Hi there. I understand you are here to see a friend, a Mr. Zardoz, was it? Well, I am afraid we can’t do that just yet – but not to worry, he is getting the best of care here at Shady Acres Rehabilitation Ranch. Oh, he did leave something for “his chosen ones.” That would be you, yes? Appears to be a set of links. Here you go:
- ANOTHER REASON FOR BRUTALS TO AVOID CHIPOTLE.
- SAUDI BRUTALS GONNA SAUDI.
- ENGLISH BRUTALS HAD SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP TODAY.
- UUUHHHH….DRUGZ!
I am sure Mr. Zardoz will be back in touch when he is at that stage of recovery. You all have a great, addiction free night!
You all have a great, addiction free night!
How can a night be great and addiction-free?
I am going to the tap room and get buzzed – but I am not an addict. I think that will be great.
I’m drinking this Russian Standard with Fever-Tree tonic water and Fentimans mandarin and seville orange jigger, mixed 1-1-1 2 oz of each. Not bad.
Sobieski and grapefruit juice, splash of Perrier lemon. Making steak and shrimp tacos. I’m culturally appropriating Polish and Mexican culture. I’m a real bastard.
Forgot to mention; I’m a standard issue white guy with Russian Jew and Irish heritage. Some of my family spent time in Canada before coming to the USA. So pretty much all I can eat and still be culturally sensitive is potatoes, cabbage and poutine. I guess vodka and whiskey are ok too?
I fried cod, boiled corn on the cob, and made black bean soup today. I don’t even know what that means culturally.
Cod, corn and black beans? You are culturally appropriating… Mexico! Tu es un cabeza de la mierde.
Well, I do love Mexican food and the spicier the better.
I think we’re culturally appropriating the age old war of who invented vodka, the Russians or Poles. I don’t think I’ve ever drank a Russian vodka that I don’t like. Obviously I’m in with Putin.
Of course it was the Poles, how is that even in dispute?
I think that if history has taught us anything, given anything in anyways fermentable, somebody will make booze out of it. Hell, probably the best argument early civilizations over hunter-gather tribes is that they had better booze.
+1 “drunk” moose
Kimchi vodka?
[retches]
A Kimchi bloody Mary is a superior innovation in libation.
At some point, somebody looked at a pile of rice and said, “I want to get shitfaced from that pile of rice,” And thus Sake was born.
Or soju.
Wouldn’t it be easier just to drink 5oz of Russian Standard? 🙂
I can 100% guarantee you that I’ve drank more than 5oz of Russian Standard today. I can now see Russia from my porch. Putin just called me to confirm that I’m voting for Trump next time.
ooh, I just got some Fever Tree for gin and tonics.
I like the low calorie one. No nasty stuff, just fructose.
Black Mirror season 4 episode titles and directors revealed
Does being on Netflix mean Season 3+ will never appear on DVD? Because Netflix is never getting my money.
House of Cards is on DVD. I expect the same will soon be true for Black Mirror.
By the way, why the animosity towards Netflix?
Because I already pay up the ass for cable – and no, I’m not going to “cut the cord”. I don’t need another goddamn subscription. Also, streaming is usually garbage and I want to own this particular show, not “rent” it.
Understood.
Actually, I just paid Amazon $40 for the complete set of The Thick of It DVDs. I understand completely.
Also, I now remember that my DVD player is non-functional.
D’oh. I just my first one last year – yeah. (I used to watch them on my computer.)
And it’s all-region. Smart! The foreign disc are so much cheaper.
Thank you! Didn’t realize those were available. Added to cart.
I ripped all five series of Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister and keep them on my phone as my backup in a pinch need distraction videos.
Not a bad price, but I think my UK dvds will hold up for the time being.
Everybody needs Peter Capaldi swearing at somebody as a pick-me-up to get them through the day.
This a universal truth, not a failed reply to anyone in particular.
I only know him from Doctor Who and I don’t know if I can take it any more. It’s so crap lately. A little swearing might make it better.
Enjoy!
Fucking LOL
In the Loop. Nicely done spin-off.
Not disagreeing after they gave Adam Sandler and Amy Schindler large sums of cash, but may I ask why?
Fuck. Refresh before posting. Refresh before posting.
The doctor did not properly capitalize ZARDOZ’s name. I think STEVE SMITH needs to pay him a visit tonight.
Man, you are harsh!
ZARDOZ feeds our gun addiction here on Glibertarians, he deserves the proper respect.
Wait… He supplies Vhyrus?!
Don’t be so harsh, the only reason to sic Steve Smith on ZARDOZ is if we don’t get Saturday Nite Links. Hey, I mean I know Steve Smith is overkill and all, but we Brutals don’t have any power, not even an edit feature.
We need to sic STEVE SMITH on the doctor.
Also, what does a Brutal have to do to get an edit button on here?
I don’t really know. Get invited to the cocktail parties?
What, you want photographic proof of us ruffling Robby’s hair?
Mankind does not have the power, nor the right, to sic STEVE SMITH on anyone. STEVE SMITH is the only one who gets to make that choice, for with great power comes great responsibility.
WITH GREAT RAPE COMES GREAT… RAPING.
BRUTAL EDIT
“This is all a game-changer for us in law enforcement,” Gahler said. “We are going to have to re-evaluate daily what we’re doing. We are feeling our way through this every single day .
Stop snorting the evidence?
End the War on Drugs so there won’t be any need to gather the evidence.
Now that’s just crazy-talk.
That would be easy if the the evidence didn’t smell so good.
Does cocaine have an aroma? (I wouldn’t know; I’ve never been close to any so far as I know.)
Yes, and not a particularly pleasant one. Or so I’ve heard.
Oh, brother!
Ammonia and freshly cut PVC piping.
To this day if I step into a building under construction and they are cutting PVC the smell of it immediately makes me feel the need to take a shit.
And here I just thought my memory of it smelling like bathrooms was just because that was where we used to consume it.
I don’t know about you or anyone else here but for me, when I did that crap years ago(7 plus years since my last time and never was a big fan of it. ‘Hey! My face is numb, I’ll feel a strong urge to do it again in 10 minutes, and I’ll be a borderline sociopath to ensure that I do so!’ Fuck that noise. But as soon as that first line or bump drained down my throat my ass gaped open like a vomiting baby’s mouth and emptied me to the point of dehydration.
I guess it’s true when they say your sense of smell has a strong connection to memory.
That wasn’t an issue for me. It’s not uncommon for Coke to be cut with diuretics.
OTOH, I can’t get through my morning smoke without my lower bowels issuing a veto and sending me running to the bathroom.
Sounds like you had some bad stuff cut with baby laxatives and probably other stuff. I’ve only done it a handful of times, but it was good, pure stuff. I don’t remember a smell. The best was just doing a couple lines,hanging out with friends, a couple more, watching a ball game, probably talking too much, but then going home and sobering up for the night. No hangover or rough night. The worst was of course doing too much at a party and staying up all night and then feeling like shit for a couple days.
What’s a lot worse is the smell of water through freshly welded copper pipe.
I think this means they’re gonna stop cracking down and just let people have their oxycontins
Brutals were getting restless.
Come for the botulism, stay for the hackers draining your bank account.
Aren’t they appropriating culture too? I mean botulism and E. coli are one thing… well actually two, but cultural appropriation? Close them down.
People don’t realize how often credit card breaches occur, it only makes the news when the big guys get hit.
Maybe that’s why I get a new card several times a year.
No, it’s because you lose your card all the time when your drunk/high.
I’ve lost one card, ever. And then I found it later when cleaning my card.
“car” NO I AM NOT DRUNK!
Yet.
I am!
