ZARDOZ SATURDAY NIGHT LINKS

ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. SINCE DELIVERY IS ZARDOZ’S ONLY RELEVANT EXPERIENCE (OTHER THAN PROMOTING THE KILLING OF BRUTALS) ZARDOZ COULD ONLY FIND PART TIME WORK AT THE MOMENT…

A LITTLE HELP LOADING THE BAGS?

 

BUT NONE OF THIS STOPS ZARDOZ FROM DELIVERING LINKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES.

  • EVEN IF THE STORY WAS NOT ABSURD, ZARDOZ WOULD LINK IT JUST FOR THE HEADLINE.
  • DO NOT BUY ME SOME PEANUTS AND CRACKERJACK…
  • FLORIDA BRUTAL, REPORTS FOR DUTY.
  • BAY STATE BRUTALS MIGHT HAVE TO PAY FOR THINGS!!!!!

ZARDOZ NEEDS TO GET GOING. LOTS OF DELIVERIES. DEEP DISH FOR EVERYONE!

Comments

250 responses to “ZARDOZ SATURDAY NIGHT LINKS”

  1. juris imprudent

    Deep dish? Probably gluten-free too – no grain for YOU!

    1. I wonder if I call for a pizza from my local place, if it will be delivered by a giant floating stone head?

  2. Japanese ambassador urges South Korea to remove ‘comfort woman’ statues

    In the time they could spare from negotiations over the threatening behavior of North Korea:

    “SEOUL – Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Yasumasa Nagamine urged South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Tuesday to remove a “comfort woman” statue that has been the source of a diplomatic row, a source close to the matter said….

    “In the one-on-one talks with Yun, held after [the acting U. S. ambassador] left the room, Nagamine asked that the statue in Busan, erected by a South Korean civic group last December, and a similar statue installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul be removed, the source said.

    “Tokyo claims the statues go against the spirit of a 2015 bilateral agreement under which the two countries confirmed they had “finally and irreversibly” settled the row over the comfort women issue.”

    1. straffinrun

      He should go have sex with it. Bet they’d take it then.

    2. BakedPenguin

      Christ, what an asshole.

    3. Lachowsky

      “comfort women”

      I know that is the term used, but it sure sugarcoats the while business. A more accurate term would be kidnapped sex slave raped to death by brutal imperial Japanese army woman.

      1. SIV

        MAKE JAPAN GREAT AGAIN

  3. Brochettaward

    At the very least when America introduces measures in prisons that may result in rioting, it’s to be punitive. Not to protect the health of inmates.

    1. DenverJ

      Naw, it’s something different. I’m not sure exactly what. Paternalism is in play. So is anti smoking zealotry. But it’s a weird thing. So, you have tobacco use being redefined as just not an unhealthy enjoyable habit, it gets morphed into something akin to drug use (which it kinda is), and we can’t have drug use in prison!
      Add in lawsuits for second-hand smoke by prisoners; it’s just easier to ban it.

    2. Rhywun

      Oh, it’s punitive.

      1. DenverJ

        Maybe. I really put it down more towards CYA than downright hostility towards the population you are charged with keeping from rebelling. Wouldn’t it just be easier to say “fuck it, have a smoke”? I know individual idiots would be punitive, but you’d think a prison Warden would understand bread and circuses.

      2. westernsloper

        Damn straight. When I was a smoker that would have made me riot. I mean if I was in prison and all.

        1. Rhywun

          Oh, it’s coming, prison or not. NYC just started a big push for “smoke-free housing”. So now in-between the endless grisly anti-smoking ads and the endless “You can quit!” ads we now get endless “call your landlord and demand smoke-free” ads.

          1. CZmacure

            It’s already illegal to smoke in your car with other people present in many places…

          2. Rhywun

            Back when I was teen and hated being around smok(ing|ers) I never in my wildest dreams imagined how much progress the antis would make over the next 3 decades.

          3. SIV

            When I was in boy scouts I hurled in another scout’s dad’s new Cadillac. Motherfucker chained Benson&Hedges with the windows up and the AC on recirculate. Now I miss that FREEDOM.

          4. Sour Kraut

            SIV, I met up with a kid I new from elementary school a few years ago. I told him one of the strongest memories I had from elementary, was being with that kid in his dad’s Cadillac, and his dad and much older brother smoking away in the front seat with the windows up. I thought I was going to suffocate.

          5. westernsloper

            If they keep it up I am going to start again just to piss people off.

        2. Festus

          I’ve been in jail. briefly, and if they cut my tobakky off, someone gonna die.

  4. commodious spittoon
    1. Brochettaward

      Our mainstream healthcare debate has become so infantile that it’s not even worth participating in. To hear the media spin their sad tales about how people with “preexisting” conditions and the elderly will have to pay more and to act as if that’s some sort of appalling affront to human dignity rather than just basic economic reality is mind numbing. Or better yet, pearl clutching over cuts to the Medicaid expansion. Medicaid – a program whose participants have lower mortality rates than the uninsured.

      Democrats have succeeded at moving the overton window over the last 8 years. We know longer talk about the differences between private/public healthcare or even discuss this in the language of economics. We instead discuss how much free cake people should have. And the answer is always more with some other guy paying for it.

      Grown fucking adults who don’t know what the fuck insurance actually is.

      1. Hammercorps

        Even Right-wingers have bought into it now. I know one elderly lady who is a staunch Trump supporter/Republican, and she believes in the preexisting conditions mandate.

        She was complaining a few weeks ago about “I just don’t see how it’s so hard for them to fix Obamacare.”

        I told her “It’s not, they just don’t want to.”

