Friday Morning Links

Hoo-boy! Was I ever wrong about the scores at the US Open. Rickie Fowler is leading the way at -7.  That’s right…-7. At the US open. Now I don’t know how well those scores will hold up if the wind kicks up a bit and the rains stay away (which I hope will happen), but that’s a Byron Nelson Classic score, not a US Open score on a course that’s unbelievably long. So, all things considered, it was an incredible day for a bunch of guys even with some favorable weather conditions.

Rick Pitino

Not much else in the sports world (except for one story I will address below). LaVarr Ball probably said some stupid shit. Some baseball was played (but the Astros were off). And the NCAA dropped the hammer on Louisville and Rick Pitino  for hiring strippers and whores for basketball prospects. An incredulous Rick Pitino said he has lost faith in the NCAA.  The same Rick Pitino that has gotten every college team he has coached in trouble with the NCAA and has a well-earned reputation for being a sleazy, underhanded cunt. I know there are a few Louisville fans here, but I’m sorry. Your coach is cancer.

That’s it. So now we’re on to…the links!

Stop trying to make this shit happen. Nobody with an ounce of brains or sanity wants it to happen. And the marketplace of a few Brooklyn neighborhoods ain’t enough to sustain profitability. Those rooftop beekeepers and unicycle enthusiasts on a staycation do not represent the American man.

The only people more retarded than the ones in that above link are the ones in this link. Seriously. What. The. Fuck?

Pete Rose: incredible baseball player

Here’s the aforementioned sports story: The National Baseball Hall Of Fame has upheld Pete Rose’s lifetime ban. The one he voluntarily signed when he admitted to having gambled on baseball while he was a manager.  Good. Fuck Pete Rose. I drove by Jonathan’s Cafe in Franklin, Ohio in the morning a million times growing up and saw his Lamborghini with “4192” on the license plates on plenty of those trips. Everybody knew he was in there gambling. Everybody knew it was against the rules. And I have no sympathy for the asshole that turned me off from baseball for damn near a decade when I grew up idolizing him from the green seats behind first base at Riverfront. I hope he gets into the Hall…about two weeks after they chuck his dead body in the dirt.

Oregon ignores science. What’s surprising is that they beat California and Washington.

We do things right in Texas. (Photos worth looking at for gun nuts)

Check off another box in the “winning” column for President Trump. A small box, but still.

Yeah, I know its garbage.

That’s it. Go out there and have a great day, friends!

Comments

634 responses to “Friday Morning Links”

  1. UnCivilServant

    I’m repeating myself, but the last time I said this was in an evening article and not everyone visits those.

    So, please buy my book and tell anyone you know who might be interested in read it.

    1. UnCivilServant

      If you haven’t read any of them and would rather not start with book four. There is an omnibus edition that contains the whole series to date. It costs less than buying the individual volumes separately, and makes for a good way to start.

    2. Shilling your book with the first comment? For shame!

      1. *joins Parliament style chant of Shame! Shame! Shame!*

        1. UnCivilServant

          But will you read it?

        2. Don’t you mean Shirley & Co.?

        3. robc

          I refer the gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago.

        4. bacon-magic

          Make him walk nekked through the street while we mock him.

      2. UnCivilServant

        Well, I had requested to be able to shill as an article, but hadn’t heard back.

        I’m still working on marketing strategies, but it appears the common denominator is “annoyance”.

        1. I thought we offered you a chance to do a serial. Which would be a great way to promote your other writings (which you could also promote by linking to them in your name, I believe).

          1. UnCivilServant

            I am working on it. But you asked for the serial to be complete before submitting. So it’s not done yet.

          2. Why not just put the link to your book in your profile so it opens when somebody clicks on your name? That’d be a good marketing technique.

          3. UnCivilServant

            Until you brought it up, I couldn’t even tell any of the usernames were even links.

    3. Grummun

      How many Glibs are (aspiring) authors? Enough to have a dedicated “reading list” post or section on the site? Just a thought.

      1. Private Chipperbot

        Speaking of books. My soon to be 9th grader needs to read and write about a biography this summer. Does anyone know a well done Bio of someone a 14 year old boy would find interesting? I’m thinking Alex the Great, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas. Any others come to mind? Lesser known Romans or Greeks; or someone else from American History that you find fascinating?

        1. Lachowsky

          Alexander Dolgun.

          His biography is called an american in the gulag. I first read it when I was about that age. It’s one hell of a story and has a happyish ending. It will also help to illustrate to you son the horrors of a totalitarian givernment.

        2. Atanarjuat

          T.E. Lawrence?
          Hitler?

          1. Private Chipperbot

            Lawrence may be a good one. We watched the movie a few months back and he loved it.

          2. commodious spittoon

            And he was only 46 when he died, so it’s not going to drag on.

            And only 5′ 5″, so it’s not a tall tale.

          3. mr simple

            I don’t know why that matters, most 14 year old boys like books with dragons.

          4. commodious spittoon

            God damn Martin for making a book about dragons boring, and then making me wait for the ending.

          5. Gray Ghost

            And only 5′ 5″, so it’s not a tall tale.

            Well, it was mostly about a silly, little people.

          6. Atanarjuat

            Greedy, barbarous, and cruel.

            I couldn’t finish the Lawrence biography I read (Hero), not sure if that was due to my poor attention span or the density of the material.

        3. Give him “Angela’s Ashes”. Then tell him to never complain about a fucking thing again.

          1. Private Chipperbot

            I’m Irish and that book is depressing as fuck. Still, a good one to toss at the kids when they bitch about something.

          2. mexican sharpshooter

            I’m not even going to ask permission, I am just going to steal that one.

        4. Miles Davis’ autobiography, while a 14 year old may not learn any new words, he’ll sure get a better understanding of how to use those m****r f****rs.

        5. thrakkorzog

          Pyotr Smirnoff? The King of Vodka was an interesting read.

        6. Brasidas

          Not Alexander, his father, Phillip.

          Not sure there are any bios of the guy for a 14 year old.

          And the kid’s teachers will be confused why he read Game of Thrones.

        7. Gadfly

          Lesser known Roman/Greeks leads me to suggest choosing a selection from Plutarch’s Lives. The translation I read was written in 19th century English, with all the pros and cons that entails, so it might not be the best choice for a teenager depending on their reading level, but if he likes history it might be a good choice. Plutarch paired a famous Greek and a Roman with similar character and wrote relatively concise (20-40 pg) histories of each and tacked on a compare/contrast essay. Since his focus was character, not pure history, he focuses more on colorful anecdotes than rote events, which makes for a more interesting read. Aristides/Cato is good for reading about people with dogged virtue in the face of political corruption, Eumenes/Sertorius is good for tragic heroes (Sertorius is especially interesting for his clever tactics), Alexander the Great/Julius Caesar is great for obvious reasons (probably the best pairing and most entertaining reading of the bunch), and Demetrius/Mark Antony is good for delving into the sordid lives of classical debauchery.

        8. Gray Ghost

          I liked Manchester’s “The Last Lion,” (about Winston Churchill) but it is a bit turgid, and delves a lot into Victorian aristocracy sport-fucking.

          The bits about Churchill’s accomplishments as a young man are amazing though, and sent me into a bit of, “Jesus, I’ve done nothing with my life,” melancholy. His escape from the Boer prison camp are worth the rest of the book all by themselves, and the parts where he was on the NW Frontier in India proved to me the adage of history rhyming, if not repeating.

          “Goodbye Darkness” is another decent autobiography, but the kid’s gotta be a bit of a WW2 junkie to like it.

          Alexander D’s story is dark as fuck. The tortures Ryumin and others inflicted upon him… His story amazed Solzhenitsyn for a reason.

          1. Raven Nation

            “sent me into a bit of, “Jesus, I’ve done nothing with my life,” melancholy”

            Oddly enough, I came across a youtube clip yesterday showing scenes from Churchill’s funeral and thinking the same “I’ve accomplished nothing” idea.

          2. R C Dean

            Churchill’s My Early Life, if he is a strong reader.

          3. wdalasio

            The bits about Churchill’s accomplishments as a young man are amazing though, and sent me into a bit of, “Jesus, I’ve done nothing with my life,” melancholy.

            You’re also comparing yourself to one of the biggest badasses of the last century. Let me guess, you also read the life of Christ and think “Gee, maybe I’m not a very nice person.”?

          4. dbleagle

            The 2016(?) first volume on Stalin, or the few years old one on Mao. Either will get him over any love of socialism and he can fascinate his class with absolute fucks both of them were. There was a bio of Neil Armstrong about 8 years ago that let you know how much of a genuine badass of a pilot he was. He saved a Gemini flight when they were tumbling out of control and later crashed the LM practice lander and ejected at the last 0.5 second and when he returned to the office last afternoon his fellow astronauts asked him about it and he was “ahh yeah, what’s the big deal…did you read this paper on….?”

            For a real hero read a biography on Wild Bill Donovan. Received every medal in WWI and then, won every case he argued before the Supreme Court, was FDR’s private representative to the UK (because he did not trust his ambassador Joe Kennedy) set up the the OSS (much craziness there) and later was the first director of the CIA.

            For sports read “When Pride Still Mattered” and learn how Belechick is only fit to sniff Lombardi’s cleats.

            “Surely Your Joking Mr Feyman” is a great auto-biography of a genius (and funny to boot). YouTube has some of his old college lectures from the early 60’s. What I would have given to had a professor like him.

        9. tarran

          Michael Collins (Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot) wrote a couple of good books:

          Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys

          I think “Flying to the Moon and other strange places” is an updated version of the former.

          Buzz Aldrin’s bio is pretty good too, but it goes into his post astronaut psychological meltdown so should be reserved for an older audience.

        10. Agent Cooper

          The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

        11. Gdragon

          While I didn’t know anything about him at the time I think that 14 year old me would have thought that Lysander Spooner was pretty badass.

        12. Fatty Bolger

          Dreams from My Father?

          1. Private Chipperbot

            Get out. Although it’s a public school, so he could write in crayon that he liked it and would get an A.

          2. Gdragon

            That’s a great one too. And you just reminded me that I lent it to my mother over a year ago and need to get it back.

          3. Gdragon

            Goddammit that was supposed to be a reply to “The Catcher Was A Spy”

        13. Moe Berg. “The Catcher Was a Spy”.

        14. Number.6

          If he’s interested in the Roman, Suetonius’ “The Twelve Caesars” is pretty entertaining and – unusually for Roman biographers – is very restrained in the administration of tongue-baths for the subjects.

          Plus you get twelve – count them – twelve caesars.

          1. Brett L

            I’ll always hear Seutonius’ name in a weird mish-mash of Anglo accents, since my first encounter was the Emperors of Rome podcast, and Dr. Evans.

        15. LT_Fish

          The Warrior Generals by Victor Davis Hanson. Or the Aquariums of Pyongyang.

      2. robc

        Speaking of which, anyone know what happened to Fluffy? He disappeared from reason about a year before the migration here.

        1. Atanarjuat

          I don’t think he died or anything, because he petered out slowly, and I saw him reappear briefly a few times.

    4. straffinrun

      I’ll read it, but don’t blame me if I become your stalker. I bond the authors real easy.

      1. UnCivilServant

        I’m boring in real life.

        1. straffinrun

          So completely different than your online persona?

          1. UnCivilServant

            I’m even more dull in person.

      2. The Elite Elite

        I bond the authors real easy.

        Do you bond them in a human centipede kind of way?

        1. straffinrun

          Ignore me tonight. I’m trashed.

          1. commodious spittoon

            No need to rub it in.

      3. Brett L

        Is this like, axe to the foot bonding?

    5. Spartan Dad

      No print version?

      1. UnCivilServant

        There is a print version – it just takes time for Amazon to link the pages.

        But The paperback costs more and has a different sales ranking.

    6. Pomp

      UnCivil, is this you????

      1. UnCivilServant

        No. I would never appear on camera. Especially not willingly. And I have better taste in eyewear.

    7. wdalasio

      Freed from their chains, the vengeful spirits rampage across the countryside, afflicting the world once more.

      Awww…it’s a novel about feminists.

      1. I laughed… and don’t feel bad about it.

    8. Worker and Parasite

      Buy my book! Buy my book! Buy my book! Buy my book! /The Critic

  2. A slideshow for my favorite peeps in the whole world – you: Embracing Feminism, Eroticism of Armpit Hair

    1. Apples and Knives

      It might look unsightly, but it does an amazing job of holding on to the armpit stink.

    2. compgrokker

      Without clicking, ew. I think clicking would make me run grab my razor.

  3. UnCivilServant

    The only people more retarded than the ones in that above link are the ones in this link. Seriously. What. The. Fuck?

    If it were not autonomic, these people would forget to breathe.

    1. Suthenboy

      You give them too much credit. Remember the couple that starved their baby to death on a…uh…gluten free(?) diet? We have a lot of useful idiots who live in a world with an abundance of food, something unheard of in history, and they cant figure out how to eat. All they have to do is reach their hand out and then put it in their mouth and they cant even do that. I am sure we just dont hear about the ones who forget to breath because coroners dont know that thats what happened to them.

      Good morning all.

      1. WTF

        You make a good point. Some of these idiots are actually incapable of functioning on their own.

      2. robc

        There are enough stories like that and slightly less tragic ones that make me realize being even an average parent is a low bar.

        Which means my daughter has a chance to not be totally screwed up.

        1. mr simple

          That’s what I tell my wife when she asks, “Don’t you worry that we might not be good parents?” Just asking that question means we’re doing better than a lot of people.

          1. Brett L

            Right. “Have you thought about how to be a good parent? Congratulations, you’re probably in the top half.”

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Freaky Friday: Yo Yo Skills Edition

    Seriously, it’s worth it.

    1. Negroni Please

      Nuking the Japanese retarded really worked out for the world. I for one am very glad they spend all that pent up industrious energy on shit like this rather than building warships and bombers.

      1. straffinrun

        It would take them about 3 months to go nuclear if they really wanted to.

        1. WTF

          And it seems China is determined to provide them the incentive to arm up.

        2. Negroni Please

          That’s my whole point though. They’re still the same people. They still COULD ramp up a scary war machine, but we nuked them retarded. All they want to do now is yoyo tricks, karaoke, weird video games, and watch creepy hentai porn.

          1. straffinrun

            I really don’t understand the “nuked them retarded”. Ended the war earlier and with less bloodshed than what would have been the case if the US had to invade the main islands. Fine. Nuking them to get them to change their mindset? I don’t prescribe to that line of international policing.

          2. Negroni Please

            No no no. It’s like this. We nuked them because reasons. A wholly unintended side effect is that the Japanese mutated into the bizarre retarded caricature they are today. See? This is not a nuanced position on WWII history. This is mocking the weird shit that comes out of Japan and blaming it on radiation.

          3. straffinrun

            Trust me on this. The US looks batshit insane from outside its nonexistent walls. At least you guys are putting up a fight, though. I’m rooting for you.

          4. commodious spittoon

            Don’t think we won’t draft you into the Freedom Army if things go batshit.

          5. Negroni Please

            That’s the joy of being a misanthrope. It’s easy to mock how stupid the US is too! But Americans are a bizarre retarded caricature for entirely different reasons.

          6. Agent Cooper

            I thought it was because they were an island nation.

            Think about it. UK, Australia, New Zealand … all weird.

        3. Gadfly

          But how many months will it take them to build a robot army? With Japan’s technological interests and declining birth rate, I imagine future Japan will be like the Trade Federation from Star Wars: a few people at the top commanding millions of robots.

