads will literally break your car and there are broken water mains every damn day. So you think they are going to cut taxes? No fucking way, they’re up to their fucking eyeballs in corruption and keeping an impoverished on welfare to keep votes.
The problem with Balmer is that it’s stuck in a tax trap. The bottom portion of the property market in Baltimore is so low valued that even with an absurdly high property tax rate (2.248%!) most of the property doesn’t pay much tax, relative to other parts of the state. Never mind that a good portion of the city’s properties are in fucked up legal situations due to nonpayment of taxes and other issues. They’ve got a government that’s way too big for the number of residents actually living there, never mind the working population of the city, and they’ve got pension obligations to match its bloated size. Every year it gets worse, and there’s no real solution (that a modern Democrat would propose) in sight.
Fortunately, the rest of the state is not that bad.
Well, all you have to do is cross the border into Baltimore or Howard country, where taxes are lower, and guess what? The roads are fine. Amazing isn’t it. About 70% of the city, I’m guessing, is unlivable, a sprawling 3rd world like ghetto it’s not even safe to drive through. If not for the natural beauty of the harbor and surrounding area, Baltimore would already be Detroit 2. And you’re right, there’s no solution because you cannot get rid of the Democrats, they have their voter base completely dependent on handouts. The city has bled 40% of it’s population in how many years? 343 murders in 2017? Really?
I’m a slow reader. I’m reading Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuck. Started reading it about 7 years ago, don’t remember where I left it.
Incidentally, Humble Bundle is running a collection of books right now that this group might like. Octavia Butler, Timothy Zahn, Harlan Ellison and Stanislaw Lem make appearances.
Harlan Ellison®
Seriously, the guy trademarked his name.
And still hasn’t published The Last Dangerous Visions.
“and i never read anything ever again. the utility of words was finally fully-extinguished”
I’m halfway through “King Rat”. I feel like Clavell could have squeezed a book between “Gai-Jin” and “King Rat”. I was enjoying reading about times before WW2, since WW2 has been beat into the American psyche as the most important event in all history.
King Rat is great. Clavell is the reason I’m such an Anglophile.
I’ve committed to reading the Asian Saga. So far I’ve enjoyed them all. Clavell does enjoy a good nut punch, though.
Goodness, yes. Shogun had me in denial for a good chunk of the book thinking what happened was a ploy by Toranaga.
I read he was working on a book about Hag Straun when he died, but I haven’t looked into it. Probably better it goes unpublished than you end up with another Brian Herbert.
Yeah, the real revelation (and partial spoiler) is that from Toronaga’s point of view, Blackthorn is simply a pawn in the much greater game, no matter how important he seems to become in the book.
Getting everyone out of the donjon is the only thing that matters.
I really enjoyed the mini-series, but the book gives you a much deeper understanding of the different ways different cultures think.
Something around 1900 would have been possible, I guess. That would have been the Boxer Rebellion, or maybe 1908-1915 and he could have done Puji and Sun Yat-Sen, which could have rounded out that issue of what happened to kids that had been sent to Europe for education by Dirk Struan in Tai Pan.
I guess I’m supposed to open a real history book, but in GJ japan is under the boot of the British and the roles are reversed in KR. I would like a story about the rise of Japan’s military power.
About the time of the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese realized they didn’t need the Europeans because they were quick learners.
Nunes subpoenaed a source claiming to know the identities of Steele’s Russian contacts. Byron York asks:
That damned Constitution. What were the Founders thinking?
There’s an upside and a downside to this story. The framers were realistic about what they had done and what they hadn’t — Jefferson called them an “assembly of demigods” admirable but aware that they weren’t perfect. That’s why they created a clear amendment process.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that many other flaws remain — including the absurd requirement that presidents must be “natural born,” not naturalized citizens — and the amendment process isn’t self-executing. It demands national consensus, one thing that Americans are sorely lacking today. Whether the nation can unite in fixing its founding document will determine whether it’s still around to celebrate another 100 years.
Thinly veiled blather about the Constitution’s lack of an effective lever with which right-thinking people would be empowered to pry Trump out of the Oval Office. And a sideways nod to the consequent “President Pence” problem. Why, if not for that stupid natural born stuff, we could elect a truly wonderful man like George Soros.
I especially like the whinge about the “self-executing” amendments, at the end. “Why should we have to prove our case to those hicks out there in No Man’s Land? It’s obvious the country would be better if our brand of Top Men could twiddle the knobs and flip the switches without interference from Rethuglitard interlopers, in order to fine tune democracy. We’ll have this train humming along before you can say, ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’.”