        1. commodious spittoon

          Fixing Obamacare is bound to be courageous. That’s why it was a masterstroke for the fucking Dems: pass some bollocks, and shit would do. It didn’t matter. Just as soon as it’s implemented in full, they’re out of office anyway. And Now their opposition is left picking up the pieces as it falls apart. Except it’s falling apart on their watch. So Obama and his cadre are off scott-free, and their sins are heaped on the heads of the poor saps tasked with finding some way to disarm the thing.

      2. juris imprudent

        Speaking of talking about this like adults.

        1. Brochettaward

          Adult sentiment written in a way to educate children.

          1. Hammercorps

            It’s the only way, sadly. Although some people still won’t get it after that.

        2. Rhywun

          This is so blindingly obvious I can’t believe it needs to be written. We can’t afford to give everyone “free” housing or “free” anything else – how the fuck do they expect us to afford “free” health care for all?

        3. westernsloper

          We cannot offer the same level of care to everybody with the same condition. They number in the millions, and the doctors who can perform that procedure number about three

          I brought this up during the last election to some Bernie fan friends. It was not long after Pres Carter had whatever life saving procedure that is keeping that old goat alive. I asked, “do you guys really think we are all going to get the care an ex president gets under single payer?” We all should have the same level of care is their thinking. Reality is hard for some people.

        4. Grumbletarian

          Great article. Scarcity means health insurance can never be health ensurance.

      3. Festus

        Weighs Overton Window and Free Cake in hands, drops everything to eat cake.

    2. AlmightyJB

      I was really enjoying that song until lil jon f’d it up

      1. westernsloper

        You both have issues. Seek help.

        1. Gilmore

          You’re right. I need to get some professional video editing software.

  5. John Wilkes Booth statue removed from Abraham Lincoln museum

    “the Booth figure…features the man with crossed arms and leaning on a pillar, and [museum brass] decided it was inappropriate and moved it into storage.

    “The Ford’s Theatre interior section of the museum that showcases a Booth statue sneaking into a room to assassinate Lincoln is still on display.”

    1. Hey, this sounds like a good set-up for a horror movie.

      “Johnson, I told you to move the Booth statue to the basement, not put it in the ladies’ room where it scares the visitors.”

      “But, but, Boss…”

    2. Hammercorps

      Does this mean Malcolm X College is going to change it’s name now?

    3. __Warren__

      I see a market opportunity for a museum of uncomfortable things. It would just be a regular museum but with a No Weak-Ass Pussies sign at the entrance.

      1. Festus

        Welcome to Zero AD! Nothing here will make you think any thoughts! If you present as a woman, please follow the pink line. Your clothing will be stripped as needed. If you present as a man, please continue along the blue line. You will find a fine selection of clubs to suit your needs.

    4. SIV

      John Wilkes Booth is my favorite political activist-actor.

    1. DenverJ

      Stoopit html. It knew what i meant, but, no, i put the wrong facing slash somewhere or something. Html is just a finiky little bitch. Sad.

      1. DenverJ

        Jèsus, it was ok, just didn’t close when i wanted.
        Edit fairy, I beseech you, get rid of all my posts since that one.

    2. *EDIT FAIRY ASSIST*

      1. Hammercorps

        Damn you edit fairy, you screwed up my response.

        1. Hey, DenverJ summoned the Edit Fairy…once called, it MUST act…

  6. Rhywun

    Re: Peanut Corner

    Will there be Play-Doh and coloring books too?

    1. So much for Oakland’s rep as a tough place?

    2. Festus

      Plasicene baby, we get up into all y’alls fingernail!

      1. Do they have looking-glass eyes?

  7. westernsloper

    The team has decided to accommodate those fans who are allergic to peanuts with their own seating section.

    Seriously? Do those allergic people get reactions from being around others eating peanuts? Serious question. I grew up in an age when few people were allergic to everything, and when they were, they did not force others to comply to their allergies.

    1. CZmacure

      I think the premise is likely that a section where peanuts are regularly eaten will be covered with enough peanut residue to threaten a significantly allergic individual.

      But how the hell are they going to enforce the use of this section only by relevant people? How are they going to ensure no jackass eats a peanut there? It’s weird.

      1. Left Hand of Radar

        I seem to remember a few years ago there was a woman who was suing the NY Mets. She took her son to a game– their first and last, I imagine — and he was hit by a foul ball. She said, “There should be a section that is made safe for children!” There is. you shithead! It’s called every section where the tickets are cheaper! You blew your divorce lawyer and he gave you the firms down-the first-base-line Met tickets. Preaching to the choir but why must we all suffer for the decisions of our stupidest citizens?

        1. SIV

          “why must we all suffer for the decisions of our stupidest citizens?”

          This is why we can’t have drones in federal parks. I hate to admit I agree with “the man” on this one.

      1. Sour Kraut

        Not clicking.

  8. Hammercorps

    Interesting article, but I didn’t see anything about how they store the raw materials needed to create the tools. Do you just bring a small amount with you, and create whatever you want from that?

    1. Hammercorps

      This is in response to DenverJ’s article.

  9. quincy

    ZARDOZ BELONGS TO AN ELITE ORDER, A HALLOWED SUBCATEGORY. HE’S GOT ESPRIT UP TO HERE.

    1. Hammercorps

      Is ZARDOZ the official mascot of the Masonic Lodge?

      1. quincy

        RIGHT NOW, HE IS PREPARING TO CARRY OUT HIS THIRD MISSION OF THE NIGHT. HIS UNIFORM IS BLACK AS ACTIVATED CHARCOAL, FILTERING THE VERY LIGHT OUT OF THE AIR.

        1. Hammercorps

          And if he fucks it up, it’s back to the workshop to be a test subject for first year graduate Masons?

          1. quincy

            Sigh. Nobody reads classic literature anymore.

          2. Hammercorps

            You know, I’ve had Snow Crash sitting around for like 4 years now, and I still haven’t read it.

          3. RegicidalManiac

            Dooooooo iiiiiittttttttt.