          1. Agent Cooper

            And just as boring.

          2. Negroni Please

            Nah if Japan does that the army will be exclusively comprised of loli bots.

          3. But Enough About Me

            I’m holding out for an army of sex-bots. They boink their enemies to death.

          4. compgrokker

            Death by snu-snu?

        4. Gray Ghost

          I think 3 months is selling them short, but whoever knows isn’t talking.

          Gotta think they’ve sequestered enough weaponizable material already, in the course of ordinary enrichment processes, and they have the engineering to be able to devise a weapon even with less than optimally pure material. If they had nuclear propulsion, it’d be a certainty they could go nuclear whenever they wished.

    2. thrakkorzog

      My first thought is “Mom always liked you more.”

      Geez, I’m getting old. And anybody else who gets that reference is probably pretty getting up there in years.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Mom always liked you BEST.

        Jesus fucking christ, get it RIGHT people!

  5. re: Moms are asking their infants for permission to pick them up — in order to combat ‘rape culture’

    something something railroad tracks

  6. UnCivilServant

    How do you produce fewer cars per worker than the UAW?

    You work for Elon

    Tesla’s Fremont plant was originally structured in 1984 as the GM/Toyota New United Motor Manufacturing plant (NUMMI) to produce 500,000 Saturn vehicles a year.

    In its 1985 initial year production ramp-up, NUMMI employed 2,470 workers to produce 64,764 vehicles, or 26 vehicles per worker per year. By 1997, 4,844 ​NUMMI workers produced 357,809 vehicles, or 74 vehicles per worker per year.

    Tesla began 2016 with 6,000 production workers and finished the year with about 10,000 workers. The company produced 83,922 vehicles during the period. That means that Tesla’s vehicles-per-worker-per-year ranged between 8 and 14, or about one-seventh the efficiency of NUMMI two decades ago.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The NUMMI plant has an interesting story. It was the first joint plant between GM and Toyota. The plant went from being the worst performer in GM to the best. Of course, GM learned nothing from the experience.

    2. leonadasiv

      I thought Saturn was a non union branch of GM. Part of the reason it got the cut in the crash. It’s sad cause I love my Saturn.

      1. UnCivilServant

        I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure those Tesla numbers are bad even if we compared to a Union plant.

      2. mikey

        Read a history of GM. They picked some of their top production folks to go to NUMI to learn the new way. When they reported back to HQ they were accused of lying about their experience.
        BTW if you’re interested in that sort of stuff, The Machine That Changed the World is a must read.

    3. Trolleric the Goth

      I’m not sure it’s fair to compare assembly complexity between a toyota corolla/geo prizm and a tesla though – I imagine the battery subsystem and “skateboard” chassis, and safety concerns relating to the high voltage, mean you can’t just slap the whole thing together as fast as an econobox

      1. Tundra

        Fair or not, Elon has been pimping the shit out of their supposed manufacturing innovation. Live by the hyperbole, die by the hyperbole.

        1. WTF

          Elon’s “manufacturing innovation” mainly consists of conning the government into subsidizing his product.

          1. Tundra

            Dude! He’s got ROBOTS!!!

          2. UnCivilServant

            Robots who are all on their coffee breaks.

        2. Trolleric the Goth

          I know from dealing with them on the supplier side, they take their incoming QA very seriously

    4. Badolph Hilter

      Hand-crafted artisinal road machines, duh.

    5. Tundra

      Lol. Breitbart is the only site I’ve seen that seems to be cultist free. Typically there would be at least a third of the comments telling the naysayers something along the lines of ‘people said Bill Gates was crazy” or some variation.

      Reality is coming for you Elon!

      1. Pomp

        Resigning from the prez’s high tech industry head panel is a good choice for him too.

      2. wdalasio

        I don’t think anyone is saying Elon Musk is crazy. It’s just a lot of people are saying he’s palming off a lot of bullshit with his cars. If you’re automating the hell out of your plant and still see your labor costs spiking, you’ve got a problem.

  7. Behold!

    You know all that “hands off my body” rhetoric pro-abortion progs like? Seems that’s only during the pregnancy. How many of them have you heard protesting how much involvement the state gets once a woman goes into labor?

    In many states, women who refuse unnecessary hospital procedures or who attempt home births are subject to state involvement, including threats from Child Protective Services. Things are even worse for women who want a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), which many hospitals prohibit. But most American women, who don’t know that better alternatives exist or who don’t have access to those alternatives, continue to give birth in hospitals where their freedom to control their bodies is extremely limited.

    1. Brasidas

      My wife wanted to have our kids at a birth center. A midwife and a nurse in a what felt like a hotel room. They were very hands off and let us do whatever. Walk around, take a nap, take a shower. No medical intervention unless it was required. We were back home five hours after the birth. That appealed to my wife. The price, 40% if a hospital birth, appealed to me.

      1. AceDroman

        Those bastards at the hospital made us stay for like 48 hours after our daughter was born.

    2. commodious spittoon

      I was born at home, with a midwife in attendance. So was my sister.

      1. PBRstreetgang

        I was born a pauper to a pawn
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9sP_rt9c_k

        1. KSuellington

          I was born a poor black child.

      2. Agent Cooper

        That explains everything.

      3. Flying Poodle

        You were lucky to have a home!! I was born in a rolled up newspaper in a septic tank!!

    3. thrakkorzog

      vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC).

      I know what those individual words mean, but the sentence makes no sense.

      1. Slammer

        Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.

        1. Badolph Hilter

          I hope you feel ashamed of yourself.

        2. booooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

      2. thom

        Having a cesarean doesn’t stop a woman from getting pregnant again.

      3. R C Dean

        There’s a very good reason why many hospitals don’t allow VBACs:

        They are very risky. The uterus can grenade during delivery. Mom can take that risk if she wants, but there’s no reason the hospital has to, because when a VBAC goes bad, the following generally happen:

        (1) The mother is sterilized because the uterus and likely other bits have to be taken to save her life.
        (2) The mother can die – a uterus blowing up during delivery can easily be fatal.
        (3) The baby is damaged or killed.

        Naturally, the damages when a VBAC goes bad are generally in the millions. You’ll pardon me if I don’t think she has a right to force a hospital to take that risk.

        1. commodious spittoon

          Is it… is it like the mint scene in Meaning of Life?

          1. R C Dean

            I haven’t been in the OR for one, but based on what I’ve heard, the amount of blood is unreal. And yes, I have seen every single one of those bad outcomes from VBAC. I wish I could get our hospital to stop doing them, but the docs are convinced their godlike powers are sufficient unto the need. Even though they’ve had them blow up before.

          2. Number.6

            I would think that a VBAC should be considered an elective procedure, wouldn’t it?

            IANAS, but I’m not aware of any medical condition other than chronic vanity that would justify the practice, so why would it be covered by any insurance?

        2. Playa Manhattan

          Grenade Uterus. Who wants to join my band?

          1. Number.6

            I’d fear the pyro and SFX when the band went on tour.

    4. Sour Kraut

      Giving birth is only a medical condition if something goes wrong. There is no need to have a healthy birth in a hospital. Or if you want to be near a doctor just in case than go. But calling CPS on people for different lifestyle choices deserves a special place in Hades.

      1. To each his own, but in our case I was happy as Larry that we got a nice, big, well-appointed hospital room. My wife never once considered screwing around with this natural business. She got the drip ASAP. Also, it was a difficult labor. My daughter was stubborn in the womb, which tells me that some traits really are genetic. Without a doctor directly involved, there’s a very good chance she would’ve been still-born.

      2. R C Dean

        If you’re getting good prenatal care, you can usually tell whether its a low risk delivery that you can have in the cotton field and keep on pickin’. If its not low risk, go to a hospital that (a) delivers a good volume of babies, (b) has maternal-fetal medicine docs on call, and (c) ideally has a neonatal intensive care unit. Those hospitals are set up to handle anything that goes wrong.

      3. commodious spittoon

        I read somewhere, I wish I could remember, about how absurdly difficult and dangerous childbirth is for humans. We’re just not built for it.

  8. Wait for the Terrible Twos – bet some of them snap out of it…

    1. Yeah. They’ll hire an illegal immigrant nanny and pass their responsibilities to them.

    2. Brett L

      We’re aggressively working on consent in the L household. Mostly around how pretty much nobody consents to being bitten and how badly violating the NAP against someone 6x your weight and 10x your experience works out when they get sick of your violations.

      1. thrakkorzog

        Reminds me of my childhood.

        Sister #1: Mom, Sister #2 hit me.
        Mom: You’re bigger than her, hit her back.
        Sister #1: Oh OK. (five minutes of fighting in the background.) OK that worked.

      2. My daughter turned two today. She has very clear, well-defined opinions and preferences, and absolutely no shyness about letting you know if you’re not in compliance. Sometimes, this means telling one of us to go away if we’re bugging her, usually my wife who loves to get in her grill and kiss her. My wife has a thing where she doesn’t like the idea of her daughter telling her what to do, I think because she outranks her. It doesn’t bother me, although she usually doesn’t have cause to tell me to leave her be.

        If telling us to eff off doesn’t work, she’s been known to go for a smack. This can also be a result of being pissed off about anything, or just bored–she’s a very physical kid. Anyway, she did it to me once. She smacks my wife all the time. My wife asked me why our daughter never tries to hit me. I told her, “You know how you look sad when she hits you and then you tell her to sit in ‘time-out’? When she took a swing at me I grabbed her wrist, looked pissed off, gave her a firm ‘No!’, told her to sit by herself and walked out of the room. She’ll develop empathy in time, but right now I just need her to act right.”

        1. Number.6

          “Monster or Mistress of her own destiny? You decide!”

          Tonight on the Geraldo Riveira Show

        2. Playa Manhattan

          I’m on my 3rd kid, who’s 2 right now. I’ve explained that concept to people dozens of times, and some still don’t understand. It think takes actually being a parent to finally get it.

          I don’t need my 2 year old to emotionally and intellectually understand why getting hit by a car is bad. I just need him to not get hit by a car.

          Step 1 in parenting: keep the kids safe. There is no step 2 if you fail step 1.

          1. Fatty Bolger

            Yep. When I catch my toddler trying to stick a fork in the electrical outlet, he’s getting a quick but memorable spanking.

  9. Death or Mau Mau?

    The Pineapple Is the Most Feminist Fruit, According to Lena Dunham’s Newsletter

    The pineapple, Garcia claims, also has never been called racist, or sexist, or misogynist, unlike the banana, which had its own moment in the early 2000s, but was quickly dismissed by feminists, who deemed it too phallic. Since it’s home grown, the pineapple has never been accused of cultural appropriation. It doesn’t have negative connotations like the cherry, which appears in tattoos and in rockabilly culture.

    Best of all, the pineapple is the perfect metaphor for the woke lady—or at least the woke ladyparts.

    “You can playfully joke that a pineapple is a vag, but it isn’t a friendly vag!” says Garcia. “There are spikes to get around, cutting into them takes a bit of practice, and if you don’t know how to eat them right, the rind will fuck up the corner of your mouth.”

    1. UnCivilServant

      Ignore the attention whore. Its the only way it will go away.

      1. *bites tongue and resists snark about first comment*

        1. UnCivilServant

          Therein lies the contradiction in marketing.

          To work, you have to get people’s attention.

          The most attention-getting methods are, quite frankly annoying.

          Which is why I do my best to avoid them.

          Now I’m stuck on the other side of the fence trying to sell a product.

          I hate it. I really do. But no one is going to do the work for me.

          1. The most attention-getting methods are, quite frankly annoying.

            Sure. But the most successful attention-getting methods aren’t.

          2. UnCivilServant

            I know.

            I am made of fail.

          3. I never said that. I’m just saying that successful marketing is rarely annoying.

          4. UnCivilServant

            I know you never said that.

            I’m coping with an inherent dissonance. I hate advertizing, I find it annoying even in the most benign forms. And I’m in a position where I’m annoying myself before I’ve even posted. I can’t effectively judge the irritation I’m causing other people, and it’s bugging me.

          5. leonadasiv

            Have you read the book “growth hacker”? I’m a bit in the and body as I hate sales. But I read that book and it helped put me in a different mindset around marketing. Focused on delivering a valuable product to the user.

          6. UnCivilServant

            The product is good, I just have trouble letting people know.

          7. Badolph Hilter

            I don’t find short “hey, buy my book” posts annoying at all.

            I find the meta-discussion and self-flagellation about the “hey buy my book” posts a bit off-putting.

            Naturally, I assume I speak for everyone. And I don’t just mean everyone on this blog thingy. Everyone.

          8. Badolph Hilter

            Oh, and the occasional tidbits you toss in about the mechanics of publishing and selling are interesting.

          9. leonadasiv

            I’d recommend reading the book if you haven’t. It’s short, and really good. I don’t doubt your book is good, but rather it helps you to think about ways to get people to learn about it.

            Like I said, I hate sales and I’m not too creative, but the book got me excited about thinking of new ways to market ideas.

          10. Gustave Lytton

            Which author? Seems to be several “Growth Hacker” books on Amazon.

          11. Tulip

            Agree with Badolph Hitler. “Hey, buy my book” – not annoying at all. “Hey, this is what the book publishing industry is like” – really interesting and not annoying. “I don’t want to annoy you” or “marketing is hard” which cause sloopy or others to say “it’s ok” – annoying.

            I think the real difference is one comes across as confidence and the other as almost desperation. Everyone runs from desperation, but confidence is attractive.

            Be confident or at least fake it ’til you make it.

          12. UnCivilServant

            I don’t want people to tell me it’s okay.

            I was actually expecting “shut up already”.

          13. I must need to clear my cache because everything I find when I search “growth hacker” involves penis enlargement.

          14. leonadasiv

            Ryan Holiday, ~8 dollars at Barnes and Noble.

          15. thrakkorzog

            Buy my book can get really annoying.

          16. hate_speech

            Can’t reply further downthread for whatever reason, but I just wanted to mirror Badolph’s sentiment. They posts aren’t annoying and I’ve enjoyed the process updates you post.

            I took a look at the link to your book, and was frustrated that there was no indication of how to find the first in the series from the latest. I don’t think it’s my bag, but I was going to bookmark and maybe give the first one a try at some point (just started re-reading malazan, so I’m going to be tied up for awhile).

          17. hate_speech – the series linkage is slow, but I blame Amazon. I put in all the information to have it be added to the Tarnished Serling series, thus letting you find all four volumes from that page, but it hasn’t been batch processed into existance yet.

          18. Q Continuum

            Just make a sex tape.

    2. Today on Parody or Insanity?

      1. UnCivilServant

        Insanity.

      2. Slammer

        Parodanity

    3. Pomp

      It is pitiful and sad that someone’s brain actually shat this out.

    4. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Her brain is as soft as her ass.

    5. Behold!

      The pineapple, Garcia claims, also has never been called racist, or sexist, or misogynist

      Wait, so if people start calling it wrongthink-ist, will it suddenly no longer be feminist?

      I give 4chan about 12 hours before they start flooding the internet with wrongthink pineapple memes. That should be interesting.

    6. Suthenboy

      Animist idiots.

    7. westernsloper

      I am not sure how, but I am sure there is a Carman Miranda joke in there somewhere.

      1. WTF

        I always think of this version.

        1. westernsloper

          There ya go. You can’t go wrong with Bugs Bunny in drag.