*drops credit card*
Ya not much you can do to stop that. Limiting web shopping to “trusted” names might help a little. Retail shopping can be just as risky as online, so those people that say ‘that’s why I don’t shop online”, aren’t doing anything to limit their risk. The biggest risk usually depends on where you live, some cities get hit more.
Single use cc numbers. Some cards already offer this for online shopping. Not sure how to do it for b&m.
Cash?
“Oops“?
I think not.
I will also do the right thing here and find photographic proof of this ‘failure’.
meh. girl aint got no ass. still, i appreciate legs.
I mean, she’s attractive, but her legs are too skinny. I can’t even really tell from those photos if she has any ass or not.
Great legs.
That is a Goddess in spiked heels. I like them lithe and leggy, what can I say?
This guy.
This guy gets it.
She looks like a slutty Slenderman Halloween costume.
I know right?! Hot as hell!
Double whoops! Apparently that was *last year’s* “unplanned wardrobe malfunction”.
Here is this year’s “unplanned (no, seriously) wardrobe malfunction”
i confess, i like the one without her face better. ugh, so male-gaze
You can’t not fall out of those dresses.
Campaigners believe the country’s authorities may be emboldened after Donald Trump failed to bring up human rights on recent visit…
…The decision comes after a recent visit by President Trump to the Gulf state, which is one of the world’s most prolific executioners and notorious for its human rights abuses. Previous administrations have raised the issue of rights with Saudi leaders,
And that is why Saudi Arabia never executed or tortured anyone until Donald Trump was elected. Because previous Presidents said ‘human rights good’ with no consequences whatsoever to the regime while they, you know, funded,supplied and assisted it. That’s how incentives work.
Curious which groups the campaigners belong to. UN maybe?
Only one directly quoted is “Maya Foa, the director of Reprieve, a legal justice charity”.
Also, oddly enough Barack Obama visited Saudi Arabia in January of 2015. The year they beheaded 151 people. The most people they’ve executed annually since the early 90s.
TDS is one hell of a drug.
I’ve never seen one that makes people as crazy. PCP and bath salts pale in comparison.
What Trump said, that he wasn’t there to tell other people how to live, I mean for crickey fucking sake, I agree with that 100%. It’s their fucking shithole, if their people want to change it, they should do so, without our intervention. I thought that the ‘liberals’ agree with that? Oh, yeah, that’s right, there are no liberals, just leftist hacks who change their mind depending on who is POTUS.
And if he does bring up human rights, they shriek the same way they did when he mentioned radicalism.
Their thought process works something like this.
Well, I mean, he is like Hitler. Does anyone really want to hear Hitler lecture about human rights, anyway?
Hey, brutals, question. Are any of you into cameras / photography? I want to buy my first DSLR camera and I’m trying to decide between a Nikon D5500 and D7200. I don’t have any older non AF lens that I can use, as I said this would be my first SLR camera, so that’s not a consideration. Low light is important to me, but I can’t budget for a really high end FX camera right now, so is there any reason to pay the extra money for the D7200?
Way way way back in the day (high school! The 80’s!), I knew a lot about photography. Did the dark room and everything. But, that was long before digital cameras, so my knowledge is useless.
You’re welcome.
Crikey, Denver, I wasn’t asking for someone who once drove a model T to tell me which SUV to buy for 2018. But thanks, anyway.
I am in the same boat. I bought a Canon Digital SLR but didn’t do much photography with it. My real cameras (film) and complete darkroom are in boxes in the attic. I cant help either.
I had a 35mm Minolta camera back in the 90s. Then came the digital cameras and everyone forgot about that. My wife’s Samsung G S7 takes pictures that are mind blowing compared to any camera from 20 years ago. I don’t even see how it’s possible with that teeny tiny lens, but it is.
When you look back on all the crap you learned in high school, is it a wonder you can think at all?
*narrows gaze*
If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together
for one night
I know they’d never match
my sweet imagination
Everything looks worse
in black and white
I bought a D40 ten years ago. It still works well in low light. In regular and bright light, too.
D80. When my 1st was born. So almost 10 years ago.
Still use it with the prime lens
I take 99% of my pictures with it.
When I was monkeying around with cameras a couple of years ago, dpreview.com was pretty good for reviews. But I haven’t been following them for a while.
Lew Rockwell too.
Yeah, those are both great sites.
Wifey is a semi-professional photographer and just updated. She’s a Nikon girl, through and through.
What did she get? Any idea what she would recommend between D5500 and D7200?
D7100 w/ upgrades. It was a floor model, less than a thousand shots. Online sale and a steal. The old D she basically sold for parts to some Yahoo in Florida.
One of my friends has the D7100. I’m considering that also with how cheap you can get one now. I just don’t think I need a full frame, I don’t have any lens to pair it with.
It’s all fractals to me but she does weddings and such. She used to have a mid-format but we had to sell it off when the recession hit.
I’m on second Canon dslr and will probably be going to a full frame soon. First thing I learned about dslrs is how expensive nice lenses are. I would go with the cheaper model and put the extra money into a nice walk about lens. You’ll find you’ll be buying lenses that cost more than your camera. The article below talks about lack of high-speed sync for flash on the 5500 but I doubt that is going to be anything you’ll care about unless your going straight to professional wedding photography. What will you mostly be using it for?
https://www.lightandmatter.org/2015/equipment-reviews/nikon-d5500-vs-d7200-which-should-you-buy/
Mostly scenery and landscapes. Although I would like to also get good shots indoors with low light, but no semi-pro wedding or anything like that. What I have found is the hardest thing to do with the $200-300 compact cameras I’ve owned for the last 10 years is that they absolutely suck in low light.
As far as lens are concerned, like I said, I don’t know what advantage the built in AF motor of the D7200 does for me. I don’t have any old lens. What I was thinking is to buy the D5500 that is daily or not available on Amazon with a 18-55mm and 70-300mm lens for $600 and right off buy a high end low light lens to go with it.
I’m just trying to figure out if there’s any advantage to buying the full frame D7200. I mean it’s still not an FX camera, which I cannot afford at the moment and want to get started in a new hobby with something I can buy for 1K or less.
What I was thinking is to buy the D5500 that is daily or not available on Amazon with a 18-55mm and 70-300mm lens for $600 and right off buy a high end low light lens to go with it.
We got that package, but with the D3200 as a wedding gift to ourselves. Low light performance is okay with the 18-55. Sometimes I feel like I’m compromising a bit too much on ISO or f-stop to get the shutter speed to a reasonable time in low light situations. I’ve found that any indoor photography with ambient natural light is fine. I know it doesn’t help with the body selection, but hopefully it makes you more comfortable about the lenses.
Have you shot any low light landscape outside? I know for sure you would do much better with a good low light lens. I’m assuming that the AF is good for shots in good light.
BTW, like the new avatar.
Low light is always going to be challange for any camera no matter how much you spend on it. The only real cure is a good tripod honestly. The large aperature lenses will no doubt help some but then there goes your depth of field.
Or faster “film” speed (higher ISO number) but then you start getting graininess. Technically I guess that would be noise.
Yep,
Thanks! I like the new avatar much more than the commie one.
I looked through my photos for a low light landscape, but don’t really have one to share. I tend to shoot during midday or indoors, so I don’t have a ton of experience with low light outdoors.