          4. I do too! I love Stephenson.

          5. Festus

            He’s good but waaaay too far up his own ass to be “Great”.

          6. RegicidalManiac

            My best friend described Anathem as being Stephenson waving his dick around while yelling “look at how fucking smart I am!”

            Which… sounds about right. He’s a fantasic writer, but needs an editor with an axe to keep his work to a reasonable length.

          7. LT_Fish

            Compared to most other writers out there right now – I enjoy his extraneous stuff. I mean, just look at the Baroque cycle. Sure there was a bit of deadwood here and there, but it wasn’t particularly boring. Take a nugget of irrelevant history and run with it.

            Anathem took me a while to get into – mostly because I kept trying to figure out what the analogues were for certain theorems, etc – but it was still fairly gripping on the whole. And I can’t think of too many other folks out there who would take that much of a risk playing with the language that way.

            And I love worldbuilding.

          8. LT_Fish

            Plus – re: Reamde – not afraid to call a spade a spade when it comes to some issues – ie. Islamic terror.

        2. Yusef drives a Kia

          Fuligin?

        3. RegicidalManiac

          Does ZARDOZ also carry a matched pair of samurai swords?

          1. __Warren__

            Seven scimitars.

          2. Festus

            Seven Scumbags_ a Quentin Joint!

  10. straffinrun

    Blasphemy laws.

    Officers are understood to be examining whether the British comedian committed a criminal offence under the Defamation Act when he appeared on RTE in 2015.

    1. Rhywun

      Oh Ireland, never change.

      1. “The law prohibits people from publishing or uttering “matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion”.

        “The government said at the time it was needed because the republic’s 1937 constitution only gives Christians legal protection of their beliefs.”

        So they *did* change – by making the blasphemy law broader and more multicultural.

    2. A “comedian”?

      “Fry had asked why he should “respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world…. full of injustice”.”

      Ha ha ha…(slaps thigh)…move over Mark Twain, this guy will have you laughing until your sides ache!

      1. Hammercorps

        Oh yeah, I saw that video. He was being serious there. He’s actually pretty funny in some of his earlier stuff.

        1. When he isn’t saying “screw you, Daddy?”

          1. Hammercorps
          2. I think Benny Hill’s place in the Pantheon of Comedy is safe.

          3. straffinrun

            That was great.

          4. westernsloper

            Superb. tipitytapity Scwhack!

          5. Hammercorps

            I’ll admit, there’s been several times I’m tempted to give my last name to a clerk by dropping my keys or something on the desk, just to see what the response would be.

          6. John Titor

            You mean the 99% of the time when someone doesn’t ask him about religion?

          7. Hammercorps

            Yeah, you know, where he’s actually trying to be funny.

    1. Rhywun

      I’m Floppy.

      1. Hammercorps

        Even where it counts?

        1. Festus

          Especially! Titters…..

    2. westernsloper

      1.4 mb of awesome is what they were.

  11. If Jill Soloway has her way, soon the rocks will be declaring, “O feminist, there is a misogynist behind me, come and kill him!”

    “With Topple, the production company she founded in 2016, this writer-director-producer aspires to achieve nothing less than to “topple the patriarchy.”

    “While walking around the Silver Lake reservoir, Soloway concedes that her goal to disrupt white male hegemony may be a bit hubristic. Most showrunners would be happy enough with the acclaim she received for Transparent and Six Feet Under—and some Porsche money. But don’t underestimate her ambition to inject feminism into the male-dominated world of entertainment.”

    1. straffinrun

      Feminism and comedy. Strange bed fellows.

      1. BakedPenguin

        Antipathetic “fellows”. Also, “fellows” is inherently misogynist, you fucking shitlord.

        1. I had a childhood friend whose mother was a ballet teacher. She was a fellow in some ballet society back in her native UK.

    2. __Warren__

      What a lil cutie!

      1. I think that’s Chloe Grace Moretz.

    3. westernsloper

      But don’t underestimate her ambition to inject feminism into the male-dominated world of entertainment

      She obviously has not seen my porn hub browsing history. Not much male dominated entertainment there.

    4. Rhywun

      Haven’t they done enough to ruin politics, education, and industry? Sheesh.

      1. straffinrun

        They haven’t come a long way, baby.
        *Takes long pull*

        1. Festus

          Thank God my Mom didn’t live to see this janefoolery. She would have literally shit her pants and then someone would have to clean up, afterwards.

          1. Festus

            “Janefoolery” is mine! Just like the “pancaking” that came before.

          2. Yusef drives a Kia

            Dick and Jane, Tom and ? sorry, your term don’t fit the rules of terminology

          3. Festus

            Yer jest Jelly!

  12. Brochettaward

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday told Breitbart News that several sources have told him that the Obama administration spied on his presidential campaign.

    Story is not surprisingly, getting little play. It presumably would be a smart play for the Trump administration and the GOP to focus on this as it blows a massive hole in the whole Russia excuse.

    He said he’s heard from people “specific aspects of a private conversation” he had with President Obama.

    “I can’t for the life of me think of any reason why I would be part of an investigation. And it also goes further to prove that maybe we have an intelligence community run amok if they’re looking at political figures, because I had nothing to do with any of the other things,” he added.

    I’d rather not see this as just some footnote in the history books (Obama’s abuse of intelligence for political purposes); though that’s usually where these sort of things end up when it’s Democrats.

    1. straffinrun

      This is why the “fake news!” meme is so infuriating. It’s not about news being “fake”, it’s about the selection of stories. This won’t get coverage and fuck the media for it.

      1. Rhywun

        Yeah, running 90% of the media is pretty good way to spread your propa- uh, message.

        1. straffinrun

          That is why they’re trying to purge YouTube of wrong think. Bad enough that they dominate the MSM. “Some dude is saying shit in his basement we don’t like. Crush him!”.