    8. Nephilium

      It doesn’t have negative connotations like the cherry, which appears in tattoos and in rockabilly culture.

      Wait… what’s wrong with tattoos and rockabilly culture? Did Betty Page become an unperson?

      1. Tundra

        The only thing wrong with rockabilly culture is that there isn’t more of it.

        1. Pomp

          +1, hot rod paintjobs with gratuitous fire artwork

          +1, gigantic pompadours

          1. ElspethFlashman

            +1 pair of mary jane shoes, +1 frilly party dress.

          2. Tundra

            Pics?

          3. Pomp

            Seconded

          4. Nephilium

            +1 closet of work shirts and bowling shirts.

            And to tie into the conversation below, the craziest rockabilly guys I saw were the Japanese. They hunt down vintage 50’s jeans to wear. The most fun to drink with were the Australians.

        2. Private Chipperbot
          1. Tundra

            Nice.

            We went to an awesome small town parade last night. The local garage had the sweetest rat rod tow truck and the dude driving it looked like Ness. The world hasn’t gone completely insane!

      2. wdalasio

        Wait… what’s wrong with tattoos and rockabilly culture?

        I think that’s pretty straightforward. Rockabilly culture is fun. Anything fun is inherently antithetical to feminist orthodoxy. Especially if, Goddess forbid, any of that fun might be had by a man.

        1. thrakkorzog

          So triggering, you cis-hetero shitlord.

          1. thrakkorzog

            PG-13 NSFW-ish

    9. thrakkorzog

      Plus, pineapple juice make your piss and semen smell good. Well, not good, but less bad.

    10. Agent Cooper

      Pineapples are Asians who are faux environmentalists.

    11. Gdragon

      That’s just because the kids on “Telefrancais” were paid off and won’t talk about what that horrible Ananas did to them

    12. thepasswordispassword

      Did the great pineapple on pizza war not penetrate the prog bubble?

  10. Pomp

    Check off another box in the “winning” column for President Trump. A small box, but still.

    Unfortunately if it ends there, it’s like lopping off a suspect mole when stage 2 internal cancers are left unchecked.

    It’s amazing how there’s redundant research overlap between some of these agencies. NREL and EPA and potentially others have large teams dedicated to exactly the same bullshit that dozens of well-funded universities are already undertaking.

  11. Behold!

    Transgender and intersex Oregonians say the change validates their identities and makes them safer as they hand over their licenses at restaurants, health clinics and airports.

    Safer?! What do they think would happen if they handed over a driver’s license with the “wrong” gender on it? A mob of klansmen suddenly show up, crucify them, burn the cross, then dance on the ashes singing praises to Pepe?

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      THEY’RE IN CONSTANT DANGER, DON’T YOU GET IT? HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THEIR VICTIM CRED?

      1. Suthenboy

        Some link and comment the other day clued me in. Apparently they are in danger. Turns out they occasionally get their asses beaten whenever they trick some dude into thinking they are female and the guy only figures it out when he goes for a feel. That also clued me in about their suggestion not long ago that if you dont suck a dick you are…*looks at list*…transphobic. What they were saying is if you are on a date and suddenly find out your date isnt female you are supposed to go ahead and just take the plunge.

        It is all rather perverse. Look, if you get a date by using deception your date is perfectly justified in walking away.

        1. WTF

          And possibly bitch slapping you if they spent money on the date under false pretenses.

          1. leonadasiv

            Spend money on dates? Who does that? At least on first dates. Maybe a few dollars, but not a ton.

          2. WTF

            I know that, and you know that, but a surprising number of guys don’t know that.

          3. leonadasiv

            It’s true. My wife tells me guys who would drop 100 dollars on a date. It turned her if cause she felt like they didn’t know how to handle money.

            Then she met greedy capitalist me.

          4. Pomp

            “Good first date, Denny’ s provides excellent bang for the buck. We can either go dutch right now or I can cover your half of the bill with a personal loan and modest interest rate of 17% APR.”

          5. Playa Manhattan

            That honestly turned me on a little bit. Especially the part about buying a Grand Slam on credit.

          6. Brochettaward

            Do you have any sort of dating column I can subscribe to?

          7. leonadasiv

            I can write something up for the glibs if people wanted, but it would all be anecdotes and personal opinion. Honestly I’d be asking my wife, who has a lot more experience in that realm than I do.

          8. UnCivilServant

            Anecdotes and personal opinion make for fine articles – so long as you admit that’s what they are.

            But I’m not an editor.

          9. SugarFree

            “My wife went on a lot of first dates.” admits local man.

        2. Listen, any man that doesn’t do a full-on Crocodile Dundee on a “woman” before they spend money on a date deserves the surprise.

        3. hate_speech

          Brought to you by the people who say if you aren’t 100% open and honest before having sex with someone, it’s rape.

    2. Pomp

      I wonder how this plays with REAL ID

    3. westernsloper

      Who is going to do the extra screening pat down at the airport? Is TSA going to have xe or xer screeners now?

      1. WTF

        To be sure, it’s problematic.

    4. Agent Cooper

      It’s all stupid, but frankly, I could/could not care less (can’t ever get that damn phrase right so you get both) if people want to pretend they are someone else. Yes, getting the state involved is never a good idea, but this a big ‘whatever’ from me.

    5. thom

      But also, who cares? Makes a person happy for some reason, doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything extra, doesn’t cause any real security or public safety issues.

  12. I see wood chippers

    Of 83 comments, both written and oral, only 12 people opposed the change.

    Something something representative sampling.

    1. I see wood chippers

      Something something tag fail.

    2. UnCivilServant

      We did everything we could to prevent comment, and still got people voicing opposition.

      Forward!@

  13. westernsloper

    That was a lot of Pete Rose hate for so early in the morning there Sloopy. I try to not hate until at least mid-morning. I also don’t care enough about Pete Rose to hate him at all though.

    1. It wasn’t nearly enough hate for that sonofabitch.
      I grew up with season tix. Behind first base, club level. Loved Pete Rose. What he did is inexcusable from a sporting perspective. He deserves to enjoy no accolades, no adulation and I’d be happy if his achievements weren’t even recognized until he dies.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        Since he’s being inducted into the Phillies ring of fame this year, been thinking about him…

        Fuck it. Let him in. Let Joe Jackson in too. Halls of fame should ignore everything except what was done on the field. Or court. Or ice. Or whatever.

        And for fuck’s sake, baseball, induct Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. They were two of the best players of all time without PEDs. All the PEDs did were to extend what were already HOF careers.

        1. WTF

          All the PEDs did were to extend what were already HOF careers.

          And allow them to achieve records that they likely would not have without the PEDs.

          1. Juvenile Bluster

            They were HOFers before that. Bonds allegedly started using after the ’98 season. If his career had ended right then and there, he’s a Hall of Famer. Same with Clemens, just subtract a year from when he allegedly started.

          2. WTF

            Yes, still HOF-caliber, but they cheated their way to records they don’t deserve to hold. Some would think that might be disqualifying, along the line of being detrimental to the integrity of the game, like gambling.

          3. Agent Cooper

            How many pitchers throwing him pitches were taking PEDs in those record-breaking seasons? That’s why I don’t give a shit.

            In fact, I’d love a bike tour who has zero rules about doping. Let people do what they want and see what happens. That way, you’ve ensured a level playing field.

          4. Gray Ghost

            And allow them to achieve records that they likely would not have without the PEDs.

            So when are we going to kick out Hank Aaron, and every other star who came up when greenies were flowing in clubhouses like water?

            I think Bluster’s got the right of it here. Though if the Hall wanted to listen to Bob Costas, tie a bow around the 94-10-ish era, call it “The Steroid Era,” and say that we mostly can’t tell who did what, when, but here’s what these substances do: that’d be all right too.

          5. Gray Ghost

            Whoops, when praising JB, I meant for the alleged PED users. To hell with Rose, and anyone else flouting the gambling prohibition.

            (Though having crooked referees doesn’t seem to have harmed the NBA any…)

            We watch sports to be entertained, and most of the entertainment is that we don’t know what’s going to happen. Throwing/putting undue influence on games, or the appearance of doing so, gives the impression to most of the fans that the whole thing’s fixed. And if the whole thing is fixed ahead of time, why watch?

        2. Slammer

          Have a small, separate display of the Hall about PEDS and users. You could have a spot that recognizes the players and their achievements, and the impact they had on Baseball and the whole PED situation. They don’t get a plaque in the Rotunda, though.

        3. Badolph Hilter

          Shouldn’t they just be about “fame” ? I mean, otherwise they would be the Halls of Performance and you could just boil it down to numbers, you wouldn’t need all this nonsense voting and shit.

          Disclaimer: IDAGAF about sports.

        4. Fuck it. Let him in.

          Let’s not forget that he signed the agreement to the lifetime ban. So I think he should be held to that, even if he didn’t honor the rule every player knows (SINCE ITS ON A SIGN IN EVERY SINGLE PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL CLUBHOUSE): if you gamble on baseball you will be banned for life.

        5. Brett L

          Roger Fucking Maris has an asterisk, and you want to just let those guys in the HoF?

      2. westernsloper

        That does suck. I grew up in an area that pretty much ignored baseball. No close teams. I guess the closest would have been KC, and that is in Kansas/Missouri, so screw that.

        On the football side, I did idolize the Juice though. That fucker was a big let down as well.

    2. ArchieBunker

      I’d like to thank all the players involved in the strike back in the 90s . Thankfully it turned me off from watching that God awful sport.

  14. SugarFree

    Hold on, people! I may have found it! Is this the story of least possible interest for the Glibertarians.com community?!?

    Barack Obama’s Gushy Video About Jay Z’s Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Might Have Revealed the Sex of Beyoncé’s Twins

    1. Suthenboy

      You are correct.

    2. westernsloper

      Ya, I am not sure how many shits I don’t give about that. I will have to think about it.

    3. Pomp

      Ignore this man and listen to something better.

  15. Pope Jimbo

    Fishing report from Algoma, WI.

    Slow. Very slow.

    Two bites so far. landed one nice steelhead.

    1. UnCivilServant

      How long have you been fishing?

      1. Agent Cooper

        28 years.

    2. Are you angling for a little sympathy?

      1. Nephilium

        You had to take that bait, didn’t you?

        1. UnCivilServant

          The pun is an irresutable lure.

          1. Pomp

            Why you dirty worms, you’re itchin’ for a hook to the jaw.

          2. Badolph Hilter

            A pun filter is the one omission keeping Monocle from true greatness.

          3. Now you’re the one trolling us!

          4. Sigh… here is for the lot of ye…

            *narrows gaze*

          5. LT_Fish

            Is that spelling error part of the joke or is it just me?

    3. Private Chipperbot

      Buoy, that’s pretty slow.

    4. straffinrun

      Did you throw the Podesta back?

    5. Tundra

      You’re drunk though, right?

    6. Pope Jimbo

      update. things picked up. Now 7 nice steelies

      1. Slammer

        It was the puns. They’re Magic

      2. Pope Jimbo

        final was 7 steelhead and 2 lake trout.

        6 hour trip

  16. Scruffy Nerfherder
    1. UnCivilServant

      Reddit? Why would you think anyone would click that?

    2. SugarFree

      Posted years ago at Reason.

      Fail.

      Bad Scruffy. [begins to roll up newspaper]

      1. straffinrun

        And by ME no less. I said I was tempted to post it on FB. You told me to do it, pussy. First encounter with you.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        *backs into corner, snarls*

    3. hate_speech

      Well, they certainly got the male / female ratio about right, if not much else.

  17. ‘Bigfoot crossing’ signs go up in Round Rock

    Possibly jumping on the “Harry and the Hendersons” craze that swept the nation in the late ’80s, the Round Rock Parks and Recreation Department is enlisting the help of its citizens in tracking the movements of the creature known as sasquatch, yeti, the abominable snowman and bigfoot.

    The department is getting creative, complete with actual “bigfoot crossing” signs and social media posts encouraging neighbors to tag them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It’s all part of a push to get more children out and active this summer, but don’t tell the kids that.

    Children who come out to help solve the mystery and contact the Parks department on social media can win t-shirts and other prizes.

    1. SugarFree

      THIS RACIST! STEVE SMITH NOT YETI! STEVE SMITH EAT YETI!

      1. UnCivilServant

        So what you’re saying is STEVE SMITH eats Tibetan food?

        1. SugarFree

          STEVE SMITH LOVE YAK BUTTER TEA AND YAK!

      2. Behold!

        Does STEVE SMITH eat then rape, or rape then eat?

        1. WTF

          YES! STEVE SMITH RAPE GO WITH EVERYTHING!

        2. Agent Cooper

          STEVE SMITH NIBBLE WHILE RAPE THEN GO SMORGASBORD.

    2. Slammer

      win t-shirts and other prizes.

      STEVE SMITH GIVE GRAND PRIZE TO UNLUCKY WINNER

      1. WTF

        STEVE SMITH HOME RAPE GAME AS CONSOLATION PRIZE!

  18. straffinrun

    15 year wedding anniversary today and we polished off a bottle and a half of sake. She’s asleep and I’m listening to garbage. Overall, a good day.

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      Garbage as in Shirley Manson, or garbage as in shitty music?

      (If anyone says “what’s the difference”….)

      1. straffinrun

        Sloop’s link. Let it play out an it’s on Mazzy Star now. It’s making me want to self identify as something.

        1. Tundra

          You’d have to self identify as awesome. Love me some Mazzy Star.

          Happy anniversary!

          1. Pomp

            I hated that group with a white hot passion when I was a teenager, but I kinda dig them now.

    2. ? Congratulations! ?

    3. Slammer

      Congrats, man! Here’s to many more!

    4. Gray Ghost

      Congratulations!

      Drink plenty of water. My head hurts in sympathy for what you’re going to feel tomorrow.

      Though, splitting a bottle and a half of sake isn’t as bad as my first impression that you were the one who drank the bottle and a half.

      1. nw

        Huh? According to the intertubes, sake when bottled is about 30 proof.
        Assuming 750 ml bottles, a bottle and a half at 15% alcohol and 18 ml
        of alcohol as a standard drink, gives 9.375 drinks. Call it 4-5 drinks
        each. That shouldn’t be too bad for a whole night.

        Not that drinking water is bad advice.

    5. Gustave Lytton

      Congratulations!

    6. Heroic Mulatto

      Overall, a good day.

      I see no evidence of having sex in your statement.

      1. hate_speech

        + “A day without sex is a day wasted.”

    7. Walford

      My 17th versery today. Probably will go out for Mexican after work. Then home to get drunk watching Youtube videos while she falls asleep reading the facebook. Till death do us part, hopefully soon.

  19. The Elite Elite

    Check off another box in the “winning” column for President Trump.

    Wait, a government office will actually close? Some people will have to find another job? Am I still sleeping right now? Because this isn’t something that actually happens.

    1. The Zenome Project

      Besides making the prog tears flow, this is another reason why I think that Pruitt was maybe the best cabinet hire in at least 20 years.

    2. The Zenome Project

      Oops, this was DoE, not EPA (I guess the climate dough was puked across a bunch of Departments). Ah well, this is still wonderful news.

      1. Pomp

        Never the less, you’re right. Pruitt is an excellent choice.

  20. Cubans now face same deportation risk as other immigrants

    Tens of thousands of Cubans living in the U.S. are adapting to a harsh new reality: After enjoying decades of favored status dating back to the Cold War, many of them now face the same deportation risks as any other immigrants.