Yeah, if your not planning on buying used older lenses then your not going to care. Go with the cheaper camera. That is a nice camera. The new dslrs are really much better with nose reduction at higher iso’s and that is what is going to allow you to shoot much better in lower light. You’ll also want to get an external flash at some point there’s some more money for you to spend:) it can get expensive. You’ll be upgrading cameras in a few years anyways:)
Noise reduction
Well, once I learn on my first DSLR, I plan on upgrading to a FX camera. I don’t even see the point right now in spending thousands of dollars on something I have no idea how to really use. I have a friend who has a D7100 and some of the pictures he’s showed me he took with that camera are fuckballz amazing. But he’s been doing this for years and he has a lot of expensive lens. Haven’t seen him for a while and want to look him up to ask these questions. He used to always ask me if I’d bought a camera yet so we can go out and shoot some stuff together, offered to give me some tips, but I think he gave up on me getting a camera.
Also have my son-in-law who just bought a 6K DSLR and has all sorts of high end glass and other cameras. But it’s not like I can go out and shoot with him since he lives 5000 miles away.
Thanks, JB, really appreciate your help.
Anytime:) When I got my first canon I bought a 17-40 and a 70-200 along with a 1.4x extender. Both nice canon L lenses and I gotton a lot of great shots from both. But just out running around I really got tired of changing lenses because one didn’t teach out far enough and the other wasn’t wide enough. Ended up buying a 18-135 last year which is really nice to have as a walk about lens even though it’s not an L. I bought it knowing it won’t work in my fill frame when I get it but I’ll just keep it with the old camera as a back up or a gift. My other lenses will work on the full frame. You might look at something like this below. Won’t work on your fx when you eventually get it but will give you that nice range for a walkabout.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18-140mm.htm
BTW, I highly recommend this book for budding photographers.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607748509/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ahIkzb0DN054A
I have a couple of the author’s Understanding books. Also highly recommend!
As part of the process of infiltrating your species I have gained employment at one of your power plants. I have become quite adept at photographing components from a distance utilizing a flashlight and a Nikon Coolpix 520(?) (if I recall correctly)
Anyways it managed low level shots quite well on Auto mode. Experimenting with the ‘night landscape’ mode sometimes produced better results. However you have to hold the camera very still.
If either model you are thinking about is superior to the 520 then I recommend the cheaper one. Or get the 520 (or its equivalent) The 520 has served me quite well and it is shockingly durable if that is important. I think it costs around $400-500
I have a slightly older Coolpix model, and it does really well in good light, sucks in low light. But I’m looking for an DSLR now.
What are you trying to shoot?
It matters.
My parents took an Antarctic cruise when they retired. My dad got a 400mm lens for shooting penguins. Hasn’t used it since.
Like I said, mostly outdoors and landscapes, but low light is what I’m really looking to improve on over my current non-SLR cameras. So I’m thinking to get a good entry level DSLR and a very good low light lens. I’ve got my choice down to the D5500 or D7200. The D7200 is more expensive and I don’t have any lens so I don’t know that the built in AF motor is a feature I need.
Here’s a great little free tutorial on exposure. Good little standard photographer tips as well.
http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
Thanks again, kind sir. I’m just starting to learn the basics that you can learn without actually having the camera in your hands…
Interested in uh, photography, eh?
I would be but there’s this piece of paper that says that I can’t be within 500 yards of high schools or stockyards.
Moo, moo,
I love you,
I know you’re a cow
but anything will do.
Oooh wheee,
can’t you see
I wanna make love to you!
Gregg Allman, Soulful Trailblazer of Southern Rock, Dies at 69
RIP dude. Not really an Allman Bros fan, but I am an American. When their tunes come on the car radio, I’m singing along.
I’ll take a great big vodka to ya anyway.
Man that sucks.
RIP Gregg Allman
Anyone remember Richard Betts? They called him ‘Dickey’?
I’m no angel
That’s some snowflake triggerin shit there, is what it is.
1. I like how Saudi Arabian civil rights abuses are Trump’s fault.
2. $5k for 100 sets of coveralls, shoe covers, and nitrile gloves. Lol, could pick that up at Home Depot for less than $150. I’m in the wrong line of work; I should supply stuff to the government.
3. Why the hell is Google showing me so many ads for feminine hygiene products? Is it that time of the month already?
It means that your wife has meddling with your search history and you will be walking on eggshells for the foreseeable future.
Yeah, that would be quite the trick, she’s been dead almost three years. It’s really weird. Probably one of the links you reprobates posted made Google think I’m female. Prolly is cause of thicc Thursday; only women think women look good fat.
JESUS CHRIST DUDE! I was just making a funny. I’m so sorry to hear about that. If my wifey died I’d probably curl up in a ball someplace and stop taking fluids.
Yeah, it was pretty rough. Not something I’d wish on my worst enemy. Time… has made the pain less immediate, less sharp, but deeper, if that makes any sense.
I know you didn’t know, bro, don’t sweat it.
Also, the Commentariat at the other place, most of the good ones who have moved here, were a lifeline to me during a very dark time. The people here are absolutely the best.
Slate had a pretty good mix before the Trumpocalypse. Funny but pointy. I only visit there to drop a turd now an again.
Wait…you talkin’ ’bout us?!
Anything we can do – well, aside from money that is…
Florida joins other states in ending ‘tampon tax’
How about eliminating taxes on products *I* depend on, like vodka and cigarettes?
You can soak the tax-free tampons in vodka and stick them in the bodily orifice of your choice!
+1 chicken tax
If it weren’t for the Blue Laws it would be anarchy out there.
Does that mean that we don’t have buy them anymore? Asking for a Cuck…
Marine officers are drugged, robbed after Bogotá pub crawl and could face charges
They learned it by watching the Secret Service!
Man, Bogota’s gotta be our next vaycay target! Sounds exciting.
Far Cry 5 artwork introduces us to a religious cult
Topical.
I have high hopes. Nothing wrong with poking some fun at American evangelicals. Just don’t be a total fucking dick about it.
I had some hopes until the reveal trailer. It looks like Ubisoft’s back to their generic open-worlds again.
Points for this though.
Much as I loved JC3, fuck these open worlds. Doom 2016 was the incredible thing it was because it wasn’t some open world bullshit, it went back to what makes shooters good. JC3 gets a pass because there’s a phenomenal interrelation between the infinite parachute, the grappling hook, and the wingsuit. It’s all about open-world traversal. But I played some of Wildlands beta, and it’s a crime against the Tom Clancy franchise.
I can take a few open-worlds, if they’re like The Witcher 3. Which makes…… Horizon, I guess? Which is out for me as I don’t have a PS4. Other than that, it’s rare that I make it through an open-world game anymore.
Although, admittedly, Prey was fucking incredible.
Lookit Mr. Fancypants here, buys Prey when it’s just out.
FO4 was everything I wanted. Get nostalgic thinking about it.
I couldn’t pass up a 20% discount! Arkane always does this to me! Nevermind that I’ll have to spend the rest of the month eating Ramen Noodles….
Actually, if you’re a PC person, it’s already been cracked and is available for download.
if they’re like The Witcher 3
So made by a company with actual passion and borderline obsession with quality and improvement.
Which is not Ubisoft, the company that will probably drive Far Cry into the same hole they drove Assassin’s Creed into eventually.
I mean more in the structure of their open-world. IE, quests that rely on story and interesting characters instead of ticking items off a checklist and conquering territories.
Open-world RPGs are moving more towards that, people are noticing how successful Witcher 3 and Horizon have been.
Ubisoft loves their checklists and stagnant design philosophy though. Primal was an interesting concept that was completely obliterated because it had to kowtow to the pre-existing gameplay structure.
It says a lot that Blood Dragon is still the best thing they’ve produced, Far Cry wise, in years.
I keep crossing my fingers that the strong possibility of a Vivendi buyout could do good things though.
Meh, 8/10 for badass priest, still doesn’t touch the classic.