      2. SIV

        The fake news angle is that it is established fact that the Obama administration and our IC never spied on any American citizen and anyone who thinks they did/might have is just looking to normalize DRUMPF’s Pinocchio-in the -flaming pants LIE about having his wires tapped.

    2. westernsloper

      I don’t follow them closely, but I hope Judicial Watch and the other FOIA filing maniacs are on this too. The Susan Rice story fizzled way too quick for my taste. I smelled cover up when it went away so fast. There is some really shady stuff there. Russian scare bullshit or not.

      I hope it is not a footnote in history and wakes people up to what an out of control intelligence state can do. Especially with a secret Nazi in the white house.

    3. one true athena

      I saw at least one twitter comment in response to his tweet about it, basically “well, you’d only want to know if you had something to hide!!”

      These people are insane. They really are.

  13. RothbardsBitch1

    I remember reading The Handmaid’s Tale in high school. I like dystopian literature and as I recall the book involved a civil war/coup in the United States. The only interesting parts were the snippets about the insurgency/rebellion. But the broad strokes of the story are that religious fundamentalists take over the United States machine gun Congress and install a Christian Taliban because of the war/environmental causes few women are fertile and they are known as Handmaids, their job is to service high ranking government officials and birth a new generation. Anyways I was wondering if the show was any good and I came upon this article:

    https://www.bustle.com/p/in-the-handmaids-tale-well-meaning-men-are-the-real-enemy-54084

    “Since it premiered on April 26, The Handmaid’s Tale has been rightly lauded as a chilling premonition of an anti-feminist dystopia that is, in light of the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back women’s rights, not that far off from our own reality. Yet even though the Republic of Gilead is staggeringly misogynistic — women are defined solely by their reproductive capacity, and they cannot have jobs or own property — what’s so interesting about the men in the world of The Handmaid’s Tale is that they are, for the most part, not hostile to the women of Gilead, at least not openly so. In fact, they are often more outwardly sympathetic to the women of Gilead than the women are to each other. Yet underneath the surface of their sympathy lies a simmering cauldron of male privilege. The men are at best completely ignorant of women’s oppression, and at worst deeply complicit in it.

    In The Handmaid’s Tale, the story is neatly split between two time periods: before Gilead, and after, through the eyes of the Handmaid Offred (Elisabeth Moss). Before she becomes a Handmaid, Offred is married to Luke (O.T. Fagblene). Luke is, in most respects, a good liberal dude. He wears beanies, he sports a trim beard, and he is, in theory, opposed to the Sons of Jacob, the fundamentalist group leading the Republic of Gilead. “We’ll figure it out. This can’t last,” he reassures his wife, a statement eerily reminiscent of those who provided similar reassurances after the rash of anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic incidents following Trump’s election.

    Yet when Offred and her friend Moira (Samira Wiley) have been let go from their jobs due to a change in the law that forbids women from working, Luke is maddeningly blind to the significance of this, once again reassuring his wife, “You know I’ll take care of you.” Of course, Luke’s ability to financially support his wife is beside the point. The point is that it’s that sort of patronizing attitude that has led to the gradual erosion of women’s rights to begin with, and Moira and Offred rightfully call him out for this.
    ….

    In Gilead, just as in contemporary society, the real villains aren’t the ones we’ve come to expect: the hulking storm troopers who guide the borders or the puffy-haired, vituperative demagogue spouting racist and sexist invective on the campaign trail. The real villain is the Well-Meaning Man: the one who looks the other way in the face of oppression, convinced that it’ll all blow over; the one who offers assistance while sliding a hand up a thigh; the one who has a vested interest in trying to make the world better, not caring that for some people, it makes the world worse. Gilead isn’t just a stone’s throw away from our own reality; we’re already living in it. And if we want to find out who’s responsible for this, we need look no further than our Tinder inboxes. ”

    The article is vile but awesome as well. Essentially the argument the author puts forth is that the true enemy is liberal men. Keep eating your own you fucks!

    1. __Warren__

      I’ve read it as well and found it to be the perfect example of a progressive society only just a little heavy on the religious side. Everything else though fits perfectly.

      1. Gilmore

        American College Campuses are the only institutions on earth that are more or less “100% run by progressive-liberals” (aside from the occasional coffee shop or yoga studio)

        And what do you see there? Puritanical, Kafkaesque Sex-Police

        on one hand, they want to teach that gender is a rainbow and have musicals which celebrate every form of conceivable sexual behavior.

        on the other hand, if you so much as tell a lewd joke in the wrong context, you will be subject to hate-crime-trial and expulsion.

        Some social-conservatives might be prudish and authoritarian, but they generally confine the enforcement of these ideals to “The Family”. Leftists on the other hand love to make their desires ‘institutionalized’.

        1. Rhywun

          American College Campuses are the only institutions on earth that are more or less “100% run by progressive-liberals”

          You left out cities like New York, Seattle, et al.

          1. Festus

            Every place that offers a Bachelor’s Degree in somewhat studies, to be sure.

      2. RothbardsBitch1

        I wrote a short story during my undergrad years for an Honors Dystopian Literature class where Social Justice Warriors took over the country (this was back in 2009) and called the Constitution racist and improsined those who disagreed with their ‘morality’. My prof was actually an avowed feminist and gave me an A for the assignment, which really marked her as a good teacher. I wish I still had the story but it was lost when my laptop caught on fire in 2010 or 2011.

        1. Rhywun

          my laptop caught on fire

          You didn’t lend it to a SJW by any chance?

        2. Gilmore

          an Honors Dystopian Literature class

          ….
          ….
          was there a dystopian literature class for the underachievers? did they just watch the movie versions?

          and was the term SJW even a thing in 2009?