    They feel betrayed by former President Barack Obama’s administration, which in its waning days stripped away a nearly automatic path to citizenship that had been offered since the 1960s to Cubans who arrived on U.S. soil, even those who showed up without a visa. The change was part of a thaw in relations with Cuba, which also agreed to start accepting the return of more of its people who get deported.

    Now some Cubans have been detained at routine appointments with immigration officials, and many more fear they could be imperiled by old deportation orders or caught up in the increased arrests of non-citizens pursued by President Donald Trump’s administration.

    1. straffinrun

      Cuba is completely different now that Castro Castro isn’t leading it.

      1. Juvenile Bluster

        Raul recently detained the entirety of the Cuban Libertarian Party, which apparently was a thing. Because he’s just as fucked up a dictator as his brother.

        The world will be a better place when every vestige of that family is wiped from the Earth.

        (At the same time, the wet foot/dry foot policy is dumb, and I’m glad it ended)

        1. straffinrun

          The Cuba Libertarian Party. Wow. File that under “How to get ass raped quick”.

          1. Juvenile Bluster

            See this after the second arrest: https://mises.org/blog/another-member-mises-cuba-now-missing. More have been arrested since, but I can’t find that story.

        2. thrakkorzog

          Somebody who can turn an old Desoto into a boat isn’t the kind of erson I think we should just turn away.

    2. Behold!

      I swear progs only support immigration (legal or otherwise) when they think the immigrants will stay on their plantation and vote blue. Cubans, as a whole, are more reliably red voters, so they must be punished.

    3. Suthenboy

      “They feel betrayed by former President Barack Obama’s administration”

      It wasn’t the socialists who were fleeing here. The ones I know are hardcore capitalists and dont vote Dem. Of course he fucked ’em.

      1. WTF

        Funny how the left always fails to note how the people who have actually lived under socialism hate socialism.

        1. leonadasiv

          It’s state capitalism fucker. Except for the good things. That’s socialism.

        2. Badolph Hilter

          Every once in a while I ruminate, briefly, on why exactly the progtards annoy the living fuck out of me, and a huge part of it is that they continuously spout their blithering feel-good nonsense while being actively, purposefully oblivious that it very demonstrably doesn’t fucking work.

          I really hate people who can’t be bothered to pay attention to actual results.

          1. WTF

            Like leonadasiv said, they always claim that it wasn’t real socialism. They really are stupid, dishonest fucks.

          2. Behold!

            It’s real socialism right up until it fails, then it’s secretly state capitalism all along.

          3. thrakkorzog

            And as Orwell said, I see a lot of broken eggs, where are the omelettes?

          4. antisthenes

            Chavez’s daughter was enjoying a fairly sizeable omelet, last I checked.

  21. This article is a few days old but a good reminder:

    Why Weight Training Is Ridiculously Good For You

    But later in life, bone tissue losses accelerate and outpace the creation of new bone. That acceleration is especially pronounced among people who are sedentary and women who have reached or passed menopause, Schoenfeld says. This loss of bone tissue leads to the weakness and postural problems that plague many older adults.

    “Resistance training counteracts all those bone losses and postural deficits,” he says. Through a process known as bone remodeling, strength training stimulates the development of bone osteoblasts: cells that build bones back up. While you can achieve some of these bone benefits through aerobic exercise, especially in your lower body, resistance training is really the best way to maintain and enhance total-body bone strength.

    During a bout of resistance training, your muscles are rapidly using glucose, and this energy consumption continues even after you’ve finished exercising, Peterson says. For anyone at risk for metabolic conditions—type-2 diabetes, but also high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels and other symptoms of metabolic syndrome—strength training is among the most-effective remedies, he says.

    etc etc

    1. DEADLIFT 4 LIFE!

    2. Brasidas

      I need to start lifting again. Maybe I can use the severance package to outfit the shed gym.

    3. Agent Cooper

      I still weight train (starting again after 2 years of not doing anything) but the detached retina 5 years ago has changed how I have to exercise with weights.

    4. thom

      Is there a relatively “safe” lift that a noob can go to a gym and do without looking a fool and/or injuring themselves?

      1. Tundra

        Buy Starting Strength and watch the Rippetoe videos on The Art of Manliness. Squat, dead, bench, overhead press. Down the road, learn to clean.

        It’s fun and safe.

      2. *Lights Warty Signal*

      3. Brasidas

        Looking a fool at a gym == Blending in

      4. Playa Manhattan

        Bench and leg press

        Learn how to squat properly before you do it.

        1. hate_speech

          Both of those are bad lifts to do w/o knowing what you’re doing. Benching will shred your rotator cuffs if you aren’t using correct form. Leg press can put a ton of strain on the lower back I think.

          To parrot Tundra: Buy Starting Strength, read for a few weeks and get started. The subreddit /r/fitness has a wiki that’s pretty good too.

      5. If you want to go cheap – buy a set of dumbbells, a simple bench, and some resistance bands.

        I have a simple bench, a bench for bench pressing/squatting with an adjustable seat (incline/decline presses), and a dip/chin up station. And enough plates to get 300 pounds of weight. Also dumbells and resistance bands. Total $$ wasn’t that much.

        1. thom

          Yeah, I’ve been thinking of dumbbells. I get a free gym membership through work so might just use the dumbbells they have there.

      6. LT_Fish

        Well if your gym has trainers it doesn’t hurt to shell out for an evaluation – they can get your starting measurements, etc for comparison and get you started on a good general work out to get you back in the rhythm. Then, after you start feeling comfortable, you can start something more solid.

  22. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Not a repost

    The Congressman deserved to be shot, along with every bourgeois there. Plain and simple. This man was the victim of capitalism and oppression that fucked his life. Those bourgies took away millions of lives with their tyrant policies and laws. And this man happened to be one of their victims. This action by Hodgkinson was poorly planned, however regardless of it, he did it because he wanted to get something back from the system.

    RIP Hodgkinson. at least now he didn’t have to worry about sleeping in cold night inside his car anymore.

    1. Suthenboy

      There will be more.

    2. Raston Bot

      hehehehe oh man. i’m foreseeing a firesale on DGUs in the near future.

    3. Pomp

      Those bourgies took away millions of lives

      😐 uhhhh

      1. leonadasiv

        Kulaks and wreckers have taken lots of lives

        1. AlexinCT

          They MADE people like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, the Kims and Castros, Chavez and Maduro, and so on, kill so many people and put others in perpetual misery!

    4. westernsloper

      he did it because he wanted to get something back from the system.

      Exactly. He was pissed he wasn’t getting enough free shit so he shot some politicians.

      Did you read the rules for that sub? Totalitarians. No debating or opposing views allowed there.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        I’d imagine half of the participants are FBI/Secret Service.

        1. leonadasiv

          But what percentage of those guys aren’t actually statist bootlickers.

        2. Juvenile Bluster

          The funniest on Reddit is /r/shoplifting, where people… well, talk about how the shoplift and get away with it. I’ve estimated that about 80% of that sub is loss protection.

          1. UnCivilServant

            Well, it is an area where they would be interested in the techniques.

          2. Brasidas

            On /r/walmart, any time a new asset protection guy comes up asking for advice, he just gets pointed there.

    5. Juvenile Bluster

      They can hang out with the /r/incels people who idolize Elliott Rodger.

    6. Drake

      That reaction sure backs up this article – Moderates and Radicals in Islam and the Left.

      The distinction between moderates and radicals is at the heart of the debate about Islamic terrorism. Much as it used to be at the heart of the debate about Communism and its fellow travelers. Everyone will concede that there are indeed radicals, if only ISIS and Stalin. What they will deny is the extent of the complicity and, more significantly, the fact that the radicals were pursuing the same ends as the moderates, an Islamic Caliphate or a Communist dictatorship, only more rapidly and ruthlessly.

    7. commodious spittoon

      So I googled latestagecapitalism thinking there might be another subreddit taking the piss out of them.

      There probably is, but I found this:There is nothing that Capitalism “makes” you do that nature didn’t do before the advent of Capitalism. The only difference is instead of working 8 hours a day surviving on a subsistence lifestyle (picking berries, catching fish, etc), you spend 8 hours a day working for some other entity than nature. In either case there is still a burden placed upon you, the fact that it’s shifted from nature to a capitalist means nothing to me.HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

      1. commodious spittoon

        The laughing was meant to be outside the tag. The retard posting that pablum has no self-awareness.

  23. I didn’t bring this up in the post because I didn’t want to make a big deal about it, butnim going to make a big deal about it: I passed my state licensing exam yesterday after a stressful week of studying (since I had forgotten a lot of the regs on taxing vehicles, some livestock stuff and the wildlife portions) and am now a licensed auctioneer, sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. And we have reciprocity pretty much everywhere.

    1. straffinrun

      How about sex slave auctions? You qualified?

      1. *checks Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s embassy website*

    2. UnCivilServant

      *polite applause*

      Is this a silent auction?

    3. KibbledKristen

      Next stop: Storage Wars

      1. Badolph Hilter

        “LOL”

    4. Suthenboy

      Congratulations. I hope you make a million bucks. The take-home kind.

    5. Juvenile Bluster

      Sloopy, libertarian auctioneer.

      When’s the next orphan auction? I could probably use a few new ones.

      1. Slammer

        ‘SOLD’ to the Gentleman in the Top Hat and Monocle

        1. *chorus of harumphs*

        2. How does that differentiate amongst us?!

    6. The Elite Elite

      Well, I for one feel much safer whenever I go to an auction, knowing that the auctioneer is officially licensed. Can’t have someone up there that the government doesn’t know if they know what they’re doing or not. God only knows what horrors might happen if the auctioneer was unlicensed.

      1. UnCivilServant

        He might talk really slowly!

      2. Hey, I don’t make the rules. I fuckkn hate licensing schemes. But this is the only way to do it at the moment and not run afoul of the law. It’s also the only way to do it and get bonding, financing or develop a relationship with any buyers or sellers.

    7. westernsloper

      Congrats.

    8. Lachowsky

      licensed auctioneer, sanctioned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

      My Sloop, How very liberatarian of you. Nothing like getting the state to sanction your lively hood to the exclusion of you potential competitors. It must be nice to have the power state available to make sure your market doesn’t have too many entrants.

      J/K. Congratulations.

      also, governmemt licensing schemes for private enterprises are bullshit.

      1. robc

        tonio will be extra pissed. How dare he get a license that he opposes the existence of!

    9. Badolph Hilter

      Congrats, what inspired you to go down that path? Is this a new career direction or a side gig?

      Seems like it would be fun.

      1. I’ve been in the business for years. I quit my last company in November. It was a total fucking shitshow of amateurs. So I decided to get my license and go it alone in addition to my equipment brokerage. And frankly, this will help me pick up side work with companies I have a relationship with and allow them to come in on big packages with me in texas and not have to administer a sale we put together. That’s a big thing.

        1. Tundra

          Excellent. I hope you knock it out of the park!

        2. AlexinCT

          Kick ass, and take names sir.

    10. Gustave Lytton

      Congratulations!

    11. Slammer

      Congrats, man!

    12. Raven Nation

      Congrats!

    13. Tacit Rainbow

      Neat! It sounds like there was a lot of minutia on the exam. Was there anything really dumb that wasn’t in what you’d call the regular body of knowledge?

    14. wdalasio

      Congratulations and best of luck.

  24. From the Gun link
    Caterers and food trucks will be available during special events and training classes, according to the statement

    You build that huge building with a bunch of country club like sitting / hanging out areas, even what appears to be a bar, and you put in a kitchen?

    1. …you don’t put in a kitchen?

      1. I’m sure they have a cafe. But food truck events are big things. And I think they’re selling the fact that someone could have a catered affair if they wanted to.

  25. KibbledKristen
  26. This List Of Attacks Against Conservatives Is Mind Blowing

    July 2016:
    -A Hillary Clinton supporter lights a flag on fire and attacks a Trump supporter in Pittsburgh.
    -Trump supporters sue San Jose after protesters jumped on cars, stole hats, fought and threw eggs at them.

    August 2016:
    -Anti-Trump protesters attacked Trump supporters in Minneapolis, Minn., and beat an elderly man. Protesters also attacked Trump’s motorcade.
    –A Tennessee man was assaulted at a garage sale for being a Trump supporter.
    -A Trump supporter in New Jersey was attacked with a crowbar on the street.

    September 2016:
    -Protesters in El Cajon, Calif., chased and beat up a Trump supporter.

    October 2016:
    -A GOP office in North Carolina was firebombed and spray painted with “Nazi Republicans get out of town or else.”

    etc etc etc

    1. The Zenome Project

      Besides Gianforte, who swiftly pled guilty, how many conservatives have attacked progs in a violently? Probably not all that often.

      1. What about Jared Loughner, Dylan Roof, Adam Lanza and Timothy McVeigh, you shitlord?

        -prog

        1. Pomp

          Don’t forget that asshole that shot up the Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

          1. leonadasiv

            Don’t forget the Islamic attacks. The perps were all regressives so, really that are all right wing in the political spectrum. /Even stupider prog

          2. Badolph Hilter

            I wish this comment was a parody.

          3. AlexinCT

            or the doood that attacked the abortion clinic!

    2. The Zenome Project

      violent manner*

    3. Drake

      I keep wondering which of these attacks history will mark down as the equivalent of Fort Sumter, crossing of the Rubicon, or explosion of the Maine, in the next civil war. Meanwhile, I probably ought to stock up.

    4. Lachowsky

      You don’t watch the news do you? I can’t can’t count how times Ive been told about the epidemic of right wing violence that has followed the election of donald trump.

      1. WTF

        Look, if a leftist mob attacks a gathering of Trump supporters, that right there is right wing violence. Because violence at a right wing gathering.

        1. Lachowsky

          When a Muslim girl fabricates from thin air a story about being accosted by Trump supporters, That is right wing violence.

          1. Stinky Wizzleteats

            It’s a conversation that needed to be started and a teachable moment you fucking bigot.

          2. WTF

            And “conversation” = “shut the fuck up while we lecture you”.

      2. Drake

        Exactly! A Muslim guy somewhere was punched and another was insulted! It’s a wave of hate!

    5. The Zenome Project

      Another addition: Violent threats and mysterious white powder mailed to people in Karen Handel’s neighborhood in the GA 6th District. I thought for sure that Ossoff would win, but now I’m prepping my prog tear jar again.

    6. antisthenes

      Is anyone still using the AttackWatch domain? Maybe some non-prog can snag it and keep a running tally.

  27. Spartan Dad

    VCDL has been in the news lately and their appeal discussed here a bit, especially if malice occurred.

    I haven’t heard the full story here before so wanted to provide additional details. My understanding is that the words weren’t simply edited out (supposedly due to time constraints) but what you see is an entirely different segment. When they first arrived, the members were asked to sit silently while a sound check was conducted. This is why they are looking around the room, at their feet, etc. while completely silent. IIRC the editing team swapped out this sound check segment with the one where they enthusiastically responded to the question. I fail to to see the difference between this and swapping out a different verbal segment to change their answers.

      1. Raston Bot

        judge said the group’s responses were sophistry so Couric was justified in cutting their responses and editing in the 8 seconds from the sound check.

        sophistry is the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

        i have a real problem with that judge’s opinion. is that opinion problematic enough that the judge should be metaphorically defenestrated through a plate glass window? [8 seconds of silence]

        1. Brochettaward

          If the hack judge at least had enough shame to make some sort of argument based on freedom of expression, I could have bought it. Documentaries and interviews get edited. Couric’s movie had a slant and bias and its reflected in its editing.