Outlast 2 also rolled with the militant Christian cult, but cranked it up to 11 with them being fucked up hillbilly cannibals in the middle of the desert. At that point it’s basically past ‘political message’ just plan ‘grindhouse’.
Didn’t it also fall back on a mind-control device or something dumb like that?
Probably, the first one did so. Useful for avoiding the “you’re demonizing the mentally ill” crowd.
““Today’s judgment shows that, by failing to raise human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, President Trump has emboldened the Kingdom to continue the torture and execution of protesters. ”
Of course it is Trump’s fault. Whose else could it be?
President Trump did threaten to make the sun rise in the West so anything is possible at this juncture.
I am calling bullshit on the drug story. Pure bullshit.
Me too.
Even if it wasn’t I would feel zero pity for them. They could just leave people the f alone.
ooh! local news segment on “How climate change is affecting your sleep!!” betcha didn’t now it’s already happening, y’all, that nasty Climate Change ™ is making the SUN BRIGHTER. or higher or less clouds, or some b.s. I don’t know, I didn’t actually watch the segment. But I do know It’s TOTALLY REAL AND ON THE NEWS that your sleeping is Ruined by Climate Change. Ruined! MIT says so! It’s Science!
oh, and Donnie Two-Scoops’ budget is going to kill the Earthquake Early Warning system, where they get to spend millions and millions of dollars for two seconds of warning.
As bad as the national news is, the local news is even more insufferable lately.
Local news was always worse. The networks and wire services are very biased and have trouble understanding complex issues, anyways. Then you get talking heads too stupid to even get network jobs who attempt to take the already misunderstood and biased network stories and try to report on that. You end up with complete gibberish about anything not related to high school sports scores.
Even the local HS sports segments are horrible. Close in herky jerky wobblecam trying to give the viewer motion sickness. Actually all sports coverage seems to be like that these days. Which is insane. It’s HD. Zoom out and show the entire court/field and let me follow the action rather than zoomed shots followed by close ups of whoever scored. All with endless quick cuts between cameras. Ugh.
It’s because climate change is forcing cities to switch over to LED street lamps for carbon savings, and LED street lamps cause insomnia.
I always hated the yellow lamps – I like the new white ones. They did have to tone them down around here… at first it was like having a small star shining outside your window – and I’m on the 6th floor.
I love LEDs. Replaced every bulb on my property with them and just replace all of my bulbs in my city office with them.
What is with all these LED lovers? They give me a horrible headache. When I’m driving down a dark street that’s lit up with those things I start to feel dizzy and sort of disoriented. I do not like them, Sam I Am.
I felt the same about the high pressure sodium ones back in the 70’s.
Getting a sleep mask was the best decision I made for my sleep. I got a nice silk one with flaps to block the gaps around the nose and now it won’t disturb me if someone shines an LED flashlight at my face.
I don’t even know how that works. When I was a wee lad from my earliest memories, they put a night light in the hallway, I guess so that I could get up and go the bathroom without breaking my face or being attacked without warning by various critters of the night. Today, I leave the hallway bathroom lights all night so that we can get up without getting broken faces or getting ambushed by monsters. This in no way keeps me from sleeping. In fact, if the lights were all off I would wake up immediately and seek out monsters to kill.
Got a nice bathroom night light that’s light activated – if the little sensor senses low-light it turns itself on (and also you can aim it at the floor or whatever). 2 pk for $10 at BBB.
Don’t you people drink?!
Ask a silly question…
Found a cool coffee shop downtown. Business district so it’s empty on Sunday. Toast, eggs and coffee for two MFing bucks. Free WiFi and I’m getting paid to boot because I’m on call. Schwiiing.
You get paid while oncall?
Wouldn’t do it otherwise. Some people don’t?
Being on call is like interning. You should be thrilled to be there at all.
How long have you been away from the US…?
Too long, it seems. Economy has changed, eh?
I’m salaried. One week in 6 I am on call, average 2 calls per week, zero last week.
What? You’re asking this question on Glibs?
Drinking right now. Wife is picking me up tonight so I don’t have to cut myself off early.
That’s a good way to keep your wandering eyes focused. Smart wife.
That she is. Other than marrying me. Although there really isn’t much place for the eyes to wander to at 30,000ft.
Thanks everyone for the entertainment so far tonight! Made the flight speed by. Well, the drinks did too.
Safe travels!
Thanks! Almost over. Then I can put the three pounds of frozen BBQ, two pounds of sausage, and 24 red dogs away in the fridge and ditch the 14 pounds of ice I’ve been lugging around all afternoon. Got flagged at the x-ray machine (as expected) and actually had a pleasant experience with the TSA guy who swabbed the bag for explosive residue.
YES. YES I DO!
Spending my Saturday night watching Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Insect Warfare, and Morbid Angel
Drinking Jack on rocks
I used to love that stuff with coke. Always liked the sour mash flavor. One of my favs was Ezra Brooks.
Now that is how you do a Saturday night.
“Coke?” (ears perk up, tail wags) Two week hangovers are just not worth it no more…
Christ, that’s what happens?
Happy I’ve stuck to booze and the very occasional bowl, then.
Your brain doesn’t feel the vodka but your liver is tallying the damage. It’s like when you’re at at cook-out and the wife gives you “The Look”.
But I’ve no wife… so all the booze I take… is a freebie.
If I go whiskey I prefer Woodford on the rocks.
I have an unopened bottle of that in the next room.
I’ve gotten into High West rye’s. Double Rye is excellent and Rendezvous Rye is amazingly smooth.
Maker’s Mark is my fave. Bulleit is very good. For best taste for the price Evan Williams black
Have you had the 46? Very smooth.
Best for price is Evan Williams single barrel.
Makers is my pivot bourbon. Cheaper is mixers. More expensive is sippers. Makers can go either way.
Back when i kept a good variety around, makers was cheapest in my cabinet, in case anyone wanted to mix.
I’ve been drinking Evan Williams small batch as my every day bourbon. It’s definitely the best for the money in my Brooklyn (read: everything is overpriced) neighborhood. My cousin got me a bottle of Bulleit 10 year that I’m eager to open.
??????
No Blitzkreig?
I used to have that fucking EP, Godammit. Probably worth a few hundy today. FO, Metallica.
Hello, I’m new (as you can probably tell). I lurked at the other site before things became…. strange. I know some of you work in accounting type jobs and was wondering if you had any opinions on where an accounting student studying to be a CMA would go after school for the best opportunities. I’m stuck in upstate NY right now and I promised myself I’d get out as soon as I can.
Hi, welcome. I can’t help you with the accounting advice though, I’m a software engineer and IT consultant. Probably someone here can though. Why are you looking to get out of upstate NY? Just curious.
Me too. I’m from Rochester myself.
So is that pronounced Roster or Rochester
Rah-ch’ster
Where the “ah” is quite unlike anything in normal American.
I’m attending school near Buffalo, but am originally from the Rochester area. I want to get out of upstate NY because my plan is to someday own a business and NY sure isn’t the place to do it. The accounting is a way to build capital in the meantime.
Yeah I can understand that. I’m a worker bee myself so NYC suits me well enough.
Ok, so that leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Obviously, if you want a business friendly environment and do not have the connections and money to get on the crony train, what do you consider important? You need to move to a red state, no doubt.
I used to work in the bar industry and have some basic knowledge of the real estate industry. The bar idea is more of a retirement goal though.
What’s your GMAT score?
These are considered the best these schools, although fuck Harvard.
I speak Engrish goodly
I don’t know if my mouth can do that.
That’s what she said.
She’d have if I hadn’t strangled her with my cock.
Apropos of that cock strangling story out of I want to say Florida, because why not.
Curious, what does IT Consulting entail? Planning to get an IT degree mixed with Business, would it be of any help in that field?