          1. RothbardsBitch1

            I don’t know. I didn’t use the term SJW but at least the proto SJW were around by that time. I had heard enough of that kind of shit by the time I graduated. The university I went to for undergrad had a student group known as the Reconquista which called for the Southwestern United States to either be returned to Mexico or become its own state where only hispanics were allowed to live.

          2. John Titor

            Proto-social justice was a thing on campuses in 2009, but overall ‘activism culture’ was way more obsessed with stuff like Occupy Wall Street and what-not. They were a lot more mellow because Obama was elected so they were ‘winning’. 2013/2014 is when social justice started going full crazy, oozing out of campuses and into every aspect of modern life.

          3. Gilmore

            overall ‘activism culture’ was way more obsessed with stuff like Occupy Wall Street and what-not.

            I get your general point, but even OWS didn’t exist until 2011

            i thought the idea of “honors” classes in college was actually weirder, honestly. most colleges don’t have any tracking AFAIK.

          4. John Titor

            I should have said it was a more broad “economic” protests than the more common social justice ones now. Activism in 2009 seemed to be more about stuff like tuition rates or post-recession complaints about the banks.

        3. Agent Cooper

          I still had the story but it was lost when my laptop caught on fire in 2010 or 2011.

          Whatever, Lois Lerner.

      3. Festus

        Margaret Atwood is a great talent but when she turns her hand to speculative fiction she falls off the cliff. She’s great at interpersonal “woman that lives in Toronto” stuff but she’s just an old bag with an agenda when it comes to her “Sci-Fi”.

    2. Rhywun

      in light of the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back women’s rights

      Such as?

      As for dystopias, I like mine to be within the realm of plausibility. This one is just ludicrous. I remember all the hoopla when this book came out but somehow I have been able to avoid all knowledge of it until now. Praise Jesus!

      1. John Titor

        He didn’t even get to the part where they push women into second class status because the government makes the banks freeze all their accounts and dump the money directly into the state. And everyone just goes a long with it. Because reasons.

    3. John Titor

      By the by, Atwood also wrote the book because Reagan got elected and social conservativism became more influential in the early 80s. The book itself takes place in 2005.

      So, to be fair, it was a book born of idiotic partisan hysterics, it’s not really surprisingly that they’d use it for modern idiotic partisan hysterics.

    4. The feminist journals are so mad at the cast of the latest film adaptation for not calling it a feminist movie.

      Presumably, the cast and producers want to make some money off this thing, and branding it “feminist” will limit the appeal.

      The feminists are always annoyed (to put it mildly) when they’re reminded of their unpopularity, which they blame on misogyny, etc.

    5. Lachowsky

      “the rash of anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic incidents following Trump’s election.”

      Ahem, What incidents?

      1. Rhywun

        Remember, they count hoaxes as “could have happened”.

      2. straffinrun

        The election itself was anti Semitic violence. Violence ain’t what it used to be.

      3. Juvenile Bluster

        To be fair, they never would’ve heard about the 99% of those “incidents” that turned out to be BS because they didn’t pay attention and the media didn’t follow up.

        (then again, to also be fair, it’s not like any Trumpers are going to have paid attention to the fact that the “Rockville illegal alien rape” turned out to be BS, though the media’s done a big follow up there)

        1. Rhywun

          I’m pissed that both sides were/are using that event to bolster their case.

          1. Festus

            “Poop-Swastika” Never surrender!

      4. Agent Cooper

        anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic

        It’s paradoxes all the way down, folks.

    6. SIV

      I’m sure it is after SugarFree’s bedtime but he could tell you The Handmaid’s Tale is just a shitty, less pornographic, ripoff of Kentucky SF author Andrew J Offutt’s Evil is Live Spelled Backwards.

      Ignore the Goodreads rating, it’s easily a 7 out of 10.

    7. __Warren__

      My favorite weird sci-fi book that makes no fucking sense is On Wheels by John Jakes.

      1. SIV

        Everyone should read Norman Spinrad’s “The Men In the Jungle”. Along with KW Jeter’s “Dr. Adder” it sets the standard for great literature that reads like it was written in pencil in a spiral bound notebook in the back of a classroom by a bored HS senior or public college undergrad.

    8. Ken Shultz

      I have a lot to say about “The Handmaid’s Tale”. When I get some time next week, I was hoping to write something up on it and submit it.

      It’ll be about how much of a dated reference it is. It’ll also be about British dystopian novels, and how so many of them seem to fantasize about America either being destroyed, at civil war, or both in the future.

      Oh, and if there are any surprise villains in the book, it’s also other women–they way the women betray each other and keep each other down.

      Still, it’s a terribly dated reference. And it’s telling.

      “Children of Men” is derived from it, of course, but it’s much worse than “Handmaid’s Tale”. The Handmaid’s Tale can be seen as a work of liberation from government control. “Children of Men” may be the most anti-libertarian book to have been printed since “Mein Kampf” and “The Communist Manifesto”.

      It’s interesting that Where “1984” was written by a passionate socialist, and yet it comes across as remarkably libertarian. These other books, all of which are derived from it, seem to become increasingly socialist and anti-libertarian.

      Even “Brave New World” centers on a contempt for American culture and American capitalism. In Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”, American has been overwhelmed by Japanese mercantilism. Even “V for Vendetta” has America fighting a civil war.

      At some point, we libertarians should start taking this shit personally.

  14. Gilmore

    via Instapundit =

    they (glenn) linked to this magazine “Areo” which we have occasionally linked to here, to a piece rebutting an editorial in the NYT from a prof @ NYU arguing that “Speech-Repression” (via shutting down speakers a la Milo/Coulter/Murray/McInness et al) is really just ‘enabling free speech for marginalized people’…. which i suppose is some sort of retarded-academic concept of Zero-Sum Speech Markets, or something.

    i haven’t read the piece yet, but will just note (again) that i think its interesting that this mag (Areo) seems to be a sign of a changing trend from some parts of the Left. and by ‘some’ i mean very very few… but even the Current Affairs magazine which Derp got obsessed with last weekend (i think) also had a few pieces which seemed to go somewhat off the Progressive-Leftist consensus on a few issues.