Whether the nation can unite in fixing its founding document will determine whether it’s still around to celebrate another 100 years.
The document is (mostly) fine. The problem is the lack of adherence to it.
It’s actually 100 years old and written in a language no one can even understand today, by racist white slave owners. So we need to just get rid of it and start over. /Democrats during Obama
We must protect the Constitution from this Nazi who wants to destroy it! /Democrats during Trump
And they always assume that if it were easier to amend that it would only be ideas they like they got added. Just like they think Trumputin is an evil nazi who will hunt them down, but yet want the government he controls to have more power.
Oh no worries, the right people will be in charge. Yes, they are naive morons.
i would think that is the whole point and what differentiates a Constitution from standard law: that it is much harder to change. Do these people think things would work if the constitution could be changed willy nilly every 4 years? do they think they would be the only ones doing the amending?
“Do these people think things would work if the constitution could be changed willy nilly every 4 years?”
Yes, did you miss the part where they thought the Democrats, in the minority in all 3 branches, could just get rid of the Electoral College by some means and decree Hillary president? Dumb herd animals. Most 5 year olds are more intelligent.
Same old totalitarian clap-trap I have heard from nearly every useful idiot ever. Either they are willfully ignorant of the underlying premises of our constitution or they are too stupid to understand the concepts. Probably some of both.
You aren’t going to get your glorious revolution, Sparky. It aint gonna happen.
That reminds me, and I had already forgotten about this—I think someone signed my name to a Daily Kos petition (because I sure as hell didn’t do it), so I got this email from them yesterday:
On November 8, the American people spoke clearly, and chose Hillary Clinton for President. She won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes.
But because Clinton’s support was geographically concentrated, Donald Trump won the Electoral College and became President of the United States.
This comes only sixteen years after Al Gore won the popular vote but did not become President of the United States, in a similar affront to democracy.
It is long past time that we started using the national popular vote to choose Presidents. Every vote should count equally. Every state should be a swing state.
We don’t need a constitutional amendment to elect the next President by popular vote in 2020. We only need the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact:
If states and territories totaling at least 270 electoral votes pass laws joining the National Popular Vote Compact, then the next presidential election will be determined by the winner of the national popular vote. We are already up to 165.
If we can make this a national issue broadly adopted by elected Democrats, and if Democrats can do well at the state level in the 2018 midterm elections–which is realistic in the event of an unpopular President Trump–then in 2019 we can pass laws that would make the 2020 presidential election determined by the popular vote.
(Since you might be wondering, according to the compact, states do not change the way they determine their electoral votes until enough states join that the 270 electoral vote threshold is reached. So, for example, California will only start awarding its electoral votes to the national popular vote winner instead of the state popular vote winner once states equalling 270 electoral votes have decided to do the same.)
So this is something we can actually pull off. It starts by telling all elected Democrats that whenever possible they must pass laws to have their states join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers
Executive Campaign Director, Daily Kos
A proposition that likely won’t last past the first state to award its electoral votes to a candidate who didn’t win that state.
But won’t this give you more material for your next Teen Vogue cover?
Good point! I’m still brainstorming January’s!
“affront to democracy.”
We are not a democracy.
Daily KOS, lol, I forgot about the only site that can challenge DU for title of ultimate stupidity.
Hidden Warbirds: the stories and recovery of wrecked WW2 airplanes, including the famed Swamp Ghost B-17.
I saw a documentary about a group of people trying to salvage a bomber from the arctic. It was pretty amazing. They spent multiple “summers” working on it, in an attempt to fly it out. As I recall, they pulled the motors off and brought them home and rebuilt them. Did all this work, and when they tried to take off, some stupid thing happened, like one or more improperly secured batteries flipping over and shorting out on the aluminum airframe. The plane burned to a crisp as they stood watching forlornly.
And they found Captain America frozen inside?
My BiL is big into WWII reenactment and military gear. Makes a lot of bank off ebay selling stuff.
He was involved a few years ago in a foray to Estonia to recover a Elefant that had mired during the flight of German Forces back home near the end of the war, and was in supposedly pristine condition. History or Discovery was lined up to sponsor and film this adventure, but government graft and greed, along with our own bureaucrats at State managed to kill the operation.
Just read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time. It was a great hard sci-fi read. It was quite interesting world building type novel along with a fallen civilization concept. I would highly recommend.
.99 on Amazon Kindle and all his other books look to be free from the lending library. I’m going to check that one out.
And here it is
It was a B-29. That’s what I thought.