You sound like a Milford man. Except you’re failing terribly at it.
That sounds like something that a Shelbyville Man would say. Burn him!
I had to look up the reference and you are correct in every way.
Welcome, I hope, to the best tv show you could ever hope to watch again and again. It’s worth it.
Meh, the fourth season was pretty hit or miss.
Agreed. The first three seasons… sublime.
Where in Upstate?
You’re already in New York, any reason you wouldn’t head for NYC?
I went to NYC once. It was enough.
Understandable. Consistently the #1 city for accountants and other financial professionals though.
Might want to peruse this list and see if there’s anything on there that grabs you. Pretty much any metro area with above-average growth and an established economic base is perennially in need of accounting professionals.
Thank you for the list. I am strangely drawn to San Francisco even though I repulsed by the idea of California.
Don’t do it. It’s everything you probably don’t like about NYC with the worst of California on top of that.
Seconding this. I haven’t been to New York but I grew up near San Francisco and I would not advise anyone ever go there voluntarily.
Not an accountant but read an article a while back that Denver is a great city for accountants thanks to their booming tech industry.
From the posters here living in Denver, it sounds like the city has become infested with SJWs.
I was thinking along the lines of job availability not “proggyness”. With other states legalizing marijuana hopefully it cuts down on the SJW migration. There is still a large Libertarian following in Colorado.
From your lips to God’s ears. Living around decent people often doesn’t factor in people’s decision if the pay and/or the job is good. Seems like I’ve spent most of my life trying to get away from toxic people. Seen too many people reduced to the “Get off my lawn!” types.
I was thinking the other day about how much I hated SF versus how I am OK with NYC. The politics are similar. But the people are quite different. Of course there are a lot of toxic people in NYC but I find it easy to avoid them unlike in SF.
Avoiding toxic people is one thing, but imagine how many good people you haven’t met because they aren’t around. You can go online, but coming across random people that are doing awesome things is such a treat.
Meh. It’s hit or miss. Aurora, CO is pretty liberal. Lakewood is pretty conservative, which means hidden Libertarians. Denver itself? Well, Lakewood is on the west side and Aurora on the east, so going west to east gets less Libertarian.
Hickenlooper was a Democrat mayor (i know, technically Denver city doesn’t do partisan elections), and is now Governor.
But yeah, legal weed, and from my observation, it appears that all speed limit laws have been revoked.
Dated a girl from a rich family that lived in Cherry Hills(?). Wellesley chick. Went to a dinner party at their house one night and that smarmy congresslady Schroeder was there. The mom was shocked that her precious liberal daughter was dating this Caddie driving stoner. I intentionally gave vague answers as to what business I was in, which freaked the mom out more. The dad just sat there like Hank Reardon at dinner with his brother in law. The sheer condescension coming from the rest of the people there was intolerable.
Yes Cherry hills, Cherry Creek, any place Cherry, is full of smug people who have large amounts of money due to no discernable reason.
I wonder how many people there are like that chick’s dad. It really was that scene from Atlas Shrugged. Obviously, he was sharp as a knife, but he just sat there as the leeches around him spewed BS. We all bite our tongues at times, but being surrounded by batshit crazy people every time you go home must be like hell.
Then maybe he shouldn’t have married the good looking but batshit crazy liberal. Fuck those people. I have worked in enough of their homes to realize what hypocritical asshats they truly are.
Got a lecture from one guy about saving the planet, blah blah blah, went downstairs and every light was on, TVs were on in empty rooms, and AC was on at the same time that the heater was on.
Ottawa was a great place for accountants until the great purge of 2015 wherein we elected God-King Yoga Pants and all the dweebs had to put their slide rulers into pocket protectors and stumble on home with spontaineous nosebleeds.
I have a friend in Boulder so its on the list of possibilities.
The People’s Republic of Boulder is no place for a libertarian.
Some relatives of mine live in Boulder, they’re ultra-conservatives and as such, constantly have entertaining (and depressing) stories to tell about the town.
It’s not that bad.
Dude, you’re an accountant. You can go anywhere you want. You looking to get into FP&A?
I just got a scholarship to cover review materials to pass the CMA exams so that’s what I’ll be moving toward.
I did FP&A for about 15-16 years. Budgeting, reporting, NPV’s, etc. Served me well. You can learn about about the business, get a lot of good exposure, and make a lot of good connections doing budgeting. Gets old though. I enjoyed reporting which also can get you pretty good exposure.
Welcome, Tulpa.
I should have know I’d be outed so quickly.
And you could be right… Goddamn that fucking guy is a loser. *Not you, Charlie.*
Bo Cara, CPA 😛
OMG fuckin gawd!
Where’s the cat ass when we need it?!?!
Cat Ass is not for Tulpa or Botard, that’s when we evoke the ‘skinned alive and hung out to dry’ rule.
I’ve been hanging out around here since like a week after the site was formed and I’m still not clear on the catbutt thing.
Shreek, AKA Palin’s Buttplug got banned here very shortly after his first post. Being as he’s such a lame troll, almost everyone knew it was him after a few posts. He posted this stupid picture of a cat with it’s ahole showing and was saying some stupid shit like ‘look at me, look at me!’. You know, I mean the type of stupid shit you would expect shreeky to post. And then he got banned, most deservedly, and the term ‘Cat Assed’ was invented.
Thank you.
No, catbutting punishment for being a stupid troll. If you’re being a cunt your comment gets nuked with a catbutt picture by one of the mods. It’s basically to infer you’re making an ass of yourself.
Does the same go for making an ass of myself? Because I’ve made an ass of myself recently and I’d appreciate seeing the evidence catbutted out of existence.
I take bitcoin for catasses.
Making an ass of yourself is somewhat expected in Glibertarian circles. Being a cunt, however, is a case of multiple incidents where you have, in fact, proven yourself to be a fookin’ cunt.
Re: Commodius making an ass of himself; don’t sweat it bro. We’re all friends here. Ass away!
Ah fuckit may as well add a link to some stupid music.
The Pretty Things https://youtu.be/JRMEpw0rRiQ
I gotta heart full of soul!
*pushes Zardoz into moshpit*
Zardoz erupts from the melee, barfing fresh guns and quips.
http://www.10news.com/news/family-about-to-close-escrow-someone-else-moves-in
Why does anyone want to live in California any more.
I guess California isn’t going to top my list of places to live anytime soon.
Unless you wanna be a squatter then it’s a great rent free state.
I used to work summers in apartments as a painter and the whole squatter’s rights propaganda really rubs me the wrong way.
I once handed over a bank’s 22k check to a toothless, young Guatemalan woman who was squatting in a property here in SF. The real estate agent didn’t speak Spanish and I do, so she wanted me to have her sign for it. I pictured a small Central American village having the fiesta of the decade later that week as the Western Union came in.
It’s always sunny?
Always sunny is nice… until they figure out a way to tax your sun consumption.
Moonbeam is working on it. It’s not the right thing to do economically, but it feelz good!
There’ll be a “Hotness factor” cooked into bill. Attractive people will be taxed on a sliding scale, commensurate with employment history but off-set by the “cat-call” margin.
Not as sunny as here. We actually get more sunny days than Florida. And no rainy season like SoCal.
Fresh air. Sunshine. Beaches. Deserts. Mountains. Bikini girls. The weather is amazing. Decent job prospects. Girls at bars wearing bikinis. Girls on the bike path in bikinis and rollerblades. General laid back attitudes. Despite the dumbfuckery exhibited in Sacto and our reps in DC, it’s pretty fucking nice.
I get nostalgic for Indianapolis and Cleveland, but there is just no way I could move there. California is special. SoCal.