          Instead, this asshole is taking a definitive policy stance in his judgement. He’s taking it upon himself to tell everyone else – including legislatures – what the right answer on the subject is. It’s wholly inappropriate in every conceivable way. The mask isn’t even there anymore.

          1. WTF

            A judge stating that arguments relying on the second amendment and facts are invalid. I suppose nobody really needs to guess what his political affiliation is.
            Never mind the fact that he ignored the actual issue of the case, which was Couric deliberately falsifying plaintiff’s response to make them look bad and damage their reputation.

    1. WTF

      Exactly – they deliberately falsified their response to make them look bad and damage their reputation.

    2. Behold!

      Original incident, including the maliciously edited footage and the real response, can be found here.

      Her excuse for why she did it was:

      “There are a wide range of views expressed in the film. My intention was to provide a pause for the viewer to have a moment to consider this important question before presenting the facts on Americans’ opinions on background checks. I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way.

      Apparently it was more important to let the viewer consider that question with a with a wide range of views than to actually, you know, show some of those views.

      1. WTF

        So, Couric is a lying sack of shit. Shocked, I am.

  28. robc

    Comments on the links. Really.

    1. Na shot -4. I wont gloat about being rightish. At least at not thinking the rough was a BFD.

    2. Pitino mostly got UK out of NCAA trouble. He may only be the 2nd scummiest Italian major basketball head coach in the commonwealth.

    3. Didn’t care enought to click.

    4. Ditto.

    5. I grew up a fan of the Big Red Machine. I still am a Reds fan. I don’t want him in the Hall even after he is dead.

    6. That is all. Okay, I guess I only was going to comment on the sports links. You know, the important ones.

    1. robc

      Note on #5: Concepcion doesn’t belong in the Hall, but I wouldnt mind if he went there. But i went out of my way to attend the game on the day his number was retired.

      On a related note: It may have been Larkin’s single best game in his career. Which is pretty impressive.

    2. Gray Ghost

      Na doing well is really surprising considering that video. I’d have thought he was done mentally before he even began, with all of the whining he was doing.

      Is this Open going to be like Pebble Beach, where it’s a pussy cat until the wind shows up?

  29. Certified Public Asshat

    Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods in $13.7 Billion Bet on Groceries

    Will we now be able to afford to buy groceries at Whole Foods?

    1. Tundra

      God, if it chases out the freaks it would be awesome!

      But it won’t. Too much virtue still need signaling.

    2. UnCivilServant

      No, but you’ll get free delivery if you’re a prime member.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Amazon Prime will now have quinoa and bean shoots.

    4. The Zenome Project

      Amazon desperately chasing Apple as the left’s favorite company, I see. First WaPo, now Whole Foods.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Baffled by WF’s popularity among leftists, given Mackey’s strong libertarian leanings.

        1. Tundra

          They don’t interview Mackey on NPR.

          1. KibbledKristen

            I always got such a feeling of glee when I shopped in there, knowing those emotion-driven, Bernie-loving, filthy rich soccer moms were putting money into a greedy capitalist pig’s pockets.

          2. The Zenome Project

            Mackey did virtue signal in exactly the right way though, by identifying as vegan. Best Bernie cover ever.

          3. Raven Nation

            He did give a pretty good explanation of why he became a vegan in one of his Reason interviews. If you take him at this word, it was a conscience decision after spending time examining evidence. At the same time, he scoffed at the idea that WF could be changed to vegan-only sales and survive.

          4. thom

            WF is an awesome place to pick up a lot of specialty vegetarian/vegan food though, all priced pretty competitively. Always assumed this kind of fell in the realm of ‘mission work’ for them since the prices tended to be more competitive and it was a niche. Still the only place you can get Beast Burgers.

    5. KibbledKristen

      OOps…you beat me to it!

    6. westernsloper

      That reminds me, I need to cancel my Prime membership after the discounted membership for food stampers. Speaking of which, is this just a ploy to get food stampers to shop at whole foods via Amazon? A new way to get on the government gravy train? Did Elon Musk buy Amazon?

      1. Tundra

        Did Elon Musk buy Amazon?

        Hmmm, my orders are correct and on time, so I’m gonna have to say no.

        1. Badolph Hilter

          None of my last three amazon deliveries burst into flame either.

        2. *opera applause*

      2. Juvenile Bluster

        I buy nearly everything on Amazon, Prime saves me a shitload of money, and the video. Don’t care about the virtue signaling, not cancelling.

        1. KibbledKristen

          ^^^This

          I’ll cancel when I can no longer get a sofa or room-sized rug delivered for free.

        2. Slammer

          Yep

        3. westernsloper

          I use Amazon quite a bit too. I did not see it as virtue signaling to cancel. I see it as free market at work. I would rather not subsidize others memberships. I don’t care if other people don’t have a problem with it. It is your money. I am also using it less and less, so not seeing the 10 bucks a month as justified anymore. Their social signaling by giving discounted rates for some people was just the icing on the cake.

          1. leonadasiv

            Their social signaling by giving discounted rates for some people was just the icing on the cake.

            I believe that was the virtue signaling JB was referring to.

        4. Fatty Bolger

          Same here. I’m also a cord-cutter, so with the Prime streaming it’s a great deal. Even their music service is starting to look better.

    7. KibbledKristen

      BTW, groceries are more affordable at WF than Amazon Fresh for me. I crunched the numbers, and I’d have to order a redonk amount of groceries from Amazon to make up for the $20/month fee (on top of my Prime membership). I bet Amazon will get rid of Instacart, and make you pay the $20 to get grocery delivery.

      1. Agent Cooper

        We do Wal-Mart pickup and have saved about $40 a trip to the grocery store.

        We will buy produce from the farmer’s market over the summer because it’s so much better.

    8. Idle Hands

      Jeff Bezos is owning PBR away from completely monopolizing the urban white liberals purchasing habits.

      1. Negroni Please

        hmmmm…. sound reasoning. Purchasing stock now.

      2. Idle Hands

        He’s like the kid in monopoly whose game plan is to own all the Utilities on the board at all costs.

      3. KibbledKristen

        PBR is out. Miller High Life is the new hottness.

        1. Gustave Lytton

          Good. The minor league stadium switched Bud or Miller to PBR as their house beer. Who drinks that awful swill other than people who like pissing away money? At least most mass market beers are drinkable.

        2. Private Chipperbot

          It is the champagne of beers. It’s also our go to for camping because of cans and a 30 pack for the cost of a case.

          1. KibbledKristen

            Now that the hipsters have noticed it, look for prices to soar!

          2. Gray Ghost

            I remember loving the ad at the time. The one where the polar bear-ish black beer delivery guy is yanking High Life out of people’s hands in the dugout level—who are too busy texting and bull shitting to watch the ball game—so that he can give the beer instead to true fans in the 400s, was pretty good too.

            Now, watching your link, I can’t get past the guy’s hat. His whole outfit looks like some hipster trying to ape Art Carney from the Honeymooners.

        3. Agent Cooper

          Miller High Life is gross. Sorry. Wanted to like it, but no, ain’t happening.

  30. american socialist

    This special counsel thing is very strange. More leaks from it allegedly

    Which if you want a serious investigation leaks jeopardize it.

    Rosenstein put out a statement saying not to trust anonymous sources necessarily…weird

    If comey is one leaking still it aint trump the focus. As mueller would need him as a witness and to stfu

    Wapo claims the obstruction investigation started shortly after may 9 and then mueller picked it up.

    However mueller met with trump to interview for fbi director a day before he took the special counsel job. And sarah sanders the deputy press sec told mark knoller trump doesnt see this as a conflict

    1. Stinky Wizzleteats

      They don’t want a serious investigation, they want a drip drip of unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo that’s damaging to the Trumpster, no more no less.

      1. american socialist

        Yea leakers do obviously

        But what about mueller? I dont think he wants to run a clown show.

      2. Drake

        If they wanted a mystery solved, they sure wouldn’t have hired the retard who lead the failed anthrax investigation.

      3. WTF

        ^This. The goal is to hamstring the Trump administration, and this is their best chance at achieving it.

    2. antisthenes

      Instead of firing the special counsel, Trump should just appoint a second special counsel to investigate the leaks from the first special counsel.

      1. Fatty Bolger

        Why not? Embrace the special counsel. Have a whole swarm of special counsels investigating everything. It’ll be like an Inquisition targeted at the political class.

  31. Jefe Hayek

    Louisville loses a national title banner?

    *masturbates furiously*

    It’s Christmas come early for anyone who doesn’t chug crown royal and sport a line beard

    1. robc

      Double bonus: When UNC loses the 2005 title.

      1. Jefe Hayek

        There’s no way the NCAA drops the hammer on them. They will let them go with some bullshit weasel technicality that overlooks the totality of the fraud.

        IF they do, tho… my boner will probably just split in half from being too erect.

        I want UNC to lose the title for many reasons, but somewhere on the list is to shut Jay Bilas’s smug ass cock holster up. My god, that dude is driving his “know-it-all/most rational person on Earth” shtick into the ground.

        This morning on Jew & Fat he said there’s no way anyone else at UL knew what was going on, because if they did it would have required the most tightly held and wide reaching conspiracy of ALL TIME. Yes, Jay, 3-4 extra assistants knowing about this is right up there with some deep state CIA/NSA shit.

        1. Juvenile Bluster

          The thing that makes it obvious that someone in the staff or university knew: The dude that was organizing these parties was in an unpaid position, and yet he shelled out at least 10 grand (that we know about). Where was he getting the $$$?

        2. robc

          I don’t know, the last NCAA response was to BRING BACK charges that had previously been dropped. The NCAA is escalating against UNC, pissed by their stonewalling, IMO.

          1. I thought the NCAA abdicated responsibility in the UNC investigation when the accreditation agency weighed in since the classes were open to all students.
            At least that’s what a few UNC fans told me.

          2. robc

            They did for some of the issues. Then they brought them back after UNC wasnt cooperating on the remaining ones.

          3. Juvenile Bluster

            The NCAA doesn’t touch its golden programs. If NC State had done the same thing, they would’ve had the hammer dropped on them a long time ago, stonewalling or no stonewalling.

          4. F. Stupidity Jr.

            The NCAA doesn’t touch its golden programs. If NC State had done the same thing, they would’ve had the hammer dropped on them a long time ago, stonewalling or no stonewalling.

            +1 Jerry Tarkanian: “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they’re going to give Cleveland State another year of probation.”

          5. Jefe Hayek

            Tark has been implicated as the person behind the “found” Emory envelope full of cash with UK letterhead inside sent to a recruit that started the investigation that got us put on probation and almost ruined the program.

            Basically, if true, fuck him

          6. Juvenile Bluster

            I always thought that was an “accident”.

            I mean, you’ve gotta admit.. sending a box of cash by express mail *was* pretty dumb.

          7. Jefe Hayek

            Yeah, there’s a pretty good breakdown on Jon Scott’s UK history page (HIGHLY recommend) about the whole deal. A sealed envelope just magically falling open, cash in an envelope with UK address and letterhead in it, a die hard UCLA fan being the person to find it open, contacting the NCAA immediately, etc. It all looks fishy.

            Now, UK was absolutely 100% paying players, but I think that whole deal was a complete set up

          8. Jefe Hayek

            The thing that pisses me off is that the NCAA stopped at the classes. There is black and white paper trail evidence of a local dentist performing pro bono work for players, a local “handler” renting out luxury cars for players, and a few other extra benefits issues that would sink the program.

            UNC will get off, but there is enough there for them to legitimately earn the death penalty. And the smugness that radiates from Chapel Hill just makes me want to see that place (figuratively) burn all the more.

            Plus they count a Helms national title as if it were a legitimate NCAA one. Between that and Kansas counting Helms AND NIT, Kentucky is the last vestige of decency and self-respect among the college basketball blue bloods

          9. Raven Nation

            Putting aside UNC as the issue, there’s rumor etc. that the NCAA will never invoke the death penalty again. This was discussed in the 30 for 30 episode on SMU.

          10. Jefe Hayek

            I doubt they will either, but the original Penn State punishment was pretty damn close. If they didn’t revise their punishment, that program would still be dead

          11. robc

            Yes, although Baylor is tempting them harder than UNC.

          12. Juvenile Bluster

            I mean, can you blame them? This doesn’t seem like it was the modern “I felt bad about it the next day, so it was rape” college issue. This is actual. physical gang rape by multiple players that, if the allegations were true, the coaches knew about and actively tried to impede investigations thereunto.

            I mean, if *that* doesn’t warrant the death penalty, nothing will.

          13. robc

            I agree. If the Baylor allegations are all true, I think its worse than Penn St.

          14. robc

            I think Baylor should voluntarily shut down their entire athletic dept for 4 years and start over from scratch.

          15. Gray Ghost

            Baylor’s Athletics Department being out of control is not exactly unprecedented. Dave Bliss ring any bells?

            That said, how many other D1 athletic programs have had issues with covering up sexual misconduct and rape among its players? Colorado Football immediately jumps to mind. I’m sure there are a bunch of others.

            Whereas the Penn State situation strikes me as fairly unique in college athletics. D Coordinator is a kiddly didler, gets caught raping a kid in the showers, and everyone just whistles and moves along?

          16. Raven Nation

            Not DI but Montana had similar issue where there was a rape, or alleged rape, and head coach covered it up.

          17. Juvenile Bluster

            Paterno was, and still is, revered as a god at Penn State. People could’ve had direct video evidence of everything that was alleged and they’d still call it fake.

  32. KibbledKristen
    1. The Zenome Project

      Some leftist was always going to buy it: it’s like the business equivalent of going from Reason to HuffPo. Organic produce is too valuable to the prog ethos.

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      Can you blame Mackey for selling? There were already people who hated Whole Foods and refused to shop there because the owner was libertarian-ish.

      (fun fact: Jeff Bezos went to my High School. He graduated like a decade before me, but still)

      1. Drake

        Mackey’s brilliant. No grocery store chain is worth a fraction of $13B.

        1. The Zenome Project

          Lesson: get crazed Portlandia and Silicon folks to love your store, and some crazy guy will pay an absurdly overpriced amount for it. Writing that down.

          1. Agent Cooper

            I’m working on this as we speak. Although, it’s not a store … it’s a social video platform.

      2. Chipwooder

        I thought the sale was being pushed by the board over Mackey’s objections?

    3. Idle Hands

      Mackey is my fucking hero. He literally sold a grocery store chain for 13.7 billion dollars. A. Grocery. Store. Chain.

      1. KibbledKristen

        I’m curious if he’s going to do another business. Or maybe he’ll just retire. But hopefully he’ll stick around, making money.

        1. Private Chipperbot

          Guy I graduated with is the head of their 365 chain. Story doesn’t say if that brand is included with sale.

          1. KibbledKristen

            Interesting…I now recall an interview with Mackey where he said he was going to spin off 365 into separate stores with better prices. Not sure what happened with that.

  33. KibbledKristen

    One murdercop fired. There is hope!!

    1. UnCivilServant

      Which departments have recieved their resume?

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      Sure, until either (a) he appeals and the arbitrator gives him his job back, or (b) he gets another job with another police department in the same county.

    3. Lachowsky

      It’s sad that fired is the best we can even hope for.

      Prosecuted would be ideal.