Working my way through volume 2 on Stalin. My god the detail is overwhelming at times. It is a good, but thoroughly depressing read (Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1929-141). I recently finished a much better (and shorter) book on Stalin’s internal terror and the current Russian inability to deal with that period truthfully. (It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past by David Satter) I recommend Satter unreservedly.
When Stalin gets too much I am devouring volumes of Simon Scarrow’s fiction series on the Roman X Legion during Vespasian’s life time.
Worse than slavery
Bosses hold all the power in the at-will employment system that most American workers are subject to, under which they can be fired for “good cause, bad cause or no cause.” Employees who speak up risk everything — their jobs, their reputations, their livelihoods — while facing the unfair legal burden of having to prove their boss’s intentions. Until workers have the freedom from unfair firing, too many workplace rights will remain unfulfilled.
—————–
We need a law that protects and empowers workers to speak out to ask for raises, to combat sexual harassment, to complain about unsafe working conditions and, yes, to join unions.
Just cause — a legal right to your job — should be an essential part of any package of reforms to restore workplace dignity and fairness.
Workers of the World, UNITE!
You could try to be of value to your employer.
Employees who speak up risk everything — their jobs, their reputations, their livelihoods — while facing the unfair legal burden of having to prove their boss’s intentions.
Job? Yes
Reputation? For most people, no
Livelihood? Depends on how well you manage money
It may come as a shock, but it takes a bit of time to reach the threshold where you have enough liquid assets to weather an unemployment spell.
Granted, and the HR hiring filter is a whole level of hell unto itself, but the risk to your livelihood is dependent on your choices. Most people choose to make arrangements that assume a certain level of income. That’s fine, but then you have to be willing to put up with some things you don’t like to maintain it.
I could survive for several years if I sold one of my homes at a profit and sold off all my stocks. If we sold both homes, we’d probably be good for 5-10 years. That’s a very unattractive option which I hope I never have to do, since my shitlordness could be around another 30 years or longer, not all of which I want to be working at Walmart as the greeter dude.
About 2 months per year of work.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
“the freedom from unfair firing”
What even in the fuck does that mean? Business owner owe no one a job. And guess what? You can definitely speak up at work about anything you want to and if you have a value to your employer, they’re not going to just fire you on a whim.
“a legal right to your job”
Um, no thank you.
People walk off jobs all the time, and the employer has to eat the cost of whatever consequences ensue. Where is a thought to the employer’s side of the at-will employment world?
At my 3 month review, I told my employer that I would like a company car. They leased me a new Audi of my choice. I’m still employed there.
Moshe can fuck right off. I don’t need to be part of a union to get what I consider fair compensation for my skills and time.
Hey, you damn fat cat, I want a free Audi! *goes and pouts in corner until all demands are met*
Great things come to those with the balls to ask and employers need to attract and retain talent. Know your worth and act accordingly.
I’m 100% sure I can’t get a free Audi from one of my clients. But I make good money and have a shitload of great benefits included, including time off and working from home most of the time. Not complaining.
Back in 1997, I took a job for a bit less than what I wanted. I accepted the offer, on condition of a 6 month salary review. At 5 months, they gave me a 23% raise. I didnt get another raise until my 2 year anniversary, but it was a 20% raise, so that was okay.
In the fall I sent my boss a strongly worded e-mail demanding, not asking for, a raise. And guess what, I got it. Because I am good at my job. No extra rights needed. (Of course, I’m still not making a ‘living wage’ in a part-time job, so maybe I should have Uncle Sam come rough him up a bit)
The problem is that these jackwagons want something for nothing. They do not recognize in any way that if everyone is paid the same despite their skills and cannot be fired when they refuse to go a good job, that this will have seriously negative consequences for everyone.
Sounds like… France.
Well, I keep hearing about what a paradise France and other Euro countries are and about how everyone is happy and have no needs uncared for or worries of any kind. I also find it curious why not one person I hear that from has up and moved there.
They can’t find anyone who’ll hire them over there.
What? Who has to work in paradise?!
France stopped being most Euro-progs example to emulate when their unemployment soared, the started driving out the tax base, and they developed an inexplicable crime problem.
But Denmark dude, did you know that like everything is free there!
“…everyone is paid the same despite their skills and cannot be fired when they refuse to go a good job…”
Want to kill an economy and put everyone out of work? That’s how you do it.
You could try to be of value to your employer.
Are you saying a paycheck is in some way dependent on marginal return? That’s crazy talk!