The wife and I are looking at Seattle though. Mountains and ocean is intriguing.
Two of my little brother’s and their wives lived there. Their biggest complaint was the constant rain.
Yeah, I love the area. It’s beautiful. Wouldn’t want to live there though.
Technically you get more rain (inches) in NC/VA than Seattle. It’s just a constant drizzle for long periods of time. We had 100+ days of straight sun and no rain (at least in Everett) the summer/early fall of 2012.
I love the area, but I’m actually thinking about looking for something more on the E. side of the Cascades or the Olympic Peninsula (Port Angeles) would be nice, if I could find something long term and stable. The shipyards are definitely going to be hiring up soon, but I need to work on my skillz.
May actually try and get a full time Air National Guard position next.
The wife and I are looking at Seattle though.
The city government is completely off the rails and the real estate is ridiculous, but compared to SoCal probably not that bad. No state income tax, which will probably offset any differences in housing and cost of living. If you don’t mind San Francisco you won’t mind Seattle. Seattle is like the younger sibling who dresses, acts and talks like the older sibling to try to fit in. The older sibling being SF.
But Seattle traffic/parking REALLY SUCKS. Know what you’re getting into.
If any of y’all are into classic cars , the pre Indy car auction going on on NBCSN right now is friggin amazing. What gorgeous vehicles.
no one cares about Auto racing around here, bunch of Soccer Fags actually, I’m getting up at 4:30 for Monaco, then Big Breakfast for Indy, then beer and a roast for the 600,
And ten thousandTorpedos
I recommended it here the other day, but if you have never seen the documentary, Senna, go check it out. Excellent, and has a ton of classic F1 footage. I will also have on Monaco for breakfast tomorrow morn.
It sounds good, but expect a lot of downtime. There is a 90% chance of thunderstorms here in Indy tomorrow (with so much potential rain there’s a flood watch).
Just sitting here watching Family Feud and due to one of the questions I had to ask myself: “Is there any amount of playing with a monkey or ape that would get a woman to sleep with you?”
Many men say “Survey says!” when they cum. It’s natural. Most of them are unemployed census workers, reliving the good times when they were making $12 an hour.
Just gotta ask…what is your avatar exactly?
Available for the right price!
I guess I’m just going to have to go with thumbnail smashed by a hammer.
Double glazed chocolate/blueberry filled donut.
Tell me you’re not gambling tonight.
Not tonight.
Family Feud
I’m guessing the real number is closer to 23.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/27/23000-jihadists-living-britain/
Over at the other place, the last post was at 2:35 EST. There are 17 comments.
You guys broke Reason, you know.
I think they got exactly what they wanted and now all they have to do is attract disgruntled lefties. Good fucking luck with that.
Well, when you claim to be a libertarian publication, then publish pure socialist BS, it’s not that strange that actual libertarians go elsewhere.
Thanks again for all the hard work, glibs. My offer to provide free and inadequate search engine optimization stands.
Very happy I found you guys again. After all of the Reason commenters ran away, I was biding my time debating all of the blind military hawks and Israel SJWs on Shapiro’s Daily Wire. When I peeked through the AM links I found where all of you guys ran to, and couldn’t be happier.
Yeah, it’s like TSTSNBN with real libertarians and no TDS. From what I’ve noted lately, we’re getting about 10x the amount of comments daily.
I firmly believe that no libertarian publication or institution that is centered in DC will remain sufficiently libertarian for long.
Now, put that shit in Montana or Kansas and you’re good.
The Mises Institute had the right idea by placing their base in Alabama. No danger of cocktail parties there!
Maybe we ought to all go back and post for next April Fools.
At least Postrel’s finally happy.
Wut? uhhh, I was almost asleep… Postrel… OH, THE ICE QUEEN! GLIBERTARIANS ASSEMBLE!
Plus, here we can talk about LUCY.
Well, we constantly complained that Reason didn’t market to the yokels that were actually reading their articles and were chasing non-existent millennial leftist converts. Guess what, adapt to your actual demographic or slowly die off into irrelevance: the beauty of free market capitalism.
I’m not even a Yokel, technically, but found them to be intentionally pushing away potential allies because they’d didn’t like the feelies they gave off.
I sit on the great fence in the middle, and my beef with Reason is just as much about quality control as it is ideological shift. That magazine has gotten stupid. The writing quality alone thanks to people like Soave and Dalmia has dropped to high school freshman.
I still say the magazine is good. The website… not so much.
That’s a fair correction. The magazine is a lot better than the website.
And the blame for that has to go to KMW, right? The web-site is her baby isn’t it?
Gillespie is editor for HitandRun, KMW is mainly website I believe.
This was really a long standing and slow problem, Trump just accelerated the process.
No, she runs the magazine. I think Gillespie runs the website? Not sure.
John Titor – It seemed like the problems really started with their over-defense of some of Obama’s policies, in their wishful thinking that it came from any sort of libertarian principle. The rise of Trump made their virtue signaling 100x worse, but it was there for some time.
Rhywun is right. KMW has the dead tree edition. Gillespie the website.
Rhywun is correct, I fucked up and meant that KMW is mainly magazine. She’s not bad, her robot fetish notwithstanding.
@Zenome I only got into Reason halfway through the Obama administration, but they definitely had the appearance of soft-pedaling their criticism. I’ve said it multiple times, but I would have zero problems if they held all politicians to the nonsensical standard they hold Trump. The problem is they don’t, and their bias becomes apparent as a result.
Ah, yes. I had it backwards.
I only discovered Reason during last year’s election, so I don’t know what the website was like before TDS.
Actually the election is what pushed me over the edge from former SoCon to libertarian. That and my brother (a mostly lurker here). First the commentartiat, and now Glibs has really helped me through my “awakening.
Left/Right Dem/Rep AltRight/AltLeft. Who gives a shit? It’s always been a battle between those who want more liberty and those who want to take it away. All I want from a libertarian site is they side with the more liberty position in any debate. We’re so far away from the potential danger of having too much liberty that it’s asinine to be tone policing at this point. Mix in some ludricrous strategy to get more people in the tent and you wind up with the hot mess they’ve created.
I consider myself more of a right-leaning “Freedom Caucus” libertarian than a straight libertarian (I lean pro-life on abortion), but indeed I agree with you. Every conservative that I’ve met loves libertarians (or at least are so much more willing to talk politics with you than the average leftist). It just seems so stupid to ignore those folks, they’re the most ripe sections of the population to take on libertarian ideas.
At the risk of starting a massive argument, isn’t abortion not a settled issue in the libertarian movement? Or at least the LP?
No and Yes.
The LP’s position is pro-choice/pro-abortion, in the sense that it rejects any government restraint on the practice.
Ah, good to know. Seems like in the wider Libertarian movement, it’s less concrete then.
The official LP platform is pro-choice, but I believe that Ron Paul recently changed to the Libertarian Party after his stint in Congress, and he is very much pro-life (but also pro-state’s rights).
Yeah, I’m not right-leaning exactly but I’ve never been comfortable with abortion. Maybe I’m an outlier.
I’m pro-life as well, but I came from the far-right conservative movement.
It’s not so much about what the LP thinks as much as it is my personal philosophy. IMO it all depends on which rights deserve the most protection: life, liberty, or property. All of them are extremely important rights to protect, but to me the most important and supreme one is the first one, the right to life, because if you take away the chance for a human to live, you also take away any chance that they get to have the right to liberty and property.
I was mostly bringing that up because you were saying that you’re not as much of a straight libertarian because you’re pro-life. AFAIK, in the straight libertarian movement, abortion isn’t a settled issue like it is in the LP.