      1. KibbledKristen

        He was just “in charge of the scene”, not the actual shooter. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing him prosecuted for obstruction. But they generally only do that if they want to exact revenge (or if you’re Trump)

        1. Lachowsky

          I hadn’t read your link when I posted that. I really was speaking in general terms. When cops commit crimes, sometimes if we are lucky, they get fired. More often they only get retrained or reprimanded internally. When everyone else commits crimes, we are prosecuted.

          Take for example, an illegal search performed by a hypothetical police officer. At most, the evidence gets thrown out of court in a subsequent trial. But, what is an illegal search? An illegal search is actually breaking and entering, which I believe is a felony. I have never heard of a cop being charged with a felony after illegally searching someone’s property.

          1. WTF

            Thanks to the totally-made-up-out-of-thin-air doctrine of qualified immunity.

          2. kbolino

            Of all the examples of corruption that are visible to the general public in this country today, the various levels of immunity that the government’s legal personnel have given to themselves are to my mind the most severe. The President and his/her friends may be able to get away with murder (figuratively or literally), but there’s only so many of them. How many judges, prosecutors, cops, and sundry tax-funded legal “experts” (remember bite marks as evidence?) are there throughout the country? Their power to mess with the average citizen is more developed and acute. Yet, you will rarely see much made of it. Only the “abuses”, as though the whole system itself isn’t one giant abuse, will ever get aired, and even then only if they come to light; and it’s easy to keep something in the dark when you control the system.

  34. straffinrun

    Sorry Liberals, A Violent Response To Trump Is As Logical As Any. My bad. That was carried about a week ago. Totally unrelated.

    1. Suthenboy

      Keep it up motherfuckers. You are going to lose badly.

      1. The Zenome Project

        What made the Tea Party resistance so effective was that it was peaceful, non-violent, and was executed through voting some of the scum out. IMO the Radical Left’s violence and instability will create a vicious counter-reaction in the polls, and I predict that it will actually hurt their House and Senate ratio next year.

        1. Raston Bot

          I’m not so sure.. but haven’t found any crunched numbers to support anything yet.

          1. The Zenome Project

            It’s not really a pollable thing, but IMO all the Right needs to do is to stay moderately dumb relative to unhinged leftists and have the Radical Left and Antifa threaten and violently attack more people. If the Democrats don’t lose positions, then they’ll only be able to get them in the deepest of blue states like NJ. That’s just my prediction, though.

          2. kbolino

            Ah, the Nixon strategy. Just don’t try to burgle the opposition’s offices!

          3. Fatty Bolger

            Or get further mired in a war your predecessors started.

          4. WTF

            When your opposition is screwing the pooch, don’t interrupt.

    2. Drake

      Last, I want to briefly note the problematic nature of people with privilege condemning violent resistance to Trump as an absolute moral failing, or denying its logic. Whether you would personally engage in violent conduct matters little to your ability to understand where it comes from.

      Like the article I linked above, the prog author lays out in prog speak the difference between a moderate leftist or Muslim and the radical sort.

      1. kbolino

        It doesn’t matter where it comes from when the results are so destructive. Stop emoting and start thinking.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Love the replies, though.

        (the description of himself in his profile is barfy)

      2. leonadasiv

        Fire some reason I’m not authorized to view this tweet. What does it say.

        1. KibbledKristen

          michelle t @michellet0624
          So are you calling for a larger scale organized violence? Really? Wth is wrong with you? https://twitter.com/JesseBenn/status/875049629167079425

          @JesseBenn
          I stated a fact about violent resistance (it needs to be organized to be effective). I didn’t call for anything.

          1. Tundra

            Come on Kristin, he didn’t want to break those eggs, but omelets don’t make themselves!

            What a little prick.

          2. leonadasiv

            I’d talk about how this is reprehensible, but what do you expect from the left.

            I also would argue that his premise is wrong.

          3. KibbledKristen

            He means “organized” like Che, Stalin, Kim, or Pol Pot. You know, benign leaders who just wanted everyone to be equal.

          4. Trolleric the Goth

            oh man, this guy needs to meet the porter from macbeth and give him some pointers, with that level of equivocation

        2. UnCivilServant

          Jesse Benn‏Verified account @JesseBenn

          I stated a fact about violent resistance (it needs to be organized to be effective). I didn’t call for anything.

          1. Suthenboy

            You are also not fooling anyone.

    3. Agent Cooper

      Ableism?

      Fuck … off … already.

    4. Gilmore

      There are so many examples of Trump inciting violence the New York Times put together this video documenting some of them

      Well, that settles it. I’m convinced. An out of context montage? why, that’s almost as damning as those photos of him waving which you make look like the Nazi salute.

      There’s been an upswing in anti-Muslim hate crimes that correlates with his candidacy

      I’m going to take a wild guess that the source there is “SPLC” and not actual hate-crime convictions.

      1. Gilmore

        Oh, this is their study which proves Trump causes anti-muslim hate crimes.

        “” we examined two distinct but overlapping time periods: January 2015 through December 2015 (entire duration of 2015) and March 2015 through March 2016 (2016 presidential election season)””

        ah. before he actually won the primary.

        if you actually bother to skim the thing you’ll notice that they bury the fact that there were more “anti-muslim”* incidents in 2015, and there was a decline in 2016.

        they instead choose to focus on how Dec 2016 had a large concentration of events; and it may have had something to do with Trump, not, of course, the terror events that occurred during the same period.

        its like they don’t even try to lie *well*

      2. hate_speech

        If you look at FBI hate crime stats, you’ll see the most persecuted religious group, by a wide margin, is Jews. Racial group is blacks, followed closely by whites.

        Muslims / arabs hardly register. And the overall events are pretty few and far between in a country of 330 million.

        1. Agent Cooper

          Are those rate stats based on per overall population or raw numbers? Because I am more interested in the rate of crimes rather than the totals.

          1. hate_speech

            Totals, and the numbers are all really small. Pulling from memory: hate crimes against black ~ 900. hate crimes against jews ~600. hate crimes against muslims ~200.

            I’m sure you can find year on year trends. The FBI publishes a lot of crime stats.

        2. Gilmore

          The data they’re reporting isn’t even “hate crimes”

          its “incidents” , as collected by CAIR. And those incidents include everything from actual violence, to ‘threatening social-media posts’.

          its complete horseshit that makes your average “campus sexual violence” study seem rigorous and unbiased.

          1. hate_speech

            Oh, I’m sure! CAIR is ummmm….not honest… I was bringing up the FBI thing just to share with you the *actual* details since I had looked into it a few months ago when arguing with some retard on the internet.

            Basically, even if there was a 100% increase in hate crimes against muslims, we’d be looking at something like 500 incidents in the entire country.

  35. Suthenboy

    Re: The discussion yesterday and last night on colonialism

    Not to string things out too far but something occurred to me this morning after sleeping on it. You cant judge history by your own values today. Those were people who had very different ideas about things. They had a very different set of values, different outlook, different morals. The study of history is just the study of what happened. Making moral judgements is a mistake, and a common one. I remember T.Sowell pointing out that our ideas about slavery here in the US are misguided because once upon a time no one saw slavery as wrong, they just saw it as the way things were. It existed everywhere and every people fell victim to it at some time. No one wanted to be a slave, of course, but even the slaves didn’t see slavery as wrong. It just was. The idea that slavery is wrong is a fairly recent one, one that evolved in western european culture and one that has yet to take root in much of the world.

    Throughout most of history every tribe was in a constant state of war with their neighbors. Everyone was trying to acquire the land and resources of their neighbors and enslave them. The distance between does not change the morality of it. One tribe crossing an ocean or crossing a creek is still just a conquering tribe. The whole notion of ‘colonialism’ is bogus. The europeans were not all that different. They didn’t have formal governments in the way that we do today. Those ‘countries’ were the property of kings. The king owned the land and the people. A tribe in the Orinoco river valley with bones in their noses and a tribe in the Thames river valley differed mostly in technology. Their ideas about politics weren’t all that different.

    Mostly what I am talking about is the evolution of ideas and values. It is a mistake to take the end product of that evolution and apply it to the ones that existed early in that evolution. The reason I think this is important is because today we have a whole philosophy of ‘anti-colonialism’ of a very lefty bent. It’s a canard that it’s proponents see as a justification for the anti- white male movement, the anti- western civilization movement. It is the root of the call for reparations and punishing descendants of those former conquering tribes and it is built entirely on fallacy.

    Sorry for the wall of text. I need more coffee and the damned pot timed out.

    1. What made me sad was the current defense of the practice of going someplace and violating the NAP. “Things were different then” is merely stating a truth. “Hey, look at how much better the ROADZ were after the conquest” being floated out today is rubbish.

      The French enslaving tens of thousands of people from the edge of the Sahel, marching them to equatorial Africa and having 17,000 of them die during their slave labor the 1920s and 1930s is NEVER defensible.

      1. Suthenboy

        I am saying that it is a mistake to lay blame on one and not the other. yeah, what happened was evil but if the tables had been turned the same thing would have happened – tens of thousands of French would have died. All of those people operated in a world with the same values. One got the upper hand, the other didn’t. We recognize the evil and refrain from it today because out ideas and values have evolved into much better ones. If we get sucked into the notion that the French today are somehow at fault and ‘owe’ something because of it then we will be taking our ideas and values in a backward direction.

        1. but if the tables had been turned the same thing would have happened – tens of thousands of French would have died.

          Not so – the French followed the ILO Agreements on Forced Labor….for Frenchmen. They would have gotten things like “food”, “water”, “medical care”, “shelter”.

          I would challenge anyone to show a single syllable of me saying anyone owes anything to anyone, or anything about “privilege” or such nonsense.

          1. Suthenboy

            I am not attacking anyone. It has been an interesting discussion and everyone had good points. As to the privilege I was referring to the linked article where the author was using it as justification for violence and others who use it as justification for reparations.

            As to your first point I am pretty sure if the Africans had gotten the upper hand I doubt they would have used the French ILO agreement on forced labor. They would have been guided by the African agreement on forced labor.

          2. As to your first point I am pretty sure if the Africans had gotten the upper hand I doubt they would have used the French ILO agreement on forced labor. They would have been guided by the African agreement on forced labor.

            This is EXACTLY what I am talking about. Whataboutism… The French KNEW better, followed decent standards at home, but when it came to the colonies – slavery, in the 20th Century.

            Why is it so hard to just say “yeah, that was a fucked up NAP violation” and leave it at that?

          3. Suthenboy

            I dont deny it was an egregious violation of the values we hold today. To them, and to most other people of various races treating non-me’s as less than human was the norm.

          4. John Titor

            To them, and to most other people of various races treating non-me’s as less than human was the norm.

            The whole point is this does not absolve them of moral responsibility, and qualifying it as ‘a product of the times’ ignores the reality that yes, they had a choice, and they made the wrong one.

            There are people throughout history who recognized ‘the norm’ was fucked up and monstrous. HM mentions Alexander below, but for colonialism we have las Casas, a Spanish historian and priest who criticized colonial practices and slavery as barbaric. The Catholic Church issued multiple condemnations of slavery and colonial practices from the 1500s onward.

            They were ignored. The people of the past did not live in a moral bubble, they made choices.

        2. John Titor

          but if the tables had been turned the same thing would have happened – tens of thousands of French would have died.

          But they didn’t. Alternative history is not an argument. What happened is what matters.

          If we get sucked into the notion that the French today are somehow at fault and ‘owe’ something because of it then we will be taking our ideas and values in a backward direction.

          No one is suggesting that, what they’re suggesting is that you don’t qualify or try to handwave atrocities because they are the sins of your father rather than someone else’s. The people here who try to qualify colonialism will mysteriously hold up say, early Islamic expansionism to a moral standard they refuse to hold their own civilization to.

    2. Brochettaward

      The only thing that separates Europeans from anyone else in that time period is their level of success and the scale on which they operated. That’s it. Whether it’s the Chinese bitching about the white man breaking up their own empire formed through conquest or the Africans who were mostly sold into slavery by people who looked just like themselves it’s hypocrisy all the way down.

    3. Suthenboy

      Also the foundation for the fallacious idea of ‘privilege’ used in the afore-linked article justifying political violence.

      1. Tundra

        I still wonder how those shitholes transform into wealth producing communities. As you say, their politics are so totally fucked up, there doesn’t really seem to be any hope.

        1. Suthenboy

          Look backward at our own.

          1. Tundra

            We had guns and desire.

          2. Suthenboy

            I remember a cartoon (Farside? Mad Magazine?) years ago. Ghengis Khan was standing under a banner in the middle of a village. The banner read “Warriors apply here. Must be able to rape, murder and plunder” and guys were lining up. The cartoon was poking fun at the practice I am complaining about, applying todays values to what happened in the past.

            Of course that is not how it happened. Those guys had reasons for what they did. Complex reasons discussed at length. What they did isnt something they decided to do overnight just because. They probably felt aggrieved by someone. We cant know what all those reasons were. It is mistake to look back at the horrific outcomes and make moral judgements about that outcome standing alone out of context with all of the reasons it happened or the mentality of the people who did it. We simply cant sit around the fire with the mongolians for hours and listen in on their deliberations.

          3. Private Chipperbot

            Hardcore History has a series on the Khans that I thoroughly enjoyed. He goes into some of the horrifying things done at the time and explains it’s just the way it was at that time in history. Genocide was not out of the ordinary, and everyone did it.

          4. Heroic Mulatto

            Genocide was not out of the ordinary, and everyone did it.

            I agree that it’s a sucker’s game to judge the past in toto through the moral lens of the present; however it is equally fallacious to claim that individuals of a particular era were universally unwilling or incapable of performing the same moral reasoning that led the majority of present-day individuals to their views.

            For example, part of what made Alexander “great” was that he realized to successfully govern a wide-ranging empire, he needed to diverge from the usual Greek practice of slaughtering all the local men and enslaving all the women and children, freeing the conquered lands for colonization by Greek settlers from the city-states. Instead, Alexander generally left the local populace unmolested and encouraged his governors to marry local women and follow local cultural practices. So, if Alexander could figure that out around 1,400 years prior to the Mongols, it’s not unreasonable to ask why Genghis chose not do to so. (Ignoring the fact that much of the Mongols’ reputation is a creation of Western propaganda from both contemporary sources and 19th Century ones.)

          5. Suthenboy

            “I agree that it’s a sucker’s game to judge the past in toto through the moral lens of the present; however it is equally fallacious to claim that individuals of a particular era were universally unwilling or incapable of performing the same moral reasoning that led the majority of present-day individuals to their views.”

            You put the word ‘universally’ in there. My mistake. I did not mean to say that they were universally incapable. What I mean is that the prevailing social mores of the times were different and most people were unwilling.

            I have seen many, many examples of people from lots of different times and places in history who were remarkably like 21st century westerners in their outlook and values. Reasonable people who were what we would consider moral by today’s standards have always existed but they were a minuscule minority. Their ideas and rationale were just not widely accepted.

          6. thrakkorzog

            Looking at the world news, I would say that “Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff,” is still a minority view for most of humanity.

          7. Gray Ghost

            We had guns and desire.

            The desire is surprisingly important. IIRC, the best musketeers around the end of the 16th century were Japanese. Who then promptly banned nearly all firearms as Tokugawa consolidated power.

            And Zheng He’s ships were left to rot by the Xuande Emperor.