I’ve been re-reading my collection of Aldous Huxley novels…
Just finished:
Crome Yellow
After Many a Summer
Brave New World
Currently reading: Eyeless in Gaza
Next up:
Ape and Essence
The Devils of Loudun
The Island
I need to pick up the few I’m missing at some point, I spose.
Is it pathetic to drink champagne alone?
Only if it’s being sipped from someone else’s shoe.
Got it.
champagne, yes. sparkling wine, no.
What about fortified wine?
Careful, you must 21 years tall to ride this ride.
Ah, my youth, my youth. Where has it gone.
Boone’s Farm or GTFO.
I used to think that Busch and Hamns were the world’s best beer. What’s probably worse in most people here’s opine is that now I think that Heineken is the world’s best beer. Never mind that I’m right.
Well, the only ones available in the UK were Thunderbird and Buckfast. We’re no pikers, we only take the worst. Another product that was often consumed by the underage was Southern Comfort.
Night Train Express. Woot Woot. Night train a commin.
Bum wine.
http://www.bumwine.com
I got a headache just looking at that.
::snort::
Here’s a review I found.
If it’s Jacques Lassaigne, I’ll be right over.
If you drink anything alone, ever, you’re an alcoholic. Now immediately report to re-education camp, because experts said so.
I see that the wife has 1 bottle of champagne and 2 bottles of sparkling wine. Not tempted at all, I hate all of that crap. *goes back to drinking bourbon and beer*
Mimosas for Sunday morning breakfast have a certain appeal, if the kids are away.
Wife just texted me trying to solicit me for oysters, beer, and sex tomorrow. I’m such an easy slut.
Oysters are a natural aphrodisiac, said somebody somewhere, probably.
I’d say it’s entirely shitlordworthy, if while you’re doing it, you’re wearing a smoking jacket and cravat, leaning on a mantelshelf in your chateau, contemplating the misery of your enemies, like Michael Caine in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. Not pathetic at all.
Hmm, you may have a point here. But let’s please add ‘while he’s mercilessly beating an orphan for not polishing enough diamond encrusted gold monocles’.
That’s why you have Ruprecht at the chateau with you. That’s his job. There’s no way you want blood spatters on this vicuna jacket.
This is true.
RE: The braille tits above.
It’s been covered before, but those bumps are called Glands of Montgomery. Personally, I’m a big fan and if I ever got a sex robot, I would expect them to spell “Tig Ole Bitty Committee” in braille.
I was thinking about that when braille titties was mentioned. I seriously cannot remember if I’ve even had a woman who had that. I guess I’ve not been lucky with titties for the blind. Good thing I’m not blind. Had lots of type of titties, pink, brown, etc, etc, but no braille titties that I can remember.
You’re missing out my friend. Missing out.
Well, I’m not quite as obsessed with tits as I am with the lower down assets of a woman. So there’s that.
Just finished The Elven, by Bernard Hennen.
Wonderful book. Olde schoole epic, about a human and two elves who set out to rid the world of a demon. The book is quite tragic, in many ways, but was well-written/translated. Much smarter than your usual elf ‘n’ human tale. Highly recommended. I’ve reserved the “sequel” Elven Winter, which is actually about a brutal war that was fought while our main characters were otherwise occupied.
Do they all survive? I love those elf’n’safety stories.
The problem with elf folk is they just white people with funny ears. Part of the problem. Whatever the problem is.
Well, Dark Elves are … less melanin-challenged, but they’re also evil, so there is that.
Drow, please!
Well, I guess I’ve been busted for Drowism.
Do they all survive?
SPOILER ALERT:
Maybe. Maybe not.
Thanks – sent to my Kindle!
As SF pointed out above, that is their word, you’re not allowed to use it, you cis-human shitlaird.
Nobody else reading the 2018 World Almanac and Book of Facts? Comes out every year in mid-December, makes for great bathroom reading?
Uh, me neither.
Umm, well I was always reading that and then the intertoobs happened, so…
How did I miss The Onion absolutely eviscerating Vox?
I just embarked on the ambitious project of reading Shelby Foote’s 3 volume Civil War history.
Wish me luck.
One more:
Haven’t read it in awhile, but its on my shortish list of books to reread:
Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield.
Brilliant book about war and the Battle of Thermopylae, told from the vantage point of a Spartan slave. The description at the end of the full Spartan army arrayed to take on the Persians the next time they gave it a go was chilling, especially after reading his beyond-excellent descriptions of the fighting at Thermopylae, when the Spartans put down the armies of nation after nation as Xerxes threw his armies at the Spartan line. Great stuff.