But what is life without liberty? As Gen. John Stark wrote, “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”
AFAIK, in the straight libertarian movement, abortion isn’t a settled issue like it is in the LP.
I would say that the pro-life/anti-abortion position is not all that well represented in mainstream libertarianism. Definitely in the minority. Really comes down to at what stage of development one wishes to confer rights to a fetus. At whatever point the fetus becomes a full person the NAP applies. So there’s a pro=life/anti-abortion argument from the NAP, it’s just not very well accepted.
Pat – I think that children and fetuses have more limited rights than a full-grown adult does, but in my own interpretation of libertarianism, the basic building block that allows us to obtain all of the other rights that we develop as adults is the ability to live. It may not be the most popular position for an open libertarian, but it does exist. I think that one presidential nominee, Austin Petersen, is an example of a pro-life libertarian, as well as Ron Paul, obviously.
Heroic Mulatto – Liberty IMO allows us to maximize our potential in life, and I definitely wouldn’t want to live in a place with no liberty. However, I think that the reason that I find the right to life to be more fundamental than the right to liberty is because the concept of liberty is something that is developed as we come of age, while the ability to live is innate.
In my experience, what I call the “left by default” are a huge untapped source of converts. These are folks like myself who grew up, say, in some east coast city but aren’t “political” – they just went with what they saw. I don’t know how many of them I have been able to at least talk some sense into – but ignore them and before you know it they go full-on TDS.
The thing is that if you make libertarianism the new cool thing to believe in, those folks will naturally come to your team, since they just tend to follow where the wind blows. This is why I think that guys like Milo are important: he isn’t the most intellectually principled guy, of course, but he is underappreciated around these parts as a change agent because he is one of a select few on the right that fights like a leftist.
That was me. PA born and raised in a red area outside Philly, but I was always anti-authoritarian. Hated the police, didn’t give a shit about gun rights, until I was told politicians were trying to restrict them. Against prohibitionist drug laws. Anti-war. Thought I was a Democrat, cause… women’s rights (abortion), minority rights, and all their bullshit, through the 90’s. Realized Clinton was a douchebag and then he bombed the former Yugo. Then Booosh.
I finally started learning my rights under the Constitution, and wanted to exercise them all. How does govt. restrict 1A? I got my CCL, got more informed about foreign policy/anti-war, search and seizure, how to respond to cops…
I voted Obama cause he was a silver-tongued devil and said what I wanted to hear about war, was a “constitutional scholar” so he would protect our rights, right? And a pothead, so he’d push for legalization. I liked him less and less until I finally hated him for NSA spying and expansion of Bush’s surveillance state, continued war, failure to legalize and then…
NEWTOWN. The Feinstein AWB. I said FUCK YOU and bought a shitload of guns proposed to be banned. I decided D&R both need to die and I googled alternative political parties who support 1A, 2A, 4A, 10A, abortion rights (it was a really long query until I found an answer). Finally I found the LP. And Reason. But it was an uphill battle, stabbing around in the dark to find answers, and then to begin to understand freedom.
Barack Obama, constitutional scholar…4 words that don’t really go together XD
Also, I do defend Republicans more here than the other commenters (but only the Freedom and Liberty/TP Caucuses – the rest of them can take a hike), mainly because the intellectual conservatives really do take their time to understand the Constitution even if they have slightly different interpretations than I do. I mean, for example, look at Ben Shapiro. I don’t agree with him on his Israeli/Middle Eastern policy philosophy, of course, but his domestic policy points are so much more constitutionally sound than a leftist perspective of even similar intellect. Even on campus, it’s so much easier to walk into a conservative’s discussion table and get their heads to nod in agreement with libertarian ideas.
Oh, I was a Paulite for a while, but Ron quit the game and Rand never seems to get much momentum, other than the occasional fillibuster. I still root for him though, and usually Amash too, when they get on a freedom jag on some issue. Wish there were more like them.
Ron Paul’s still in the game, just on his podcasts and not in Congress. He’s always talking about the surveillance and military complex and stuff like that on his show, he even interviewed Assange a couple of weeks ago. Rand’s doing a great job as Senator, as well, but it just caught up in a numbers game because only the young wing of the party really listens to his ideas.
The sad thing is that the Millennials that have the potential to be attracted to libertarianism don’t want a goddamn thing to do with the left-wing. Reason looks at something like pot legalization support in Millennials and assumes they can pull them in.
Reason needs to look to the Milo fanbase if you want some actual potential libertarian converts, instead of idiotically slamming him for SJW brownie points. He even says that he likes the libertarians and wants them protected on campus like conservative speakers.
But a lot of us came from some flavor of “left”. There should be some convincing way to attract them without straying from principles. Hell, seeing the drug war for what it is opened my eyes. I don’t have the answer but I honestly don’t think that appealing to whatever the hell the “alt-right” is will work any better than whatever they’re doing now.
I’m a bloody ex-communist, and I want nothing to do with the left. In my experience the majority of people who escape the left have recognized them for what they are and have no interest in any kind of alliance with them if they can avoid it. Call it a Kronstadt moment. I don’t want libertarians allied with the left, I’m aware of what the left is and how they’ll use and discard libertarians the first chance they get, not to mention how goddamn poisonous they are. Recently left wing organizations set police reform back a decade because they couldn’t help but force their pet issues.
You misunderstand me, I’m not interested in ‘courting the alt-right’. What I’m interested in is that there’s a ton of Millennials who are ideologically lost and looking for answers. Kowtowing to the left does not attract them, but distances them because they’re not interested in the ‘mainstream’ idiocy.
Oh I don’t mean aligning with the left – far from it. Just approach them (not the hard-core, but the huge number of “left by default” I mentioned). Hell, hand them a copy of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do” – that’s largely non-political but it was a huge eye-opener for me.
Or “The Problem with Socialism.”
It’s been really retarded from the start. There is no path at all from leftist to libertarian. Chasing that is just extremely naive. If we have to seek allies we have to hold our noses and talk to conservotards. Yes, most of them are retarded on social issues but we can find common ground on the economy. You have to have some sort of common ground to even begin an alliance, and trust me on this, I want to smack the living shit out of most conservatives when discussing politics with them, but at least there is something there to start with.
I don’t know about the Conservatives who live in highly liberal areas, but for the small-town yokels, a lot of them are far more libertarian leaning on social issues. I think seeing marijuana legalized in CO and realizing that the entire state wasn’t going to descend into cartel wars has helped tremendously with that, at least where I’ve lived.
The left is authoritarian. Full stop. You don’t ween someone off something that highly addictive.
There is no path at all from leftist to libertarian.
Uh, ex-communist here.
There’s a path, but it requires rejecting leftism as a whole. Sowell figured it out, I figured it out, Reason hasn’t.
That’s probably extremely rare. Almost all libertarians I know were Republicans or so called conservatives before. I actually started out my political identity as a ‘liberal’, not leftist, and then a Republican, and then very confused until I learned I was actually libertarian.
It’s not that rare. Former Marxists tend to become the most fervent anti-Marxists for a reason.
If you lean left in your twenties, your political philosophy is entirely malleable, and ignoring that group is not a good idea. However, thinking that you’ll attract supporters by embracing left-wing ideals is just as poor an idea.
If you mean former residents of the USSR or Soviet bloc countries, then no doubt, they lived the lie. American millennials? Nope, not so much, they don’t even teach history here any more.
Hyperion, I’m a bloody Millennial, and I’m a ‘Better Red Than Dead’ libertarian who sometimes seriously considers whether a military coup would be preferable to the current lefty government.
Kronstadt moments tend to infuse ex-Marxists, regardless of their background, with an understanding of the socialist mind and a desire to eliminate it as a result.