    Basically, i think proper “liberal-Liberals” are making a small comeback. Does this bode well for oft-promised Liberaltarianism?? No, i don’t think so at all, because hardly any of these sorts of pieces touch on issues of economic freedom. But at the very least i’d suggest that its a welcoming sign… that there are people from the ostensible left-side of the spectrum who are fed up with the stultifying atmosphere of the contemporary progressive identity-politics monoculture.

    1. Rhywun

      that there are people from the ostensible left-side of the spectrum who are fed up with the stultifying atmosphere of the contemporary progressive identity-politics monoculture

      Perhaps, I think it’s going to take long time before any of that filters down to the masses that they’ve spent the last few decades whipping up into a frenzy of insanity.

      1. Gilmore

        , I think it’s going to take long time before any of that filters down to the masses

        oh, i’m not even suggesting that i think it will.

        I think its just going to be small islands of semi-sanity in a sea of screaming shitstorms of…. prog-nonsense. Goddammit i needed another word with ‘s’. But my point is just that we (libertarians) are not 100% alone in the universe , and its nice to see proper left-liberals occasionally defend stuff like ‘free speech’. it just seems like a mag worth reading, is all.

        1. SIV

          I don’t trust those fucks for a second. There are a tiny handful of liberty-loving leftists but there is a much larger contingent running cover and blowing smoke to try and keep the rest of the reachable ones in the revolutionary fold. They can always put them up against a wall later.

          1. Festus

            There’s a man after my own heart.

    2. straffinrun

      “These concepts — that rebutting an argument is taxing on students, or it invalidates their humanity, or that we must believe someone’s experience over an argument — are widespread and have morphed into ridiculousness through outlandish theorizing and academic discourse which has no grounding in reality.”

      I haven’t actually heard the argument that it’s too “taxing” on the students to even hear something they disagree with. Probably exists, and not sure I want to actually hear it, but who has made it?

      1. Gilmore

        I haven’t actually heard the argument that it’s too “taxing” on the students to even hear something they disagree with. Probably exists, and not sure I want to actually hear it, but who has made it?

        oh, i’ve heard it a bazillion times.

        Its basically = “when people use a broad public platform to say BADSPEECH that all correctly-informed people know is wrong, it creates a burden for them to have to use their smaller-and-marginalized (because racism yo) platform to EDUCATE the public and inform people how those views are wrong”

        Basically, no one should be allowed to contradict the progressive-consensus, because it ‘forces’ marginalized people to have to tell you, “UH NUH UHH!!!”

        The same guy (Ulrich Baer) in the NYT article made his own version of that case =

        While Yale bemoaned the occasional “paranoid intolerance” of student protesters, the university also criticized the “arrogant insensitivity” of free speech advocates who failed to acknowledge that requiring of someone in public debate to defend their human worth conflicts with the community’s obligation to assure all of its members equal access to public speech.

        basically, if you say something like, “I think the fact that transgender people have the highest suicide rate on earth is a sign that gender-dysphoria might be worth considering as a form of mental illness”… you are imposing a burden on those marginalized people to inform everyone how your cisgender science is like, bullshit.

        Pretty sure most of the colleges who recently shut down speakers like Coulter, Milo made similar cases.

        1. straffinrun

          That argument I’ve heard and it’s ridiculous. It’s takes energy to prove my case, therefore just accept it. I thought by “taxing” the students it meant making them use their brains as in “stop making me think!”.

    3. Mythical Libertarian Woman

      The best part of that article is the footnote:

      [Author’s note: I incorrectly identified the faculty affiliations of Phil Magness and Jason Brennan. I’m sorry for perpetuating discursive violence and invalidating their existence. The article has been updated]

      (The whole article is good, though. I’ve liked the Areo articles that have been linked here. I agree that they seem to be worth reading.)

  15. Juvenile Bluster

    Is there an actual good result in the French election?

    Macron isn’t going to be any better than what they have right now, and for all Le Pen talks about, she’s an actual communist when it comes to economic policy.

    I mean, it’s France, but still.

    1. Gilmore

      Is there an actual good result in the French election?

      both candidates are outsiders. that, regardless of how shitty these outsiders are, scares the living fuck out of the Eurocrat establishment

      1. Rhywun

        See: Donald J. Trump

      2. straffinrun

        Macron is an outsider?

        1. RothbardsBitch1

          What I have read about him is confusing. I have read that he is pro market but he worked as a minister under a socialist government and that he is very pro EU.

          1. straffinrun

            Deputy Secretary General and Minister of Economy under Hollande.

          2. Festus

            Obviously one of France’s “Top Men”! C’est bon!

          3. Gilmore

            Minister of Economy under Hollande.

            Slightly misleading. He held a position *answering* to the Minister of Economy + Finance. His job title would have looked similar, like “Minister of Economy + Finance, Industry, Digital Sector”

            see this org chart here =

            http://www.gouvernement.fr/en/composition-of-the-government

            and look under Sapin (currently Min. Econ). Macron held one of those jobs

          4. straffinrun

            Here’s the rub: True that he isn’t from the top echelon of either the Sarcozy or Hollande wing, but he most certainly will be an agent for pushing EU establishment policies. They don’t fear Macron. He will be their man.