          8. Gadfly

            It was a different sort of arrogance that led to the different outcomes. In the east, they thought so highly of themselves that they figured they needed nothing from anyone else. In the west, they thought so highly of themselves that they figured they deserved everything from everybody else. Since the latter includes cultural appropriation while the former did not, the latter would inevitably triumph.

    4. robc

      I remember T.Sowell pointing out that our ideas about slavery here in the US are misguided because once upon a time no one saw slavery as wrong, they just saw it as the way things were.

      That might have been true at one time, but by July of 1776 that wasn’t the case. A large number of the signers of the DoI had a pretty “modern” view of slavery. So we might be able to excuse some 15th century hicks for it, but by the late 18th there is no excuse.

      1. Suthenboy

        No excuse is needed. You are simply looking at the evolution of ideas and values. What we have today didn’t just pop into existence on that date. It was birthed long before from similar ideas and took a long time after to grow into what we have today. The study of history is just the study of what happened and how that evolution took place. There is no place for excusing or not excusing.

    5. Heroic Mulatto

      I remember T.Sowell pointing out that our ideas about slavery here in the US are misguided because once upon a time no one saw slavery as wrong, they just saw it as the way things were. It existed everywhere and every people fell victim to it at some time. No one wanted to be a slave, of course, but even the slaves didn’t see slavery as wrong. It just was. The idea that slavery is wrong is a fairly recent one, one that evolved in western european culture and one that has yet to take root in much of the world.

      Horsepucky. Indian Buddhism defined slavery as sinful as early as 500 BC and the first slavery bans were put into practice by Emperor Ashoka around 250 BC.

      While Sowell is brilliant, he does have an unfortunate habit of talking out of his ass on topics outside of his bailiwick.

      1. Suthenboy

        I think he was talking specifically about slavery in the United States but, if I remember correctly, applied it in a limited way to parts of Africa and the ME.

        1. Heroic Mulatto

          Well again, I would challenge even that. In the American context, you had groups, like the Quakers, and individuals, like Tom Paine who were vehemently against slavery on moral grounds from Day One. Just has you had groups and individuals speaking out against slavery all the way back in the time of Rome. (e.g., the Stoics, the early Christian Church, etc.).

          1. Suthenboy

            Of course the idea existed it just was not widely accepted.

    6. Agent Cooper

      Who do you think you are, Ken Schultz?

      1. Agent Cooper

        Sorry Ken, I spelled your name wrong. Apologies.

        1. Badolph Hilter

          No, it’s Ken who spells Schultz wrong, he should be apologizing to you.

      2. Suthenboy

        I was waiting for that.

    7. Caput Lupinum

      You cant judge history cultures by your own values today. Those were are people who had have very different ideas about things. They had have a very different set of values, different outlook, different morals. The study of history cultures is just the study of what happened is curly happening. Making moral judgements is a mistake, and a common one.

      Sorry Suthen, but moral relativism is bull shit, whether justified by distance through time or distance through space. Slavery was always wrong, even if it wasn’t always recognized as being wrong. The same goes for colonization.

      I understand the impulse to defend both practices. I understand the guilt that many feel today because of those practices. Both are attempts to absolve the present from the sins of our fathers, and we only have those urges because we rightfully recognize those sins. But the past is the past, and it needs to be recognized as such, not dragged into the present. But it also needs to be judged, using the standards of today, so that we may learn.

      1. Gadfly

        But it also needs to be judged, using the standards of today, so that we may learn.

        This is a very important point, but context is still important to help people avoid slipping into a judgmental system that is entirely black/white and demands complete purity. Good people can do evil things, and bad people can do good things, but so much of popular discourse ignores this and wants to condemn people and societies in their entirety for a few moral failings (or on the flip-side ignore the moral failings of those they want to adulate). Slavery should be condemned, at all points of history, but just because someone kept slaves does not mean they were a bad person or that there was nothing to admire about them. People need to keep in mind that our own society commits offenses that future generations will condemn, so if we condemn the entirety of the past for their sins we must be content to know that our descendants will likewise condemn us for ours.

    8. wdalasio

      Well, I do have to disagree a little with you here. Even at the time, it was pretty clear that colonialism was wrong. I mean, all those poor people in England, for example, stuck paying exorbitant taxes to finance troops stuck in some godforsaken hellhole when it would have been a hell of a lot cheaper to just buy whatever raw materials you needed. And on top of that, getting fleeced for the cost of trying to develop and civilize the Third World.

      1. Number.6

        I’m not sure you can characterize it quite like that. While the public were being stuck with “high taxes” (jeez, I’d like to be taxed at the level they were being taxed), the plunder being brought back helped capitalize the buildout of the latter half of the Industrial Revolution, which in turn transformed poor, starving land-attached peasants into more prosperous urban workers.

        Many years ago, I saw what I felt at the time was a reasonable exposition that without carving out their respective empires, many of the modern states of Europe would have remained backwaters.

        Boilerplate disclaimer: While saying this, and noting its beneficial aspects, I am no supporter of current and historical imperialism, even of the British kind.

        1. wdalasio

          the plunder being brought back helped capitalize the buildout of the latter half of the Industrial Revolution, which in turn transformed poor, starving land-attached peasants into more prosperous urban workers.

          No offense, but do you have any documentation on that? And I don’t mean that specifically as a glib dismissal. My understanding is that colonialism was rarely a profitable enterprise. And that stands to reason. Placing armies halfway around the world costs money. Lots of it. Building a local infrastructure in far-off lands costs money. Administering colonial empires costs money. And we know from actual history that Britain gave up its colonial empire specifically to save money. And if you look at two of the earlier and more prominent colonial powers – Spain and Portugal, they wound up, effectively, the backwaters of Europe. Of course, some people made out extremely well on colonialism. But, it isn’t clear to me that their gains even exceeded those of others in the colonizing country.

          Maybe I’m missing something.

          1. Number.6

            I’ll try and dig something out, but sure, subjugating a region and installing a bureaucracy, and then flooding it with infrastructure in the way Britain did with India wasn’t cheap, but it was offset considerably by the trade and plunder it brought.

            The economics of imperialism in the India of 1860 was very different to that of 1920, just as the imperialism of Portugal in Brazil was at the start, and near the end of their rule.

            Britain, specifically, divested itself from empire for a number of reasons, one of which was that there was an economy of scale issue. Running a globe-spanning empire consisting of somewhat sullen subjects is far cheaper than running one with hostile subjects that require standing armies of proven loyal soldiers oppressing them. Furthermore, the latter means you don’t get any profit from trade either.

            Britain ran out of steam. It proved that the benefits of being subjugated to the British Lion brought no security. No safety. The days of (mostly) loyal colonial troops were over. The days of inexpensive ‘free’ trade that benefited the colonial power were over. And Britain was broke.

            Just looking at this from a data perspective, Britain was a barely solvent economic backwater under the Tudors. It didn’t improve much until around the time of the restoration of the Stuarts and the handover to William and Mary. Britain had two things it was good at. Sailing around the world, and giving dangerous weapons to the lower socioeconomic classes. They combined the two, and went into the protection business.

            One of the defenses of the British Empire that we see all the time (and John T will reject, which he’s somewhat right to do) is that the British were relatively speaking, the best you could have hoped for, if your poor country was going to be ground under a European boot. In general, you could expect money to be spent on infrastructure that would not only see gold, diamonds and food flowing out of your country, but machinery, knowledge, an established legal system and consumer goods coming in (along with guys in red coats who keep dying of malaria and dysentery).

            If you want a ‘genius!’ moment here, India is a good example. In the 1880’s the way you ‘got on’ as a native Indian was to learn English, and enter the Civil Service (somehow, that’s always the answer, isn’t it?). Something like 95% of the civil administrators and public works personnel were Indian or Anglo-Indian, and (again, I’ll have to try and find this) there were about 12,000 British troops stationed there. The remainder of something like 45,000 were indigenous troops, paid for via internal taxation, so no net cost to the British.

            By that point, the British had pretty much plundered everything that wasn’t nailed down by the 1880’s, so the profit had to be realized via ‘legitimate’ trade; in the case of India, Britain imposed a a trade monopoly via the East India Company fires, and subsequently as a government mandate.

            The trade that the more enlightened colonial powers brought, even if unbalanced, generated wealth. While much of the profits ‘stolen’ from foreign nations made its way to the pockets of the magnates in Britain, as today, that wealth ended up in circulation. Indeed, it powered a number of boom and bust cycles that elevated and depressed the whole of the nation, but the living standards of the average ‘poor’ person in Britain improved measurably, based on standard of living, housing, life expectancy etc. Same with Holland, although to a lesser degree. The French and latterly German and Belgian colonisations were far more costly on a per-acre basis to operate, purely because those nations didn’t cultivate a ‘healthy’ trade relationship .

            Sure, the major proximate beneficiaries of the colonies were the 1%, but then, as today, they didn’t have vast swimming pools full of guineas that they flailed around in, like Scrooge McDuck, they built ships, factories, warehouses, canals and roads on the proceeds.

          2. Number.6

            Lest I come off as an Imperialist – for many decades, the British public benefited – across the socioeconomic spectrum – and at the cost of their colonial subjects.

            A well managed, pacified empire is likely to be profitable – it certainly isn’t crazy to think so – but the costs of running a repressive colonial empire is going to render the undertaking unprofitable. And that’s where Britain was in 1945.

            Broke, humiliated and unable to project credible military power without vast cost and effort, let alone the growing unease with the idea of being a colonial power. So they (for the most part) handed the whole lot back, more or less gracefully, over the subsequent decades (yeah Canada and Australia, I’ll talk to you guys later)

          3. mr simple

            as today,nthey didn’t have vast swimming pools full of guineas

            Tell that to New Jersey.

    9. John Titor

      You cant judge history by your own values today. Those were people who had very different ideas about things.

      Alright. I expect everyone not to judge the communists and fascists of the early 20th century then.

      The whole notion of ‘colonialism’ is bogus. The europeans were not all that different.

      The Europeans installed brutal regimes that funneled resources out of the country to enrich the colonial overlord while resulting in the abuse and deaths of natives. And they were very, very good at it. When communists do this, libertarians point to it as a sign of the ideology’s degeneracy. When colonialists do it they apparently try to defend it as ‘not that different’.

      Those ‘countries’ were the property of kings. The king owned the land and the people.

      Those kings, despite their flaws, never seemed to have as high a body count as colonial states. The Mughals may have been kings, but they didn’t kill over fifty million people from famines alone like the British. Fifty million Suthen. Britain make it so major famines stopped being once in a century, and once in a decade.

      Colonialism is the only political system in human history to have a kill count in comparison to communism and fascism. I don’t care about your qualifying bullshit. It killed millions and was monstrous and evil. Period. End of sentence. It is not ‘lefty’ to recognize that reality.

      The reason I think this is important is because today we have a whole philosophy of ‘anti-colonialism’ of a very lefty bent.

      This, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that colonialism is a horrific system that basically validates left-wing criticism of capitalism. If only we could promote actual capitalism and not defend blatant, oppressive cronyism. Nothing has done more to damage the cause of capitalism worldwide than colonialism. We should be thankful that it’s such an effective system with actual results or we wouldn’t be getting anywhere.

      The fact that libertarians are bending over backwards to qualify it is disgusting. You’re acting like Maoists.

  36. Ken Shultz

    “Moms are asking their infants for permission to pick them up — in order to combat ‘rape culture’”

    When parental figures ask children for their permission to do things, it really messes kids up psychologically. That’s a known cause of psychological problems.

    Your mom, typically, teaches you how to react to things emotionally. It’s how you learn to interpret your emotions. There are only a few emotional states–they differ by interpretation. Some people interpret the same emotions differently. The thing some people interpret as fear and makes them want to run away is the same emotion others interpret as rage and makes them want to fight. Some people who have panic attacks never recognize them as such because they don’t feel scared–they feel enraged–but it’s the same thing with the same symptoms and triggers and everything. Watch a young child when they fall down and get hurt, and the first thing they often do is look at their mom to see how they should react. If your mom looks at you like it’s a tragedy every time you fall down, you go through life with that kind of outlook. If she smiles and teaches you to laugh it off, you become a different kind of person.

    Things get really messed up when some mothers look to their children for validation. Do you want this? Do you want that? Are you happy? Are you happy all the time? Then I’m a good mother. Oh, you don’t want that? You’re unhappy? Then I don’t feel good, and I’m a bad mother.

    Children thinking their in charge of what happens get messed up, and children who come to perceive themselves as being responsible for teaching their mothers how to interpret their mother’s emotional states tend to develop anxiety disorders. Leaving kids in charge of things that they should have no control over is just a recipe for disaster. Bed time isn’t up to you. Generally speaking, neither is getting ready to go to school, what to get at the restaurant, etc., etc. How other people feel isn’t up to children either.

    Believing you can or should be able to control things you can’t control is an anxiety factory. It also leads to trying to manipulate other people and other people’s emotions, among other psychologically sick behaviors.

    Mothers asking children whether they can pick them up can only lead to tears–and not just later in life. Maybe the reason generation snowflake thinks they can use the government to manipulate what other people can do and how other people feel is about moms abdicating responsibility for teaching their children how to regulate their own emotions properly. If they can’t regulate their own emotions, then I guess the government needs to step in and make sure no one upsets them.

  37. Ken Shultz

    Amazon just bought Whole Foods.

    This is my psychologically healthy sad face:

    : (

    Mothers who ask their children whether they can pick them up think they should be in charge of who can buy Whole Foods.

    1. Suthenboy

      And what we are seeing today is a still incomplete evolution of ideas and values towards better ones. Thievery and slavery are still around we just describe it with different words.

      1. The Zenome Project

        Redistribution. “KINDNESS!!!”

      2. Gustave Lytton

        Except Britannia no longer hangs thieves at the crossroads as an example to others.

    2. Brett L

      Luckily, the Stupid/Evil axis is a universal constant in government: The closer you get to power, the further the party gets to stupid.

    1. KibbledKristen

      She is awesome!

    2. Private Chipperbot

      Fantastic.

    3. Agent Cooper

      Am I missing the joke in the tweet?

      1. Raven Nation

        It took me a couple of reads to get it. It’s the second part: “But my question is how did you go from MTV VJ to right wing fascist mouthpiece” to which she responded “it was a circuitous route that went through your mom’s room.”

  38. Rufus the Monocled

    Those misguided parents are in for some rude awakening when their children start to manipulate and dictate the household by two years old.

    We see this at the daycare all the time. It’s gotten to the point we offer parenting classes.

    1. commodious spittoon

      The first rule of parenting class is you do not talk about parenting class.

    2. KibbledKristen

      Can you just see the hilarity when they’re in Toys R Us and the little spoiled germ factory ankle-biting fucker refuses to give “consent” to leave the store?

      1. commodious spittoon

        Spanking works best if you don’t ask for consent.

  39. Brochettaward

    So, which Glibertarian has a good, reliable site through which I can purchase tax-free cigarettes from?

    1. Raston Bot

      Ross Ulbricht c. 2010

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        I hope that judge gets a disease that leaves her in perpetual pain.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Uh oh, we got a warlock over here…..

  40. robc

    fun fact: Jeff Bezos went to my High School. He graduated like a decade before me, but still

    Wes Unseld, Diane Sawyer, Jerry Abramson. All were 2 decades before me.

    The final only matters if you follow KY politics. He was the two time mayor for life of Louisville and later Lt Governor.

    1. robc

      He was also White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under Obama from 2014-2017, which I didn’t know. And I have no idea what that position does.