Take the nonsense around Gamergate as an example, formerly ‘left-wing’ people flipped rather dramatically to stop social justice idiocy.
*Better Dead Than Red.
Kind of infer the opposite of what I meant.
“Hyperion, I’m a bloody Millennial, and I’m a ‘Better Red Than Dead’ libertarian”
I assume you meant better dead than red. But anyway, you’re also Canadian and Canada seems to be better than any country on earth besides the former Soviet Union in churning out libertarians. And having been there several times, especially, the last time, I completely get it.
See also David Horowitz.
Idiots were protesting him speaking on campus when I was at UNC in 2000.
Huh, didn’t know that Sowell was a Marxist originally. Wasn’t Walter Williams one as well for a while?
Oh, no, Williams wasn’t. Looks like he was a black radical for a while though.
Yep. You have to dump an entire belief system based on coercion. That’s why the people who actually come from the left are the most aggressive defenders of liberty. And it’s why the left hates them the most.
There is a person that know that became libertarian even while being exposed to radical leftism his entire childhood, being from San Francisco. So it can be done, but it’s very difficult.
We’ve been over this, Hyp. Lots of us came to libertarianism from the left. I was a douchebag ACLU lefty in college; after hearing some libertarian economics, I set out to prove them wrong – I own-goaled my (then current) political views instead.
Sorry, BP, I just don’t believe that’s the continent from where most of us arrived. But I still love ya’ll no matter how you got here.
BakedPenguin and Hyperion – Libertarians that arrived to that conclusion from the left do exist, in fact I know of a couple of individuals like that. I do, however, think that the ratio of folks that came from the right vs. the left is heavily skewed towards the right. It’s just a more natural transition because most intellectual conservatives tend to read, defend, and appreciate the Constitution as much as the intellectual libertarians do. It’s just an easier and friendlier alliance.
It’s just a more natural transition because most intellectual conservatives tend to read, defend, and appreciate the Constitution. It’s just an easier and friendlier alliance.
No one is talking about an alliance, what we’re talking about is whether or not there’s a path from the left to libertarianism. Most of the information provided suggests there is.
And you would no doubt be right about that. And again, let me be clear on this, I am in no way diminishing our allies who arrived here from the left, in fact I respect them even more because of how far they traveled to get here.
I’d agree, Hyp – I didn’t say most, I said lots.
It depends on how intellectually honest you are. Reading Friedman and realizing that the only places that had actually ever ‘done anything’ about poverty were free market spaces was a good slap in the face, one I had no counter to. Later, reading Rand and her dictum that without property rights, no other rights were possible was another. It all depends on how much you’re willing to deny reality to defend your worldview. For people like John T and myself, we’d rather deal with reality (not to talk for you, JT)
John Titor – Yes, you’re right, there is a path from the left to libertarianism. The problem is that trying to get one of them to view the economy and KKKorporashunzzz in the same light as, say, NSA Reform/Civil Liberties or Pot legalization is very difficult to do, indeed.
It happens, the same way that there are plenty of ex-evangelicals gone atheists out there. They mostly kind of argued themselves into it. It would be kind of nice if there was someone out there who could guide them along that path.
Sometimes I feel sad when I see the comment count. Then I read the articles and the actual comments. I stop feeling sad.
Damn, just saw that the Asian festival is this weekend. Could have been downtown checking out some hotties today. Still have tomorrow I guess.
Is that you at prom?
I wish I had a Domino’s pizza at prom.
Comparing HM to ReviewBrah is insulting to them both.
Fuck Saudi Arabia and fuck Canada and the U.S.A. for allying with those assholes.
Knock it down and put up a Fun Land or some shit. Make the land useful.
You want to put government in charge of the Arabian Peninsula? Why do you want to run out of sand?
I’d settle for just completely leaving them alone.
I’m pretty sure it’ll wind up like Orson Scott Card tells it. Shia’s nuking Mecca, Sunni’s retaliating. Nobody else cares.
So I have exactly one black friend and he has a bit of TDS as do his friends that I see on Facebook.
Not unusual perhaps, but now there is a new thing. Three federal level judicial employees have been killed , all black. And the TDS virus seems to be spinning this into “Trump is bringing back COINTELPRO and killing black leaders.”
So don’t be surprised if this concept suddenly blows into something big and becomes another anti-Trump front the left attacks.
Given that the left has turned every breath of air Trump takes into a crime against humanity, I’m surprised they haven’t already.
It might be a little late for that though. The more they harp on about shit like this, the more people are willing to overlook Trump’s actual mistakes.
The cure for when bitches be trippin:
Hamptons bachelors are getting vasectomies so golddiggers can’t trap them
Why go through all that trouble when six little words will suffice?
It’s probably for the best, for everyone involved.
I saw a really fat pigeon today. It was weird. Google says some migratory birds can be up to 70% fat by weight before a long migration. Makes sense. They need the energy, especially if they are carrying coconuts.
Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?
They could grip it by the husk.
for no reason at all, a Grandpa Simpson quote:
Last time the meteors came, we thought the skyyyyy was on fire. Naturally, we blamed the Irish. We hanged more than a few.
It’s not a question of how they grip it. it’s a question of weight to force mass ratio.
And thank you for making me break my no quoting The Simpsons or Monty Python rule.
The heaviest bird that can fly weighs about 44 pounds- the Kori bustard.
That’s knowledge you can use.
I ate duck today. I’ve heard french fries cooked in duck fat are really good, but I’ve never got a chance to try ti.
Day’s not over.
Possible Good Trump (we’ll see next week): Rumor – Trump tells confidants U.S. will quit Paris climate deal
You bunch of philistines don’t even realize how good Blue Oyster Cult is. Load of assholes here! Greatest band in the world. Fucking guys.
Which one? The Red or the Black?
I don’t understand the question, and I won’t respond to it.
Fucking tourist.
See, Zach would know this. He’s the guy who introduced me.
Dharma though, he wails. I watched him break a string, finish the song, exchange for a new guitar, break another string on the next song, and not give a fuck all along.
This was five years ago. The guy’s in his sixties and does not register at all. I don’t see shows live, ever. I don’t listen to music, mostly. Let alone live. but that was superb.
Yeah, that’s the sign of a pro.
BTW, sorry I fucked up your gag, but they were my favorite band ages 13-15, so it hit a raw nerve.
(I probably don’t get your reference. I’ve liked these guys since high school but I can’t claim I know everything, or anything.)
I’m being a dick. I’ve been a BOC fan for about 30 years (Jeebus). I don’t know everything, especially since I forgot a bunch of shit, but at one point I had all their albums on vinyl. (They had a lot fewer albums then).
Back when they had albums on vinyl.
Ah, fuck it, here you go.
I’m more a fan of the Red Lobster Cult.
Take the blue oyster- wake up and believe whatever you want to believe
Take the red oyster- you stay in wonderland, by which I mean Shoney’s
Shoney’s: all american food for the last 70 years
I’m thinking this is a regional thing?
Oh I’ve hung out with the Red Lobster cult. The always want more butter sauce, and more biscuits.
They’re also notoriously bad tippers.
Seasons don’t fear the Derpy
But do the tards, the fools, and the knaves?
Slate, Salon, and Alternet
Are together in stupidity
C’mon baby
Don’t fear the Derpy
I was reading about gang violence in Chicago. Turns out there are basically 2 kinds of gangs: the bigger “corporate” gangs and the smaller informal ones. The corporate gangs are in it for the drug dealing and are restrained in their violence. The informal ones on the other hand are looking to build street cred through violence and most of the homicides are from them.
Legalizing drugs will reduce violent crime but there will always be other reasons.