          5. Gilmore

            I agree, but i think you miss the bigger point re: the comparison w/ Obama

            the same was true w/ O, more or less = but his victory in 2008 was a kick in the nuts to the Clinton-machine, which pretty much ran the DNC

            When O showed up, he built his own, new + separate structures for fundraising and organizing, because he didn’t trust those fuckers for a second.

            the same dynamic exists w/ Macron. Even if he wins, its only because he WAS NOT running on the socialist ticket, or a more-conventional party-platform.

            he won by saying, “Im not part of the old thing”. He ran on a party ticket that didn’t even exist 2 years ago

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_Marche!

            Macron never even had a job in public service until 2012. He literally served 1 term and then ran for president. His victory is a very clear vote for “Something other than the norm” Even if he’s far closer to the norm than Le Pen, his political capital is based partly on a rejection of that norm.

          6. Gilmore

            Macron never even had a job in public service until 2012.

            my bad. he had some low level job in min finance 2004-2008.

            jesus, and he was only in investment banking for 4 years too. Its clear the guy is a climber, but its fucking odd how successful he’s been because he hasn’t worked for anyone long enough to claim ‘expertise’.

        2. Gilmore

          In the sense that he’s never held any position of power before. his politics are either conventional, or ‘unknown’. Sort of like obama, who could have been fairly described as an “outsider” in 2007

      3. SIV

        Macron is a card-carrying socialist. He only “left” the party to try and salvage their hold on power. Le Pen is at least a true nationalist. At this point, sovereignty is the only think left to fight for.

        1. __Warren__

          I want to result that brings the EU closer to destruction and Jean-Claude Juncker closer to being forgotten.

      4. LT_Fish

        See Sweden Democrats or Danish Peoples Party or Geert Wilders – “outsiders”, “left of democrats”, but anti-EU or anti-unrestricted immigration = evil!1!

    2. Floridaman

      they both lose?

    3. The Elite Elite

      Well, didn’t Macron get endorsed by Obama? If nothing else, that should be a big red sign on which one you don’t want to win.

      1. Festus

        Nah. It didn’t matter who was running against LePen. All that matters is rassssiccccc.

  16. Playa Manhattan

    It’s COLD in SoCal tonight. Movie night, and I have the fire going.

    1. __Warren__

      What effigies are you burning tonight?

      1. Festus

        Jerry brown and Hanoi Jane in an impromptue embrace?

      2. Gustave Lytton

        Books.

    2. Rhywun

      Same in NYC. Most years there’s a good chance I’d be cranking up the AC by now. Instead we’re going into the 40s tonight.

      1. __Warren__

        But at least the war era had some good music!

        1. Festus

          Sea vaginas vs sea slugs. Sounds like the Japs would get ahold of this one and start beating their kids to produce a manga.

      2. Playa Manhattan

        My youngest 2 kids are going to see lightning for the first time tomorrow. Allegedly.

    3. one true athena

      It is! feels like winter out there. (well, “winter” for SoCal)

    4. The Elite Elite

      It’s not cold, but it’s definitely better than the awful heat we’ve been having this week. Feels nice right now.

  17. The other shoe begins to drop, though it seems more like a slipper

    “As of April 17, the College has identified “more than 70 individuals it believes may be subject to disciplinary procedures under student handbook policies” due to their participation in the March 2 protests that prevented Dr. Charles Murray from delivering a scheduled lecture, according to an official statement released by the College….

    “In an effort to shed light on the proceedings, The Campus spoke with several students who had been called into disciplinary meetings regarding their actions on March 2….

    “Unofficial punishment, according to several students involved, has generally been given in the form of probation; official punishment is anything that goes on a student’s permanent record.

    “Students who are placed on probation have a letter placed in their file that will be removed at the end of the semester. However, if a student is placed on probation and then violates another college policy, the probation can become a part of their official record….

    “…Students were told that those who continued to protest during the live stream in Wilson Hall may receive official college discipline….”

    1. “the College = Middlebury

      1. Festus

        MWAHAHAHAHAHHA!!11!!

        1. Festus

          “HEY! We need some Bureaucrats over here!

    2. JaimeRoberto

      Gee, it sounds like someone might end up on double secret probation. It must be serious.

      1. AlmightyJB

        + permanent​ record

  18. straffinrun
    1. __Warren__

      That’s some amazing fleet-of-footness.

      1. straffinrun

        They set the entire course up in a way to make it possible to break the record. Still pretty cool.

        1. __Warren__

          They should have had it all be downhill, with the wind then.

          1. straffinrun

            That’s what thought, too. Maybe have a pack of rabid dogs chasing them for motivation.

          2. Festus

            Fuck that! Cheetah relays! He’d beat the record and slap your Mom across the face with his elongated penis, too!

    2. AlmightyJB

      What a loser

    1. Brochettaward

      The silent, non-voting majority, apparently.

      1. Festus

        We’re with her!

    2. Gilmore

      Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, vegetarians

      I’ve long considered voting for the Vegetarian party

      1. __Warren__

        Nah, there’s no meat in their platform.

        1. But a vegetarian diet may be the best someone can manage at a low celery.

          1. __Warren__

            How much bread do they need to eat meat?

          2. Lettuce quit with the puns already.

          3. __Warren__

            Get out of my grill, man!

        2. Festus

          When is the last time that you heard someone order a “plain” cheeseburger? I’ve cooked literally thousands upon thousands of them and actually nobody asked for no cheese until 2006.

          1. Playa Manhattan

            Did they ask for a hamburger?

          2. Mythical Libertarian Woman

            Is that when they took hamburgers off the menu at McDonald’s? You should see the blank expression I get when I ask for a hamburger nowadays. “What is that?! How do I enter it into the cash register?! Cheeseburger with no cheese?!”

          3. Festus

            Yeah, it was a given. Who the hell even bothers to eat a gut-bomb sans fromage? Incroyable!

          4. one true athena

            hah, you should hear my friend’s hilarious recounting of her attempt to buy a MEATLESS McDonalds burger in texas in ~1990.

            “You– you just want cheese and bread?”

