Author: Brett L

Hey, look. I’m on time and the only person writing links this afternoon. All is right with the world!

Statues of people who were bad people, down. White polos, out. Buying a Hugo Boss suit or VW? Meh. *

Washinton Post argues with a straight face that Free Speech is only good when it doesn’t hurt liberals or the media. You think I’m exaggerating, but (emphasis mine):

It was one thing to defend the American Nazi Party’s right to march in Skokie, Ill. in 1977, when the liberal establishment and mainstream media were still intact and American Nazi Party was a marginal fringe group. The group was offensive, but neither its actions nor its ideas posed a threat to the political or social order, which was stable. The situation is different today, with an erratic President Trump in the White House, elites in disarray and white nationalism on the rise. In this situation, and against this foe, it may be worth remembering that our constitutional rights are not unchanging abstract principles,

Russians and crypto-nazis and tensions on the Korean Peninsula and new ICBMs? If we’re going to live the 50’s over again, can we at least get the rocket-cone bras back?

I say, pshaw! I once worked for a guy who had implemented a pretty accurate chemical process simulation software in Excel. Now that was a fucking spreadsheet.

*Given how actual fascism works, I understand that every German company now that was a German company then was a collaborator of lesser or greater extent.

Let’s have a little folk rock.

EDIT: Banjos brings the most brutal headline of the day.

Happy Friday.

Looks like Steve Bannon is out on his ass. I’m looking forward to seeing how this gets spun as a wink and nod to the Stormfronters.

Fuck Cancer!

Conspiracy theories about why Taylor Swift took down a bunch of social media profiles. I await accusations that this also is a wink and nod to Stormfronters.

AIs are racist. When Skynet takes over, women and minorities may be hardest hit.

Throwback Friday. Heavy metal version.

Happy Thursday. And Happy Birthday to my younger son. I’m really going to miss the high-stakes charades when he starts talking.

Does a bear shit in your car? Only when he steals it first. Griz needs to have a talk with some of his fellows about car theft etiquette.

Does everything have to be a criminal case? I mean, do we need to give these two idiots felonies, or could the neighborhood just share the information that they aren’t safe babysitters and let their parents deal with them? What the two teens did was stupid and dangerous, but it is weird how people who aren’t mature enough to sign contracts or get tattoos or buy cigarettes are suddenly required to have all of the adult tools when they do something dangerous out of ignorance, not malice. While ignorance should be no defense against actual harm, I don’t think this rises to that standard.

I checked the timeline again, and I’m pretty sure the WWII bomb was on the premises before the nuclear plant was built at Fukishima.

I hope the members of the Eighth Circuit get beaten by public officials on the courthouse steps and can’t produce evidence to prove it. In a free speech ruling that contradicts six other federal circuit courts, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court ruling that says Americans do not have a first amendment right to videotape the police, or any public official, in public.

In the good news department, there may be Earth analogues only 12 light years away. Hopefully, there are two. We’ll set up Libertopia on one and Commietopia on the other and see who’s resorted to cannibalism in the first century.

And in the interest of preventing a schism we are featuring this, uh, “local news” story about a man acquitted of assaulting police officers by absorbing their blows with his body. We don’t think this person is related to any of our commenters, but Pope Jimbo sent it, and we don’t want him to release those tapes of the last meetup.

Sloopy and I were talking about Matt Damon’s best work as an actor.

I’m just going to rant for a minute. I’ve seen about 10 Dr. Strangelove references with regards to Trump’s overheated rhetoric about North Korea. I get that crazy guy launches bombers and starts WWIII angle, but its so… lazy. Also, I would love to see the Hat and Hair have the POE conversation.

OMWC sends in a story from near-Chicago where you can pretty safely hate everyone involved.

Watch my eyes roll as NOAA attempts to conflate in peoples minds the number of named storms with Atlantic/Gulf landfalls of major storms. We actually don’t give a fuck about class five hurricanes that don’t make landfall as class five hurricanes. Also, I watched this professionally for five years. They always go high.

Union problems at Tesla are almost enough to make me sympathetic to Elon Musk. Almost.

You’ll be surprised to learn that many of the breath-taking “facts” in yesterday’s NYT article on Climate Change were entirely untrue.

And finally, beloved commentor Pope Jimbo sends in an article that I, as a formerly decent runner, respect. The Beer Mile. A 4:34 beer mile is probably 55 second laps and 11 seconds of beer chugging. Stupid human tricks rule.

I’m in the mood for an electric jug today.

So… I kind of fucked up saving the links on Friday and fucked off to the pub. Then screwed up fixing the links on my phone. Sorry to Playa Manhattan, Vhyrus, and that bus full of tourists from Nebraska who got an up-close and personal Florida Man experience late Friday night. My shame is great, and I am sorrier than a politician caught sending dick pics.

First up, apparently Bill Weld thought that pro-Clinton statists were under-represented in the Libertarian field in 2016, intends to fix that for 2020. “If he decides to run, Weld may prove to be one of the more qualified candidates looking at the prospects of the Libertarian race in 2020.” No. no he would definitely not be qualified to hold a libertarian jock.

Gangs in Brazilian Favelas becoming legitimate police forces, start blaming shootings of tourists on “accidents”.

Salon needs a sugar daddy. 15 years ago, Salon used to do some interesting long-form stuff that was intended to rival the “better” magazines. I haven’t been back in probably 10, so I have no idea what their business model is — besides failing — now.

Damn, dude. Nobody deserves to be killed for being stupid, but even invertebrates can learn to change their behavior after being wounded 10 previous times.

Moscow to accelerate switch to Euro and away from dollar for settlement payments.

I know that “junk bonds” is a technical slang-term now, but with Tesla it seems apropos. Especially after they collected $1000/head in pre-orders.

I deserve today’s music.

My house is like a plague pit. My kids have been sick for days, my wife is intermittantly ill, and here I am, gliding through on my 18 Constitution. Its funny how your kids can have the same genetic material and raising and be totally different. My older son acts like he’s literally dying when he gets sick, demanding to be carried around and generally making a fuss. The younger one just slows down and cries a little more. Until the medicine kicks in and knocks down his fever, then he’s immediately back to 90% speed.

Michael Ledeen says something interesting about misery and revolution.

Jesus F Christ. This WaPo jock-sniffer of an article about Nicolas Maduro is disgusting. On the other hand, they have full transcripts of Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders. Which I am glad to see in public. If only that happened more often.

This monster scarred hundreds of perfectly innocent women’s breasts. (Fixed because Just Say’n is a whiny little bitch-ass bitch.)

Those geniuses at Apple own $52B in US T-bills. No wonder the government is suddenly quiet on the tax reparation front. 

Misery loves company.

Sloopy linked to a story about guns on campus in Texas and forgot to mention that today is the anniversary of an event involving a campus shooting. It seems like a simple MRI would solve this problem in today’s world. In case you aren’t familiar with it, a civilian figured prominently in the eventual assault, and authorities credited return fire from deer rifles on campus with limiting th sniper’s ability to move and aim freely.

In more recent Texas news, it looks like someone knows how to use a throwdown gun.

You know, I never believed that the Clintons were involved in the Seth Rich murders until today.

This here is some Barney Fife shit.

Not to worry, Vox is here to solve the opiod crisis.

Soo.. while I am also named Brett and work in IT, this is not me. For one thing, I never had 2 brothers.

Also, SugarFree shared this excellent Rednecks in the Mist article with me.

I really need to reboot Florida Man Episodes.

The L residence is setting up daycare and getting ready for school. Sadly, I didn’t see anything like this.