      1. kbolino

        And I have no idea what that position does.

        Gets you connected to the people in power so you can work them to your advantage.

      2. Suthenboy

        It probably repays big dollar cronies for their support.

    2. Juvenile Bluster

      okay, okay, you beat me. The only other one’s I’ve got are that Vivek Murthy (until last month the Surgeon General), Jennifer Rodriguez (Olympic gold speedskater) and Derek Connolly (wrote the screenplay for Jurassic World, I think he’s co-writing it for Star Wars Episode 9) all graduated a year ahead of me, and Kimbo Slice (RIP) was two years ahead of me (remember seeing him in the halls. Dude was scary.)

    3. leonadasiv

      Ok so this was like 70 years before I was there, but this guy graduated from my High School: Bernard Fisher

      1. leonadasiv

        Damnit SF’d the link. This should work:

        Bernard Fisher

    4. Chipwooder

      Tom Wolfe is probably the only really famous one for me. Maybe Don Mancini, who created the Child’s Play movies.

      Oh, and Henry Hagar, who was a year or two behind me before having the good fortune to marry Jenna Bush, thus becoming set for life.

  41. Pomp

    I am disappoint. Nobody said anything tasteless about helicopter rides.

    1. Tundra

      Black helicopters matter?

      1. Pomp

        Damn y’all, no sexual innuendo?

        1. Q Continuum

          Is that like a mustache ride but inverted?

    2. Gray Ghost

      “Pacific Ocean hardest hit”?

      Odd that the Chilean regime would use helicopters, while the Argentinians were noted for using C-130s.

      1. Gray Ghost

        Christ, I didn’t realize that you were talking about the lady’s hair. (Double Facepalm)
        Still thinking about HM’s and gojira’s visual contributions to their threads’ headlines, I guess.

  42. KibbledKristen

    Kinda cool. Now that we’ve been exploring space for 50+ years, it’s time we start figuring out how to exploit the resources available up there.

    1. Gray Ghost

      Isn’t one of the problems going to be that, to move asteroids on anything other than a glacial timescale, you’re going to need to command WMD levels of energy? Most governments aren’t going to be keen on letting private companies have that kind of power.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Why would they need to move asteroids? Technology already exists to land equipment on comets. No reason that can’t be done on asteroids. They’re looking for H2O that they can convert into mid-flight fuel for rockets in this particular case, so transport on and off the ‘roid wouldn’t add much weight to the payload. If you were mining for minerals, you could possibly figure out some way to refine the minerals on-site and transport them back to Earth. But if it’s something you only need in tiny amounts, like uranium, then no reason you couldn’t transport the unrefined stuff off the rock.

        1. Gray Ghost

          How are you going to power the industrial plant on said comet? Also, landing equipment on comets and asteroids is one thing; giving the refined products enough delta-V to intersect Earth in a meaningful time scale is another.

          It sounds like you’d need some sort of power source beyond solar or RTGs to do all of the above.

          I’d love to see it. I think Jerry Pournelle’s numbers were off base re, his idea that we could have had solar powersats for the money we’ve pissed away in the MidEast since 2001, but I like the idea anyway. I just don’t see governments trusting private entities with that kind of power, and I don’t see governments acting with the necessary vision to start economically exploiting space.

          Which is a damned shame.

          1. Brasidas

            Start with one that is going to fly close to earth to begin with and is already on an orbit similar to earth’s. Meet it a few years out and nudge it into a gravity assist with the moon.

        2. Suthenboy

          The whole thing is still an energy sink. It takes more energy to separate water into its constituent elements than you get by recombining them. They have to have an outside source of energy and given the location that means solar panels which are currently wildly inefficient.

    2. Gilmore

      it’s time we start figuring out how to exploit the resources available up there.

      I know an expert.

  43. KibbledKristen

    The Tweeters are so much more entertaining now that I scrapped my old account, scrubbed my follows, and started a new one.

    1. Badolph Hilter

      I follow a small handful and rotate them in and out, but I could probably get by on just Charles CW Cooke and David Burge.

      I did add Sean Spicier yesterday after a couple of his tweets were posted here, that’s some pretty good trolling. The volume of responses he gets from people who don’t appear to realize it’s a parody account is impressive.

      1. KibbledKristen

        Love Spicier, and good ol Godfrey.

  44. The Zenome Project

    Checking up on my prog research subjects at Secular Talk. “The ‘one, rare’ example of left wing terrorism!” Poor Kyle, he really wants to think that the Revolution is “International Centrism” (i.e. hard leftism) and will be run by peaceful academics and true believers like him and Bernie.

    1. The Zenome Project

      Kyle actually says something really intelligent and salient around 9:25 – that more people on the right-wing media are saying that Hodgkinson was just one guy and that Bernie doesn’t advocate for violence, while “Corporate Democrats” like the NYT are blaming the BernieBros for this. That’s the thing about him: he actually seems like a smart guy and says reasonable things until some Socialist talking point comes up, and then he goes herp derp as usual. This is why I sort of think that true believers are victims in a way.

      1. commodious spittoon

        I’ve seen one conservative/Republican, Ace, insist that this is directly attributable to the left’s hysterics, and Ace only because it’s about holding the left’s rules against them. The right has been staid and contemplative about this.

        1. Suthenboy

          Their mistake is that this is not attributable to the left’s hysterics, this is the left’s hysterics. The left’s hysterics have always included incendiary rhetoric and violence. It’s their standard MO.

          1. commodious spittoon

            The guy was a lunatic. You don’t take up arms on your own unless you’re at least a little nuts. The left should be condemned for their lunacy and all that resistance drivel, but it’s reaching to suggest this guy was their purposeful gift to humanity.

            The black block/antifa retards, on the other hand, are a more direct result. Those are know-nothing idiot children committing acts of vandalism and violence at the behest of their Marxist college professors and given approbation and cover by the lefty media.

          2. WTF

            And Hodgkinson is just an escalation of that. A loser with poor impulse control and fanatical thinking who took the exhortations to fight and resist the “evil” way too far. He was not as far as we know a schizophrenic or otherwise mentally ill. He probably thought of himself as a hero bravely sacrificing himself to “save our democracy”.

          3. Number.6

            Dear Bog, save us from “Patriots”. or even THE Patriots.

          4. Suthenboy

            see Oswald, Sirhan, From, etc.
            Hodgekinson is just another on a long list. I would argue that no radical lefty instructed him but none ofthem are surprised either. They were either hoping for one to hit Trump or ignoring the possibility.

        2. The Zenome Project

          That’s the thing that the right could learn to do more often: beating the Alinskyites means that you need to read Rules for Radicals and use their playbook from time to time.

      2. R C Dean

        This is why I sort of think that true believers are victims in a way.

        Yeah, I think you’ve got a point.

        Fuck ’em anyway.

  45. commodious spittoon

    Jeff Lewis
    @ChicagoPhotoSho

    Bezos: “Alexa, buy me something from Whole Foods”

    Alexa: “Buying Whole Foods”

    Bezos: Shit

    1. KibbledKristen

      LOL

      1. Number.6

        My former-trader cellmate nearly choked on that.

        Bravo, Jeff Lewis. Bravo

    2. Raven Nation

      *Applause*

    3. Dammit, I’m still laughing.

    4. *stands to applaud*

  46. Q Continuum

    TW: Gratuitous oversharing and nastiness.

    So, after completing my long course of Metronidazole (which sucked in an of itself), my C. diff came back about 3 days later. It sure was nice to have 2.5 days of relatively normal bowel function. Now I’m stuck shilling out massive bucks for huge doses of Vancomycin; which sucks even worse, not thrilled I’m going to be hazy and have splitting headaches for the next 3 weeks. However, it’s necessary because if this fails, the next step is being admitted to the hospital to receive IV antibiotics.

    Takeaway: Don’t be me. Don’t use antibiotics unless you’re dying. This all came from a course of Augmentin for a stupid sinus infection. My doc said I needed it, so I stupidly took it. What could go wrong? Well, a lot. Now I feel like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq-zaD1poAE

    1. Number.6

      To be fair, your problem is the bugs that you got from somewhere else being antibiotic-resistant. If you took your course and followed direction, you did your job. Real blame lies with the other fuckwits who didn’t complete their courses and gave the bugs to you.

      1. R C Dean

        Not necessarily. A lot of C. Diff is avoidable because its caused by antibiotic overuse. No idea whether antibiotics were called for, or whether Augmentin was the right one to use.

        1. Q Continuum

          Exactly. It was the (I perceived) capriciousness of the original prescription of Augmentin that pisses me off in retrospect. I had been feeling shitty due to a sinus infection for several days, so I went in. Rather than giving me alternatives, explaining possible consequences (like C. diff) or if it was even necessary, the doc just slings out a script for Augmentin. The whole exam was 45 seconds. I will say that I’m going to be a helluva lot more circumspect about using ABs in the future unless my arm is rotting off or I’m dying of pneumonia.

  47. commodious spittoon

    “Vaccine” “immunizes” addicts from effects of heroin. Killjoys.

    No word yet whether it causes autism.

  48. Q Continuum

    This was originally intended as a response to Suthen’s statement above, but it became such a sermon (not just a thought!) that I thought I’d put it in a new thread. And no, I am not becoming another Brooks; he’s the only one who can pull it off.

    “The left’s hysterics have always included incendiary rhetoric and violence. It’s their standard MO.”

    Yes. Political violence is a creature of statism, and statism lives on the Left. I saw an interesting writeup somewhere calling the modern democrat party the party of “anarco-tyranny”; which may seem like a contradiction but the explanation went as follows. The anarcho part is the antifa brownshirts who just burn shit down (and shoot congressmen) and the legal arm of the Left establishment that runs interference for their felonious activity. The tyrant part is the “respectable” upper-middle class elite and their elected reps that work to create an ever more overbearing and repressive state apparatus. Since true liberals (libertarians, classical liberals, constitutionalists, whatever you nomenclature you favor) are primarily based on voluntarism, non-agression and peaceful, mutually beneficial transaction, violence is precluded except in self-defense. The Left only uses “democracy”, “self-rule” and “consent of the governed” as a fig leaf to advance their agenda when they’re in power. When they’re out of power, it’s disrupt, protest, gaslight and, eventually, destroy, to get what they want.

    1. Raven Nation

      To some extent, the left has impaled itself on the horns of a dilemma. For decades it has used any violence, racism, sexism by someone on the right to denounce the political right as a while i.e. as illegitimate. Having laid those ground rules, it is now wary that denouncing any violence on the left could be used to denounce the entirety of the left.

    2. Suthenboy

      Libertarians and classical liberals believe in inalienable rights for all. They are principled. Just because we disagree with someone doesnt mean we are justified in assaulting them. They are still people and have inalienable rights.

      The left’s most recent candidate for the highest office in the land specified how she was going to gut the bill of rights. She pronounced that all rights are subject to reasonable restrictions.

      Consider the debate over education.

      Right: The system needs reforming. It provides perverse incentives. (arguing policy and principle)

      Left: Ahhhhhhhhhhg! You want to kill children! You are an evil person! (arguing that you are attacking people and thus good people are justified in violently resisting you. self-defense)

      Violence is baked into the left. Try to find a violent political activist who was not a leftist. Loons that aren’t lefties or loons with scattered ideologies dont count.

  49. Q Continuum

    Fun Friday. EDM and martial arts weaponry.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKKdJoXF7PI

    BTW: Totally would the girl with the sword just due to her skillz.

  50. commodious spittoon

    NYT: Check it out, I’m going to blame the Giffords shooting on conservatives.

    HuffPo: Hold my beer.

    1. Suthenboy

      What idiots. Palin is looking into suing the NYT. I am no lawyer but I think she may have a case.

      HuffPuff is stepping in a giant steaming pile there.

      1. Number.6

        They issued a retraction-that-was-not-really-a-retraction which might be enough to get them off the hook.

        Sad!

        1. Q Continuum

          Even without a lawsuit, the NYT is doing plenty on its own to incinerate its already shredded credibility. It’s descending to UK tabloid-level stupidity at this point and anyone who takes it seriously has highly suspect intellectual capacity.

          1. Number.6

            Hey, those UK tabloids are my first hits on my commute!

            How else can I function unless I know who’s being effortlessly stylish today?

          2. commodious spittoon

            Yeah, I don’t see NYT featuring page 3 girls.

          3. Number.6

            The prospect of a Maureen Dowd centerfold fills me with terror.

          4. Thanks for that, #6…

            *turns, projectile vomits, staggers away from desk*

          5. Number.6

            Lemme know next time you’re in NYC Swissy. I think I owe you at least a large single malt after that one.

          6. Q Continuum

            “Dear Agony Aunt,

            I’m so in love with my husband of 20 years, but feel terribly guilty about the naughty romps I’m having with my stepson and his wife. What should I do?

            Sincerely,
            Fancies pseudo-incest in Sutherland”

        2. Raston Bot

          as we saw with VCDL, it all depends on the judge.

          1. commodious spittoon

            I saw one of those yesterday. Cool plane. Big propellers.

          2. Q Continuum

            That’s what she said.

        3. Suthenboy

          Damage is done. A late ‘sorry not sorry’ doesnt undo that. I think she still has a case.

          1. Number.6

            Make no mistake, I want the NYT humbled and the Sulzbergers sued into penury, but I doubt it will happen.

          2. Suthenboy

            I have some reservations actually. If she claims that being knocked out of the political ring is ‘damage’, and she has made some noises to that effect, I could see a successful suit turning leading to a 1st A nightmare.

  51. KibbledKristen

    Georgia escapees caught by armed citizen. Probably already discussed, but what the hey.

    1. EvilSheldon

      Check out the balls on that dude, huh?

      Those cats were armed cop killers, had already banged it out with the fuzz a few times, and had absolutely nothing to lose. Getting involved in that mess to begin with was chancy as hell; actually holding them at gunpoint (as opposed to shooting them dead where they stood) took a real cool hand.

  52. KibbledKristen

    Things my lefty Facederp friends have been silent about recently:

    -Loretta Lynch
    -Ball field shooting
    -Capture of escaped inmates by armed citizen
    -London fire exacerbated by “green” materials

    1. Q Continuum

      Things that contradict the narrative will be memory-holed. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

  53. Chipwooder

    So, where are people coming down on the story of the chick in MA who goaded her boyfriend into suicide and was found guilty of manslaughter?

    Personally, I think it’s a terrible verdict. The boyfriend was an adult and responsible for his own actions.

    1. Not good – hopefully the appellate court will use its brains and toss the whole thing.

      1. Stinky Wizzleteats

        What a terrible verdict. More proof that anyone who isn’t smart enough to weasel out of jury duty isn’t smart enough to be on a jury.

    2. Q Continuum

      Exactly. She was a major cunt and he did not follow the “don’t stick in crazy” rule, but she is not responsible for his decision to take his own life. He is a sovereign individual and can exercise free will.

    3. KibbledKristen

      No amount of someone telling me to kill myself would be effective unless I was already predisposed to killing myself.

  54. Chipwooder

    A timely reminder from Instapundit: a Dem congresswoman’s husband was hired by the DNC to send operatives to Trump rallies provoke unrest and even violence

    1. Q Continuum

      America: First world country with a third world political class.

  55. KibbledKristen

    Let me get out the world’s tiniest violin for you, Erdoğan

    1. Juvenile Bluster

      Gone, gone, the form of man. Rise the demon Etrigan Erdoğan