            “Yes, yes, exactly. I’ll be happy to pay full price, just could you take off the meat?”

            “… I have to get the manager.”

          5. __Warren__

            Hamburgers have never been off the menu at McDonald’s. It’s just when they went to the $1 value menu that made a hamburger and a cheeseburger the same price it was like getting a slice of cheese free, and who doesn’t want that?

          6. Mythical Libertarian Woman

            “Hello, I would like a #2 with hamburgers instead of cheeseburgers.”
            WHAT? WHAT?? WHAAAAAT???

          7. Someone to whom American cheese kills the taste of a hamburger? Someone who doesn’t want the extra sodium or calories, or who’s allergic to milk proteins? Actually in American cheese there’s more lactose than cheeses generally too, so that the lactose-intolerant, who shouldn’t have a problem with regular cheese, may have one with American cheese because of the unfermented milk they add in the processing.

            I’m in the kills-the-taste school. I used to eat American-cheese-burgers, but my preference changed years ago to wanting to taste the meat more. Swiss or blue cheese adds so much to the taste that they make good cheeseburgers. American cheese mostly just adds saltiness, makes it gooey, and detracts from the meatiness. Except, of course, a White Castle, which is so un-meaty already that there’s nothing in it to kill.

          8. one true athena

            My dad always has, since he’s lactose intolerant and doesn’t much like cheese anyway. But it’s true he’s the only one I know.

      2. Festus

        I like their platform but Bacon…

    3. Playa Manhattan

      The smartest thing we can do is not respond to that.

      Yep. You have it all figured out, Maher. Don’t change a thing.

    4. straffinrun

      I agree with all her goals. Now if we can just get her to reject using violence to attain them.

      1. Festus

        Heh, them first, then we parle.

    5. AlmightyJB

      It’s the applause that really induces the facepalm.

  19. KSuellington

    I am presently watching Face/Off. I appreciate some Nick Cage and a month ago threw a few on Netflix queue that I had never seen. He has really taken a shit turn, but Port of Call New Orleans was excellent because of his madness. This is ridiculous, but fun. I need another whisky.

    1. __Warren__

      The only thing wrong with that movie is that it didn’t involve hockey terrorism.

      1. KSuellington

        I think that needs another movie. Hockey terrorism just seems like it would work well on film.

        1. __Warren__

          IN A WORLD COVERED IN ICE BECAUSE OF CLIMATE DESTRUCTION THE ONLY HEROES LEFT ARE HOCKEY PLAYERS….UNFORTUNATELY THERE ARE ROUGE SQUADS WHO’S GOAL IS TO UPEND THE REMAINING CIVILIZATION.

          Coming this Fall: CROSSING THE RED LINE, starring Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds), Steve Burns (Blues Clues) and Nicholas Cage as The Linesman.

          1. KSuellington

            A definte hit. The World Needs More Hockey Movies.

          2. Gustave Lytton

            It’s the plot for Strange Brew.

          3. coax

            Hamlet was about terrorists?

          4. Festus

            Does Mathew get crosschecked and lose front teeth and consciousness in the first reel because I would totally watch the fuck out of that one.

          5. “ROUGE SQUADS”

            The horror!

      2. AlmightyJB

        Forcing me to watch hockey is the worst form of terrorism.

    2. Festus

      More whiskey and “Valley Girl”. He’s stupidly miscast as a “punk” and the music isn’t anything to set Grandma’s hair afire but the chicks are cute and you won’t stick a pistol in your mouth after watching it.

      1. KSuellington

        I liked his Rumble Fish performance, and Raising Arizona is one of my top 5 comedies of all time. Adaptation was also excellent. Wild at Heart was some classic stuff as well.

        1. Festus

          Yeah, Rumble Fish – “Don’t flatter yourself!” Even I, a nineteen year-old man wanted to break his nose.

    3. AlmightyJB

      I like Cage. The one movie he did that I didn’t like was “Leaving Las Vegas”.

  20. Derpetologist

    “Pope criticises US military for using word ‘mother’ to describe MOAB bomb

    He says that anything that takes life away shouldn’t be associated with motherhood”

    What an incredibly profound thought, Your Holiness. Yes, I can put on the Hallmark Channel for you. Here, have a My Little Pony juice box.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pope-criticises-us-bomb-moab-mother-of-all-bombs-military-a7722131.html

    1. Gustave Lytton

      Andy Kaufman is alive and currently hiding out as a Jesuit priest in the Vatican.

    2. Festus

      Fuck the Pink Pope, he’s obviously left-handed. Fuck him and his hypocrisy with Warty’s dick. “Sure their was child rape but I was just a Cardinal then!”

      1. Festus

        “Look at me now! I’m better, swear ta God!”

    3. Not an Economist

      You forgot the acronym for Pope, Person Overseeing Pedophiles Everywhere (shamelessly stolen from the Independent comments).

      1. AlmightyJB

        Nice. I’m totally appropriating that.

  21. Festus

    Maybe I should change my screen name to “Comment-Killer” and have done with it, no?

    1. AlmightyJB

      Maybe

    1. Grumbletarian

      Seventh grader Zachary Bowlin received a 10-day suspension from Edgewood Middle School after he licked a photo of an airsoft gun on Instagram. The caption of the photo simply said, “Ready.”

      If you ask me it’s the school administrators who are the window lickers.

      1. AlmightyJB

        I wonder how many full time positions are dedicated to stalking students on social media.

  22. AlmightyJB

    So if you die in the Medical Center, all of your neighbor ghost will be criminally insane. That’s a lot of burials.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/05/07/7000-bodies-from-mental-institution-believed-buried-on-mississippi-campus.html

  23. AlmightyJB

    US Bobsled team star Steven Holcomb found dead at Olympic training center.

    http://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/19325347/steven-holcomb-37-found-dead-room-us-olympic-training-center